-- on the flint, michigan, water contamination crisis. ♪ host: good morning on this wednesday, may 18. it was the kentucky derby in the state's democratic primary yesterday with hillary clinton winning by a nose and bernie sanders scoring another victory in oregon. week andional police tens of thousands of law enforcement are gathering in washington. we will begin this morning with police relations in your community. if you live in the eastern central part of the country, 202-748-8000. mountain pacific, 202-748-8001.

and we want to hear from law enforcement as well. 202-748-8002. you can join the conversation on twitter or facebook. went to theell floor and talked about national police week. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> on a proud sponsor of the resolution recognizing the work of active duty law enforcement officers come of the national lawnforcement officers the 15th anniversary proud1 and i'm also a cosponsor of the act that will provide flags flown over the capital to the family members of law enforcement officers lost in the line of duty.

this bill has passed both the house and senate and it is awaiting the president's signature. i'm also a cosponsor of the police act, which would expand equip laws and enforcement to respond to threats like the san bernardino shootings. it would give the police officers the training they need to do their jobs more effectively. i'm hopeful we can quickly move this important legislation. i'm proud to represent kentucky's police officers in the senate. law enforcement is a very dangerous work and is also a noble calling. i'm grateful for the service of every police officer in kentucky and across the nation. with it being police week, the national police week, we want to know your thoughts on

relations in your community with police officers. this is a recent headline in "the new york times." agree on what to call the rise in homicides, much less its cause. what is it like where you are living? also from "the new york times." the fbi director recently said the viral video effect is blunting police work. here is what he said to reporters --

do you agree with that? law enforcement, we have a line for you this morning. editorial said don't blame the video. this is what they write. fed into the false this nation is thatng into a crime wave is somehow related to the public backlash against police brutality.

mr. komi said these remarks to reporters last week. comey said these remarks to reporters last week. donny in georgia. you are up first. what are relations like with police officers where you live? caller: good morning. relations are good here in this small community between the police and our community. i guess the population here is about 30,000 people. everybody knows everybody. police come to the community and keep a check on everything. i live about 100 miles away from atlanta. the violence in atlanta is outrageous. i watch the news every day. i think the police have to reach

out to the communities and the communities have to reach out to the police. it has to be a two-way type of thing to stop the violence and the distrust between the communities and the police. host: what do you think is driving the violence? is it a backlash against brutality, is it poverty, not having economic opportunity? what do you think the root cause is? caller: it is a bit of all of that. by the way, i am a black person. with the police shootings that have taken place in the last few years -- i was angry, too. we have to realize that the majority of the police are good police officers. thatave a small percentage do the police brutality and it makes it all look bad and that is not fair. that is what we have to do.

poverty has something to do with it. when you grow up and feel like you have no way out, a lot of times, you feel desperate and you will do just about anything and you don't value life. host: donnie is in georgia. robert is in indiana. the morning to you. share your thoughts with us. -- good morning to you. caller: i don't think too much of the way the police department runs in indianapolis. just from my daily observations -- i'm retired. and hit people in the community they have no knowledge about. some are bringing drugs into the community. you cannot indict a community based on the demographics and the poverty that exists in the

community. system, the brokers that want to create that kind of system to expand their control, police is only one arm of that army. arms,what are the other as you call them? caller: the city and state government. mentality act out the of the powerbrokers. host: what is your reaction to hearing this, "the washington page?front

caller: that is a very easy question. -- thetem, like i said people that rose to power, they educationalng genocide in the black community. withcan re-segregate poverty. andols out in the suburbs not appropriate money to keep the inner-city schools at a decent level to where they can be considered quality education. ken in alexandria, virginia. you are law enforcement there. what is your take on what the fbi director had to say about the viral video effect? caller: it is very common. i now live in northern virginia, but i started policing in

canton, new jersey. in 1992. they were suffering from active poverty for a number of years. it is a matter of perspective depending on where you live. i'm a black man and i see and realize the issue today, that we should not be continuously fighting these battles over the years. i've never had any issues with anyone in my communities that i've ever police ani. policed in. ever the viral videos caused some trepidation in the community. you have to have a certain level of trust with the police and vice a versa. about whenu think you are going to get out of your

vehicle and approaches situation that somebody could have their cell phone out? how am i going to approach the situation? caller: never. whatever reason i have to get out of my cruiser is the reason i am using the power of the law. i don't care if they are videotaping it. i applaud it. as long as you comply with what i'm asking you to do, feel free. some of the people i have encountered have posted it online and throw it on youtube. but i'm not doing anything illegal. backup, said have you have a witness. they are using that as an excuse , trying to make you

uncomfortable. action newsay is an reporter or director or producer of their own films. have at it. bring it to court. bring all of it. host: have you ever had a situation in court were somebody brought only part of their video? caller: absolutely. they only want to play portions of it. when they try to subpoena that person to get the entire video, a lot of times, the users is the in's. a lot of people don't want to see themselves or admit to the things they do. resistance. television will take these videos and put them on television and chop it up and it becomes edited. situation is

involving quickly, how do you recall the training that you've had in the past? you are always thinking about that you have the law on your side. approach the situation unless you feel there is a reason to do so. how do you quickly recall that training and was it adequate? caller: the most important thing is experience. and gain ato college lot of knowledge but it does not mean that you are wise. when i started policing in camden, i was told to walk the streets and become part of the community and that is what i did. i learned to communicate and talk to people. in the community, so it was not much of a switch, but a lot of officers come from different areas, let alone

different generations. they are all connected to this electronic generation. to me, it is just experience. a lot of police officers have that ability. you become more confident in what you are doing and how to go about policing. policing is not just one way of doing things. ken, part ofs law enforcement in alexandria, virginia. line for law enforcement, police, fbi, etc. please call in on 202-748-8002. christie in south carolina. what is it like where you live? seen a spike in crime, but it's mostly teenagers. where are the parents? we all want to blame the government, the city, the state, whatever.

where are the parents? we have teenagers committing armed robbery, teenagers killing other people. where are these parents and why aren't they being held accountable? host: what can you do about that? raller: well, first, one calle previously said the schools. these parents don't vote for school choice, they vote for people that don't want school choice. these parents allow their children out of the house after midnight or whatever to be doing these crimes. coming the government down on them for making the community unsafe? host: christie in charlotte, north carolina.

we are taking your calls about what it is like in your community with police officers on national police week. what is your relationship like with the police? what are you seeing where you live this morning? ,ountain pacific region 202-748-8001. eastern part of the country, 202-748-8000. law enforcement, 202-748-8002. nose inclinton by a kentucky yesterday. also in oregon, bernie sanders racking up another victory. 54.5%ted hillary clinton to 45.5%. republicans also had a primary in oregon yesterday and donald trump had 67% of the vote.

for thew.c-span.org latest on the delegate count. now has 1767on pledged delegates. you can see how it breaks down for bernie sanders. his campaign trying to convince more superdelegates to come his way. donald trump with 1160, just shy of 1237magic number that he needs after yesterday's primaries. this in the front page of "the new york times." sanders is urged to quell threats by his followers. chairs fly in nevada. uproar over selection of delegates heightens the primary friction.

alarmed by the unrest in nevada, harry reid said he spoke with mr. sanders on tuesday, saying that he faced a test of leadership over supporters's actions. you can see some of the video there. sanders versus the democrats. sanders supporters publicized partyone number of the lange.man, roberta

sanders released a statement tuesday saying he condemned any of the violence. you can find the statement online. within the last few days, there have been a number of purchases made by campaign organizations.

that is the latest in the back and forth, more to come as we toward the-- head general election. mountainsreports that of mud are set to fly in the presidential race.

back to our phone calls and conversation with all of you. police relations in your community. roger, you are next. arizona. good morning. go ahead. -- you know,listen i'm really tired of listening to all of this police condemnation. navajo county, arizona, we have an elected sheriff who , cocaine rehabab five times. fbi, the dea have been notified of this elected sheriff of navajo county being

in cocaine rehab. got law enforcement for drug enforcement here in the hasn't hisizona, why sellers to the sheriff been apprehended and why hasn't the sheriff been eliminated from being the sheriff of navajo county, arizona? the biggest drug hole in the united states. why hasn't this stop? the republican party know about this. yet, he continues to be the sheriff of navajo county. thank you, c-span. host: stephen in ohio. good morning to you. are you there? i will move on to melvin in

suffolk, virginia. what is it like where you live with police officers? melvin, you are on the air. one last call. walter in new jersey. are you ready? caller: yes. how are you doing? there are very good police officers out there. my interaction with local police has been fine. need to do better pr. you only hear about the bad cops. the ones who shouldn't be police at all. my brother was a police officer and he never years used his weapon in the line of duty. host: for 30 years?

caller: never used his weapon. never on holstered it. it.ever unholstered he was a police officer in new york city. he knew how to handle situations. 13t: president obama honored law enforcement members with the medal of valor. [video clip] >> it's been said that perfect witsses doing without what you would do if the whole world were watching. the public safety officers we recognize today with a medal of valor found courage not in search of recognition, they did it instinctively. this is an award that none of them sought.

if they could go back in time, i suspect they prefer none of this had happened. as one of today's on a recent said about his actions, they gone my whole career and not dealt with the situation and been very happy with that. if they had their way, none of them would have to be here. we are grateful that they are. our entire nation expresses its profound gratitude. more important, we are so grateful that they were there. some on-duty, others off-duty, all rising above and beyond the call of duty. all saving the lives of people they did not know. that distinction that these 13 saved theof valor lives of strangers is a quality they all share. their bravery -- had it not been

for their bravery, we would have lost a lot of people. mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, friends and loved ones. thankfully, they are still with their families today because these officers were where they needed to be most. host: president obama honoring 13 police officers. fbi agents with the medal of valor their. there.l of valor allen in delaware city. good morning to you. thank you for taking my call. it might be political suicide for many people -- it is on a lot of people's minds and it does not come out because it is political suicide.

