congressman mark desaulnier looks at donald trump's financial interests. "washington journal" is live. ♪ host: good morning, everyone come on this thursday, december 8. house lawmakers are preparing to vote on a continued resolution to fund the government until april. it continues the current level of spending for the first four months of 2017, the senate likely to take it up as early as friday. we will talk about the stopgap spending bill. first, we want you to give washington your ideas on where you would cut federal spending. here are the phone lines,

republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000, and , (202) 748-8002. we will get to your calls in a minute but first running us on the phone is jennifer shutt, the budget appropriations reporter for c q roll call to talk a little bit more about a continuing resolution in washington. when they say that this continuing resolution keeps the current spending level going into 2017, what does that mean exactly in dollars? guest: every year the federal government is supposed to get 12 appropriations bills passed by september 30 when the fiscal year expires. they were not able to do that this year so they passed a temporary stopgap spending bill which we call a continuing resolution.

one of the criticisms from appropriators is that it continues those fiscal 2016 spending levels into fiscal 2017, which can cause some problems. we heard the department of defense repeatedly tell congress that it causes a lot of problems for them. one of the important points to make about the continuing resolution that is going to be passed in the house today and could be taken up in the senate today or friday, is that it does increase spending to those fiscal 2017 levels. the winners and you are the losers in the stopgap spending? guest: the winners could be policies and funding priorities that democrats and republicans have been trying to move for some time. million to a $170

dressed lead contaminated water , $7 millionchigan for the justice department to reimburse state and local lawmakers in new york for providing protection for the president-elect. it includes several million dollars for the 21st century bill whichdical includes joe biden's cancer men shop initiative. bute are a lot of winners, one of the possible losers is the department of defense. we have heard them repeatedly talking to lawmakers, and the secretary of defense sent a letter to the hill last week saying they do not this -- want this continuing resolution to pass because it might cause issues. in an attempt to assuage the pentagon's fears, congress put $10 billion in what is commonly known as a war fund into this d

-- cr. host: that helps with the fight against isis in iraq and syria? guest: yes. host: are the votes there for this to pass in the house, and will we see bipartisan support and opposition to it? guest: the votes are definitely there for it to pass the house later today. what we are looking for, and what a lot of reporters and lawmakers are closely watching is the senate, because when that will moves over to the senate later today, in order to move through the senate and become law and continue funding past friday night at midnight, it needs to get something called unanimous consent. that is the fastest way for leader mcconnell to move the bill through the senate. the democratic senator from west virginia has repeatedly said he plans to block that unanimous consent attempt on the

continuing resolution, which means the senate will have to move through that series of procedural votes which takes time and would put the final vote after friday's midnight deadline, which could cause some complications. and very possibly it could cause a partial government shutdown. host: why is the senator threatening to do this? guest: he is a democrat from west virginia, a big coal mining state. later this year, pension and health care benefits for former set to runwidows are out. the senator wanted to see a long-term solution for that united mine workers health care and pension plan. the continuing resolution only that as a solution for long as they continuing resolution runs for, which will expire on april 28.

senator has said that is not adequate and he will not support it. host: is it likely that he gets his way, that they capitulate to him and give him what he would like here? guest: we do not know. that is something we have been closely watching. last night the senator was an leader mcconnell's office and when he came out he did not say there was a solution reached, and seemed adamant he would stay on that path to blocking unanimous consent on this funding bill. host: jennifer shutt, you can follow her reporting. thank you. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will continue our gavel to gavel coverage of the house and senate, the house on c-span and the senate on c-span2, where you can watch these debates unfolding. but first, your ideas for cutting spending.

hatchery in leesburg, virginia, a republican. caller: i work in the education industry and i would think the 800 pound gorilla in the room is the illegal immigration problem. the teachers within the county that i live are talking about it . just in loudoun county there is 112 languages spoken. resources are being pulled away to get the kids up to speed , and it is not a situation where it is not compassionate. it is just common sense. idea of printing things and languages that people do not speak, that is the problem. this whole continuing resolution, where's is that money coming from? every year they do the same thing. they never talk about where it is coming from, and every year hands, theg our

government is going to shut down. we cannot fund everything. this is not a utopia and never was meant to be. tough decisions need to be made and people need to look in the mirror and say, what am i willing to cut? host: when you look at what you are talking about, the money that is spent to publish things in different languages compared to what the government spends on entitlement programs, medicare, social security, do you think they should be focusing their attention on those programs and trying to make them solvent for future generations? caller: i do think they should, but the problem is, illegal immigration, whatever you want to call it, it goes across many different platforms within our society. it is not just people running across the border and getting on welfare. it is everything that goes along with that, because when you have

people here that are not actually legal and getting benefits that affects health .are, education, everything i think what you are talking about is definitely true. there are certain things within medicare and entitlements that need to be looked at. the problem is if somebody goes into a health care facility and does not have insurance and does not pay, all of those dollars factor back into the taxpayer. host: that is patrick in leesburg, virginia talking about the cuts he believes need to be made. resolution,ntinuing it does deal with immigration policy. it does not renew a one-year one-time expansion of the h two seasonal worker program that effectively introduce -- increase the number of visas that were available. in jupiter, florida.

used the said he has program to hire workers during the busy season but the program drew the ire of the labor leaders who excoriated congress program they a believe exploits foreign workers and conservatives who favor keeping the number of available visas in check. candy in clearlake, iowa, an independent. what are your ideas? caller: we cannot pick on just the seasonal visas. those are entertainers in vegas. they are a percentage of nothing. the illegals have all the entitlements, plus it costs money and law enforcement. they drug -- dragged down housing. there is world trade and world food program's. we are too involved with trying

to fix the world. no other country works the way that we do. they just do not. this whole wave a baby in front of a camera and think i'm going to cry, that is not going to work anymore. ethiopia has been starving to death for the last 50 years. if they cannot figure out how to put seeds in dirt and add water, that is not my fault. host: that is candy in clearlake, iowa, an independent caller. this continuing resolution keeps the funding level at the 2016 spending. this is from cbs news, it maintains the same budget cap of $1.07 trillion from fiscal 2016 which ended this past september and includes an $8 billion boost for the pentagon's overseas contingency fund that is used to finance the fight against the .slamic state in iraq and syria

would you put pentagon spending on the chopping block or another government agency? paulette in washington state, republican. you are on the air. caller: hello. yes, i am just so frustrated at times when these hypotheticals are introduced, and wondering , or reduceld spend spending from the social security or medicare funds. those are private funds. those are not items that should be just entered into. and to say that we should cut those spendings for the sake of reducing the budget, should not even be entered into the equation. host: is there enough spending outside of those programs?

those large entitlement programs, is there enough to cut the spending? yes, but not to enter in with social security or medicare. paulette, what if president-elect donald trump agrees with paul ryan or others who say, let's privatize medicare and social security? what if they move that direction? caller: i think if they do, they are going to bring along solutions and suggestions in doing that, not taking away from the existing funds that are already there that have been placed there by people who are entitled to it. there are not just entitlements coming from taxpayers, but the

taxpayers themselves have contributed to those resources for the very purpose of ensuring some funding for their retirement and medical care. host: paulette in washington state, up early this morning. joe in new york, an independent. what do you think? caller: good morning. nobody ever talks about the defense budget. we are the greatest country and strongest -- hello? host: we are listening. spend more than the 10 next nations in the world for defense. we control the universe. we have satellites like a web, like a spider web above the earth.

