since 9/11, hundreds of immigrants and their children from high-risk regions have been implicated in terrorism and terrorist-related activity in the united states -- hundreds and hundreds. the senate subcommittee on immigration, chaired by senator jeff sessions, who is a truly great senator and man, has released this information in great detail, and we encourage you all to look at up. now we learn today that another 858 immigrants from dangerous countries have slipped into our country and have been granted full citizenship despite pending deportation orders. [booing] mr. trump: these are people that were supposed to be deported, and they were given full citizenship. they made a mistake. this is totally unacceptable. altogether, there are nearly one million individuals in the united states with deportation orders who have not yet been

removed. [booing] mr. trump: in the 20th century, the united states defeated fascism, nazism, communism. now we must defeat radical islamic terrorism. [cheering] mr. trump: yet the president of the united states -- for my opponents -- and both will not even say the words "radical islam terror." [booing] hillary talks tougher about my supporters and she does islamic terrorists, right? she called patriotic americans who support our campaign, many of them cops and soldiers,

deplorable and irredeemable, and she means it. [booing] mr. trump: millions and millions of people -- has she ever talked that way about radical islam? no. or about those who murder women and gaysoverseas -- overseas? has hillary clinton ever called people who called these practices irredeemable were deplorable? let's ask hillary clinton how many people support the oppression of nonbelievers would you call deplorable or irredeemable? or are those were words only reserved for hard-working americans who truly love our country and want to make a statement?

[cheering and applause] mr. trump: to hear the words hillary clinton uses, what could be forgiven in getting the impression that she thinks these hard-working americans are somehow a greater threat to our country than islamic extremists. this summer there has been an isis attack launched outside the war zones of the middle east every 84 hours. in america, we have seen one brutal attack after another. have you ever seen anything like what is going on in our country? and we do not do anything. people were murdered and 30 were wounded in the assault on fort hood. the boston marathon bombing made maimeding mainland --

268 people, and left five people dead, including two police officer. in chattanooga, five unarmed marines were shot and killed atd 268 people, and left five people a military recruiting center. 14 innocentr, americans were gunned down in a party -- an office party -- in san bernardino, and another 22 were horribly injured. in june, 49 americans were executed at the pulse nightclub in orlando, and another 53 were injured terribly. it was the worst mass shooting in our history, and the worst attack on the lgbtq community in our history. in europe, we have seen the same carnage and bloodshed come to our closest allies. in january 2015, a newspaper was attacked for publishing cartoons of the prophet mohammed.

12 were killed, including two police officers and 11 were wounded. two days later, four were murdered in a jewish deli. november 2015, terrorists went on shooting and went on a rampage, and this you heard and you will never hear the end of it -- one of the worst things that anybody has ever seen that they went on a rampage, they slaughtered 130 people and wounded 368 people, so greatly wounded that many are still in the hospitals and they will never be the same. in march of this year, terrorists detonated a bomb in the brussels airport, killing 32 and injuring 340 people. this july the south of france, and islamic terrorist turned his chart into an instrument of mass murder, killing 85 men, women, and children, and wounding 308

people. among the dead were two americans, a texas father and his 11-year-old son. shortly after that, in germany, a refugee armed with an ax wounded five people in a gruesome train attack. this summer and isis killer invaded a christian church in normandy and forced an 85-year-old priest to his knees and slit his throat in front of his congregation. isis has carried out one unthinkable atrocity after another. christians driven from their homes and hunted for extermination. isis rounding up what it calls the nation of the cross in a campaign of genocide -- horrible genocide. we cannot let this evil continue. cannot do it. cannot do it.

[applause] mr. trump: nor can we let the hateful ideology of radical islam, its suppression of women, gays, children, and nonbelievers be allowed to spread within our country. just cannot do it. [applause] mr. trump: we will defeat radical islamic terrorism, just as we have defeated every threat we have faced in every age before. but we will not defeat it with closed eyes or silent voices. anyone who cannot name our enemy is not fit to lead this country. [cheering and applause]

>> usa! usa! usa! mr. trump: do we love our country? do we love our -- [cheering and applause] >> [indiscernible] mr. trump: thank you. greatest people on earth. greatest. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we have a lot of great people. we have a lot of great people on earth, but we have to fight the bad ones. you have to do together. -- we have to do it together. anyone who cannot condemn the hatred of the oppression, and violent of radical islam lacks the moral clarity to serve as our president.