are only allowed to have up to two kids anytime. there are people in this country that have as many kids as they want with has many fathers as they want and the government pays for this. they live fairly well by doing that. a lot of people should not even be parents. look at the criminals and crime and trace it all back, a lot of it gets back to that. where are the politicians who after the first and second kid, we are not paying for it? host: what about the child in that situation? caller: the adults have to have a bit of responsibility in this. if there was no reward for continuing to have kids out of wedlock by many different fathers, would that continue as it is now?

i would very much love to hear from a lot of your colors -- a -- of your callers host: what would you say to people who say you are punishing the child and putting them in the same cycle of poverty? caller: i would say maybe adoption would be a good option. something has to break this cycle. politically, somebody has to stand up and say we are not going to pay for this anymore, you have to find something else to do with your life. if you trace this back, a lot of this is where the crime is coming from. s's: those are allen thoughts in delaware michigan.

alan's thoughts in delaware. michigan. good morning. withr: i've h young sons local policent departments. one and a, a county township one. the young man sliding with the day on hisslippery way to school in the morning that led to them pursuing him like he was some kind of dangerous criminal -- another case where they pulled one of them over claiming that he had a license plate light out, which he did not. and did up being charged with

possession of cigarettes as an adult. -- ended up being charged with possession of cigarettes as an adult. they lie and cheat. after three years of similar , i did some speaking up about constitutional principles and integrity. i was actually put in the county jail with no charge. my criminal record can be run and there's absolutely nothing there. they did not do anything but put me in the detention cell for three days. and there is no accountability at all. i have to continue to hear how great the police are. and they are not. host: your experience in michigan. kevin in new orleans.

what has been your experience? caller: the experience in new orleans is that new orleans has a very dividing police department. as a black man in new orleans to live, going to work, you have to identify yourself that you are going to in order to be not harassed in new orleans. has setce department harassing young black males in orleans. they don't have criminal records, but they will give you a criminal record. police stopped him for a break

check that you can drug test him -- they said we found a piece of weed in your car. they give him a record. to harass people for no reason, rest of them, stop them for no reason, they become angry. when they become angry, they hate police. that's what makes them get out there and do the things that they do. orleans.in in new got about 15 minutes left here in our conversation of what it's like where you are living with police officers. we are marking national police week. tens of thousands of police officers coming to washington, d.c. this week. some other political news for you.

donald trump's financial disclosure is the largest in the history of the fec. trump filed the form that clocks in at 104 pages and throws -- shows tremendous cash flow. a revenue increase of $190 million, not including other sources of income. net worth in excess of $10 million. compare that to this in the wall street journal this morning about hillary clinton. -- net worth in excess of $10 billion. bill clinton's speech income is $6.7 million in the past 18 months. speeches the former president gave after his wife kicked off her presidential bid. the clintons have not yet

released their tax returns. there reported wealth is reportedly $11.3 million. donald trump sat down with megyn kelly for a special on fox news yesterday. they talked a couple times about the relationship between the two of them. [video clip] >> we were always friendly. right? 6d then came the august debate. i asked you a tough question about women. i thought it was a fair question. trump: i did not think it was a question, it was more of a statement that was the first question i've ever been asked during a debate. i'm saying to myself, man, what a question. i'm saying to myself by got two hours of this?

becausereally blame you you are doing your thing, but from my standpoint, i don't have to like it. role that the journalist;s to be nice to presidential >andidates - they were nice, but that doesn't mean they have to be nice. in a way, what you did it might have been a favor. -- is that the journalist's rural to be nice to presidential le to bees -- ro nice to presidential candidates? even doing this particular interview come i have great respect for you that you were

able to call me and say let's get together and talk. for me, i would not have done that. it is a negative for me. when you and i were having a little difficulty, you probably had some nasty things you wanted to say. bond --an unbelievable >> you retweet some of those. >> not the real nasty ones. you'd be amazed at the ones i don't retweet. you've been called a lot worse. wouldn't you say? it's not about me. it's about the messaging to young girls and other women -->>

is a modern day form of fighting back. the donald trump special for fox news. is slinging 2012 mud at donald trump. is thetimillionaire now one demanding donald trump releases tax returns. some other news about what is happening on capitol hill. the senate okayed the right to sue saudi's over terrorism. the bill has been deeply warning it would poison relations. adding that he fears nations would respond with laws targeting the u.s.

in the senate from usa today, the body approved $1.1 billion for the zika war. than president obama wanted. what is happening in the senate today, democrats are holding a for merrickorum garland. we will have coverage of it on c-span3. frustrated senate democrats will hold a mock confirmation hearing wednesday for the supreme court nominee. it will showcase former government officials and lawyers who know judge garland and will testify to democrats on the senate judiciary committee about why the nominee is qualified for the high court. republicans are calling it desperate. trey gowdy told fox news

yesterday, whether or not they ,ould have gotten there in time the pentagon and its resources on september 11, 2012, they could not -- why were you not positioned to do so? g ocrats seized on mr. owdy's admissions. that in the papers this morning as well. ken in florida.

what is it like where you live with police? caller: good morning. i am a firm believer that the police across our country are quite good. is the wholeoblem law enforcement system. when a police officer has done wrong or is suspected of doing wrong, he gets many days to come up with a story and all his friends in the police department have time to come up with a story. i get into trouble with the police, they interrogate us immediately and get a statement from us when everything is fresh. , we get district attorneys who work with police all the time, they get to decide that is theot -- biggest problem we have. we have to change that system. ca, your thoughts.

kansas. luca.orning, caller: this is a very special case. in kansas, it is an exception that cannot be accepted anywhere on this planet. ,olice have made an accusation andecute false exit accusations convict the innocent. judges, crooked police, crooked prosecutor -- host: dennis in pennsylvania. caller: good morning. i'm calling about the state police in pennsylvania.

years, they will not respond. you call 911, they will not respond. -- for years. you cannot control speeding in the community. a tractor-trailer -- nobody response. responds. host: some other headlines. in south carolina, the legislature passed a bill banning abortion after 19 weeks. the governor is expected to sign it. this from "the washington post" this morning. conservatives are keeping the pressure on the irs. house republicans have slashed

the irs budget. there is that in the papers. also, this piece. testifying on the iran deal because of the promise he made ." howe new york times easily he could manipulate the media.

the white house saying they will not let him testify on capitol hill about that. earl in canton, georgia. good morning. here in georgia, i'm a democrat and this is a republican state. orannot vote for the sheriff anybody because they are all republicans. you mentioned donald trump's wealth and hillary clinton's wealth but did not mention bernie sanders's wealth. it's like you don't even think bernie is there. i'm the only one on georgia highway 20 that has a bernie sanders sign. bernie sanders has been called on to release his tax

returns as well. indianapolis. good morning. caller: i just wanted to make a couple of comments on my real life experience with police. i am black, of course. so, that is a crime. number one. nationwide. laws.jim crow i'm a serious law-abiding citizen. ,nd yet, in my neighborhood i've been harassed all my life. i am 55 now. when i was young, i used to get stopped two or three times a day. -- one time, ie

had $985 worth of tickets in one year. they locked me up right before christmas. i was self-employed. still am. i'm a door-to-door salesman. they would stop me at will, go through my car, give me so many tickets so that i could not pay them. you see? i told the judge one time back in the 1980's come if you let me out of jail, i will have your money before the new year. was only about four or five days after christmas. -- innational police week

1962, it was president john f. kennedy that signed the proclamation which designated may 15 as police memorial day. other headline for you. honorsity of virginia to late justice antonin scalia. onrge mason administrators decided they had the authority to override the board of visitors which had already accepted donations in the terms that came with them to name the law school after justice scalia up .

that doesn't pour our conversation about police relations in your community. -- that does it for our about police relations in your community. up next, we will ask congressman thomas massie about the libertarian movement. gives senator gary peters us an update on the flint water investigation and updates in his state. ♪ >> booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend. here are some of the programs to watch for. this saturday morning at 10:00, live from the gaithersburg book

festival. right went wrong. " "most blessed of the patriarchs." roger williams with "we the people." james on his book, "pay any price." kristen green and her book, "something must be done about prince edward county." joann with "love her, love her not." journalism."een of "fair labor lawyer." --sunday night at 9:00 >> for me, the worst thing ever

was commit an act of murder in 1991. it is one of the worst things you can do. i made that unfortunate decision devastatedof 19 and a family, took somebody's husband, son, brother, father. it is one of the things that stays to me this day that stays is one of the things that stays with me to this day. it is one of those burdens that never goes away. wrongs."ng my go to booktv.org for the complete weekend schedule. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with congressman thomas massie,

congressm republican of kentuck. rand paul out of the presidential race. what is the future of the libertarian movement? guest: i think there is still a future there. we have the liberty caucus in congress. not to be confused with the freedom caucus. it is a vestige of ron paul. we get together every other week. it is about two dozen congressmen who don't necessarily toe the party line andhings like privacy foreign conflicts. there is an outlet for libertarian thought and cooperation in congress. ,s far as the presidential race the prospects for libertarianism are not that great at this point. there are some aspects of trump i agree with. have ings he and i

common, we are both arians.ablishment terrie he presents a challenge to the status quo. maybe it is not a well-thought-out challenge or maybe it is. know a lot of sophisticated individuals were backing donald trump. -- it isnd engineers very surprising to me. i noticed it long ago. here's another observation i made being a member of congress. , john weekly meetings boehner and eric cantor ran those meetings. private meetings with no staff and no reporters. the first meeting of the week, you make the play call. we still have those meetings but the guys running the meeting are

not here. , infundamental disconnect that meeting, we never talk about why those men are not running the meeting anymore. my impression is that they got an externalrom pressures, not from anything that happened inside of .ashington, d c until my colleagues resolved the dissatisfaction of the american people with our job performance, they are not going to be able to understand why donald trump is a popular. onhas alternate views foreign policy. he asks questions that a lot of us have been asking for a wild. why are we rebuilding infrastructure in afghanistan when we are not doing that at

home? why are we paying for so much of defense fory socialist countries? eastyou look at the middle iran andwas young, iraq balanced each other out. they were a counterbalance. we eliminated the counterbalance and now, we are worried about the prominence of iran. donald trump brings all of that to the surface. host: you agree with donald trump on some things. are you endorsing him? guest: i will be a delegate in cleveland. there's two ways you can affect politics. do it from the outside or get way into the slump. waist deep into

this. i will be a delegate in cleveland. as such, i have pledged to support the nominee. i will be supporting donald trump i. host: why not gary johnson? there is a libertarian candidate. guest: people who support me, i would not begrudge them at all if they vote for gary johnson. , try to work within the party. i will support the nominee. what is your reaction to the report in "the washington post?" grassroots conservatives moved to stop trump at republican convention.

