of 3.5 million patients. melissa yeager from the sunlight foundation on the amount of time members of congress spend fundraising and how it affects their official duties. ♪ host: good morning. 2016.friday, april 8, the headlines for today's "washington journal" are about the war of words in the democratic presidential primary, as hillary clinton and bernie sanders had a sharp exchange about each other's qualifications, leaving some in the democratic party worried that the change in tone might hamper efforts to unite the party behind the eventual candidate. the stalemate over the supreme court nominee merrick garland continues, as president obama warned that political polarization puts the judiciary in jeopardy.

republicans have even floated a high court pick of their own should a gop member when the race. we are asking if you are feeling optimistic about america's future. already merrick has best days america'ss -- are best days ahead of us or behind us? if you think they are ahead of us, call (202) 748-8000. if you think they are behind us, call (202) 784-8001. good morning. we do want to hear from you about your feelings about if you areuture optimistic. let's take a look at what president obama said earlier this week. [video clip] president obama: the numbers do not lie.

there seems to be an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that america is down in the dumps. it is not. america is pretty darn great right now. making strides right now. small businesses and large businesses are hiring right now and investing right now and building this country brick by brick, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood all across the country. expect that these facts and this evidence will convince some of the politicians out there to change their doomsday rhetoric, talking about how terrible america is, but the proudan people should be of what they have achieved because this speaks to their resilience, innovation,

creativity, risk-taking, and grit. host: in the "wall street journal," a piece says that optimism has become a casualty in campaign 2016. in that piece, he writes that those downbeat appraisals that the presidential candidates have given underscore one of the broader realities revealed by campaign 2016 -- that there has been a sharp decline in the traditional american spirit of optimism. historically, americans like to think they carry a spirit of can-do optimism. that spirit is usually reflected in the chicken in every pot, audacity of hope rhetoric of presidential campaigns. but this year, candidates such as donald trump have had a

different view, saying that things are bad and america needs to get better. what do you think? do you think america's days are ahead? those who think that the best days are ahead, chime in at (202) 748-8000. think the best days are behind us, (202) 784-8001. we will start our discussion with bob from duluth, minnesota. why do you think the best days are behind us? caller: i think our best days are behind us now. if we were to get money out of politics, i think we could turn that around. the reason why i think that is because if we continue down this , jobsf money in politics are going to continue to be withoutoverseas and american jobs, we are not going to have a u.s. economy. host: is the economy the number

one issue for you in this presidential race? caller: yes, it is. without a good economy, the rest of it is just going to fall to pieces. host: can i ask you who you are backing for president? caller: bernie sanders. the reason why is because of money in politics and i think we need to get the money out of politics. host: that was bob from duluth. up next, we have dave from shelton, connecticut. you think the best days are ahead of us. caller: yes, i do think the best days are ahead of us. president obama is the worst president we have ever had in the country. that is why i do think our best days are ahead of us. host: what do you think is worse now than what it used to be? caller: pick one subject.

the respect the united states has overseas. trillion, soon to be $21 trillion in debt. the massive amount of people on food stamps and government assistance. i could go on and on. host: do you mind if i ask you who you are supporting for president? caller: right now, i'm choosing ted cruz. host: what is it about his campaign that makes you optimistic? caller: he says what he means, means what he says. host: ok. one of ted cruz's republican opponents, donald trump, had this to say about the optimism of america. [video clip] we are going to start winning again because we don't win, we never, ever win anymore. with our military, with trade, on health care on

anything. we are going to start winning again, folks. we can't beat isis. we are going to knock the hell out of isis, believe me. can you imagine what our great general's, general george patton , general douglas macarthur, can you imagine what they would be saying if they saw what was going on with what we are doing and the way we fight? we don't fight like people from long island. we don't fight like people from ne york. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: we are going to rebuild our military. it is totally depleted. they don't like talking about it. we are going to rebuild our military. it is going to be bigger and better and stronger than ever before and nobody is going to mess with us. nobody. host: our next caller is karen from oklahoma. she thinks our best days are

behind us. do you share donald trump's view? caller: well, i do think we need startstart -- we need to winning at something. i'm for anyone but clinton. my thing is this $19 trillion in debt. what did that get us? where did our money go? their main job is to protect the nation, yet john mccain is on tv they are telling him the military would not be able to protect us if we are attacked. he looked surprised. isn't he one of them supposed to be tending to it? and they talk about medicare and cutting old people. eventually, we die off. the people in the illegals having 4-6 kids that they know they can't tend to, they know they can't afford, nobody ever

says anything to them. the syrians they brought to kansas -- why kansas? why didn't they send them somewhere that was all for it. host: do you think that america can return to a time that is seen as a golden era? are you optimistic that things may change. optimistic because i have the hope of america. we've got to get back to where .eople tend to themselves the illegal lady across the street from me for the last six years, she has already had four kids and is fixing to have another one. and no job. but she has a new car and a cell phone and she smokes cigarettes the whole time. host: that is karen calling in from oklahoma. in today's "wall street

journal," it says president obama is readying a new wave of rules. the article states that planned move across labor, health, finance, and the environment ranges from overtime pay for white-collar workers and more of secure matters -- obscure matters. this is all in an effort to help the economy in his final year in office. evelyn is calling in from fort worth, texas. you think the best days are ahead of us. why? caller: yes, because the unemployment rate has dropped and the housing crisis has improved.

the housing market. with all of the ideas coming from the presidential candidates, hopefully, congress will work together and make it better. host: can i ask you who is your presidential candidate and do you think that candidate will continue what you see as a positive place for our economy and our country? caller: yes. to say thatappy i'm going to be voting for hillary clinton. continue thehe can legacy of president obama. ok.: what specifically has clinton said that makes you optimistic? caller: well, you know, just the idea that she is one of the most experienced of all the candidates.

attitude,at can-do like president obama. host: that was evelyn from fort worth. up next, kathy from michigan. you think the best days are behind us. why? caller: good morning, c-span. x and wane to young people -- life was a lot more livable in terms of having in 1957. -- i was born a friend of mine was a cashier at hamadi food stores, a grocery chain in flint. she made $18 per hour. cashiers start out at $10 per hour. there is a lot of manufacturing

-- and not just the big plants -- there are a lot of small plants and many of those have closed. when you have all of these smaller segments of the economy else startsrything to shut down. you see that a lot in michigan. you see a lot of vacant buildings, homes, businesses, that were once driving and supporting the community. it is no wonder people and up on food stamps and medicaid. although i fully support universal health care. host: are you satisfied with what you are hearing from the presidential candidates about the economy? caller: i'm a supporter of mr. sanders. i think that he has the gumption and i think he truly believes that we have to bring jobs back, that the banks are way too big. i bank with a very small bank and i have for a dozen years, not to say that they are not politically aligned.

think -- my children are young -- they are in their 20's and a teenager, they fully support bernie sanders. they are not feeling a lot of hope, as i felt growing up. host: that was kathy calling in from michigan, talking about young people and how they feel about america's future. today" showsusa that millennials are still optimistic about the american dream. worste growing up in the downturn since the great depression and coming of age during wage stagnation, more than two thirds of those in the nations rising generation predict there will be more success -- they will be more successful in their professional lives than their parents were. is calling inr

from chicago. roger, you think the best days are ahead of us. caller: i feel like the best because ahead of us americans work hard and if you follow the rules and the game, you will go ahead. a lot of people that are calling and saying that this country is going down, i would like for them to go and live somewhere else and see the opportunities that they will be diminished. host: do you mind if i ask you who you are supporting for president and what you think about their message for the future? --ler: i really don't have currently, i don't have anyone in mind right now. i'm just looking to the whole thing -- it is amazing to me all these people, clinton and bernie sanders and trunk and cruz, they are talking all in the sense of -- americaica great

is already great. the opportunities that are given in this country, yes, the jobs have left, we feel bad about it, how the economy is turning all over the world. america is only 5% of the population of the entire world. it has the innovation -- 99%. look at apple, look at ge. america has done what it has done and people should understand -- especially the people -- talking about a guy named bob from connecticut, "i'm going to be happy when obama leaves" -- what are you going to be happy about? bush brought us all this war. we have a president who says let's start talking about amending all these things. host: ok. that was roger from chicago. terri from have

upper marlboro, maryland. ok, we lost terri. we have terri now. you think our best days are behind us. why is that? are you there? ok. we will move on to charles from cincinnati, ohio. you are optimistic about the future. why? caller: yes, i'm very optimistic. together,ties were they can move this country forward. but the president, mr. obama, president obama -- you can see that the country is moving from worse to best right now. the economy is doing very well. what i want to say, both parties have to work together so that we can move the people forward,

move the economy forward, move the country forward. that is my opinion. host: what do you think about what the candidates are saying? you said that the people need to work together. do you think the candidates are putting forth an optimistic message? caller: yes, they are. have to listen to the people and help the people. you see, it is not about themselves, it is about the people. if we help the people, this country is going to move forward. whether republicans or democrats, they have to work together. host: ok. democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton recently sounded a more optimistic tone in her campaign. [video clip] america hasinton: never stopped be in great. despite what you hear.