[applause] mr. trump: just remember, doing it for many, many years, and now she is saying what she is going to do. she very much caused the problem, when you think about it. her weakness, her ineffectiveness caused the problem, and now she wants to be president. i do not think so. [cheering] mr. trump: the commander in chief of this nation must speak with moral clarity and conviction. our system of government is the best in the world, and as your president, i will defend our values and speak out against all of those who assault our values in any way, shape, or form. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we will be united -- thank you. we will be united and unified as americans across all backgrounds and all walks of life.

today we had caught this evil dog who planted -- this evil thug who planted the bombs. thank you, law enforcement. thank you, police. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: but the bad part -- now we will give him an amazing hospitalization. [booing] mr. trump: he will be taken care of by some of the best doctors in the world. he will be given a fully modern and updated hospital room. and he will probably even have room service, knowing the way our country is. and on top of all of that, he will be represented by an outstanding lawyer. his case will go through the various court systems for years,

and in the end, people will forget and his punishment will not be what it once would have been. what a sad situation. we must have speedy, but fair trials, and we must deliver a just and very harsh punishment to these people. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we must also use whatever lawful methods are available to obtain information from the apprehended suspect, to get information before it is no longer timely. [cheering] mr. trump: and congress should pass measures to ensure that foreign enemy combatants are treated as such. these are enemies. these are combatants.

and we have to be strong. hillary clinton is a weak and ineffective person, and i will tell you, if you choose donald trump, these problems are going to go away far, far greater than anybody would think. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: believe me. she is a weak and ineffective person. just remember that. hillary clinton -- and they are looking -- they want her so badly. they want her so badly. [yelling]

mr. trump: they want her so badly to be your president, you have no idea. it will be a field day. so hillary clinton's policies in iraq, libya, syria, other places, are largely responsible for the rise of isis in the first place. her attacks on me are all meant to deflect from her record of unleashing this monster of evil on a and all over the world -- evil on us and all over the world -- this was something she told today, that it is my strong opposition to these people that

is a recruiting tool and it demonstrates a level of ignorance about the terror threat and its motivations -- now, let me just tell you -- she is not the right person to solve a problem that largely her and obama gave us, that obama gave us. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: it disqualifies her from being a credible presidential candidate, in my opinion. what do i know? in my opinion, does everybody agree with me or not? [cheering and applause] that is all we need, is four more years of obama, except worse. [booing] mr. trump: and i will say this, you see that in the polls, you see that over, you see it outside -- she has very, very, very low

levels of enthusiasm. i think a lot of people will not bother to go to the polls and vote for her, but i know our people, and this is also in the polls, the highest level of enthusiasm that they have seen. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we are going to vote. obama-clinton have been silent about islamic terrorism for many years. that has not lessened their recruiting, but it has increased. weakness invite aggression. we are weak.

weakness invite aggression and silence in the face of a brutal enemy -- and they have become brutal, because we have allowed them to become brutal -- it allows it to spread, and that is what is happening all over the world. now, has anyone ever heard -- has anyone ever heard "the snake" that i read every once in a while? i can read it -- should i? [cheering and applause] mr. trump: because to me this was written by al wilson in the 1990's, and i heard it, and, boy, that is exactly what is going on. "the snake," because people are coming across our border, brought into our country.

we are going to make potentially the trojan horse look like something that is very unimportant by comparison. and we do not want to be the one that says 200 years from now they are reading about allowing something else and our country with a different name than the trojan horse, but had the same impact. so this is called "the snake," and this has to do with people coming into our country, and i think you will enjoy it. let's see, and more important, it will make a point. "on her way to work one morning, down the path along the lake, a tenderhearted woman saw a poor , half frozen snake. his pretty colored skin had all been frosted with the dew. oh, well, she cried, i will take you in, like we are doing, and i will take care of you. take me in, tender woman, for heaven sake, take me in, oh,

tender woman, sighed the broken snake. she wrapped him up in a curvature of silk and laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk. now she hurried home from work that night. as soon as she arrived, she found that pretty snake she had taken in had been revived. take me in, tender woman, take me in for heaven sake, take me in, oh, tender woman, sighed the broken snake. now she clutched it to her bosom. you are so beautiful, she cried. if i had not brought you in, you certainly might have died. now she stroked his pretty screen -- pretty skin. then she kissed and held him tight. instead of saying thank you, the