campaign operatives are offering to educate delegates on how they can act as free agents. some talk of convening somewhere else in the convention site. guest: it's not just the grassroots talking about a pending things -- a uphending things at the convention. i believe it would be bad for the party. disenfranchise two thirds of republican voters. i don't believe the outcome of that would be a ted cruz. the outcome would be somebody withs more upsetting washington dc insiders.

-- washington, d.c. insiders. the party will get who they want and i mean the people of the common party, not the grassroots. throwing that if you turmoil is likely to disenfranchise ted cruz voters. you disenfranchise two thirds of the electorate. that is a good recipe for losing the senate. politically, it is unwise and the outcome is not going to be good, ideologically. host: you mentioned leadership in the house and how the meetings are conducted. your weekly conference meeting. john boehner and eric cantor are not there anymore. have they been replaced with paul ryan and kevin mccarthy and are they run the same way? guest: great question. i did not vote for paul ryan.

opportunity to make a big course correction. we made a small course correction. it is run differently. i think speaker ryan is more inclusive than speaker boehner. it would be disingenuous for me to say that things have not improved because just yesterday, one of my bills moved through committee. boehner called ted cruz a few names. he's also called me names. he would say, i'm not moving bill because he is a whatever. paul ryan is not that way. we've moved one of my bills. that is a first for me. it would have never happened under john boehner. host: that is to audit the federal reserve. guest: one of the most popular

bills. from past the wall. audit the i would federal reserve. he had the delegates from five states that he was more successful than anybody wanted to knowledge at the time -- to acknowledge at the time. his hallmark bill was audit the fed. his last term in congress and paul broun took over the bill in the 113 congress. he passed the bill and was 333-92. -- it is very popular. this congress, we can get it to the floor and pass it. atdo need more transparency the federal reserve.

of there four parts federal reserve that are off limit to audits. like transfer of money to foreign central banks, for instance. make thatwe transparent? people say there is an audit already, but it is not a comprehensive audit. it other argument against is needs to be independent. we want our monetary policy independent of political whims. my answer is the federal reserve is a constitutional creation of congress. to print money or to coin money and regulate the value thereof.

we cannot outsource our responsibility. we still need to have oversight of it. there is a result -- a revolving door with the treasury and the big banks and terms of managers of the federalut reserve. they need to be independent but how do we know they are operating independently of the executive branch and wall street if we cannot look at the decisions and see how they made the decisions in monetary policy? we are taking your questions and comments on the impact of libertarians. dial in with your question. --

host: when it comes to spending and what is happening on capitol hill, under new leadership in the house, how will you vote on funding? approved 1.1s billion, more than what the house wants, less than what the president wants. you think about spending and spending on an issue like zika? the hill islaim on that this money is offset it i would look to the congressional budget office to see if that claim is true before deciding how to vote on the bill. they say we rv reappropriated money dedicated to ebola, that that is where a large version of this is coming from. it goes to show you they probably through too much money at a bola. -- ebola.

$1 billion is a lot of money. but the reasonable question is if you had a vaccine, how many people would be taking that? would you require people in parts of the united states, would you require them to take a vaccine? be thought out. i have not decided it $1 billion is a lot of money. part of my decision is whether it would be offset or not. see the capital behind you. that is the real capital. we are spending so much money over there. host: the new york times reports from your colleague in the republican of georgia saying if anybody in the this is does not think an emergency, you should have been with senator collins and me

two weeks ago in atlanta. been 500 cases in the united states of america and it is going to grow. only a lot of money but pittance compared to what it would cost. guest: 500 cases may be true. is not necessarily 500 cases. i feel for the people who have those cases. it is not a terminal it on this. it is very serious and women who are pregnant. pregnant, who are not it is not a life-threatening, life-changing disease. i do not want to downplay the importance but there are things in the news cycle that sort of dominate and the only way they can take care of it is to throw

money at it and that was the case with ebola, the world was going to end. anythingarely hear about it in the new spirit a lot of the money is obviously leftover because we are talking about moving it to zika. i'm not against that. calls linede got up, lisa in kentucky, a democrat. caller: hello. i know you are part of the libertarian movement. do you agree with discriminating againstl businesses people who are the lgbt community? how would that work? maybe it would work in rural areas but it does not work in suburban areas. instead of auditing the fed, why , the you get some money

i-65 south corridor has been the same for 55 years. into itt put any money and that is why people are met. they have no jobs and you will have not done anything to help them. guest: did you mention i-65? that is the one that goes through louisville. my congressional district reaches jefferson county. i have a small portion of the eastern part -- transportation committee. the issue you are concerned about is the issue i am concerned about. we do not have earmarks in washington, d c, anymore. we designate money to the states and then the governors and state legislature figures out where to in theirend the money own state. -- i-65 corridor is

corridor east of there, what we have done in the latest transportation bill, the chairman did this, designate core. we had some frustration here, that we give the money to the states and then we use it, i will not say bridges to nowhere, but they use it on things that are not issues of national importance. done is designate freight corridors in the transportation bill. many of them across the united states. money in theated where statesn bill have to spend it on core doors. and so doesalify i-75 east of there. tried to steere some of the money to the bigger projects of national importance.

i serve on the transportation committee. host: christopher in new york, a republican. a republican christian votes for a republican candidate like donald trump when he is not even willing to ask for repentance. that is one of the bigger things in the bible. talking a lot of times about how that is jesus'wish that we repent. how can anyone vote for someone who will not repent for jesus? but i doam a christian not think there should be a religious litmus test for elected officials. every person can have their own,

back to the previous caller's point about discrimination. you have the right to decide which qualities you want in a candidate and he may not reach the threshold you have if you have a religious test for a candidate. just be careful to people can say what they are and than they come to washington and they are something else. what you should probably try to look at is the result of his policies and if that would be in line with your beliefs. that is what i would do. mark in philadelphia, democrat. my question is more of a business one. i am a tax professional. greta just read the article where now the republicans in the .ongress conserved

the commissioner has tried to do his job. i have worked with many businesses in my day. if you do not collect your receivables, and i followed you, sir, and you have run a business. he will not be in business too long if you do not collect your receivables. on aommittee used it congressman, going after the commissioner for god knows what they're it i just want to hear your risk wants. -- your response. guest: we are not going after him because of the bill. of --ike a previous issue that rose to national importance, it is not so much about what happened. is not about whether she discriminated against conservatives. it is about the backup takes and the fact that he received a andctive from congress

within weeks, they deleted a couple hundred backup takes in west virginia where they are archived. my thought, and by the way, i am .n the resolution he was either incompetent and did not carry out the directive, the congressional mandate not to delete the backup tape, or he did it on purpose. i will not say it was one or the other, but either of those is grounds for losing her job. there will fire him so this is the only resort congress has. i am a cosponsor not because he is trying to collect the bill. it is about managing that organization. after something questionable happened. this says impeachment of an agency leader is rare.

the last time was in 1876 after a pattern of corruption by the secretary of war. house leaders are letting irs withents keep frustration an unpopular agency in the foreground and keep a good political target in their crosshairs. there are 70,000 pages of tax code and 100,000 employees in the irs. it is a creation of congress. we created the tax code and there is frustration there. to my republican colleagues. on the committee, when we get frustrated, i say we created this monster. and you need, as legislators, to change the tax code so there is not so much room for abuse and misinterpretation of the rules. then we could solve the problem.

i am the first one to tell my party that we have other tools for fixing the problem. basically, if you could reduce the tax code to maybe 100 pages, that would be nice. tax, none with a flat of these discussions would be happening. how would the committee look at the e-mail server question, hillary clinton .etting up a private e-mail would you be looking into it? guest: that would be up to the chairman to decide and i am not sure if we would or not. host: what you make of the chairman saying, democrats theng he basically admitted republican allegation that the military was told to withhold -- for political reasons, was wrong, that he admitted that?