[cheers and applause] we doary clinton: but need to america whole again. walls, we building need to be tearing down barriers. show, by everything we do, that we really are in this together. have, too many people forgotten, too many corporations have forgotten this basic truth about what makes america great. continuing our discussion with viewers about whether america's best days are ahead of us or behind us. up next, jim from fort lauderdale. you think our best days are behind us. caller: the reason is because our society, our values are rotting at the core.

all of ouring questions and answers to government and not on ourselves. i have a message for everyone, especially mrs. clinton and bernie sanders. that is, when i was younger, if you took something from the government and your neighbor found out about it, that had to be the most sacred secret you could keep. if you ever told anybody that you took money from the government, your friendship would be over. another thing, when i was growing up, you could walk down any street, just about any , andt in the united states you would not have to be worried about a crime being perpetrated on yourself. people were very honest. andon't have that honesty personal responsibility. do you think it is

possible to get those qualities back in america? caller: not as long as the personal responsibility aspect of things is out of the mix. you don't hear people talking about personal responsibility. he committed a crime because he did not get his education, his upbringing -- it is everything but him. host: up next, we have catherine from louisiana. she thinks the best days are ahead of us. why are you optimistic? because,'m optimistic yes, i'm voting for trump. the riotism and all of the other stuff that the media is pushing on us. he wants to build up everything

that president obama never talks about. he wants to get rid of the debt, he wants to build up our military, which is so essential for our country. he wants to get rid of the debt, which is so essential. he is not a mean person. he is a nice person. he wants to get things done. host: let me ask you, are you concerned about the town, the feeling that he has taken a more negative tone saying that the economy is bad, that things are on the verge of collapse? would you like him to be more optimistic? caller: yes, no, i'm not optimistic about that. he is going to change that.

he is going to make it better. yeah. host: that was catherine from louisiana. did a study center that talked about the views of the press coverage of candidates and attitudes about the government in the country. voters continue to be more frustrated than angry with the government. frustration, rather than anger, is the dominant emotion in voters' view of politics, as well. neither republicans nor democrats have a great deal of confidence in the political wisdom of the american people. these sentiments have persisted into the presidential campaign. we are talking about whether americans feel optimistic or not. ed from clarksburg,

west virginia. you are not feeling so optimistic. caller: i'm pretty pessimistic. blind, iars old, i'm live by myself. in 1935.n timell never have another of our lives like the 1950's. host: why do you think the 1950's were such a great time? caller: there wasn't that much difference in wages. i've never had a job in my life that paid over three dollars per hour. i get food stamps. i get $16 per month on food stamps. i get $1000 per month on medicare. when i ask if i can get a medicaid card, they say you are not eligible. i say, i'm under poverty law.

they say, we could give you one if you used it more often. right now, i've got four doctors. a heart dr., i've got a cancer doctor, i've got my general doctor -- host: ok, what would you like to see happen, what would you like to see changed to make america as great as it was in the 1950's? caller: i would like to see a tax rate -- break put in there. i don't know what it was. i was a teenager when it started. i want to see people -- right now, the minimum wage is $7.50 in west virginia. people around saying the middle class, the middle class. the people that don't work, they do good because the government takes care of them.

us old people, we did not get a raise last year, but the president saw fit to give every government worker a raise last year. from west is ed virginia. he thought the 1950's were the best time in our economy. a survey of americans asking what they think what the golden age was, that was the second-highest time rated. 24% said that they don't think america has had a golden age. up next, we have steve from ohio. steve, you are optimistic. caller: i'm 73 years old and i think our best days are ahead of us because in america, we have the options to solve our problems. we have the ability to bring all of that lost jobs back here by lowering taxes, controlling

energy, building up the military -- we can do all the right things if we put the right people -- there is nothing wrong with the american people. this is still the greatest workforce with the greatest attitude in the world. our problem is we've got to get our government out of our way and put our people to work. when they put the people to work , that deficit, which they think is so overwhelming, will go down so fast it will make people's heads spin. host: do you mind if i ask her you are supporting in the presidential race? is that candidate optimistic? caller: yes. i'm supporting someone who, as far as i'm concerned, it is not bragging if you've done it. i'm supporting john kasich, who is doing it now for the state of ohio, and who has done it in the past, when he was a congressman. i will support any republican because the democrats have no

solution to the problem and their kind of policies do not work. that has been proven historically. host: that is steve calling in from ohio. fromxt, we have linelle indianapolis. you are optimistic. caller: i'm optimistic because, number one, the american dream, -- iterican constitution is a living document that we have to build up to a more perfect union. like the caller just said, the people have the ability to change their future. at this time, since the people chose obama, obama did a great job and is doing a great job and want a if the people

more perfect union and can produce it from the candidates we have before us, i think bernie sanders is talking the to build on what president obama has established. host: what is it about bernie sanders' message that you think is an extension of what president obama is doing? that is a good question. mind as theeople in leader of the people. when barack obama came in people he was for the and is acting for the people. that is all of the united states. those leaders that we choose should be chosen with that same

mind, the mind for the people. you, one last question for you said you liked president obama's policies. hillary clinton worked within the obama administration. why are you picking bernie sanders over her? caller: policies. as you say. it is what he is saying. he is speaking for black people. when you are speaking for black people, you are speaking for the unsung hero of the american dream. host: we are talking about whether americans are optimistic about the future. in the meantime, a quick programming note. the top 21 documentaries from this year's student cam competition are airing at 6:50 a.m. each weekday during the month of april.

year's theme is what issue you most want the candidates to discuss during the 2016 presidential campaign? c-span received nearly 3000 films. the most entries in the 12 years of the competition. entries came from 45 states, washington, dc, the united arab emirates, taiwan, and the virgin islands. filmmakers who win will share in cash prizes totaling $100,000. you can watch them all online at studentcam.org. we are getting back to our viewer discussion about whether america's best days are ahead of us were behind us. calling in have ron from elizabeth, indiana. you say our best days are ahead. caller: because i believe in the american people, i believe that we will eventually wake up and

change the way things are being done. it is going to take a serious change. the only thing i believe that is going to bring that about is a serious tragedy, which i hate to say. but the way our environment is going right now, in 2002, we were already beyond the point where our environment is going to create serious hazards for us. , corporationsents or denying the truth. if we don't wake up and do , itthing serious right away is going to be a lot worse than just tragic. you areu said that optimistic, but you are painting a pretty dismal picture of what is going on. what is it that makes you optimistic? that inbecause i know the face of horrible human tragedy, humanity shines its brightest. that is really what it is going andake for us to wake up

fix everything that is going wrong. our government is attacking education, women's rights, minorities rights, they are not thinking about freedom, liberty, justice. they are trying to mold us into consumers, rather than freethinkers. host: that is ron calling in from indiana. house speaker paul ryan spoke recently about what he thinks is wrong with american politics. [video clip] speaker ryan: governing ourselves was never meant to be easy. this has always been a tough business. when passions flare, ugliness is sometimes inevitable. but we should not accept ugliness as the norm. we should demand better from ourselves, from one another, we should think about the great leaders that have bestowed upon us the opportunity to live the american idea. we should honor their legacy, we should build that more confident america.

this, as much as anything, is what makes me an optimist. knowing that ideas can inspire a country and help people. host: up next, we have ruben from raleigh, north carolina. you think the best days are behind us. do you disagree with house speaker ryan's assessment? caller: of course. i mean, it is like this. after the 1970's, you did not have all this nonsense about the system,of an apartheid all this division. not only with black people, you have problems with people being able to cast the vote. it is almost like apartheid. you know what i'm saying? in north carolina, you have people out here dealing with bathrooms.

it is like segregation all over again. host: let me ask you this, are you happy with what you have heard from the presidential candidates? about the rebirth of people having the male bathroom and female bathrooms and gay and transgender bathrooms? that is like discrimination back in segregation, apartheid times all over again. it is like history is repeating itself out here. host: right. what would you like to hear the candidates say that would make you believe that america is heading in the right direction? , we are notan heading in the right direction. you've got to end this war going on. you've got wars going on all over the place. we have people in afghanistan, iraq, syria.

you've got destabilization going on in venezuela, hyperinflation down there, people can't even buy groceries out of the stores and whatnot. this country is headed for a a national like disaster, like dr. king said. host: that is ruben from north carolina. up next, ramsey from detroit. you are optimistic. why? caller: because we tend to have a government that is run by republicans who don't really care about education. there'll me concern is big business and lowering the tax rates. host: if that is the case, why do you feel optimistic? caller: i feel like really there is no hope for good times in this country. host: is there anything that you would like to hear from the presidential candidates, things that you think they could do to change that outlook? caller: yes.

, raise taxes banks on the rich and big business, increase education, there are a number of things they can do to help the middle class and poor people. benefits,eir tax deductions for the middle class. ever since the reagan bailout, things have been going downhill. bettyup next, we have from connecticut. you say the best days are ahead of us. why? caller: well, there is a caveat. they are ahead for a certain group of people -- that will depend on who the next president is. wall street. a spokesman for wall street came out yesterday and they endorsed hillary clinton. hillary clinton is their candidate. a few weeks ago, hillary clinton said, i'm going to go after

those companies that outsource. she was on the board of walmart years ago. i did not see her then stopping from outsourcing. she said she is going to go after the bad actors in these hedge funds. bill clinton was on to hedge fund groups just before 2008 and is sooner she started running, he pulls out. yes, the best days are ahead, depending on who the president is. host: who are you backing? caller: bernie sanders. i'm 74 years old and i want a future for my grandchildren. host: that is betty calling in from connecticut. up next, ralph is calling in from north carolina, murphy, north carolina. you say the best days are behind us. why the lack of optimism? because ill, simply know i grew up in the 1960's and 1970's and things were a lot simpler than with the

government. when you drove down the road and you got pulled over for any reason at all, there was not long or smit trying to search your vehicle or find something in there to prosecute you for. you were innocent until proven guilty. you have a government that worries about your dogs, your parents, your kids, they have legislated laws to act like they are protecting them from whoever. it is everything. host: let me ask you this, if you don't mind me asking who you are supporting for president and do you think that candidate has a plan to make america better moving forward? donald well, i think sees that we are about to hit a physical class. if he does not step in, he might lose everything he has got i think that is one reason he is running.

