the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c., september 19, 2016. i hereby appoint the honorable george holding to act as

speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: the prayer will be offered by the guest chaplain, reverend michael wilker, church of the eformation of washington, d.c. the chaplain: god of earth and air, water and fire, heights and depths, we pray for those who work in danger, who rush in to bring hope and help and comfort when others flee to safety, whose mission is to seek and save, serve and protect, and whose presence embodies the protection of the good shepherd. thank you for the first responders in each community, including the united states capitol police. give them caution and concern for one another so that in safety they may do what must be

done under your watchful eye. support them in their courage and dedication, that they may continue to save lives, ease pain and menled the torn fabric of -- mend the torn fabric of lives and social order. in the spirit of justice, love nd humility we pray, amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. the chair will now lead the house in the pledge of allegiance and invites the gallery to join. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the chair lays before the house a communication.

the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir. on september 14, 2016, pursuant to section 3307 of title 40 united states code, the committee on transportation and infrastructure met in open session to consider 20 resolutions, including in the general services administration's capitol investment and leasing programs, the committee continues to work to reduce the cost of federal property and leases. of the 20 resolutions considered, the four construction projects include federal courthouses consistent with the existing funding and the 16 leases include significant reductions of lease space. in total, these resolutions represent 15 -- $154 million in avoided lease costs and offsets. i have enclosed copies of the resolutions adopted by the committee on transportation and infrastructure on september 14, 2016. signed, sincerely, bill

shuster, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the chair refers to the committee on appropriations. the chair i wills before the house a communication -- lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir. pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on september 15, 2016, at 2:21 p.m. appointment, public safety officer medal of valuen review board, signed, sin veerl, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir. pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on september 19, 2016, at 10:06 a.m.

that the senate passed with an amendment h.r. 2494, that the senate passed senate 2754, senate 2848. signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the house stands adjourned until noon legislative business. they will be dealing with information sharing and cyber attacks, and ban on u.s. cash payments to iran, and possible work on a bill that would fund the government short-term. current funding expires at the end of this month. a report on immigration was released today, and not it shall more than 800 people from countries of concern have been mistakenly granted american citizenship here at home countries or places with high rates of immigration fraud or in

other ways represent a u.s. security concern. it is that they may have slipped through the system because their digital fingerprint records were not on file with the department the fbi.nd security or c-span's road to tell the white house coverage will pick up later today on the campaign trail with donald trump in fort myers, florida, live at 3:00 eastern time, noon pacific, where polls are showing a very tight presidential race. in new york today, hillary clinton spoke with reporters about the recent events there and in new jersey. , and federal law enforcement as they continue to respond to the attacks in new york, new jersey, and minnesota and bring those responsible to justice. i have talked with mayor de blasio. our team has been in close touch with authorities in new york. we know they are doing

everything they possibly can to this dangerous situation. i have also spoken to the governor of minnesota. like all americans, my thoughts are with those who were wounded, their families, and our brave first responders. this threat is real but so is our resolve. americans will not cower. we will prevail. we will defend our country, and we will defeat the evil, twisted ideology of the terrorists. i am the only candidate in this race who has been part of the hard decisions to take terrorists off the battlefield, and i laid out a comprehensive plan to meet the evolving nature of the threat and take the fight to isis everywhere they threaten us, including online. i am grateful to have support and advice from a wide range of bipartisan national security leaders who have worked with both the democratic and republican presidents.

together earlier this month in new york. one of the points they emphasized was the need to support state and local law enforcement who act is our first line of defense, making sure they have a resources, the training, and intelligence they need to effectively prevent and respond to terror attacks. in this weekend's events underscore how important that is . we should also launch an intelligence surge to help artntify and support -- thw attacks before they can be carried out. we need to work more closely with silicon valley and other partners to counter terrorist propaganda and recruitment efforts online. and it is crucial that we continue to build trust between law enforcement and muslim american communities. in the middle east, we have to smash isis' strongholds with an accelerated coalition air

campaign, more support for arab and kurdish forces on the ground, and intense double medic --orts in syria, iraq diplomatic efforts in syria, iraq, and across the region, working closely with allies and partners must be the top priority for our next commander in chief. later today, i will discuss the threat of terrorism with the president of egypt and other world leaders. most of all, i want to say this to my fellow americans -- let us be vigilant but not afraid. we have faced threats before. if you see some thing or you hear something, report it immediately to local law enforcement authorities. i know we will meet this new danger with the same current and vigilance. we choose resolve, not fear. we will not turn on each other or undermine our values. aretand together because we stronger together in the face of this threat and every other challenge. i would be glad to take some

questions. >> the person of interest in this case is an afghan immigrant, now u.s. citizen. what do you say to voters who may see this as a reason to support rob's -- to support trump's approach? as. clinton: it is true that suspect of interest has been identified, and we need to do everything we can to support law enforcement as they track him down to determine what role, if any, he played in these events. remember, there are millions and millions of naturalized citizens in america from all over the world. there are millions of law-abiding, peaceful muslim americans. this is the kind of challenge of and law enforcement can be is prepared to a dress namely going after anyone who would threaten the amount it states --

and the united states. so i am absolutely in favor of and have long been an advocate , making sureting we do not let people into this country, not just people who come here to settle, but we need a better visa system. let's remember what happened on 9/11. these were not refugees who got onto airplanes and attacked our city and our country. get diverted and distracted by the kind of campaign rhetoric coming from the other side, which is a serious challenge. we are well-equipped to meet it, and we can do so in keeping with smart law enforcement, good intelligence, and in concert with our values. clinton, a white house is labeled these lone wolf attacks a top concern, and given this weekend's events, what more specifically should be done, and what would you do beyond what president obama has done?

is the current plan enough? mrs. clinton: monica, i think that these lone wolf problem is one that we have to invest more time and more resources into combating. the i met with distinguished group of national security experts -- as i said, both democratic and republican with administration experiences -- they made a very strong point that the recruitment and radicalization that goes on online has to be much more vigorously intercepted and prevented. i have been saying this for quite some time, and i believe it is an important part of our strategy. the other point they made is that the recruiters for isis and these other terrorist groups look for people who, online, demonstrate the mental profile, the level of paranoia, the level

of delusion, the level of disappointment if that is in is exploited by quite able terrorist recruiters. so we have got to do a much more intensive effort, and that is why i mentioned silicon valley in my remarks, not only to take down terrorist propaganda but to do everything we can to intercept and prevent radicalization and recruitment. and i think we are at the beginning of that, but there is much more we need to do, and the government cannot do this without the close participation of tech companies and experts online who can you us the tools and lead us to those who are attempting to promote attacks like these. >> hi. are you concerned that this weekend's attacks are potential incidents in the coming weeks might be an attempt by isis synthesizers or really any other

group to influence the presidential race in some way and presumably try to drive votes to donald trump, who is widely seen as perhaps being somebody who they would be more willing to or see as an easier person to be against? mrs. clinton: jennifer, i do not want to speculate, but he was what we know. and i think it is important for voters to hear this and way it in making the choice in november. we know that a lot of the rhetoric we have heard from donald trump has been seized on by terrorists, in particular, isis, because they are looking to make this into a war against islam, rather than a war against terrorists,iolent people who number in the maybe tens of thousands, not the tens of millions. they want to use that to recruit more fighters to their cause, by

turning it into a religious conflict. that is why i have been very clear, we're going after the bad guys, and we're going to get them. that we are not going to go after an entire religion and give prices exactly what it is wanting in order for them to enhance their position. secondly, we know that donald trump's comments have been used online for recruitment of terrorism. we have heard that from former cia director michael hayden, who made it very clear point when he said that donald trump is being used as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. we also know from the former head of our counterterrorism center, matt olson, that the kinds of rhetoric and language that mr. trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries. now look, as i said in my

