and later university of chicago professor harold pollack looked at how a single-payer health care system would work and whether it can be applied with the current health care law. ♪ good morning everyone on this saturday, january 23. we are in the midst of winter storm jonas up and down the east coast. 85 million people in the pathway of the storm and hundreds losing power. -- justmany places in as many flights have been canceled. we will begin here this morning with disaster preparedness in this country and your experience with state and federal emergency management. before the blizzard of the east coast there have been 60 cleared emergencies across the country and 79 in 2015. fires, it is wild tornadoes, flooding or contaminated water in michigan,

we want to know what your experience has been with emergency management. if you live on the eastern and central part of the country, dial-in at (202) 748-8000. mount and pacific, (202) 748-8001. you can also send us a tweet or go to facebook.com/c-span. we will get to your thoughts in a minute so start dialing in with your experience with state, federal, local emergency management. hasn't been good or bad? impacted by hurricane katrina, sandy in new jersey, what was it like dealing with emergency management during those situations? when you got the front page of the washington post with their headline about what is happening here in the region. we are looking at double-digit snowfall blanketing this area. the mayor called it a life-and-death storm. we're looking at 30 mile per hour winds happening later today

as the snow continues to fall creating whiteout conditions on some of the roadways. you can see what it is like outside the studio on capitol hill. the snow coming down. it started last night and will continue to fall. the officials expecting many to lose power because of this wet, thick snow that will continue up and down the east coast. folks in kentucky have been stuck on a highway going on 20 hours. the line of trucks and buses and cars, 35 miles long. michael in pennsylvania. you were up first on this conversation. what has been your experience? caller: thanks for taking my call and thanks for c-span. i'm glad to beer older talk to you guys. i have not had personal experience with disaster relief. i read thisn is,

book about calvin coolidge. i think it is abused. situationsad federally when you had people coming in for disasters in areas of pennsylvania. the stories that have come out of there is that some of these federal agencies have come in promising to give people money and actually enticing them, asking them to exacerbate their damages so they could give the money for these relief efforts. host: you think the whole process is abused? caller: yes. and just like anything that washington does. it should be up to the states. in this book getting back to calvin coolidge, he would not

believe in disaster relief. vermont has a very tough difficulties. they were badgering him when he was president to get them some money. he would not do it. he said it is up to the states to take care of these kind of disasters. in most cases -- this is when they had terrific flooding and storms all over the country back in the 1920's. he would not do it. yet when he came back to new hampshire and back to vermont after his presidency, they talked about him being a hero. he held the purse strings and held in tight. resulted in the roaring 1920's. host: let me explain the process for folks. this is from the federal emergency management agency website. a major disaster declaration usually follows the steps. local government response supplemented by neighboring

communities. if overwhelmed, they turned to the state. to state response with the national guard or state agencies. damage assessment is done by local, state, and federal organizations to determine the recovery needs. a major disaster declaration is declared by the governor. this is after the fact. before a declaration is made this is a disaster declaration. an agreement to commit state funds to the long-term recovery. fema evaluates the request and recommends actions to the white house. the president approves of the request. this is something that the michigan governor wanted, a declaration. the president denied that when it comes to the flatwater situation. when it comes to the initial response, the initial first response to a disaster is the job of the local government emergency services with help by nearby musicality's. the state and volunteer agencies.

federal resources can be mobilized throughout the .epartment of homeland security to you thisng morning in the midst of this winter storm to get your impressions of the state and federal emergency responders. what has been your experience with them? ron in south carolina? caller: i have got to tell you my faith has been restored tremendously in our government. we had in october flooding. our government and our governor did an excellent job in declaring a state of emergency. fema came in. they set up remote offices throughout the state. they were there to assist us with money and funds that did not have to be repaid. additionally you had small business loan administration that came in and lend it is money that ridiculous interest

rates, less than 1%. host: are you a small business owner? caller: know, but i am a homeowner in my home was affected by the flood. i did not have flood insurance. the small business administration helped with additional funds with an interest loan of less than 1%. that is fantastic. the initial response to our governor haley was astronomical. it was unbelievable and she had everything in order for us and fema came in. those folks from fema were fantastic. the empathy level and the suggestions, their assistance, and the funds they give us -- how be honest. it has reinforced my belief in our government system. host: why do you say that? it restored your faith in government and the role of government can play? caller: because lately everything that's been a problem.

the poor folks from katrina and things like that. some people still not in homes down there and temporary housing or being afforded in a timely manner to help those folks. she i think the governor did a fantastic job but it extended right in the federal government. the folks at fema were terrific. they were exceptional. host: where were they from? they were coming in from out of the state i sam. caller: they were out from as far as the midwest. they came in and set up temporary offices in the public library. in schools and things like that. they were totally committed to helping everybody here. host: how long did they stay? caller: they were here for several weeks and bank. -- i think.

the floods came in october. i think the cut off for the deadline to file a claim was december. i think they extended it again after that. there is even an appeal process. if you are given or deny funds, there is a deny -- appeal process. the person they came out and it might inspection, she was terrific. they even allowed funds for temporary housing and relief and things of that nature. host: do you know with the price tag was for the flooding in south carolina? caller: i do not but i do know what was allotted to me was very sufficient for me to make my repairs and bring my house back to the standards of what it was prior to that flood. host: do you think it is of the same value that it was before the flood? caller: absolutely.

and it's going to increase because of the spa loan where i can do additional repairs that would -- worst damaged from the flood. everybody is knocking the government. we don't like paying taxes and things like that, but in this situation they were fantastic. host: kathy in michigan? what city are you in and where is that compared to flint and lansing? caller: good morning. , am in the tosti -- patosky about 200 miles north of flight that i was raised in flint. host: they freed up $5 million from fema to help that situation. what do you think of emergency management when it comes to situations in flint? $5 billion is a drop in the bucket. when they needed last year was to switch back to the detroit

water system. the state with the last to pay up. they waited for probably close to half a week. always the single most important thing for disasters. although some of these tornadoes and a lot of it can be traced to the earth being injured so severely. the situation and flint was highly preventable. lake huron is 70 miles to the east. they have been drawing water from that body of water for probably close to 80 years. the government needs to do their job. in october the epa of this last year. she was kind of making fun of me and away. they needed to do their jobs and take the situation seriously.

i have two sisters that just relocated. their water looks pretty good. host: what about the value of their home? there is a new crisis for flint residents. the cost of their home damage caused by city water. people are going to have to get replaced, their water heater, etc. and the value of the home being decreased because of this situation. caller: i don't even know. they have some very fine homes. my sisters live in this -- it was probably built for the very professional physicians and lawyers. the streets all caps around to the river. i don't know if they hold any value. how can you sell a house that is probably -- you can potentially die just by living in the house? there is no value. is in the people.

host: let's tighten back to what we are talking about. does the president to clear flint michigan a disaster area? does he make a disaster declaration? and then what? all the taxpayers in the country go and and what happens to flint? caller: build it back up. it will be a smaller city. replant the city. -- it's never going to be the city it was. but replant it. be conscientious over the homes are going to be. and let the rest of it go. an entityever let like general motors come in and trash the community like they did. and that one bottle of water was donated by general motors. i have not read a thing. the mott foundation, huge philanthropy. but not gm. in a seasick my stomach.

host: what is your sister said about the emergency folks coming in to flint? caller: my younger sister was home that day from work. she said she was quite excited. it was like a parade. they had state police and all the cars and never getting out water filters. she was ecstatic. my twin drove over to sister's house because she was working to make sure there was some of their to receive the water filters. it's not even close to what needs to be done. they should've just overwhelmed the city with the national guard. .e have the people do with the way it needs to be done. not these little increments of help. is not even close. host: that decision would have been the governor to bring in the national guard. caller: good luck there because the man does not care about people.

the governor, the attorney general, the michigan senate, the michigan house, the secretary of state are all republicans and they do not like people. they look down on the vast majority of the population as if we are not worthy of anything. they are unproductive. they move against us constantly. the state is not what it was when i was growing up. times frontw york pages this one has a story about how flint and the state schools got to the situation they are in. anger over appointing emergency managers. it all goes back to 2013. detroit was groaning under the weight of troubles it had a cumulative billions in debt, riddled with crime, and acting much of its tax basis appear. the former mayor was convicted of racketeering and fraud. the governor swept in with a rescue plan, the appointment of an emergency manager charged with saving the city from physical despair. he hadre furious that

been given a role and extraordinary power. he stripped it from local elected officials. the anger has been revived in michigan this week. public outrage over the tainted water in flint and the discrepant schools in detroit led many to question of the state is overreached and imposing too many emergency managers in largely black jurisdictions. the case of flight in the public schools governance was under the governor rather than local officials closer to the ground. and flight emergency managers month -- not only oversaw the city, but also pressed to switch the source of the water supply to save money. in detroit the schools are on the brink of insolvency after a series of emergency managers dating back to 2009 repeatedly failed to grapple with its financial troubles. while also falling troy mckinney school buildings in addressing academic this -- deficiencies.

the current manager certain that roland flint. we discuss with you emergency management in this country. what has been your experience? jaden in florida. jada you are on the air. caller: below? -- hello? yes, i'm judith. what is your experience? caller: my experience has been exceptional. i worked for fema for eight years. i started here in florida during charley, ivan, francis and gene. we also works katrina and rita . i appreciated you reading the criteria. you are exactly right about that. it starts on a local level. the local mayor,

than the state governor. does aernor after fema free determination of damage. it goes to the president. and then the president makes a determination as to whether or not fema should come in and do their work. we sent out, after weise in the predetermination team, then there are teams that are called in from all over the country. i happen to have friends still in fema. some of whom are in south carolina, in greenville. we also have a home in north carolina and were up there in october when their floods happened. i was very familiar with what was going on through the tv stations.

and watching nikki haley, she was exceptional. she followed the criteria exactly. when it is done, then fema can come in and send out the teams to talk with people. to assess the damage done to their homes. one of the things people don't understand isand watching nikkir insurance pays first. then fema picks up the balances. then if the remaining balances, there are small business association loans that can come into effect that is well organized. and my experience. host: what did you do for fema? caller: i worked up through the ranks. i started out on the switchboard. -- i'm not to hearing you? host: and then what? you work your way up? caller: yes. i went into casework.