guest: i heard testimony from witnesses who work for the government who saw this .appening and wanted to respond these are not the ones that were close, these are folks that are in the united states. they wanted to respond but they were told to stand down. gentleman's's name. i received testimony from people who said, they could've done i have not seen the chairman's comments. maybe it is true they could not have gotten there on time. , deciding ons whether those resources would be deployed, whether they would go there and try to get there, how did you know it would end before getting there on time? we never even initiated sending

it there. it is perfectly sustainable for the chairman to say they could not have gotten there on time but also to say why didn't you send it? you could radio the airplane on turnaround, hey, the situation is already resolved or we cannot do anything at this point. that is what came out of the oversight committee hearing that i think is still absolutely true. you were worried about the amount of money on capitol hill. tos that concern also relate a special committee looking into what happened in benghazi? telling foxnews the report will come sooner rather than later. we spend trillions of dollars. my friend who has been on your

show, i love him and i love his and his esm. private meetings i told you about at the beginning of the week, he stood up and said he has trillion dollar problems to solve and you have billion dollars solutions. he said that to our own leadership and he is absolutely right. what you're talking about is in the millions of dollars. one million of the trillion dollar problem we have got here. money you pay the for oversight and say, is the money well spent. i think it is always money well spent to find waste fraud and abuse. in this case, it is money -- done something differently and in the future, could we improve? with human lives at stake, it is a million dollars. while talking about oversight, i thed like to mention inspector general, another area

where money has been spent. there has been a recent debate about the budget for afghanistan. john, i was going to recommend you had him on if you don't, i have had him in hearings and i've talked to him one-on-one in my office about the waste, fraud, and abuse in afghanistan. he was upsetting a lot of people by going in and talking about the waste happening in afghanistan. problem a difficult there to rebuild the country. another question, it is not really up to john were people doing their job whether we there, but be trying that question aside, we have wasted over 100 billion, i say wasted. that is an opinion. we spend over $100 billion rebuilding afghanistan and we have very little to show for it.

his budget.utting usually, the inspector general and auditor, that is when they start talking about cutting the budget. the interviews are to begin with hillary clinton aides. it will be happening this week. caller: this is judy in texas. i want to take you back in history of the war between iran and iraq. the united states engineered them rightly so we would not have to have any kind of intervention. they were killing each other, which is great. the left and specifically linda,

the u.s. attorney general in agent who keptle saddam hussein going after the iranians, so like i said, we do not have to -- we can enter that clinton, from linda carvey to hillary clinton, there has been a long line of people like linda who have gone intelligence methodsng really good to keep the countries under so we do not have to have another war. host: i will have a congressman respond. guest: i want to clarify something i said earlier. you hearken back to the war between iran and iraq, which i

did earlier. i am definitely not saying that war is good. i do not like the fact that we are killing so many of each other. i think each side lost about half a million people and it would have been much better to have a peaceful balance in the middle east with no war whatsoever and no escalation. i would prefer to see them not at war. now that we have two peaceful forces to balance each other out sort of like the soviet union and the united states did for so long in the cold war, and i am glad it remained a cold war and never went hot, you can have the same thing in a smaller level like iran and iraq without a war. i do not think it has to be achieved through work. host: democrat, michael. caller: two things. taxes -- flatk

taxes, but second thing, i believe i heard this gentleman that because zika is not life-threatening, it is not really worthy of the investment that needs to be made. if your brain is destroyed and you have to be cared for for the others,your life by that is left -- life-threatening. i should have clarified it is life-threatening to the fetus. notn adult gets zika, it is life-threatening. i am not saying it is not worthy of trying to solve the problem, but we have many afflictions and diseases. obviously it is worthy of china to find a cure for cancer or heart disease or diabetes or any number of things. the question is where are your tax dollars best spent, and we

need to take a rational, say,tific look at it and is this the most effective use of our dollars? just because we're spending money, does not mean we are solving the problem. i focus on the vaccine. it looks like the $1.1 billion, 200 billion is the vaccine so what is the rest? somebody has to ask those questions appear. will try to find the breakdown while we go to kevin in arizona, a republican. thank you for taking my call. you look like an effeminate guy so trump's strength may scare you but you need to get behind him because if you do not, hillary will win. that is an argument a lot of republicans make. if you do not get behind trump,

hillary will win. my question to them is, what is , if it is not trump, are you for hillary? while talking through this, the other compelling argument republicans make two other republicans about voting for , supreme court nominee we know there will be at least one, maybe two or three happen in the next 4-8 years. really change the balance of power on the supreme court. these are all considerations. i respect anybody's's decision in the election. i will not tell anyone else how to vote or who to vote for. i will back the republican nominee. host: we lost dimitri, let's go ,n to virginia -- regina pennsylvania, a republican. caller: good morning.

you, on the radar screen, good stuff a lot. since you are on the transportation committee, i cannot understand this and i noticed the senator did pick up on this in an article. the whole idea of the national for biked being used trails, motor vehicle taxes are collected by way of us and not usedhoice, only to be where motor vehicles go. been beingails have robbed for years. in highways where it belongs, and the last thing, he is in our neighborhood. the article says something went on, some kind of finagling to get money out of the federal to get money directly from the federal reserve to get money that they could not get because the national trust fund, they did not want to raise the

tax. thesed of putting it into recreation areas, which, in the cityof pennsylvania, the up in pittsburgh, people come in and they come in from other areas, they want to change the rules, but the companies are then shoved aside as dirty air and you know who is paying the bills, they want the money for is jobs but what i am saying they bring in their lobbyists with them. i do not know if you understand what i'm saying. i am dying to speak because you are a person after my own heart. as a member of the committee,ion developing roadway infrastructure for a vibrant economy. what does it do?

it takes them out of the national trust fund. i include mass transit because like trails, before someone calls up angry about bike trails, i'm not against bike trails but i do not see how you could make a compelling argument that that is a national priority. these are not interested issues when you have a recreational trail. it does not need to be funded with the national highway trust fund with a gasoline tax. if you take out the portion we use from the national highway trust fund to subsidize mass transit, it nearly balances. you do not have to look for transfers from someone else. in kentucky, in its

constitution, it says all of the money has to go toward bridges. it cannot be reappropriated for other projects. anything you collect with the gas tax goes toward roads and bridges so i agree with you. host: good morning. deal, all therump thef he says he will do, republican party has a lot of blames of it is getting a lot of for obama, policies, votes like sean hannity and fox news, just pushing this narrative toward, they want trump and they have got everybody brainwashed that trump is the deal.

i do not think it is fair to , obamacare, they they vetoed it, they have got this thing that congress can push it, they do not understand that the president's 10 is more powerful. guest: we still do have the power for purse. host: i let him go. guest: i backed senator rand paul. he withdrew from the race after iowa and i did not get behind another candidate. i decided we will see how this all works out. i noticed some people, i call it rubio's separation anxiety, they are still going through what i went through in february when my

candidate pulled out of the race. it does take a while to realize you will not get your candidate, regardless of whether your nominee wins or not. your point about the republicans getting the blame because they have not done more, i am one of the people who says we could do more than we have, that we have not fought hard enough or smart enough. you will hear people say when we have the majority in the house that we needed in the senate. now that we have got it in the the 60 vote say, rule is stopping us from doing what we need to accomplish. some people want to get rid of the 60 vote rule. i do not. it protects minorities.

regardless of the fact that republicans are in the majority, conservatives are in the -- in washington dc look at ever spending. to -- to fund anything the president wants requires 60 votes in the senate and a majority in the house. i think we got into this last time i was on the show about following the process. we throw all of the funding and one giant bill called the army does -- on the bus. we usually kick the can down the omnibus then we do the and if republicans try to fight in the omnibus, we will lose every time. they can say the being unreasonable and veterans are not signing up for benefits and soldiers are not getting paid

and we lose the fight over funding. if we would fund these functions of government separately, how we're supposed to do it with 12 then when we get into an agreement, the military is not held hostage, the monuments are not held hostage. i think if we would do our jobs and pass the budget, we could actually accomplish more with the folks we have got here. this is how it breaks down. the wall street journal. --

host: in new york, a democrat. caller: hi. questionsouple of and people security like myself who have been a democrat since 18, been in the country for 35 years. 2002.really sick in i continued to work and was forced to work part-time. i also found out like six months that my spine is degenerating.

social security for 20 months and i'm told it could be another eight months. guest: what i would recommend to you is call your congressman. get off the phone with me and call your congressional office. this is a role we play back in our congressional districts that i did not know about when i ran for congress. i thought i would be up there reading and writing and voting for legislation. every congressional office has constituent services. we have caseworkers who, if you call your congressman, they will have you sign something. in other words, they will keep all of your information private and then work with social security and we have been able to help people in my office that were genuinely disabled, get your social security disability.

the federal government had thought they had died and were sending a check and they were about to get evicted and they were able to call them up and say, no, we can see the person, there is nothing wrong with him. issuer you are having an with social security administration or with the immigration office or with the v.a., the first thing you should do before you hire a lawyer, and the lawyer will get upset with me, but call your congressman. sometimes we can help. that is the next call i would make after this one. ok's the righte to sue saudi's over terrorism. saudi arabia fearful it could poison relationships. they are threatening to retaliate by withdrawing money invested in the united states. where do you stand on this legislation?

i have not read with a past but i would probably vote for that. i have read the 28 pages. cosponsor the resolution, make it public tomorrow, maybe there are one or two names and their to be --. out,have taken 28 pages and one of the arguments i have made for releasing that report is so you can discover the chain of liability for the victims, so , i have spoken with the family of the victims and the children of the victims. they really have no recourse and i think this could help them. you don't think the 28 pages jeopardizes national security? secreti think keeping it jeopardizes national security. my colleagues have not read them. explain what you have to

do to read them. guest: they only have one copy of this. it is under lock and key. you have to make an appointment. you just down the third floor underground, then us -- a soundproof room. some people ask me, why don't you just read it on the floor of the house? i do not have a copy of it and they do not let me take my cell phone in there. they will never give me a secret document again if i did that and i would not blame them. you can read the report and see it will not jeopardize national security. but so be it. the truth needs to get out for the victims families and for our foreign policy. week, whiching this has all of the implications for the middle east, and yet people

voting this week have not read the 9/11 report, the full report with 28 pages in it. they are crafting policy of stents of fully to prevent another 9/11. i think the argument about national security -- national defense authorization is what the congressman was referring to. thank you. , we will talk with senator gary peters of michigan. also, debates up on capitol hill. rose. stephen he wrote in the recent edition of washington monthly magazine that nostalgia for the good old days in vote by donald trump and bernie sanders is based on myths. we will talk about that later. ♪

our campaign 2016 bus continues to travel around the country to recognize winners from this year's student cam competition. recently, the bus stopped in massachusetts. they went to the state school where all the students attended a school ceremony to honor , for theirders honorable mention video. the bus also made a stop at a middle school to recognize the honorable mention winners and their winning video, and james elliott one for his video entitled lgbt writes, stop the discrimination. they were honored in front of family members and local elected officials.