i mean, i just see the government trying to intervene on everything in our life. to build a house, you used to be able to -- if you wanted to tear an old house down and use that material to build a new house, you could do that without zoning and regulation and permits and you name it. they have made life a little harder to get ahead of it. host: that was rob calling in from north carolina. akron,, a caller from ohio. you say our best days are behind us. caller: because we have the elite controlling us. it is not our government, it is the elite. we have too many laws. you can't even walk down the street and chew bubblegum without someone saying something. world that is above everything. laws and everything. you have people running countries that tells us what to

do, but behind closed doors, they do with they want to do. host: what do you think needs to be done to build your optimism in america's future? caller: for one thing, you need to bring god back. another thing, god had 10 commandments. commandmentsf the and exploited them. you have 10 commandments. you go to church and there is a and he isng up there lying to you. i was raised in the catholic church. i have family, wherever i went, they went to church. host: up next, we have been need a -- benita calling in from riverton, wyoming. you say the best days are ahead. what is the reason for your optimism? caller: the reason for my optimism is that we are going to get god back in this country

because he is going to show his head and he is going to show these people that there is a god . these politicians have nothing to do with our world. it is his world. he has a plan. i would think that if we could vote republican and we could do something for our country that has never been done, we would be in better shape. host: which republican are you supporting for president? caller: ted cruz. because i believe that ted cruz can bring god back into this country. we don't have got in this country anymore. host: up next, we have kevin calling in from hendersonville, tennessee. you say our best days are behind us. why? caller: the breakdown of the family.

the breakdown of the family has evolved into the policies that we have right now. host: how do you think that that can change? do you think that is something that can happen in the political sphere? caller: unfortunately, i don't think so. i don't think you can regulate morality. i was raised in the 1950's with two loving parents. i'm married to my original wife, 30 years. my children have two loving parents and support and direction. i think there are a lot of people who don't. i think that is a problem. it does not matter how many corporations we have or don't have how big the banks are. it has made our whole system evolved to where the people i see running for president just look like puppets of their. when i see hillary clinton, i think she is clueless. she is just a puppet. host: that is kevin calling in

from tennessee. up next, we have catherine calling in from spokane, washington. you say the best days are ahead. why are you optimistic? caller: i'm optimistic as long as we can get somebody like bernie sanders into office. like the gentleman from tennessee said, most of the politicians, regardless of whether they are republicans or democrats, i think are bought by corporations. i do think corporations matter because they are going for what they want, which ultimately is what -- profit at the expense of the middle class and the lower class. if we can get somebody in there who can get us to look at what the real problem with things in this country are, i think the world would improve or the united states would improve greatly. host: ok. paul, up, we have scott

the president of the american alliance for manufacturing. he will be joining us to talk about the latest trade deficit numbers. coming up in little later, we , here to talk about vulnerabilities in america's i.t. systems. we will be right back. ♪ >> a signature feature of book is taking you to book fairs and festivals across the country. this week we travel to the 21st angeles" festival of books, one of the most celebrated book festivals in the u.s.

on saturday, we talk about "thieves of state." talk policing with joe dominic, author of the book "blue." on sunday, beginning at 1:30 p.m. eastern, more from the "l.a. times" festival of books featuring arianne huffington and dennis prager, who also wrote "the 10 commandments." then we talk about the book "zealot." go to booktv.org for the complete schedule. join us next weekend for live coverage of the annapolis book festival. our c-span campaign 2016 bus continues to make stops around the country.

recently, our bus visited metropolitan arts institute in phoenix, arizona to present awards to winners of the west division. classmates won second ir video on gender wage inequity. then we stopped in los angeles for a ceremony for the third prizewinner before heading to elk grove and rocklin to present winners in those areas with awards. we thank our sponsors for help in coordinating our student cam visits in the community. be sure to watch one of the top 21 winning entries at 6:50 a.m. month. week days this >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is scott

paul, the president of the alliance for american manufacturing. he is joining us today to discuss the state of the manufacturing sector in react -- and react to the most recent trade numbers. guest: it is a pleasure to be with you this morning. host: who do you represent? guest: aam is a partnership between the united steelworkers union and some domestic manufacturing partners. it is kind of unique, as you washington,e, in where it is business and labor working together on common public policy goals. we are nonpartisan, we have been around nine years. our mission is to strengthen the opportunity for americans to have factory jobs. host: can you give us an theview of what you think

state of manufacturing and trade is in the united states right now? guest: it is a good question. as always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle of what the extremes say it is. some say there is a manufacturing resurgence and a lot of jobs are being restored. that are others who say manufacturing has been completely destroyed. that is also not true. if you look over the last year, the news has been pretty shaky for manufacturing. it has been buffeted by massive changes underway in china. the dollar is overly strong, which has an impact on our ability to export. manufacturing job growth over the last year has been very weak. we have lost about 40,000 jobs over the last year. if you take it back to the end of the great recession, we have added 847,000 manufacturing jobs , which sounds like a great number.

and it is a pretty long streak of job growth. but then you take it back further to the beginning of the great recession and manufacturing is the only session -- sector that has not gained all the jobs back that it lost during the great recession. the rest of the private sector has recovered about 160% of the jobs. manufacturing has only recovered about 40% of the jobs lost during the great recession. the real challenges for american manufacturing, which is always cyclical depending on business cycles, is started with the onset of china coming into the world trade system. at that point, in about 2000, since that time, the united states has shed about one third of its manufacturing jobs. 5.5 million jobs. that is something that is felt in a lot of communities. as we have heard during the election cycle, these issues

keep coming up. host: we are talking to scott paul from the alliance for american manufacturing. viewers can add to the conversation by calling in. we have a republican line, (202) 784-8001. the democratic line, (202) 748-8000. our line for independents, (202) 748-8002. we also have a special line if you work in manufacturing --(202) 748-8003. let's talk a little bit about andu.s. trade deficit here take a look at some of the numbers from that. inwidened to $47 billion february. that is up 2.6% from january. exports increased by 1%. that is the first increase since september. imports were up 1.3%.

$225 billion. despite a drop in oil imports. at 2015 trade deficit stands $540 billion, an increase of six point two percent. what do those numbers tell us? guest: a lot of people look at that and my eyes glaze over, what do while these numbers mean? it translates into jobs at the end of the day and our ability to generate new jobs for the american economy. the trade deficit, as a primer for listeners, is the difference between our exports and our imports. if we have a deficit, it means we are importing more than we are exporting. look, this happens from time to time. the united states was running trade deficits for a while because we were importing a lot of oil. since the onset of more global competition, we have seen the trade deficit in manufacturing goods go up.

what it means is products that used to be made here for this market, a lot of those are being made overseas. there are a lot of factors that lead to that. some of it is the value of the doctor. it actually makes our exports more expensive overseas. a strong dollar is a great deal for a tourist trying to book a room in europe. you are going to get a great deal. it is a good deal for wall street. for exporting firms, it is a real challenge. we also face an array of competitors that are supported by their governments. we have a massive trade deficit with china. , itstate is heavily engaged is subsidizing and protecting its firms. it is not really run on a free market system. china is deficit with over $360 billion per year. that is an exceptionally mindnumbing amount.

a lot of stuff we used to do here is being done in china. host: what can happen on the american side? here to stemone that increase? guest: it is a really good question. it is important to know that public policy plays a key role in a couple of different ways. first, there is monetary policy. 1990's, we have had a policy to keep our dollar strong. one of the drawbacks is that it makes our exports less competitive. if we have a more competitively valued dollar, that would probably help.

is our trade policy. we need to continue to try to open markets overseas because 95% of america's customers are outside of our borders. at the same time, we still have the richest consumer market in the world and we should make access to that conditioned on playing by the rules. we have a number of trade partners who don't necessarily play by the rules. china is one of those. finally, what can we do domestically to strengthen our competitiveness? we need to make sure that the tax code encourages jobs coming back to the united states. president obama has taken actions on in versions, but there are other things we can do. we need to make sure that our infrastructure is in good shape. that dramatically impacts the competitiveness of manufacturing. our infrastructure makes a terrible grade from the civil engineers who looked at it. inneed a stronger investment

that. we need to invest in the skills and training of our workforce. it used to be that a manufacturing job might not take much more training than a high school degree. that is not necessarily the case anymore. we need to make sure we have a system in place that will allow young people who want this opportunity to be skilled, to get the training they need to fill these jobs. host: we are talking with scott paul about manufacturing and trade. our first call on our republican line is from rick in ohio. am i saying that right? thank you. what is your question? caller: my question is about imports from china. tools we import all these that have harmful metals on them and on the back of them it says "may cause cancer" -- we should start making tools in the states

that are controlled by epa policies. that is my question. guest: it is a good question. i think rick points out something that is frustrating to a lot of people. we see a lot of recalls from made in china products. the system for regulating health and safety standards certainly is not what it approaches in the united states or western europe. there are some tools that are made in the united states. apon, they do face very stiff competition from chinese competitors that are aided by the fact that they are not necessarily complying with the same kind of regulations that we take for granted as protecting consumer safety and andenvironment and workers clean water and air here. they also receive subsidies from their government and some

protection. it needs to be a priority to congress and the white house to push back on this. , i think that there has been a reluctance to do that in any systematic way and that has had an impact on the choices that consumers have in terms of everything from hardware to toys to closing. host: can you talk a little bit about how currency manipulation effects the trade deficit? guest: sure. currency manipulation is a tool that some governments use to make their exports artificially more competitive or to protect their currency. a central government will by buying up federal

, holdes or treasury bonds hundreds of billions of dollars of u.s. debt -- another signal is that that country is running a persistently high trade surplus. if you look, you see something that china and japan have done that. this matters because these countries are not supposed to do it. the international monetary fund, to which they belong, as well as the united states, says you should not be doing this. says, you should not be doing this. .ur own domestic law says it unfortunately, it is dependent upon two things. the administration needs to designate a country as a currency manipulator. ,resident obama has not done it but president bush did not do it either.

there is a lot of criticism to be shared there. laws,our domestic trade you can file a trade case for relief which comes in the form of usually but you can't do it for currency minute relation yet and so that is a change in law that we have been seeking for some time. there's a lot of support for it, but unfortunately, we have almost gotten over the hurdle a couple of times come up but there is always one body at the last minute who has held back and that has been a challenge. host: you talk about the designation as traded never later. what would that do it the united states does designate a country? guest: if they are designated as a currency minute later, it would trigger a set of negotiations and shift a set of priorities. towards begin correcting this behavior for it

there could be sanctions available if a country did not or have acompliance plan to come into compliance. again, the reason it matters is where losing jobs for no other reason than other countries are intervening in a way that distorts the free market and our government instead of pushing back, has done nothing. you see that frustration coming through a lot i think there are reasonable people who suggest we push back without starting a trade war and there are other countries that stand up much more than the united states. lot of to wait until a and theas been done systems come much too late to grow jobs back.

