on the family that profited from the sale of oxycontin. ♪ host: it is saturday, november 18, 2017 and the end of a busy week in washington where the president returned from asia, his longest foreign trip in this term. the gop passed the tax bill in the house and a sitting u.s. senator corruption trial ended in a hung jury and the debate over whether to repeal the affordable care act individual mandate intensifies. and claims of sexual misconduct rocked the alabama u.s. senate race and washington. today, asking our viewers, what

was your top news story of the week? democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents can call 202-748-8002. you can reach us on social media, on twitter @cspanwj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. a little more on the alabama senate race from the hell -- hill, it says the race will not be certified until the end of the year, avoiding the ongoing battle on capitol hill. it says the closely watched special senate election will likely not be certified until late december at the earliest. a state election officials said friday and reuters reported that the results of the election will be certified by december 26 at the earliest, meaning it will likely not affect key year end

gop legislation and a potential democratic victory in alabama senate elections will not likely hurt republicans chances of getting such legislation through such as the tax plan they are currently migrating. the republican -- currently evaluating. roy moore has faced allegations of sexual misconduct and rejected calls by many in washington to drop out of the race. let's see what mitch mcconnell said about the race yesterday. >> with regard to the alabama race, roy moore should withdraw. the women who have come forward are completely credible. his campaign is collapsing. from a republican point of view, it produces a dilemma. the ballots have been printed. i have spoken with the president , he called me from vietnam

largely about this on friday and i talked to general kelly on saturday and the vice president yesterday. we are in discussion about how to salvage this seat, if possible. it appears as if the only option -in. right and -- write seldom successful but in 2010 lisa murkowski from left to lost the primary. -- lost the primary in alaska. last person to do that was strom thurmond in the 1950's. she won because she was totally well-known. an extremely popular. name most often discussed may not be available. an alabama person who would fit the standard would be the attorney general who is well known and popular in alabama. viewers are asking our

-- what do you think the most significant news story of the week was? democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. an independents, 202-748-8002. tanya on the line from north carolina, good morning. caller: yes, i thought it was outrageous, they have a man still allowed to speak about his vote, he supposedly raped a young woman. they are allowed to let him speak under free speech but it was outrageous. he was a kkk man. .t has not been confirmed they allowed him to speak because he had a position in the american government. host: who are you talking about? caller: for other -- roy moore.

i think what we are discussing is outrageous. thank you. host: some other news on the front page of the "new york times" -- adding disaster aid may require cutting in the budget. it says the white house asked congress on friday for $44 billion in additional relief in response to the devastating hurricanes. facing rising budget deficits, pushing a tax cut that could cost $1.5 trillion, the demonstration suggested lawmakers made spending cuts to offset disaster costs. republicans have been quiet about the ballooning national debt as they present do an act deep tax cuts before the end of the year. the deficit for the 2017 fiscal billion, an $666 increase in $80 billion.

spending continues to climb. what are your biggest stories for the week. fort worth, texas, the huey.endent line, hi, caller: i was calling about reparations because they have to do with the cause you talked about yesterday. i am calling about reparations. you had something called the five dollars indian and paid them reparations. reparations about -- you paid the indians and everybody else. why y'all can't pay us? the black folks reparations. years, that is my comment.

week,also, in news this attorney general jeff sessions testified before the house judiciary committee in its regular oversight committee hearing. he was questioned about a number of things, including connections with russia. look at his answers to questions from ranking member john conyers of michigan. >> in a functioning democracy, is a common for the leader of the country to order the criminal justice system to retaliate against his political opponents? secretary sessions: i would say that the department of justice can never be used to retaliate politically against opponents and that would be wrong. senator conyers: i would interpret that as no.

sessions: the answer stands for itself. mr. conyers: it would be better if you responded yes or no. should the president of the united states make public comments that may influence a investigation?l secretary sessions: it should take great care in those issues. mr. conyers: could you respond yes or no? sessions: not concerned -- not knowing the concerns you have, i would say improper -- it would -- a president cannot improperly influence and investigation. and i have not been improperly influenced and would not be

improperly influenced. the president speaks his mind, he is bold and direct about what he says and people elected him. we do our duty every day based on laws and facts. host: that was jeff sessions responding to questions about president trump's calls for the investigation of hillary clinton by the justice department and the democrats, in addition to the ongoing investigation into russian meddling. , democrat -- conway, missouri, democratic line. caller: i am calling about waste, fraud, and abuse. no one is talking about that. in the military-industrial complex, there are $6 trillion missing and no one mentions it .

we can almost payoffs be debt -- pay off the debt if we find these people who are stealing. host: george calling in from highland, michigan on the independent line. caller: good morning. .wo quick points i wanted to speak about sexual harassment. and i wanted to mention that president trump has lifted the ban on trophy hunters bringing their hunts back to america, disgusting. could someone define sexual-harassment? frumpy as aas 65-year-old man can be, i would hit my sisters queen of to put -- tissues to put in their cleavage when they dated.

i do not know what sexual-harassment is. andave people on television i applaud you for the way you are trusted. that is a professional look with sleeves and no cleavage. you cannot watch television without -- every person -- every female -- i am generalizing, seems to have a low-cut, sleeveless dress on. ta, whoe much admired gre i have often written to c-span and complemented her comportment , her dress was down. -- dodo you think that you think how a woman dresses should give people the right to harass them? >> again, what is the definition

of harassment? in my mind, when you are ,nviting me to look at cleavage here are two examples. i will be quick. i switch between three programs in the morning, yours, squawk box, and morning joe. was onas it that beacky -- becky was on squawk box and dumped her husband over an affair she was having on the show. most people think joe scarborough and mika brzezinski were having an affair while married. we are not attacking the women. umpy old guy and i want my tv hosts dressed like you.

host: the point on the trophy ban, the president has apparently reversed himself as the president announced his plan to reverse a ban on big-game trophies has been put on hold so he can review conservation facts. fish andday, u.s. wildlife service official confirmed to abc news that the trump administration had plans to allow hunters to bring trophies of elephants they killed in zimbabwe and zambia back to the united states but the president wrote that the decision was on hold. they gain decision on hold until i review all conservation facts. understudy for years and will update soon with secretary zinke he -- zinke. susie, republican line, what is your top story? caller: a lot of them but the one i am concerned about is the

sexual harassment. i agree with the young man who was just on. and women goizona it is just --s, what is sexual-harassment these days? you cannot say ma'am, sir without somebody saying that a sexual-harassment. and the government, the congress, the senate, the entire house has been using our tax dollars to protect them for sexual harassment. this is ridiculous, that is our money. and they wonder why we are in debt. opportunityhe equal -- equal employment opportunity commission, they have the definition of sexual-harassment

-- it is unlawful to harass a person, applicant, or employee because of their sex and harassment chemically sexual-harassment or unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical harassment of a sexual nature. it does not have to be of a sexual nature, it can include offensive remarks of persons sex , for example it is illegal to harass a woman by making offensive comments about women in general. line, whatdemocratic was the most significant news story of the week to you? caller: the most significant thing this week was the tax bill. the tax cuts. i do not believe these cuts will help the middle class or the poor. it just enables the rich to get generational rich. when we begin to cut programs , children's health

insurance programs, when you begin to take away the deductions for kids who are spending their own money for education with her student loans. which way are we going? where are our ironies -- priorities? how we do our money is showing where our priorities are. and you are doing a great job, can -- kim. and: members of the house senate, the house passed the tax bill and the senate is considering it. the hill reports senator lisa murkowski on the issue of whether an obamacare fix is a prerequisite for her vote on the tax bill. lisa murkowski, republican from alaska, said that passing a bipartisan obamacare bill is not necessarily a precondition for her support of a tax bill that individualmacare's

mandate and the statement posted on her facebook page appeared to clarify comments she made to roll call on thursday which seem to suggest the bipartisan obamacare bill from senators lamar alexander, republican from tennessee, and patty murray, democrat from washington, was a prerequisite for her vote on the tax bill. i have consistently said that tosing the bill is important stabilize the individual markets and may be particularly so if the individual mandate is revealed as included in the draft reported by the senate finance committee last night. she said that in a statement by be assumedhould not it is a precondition for my support of the tax bill. alexander on the republican line from montana. good morning. are you there? caller: yes. host: go ahead. caller: i think the most

significant story of the week was that the house passed the tax cuts and jobs act. it makes way for tax reform. i this bill gets passed, strongly believe there will be a lot of economic growth. because, when the ronald reagan and kennedy tax cuts happened, the aftermath was stocks went up and economic growth went up. i strongly believe that that would be the case. if the tax cut and jobs act gets passed. host: why are you so confident this bill, if passed by the senate also and signed by the president, will promote that kind of growth, alexander? caller: a good example of this happening would most likely be with the corporate business tax. if it goes down, the bill is saying that currently be 35%

corporate business tax will go down to 20%. that means that businesses will have more money and they can do that to invest in products and services, and getting new employees. i personally think that would be a big economic growth, just by lowering the business tax. host: we are asking our viewers today -- what you think the most significant news story of the week is? democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. speaking of the tax bill, let's look at what massachusetts democratic congressman richard bill, he about the tax is the ranking member on the ways and means committee. >> it has been advertised as a middle-class tax-cut.