snake gave her a vicious bite. take me in, tender woman, for heaven sake. take me in, tender woman, sighed the snake. i see you, cried the woman and you have that to me. heavens why? poisonous,ur bite is and now i am going to die. oh, shut up, silly woman, said the reptile with a grin. you knew damn well i was a snake before you took me in." [cheering and applause]

mr. trump: it is amazing. going to happen unless we get very, very, very smart. don't worry about it, we are going to build a wall. don't worry. don't worry about it. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we are going to build the wall and mexico is going to pay for it and we are going to make great deals. don't worry about it. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: so isis is torturing, murdering, executing, and exterminating people in a campaign of genocide, and what is hillary clinton's suggestion? that we should censor our vocabulary and never say these certain words -- refusing to say the words "radical islam" has

not saved a single life and never will. our president never says the words, and that what is happening. they never say the words. we are presiding over something that the world has not seen the level of evil is unbelievable. when we went to high school and we went to college, we studied. medieval times. that is when they chopped off heads. but we are in medieval times. that is where we are. they chop off heads. they drown people in steel cages. they bury people in the sand. we have never seen anything like that. i was against going into the war in iraq, but we got out the wrong way. president obama did a terrible thing, the way he got us out of the war. [booing] way,rump: and by the

someone was telling me a great expert this weekend, erect has essentially -- iraq has essentially been taken over by iran. all of those lines, all of that money, trillions and trillions of dollars, and we got? and on top of that we got out the wrong way and isis formed. great job, president obama. great job. [booing] mr. trump: great job. just like we named our enemy in the cold war, so too must we name our enemy today. clinton's comments might not fit the far left think tanks, but they had no place for someone seeking a job as commander in chief. they are just naive, but reckless, but beneath the high standards of the office that she is seeking. the white house says it is just

a war of narratives. imagine telling that to the thousands of people murdered by this sadistic evil enemy. this is the so-called leadership that has turned isis lose on the -- isis lose on the world and flung our borders wide open, wide-open. it is time for tough borders. it is time for common sense. it is time to do things right. we have to put america first. we have to put america first. [cheering] mr. trump: obama and clinton have toppled regimes, displaced millions of people that opened the door for isis to enter our country. this is a not cool, smart policy. this will go down, when people

look at this in the years ahead, as among the worst foreign-policy decisions ever made by any country at any time. we have opened the world to isis, and now we have to close those doors. [cheering] mr. trump: hillary clinton's decisions overseas have left us with the threat we face today, and her immigration policies will invite this threat on to our shores, and it is already happening. we must stop the massive inflow of refugees, which hillary clinton is trying to dramatically increase, for more -- increase, far more than we are taking in now. she wants to dramatically increase this. you would almost say, is this possible? you almost say, can this be happening? especially in light of what is

going on around the world? temporarily suspend immigration from regions where safe and adequate screening cannot occur. [cheering] my policy will benefit the millions of wonderful immigrants living here and the wonderful immigrants coming in to our country in the future, because all these at people want to live in a good, decent, loving country. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: let me emphasize this point. the pro-immigrant position is the position that they use tough screening and type controls, and we want people to come enter our country, but they have to come in legally through a process and we need extreme screening. [cheering and applause]

all immigrants benefits when we keep out those who do not truly wish to join our society. immigrants benefit economically in terms of less job competition, and a benefit in terms of safety when we control future admissions into our nation. we want to take care and protect all of our people, including our great law-abiding, american-loving immigrants. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: no one has the right to immigrate to this country. it is the job of a responsible government to admit only those who expect to succeed and flourish here and really be proud of what they have done and where they came from, and they have to love our country. they have to love us. [cheering]

>> usa! usa! usa! mr. trump: what amazing people. you know, florida, i think we are going to win by a lot. [cheering] mr. trump: win by a lot. i can say this -- when hillary comes in, she has very small crowds, that i can tell you. and i hope the press is covering the size of this arena and the crowd here in the thousands that are outside. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: which they are not. which they are not. pew polling shows that many areas of the country who have

many immigrants -- a majority of afghanistan and iraq, the people in afghanistan and iraq -- say honor killings of women are often justified. we have admitted around 100,000 from these countries over the time, and period of today they think this guy came through afghanistan. what kind of screening procedures were performed? these were difficult subjects, but they must be discussed by all responsible leaders. we have an obligation to discuss them and come up with the right solution. this is the kind of thing we need to have an honest conversation about, when devising screening methods. they have to be good screening methods.