we are the strongest nation in the world. and we are still standing -- spending more. they want to keep us in fear, you know what i mean? it is just horrible. they do not want to cut that defense budget. concerned,'m s and mass armies are obsolete. wars are not that -- not fought that way anymore. what we need is special ops and intelligence and nuclear subs, you know what i mean? we do not need such a huge deployment. we are just arms dealers to the rest of the world. host: so you want to see an overhaul of the pentagon? caller: yes, without a doubt. we want to cut these entitlements that people have

put into social security and all this stuff, and it is wall street and the petroleum controlling the whole financial structure of the american people. know,in thing is, you have to cut down our fear. they want to keep us in fear. host: two stories related to what you were talking about. the washington post published pentagon berries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste. in an intel or -- internal study that expose this administrative waste was afraid congress would slashis as an excuse to the defense budget.

pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back office bureaucracy more efficient and resolved any savings -- reinvest any savings and combat power. which was issued in january 2015 identified a clear path for the defense department to save this money over five years. it would not have required layoffs or reductions in military personnel. it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors, and made that her use of information technology. some of you may have heard donald trump the other day at trump tower talking to the cameras. he confirmed a tweet he sent out earlier that morning, that he was looking at owings contract for air force one. -- boeing's contract for air force one. the boeing chief has promised to

keep costs down. donald trump tweeted that the costs were out of control and more than $4 billion, canceled the order. he told reporters he thought the cost was ridiculous. the chief of boeing ensured donald trump that they would work together in an effort to keep the cost down. donald trump confirmed the conversation on the today show and called the chief, a good guy, a terrific man, and we are going to work it out. air force one is expensive .ecause of what goes into it they are able to safeguard the president in a crisis, allowing him to direct the military from the air, speak with cabinet members, and speak with the nation. the plane can be refueled while in error and has extensive radar and counterattack measures of board. it is not just one aircraft, it

is several. that is the update on the air force one spending and pentagon spending, as we are asking all of you this morning where would you cut federal spending? robert in pikesville, maryland, a democrat. caller: we spend an inordinate amount of money in policing. the money comes from the federal level, over policing in neighborhoods instead of investing in jobs. republicans blocked the president's desire to put people back to work. they were more than happy to have people bail out wall street to the tune of $1 trillion. we are paying for all of these wars. we have a bloated military budget. if we want to cut spending you have to raise revenue. lobbyists for the last 16 years have controlled legislators and congresspeople. they implemented this anti-tax or tax cuts for corporations and

wealthy people to the last 16 years. my last point is this -- i am sick of people, it seems like largely trump misguided whites who want to blame their fortune -- misfortune on minorities and immigrants. they have worked very hard and contributed to the economy, so i do not want america to embrace this xenophobia. you may not be doing well. if you are not doing well you have to get retrained and get back to work and go out and get after opportunity. host: ronald, greensboro, north carolina, independent. what do you think? caller: ways i think we could cut federal spending is for immigration reform and ways to make illegal aliens u.s. citizens. what we can do is tax them, find how long they have been in the united states illegally and tax

them on that, and also reduce medical costs for prescription pills, and that would reduce some of the costs associated with medicare, medicaid, and so forth. the thing about immigration -- contribute to the tax dollars to fixing our roads and bridges, maintaining our schools, and i think that would make a big difference. i also agree with donald trump's policy even though i did not vote for him. i agree his plan to do a 35% tariff on multinational companies. if we could find a way to bring some of that money but those multinational companies are making overseas, i think it would produce revenue and help us cut our budget. host: take a look at the way the budget breaks down, mandatory

versus discretionary spending. ,andatory spending discretionary spending, and interest on the debt. mandatory and discretionary spending account for 90% of all spending and pay for all the governmental services that we rely on. interest on the debt is the interest the government pays on its accumulated debt, minus interest income received by the government for assets it owns. this is a pie chart that shows 2015 spending broken into these categories. mandatory spending is the largest chunk of this high, and then discretionary spending and the debt. discretionary spending is decided by congress through discretionary spending bills. the pie short shows how congress allocated $1.11 trillion in discretionary spending in 2015.

look at the pie chart. must to that went to the military, followed by the government, education, medicare, health, veterans benefits. this is the largest portion for the military. mandatory spending is spending that congress legislates outside the annual appropriations process, usually less than once a year and it is dominated by the well-known earned benefit program and widely used safety net programs like the supplemental nutrition assistance program, and a significant amount of federal spending on transportation among other things. take a look at that pie chart for 2015. mandatory spending, social and healthedicare making up the larger portions of the pie. lorraine in gainesville, florida, a democrat. caller: good morning, thank you

for taking my call. i actually want to agree with portions of what ronald said and the gentleman before him. if we could get some of this corporate waste out and create , and put some pay into the system it will create money. .ost: you are breaking up corporate welfare is your idea, taxing these multinational corporations. anna in new castle, delaware, a republican. ,aller: i'm calling about the always complain about cutting social security and medicare for the elderly. i said, i think it is about time that they started thinking about the welfare. they are keeping all of these young people, their food stamps, the wic program, snap, subsidized housing and that kind of thing, if they cut back on

that or even review the ones that are on it, because i said when i go out shopping i see people that are out there that are capable of doing a full day's work, and they are paying for their food with food stamps. said,0 years old and i they have not been giving us any raises. i said congress needs to go to work instead of being off so darn much. they are off month after month and they think it is necessary. i think it is about time they clamp down on them. that is all i have to say. thank you very much. host: anna in new castle, delaware, thank you. this bill that is funding the government through april 2017, the house could vote on it today and the senate possibly as early as friday, includes money for what is known as the cures bill.

president obama says he will sign it as soon as it arrives to his desk because the senate yesterday. 94-5 the $6.3 billion package designates at least $5 billion to the national institute of research, and 500 million for the fda to make its approval process more efficient. it provides money for mental health treatment and suicide prevention while establishing a new secretary for mental health at the department of health and human services. progressives such as elizabeth warren and bernie sanders balked at the bill saying it will help drug companies speed their product to the market but will do nothing for consumers dealing with skyhigh prescription prices.

way, vice president joe biden was in the senate chair for that vote that happened. will, he also yesterday was honored in the senate. we will show you a little bit of that. today, senate minority leader harry reid is going to be honored by his colleagues as well. and hillary clinton and vice president joe biden are expected to take part in the tributes for the senate minority leader as the nevada democrat and his 30 years in the united states senate. we will have coverage around 4:00 p.m. eastern time on c-span3, c-span.org, or you can listen on the c-span radio app. let's go to jeff in tennessee, independent caller. caller: i would just say audit the government.