i was actually talking to people on telephones. i was working on cases. through theg them criteria of what they needed to do next. how they should handle their cases. and in those cases were turned in. the insurance people went out. we worked closely with insurance companies as they went out and did an assessment of damage. than the insurance paid for they were going to pay. host: tell me what most people get wrong about trying to file a claim with fema and navigating that process. caller: what they get wrong? host: what is the challenge for folks? caller: there are written claim forms on their computer that they can go to the computer and fill up the claim forms. they are simple to fill out.

and we also at that time set up phone banks. i'm sure they still do. their people on the telephone all the time they can answer questions that can help them fill up the forms. needing that they might because we realize these people have just come through a disaster. they are very fragile. they need all the help they can get. host: i believe that there can and move on to jacksonville, florida. greg is joining us. what has been your experience with state, federal emergency management? are we talking hurricanes down in jacksonville? caller: greta, good morning. yes, 36 year watcher of c-span. happy to be on the program this morning. absolutely. with the previous caller in the caller from south carolina was mentioning, i happen to be one

of the second responders to national tragedies. hurricanes, tornadoes, and working with fema. i worked for a federal agency, the department of veterans affairs is called in as a secondary responder to help people who were traumatized by the natural disaster. particularly hurricanes. i hope i'm incorrect and i wasn't reading into some of the questions you are asking the previous colors in terms of what from be some downsizing fema. that's one of the reason i was calling. those people from fema and a secondary responders do an excellent job of trying to help those people who have been traumatized by the natural disasters. there has been so much criticism of organizations.

went into some sort of bureaucratic snag. i was hoping i'm not reading it to some of the questions you are finding some fault in what the federal government does. host: no. caller: particularly up in flint, michigan. the local officials and the state officials were responsible for that particular tragedy. when the president signed the measure that is after the county or the state has asked the federal government to intervene. almost the same kind of thing that the mayor in new orleans was talking about. they cannot get their act together when to call the federal government to come in. that's when a lot of times fema comes in unless they feel they have to usurp what has been negligence like what is happened in flint, michigan. not only negligence, but to some extent criminal and culpability

to help those people. it was man-made. nonnatural me like a previous call from florida, the lady working with fema and with the victim out of south carolina that congratulated nikki haley. and jeb bush was the first governor that made the kind of response to people affected by natural disasters. last rally with these people. they make a tremendous sacrifice and going in. first responders, second responders. the only people sometimes in these disaster areas. as a second responder i went in to maryland. host: what is a second responder? caller: they deal with psychological problems. ptsd, germanic brain injury. first responders are the police officers and firefighters are going to rescue bodies. second responders are psychologists and social

workers, counselors they go in to help those people with those kind of tragedies. each one gives up a certain amount of not only time but energy. they absolutely have dedication to help the american comrades recover. -- on thisn particular issue based on your question about emergency management, the governor, the staff whocials or his knew the water was contaminated by lead the not do a good job. the: we went through process for a disaster declaration when fema comes in and how that works. it starts on the local and state level. they have to make a call in the feds come in. we are talking on this saturday morning and d.c. and the east coast is getting pummeled by a snowstorm. they have named it jonas. 10 states and d.c. government

had declared a state of emergency. what does that mean? it's a government or division of government to declare that the area is in a state of emergency. in these the government can suspend or changed some functions of the executive, legislative or judiciary during that period. it orders government agencies to implement emergency plans. the government to declare a state of emergency during natural or human a disaster during civil unrest or following a declaration of war. we are in a state of emergency in this area. 10 different states have declared a state of emergency. virginia brought up the national guard as a step continues to fall. we are expecting about two feet with blizzard conditions picking up today in this area. we will go to ryan and the massachusetts. what is been your experience with emergency management for?

-- folks? caller: i like to weigh in on the michigan issue. hello? host: we can hear you. we will go to will in lansing, michigan. caller: hi. i live in lansing and i have watched mr. snyder, our governor. ago, this isallers the republican party. how they have treated the low and middle class peoples, the minorities. a gmm worker -- i am worker. everything he has done has been to help the koch brothers. host: how do you think he is

responding to this situation in flint? caller: i think he has responded the same way he responded to the emergency managers he is using in detroit. he did what -- they did what he wanted them to do. he is the one that appoints them, correct? look for a cheap way to give water to people and they didn't bother treating the water before it went into the plumbing. here in lansing we have democratic mayor. we had some lead pipe problems. everybody in the whole area with pipes, everybody got water filters long before they started doing the change out.

he made sure that everybody had this filters free of charge. we were all taken care of. he cares about people. that was his concern about people. i just don't see that from this governor. host: that is will in michigan. we will keep getting your phone calls this morning you can join us on twitter and facebook as well. what has been your experience with state and federal emergency management as we deal with the blizzard. on the east coast. it brings up other emergency situations that we have seen in recent years. six emergency declarations have 016. made already in 2 79 and 2015 and a little over 80 in 2014. --ifornia while players wildfires or florida hurricanes.

what has been your experience? and other needs sort of related, the blizzard stops the e-mail avalanche. host: that's is the state department has asked that, the judge who has ordered the state department for hillary clinton to release emails, they are asking the judge to give them a little bit more time. in a court filing, the department asked the federal court to delay by a month to release the last batch of roughly 55,000 pages of clinton's emails. they had become a constant headache for clinton's campaign. e-mail 82% of clinton's

has been released. pages of 7200 clinton's emails have not be sent to government agencies. they have the storm, asked for more time for these agencies to review these emails. news, letampaign 2016 me show you what is happening on the campaign trail -- jeb bush tweaking this out -- his mother in football gear saying, i would after she, donald -- released -- he released this ad with his mom. [video clip] >> when push comes to shove, people will realize that jeb has real solutions rather than talking about how popular they are, how great they are.

he sees a huge need and it is not being filled by anybody. he seems to be the one who can solve the problem. i think he will be a great president. host: jeb bush's latest at featuring his mom and what she believes he can do for the country if he is elected. take a look at some latest polling on the campaign -- donald trump in the lead, 42%. ted cruz is at 10%. these are national polls. donald trump rose rapidly compared to other age groups. rapidly of men compared to women. this is the national poll. it shows that in iowa, which is

nine days away, senator ted cruz and donald trump are fighting it out in that state. we got this from politico on the democratic race -- polls showing bernie sanders is getting ahead of hillary clinton. he is up by nine points of clinton in new hampshire after the debate. shows likelyoll primary voters leaning towards bernie sanders. bernie sanders leading in both iowa and new hampshire. nine days to go before february 1 in iowa. we will return to your calls. we will go to katrina. we are talking about emergency state funding agencies.

caller: good morning. governor snyder is a criminal. he should be brought up on charges. anyone who knew about that, who approved the tainted water in flint, should be held accountable for breaking the law and endangering people's lives. yes, it was a concerted effort once they got rid of the it allows governor snyder and his people to just have their way to do whatever they want to do in a overwhelmingly black city. i find it very interesting that this water crisis and problem did not happen out in the suburbs, or in areas like birmingham or bloomington hills.

that would never take place. that would have never happened in communities like that, which makes me believe that it is also a hate crime. he should be punished for that. removed, should he be -- removed immediately from his post in terms of governor of the state, but he should be charged it he is what to cost the state millions of dollars now and lawsuits from those that live in flint, or those who may be traveled through flint and have some of flint's water. imagine the cost to the state and taxpayers of the state of michigan because of this man and his entire group. post the washington replacing the aging water infrastructure at $1.5 billion. brenda is also in michigan. in the midst of the crisis in your state, what are your

thoughts? , if people are blaming on everything on happened before the emergency managers went in there? why were they called in in the first place. detroit was run by democrats for over 50 years and the same thing with flint. you are blaming everything on schnider. there from theas departments right on up until it got to the governor? host: let me ask you. toyou trust the government fulfill its responsibilities

when it comes to emergency situations? in. has come do you trust that the government can handle this? caller: well, the government is not perfect. myself, don't trust the government a lot. now with the whole going on,and what is you can be sure that there is going to be a lot done to solve this problem. look at what governor snyder had to deal with in the city of and the schools of detroit. that did not happen overnight. that has been going on for years and years and now they blame snyder. host: let's bring in perry,

michigan this morning. michael moore tweeting out -- if you vote to invade iraq and say millionsorry after have died, do you think your reward is the white house? that is referring to hillary clinton. the documentarian tweeting out that this morning. heated fight between bernie sanders and hillary clinton for the nomination. ade is the latest campaign from bernie sanders. [video clip] ♪

i got some real estate here in my back. all come to look at america. look at america. all come to look at america. i am and i approve this message. 's latest at sanders ahead of the iowa caucus in nine days. then there is the story about hillary clinton. she is reaching out and talking about issues. it seems women don't like the pandering. preferred -- usa today

said millennials preferred bernie sanders by a nine point margin. it goes on to say that on , asday, a national poll university poll had similar indications that women start leaning more towards bernie sanders. take a look at hillary clinton postulated that. [video clip] the person who lives here have to solve problems as big as the world and as small as your kitchen table. that is the job every day. now the first ladies who helped get health care for 8 million kids. the senator who helped the city rise again. the secretary of state who stood up for america and stared down hostile leaders is the one candidate that has everything it takes. neverll net -- she will

shut down planned parenthood. she will finally get equal pay for women and stop the republicans from ripping all of our progress away. foruary 1, stand up hillary, because if you want a president who knows how to keep america safe, and build a stronger economy, hillary is the choice. >> i am listening to you. i am fighting for you. with your support, i am want to deliver. i'm hillary clinton, and i approve this message. host: hillary clinton's latest iowad february 1 is the caucuses. two into c-span for our coverage of "road to the white house." go to our website -- www.c-span.org. you can see many of the events. are gatherings today and we will have coverage of it. of thehampshire, most

republican candidates will be there except for donald trump and ted cruz. that will be live this morning here on c-span at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. the townhall hosted by the new hampshire republican party featuring most of the republican candidates, but not donald trump or ted cruz. , so wez will be in iowa will have coverage of that tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. he will be there with glenn beck and the congressman there holding a rally. donald trump will be in iowa on sunday. we will have coverage of that at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. we sat down with janine shaheen. terry in michigan. good morning. we are getting everyone's

stopped across the country on their experience with federal -- state and federal management. caller: i just wanted to say that the republican party has ruined the state of michigan. our roads are some of the worst in the country and they won't do anything about it. work in the suburbs and live in detroit, the company you work for do not have to pay detroit taxes. so they don't. they lose millions of dollars a year just because the michigan legislature will not make companies take detroit taxes out. then they cut all our revenue sharing to these places -- flint, detroit, everywhere. they cut revenue sharing to these places. host: let me tie to what we are talking about. here is a be see with this

story. the obama administration has denied an appeal by governor rick schnider additional 84 flint. by covenant rick snyder for additional funding for flint. officials deny declaring it a disaster, which could have brought millions more. the month turned down the state's. a disaster declaration is mainly for natural disasters. schneider says he will ask if obama will consider giving money under to other programs. state lawmakers are trying to prove $28 million more for flint. should flint be declared a investor by obama's administration? caller: all he has to do is rewrite the law and they will cover it. not anderstanding it is natural disaster, so they cannot get money for for it.