host: we're talking to scott aboutrom aam manufacturing and trade. he is a trade lobbyist for the afl and cio. our calls are randy -- is ready. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i'm calling from the classroom right now. classroom.pan in the questions. ask a few my students right now are learning about the great depression and herbert hoover's response. tariffserrorists --

hurt or help the economy? and second, my students are newly arrived immigrants to the united states and they have heard a lot of talk from donald trump about how the united states is being beat up on foreign trade. to theou speak candidates? i personally support john kasich because of what he did with ohio's deficit. how he turned the economy around. could you please address the impact of tariffs on the american economy and who you think would be the best candidate for the next president ? thank you very much. guest:ou for the question, randy. i'm glad your students are learning about history and

current events as well. musical onbig broadway. he was the father of american industrial policy. 225 years ago he wrote a report to congress on manufacturers. he and present washington discovered that america did not make much of anything. they depended on france or smuggling to get a lot of their equipment. tariffs thathave would not be too high or too low. we would develop our infrastructure and we would depend on a flow of recently thesed immigrants to fill manufacturing jobs. this is an economic philosophy that did not become a reality until after the civil war. tariffs have been a part of

u.s. policy for a while. as paul krugman has said, their on accelerating or deepening the great recession is overstated. he has probably studied this more than anyone else. i want to make clear i'm not likeng for a 45% tariff donald trump is or anything like that. just to give you an example of where tariffs have come into play in recent policy, there is a type case on steel -- of steel that is working its way through the system right now. president obama's a ministration someministration has set of these tariffs at over 200% which sounds like a lot.

president reagan intervened in two ways, to save harley-davidson motorcycles facing competition from japan grandso to create a bargain on currency. even in modern days, you have seen the use of tariffs as economic purposes being a valuable thing. which presidential candidate do i support? i am gladpartisan, so these issues are being raised. waysl say that i think the donald trump has raised them does not do anybody service. there are serious economic reasons why you would want to change our trade policy cap -- a couple of degrees.

clinton had a manufacturing roundtable in new york and bernie sanders talks about trade agreements in every speech he gives on the campaign trail. john kasich is the governor of a manufacturing state and he has talked about the need to enforce trade loss. in my syrians has not been particularly helpful on these issues, was up in wisconsin saying how he would stand up for american trade policy and the blue-collar worker. respond to this during the election and the key is actually changing policy once they get into the white house. randyour next call from our democratic line in maryland. randy, are you there? ok, we will move on to jim.

he is calling on our independent line from wisconsin. what is your question? tax.r: my question is on tariffs are very tricky and they can be dangerous. what if they just eliminated the corporate income tax on manufacturing? on, appropriate taxes could be applied. at the beginning, we should completely eliminate the upper income tax on and factoring. i think it's an interesting question. my concern about completely eliminating the corporate income taxes is that you lose an incredible revenue stream. forink that taxes manufacturers who are in global

competition and kind of a unique -- let's say retail stores and wall street is not come about manufacturing can be done anywhere. you have to look at the right incentives to invest in your workforce. you have to look at the right incentives to modernize your plant. you can do that through the tax code. , most of the cut benefits would go to wall street or the retail sector that is not face this kind of global competition. i think this target approach works much better. i will say that the other thing that we have to take a look at his most of the rest of the world has something called refundable exports. it is something that our exporters face, where there is

no discount in the tax code for their exports. other nationry they are in competition with, the exporters are getting this type of discount which provides them with some type of an advantage. host: let's take a look at what the "new york times" said. he writes trade deficits are not inherently good or bad. they can be either depending on circumstances. what's more, eliminating the trade deficit wouldn't, on its own, make america great again, as trump suggests. and trying to do so could mean giving up some of the levers of power that the united states get its way and international policy. china -- and want

with north korea in a way to mitigate some of its nuclear goals and so we won't push back on trade policy. you see this uprising. you see this -- these political revolutions on the right and left. i think because of this type of dynamic. exports, and that is another fancy way of saying trade deficit or trade surplus, we -- if we balanced our trade accounts and i think there is a moreo do that by investing

in energy to messick lead that would reduce our energy imports. if we had policies that would boost our exports, that would bring our imports down a little bit. insteadntage would be of struggling to get 2% growth every year, our economic growth 3%the top would be between and 4%. they would be a lot more people getting jobs and if you letting .- accumulating wealth unfortunately, the benefits of the trade deficit right now are accrued mostly to wall street or to our foreign policy. americans,le-class who want good paying jobs. host: our next call from the republican line, mary jane. you are on with scott paul.

outer: i wanted to find what areas of manufacturing are going to be promoted in this latest agreement -- trade agreement. guest: that's a good question. tpp, which is a trade agreement between the united states and about 11 other countries including mexico and canada, who we already have a trade agreement with. the biggest would be japan, from an numberia -- an economic scale. this agreement has been reached. legislationt inc. has not been introduced and would need to be passed by congress. there is a debate about this. donald trump says he opposes it. ted cruz, hillary clinton, and

bernie sanders all oppose it. i don't think john kasich has spoken out on it recently. when you look at the potential benefits for manufacturing, frankly, they are limited sector.of the tech even the analysis that is used by the administration to make the case for the tpp, it is an by an appropriate think tank here if their .stimat -- for manufacturing specifically, they estimate the tpp would increase our manufacturing and trade deficit by about $55

billion and the estimate keeps going up. .irst it was 120,000 that is precisely because these countries have policies that lie outside trade agreements that would make it difficult for us to export and make it easier for them to import. their conclusion is we would lose a lot of manufacturing jobs. the question is, is this worth pursuing? -- a may be a tiny benefit tiny economic benefit, but a pretty big challenge for manufacturing as we move forward. host: let's talk about expansion of manufacturing in other countries. this report from the "wall street journal" shows that a new carsry in mexico for small

-- how does this expansion effect manufacturing and trade? guest: that is a very good question. that has been in the news. the auto industry, first of all, has been a bright spot in manufacturing since the end of the great recession. actually work.t three car companies stabilize. made a lot ofave investments in the united states. they are selling a lot of cars because people have been holding onto their cars for a long time. gas prices are low. and also because interest rates are low. you can get an interest rate on , sow car for 1% or less

it's a great time to borrow to do this. now, when it comes to locating production, you are seeing some shifts of smaller car production to mexico. there is less of a margin -- of a profit margin of these cars and that is driven by japan's currency policies. the primary competition for the detroit three in the united states are these japanese sedans. the japanese government heavily intervenes. even though it has risen and the last couple of days, over the last year and a half, it has been going down and down. for no other reason, but this currency differential, the japanese automakers make or money per car -- make more money per car than the detroit three.

importanterall it is to note there is a lot of investment in the u.s. auto manufacturing sector. i worry about its future once the auto replacement has run its course and interest rates begin to rise again. i think we need to find ways to make it competitive. it is not simply a factor of wages and mexico are less than they are in the united states. there's a lot to go into it. with policy shifts, we could make it more competitive. host: we're talking about manufacturing and trade with scott paul, president of aam. honor democratic line, we have bruce from georgia. -- on our democratic line, we have bruce from georgia. --if it has no quality,

it should not be sold in america. 90% of stuff we buy today, it won't last a year. my wife has a brand-new car and the shifter cable fell off. it just deteriorated within five years. that shouldn't be. ok let's let scott paul respond. guest: it is something i call the consumer paradox. .mericans love to bargain everyone likes to think they are getting a good price on something. when they go to the store, the purchase is often satisfying in the short term and so this is

something all of us face. you can get the great bargain now or pay a little more for something that is going to last longer and your cost over five years is going to be less. there's a lot of complex consumer behavior that goes into this. i think the immediate gratification that everybody wants -- and again you see this on wall street. goinge as consumers, i'm to get that bluelight special or and then if you invest in quality, you're actually going to be spending less over five years or something. thatuy a pair of shoes cost $10, they might fall apart in a year. of that.course

periiod you might [no audio] [no audio] [inaudible] -- goods in particular , if you're looking for consumer electronics or clothing, good luck finding an american-made product. that there is a cost differential that makes it really difficult to manufacture in the united states and i'm not someone that says we have to make everything here. we need global trade. i do think there are some advantages you see that effect the competitiveness.

labor rates, there is a big differential. it is going to be hard to compete with that right now. we don't want to compete with that necessarily because there would be a race to the bottom of wages, but there are some other factors that we discussed that i think our government could address. host: on our independent line, rene is calling in from san jose, california. you're on with scott paul. caller: good morning. considered in the middle class, i more in the lower class and i'm struggling with zero credit and i would -- was idea wouldhat your be if consumers have more

ability to buy things and go on payment plans. i do most of my shopping online. i usually get the bargain like the previous caller was saying. i was wondering if a person that myself one of to start my own business, we all need credit. play into thet consumer and people trying to develop it? think we are talking about a dual challenge here. creating jobs that allow for more disposal income so you're not living paycheck to paycheck and there is a virtuous cycle there. when you have more manufacturing jobs, you have more of that disposable income. they tend to pay better than the

private sector. regards to credit, i think that is a complex topic. that we'rehing struggling with. there are a lot of people who der-banked and it is a challenge that we have seen consistently. i think it is important to address that. if we were able to find pathways -- and this is an example i like to use. $1give a millionaire million, they're probably not going to buy another car. personre able to find a and give them a livable wage, car and going to buy a that has extraordinaire benefits for the american economy. host: in today's "new york

u.s. isit says the control.ina's internet it says the u.s. trade officials have for the first time added china's system of internet filters and blocks to an annual list of trade impediments. the entry says that over the last decade, the limits have posed a significant burden. can you talk to us about this cyber factor in trade? documente underlying it is referring to is about this , but it is important. i'm glad that he pointed this out. talks about the dilemma that

a lot of our tax companies face, like facebook and mark zuckerberg. he is eager to get into china. he is learning chinese and spending a lot of time there. but, what is the trade-off for a that wants to do business in china? contact,to censor your surrender your intellectual property? there are a lot of companies that have to decide on these trade-offs. you've seen some companies that have made the right call, which is we are not going to sacrifice our principles. you see others that have been thinkg to go along and i it is a moral dilemma that a lot of these companies face, but as this article points out, it also has economic consequences because there is real, untapped potential among chinese consumers who tend to like american brands to some extent. i think they want access to some

of that and our government will give that to them. from chadnext call is d.c.ing from washington, on our independent line. i just wanted to get your opinion on america's trade situation with canada, given the that isn presidency going to be coming, do you see an area of concern that we are taking a step forward or backward with that change in presidency? thank you. guest: that's a very good question. candidate in many ways is our largest trade partner. that are a lot of goods flow back and forth between our borders. i talked about the auto industry earlier and its supply chain is heavily integrated into north america.