remarks, i am the only candidate in this race who has been part of the hard decisions to take battlefield.f the what does that mean? i was part of the national security team that worked with president obama and developed strategies to fight the terrorists, and sometimes that involved direct kinetic action, sometimes that involved working with allies and partners, and .ometimes that involved capture i won't get into classified information, but i have sat at that table in the situation room . i have analyzed the threats. i have contributed to actions that have neutralized our enemies hear it i know how to do this, and i understand how we don't want this to get even bigger than it already is. so we're going to stay focused on what will work and how we deployed a strategy that will protect america, work with our allies and partners to take isis

down, and have a strong counterterrorism effort online in order to try to defeat the ideology that stands behind these terrorist attacks. secretary clinton, as you know, donald trump has had a lot to say about your record on this issue. over the weekend, one example -- under the leadership of obama and clinton, americans have experienced more attacks at home and then victories abroad. time to change the playbook. what is your reaction to that characterization? mrs. clinton: well, like so much else he says, it is not grounded in facts. it is meant to make some head of demagogic point. it is clear that we still have challenges. that is what i have been talking about throughout this campaign. i am prepared to, ready to actually take on this challenge is, not engage in a lot of, you

know, irresponsible, reckless rhetoric, but to do the hard work, as i have done before, to put into place the strategies for local and state law enforcement, for an intelligence surge, for the kind of preventive actions we need to take here at home, and to intensify our efforts to defeat isis. you don't hear a plan from him. him say,hearing yeah, it is a secret plan. let's focus on what we can do, and what i have laid out is a path forward to keep us safer, protect our country, and go after the terrorists to finally destroy them. thank you. thank you, guys. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] few hours later, secretary clinton held a rally in philadelphia. ♪

[cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: thank you. thank you. i am so delighted to be here with all of you. i've saw how much fun president obama had last week. i wanted to be here in philadelphia. with my remarks, i do want to say how proud i am of our brave first responders working to keep us safe after the attacks of the last weekend in new york, new jersey, and minnesota. [applause] mrs. clinton: there are now reports of a suspect in custody, but we must remain vigilant. this is a fast-moving situation and a sobering reminder that we

need steady leadership in a dangerous world. i am here to talk about a number of the issues that are part of this election that really much more than that. they are part of our future, the kind of country we want to have, the kind of people we wanted to be, and particularly, what kind of opportunities we should be providing to the young people of america. steaff, proud owl on my tamyra -- [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: a philadelphia native who became an activist working to end the epidemic of gun violence right here in philadelphia. [applause] temple,nton: she loves and we love her. i also want to thank lauren for that introduction.

[applause] laureninton: jamyra and are two examples of why i have so much faith in our future. your generation is the most inclusive, progressive, and entrepreneurial than we have ever seen. as you heard, when lauren was in college, she saw challenges facing students of color, but there was no naacp chapter to support them and promote ever city and inclusion on campus, so she started one. and lauren remains committed and engaged, working with an organization called generation progress, because she understands that active citizenship is a lifelong job, and the call of service never fades. now i know that with so much negativity out there, it is really easy to get cynical, especially about our politics.

remember wrestling with that challenge when i was a student during the vietnam war. it can be tempting to think that no one will tell you the truth and nothing is ever going to change. but you are here today because you refused to accept cynicism. you know that the next 50 days will shape the next 50 years. and you see how much needs fixing in our country, from the theing cost of college to surge of systemic racism to the threats from climate change. but you also know the only way we can meet those challenges is if we made them together. you are here because you believe we can do just that. you want something to vote for, not just against. optimism, not resentment. answers, not anger. ideas, not insults.

bridges, not walls. [cheers and applause] know, you areyou know thisbecause you election is not a reality tv show. it should not be about birth certificates or name-calling or stunts to get onto cable news. [cheers and applause] this election comes down to a choice between two very different visions for america. i believe it is wrong to tear each other down. we should be lifting each other up. it is wrong to let income inequality get even worse. we have to make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. and it is wrong to put a loose cannon in charge at the start of another war.

we should work with our allies to keep us safe. it comes down to this -- are we going to pit americans against each other and deepened the divide in this country or are we going to be, as i know we can, stronger together? [cheers and applause] know what i: i to closeand i am going my campaign the same way i started my career, fighting for kids and young people and families. that has been the cause of my , and it will be the passion of my presidency, and i hope you will join me. with theget distracted media or my opponent turns this election into a circus. my husband has a saying about

that. he calls it "majoring in the wrapped uptting so in staff that does not matter, you forget what is really important to your future and the future of this country. take the challenges facing young americans today. first of all, if you are willing to work hard, you should be able to find a good job that pays well and let's you do what you love and make your mark in the world. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: but that has been out of reach for too many young people trying to find your footing in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the great depression era that is why tim kaine and i have a plan to work with both parties and make a historic investment in good new jobs. we can create millions of jobs and make life a lot better, by doing things like connecting

every household to broadband by 2020, installing half a billion solar panels, building a cleaner, more resilient electric grid with enough renewable energy to power every home in the country. [cheers and applause] clinton: getting an education should give you a boost, not hold you back. but as you know better than most, tuition keeps going through the roof, and debt keeps piling up. i understand that temple was founded to democratize, diversify, and widen the reach of higher education. vital goal, so i worked with bernie sanders on a plan -- [cheers and applause] we came up with a plan that makes public college

tuition free for working families and debt free for everyone. [cheers and applause] and if you already have that, -- if you already have debt, we will help you refinance it and pay it back as a percentage of your income so you are never on the hunt for more than you can afford. for moreon the hook than you can afford it you can actually see how much you and your family can save under our plan by looking at the college calculator at hillaryclinton.com . and here is something we do not talk about enough -- a four-year degree should not be the only path for a good job in america.

people should be able to learn a skill, practice a trade, and make a good living because of that. so we are offering you tax credits to encourage companies to offer paid apprenticeships that let you earn while you learn and do more to dignify skills across the board. the welders, machinists, health technicians, coders, and so many other fields. another challenge i hear about all the time is from new parents about how hard it is to balance the demands of work and family in today's economy. families with different today than they did decades ago, i think we can all agree. most need two incomes just to get by. and many people not changed jobs frequently and have wildly unpredictable schedules or they have to cobble together

part-time work, all without the basic supports available to parents in nearly every other advanced country. and i have tim kaine a plan to help working families with quality affordable childcare, preschool, and paid family leave. we fundamentally believe -- [cheers and applause] the more we can strengthen families, the stronger we will be as a nation. everywhere i go, young people also share their concerns about the divisiveness and discrimination we see in america today. you are not and you should not be satisfied with the progress we have made. you should keep wanting to right wrongs and fight for justice and dignity for all. we see, as lauren said, too many young black men and women made to feel like their lives are

disposable, too many immigrants living in fear of deportation, too many young lgbt americans young women many and men sexually assaulted on campus or in the military or at home, and more than previous generations, you understand that all these challenges are intersecting, and we must take them on together. [applause] but you also see a republican nominee for president who incites hatred and violence like we have never seen before in any campaign. hate speech being normalized. the dog whistles are out in the open. yet, despite this, i remain

convinced america's best days are ahead of us. in large part, that is because of the inspiring young people i meet everyday. i am inspired by astrid. in las vegas last summer. she was brought to this country from mexico at the age of four with nothing but a doll, across, and the dress she was wearing. now she is in her 20's and advocating for the rights of undocumented americans and comprehensive immigration reform. we should all join her in this. i am inspired by mikey, who i met in new york. mikey spent six months imprisoned for a low-level drug offense. after he got out, mikey discovered just how hard it is for people who have done their time to find good jobs and opportunities, but he persisted here and he managed to start his own ice cream shop in new york, and i can recommend -- it is

delicious. we have to do more to help others get that second chance, anduding by banning the box reforming our criminal justice system. [applause] mrs. clinton: i am inspired by erica, one of the bravest young women i have ever met. her mother dawn was the principal of sandy hook school who died trying to protect her students. erica was devastated, but then she made it her mission to advocate for common sense gun safety reform. it has been painful for her. way, of hate has come her and the gun lobby is so powerful. but erica won't give up. as she said, what if everyone who faced tough odds said, "it's hard, i am going to walk away"?