a special thanks to our cable partners for helping to coordinate these to the community. you can view all of the winning documentaries at didn't cam.org. -- at studentcam.org. >> congratulations hurray you have earned it. choices make all the difference not just to you but to all of us. >> do not be afraid to take on cases where a new job -- or a new job or a new issue that really stretches the boundaries. internships, and the specter of living in your parents basement after this graduation day is not likely to be your greatest concern. >> throughout the month, watch commencement speeches from the

>> of 2016 in their entirety from universities around the country from business leaders, politicians, and white house officials. >> washington journal continues. about theust talked house and now we will look at what is happening in the other chamber. democrat from michigan to what is the latest on the flint water investigation? focused on making sure people of flint have access to clean drinking water, that they can turn on the tap and make sure it is safe when they come out. we are not there. people are still using filters and bottled water. we have got to make sure we get in as quickly as possible. we have legislation that will hopefully be moving shortly that wethe water bill have here, which will deal with

the flint situation but not just flint. one thing that is clear after what has happened in flint is that these issues affect water supplies all over the country, urban areas where the lead continues to exist. we have legislation, it passed on a committee by a vote of 19 to one. i am not sure if it will, this .onth but next month it will about $240ackage is million available to other communities and not just flint. infrastructure improvement, which would include things like going out lead service lines, putting in new pipes. it is available to any community but the qualification is it is a community that has a presidential emergency declaration.

we do think there may be another one coming up shortly, a smaller community in another state. then we create a bonding authority, which would create low interest bonds any community in the country can apply for. we expect that to generate approximately $700 million or more come over $1 billion when all said and done. then we have a number of other programs that are current grant programs now to deal with the lead, lead abatement programs with the housing department, with cdc dealing with folks poisoned with lead. those are grant programs so any community in the country can apply to her given the situation there, we can be assured when they do put in the grant request, they will be at the top of the list given what has happened in flint.

water bills for flint residents will go up? guest: we are trying to get it so the residents do not. we have been pushing aggressively. if you are a flint resident, you should not have to be paying water bills for water that has been tainted. pay for water, that was poisoned, it makes no sense whatsoever. right now, in order for this to work, and folks are trying to put in the necessary chemicals to fix the price and healing from the inside, in order to do that, you have to flush the system, you have to have your water running. designedater system for 200,000 people. water is stagnant. you need to crush the pipes out. flu the pipes out.

-- flush the pipes out. hopefully that will not be the case. they should not be paying it all until the system is fixed. host: what is the role of the federal government to help out the state of michigan? guest: in the flint water case, we should be there helping. michigan has the primary responsibility. the emergency manager that was put in place made these emergency decisions and continue to make that decisions. having said that, we have always responded as the american

people. folks are hurt. people are suffering, we help individuals in the country. it is what we do as americans. we should be there to help it when you ask a child in flint about it, they have been hurt, they have had exposure to lead which may impact them for the rest of their life. they do not care who is responsible appear they need help. sure now, we need to make we are therefore the children and every citizen of flint to get through a very difficult time. what about economic activities in your state? what is happening that you're are seeing the different crises? financial managers being is going on,at what about economic opportunities? guest: there are investments that have to be made and we have to be investing in these areas. the state has had a philosophy of putting an emergency managers

basically not about billing or desk building or growing communities. we saw that in flint. it led to the disastrous decisions in the water situation to save money. you are seeing that in public school. the state is saying let's just cut and downsize, not put capacity and p are you have got to make investments. i spent 20 plus years in the investment business prior to public service. if you are not investing the future, you will not have the revenue necessary to sustain basic state services or federal services. he have a philosophy of just cuts, you cannot proceed that way. it is about economic development, growing, small business is critical. i'm a member of the small business committee in the senate. we have got to make sure

business owners have access to the research they need, that they have the ability to innovate and grow. we have got a lot of that in michigan, a dynamic sector but we have got to be able to harness that in our cities as well. host: how much money are we talking about? for manufacturing for small businesses? guest: the manufacturing partnership is something i have worked a great deal on. sets policy and for me, there is not anything more important than manufacturing. that is where good paying jobs are. we are looking at a program which would maintain the funding going to that program which works with smaller companies providing them with some of the resources that usually only large manufacturers get. is 50-50.

companies have to put their money in as well. the program provides technical assistance on manufacturing processes, human resources, the gamut of resources that tend to be much more difficult to get if you are a small business. we know if you invest in those businesses, the return back as taxpayers as well as to the economy far exceeds any of the investment. host: senator peters also serves on the joint economic committee, governmental affairs as well as science and transportation. independent,da, in you are up first. good morning. know, if would like to hillary clinton mentioned that flint, michigan, was a poor what i would like to know the median income in flint is today and what was the medium

income in flint before -- took effect? give youcould not those numbers. certainly, flint has a low in our statecities and country. part of it has been the fact that auto jobs did leave. downsizing in the auto industry which had a significant impact. you could say it was a part of general restructuring. the one thing about the auto is comingwhen auto back, recently after the crisis almostin 2009 which wiped out two major manufacturers, though the companies have him back and they are doing well, they hire a lot fewer people. efficiencies continue to be in the manufacturing process. when it comes to actual jobs and the fact that you continue to get downsizing

and factories today are so much more efficient than they have been in the past years. host: will the transpacific partnership help or hurt? guest: i am opposed to the tpp. i think we have to seriously look at that partnership and see that there are things in it that would be harmful to manufacturing and in particular, i'm concerned about the fact that it does not deal with currency manipulation. it is something manufacturers in michigan and a labor unions are all united in, that if you do currencywith manipulation, an unfair advantage for the japanese in who engaged in currency manipulation, which gives an unfair advantage -- if we do not deal with that, it will hurt manufacturers and suppliers for the supply chain. we just want to make sure the rules are fair.

the rules have to be fair and if you do not enforce the blatant violation of currency rules, and ,ontinue to manipulate currency that is unacceptable and i will not support the tpp unless there fast icter of the main reasons bernie sanders sanders was able to win was the trade debate. absolutely. trade has had an impact on manufacturing in particular. we're not asking for anything for protection. we just wanted to be fair. we certainly should not be entering into agreements that we fact they admit

something as important as currency manipulation, it will allow other countries to compete unfairly with it. it is unacceptable. i am supporting hillary clinton and i am a superdelegate. of thehat do you make tensions? here's a headline this morning ?fter what happened in nevada sanders urged to quell fed -- threats by his followers, a chairwoman saying she is worried thet what is happening, impact on the party and philadelphia. she said that senator sanders is adding fuel to the fire. guest: i think senator sanders has to talk in frank terms to his supporters that this is something not acceptable. we heard about this in our caucus meeting the other day, speaking at the convention and talking about how she felt threatened in nevada.

very aggressive supporters who were saying horrible things and throwing chairs. it is simply on acceptable. we cannot have that happen. we need to bring civility to the state. we should have vigorous debates about policy issues, but when it ,tarts to go to throwing chairs that is something we cannot tolerate and the country. senator sanders has the responsibility in my mind to step up and be clear to supporters that this will not be tolerated and must stop. violence and the kind of thug tactics we saw in nevada are not acceptable. because of the party leaders who are preventing a fair process from taking place, his words. guest: you cannot say it is both

ways. it is unacceptable. of comments from some of his supporters, that this is a way to have these -- people will come to the convention and will not accept passing the votes of the thatates in the primaries, is not acceptable in the country. continues to put us down the in theat we have been on last few months and probably years, where civility is now something that does not exist in a lot of contentious political debates. it is troubling to me on both sides, democrats and republicans, seeing a group of individuals who believe they can get their way by being incredibly aggressive and engage

in violent activities. to stand up and say enough is enough and we will not tolerate this. host: in new york, a democrat. caller: good morning. my comment is i am very curious why the democrats are not pushing the idea that when trump says to make america great again, what he is saying is make america white again. that democrats, i have been a democrat since i was able to vote at 21 years old. and i have never voted for republicans. but i do not understand why we're not pushing what trump is really saying and what the republicans have said.