they can do it in congress, right there in washington in five minutes. just like they do the back room deals. it, thea bill, denied next day, it becomes law. it -- they do that everyday. host: should they do that? caller: yes, yes i do. it is a disaster in flint. i worked there every day. i drink that water. do problem is, these people not want to do anything about it. they just wait on the next election. when jennifer was governor hair, and they just obstructed everything she tried to do. is they thing different are making our roads the highest

weight in the country. we have to pay for the roads. way it is.t the they are waiting on the next election. they just obstruct until the next election. they do it all over the country. look at louisiana. bankrupting the schools, don't give them any more money, wait for the next election. that is their motto. so, ok. the snow in this area is delayed congress from returning on monday. they were supposed to be back on monday, tuesday, wednesday. they will take their vote now on tuesday because of the snowstorm and they will not be around for the latter part of the week because democrats are gathering for their annual retreat.

to jerry in new york. good morning, jerry. what has been your experience? caller: sandy was really that. -- sandy was really bad. they always say they are not going to do things and participate in this and that, but they wind up doing it anyway. they actually have to. this is something that can harm children, adults, everybody. if you took all the water and brought it over to their houses and some judge made it mandatory that they drink that water, and not just the people in the communities -- let's see what they would say then. host: let me ask you about sandy because we are talking about all emergency situations. caller: in this area over here, it was a nightmare. god bless the people in the community. i could cry even thinking about it. the people in this community got together.

everybody said the people. the red cross couldn't have been so wonderful. the red cross was absolutely wonderful! they took care of the women who had babies with diapers and wipes and could not give you enough. churches got together getting blankets andiving coming into your house. there was so much love. it was unbelievable! pssied me off -- fema pissed me off. families broke up. fema would not fix their houses. the new york rising cavemen then and every other house was denied to get it listed. most houses that lifted. if you want a fighter. if you did not go after them -- if you did not

go after them like a lion, you got nothing. then i found -- there was a hygienic deception with fema. when people came to your home -- people were smart. people don't sometimes see what people really are. my eyes were open about happy moderates. ima won't tell the people -- fema won't tell the people that they are actually your insurance coming. they are your insurance company. you can have allstate or something else and pay them. but fema actually gets that money from these insurance companies. when they are overlooking and handling the affairs -- my mother and father, they think

their insurance company is their insurance company. it is not. the are hired by the federal government to write the policies, service the policies -- they charge the people that get the policies for managing them. my mother gets a $40 bill on her insurance, but they are really working for fema. we are thinking that fema is just making sure everything is done right. no. fema collects all that money. the insurance companies and all that money to fema. fema hold onto that money and that is why when everyone is waiting for their claims to be done, these insurance companies have no money. turning is in there, but they do not the money. host: i am going to leave it there for now. we will return to this conversation later. we are going to switch topics and talk to bradley olson, he is "wall street journal's" national correspondent. he is talking about the oil and gas industry. in the professor of chicago will

join us. we are going to talk about the idea about the debate between hillary clinton and bernie sanders. towill turn our conversation that on january 23, a very snowy one. you can barely see the capital. we are two football fields away from it. we are in the midst of winter storm jonas. we will continue right after this break. >> book tv has books and authors on c-span two. here are some programs to watch out for this weekend. tonight at 8:30 eastern, president obama, who came into office he he turned back the excesses of the bush administration has picked up where president bush left off. 10:00 p.m. on afterwards,

former senate leaders talk about their book "crisis point" looking at the current economic climate in congress. they are interviewed by former congressman jc watts. just the insatiable demand for more and more money is one of the issues that is exacerbated and made it harder for the leaders to bring people together because, first they are not in town. secondly, they are doing all this other stuff that does not allow them to breathe the legislators they were elected to be. third, have the special interests. we don't want to look at it as this is how we do things. history is littered with dysfunction and challenges. do is lookt to forward and say, here are some things we think would make a difference. , catheriney night

catherine zoth- looks at the choices young arab women are making. going to university in greater numbers than men all over the region. especially in the gulf countries. the proportions of women are even greater compared to the men. the women will tell you that it is a socially capital way to delay marriage to be outside the home. their families will support. >> what book tv all we can, every weekend on c-span2, television for serious readers. c-span campaign 2016 is taking you on the road to the white house for the iowa caucus. our liveebruary 1,

coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span2. we will give you live caucus coverage. we will be taking your tweets and tax. -- and texts. see the event live and its entirety. join in on the conversation on c-span radio and www.c-span.org at. .- an act www.c-span.org was journal continues. us this morning from houston texas, bradley olson, who covers energy issues for the "wall street journal." he is talking about what is happening with the oil and gas industry. later begin with the wild week in stocks. what is behind this. i think the prices dipped to such a level that it created a lot of concern in the markets. times, it's rational and gross to a point where it is

irrational. whenever oil dips to levels we have not seen since 2003, it created a great deal of fear in the market of how low can it go? that was combined with concerns existing about the dollar and bad economic signals to create a bit of a selloff. i think that is what happened. the market was fluctuating. we are in for volatile times. host: do you think this continues next week? guest: i think the volatility will continue. the up and down swings in prices. that is something we can expect for a while. i think there are anxieties about kind of the level of the u.s. stock market. a lot of investors are worried that the market may continue to fall irrespective of oil prices. i think during the weekend off davos,- the week in

george soros was concerned about the market. i think there are concerns out there from investors and economists that the market could continue to fall. when it comes to oil prices, very much the same thing, the prices could continue to go down , and there is a lot of sentiment out there that is not positive about what prices. host: we saw will drop below $30 a barrel. you just said the companies -- energy companies have seen up and down. look at "wall street journal" investment section from friday. you can see after there's a's market close, the prices were down, down, down. he got so cheap, people start buying it. is that what we can expect more of? will will spark bankruptcy concerns? definitely, the prices will continue to go up and down.

friday was a rebound. a lot of people are not expecting that to hold when it comes to oil prices. -- and whatk at $30 we are writing in that story, a $30 barrel oil price for u.s. companies can't make money -- not turning a profit at that ofel at all -- even a lot countries are going to face of your problems like venezuela and significant issues another major were countries of producers of oil are not getting enough budget. saudi arabia is cutting its budget. it is a big concern. when we are writing about bankruptcy, the point was there oil and gas producers use a ton of debt to build up to a level where they can produce a lot of oil. those chickens are coming home to roost because they are not making enough money to make those interest payments. of producingthird

companies are facing bankruptcies. host: and if you work for the oil and gas industry, what has been happening with jobs this year, and what does it look like for the year ahead? guest: it has been very, very bad. the numbers we have seen, the estimates are more than a quarter of a million jobs worldwide have gone by the wayside. aat is in the past year and half. their0 people have lost jobs. it is very serious and sad. in houston, it is definitely somber. i even receive messages from friends who know that i follow the oil industry -- people in houston who don't work in the industry, but work in industries like hotels or something that is houston economy, saying, is it really this bad? in areasa lot of fear

like houston. the job loss is continuing. he recently had a couple of companies announced massive amounts of job cuts -- gas company, southwestern, places like louisiana and pennsylvania. they said they would lay off 40% of their workforce. company that provides services to oil companies announced another 10,000 layoffs. chevron is in the middle of a round of layoffs. the countess goes on and on. for anyonedifficult out there working in the oil industry in the united states or around the world. host: look at the numbers. money jobs in december of 2014 related to oil and gas. 200-2000 extractions from mining. take a look at it a year later in december of 20 -- 2015, jobs falling.

as our guest is saying, you will continue to see layoffs and people lose their jobs.

people that drill for oil and gas, they don't really have a lot of comparable expertise in renewable energy. they don't necessarily do it well. so they're thinking how can i

drill more wells and release more acreage where i can drill more. so they're not really connecting opportunities for renewable opportunities. the way they did make themselves safer in the downturn was to pay down debt or using debt a lot less to drill wells or making sure they were in the best area aeasy to drill oil. and even hedging, locking in prices over a year and a year and a half, meaning you have a stable return you can count on. some companies took advantage of that and did that helping keep them afloat as well. a lot of them were just saying how can i drill more, make more, how can i ex -- expands really. that's because shareholders

wanted growth. as long as they produced more oil or more gas, their stock price went up. that was all investors really cared about. that was all they cared about too. that was their only incentive. they didn't see the downturn coming host: chris roberts on twitter says the world including the u.s.a. have done what palin suggested, drill baby, drill. cheap gas for us. bankruptcy and layoffs for industry. john, what do you do? caller: i'm retired actually. i'm 65 now. i think the price is going to remain low for probably another year and a half or so. i think it's going to get back

to $6 a barrel by the end of the year. i think it's going to be around 25 to 30, maybe 35, maybe get up to 40, 45, 50 by 2017. we import 6 billion barrels a day at a cost of about $23 billion a year. you want to help the oil industry, stop importing all this oil host: why do you think it's going to stay around 25, 30? why? caller: there's too much oil on the market host: okay caller: just too much oil on the market host: bradley olson, is that the reason for the downturn? guest: yes. there's two reasons. first is supply. there's a ton of oil. there was a certain subset of

production, let's say there was about $95 billion a day for world demand but then you had all this production for the united states that added to the level of supply. normally in the past saudi arabia and opec would reduce production in order to keep the price at a higher level. but this time saudi arabia decided not to do that. they've continued to pump and a lot of other producers around the world have done the same and so have the u.s. producers. so basically nobody is really blinking meaning the supply isn't coming down. in addition to that, we've had sanctions on iran for a number of years that are about to be lifted and they have set a goal for about 500 million barrels a day in addition to that. so this is what's causing people to be really concerned in the

market. we already have too much and iran may add a whole lot more. basically, demand has really not picked up as much as people expected and the anxiety out there in the market revolves a great deal around china. from 2000 to 2010, china accounted for 40% of the growth of oil demand around the world. basically any growth in world oil demand, almost half of it came from china. so whenever there's a problem or issue or concern about the chinese economy, that sort of means demand won't come to the issue. so you're like we're getting too much supply and demand isn't picking up so there's no end in sight. host: we'll go to sterling, illinois to santos now.