that is not the top of world i want to live in. that is the spirit that makes this country great. butight get knocked down, we get right back up again. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: and we refuse to quit no matter what. that is the spirit we need in this election, too. now i know that with washington paralyzed with big money and partisanship, the gaps between the change we want and the progress that politics should deliver look like a chasm. i also know that, even if you are totally opposed to donald trump, you may still have some questions about me. i get that, and i want to do my best to answer those questions. when it comes to public service, the service part has always been easier for me than the public

part. i will never be the showman my opponent is, and you know what's, that is ok with me. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: and it is also true -- i do spend a lot of time on the details of policy, like the precise interest rate on your student loans, right down to the decimal. but that is because it is not a detail for you. it is a big deal, and it should be a big deal to your president. so here -- [applause] clinton: so here is what i ask any voter who is still undecided -- give us both a fair hearing. hold us accountable for our ideas, both of us. i can't promise you will agree with me all the time, but i can promise you this -- no one will work harder to make your life

better. i will never stop no matter how tough it gets. in fact, you can read about what tim and i want to do. we're not keeping it a secret. we have got a book called "stronger together." [cheers and applause] that let me tell you a little bit about the values that drive me and my vision for the future, because you deserve that from anyone running for president. i want to share with you the stories of three women who had pivotal moments -- who at pivotal moments changed my life and set me on a chorus of social justice, activism, public service. the first woman is my mother. her name was dorothy. she was abandoned by her parents as a young girl here and she ended up out on her own at 14 working as a housemaid. when i learned about this many years later, i asked how she

managed to grow up into a warm, and not become bitter and broken. and here is what she said. one word -- kindness. she was saved by the kindness of others. like the teacher who saw she had nothing to eat at lunch and brought extra food to share. the lesson she passed on to me was simple but powerful. .o one gets through life alone we have to look out for each other and lift each other up. she made sure i learned the words from one of the creeds of our methodist faith, do all the good you can for all the people you can in all the ways you can as long as you ever can. that mission guides me still today. when i stumble, it helps pick me up. there is always more good to do and more people to help if we keep our eyes open, especially

kids. when i met a terrified little girl in nevada who burst into tears because she worried her parents would be deported, it hit me right in the gut. i knew how hard working her parents were. i knew the sacrifices they were making so that she could have a better life. when i met little boy in flint, michigan, who got sick from drinking water, poisoned with lead, it just made me so angry and determined to work even harder. every one of our children deserves a chance to share in the promise of america. the second woman i want to tell you about is marian wright 80 man. shoot -- marian wright adelman, first african american to pass the mississippi bar. she was an ally of dr. king and robert kennedy and the founder of the children's defense fund, an altogether remarkable person.

one day during my first semester and law school, i saw a flyer -- we used to have those, on the campus bulletin board, and she was coming to give a lecture. i majored to be there. what i heard was captivating. she talked about creating a head start program in mississippi and using her legal education to make life better for poor children and families, something just clicked in my brain. i began to see how i could translate the commitment to helping others -- i learned from my mother and my church, into real social change. i went up to her, and i said, could i work for you this summer? she said, sure, but i can't pay you. i said, well, i am paying my way through law school, so i have to get paid. she said, well, if you can figure how to get paid, you can have a job. so i figured out how to get a grant to get paid and went to

work for her. after graduation, i could have followed my classmates to a high-powered law firm, but i went to work for marian at the children's defense fund instead. in's in the door-to-door massachusetts on behalf of children with disabilities who were denied the chance to go to school back then. i remember meeting a young girl in a wheelchair on a small back porch of her house, and sheetal me how badly she wanted an education, that it just did not seem possible. my heart went out to her, and i wanted to help, but it became clear to me that simply caring is not enough. that would not force the public schools to build more wheelchair ramps and put more resources into special education here it i learned that to drive real progress, you have to change both hearts and laws. so we get it evidence. we build a coalition. our work helped convince congress to ensure access to

education for all students with disabilities him and that experience turned me into a lifelong advocate for children and families. i went to some carolina to investigate the plight of 12 and 13-year-old boys in prison alongside grown men who had committed serious felonies. in alabama, help expose the racism of segregated academies. in arkansas, iran a legal aid clinic that provided representation to poor families and imprisoned inmates who cannot afford it. when bill was elected president, a lot of people were surprised, and even threatened, by the idea of an activist as first lady, but i was not about to quit then either. i fought for universal health care and ended up working with republicans and democrats in congress to create the children's health insurance program, which covers 8 million kids today. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: the third woman

who changed my life was named sophia. the 17-year-old captain of a high school basketball team in new york city. it was the late 1990's and democrats in new york were urging me to run for the senate, and i kept telling them no. after all, no first lady had ever done anything like that here at i myself cannot run for anything since student council. i had always been an advocate, not politician, but then one day i visited that school in new york for an event with young women for athletes with pillaging king. -- with billy jean king. hanging above our head was a big banner that said, "dare to compete." before my speech, sophia introduced me. she was tall, and she bent over and whispered in my ear, "dear

to compete, mrs. clinton, dare to compete." once again, something just clicked. for years, i had been telling young women to step up, participate, do what you believe i was afraidt be to do something i had urged so many others to do? well, it was a difficult transition, becoming a candidate for the first time back in that new york senate race. even all these years later, i confess, i don't enjoy doing some of the things that come naturally to most politicians, like talking about myself. but i took that leap then for the same reason i am running now, to even the odds for those with the odds stacked against them, especially children and families here at i have learned that in a democracy, if you want to help the greatest number of people, you have to push for reform in from both the outside

in and the inside out. we need activist and advocates, entrepreneurs and innovators, teachers and mentors some of people who change lives everyday in a million quiet ways. we also need strong principled leaders who can win votes, right laws, allocate resources, do the slow, hard business of governing. of course, politics can be discouraging here this election, in particular, can be downright depressing sometimes. matters, it really does. it matters for our families, our communities, and our country and the world. our most cherished values are at stake. every election is important, from school board to state senate to president. .ut this time is different we are facing a candidate with a long history of racial discrimination in his businesses , who retweets white

supremacists, who led the bi delegitimizet to our first black president, and he is still lying about it today. he refuses to apologize to president obama, his family, and the american people. we have to stand up to this hate. we cannot let it go on. [cheers and applause] ]cheers and applause when we don: and --t, we send a clear message america is better than this.

america is better than donald trump. just as important, we have a chance to make real progress together in our country. [applause] mrs. clinton: i need you. i need you as partners, not just for winning this election, but for driving real change over the next four years. the fights ahead of us are bigger than one election, one president, or even one generation. it is going to take all of us working side-by-side to build the kind of future we want. that is why if i am in the white house, young people will always have a seat at any table where any decision is being made. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: so if you believe diversity is america's strength, not america's burden, join us.

if you believe the minimum wage and nobe a living wage one working full time should have to raise their children in poverty, join us. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: if you believe climate change is real and that we can save our planet while creating millions of good paying clean energy jobs, join us. if you believe that every man, woman, and child in america has the right to affordable quality health care, join us. if you believe we could finally guaranty equal pay for women, join us. [cheers and applause]

mrs. clinton: and here is how you can join us -- go to iwillvote.com and register today. register your friends. register everyone you know. .his is going to be close we need everyone off the sidelines. not voting is not an option. that just plays into trump's hands. it really does. [applause] mrs. clinton: text join to 47246 right now or go to hillaryclinton.com and sign up to volunteer. i understand if you are at temple, you are already organizing -- campaign tailgates and every football game and

having a lot of fun doing it. tohave 50 days, 50 days, reach everybody we possibly can election --y win an that is just the first step, but then keep the progress going, go even further, make it absolutely clear that we are going to shape a future that represents the best of who we are. so talk to your classmates, talk to your neighbors. help us stand up to our best values and reject prejudice and paranoia. [applause] know, inton: you mentioned my mother and the kindness she experienced. neglected that when she went to work as that housekeeper/babysitter at the age of 14, it was the first time

she ever saw a family that loved each other, where the parents loved their children, cared for them, planned for them, where she learned the lessons that enabled her to be such an extraordinary mother to me and my brothers. everything i have learned in my life convinces me that love trumps hate. [cheers and applause] mrs. clinton: so please join us in working together. there is no doubt in my mind that young people have more at stake in this election than any other age group, and when you turn out and vote this fall, we will be sending a message much larger than even the outcome.