make america great. it is great. they want it white. i cannot agree more with the caller that america is great. i take offense when donald trump says to make america great again. i think we are blessed to live in this country. it is an incredible country that continues to be the beacon. folks want to come here. we continue to lead when it comes to innovation. this place will create the next big thing. it is where our elections and freedom is still very robust and sometimes maybe to robust as we were talking about earlier, but this is a great country. pushingwe have been back against that. the economy has been coming back and michigan, we have got the auto industry. it has now turned around and is back. without question, producing the best automobiles anywhere in the world. those are incredible successes over the last few years. result ofreally the the american people and the american workers who are able to

create incredible products and compete with anyone in the world. we have got to make sure rules are fair as we talked about earlier, but it is a great country, one i am proud of and i take offense to anyone who says we are not great. independent caller, good morning. in regards to what mr. peters said about what happened in nevada. i'm sick and tired of watching the news media spin stuff and not show what totally happened there. watch whatback and happened in totality there, it is clear that bernie sanders won the voice to vote. that is why everyone got so when it was gaveled for hillary clinton. i will take your comments. think i just don't anything really should be used

as an excuse for that kind of that apparently occurs in nevada. certainly what was described to forn our caucus meetings people who were actually there. tony in florida, democrat. [indiscernible] all the children getting sick and all of that, , you going toying do anything about this? host: the kids that have been exposed to the lead in the water. is why we have to make sure we have long-term services for these children. day,ry about this every that we have to make sure that the children as well as every resident in the city has the help they need. there is no question we will

have to have long-term as well. i have been pushing the governor as well as some of my colleagues, that we have to have a future as well. it is not a short-term problem and it does not go away putting in new service lines, you have the long-term impacts, and i am working right now to try to expand, for example. thousands of children in flint qualify for head start but are not in it. the preschool will be critically important for people exposed to the lead. those services and education will likely continue for many years going forward. my number one fear about flint is right now, there has been a great deal of national attention on flint, which has been welcomed by the people of flint. there has been an outpouring of support for people -- from people around the country, gratifying to see. and certainly the people of flint appreciate it a great deal. the light of the

media andwe need to set aside md make sure health care services are provided. aspects thathese are important for the improvement. planse to these long-term in place. anna: the senate approved 1.1 million for the war today. guest: i voted to support the 1.1 billion host: why do you think that? guest: we are seeing what is happening in south america and brazil coming to our shores. there are is no way to really stop the mosquitoes. we need to pool our resources.

me to come up with vaccines. anybody who gets a disease that spreads as rapidly as this one -- what we learned in the past was that if you are not aggressive enough, it will cost you more money in the long run. if you do not spend money up front, including the human toll. people are saying puerto rico's needs at allow them to restructure their debt. here is a tweet from one of our viewers. too big to fail. one is a state, one of the territory. guest: people need to be able to reorganize debt. we saw that with municipal bankruptcy. there were some very painful decisions made as a result of that reorganization.

now, we are going through and restructuring debt. you cannot just talk about restructuring debt, particularly, we saw in flint where we saw massive cuts with city services not being provided. we have these decisions which ultimately impact people's health. able to allowo be these entities to restructure. just like a corporation restructuring as well. we allow the corporation to do that. they do that, so they can continue functioning. host: we go to catherine. i never metare you? you, but you are a senator in michigan. i'm thinking well, we have a lousy governor. all that is being said, i just want to say i am not voting for hillary and i am not voting for donald trump.

i really like bernie sanders. left, i amto the very antiwar. i'm a leftover hippie. i am proud of it. i know about music more than i know about animals or whales. i know a lot about theft as well. senator, can you speak to the movement that bernie sanders has started with his campaign? are you feeling pressure as a superdelegate to switch in support bernie sanders? guest: i feel strong in my support for hillary clinton. i think she will be outstanding. colorsly come to the point, bernie sanders has been a very important part of the debate. it is important to have his energy.

that is wonderful, especially for young people. we will not have a healthy democracy if we do not have an engaged generation learning that their voice is important. they have to continue to be active. i have welcomed bernie sanders addition to the campaign. i think he brought a lot to it. now, the campaign is winding down and we need to move forward. good morning. host: you are on. caller: i'm calling -- i was a black democrat. am -- democrats are so corrupt. i want the american people to kick the superdelegate out of power. i understand that the system is

so written. we need somebody to come in and kick this people out of office. it is what it is. there and cry about how you want bernie sanders -- and cry about bernie sanders supporters. nobody is calling for violence. , you need of the day to say something when the system is wrong. guest: i think to this point about superdelegates, if you look at who is winning delegates and primaries across the country, it is clear that hillary clinton has a large lead. the primaryrs in who are expressing their views at the ballot box. folks are going there whether in a caucus or in a primary.

at delegate votes and hillary clinton is winning. this debate is happening on twitter as well. jodi is saying when votes were taken and we know one is clearly more popular commuter throwing the chair. jennifer says to be clear, sanders tried to get rid of the state already democratic convention. kimi and florida, hello. caller: good morning. good morning senator. civilitynted about the with the sanders campaign. i was a registered democrat for years. trumpntly moved to donald with the frustration going on in this country. i would hope that finally, washington is waking up. democrats are angry. the republican side is angry. we broke away from the main party because of what is going on.

even when we vote, delegates are taken away in given to the party they want. even though our party goes in, we still consolidate around power. guest: the process going forward in the primaries, you will get hillary clinton. she is leading when it comes to folks being chosen by the people. she is leading on every count? whether it is pledged delegates and superdelegates ergo -- superdelegates? we go to michigan. i'm a constituent of mr. peters. i am fine. i'm a little old. i'm an old lady. i'm a bernie sanders supporter. i have noticed a lot of democrats who have called about

the democratic national committee rigging the election. we know there is no place for violence. is no other hand, there reason for the democratic party to be fixing the selection. not doing that, you would not have all this anger on the side of bernie sanders supporters. so, you have to look at why people are getting angry. host: the question for the senator, should there be changes in the rules." guest: i think she might be talking about superdelegates. i want to step back and say if you look at who is leading in the delegate count, these are delegates that if you take my superdelegates and look at delegates being selected from caucuses and primaries, that is where they have in this country. people vote and they are awarded in the delegates. i'm troubled by what seems to be the narrative that the sanders campaign that it is being

stolen. even though they do not have the total number of votes being won by secretary clinton that are somehow being stolen, where is the evidence that there has been tampering in a primary or that the state has voted. we know the totals of people who have gone in. evidence ofn any state or election primary. if there is voter fraud come we want to know about it. we have election clerks tallying the primary. we needed to know that. that peopleument are making is that they are not winning, therefore must be stolen. you need more evidence than that. hillary clinton a victory over bernie sanders. but, the independent senator

from vermont was able to win in oregon with us percent over hillary clinton. john from oregon, did you vote yesterday? caller: yes, i sure did. i am also a bernie sanders supporter. i did a lot of canvassing to help the campaign here. i am one of the ones or i'm anxious to see the results in california. i wish i knew exactly what the delegate count was. what is included. you can go to our website at c-span.org. you mentioned the june 7 primary in california. bernie sanders is saying last night that he is going all the way to the convention. if after june 7 he is still trailing, and he would have to get 75% of the votes coming up,

should he go all the way to the convention? or should he just get out? guest: at some point, you have to get out. if he wants to stay true to the last primary, certainly, people who support him will be able to go to the polls and vote. i understand that. there also comes a point where you have to transition. the important election we face is the general election. that will determine the direction of the country. i know senator sanders. i served in the senate with him. i'm fairly certain that there is no way he would ever support a trunk presidency. is far removed from who he is and what he cares deeply about. understands. you need to bring people together to understand that we can have contentious debates and

the democratic party. we should be able to talk about different ideas. when it is all said and done come there is a clear difference over who the nominees will be. elections matter. is the one election that will determine who the president is. host: sharon says i like sanders, but he would always be losing. reporters need to stop whining. in maryland, you're on the phone. caller: good morning. i have a few comments. one of the primary contest. i need you to choose one comment. caller: ok one comment on the primary system, the close primary system disenfranchises millions of independent people.

that the democratic party says these are the rules. i read an article in slate, specifically saying that they are meant to be undemocratic because their controlled by the party. the party should be representative of the american people, and not solely a democratic system. isenfranchising people un-american. host: let's hear from ted. caller: hello. when i see what is wrong with the democratic party. you are not being totally honest about what is going on. they try to stack things against bernie sanders from the beginning.

you did not want to have these debates. isseems like the leadership leaning towards hillary clinton, like she is the moderator. you're not listening to the people. if you do not fight for your rights, who will fight for you? i just want you to respond to that. bernie sanders supporters are very passionate. great.that is people need to be passionate about politics. they need to be passionate about the future of this country. they need to care deeply about where we go in the years ahead. we face incredibly tough issues. they should be passionate. is designed for parties. they are political parties. they are there for the republican party and the democratic party. they could run in an election as well.

we have a party structure. the rules, as they are now come for the most part, the democratic party will be done with caucuses and primaries. traditionally, whoever winds will be the one who gets the majority of those delegates. some are close, many of them are open to folks. a lot of independents certainly vote in the open primaries that exists. in fact, primaries are more democratic than caucuses. take time off from work and go to her caucus and spend all the time doing that. caucuses are easier for people to vote in. although, there is an issue with women are open. there is a process wherein a wide variety of people have the opportunity to make a selection about who they want to see as their nominee. host: let's talk about policy at capitol hill.

there has been some talk about criminal justice reform. or does that stand now. solveuld the commission -- how would that add to the reform? >> we have the reform package that has been able to get some bipartisan support. nationaloposed a commission of the criminal justice system. the last time we did this was when lyndon johnson was the president at the time. there were 200 recommendations. some like 911. that come out of the commission from 50 years ago. it is really an attempt to take a look at this in a comprehensive way. can look at grand jury's. we have all these different aspects. people look at it in total. have received strong bipartisan support.

every major police organization is endorse this. every civil rights organization, now, we have just heard or just learned that the sentencing bill will be in the main body of the bill. hopefully, we'll get a vote on it in the next few months. host: we'll caller: go to mark, california, a republican. hello. harbor.s from benton it is a beautiful place. i have two quick questions. number one, all these cable channels, cnn, fox, msnbc, it is wall-to-wall political coverage. nothing else gets reported. i just wanted to ask you if there is something you wanted? host: i will leave it at that. guest: i can relate to that

color. if you look at it, it is all about the presidential campaign. a lot of the issues in the presidential campaign are about personality, who said this and he said that. let me from some facts at you. this is the washington times front page. , why is thisoved important to you? do you want the senate, so, i supported. we need to have the opportunity to make sure information is fully available. people have been involved with the saudi's. if they were not involved, they should have nothing to fear. it is important to have this kinds of options. host: you are not concerned that this could poison relations with our fight against isis." guest: that might hurt us.

