what security could look like under the trump administration. and senior president kevin mccourt-martialally will offer advice on federal tax related questions. host: good morning, it's saturday, december 10, 2016 and in today's headlines, last night the senate passed a stopgap measure to keep the government funded until april 28, averting a government shutdown with less than an hour to spare. the senate also passed a dozen other bills in a marathon session that just adjourned a few moments ago. meanwhile, president-elect donald trump continued with his post election thank you tour last night with a rally in grand rapids, michigan. he's also continuing to use his twitter account as he did throughout the campaign. his tweets criticizing

indianapolis union president chuck jones vowing to cancel boeing's order for a new air force one and taking aim at private citizens have drawn criticism while the polls show most americans think there trump tweets too much. our question for truers today, should donald trump stop weeting? call the numbers at the bottom 6 your screen. treeth us. and just this morning as we said, the senate had a marathon session that just ended this morning and also was an early morning for the president-elect who has taken to his twitter account already amid reports he will remain executive browser

for the apprentice television show during his tenure as president. he tweeted reports by cnn, i'll be working on the apprentice during my presidency even part-time are ridiculous and untrue. fake news. the president-elect tweeted just early this morning. he's referring to reports as "the new york times" reports today that starting next month mr. trump's most visible business interest will be beamed directly into millions of americans living rooms. the celebrity apprentice is back and the president-elect is coming with it. this week before inauguration day, mr. trump will resume his role as an executive producer of the members reality show, an unlikely side project for commander in chief and one poised to bring him hundreds of thousands of dollars in income. the president-elect responding to those reports with a couple of tweets this morning. he also tweeted a bit about

former new york city mayor rue giuliani who pulled himself out of consideration for a cabinet post, among the tweets he said this morning, according to fox news, the former new york city mayor has removed his name from consideration for the post the transition team announced friday. giuliani who currently is a vice chairman on the transitional team has been rumored to be in consideration for secretary of state, former mayor giuliani told fox news that that was the only position he was interested in and so he will go back to his current position at a law. . let's hear from linda. inda calling in from mississippi on our democratic line. do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? katie: he should and should be taking his security briefing. he is the president-elect and

he is strutting around like a dictator, like a showman. something doing constructive, too a at 3:00 in the morning tweeting. and i think mike pence will be he real president. he has positioned himself to be the showman. host: are you opposed to any president-elect using twitter at all or are you concerned about the kind of messages president-elect trump has been tweeting? caller: the kind of messaging. he's punching down. you can't speak anything against him. he has the bully pulpit and he's the president of all america, not just ones who elected him. he seems not to understand that. and seems not to care. host: we'll take a break from

the twitter conversation to get more conversation -- information about the stopgap to avert a government shutdown. joining us is alex bolten, a reporter from the hill who has been covering this. good morning, alex. alex: good morning. host: your story for this morning about the aversion of the government shutdown, you wrote the senate passed legislation to fund the federal government until april 28 avoiding a shutdown by less than an hour. the measure passed 63-36 after a group of disgruntled democrats backed away from their threats to block or delay the funding measure because of a dispute over health care benefits for retired minors. alex, tell us a little bit more about how this vote ultimately went down and what was the holdup? alex: well, it finally passed 63-36, less than an hour before the midnight deadline when congress was facing a shutdown

and for a while it looked like there might be a temporary shutdown because joe mention, the democrat from west virginia, up for re-election in 2016 in a state trump won with nearly 70% of the vote, he made a stand on this bill to fight for extending health had benefits for retired minors for a full year. this legislation would extend those expiring benefits for four months and that's the length of the c.r., of the stopgap and goes until the end of april and expired miners health benefits would have been extended that long as well. no one thought it was such a big deal. of course mitch mcconnell, he's from kentucky and that's bigtime coal country and all of a sudden mansion and some other democrats who faced re-election in 2018 in these pro trump states, the others being sherrod brown of ohio, bob casey of pennsylvania, claire

mccass kell of missouri, they all rallied around mansion and said this bill is unacceptable and waged a vigorous lobbying campaign directed at their colleagues to get them to block this bill. but the problem is it the bill doesn't pass by midnight, there would have been a government shutdown, at least temporarily. in the t caused panic capital and in the end mansion could not convince his democratic allies to go with him and did not have the 41 votes to block it and force republicans to renegotiate it, so rather than raise procedural objections he could have done to delay this bill until possibly today or sunday, he relented and it made it through just in the nick of time, just by the skin of its teeth ahead of the deadline. host: tell us what's in this bill among other things, there is funding for the flint water crisis, correct? alex: yes, there is funding for

the flint water crisis. it's 170 million for communities that need an overhaul of the infrastructure, drinking water became a national scandal earlier this year when it was discovered that the water in flint was badly tainted by led. water from the flint river had been pumped in the city and rroded the pipes and created a cropings and lead painting and led to a huge fight between the democrats and republicans over how much money to allocate and when to do it. right before the end of the year it finally got done. it's $170 million, and not just variety of for a communities affected by brad drinking water. host: and the 21st century cures act that also went through is part of this, alex?

alex: the funding for the bill is included in the legislation. it's $872 million and would boost medical research, drug approval and efforts to fight drug abuse and includes $20 million for the food and drug innovation account and would fund joe biden's cancer moon shot, the initiative he's haunchoed since the death of his son bo to eliminate cancer as we know it. this is to boost the effort to find a cure for cancer and why it's called moon shot. the 21st century cures act was also on the hill and elizabeth warren of massachusetts felt it included give aways to pharmaceutical companies but had the strong support of biden and many democrats and it passed and the funding for it was included in this stopgap that passed last night. host: ok. alex bolton, reporter for the

hill. i hope you're able to get some rest since the senate just wrapped up in the past hour. thanks for joining us. alex: thank you. host: back to the discussion of the president-elect and his tweeting habits. according to a study by morning consult and politico, most americans think he spends too much time on the social media platforms and 56% of respondents polled last week said the republican president in waiting uses twitter, quote, too much, compared with 16% who says he uses it about the right amount and 5% who said he doesn't use it enough. cheryl is calling in from wallederboro main from our republican line. what do you think, should the president-elect stop tweeting? caller: no, not at all. i think he used social media absolutely brilliantly to connect with the american people and the reason that he won was because he was able to eak the death grip the trump

media had on messages getting out and did it by going directly to the american people. if he continues to use social media and post videos and make announcements via his personal facebook post, all the more power to him. that absolutely is what is making the difference for him. host: do you think it's helpful when the president-elect, as opposed to announcing policies on twitter and things like that when he actually targets individuals and criticizes individuals caller: it depends, when you look at social media and the way it's woven into the fabric of our country, attacks are made and people are making statements and doing things via social media and almost like it's replaced the verbal confrontations and things we've had from the past.

i don't think he wants to make attacks on twither but defends himself on twitter and what i see all the time. there are a lot of people who cowardly or whatever way try to goat people via social media. he's a master of social media and simply uses it correctly to make sure his message gets out there in a nondiluted way. host: ok. let's look what the president-elect said in a "60 minutes" interview where he talk about a more restrained approach to twitter once in the oval office. >> you're going to be tweeting and whatever you're upset about, just put out there when you're president? mr. trump: it's a modern form of communication between facebook and twitter and i guess instagram, i have 28 million people. >> so you are going to keep it up? mr. trump: it's a great form of communication. do i say i'll give it up entirely and throw it out? i take tremendous form -- i'm picking up -- i think i picked

up yesterday 100,000 people. i'm not saying i love it. but it does get the word out. when you give me a bad story or inaccurate story or when somebody other than you and cbs r network, of course would never do a thing like that, would they? i have a method of fighting back. >> you'll do that as president? mr. trump: i'll be very restrained if i do it at all. i find it tremendous. it's a modern form of communication. there should be nothing to be ashamed of, it's where it's at. i do believe is the fact that i have such power in terms of numbers with facebook, twitter, instagram, etc., i think it helped me win all of these races where they're spending much more money than i spent. i spent a lot of my money and i won. i think social media has more

power than the money they spent and to a certain extent i proved it. host: joe is calling from the republican line from pennsylvania. what do you think, joe? do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: no, i don't. i agree with the last two callers. to the way it's communication and broadband and all over the world. he has a way of communicating to the people indirectly. there's no sensorship of any ind. when it comes to the point in time he's in the seat, and the job is to perform his duties as such, that's a tough call because he's going to have a of which f going on he's not used to and i believe he'll blend right in, i'm sure of that. host: let me ask you this, do you believe once he's in the

white house should other people perhaps vet the tweets before they go out? just to make sure what a president says can affect the stock market and affect a relationship with adversaries, do you think there should be some monitoring of his tweets? caller: well, that's a fine line and where you're in a gray area. going to be somehow or another, with him the presidency and other people right next to him anded legalities of such. it's a fine line. what he said a minute ago and you had him on "60 minutes" i believe it was, said something at that point that he would limit it but to that extent it's still a gray matter, and depends what's going on, the topics and to what extent. i'm sure it's not going to be

full time or any amount of time he used on them in the ampaign. i'm sure that it's going to be -- the amount of such won't be near as much once he's in the presidency doing that job. host: in other headlines today, "the washington post" reports according to the c.i.a., russia favored trump in the election in its secret assessment of hacking effort there. the c.i.a. has concluded in a secret assessment russia intervened in the 2016 election to help donald trump win the presidency to undermine confidence in the u.s. electoral system according to officials briefed on the matter. intelligence agencies identified individuals with connections to the russian government who provided

wikileaks thousands of hacked e males from the democratic national committee including hillary clinton's campaign chairman according to u.s. officials. those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community as part of a wider russian operation to boost trump and urt clinton's chances. a little more about the probe undergoing in the role of russia in the election, and nora thoma is calling in from glen burnie, maryland, on the independent line. do you think donald trump should stop tweeting? caller: he can keep tweeting. it might backfire when something like 9/11 happens when we were all waiting for george w.'s tweets and then he had to tweet something really angry to respond. he can keep tweeting. we as american people need an infrastructure change in how we receive media, besides you guys

at c-span, i appreciate what you do, it seems everybody has a bias and narrative and incentive to do this and you're talking about the russian hacking and then switch topics to the celebrity apprentice. it's just kind of when we're talking about a big news story like a conflict of interest, suddenly we talk about flag burning. i can do the same thing trump does, we could -- there could be something like russia has a billion dollar donation to trump towers and here's a tweet four hours later donald trump ants to lower the age of lethal injections for anybody that's homosexual and everybody starts freaking out about that. it's a magic act. we have to get smarter. host: let me ask you this, do you expect, once he said, once he's in the white house he will take a more restrained approach to the use of twitter or do you think he's going to continue as

e's doing now? caller: of course he's going to continue as he's doing now. she framed that question where the only popular thing he could say is what he said. you know, he's got to finish his sentence. he's like the guy that says once there was a man from nantucket and he has to finish the sentence, doesn't matter what sentence it is. host: ok. joe calling in from sarasota, florida, on our democratic line. do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: absolutely. i think his wife needs to hide his smart cell phone and needs to put some sleeping pills in his drink so donald trump can be sleeping at 3:00 a.m. host: what about his tweeting? what is it about his tweeting that bothers you, joe? caller: imagine him tweeting with the dictator of north

korea. just imagine. they will be fighting like kids. his is not a joke. i understand if he's a teenager but he's 70 years old. e needs to stop lying. this is not a joke and will be tweeting with other countries like north korea. just imagine what's going to happen. you just mentioned earlier, he can get us into trouble with many things. like you said, what you call it , you just said earlier, and i agree with you. thank you, bye. ost: republicans call 202- 748-8001. democrats caution 202-748-8000

and independents call 202-748-8002 as well as you yourself can tweet through c janwj. let us know your thoughts. dawn is calling from boise, idaho on our republican line. good morning to you, don. caller: hello. i believe donald trump should stop tweeting. for a world leader to be calling elizabeth warren pocahontas at 3:00 in the morning is absolutely ridiculous. i believe he needs a new social dia platform and is anal thing comation -- an almagomation. host: ok. sharon, do you believe the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: no, i think it's fine. but he is our world leader think it's fine for him to tweet.