we will say we can build a future where all our children have an opportunity to live up to their god-given potential, no matter who they are, where they are from, what they look like, or who they love. that is the america we believe in. that is the america worth fighting for. that is what we have got to do to stand together. we are stronger together, and let's make sure love trumps hate. thank you. [cheers and applause] ♪

all we need is hope we have each other for that we have each other rise l we will rise oh we will rise rise up rise like the day i will rise up i will rise a thousand times again and we will rise up like the waves upwill rise and we will do it a thousand times again

for you for you ♪ ♪ campaign 2016, c-span continues on the road to the white house. mr. trump: we all want to get back to making america strong and great again. mrs. clinton: i am running for everyone working hard to support their families, everyone who has been knocked down the gets back up. >> ahead, live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span, the c-span radio app, and c-span.org or at monday, septum or 26, is the first presidential 20 six.- september tuesday, october 4, vice presidential candidates debate in farmville, virginia. sunday, october 9, washington

university in st. louis hosts the second presidential debate him a leading up to the third and final debate between hillary clinton and donald trump, taking place at the university of nevada las vegas on october 19 year and live coverage of the presidential and vice presidential debates on c-span. listen live on the free c-span radio app or watch live or anytime on demand at c-span.org. the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture opens its doors to the public for the first time saturday, and c-span will be live from the national mall starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern for the outdoor dedication ceremony. speakers include president obama and the founding museum director. also in attendance will be first lady michelle obama, former president george w. bush and mrs. laura bush am a u.s. supreme court chief justice john roberts, congressman john lewis, and the smithsonian secretary.

watch the opening ceremony for the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture live saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, the c-span radio app, and c-span.org. and c-span taking you back on the road to white house shortly for a donald trump campaign rally in fort myers, florida, scheduled to start in about 10 minutes, 3:00 eastern time, where polls show a close race. before the candidate arrived, here is a look at some of today's "washington journal." or of the heritage foundation, and olivia golden of the center for law and social policy. we're having a discussion on the new report on poverty in 2015. olivia, we'll start with you. that report showed the largest single year decline in the poverty rate since 1968. total poverty number of people in the united states in poverty now at 1999 levels. we'll go into the details of that report. but what do you think are the

biggest reasons for that drop? guest: the big headlines, as you say, is improvement as a result of the economy reaching across a large swath of americans, the economic recovery. in addition to overall poverty dropping, child poverty dropped, which is something we follow in particular from about 21% to just under 20%, so still one in five kids. so a big reason the economy, the economic recovery is reaching a much larger share of americans. there's also a lot of good yuse in that report about public programs, the accompanying report on health insurance shows big improvements in the share of americans who have health insurance, the number without is down by four million from last year, so that's a big positive, the contributions of public programs like snap, food assistance, and the earned income tax credit keep people out of poverty. i think the one other topic, which i'm sure we'll get back to, is that while there's been

a very important positive impact, there are still big disparities in poverty. so child poverty remains at unacceptablely high levels, young adults, kind of america's next generation, so getting the economic benefits fully to parents and to young children i think is an agenda for maintaining the momentum. it's very good news, though. host: certainly issues we'll discuss during this hour roundtable this morning. but robert rector, you played a key role in crafting the 199 federal welfare reform bill. what do you see as the big drivers of that poverty rate coming down now to 13.5%? guest: well, it's clearly the economy, there's not much change in policy here. but i think we need to put these numbers in context, and they are very good. i mean, very sharp, one-year drop. but it's a one-year drop following seven years of extremely bad news. and so, overall, for the last

eight years, the numbers here have been very bad. and we have -- we actually have a higher poverty rate now than we did before the beginning of the great recession in 2007. that's rather remarkable. to t's a one-year drop, but have a significant change, you have to have drops that occur year after year after year. that rarely has occurred in our system. it only occurred in the 1950's and 1960's, and then it occurred during the period of welfare reform in the boom economy in the 1990's, where, for example, in that period, poverty among single mothers with children dropped eight percentage points over four, five, six years and went down substantially on a structural basis. here we have a one-year drop, but we're actually worse off than we were when barack obama came into office. host: can you talk about that one-year drop and whether some groups did better than others, urban versus rural or along racial lines? guest: i think it was all

really good news, all across the board. i mean, it was great. i'm very happy with that report. but again, one year doesn't make much difference if it's been going up, and actually poverty was rising during much of the obama administration, again, g a lot, but we're worse off now than in 2007 when bush was in office, and that is really due to a very, very mediocre economic performance over the long term. maybe we have a change here, but one year does not a party make. host: well, i want to discuss how we keep this from becoming a one-year blip, but also want to invite our viewers to call in. different phones line,, if you make under $25,000 a year, phone number is 202-748-8000. if you make $25,000 to $50,000 a year, it's 202-748-8001. $51,000 to $100,000 a year,

202-748-8002. if you make over $100,000 a year, 202-847-8003. if you didn't catch those, we'll keep the numbers up on the screen so you can start calling in. olivia, how do we keep this from becoming a one-year blip? guest: that's a freight question, and i would highlight that it is very -- it's very important that the president broad his policies, but also the broad economy have brought us back from the great depression. i totally agree with robert that going further is now crucial. to keep the momentum going, i would say there are several things we need to do. they're both building on success and going in some additional directions. first, what we've seen over these last years is that a big public program, like food assistance, like the earned income tax credit, have really done their job, but the private economy has taken a long time to improve the circumstances of low wage workers. and when you look at what's going on for children and their

parents right now, it's still about low wage work, both low wages, but also two few hours. you see a lot of people still working part-time who want to be working full-time. o we need both policies that affect things like their scheduling and minimum wage, as is happening in a lot of states and localities. we also need strong investment and good jobs. you'll hear a lot of conversation about infrastructure, for example, which is about that. we need a big investment in child care. that's a big issue right now that affects parents' ability to work and children's ability to succeed. and then we need to focus on some other things, filling in some gaps in the safety net, the earned income tax credit, helps low-income mothers and parents a lot t. doesn't help adults without kids as much. that's an example. we also focus a lot on affordability of higher education, because right now to get a good job, you need at least some kind of post-secondary credentials.

so that's the kind of things we need to do to build on success and keep it going. host: robert rector, agree? guest: not exactly. i think it's important to, fist of all, understand what these numbers say and what they don't say. they're very misleading. these are pre-welfare numbers. the welfare state is not counted here so. if a family receives $12,000 or $14,000 a year in the earned income tax credit, food stamps and so forth, that's not counted as income. last year for families with children, we spent $221 billion on cash, food, and housing for those families. that's twice what is needed to eliminate all poverty in the united states. the census bureau counted only 1/10 of that as income for purposes of poverty. if you accurately count all the benefits that they're getting, then the poverty rate is cut really by by 2/3. but you rarely ever see those numbers, and we get these confusing pitches like look at how much poverty we've got.