tracks for there are the government now to keep track of the spending, but you need to get an in-depth audit of everything. see where we can either combine programs or cut programs, or to redesign the spending bills. host: related to what you are saying, and also where you are from is the story on the front documentsa today, reveal secret star ratings on the quality of veterans affairs medical center's. performing v.a. medical centers are clustered in texas and tennessee, and in the , whileere you are from some of the best are in massachusetts and new york. -- dba said the star ratings assign star they

ratings for years but refused to make them public. now usa today is publishing them, and in your city and dallas, el paso, nashville, memphis, and your town or received one star. how do you feel? caller: i did not know that. host: and the money that is spent on the medical center in your town. caller: it should be better. host: south dakota and minnesota scored five out of five stars. you can find more on usa today's website. yesterday as many of you know, marked the 75th anniversary of the pearl harbor attack. a moment of silence, a deserved salute. a navy veteran returns the salute of a service member while reliving the annual remembrance over the attack on pearl harbor. marked 75f silence

years to the minute on the day japanese warplanes filled the skies on december 7, 1941. we covered a ceremony in hawaii as well as in washington, d.c. you can find them on c-span.org. bob, a democrat in duluth, minnesota. where would you cut spending? caller: first we need to look at what got us here. before the bush administration there was a surplus. i would eliminate the bush tax cuts. that was a big hit. was an unnecessary war. the wall street bailout, and if you add all of these things

together, that is what took us from the surplus, when bush got in office to where we are now. cut the wasteful spending in the pentagon that you just talked about. the bush taxce se the bush tax cuts because you cannot take money away from the system and then start spending more money on bailouts of wars. ,ust look at what got us here and you might be able to figure out something from that. host: daniel in virginia beach, a republican. good morning. caller: hello. we talked sometime back and i

suggested that raising the age that people can begin drawing benefits for both medicare and social security, and the only person i think who agrees with a is governor christie in new jersey. mayave a speech in mclean, of 2015, and talked about it. he said if we raise it does go years and take 25 years to do it years andaise it two take 25 years to do it we will have money for things now. it seems 25 years is awful mild. i would go a bit further. i would raise the age in eight years. two years, and i would take eight years doing it. the way i would do it starts this january. anyone set to draw entitlements this january will wait until february.

anybody in february will wait until april, that is two months. then anybody who would retire in march is going to wait until june, that is three months. i did this on pater -- paper. i raised the age two years and i took eight years doing it. if you do this for 12 months you will have hundreds of billions of dollars in 12 months. just think how much money you would have saved in eight years. that is all i want to say. host: many of you know that president-elect donald trump has announced yesterday, more of his cabinet picks. if you are interested in following along, the washington post has put together this chart online where you can see the names and what they are being considered for, or if he has picked them, along with their background. some news in the newspaper about

his picks yesterday, the wall street journal with the front hires -- trumpp hires skeptic to lead the epa. the chief legal officer for a major oil and nastro -- natural gas producing state, he has led fights against some of president obama's most important environmental rules, and he would likely try to roll back those regulations. the transition office confirming this morning that scott pruitt is the pick for epa. it sent out a statement saying that for too long the environmental protection agency has spent taxpayer dollars on an out-of-control anti-energy agenda that has destroyed millions of jobs. that from the president-elect's transition office. the wall street journal editorial says this about the

pic for epa, a lawyer for a long --t agency mccann respect that can return respect to the states. his only offense is disagreeing with environmentalists. the ironic thing is he will probably do more for the environmental protection agency then president obama. then there is this about president-elect donald trump's possible pick for secretary of state and chairman of the senate formulations committee, bob corker has presided over a unanimous vote ratifying a treaty to accept the latest member of nato. two thirds of senators would need to approve it for montenegro being the 29th

alliance. growing numbery of candidates that trump is considering as his chief ambassador, the number has corker, mitt romney, jon huntsman, rex tillerson, and senator joe manchin, democrat of west virginia, all names that mr. trump could pick. there is also this in the papers this morning about donald trump's joyce to be ambassador to china, i was longest-serving governor, terry branson -- iowa's longest-serving governor, terry branstad. generalmanaged trump's campaign in the state, one of

the contested battleground states. it says he has extensive ties to china and a personal friendship with the chinese president that dates back decades. reassurecould help china's leadership mr. trump understands the importance of healthy relationships with beijing. also in the papers this morning, donald trump is set to pick the professional wrestling mogul linda mcmahon to lead the small business administration. some of you might recognize her name. she ran for senate a couple of times. and then there is also this in the washington times about donald trump's pic for homeland security. he has picked retired marine , selecting akelly career military man who as had of american forces in latin america repeatedly warned of the dangers of drug legalization and

the poor southwestern border. the group fretted over the pic saying there were too many holes andhe general's background, many feared a militarization of u.s. immigration policies. that is the latest on transition efforts from president-elect donald trump. how would you cut funding? , iner: i would like to go terms of the cost of health care , how much the upper levels of insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies are making, because they complain that they are losing money. but compared to what? are they still making billions of dollars with just a few less

billions of dollars? i do not hear anyone talking about investigating that. that is a big contribution to the cost of health care, the cost of insurance, the cost of medications. california with her idea for cutting federal spending. rodney, a democrat from california, cohead. caller: good morning. host: what do you think? caller: first of all, we do not want to use up our military the way donald trump wants to. that would just raise the federal spending more. we are doing fine with our military just the way we are. matter of fact, we are trying to stay out of wars and that is how we got the deficit ran up in the first place. we need to continue doing what president obama has been doing, creating jobs, the average

200,000 a month. if the republicans would stop obstructing and congress we would be having 300,000 jobs a month, and the deficit would have been coming down even more. that is just my opinion. in north carolina, a republican, what is your opinion? caller: i think the very first thing they should do, especially since republicans are supposed to have financial wisdom about not only earned respect of the citizens of the united states. the very first thing they should do is take a 10% pay cut, the senators and representatives in congress, and make it mandatory for five years. a 10% cut for all of them in their pay. host: a republican in north carolina with that idea. we have a few more minutes remaining to get your calls in,

and let washington know where you would cut the spending. a couple more news stories, democrats face a final blow in the louisiana vote for u.s. senate. louisiana's democratic populace. has long passed and that has helped explain why john kennedy, the republican and state treasurer is the have a favor to win treasure of the u.s. senate. thanks to their unique election laws, president-elect donald trump had an overwhelming victory against hillary clinton, and a final humiliation for democrats. is --day, esther trump mr. trump is highlighting a get kennedy.ote effort for he is running against foster

campbell for that seat, and it is looking like the republican will have the vote. there is this from the new york times, or politics. kate ellison -- keith ellison wants to be the next chair of the democratic national committee and says he will resign his house eat if elected -- house seat if elected. has thisngton times story about wikipedia's lawsuit against the nsa. it was heard in the fourth circuit court and is headed to the federal appeals court. -- internet communications

wikimedia receives and transmits every year and the broad scope of the nsa program, it is plausible to believe that at least some of its communications -- that is international communications by americans. the washington post with this front page and picture about what is happening in syria. the syrian government forces swept through aleppo -- the john kerryg rebel -- and the russian minister met. kerry saidf state they would meet again this morning. make in augustine, georgia, an independent. caller: i would like to point out that one of the first things i would look to do is cut back on some of the paper pushing when it comes to health care.