how can you say that this is a middle-class tax-cut and compare that to repeal of the estate tax? how many middle-class people in america pay the estate tax? that is how many people. no middle-class american pays the estate tax. there is no such thing as a death tax. in addition, a middle-class tax cut is described as doing away with the alternative minimum tax. 4.5 million families pay alternative minimum tax in america. i fixed the problem years ago for the middle class with 27 million people stopped paying amt. how are we paying for this? they have decided that the teacher who used to have $250 they could deduct on their income taxes will be abolished. if you have all summer's disease

and receive a 10% number -- alzheimer's and receive a 10% number, caring for that loved one at home, that is how they will pay for the tax-cut, they will take it away. state and local property taxes, they will take them away. the deduction. they will pare back the mortgage interest reduction. all of this advertised on the basis of a middle-class tax-cut. people at the bottom end will not get much from this tax-cut. i want to take you back, i have cast three great votes in the house in my 29 years, against the iraq war, and there were not many of us here at against the cuts in 2001 to the taxes them in 2003, all advertised as progrowth economics. there was no economic growth from the textbooks of 2001 which totaled $1.3 trillion.

they said everybody gets a tax-cut and they were correct. the distribution tables and saw what people got at the top and on the bottom. we came back in 2003 and cut another $1 trillion in taxes. advertising progrowth economics but no growth occurred. host: monday on the independent line from baton rouge, louisiana. -- rené on the independent line from baton rouge, louisiana. what do you think the biggest news story from washington was this week? caller: we are leaving out three problems in the country. in the private sector and the public sector going all the way back to 1977 on the sexual-harassment issue. all men are not guilty. our women are -- all women are not telling the truth. i have been a victim of and witness to more sexual-harassment by women that

i worked with and for. more threats to destroy my career and demand that i come it felonies. -- i commit felonies. we are leaving out the male victims, going back to the 1970's. this is nothing new. and we are leaving out the gay victims. i was raised by an ob/gyn nurse and born in 1953, i was raised to bk friendly and treat people with respect. as a country -- to be gay friendly and treat people with ignore the way women treat women in corporate america and in taxpayer-funded and homosexual victims and perpetrators, and male victims. we have to address all of it. host: florida is calling in on the democratic line from troy, michigan.

is calling in on the democratic line from troy, michigan. caller: the biggest news story is the life trying to be perpetrated -- lie tried to be perpetrated, the tax break for the middle class. the millionaires tax cut was a death tax-cut. i do not know how many millionaires need protection because it is around $11 million they have protection. encompassingngs -- the entire story of saving the middle-class, different loopholes for people that are involved in commercial real estate. all sorts of things that they talk about, saving the family farm. uncleicle has a very -- has a very large farm, he was an

immigrant. his property was very valuable. him this is how you divide your property among your children so that there is not a tax to be paid. this story about saving the family farm is a fallacy. i hope people take time and realize, because i do not want any more celebrations like they had when they supposedly passed the health that will supposedly given to us in regards to health care. the president had a big party. in the rose garden. that was only the house of representatives that passed it, the senate did not pass it and it became law. people should pay attention to what is going on more.

thank you. and moreram is a gem people should listen and pay attention to it because that is where we find the truth. host: speaking of the tax bill passed by the house, let's look at what house speaker paul ryan said after it was passed. the country has not rewritten the tax code since 1986. the power of the status quo in yet 227n are so strong, men and women of the congress broke through that today. that is powerful. i want to thank not just the members who made it possible but the president, his administration, and our partners in the senate who are doing their work. [applause] , we saidvery start that failure is not an option and the president and his team have worked constructively every

step of the way with us. he has been a tremendous partner with us on this issue and i am proud of this conference. tax reform is so very hard. we know that people are really struggling in this country. we know we are coming to a decade of real economic anxiety. we know that this is a nation that has so much more potential that is not yet been tapped. that is what this day is about and getting this done is about. this is about giving hard-working taxpayers bigger take-home pay and giving families struggling peace of mind. it is about getting the economy to grow faster so we get bigger wages, more jobs, and we put america in the driver seat in the global economy once again. it is about giving people hope and a new opportunity and making sure america continues to be the best place in the world, the best place in the world to live, drive -- thrive, start a business, create a job, grow, construct. we have a long road ahead of us

as this is a big milestone in the long road. we have a timeline to get it done by the end of the year. the senate is working on this. we are excited about the legislative process and going to conference and getting it done to make the bill even better. i am excited on behalf of the american people who are waiting for us to get this done. countryctively ask the in 20 to give us a chance to work for them. we asked the people who were struggling to give us a chance to make good by you, give us a chance to make life better for you and improve your life. this conference today did one of the greatest things we could possibly do to make good on that promise and i am so proud. host: william on the independent line from new york state. was thaty comment nobody seems to be talking about the debt, the over $20 trillion

debt. i do not understand these tax cuts. everybody's taxes should be raised, especially the upper class who make billions of dollars. nobody talks about this very much. about how social security could be totally saved by raising the limit on how much you pay -- how much you make and pay to social security, like medicare tax is make, youwhatever you pay medicare taxes but also 100rity, i think it is $50,000 and after that you pay no social security taxes. all of these republicans talking about the talking points. they say the same thing. you have to give middle-class hard-working taxpayers a break. everyone uses the same talking point it must have gotten from the republicans.

whatever. that is my comment. host: st. louis, independent line, what did you think the biggest story of the week was? caller: i think it was the house of representatives tax-cut. supposedly tax-cut. i feel that the amount given to corporations is out of line. ceos have no plans to use trickle-down money to create jobs, but tax cuts should have been tied to job creation as some kind of deduction. as opposed to just across the board cuts. as far as the middle-class, the fact that it even runs out tells a five-year period you that it is a spin dr. thing

and paul ryan and representative brady get my vote for spin do ctors of the year. i am a c-span junkie and an independent voter therefore and thank you for the program. i would like to comment on the fact that the person from michigan commented on women's clothing in tv. as a person who inquired at a women's group in the st. louis region, it appears that sometimes the owners and higher ups and bosses of these women are mandating the clothing they wear. i do not appreciate seeing women in clothing where they have bear arms and a man is sitting there with a shirt and suit with sleeves and looks like he is covered to the health and she is not -- hilt, and she is not.

host: and other headlines, nbc news reporting that white house advisor jared kushner failed to disclose outreach from a vladimir putin ally. it says jared kushner failed to disclose what lawmakers called a russian backed -- backdoor overture and dinner invite involving a banker who has been accused of links to russian organized crime. messages described the former senator and deputy head of russia's central bank who is close to vladimir putin as wanting donald trump to and attend an event on the sidelines of the national rifle association convention in louisville, kentucky in may of 2016. he was seekingat to meet with a high-level donald

trump campaign person and may have had a message from donald trump -- four donald trump from vladimir putin. the meeting did not take place. gary from georgia on the republican line. what was the biggest news story to you? caller: the most important news cuts is the proposed tax in the house and senate. the biggest issue i see with the tax-cut -- i think the 20% reduction is justified. that will bring companies back to the u.s. and have them invest in the u.s. 80%ver, the issue is that of the jobs in this country are created by small businesses. i am a physician with a small practice and would love to be able to hire new personnel, nurses and so on. in today's environment, it is too difficult for physicians.