caller: i'm a green energy tech for a large international companies. i brought in a $600,000 watt array for them and a $2 million deal for their flagship building. my point is i feel for my fossil energy brothers. i was formerly in the steel business and i faced that and it's very difficult to overcome. my advice is simply that there are -- doesn't have all the answers or the extension to 2022 with an end to lifting of the oil embargo. that has helped the new possibilities for renewable energy such as solar.

i'm now realizing a payback period of ten years on one project. on another the payback period is about five years. also here now in illinois we have a bicommodities market. i hope i'm saying that. solar energy certificates. meaning you reach a certain number of solar energy and then you get certificates which you can then procure at the end of the year in a portfolio. it's growing. i was a little afraid of my fossil fellow workers are in that the oil dropping is drastically affecting their livelihoods and jobs and futures

and their families. what i would advise is to be involved in renewable energy host: i'm going to leave it there and have bradley olson respond. go ahead. guest: he brings up a good point. the renewables industries has grown and shown tremendous kind of ability to be stable and kind of reach a point of viability for a lot of different consumers that they didn't reach before. i think that the solar industry is a great example of an industry that's really taken off and many countries can expect the new viability of solar and renewables. what i would say though is when you have very low prices oil and natural gas, it makes it harder

for renewable energies to compete. renewables compete in terms of natural gas in our generation so if you have cheap natural gas it's harder for renewables to penetrate and continue to make gains in the market. there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic about renewable energy and the growth there is going to be huge in the next upcoming decades. but that's a factor to consider and i think people should be aware of that host: scott is in ashville, north carolina, a driller. good morning caller: i'll make it real quick. i'm a driller. i work at the shell and they've pretty much ceased production. i'm a capitalist. i do believe that supply and demand and all that. i will say this: we cannot

continue to compete with other countries when -- they're just producing as much oil. i'm talking about iran which is a terroristic nation and of course, you know, we give them $150 billion and this and that and i just think the obama administration has failed in trying to preserve the energy industry in the united states. we have enough oil to produce our own. if there's any way that we could put tariffs on the oil. we have to compete with these countries that have our economic interests not at heart, and as a result, anybody producing oil, do you think they're producing oil to help the economy or help people? they're doing it to bring us down. it's not only unfair but an

unwise economic decision by the obama administration. someone has to be responsible for this. we should have enough policy -- and i'm not a donald trump supporter -- but he's talked about using our own oil in our country to keep these other countries from exploiting the market. host: scott, we got your question. i just want to know, the company you're working for, you said, has ceased operations. how much were you making an hour? have you lost your job? are you no longer working? caller: i'm no longer working. i was making about $60,000 a year. and we cannot compete with the rest of the world. host: we got this. bradley olson, is this because

of iran? is there oil even on the market yet? guest: well, i think he's right in identifying the juxtaposition between the u.s. industry and iran. that was a flashpoint in washington. they were not able to export oil and we were going to undo sanctions allowing iran to ship oil into the united states. so we were saying we're making a policy decision that will help iran but hurt our domestic producers. so that was a flashpoint point. there's also a lot of discussion about creating tariffs. i've talked to economists about it and tried to gauge the impact and it would definitely have the impact of propping up the industry in the united states. also saudi arabia is a major part of what's happening right

now in oil markets. he's right that they are making a decision that at least in part is calibrated to push out weaker producers out of the market. basically, when the price goes down, whoever has a high cost of production is going to go out of the market. and so some of saudi arabia's decision has hurt people like him. i definitely want to say to him and everybody out there, i wish them the best of luck in trying toe find new work and new opportunities. but saudi arabia's decision has a lot to do with wanting to push out other producers. i think it has a lot to do with renewables. when the price of oil is low, it reduces demand. people live in different ways. they buy heavy vehicles, trucks. maybe live more in the suburbs. make decisions that create more energy use. so i think saudi arabia had a number of reasons not to cut

production which was obvious in november of 2014 which gave rise to the crash. so i think he's on to something. these countries continuing to produce and keep the price low, i'm sure he and other workers in the united states are pointing their fingers at those countries and feeling if they would cut production, it would allow opportunity to thrive and continue here host: here's a tweet from texas saying every serious oil producer knows it's a cyclical industry and keeps a cash cushion for hard times. carol from cleveland, ohio, hello. guest: when the steel manufacturers left the united states, there was absolutely no care about tariffs for them. when the furniture manufacturers left the united states, there were no tariffs for them.

there were no tariffs for those who made small manufacturing products. but now that it's the oil companies, oh, my, we're going to bring out the tariffs for them. you didn't stand for us when we lost our jobs and healthcare and homes. you turned and looked the other way host: okay. i'm going to have mr. olson jump in. the congress did, with that four-year-old ban on exporting oil, is that going to bring some relief? guest: i think congress is moving in the opposite direction. there are a lot of countries that did not approve of the u.s. ban and considered it kind of against the free market principles and against free trade and they were pushing the united states a lot to lift the ban.

so i would actually say the act of lifting the ban on exports is not like creating tariffs. i think free markets are continuing to prevail in the u.s. and u.s. policy discussions host: emily from california, good morning to you, emily caller: good morning. i'm in the stock market and when i hear the head of the hedge funds talking about this is a wonderful direction and it's due to oil, it's very depressing to see this administration and obama is trying to get back at russia and they're trying to get back at saudi arabia because saudi arabia has no choice but to produce more oil.

this has to do with the middle east. i would like to see someone like the bushes back. they know oil. they know the middle east. they've won wars in weeks. i think it would benefit our country if we put someone in there that knows what they're doing. obama does not know what he's doing and hillary clinton would be no better host: bradley olson, is this maneuvering by the obama administration related to foreign policy? guest: no, i don't think that the administration has really done anything real at this to kind of oil market related interventions here. i think the administration has really been focused on regulations dealing with the industry and kind of how to, you know, appease environmental voters. that's been a lot of what the obama administration's interactions with the oil and gas industry has been i think in

the last, you know, three or four years. you had the keystone xl pipeline which the administration rejected. and even friday recently, the administration moved to regulate methane emissions on public land. methane is just like natural gas and when it escapes from drilling activities, it's a very harmful green house gas, so the administration is trying to regulate the use of methane. i understand what this woman is saying. prices have gone down especially for stocks like exxon, blue chip stocks. when you have stock holdings tied to energy and many pensions and mutual funds are and when you see them fall it's distressing and you want someone to come to the rescue. and i don't know if the bush administration was in office they would be intervening.

they might be delaying regulations perhaps but i don't think they could do anything to bring it up. host: all right, good morning. guest: good morning. thank you. this is ironic because back in the 70s, my father had to file bankruptcy because of the industry he was in. he was in car sales. and it was a limit on the amount of oil the market was -- oil embargo by the opec nations. and this is the opposite. but i think it's a good opportunity to point out to people because most people don't understand that oil is the heart of the world economy. all of our jobs are affected by the oil industry whether there's an embargo like in the 70s or whether there's too much oil on the market.

there's a reason why the decision was such an important priority. one of the biggest pure oil supplies was being threatened and that was saudi arabia. saddam hussein wasn't just going into kuwait, he was also going into saudi arabia too. that's why bush senior got the security council involved at 2:00 o'clock in the morning the day of the invasion because he couldn't allow that to happen. maybe people understand now the commodity of oil is the most significant and important thing to the world economy host: chris, i'm going to takena point. bradley olson? guest: he does make a good point. one of the things that's been a big surprise. you've seen some discussion about this recently, the decline

in oil prices has not provided the boost to gross domestic product in the united states or in a lot of other countries that people expected. normally there was sort of a rule of thumb. when oil prices go up, it can hurt the economy and when they go down, it helps and provides additional benefits to gross domestic product. people take the money basically they're saving in lower gas prices and spend it. but that has not really happened. people have not spent their savings. i think people may have also misunderstood or underestimated the impact of the oil boom on the u.s. economy. there are all these reverb reverberations we're seeing.

the "wall street journal" has been writing about this a great deal. it's just been showing the surprise that this old rule of thumb has not really held and you have lower oil prices, but not really necessarily any major economic benefits the u.s. is experiencing from it. host: you're right. it creates winners in india and china giving oil-dependent companies like saudi arabia reason to embrace reform but this is right after this country is recuperating from the last crash. bradley olson? guest: yeah. i think one of the things people have been pointing out to the problem in markets is kind of, you know, contageon impact.

a barometer of how much countries are spending in the future. it was 5% and now it's about 10%. the impact of oil on this gauge or barometer of how the country is doing so when prices are down and oil prices aren't spending, you have a lot of decline in capital spending from big companies. also in the bond market, the companies that created the boom used debt to do it and a lot of them are companies where they have to pay investors a high interest rate and they're rated sort of junk meaning they have a lot of debt and they don't make as much money as other big companies like exxon, for

example, that have a very high corporate rating. there's a lot of this debt out there and as long as oil continues to fall, this debt has done very poorly. there's concern that this could spread and hit banking and other industries and be a real negative to the economy. there are a lot of concerns out there about a lurking oil monster. i don't know that there's really a definitive case one way or the other. i don't think people really know completely how significant the impact of this really is or whether the economy could really suffer like in 2008 or 2009. i have not seen people really of that opinion. but i think people are worried about surprising impacts from low oil prices and there could

continue to be.

paul ryan is the one that knocked this embargo off. host: bradley olson? republicans were pushing for this because it is what a lot of companies want. companies have been pushing for this because you have a disconnection to the oil market. industry, alling the u.s. refineries and plants that process oil, a lot are configured to take dirty oil or oil that is hard to process. oil from canada, venezuela, mexico. a lot of the oil the u.s. is theseted -- producing, refineries were not able to run at full capacity. they were having a hard time getting the heavy stuff they were used to and not the light stuff more common in europe.