we need to spend more on welfare, but then it's not counted, so it can't possibly have any effect. host: i'll give our viewers the numbers. the poverty threshold from the census bureau in 2015, it's $12,000 a year. for two people, $15,000. three people, $19,000 a year. for a family of four, $24,000 a year. and for a family of five, $29,000 a year is the official poverty threshold from the 2015 report. you say those numbers not including a whole lot of things that these individuals are getting. guest: patriot much the whole welfare state is cut out of these numbers. when you add the welfare state in, what we need to do is basically have a system that combines the individuals' efforts to support themselves with a welfare state that complements and reinforces that. it's the welfare state doesn't do. but if, for example, you take a single mother with two kids who's earning the federal

minimum wage, and most mothers earn more than that, but she only gets doesn't do. but if, then from her earnings around $14,000 a year. she's way below the poverlt level, but she also is going to get $7,500 in cash from the tax credit system. she's going to get food stamps. she's going to get medicaid. and when you add all those things together, her income is actually well up over $30,000 a year, even putting the medical assistance aside. she's more than 25% above the poverty level. but that's not reflected in these numbers. host: the argument that poverty is overstated in the united states? guest: this is a very accurate measure, or patriot accurate measure for measuring poverty without welfare, ok? when you count welfare, the actual poverty rate is cut by about 2/3. and the question really for policy is how do we put together a welfare system that doesn't displace people's efforts to support themselves, but complements those and brings those efforts together with a welfare state to make people better off.

host: olivia, and then we'll get to calls. guest: the the census bureau dos calculate with and without, i called the supplemental poverty measure. that shows the same pattern this goes the rate for children from over 19% to about 16% when you count those programs. from one in five to one and six great the children are still the poorest. the overall rate goes up a little bit when you count those programs. if you are going to count benefits people get through the tax system, you also have to count what they pay. even low income workers pay payroll taxes and other things the senses has to do to make it accurate. it isn't true that they hide the information. it is out there. two things i would headline, the first is that i totally agree with what robert is saying, which is it is a huge success of public policy of the earned income tax credit and nutrition assistance enable a low income mother to both have an incentive to work and to stabilize her

family better than she would alone. when i think is not in his example of a mother with a couple of kids working full time is that it is a dream for most single moms to be able to work full-time. be able to pay for childcare care to do that, which is an enormous expense. typically about the same as housing. public programs to support childcare, but they only get to about one in six eligible kids. increasingly low-wage work has problems with being able to work full-time. people get far too few hours. the system helps a lot, but there remain gaps to fix it entirely. host: poverty in the united states is our discussion. olivia golden is with the sector for law and poverty. robert rector. jesse is in muskegon michigan for those to make under $25,000 a year. thing about poverty

has gone down, i don't believe it. just because they have this campaign going on now, i retired in 1979. an hour.ing $9.99 -- nine dollars any five cents an hour. back in 1979. -- $9.95 an hour. back in 1979. this thing about poverty is going down is not true at all. you ask the senior citizens out $600 or $700o live a month. you asked them if poverty has gone down. we had these same comments last week when these numbers came out. robert rector, this concern that people don't believe the numbers. they are not seeing poverty going down. guest: there clearly are people

that are still in hardship. i also would sympathize with what he said among lower skilled workers, wages have really been flat for about four years. that's a real problem. the reality is, when you look at this broad population, where we're seeing around 40 million people are poor, we also have data on what those people alike. the typical household among the senses is identifying is poor as cable tv, has air-conditioning, has a computer, has internet, has an automobile, has a cell phone. if you ask them, were you hungry at any point during the year, 96% of these poor parents will say our children were not hungry during the year. that's all government data. it doesn't mean that these families are walking on easy street, they are struggling. but they are struggling to pay

the cable tv bill and the air-conditioning in the computer bill and the internet bill. and keep their car running and things. it's very different than the normal image we project about poverty. that's very important. if we were to back up to the larger issue, we really have singing since the beginning of the war on poverty is a decline in the americans ability of low-income americans to support themselves above the poverty pressure threshold without reliance on welfare. that's particularly true for families with children. that was lyndon johnson's original goal of the war on poverty was to make families self-sufficient, so they didn't need welfare. we had a complete disaster for 50 years in that regard. host: i will let you respond. income in the united states also part of this report that was released last week. they put the numbers out there. median household income in 2015 was $56,516 in the year, an

increase of 5.2% from the 2014 income. it's the first increase since 2007. maryland's and the district of columbia, have the highest median household incomes. the city with a median household income of about $40,593 a year. guest: i just want to say to jesse that i think two things are true wants. one is that someone more people have been reached by the economy than last year. that's the good news. the second thing, which you are highlighting and is absolutely true is that there's a long way to go. i think your point about wages staying low is particularly important. some local communities and states have been passing a moment wage increases. that needs to happen at the federal level. in addition to wages, as i mentioned earlier, a big problem for struggling families and individuals is scheduling. example, people getting eight hours this week, 15 hours next week, wanting to work full-time and wanted to put

together low-wage jobs, but not getting enough security about their hours to do it. those are big issues we have to address. i think there's lots more to say about the kinds of damage that poverty and low income do. i expect to see that in your daily life. we know a lot from the research now about the consequences, particularly for children, of growing up in families where food is constantly scarce, and people are stressed out about it all the time. warehousing is just overwhelmingly expensive and low income people are moving, they are doubled up, they are evicted, they are sometimes homeless. and where the adults in the family are constantly under stress, try to juggle work and parent their kids. both things are true. there has been improvement, there's a lot further to go. host: let's go to the line for those making over $100,000 a year. minor in salt lake city, utah. caller: it's only taken me 20 years to speak on c-span. host: thanks for calling.

go ahead. you have your time now. caller: it's truly amazing. perhaps to comment that the reason that the poverty -- i has dropped below can't remember what the amount was. because it could have taken eight years of the obama administration to accomplish it. i think i would basically agree with that, that we've had eight years of extremely lackluster performance, and poverty was going up during much of that time. when we were supposed to be in an economic recovery. if you look over that eight year , it's a very dismal perio

d. we had higher poverty today than we did when george bush was president. not much of a recovery when you have that. his is one year of good news. it's counteracted by seven years of particularly bad news. guest: i think i would say the president came into office with the deepest recession since the --at depression, branded it prevented it from turning into a great depression and then worked with and often hostile congress, not only to easily affect of that immediate recession, but also, to accomplish some other things. with the report shows is not only the success in terms of poverty, and other improvements that you can very directly linked to public policy. highlight health insurance. the affordable care act and the fact that only 9% of americans are now without health insurance. that's the lowest uninsured share ever. intriguingly, the report also looks at how that relates to policy by looking at states that

have taken advantage of the full array of opportunities in the aca, the medicaid expansion. advantage have taken of the policy have done better for their citizens in terms of health insurance. you can really see the policy affect in this report. host: it might be a good time to when viewers, what is the center for law and social policy? guest: a nonpartisan anti-policy -- anti-poverty organization. we work at the federal and state level to improve the lives of low-income people. i spent much of my career both leading public programs and working in research on those issues. host: and robert rector at heritage? guest: heritage foundation is a think tank that promotesguest: free markets and strong values in society. i try and promote a welfare state that promotes work and marriage as the keys to self-sufficiency and well-being.

while supporting those things for those that need it. we don't believe in simply endlessly handing out more and we don't think the conventional welfare system is actually helping anyone. those thehe line for make under $25,000 a year, mark is waiting in california. caller: good morning. my hope you bear with me. there isn't one of these problems you are talking about that doesn't exist and couldn't be done without if we just have people in charge are supposedly the ship who showed a national sense of integrity. i've lived under that line you're talking about for most of my life. i'm a veteran that's been betrayed. i've been betrayed by my nation, whether or not the rest of you want to recognize it very you are being betrayed by the two parties and it doesn't matter how good the person in charge or involved is. as long as they belong to either one of these two parties, they sold us out. and let me say this.