if you look at the majority of small businesses, they are subchapter s, llc's, pass-through companies. i do not see how you can justify giving a 20% deduction -- or reduction of twitter percent for 20%orate america without -- for corporate america without going to has to companies. -- pass-through companies. ,ost: as a small business owner what do you wish the tax bill included you think would help you? extending the cuts is smaller businesses? caller: exactly, when you are a pass-through company, my medical practice -- we just opened in august this year and we will probably get close to $500,000, not a lot. for one quarter of business you

can kind of extrapolate that to see where we will be next year. if i am taxed as an individual, that will throw me into a higher tax bracket. that is not money you are taking home, that is money the business is making. out of that, i am paying my , wastemployees, medical collection, drugs for the office, needles, everything else i have to use. in my day to day business. we will not get that right off. that is specific to the medical industry and i insured dental practices would be very similar. there are other pass-through .ompanies such as farmers they will face the same problems. attorneys offices will have the same problems.

justify see how you can reducing the corporate tax rate to 20% without doing an additional tax rate for pass-through companies. that is my argument. line, new, republican york, what was the biggest story? caller: do me it is the al franken thing and how the media is deflecting on it and forgiving him. i saw and i wish you could pull it up, they had ruth marcus of the washington post interviewed on cnn yesterday. she qualified her statement by saying to not get drug blood pressure up as i do not believe sexual harassment. she turns around and excuses al franken because he is a comedian and she said comedians do shocking things. i could not believe that came out of her mouth.

,t seems like the entire thing they keep going back to what donald trump bid. and trying to justify how al franken, how he apologized and she accepted the apology so let's move on as he does good things and is in syria. -- and is sincere. harvey weinstein is begging for a second chance and is sincere. parties,ders from both in the senate and other senators from both sides call for the ethics committee to investigate this matter. do you trust the ethics committee to look into this and come up with an appropriate response? caller: they are going to say -- they will have an investigation. he apologized, she accepted. he should resign. if roy moore, who has denied accusations, versus al franken,

who has accepted the fact that he did what he did. if roy moore should be bowing out of the race, which i believe mitch mcconnell -- i do not know the case, but it is ridiculous. you are innocent until proven guilty. these other people admitted wrongdoing. roy moore has not. said a fewe woman calls ago, not all women our perfect saints. women do lie. lifee had them lie in my and have seen it in other situations. it is ridiculous. should have to bow out of the race, how franken should have to resign. but he is a democrat so that is excusable.

because his apology was excepted . you cannot make this stuff up. headlines, the keystone operator says that the leak is now controlled and has no threat to the public. the day after a key stop pipeline leak with more than 200,000 gallons of oil in south dakota. the operator says the incident is controlled and there is no risk of public safety. transcanada said that we take this incident very seriously at working with federal and state regulatory agencies at half 75 people working on the response to the leak reported thursday in a sparsely populated area of marshall county, near amherst and the northeastern part of the state. is calling in from calabasas, california on the

independent line. good morning. are you there? steve frome on to charlotte, north carolina on the independent line. caller: hi. the biggest news story for me was this tax plan. i feel speaker ryan has pretty much delusional, if he thinks this will accomplish what he said it would. host: why is that? why do you think the ability to lower taxes -- i will ask this -- are you not expecting middle-class taxes to be lowered? do you not think the cut to the corporate taxes will result in job generation? what are you skeptical about? caller: the overall package. i have seen the trickle-down economics since ronald reagan and it has never worked.

it is like flogging a dead horse. if you think we will go down the road with this tax plan, it will not happen. host: josephine on the democratic line from mississippi. what was the biggest story to you? caller: sexual harassment. out years andme years and years after it happened. sexual-harassment on my job, i would go to the husband-wife, and the boss on the job. they wait and wait until they get old and come up with this. they should do it right away. not wait. you know?

old. they get with tax reform, that will not work. because they should see what happened when bush did that. we went into a depression when bush did it. not for the middle class. just for the rich. they should listen and see what is going on, watch tv and see what is going on. people just do not realize, they buy anything. you have to listen and watch. and see what is going on. the country is in turmoil. because of the all caps. -- donald trump. host: larry is calling from washington on the republican line.

what was the most significant storyline? caller: the tax-cut, 30 years, three decades, i heard people talking about trickle-down not working but excessive taxes in the united states have not work. reduce the corporate tax, american has the highest corporate tax, take it down to 20%. that will benefit everybody. small benefit -- businesses, that is a good effect, if you work for your money, you should not take excessive tax and they should eliminate the death tax. it is a good idea. host: let's look at what jackie spears said this week about sexual harassment and its impact -- the problem that spreads to washington and what should be done about it. two members of congress,

republicans and democrats, right now, who served, who have been or not subjectew to review but who engaged in sexual harassment. --se propositions such as you be a good girl? super traders exposing their genitals to having private parts grabbed on the house floor. all they ask is to be able to work in a hostile free work environment. they want the system fixed and the perpetrators held accountable. i have been working on this issue since 2014 and believe there are three steps congress needs to take to fix the egregious and sometimes even go behavior. sexualst is to require arrest the prevention and response training every year for both members and staff, just like ethics and cyber security training. existing office of compliance online trading model is a start

as some of you have pointed out, but not adequate. research found that effective training requires in person and directive and dialogue. the simple change to the house rules will achieve this result an already legislation co-authored by many of you, hr604. thanks to brady, representative castillo, and others for their leadership on this issue. we can fix what we do not know. working on sexual harassment and sexual violence on college campus and academia and in the military, surveys conducted regularly and are key to recognizing the scope of the problem and evaluating the effectiveness of reform. that is why congress should institute the congressional climate survey every two years. we must also reform the broken dispute resolution system. the present system may have been ok in the dark ages but not appropriate for the 21st century. host: robert on the independent

line from garland, texas. good morning. caller: good morning. my take for this week was the hearings on both sides. the fact that we are going to experience possibly i would say a fiscal rapture between 2024-2030. if you look at the hearings, they say tax cuts will succeed past 2024 and tax increases will start beyond that. , the debtce, in 2024 that will be over 100% of the gross domestic product starting in 2024. don't forget that it has been stated through the hearings and

afore that 2028, part medicare supported by what was discussed this week will go and the trust fund will be broke. sosa move over to 2023, security will be reduced dust social security will be reduced -- social security will be reduced. we are in a serious financial situation between 2024-2030. host: what should lawmakers due to address that? caller: i do not know. instead of doing things behind the doors, there should be a lot more education and making the public aware of what is going to be happening within the next nine years. one other factor. elderly people who will be retiring, more within 8, 9

years, up to that for every person who retires at 65, four people going into medicare and social security. that will diminish in the next 5-7 years and maybe for only every person that retires there will be two people employed contributing to the medicare and social security. factors thatcal are in play. if you look at some of the things, i encourage people to get fiscally educated and look at some of the things that star between 2024-2030, especially with this tax bill. host: republican line, susan calling from providence, kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to make a comment.

i receive social security editors only $893 per month. i rely on medicaid to pay for my medical. if the tax plan goes through, they will cut that to where does that leave me? i could not pay for my bills if i'm only getting $893 per month. -- if theymment is want to give big corporations tax breaks, give them the incentive to hire people in order to get the tax breaks. it would make more sense to me and everybody else. thank you. host: on the front page of the "wall street journal" -- it reports the u.s. is seeking to bolster the defense and saudi arabia. the trump administration looking at ways to quickly strengthen saudi arabia's missile defenses

and disrupt the flow of advanced iranian made weapons across the middle east as concerns grow over destabilizing new crisis in the region. u.s. officials say they have rushed to ease regional tensions after and a reduction of unexpected developments, including saudi arabia's internal political upheaval and the mysterious resignation of the lebanese prime minister, and the launch by tehran backed rebels in yemen of an iranian made missile that was shot down near the saudi arabia capital. the trump administration is pushing for a quick resolution to the political stalemate in lebanon and the u.s. and saudi arabia can focus on what washington sees as the most significant regional threat, iran supply of sophisticated weapon to its middle east allies, including hezbollah. brenda is calling from consulting on the democratic line. what do you think the top news

story of the week was? caller: it was taxes. what people need to do is really listen to what paul ryan is saying. paul ryan said that there has been no meaningful tax reform since the reagan administration. he followed that up by saying , the over the past decade economy has been the lighting and weight -- lagging, and wages are stagnant, if there has been no reform since ronald reagan, the ronald reagan policies have been causing the stagnant wages and lagging economy. why do the same thing? since we are a consumer driven nation, tax breaks should be given to the consumers. businesses are already flushed with trillions of dollars of cash and have been that way for years.