host: are you concerned about the fact when the president says something and when he speaks it can affect the stock market and it can affect -- it can have a wide ranging affect. you believe there should be monitoring of his tweets or a gateway of what he thinks and it immediately going out to the world? >> no, i don't. is ink that everybody taking it too far. the people have spoken. we voted the man in and, you know, we trust that he's going for us. ng a great job our world has went down and he's going to try to make america great again. i'm sick and tired of the vets g over our

have not been taken care of and people are living on food stamps, our country is not the pick nd it's time that we up and do what we need to do to take care of our children. our kids these days are going to be taking over the world. and they have nothing these days to look forward to, no job, nothing. so we're waiting and wanting make trump to be able to us great again where our kids can be taken care of. that's what i worry about.

host: "the new york times" asks whether donald trump is a cyberbully in chief in a story about his tweets against the carrier union boss in indianapolis. it says 30 years as a union boss in indiana have given chuck jones a thick skin but threats to shoot him or burn his house down did not quite prepare him for becoming the target of a verbal takedown by the next president of the united states. in what one republican strategist described as cyberbullying, president-elect donald jmple trump derided mr. jones on twitter accusing him of doing, quote, a terrible job representing workers and blaming him for the decisions by companies that ship american jobs overseas. in a december 7 tweet, president-elect trump said chuck jones who was president of united steelwork hers 1999 has done a terrible job representing workers, no wonder companies flee the country. jamie is calling in from tampa, florida, on our democratic

line. jamie, you think the president-elect should stop sending tweets like this? caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. i certainly think he should stop sending tweets like that. i don't think the question is so much should the president-elect stop tweeting as much as should he be more temp rent on what he tweets? certainly as you just stated, anything he's going to say, the words of the president are going to hang pretty strong on verybody around the world. so what he says as an individual as robert rice, former secretary of labor pointed out, his words on a certain individual, especially criticisms, that's bordering, you know, society that's not so much democratic as autocratic. so certainly he should have some people around him, certainly helping him try to be a little bit more presidential

with his speech. host: you anticipated my next question in that do you believe the tweets should be monitored or vetted by someone, perhaps the secret service as his campaign manager, kelly ann conway suggested that the secret service may have an eye on what he tweets on the white house. you think there should begate keepers there? caller: certainly. and to briefly address the last lady's phone call, you know, i'm a part of the millenials and i'm a chemical engineer and a part of the energy sector. so i think as we can see, you know, especially with donald trump being false with a lot of his tweets, what he's doing is transitioning into a pro coal, pro drill, pro, you know, fossil fuel industry when we have a major, major energy

sector transitioning to the green economy. this is one example. host: let's take a look at cnbc commentary on donald trump's tweets threatening to cancel the order for -- with boeing for a new air force 1. that statement says who knows exactly how much the trump tweet just saved the american taxpayers but considering that it cost him and us nothing for him to send it, even a few hundred grand looks like a big net windfall. and that's not the only reason why the use of twitter remaineds crucial to trump, every president of the united states has had the option to promote c opinion to his agenda but nothing before trump had the established and instantaneous link with his supporters like he has with twitter and in the past the president a -- best a president could do was go on air and make a speech and is tore churous

because he tweets to his millions of followers and more who instantly hear from his tweets from the news media. the commentary calling trump's tweet to boeing a brilliant move. up next we have fernando calling in from jamaica, new york, on the republican line. good morning, fernando. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am good. do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: no, not one bit. here's what i see, i see a lot of times when reporters -- when he says something or a lot of the times when i turn on the news, let's say i turn on channel 7, channel 5, a lot of the times what he's trying to convey to us somehow is all hanged up.

i think what they should do is that, get a platform where he can speak directly to us because a lot of the times the media -- i guess some people and him, some people don't it's like who do we believe on what he's trying to get out in his message sometimes? host: ok. fernando, do you believe that there should be any gatekeeper there? this is something we've never seen a president do before is use social media, usually they release statements or sometimes they make occasional speeches, is there any concern that the president may reveal too much caller: no, not really. not really. because i think the more that we -- the more that we know as people, the more involved we get, the more the truth comes

out, i think it's best for the country instead of finding, you know, from other people what's really going on. emily: and in some of our other headlines from the wall street currently it says the pentagon to show trump tougher options, says the pentagon is drawing up proposals to offer to the trump administration, designed to intensify the u.s. campaign against the islamic state, including reducing white house oversight of operational decisions and moving some tactical authority back to the pentagon, u.s. military and congressional officials say the options are being assembled in anticipation of demands by donald trump and his team who have called for a tougher military campaign against the extremist group. back to our discussion about the president-elect tweeting, maxine is calling in from new baltimore, michigan, on our independent line. good morning, maxine. caller: good morning, c-span and thank you for taking my call.

i don't for one minute think trump should cease tweeting for a very good reason. we have a media that is so biased, they will say anything and this is his way of getting the truth out. now, he's elected president. that doesn't say that he has to give up his right to speech and that's his free speech and i'm all for it. so get used to it. roosevelt used the radio to communicate to the public trump is just using tweets to get his message out. get used to it. it's a new world out there. and he doesn't give up his right to speak. he may temper it in time to come but right now, he has the right to say what he wants to say and the way he wants to say it. and if america doesn't like it, they can turn it off.

that's all i've got to say. thank you. host: on twitter one of our viewers said trump's habit of attacking private citizens on twitter cheapens the office of the president. we're taking your calls and tweets about president-elect donald trump's tweeting habits. erika is calling in from columbus, ohio, on our democratic line. good morning, eric. caller: good morning. host: do you think the president-elect should put his twitter feed down? caller: absolutely. because he -- well, it's fine to tweet every now and then but he needs somebody to monitor it because he doesn't have the good sense not to go after private citizens who in turn have to experience bullying from people in social media -- on social media.

it cheapens the presidency and people better be careful because they talk about, you know, the media line. this guy, there's so many lies that comes out of his mouth. he's going to use it to anipulate the community. host: let me ask you this, how is the president-elect tweeting any different from, say, an official at a company, companies use twither, journalists use twither and people use twitter to spread information and opinions all the time. how is the president-elect different in your view? caller: first of all, he's using it to spread lies, to take people's attention away rom those lives. twitter in itself is not an effective way of explaining the policies or just to get in you l your position, so,

know, i just think people need to be careful. host: more on the president-elect's tweeting, here from this piece from new york magazine, it says donald trump's harassment of a teenage girl on twitter led to death and rape threats according to new york magazine on october 2015. then 18-year-old lauren asked trump a question at a political forum in new hampshire and maybe i'm wrong. maybe you can prove me wrong but i don't think you're a friend to women, she said. trump defended himself and tchelder took the mike again asking if she'd get equal pay and access to abortion with trump as president. trump answered, you're going to make the same if you do as good a job and i happen to be pro-life, ok? batchelder thought it was the end of it but when she woke up the next day she realized the

president-elect had sent out a series of tweets about her, the arrogant young woman who questioned me in such a nasty fashion at no labels yesterday was a jeb staffer. batchelder is not and has never been a staffer for jeb bush though she did volunteer for his campaign and his followers replied with screen shots of batchelder and posted her phone number and other personal information online. larry is calling from washington, d.c. on our republican line. larry, do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: no, he has freedom of speech and he can say anything as he pleases and he has , isors, counsel, and also he's not responsible for making statements that caused the life of 30 seal members on seal team 6 and so forth. those complaining and making statements, this and that, freedom of speech. he has freedom of speech like everybody else. host: what about incidents like

this when he's tweeting towards individuals like ms. batchelder who spoke out at a rally causing his supporters to attack her? is there a limit to what the president should do on twitter? comb my caller: my motto is response, a rebuttal. freedom of speech and they do it in the house of representatives and the media goes back, you say something to me, i'll reply back to you. there's nothing to cost your life with a weapon, it's just words. but, you know, the people attacking -- the case about this union guy, to have results, it's not perfect but same thing jobs, with the boeing official. that speaks volume right there. so for those crying and saying this is -- worser things have happened, as i stated, you've got 30 dead seals because of

the president and vice president divulging information that cost their life. that's all i have to say. think about that. host: ron is calling in from clear water, florida, on our democratic line. do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: absolutely should stop tweeting. i'm retired military and wounded warrior and the guy from washington, d.c. is absolutely wrong for what he just said. this guy built his whole political career off this dignified great president was not born in america. he lies every two seconds he speaks. he should be absolutely off of twitter and for america to have voted for this arrogant islama phobic, i wouldn't say he's a racist but he just doesn't know how to discern the difference between what he says and what he does. he's a very, very dangerous guy. and i would project he'll get us in a war. and this thing with russia, i truly believe they hacked a system to put this guy in office.

this is absolutely unbelievable. and the lady from louisiana, duck dynasty, all you folks that voted for this guy, he hasn't even done a press conference. he's not within president-elect over 30 days and no press conference. that is absolutely appalling because he's not willing to learn. host: let's take a look at what frank says, a former cnn bureau, washington bureau chief who is now the director of the school of media and public affairs at george washington university said about the chilling effect. he says, quote, anybody who goes on air or does public -- or goes public and calls out the president has to then live in fear that he's going to seek retribution in the public sphere. that could discourage people from speaking out. steve is calling in from pueblo, colorado, on the independent line. do you think the president should stop tweeting?

caller: not at all. it's all a matter of freedom of speech and where you get your honest truth out to the american people because most of the people in the world are using tweets. when you listen to the news media, all you get is one-sided bull. that's the way it is with news media anymore. they need to be fixed. we need our media to be truthful and not only report one side of the story. when you're honest with the american people and directly speak with them, you get your point across. it's not diluted and twisted by the media. host: do you think there's a difference between tweeting out policy ideas or tweeting out personal opinions as opposed to tweeting specifically about individuals in a way that seems retaliatory? caller: well, when you're tweeting against a direct person, if it's in a retaliation to something that was commented against you, i

don't see anything wrong with it. but if it's to directly attack a human being directly, i think that is wrong. but to voice your direct opinion of a situation, that's different. host: ok. anna is calling in from youngstown, arizona, on our democratic line -- or youngtown, arizona, on our democratic line. good morning, anna. caller: good morning. host: do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: yes, i definitely do. not necessarily while he's president-elect, but i don't think he should carry it on after he takes office. and obviously i did not vote for him. i do not agree america elected him, the electoral college elected him.