for all of you smart intellectual college degree individuals out there. why can you see what i see -- why can't you see what i see? there isn't one of our problems that can be made better by just voting a third party individual and office. because the other two parties sold us out. please, take this message to heart. 40% of your home was out there are veterans. 25 years ago, it was 30%. these two parties couldn't rectify, the people we claim to honor all the time. some of us can't even get paid for our time in service, yet alone -- let alone what happened to us. host: robert, do you want to talk about the policy proposals of the various presidential candidates and what might be most effective here? guest: i do think one area that's very important, we talked about stagnant wages for those workers. one of the major reasons that we've had stagnant wages for low

skilled workers now for decades is the massive influx of low skilled immigrant labor this driven those wages down. in many cases, is driven people out of the labor market altogether. that's a very important issue. if you bring more and more people in who, for example, are immigrants without a high school degree, they compete with the least advantaged, least skilled american workers. wages go down substantially for that group. some of them just leave the labor force entirely. that's a disaster. from's really no gain this. we shouldn't be using the immigration system to push the wages of our least advantaged american workers down. many to turn that around. a policy thatt: may be the most effective? guest: we are nonpartisan, but i will identify policies from president obama and the state. i would highlight that president

obama made a very strong proposal on childcare in 2017 budget, which the congress did not take up, which would've made sure that low income parents could get help paying for child care, which interviewed spoke to children doing better and to parents economic stability. guest: if i could back this up, if you look at child poverty all the way back to 1950, all the way back to the korean war, to the present time, child poverty dropped only during the 1950's and 1960's, they remained constant. it dropped in the 1990's due to a strong economy and welfare reform. for example, the poverty rate among civil parents at that time dropped from around 40% down to 30%. a very dramatic drop. i believe largely because of that welfare reform. otherwise, all we do is to spend money and basically have welfare replace wages to a considerable degree.

what we need to do is -- i think it's a problem that both parties have unlearned the lessons of welfare reform under the clinton presidency. but we had there was a requirement that at least apportion of the single mothers should work in exchange for benefits they got. we had dramatic long-term drops in top -- and poverty. much larger than what we're talking about today. ,hat went on year after year surges in employment. not because we were taking welfare away, but what we were saying in order to get welfare, you have to also take steps to help yourself. well for theally beneficiaries, it works well for the taxpayer, and society in general. both parties have walked away from them. tereus,t's bring in who's been waiting in fayetteville, new york on that line for those whom it between $51,000 and $100,000 a year. go ahead with your comment.

you have to stick by your phone. go to connecticut for the line making under $25,000 a year. good morning. caller: thank you. i make way under $25,000 because i had to go out on social security -- on disability, rather, it is of a back problem that was not diagnosed. struggle, honestly, but in doing better because they know what's wrong with me and i'm getting some therapy for it. but i agree that we need to continue on this progress. stamp, get a single food and what has helped me is, they program -- qmb

program, quality medicare beneficiary program. it doesn't have anything to do with president obama. it was started around the time us, they offered it to since he's been in office. but the medicare program. and very quickly, i don't have to pay my premium every month. and now, they've come out, the state of connecticut has come out with a dental program, it's the first offered under medicare , in fact, dental is very important to me because i need a lot of dental work. like 61 credits towards a bachelor's degree now that i'm getting help for my back.

i will be able to have the care. chair -- dental i can do something to supplement my income and finish my degree. honestly, you need to do something in this country. i follow politics every day, and then i agree with the lady that -- she says she's nonpartisan. something --o these other republicans, they keep using redistribution of wealth, and they are not for any programs that will help people. host: i wanted olivia golden, you're shaking your head during the qnb program. -- qmb. guest: thank you for your comment and your commitment to

going back to school and returning to work. i wanted to comment that the importance of health care and access to health care in order to be able to work is a really central lesson from the research. of the reasonse that the affordable care act and the medicaid program matters so much. i want to underline that. i wanted to take a moment to link them back to the point that the conversation of moment ago about one specific welfare program, called tanis, temporary assistance for needy families. when people talk about welfare reform, that's what they mean. i implement to that program in the clinton administration and then studied it. i would say is that unfortunately, when you look today, it is barely exists. it has not been successful in the way to the supplemental nutrition assistance program, medicaid, and the earned income tax credit have been. and that's for a bunch of reasons. one big one is that it was a cap dollar amount at the beginning. i the beginning, it did what was saying, it provided more

money for child care assistance, spendoney for states to on work support. now, states aren't spending it on any of those things, they're balancing other parts of their budget to a large degree. it has other challenges in it too. theuld just highlight that evidence we have from researchers fits very much what you just said, that for families to succeed, they need health, nutrition support, they need to stabilize their lives. and then he jobs that offer them decent wages and hours. olivia golden was the assistant secretary for children and families of the u.s. department of health and human services from 1993 to 2001. guest: two different roles during that time. guest: if i can of his eyes at heritage foundation is also a nonpartisan organization, but it very interesting. if you go back all the way to 1970, the only time in which child poverty actually fell in a substantial way, particularly poverty for parents with during welfare reform. but that's rated a failure.

that's a failure. it's the only time when poverty substantially goes down in a drops from around 40% for single moms down to 30%. and that's because the welfare recipients were required to work in exchange for the benefits, work increased, and poverty went down as a result of that. 90% of the american public believes that able-bodied , food,uals who get cash housing from the government ought to be required to work with prepare for work as a condition for getting that aid. int of the welfare state which we spend $1 trillion in year does not have that type of work requirements. in fact, it discourages work. and that's what we can spend and spend and spend on these systems and things don't get better. host: 25 minutes left, a lot of folks going to chat. olivia golden, i will give you john in greenbelt, maryland on the line for those who make over $100,000 a year. i'm calling in response

to the veteran living in poverty. i like to thank him for his service. from the opposite end, and highly educated with a phd in physics, and i just over $100,000 a year. i completely agree that both parties can't solve the problems or choose not to. and a sold out the working class, which is why you have obama and ryan in the establishment vote that's trying to push the transpacific partnership. and all these things that are going to help the working class. third-party is the way to go. guest: thank you, john. i'm not credit, and, we are a nonpartisan organization. but i just want to pull out one other comment, one element of your comment which was your phd in the higher education that you said is contributing to security. one of the interesting things there is ak at is very broad research agreement at a bipartisan agreement that to get a good job today, you need at least a credential beyond

high school. you need at least a community college credential recognized by employers. but there are enormous -- another way that poverty holds people back is that low income young people and adults going back to school face enormous barriers and being able to afford school. not just tuition, but also more than half of people in school, in secondary education today our independence, trying to pay for themselves, often raise kids. we think that part of the solution is also making it more affordable for people to get that education and improve their own circumstances. host: the caller brings up paul onn, programming note c-span, speaker paul ryan will be at the economic club of new york speaking today at 12:30, talking about how to create opportunities for the next generation in that speech. will be carrying that live here on c-span if you want to watch. robert rector, i give you

michael in maryland for the line that makes between $25,000 to $50,000 a year. caller: thank you for c-span. i agree with the and lady. the thing about it is elections have consequences. when obama took over, he's been he triedn everything to do to make this better. republicans denied and every thing they did, they attached crazy stuff to it, it's been one big waste of time. but then to turn around and talk about how bad things are, they did nothing. absolutely nothing to further the cause. ,his man was the winner, he won and i understand how politics go. theirs, but when you see a party that's done nothing, absolutely nothing to help the conditions, and then have the nerve to turn around and talk about how things are? we were losing hundreds of

thousands of jobs a month. host: we got your point. robert rector, which was great? -- would you agree? guest: i don't want to be for the republican party, which is done badly by abandoning the principles of reform it, but if you go back to 1970 when richard nixon was president, the only time when poverty actually dropped was right after the welfare reform passed by a republican congress and signed by bill clinton, and now as a bad by ms. golden policy. all these other policies simply spent more money and created more dependence by essentially displacing work and marriage and replacing it with welfare. and that's why poverty didn't go down, it's weisel's efficiency and the ability of families to support themselves without reliance on welfare has asked a gotten a lot worse since we started the war on poverty. a generoushave

system. and let me emphasize if someone is making even the minimum wage in the united states, we come in to a parent like that and offer at least $10,000 in additional benefits through the earned income tax credit, through food stamps, to supplement their wages, so they will not be in hardship. i'm willing to say that's a good choice. but we shouldn't beginning people simply handouts without requiring if it's an able-bodied recipient, without requiring them to engage in constructive behavior to make themselves more self-sufficient. when we do that, when we require work or preparation for work, in fact, poverty goes down and the well-being of the families and children go up three unfortunately, the left in the united states oppose welfare reform under bill clinton, and they continue to wish to essentially run a work free welfare system that simply costs more and more money without

actually benefiting the poor. because a family sitting alone, living on welfare check is going to be poor, and has multiple factors that push it towards the social margins. not a good policy. something that i think is not accurate, what robert said, back to the caller. low income families today are working at very high levels. about 70% of children in ---income families live with 70% of children in for families -- in poor families, live with someone who is working. extraordinary levels of work for mothers and their children in early years of life. wages areely, because too low and because of the insecurity of hours, many of those parents can't make ends meet. programs likelic snap and food assistance and medicaid in health insurance,

you heard how important health was, like the earned income tax credit support work. all of the research suggests that what they do is help people stabilize their lives, so that they are able to work and to move up. unfortunately, there are some exceptions to that. in the program the roberts talking about has unfortunately shrunk so much in its value that it isn't really helping people in the same way it needs to. overall, the issue isn't that people aren't working. they are working. isn't that they don't want to work. it's that full-time work at decent wages that can support a family is hard to come by. guest: we have a paradox. if all of these families are working, then they have enough from work and welfare to be above the poverty line. and even if you are making just the minimum wage. there's a contradiction there. guest: typically, it is hours of work. host: we can go back and forth, but a few tweets on highlight.