yet they have not trickled it down to employees wages. giving them more money will not make that trickle-down to employees wages. businesses are flushed with trillions of dollars now. major tax breaks should be given to the consumers because the consumers are the true job creators. thank you. host: mike is calling in on the independent line from harrisburg, pennsylvania. what are your thoughts? >> i have two. a person before me was correct. send production ,verseas not because of taxes they do it so they can pay the people who do the work $.50 or our -- per hour. it has nothing to do with taxes which they already do not they. i hope the republicans and

dollar trump are happy with the performance of the keystone pipeline pumping 200,000 gallons of junk on the ground, exactly what the environmentalists and people against it predicted. it is not the first spill, just the biggest. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: another mike calling in from bloomington, illinois on the republican line. what did you think the biggest story of the week was? caller: i am a sensible republican. i think it is taxes. man, i have to disagree, as far as the corporate tax rate, what happens now is that apple built an iphone in china for a cost of about $50. they sell the phone to the subsidiary in the bahamas where there are no taxes. so dollars.

the imported to america and sell it to a retailer for $1000, they the$50 taxes on -- that is "profit." it is all about taxes. i hope they leave it alone. i came to the realization that if you do not have enough money to contribute to a republican where they will call you back and say thank you, you cannot afford to bureau publican. that ifconnell has said we do not get this past, our donors will go away. if you look at what they are doing, the inheritance tax kicks in over $5 million of inherited wealth per person, $10 million per couple. that affected less than 100 people last year and are 100

people whose lifestyle will not be affected by an increase in taxes. like --at would you aside from the estate tax -- what would you like to see changed in this bill? you do not like it entirely or there are missed opportunities as you see it? caller: i think there are missed opportunities. if you will cut the corporate tax rate, then you have to look at what the top tax rate was 80.it was 90%19 . send $.90int gm could to the government as taxes or they could raise their workers wages by one dollar per hour and it would cost them $.10. they can build a factory and it

will cost them $.10 on the dollar to do so. i am a proponent of adjusting taxes to affect behavior. i believe there is no societal benefit to inherited wealth. beyond the first generation. you have the creator and beyond that you have the suckers. [laughter] they live -- daddy worked hard and i will sit back and collect dividends. headlines, jesse jackson has announced he has parkinson's disease. the new york times reports that he said friday he has parkinson's disease. in a letter on twitter, mr. jackson shared the news and his struggle to accept it, recognition of this disease have been painful and i have been slow to grasp the gravity of it. a parkinson's diagnosis is not a stop sign but rather a signal i

must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy and hope -- in hope of slowing the progression of the disease. jaclyn on the democratic line from philadelphia. what was your top story? caller: fcc will reverse that neutrality on december 14 as reported by bloomberg. 14net neutrality on december as reported by bloomberg, the mainstream media has not reported on that as i think they should do. and donald trump bringing elephant trophies back to the u.s., thank god that was reversed. as far as taxes, mitch mcconnell said that it will add $1.4 trillion to our debt. --y have to say that because if it is over that amount, he has to have more than 51 votes. it will add $2.2 trillion to the

debt. he would not be able to pass that if truthful in regular order. corporations are sitting on $2 trillion overseas. they do not need anymore tax breaks. those taxes i hear will affect working people in 2025, which will raise the debt and make them cut every program. that people need in this country. the driver of our economy are consumers. raise our wages so we can buy more stuff. it is that simple. host: susan on the line from massachusetts, independent line. caller: hello, kimberly. pennsylvaniarom and the other one from pennsylvania, i agree. paul ryan is delusional. we are in the environment that

he purports to want to achieve through this disastrous tax bill. withrations are a wash trillions in assets. to bring the liquidity the money back to the states and invest in their infrastructure, our infrastructure, and in people's wages. and to hire more americans. they will not do it. offshore banking revelations for wikileaks indicate, not only is it our corporate class hiding all their wealth overseas, but a lot of wealthy everyday americans and certainly the celebrity glass. class. when will we develop patriotism. there is an upcoming book i think called "a nation of

-- this egos of i do not want to pay taxes. i have had two flat tires in the last six massachusetts. i don't own property. i have modest means. i'm a non-benefited contractor. i spent $700 replacing two tires. i think we need more warren buffett's, but we already have the environment this tax bill says it is going to create. we don't see these companies doing anything. their tax rates may be high on the books, but the de facto tax rate to all the loopholes means they don't pay any taxes at all. i'm so upset about it, kimberly. by the way, about the provocative dressing of the women newscasters, is the conservative icon fox news that makes their women dress like las

vegas cocktail hostesses. i agree. by the way, your colleague's dress yesterday did not show cleavage. it was very modest. that is all i have to say. host: mike from florida on the independent line. what was your biggest news story of the week? caller: i'm originally from upstate new york. i see the republicans want to eliminate all my tax deductions, estate tax, medical tax, all the deductions. now the corporate tax is lowered to 20% which no corporation pays that at all. what are the other loopholes? i have not heard one loophole for corporations being closed. can somebody explain that. the lady before me it spot on. it is doing wages and that's why jobs go overseas. thank you. host: last week, a caller asked us to talk about how the federal government spends its money.

here toher will be write that down for us next. later on, we talk about the future of the consumer financial protection bureau following the announcement of the resignation of richard cordray. ronald rubin will join us. we will be right back. >♪ >> c-span cities tour tasted burlington vermont with the help of our comcast cable partners who will explore the literary scene and history of burlington, which sits on the shores of lake champlain. today on book tv, author bill "the discusses his book,

full vermonty: vermont in the age of trump." for hillaryoted in more numbers than any other state. the numbers were impressive. we wanted to put together a book where people in the state answered the question, 20 we do now? -- what do we do now with trump in charge? in my view he's against most of the values and characteristics that vermonters have. >> sunday on american history tv, care about revolutionary war hero and vermont county founding father ethan allen. >> it was the first,. of the original green than boys. they were the largest paramilitary force in north america. if not for the actions of the

finale and -- ethan and when and agree not boys, vermont may very well have looked different than it does today. >> then a visit to the lake champlain maritime museum. >> america's first great lake when it comes to historic significance. lake champlain is a 120 mile long water superhighway that cuts between the green mountains of vermont and the adirondacks of new york. >> watch c-span's cities tour for burlington, vermont today on c-span2's book tv, and sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3. working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now is chuck marr, the director of federal tax policy at the center on budget and policy priorities. he is here to talk about how the federal government spends the

taxes citizens pay. they did for joining us today. guest: good morning. host: we had a caller last week from north carolina who really wanted us to look more about how tax revenue is spent. that is why we have you here today. we appreciate it. have easy -- how easy is it the follow the money of taxpayer funds? guest: it is relatively easy. there are major categories of spending. you think about the budget, the big broad categories. the first is the defense budget, which is roughly about 1/5 expenditures. paying for the defense of the country. then roughly another 1/5 goes to social security, a very successful program that manages people's retirement and disability programs.

then you get another chunk, which is the health care chuck. close to 1/5 which is medicare, health care for older people and medicaid which we have seen in the news very much this year. health care for lower income people and important nursing home care for older people as well. now we see part of the health care is the affordable care act which is now implicated in this tax bill once again. host: as you are discussing this we are showing the chart from the center on budget and policy priorities. this one talking specifically about where those taxpayers' dollars go. social security, medicare, medicaid, defense, international security assistance makeup the bulk of that. guest: everything else is in the remaining slice. you think about the roads, bridges, education, scientific all thosethe fbi,

programs we sort of think of as the government. it is that small slice at the end. host: has it always been this roughly kind of breakdown? always primarily budgeted -- defense spending, and also these other big-tickets? it has evolved over time. it was tiny in the beginning of the 20th century. defense as it becomes a global power, the defense expenditures rise. then you start to get the increasing -- the government starts to do more. the new deal is what brings on social security. the great society brings on medicare and medicaid. all along you have infrastructure. the highway system is built in the 1950's. it evolves and grows. each generation tries to improve with the government does. right now the big focus, if you think back to the obama administration, was to expand

the health coverage and that's what we have the affordable care act, and investment in health care. that was a more important slice of of the government is doing. host: i forgot to ask, can you explain what is the center on budget and policy priorities? guest: we are a think tank that focuses on the budget. it is really through the interests of low and moderate companies. host: we have chuck marr explaining where your taxpayer funds go once against the washington. democrats can call (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001. an independents, (202) 748-8002. we talked a little bit about where taxpayer dollars go. let's talk a little bit about where they come from. what are the primary sources of the federal government,

according to information from the center on budget and policy priorities. almost half comes from income tax, federal income tax paid by american taxpayers. 34% comes from payroll tax paid by employers. and smaller amounts. 9% from the corporate income tax. than all the rest make up the other 9%. guest: that is a great question. the largest sources individual income taxes. the payroll taxes are around one third of the taxes. for working and middle-class people, that's the most important tax they pay. you see the corporations pay a small share, 10%. that puts the tax bill in the context. it's about a major cut in the corporate tax rate. it does not touch payroll taxes. it is focused on that small slice which is the corporations. host: there are a lot of questions coming in for you.