maybe go to more of a state run plan. right,care in its own regardless of whether it is privatized or public, it is kind of the same thing where it is a group of individuals were paying for everyone to kind of have that coverage. go tstate system without, and maybe cut back on some of the foreign military bases. we have about 1000 of those. if we cut back on half of that we would still be the world's most powerful military, and be able to benefit. that is pretty much all i have on that. everything else is pretty much not so bad. host: diana in halifax, pennsylvania, a democrat. what do you think? caller: an caller briefly touched on the v.a.. it seems to me that there are no across the board rules as far as

how the v.a., when you apply for v.a. benefits. my husband is a veteran of the vietnam war. he has been going on about three has had, he was wounded twice, has the purple heart, all kinds of metals. acquaintance made him apply for disability and he has a problem with his ankle that had nothing to do with the elsece won't or anything else, andr anything yet he get $600 a month. it seems the rules are so crazy the way they are, when someone , and alsor disability

another comment briefly. mrs. trump has decided that her son is going to stay in his school until next spring. how much is the government spending on secret service? host: that debate took place yesterday in the house rules committee where the appropriations top democrat from new york complained about the cost of protecting president-elect donald trump for the city of new york, that congress was only reimbursing .ew york for a portion of it the mayor of new york city is complaining that it is going to cost taxpayers a lot more than what congress is going to be reimbursing them for. if you want to watch the debate over that and the continuing resolution before the house rules committee yesterday you

can go to c-span.org. another quick headline, in the washington post -- a new chief is expected for corporate lobbying giant, and that is the business roundtable. , one of the most influential links between washington and wall street will become the chairman of the business roundtable, one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the country. he is a self-described democrats and a member of donald trump's economic advisory team. that is a name you will be hearing more of coming out of washington. we are going to take a break and when we come back, senator james regarding his us new report on government waste. later on, mark dystonia will be here to talk about the effects of his colleagues. both senators yesterday paid

tribute to joe biden, a longtime senator on the senate floor. here is a little of what they had to say. >> the time i was on air force two with president joe biden and we flew you home to delaware, and i was to catch an amtrak train at wilmington. andked you to drop me off you said, i will take you to the train. the train is pulling in the station and you said, that is not a real ticket, i will get you a real ticket. you took off running with the secret service behind you, and i am thinking, am i going to make this train? you came running up the steps while the train was stopped and all of these passengers were looking, as the vice president of the united states ran up to me, handed me a ticket, and said get on the train. [laughter] i was butno idea who

if the vice president is carrying my ticket, i must be important. embody your wife really what i consider to be the best of public life. not only your commitment to people who are less fortunate around the world, but your genuine sense of caring and your good heart. both of you. i can recall when my colleague buddy russo of illinois had a son who was sick with cancer. there was one person who called every day to make sure that he was doing well. that is the way you not only build a friendship that you build a reputation. he is not just a gladhanding politician but someone who really cares. i am honored to be a friend and i am honored that the president i love shows you as his vice wesident, and i am honored have served in the senate together and i can tell my kids and grandkids. i wish you the best. >> i am deeply grateful for my friend joe biden.

it.id suffer and i know i was here. having experienced tremendous loss in his family life, he draws from the rich reservoir of empathy to connect with every day americans. ask anyone. vice president biden has served. when you speak, joe listens, loves, and cares. he is perhaps the most personal public figure in american public -- politics today. the nearly eight years he has served as vice president joe biden has become a fixture of american public life. today i wish to join my colleagues in thanking vice president joe biden for his dedication to the american people. although his tenure is drawing to a close, i am confident that his service to our nation will only continue.

is said by a republican who loves joe biden, who believes he is one of the truly great people who served here in this body. i just want joe biden to know that we all respect him. i think most all of us love him. and most of us who know have really appreciated him from time to time when he has put politics aside, his arm around us, and spoken the truth. ,oe biden is a wonderful man and i wish him the absolute best into the future, and i will be there to help if he needs it. god bless joe biden. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back this morning to talk about wasteful spending in washington. the federal deficit, either way, billion, the7

federal debt more than $19 trillion. the federal debt equals about $165,000 per american household according to the 2016 federal fumbles report. billion in wasteful spending and inefficient regulations. joining us from capital bill -- capitol hill, senator lankford: oklahoma, republican. is the wasteful spending this year that you outline any worse than other years? is it getting worse or better? guest: i am not sure it is getting worse or better. it is somewhat wet a mole when you have $3.5 trillion in federal government spending. what we try to identify is 100 ormples of types of waste, areas where the government is not fulfilling its

responsibility. so we can start looking for systemic issues and work on how to fix those. host: 100 ways the government dropped the ball, what stands out to you? guest: quite a few things. when you deal with grants or a federal regulator not fulfilling the gao has put out accountability reports that have not been fulfilled, those are some of the highlights. a $2 million study to look at climate change in china and how it affects the giant panda. a halfne thing, or million dollars spent in iceland digging graves, or the study ,rom the nih of children whether they will eat food that has been sneezed on. why did this grant get approved? how does this help the federal taxpayer?

or be at the office of personnel management where they have dropped the ball because it takes months and months for employees to get into their retirement. they announce their retirement in plenty of time, work through the process, and for most americans their pension or benefit picks up the meal and in the government could take half a year or more, which puts federal retirees at a disadvantage. host: this is the second time you have done this report. why do you do it and does it have an impact? ,uest: it does have an impact and why we do it is to raise the attention to the american people. it is my concern that fewer and fewer people are talking about debt and deficit. it seems to be a back burner issue and i'm trying to remind people, this is still a major issue we have to address as americans. over trillion in debt, and

half a trillion in overspending this one year alone. this is certainly an issue. everybody says, let's focus on other issues, more infrastructure spending, i am trying to remind everyone the clock is ticking on a predictable debt bomb that is coming and we have to be able to address it. does it make a difference? yes, it does. we will work on solutions with the 100 issues that we bring up. our commitment is that every single one we bring up is a problem but also a solution how to solve it, so no one gets a feeling of this is not solvable. all of these are solvable. i encourage my colleagues and americans to say if you have other solutions, ring them. -- bring them. host: we want to invite callers to ask the senator questions.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. .emocrats, (202) 748-8000 , (202) 748-8002. resolution, is that continuing down the road tour eight debt bomb? guest: it is and that is the problem with the continuing resolution. many of your viewers are extremely well-educated and they will know that i continuing resolution is nothing different than taking last year's appropriations bill and moving it to this year, so it does not address the areas of overspending. it does not go through to change things like an appropriations bill does. they go through line by line, agency by agency. a continuing resolution or cr, just take that last year, moves

over this year regardless of the things that were discovered or regardless of new priorities we might have for the coming year. while it keeps the government open it does not solve the long-term issue. host: how do you plan to vote? if you feel strongly to do this report and want the conversation about debt and deficits to continue, why not try to hold up this continuing resolution, or are you planning? thet: i will vote against continuing resolution for those .easons identified i am on the appropriations committee and we did all 12 bills in the appropriations process. some more bipartisan and some passed unanimously out of committee. does keep the government open, it does not solve the long-term fiscal problems we face. host: well you do anything to tries to stop -- to try to stop the progress of a continuing resolution getting past?