viewers are having this conversation on twitter, @cspanwj. marie says every taxpayer is overburdened with having to support the increased number of non-workers, and they said i thought welfare was supposed to be for a set amount of time, now generational. if you want to join the conversation, it happens every day, @cspanwj. cat is waiting to join the conversation on our program. in los angeles, california for those you make between $51,000 and $100,000 a year. go ahead. caller: this is an interesting conversation. homelessness was 9300 and los angeles, in 2013. now in 2016, it's over 14,000 homelessness. in los angeles, the area where i live, you see increased homelessness and the houses go

just a few blocks away, for $800,000. can you imagine having homelessness in an area where the houses go for over $800,000? you see women, black women, panhandling out. this was never before seen. citys angeles, it's one that's the mac up for illegal immigration. and we never discuss the interrelatedness, the interconnectedness between illegal immigration and its impact on the economics and the labor force. particularly black america. these policies coming out of d.c. for the last 30, 40, 50 years are not working. because our citizens should not be homeless. i sort of want to piggyback on what the veteran said. i don't agree with the two callers that said obama is doing a good thing and the policies should be better -- no.

the system is not working. for american citizens. host: you are not in your head for part of that. -- nodding your head for part of that. guest: one out of 10 of these children are the child's -- children of illegal immigrants. they all get welfare benefits. and importantly, the surge of a limo -- illegal immigrants. we have 7 million illegal immigrants employed in this country. roughly half of them do not have a high school degree. i absolutely agree that the coming intoigrants compete with the least skilled, lisa vanished american workers has driven down wages and also has driven many workers right out of the labor force entirely. particularly black male workers. that's basic economics. less want the wages of skilled workers to go up, we don't want to flood the labor market with illegal competitors

from abroad. we should get that illegal immigration under control. if you just enforce the current law -- it's unlawful to hire an illegal immigrant. as a system called e-verify that could eliminate at least half of the employment of illegal immigrants in the united states, freeing up for million or 5 .illion jobs each year if you want employment and wages to go up for people who have a high school degree or less, the most important thing you can do is stop illegal immigrants and enforced the law that says the businesses cannot cheat and hire illegal immigrants for less than you pay an american worker. it's a bad system that's creating poverty and hardship. we should stop it. host: olivia golden, a quick response. guest: there are a lot of researchers who see enormous positive economic impact from

immigration. i want to focus on the citizen callern, who the mentioned. and note that those kids, the children of immigrants, a very large number of documented immigrants as well as some undocumented are a core portion of america's future. than they areess entitled to. and that's a problem. we need to make sure that those kids grow up secure. one mention of the homelessness portion of the comment. because i do think that the enormous issue and i'm glad you highlighted it. housing is very expensive. and one of the ways that low income affects children, particularly, but also adults is instability in housing, being evicted, being doubled up and being homeless. babies being one-year-old is actually the common agent homeless children. and has terrible lifelong consequences. left, james and towns river, new jersey. the line for those you make

under $25,000 a year. go ahead. caller: good morning, "washington journal," listeners.

businesses the main force by which we create jobs and then we want to have a system where we don't suppress the wages of massivetaged workers by

legal immigration. and then we want to have a welfare system that says when you have a job and you still can't make enough, we want to a system ofough welfare that complements your efforts and piggybacks on top of your efforts. the problem was welfare reform under newt gingrich and bill clinton, we reformed only one of 80 welfare programs. the rest were untouched. they don't have work requirements. and they are basically pulling both the taxpayer and will threat -- and welfare recipients down. them a you have joe in annapolis maryland on that line and for those who make over $100,000 per year. >> thank you for taking my call. i heard callers talking about no tax cuts for the rich. but it is a case that half of the people who work and pay federal taxes pay no income tax.

and there are a lot of other people who don't work at all that pay no income tax. you have to pay a tax to get a credit. over $100,000. i'm's a prize there wasn't a tab above that. i can make $200,000 per year, that areproperty taxes imputed, the social security taxes, the federal tax, i bring home probably just about half of that. to highlight one great fraud perpetrated on the american people. the social security system, everybody pays in. they get their social security taxes back with an earned income credit. they receive a benefit, a social security pension, perhaps never paid into the social security system. maybe you can find a set of circumstances where people pay

50 years at the top rate, the person gets the benefit of $29,000 per year. low-end who pays 40 quarters, pays taxes on gets maybe one third, 1/5 of that. the richer person pays 100 times more to the security system. it is a wealth transfer system. >> one of the ways it provides a work incentive is you're are able to get a supplement to low wages and ideally work your way up. that's an important positive for my perspective. it needs a work incentive for people to work more.

one of the gaps in the earned income tax credit is that it doesn't do very much for people without children and for young workers, including, for example, a father who might be trying to help support his kids that don't live with him, but he's a very low-wage job. i would argue that it's a plus to be able to give people that incentive and the research suggests that it leads to more work. i want to make one other point, which is that you know that even at $100,000 a year, it's very hard for you in the community and you live in to do all the things you would want to do. i want to encourage everybody who is watching to think about somebody who is trying to raise kids and $18,000 or $19,000 and as robert said even with $30,000 in the low income category. think about what that means. i talked to somebody last summer who told me about the specifics of her circumstances, working 25 hours a week as a security

guard, wanting to work more, trying to pay for an apartment in the d.c. area on that. she's been addicted once and was a risk of that again. trying to keep a car running because she was trying to in addition to working, go to trinity college to get a credential that would let her do better. it's very hard work working in low-wage jobs at inadequate hours and trying to raise kids or better yourself. i think that is the headline here, we should be motivated to enable the workers to do better. it will be better for all of american if we can do that. host: joe was waiting in baltimore, maryland on the line for those whom a between $51,000 and $100,000 a year. ahead. caller: one of the things i have been noticing people talking about raising minimum wages, as a parenthesis, i'm illegal immigrant, now a citizen of the united states.

i believe that illegal immigration is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed and controlled. back to the minimum wage issue, raising the minimum wage solves nothing. because it's not the amount of money that you make, is how much you bring home with the money you make. if you go to the market, if they pay you $20 an hour but you cannot bring what you used to bring a $10 an hour, you have gone no place. this is what is happening. things to be considered. taxation and regulation have become so burdening too small businesses that it drives the small business to cheat. host: we got your point, joe. guest: it's important to

recognize what someone who is making the minimum wage actually gets. people would say look, here's a single mother, let's say she's making the federal minimum wage, which is around $7.25 an hour. she's making less than $14,000 a year. how can she possibly survive on that? the reality is, she gets another $10,000 or $11,000 of cash through the earned income tax credit, and snap payments during her kids essentially get free school lunch and breakfast. in most states, she and her children are both going to get medicaid. when you have that together, she has an income that of over $30,000 a year. that's a lot, but the last thing we want to do is raise the minimum wage, making it so that woman can't have any job at all because you priced her out of the market, which is an absolute disaster. we have a very, very generous system that takes basically any parent who works even 1500 hrs a

year, that three quarters of the year, and want to count welfare, which we usually don't do, they're going to have a family income that's well above the poverty level. what we need to do is make sure we have more jobs for them and we have to take the parents that don't work at all and say look, if you are getting food stamps, you're getting housing benefits, we want to continue to assist you. but we are going to require that you prepare for work or do community service in exchange for the benefits we give you. when we do that, employment is going to go up and poverty is going to go down. the kids are going to be better off. that's the key to welfare reform 20 years ago. unfortunately, the left opposes it has tried to unravel it for 20 years. host: ed in greenbelt, maryland on the line for those to make under $25,000 a year. no ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm a phd scientist and i have to disagree with your guests from the heritage foundation.