they have to be screening methods that work. unless we have those methods, sorry, folks, you cannot come into the country. sorry. [cheering] mr. trump: just look at the san bernardino horrible shooting and the female shooter who came on a fiance visa from saudi arabia. defeating this threat will require the best intelligence-gathering in the world. by the way, the detainees being released from gitmo are returning to the battlefield. you're hearing about that, right? let them go and they returned to the battlefield. everybody is surprised. is anybody in this room surprised? that many of those detainees are returning to the battlefield -- some immediately? we also need the best protection of classified information. that is the worst situation. hillary's private e-mail

scandal which put our classified information in the reach of our enemies, disqualifies her from the presidency, totally. [cheering and applause] then she covered up her criminal acts by mass deleting her e-mails. how about she gets a subpoena from the united states congress? and after she gets the subpoena, she deletes 33,000 e-mails-plus and everything's just fine. what is going on? [booing] and not only -- not only did she delete them, but she bleached them, some thing that most people have never even heard about, and she destroyed her phones. many, the old-fashioned way, with a hammer. did anyone hear of this before ? this is beneath the dignity of the oval office.

the next president must stand up for america and promote american values. do you all remember president -- american values. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: do you all remember president obama's apology to her. he apologized for the united states? we are sorry, we are so sorry. we are so sorry. his words were followed by more naive actions. the failure to establish a new status of forces agreement in iraq and the election-driven timetable for withdrawal a disaster, surrendered our gains in that country and led directly to the rise of isis. i opposed going into iraq, unlike hillary clinton, and i opposed the reckless way obama and clinton left iraq. the failures in iraq were compounded by hillary clinton's

disaster in libya. president obama has since said he regrets libya as his worst mistake, and you would not know from watching him, but i believe if you could go back years and he had the decision whether or not to make her secretary of state, he could never admit this, and i never expect him to -- but he would choose never to makers secretary of state, because she was a disaster. she is the one who pushed for the war, with one episode of bad judgment after another, and bernie sanders during the debate said on numerous occasions that hillary clinton suffers from bad judgment. she does. that bad judgment was a disaster, and now this situation

we have, a lot of problems all over the world, and isis has been launched and launched fully. as she threw the middle east into violent turmoil, things turned out well for her. the clintons made hundred $65,000 in gross income while she was secretary of state. [audience booing] mr. trump: enough is enough. it is time for my new and great american future. [cheering] mr. trump: we are going to change our immigration system to reflect american values. remember, american values. we are going to change the reckless policy of regime change overseas and instead concentrate

on working in partnership with our allies on the military campaign to destroy isis. we have no choice. this will require military warfare, but also financial warfare, cyber warfare, and even ideological warfare. we have to beat them at their own game. they are playing the game much better than we are. and youth is going for their version, not our version. our goal is not to build democracies. our goal is to defeat. we want to defeat our enemies. then we want to get back to rebuilding our country. our country is a mess. our infrastructure is a disaster. we owe right now almost $20 trillion. our country is in trouble. enough endless war. it is time to have a real plan for victory. but to win this struggle, we

need to be strong at home. my economic plan can be summed up in three very simple words -- jobs, jobs, jobs. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: i am going to massively lower your taxes. that is businesses, that is middle income, that is everybody. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: i am going to get rid of the asked amounts of unnecessary regulations on your businesses and in your lives. it's horrible. i am going to repeal and replace obamacare. it's a disaster. [cheering and applause] i am going to unleash american energy -- unleash american energy. [cheering and applause] and wait until you

see what happens. we will start paying down our debt. so many things will happen. and even your electric bill will be a lot less, i hope. we do it properly, i know. i'm going to appoint justices to the supreme court who will follow the constitution. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: i'm going to rebuild our military and take care of our veterans. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: i am going to renegotiate our disaster is trade deals, and they are indeed a disaster. [cheering] mr. trump: i am going to put american workers first and fix our rigged system. it's a rigged system, folks. we will rebuild our roads, our