there was a disconnection in the market. there were areas like north dakota where they would be producing oil, but they would have to sell it for about $15 a barrel less than they would be able to in texas or oklahoma. that was hurting a lot of producers. they were the ones that pushed for that. i think it does hurt them and has been negative or not as much of the benefit as they anticipated. a lot of the oil companies are taking the long view. the opportunity to be able to export u.s. oil and try to find the best price around the world is an opportunity they wanted, even if it might cause short-term pain. i think they were weighing the short-term pain versus the long-term gain. i think it is something republicans were pushing for because republicans generally support free markets. the export ban was one of the closed, examples of a

closed marketplace in the united states. i think republicans have been pushing for that for a long time. i think they saw the steel he could make dealing with the president and pushing through some of the things he wanted was a deal they were willing to do. a lot of people when they were trying to forecast how long it would take for the oil export ban to be lifted, they did not see this happening until next year or the year after. when this happened, i think it was a big surprise it was able to come together so quickly. as far as it relates to speak orion, i think he was trying to show as soon as he was made speaker of the house, he could get something done. in the sense of showing what you have accomplished, i think that was mainly what he wanted to achieve. the president has always wanted to be able to start is with the republican congress. those have been hard to come by during his administration. host: bradley olson, let me run this tweet by you that says why

are conservatives and republicans complaining? ironically, keystone would make it worse. is that true, bradley olson, keystone would make it worse? guest: there are certain markets that would be impacted by the keystone pipeline. in the midwest, gasoline prices might go up if the keystone pipeline had been approved. i don't know that the keystone pipeline would make things worse. i think in canada where they wanted the keystone pipeline, they have been hit really hard. oil traded as low as $10 a barrel. you think $30 a barrel is bad, but in canada the price they are seeing because they have the hard to process oil, it sells for much less. and are facing $10 a barrel the potential for recession and severe economic problems. the canadian dollar has fallen with respect to the u.s. dollar. i think it is hurting canada.

i don't know the keystone pipeline would be hurting the oil industry that much more. i guess theoretically you might have more canadian barrels on the market if the pipeline have been approved, but it would not have been completed if it had been approved. i don't know how much that holds. person thathat the was tweeting was expressing i think is there are a lot of people that don't care that the oil industry is hurting. i think there are consumers who feel they were doused by the industry. . have seen that on twitter people have tweeted responses to my stories and we are trying to explain what is going on with oil companies and how they are trying to survive. a lot of people will say they should go pound sand because of how they gouged us over the years. it is always amazing to me the oil industry produces something most americans use on a daily basis and is still reviled for it. it is not something that happens in detroit when the auto

industry was suffering in the 2008-nine financial crisis. i don't think you saw a lot of people telling the automakers to pound sand, the workers in detroit. it is an interesting thing. it always happens oil companies. the profits are huge, tremendous profits. people have a hard time scoring goes profits with high gas prices. host: let me go to david waiting on the line in washington, d.c. good morning to you. go ahead. caller: good morning. host: question or comment? caller: a couple of comments. number one is economists are paid by industries, just like politicians who take money from industries, to have a certain point of view. it is not hard to guess where that point of view comes from. second, is regarding job retraining, a caller a few months ago was angry because

when the textile and it is -- and steel industry left, politicians were quick to point out, just go get retrained so we have more of a service industry. take those hands that have been working on steel for decades and learn how to type on computers and read screens. that is not a winner. regarding the energy industry, you could move those jobs over quite easily i believe to building windmills or solar panels. host: david, your point because we are running out of time. bradley olson, what about retraining? guest: i think some workers that have worked in the oil field, engineers and people with a specific set of cells -- skills, probably can transfer those two industries in the renewable sector. i do think that is possible. i do think there are other workers that those skills may

not transfer as easily. i think if there was a booming renewables industry on the scale of the booming oil and gas industry, sure, all kinds of people could be retrained. but there have to be jobs for them to take. truck in west oil texas could easily be a driver of a truck that carries windmill parts. but there has to be demand for that many windmills to make up for those jobs. and there is not. i'm sorry. that is just a fact. there is not demand in the renewables industry to make up for a quarter of a million job losses right now. there may be some demand that exists because of the subsidies and growth in the renewables industry. as possibleeople that can make the transfer should try to do it, but i don't think we should pretend there are that many jobs waiting in the wings for people with any level of skills. host: we will get in one last call and this tweet from a viewer who says we were gouged

by the federal government, not oil companies. government creates barriers to production with regulations and makes oil more expensive. mike in virginia beach, good morning. caller: yes, i think we could have reached the oil -- peak oil because everything is made from oil and everybody has a car in the cross. -- garage. it goes up and down with the economy. as the economy goes up, oil is doing good because everything is depending on oil. now the economy is sort of hanging in the balance with the not having a lot of money to spend, so the price has dropped to achieve farther growth. a lot of people in the middle class, the extra money they are saving on gas they are putting back in the pockets or using it to pay off their debt so it is

not really going back in the economy. i believe in the oil price dropped in there was a lot of with drawl from stocks, a lot of companies were looking to invest in other alternatives that have becausewth potential they are very low right now. and also, obama sort of gave the green light by reducing coal by 30% by 2030. and also with the paris conference and climate change, the stock prices of solar and wind have surged. host: mike, i will let it go there. bradley olson, a quick answer from you because we are about to run out of time. guest: i think that is true. i have not paid attention to the prices of solar stocks after the paris climate talks, but definitely long-term the desire to lower emissions does bode well for renewable energy. there is no question about that.

he is right in that respect for that one comment he made. host: for more information, you can follow bradley olson's reporting on "wall street journal"'s website. thank you for joining us. appreciate your time. guest: good luck out there. host: we will need it as we face a record storm in washington, d.c., and the east coast. 10 states have declared a state of emergency. 32 million people could be affected by a blizzard here. we will talk about federal and state emergency response in our last hour of the washington journal. but coming up, we will turn our attention to this idea of medicare for all. we will talk to harold pollack, professor at the university of chicago school of social administration. he will walk us through what it means if there were a single-payer health care system. but first, we want to show you a bit of this week's "newsmakers."

senator jeanne shaheen joined us for the program that airs tomorrow at 10:00 and 6:00 eastern. she is asked to grade the fda on its problem of the handling opiate addiction in the united states and new hampshire, a subject candidates are discussing on the campaign trail. [video clip] >> how would you grade the fda in this regard? senator shaheen: lousy. it is a great concern to me and i think we need a national focus on how we will respond to the heroin and open road -- opioid epidemic. it is a critical issue in new hampshire but an issue throughout this country. "the new york times" had a pretty dramatic graphic in the paper this week that showed where there is an epidemic of heroin and opioid abuse. it was telling. in new hampshire, we are losing more than a person a day from

drug overdoses. three times as many as traffic accidents. , in new hampshire, from 2013 where we had about 140 deaths from heroin and opioid, 13 were related to fentanyl, the additive that has made heroin such a killer, two in 2015 having over 240 deaths that were fentanyl related out of the 380 some. this is a huge crisis. we are not responding to it at anywhere near the level we need to in this country. that means law enforcement, we need to give them the resources they need to interdict drugs coming in, to put away pushers, treatment, making sure there are beds in new hampshire. we don't have nearly enough short-term detox beds to help people. we don't have recovery centers we need.

it is not just about short-term helping people detox. it is also about long-term. how do we keep people from going back to drugs once they have come out of those detox units. it is about making sure we are not prescribing in the way we have historically painkillers. it is the increased prescribing opioids that has led to the current problem with heroin because now it is cheaper and easier to get. >> as i have been watching the campaign this year, it is far more interesting to look at republicans than the democratic side. that may have something to do with why there is more interest in these candidates and their books. announcer: sunday night, the nonfiction book critic for the "washington post" discusses books written by the 2016 presidential candidates. >> everyone does have interesting stories in their lives.

politicians who are so single-minded in this pursuit of could havedeology particularly interesting ones. when they put out these memoirs, they are sanitized. they are vetted. there forherefore -- minimum controversy. announcer: sunday night at 8:00 "stern on c-span's q&a." "washington journal" continues. host: one of the more heated debates on the democratic side between senator bernie sanders and former secretary of state hillary clinton has been over what to do about health care. senator sanders calling for medicare for all. hillary clinton has criticized that saying he wants to dismantle so-called obamacare.

take a look at the most recent exchange. [video clip] i have fought: for universal health care my entire life. she says he wants to end medicare and medicaid and the children's health insurance program. that is nonsense. what a medicare for all program does is finally provide in this country health care for every man, woman, and child as a right. the truth is that franklin delano roosevelt and harry truman, you know what they believed in? they believed health care should be available to all of our people. i am on the committee that wrote before the care act. i made the affordable care act a better piece of legislation. i voted for it. but right now what we have to deal with is the fact that 29 million people still have no health insurance. we are paying the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, getting ripped off.

here is the important point. we are spending far more per person on health care than the people of any other country. provide health care to all people, get private insurance out of health insurance. lower the cost of health care for middle-class families by $5,000. that is the vision we need to take. clinton: i have to say i am not sure we are talking about the plan you introduced tonight or the plan you introduced nine times in congress. but the fact is we have the affordable care act. that is one of the greatest accomplishments of president obama, of the democratic party, and of our country. and we have already seen 19 million americans get insurance. we have seen the end of pre-existing conditions keeping people from getting insurance. we have seen women no longer paying more for our insurance than men. and we have seen young people up to the age of 26 being able to stay on their parents policy.

there are things we can do to improve it. but to tear it up and start over again pushing our country back into that kind of contentious debate i think is the wrong direction. host: there was the debate between the two democratic candidates, bernie sanders and hillary clinton. martin o'malley is still in the race. but those two arguing over this idea of medicare for all. joining us from florida this morning, ron pollack, in warm naples -- harold pollack, in warm naples, we are jealous here, to talk about this issue. when senator sanders says medicare for all, what is he talking about doing? guest: the idea would be the government would pay for all the health care in the country, that we would pay for it through taxes the same way pay for other services. that some conceptual level, you could imagine everyone of us would get a medicare card and

use that to go to the doctor or get whatever medical services we need. host: is that the same thing as single-payer? guest: it is. there's lots of different ways that could be implemented. i think what he has in mind is taking the medicare program as it exists for people over 65 in america and going all the way down to cover everybody at all ages. there's lots of different details that have to be filled in before that is a real plan. but that is the vision he has, and it is one that exists in many other industrial democracies in different ways. host: in order to do that, would you have to dismantle, get rid of so-called obamacare? well, the thing that no one has talked about is how we get from here to there.