we will get right to that. mickey from milwaukee. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. interesting subject. i have asked a few people and nobody has been able to provide me with a straight answer. travels toesident his resort in mar-a-lago, doesn't he also on a couple of occasions invited the chinese premier, the japanese prime minister. he took the entire delegation to mar-a-lago. when they would come to washington, d.c., for example the japanese premier might stay at the japanese ambassador's house. hotels around the city -- but when they go to the president's resort who pays for all these expenses? does the u.s. taxpayer cover the expenses of the foreign

delegations at the president's resorts? does the white house of an actual checkbook, or does that come from the department of treasury that reimburse donald trump's resorts? guest: that's an interesting question. we expect foreign countries would pay for their accommodations. i think the u.s. government will pay for the u.s. officials and for security. where the controversy comes with this president is he owns these properties. there is a question of whether he profits from the expenditures. it is really uncharted waters and obviously very controversial. host: mary from philadelphia on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i wanted -- i agree with your that we arearr, taxing and we are taking in less revenue as a result of these

loopholes that our politicians have instituted. i'm a retired state worker. i started with the nixon administration and retired under president obama's administration. trickle-down economics do not work. i witnessed this with president reagan. from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion under the reagan administration. and it was because we were not collecting revenue. 5 million undocumented people in the country. that means we had 5 million employers that failed to pay taxes into the system. now we have more. we have more than 11 million.

maybe possibly more than that if you institute people that have overstayed their visa. until we get immigration policies regulated and people are paying into the system we are going to continue to lose as taxpayers in this country. host: i want to give chuck marr a chance to respond. guest: you make some great points in the beginning of your question. historicala perspective. during the reagan administration and the bush administration that with the idea of trickle-down economics. we have a big tax cut, given the wealthy people and corporations, and somehow it helps other people. that did not work. the risk is even greater. if you think about it, the country right now is getting

older. our baby boomers are retiring. the oldest baby boomers right now is 70 years old. maybe you are in that group. that is going to build budget pressure over time. our debt will get higher and higher. what they are saying is republicans have this bill and they will add $1.5 trillion to the debt and get most of those tax cuts to corporations in hopes that trickles down. that is a very risky proposition. i agree we really should look back and see that has failed before and take a lesson from that. host: we were talking about where the tax money comes from and one of those areas was payroll taxes. you get a little more detail cvpp get into the the details of that. the federal government levies payroll taxes on wages, self-employment income and uses

most of the revenue to fund social security, medicare and other social insurance benefits. payroll taxes have become an increasingly important part of the federal budget over time. break that down. we have fica taxes? guest: do you see the fica line. that is basically the payroll taxes for social security which the employees pay 6.2% of their paycheck up to a cap. then the employers match that. been medicare, same thing. for the employer and employee. is a combination. that is what comes out of your paycheck. from working-class people that is the major tax they pay. when you look at the difference in your gross pay and that pay, that is the main thing that -- net pay, that is the main thing. the employer pays that for each

employee. basically the idea is employers will pay for an employee. to have this big insurance pool that everybody pays into. when the economy goes south, we have a recession, people lose their jobs and there is a trust fund of money that people can get some compensation for the work they have done to tide them over until they get a new job. host: lisa on the democratic line from california. caller: good morning. i have a two-part question. in the affordable care act, embedded in all premiums, whether you are an individual or being paid to an employer the affordable care act tax has been paid. in part that was supposed to account for the subsidy payments that would be paid, which is now been stopped. where does that affordable care act tax we are all paying that

is embedded in the premiums going? two, when it comes to medicare, medicare part a, we are all paying at least 10 years and are working lifetime. when we go on to medicare for part b, everybody pays a premium. as far as 2007, higher income people pay higher premiums to the u.s. government either directly or it is taken out of the social security check when they begin taking a social security check. the part b premiums are paid for medicare. or a can we get an account taxesown of how these aca we are all paying, including best witho medicare the percentages and the breakdowns they are talking about and we have a deficit and where we need to increase these

so medicare stays solvent and the affordable care act becomes stabilized in the market? guest: that the great question. medicare, through your payroll taxes you pay when you are working. when you retire, premiums that are adjusted. that is very important. the most topical part of your question really gets to the affordable care act. this is just -- it needs to be understood. the senate has got this big tax bill going through. all of a sudden it is actually a health care bill. they changed the tax bill and has become a health care bill. it is a direct hit, attack on the formal care act. be affordable care act that many pieces. subsidiesof medicaid, to help people afford to buy health insurance. but there was also a mandate that forced people, pushed people to buy health insurance, to get healthy young people into

the markets. that would balance out the risk pool. we see the republicans have added an incentive to the tax bill eliminating that. that is a very risky proposition and could do great harm to the affordable care act. what would happen is those people who would decide to take health insurance, they will have less access to their doctors. checking on their prediabetes and chronic illnesses, they will not have that contact with the doctor. the most important thing is he pulled these healthy people out of these markets and what that means is those markets will become destabilized. picture people in there. they are in the individual market access health care. their premiums will rise dramatically because of the change with healthy people pulling themselves out of the market.

we have numbers that estimate as a result of what the republicans are doing in the senate bill that the number of uninsured will rise by 13 million people. is -- hopefully the word will get out that the tax bill bill ande a health puts it risky affordable care act. -- put at risk the afford will care act. host: we're talking with chuck marr. formally an economic advisor to senate majority leader tom daschle, and on staff of the senate banking committee. we are explaining where text taxpayer money goes. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. the washington post has piece

of local officials worried about one aspect of this proposed bill, the elimination of the salt deductions. in small towns and thriving cities in republican and democratic states, local leaders are one of the $1.5 trillion tax legislation threatens to undermine their ability to raise money for government services, including police and schools. the republican measures would eliminate or severely curtail taxpayers ability to lower their federal tax bill by deducting the cost of state and local taxes. without the offset, local leaders say taxpayers will begin to seek relief closer to home, potentially making it more difficult to provide basic services." guest: this is a major risk of the tax bill that is moving through. they try to get rid of the state and local tax reduction -- deduction. people will no longer be able to deduct their income taxes in their state or the property tax.

that will so much harder for state and local governments to raise money. state and local governments are education,at pay for your neighborhood schools, your police, fire, local infrastructure. all of that will be harder to do because you are taking away this federal tax benefit. there is great risk and concern across the country. republican areas, democratic areas. it will be much harder for local governments to raise funds. host: exactly what is that between the federal tax and the local governments raise the money? --st: the federal government state and local governments will use property tax revenue. they will use it to pay for their schools. geters of that community the right off other federal taxes those property taxes. same thing for their income

taxes, which goes to pay for fire, police, infrastructure. now they will take that away. the federal government can no longer deduct your state income tax. what that means is in those local areas people will start to see them not wanting to pay those taxes. you take away the federal benefit. you will stress local and state governments. they will have a harder time raising money. that will put at risk those school fundings, infrastructure projects, police and fire. host: helene from louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning. host: doron with chuck marr -- you are on with chuck marr. caller: i am a retired teacher. i paid my 40 quarters in the social security. the government offset my able tont and i was not

collect on my social security. when you say that social security is a retirement system, i think you are giving the wrong picture. social security is a tax. that tax can be manipulated by the federal government. is -- for saying it years i thought it was my retirement system. i worked very hard to pay in those 40 quarters. i would like you to say something about that. yearseacher i retired 17 at $700 a month. i needed the social security. i went into a small business and the small business tax is unbelievable. host: i want to give chuck marr a chance to respond. guest: there are some carved out

social security's for state and local workers i believe, but social security is a universal program. people pay into it and they get retirement. it is the most important. it is the reason why poverty in the united states is among the lowest in older people because social security is successful. host: good morning. caller: good morning, mr. trump. -- mr. chuck. i have a question. maybe a couple of questions were quick. let's say we have 20 million illegal aliens in america. most of them maybe have kids. maybe they have different situations. they probably get some benefit from the government. nobody knows who they are because they are under the picture.