bridges, our tunnels, highways, airports, schools, and hospitals. american cars will travel the roads. american planes will soar these -- the skies and american ships will patrol the seas. [applause] mr. trump: american steel will send new skyscrapers into the clouds. american hands will rebuild our nation. american hands. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: and american energy -- mined from american sources -- willpower this nation. -- well -- will power this nation. american workers will be hired to do the job. we will put new american steel into the spine of our country. i will fight for every neglected part of this nation, and i will fight to bring us together as

one american people. imagine what our country could accomplish if we started working together as one people under one god, saluting one american flag. [cheering and applause] [crowd chanting "usa!"] mr. trump: it is time to break with the failures of the past and embrace a new, prosperous, and inclusive american future.

a future of success, togetherness, and unity. a future fixing our inner cities and our african-american areas of this country that have been treated so badly. [cheering] mr. trump: our inner cities are a horror. no jobs, no safety, education is the worst. we are going to fix it. we are going to fix it. you have been hearing that for years and years by the democrats, who have run the inner cities for -- in some cases, more than 100 years straight. we are going to fix our inner cities. and i am going to get tremendous votes from the african-american community.

[cheering and applause] mr. trump: and we are going to get tremendous votes only has been a community. we are going to bring jobs active our country. we are going to bring jobs back to our country. and what's more, we are going to have a government of, by, and for the people. [cheering and applause] mr. trump: we will make america -- and some people don't like this, because it doesn't sound right -- wealthy again. [cheering] mr. trump: we will make america strong again. [cheering] we will make america safe again. [cheering] and we will make america great again.

thank you. god bless you. thank you. god bless you. you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need ♪

>> ♪ i saw her today at the reception a glass of wine in her hand i knew she was going to meet her connection at her feet was her footloose man you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you want you can't always get what you

want ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> for campaign one to 16, c-span continues on the road to the white house. >> we want to get back to making america strong and great again. >> i am running for everyone working hard to support their family. everyone who has been knocked down but gets back up. coverage of the presidential debates on c-span, the c-span radio app and c-span.org. monday, september 26 is the first debate live from hofstra university.

on tuesday, october 4, vice debatential candidates at longwood university in farmville, virginia. sunday, october 9, washington university in st. louis hosts the second presidential debate 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. live coverage of the debates on c-span. listen live on the freak c-span onio app or watch live c-span.org. at our desk this morning, we are joined by robert rector -- 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. i would like to bring up the fact that my democratic party runs the country, you look at the history of the country, they always run the country better. that's a fact. anytime republicans run the country, we go downhill. dwight eisenhower good republican president. antiunion president, between him and george bush, it went down to about 9%. it even helps the rich people in this country. but the republican party for some reason can't figure that out. and i don't know why. the number one thing american

voters, when you go to the voting booth and you want to change things, you can do it overnight. vote democratic. it's that simple. that's james in new jersey with his thoughts. let's go to want in hayward, california for her thoughts on the line for those who make between $25,000 and $50,000 a year. caller: thank you for that last call. it's extremely important. spend that money on tax cuts for the rich and tax cut for the job creators. and in the heritage foundation, give me a break. give me a break. the instruction of congress cannot pass any jobs bills. do confirmorm, you it, was sent to the president, whether public and party. clinton did sign it, but tax rates for trump and for the rest of the rich is not going to do

anything for us. wanda in california. guest: if i could just go back to the earlier points. academic literature that says having large number of illegal immigrants without a high school degree has beneficial effects. it reduces wages. and the wage loss occurs among legal immigrants. wages go down the matter what you say, and you are giving a benefit to those employers want to cheat a deliberately hiring illegal immigrants rather than u.s. citizens. what we need to do is have a system that has a strong economy, overtaxing business doesn't do that. business remain in force. we don't want to suppress the

wages of disadvantaged workers by massive illegal immigration. we want to have a welfare system that says when you have a job and you still can't make enough to get your family above poverty, we want to help you through a system of welfare that complements your efforts and piggybacks on top of your efforts. on welfare reform under the republicans in her new gingrich and bill clinton, we reformed only one of 80 welfare programs. the rest were untouched and the rest don't have time limits. they don't have work requirements. pulling basically welfare recipients down. olivia golden,, you have joe in annapolis, maryland for those who make over $100,000 year. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think the last several callers talked about -- no tax cuts for the ritz.