there would be a lot of things that would have to be dismantled to go to the single-payer vision. we would have to figure out what to do with the private insurance industry. but it would also be a tremendous change in employer-provided health care, the way we give health care to veterans, to children. there's a series of things that would have to be transitioned. health care is a $3 trillion colossus in the american economy. it is amazing the amount of rewiring that would have to begun for something like that. that is one reason the democrats have tried to move toward universal care through the affordable care act in a way that there is -- that is less disruptive to the existing status quo. that is good and bad. it is good in that it means most of us can continue getting health care the way we always have. it is bad in that the affordable care act has many of the aspects

of the current health care system that don't work well. there has been a basic decision made that we have to move gradually in this incremental way through the a.c.a. to ensure more people without fundamentally transforming the health care system. "usa today" editorial board recently called his idea not realistic. they write this. his medicare for all health care plan will cost the government an estimated $14 trillion over a decade or more than 10 times the cost -- price of obamacare. guest: that is true, but we also have to remember that would replace a lot of other money we are now spending. if you replace private health insurance with government provided coverage, you have to raise the tax money to do that. the sanders campaign, to their credit, have put out numbers that it would cost about $1.4 trillion a year in additional taxes. of which they would probably

have to raise taxes by $120 a almost a doubling of the individual income tax system at the federal level. that would replace a lot of money we are now paying in other ways. in the long run, there is pretty good reason to think a single-payer system of the sort senator sanders has outlined would eventually cost us less money as a country for health care. but it would be a very rocky path to get there because of this massive change we would have to do in our tax system and health care system. positions for a national health program describe a single-payer system this way. a single public or quasipublic publicorganized as financing. all residents would be covered for medically necessary services. patients regain free choice of doctors, and hospitals. overrs regain autonomy

health care and no premiums. your thoughts? that is a vision of what a single-payer system could look like. one of the challenges i have in we oftending this is talk about single-payer for people on the left. i should tell you i am a liberal policy wonk and have been involved in this. many people on the left talk about single-payer as if it will replace the messy politics and compromises we have now in our health care system. it cannot be that because it has to be produced in the same process that produced those messy proper isis --compromises. there will be interest group politics, figuring out what is covered, if there will be deductibles and copayments and how that is determined. there is a lot we don't know yet about what realistically this thing would look like and how it would be enacted. it is a little hard to know whether the vision you just

described from the physicians for national health care plan would be what emerges in a realistic single-payer system that got passed by the congress. host: professor pollack here to take your questions and comments about this idea of a single-payer health care system, about the obamacare system. start dialing in with your comments and questions. republicans, and independents. speaking of that rocky road, let's talk about that. vox put together this piece. they say you have to rewrite many of the regulations around medicare and medicaid. can you talk about that? we had hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations about medicare, medicaid, the veterans

administration, about what employers have to do to cover their employees. there's massive challenges that have to somehow be addressed. the thing i find so difficult about this conversation is i think proponents of single-payer have an excellent point that many other countries have a better health care system that is less has, that complicated, covers more people, and costs a lot less money than we are spending. there is something broken about the politics of american health care and the incremental way we move into this more complicated system we have. but unwinding it is going to be an incredible challenge because of all the issues that piece mentions. to give you a sense of the difference in cost, the average industrial democracy is spending something like $3500 per person on health care. the united spent --united states spends about $8,700. at the same time, we have 29

million uninsured people and people who get cancer and lose their homes, which is much less common in countries that spend a lot less money than we do. the sanders people have a very valid point that our system is not as good as it should be, and in fact it is probably worst than many other countries. the clinton people have a good point in saying we just went through this fight over the affordable care act and it was so difficult. now we have passed this massive piece of legislation that fixes some very important problems in our current system. show us a realistic way we can build on that. and we are waiting to see that aspect. host: let's get to calls, thomas, little elm, texas, republican, you are up first. caller: good morning. i noticed bernie sanders said theprospects of getting

health care as far as changing everything over into medicare, that would completely break the system. situatione, in the where he said also to eliminate the i.r.s. to help pay for it, that would be a no-no right there because you have to have somebody collecting the premiums for the insurance. not only that, what you have is also the aspect of social security. putting everything into one basket will also spill over into breaking down much more rapidly the social security we have. host: professor? guest: there are a number of issues there. on the social security front, we do have long-term financing issues. although they are more manageable than the issues we have with growing health care costs. but they are very real, and we have to find a combination of

somewhat increased taxes that go to social security and perhaps reduced benefits over time in social security for some recipients to make it come into balance. i would prefer to see more financing go into the system and keep the benefits secure. we do as the i.r.s. goes, have to think about if we went to a single-payer system, we would have to think about the best way to raise sufficient taxes to cover that. it is certainly doable. many countries do it. but it probably requires different kinds of taxes. many countries have something called a value added tax, a sort of multi-staged version of the sales tax to help finance programs like this. challenge.gh it is not impossible. but it is something we would have to figure out a way to do over time in a sensible way that is not too disruptive at any one

point in time. one of the real challenges we have in our health care system is it is not as if we can close it down on friday afternoon and open it up monday is something totally different. we have to gradually do this so we don't damage rural hospitals or the many fragile pieces of our health care system as we move along. host: we will go to florida. charlie is watching their, democrat. caller: good morning. this is the kind of bold initiative the united states needs to do. we have done it before. we did it go into the moon during kennedy's time. we did it with reagan when he cut the top rate from 70% down to 28% to try to get the economy going again. maybe that did not work all that great and they had to make changes, but it is time for bold changes that need to be made, especially in health care. the line for increased costs is

going too steep. got to do it. host: do you think it is worth the fight you would see at the supreme court? the article earlier said whatever fine print found its way to the system -- supreme --rt a single-payer system would engage even more contentious issues of federalism and the reach of national government. caller: yeah. that is what the legislative branch is doing. when people want something to be done, and they get their legislators to pass laws, usually the supreme court understands the changes the country needs, and usually they will go along with what needs to be done. guys on, it seems the

there now try to undo everything and forget why these people areed laws from before, and kind of messing things up. if we let the process workout, and the supreme court stays in the perspective that they have to stay in, it would probably work. very eloquent a spokesperson. maybe the sanders campaign should hire you to explain the single-payer issues. one of the real challenges that mentioned in the article is how hard are we willing to drive rices down by squeezing medical providers, which is the real way that other countries spend less and we do. basically, the government have as the leverage to keep prices down.

one part of the affordable care act was debated but not ultimately included which is the public option, where people could choose if they go on the marketplace, they could choose at not, united health, or medicare. in the simplest version. get a public insurance plan that would compete with private insurers. that was really bitterly opposed. of course, the private insurance opposed it. also, many of the people who were friends of the aca, and other aspects opposed it. community hospitals were saying, i don't know if i can stay open if i have to bargain across the table with someone who has bargaining power with medicare over more more of my patients. one thing we talk about as a society is how will we balance and control costs with the interest of all the different stakeholders that are involved.

there was tremendous nervousness about this much of a modest step of a single-payer that would have increased the government's role because doctors, drug companies, people who make wheelchairs, and hospitals understood that it increase the ability of consumers to push for lower prices for all of these services. harold pollack joining us from florida this morning to take your questions and comments about health care and this idea of health care for all from the bernie sanders campaign. florida, a republican. good morning. caller: thank you. i believe they need to get out and tell you what that care -- how it would work. , and what i canada

saw, the poor people live on low income would not one it. they would want -- when i would things, it would be seven dollars. when i got to the cashier, it was twice that. you would have a bad time buying . it would be at least twice what the price is. guest: i think it is true that canadians and europeans often accept higher taxes than what we have in the united states. it is striking that most people in these countries strongly support the health care system, even though they are more socialized than what we have in the united states. in the united kingdom, the -- ervative prime minister

they spend half of what we do per capita for health care. they do pay higher taxes. there are other ways in which our system is more expensive than theirs. in canada, you often have to wait. shirt people the united states don't have to wait, generally. there are some trade-offs. i spent some time off in the a majorls in toronto -- children hospital. i interviewed parents about ,hildren who had brain tumors leukemia, very serious illnesses. veryof them said, we are thankful that we are not in the united states because we know that in the united states, with those types of illnesses, the financial burden we would face from this care would be profound. they were on facebook groups

with americans whose children had similar issues. it was not perfect for the , but they did not fear some of the frightening burdens that come with dramatic illnesses. the out-of-pocket costs for those facing serious illness are quite severe. i think your point is well taken about the taxes. when you go to the cash register, and are paying high sales taxes, people in don't like that. i think they also tend to very much value their health care system. you hear fewer complaints about their health care system from canadians than you do from americans about the american

health care system. host: republican in hawaii, good morning, you are next. caller: good morning, and a loha. one of the things overlooked in health care is the system of health care we have had in hawaii for the last 50 years. it is closer to what people call obama care. it has had its ups and downs. its goal has been -- and has achieved -- making health care affordable for a type of insurance that would cover your needs. forn say, had it not been this concept that people call obama care, which is really affordable health care, i would have died. i have lived prior on the

mainland, and the insurance in no wayat i paid covered, or provided me with, the kind of benefits that would have saved my life. host: i will have the professor jump in. guest: that is a great point. hawaii has been a pioneer in health policy. one of the real fans was rush limbaugh who had a heart attack when he went to white, and was very grateful for the care he received. one of the points that you make that i want to mention -- does insurance actually work if you get really sick? one of the issues that people have tried to get right in the affordable care act, and i'm sure there is more work that needs to be done is the essential health benefit. if you have liver cancer, the

accepted treatments for liver cancer are really covered. the portal care act has gone a long way to make sure that people don't have insurance that turns out to not work if they get really sick. one of the ironies of that is as , and makee insurance what is covered a more copperheads a package, it sometimes raises the premium because it makes it more transparent that action have to cover these things when people get really sick, and the insurance has to include sick people as well as well people in of premiums. one of the challenges of the four look at is basically a lot of healthy people who make too , andmoney to get subsidies saying, i'm paying more for my insurance. they are paying more because

venture does more comprehensive and because there is a political -- full of people that may have excluded the sick people. you cannot do that anymore. hawaii has done with these challenges. i'm confident the aca will as well. host: let's go to joyce, a democrat. caller: i have a couple of questions. work of all, i just cannot through, in my mind, how we have -- howalistic democracy it can take over and replace all of these privately held insurance companies with stockholders and investors. that is number one. how does that work? number two. how much better with the affordable care act have rolled

people ifcluded more the majority of the state had expandedaccepted the medicaid and set up state exchanges? what i'm hearing from my friends -- i'm on medicaid now, and is the best insurance i have had. i have had friends who have gone to the exchange, and the policy seems to be a very high deductible and high coinsurance along with high premiums. it's like the insurance companies have taken advantage of the nonparticipation so that this competition was never really created in the marketplace. host: i want to take that point about competition. that was one debate that

happened -- an argument for obamacare, in order to bring down prices. guest: actually, health care prices, they are still growing. they're growing at a slower rate than they were before the affordable care act was passed. it is remarkable how much lower the federal deficit is than it was projected because we have slow down the growth of health care spending. it is partly due to aca, and partly due to other things. there are great set of points that you just made. the callermedicaid -- is from florida where it is such a profound issue -- the supreme court in 2012 surprise many, many experts on both republican

and democratic sides saying that the government could not force states to expand medicaid. i disagree with the decision. they are the supreme court, they get to decide. the federal government does not pay for expanding medicaid. states are paying for 100% of those costs, eventually they will pay for 90%. what we have seen is the polarization. about 90% of adults affected by that live in the south. olds the states of the comprise read that are the most resistant now. carolina,exas, south i'm confident they will eventually come in, but this is a real human tragedy.