i don't care for the man. i don't think he has any class. and i'm appalled this man, i'm going to wake up every morning and know that he's president of the united states. that's all i have to say. host: some other headlines this morning. the confirmation hearings for senator jeff sessions nomination to be attorney according been set to politico, jeff sessions will face the judiciary committee in early january for his confirmation hearings and is likely to be one of the early showdowns between the incoming trump mppings and senate democrats over the nominees. the two-day confirmation hearings will be held january 10 and 11. committee chairman chuck grassley of aiowa announced late friday, grassley had said recently he intended to hold confirmation hearings even before donald trump is sworn in

on january 20 in order to get sessions promptly confirmed. now a call from burbank, california, on our republican line. sal, do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? caller: never. the other 1.8 million south and others from california to florida, and to the atlantic, they all have the because this president is doing something for the benefit of the whole america, not for mexico, not for north america because the house american is the real owner of the whole americans from the north to the south. so we are watching mr. trump.

mr. trump, this is for you. you are doing perfect. host: ok. tim is calling in from ohio on our independent line. do you think the president-elect should stop tweeting? aller: oh, no, not at all. i'll tell you why i agree with about every comment your other callers have made. let's say on the positive side of this. but i'm 72 years old and never seen a tweet live in my life to be honor with you but understand what it is. and what i see is the television news is going to go the way of the dinosaur like newspapers have and at this point anymore we kind of figured out that it's biased in many cases, by certain channels and news networks. this is, what would i call it, unfiltered and direct right to

the people. to me that's -- donald trump is an unconventional president and i think that this country needs some unconventional leadership already and this is another aspect of it i believe will serve him well. thank you. host: and with a little update about an ongoing senate race in louisiana, we are joined now by phone by elizabeth crist. she's a capital reporter for the baton rouge advocate. good morning and thanks for joining us. elizabeth: good morning. thanks for having me. host: explain the electoral system louisiana has and how that led up to today's runoff vote. elizabeth: right. so louisiana has kind of a unique system on november 8, we had what you call a jumbo primary in the senate race and there were 24 candidates on the ballot, regardless of party, all went head to head.

and since nobody got more than 50% of the vote on that day, now today we have a runoff between the top two vote getters and john kennedy is our current state treasurer, and democrat foster campbell who is on our public service commission. host: and tell us how that race is playing out both in louisiana as well as nationally right now when it comes to how much control republicans have in the senate? host: right. so it's interesting, president-elect trump was here yesterday to rally for the republicans on kennedy and you know, he said that he wants that extra in the senate though republicans already have the majority, he was here to kind f get out the vote rally for the republicans. on the democratic side you have a lot of people viewing this as chance to kind of spend a

referendum on trump and kind of -- there's been a bit of a groundswell nationally, foster campbell had a huge fundraising haul in the months since the primary. he actually outraised the republicans, which was the first time he'd done that. here within the states, louisiana is obviously a very conservative state and all the polls have shown. the republican, kennedy, with a very comfortable lead in the polls. so it's -- what we've been seeing as far as commercials and kind of campaign speak has been really an interesting dynamic. a lot of the candidates trying to say who is more conservative almost. we have -- there was a political action committee, supporters of the democrats, foster campbell, that kind of

went after the republicans saying he previously supported abortion and, you know, kind of questioning it, which is unusual. host: right. so what is the turnout expected to be like today? elizabeth: good. so we had an early voting period a week ago and turnout was very good. and they're projecting 30% to 35% is what it's tracking. low e know historically, voter turnout tends to give the advantage to the republicans but the electorate, that early voted anyway, meant to be proportionately heavier republican, older chronic voters, people who go to the polls any time there's an election.

host: ok, elizabeth crisp, capitol reporter "the advocate" in baton rouge. thanks for joining us. elizabeth: thanks for having me. host: coming up next, the gallup organization senior economist jonathan roth well will be here to discuss a new report that concludes despite a low unemployment rate and record setting stock, there's been a decline in u.s. productivity growth because of increased regulatory burdens and the poor performance of health care, education and housing sectors. and later on, robert levenson, senior defense analyst for bloomberg government will be here to discuss what defense and national security policy could look like under the trump administration and the president elect trump's selection of retired general james mat us -- james mattis as defense secretary. but first this week the newsmakers interviewed the house democrat on the budget committee, the man from kentucky, and talks about

president-elect's nomination of budget committee chair tom price to be secretary of health nd human services. [video] >> president-elect trump announced he'll nominate tom price as chairman of the committee as health and human services secretary. you have probably worked with price more than most democrats on the budget committee. do you think he's a good choice or a bad choice for secretary nd if so, why? >> well, i think i can come up with a better nominee given some time. tom's a very, very nice man, a gentleman, he's thoughtful, but he has a perspective on the health care system that i think is just not in tune with modern health care delivery system and reimbursement system. he is a physician and my experience with physicians and

health care is they're really great at providing the care. but in terms of having an overall perspective on the entire health care system which again is 18% of the entire economy, their perspective is so myopic that they really have a hard time dealing with the big picture and the macropicture and what he'd have to do as secretary. so again, i think his perspective as physician is useful and important but you have to have a much broader perspective to come up with the kind of health care system that will satisfy the most people and provide the most access and quality care at the lowest cost. and so again, i think we could come up with somebody better. that being said, i have no questions about tom's integrity, his character, and again, his thoughtfulness. again, i just think his perspective is a little bit limbed. >> is it fair to say you would oppose his nomination or are

you not going that far? mr. yarmouth: i don't get a vote on it, so it really doesn't matter what i say. i think if i were in the senate and did have a vote on it, unless i was convinced through the confirmation hearings he had the kind of broader perspective i think is necessary, i probably would oppose him. [end of video] >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is jonathan rothwell, a senior economist for gallup and here to talk about a recent report by gallup and the u.s. council on competitiveness which argues that despite low unemployment rates, record-setting stock, there's still a decline in long-term productivity. jonathan, thank you so much for joining us this morning. guest: thank you. it's a pleasure to be here. host: tell us a little bit about what -- before we get to the findings of the report, what do you mean when you say "u.s. productivity." guest: there's a variety of

ways to measure it. the way i focus on in the report is gpped -- g.d.p. per capita, income divided by population. think of it as the average income of americans. and i like that as a measure of productivity because whether someone's in the labor force or not, they're a child or they're retired, they still need income to support their living standard, and so that is captured in g.d.p. per capita. other measures of productivity look at something like g.d.p. but divide it or adjust it for the number of workers in the labor market as well as the more sophisticated measures of productivity, capital investles and capital spending as a way o try to back out the inputs into economic production and determine the parts of it that are driven by advances in new

technology or other hard to measure factors that may drive economic growth. host: ok. and you in a very handy chart here in the report, it shows that growth is languishing as you describe it, it is called a growth slowdown. the percentage of annual growth rate in real g.d.p. per capita over a 10-year period it has gone down between 1966 to the current amount. why is this growth languishing? guest: there are many reasons, the one i emphasize in this report is that the nation is spending a disproportionate amount of national resources on three large sectors that are becoming more and more scombensive without giving americans greater value in exchange for those rising

expenses, so that would be health care, housing and education that i single out as absorbing 36% of national spending in 2015, that's up from 25% in 1980. so another way to think about this is that 36 cents out of every dollar that's spent by businesses, households, and the government goes to either health care, housing, or education. obviously when so many resources are going to these sectors, that takes away from spending and other parts of the economy, and i argue in the report that these three sectors become less efficient over the last 30, 40 years and that's a big reason why growth has slowed down. host: ok. we'll get into those sectors specifically but i want to let our viewers know we have special lines for this discussion about economic growth and the fall in productivity. those between the ages of 35-49 can call 202-748-8001.

those between the ages who are and over can call 202-748-8002 and those who are as can call 202-748-8000 we discuss productivity with senior gallup senior economist jonathan rothwell. looking at the three sectors, housing, health and education, according to the report in 1980, folks spent about 10% of their income on housing. that went up to 11% in 2005, health care went from 9% to 18%, doubling the amount. and education, it went from 6% to 7%. it seems that these changes were much more modest in terms of housing and education compared to health care. is that a correct reading of that? guest: yes, that is the case. the rise in health care

spending has been quite extraordinary. now, the one that -- the caveat is that some of the increase in health care spending is for reasons that one would consider natural and positive reasons. the aging population, for example, naturally consumes more health care resources as people get older. and so that's part of why spending has gone up so much. it's also important to look at price changes in all three of these sectors, and there the trend is also not good in that health care costs are almost five times more on a per unit basis, a visit to the doctor's office, an overnight stay in a hospital, a pharmaceutical. taken together, those things cost about five times more in 2015 than they did in 1980. and for education, the inflation measure is even more dramatic. it's between 8% and 9% for

housing. it's 3.5%. so in all those cases, it hould be said that those price increases exceed overall inflation for all goods and services by a large amount, which overall inflation would be 2.5%. put that in perspective. it's not only we're devoting more resources to these sectors, one can't say it's just based on increasing demand, there are price increases on a per unit basis also increasing. host: so we've heard a lot about how jobs numbers are improving and how we're coming out of the great recession. but in "fortune" magazine, chris matthews writes maybe what you find in your report is a sign that the obama economy isn't as strong as being reported. he writes here, that's the conclusion from a new report issued tuesday jointly by

gallup and the u.s. council of competitiveness that argues despite a low employment rate and a record-setting stock market, quote, there's a pervasive sense that the economy is not working as documented in gallup's survey data and many anecdotal media accounts. what does this mean? is the economy doing as well as we've heard? are there parts of the economy doing better than others? or is this overall bad news? guest: certainly there are parts of the economy doing well. one of the things i said in the report is that the advanced sectors of the economy, high-tech manufacturing, computer systems, design services, software services, these are part of the u.s. economy that have been extremely competitive a long time and continue to produce high paying jobs and valuable goods and services that are actually getting cheaper over time in contrast to the services i mentioned earlier. the problem is not with

america's high-tech sector, but there are huge problems with big parts of the u.s. economy and even looking at summary data for all americans, the emphasis tends to be on things like the unemployment rate which has fallen from around 10% now under 5% if you go from the worst parts of the great recession to where we are today, and job growth is over the same time has been, you know, fairly steady if unspectacular. but yet if you look under the hood a little bit, you see that some of the job growth has been for part-time jobs and now a higher percentage of americans are in positions that are part-time that they'd rather be working full time. you see labor force participation rates declining. that isn't picked up in the unemployment rate because the unemployment rate only looks at people who are looking for work rather than people who have