-- for the rich. 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, and pay no income tax. you have to pay a tax to get a credit. i make a little bit more than $100,000 a year, but there's not a category for people above that. 200 thousand dollars a year or $300,000 year, but with the property taxes and social security taxes and the federal tax, i bring home just about half of that. oneke to quickly highlight great flaw -- fraud on the american people. the social security system, everybody who works pays antics of the people at the low end. they get there's a security taxes back with the earned income credit. they essentially earn or receive security, a social pension, having never paid into the social security system and people of higher end say maybe

you can find us is that of circumstances where someone pays 50 years of the top rate, that person gets the cap benefit of about $29,000 a year. someone on the low-end that works and pays taxes on minimum wage gets the benefit may be one third or 1/5 of that. the richer person paid 100 times more into the so security system. it's not a net for the people at the bottom, it's a wealth transfer system. that's my comments. guest: i want to make two points. first of all, thank you for your thoughts. in terms of payroll taxes, you are absolutely right that all americans pay them and that for people who get the earned income tax -- all workers pay them. for americans with kids who get the earned income tax credit, one of the ways it works and provides a work incentive is that you don't get all you are able to get, a supplemental low wages and be more secure.

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 youngt children and for 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 and and $18,000 or $19,000 as robert said even with $30,000

in the low income category. think about what that means. i talked to somebody last summer 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. int: joe was waiting baltimore, maryland on the line for those whom a between $51,000 and $100,000 a year. ahead. one of the things i have been noticing people talking , ast raising minimum wages

illegalhesis, i'm immigrant, now a citizen of the united states. i believe that illegal immigration is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed and controlled. issue, the minimum wage 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 they to the market 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. haveion and regulation become so burdening too small businesses that it drives the small business to cheat. host: we got your point, joe.

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 payments during her kids essentially get free school lunch and breakfast. 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. , 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. 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. 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. , they arel immigrants 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. 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 and childcareaid 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. nost: there is little or 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 >> paul ryan -- paul ryan laid out his economic plan in new york.

talks about the attacks in new york, new jersey, and minnesota. the smithsonian national museum of african american history and culture opens its doors for the first time to the public on saturday. we will be live on the national mall for the outdoor dedication ceremony at 10:00. president obama and lonnie bunch. also in attendance will be first lady michelle obama, former george w. bush and laura bush, congressman john lewis, and secretary david scored in. watch live, saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, c-span radio app, and c-span.org. republican house leader paul ryan speaks at the economic

club of new york. following his remarks, he took part in a discussion with glenn hubbard and peter or zach. this is 50 minutes. >> welcome everyone. i am terry lundgren, chairman of the economic club of new york and ceo of macy's inc.. before we get started, i have some good news for all of us. the bombing suspect has been captured and is in custody. [applause] would want toall hear that before we get started. is economic club of new york

the nation's leading nonpartisan forum for economic, social, and political issues. more than 1000 prominent guest speakers have appeared here in the past quarter-century. i want to personally recognize the members of the centennial society. these club members continue to make an extraordinary contribution to ensure the financial stability of the club into the second century. for those of you who would like to learn more about the centennial society, please contact us and we'll talk to you about the benefits of being part of the group. i would like to welcome the table of students here, students from columbia and law school, at each one of these events whenever possible -- their education beyond the classroom. this afternoon, we are honored to welcome our distinguished guest, the honorable paul ryan,

speaker of the u.s. house of representatives. paul ryan is a fifth-generation wisconsin native horn and raised in janesville wisconsin. currently serving his ninth term as member of congress representing wisconsin's first congressional district. in october 2015, paul was elected speaker of the house after then house speaker john banner retired from congress. prior to serving as speaker of the house, congressman ryan served as chairman of the house ways and means committee where he focused on many issues of the federal government. these issues included tax reform medicare and social security , safety net, trade arrangements, and affordable health care.

during the 112 and 113th congresses, he served as chair where he put forward a multifaceted plan to tackle major fiscal issues entitled a path to prosperity. paul was very proud to say that he was a graduate of the high school and earned a degree in economic and political science from miami university and ohio. live in janesville with their children and following a speech where two designated club members will ask questions but for now, speaker ryan, the podium is yours. [applause] speaker ryan: thank you, really. thank you very much. speaking of the high school, my daughter got elected vice president of the ninth grade class.