guest: we will not. we try to negotiate options. a long-term government shutdown does not save the government money. it costs more money than it saves by far. if we are talking about just fiscal responsibility, it is better to keep it open and going then to do the open and shut which spends more money. long-term we have to resolve this. this will be the 20th year in a row we have had a continuing resolution. 1974, the push was too great a process that was transparent. what has happened is that since 1974 we have had four times the budget process has worked correctly. if your viewers feel like every year we get into the same budget fight, it is because every year but four we have been in a budget fight like this. there is a small group of us ,hat have met for the last year

led by the budget committee in the senate to be able to step in and say how do we solve the budget issues by creating a process that actually works? currently this process does not work, and at some point the senate and house have to admit the process is bad. if we have to get a better product have to get a better process. host: the senator is author of this report, fumbles. they put together the six most bizarre things from your report, one being gas station tofu requiring gas stations to provide healthy food, medieval smells is number three. number four, rolling under the influence. the social security administration received reports that one judge routinely assaulted employees and was intoxicated. andcomplaints were ignored

he continued to issue rulings. leave the dolphins alone, is number five. it would prevent americans from swimming with dolphins. begun the war on christmas has. americans to buy tracy in california. independent. you're up first for the senator. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. , i'm concerned about the government not being a good steward of the money i give them every year to run the government. how do you plan on working with the incoming administration to scale back on regulation, cut wasteful spending and how can a

citizen get involved with the effort to help the government not have more wasteful spending? guest: that is a terrific question. any citizen can call a member of congress or a senator to identify wasteful spending and report it. if you are within a government agency, any individual's protected to go to the inspector say i see a problem whether his wasteful spending. i have federal employees within the bureaucracy that will say i know where there's millions of dollars of waste. i would encourage them to go to .he inspector general could i'm very encouraged -- there is a book called the plum book. all the political jobs across all of america, over 3000 of them, they are all online,

google "plum book" to see it. just filling those jobs and looking for what jobs are open and what jobs they can actually fail, they are asking the hard question, should that job exist at all? these are political appointees and their often put into positions, some plum job within the federal government. is there a need for that job at all? they are already beginning to think through are there areas where we can create deficiencies. what are the things the federal government should do? they should do them very well and very efficiently. there's something the federal government should not do. froms, communities individual families should do. ann is next in new york.

republican. caller: good morning. i have two questions. one is about opm. you said there is waste. one waste is i've been trying to call opm for over a week now and they take the phone off the hook so you can't get through. people like me who don't have a cell phone or a computer, how are you supposed to talk to anyone? social security was a slap in for 2017, they are giving 0.3% when millionaires and billionaires can get money. can you answer those two questions? guest: the cost of living index is what happens with social security every year, they look at the cost of living across the --ntry and about the weight and then evaluate. in ourry little growth

gdp over the last several years, there have been multiple years with no increase in the social security benefit. this year, a very tiny .3% increase. that is based on the growth of the economy and that reminds us that the economy is not growing very fast at all right now. the first question about opm is one of the areas we highlighted. to not only handle the clearances and the paperwork for every government employee, but when you retire, they are your point of contact. they have been insanely inefficient over the course of the last several years. mostly on ailt paper system, there is not a consistent process when you retire from the agencies to get that consistent information to opm. it takes months to get benefits

to start or to get a good answer to a question. i would encourage you to go to your house member or your senator macarthur office -- house member or your senator and call them. host: when bertie, maryland. democrat. to takei don't want much of your time, but i was wastefulc-span on federal spending -- i'm on social security disability. i'm wondering how this is going to affect social security and social security disability. guest: long-term effect for social security is one of those areas that has to be addressed by congress. you go back to decades ago, to worked and ronald reagan a long-term deal to stabilize social security. that needs to occur again picked

we got 25 years before we reach a point where social security is insolvent. right now is the time, we should look on the forward horizon 20 years from now and say what can we do to stabilize social security and to make sure it continues to function as it was designed to function. the disability issue is a whole separate issue. ofhave a tremendous number people who have applied for social security disability who do not qualify. one of the areas we have highlighted this year. social security disability has a process with so many appeals and appeals than more for most people on death row. it is an endless set of appeals. denial and initial then a long paper trail. on social security disability are the most vulnerable people in our country. there should be a safety net

under them. that should be provided for the people that qualify. y -- social security disability was designed for individuals who cannot work anywhere in the economy and need a safety net under them. host: i want to get your reaction this morning to donald pruitt tosing scott head up the epa. what can you tell us about him? guest: he's been a friend for years. he is a terrific human being. a great guy, but also very passionate law and order guy.

workingtration has been to say if the law says this, everyone has to follow the law. his challenge over and over again has been there is a role for the federal government to do, they need to do it well but they don't need to do something that is not in the law. i've heard a lot of people over the last 12 hours challenging scott pruitt in saying he is anti-environment and all these things -- that is not true. in oklahoma, we have wind power and battery companies and solar power. an all of the above state and scott has been consistent in protecting all the energy sources that are out there. he also believes the federal government should not try to create law out of regulation. should follow law.

he will be a terrific administrator for the epa. host: he will have to get a senate confirmation. you expect that will happen? guest: i do. i expect it will be contentious. it is a contentious issue across the united states. so many copies have been driven out of business the last several years -- companies have been driven out of business the last several years. this will be a big issue for a lot of people. they are challenging issues of unemployment and how to determine how to walk that line. as congress debates, there is a aw between protecting the environment and protecting -- host: what about president trump's other potential choices? do any of them give you pause? guest: we are walking through the process and learning a lot more about all these

individuals. he has a pretty solid group of folks. is arice from hhs position, a member of congress, someone who studied the issues at length. -- is a physician. he is very familiar with all those issues, there've been a lot of problems in hospitals. , not a single hospital is doing better now after obamacare than they did before. all of them were promised everyone will walk in with insurance and there will be fewer payments that are charity payments and on clickable debt. every single hospital in my state has a higher amount of uncollectible debt. dr. tom price will be a terrific leader.

mike pompeo at the cia will be a terrific leader. another law and order guy that will make sure cia continues to follow the law. a lot of good picks that i've seen. we will continue to watch those roll out. host: james in west palm beach, florida. caller: i would like to thank you for bringing this issue up. what happened to the balanced budget amendment? our state legislature, the number one job is to balance the budget. for the past 16 years, there's just been unlimited spending, it's been enabled by the federal reserve's lower interest rate. i would like to hear you explain what is going on. inwould give you all an f budgeting in the lessig seniors. our deficit will be $1 trillion. -- in the last 16 years.

guest: this has been an incredibly frustrating issue. here's the difference -- in state legislatures, they have a constitutional requirement to balance their budget. there legislature cannot go out of session until they balance the budget. it is a focus, they have to make some hard decisions. legislatures will only do hard things when they are forced to do hard things. the forcing mechanism for state legislatures is a state constitutional requirement. there is no such requirement on the federal government to balance their budget. there is no forcing mechanism to get there. congress will only do its job when they have to do their job. go back to 1994 and 1995, there was a push to do a balanced budget amendment. it passed with a two thirds necessary in the house, went to the senate and failed by one

vote in the senate. , wehat would have passed would have a balanced budget right now because congress would have forced that. came upct same language again in 2011. i was elected to congress in 2010 to my was part of that group that came into the house during that time. ,e brought up the same language it failed by a larger margin . it is a great frustration that there are many people who do not believe we should balance the budget. my conversation with the president was when i mentioned to him that bill clinton and newt gingrich still discussed balancing the budget in a bipartisan way. he said i don't believe we should have a balanced budget.