stopped looking for work and no longer consumer the part of the labor market. so the percentage of people who has dropped out has increased as argued in the report, a big factor there is they're either those are some of the underlying trends to suggest that the recovery has not been as robust as many might think. it is not difficult to find stories in the media or interviews with people -- especially voters in the previous election where people would say that from their perspective things are not going well. we picked that up in our survey data, as well. our: craig is calling from 50 and over line. citing is is really the republican point of view. especially when he talks about .abor force participation

boomers graduating every day, so naturally labor force participation is going to go down. bes he expect them to looking for jobs when they are 70 years old or 75 years old? naturaling to be a force of the aging population. you are not going to increase productivity by putting 75 euros and 80-year-olds -- 75-year-olds and 80-year-olds back to work. why is gallup so involved in this anyway? host: let's let jonathan respond. guest: that is an excellent point about labor force participation. i exquisitely didn't account for that in the report. the figures we show on the labor

force participation only look at the working age population. so that would be people aged 16 to 64 years old. see labor force participation is down even in macro. we can also distinguish -- even in that group. you can also distinguish between people that are out of the labor market for retirement or other reasons whether it be for family or school or a reason that has become more and more prominent -- health problems. , in thesee in the data current population survey data from the u.s. census and bureau of labor statistics, percentage of people out of the labor market for health reasons under overars old has increased the last several decades. for people that are just 40 years old to 50 years old, it

has doubled. that is for people that are out of the labor market for health reasons. that is not good for productivity. these are people that would be expected to work under other circumstances. there are more people out of the labor market for health reasons then reasons such as taking care of family members. that happened for the first time in 2015. host: let's take a look at what president obama said in a press conference right after the election about his legacy when it comes to the economy. president obama: we were in the midst of a freefall. the auto industry was about to go elio. the housing market -- to go belly up. the housing market had entirely collapsed. had washe advantages i that i was too busy to worry

about how acclimated i was feeling in the job. we had to make a bunch of decisions. in this situation, we are turning over a country that has challenges and problems. obviously, there are people out there that are feeling deeply disaffected. otherwise, we would not have had the results we had in the election. on the other hand, if you look indicators of where the country is right now, the unemployment rate is as low as it has been in eight or nine years. income and wages have gone up over the past year faster than i in a decade orve two. we have historically low uninsured rates. the financial systems are stable. the stock market is hovering

around its all-time high. 401(k)s have been restored. the housing market has recovered. is it a matter of us being in a recovery that is just not recovering fast enough for a lot of consumers? guest: yes, i think that is a helpful way of looking at this. when covering raw economic news, we either say that we are in recovery where growth is above zero or we are in recession where growth rates are below zero. one of the points we make in this report is that there is a lot more new ones to the economy then whether we are shrinking, contracting, or growing. a fairly be growing at meager rate, or we could be growing at eight healthy, normal rate which would be something more like 2.4% of gdp per capita each year. for the last 30 years, it has

been 1.7% for the last seven years or so it has been closer to 1%. to criticizenot the obama administration and say that the last eight years have been a disaster for economic growth. this is a trend that goes back three or four decades. it has been a gradual process that has weakened the u.s. over time. but we are calling for here is a thattrategy that looks what we are calling for here is a new strategy that looks at these long-term growth climbed and devise a way to get america back on track again. host: we are talking with jonathan rothwell, a senior economist for gallup. calling from florida on the 50 and over line. good morning, james. caller: good morning. good morning.

it does not get worse than with trump. he is going to screw us all. trump is going to do everything as backwards. people that put it for him are going to wish they never had voted. let's talk a little bit about the policies are posed by donald trump. what affect do you think his policies will have on u.s. productivity? guest: it is difficult to analyze, because there have not been a great number of detailed proposals coming out of his campaign. the things that he did emphasize while campaigning amount to something like increasing tariffs, backing out of trade agreements, building a wall, and presumably lowering the influx

of immigrants. those proposals, taken broadly, reducing trade and immigration -- in standard economic models of growth that would result in growthur best -- weaker and higher prices for americans. those proposals, regardless of their affect on the prices of goods or labor, do not address the challenges we are emphasizing in this report which would be long-term inefficiencies in health care, housing, and education. it is unclear to me what the trump plan will be on the sectors. host: next caller from new york on the 35 years old to 45 years old line. you are on with jonathan rothwell. caller: hello, jonathan.

good morning. education,terms of health care, housing, we should look at ourselves as individuals first. then, we should look at ourselves as a whole. ondo not educate ourselves math and science and economics, so we do not have a full view or spectrum on individual level to bring back the contributions to the world that can help us as a whole. world, at issues in the and we do not bring the things we need as human beings to help us in the to help earth floors. -- and the earth flourish. i think it is important for us to look at ourselves first. we need to do what we need to do , we need to educate ourselves.

sure that it is a part of our lives. to be productive citizens such as housing, food, shelter, education. those are the things we should think about on individual terms of that i would bring those to our own communities first? host: is there something that people have a role in these productivity levels. yes, i think one of the points that these services are essential to having a thriving economy and being a full citizen and contributing to your family and community. if you were to prioritize the things that americans need to buy, housing, health care, education would be there at the top. that is why it is particularly

alarming to me that the cost of these services has increased americans are not dramatically more healthy. in fact, in some ways, working age americans are less healthy than they were 30 years ago. in terms of education, there has been considerable stagnation in literacy and numeracy. we have not increased in the things in a way that europe and asia has made advances over the last generation or two. we are basically stuck at literacy rates that we had in the 1970's. for housing, we are living in slightly smaller homes with longer commute times. there has been very little progress in the quality of housing.

individualsy, it is that choose to educate themselves in the best possible also have to think about public policies that we can bring to bear to make sure that our children are getting a high-quality education. host: let's take a look a little more at the issue of housing. , itrding to this report says that what is happening with the housing that is affecting with productivity -- the report argues that americans are paying more for less. they are spending an average of compared tong costs -- 28% on housing costs compared to 19% use ago. 19%size of the units -- years ago. the size of the units are smaller. a macro view on micro housing found that many people choose because overall

the rent is less. what is your thoughts? there -- ifey part there is a market demand for smaller housing units, it is as a result of the high cost for housing in a way to save money. i do not think there would be many people that would live -- pay more to live in a smaller home. general, when economists look quality of housing and change over time, size is one of the factors they look at as a positive attribute. there are other things you could look at such as how far your home is from your job. the number of bedrooms. those things have not changed. there have been some improvements in the percentage of homes that provide adequate

funding and basic functions. overall, there has been little improvement in housing quality over the last 30 or 40 years despite the fact that families are spending a much larger share of their income on rent or mortgage. host: our next caller from philadelphia on the 18 to 35 line. caller: good morning. i have a few questions about education and health care. i was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what has increased in education spending? is college included? with health care, how much of it goes to pharmaceuticals and an increase in drug costs? guest: on education, the price

index to refer to earlier shows that education has increased by roughly 9% from 1980 22015. 1980 to 2015. it includes tuition costs, and it also includes all private, elementary, and secondary schools. there is a secondary price calculation for public schools. in both higher education and elementary and secondary education, many of the costs have not gone to teachers. it has gone to the administration of the institutions. in the case of higher education, it has been a dramatic shift in the percentage of workers and number of workers per student.

that's number of workers per student that would include the higher managerial positions. would include the presidents of universities, coaches, i.t. staff, health-care workers at universities. they have taken up a much larger share of resources in recent years than in decades past. that is one of the reasons why the cost of higher education has increased. elementary and secondary education, you see a trend where district bureaucracies have increased in the number of employees per student they are serving. i think much of this is related to compliance issues. there is also been an explosion in the number of tests that students are taking -- not just been federally mandated tests.

one of the problems is that state, local, and federal government all caps different testing requirements -- all have different testing requirements that can be in an honest urban on teachers and students. if you are spending a great -- in an enormous burden on teachers and students. if you are spending a great amount of time on preparing for a test, then you are spending less time for other education. costs and pharmaceutical products is pretty much in line with the price index for physician services and hospital visits and other services. certainly, policies that would reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals would play a positive role in making the

sector more efficient overall. host: the decrease in productivity does not mean that americans are not working harder? is that correct? according to a report from bloomberg, it has to do with the way that companies use labor. layofftimes, companies workers to keep productive -- to keep productivity relatively steady. when they hire back more people, they keep the productivity levels steady which leads to lower productivity overall. is that with this is measuring? guest: i think that article is as a response that there could negativeegative -- growth in one sector recently. period i am looking

at is across many business cycles and not looking at temporary changes in laying off workers for a month or so before bringing them back on. it is not about how hard people are working. much of the reason i am saying that productivity is down has nothing to do with effort of u.s. workers. it has a great deal to do with sectors --s of these housing, health care, and education. our: perry is calling from 50 and older line. reason it has been a , whenconomy is because the president was first elected,

the first thing that mitch mcconnell talked about was making sure that he is a one term president. they did not pass one jobs bill. the president tried for years to get job bills, infrastructure out. however, they did nothing. now, they are going to go back to trickle down economics. you can see by the people they brought in it is going to be trickle down economics. planet they had been running for 20 years, and it does not work. responsible? is it public officials, the heads of businesses, who is to blame for this? guest: one thing i would want to emphasize is that it is not just federal policy. i do agree with the color opinion that the conventional playbook on economic policy has

not been working. however, one of the things i've been finding is that state and local regulations are playing a big role. in housing, one of the reasons the cost has gone up is that the market is fundamentally broken by zoning laws that essentially forbid housing from being built where it is most needed. that is in example -- the ismple i cite in the report in silicon valley, california. only 3.5% of land is available for multifamily housing. that is a local government decision. in that case, and many cases around the country where the laws are widespread, it is homeowner associations that have lobbied the local government to block housing developments or enforce laws that ultimately protect their investments in their homes.

in the case of health care, there are also state laws that are responsible for some of these inefficiencies. something like monopoly status in 35% of market. the big reason for that is that many states have laws that essentially block competition for hospitals by allowing boards that are controlled by hospitals to decide if a new hospital is built or not. hasfederal trade commission weighed in against these kind of lost. they have argued that essentially they divert money away from consumers to hospitals and result in excess profits. it is not just federal policymakers who have made the wrong decision and not raising

taxes or lowering taxes for investing in infrastructure, there is a gradual but stimulation of rules and regulations -- some of which are driven by special interest groups -- where they are capturing gains that are small slices of the national economy. necessarilyre not paying attention or caring about one policy or another. the thing is, they are very valuable to some of these interest groups, and so they have a strong incentive to lobby and promote them. the result is that we get a lot of inefficient policies and legislation that need to be cleared him time to time. host: patrician is on from our 50 and older line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i agree with the last caller from fort lauderdale. questions. did you see another recession

and how soon? the first caller you had when he said that people in their 70's are not looking for a but,- i should hope not you have a whole generation of people that through no fault of their own, other than being older per se and having had careers, were knocked out of the economy. the question is what happened to them? nobody addresses that issue? -- nobody addresses that issue and whether or not people need or do not need to work in this economy today. point, it ist last an individual decision whether someone needs to work or not. certainly, in these kind of cost issues, many americans feel they need to work in that they do not have enough saved to live comfortably in retirement. fortunately, medicare covers

much of the cost increases for health care. although, the cost increases for housing are borne by individual households. we are probably going to see a case where many people who thought they could retire and live comfortably are going to have to go back into the labor market for they have been going back into the labor market. occasionally, they go through part-time gigs such as driving for uber or lyft. in any case, they find they need some extra spending money. as soon whether there will be a recession or not, i do not have any insight into that. i do not have any reason to think there is a recession around the corner. host: antonio is calling in from waco, texas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.