we have allies, we want to make sure they truly are our partners and our allies. and, we shouldn't not accept some of the behavior from our allies it actually hurts american people and hurts individuals from our country. for me, allies need to be true allies. this was approved as the senator said, is still ms. to be passed by the house. paul ryan was noncommittal to it the past few months. thank you very much. we hope you come back again. we will take a break. when we come back, our magazine series continues with a recent issue of washington monthly magazine. by steven rose saying it must alter for the good old days is misplaced. we come back. ♪

>> the sunday night, vanity fair columnist and slate magazine founder michael kinsley talks about his new book, old age, a beginner's guide of living with parkinson's. >> it a brain disease. that was a nonsensical question. obviouslylly meant, was thinking, will impact my thinking? thinking is how i earn a living. so, that became important. neurologist what is going to happen? he said he was trying to tell me but it was not such a big deal. edge,s you may lose your as if that was just nothing.

edge is how i earn a living. it is why i have my friends. maybe, why have my wife. t-rex sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern in specific -- pacific. >> congratulations to the class of 2016. today is your day of celebration. you have earned it. for peace andry light. your choices will make all the difference to you and to all of us. onnot be afraid to take cases for a new job or a new issue that really stretches your boundaries. abroadd your summer instead of in internships and get over the specter of living your parents basement is not likely to be your greatest concern.

>> watch commencement speeches to the class of 2016. from colleges and universities around the country like by business leaders and white house officials. on c-span. >> washington journal continues. host: our ongoing series continues today with the recent issue of washington monthly online. guest, wroteour this piece. misplaced nostalgia for the good old days. likely based on myth. explain the man that it is based on. guest: there are two ways to look at it. , the rose colored glasses we used to look at the past. where we think things are worse today than they used to be. a lot of people talk but the 50's and the 60's as the time

when everything was fine. the world poverty rate was 22%. mandatede half of what , and blacks made half of what women did. so, it is not the good old days. the comparable figure today is the overall poverty rate. the elderly poverty rate is 11. andn make 75% of men, blacks make 75% of whites. the whole notion about how bad it is today relative to how good it was the past is not right. especially come on you go forward into the 70's. that is number one, in the past, it was not so great. host: are you saying that we have progressed? that we are better off." guest: there is no question we are better off today. i give you the poverty line, the

choice is not whether we are wonderful or terrible. those are shades of gray. we callmember when people and say compare to your parents, do you feel you are better off." that is done every two years by the pew and general social science survey. 60% of people said they are better off. 20% say the same. 15% say worse. the whole notion that we are so much more worse off does not hold. it does not pass the smell test. people know when you go back to 1979, people know there were not computers than or cell phones then. have,f the things that we we were living five years longer. there are so many metrics.

that as weline is get richer, our aspirations get higher. 85% ofle notion that people say they are dissatisfied with the economy. that must be an usual. it is not. usually around 50% even in the best times. the clinton administration had 70 years of strong growth. we landed 20 million jobs. when asked if you're satisfied with the economy, 40% said they were dissatisfied. we have this thing about changing the bar and it is very easy to just look back. today's world is a little different. it is much more abrupt. i talked about changing jobs, instability and anxiety. yes, things are better, once your member that right now, we are on the tail end of the

deepest recession we have had since the great depression, we rebounded better than others. very strong, but if you look at the rest of the world, it is in much worse shape . obama does not get much credit than that -- for that. host: we talking about nostalgia for good old days. our guest says that is misplaced. we want to know your thoughts about that. democrats 202-748-8000. republicans at 202748 8001. you are looking at the most recent addiction -- addition of washington monthly. your thoughts on that magazine this morning. let me begin, why are americans waysmistic? guest: in many , we have done tests can we find that the notion of fight or flight, it is better to make the mistake of flight.

we are hardwired to negative over positive. second of all, there's the media. good news is boring. third, the media today is very different. the media has become hyper partisan. intofore, people get echoed chambers. then, politicians come and and they start town people we will do away with obamacare. we will get out of iraq or ran. that makes people discontent. them angrier. so, of course, you get into these echoed chambers where goes round and round. just winds of the energy. this election, which has really been dominated by outsiders and by anger and a lot of negativity from everyone. i hope we do not see more of that in the future. we think about who are the

politicians that really inspired trust? i cannot think of one in either party. that is somewhat a sign of the times. it is also a sign of our strength. president,elt was everybody rallied around him because we had this crisis. when bush was not that popular, 9/11 came and we rallied around him. of workingwe're kind through. people understand that we have been through a bad time. another poll says 40% of people said the crash cannot really hurt them, they are fine. 30% of people said the crisis heard them, but they are back. said the crisis hurt them and they are still struggling. even your staffers worry about if you could lose your job. they have this hyper partisanship in the media. reflected in the

idea of no respect for any institution, or very few institutions. and, our politics are very course. host: let's go to a candidates are saying when it comes to economic issues. trade, income inequality, the company's poor for cap -- compared to china. will address those questions. we'll go to south carolina, a democrat. caller: i would like to tell stephen rose what was so good yesterday, men, and women were married to each other. people were happy. mothers stayed at home with their children. by whatevert raised society they were in. it is interesting. people had jobs because the industry had not been thrown out

of this country into china. ,ou talk about the clintons well, the clintons did us no good and you did the bushes. this, youat all of start back to where all this trade was being done, i did not see how you can even sit up and thinksit up there that yesterday was not better, people were happier. did not have computers stuck in our ears. 72 trying toys at find a program on television weather is it just filth. let me tell you, this health care, this is the worst year at 72 that health care has ever been for me. in 18 months, i have had six becauseleave practice they're getting paid next to nothing by these insurance companies. a lot of policy decisions

going on there. guest: sure. in 1960, was not medicare, you would not have had any insurance at all. in 1960, few men are even retired because i had to keep working. are in the homes for sure, but a lot of them wanted to work. i can understand how people look back with nostalgia to the two family household. white poverty rate was 35%. yes, there were some people doing very well. yes, the economy was growing. i grew up during those years, my parents were immigrants. time ofe in during the the depression. the income the 40's and 50's were wonderful. it is better than what came before. today, we're so much better. 72 you're 72 now, if you are in 1960, he probably have a life

expectancy of 60 years. now, you have 12 more years. by every metric, we're much better. there are people like yourselves, women's day in a household. we had certain values. peoplewhich you see is dealing with homosexual rights, and transsexual rights. for people without conservative values, this seems odd. of black men were laborers. 50% of black women were made. guess what you give now, they are competing for jobs and they are in all these positions. most people think that is a step forward. host: greg, a democrat. caller: i think that you might want to think about your reference point here for a few different things. i think you did a good job with the ugly poverty rate and other

things in 1960, because come at that time, there was that change in social security and medicare came along a little bit later which massively reduce the poverty rates, we still have those wages. we have the recent stagnation of wages. the reference point is the early 80's and like 70's. that has a lot to do with public policy. public policy drugs a lot of these things. in addition, a lot of the gains you talk about like life expectancy, those are also related to public policy. advances in public health. by governments in research and other related things. so, tie those to the cause. there is a thing called conventional wisdom. then there is research on the issues.

so, for instance, conventional wisdom is that income has not increased at all over the last 3-4 decades. we say it is most comprehensive you can google and tried to look at some of my pieces. the congressional office was using a different standard. startd of 1980, i'll 1979. the congressional budget office does not say the media has been flattened. they argue that in real terms, it is of 35% since 1979. in terms of earnings, there is only one component of what workers get. they get all these benefits. i did a second thing talking about if it came out last much. the women's earnings from 1979 up2014, in real terms are 73%. men are up 13%. so, what you are really catching

is that men are the ones. the average was up 38%. gained 38ad a meeting percent. men stayed behind. men were still ahead of women. thatreally happened is man's wages stagnated while women have done really well. i really do believe that the living standard today, whatever you want to pick, other than maybe 2000, i cannot even figure out what year you would pick that over your worst today. host: the pay gap. women in white-collar careers see the biggest gender disparity despite these revenues. the wall street journal examination goes at 436 major occupations found women aren't well blown men with doctors compensation, and advisers

joined the widest earnings gap. they start of the same after graduating from college. women, if they do not have a baby and they miss out on that time and it promoted, that is what the wall street journal says the gap comes into play. guest: the women's wage gap is larger than 77%. you really want to look over the career. the 70% number is based on full-time in one year. basically, it has become this system ingrained that we moved kidsway from where raising has been primarily the woman's job. over and over again, couples make their decisions based on what works best. women interrupt their careers. responsibility,

women have a bigger impact than is given credit for. i would agree with those numbers. host: we will next go to david. while we listen to david, take a look at these top 15 major occupations with the largest gender pay gap. david, maryland, independent, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call c-span. i think it depends on your perspective. i think that if you are well-off , i think maybe you would tend to think that things are going well. question or comment that i would want you to maybe address , when bernie sanders talks about the income gap where all

the wealth is going to the top that -- i do not seem to see how that affects the daily lives of most of middle-class americans. wealth, orut income talking about homes you go host: is the middle-class losing ground." guest: you can google my name and read papers on this. , iterms of homeownership obviously picked in 2007 were there was a lot of adulation. we have these historically high levels. one.r number two, there is question that the american economy is different than every other advanced country in the world and how we beat the bottom 20%. this is the matter what year it

is. we say you are on your own, good luck. if you fall, we will let you fall further than every other country. this we havedst of that bottom. those rates have stayed there and not gone down. we have things that support them, but, it is still not a good life. yes, that is true. in terms of everything going to the 1%, and other paper i have written you can google my name and find that. data, it is wrong that the middle class is stagnating. i first released a thing on income inequality in 1983. i have been studying it ever since. no question that it is up. the question is how much you go -- up? the growth hasll

