unstable place. host: the burke chair for strategy at the center for strategic and international studies. his report just released this week on announces of troop levels and strategy in afghanistan. thank you so much for being with us this morning. we have 20 minutes left on "washington journal" and we will open up our phone lines for any topic you want to talk about this morning. (202) 737-0002 four republicans, (202) 737-0001 for democrats, and (202) 628-0205 for independence. announcer: monday night on the communicators. >> i don't think there is any dispute that everybody is in favor of an open internet. we are in favor of basic open internet rules that can be enforced. the only way to ensure that is through legislation. vicencer: senior executive

president for external and legislative affairs at at&t, the largest telecom communication lobbying in washington. he talks about corporate tax reform, privacy, and net neutrality. it also discuss merger with time warner. he is interviewed by david shepherdson. initiated the review at the department of justice last fall shortly after the deal was announced. we kick it off in november. we are going through a process with the department of justice. wehave told the street that expect the deal to close by the end of the year. we still have some foreign approvals that hang out there. we're not completely done. some of the big goals depend on the foreign approval side as we have an operation in mexico. that deal has to go through that process there. we have operations in brazil,

but they are not the only ones. we are going through a process of the department of justice right now. our expectation is we should be process, we should be through the operational issues that we have to go through in order to be able to close without any license transfers, and a foreign approval process. we are pretty confident we are going to be able to get through that by the end of the year. announcer: watch "the communicators" monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. "washington journal" continues. host: open phones. any issue you would like to talk about. we welcome your tweets. the president is up this morning and tweeting about the election.

hillary clinton colluded with the democratic party in order to be crazy bernie sanders. that is from president trump this morning. we go to the independent you -- line in youngsville, north carolina. we didn't win in korea, then we went to vietnam. if yout 10 years there think of the total time we had advisers there. we did not win there. .ow we are in the mideast it is unbelievable that we could still have people there when we are not winning. we have not everyone anything there. we hear from helen on the republican line.

helen: good morning. either question that has come about because i'm so distressed congressmanisiana was shot just because he was a republican. i want to know why some of the congressman don't initiate a law that it is a hate crime to try to kill people if they are congressman or to talk about assassinating the president or things like that because it is time for our country to change. host: that call from lake charles, louisiana. condition at's washington hospital center was upgraded at the end of the week. it was said at a hearing on friday that he thought he would be out in one week. we will keep you posted on any additional news about that. good to hear that his condition was upgraded. we hear from john from the

united kingdom calling in this morning watching on the bbc parliament channel. go ahead. good morning. john: good morning to you, good afternoon to me. onas listening very intently your discussion of the u.s. health system. they seem to be tinkering around the edges. i've have lived and worked in the united states. ,'ve also worked in the u.k. the netherlands, and israel. care system is one of the worst i have come across. cutting of the national assistance of health for the american rate -- rare disease patients is awful. it does not ring a bell, why would you do that to the most needy people in this country and you would try to cut their

health care? host: appreciate your call. the supreme court will wrap up on monday. joindersuch quarterbacking april. we are anticipating six decisions to be handed down on the final day on monday. newsweek is looking ahead to a possible retirement. the headline, supreme court justice anthony kennedy retirement rumors has washington on edge for the next term. they write about the potential retirement i justice kennedy. as the supreme court gives fun options for the nine-month term on monday, concern grows about justice anthony kennedy's possible retirement. he will tell if his 81st birthday in july. he is been at the center of retirement rumors for months now. isrecently told cnn he

seriously considering retiring according to a saturday report. ", any topic you want to talk about. john in fairfax, virginia on the democrats like you good morning. john: good morning. i wish you would not read articles over the phone because your taking time from people that are calling in. the republican party is waging class warfare against you. .ou ought to pay attention you have a scandalous person like trump who is the worst person who is ever held elected office. up. enough -- wisen listen to more than fox tv. they are trying to brainwash you.

you buy it and now you're going to suffer. host: that was john in fairfax. jake in richfield springs, indiana. jake, go ahead. what state are you in? john: new york. thank you for c-span. -- lasto talk about night there was a hearing regarding free speech on college campuses. i was impressed by the fact that this issue was being talked about at the government level. school and when i look at a lot of stories around the country regarding college campuses, i am this concerned about the crazy stories and instances.

it was really nice to see that kind of issue. thank you for taking my call. thank you for caring that stuff. that is totally needed. host: you watched that this past week i guess? jake: yes. go ahead. i just paid $2.20 for gas. no corporations are talking about leaving. the country is in good shape. host: appreciate your call. call the number on your screen. until 10:00 this morning. talk about the senate debate this be -- this week.