that means there's a lot of influence going back between the united states, canada, and mexico. trudeauthink the government is going to radically alter its policy towards the united states. i know one thing we would like to see is for canada to open up system a little more than it is right now. i often hear canadian complaints . our laws are very mild compared to some of the restrictions canadian provinces have on procurement. i think that is a small issue, but overall i don't anticipate there is going to be much of a shift in these relationships and i think the trudeau government is supportive of the tpp.

i don't view the u.s.-canada relationship as being a major trade impediment as we move forward. japan are china and probably much more key to our economic success right now. host: scott paul, president of the aam. thanks for joining us this one. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up next, bobby avi rubin and ager., melissa yego ♪

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continues. host: joining us now, i be rubin. -- good morning. guest: good morning. host: thanks for joining us today. -- guest: i was looking at electronic voting system security and i did that for 11 years. i decided it was time to look something -- look for something else. thought that the health care i.t. system would be interesting to study. medicalow secure the devices and networks are that are being used. tot sort of capabilities

have in terms of patient access and how are they securing all of that? i've been setting that for about eight years. host: how significant do you see i.t. security and our hospitals and medical facilities? see it is critical. i think systems are moving towards automation. i visited an icu unit at john hopkins and was told that the systems are so automated, that they have eliminated a lot of the manual things. when they talk about the nurses schedule, how medication gets to the patient. a lot of that is controlled by computers. those computers of the same ones they use for a lot of other things like medical records and doctors looking at x-rays. a lot of these systems are

interconnected and intertwined, so if there is a security issue with one of these systems, it could result in something like a hospital not being able to control the nurses shift schedule. host: we're talking about the andrity of our data systems i.t. systems our hospitals and other medical facilities use. you can call into this discussion. we're breaking it down by region. we also have a special line for health care professionals. i said to talk, you found that nearly 3.5 million radical

records have been optimized in just the first three months of 2016 alone. what have been some of the biggest data breaches that you have seen? guest: there have been several that are interesting in their interesting because they're different from the tides we saw before. the most recent one effected about two different ethical facilities in maryland and washington. what is different is that the systems were infiltrated the exported ebola really in a type of application on those computers and what it did, it is ware, encryptedhe files and made them on inaccessible. a little bitwere

behind the times as far as being vulnerable for this, but once the attack happened they responded quickly and refused to play -- pay the ransom. the way it works is the attackers get a virus into the system that makes it accessible and demands that you pay them. if you pay them, they claim they will make the files available. for the longest time, people would ask me what is the risk of someone hacking a health care system. ? is there a chance people are going to do this? i wasn't really sure. ware has reallyom changed the game. the hackers have factored out -- figured out a way to blackmail

people. host: do we know who some of these hackers are? guest: it's really difficult to identify them. many of them are outside our jurisdiction. the payment system is called bitcoin and it is very difficult to track. host: or talking about health and medical security with avi rubin of john hopkins. our first call is daniel from texas. caller: hello. a primarying whether -- rinary and whether that would even be possible? familiarm not exactly

with the system you are describing, but one thing that needs to happen is organizations and medical facilities should make sure their i.t. staff is looking at the latest patches and keeping their systems current. i think is that one -- that is one of the best things they can do. int: up next, mike calling from canton, ohio. you're on, talking about medical i.t. security. caller: thank you. was curious about social security number for it time you go to the hospital, they always wanted. do you have to give it? i was just curious about that. guest: i think you bring up a really good point. social security numbers have been used for many purposes that they were not originally

intended for. today, you do have to give your social security number because that is the workflow they have set up. that is required for you to get service. when i was a student in the 1980's at the university of michigan, our student id was actually our social security number. a lot of people objected to that. we made a lot of noise about it and ultimately, the university went to student id numbers that had nothing to do with your social security number. i think it would be good if we had some sort of health care id number that corresponded to an individual. organizations have a lot of records about a lot of patients. if a patient goes to one facility and gets treated and they go to another one, it can be a challenge for the

organizations if each of them has a different health care id to figure out that the records correspond to the same person. so what many organizations have done is they have fallen back on the social security number because they know it is standard to a person and they know they have identified the right person. host: this piece in the baltimore sun highlights other ways health systems are on will. says hackers broke into one hospital system remotely to take control of several patient's .onitors

the team says it sold into one hospital's lobby and use and easily accessible kiosk to commandeer computer systems that track medical delivery and bloodwork requests. guest: i think it's interesting that hospitals have these kind abilities --- but vulnerabilities. in the financial services industry, they know they are protecting money. they brought up security from day one. the health care industry moved differently. it is concerned with treating patients as it should be, and they don't budget as much for their information technology as the financial services has. what we end up with is as system -- a system that is put together by people who do not have security expertise and they are much more laudable -- vulnerable. people,een many good

but given the ubiquity of health , everyone interacts with them and they are everywhere and the level of security you get, is all over the map. you have some places that do it really well and you find cases that are doing it poorly. host: do you think it's a matter of strength of cyber security protections by each organization? toyou think it's possible make these records safe and less vulnerable to hackers? guest: so, security people like myself will ever speak an absolute. safe depends against whom. i think we can make them much more better than they are today. china decided to go after a particular hospital, there is nothing we could do to protect them. weinst your everyday hacker,

can definitely protect against those things. sean our next call is calling from sunnyvale, california. thank you very much for taking my call. i just wanted to say i'm from michigan. what you are saying about earlier about going to three different hospitals. ego to see one dr. and then you see another doctor and another cares about the safety of our systems if our doctors can't even take care of us? why should we have to go see three separate doctors when the first one should be able to make us healthy? host: our expert is an expert in security. you have a question about the

security of medical records? ,aller: not the medical records but like you are talking about hacking. i'm from silicon valley and like if a place here -- a doctor has to do surgery on someone across the country, they can do it from the computer. inton't you see hacking that system and then just hurting someone? guest: that's a great question. one of the things that is happening right now is remote surgery and the idea is that you can get an expert at a hospital in the u.s. who has all of the world's greatest technology and latest facility, performing surgery on someone in africa who does not have someone -- axis to thosaccess to those facilities.

of course, this has to happen over the internet and the security concerns are real. the last thing we want is to put a patient at risk because surgery.acked a remote we need to design these systems with security in mind and use the latest encryption and authentication techniques. i hope the people developing these systems will consult with the community and security experts in order to deploy systems that are resistant to most of the attacks. security is an issue for every industry. how does the health care industry compare to other industries? is the system works? guest: first of all, i think it compares to many other industries is that it is just waking up. many industries new security was a problem, but the flipside is that more people probably

interact with the health care system than with just about any other system and so, the accordance of security system which are further behind many other systems, can be overstated. next, joe from down hills come in arizona. -- fountain hills, arizona. doing hereeen technical support -- computer technical support. i have a question for you. compliance,o hepa practices -- do they have any regulations or rulesures or basically,

that they should be following? guest: for those that are not is an effort by congress to regulate privacy and medical information. i think their intentions were to take all of this sense of information about people and make it harder to be exposed to people who should not have it. in the implementation, a lot have challenges -- of challenges have risen. it brings into a point that i think it's important to make, which is that the health care providers, the doctors and nurses, they want to treat patients. they don't like it when the i.t. tell them they need to jump through hoops. these are the type of people

that don't like it when you tell them how to do their job. i think our job is to figure out how to provide the security services in a way that the doctors will be more accepting of it. host: up next, mary jane from massachusetts. good morning, mary jane. caller: good morning. my name is mary jane and i've called to inquire about some of the information i got yesterday. i'm quite frightened. i'm a 64-year-old senior and the within the last three years, someone has opened and business in my name couldn'ters me is they

provide me with the name of the business. i don't know if i'm the victim of a scam. and go to quite a few doctors. the first thing they want to know is my mother's last maiden name and they want to know my social security number and if i medical credit card, my coverage doesn't cover it. if i'm being a victim of a scam or is this something legitimate? avi a chance to respond. so every single red flag in the book was raised during your description of what's happening. you should never give out your mother's maiden name or any personal information that anyone who calls you. all of the legitimate businesses

today that have the information, they do not authenticate you over the phone. sortedthe things are brings up to me, is the issue of identity theft. when medical records are stolen through hacking, social engineering, from insiders. go of the uses that people towards is identity theft. they open up businesses in other loans, andmes, take the person's identity who is from stolen -- who it was stolen .rom sometimes it takes years and cost a lot of money. this is one reason we encrypt medical records and health care systems practice theft. educateneed to consumers about what not to give out over the phone and to be able to identify when they are probably being scammed.

to bobbye talking rubin. in the past, his work on ,ryptology, national security and securing internet services. -- is it about medical records that are so viable to hackers? they weretorically, and for identity theft blackmail. let's say you have a medical condition that would cause you to get discriminated against at work and hackers were collecting that information because they had certain conditions and then blackmailing them so they would

keep quiet. there's not a lot of evidence that this has gone on, but there was speculation. we have a game changer now. somware is the latest reason hackers are breaking into systems. if hospitals can't access their own systems, than there is a real problem and hackers have an opportunity to make money. furthermore, many organizations would rather keep everything quiet. in then't want to be news about the fact that they got hacked. it's easier for them to pay than the20,000 hundreds of thousands of dollars to a pr firm because it is known they got hacked. nsomware ise ra getting paid under the table. host: is there something that

consumers can look out for to get an idea of whether or not their data is secure? unfortunate, it is owned and controlled by the health care organizations. the best thing a consumer can do if they want to take a proactive approach is asked to their health care providers what their security is. today, people are picking their service based on the doctor and have andits they what's available to them. most people are not going to base their decision on the data security practices of the health care organization. host: next on the line, martin from maryland. caller: hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call.