it goes to show that somebody in our family can get elected to vice president. we broke that curse. [laughter] first of all, we realize yet again that terror can strike at any moment at any street on any chains dacian and nothing can be taken for granted. so i just want you all to know that we are thinking and praying for you and god bless the men and women who are our first responders, fixing the problem and fighting for us. please know that new jersey, new york, and minnesota, we are thinking and praying for you. [applause] it makes you think of our

security challenges and all of our challenges. i am spending a lot of my time thinking about right now about what are we going to do on january 20, 2017, when we are standing face to face with all of our country's problems. when i start running through all the things that need to get done, you can get easily just discouraged or i look at the dysfunction and think to myself, if we had four more years like the last six, to put it mildly, we are not putting ourselves in a position to truly tackle our nation's biggest problems. don't get me wrong. we will do everything we can to make things right the matter who sits in what office. but it is exciting to view with your mind's eye the picture of getting our country back on track. solving our problems.

restoring a competent country. i would like to share with you in my minds eye with the picture looks like. in other words, i would like to share with you what it is we are trying to achieve with a unified republican government. to be clear, we are trying to restore the american idea for our generation. you see, there are a whole lot of people in the country who do not think this is there's. they do not think this idea is true for them anymore for good reason. power has been slipping out of the hands of the people over the past several years and into the hands of a very expansionist federal bureaucracy. it happened gradually. now as a result, we have high anxiety national security, a slow-growing economy, and in the bush years, we were focused on the war on terror. in the obama years, the president focused on cementing the progressive legacy in place. at this point, it is obvious we need to change our ways.

if the american idea is not true for everybody, well, then it really is not true at all, is it? it leads to the question, what is that? what is the american idea? what do we stand for and who are we trying to be? where to we come from? that is what i want to talk about with you today. how you answer the question, why is america struggling, kind of depends on how you answer the question, why did america succeed in the first place? we have got a lot of natural resources and land and water but those are not strictly necessary. look at israel and japan. we have got a very diverse population, a source of pride and energy but so does india. you have to ask yourself, why did this one, unique country, achieve so much more? it is because this country was

based on an idea -- freedom. our national rights. not race, not class, not to minute and petty distinctions. others try to elevate what they think is the best part of their society. the nobility of the military or the bureaucratic -- here in america, we decided we can do all that we can do to unlock the best in everyone, every american citizen. that is the meaning of american exceptionalism. i know the term is not real popular these days. some people think it is arrogant or condescending. we are not saying the american people are inherently superior to all other countries. what we are saying is, for whatever reason, and it is a true mystery, we were given the opportunity to prove by our example that people from all walks of life can live together in peace. they can collaborate,

deliberate, and vote. they can fight side-by-side and be more than a beacon to the world peace or we would be a herald of the really good news. freedom is possible. the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life. you can build a great life for yourself if you work hard. you can build an even better life for your kids. in other words, to believe in american exceptionalism is to simply be grateful for what god has given us. this freedom require government? absolutely, of course it does. the town bully can steal your stuff, the law of the land was no more than a passing of a whim. if you build it, if you grow it, if you work for it, it is yours. you earned it. that is a core principle. it would not be possible.

nobody is more proud of our founding governing documents, then the declaration, the constitution, the bill of rights. there is no argument -- the government can be a force for good when it -- wins more customers for our products across the globe, when it lays down clear and firm rules for all of us to live like. it creates a free market where millions of people can buy sell, trade, and work their way to a better life. we can all attest to the incredible power of free people

working together. this has built the greatest economy the world has ever known. are we skeptical of government? of course. our tax code should not look like a block of swiss cheese. our skepticism comes not from a hate of government. that is a strawman argument. but from a love of individual freedom. it is one thing to have read your glenn hubbard. i recommend that. [laughter] speaker ryan: it is wanting to understand on a purely intellectual level the economic need to empower an individual. when you see it in person, in the most unlikely of places, that as a whole new ballgame. that is when you realize it is not just good policy. this is a moral imperative. you start to ask yourself, what else is america for if not for the people who want to start over? who can be more american than the person who has been to hell and back? what is the american dream if it is not the search for redemption? to hear the series and meet the

people, it is an amazing morale boost. they are brilliant, they are great. if you want a few words of encouragement, the last person you should look to is an economist. no offense, glenn, wherever you are. no one seems to know the way forward. i started to think a few years ago, when in a jam, it is good to have a sense of history but you really need creativity. how do we take adversity and turn it into opportunity? the last four years, i decided to take a different tact. i tried for four years to get a budget agreement with the government. it was not going to happen. so i have been going around the country with a buddy of mine i met through my years with jack. we visited some of the poorest communities in america.