what happens if you give them social security numbers, not citizenship, and put them on the payroll and then charge them $5,000 for each illegal. multiply that by 20 million illegal aliens. in my opinion that's a lot of money they can go down to pay down the tax and also out of the -- picture this. let me know if this picture is exactly how it looks like. i see a big stadium. the top is filled with money. you have a bunch of rich folks laying on top of the money. paulcomes donald trump, ryan, and all the other republicans shoving money on top of what the already have. host: i would to give chuck marr

a chance to respond, particularly this illegal alien issue. guest: immigrants, i'll call it is no questionre there is an issue of immigration in the united states. undocumented,s, and up paying taxes into the government. it is hard for them to get benefits. i think are having more taxes paid by these folks than one would think. host: talk about that a little bit. what are the taxes paid by undocumented immigrants? guest: they can get a tax identification number and actually pay payroll taxes. that money will be taken out of their paycheck. they do end up paying quite a bit of taxes. that is an issue. we have an immigration issue that needs to be addressed. you have a large share of undocumented workers and their have been plans. bipartisan plan

-- bipartisan plans to work as people towards citizenship. theseof that does apply, penalties as they work in that direction. that has been stalled. on the second point, the president and money, i think it does get at an important point on this tax bill. it is heavily weighted. half the benefits go to people in the top 1%. wealth.d there are major benefits for people who inherit lots of money. it is very tilted in the direction of wealthy people. i think that is a big concern about the bill going forward. it really is tilted in favor of wealthy people and it poses this threat to the health care system. host: can you talk about the balance between the government's spending and its revenue?

i think people understand when they have their income they have to balance what they spend versus what they get. how out of whack is it for when it comes to government? guest: there are two concepts. there is money. the government takes in money and spend money. each year it is called the deficit. that is the budget deficit each year. and the accumulation of all the deficit is the debt. when one looks at it, you try to look at what is the share of the economy and what is the debt share of the economy. the economy is basically the country's income. be the debt as a share of the economy is about 77%. you have these future pressures because as a baby boomer retires, that debt will rise. we will see that rising. you look out 10 years and

inspected to go up by 77% of the economy to 90%. of the tax bill visible push that debt of higher. that is taking on a risk, a fiscal risk for what benefit? heavilybill is so tilted for corporations and wealthy people that average people will not get much benefit but they will have to pick up the tab. the debt will get to a level where all of a sudden the bill is done, now we have to come back and let's cut medicare, let's cut medicaid, let's get education. there's a real risk working class people, middle-class people will suffer and get the bill at the end. host: of couple more questions i want to squeeze in. what about the republican's -- they say that will be the growth created by the tax cuts. it will help offset that. guest: it's like magic. they were cut taxes and raise money. that has been something to have said before.

i think the are getting more bold. they used to say it will pay for part of it. now we have the secretary of the treasury unbelievably saying the tax cut will raise money. that is a fantasy. that will not happen. you cut taxes, it cost money. is risk here is the tax bill $1.5 trillion. that is a lot of money. they will borrow that money and again the folks will have to pay for it, the pressure will come. medicare, medicaid, education, science research. that is really what the threat is. host: milly from asheville, dr. lenin. -- north carolina. caller: i would like to ask why american taxpayers are paying for the bad behavior of people in d.c. i understand they make payments after harassment.

and it's coming out of taxpayer money. can you explain that to me? guest: the harassment, that is obviously desperately in the news now. all whole of terrible behavior by very prominent men. it just came out this week that there has been a lot of payments made in congress for harassment cases against employees. the government is paying that. i think that will be an area where you will probably see more attention in the coming time. where that money goes, who it comes from, the was involved. obviously there are so many headlines about prominent people. there will be a lot of interest about where exactly who is behaving in what way. i think that will be a topic that will be scrutinized. host: it is a fund in the treasury department set up? guest: it is coming out of the

congressional budget, and a question. -- no question. right now it is kind of anonymous. you are likely to see some investigations there. host: john from pennsylvania. you only have a couple of seconds. caller: thank you. my concern is for the deficit, which you brought up. at some point you are talking about increasing by tax reform. the fact is a continues to go up the matter what you guys in washington tried to do. not necessarily you. at some point this issue has to be addressed. we cannot continue the regular working -- at some point you will increase taxes to pay for all this. it seems like washington has no desire to address this issue ever. it just continues to grow. guest: i think right now the economy is elevated but it is manageable. the problem i have with the tax cut is taking on a debt risk for

very little benefit. trillion,orrow $1.5 ultimately somebody has to pay for that. if you give tax cuts to wealthy people and then later on expect you will have to raise taxes on the middle class, that's a bad deal. that is the risk of this plan. host: chuck marr, that you for joining us today and helping us to understand how these that's how it works a little bit. you can find more for the center on budget and policy priorities on cbpp.org. tough to say this morning. that you for joining us today. up,ld rubin is coming former enforcement attorney for the consumer financial protection bureau and he will talk about the future of that agency. glazek willpher join us for his spotlight on that using second -- magazine

segment. thank you. stay tuned. ♪ >> grant walked into the room first. he was wearing military camouflage, with the blood drop emblem right here. and the initials kkk on his chest. beret was not his to the ku klux klan. on his hip he had a semi automatic handgun on his holster. he was followed by mr. kelly, the grand dragon in a dark suit and tie. when he turned the corner, he saw me and froze. backelly bumped into his because the guy stopped short. they stumbled and regained their balance. i do with a rethinking.

either they gave him the wrong room number four this is an ambush. i would like this to display my hands. i stood up and i approached them. i said my name is there will davis, come on in. >> for the past 30 years, darrell davis has befriended ku klux klan members to convince them they are wrong. sunday night at iraq eastern on q&a on -- 8:00 eastern on q&a on c-span. tv, liveeekend on book coverage of the miami book fair. starting today at 10:30 a.m. eastern, msnbc's chris matthews on the political life of bobby kennedy. best-selling biographer walter isaacs and how leonardo da vinci. turrews's cater -- katie on following the campaign.

house near tactics are used to influence public opinion. political commentator charles sykes offers his thoughts on the conservative movement. van jones weighs in on partisan politics. the president america of spellman college look at race relations in united states. watch our live weekend coverage of the miami book fair this weekend on2 c-span's book tv. -- c-span2's book tv. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us is ronald rubin , a former enforcement attorney at the consumer financial protection bureau. he is here to talk about the decision by current director richard cordray to retire and what that will mean for the future of the agency. thank you so much for joining us today. remind our viewers what the

consumer financial protection bureau is and what it does. guest: it was created from the dodd frank act in 2010. it open for business in 2011. enforcepposed to several consumer financial protection laws which were in some cases and forth by other agencies or bank regulators. they were also given additional powers themselves. the: how long were you at -- what did you do that? guest: i was there for a year and a half. it is when things are being built here in i wrote a lot of important internal procedures. i worked with the current director richard cordray when he was the head of enforcement and that he was promoted or appointed to be director of the agency. host: talk a little bit about -- you said you have been critical

about how the agency is run. give us your view about how you think the agency, with the goal of the agency is and how it should be run. it was sold by elizabeth warren for chemo but the idea in 2007 before most people knew who she was. agencya law enforcement to protect consumers from fraud, from deceptive contracts, fine print, things like that. by the time he got through the legislative process, it was a much bigger agency with theory vast powers -- with very vast powers. it was not funded through congress. congress had no way of raining it in. even the president cannot fire the director. a case study and why