i had six-figure salaries years ago, up until 10 years ago. but the fact is that jobs are simply not there. and the fact is that immigrants are not responsible for my plight. the reason why i can't find jobs today. i spent time in europe. germany, for example. the germans who apply the industry to invest great we don't invest in our people. we don't invest in our engineers and scientists and all those people who don't have the jobs that are simple and not there in this country right now today. the fact is that jobs are simply not there. and illegal immigrants, they are not responsible for my plight and the reason why i can find jobs. like i used to. host: that is added in greenbelt, maryland. one minute each. guest: i agree that investing in jobs themselves and in some of the supports that enable people to succeed in jobs, like

childcare is really important. investing in affordable access to higher education. i completely agree with you. i completely agree that immigrants and their children are key part of our future. we need to enforce labor rules, but we need to make sure that our generation of children and young adults today is able to succeed. we have growing research on the consequences of poverty and growing research on the success of some of the programs like snap and medicaid and childcare subsidies in helping people stabilize their lives and raise their kids to be more successful and move up at work. we should act on that and continue the momentum from a very positive one year census four. -- census report. guest: there is little or no evidence that suggests giving people more welfare and making them more dependent, breaking families apart, which the welfare system does -- we've increased the number of simple parents from 10% of all families with children to 35% today.

those are disasters. the welfare system is implicated in that. pushing people out of the labor market by giving them a welfare check and said is a really bad thing. those of the policies we are doing. we are undermining wages and driving people out of the labor market due to a massive inflow of illegal immigrants. we have a welfare state that rewards people not to work and actually penalizes couples when they do get married. those are all bad things. we don't want to do away with welfare, but welfare should be helping people to rise up, rather than making them dependent. host: you can check out rob records work at heritage.org . olivia golden is with clasp, at clasp.org. thank you so much for your time this morning. ♪ >> waiting in southwest florida

at the germane arena. a look inside as we wait for our campaign rally for donald trump, scheduled to start almost an hour ago. pulling in florida shows the candidates are in a tight race. secretary clinton leads among likely voters by one point. although mr. trump has a one point lead in an average of polls. at the arena inset myers, florida.

, and waiting for donald trump, running late to this rally. to keep an eye on the arena and show some of the conversation about presidential and congressional and raising this election cycle.

you put this in perspective, other estimates about the total amount of money that is going to be spent with the presidential election, the congressional election, all combined what numbers are we going to be looking at? are estimates but they are probably less reliable this time of -- this time around. to the point of how expensive this is going to be by way of background, in february this year just during the presidential race alone you have an election that was already crossing the $1 billion mark by virtue of the incredibly competitive primary, particularly that the republicans were running with the multitude of candidates they had. but also because of the hillary clinton versus bernie sanders situation. when you add that on to the many months that have transpired

since then, we are already talking about a presidential race that easily is going to exceed $2 billion in spending. could be more than that. and then lumping all the congressional races, house and senate, you have some very competitive senate races, whether it's in ohio, pennsylvania, or florida in the matter. it's all going to be right around if not a good bit more than it was four years ago during the 2012 presidential race, which was well past the $6 billion mark. a lot is going to depend on exactly what donald trump does. donald trump has been a lot less money than mitt romney did in 2012. because donald trump has run a very different campaign than mitt romney ran. by that alone, it's messing with the predictions that we would traditionally have. host: with all those billions of dollars, what are the big edge of items for presidential campaign and a congressional

campaign? is it still commercial tv airtime? guest: that's a big portion, you are certain to see that more now. hillary clinton has been incredibly aggressive in this regard, via her campaign or the super pac's, these groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money advocate either for hillary clinton or in many cases, go and attack donald trump. those cans organizations are spending millions upon millions of dollars every week and have been doing so for quite a while now. primarily to attack donald trump. there are some withering ads that are out there right now. donald trump, on the other hand, has set for much of the campaign that i have a self-funded candidate, the billionaire, rep. holding: to anyone. for quite a while during the course of the campaign, that held true in the sense that his campaign was largely funded by donald trump. when we moved into the general election scenario and the general election phase of the campaign, he began to change in the way his fundraising operation ran. he's been getting a heck of a lot of support from super pac's. he's also been raising a lot of money from individuals, people who are not named donald trump.

and by that, in the past couple of months, he's been playing catch-up. he has less money and his presidency campaign than hillary clinton does, which may seem completely counterintuitive because donald trump is so personally wealthy. but roughly he has injected around $60 million of his own money into his own campaign, which falls well short of some of the predictions that before he became a presidential candidate, donald trump himself said that he would pour into a race if he ever did become a presidential candidate. one of those numbers was $600 million. $60 million is a lot different than $600 million. host: phone lines, if you want join the conversation talking about campaign fundraising and spending and all the billions of dollars that are being spent the cycle. democrat, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, call (202) 748-8001. independents, call (202) 748-8002.

when it comes to is actually spending the money, are the candidates and outside groups about equal in the spending? our candidate fundraising far outweighed by the shadowy groups we hear about? guest: it depends on the race we are talking about. the presidential level, the candidates themselves are spending a considerable amount of money. it may be in the end, that outside groups are going to be catching up. but the candidates themselves have really been leading the way both for hillary clinton and for donald trump. there is one caveat to that, which is the super pac called priorities usa action. the super pac it was created to help barack obama in 2012 run his reelection campaign and supported him with incredible amounts of money and was beating up on mitt romney and effectively acting as his surrogate among super pac's. they shifted and went and began to support hillary clinton. even before hillary clinton was an official nominated candidate for officially declared candidate.

they have been instrumental in spending and raising money on hillary clinton's behalf in support hillary clinton. that's the biggest, baddest super pac of all the presidential level. when you get to the senate level in the house level, it really depends on race as to whether the candidates themselves on the outside organizations are spending more or spending less. it's a mixed bag. host: you mentioned priority usa, i have an ad from them so our viewers can see with that money is being spent on to produce. [video clip] donald trump: i'm the least racist person there is. look at my african-american. all lives matter. his grandmother in kenya said he was born in kenya and she was there and witnessed the birth. ok? he doesn't have a certificate. you are living in poverty, your schools are no good. you have no jobs. i do not have a racist bone in my body. believe me.

host: their super pac supporting hillary clinton. supportinguper pac's donald trump. one of them, america now. [video clip] hillary clinton: we came out of the white house that broke come into. >> it didn't last long. speeches, connections, and donations. misogynistic regimes, wall street insiders, corrupt dictators. they all have one thing in common, their check cleared. worth inons are now excess of $109. -- $109 million. host: dave levinthal, you've done research on this. guest: put that group and a lot of playing catch-up. and really being behind when it comes to the structure and the

fundraising that in their cases theorting donald trump area irony is that hillary clinton she woulder campaign, have four principles by which she was going to run her presidential campaign. one of those four fights was campaign finance reform. hillary clinton has been outspoken about reforming the campaign finance system, about advocating against the citizens united decision, the supreme court decision that really changed the way campaigns are terms of outside money pouring into competitive campaign races. but even though she has advocated for all this reform, wants a constitutional amendment to overturn citizens united, which would be a very difficult thing to do? do, she has been the chief beneficiary of outside money, the money that has benefited from this citi