i have been to drug clinics, homeless shelters, you name it. i went in there thinking all i would see would be shuttered homes and shattered lives and that is not at all what i saw. i saw the drug dealer had become a drug counselor. the tough guy became a great family man. the gang leader had become and entrepreneur. i saw the small businesses he created, the self-portraits, in other words, i went in expecting to see the worst of america and i realized i had just seen the best of america. i want to give you one example. a high school in milwaukee. i have driven by this plays a million times. they have a thing they created called violence free zones. the school hires about a half-dozen young graduates to mentor to the next generation. they are not garden-variety guidance counselors. these are ex gang members, people who have prison records, who know the streets. people who have been redeemed. that is precisely why they have credibility to talk to these kids.

don't make the same mistake i made. look what happened to me, make a better choice. he started the program a few years ago and what happened, suspensions went down and attendance went up and they have 14 gangs in this one high school and now they have none. they have disappeared. i know the guy really well. he tried all these different things. more cops, more cameras. only this program worked. i can say to you, how fortunate to see this. the reason i love the story is because i saw with my own two eyes the american idea come to life in real flesh and blood human beings. here were people who had lost their way now finding their place in life. a whole school worth of kids on a really dangerous trajectory now on a good path. here was the power of people working together to turn their lives around. you will not read about them in the fortune magazine or the wall

street journal. they may not grow up to be rich or famous people. without a doubt, they are growing up to be free people, upstanding citizens, goodhearted americans. they are applying free-market principles in a distinct and new way. they are social entrepreneurs. they are the reason i am optimistic. you walk away from your experience thinking wow, what talent, what drive, what courage. you walk away thinking, we need them, we need more of them, we need to get them and others back into this economy. it is only when we start chipping away at the 94 million people out of the workforce statistic that we are really going to make a dent in the $19 trillion debt. we need the federal government to work with them and not against them. here is the thing. they are more than eager to do it. they are ready and they cannot wait to get started. that is when you think to yourself, if these people can be

their odds, then who on earth are we to complain about ours? of course, it is not about the praise of success stories. we need to change our laws so we can see more of them. the policy platform has got to be more than an ode to the power of positive thinking. that is why we have to have an agenda, that is why we have to tackle the problems before they tackle us. this presidential election is getting tight and i think we have a real opportunity here to win a mandate for a unified republican governance. that is why the house republicans and i are offering what we are calling a better way. this is an agenda we want to pursue with the next president. these are some of the answers we had to some of our country's biggest problems. the whole thinking here is we

have these huge problems that are surmountable, to take our founding principles and supply them to the problems of the day and offer real solutions. earn this mandates, when by acclamations and implement this. that is what we are trying to do and we are tackling the big problems. national security, poverty, the economy, restoring the cost of titian and self-government, tax reform. i would be remiss if i did not plug our website. you can read the whole thing. let me paint you a picture of what it is we are trying to achieve here it i think we can expand opportunity for all of our people, but especially those who need it most. the person paying the highest marginal tax rate these days, it is not warren buffett or even erin rogers, who deserves the

salary he is earning now, although maybe not last night. it is the single mom making $28,000 with two kids. if she finds a job that pays her just a little bit more, she will be losing $.80 on the dollar to take the step forward. it is a huge disincentive to work and to advance. we call this the poverty trap, the result of having over 80 different federal anti-poverty programs as we do today, with zero coordination among them. once you add up the benefits she will lose, it does not make sense to take the job. we are just trapping millions of people in poverty. our basic approach to fighting poverty is to treat the symptoms, which ends up perpetuating it rather than going through the root causes. we have got to change this. what we are saying is give states the flexibility to innovate and try new things. let states coordinate with people who are already fighting poverty on the ground successfully and winning. groups like the salvation army, catholic charities, america works. we need to get the public sector and the private sector, the