[inaudible] host: can you speak of little clearly into your phone? caller: sure. i'm what you're describing about the medstar attack. it sounds like a lot of these bigger companies'records are by remote parties. -- [indiscernible] guest: the issue is whether or not medical facilities are locally andtoring having their own i.t. departments or if they should sort on a remote server like a

cloud-based system where an organization makes a living storing other people's data make. there are trade-offs. if you use a cloud-based system, you will be able to get to the records. however, if the cloud-based services get hacked, it creates another problem. youou manage them locally, have to know what you are doing. if you make a mistake, and you lose all of the records yourself, and your backup workingare not properly, then you're going to use your data. guest: i believe there should be a hybrid approach. you have some records stored locally, but you do remote backups treacly and you have a cloud-based provider and you

sign-up for all of the security services that they offer. of course, there is cost involved. the more security that you want, the more you have to pay. host: have you seen an increase in health care providers shying away from the use of electronic data or going back to paper records? guest: no. if anything, it is going in the other direction. the government has offered a of incentives to move to electronic records. i've seen the transition where there are patient portals where you can login and see your records. when i have seen is the sharing of medical records, which is one of the promises with medical records and that all of the doctors i have gone to have compatible systems. --e been

host: up next, caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. my question -- you mentioned china can hack our systems and pretty much do there will with us. in terms of local medical doctorses, smaller offices and dental offices, why can they not install intrusion ockection systems to bl incoming threats. secondly, why would they not have off-site backups that they would own the servers themselves in the case of an attack like that? guest: you are right. intrusion detection systems are one of the tools in the arsenal. so our firewalls and encryption and backup. are doingizations

these things. unfortunately, the attacks are sophisticated enough today that thesean bypass many of known security techniques. we are in an arms race. security practitioners are developing tools like the one you mentioned and attackers are figuring out ways around them. specific wayyou a people are bypassing intrusion detection systems, the way those systems work as they look for anomalies on the network. they look for network traffic that is not supposed to be there. attackers developed techniques that mimic the way legitimate traffic behaves and fly under the radar of intrusion detection systems. host: next is sandra calling from minnesota. you are on. good morning. caller: good morning. my social security card, which

up, says social security and tax purposes only, not for identification. when i tell people, they want my number anyway. and my medicare number is my social security number. we addressed this earlier. the social security number was designed for the tax system. but since it is the closest we individualniversal identifier number, something standard in other countries, many people are misusing the social security number as a universal identifier. host: as we see a rise in the for medicale apps and health insurance purposes, does that create a new area of concern and vulnerability? guest: definitely. is great. everything you can do with your introduces or tablet

all kinds of applications. i have seen wonderful applications that are good at reminding patients to take medication. time, it increases attack surface for hackers. instead of just having to break facility,ure medical hopefully, that would have systemsn that section and firewalls, they can't attack individuals with their smartphones. attackthey can individuals with their smartphones. particularly in the android platform, they are more vulnerable than pc's and desktops. host: we are talking about -- re medical if you are in the eastern time zone, you can call (202) 748-8000. central in mountain, (202)

748-8001. and health care professionals, (202) 748-8002. what are things health care professionals and patients can do to better protect these records? isst: the first thing that necessary is awareness. consumers can educate themselves like do not open e-mail attachments. the time, yetall people are doing it. if you get an e-mail attachment from someone you have never is in a message somewhat suspect, it is best not to open. that is the way many organizations are penetrated. employees still open an e-mail attachment, a virus gets into the system, and you are compromised. organizations need to bring in security professionals that would, in -- would come in and simulate a hack, find out where

the vulnerabilities are, and then make recommendations to fix them and make it more secure. host: are you seeing more organizations do that? guest: yes. host: up next, melissa is calling from texas. caller: hello. i wanted to ask if the rfid chip is some kind of new technology for a security measure? sure. rfid is not that new. it has been around for a while. many industrial uses exist for tracking shipments. even the u.s. is putting them into passports. were i have seen them in the medical setting is for dr. --

doctor authentication. doctors are given access to many different things. if someone other than a doctor is able to log in and authenticate, they would have access to that. there are technologies coming up id has andoctor's rfid tag. the proximity of the batch that is identified because of rfid is able to provide even more security. now if a hacker can find the doctor's name and password but does not have the batch, they would not -- does not have the badge, they would not be able to log in. host: bob is calling in from pennsylvania. caller: hey. i have to them questions. you mentioned backup -- you

mentioned backups that i hoped would be mandatory in the field. if they do not have a good backup, you would think they do not have a good disaster recovery plan. i would appreciate your comment. the other thing is outsourcing. i.t. outsourcing over the last five to 10 years has been really huge. thee who are outsourcing i.t. field out to india and other places do not go under hippa laws. aret: the answers intertwined. major hospitals have the resources to do good backups and they also do not outsource, because they can build up their own staff. in au are a small doctor small town and the money you

make is just enough for staff, a full-timefford i.t. person, nor can that person have a lot to do most times. to outsource. i do not think they are outsourcing to india. those are more for programmers. very often in a small town like i described, there will be an i.t. professional who works for 10 different doctors offices. the same services that staff at a hospital would do. but you are -- but your question implies all organizations need to do is have a good backup and their data will be secure. it is not that simple. what attackers are trying to do is they do not just try to encrypt the data that are there, but they try to not be noticed for a while so they can get the

beenthat has actually infected or encrypted or wrong into the backup system. if they can go through a full backup cycle, backup data becomes useless. this is the type of thing that is happening out there. that attackers are trying to corrupt backups. host: the federal department of health and human services has begun posting a list of breaches of unsecured health information affecting 500 more individuals. on itsst about online website. how much does that kind of information used by patients, how much do we take that into account when selecting a health system? guest: it is a complicated and controversial issue. byyers will say that identifying which organizations

have been breached, you're given a blueprint to attackers as to who they should go after because their systems are vulnerable. there is the concern that if organizations are required to notify about breaches, they will be less reluctant to do certain things they should to keep systems more secure. take onwill refuse to services they should be offering. if patients will look at this database to make decisions, i think of there are more important considerations for your health care, like insurance and quality of the doctors. for everyone who shows up on that list, there are 20 just as vulnerable but did not make it onto the list because the breach was not discovered or was not reported. paula is calling from washington, d.c. caller: thank you. i am so glad this program is being aired. i have been asked to go through

a web portal to conduct business with my doctor's office. i have rested it -- i have resisted that. i am a low-tech person. be asking my physician about the security of the portal of the use? guest: i agree with your comment. to automate everything, we are leaving behind the digital divide. that there are people who do not have or do not want access to computers but still need health care. to ask,pect as to what you can ask what their data security practices are, whether an outsideploying security firm to check on the information they have. the bottom line is it is difficult for the average consumers to ask the question correctly. if they ask doctor the question to the -- if they ask the doctor

, they might personally not have any idea. host: that anticipates my next question. doctors themselves who do not study or focus data security in medical school. what responsibilities do they have and what should they be doing? should treatctor's the patient and surround themselves with expertise so their i.t. systems are good. but they cannot pretend there is not a problem. i find a cultural dynamic between i.t. people and doctors. after i gave a talk to a bunch of doctors about the importance of data security, one pointed his finger at me and said "the day your security i.t. kills my patients is the gay we -- is the day we can make you guys go away."

i did not get through to him. what we really need is for doctors to continue to do a great job treating patients but for them to want i.t. people to make their systems more secure. no one benefits if the system is hacked and no one benefits if their job cannot do because they do not understand i.t. constraints. host: there is also the tension between accessibility -- the ability to have this data easily transferred among doctors -- and security. facilities are having trouble drawing that line? question any kind of like that, i would say all of the above. we are dealing with new territory. not even 10 years ago, most records for patients were printed on paper. now most records are in computers. dealing with that amount of information in i.t. has been a

challenge. but you want to make it more available and you want doctors to share information. but the more available you make data, the more vulnerable. calling in from indiana. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: there is a few questions, but i will try to adjust ask one if you can answer it likely. i know there's a difference in doctors and your health care provider. and then your insurance. who is responsible in the field of security? should it be your insurance provider? statement about state lines.

years.heard that over 10 how health care systems cannot go into other states. if we are behind the eight ball in everything because instead of letting competition and insurance cup you for the best hospitals, doctors, security systems, if we never had that the last 20 years, is that why we are so far behind? host: let's give him a chance to respond. guest: the responsibility lies with everybody. in the infamous reputation, it would be health care providers who have their information and interaction with the patients. the insurance companies can put a lot of pressure on health care providers to practice the latest security practices. they can put financial pressure on them. they can also help them. they are large enough that they have the resources to set standards and facilitate the

adoption of security technology and health care. this is the kind of thing that different stakeholders need to get behind. it is not one party responsible for it. ribbon, director of health and medical security at johns hopkins university. -- avi rubin, director of health and medical security at johns hopkins university. up next, melissa yeager of the sunlight foundation. ♪ week on c-span, the supreme court cases that shape our history come to life with landmark cases. historic supreme court decisions. the 12 part series explore constitutional dramas behind some of the most significant

decisions. >> this is a case about presidential power during times of war. conditions under times of emergency that presidents can't do things. -- can do things. >> the chief justice said that the case has come to be accepted by the culture. >> it was a sweeping decision. to allowed the nation abortion after fetal viability. yet it has not settled the issue. >> tonight, we look at miranda v. arizona, which ruled that suspects must be informed of their rights before incarceration. watch "landmark cases" tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org.

our c-span campaign 2016 bus continues to make stops across the country. recently, our bus visited phoenix, arizona to present awards to winners from the west division. wasr first prize video "rethinking reform." their classmates won second prize on the video about gender wage inequity. bus stopped in los angeles for a third winter before heading for elk grove and rocklin, california. c-span extends a special thanks cox, timele partners, warner cable, and comcast, for their help in coordinating student cam winners. be sure to watch the 21 winning entries before washington journal.