appeals to conservatives but party moderates are wary. and then focus on other markets, thousands in state face insurance loss under insurance bill. they write that tens of loseands of people would health insurance under the senate version of the republican health care bill. the discussion draft of the bill released thursday like the house version before would gradually decrease the federal medicaid money that sustains arkansas works, a program that pays most of the cost of private insurance desperate hundred thousand adult parkinson's. arkansans. stan is in new york on the democrats line. is,: for me today question

name a leader in this country today? we have gone years without a true leader. i'm talking about a jfk, a johnson, a ronald reagan, an eisenhower. even when you go back to the days of world war ii with the marshall plan. we don't have a leader. i would like it if we could have a discussion -- is there a leader in this country today? who is our leader for the future? we really don't have a leader anymore. host: it sounds like you yourself don't think we have a leader. who was the last person who fit that bill? stan: for some it would be ronald reagan. work fora democrat and

a catholic agency. to me, what johnson did, what martin luther king did, what gandhi did. somebody that really inspires people and actually accomplishes something. it would be fascinating if you could get a group together to have a discussion about this. the greatest failing of this country today is that we don't have a leader. host: take a look at the presidential leadership survey we did earlier this year. that is that www.c-span.org. we heard from john from rehobeth, massachusetts on the independent line. john: hello. comment to call in and on the actual quality of the colors today. i've been a long-time listener

to the washington journal. they have been cut off a few drone policy and things of this nature. comment onanted to the actual quality of the colors calling in. that are hitting issues previously before people were cut off on. i am upset about the whole foreign policy thing. i think it is not a republican or democratic issue, but the government has decided that they worldnot compete in the of free trade and economics.

when you have deep state funding people, whether it be helical drugs, pharmaceutical, medical, a lot of things happen this way in terms of funding in dark it makes a big difference. finally talking about it, and that is a good thing. i don't know what to say on thatnts, but my thing is if we could quote tolstoy, history would be so good if it were true or something to that nature -- paraphrasing. host: we hear from robert in michigan on the independent line. robert: i am concerned about the health care program.

things i wantuple to know. can't fix what needs to be fixed. another thing i want to know and i've had no response from anybody in trump's office, who is writing this bill? who is writing this stuff? is it the drug companies? who is writing it? that does make a difference, could somebody tell me, please. host: we expected debate on tuesday. that coverage will be on c-span two. kenneth from mississippi on the republican line. abouth: i was wondering the way they protested when president trump was elected. what it the republicans had done

when democrats wanted. and the health care plan does need to be thrown away and started over. it helps the rich but does not help the poor, especially around here. host: are you currently on health insurance? kenneth: no sir. commentsreciate your this morning. tom in connecticut on the republican line. tom: the problem i see with health insurance is the insurance companies themselves, the states regulate the insurance companies and their profits. is they putorks something like a 6% profit if theon which means insurance company has revenues of 100 million, they are making 6 million, so they are charging 6 million because they are allowed 6%. if they can increase the

expenses to 200 million, they can make 12 million. there is an incentive to waste money by the insurance companies. we should take a good, hard look at that. call froms get a more concorde, california. tom on the independent line area top: -- had a question. government pays him to do it, they take money out of your checks. how can they do that? host: are you talking about health insurance? tom: for child support. you see people raising families across the united states. how do they get away with that? let you go there.

thank all of you for your calls and comments this morning. please join us tomorrow morning .or "washington journal" we will be joined by a "wall street journal" columnist. of nirvanaer member will join us to look at the election reform efforts. we will also take a look at the 2018 budget and military pay in our your money budget segment tomorrow morning. all of that gets underway at 7:00 eastern tomorrow morning on "washington journal." have a great rest of the day. thanks for being here.

announcer: next, newsmakers with texas congressman mac thornberry, chair of the armed services committee. then president trump speaks of the rally in iowa. after that, the acting fbi director testifies at a house hearing on the bureaus 2018 budget requests. >> our guest on c-span newsmakers this week is mac chair of the help and armed services committee. he is interested in all things military including spending, operations, and strategy. we will talk to them about all that. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> let me introduce the reporters. a reporter from "the wall street journal." joe: hello. we would like to know, the house

armed services committee is set to markup the national defense authorization act next week. can you tell us, what is in the bill and what is the top line for the fence? -- defense? >> rep. thornberry: last fall, the toaker act us to -- asked us look at problems in the military, planes that could not fail, and the number we came up with was about $640 billion for the next fiscal year. president trump one election. navy,ked about a 355-ship a variety of other things. we still think an appropriate number for the next year -- and that is the number we are proceeding with in our markup. it may