about 3.1 million americans are shut out of coverage because their state legislators and governors are basically -- basically oppose obamacare. i think what we have a president that is not obama many states will expand medicaid. that has been one of the most tragic aspects of this. whether states set up their own exchanges is a more delicate issue. in the early days, healthcare.gov, of course had a rous rollout. whether the state doesn't with the federal government doesn't, i think is a real secondary issue.

as far as the competition goes, i think what we are seeing is there is competition, but also very high out-of-pocket costs for people. when you sign up on the marketplace, you socially get private insurance. it turns out private insurance does not cover everything all the time. particularly people who have .imited resources if i were to improve aca, i would provide more generous financial help so that people pay less out-of-pocket costs than the current exchanges are providing. we are in the early stages of the system will work. there is a lot of competition, but it is also a lot of high out-of-pocket costs. a lot of ways this could be

improved. host: let's go to client, minnesota. your question or comment for professor pollock? caller: the system we are born us how to think, how to maximize, and capitalize on everything we do. in this particular case, health care. all the procedures, medicine, doctors visits. we have to think differently. we have to learn to how not always maximize for ourselves. enemy.our own worst we are born into a system that teaches us to consume. case,italize -- in this on health care. we don't need to expand our thinking to the point where we just have to keep getting more, more, more. we should not be capitalizing on everything that goes on. we should think about use and people, and not ourselves and

how much we can gain by what we do, have, and want. guest: that is a very to healthg challenge care. one of the balances behalf in the health care system is to make sure we promote the main welues and have tremendous -- have public hospitals and .onprofit safety net providers the every day staff is really to help people. and makeo nurture that that feasible. we live in a society where we -- markets are very valuable. markets to works efficiently.

many of the big nonprofit providers that have humane academic medical centers, they charge a lot of money. we need market forces that discipline the providers without thating the main values they have. it is a delicate balance. a previous caller asked, what do we do about the insurance companies, exemplifying what many americans don't like about the system. it's an interesting thing. i think it is important for policy and a statement of values of what we go each other in society. these companies have tried to figure out, what is our business model if we don't do that? the action do have some terrific skills. they know how to manage claims efficiently. they know how to help monitor

care. we need to figure out how to incidences of the markets of the valuable skills that they have are used in a way that promote health and do it in a way that is consistent with our broader values in the health care system. host: we will go to carol, pennsylvania, a democrat. caller: a simple question. why can't we just convert to medicare? we can do a gradual conversion. we can start with children first. the system in place, regulations are there, and it seems to me much easier to do. , if taxpayersst were paying for more people, and cost where to go up, it would focus on some of the causes of these diseases -- many of them environmental, working conditions. we look at detroit, the lead in

the water. those kinds of things. maybe it would urge citizens to look in some places also to change some environmental conditions. host: professor pollock? guest: it is interesting, carol mentions children. it is astonishing how many children are now being insured through the government, through the children's health insurance program, through medicaid. this will accelerate under the affordable care act. i do think, particularly in poor states -- arkansas, west virginia, states that are expanding -- as more and more children and adults are the responsibility of the government, i think we will see greater attention to the social determinants of health. really when you think about it, why is it -- if i'm running a

state medicare program and i see this really unhealthy food in the cafeteria, i know a lot of those few will end up with type two diabetes and i'm going to have to be paying for those people. maybe i should pay more attention to the prevention. or if i have homeless people that can't get housing and end up in the emergency room, many medicaid programs are trying to now deal with the housing needs of people would come to get it illnesses. what they're finding is we could reduce our health care costs if we could get people into stable housing. some of these environmental issues that you mention -- it may be that as we expand the role of government into health care, there could be more attention. we often cannot get resources to deal with basic needs that people have outside of the health care system. host: one last call here. bob, a democrat, spring part,

minnesota. you are on the air. caller: what kind of an effect with a lobbyists have lighting our congressman's pockets that would prevent this all payer medical system? lobbyistu know, the question is a good one. there is no question that there is a lot of lobbying, a lot of money. it is important to understand that a lot of the most lobbying ispotent not the guy showing up with a bag of money, pushing something that is terrible. it is very legitimate interest groups that are well organized and have disproportionate influence. rural hospitals are concerned about a single-payer

system. they are often the largest employers and their areas, and deal closely with their congressmen and senators. is no question that they are effective lobbyists, but they are not some sleazy, fly-by-night thing. there are interest groups buying influence in the political process. i think the much deeper problem they have interests, and push for them hard. they punch below their weight because they don't vote as -- n, contribute to bying andion of lob political influence, on one

level, it is not as bad as people think. it is not outright corruption. in another way, it is worse in that the most influential people and stakeholders have so much more influence than the people who are in greatest need for health care and other services to meet their basic needs. host: harold pollack, we thank you for your time. guest: thank you so much for having me. host: we will take a short break. when we come back, we will open up the phone mines, and turn our attention to many of the different storylines out there. one of them being the blizzard on the east coast. how is the government responding? 10 states have declared a state of emergency, and the d.c. mayor . you can also call in and talk about campaign 2016. donald trump is in the lead. ted cruz, at the top of the gop race. concerns.oiced their

you can also weigh in on flint, michigan, the water crisis, or any other public policy issue. iowa caucus is only nine days away. take a look at what a group of creative kids put together on all the attention the iowa gets during this time with their music video, "we are going to do the caucus."

♪ causesre granted to the -- we are going to do the caucus. ♪

>> we are going to do the caucus we are going to new hampshire ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. the wind is picking up outside of union station here in d.c. we are expecting blizzard conditions in our area that could impact about 33 million people. himr storm jonas could backed up to 85 million people on the youth goes. declaring states of emergencies. we are looking at white out conditions on the road here. reach recordd

levels, two feet or more here in d.c. and new york, and up-and-down the east coast. you can call in this morning and open phones during the remainder "f today's "washington journal about how the government is responding to the storm, also campaign 2016. donald trump and ted cruz in the lead. in thesanders surging polls with only nine days to go. we are of course covering political events leading up to the iowa caucus and through it, hampshire and south carolina. today, most of the republicans will be in new hampshire for a town hall. we will have live coverage here. senator cruz will be in iowa.

we will have coverage of his event at 8:00 eastern time live on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. donald trump has a campaign rally in iowa tomorrow. 1:00 eastern time. we will bring you live coverage on c-span and c-span.org. our "newsmakers" program, you can watch it all with senator , a democrat from new hampshire. she talks about the campaign, the heroin epidemic, and other issues impacting new hampshire. since you will be stuck inside on the east coast, you will have plenty to watch on c-span.org. you can use your phone and the mobile app. robert in virginia beach, a republican, you are up first. what is on your mind? caller: i have two points today. one, i was planning to support

trump since may be april, but all the recent association with governor palin is pushing me towards voting for senator rubio. the second point. it is annoying how when you don't agree with 100% of the party platform that people like to call you a democrat or republican. in florida, an independent. caller: hello? host: yes. you are on the air. caller: i would just like to make a comparison with snyder allowing the lead in the water in michigan to the republican governor that denied medicaid to the people their state. you know.

the government subsidy, the federal subsidy, and the states are turning it down. it is incredibly unfair and undermining the health of these .hildren you talk about undermining their health. ,ou have to throw in monsanto what they are doing, and the water companies, but they are doing to undermine the health of the people in these cities. it is absolutely terrible the is just falling apart. falling apart. host: gainesville, florida, gordon, a democrat. we are in open phones. what's on your mind? caller: if you take your social putrity card, flip it over, all of the information on your drivers license on the back of the social security card, charge five dollars for that, and then take five dollars for every

single american in the united million, andis 300 with all the legal residence here, and put that on the card, then that would pay for health care, no matter what you do. host: ok. gordon from gainesville, florida. we are in open phones. kenny, dodge city, kansas, a republican. good morning to you. caller: hello. how are you? host: doing well. what's on your mind? caller: i tell you what. about the health care system and what have you, i tell you what. i'm 49 years old. i'm a blue-collar worker. i make $16 an hour. i'm a repair technician. at a smallweekly company i work for.