looking at the education standing from 1990 22015 only --ng up 1%, does that had it does that have a direct impact on u.s. to receive rates -- literacy rates ? directly test is that directly a result of why we are not thriving as a nation because we do not spend enough on education? guest: that is a great question. one of the reasons we are not thriving as a nation is because of poor education outcomes. the question is why are our outcomes so poor compared to other countries. as a country, we do spend generally more on education than other countries.

i think it is important to keep in mind where that spending goes. as i pointed out, a lot of it tasks, administrative oversight, regulatory issues that are not directly involved in teaching. you, icher will tell confirm it in my analysis, teacher pay is very low. particularly a problem at women'su look careers over the last few years. 1970's, womenand had very few professional options. teachingn went into who were top students at their colleges.. is that careers ton for professional women

the engineers or scientists or anything they wanted to great extent. the pay for teachers did not keep up with the pay alternative options that women had in other careers. so, teaching has become a relatively low paying occupation. with the fact that teachers are very restricted in --t they are allowed to do they essentially have to follow a curriculum that is greeted by the state government that created -- created by the state government. they have to spend a great deal of time administering tests. this makes the profession very unappealing to many and makes it harder to retain top students. if you compare the united states to finland or south korea who do fantastically well on international exams, they keep -- they treat their teachers barely -- very badly. they are treated as top

professionals. they are given the economy to really -- autonomy to really practice their profession in a way that is appealing to them. i think that is a big factor. host: jonathan rothwell, senior economist for gallup, here to talk about the recent productivity report. thank you for joining us today. guest: thank you. it has been a pleasure. we have ang up, senior defense analyst for bloomberg government here to discuss what defense and national security policy would look like under the trunk administration and -- the trunk that on kevin mccormally is here to offer your year-end advice and answer your federal tax questions. we will be right back. ♪

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arguments heard by the court this term. you can see all of the oral arguments covered by c-span. you can find recent appearances by many of the supreme court justices or watch the justices in their own words, including one-on-one interviews in the past few months with justice kagan, thomas, and ginsburg. there is a calendar for this term. you can quickly see all of their appearances on c-span as well as many other videos on demand. court one supreme c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. joining us now is robert levinson, senior defense analyst for bloomberg government. he is here to discuss what defense and national security will look like in the trump administration as well as the president-elect's selection of james mattis as defense secretary.

guest: great to be here. host: talk about general mattis as defense secretary. do you expect any confirmation problems? guest: i really don't. he is well respected across the defense and foreign policy community. he is one of the most influential officers in the u.s. military. he has between 7000 and 10,000 books. he goes on trips with marcus really is in his pocket. aurelius in his pocket. i think people are comfortable with him. he retired as chief of the u.s. central command in 2013. he has often said that washington lacks an overall strategy in the middle east, opting instead to handle issues in an ineffective manner. he says "is political islam and the best interests of the united

states?" he was talking about the separate challenges of the islamic state and iranian backed terrorism. "i suggest the answer is no, but we need to have the discussion. if we don't ask the question, how do we recognize which is outside in the fight?" can you talk a little bit about the policy you expect him to bring to the pentagon. guest: i think he has point. the middle east right now is incredibly complex. with a iranians and russians, all the different factions, some are radicals in some are more moderate, there are complex things going on in the middle east. i think his desire will be to say let's take a step back and figure out our long-term goal. what are we really trying to achieve? how do we get from where we are now to their? it is not just a question of

military action, but diplomatic, economic, informational activities. i think he will be really trying to push his leadership at the hartman -- department of defense as well as the intelligence community and other places to develop a long-term strategy. that is what military guys are taught to do. i think that is what he is going to be looking for. host: we're talking to robert levinson of bloomberg government. republicans can call (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. we also have a special line for active and retired military, you can call (202) 748-8003. we continue our discussion about the trump administration's policy on defense and national security. a little bit more about general mattis.

he served more than four decades in the marine corps and is known as one of the most influential military leaders of his generation. a strategic thinker who occasionally drew rebukes for his aggressive talks. a visiting fellow for the hoover institution at stanford interesting. he has drawn bipartisan praise from republicans and democrats like massachusetts congressman said bolton. do you think is policies will be embraced by most lawmakers? is there still room for disagreement? guest: there is definitely room for disagreement. he will be working for the residents of the united states. they will be mr. trumps policies. i think he will be given the benefit of the doubt. when he discusses what he is trying to do with members of congress, it will be a lot of difference to him. -- deference to him. these things are complicated.

there will be those who disagree with them. host: president-elect trump has selected three retired general so far. is that an area of concern? are there too many generals in areas where traditionally civilians have taken a leadership role. guest: it is worth discussing. general mattis, the law will have to be changed to allow general mattis to become secretary of defense. there is a law in place that says an officer has to be retired at least seven years. we only made one exception, that was general marshall, the hero of world war ii. that was back in 1950. congress has to pass a special law to make an exception. i think congress will make an exception, but when you see three generals, general kelly at homeland security, general plan as national security advisor, there is some concern. i don't think anyone is concerned about the generals

taking over control of the government. we have a long tradition of civilians and control of the government and military. is this really what we want to do? are there other experienced people out there that perhaps the president-elect should be looking to? i think it is a worthy discussion to have. host: will is calling in from oregon. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to know why the united states has to cheat in order to get the defense secretary? why do we have to make a lot and as soon as -- law and as soon as someone comes up who is different, we're going to cheat? isn't it about having a civilian defense secretary? why do we have to cheat to do this? guest: i think this is a good question. we have a law in place.

that was put in place to ensure civilian control of the military. i don't know if i would describe it as cheating, but it does force congress -- and you have to have 60 senators the way they put the threshold to change this law. you have to 60 senators vote to do this. it raises the bar pretty high. is a worthy thing to talk about and think about. congress will discuss this. it is going to be debated in congress. it is possible for whatever reason that congress could reject general mattis or reject changing the law. i think the bar has been set pretty high. i will not describe it as cheating. it does force debate in the congress. host: a little more about general flynn the was selected by president-elect trump as national security advisor.

the report from cnn, "progressive organizations find a letter with -- signed a letter with another nonprofit group asking that present electronic ump-- president-elect trump d flynn. well respecting the time he has served our country, he is unfit for serving in this critical post. his appointment will damage america's standing in the world and impose a threat to our national security." talk a little bit about the concerns that have been raised and whether that will be an impediment. guest: general flynn is a little more controversial than general mattis or general kelly will be nominated as homeland security secretary. he has made some statements over the years. some while in uniform, and more

while he has and retired. controversial statements. there is concern that he gave some credence to some conspiracy theories that were later debunked. the national security advisor is not a senate confirmed position. the president-elect can select whoever he wants. there is little that can be done to remove that unless the president-elect lost faith in him for some reason. the role of the national security advisor is really more ambiguous. he does not have a department to run. a lot depends on his relationship with the president and what that president defines as his role. some national security advisers like henry kissinger, he was a powerful person in that position. it depends. he will be contending with other personalities like general mattis and general kelly. there is some background that people are concerned with.

host: retired colonel alert is calling in from virginia -- butler is calling in from virginia. i am a retired surgeon from the army and navy. i am impressed that we have had unpredictableat world wars and the last century or so. inhad one billion people 1900, 2 .5 billion in 1950, and 7 billion today. 3 billion are estimated as living on less than two dollars a day. this so-called population pressure appears to be continuing and perhaps worsening. is it not strategic issue for our country and for everyone on our plan? if so, what might we do about it? host: -- guest: thank you for your service.

i think the kernel has an excellent point. -- colonel has point. the more people you get on the planet competing for resources, that is obviously a problem. leaving the middle east or africa, even our own concerns about illegal immigration, people leaving places where they don't have opportunities. these are areas of concern. what can we do about it? these are not problems solved by military force. if you want to stop the conflict before it happens, you have to work on issues of development. lynnink even general f talked about more development work in africa. the marshall plan in world war recover. europe

even the role of women in countries becomes important. as women have more opportunities and more education, their birth rate goes down, the population gets under control. the economy grows. things stabilize. a lot of things can be done that are not military things that can create environments that are less susceptible to conflicts. host: we are continuing our discussion about the president-elect trump's national security policy. republicans can call (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. .ndependents (202) 748-8002 and we have a special line for active and retired military, (202) 748-8003. abouttalk a moment reports that donald trump is not accepting all of the national security briefings that are available to him according to

cnn. donald trump is getting the daily briefings on average of only once a week according to a u.s. official with knowledge. president barack obama and other key national security policy makers received a briefing six days a week according to the cia. donald trump has attracted some criticism for not regularly dissipating in national security fastings as regularly as leaders -- past leaders preparing to occupy the white house. it is reported that must president-elect mike pence is attending all of these meetings. is this an area to be concerned about? i think it is an area probably to be a little concerned about. right now the president-elect has quite a job. he has to vet all of these people, decide who he is going to appoint. some of it may just be that his

schedule is such that it gets a little tougher to do all these things. i think we want to make sure that the president-elect is very well in armed about -- informed about what is going on in the world. the intelligence community needs to have that access to him. some may also be a question of style. from presidents have delegated more or less on issues. he does not have a lot of background on national security and foreign affairs. mike pence, the vice president-elect as a little more background from his time in congress. he may be delegating more than other presidents have. i think it is probably an area of concern. he is the president-elect right now. once he becomes the president of the united states, i would be more concerned at that point. host: ralph is calling from indianapolis on our democratic line. caller: good morning.

i want to say the big threat to national security is donald trump himself. i cannot see why the electoral college is not doing its job and rejecting him. we have heard from one electoral college person from texas who said he will not vote for him. i think the rest of the electoral college should be vocal and deal with this right to national security, which is donald trump himself. the: why do you think that president-elect is a threat? now, he isl -- right not attending national security briefings. right there. this is at all. -- that says it all. he just makes assumptions. they can be so dangerous. isst: i think the caller

reflecting concerns about president-elect trump. he does not have experience in the national security rome. a lot of voters had concern about that on my secretary clinton who had deep background from her time in the senate and as secretary of state. there is a lot more concerned about where president-elect trump will come down on security issues. things like appointing general mattis has given people more confidence because general mattis is so well respected, and they appreciate that the president-elect has selected someone so respected. i think the caller is reflecting a concern that a lot of americans had in the last election. the washington post reports today that the cia has determined russia tried to favor trump in its interference with the u.s. election. the president-elect has still

expressed skepticism about russia's involvement. is that an area of concern? guest: there is certainly some concern here. interferingnation in our elections for any purpose is something we need to be seriously concerned about. we need to examine the evidence, the europe what happened, and decide what we are going to do to prevent this from happening in the future. doing retaliate, do we take diplomatic action? me other thing that concerns a little bit is if president-elect trump does not have confidence in his intelligence community. these are professionals who have been working there a lives -- whole so i would hope they can build a relationship with the president-elect so they can trust his conclusions.