give anyd not government agency absolute power. imagee the idea and the that people have was they would be going after banks. nobody seen to mind. but if it absolute power over people, it would terrify them. nobody really objected but as it played out in became much more of a political entity than a law enforcement agency. that theyr the years were much more concerned with their press releases and getting direct what will headlines out the door with actually protecting consumers which was their job. host: we're joined by ronald rubin, a former enforcement attorney at the consumer financial protection bureau. we are talking about the agency and its future now its head,

richard cordray, will be leaving. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. and defendants, (202) 748-8002. independents, (202) 748-8002. talk about richard cordray. good a job has he done in leading this organization? it has had some high profile cases, including the wells fargo case in which some really terrible business practices were uncovered and addressed by the agency. guest: wells fargo, i'm glad he started with wells fargo. that is a perfect example of reality versus what people read in the news. in fact, wells fargo was the perfect case of what the cfpb should have been doing. there is no better -- if you could pick one thing the agency was designed to do, it was

supposed to stop wells fargo. at least the fraud that ended up coming out. what happened was two years they were doing on-site examinations. they did not find those problems at all. then in december of 2013, the l.a. times broke the huge story detailing all the things that were going on. you think at that point they would jump in and get involved, but as a came out the comptroller of the currency and the los angeles city attorney investigated for over two years. the cfpb stepped back and let the other two agencies do all the work. they barely did any investigations at all. but because the law is so much 'spb of the's side --cfpb side, they came in at the last minute when the other agencies had finished their investigations and the cfpb

imposed the biggest find of the three. their fine was one of $2 million. the other were -- $100 million. a night on the news he saw richard cordray on the national news saying this is horrible. everybody in the world thought, josh, cfpb did all the work. not only did they not investigate, they rushed at the end so they could get a settlement said they could be there on the podium with the other two agencies and they can look like they were actually the leader. what happened was over the next year you saw it turned out there were many, many more violations than nobody investigated and they went back for much further. sold all things short. -- the whole thing short. the argument that wells fargo shows that you need the cfpb is an off argument.

you need it operating, properly functioning cfpb, but not the way it was running. guest: we're joined by former cfpb enforcement attorney ronald rubin. we are talking about the future of the agency. fred on the independent line from st. paul, minnesota. caller: hi. is i was trying to get my interest rate lower with wells fargo. i'm currently at 5.5%. i feel if i should be able to have with the going is just rates are. my credit rating is good. it turns out the cfpb sets the rate for the debt to income ratio. which mine did not qualify for me to get a refinance for a

lower rate. i actually called al franken's office. my comment was they should change it from the cfpb to the pfpb. in my case it seems as if it is group, a bank protection bank finance protection agency, which did not surprise me. who writes these bills? i don't think the consumers are that much involved with writing this bill. i suspect the banks might have a lot to do with it. host: let me ask ronald rubin, what does the cfpb with respect to issues like this? guest: there are two issues. first was interest rates. the law forbids the cfpb from in any way influencing interest rates for anybody. the other issue was the qualified mortgage ability to

pay, which was the first thing the cfpb had to do with was supposed to prevent another financial collapse. they were giving out mortgages to people who should not having getting it. one thing a criticized the agency for was if you ask experts what is the one thing fault, it isthe people should have some kind of down payment. some kind of a deposit or skin in the game. when they started to write the rules, there was one included. then the consumer advocates got involved. the left wing. the liberal groups and they said, well, if you have a minimum down payment on a mortgage, for people with not be able to get a mortgage. if you think about it, cap is the whole point. -- that was the whole point. and set of that they ended up pages of hard 900

to discern rules of what makes you able to pay, not able to pay. they created this debt to income ratio which is hard to calculate. one thing that did come out of that was that they made mortgages very manilla. it was one-size-fits-all. for many years people have difficulty getting mortgages because they are trying to fit them in a very narrow definitions. i think if they wrote a one page will it said everybody has to put down 10% on their mortgage, that would probably have prevented the vast majority of defaults and everybody would've understood what was going on. host: terry from wisconsin, you were on with ronald rubin. caller: i have a couple of questions. they have made a ruling regarding wells fargo where

their own employees of wells fargo were setting up accounts for people who already had a council wells fargo. -- accounts with wells fargo. i have to take money out of either a checking or savings are cash might have on hand to start these accounts. i'm trying to figure out how it was that wells fargo -- where did the money come from initially to start the fraudulent accounts for people? whot: you have employees were given bigger bonuses or incentivized basin have any new accounts they opened. they would go into an account without telling them unless you havd is a cap with money in it, and it would open a credit card or a checking account and then it would close it. the consumer would never know

there was an account opened and closed in their name. a lot of times some people may say what is the harm in that? if you want to go get a mortgage, your credit rating would have been lower because you opened another account, or possibly would have and you would end up paying a higher interest rate the entire time of your mortgage. it was hard to quantify the --m, but it was a serious especially given the number of accounts ever opened without people knowing it. you are right. certainly you should know if an account is opened in your name and that was a problem. host: what are the names floated as a potential replacement for cordray is mick mulvaney. washington post reports president trump is considering naming him to run the consumer financial protection bureau on an interim basis, possibly setting up a

watchdog agency for a massive overhaul according to people briefed on the planning. that potentially set up a watchdog agency for a massive overhaul look like? guest: first of all there is some limit -- when you say overhaul, certain things would require legislation to actually change. culminating --r. mr. mulvaney. quite frankly there are other names being floated before then. i had not thought of mr. mulvaney. i think he is a perfect choice. he has gone on to the record saying harsh things about the agency, for the reason i think he is a perfect choice is first of all he does understand the agency and the issues. second of all, he is kind of the counterpart to elizabeth warren and that he does what he thinks,

he's very straightforward and not intimidated. job forbe really hard republicans to fix what is wrong with the agency now. one thing that might change is employees, the largest group in the agency are the supervision. of people who go into banks, payday lender's, credit card companies, whoever is under the jurisdiction of the cfpb for supervision purposes and, like in the case of wells fargo, look and find things going wrong. i think it has not been run well. i think they would have had a good grip on wells fargo long before it became public if that were the case. that is also very expensive

because you have people all over the country. they have to travel a lot to wherever the people they are examining our. -- examining are. i think there will be a lot of things that have been kept under wraps that are going to come out stonewalled apb lot. --y had the ability to work not turn over documents and things being asked for. probably the first thing that will come out will be you will find out a lot. about what really happened at wells fargo and how much the cfpb really good in the investigation. host: good morning. caller: good morning. sir, since you don't work for them no more i would like an honest answer. the equifax deal.

shouldn't somebody be in trouble for this? should they be looking into that? the should be protecting consumer and obviously they failed badly. thank you very much for c-span. guest: that's a very good question. and theyt the agency are not talking about things confidential. there is somewhat of a limit of what i know about this. the federal trade commission also has jurisdiction over equifax. the dodd frank act says only one or the other can do an investigation at the same time. i believe it is the ftc handling it. that is what you have heard the cfpb was silent about it. i believe they are not handling most of that matter. certainly this is even worse

than wells fargo. people who had no business with equifax ended up having their information hacked. i doubt when the republicans or democrats, -- nobody is not outraged by this. when i was of the agency i thought the credit rating agencies were probably one of the first and that should've been fixed because if you have a problem with your credit score, you call in and they put on hold for three hours. it is just not run in any way at all in a consumer-from a manner. -- consumer-friendly manner. host: what power does the cfpb to address that? ftc stepsuming the out of the way -- when you have two agencies that have to cornet with each other, if it were just the cfpb alone, they can go in.

they can examine, look at all the systems, make sure they have sensors for hacking in place. after the act they can have fines and things like that. given they are a supervised entity, the cfpb can just about cap out inside iraq -- campout insider offices and make sure they do things right. they have an enormous amount of power. it may be the ftc said this is our area. we have handled this for a long time. you just a in the background. host: james from pennsylvania on the republican line. you are on with ronald rubin. caller: thank you for coming in today and thank you for your candor. i work in financial services on a different side. scc often comehe

in. the confidence of the examiners is sometimes very questionable. they don't seem to know what the skeletons are buried in many different ways. i'm beginning to wonder if maybe that is the issue here with this agency as well. the second part of my question is the compensation of the people in sales and how their sales department to run. i currently work in sales supervision for a broker-dealer. i know we often run into obstacles with management and executive level interference with sales supervision. have you seen any of that in terms of the examinations while you were there with bank or loan entities interfering with sales supervision? and how do you decouple the compensation from these people who do dishonest things? i've listen to your answer.