you, i have a medicare paystub.l tax on my it is zero. i don't know if this will be a future attacks. i'm ok with it. i just assumed to add that to my payroll, i have no problem paying another 2%, per se. i could probably be able to use the medicare card like my father , who is 69. i would be all for that. i tell you what. the private insurance, that's month, and the premium gold is $1000 a month. i cannot commit to that. all right. kenny in dodge city, kansas. we are in open phones until the

top of the hour, when we think i addition -- when we finish this edition of "washington journal." despite the weather, we will be at 7:00.rrow be sure to tw tune in. like i said, watch c-span all day. plenty of coverage. american history tv. all here on c-span, c-span 2, and c-span 3. many of you saw the headlines yesterday. "national review" started by william buckley, came out against donald trump with 22 conservative republicans signing a piece saying they are against donald trump and calling .im a menace to the campaign

host: donald trump tweeting out yesterday that the 22 are playing into his hands as republican voters are like you donald trump because he is not part of the establishment party in d.c.. news told you earlier, fox shows donald trump and ted cruz in the league. i want to share this article too on campaign 2016, in case you are interested. this is the recent addition of bloomberg businessweek. half the piece is about this man, robert mercer. the money behind ted cruz. it is an in-depth piece looking who has givener,

ted cruz $11 million so far for his presidential bid. inside the piece they write, "in july, a group of related super pac's reported raising $38 z's date,or cru almost all of it from three families, including robert mercer. and, ferris wilkes, a mason, texas, and father from who became a billionaire of a few years ago from the fracking business. three, senator cruz put to rest any doubt that he had the financial firepower to melt a campaign. the piece goes on to report this cruise iss bet on precient.

host: this is from the most recent issue of bloomberg's this week, if you want to learn more about one of the men behind ted cruz's money. , good morning to you. caller: good morning, greta. i have the answer to all of our health care issues. let's socialized medicine, and make it illegal for congress, the house, the senate, or

demonstration to use any of the other systems. what they all use now, they have exempted themselves from. we are talking about some of the greediest people in the world. if it was a good plan, they would definitely be the first in line. host: are you for medicare for all? caller: i want to see everybody covered, without a doubt. you have to make it illegal for those people in washington to use any other system. host: you might be interested in this magazine. "how to scan medicare in four easy steps." issueic standard" recent of the magazine. the me go to charles in norman,

oklahoma. good morning to you. caller: i believe that education, health care, and access to information is a human right. we have entered into a social contract, and is the government's duty to take care of us, and abide by that contract. host: bob, silver spring, maryland. caller: i'm a republican, a conservative constitutionalist. i want to say to all my democratic brothers and sisters out there, if you want to see us the preview of a single-payer system, look at the v.a. system. neither all the troubles of the v.a. system 100 times, and that will be what we will have. one more thing. a comment about trump. look.

you can't trust trump. is he says he is a deal maker. he will make a deal with the devil to get what he wants. he will sleep with any politician to get what he wants. that's all he is, an opportunist. , jackson, mississippi, and independent. concerning calling -- the citizenship issue about ted cruz. it is settled with the 14th amendment. confederates went to canada and had children there. they found an alternate place in spain lost the war. this was 1868, the 14th amendment. the civil war ended in 1865. those coming back from canada,

-- its and other makes no exception. host: ok. i was scrolling through this latest poll because you brought up the birther issue which has been brought up by donald trump of ted cruz being born in canada. it says that the constitution says only nationall -- theral born citizen can president. 76% believe that ted cruz is eligible to be president of the united states, 16% believe he is not. iowa, a cedar rapids, democrat. will you be going to a caucus on monday night, february 1? caller: yes, of course.

host: who will you be caucusing for? caller: i'm caucusing for hillary. question i have was more personal. you have white out conditions in washington. how will you get home? host: we are staying safe. no need to worry about us. caller: thinking about you. take care. host: there are white out conditions in d.c.. snow toxpecting continue through 6:00 a.m. on sunday morning. the blizzard conditions could get worse. we are hearing 30 mile-per-hour winds, which would cause wideout conditions, which that caller was just saying. you can see, as we show you the different live shots of d.c. -- that is union station there. behind us, the capital, barely in view. it is not too far from us, about two football fields. the d.c. mayor is calling

this a life-and-death situation, and to stay off the roads. it is not just these coast. in kentucky, on i-75, people have been stuck for nearly 24 hours. we will go to dennis and tennessee, a republican. go ahead. ofler: this is on the part citizenship for becoming president. people should know -- you know who bob hope is, right? bob hope wanted to become president of the united states. they would not let him become president of the united states because he was born in london. was an american citizen. he became an american citizen, but they would not let him become a president because he was not warned in the united states. this issue should not even be

up. if they look back and see, bob hope used to go on all the military bases. you know what he used to do. an american citizen, but he was not born here. president ofecome the united states, and they would not let him. they said there was no way he could be because he was not a natural born citizen. host: we will go to texas, sherman, texas, a democrat. caller: good morning, greta. how are you? host: doing well, sir. caller: in texas, we had a localized storm about 2-3 weeks ago in a suburb of dallas where it absolutely devastated a small area, unlike the devastation going on on the east coast or

flint right now. my comment is the political atmosphere and social atmosphere seems to be that have -- i shouldn't say half, a large portion of the population wants to delegate personal responsibility for health, politics, and hope it works out. the other half was to be in absolute control, and have their thumb or finger on every little button. the is happening is political parties have been so fractured in the last 10-15 years where a ted cruz would just as soon shut down the .overnment versus a tip o'neill the country is becoming nonfunctional. it is nonfunctional from an economic standpoint.

it is becoming an oligarchy in like a southth american country. everyone else is just taking on. health care is a big heart of it. when you have emergency conditions like what is going on now, or what happened in flint -- i have listened to your program since it came on this morning. what happened in flint is complete economic devastation. egis oftly under the a the political structure. host: the front page of "the new "anger in michigan over appointing emergency managers."

host: we will go next to it eric in new jersey, a republican. we are in open phones for about the next 10 minutes. good running to you. i have some suggestions to make regarding the conduct of the program each day by the different moderators, yourself

included. some time ago, you had a call from a woman who was a retired schoolteacher who was respectfully critical of the use of language and pronunciation, and so forth. she made some suggestions. it seems to me that perhaps mr. s. swain might staff a putting on retired english teacher who would be very very qualified to not the moderators to mispronounce words. for example, just a few minutes "etc."u use the word host: thank you for that.

, missouri, independent. good morning, anita. caller: i appreciate c-span more than i can say. watching on the money on another channel. ,hey had a well-known columnist whose name, i'm sorry, i can't remember. he was talking about the four big changes that have occurred in this country in 2016. as of this january. one of them was we no longer have a two-party system. the program thing -- he was on, they concentrated on the monetary issues. the notion that we are no longer a two-party system has to do with all the gerrymandering. i wish that someone would have noticed and said something about

paul ryan's reaction to the president's state of the union. he said, i don't know if they don't realize that we will have all the governors and all the legislators, and the house, and senate. i am in the district here -- am actually in a suburb of st. louis, but my house , i am with people of the lake of the ozarks. i visited the lake of the ozarks maybe twice in my lifetime. i have nothing in common with those folks. i don't know their neighborhoods. i don't know anything about this situation. i'm in a very, very gerrymandered district. the entire country has been gerrymandered by the republicans , if for no other reason than that. votee should f

democratic to start some sort of revolution over this gerrymandering. uck,: but me hear from ch colorado, a republican. caller: i agree 100% with the last caller. i want to comment on the previous republican colleagues comments about the v.a. system. gym..a. system is a it works. the veterans love it. i'm a vietnam veteran myself. it saved my life. it would be in perfect condition if the republicans did not perpetually underfund it. the entire time that bush invaded iraq and afghanistan, he

underfunded the v.a. i have a surgeon and d who cannot operate on me. she is a spinal surgeon. she can no longer operate on me because she no longer has a republicans and their austerity program, and trickle down economics, and refusal to raise taxes because they pledged note to grover norquist. uck, athat was ch vegan. again, if you will be stuck inside, and many of you will be on the east coast, plenty of things to watch on c-span. coming out, shortly, we will take you to new hampshire where they will have a town hall meeting with most of the republican candidates in nash ua, new hampshire.

also on the road to the white house coverage today, ted cruz will also be have an events. he will be in iowa at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. he will be in waterloo, iowa. we will have coverage of that on and c-span radio. donald trump, tomorrow, 1:00 eastern time. program as well , coming up on sunday with the democratic senator from new hampshire, jeanne shaheen. again, plenty to watch if you are stuck inside or following this campaign. we are getting closer to iowa. only nine days to go until the iowa caucuses, and then new hampshire will follow on february 9. look for the "road to the white

house" coverage here on c-span. blizzard and this lose power, make sure your device is our charged -- are charged. app.ve a c-span david, republican. you are on the air. caller: how did you get to work this morning with all that snow? close toy put us up the studio last night. they made sure we are safe. caller: i am a trump supporter. a real godfather. he can make some deals that could save our country. the people of iowa, they should vote for them. have a nice day. host: gerard, illinois, michael, an independent. good morning.

caller: i have a quick comments. i'm a small business owner, a vegan, and commander of the patriot party. the problem with america is none of the pundits on tv have a realization of what is going on inside this country. you all live in big cities, you're not in the small towns and communities. we have had enough. we have two parties, democrats and republicans. why don't we have a children's party? host: i did not mean to cut you off, but i wanted to say that is why we do what we do here so that washington can hear what you have to say. caller: everybody on the tv are people from the belts. you don't have any normal people on there. invite me or someone like me to tell you what i think. you are all in the upper and salon, not struggling. we are all struggling out here. you people don't seem to get

rut the problem is in the ral parts of america. the american spring, like the arab spring, it's coming. host: point taken. that is why we want you to call in. people like you to call into the show so people in washington can hear what is going gone with you, your viewpoints, your thoughts, your opinions. we will go to tony -- to tony. also to ask questions of the folks who come to our table. whether it is a member of congress, or an expert on the issue. go ahead, tony. to call inas wanting about the gerrymandering of the districts. i was watching fox news yesterday, and one of the commentators -- the little blonde girl on their -- they were talking about the election,

and she said, we could win the white house, but we might lose she admitted, we will never lose the house because of the way the districts are drawn. i don't understand that. i see on paper the way the districts are drawn. a blind person could see that is wrong. host: for those of you interested, we have talked about that on the program. go to c-span.org, and put in those words. for today's journal. we will be back tomorrow live at 7:00 eastern time. we hope you to an end. colin with more of your questions and comments. thanks for watching. stay safe out there. ♪ [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]

>> a view of the white house here. about halfway through the blizzard in the nation's capital, as the storm continues to move up the east coast. the nation's capital, washington, d.c. has come to a virtual standstill as the blizzard continues. high winds and heavy snow expected through the day today. , new hampshire today, a townhall with six presidential candidates. we are their lives with coverage voters get day, as ready for the first in the nation primary scheduled for february 9. coming up shortly, we will hear from former senator rick santorum. we also expect to hear from carly fiorina, jim gilmore, john kasich, jeb