this will make his decisions on national security much more difficult. host: john from new jersey on-air independent line. you're on. caller: thank you so much. i feel having generals is not a problem because they are so ware of the consequences of that they are sometimes the last people that want to get us into war. i don't think it is a problem not attending the daily briefings. i think taking a healthy step back from the pentagon is a good idea because we do not need any more financial incentives on behalf of defense contractors to get us into any kind of wars. i do not think the president -- the president-elect at this point needs to be listening to intelligence briefings every day. thank you so much. guest: i think the caller makes an excellent point about the

retired generals. there is sometimes a perception that generals are more hawkish and want to get us into a fight or more willing to use military force. i think history demonstrates the opposite case. as the caller mentioned, generals have experienced war. son in kelly lost a afghanistan who was a marine. and have been in combat know the limits of what you can and cannot accomplish with military force. i think general dempsey, the recently retired chairman of the was very reluctant to get us more involved in syria, libya, so the idea that generals are somehow these gung ho guys looking to get us into a fight somewhere is not the reality. they are oftentimes the most sober, calm voices in the room,

considering really wanting to decide very carefully before they sent our men and women into harm's way. host: we are talking with robert levinson, senior defense analyst at bloomberg government on the president-elect's national security and defense plans. speaking of selecting generals, david graham of the atlantic offered his own potential reason why donald trump is relying so heavily on generals. he said, "setting aside the appointments, what might account for the disproportionate reliance on brass is a seemsanalytic reason, he somewhat starstruck by generals. he attended military school and vietnam from service in , he seems enthralled by dramatic speakers like patton

and macarthur either in real life or through on-screen depictions." is there a glamorization of generals on the part of the president-elect? to get toon't want much into psychoanalyzing the president-elect or getting into his head. the military in constant surveys is probably the most respected institution in the united states. they do these surveys on the public. even when you compare these two the clergy or the media, the american public has a great deal of respect for the military. we have been at war for 15 years. maybe the president-elect is just reflecting that. he recognizes that he does not share their experience. it is quite possible. and generalsle like these are extremely well respected. they are often seen as nonpartisan. they go in front of congress and

their words are taken seriously. these men and women in many cases have worn the brunt of what our country has gone through in the last 15 years. from irvin is calling in maryland on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. that injust like to say order to reach one of those stars in the military, one has to know the ins and outs of the military and what the military needs and a clear vision for the military. in order to keep that start and gain more, you have to know the atmosphere around the military and people outside the military. if you understand people outside the military, you know the people can affect policy and policy can affect the military. it does not seem like a bad thing to hold a civilian position.

i think this will depend upon whether or not the president-elect and where the commander-in-chief had as well as the head of state hat. if he wears that head of state hat as well as he wears the commander-in-chief hat he will be able to check the generals when they are wrong, support them when they are right, and replace them when that needs to be done. thank you. guest: i think the caller has an excellent point. the president is still the president and commander-in-chief. ultimately, as harry truman had on his desk when he was president, the buck stops here. president lincoln our greatest president was often in disagreement with his generals. statement, famous

i'm not sure if it is apocryphal or not, he was concerned general mcclellan was not putting enough, and he said "if he is not using the army, may i borrow it please?" has concerns that extend beyond national security. he is concerned with the economy of the country. the president has to take all those things into account before he makes a decision. hopefully he gets input and makes the right decision for the country. how donaldce on trump's policies may differ from barack obama's. pointing out the speech that barack obama made at mcdill air force base in tampa where the president said, "we will build up our military not as an act of aggression but as an active prevention."act of

donald trump said that the days of intervention and chaos were at an end. was donald trump saying building up the military as an act of intervention. andating terrorism destroying isis. donald trump assured the cheering crowd that he would expand the military and boost funding by calling on congress to roll back existing budget caps on defense spending. how might we see the differences between a trump administration when it comes to national security and the obama administration? it is interesting. former governor of new york the formerd -- governor of new york said that you campaign in poetry and you govern in prose.

governor bush became president bush talked about not doing nationbuilding, and a much more humble america. jon stewart made fun of him one that as he showed clips had a debate between governor bush and president bush on their very different perspectives. president obama talked about ending the wars and bringing troops home. he has sent combat troops into seven countries. i don't think he expected that. his national policy on drug strikes have looked a lot like president bush's. president trump has talked about doing a lot of different things. you will probably see more increased defense budgets. the budgets have come down gradually under president obama. i think this will be the first sign we will see probably as soon as mr. trump gets into office as supplemental request for additional funding the military.

fiscalto deliver the 2018 budget. i think he is going to take a sober look and realize that some things you thought he might have easily been able to change may not be so wise as president obama found the same thing when he took over from president bush. line.our republican caller: good morning. host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i believe that donald is a businessman, a successful businessman. he is not going to do anything to interrupt his business plans like set off an atomic bomb somewhere and kill off all of his customers. i am not worried about that. universe -- do you

have a response? guest: the caller has a point. he has a business background with no government experience. one thing that is true is that war is disruptive and conflict is disruptive to commerce. defense contractors can do very well. but conflict is extremely disruptive. i don't know if mr. trump will be any more inches to get us into conflict than any other president. it doesn't disrupt commerce when it happens in various parts of disruptd -- it does commerce when it happens in various parts of the world. host: election related hacking as we discussed earlier. this report by wired that in the waning days of the obama presidency, his team has a new plan to shore up america's protections from digital threats. -- whether any of it

happens is up to mr. trump. the results of a nine-month study on america's cyber security problems, but those recommendations are going to be -- passed on. what might be transition look like? will be trump administration the baton on cyber security? guest: i think they will in the sense that president-elect trump is made statement about being concerned about cyber security. this has been an ongoing emerging problem for the past decade. as more of our lives and infrastructure becomes dependent on networks, we become much more vulnerable to attacks. one of the biggest attack -- challenges the government faces, the networks that are critical to us are in government hands.

homeland security can protect those networks. much of what we depend upon is in the hands of the private sector. it is tough to implement programs and policies to protect much of that. it has been a constant struggle in the congress and executive branch because business does not like to be regulated. on the other hand, we are dependent on these businesses for example the banking system. we are dependent on that to go about our daily lives and to run the economy. has some interest in the cyber security of the banking system. what rules it can impose on that system is a real russian. congress has -- is a real question. congress has struggled with this. trying to find a happy medium where we can regulate businesses to protect it and do it we need but not inhibit it and stifle

innovation and allow businesses to operate to improve the economy. host: we dealt with the president-elect's tweeting habits. he would be the first resident to use twitter, does that raise any national security concerns? guest: i don't know if it raises national security concerns. it is certainly different. this will be a different kind of president. some of that is the technology. there were some presidents for the first to talk on television or radio or fly in an airplane. now we have this new technology. donald trump is using it in a way that he sees of bypassing the media and communicating directly with the american people. i don't know if that particularly as a national security impact. i don't think he is putting classified information on twitter. it is going to be very different. host: frank is calling in from florida.

you are on. caller: thank you. i wanted to say that i'm not sure that the young lady who is doing the interviews, you are excellent. you are very good. very good. that being said, i want to say something about trump. i am retired. i am 63 years old. i worked for 40 something years. had my own business for 20 years. most of my other projects, my other businesses, and i always found that in my opinion the best people were -- as far as leaders -- were the ones that could delegate, to tell people what they needed to try to do because they were better at what they did then what that particular person may do. that is what made a great

leader. that is what i think trump will be like. that is the comment i wanted to make. guest: the collar has an accide -- caller has an excellent point. they have so many issues as president, and they need to appoint people to so many positions and give them guidance and let them go. every president has to struggle with where that happy medium is. sometimes they can get into trouble by delegating too much and parts of the administration go off on a tangent that the president never intended. he tries to hand if micromanage everything, they can be extremely taxing on the president. every president has to find that medium. what we know about president-elect trump in his businesses that he has run, he

has delegated somewhat. running a business is not the same as running the government. he will have to struggle and find where that medium is to find where he gives control and how much guidance he gives. every president has to deal with this and adjust. mistakes will be made. every president makes them. let's talk a little bit about the intersection of donald trump's policies in defense contracting, for example the carrier deal he helped secure to save hundreds of jobs in america. their parent company is a major defense contractor. his call to cancel the new air force one with boeing, according to a report on cnn, boeing is a major defense contractor in addition to its business making commercial jets. it has about $26 billion worth

of sales from u.s. government contracts last year, about 27% of its annual revenue. talk little bit about the effect andonald trump's work comments about these major defense contractors. guest: the air force one comments where he talked about canceling the project. that was surprising to everybody. certainly very surprising to boeing. their stock dipped ruefully although it recovered. -- briefly although it did recover. right now we don't have a --tract with boeing is spend to spend all of that, there is a return and development -- research and development contract. defense contracting is complicated business. there have been huge cost

overruns. mr. trump is a businessman. he is concerned about these costs. he has expressed concerns about that. he will probably take a harder look at these costs. at the same time developing weapons for the men and women in our armed forces is an expensive proposition. these often get very expensive. i think he is going to be taking a tough look at some of those things and trying to find ways to get the weapons that we want to purchase for our men and women without spending so much money. it is tough. we always talk about the fence acquisition reform. i will point out that the department of defense was founded in 1907. we have had more than one report defensear on how to fix

procurement. i often joke that we have been worrying about how to fix this since the washington administration. every secretary of defense tries to deal with the problem. president obama's secretary of defense, ashton carter, has worked very hard to try to change things. they have made some differences. it is a complex problem with a lot of factors at play. host: patricia is calling in from jacksonville, florida on our democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. take you for having "washington journal." i want to speak on the national security under the trump administration. ok. god bless america. let's not make what mr. trump is doing a nor this is not the normm. norm. norm.when is

anybody going to speak up and say , mr. trump you are supposed to be in the briefings because it is important that the president knows about the security of our country. that is all i am speaking about. the security of our country. how can you make informed decisions when you're not even in the meeting to hear what is going on? the information you're getting from the meeting may as well be secondhand. that is what it is going to be. i want you to understand that this is not normal. mr. trump, this is not normal. let's stop making this a normal thing. he does not have to go to the meeting. host: let's let robert levinson response. guest: i think the collar has an interesting point. mr. trump is a very different kind of president-elect.

i think you can safely say everybody who told him what the rules were about running for president is wrong. he broke virtually every role that was out there in terms of how campaigns are run. i'm not suggesting he broke the law. the rules about how you run a campaign and what you do, he won in defiance of all the experts. he does not come from a government background. he has a business background. he is going to approach things differently. he is going to be doing things that are out of the norm so to speak. whether those will become the new normal for future presidents remains to be seen. we will expect a lot of different things from president-elect trump and we have in the past. host: we have mark. caller: good morning. host: you are on. caller: i have a couple of points.