gone to the top 5% is wrong. eb of numbers are most comprehensive. as go to eb o.gov look under their income group. you can look at their papers. yes, income inequality is up. a smallere time, slice of a bigger pie is more pie. host: lenny was to buy or not to buy their dreams of owning a home is in peril. and come on twitter, a couple of viewers. we cannot compare history to now. says government has intruded in every aspect of our lives. erica from virginia, what do you think? caller: thank you for c-span for having me on. i like to make if you comments. the first is the gender gap discussion was really interesting. what i would like to contribute to the discussion is that there are a number of factors that

impact gender differences in pay. one of them is how we negotiate. i do not want to draw out the point. legislation is not the only thing we need to fix that. the republic of united states is not a democracy. it was intended for the people who only country to run this country. politicians from parties are delivering us soundbites and promises for a better tomorrow. the things that they are promising, the power of possibility they are offering is something will realize. i appreciate everything that was talked about. i hope this does not end up being too violent. although, that might happen with people who are defeated by circumstance. that tends to happen. bring upant to

something you touched on. politicians promising things. let's look at bernie sanders last night, talking with the cost of college education. here he is from an event in california. methose people are asking how does it have been that when we do the right thing, when we go out and get the best upcation they can, they end 30-70,000 dollars in debt? we should not be punishing people for getting an education, we should reward them. he has been promising free college education. when it comes to a college used to cost, or does the good old days." --days." -- days?

the idea that money has restricted access is unproven. this notion of being $50,000 in debt. 35% of people graduate with zero debt. the high 20's is the median income. number three, in terms of default rates coming here they are high. yes, they are high. loans,ple with small they have gone to for-profit schools that have not led to the skills. the number of people who have defaulted on debt is very low. someone has to pay for it. the notion that it should be free means that we are subsidizing the cost. debt, we had about the loss of $500.

i think that is how things should be. parent for both lawyers. you went to jail, your to lawsuit for free. you have a 20 year law degree. we should have subsidized you? is not the best use of government money. the best used of government money is very low and virtually free, is just incorrect to say that this is what the whole thing comes back to. the whole thing back to payment in my view is that people come out of high school with low skills. if you think about people in the four-year college who haven't a and start at a four-year college , then graduation rates are at 85%. if they had a be coming for 75%. is lower.d a c have a lot of access and a lot

of public option. what is holding that back is not money, but preparation. host: we want to add this. journal expands overtime pay eligibility. the rule raise the angle salary threshold that determines who qualifies for overtime pay. it will likely have been sweeping effect on workers, employers, including retail workers, the fast food industry, the university and nonprofits. kathleen in michigan. you are next. caller: i just finished two days of substitute teaching. in northern michigan we had a second job. , poverty has not changed here. it has gotten worse. every year, when i going to the schools, said the children are more and more poor. they are wearing used clothes, used shoes.

100% of students qualify for the felipe -- free lunch program. often, it is barely food. children who do not have whornet service, children do not come to school prepared because circumstances create generations of poverty. i think we get what you are describing. is it accurate? certainly. the bottom 20% here do not do well here. they are poor and consistently poor. a lot of the poor move in and out. all of them are young people, young single women who have children. oftentimes come before they remarry, over for their careers take off, there is a lot of children living in low income housing. people at the highest

property rates are in fact children. yes, there are these problems there. these problems have gone forward and have always been there. because we see so much more around you. not only in the middle class to see more around you, but the upper middle-class, we see them talking about mercedes and audis. you take the voyager line here or there, it feels worse because other people talk about the worst conditions. paul and pennsylvania. you are next. exception toi take his interpretation of better off. as far as debating this, just because you have money, or you can buy a house or go to college does not make you better off.

as far as mother staying home and not having a career. have a rightk you like that that it is more interesting. people think the most important job they ever have is being a parent. so, i think you are missed placed in your ideas of what is better off. the other thing is that in this society, you are almost forced to do things that you really do not want to do, because you are maligned if you do not have the not have ar you do cell phone or you do not have this or that, you're forced to do this whether you want to live in a simple life are not. i want mr. rose to respond to you after listening to nancy in indiana. caller: thank you. good morning.

i have a beach town outside of chicago. it is small and quaint. we have a beautiful beach. we were a middle-class town. we have a lot of factories in privately owned businesses. friends moved to california for free college. my dad could ensure everybody at monthsiness for $235 per when health insurance was nonprofit. then, walmart moved in. it killed all privately owned businesses. small factors left. now, we have no middle class. guest: let me address the first question. the definition of better off.

i just want to say that people differ. i just want to say that certain metrics, i believe people are making the choice. you're not forced to have the internet or have mothers go to work. i'm just saying that it appears that they have made these choices level off. they have the balance that goes with that. in terms of the disappearance of argueddle class, i try to -- i try to figure ways to explain this. we are a huge country. we are of watching things when people are not doing well we will see that. the poor becomes the symbol of everything that is bad. that is the cause of everything. of of course, the lack minimum wage. you cannot always have it and

traded. by and large, trade has helped in the sense of trading lower cost groups. people go to walmart. if you want to stop trade, wait a second, have great deals here. what happens with trade is that a few people lose up very badly. some communities lose out. many people gain a lot. we still have a high level of employment. in terms of your pay stub, your father and employer been able to have health care in the 1970's, it covered a lot less because it gave you a lot less. you said earlier, in 1979, live six years longer. elderly people lived for years longer. that is because we had more medical intervention that catches diseases. host: let's go to barbour from

tennessee. a republican. caller: how are you? host: question or comment go ahead. caller: i have a comment. i want to express what the good days mean to me. we good old days is when were one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. we have become a society of no morals. god has been taken out of everything. he's not even mentioned. i want to hear your comment about that. host: mr. rose. disagreeocet, we can about what are the most important things in people's life. that is what is nice about america. again, there were lots of things going on. most people live in communities

very much like themselves. therefore, they of common values. , and they see that america is much more different than ever before. thatnow, so the notion is it's not like there were not gay people before, there were just in the closet. there were not happy. it is not like black people like making 50% less than white people. but, that was the community you were in. i think we're a very uneven country and many people have moved forward. the some people want go back to the past. host: if you are interested in the data he is using come you can find it in his piece online. he has links to many of the numbers that he has brought up with others, in case are interested. let's go to new york. independent line. caller: hello.

thank you c-span for your program. thank you stephen for your effort on this book that is full of facts you point out that are much needed when pointing out specifics. andlieve in our society that in most societies people have a tendency to move forward in progress. there is always the poll in society. and then some kind of like the status well in the middle and there are ok with that. there is always this dynamic in society. i believe that you are correct that we have improved and that there has been progress made through the years and all those aspects, the social aspects and all the economic aspects. are of course, there warning signs occurring.

we cannot close our eyes for that. host: give us one real quick. caller: the one in michigan saying that party has increased. obviously come party in michigan has increased. after be careful that. we have to be careful about the wars we have been involved in. the walmart family owning all that wealth. that is also a problem. we have to look at those things that are specific that need to be addressed so that we can continue to progress. host: clear from ohio, democrat. go ahead. that is ok. thank you for c-span. i'm sorry, i do not remember your name, stephen rose. i am not sure where you are coming from. you bought a loaf of bread for one quarter. we are not able to keep up with

any of this. you talk about progress with the internet, those are good things. you talk about the health care. what youa stick to said about wages. that is something candidates are talking about. hillary clinton tweeting out that wages are not going as far as that used to. she says hard-working middle-class families did a raise, not a tax increase. guest: they have not kept up with growth. is new paper i am working on trying to show what would it look like if work was evenly distributed. a lot of this brings in more requirements. wepared to other countries, have bad public transport. so come you have to have a car. gift of a cell phone. we have all these requirements. i would argue that if you look food in currency, why is food

and clothing so expensive? >> it was wary percent of what we spent in 1967. now, it is 29%. what people do not understand is that today, food is much cheaper than it was in the past. the data is clear on this. we spend a lot of money on food. uneven. i want to emphasize that the people in the bottom 20%, maybe others feel more left out. lots of people are consuming more than ever before. is reflected in earnings. as i said, we are looking at earnings. onto to remember that a lot of people do not include health care.

the base for health care has gone up a whole lot. by the way, we have gotten good is out there. we want to talk about how her life expectancy is up. that is not county. segment of-growing the economy and one likely to grow the future is health care. low percentage of that is at 1011 12% paid out-of-pocket by people. that is the benefit people forget about. host: the house will gaveling soon. ron in kentucky, a republican. good morning. make it quick. good morning. thank you. i like me to comments. number one, where wasted over $100 million in afghanistan trying to rebuild the country. --y let their medicals minerals be released by the chinese. we wasted $500 million in a rack. we spent that money and the united states, we are be much better off.

host: bill, connecticut from democrat. what do you think you go caller: -- unfortunately, businesses have been manipulated. that they are concerned for the situation. i think there are a lot of people really struggling right now. i understand you might think food is cheaper. when you go to the grocery store and you walked out with three shopping bags for $120, you still have three bags. it is tough for people to make ends meet. host: autographed michael come if i can, quickly, your thoughts. know, in theyou 60's and in the 70's, wages where we started out at $100 per week, i could feed a family of four on $100. host: we have to leave it there. the house will be coming in.

ours went tell our viewers go to washington monthly.com. you can look at the data. thank you for talking to our viewers. the house is about to gavel and for their legislative session this morning. we'll have live coverage here on c-span. the eaker pro tempore: house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., may 18, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable daniel webster to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 5, 2016, the chair will now gn