stimulateoverspend to the economy and then eventually it will all catch up. you cannot keep overspending and keep racking up debt. interest rates will rise. this is something we have to address. host: columbia, missouri. democrat. i have a question -- how can we balance the budget and keep giving the rich people tax cuts? why isn't the money that's in the accounts overseas, those secret accounts that scott --llions of dollars in it that has trillions of dollars in -- the poor people are suffering and the rich keep getting richer. guest: that is a great question.

you brought up the second point about tax issues and american money parked overseas. that is entirely accurate. there's $2 trillion of american money from american companies overseas do business -- we want business to be based in america and do business all over the world. in our current tax code, if they make money overseas, they are double taxed for bringing the money back. in americaased here that also do business overseas when they make money overseas, they leave that money overseas. that's $2 trillion parked overseas that could come home. but won't come home based on our tax policy. it is one of the issues that absolutely has to be addressed. our tax policy encourages companies to move overseas for their operations rather than encouraging them to be here.

government will say they are going to be on them with a stick to set you've got to come back to operation. why would a company want to move overseas? it is very important that we balance out that tax policy to get that right. host: speaking of tax policy, dean baker writes in a piece entitled "the republican deficit hawks abandon their religion." that donald trump talking about a large cut in revenue and an increase in spending. his plan will reduce revenue by more than $9 trillion and his tax cut would add $800 billion to the annual deficit when it takes effect. you would think speaker line and his republican caucus would

strongly opposed this. ryan and his republican caucus would strongly oppose this. what is your reaction to what you are hearing from the president-elect? guest: anytime you talk about tax reform, no one group brings the tax reform proposal and it gets pushed all the way through. president trump and his team will bring up their tax proposals and ideas and paul ryan and mitch mcconnell will bring ideas from the house and senate. all those individuals will work together to form the real tax plan. those are proposals, those are a set of ideas, they will get through the legislative

process, we will score it and get real hard numbers that everyone can agree on. focus is we have to not only simplify the tax code to make it where it encourages businesses, encourages people to make their own money and save their own and you have to be able to find a process that will work for all americans. that will be an ongoing debate. to anyone that looks at any specific plan, no those are not the final plans. this is the starting point of negotiation. host: paul in iowa. republican. caller: thank you for being on this morning. my question is regarding the department of education, the budget last year i believe was about $77 million. i think education should be left up to the states.

-- $77 billion. guest: the department of education really is the place that gathers in state money and they put in d.c. ideas and distribute them back to the states. states should make the decisions. it was not listed in the constitution for a reason. states and local areas were to lead out education. there is an issue with people in military bases. the preponderance of education needs to be left to the states. i hope this is an area where there will be constant encouragement to turn out d.c. a set of mandates were created where d.c. was becoming the national school board to tell every school district and every

state how they were going to do education. we turned that back in a bipartisan way last year, president obama signed it. the first time in 20 years that power has left washington. it was a turning out of a lot of the educational priorities. issues have to follow that the major we can manage the spending by managing the priorities of the department of education. host: james in akron, ohio. democrat. caller: i have two things i want to mention. taxese talking about the left overseas. all these companies that went overseas to invest, they got a tax break from the united states to do the investment. most of the time, loans from our government in order to do the investment. they are not getting taxed twice. just paying the tax the first time because they never paid it in the first place.

the people that make the laws today have never saw a hard day in your life. you worked and you went to school and to work again. these people out your happen without jobs for years at a time. they don't know where the next dollar is coming from. they go and get food stamps and they get cut off because they've been on them for six months. ae congress refused to pass jobs bill for the last six years to help the poor people. once the poor people realize that they are all the same people, this whole thing would change. we put against our own self interests like what just happened now with trump being in office. the media allowed him to get into office.

that is the way our system works. i do have a concern with people that have never suffered a day in their life to determine that people on social security don't deserve a raise. the spouse of a social security recipient gets a meager amount because of one person worked and the other person didn't. it is not conducive to the small person in this country. guest: very fair question. able to siti were down and talk face-to-face come i could walk you through my own personal history. i did not grow up in wealth and spent most of my time working two jobs for a long time. years in ministry before i was ever in anything in politics. walking into politics was a way to serve people, just like doing in ministry. been families --

i had a tough upbringing. walk through and work when my mom was working and work for my brother and i -- for me, most of the time working two jobs. when you start dealing with what the role of the government is, the government cannot provide full employment for every individual. we provide a safety net to help people not fall into extreme poverty. we don't want anyone in america to not have any place to sleep if they have options. committee groups, churches, nonprofits also provide safety nets as well as the federal government. the safety nets are therefore short periods of time. it was designed to be an say ifte safety net to you outlive euro and savings,

the will be something there that will help supplement that. it's always been a supplement to what people do on their own. even things like this not program. that is a supplemental nutrition snap program. there is something there underneath their feet to help them, but there is no way financially the federal government could set a precedent to provide everyone income the same all across the country. more aboutarn federal spending and the wasteful spending that is happening, you can read senator lankford's report. thank you for your time this .orning coming up next, we will talk with democratic congressman mark desaulnier to talk about efforts by his fellow colleagues to investigate president-elect donald trump's business dealings. first, want to show you this headline from "the washington

post " this morning. a hearing that took place on capitol hill. at&t will not restrict time warner content from competitors. in$84 billion deal announced october subject to approval by the justice department, possibly the federal communications commission. yesterday during that hearing, -- members asked witnesses about the current pay for play model. [video clip] >> if there's anything i've itrned in my time here, takes cooperation from both sides of the aisle to get things done. it has been a privilege to serve with so many in this body that care about our country deeply and work tirelessly each day on behalf of their constituents.

i am so honored as i see my here todayeorge because i know how hard you work every day and i want to thank you for what you do on behalf of the people of this country. i'm humbled by what i've learned from each of you and from each of my colleagues in the senate and for the opportunity to serve with so many good people on behalf of our great nation. i think each of you for your dedicated service and for your friendship. here, thingsrship just don't get done. i especially want to thank mitch mcconnell for his commitment to toing the senate work and making sure we are doing the people's business. on a personal note, i deeply appreciated his mentorship and his friendship. ,orking with our new president the senate has a fresh opportunity to create a better

quality of life for all americans in this great country. that means elected leaders will need to work together and put aside our partisan differences. during this election, we heard the frustrations of the american people about their government. body tohtly expect this move forward in solving the significant challenges facing our nation. such as getting our fiscal health in order, making sure families can afford quality health care without washington between them and their doctors. reforming our broken tax code so we can keep and grow jobs here in the u.s. and keeping america safe in a dangerous world. my hope is that the members of this body will appeal to the better angels of our nature, put partisanship aside and focus on the challenge of building a more perfect union.