some but i just heard, donald trump has some sort of referendum. we are going to change america because everybody voted for me. that is crikey. he lost. .n the american vote so for people to stand behind him and say we are going to let him do whatever he wants to do, what? that is crazy. host: do you have a response to that? guest: the collar is correct. mr. trump did not win the popular vote. i think secretary clinton won the popular vote by something like 2.5 million votes. however we have the system of the electoral college. he is going to be the president of the united states on january 20. there is always this question of

presidents coming in and do they have a mandate? when they win an overwhelming victory in the popular vote, there is a sense they can get more. mr. trump has a republican majority in both houses. there are people out there who did not vote for him. the majority of americans who voted did not vote for him. there will be resistance and questions. he has said as most presidents do that you want to be the president of everybody. it will be up to congress and the voters to decide that. we will have another election in 2018. things may change then. it remains to be seen. host: we only have a few seconds left. we want you to respond briefly to the potential for all caps business interest -- donald trump's business interest interfering in any way. mr. trump had a call with the president of taiwan. he has some business, he is in

talks of building a series of luxury resorts and hotels there. trump developer has a special envoy to the united states. another one with his business and foreign policy, slate says donald trump's phone is a national security threat. do you agree with that? guest: i don't know if i would call that a national security threat. we have never had a president does. he is supposed to have a press conference on the 15th where he will talk about how he is going to detach himself from his business interests. we don't want even the perception even if it is not the reality that he is making some decision about foreign policy that will benefit his business. that just looks bad. i hope you will find some way to detach himself as much as possible. so he does not have that problem

to deal with. the perception can be as damaging as the reality. we have never had a president with these sorts of global business interests. host: robert levinson, senior defense analyst for bloomberg government. thank you for joining us. guest: it was my pleasure. host: we have answers for your federal tax questions. kiplinger's kevin mccormally is here to offer your -- offer you advice and answer your federal tax questions. we will be back. ♪ >> every weekend booktv brings you 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. here are some of our programs this weekend. today at 7:45 p.m. eastern journalist courtney martin exports the question of what the term better off means to americans today in her book "the new better off." >> it does not matter how much money is in your bank account.

you can apply to the cayman islands and live there theoretically. if you live in america, you are vulnerable to this government and the way it governs just like every other person. i think wealth fools us into thinking we can buy our way out of suffering. >> at 9:00 p.m. eastern, megyn kelly talks about her latest book which recounts her life and career as a journalist. >> adversity is an opportunity to grow and become stronger. adversity in my life and parents who kept me in a protected bubble for 45 years, how would i have handled the last year? p.m., harvard:00 professor looks at white-collar crime in his book, "why they do it, inside the mind of the white-collar criminal."

is why do iion never need to worry about -- many of them without much remorse would steal a couple hundred for my account, and i think that is the fundamental difference in terms of these crimes. do some things without having that gut feeling of causing harm. completebooktv for the weekend schedule. >> follow the transition of government on c-span as president-elect donald trump selects is and the republicans and democrats. watch live on c-span. watch on-demand at c-span.org. listen on our free c-span radio app. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: joining us now is kevin mccormally, the chief content officer and senior vice president at kiplinger. he is here to offer year-end advice to viewers about tax policy. thank you so much for joining us. guest: thank you. i am happy to be here. host: let's start off with our viewers who are preparing our taxes. strategiesme top they should be thinking about? guest: we have three weeks to go. charitable contributions. if you itemize deductions, if you make them before december 31 or it is a check you put in the mail by december 31, you can deduct that on your 2016 return. gift, are planning a big put away your checkbook and look

at your portfolio. say you bought stock 10 years ago for $1000 is worth $5,000 now, if you give that to a charity, you can deduct the full $5,000 and you don't have to pay tax on that full $4000 gain, and the charity does not have to pay tax on that game. portfolio,k at your if you have stocks or mutual funds that have gone down in value. think about selling them. if you sell them to the end of the year, you can use the loss to offset gains earlier in the year or up to $3000 of income. wagr let the tax tqag investment dog. , you canst few years harvest gains. people in the 15% tax bracket

were lower. belows single and comes $37,000 and married incomes below $75,000. they pay 0% tax on long-term capital gains. if you are below that level, look at your portfolio. you may be able to sell some stuff. you can buy back the stock or and capturelater gains from that point forward. this is a great thing to look at now. who is great for people turned 70 in the first half of this year. my wife did. 70.5, you have to start taking money out of your ira, and if you do not the government penalizes you 50% of what you should have taken. youyear you turned 70.5,

can postpone that one distribution until the next year. because we anticipate that this congress may cut tax rates for 20 something, that could save you -- 2017, that could save you a lot of money. it is a good idea to think about these kinds of opportunities that the tax law has. people complain about how complex it is. that means opportunity. host: we want to hear more of those tips. we have special lines for this discussion about preparing for the tax season and what people can do in 2016 to prepare for 2017. those in eastern and central time zones can call (202) 748-8000. those in mountain and pacific regions can call (202) 748-8001 as we continue our discussion with kevin mccormally. what are the most common

deductions that people take? guest: the main one, this is another thing we talked about in tax policy. this could change next year. 70% of the people take the standard deduction. they do not itemize. that is a no questions asked the duction. $6,000 if you're single $12,000 if you are married. expenseseductible exceed that level, you start itemizing deductions on schedule a. state income taxes, local property taxes. tax billve a property due in january, if you pay it before december 31, you can deduct it this year rather than next year. that can save you some money. taxes, if you're paying quarterly estimated income taxes, if you go in general, pay by december 31 two

.16 taxes.your if you have that january bill and pay in december, you can deduct now. you will have one fewer payment next year, but this will give you 13 payments in one year. it saves you money now rather than later. those are the big ones. charitable, state taxes, and one thing they made permanent last year -- it used to be you could deduct state income taxes. five or six years ago they decided they wanted to help people to choose between deducting state income taxes or state sales taxes. that makes sense for people in texas and florida who do not have a state income tax. kiplinger,a note, kevin mccormally wrote a piece that identifies .3 tax deductions that you cannot

afford to overlook. he goes through each of these text inductions on kiplinger.com. bob is calling in from philadelphia. caller: good morning. thank you to c-span for taking my call. kevin, i am 55, careening towards retirement. i just have a basic question about my 401(k) if i can. what is the latest i can put additional money for 2016? is tax-deductible? guest: i think it is 18,000 this year. the limit changes each year. i take that back because you are over 50, that is where the catch-up kicks in. you can do 23,000 adoptable. that has to be a payroll reduction. you cannot just put cash into the 401(k). it has to be in your paycheck or

your employer. you have the advantage since you are working that you don't have to take money out. generally you have to take deductions -- distributions five 70.5. until youstpone actually retire if you're still working. wisconsin, youm are on. caller: i have a question. my husband who had a stroke had stocks for many years. he has no paperwork. we got a check from a company that we signed to close out the stock. it is a lousy $300. i cannot find our papers from one he bought the stock it will cost me. plus to try to

track this down. i would like to know what i can do my taxes this year. even if it was all only $45 int is taxes. i don't think you have a big issue there. i would suggest you do your very best to figure out when he bought this stock. did he buy it in 1990 or 1997. come up with a reasonable estimate somehow. if you cannot do it yourself, as someone to help you get on the internet and find the store stock prices. find out what 25 shares of that stock were selling for the year he bought it, and use that as a good faith estimate. i don't think you will have a problem with the iris. irs.

i don't know how that is going to work. i would suggest doing it yourself. i'm sure you cannot talk to your husband since he has had the stroke. if you have your old tax returns. you might have reported dividends from that stock some year. go back. use that as a good faith estimate. host: we have a lot of caller questions. i want to ask one first. for people who have health care coverage under the affordable care act, talk about the tax issues involved there. guest: it is so constituted. they will get a notice from their -- it is so complicated. they will get a notice from their health care carrier. there is a box that you have to check saying that you have qualified coverage. if you don't, you have to pay

the penalty. the interesting thing is that there was so much opposition to the affordable care act that opponents built-in for bidding the irs to go after collection. they can send you a bill if you of the penalty, but they cannot go after you. oregon, you are on. caller: thank you. good morning. i had a quick question involving amt and the future administration. i was researching online and noticed talk of removing that tax or log in whatever you call it. i'm curious if you have any insight whether that is going to happen for individuals? trump is totally

against this. it is the alternative minimum tax. you figure out your tax under the regular tax law, and you take away deductions and figure out your tax that way. one thing he will be considering is the elimination of the amt. republicans have been fighting this years. there is a good chance that the personal and the business anti-will disappear if not next year the year after. -- amt will disappear if not next year than the year after. host: what other changes do you expect? guest: i have been covering taxes for 40 years. in 1950, there was a huge guest: we worked under the tax reform bill. we are sure we are going to get

something. donald trump once major tax reform. ahead of the ways and means committee wants major tax reform. expect tax rates to come down. how much might they come down? the top rate is 39.6%. the plan the republicans have put forward and that donald trump has sort of endorsed would reduce that to 33%. is that possible? when ronald reagan was possible, the top rate was 70%. by the end of the next year, it was 50%. 28%.86, it went down to it started to go back up. major tax reform is going to reduce that rate. there are huge differences that

go along with us. you have to pay for that. you were talking about eliminating production -- the deduction. now, 70 sent -- percent of the people take it. they would still people to itemize charitable deductions. there will be fewer people doing it. those are the kinds of things we are talking about. on the business side, there are even more changes. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. we had to sell my mother's house. she's going to have a big capital gain on that. she had some bonds that just it their 30 year mark last month. can i delay caching the bonds in

so that she doesn't have to count that as income this year? aboutreading something depending on when they were issued, they have to reach maturity. i did not know what that meant versus they paid interest for 30 years. guest: we were talking about ee savings bonds. i suggest you go to the website where you will get it all. i am not certain if you can can postponeou reporting that interest. that's one of the changes. i hope you are taking advantage of the capital gains exclusion. at least $250,000 is tax-free. if she owned it with your data, you have to be careful.

jointdied, if they were owners than the basis of the home increased. make sure when you are figuring, take advantage of that step up in basis as well as the tax-free exclusion. host: john is colin in from montana. good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. selling question about a primary residence. you just mentioned the tax rule. residence thatry i have lived in for 12 years and bought another home. i am having trouble hearing. host: for going to need to have you repeat the question. caller: i am asking about a primary residence. i sold mine that i had lived in

for 12 years. i bought another one this year also. can you tell me the tax rules on that? days, if you old bought a new house after you ind one, that rule when away 1991. liveu are single and you in the house leading up to the $250,000 in a profit is tax-free. than $250,000, you don't even have to report it to the government. if it's more than it $250,000 you have to pay. almost no one pays taxes on home sales are in -- sales. that is your basis. you subtract that from the proceeds of the sale, which is

the sale price minus the commission. $250,000,ss than don't even bother reporting it to the government. host: steve, you were on. caller: thank you. this is steve calling it from mississippi. i've got a question about gambling winnings. when a person wins at the casino, it seems like the irs has to make you fill out a w-2. i was wondering if that threshold of the $1000 could sometimes be raised to $5,000 which would help to put more money into people's pockets and help the casino industry hire more people. guest: if it meant that people weren't paying taxes on winnings, it would cost the government money. there is a different level for different times of -- kinds of gambling.