"washington journal" continues. is melissang us yeager, a senior staff writer at the sunlight foundation. we will talk about congressional fund-raising. guest: exciting topic. [laughter] houselet's talk about members up for reelection. how consuming is the issue of fundraising? very consuming. they spend a lot of their time doing it. a lot of people would be surprised. a member of congress goes to washington to represent them and do not realize that a lot of their time is spent calling people to get donations to continue not just electing themselves but also to elect the party into power. according to the sunlight

foundation, house and senate candidates raised a total of $1.7 billion. what sort of things do they do to keep that fundraising going, in addition to their jobs? guest: first, they do have phone ands where they sit actually have someone with them, helping them call different people and ask for money. partiestrack of the they host. sometimes, a member of congress can have two or three parties day, trying to raise money for their reelection. we crowd source invitations, so people can get an idea of what kind of parties they are hosting at how much this consumes their time. host: we are talking to melissa yeager at the sunlight foundation know about congressional fund-raising. on the republican line, you can call in on (202) 748-8000 to

join the conversation. democrats can call (202) 748-8001. independence can call -- independents can call (202) 748-8002. election orer before the next election do members of congress need to start turning their focus toward fundraising? guest: it is a constant cycle. well.s surprising as you get elected, you go, and we have heard stories of lawmakers getting there and trying to learn the ropes of the new job and they are already being topped by folks to start tapped byg -- folks to start fundraising. host: on the website for the sunlight foundation, yeah -- you have something called "political party time." guest: that is where we crowd

source the invitations. people who receive invitations to political fundraisers send them to us anonymously. people an them take a idea of how much fun raising going on. what the price is for people to attend. it also gives a clue to the personality of the different representatives and members of congress. you can see what sorts of parties they hold. it might give you on idea of some things about their personality. host: where do you get the information you include? we have a way you can upload it the website anonymously. we take the names of the people who send it off. we are just looking at the invitation. if folks watching receive these invitations and would like to help us in our effort to crowd source these invitations, we welcome them to go to po

liticalpartytime.com so we can get a better idea of how much time is spent on political fundraising. host: who typically sponsors these type of fundraisers? is it by the campaign itself or by others? sometimes it is the campaign. sometimes it is friends or supporters of the candidate. thing theother invitation gives us an idea of. sometimes there are folks who have given a large amount to these campaigns and are trying to host fundraisers to continue to raise money. that also gives us insight into the candidate and what their connections are. run: what might be cost for an attendee? asst: they can go as cheap cap of a the

fund-raising committee, which is $2700. some parties also raise money for the party. above $2700.o some folks will do something called bundling, where they get other folks to give that $2700 and you will see the cost go up from there. from 25 dollars to $50 to all the way up. on what type of party and what kind of access you are getting. what kind of event it is. we see fundraisers at taylor swift concert. a variety of things you would not think of as being and not -- as being an opportunity to raise money for an election. host: you talk about axis. what might lobbyists or other folks who gain access, what do

they expect to get for that kind of access? guest: that is a difficult question to answer. it is hard to say "this person gave to this campaign and therefore they get x," but with the amount of money, you certainly get your phone call returned. when i started the sunlight foundation, it was difficult to understand the difference between someone who gives $2700 -- it is different from someone who gives $1 million to a super pac. there are varying degrees. if you are giving to a representative, likely you will get a call back. that is something someone who was lobbying would like. israel talkedman about fundraising. at one point he says "this is not shock tank. see.is your marker

as the bidding goes higher, your -- this is your democracy. as the bidding goes higher, your voice goes lower." guest: that is the debate. whether you're looking at folks who support bernie sanders or donald trump, you see there is an opinion that there are people who have a larger voice and moneys munley -- perhaps influences that. that is important to watch during this election. it is something people have been vocal about. money on our of politics. we have been advocating for more transparency. when you are able to see who is behind that money and influence, you can make a good decision as a voter. talking are congressional fund-raising with melissa yeager from the sunlight foundation. viewers can join in.

republican line, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. congressman steve israel recently did an interview with hbo's john oliver. [video clip] >> talk about the congressional call center. picture.a word is there motivational posters on the wall saying "hang in there" and try not to think about what you are doing? set up.ave cubicles you sit at a desk and have a phone. you have an assistant next to you and you have a call book. that has seats of every past donor and their record -- that has sheets of every past donor and their record. onr system and get someone the phone and you engage in polite conversation. you get to the point and hang up

and then flip the page to the next donor. you make another call. you continue doing that until you have the resources to get reelected. [laughter] >> oh my god, that's depresseing. how do you train people to do it well? >> every member has their own approach. my approach was to get to the point and then have a civilized conversation. that is a humorous look at how these things happen. talk a little more about this process and how much time lawmakers have to spend in these call centers? like john oliver give us a chance to laugh at it, but it is a serious issue. not only on the side of theerned that this is how person elected to washington spends their time, not reading through bills and considering

the complexities of legislation -- even the members themselves, when they decided to run for office and go to washington to work on the issues important to them, many of them admitted they did not think this would be a large part of what they would spend their day on. sides, and there is this concern over how much of your day is spent doing that. line,on our democratic judy is calling from kentucky. caller: thanks. i have a question about how big donors get away with giving so much. i have long been a small donor. i am retired now. i have long been a small donor to the democratic party or to different democratic candidates. i always have to put down my

name and occupation and so on. i understood there was a limit to how much i can give. i have never been able to reach that, but how do big donors get away with giving away such gigantic amounts? guest: that is a good question. to the citizens united decision that gave the opportunity for super pac's. when you are donating to a specific candidate, there are limits on how much you can give to that specific candidate pac. able tosuper pac is raise unlimited money because they are supposed to be independent of the candidate and advocating for either the express election or defeat of a candidate. when it comes to that, people can give an unlimited amount of money. , whichac's are disclosed

is the good thing. now we see the people behind it are giving the money. "dark" money, where t up a 501-c4. a nonprofit. they do not have disclosure of donors to that. another way in is that people lc and thenish an l donate to the super pac. those avenues can raise unlimited amounts of money. there is no restriction on giving in that. allegedlyperating independently of the candidate. there is debate over whether that actually occurs or not. so you run the risk of "are you doing what the candidate wants?" would see that those are working in conjunction with each other. host: can you talk about the

rules that affect lobbyists and other interest groups are doing these types of fund-raising parties? there has been a lot of legislation in the past. i think a law was passed in 2007 to try to put restrictions on how lobbyists are involved in our process. the problem with a lot of that ofwe wanted more disclosure this world of lobbying. however, they require registration of 20% or more and then put in very tough legal of thetions to some things that were going on. so now a lot of that is riven underground. isple do -- a lot of that driven underground.

we collate shadow lobbying, where they are not registered as a lobbyist but still do lobbyist activities -- we call it "shadow lobbying," where they are not registered as a lobbyist would still do lobbyist activities. restrictionere is to lobbyists, there is a downside as well. host: on our democratic line, we have keith from chicago. caller: good morning. i wanted to make a brief comment. unrealistics really to not believe that our politicians are not being bought and paid for. we cannot realistically say that these people are giving money to politicians for nothing. they have a point. there is a point to them giving

money. with ourhat is wrong political process right now. i cannot believe that people think that these politicians are really concerned about the there feet that when hit the floor and they have to go to work and earn a living -- host: lets give melissa a chance to respond. guest: i think that sentiment is shared in a lot of places. it is difficult to say "x caused getting phone are calls returned. there is a growing feeling among that how is the system rigged against me.

is this influence preventing my voice from getting hurt? aree is resentment that there some voices, with money, are louder than others? certainly, he reflected a growing concern, whether democrat or republican. all of the research shows that this is something shared by people of both parties. line,on our independent norman is calling from massachusetts. caller: good morning. my question was if the management of our media, our media, is like in bed with the donors. likeshere i go, no one the system. if the mass media were to say do ,ot vote for the major parties

there are tons of other parties to vote for. it is never mentioned. major parties contribute aliens of dollars to the media. you gave mem like a millions of dollars, i would shut up about third party voting. certainly, there is concern about how much money is spent on advertising on television. ofis still the juggernaut the political race. how much money is spent on advertising and the media's relation to that. there is also concern about groups advertising on social media and the internet, where there is very limited disclosure. at least one we know money is being spent in television, we are able to look at sec filings

to see who is behind that and -- look at fcc filings to see who is behind that. internet ads,to unless it is being put on an siteite -- on an internet for a fee, there is no reason to disclose that. made ark money group meme on facebook and it went to knowhere is no way who paid for that. we call it the internet blind spot. where will things goes next when we start watching things on the laptop instead of the television. are talking to melissa yeager, senior staff writer at the sunlight foundation, who has

also won regional emmy awards and formally a part of the kshb inative team at kansas city. callmore about these centers. we have a tweet that asks "what happens if they members of congress just says no, refuses to work in the call rooms?" guest: john oliver kind of givess on how the party stipulations on how much the dues are. if you refuse -- that is a good question. why do a bunch of them not ban together and say we will not do this anymore. but you risk being the one guy in a primary against another candidate, and the party for its

support around another candidate. that is where they are between a rock and a hard spot. if a bunch of them joined together and say we are not doing this anymore, in the general election, if you are a democrat candidate and republicans are fund-raising and have more money than you going into the race, you run into that spot again. it is a difficult situation to figure a way out of at this point. host: on our democratic line, don is calling for maryland. caller: thanks for taking my call. i love c-span. wondering about the fundraising that the parties do over the internet. e-mails i guess every day. and how much that contributes to

the polarization of the electorate? most of these e-mails always say something horrible about the other side. over time, that must have an effect on the person. polarize thees citizens more than it should. i would be interested in what you have to say about that. the advent of modern technology is certainly -- people are trying to utilize that grassroots efforts of reaching out to people. there have certainly been a lot faux pas witha lines on email about "you need now" ando me right how that is taken out of context. but that is not unique to fundraising online.