the challenges before us are great. we cannot hope to overcome them unless we do so working hand in hand. areow my senate colleagues people of great character and they are up to the challenge. i wish them the very best as their veryue important work on behalf of the people of the greatest nation on earth. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by congressman mark desaulnier, democrat of california, here to talk about oversight of president-elect's financial interests. i want to begin with the front page of "the new york times" this morning. they have an update on his earlier comments where he said he would turn over business operations. did not say that he would divest. this is what the new york times reports this morning.

what "the new york times" reports this morning. your reaction? guest: it is a problem. divesting is very clear. we've never had a president like this. he did move in that direction. i will take him at his word. i'm assuming they are discovering legally from their lawyers what the framework is. i'm assuming he's trying to figure out a comparable place for himself that's comfortable place for himself. host: he says he owns real estate -- you cannot just selloff real estate. it is more difficult than that. guest: he knew that when he

decided to run for president. hearings to whether he's been consistent with the law and the constitution. host: have you gotten a response from jason chaffetz? guest: i don't think so. elijah cummings asked for that and a letter we agree to on the democratic side. we are waiting. said, president himself the impact on the nation is more important than his personal holdings. host: why is it important? explain that to the american people. why is it not sufficient if you just hands over control to his two sons? guest: i'm a former a small businessperson, i've been elected to office for almost 30 years. to put onrequirements

your statements what your holdings are. there are other restrictions. you want to make sure there are not conflict of interest. because the president-elect has such an extensive global empire, financial empire, we all recognize it is going to be difficult. it is all the more important that the american public make his decisions are not to make more money for himself and his family. it is externally important for him to get the confidence of the american public. the president-elect does not have a lot of confidence in -- this trustworthiness is an important statement. host: what does it mean to divest? a full arm lengths removal from his investments. he puts them in a set-aside holding.

the question about the family is an interesting one. the lawyers will have to decide that. there is more reporting about the family this morning in "the new york times" as well. trump would also take a leave of absence from the trump organization in a sure sign that she is exploring and moved to washington. do you have concerns about this situation? his son-in-law and his daughter who own businesses advising him. the devil will be in the

details and it will be per lawyers to decide and there will be difference of opinion between our lawyers and their lawyers. maybe. this is really tricky and complicated. we have to be very careful. he and his family have to be careful on two instances. hopefully they are both closely think he has to meet the letter of the law. andhis success as president for the family, they should go beyond that. the optics are very clear. it will be very complicated. with social media and fake news, he will be accused of all kinds of things. host: going beyond, does that include showing his tax records? guest: absolutely. that was one of the really shocking things.

he said he would. at some point, whether it is an audit or another excuse or explanation on his part, at some white in the next 40 years -- at some point in the next four years, he should show the american people his tax returns and he should show them every year. host: what policy decision to use either being a conflict of interest that should do you seeing -- what policy decision do you see as being a conflict of interest? if you are a ceo of a manufacturing corporation that has a limited global imprint, it might be easy to do a specific thing. there is the importance for his sake and the american people's thisin making sure that investment is at clear arm's-length.

host: i will be holding a major news conference in new york city with my children on december 15 to discuss the fact that i will be leaving my great business in on runninglly focus the country -- he said he would leave his business in total. not satisfying? guest: that would be good. this is sort of a reagan situation where we want to trust and verify. it is complex because of the uniqueness of his holdings. i will take him at his word. we in the congress have to make sure the details match the

rhetoric. host: the office of government quickly tweeted out -- they go on to say -- he never actually said he would divest. guest: therein lies another challenge in this instance. legally, there has been contradictions, both by him and as people interpret his sayings. in this case, i think his last comments are very encouraging. clear, concise, consistent message that he will divest.

he should make sure he goes beyond that. i will is to make sure that he complies with everything in the law and to encourage them to do so. host: walter in florida. an independent. caller: good morning. wondering -- a lot of trump's wealth is built on his name. he's licensed it like mcdonald's or franchised it to different companies all over the world so people think when they are at a trump facility, they think trump owns it when he doesn't. his wealth must have just increased by 10 fold with his name being his asset. -- this the same thing is totally different from mitt romney.

a lot of the politicians we are going to see in the future will have enormous wealth. wouldn't you say that timeframe -- what isight thing the right thing? does a man have to give up his whole lights work to serve the government? work to whole life's serve the government? i've been elected for almost 30 years. i enjoy the work or i would not continue to do it. when you run, you know that you have to adhere to the laws that are in place. are people specifically pointing to laws that trump is breaking? what is he supposed to do? how does he divest himself from his name? guest: that is an interesting part of things. there are legal structures. both the constitution and court

office of ethics working with the president-elect and their attorneys -- this is statute and it's in the constitution. there is case law on it. you bring up an interesting point on the branding part how do you separate that? i don't know. you could consider it in the inverse. i owned restaurants before i got in the legislature. it is a double-edged sword. if you do something people don't boycotted hisave products. hopefully, he will want to do the right thing because his reputation is important to him. both his business reputation and

his public reputation. that is a great question, walter. the branding makes it much more difficult. host: lynn in new jersey. republican. is -- i doquestion see donald trump separating from his business. what i want to know is how you his bigwill be with focus is on bringing jobs back here to the states. need to make an investment in certain things like global poverty. when those people come out of poverty, they can be consumers. i know everybody is focused on spending, but sometimes you have to make that investment to reap the rewards. i would like to see what you think will happen in that area. as a former small

business owner, i think mr. this has demonstrated -- mr. trump has demonstrated this. you have to spend money to make money. the lack of opportunity for americans, i spent a lot of time on this area, i started a caucus -- we haveia significant poverty and opportunity in california. this is a very large issue for this country. finding those jobs in california, we are now getting manufacturing to grow again. manufacturing is coming back to california. thever, it is not bringing jobs because robotics and technology have taken those places. this is a very complex area. all of us have to roll up our how we can find out

lessen the pain on americans. so much part of your identity and your self-worth. all overee committees the country where businesses have downsized. people have lost their jobs and their house and go into despair. this is one of the big issues of our time domestically that we have to address. people have compared it to the industrial revolution and social displacement. we cannot just say the world has changed, it is globalism. we have to go in and act with urgency to make your those coal miners in west virginia are not just left to wait and see what happens with technology and innovation. host: mary is a democrat in virginia. you are on the air with the congressman. caller: good morning.

merry christmas, happy holidays. arerepublicans in congress circling the wagons and saying trump, we will trust you on your business dealings. isn't that also going to pose a potential problem? when trump said he is not going to cut social security and all say you have a shady dealing over there, we don't want to investigate it, so sign what we want you to sign or we could be investigating you -- couldn't this because of dangerous? guest: it is tremendously dangerous. put this in the context of how americans view big business. wass fargo, what they did unconscionable in incentivizing their staff to open millions of

dollars worth of phony accounts. you can go through the list, enron. people don't have a lot of trust in the business sector right now. when i was younger, people did have trust and there was a social ethics. a lot of that has gone away. how we reinstate that that's a good friend of mine and i talked about this yesterday. it is an issue that is important in as an economics professor -- important to him as an economics professor. how do we make sure that americans not only have good , but in us in congress similarly in big institutions in the private sector and public sector? he is a prominent avid sector private sector figure

and will soon be the most prominent public sector officeholder, this is a real challenge to change how people view these institutions and have more trust in them. host: we're talking to congressman mark desaulnier, who was first elected in 2014, will be starting his second term in january representing california's 11th congressional district. ohio. .ndependent caller goocaller: good morning. this talk about wells fargo. what happened? they made bogus accounts, as usual. jail, they turned around and paid a fine. let's talk about separation of business and the government. you have the clinton foundation which should be prosecuted -- hillary is running around as a

state department official, turning around and doing the clinton foundation business. let's talk about bush and cheney with the war. halliburton -- everybody in congress is tied to one business or another. we need to shut down this behemoth and do an audit and get rid of everybody that has ties to the government. guest: i agree with all of what you said. wells fargo should be held criminally responsible. instance, yougen cannot pursue criminal prosecutions. i have a bill in congress that would close that loophole. government is too close to big business. i am appalled by it. using wordsion you like "everybody."