gambling winnings are generally taxable, you can do. your gambling losses, what only to the extent to your report winnings. most people don't itemize. that includes lotteries as well as casinos. host: let's talk about one of the overlooked reductions you mentioned in this piece. student loan interest paid by mom and dad. a deduction for that interest. even if somebody else is paying for it, you can still take it. guest: the rule is to be deductible and you have to be legally obligated to pay it. a lot of times parents help kids pay back those student loans. nobody got the deduction. congress changed the law and what they do, obama dad pay the interest. we are going to pretend that mom and dad it gave you the money and let the student to duct 2500

a year. talking to the senior vice president at winger. he is been there since 1977. good morning, carol. caller: good morning and thank you for having c-span. i appreciate it. question, i am 73 years old and i have a state pension and a social security. off $36,000 a year. how long do i have to pay income tax? guest: both of those are probably fully taxable. income as your taxable exceeds your deductions, you are going to have to play taxes. if the deduction goes up to $15,000, that would protect half

of your income. because of deductions that i can't do the math in my head right now. muchbet you don't owe very income tax. you've got a standard deduction. you've got a personal exemption of $4000. as long as you have taxable income, you have to pay taxes. host: bonnie is colin in from virginia. caller: good morning. you're the first person that understands. i talked about the exception if you're still working. juneoblem is i retired in 2014.

i went back to work for the same employer part-time. they have me is active. says i am403 b's active in the other says i am retired. i really did not want to take them. i wait and have you answer the first one? guest: we looked into this area there is no answer. employee, an active you don't have to take your minimum distribution unless you are still working. active employee is not defined anywhere. it's really up to the employer. we consider part-time people active employees. the fact that you've got two different questions here, i would go back to the payer who says you are retired and asked them why they are saying that and maybe they will change it.

i think that's what the government is going to look at. that's what they are going to look at, what the employer says. i thank it might be my fault for saying i was retired. i am going to check with them. i went ahead and took distribution. then i called them because i didn't want to. it puts me in a higher bracket. taken them, is the irs going to expect me to take them from now on? they are saying i am taking them because i am age-appropriate to take them. guest: i don't think they will expect that. theink they would look at 1099. enforcement is so minimal. they can't go after things like this. --you are actively employee

employed, i would not take them until you retire. host: what is the chances now of getting audited? guest: almost done. very few people get audited. nobody likes the irs. it's a real problem. the vast majority of employees don't have to worry about it because they have no way to hide income. somebodytrying to find who is doing phony deductions. the irs knows what our wage income is because our employer tells them. they know how much interest we are because the bank has to tell them. think wehy some people could get to a point where people don't need to file a tax return. the irs would just send them a bill because they've already got the information. when you're tax return is out of whack from what they are expecting to see, the audit is

going to come. they just have the manpower. most people are honest. they don't have time to go after honest people. it might be a $45 tax, they can't make a phone call for $45. host: he is interest -- answering your tax questions. if you're in the mountain and pacific, you can call (202) 784-8001. karen is calling from georgia. my mother died in 2010. she was living in her home. i now have someone living in it paying utilities. anything from it. fixing it up a

little. i have my own home. i'm retired. i am just wondering about tax law. is there any inheritance in a fit? what kind of taxes should i expect? guest: there is a huge benefit. we collect the angel of death tax break. when the owner of property dies, that's stepped up. i was just looking at some statistics the government thinks this break will save taxpayers $60 billion this year. disappears.ny gain your basis is the value of the home on the day she died. that may be hard for you to figure that out, but a good solid estimate. you only owe taxes on that for any gain from that point forward.

there could be in issue that it's an investment property. something thate gets audited. if we just treated this as an investment property, that would be a basis. the law is really weird on this. the law says you must depreciate a property if it's allowable. even if you did not take the reductions, you're supposed to reduce the basis. there is a special tax form. whatess figured out at point it was unfair. you have to be careful. you're in a complicated situation. accrued -- gain that while your mom on the house is tax-free. jim is calling in from

virginia. caller: good morning. i have another inheritance question. my mother passed away earlier this year. some money receive from her estate. around $100,000. how will i be affected? i know the inheritance tax will be taken out. she lived in new jersey. we live in virginia. when i receive that money, do i have to show that? will that be taxed again? would it benefit me also to carry it over to next year? most inheritance is tax-free to the beneficiary. if this is an ira your mom had or an annuity that she had, different rules apply. are taxed as you withdraw it.

yourwill be taxed you in top bracket. if you are not the spouse, you have two choices. you can start the year after the year of death and take out money based on your life expectancy. if this was cash that you were inheriting, no tax at all. that is tax-free to you. house, theerty white basis is stepped up. nothing is taxed until you sell it. in.: francis is calling we lost francis. los angeles, good morning. caller: good morning. following: is the

am going to refinance my personal residence. i am going to change the way i am holding titles. my husband passed away five years ago. if and when is sell the property, is the buyer bethe house going to calculated on the irs point of view? half of the house is going to go back to the year my husband passed away. communityifornia is a property state. entiree spouse dies, the basis is stepped up. you need to go back and see what the house was worth when your husband died. that becomes your tax basis. remarried, you

only have the $250,000 tax-free exclusion. that is based on what it was worth when he died. you've got a step up in basis to pay the debt alley. any appreciation after that point, that's taxable if it's over $250,000. host: let's talk about a few of these overlooked deductions. one is job search expenses as well as moving expenses to take a job. guest: moving expenses to take your first job are deductible. if you're moving at least 50 miles. if you went from the dorm to that's ajob, deduction. if you have the 50 mile rule, if you drive there is a mileage -- jobhunting

expenses are not deductible. for a subsequent job, it's deductible if you are in the same line of work. congress doesn't want you going from a high-priced social -- tell the television personality to a social worker. if it's the same line of work, they will allow you to deduct jobhunting expenses. that is whether or not you get a job. pursuing another job and don't get it, that's deductible. only the total of your itemized to directions exceed 2% of gross income. they don't make it easy. host: tracy is calling in from florida. caller: good morning. we love stuart, florida. it's a wonderful place.

host: go ahead, tracy. caller: i'd bought a piece of ground in another state. i sold this year. i received a 99. can i claimis this, the taxes i paid on that piece of ground? also, the maintenance. i cleared 22,000. to $6,000 forse lawn mowing. i'm not sure what the taxes are. can i claim that against the profit? guest: you should have been claiming them annually as an expense against this property. taxes youowing and should have been deducting. you can go back and amend returns three years. you need to look if it's worth a

your 2000 13, 14, and 15 returns and get a little refund back for that. you can't host: to ducted all at once against the sale price. host:debbie is calling in from los angeles. my mom had to have a couple of part-time carriers in 2015. she still has caregivers. she did the w-2. it was so expensive. in 2016, all the people i hired for her, i gave them a 1099. i think it was a w nine to fill

out first. what if 2015 was wrong? the accountant said it's not wrong. i think we might go to someone else this year. how would i check that? we already paid the irs. caregivers are considered your mother's employees. you have to pay unemployment tax on them. knows the income so they can be taxed on it. those are the rules. people whoevised for have caregivers for children. the same rules applied to caregivers of older americans. it sounds like you are doing everything right. if you are paying those taxes

that are due, the alternative is if you hire someone that works , that caregiver could be the employee of the firm. you get out of those tax rules and it's going to cost you more. that's one thing you might what to consider. it's a little bit simpler from your standpoint. host: john is calling from indiana. you are on. caller: thank you. i want to say i think how you been answering questions during you are obviously very knowledgeable. i appreciate that. this is the situation i'm in. i received a letter from the irs and they said there was a mistake on my 2014 taxes. the majority of that was the place i worked at the time, they

failed to send a w-2 to the irs. they did not have a record of my withholdings. that was easy to fix. the company just sent them a letter. there was a small amount. i explained the mistake. a couple of weeks ago, i received a letter saying it had been settled to their satisfaction. i tried calling the irs. i don't know what to do with the check. to coveru sent the 250 the mistake you made. they sent you the check back. you've tried to contact them. you cashed the check.

it right away.d there should be an address on the u got from them with the check. i would suggest you write them a letter and say you got this check. is everything done it? if you've got a letter from them saying the case is settled, i think you are ok. just be up front with them. tell them what is going on. i think you are going to be fine. host: good morning. caller: i've got an insurance type of deal. i have money in a 401(k). at the same time, my insurance rate in this obama deal or whatever is based on my year before income. i have to talk to the insurance agent. like andwhat it sounds

i've been looking for verification is that if i pull the money out between christmas and the first of the year, it won't count against the years insurance rates. guest: it will count. the obama care subsidy is based on your income. it will count when they figure your 2018 premiums. if you take it out before the , if you delayr until january, it will be 2017 and who knows if there will be obamacare in 2018. host: good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

question. i have inherited from an elderly lady along with her caregiver. she had no relatives. we were both in the will, the caretaker and myself. we had to clean up her house and we sold it. when we get the revenues from the closing, are we going to have to pay taxes on that? guest: any gain on that property up to the time the previous owner died is forgiven because the basis stepped up. you would inherited, the money you spent to fix it up, i have a good friend whose mother-in-law died. the basis for stepped up and they had to put in a new furnace. for what was house worth when the mother-in-law died. they had to put the furnace in and they got to claim a loss on the house. basis increased their

above the day of death value. they got the claim a loss. the income they got from a, save them taxes. you may need to have somebody help you figure this out. it's highly unlikely you're going to have to owe any tax and only appreciation beyond that point is taxable and if it's taxable, it will be 50% unless you are in the 15% tax rate. i wouldn't worry about it much. get a hold of an accountant to help you make sure this goes smoothly. it's complicated, but it shouldn't cost you any money. host: barbara is calling in from chicago. caller: good morning and thank you so much for taking my call. i have a question. i actually have two questions. my husband was diagnosed with early onset dementia.

we do have long-term care insurance. that long-term care insurance only covers half of his costs. that the amount of the long-term care insurance is considered income and i have to pay taxes on the long-term care insurance. my first question is is that true? guest: i have never heard of that. is this insurance that pays a set dollar amount per day? caller: it's monthly. and it comes out. it's $4000 a month for his care. they pay out of the long-term insurance. we have had it forever. we were one of those people that got in early, thank goodness.

i was told that was taxed. out.s coming --et a monthly check it check. most long-term insurance payouts are not taxable. there was a certain kind of insurance that is based not on the illness but on a flat dollar amount. that might be taxable. i'm sorry. i don't know. host: ok. thank you for joining us today. guest: it's been fun. host: we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. have a good saturday.