it is kind of an in general thing of trying to impassioned your voters to turn out to the polls. host: let's talk about how much fun racing goes on. on the sunlight foundation's mostte, you have the expensive senate races so far. it is in ohio, maryland, illinois, pennsylvania, and wisconsin. price is up to as much as $30 million, as we see in ohio. and that is early in the cycle. this is the time everyone is talking about presidential politics. maybe there will be a couple about contested senate and house races. to see that amount of money being spent so early is indicative of what we will see through the cycle. that is thepeople

outside money coming into the races, the regular players, the nra, thehers, the on themajority pac democratic side -- some of those unfamiliar names. we get fixated on the presidential race, and then voters do not pay attention as much to the outside money coming in to the state-level races, whether it read the senate or the house. coming see outside money into state legislature because of gridlock. this will be something to watch as we continue through the election cycle. that it is not just the presidential race we should watch but up and down the ballot. host: why do we see fundraising start earlier and earlier each cycle? they want more in their

war chest for the general election. -- and those races maryland, you have a retiring senator and a contested primary. so money starts heating up because the primary is he did as well. some of it is due to that. but the more time you have to fun race, i think candidates think that will mean more in especially int, the case of most senate races, which are usually heated. fact that its the is a presidential year affect the races in terms of how much is money -- how much money is raised for congressional candidates? it is getting voters to turn out to vote up and down the ballot. if we see it at the presidential level, we will see it in contested states. more fundraising in those areas.

they work hand in hand. host: do they have to compete with the dollars if people are donating more to presidential races? we have do not know if seen that, but certainly you see a lot of large donors and super pac's, where people have given a large amount of money in there has been sitting for a presidential race. it will be interesting to see how things are spent. host: up next on our independent is calling from washington, d.c. caller: good morning, ladies. thanks for taking my call. c-span viewer. i have two questions. one more of a comment. foundation sunlight does great work.

if any area needs sunlight, it is money and politics. money in politics is a critical issue for our country, just for regular people. most people do not pay attention to politics the way some people do. a lot of times, the only shot of a candidate is through these ads. that was my comment. my question is have you guys seen any connections to any of our politicians and these penama -- panam papers that were leaked last week? guest: that is a good question. papers, we have not seen a lot of americans cited in those. we have or know about this. a lot of the writing is that the

those were tax havens overseas. but we have places like della baer, i think wyoming and nevada, where people are able to do that here. ,- we have places like delaware i think wyoming and nevada, where people are able to do that here. what people should be aware of is this idea that you can set up an anonymous llc, which is what these papers are about. in the political fundraising world right now. people should be concerned. say you have an ad funded by a dark money group or by a super without aad an llc name attached to it. who are those people? we do not know the people behind that ad. about should be concerned that lack of disclosure in our

election cycle. we have written about several that we believe have been set up for the purpose of electoral politics, because they follow the same format. it is an important thing for people to keep and i on as we watch the panama papers. that is something that happens and is identifiable here. on theou hit a little impact of the citizens united decision. can you speak more about that? how we see the impact of that decision, that lifted the cap on spending for these groups. guest: everyone refers to it as corporations are people, too. is a corporation is a person, that theyve this llc

can contribute to just like a person can to on election. that is how we get this problem. if you do not want your name attached to this donation, you set up an llc in delaware and give money through that llc. then when people look through through finance, y -- campaign-finance, you get x, y, then llc. there are groups we are familiar with. if chevron or the nra or whatever group games a large amount to a super pac or candidate, we know what their intentions are. they are a known commodity. but you do not know the intentions behind an llc. that is unfortunate for voters, who should know the agenda behind ads. host: on our democratic line, we

have a manual from maryland -- we have emanuel from maryland. caller: i just wanted to ask, why is there not a lot of talk 10 minutes for the congressman. raising focused on money for the next election in order to get did. job toe not doing their benefit the american people. i wanted to ask why there is not a talk on that? guest: certainly, people raise that question. does who would be making that law? it would be congress it sells, and there is a lot of gridlock on the federal level.

the general public talks about that, about with this be a solution to the problem? with moneyof issues and politics and congress, you have a congress that is very much gridlocked. getting legislation passed right now is slim to not. -- slime to none. host: -- slim to none. host: in the john oliver peace and others, it talks about three times.a day at what has the sunlight foundation found in terms of how much time it takes up and does it affect their ability to do the job they were elected to do? that is something voters should ask their lawmaker. definitiveave a guide of all the fundraisers,

because it is crowd sourced, but we get a good idea from what people show us. congressman to ask "you want to three parties a day, what time where you researching legislation and helping make the decisions for my community?" those questions need to be asked. the john oliver show used a lot liticaldata from the po party time website. like 900 at one restaurant in d.c. then you are talking about the israel -- heh mr. could not even remember some of the ones he had been to. that is telling. when you have so many fundraisers that you are just what did youst

find because i cannot even remember? that is something worthy to ask questions about and have a discussion. host: do lawmakers have fundraising targets, and if so, who sets them? party.by the i believe how it works as they are depending on their influence in the party. i know how they showed on the john oliver show is that pelosi's minimum was higher than someone who was newer in congress. it depends on what the party has set for you. you are contributing to the overall effort on for reelection, not just for yourself but for your party in the general election. we always have to keep in mind we are not just thinking about the primaries but the general election. when you have two parties both trying to beat each other, you'll not get a detente.

host: up next on our democratic line, we have dan from maryland. caller: good morning. hen a politician retires, can keep whatever he has eczema related in his funds and pretend he will run. -- keep whatever he has in his funds and pretend he will run. all you have to do was to attend you will run for senate. can send flowers to someone who was passed away. these are expenses everyone has, but they can use that to do this. it does not seem fair.

when they quit their position but still hold all of this money -- host: let's give melissa a chance to respond to this idea of war chests being retained. guest: that is a concern of people. that they do roll it over into a foundation and it is somewhere else. we get a lot of questions about that, especially when presidential candidates leave a raise. what happens to the rest of that money. -- leave a race. it is something people ask questions about. host: up next on the republican is calling from tennessee. do you have a question for melissa yeager? caller: i just have a comment. i started listening to this a little late, but to me, it seems

living proof that legislators are influenced strongly by contributors is this tax code. benefits that have been gained by contributors to legislators, and there is nobody wille legislature that touch it. they talk about how terrible it is, but when it comes time to reforming the tax code and doing away with these benefits, tax breaks that have been bought and paid for, no one will do anything. i am wondering what she thought about that. not as well rehearsed in the tax code and how things got put in there, but certainly people are concerned with are there people who have a

voice stronger than mine in congress? and isn't it keeping us from making progress and making our government better? familiar witht the tax code issue and how things are put into that, overall, certainly people are concerned with how their voices are being heard by their lawmakers and whether they are being heard. host: on the independent line, james is from florida. good morning. i have one resolution and one question. we could repeal the 17th amendment, therefore making state legislatures locally appoint senators, which was the original intent of the constitution. my question is the reference to foreign donations hidden from other countries. soroso people like george

and that fellow in california, how are they able to donate like $100 million to the democratic party, the one fellow in california, and then soros. how did he give $6 million to hillary clinton, when they are supposed -- when there is supposed to be a cap on that. we talk about state legislatures, we see money getting poured into state legislature races as well. areay that state lawmakers immune from the influence of money in politics, that is one place we should have more sunlight. lawmakers, what they are receiving from outside groups as well. talking about how these large donors can give to a usually when they

gave large donations, they are giving it to a super pac supporting that candidate. if you are given directly to the candidate, you are capped at $ 2700. comes to a super pacs, created by the citizens united decision, you can give an unlimited amount of money, but the idea is there is disclosure of who is giving that money. there are certainly a large of super pac's out there. eight different super pac's supporting him now. i think there are three that are just emily's donating's $10 million -- just families donating $10 million or whatever. it is not exclusive to one candidate. the only candidate that does not an official super pac associate with him is donald trump and then bernie sanders.

but we have found there are some , nursesl super pac's unions and whatnot, supporting him as well. it is a complex system we live in now. is calling on the independent line from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? guest: good. caller: thank you for taking my call. am just now trying to understand the political process. are the health care systems when it comes to the political process and dumping money into political parties? is reason why i want to ask -- we have decent insurance. $790 a montharound

for her insurance. the last two years, our deductible has gone up and out. it is at the point where we cannot see a doctor because i see an $800 deductible to one. how can they get away with this? host: i want to give her a chance to get a response to your question. not as well versed in data tables and the reason behind them going up and some of those things that directly affect folks, but the influence of money by big groups and their people aresomething concerned about. they want to know more about who was lobbying and how much they arespending and what bills behind that. we certainly need transparency

so people can understand who is having a voice in our system. melissa yeager, senior staff writer from the sunlight foundation, thank you for joining us. that is all for today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. have a good friday. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] to monday, wead will be live from the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta looking at the top public health issues facing the cdc like zika, ebola,

and with really abuse. and opioid abuse. they will discuss the vaccine and anti-vaccine movement. dr. ruth bell will join us talking about ebola and the zika virus. joining us will be dr. thomas the 70thtalking about anniversary and the future of the cdc. we will close with the head of the center for injury talking about a test about opioid addiction. morning, live to a conversation on the future of the european union hosted by the hudson institute. foreign policy scholars will discuss the possibility of great britain