you have hit on a really important point. people have to have confidence in the banking industry and the business institutions. when you buy a car, you want to have confidence that they are doing the right thing. ao many businesses have done risk assessment where they take the risk to get fined and they do that. i think they should be prosecuted. people have been prosecuted for much less, working people and poor people. the damage people on wall street quote to, the biblical those that much is given, much as expected, this applies in this instance. there should be more transparency in our relationship and all of special interests. host: what is your reaction to the "huffington post" story? the rnc will host its christmas party at the trump international hotel, the newest property of

its newfound leader in washington. morevent is set to be exclusive and celebratory. in moving the proceedings to donald's downtown d.c. hotel, the committee risks furthering the perception that the president-elect is leveraging his political power for private gains. guest: i would not do it. it goes to what mike's concern opticallyt clearly, -- even if you find a position where i can somewhat understand why the rnc would do this, it should not happen. there are people within the rnc who are trying to curry favor by doing this with the president-elect. mistake and it goes back to the earlier question about separating properties and the brand.

if i were in the republican organization, i would be very careful about how they cross and start to support his business. host: why should the committee be looking into this? why this committee? guest: that is the purview of the committee. the oversight committee is oversight. i enjoy being on the committee. it should be nonpartisan. ,hen i was in local government we oversaw the running of the city, of the county in a bipartisan fashion. that is our premium responsibility. the. function -- oversight and government reform, that is the jurisdictional purview. that is where we should have the hearings. i hope they would be nonpartisan. that both parties would go into this trying to maintain

that the law is being followed by the letter and restoring confidence. host: chris in florida. independent caller. go ahead. caller: thanks. about others politicians -- did bloomberg sell off all of his interests and his media empire when he was the mayor of new york? i'm looking at an article here from 2015 from the l.a. times where nancy pelosi's vineyard makes her the fourth li which is californian. californian.hest tos a little hypocritical attack donald trump for holdings he has when all the politicians are doing exactly the same thing.

it is just another situation where you are looking at something to attack him for. viewers whenion you go to all or everyone, there's always exceptions. i can speak to only mr. bloomberg and leader pelosi insomuch that i know there has been a challenge to what they've done in terms of their filings and the transparency. the president-elect should be to a little higher standard because he is the leader of our government. all of this has to be done in the structure of what the statutes say. if the statutes need to be changed so we have exemptions, we should look at that. i sold the last restaurant i owned because i do not want to conflicts.pearing

it.s worth we know these rules when we run for office. we should accept the rules to the letter of the law. what is good for nancy and mayor bloomberg should be good for all of us. pelosi and mayor bloomberg should be good for all of us. host: donald trump could learn something from michael bloomberg -- bloombergdid was more open i than trump. fortune cameberg's from 72 percent ownership stake in the financial information firm he started, bloomberg lp.

you can find that story on cnn this morning. chris in florida. independent. good morning. caller: thank you for putting me on. the samee that standards should apply to everyone. just because you sold off your businesses doesn't mean that nancy pelosi should get a pass while people are attacking donald trump. host: let me move on to mike in arizona. republican. caller: good morning. [indiscernible] host: it's impossible to hear you. you are breaking up quite a bit. suzanne in for the. a democrat. -- suzanne in florida. caller: the reason why i'm

calling is because with donald trump, all of his potential in thets of interest financial situation that is because, i'm confused it doesn't seem as if we can accountable to actually get his taxes, there's nothing we can really do, from what i'm hearing. we get promises but no follow-through. there's no repercussions. with us not knowing his , with notreaching having the taxes, is there anything we can do to find out this information through a committee? situation, if the there could be a change in the law or an amendment. that hasere is a bill

been submitted by one of my colleagues from northern california that would require candidates of major parties to buy votes their tax returns -- vulgeulge -- diebol their tax returns. we have a sacred trust to restore the confidence that american citizens have in their government. anything we do that takes away from that trust, we should be held to a very high standard host: and that includes the president-elect. we will hear from donald trump tonight when he continues his thank you tour across the country. he will be in iowa at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. we will have coverage of that on

www.c-span.org. clint in texas. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. to make am calling comment about donald trump's selection of his cabinet -- they keep talking about financial fella int he put a fore that used to work goldman sachs as the secretary of finance. that concerns me greatly. what the other caller put in was the fact that donald trump has so many interests overseas, how are they going to control that? republicans have the power in the house and the senate. i don't see any investigation coming up on that. best: there is going to

hearings. we will use what tools we have another as is part of the congressional process. we will do everything we can to make sure they are accountable and we urge the republicans to make it bipartisan. be bipartisan, making sure that people trust their elected officials and is divisions we oversee is the most important response ability we have. right now, that trust is held in very low regard by the american citizens. it should be one of the most important things we do. host: two thirds of u.s. adults think donald trump needs to choose between being president and a businessman. 9% believe it goes too far -- acknowledge that he's had

a long and successful career in the private sector and he should not be overly punished for that. we all know what were getting into when we run for office and we sacrifice. i think we should sacrifice more in this regard and restoring trust in these institutions. host: augusta, maine. republican. caller: good morning. i am a republican. i did not vote for trump because i have a lot of concerns about having a billionaire president. -- trump hass this said he is going to bring jobs back to america. when i listen to things like shark tank, i hear people saying it's cheaper to do things overseas. we voted against slavery a long time ago, but we are basically shipping our work to the slaves now.

they are working for slave wages. what is he going to do about minimum wage? breaking up some big business? host: the house will be gaveling in early this morning. i will have to get a quick answer from the congressman. guest: that is a really great question. as we've been talking all the separation between the legal obligations and the perception, it will be a struggle to do this. we have to hold the new president accountable in the congress. be held to similar standards and i believe we are, generally. i think they should be stronger. we have some challenges. when it comes to poverty and the minimum wage and getting jobs back, that is a compex issue in the global economy, but we should be doing it. i was against tpp. i will not do anything that will harm the american worker anymore. host: congressman mark

desaulnier, thank you for your time this morning. congress is coming in early this morning to finish up their work on a continuing resolution to fund the government through april of 2017. [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] spoke the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. dear god, we give you thanks for giving us another day. bless the members of the people's house as they anticipate returning to their home districts. once they return home may they fiend rest and renewal during their time with family and friends. bless our nation as the holy days of the religious trti