basic and for c-span. guest: first of all, as i mentioned, i think probably the supervision part of the cfpb is the worst or among the worst run parts of the entire agency. i worked many years for the sec as well. getting good examiners is very hard to do. people that come and go. bank supervisors are kind of an interesting comparison because they tend to stay longer. they know their business but but they were criticized for was being in bed with the banks. they call it industry capture. they were to close with the people they were examining. it is kind of a hard balance to me between the two. far as sales, that was the problem with wells fargo.

you were incentivizing your salespeople to do something, and then you are not watching the way they did it. when you incentivize somebody to do something, you have to make sure you also have guardrails so than a go too far in their sales practices. host: there have been concerns from consumer watchdog groups about the departure of director cordray and the appointment of mr. mulvaney. according to nbc news, in the wake of consumer financial protection bureau director richard cordray's surprising resignation announcement, consumer what shocks -- watchdogs were worried they would see its mission undermined despite speculation he might leave the post vacant. president donald trump is rumored to be considering mulvaney. lawmakers have been quick to criticize the choice, seeing his wish to abolish the agency

entirely. reaction to the fears of advocates, and the you think getting rid of the cfpb but perhaps be better in your view that how it's operating now? guest: well, that's a good question. the choices are how it's operating out in getting rid of it, that's a hard question. i would like to think the answer is it can be operated properly. there is a place for this. made some of his most critical comments while he was in congress. if it given the job of right i believe you take the job seriously and mr. mulvaney would take the job seriously and run it and try to fix it rather than just trying to eliminate it. sunlight will be good

for this agency. -- one that any agency day at think this will be taught in classes as a case study of organizational problems. that you need to have sunlight. sunlight is very healthy. i believe mr. mulvaney, if he is in factand if mr. mulvaney is cs the interim director and do the job in good faith. one thing i had written was, every time republicans fpb,icized the cf pd -- c they say you love the big banks. i have been a vocal critic of it, but i have no interest in the banks in anyway. i would say that most republicans are not billionaires, not even millionaires, but we are all consumers and nobody likes to

get ripped off. i am sure mr. mulvaney does not like to get ripped off. to somehow say that he does not believe in that mission, i think that is a false statement from the start. host: ok. we have melanie on the line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. listening to you for the last 20 minutes or so, do we as consumers and americans, should we trust this agency right now considering who is, considering the administration? ronald: under director cordray? caller: under the current administration, period. ronald: they're all kinds of agencies that when republicans take over the government, they do not stop doing their jobs. there are many that are not political idol.

-- at all. i remember there were several changes of administration when i was there and i never noticed it. i went to work, i investigated illegal behavior and i did my job. i do not think that there is really any -- the consumer should not feel worried they want to have somebody protecting them, just because republicans are running the agency. by the way, it is not like five republicans will walk in the door and 1600 democrats will walk out the door, there will still be many career professionals who go to work every day and to do their jobs. host: ok. ronald rubin, a former attorney at the protections bureau. you can find more at his website ronaldlrubin.com. twitter.an find him on thank you for joining us. coming up, our spotlight on

magazine series continues and we will take a look at a recent investigation into the family behind oxycontin that was featured in "esquire" magazine. be right back. ♪ announcer: this weekend on american history tv on c-span3, today is the 70th anniversary of the hollywood pen hearings. family members of blacklisted artists read from transcripts. >> when was your last appointment? >> i just finished a picture. >> did you make any references to the studios in connection with your employment? >> no, i have been in theater for 25 years. i think i am well enough known to all of them from the rules i've played. >> were you a member of the communist party in 1942? >> i stand on the grounds of the

fifth amendment. well, it might incriminate me. the word communist is an emotional word, much like the word -- at 6:00 p.m., a discussion on civil war monuments. victory. about the victory in many ways celebrated in so many monuments the victory of reconstruction. announcer: and world war ii propaganda on the north african campaign. >> president of the united states and to the prime minister of great britain, the gravity of the moment brought them together. announcer: at 8:00 p.m. on the presidency, the book "26 seconds." starting in the late 1960's, versions of the film began to leak out.

and people began to see it. and when they saw it, because of the way that the film looked, it did not look like what the warring commission had concluded. announcer: american history tv, all weekend every weekend, only on c-span3. washington journal continues. host: joining us now from new york city is christopher glazek, a contributor to "esquire" magazine and here as part of our spotlight on magazine series to talk about his recent investigation into the family behind oxycontin and how they are profiting from the opioid crisis. thank you for joining us. christopher: thank you for having me, kimberly. host: tell us what made you look into this particular aspect of the opioid crisis. christopher: i write about

public health and i was interested in the epidemic for some time. there was an amazing series in the los angeles times last year that looked into oxycontin and the company that manufactured it. that series referred to the fact that it was actually one family that owns 100% of purdue pharma fromeaps billions oxycontin. it was shocking to make him i did not realize it was a single family behind the drug. the name maymily, sound familiar to viewers, particularly in the cultural world, there are many museums with that name. tell us who this family is. sacklerher: so the family is among the most famous philanthropists in the world. they give millions to education.

if you have been to the metropolitan in new york, or if you have been to the tate in england, the guggenheim, the brooklyn museum, almost all of them, the most important museums in the world have a sackler wing for a room named after them from a donation. same is true if you look at higher education. at almostitutes every ivy league schools. these are top schools, yale, caltech, nyu, etc. host: go ahead. christopher: so i was aware of the sackler name and they are extremely public about some things come extremely public about their donations, but they are private about their business and the source of their fortune. host: talk about that business and the connection between the

maker of oxycontin. christopher: right. so the sacklers are 100% owners of purdue pharma, and they own international companies linked to purdue pharma. it is based in connecticut. constituting is the overwhelming majority of their sales. the company has grossed about $35 billion in oxycontin since it was released in 1996. the sackler's have amassed a fortune of roughly $30 million as estimated by forbes, which could be the largest pharmaceutical fortune in recorded history. host: meanwhile, as we have talked a lot about before, there is an opioid crisis in the country. you write according to the cbc -- cdc, thousands of americans died in 2016 from overdoses, more than that there is 6000 that died from tash more than

the36,000 -- more than 36,000 that died that year from gun violence and car crashes. talk about the source of these opioids, which includes oxycontin, and the way that drug manufacturers and manufacture owners profit from it. christopher: it is important to understand with our current epidemic is that this really comes from the health care system. you know, for years and years and years, there was a strong, customary taboo or stigma about prescribing powerful opioids ate morphine, like heroin one time, there was a taboo against prescribing it for ordinary kinds of pain. what happened over time is that a kind of, there was a movement to use strong, long acting

opioids in cancer care for terminally ill patients. and purdue pharma, they had another drug in the 1980's contin, that was a morphine pill. the company have the idea, what if we took this drug and we marketed it to, instead of cancer patients, we market it to those suffering from toothaches, back pain and menstrual pain. they basically ramped up their operation and it started targeting a huge range of doctors. it really built the market for opioids and got thousands of americans hooked. recently, a lot of people, a lot of people who started on prescription drugs have switched to street drugs like heroin, but the source actually comes from a prescription drug. host: we are talking with

christopher glazek about his piece called "the secret of family, making billions from the opioid crisis." we have regional lines for the discussion. those in the eastern time zone's can call (202) 748-8000. those in the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. people who have had experience with opioids, you or family members, we have a special line for you -- (202) 748-8002. we will go to a caller from florida, east coast. good morning. you are on with christopher glazek. youer: this time of year, ofw, billions of dollars out -- this is costing thousands of people who get killed and died, people --the american

[indiscernible] hadstopher: i'm sorry, i trouble understanding the question. host: i think we still have him. i think we lost him. i think for the people who are affected by this, is there any recourse that they have against the sackler family or the company specifically? christopher: the company is really getting and circled by lawsuits. in 2007, they pled guilty to criminal charges brought by the federal government and they signed a big agreement where they had to pay $600 million, one of the biggest fines in pharmaceutical history and three top executives went down and had to pay millions themselves and pleaded guilty to criminal charges also. that was for criminally misbranding a prescription drug.

basically it was determined the company had lied about how addictive the drug was. so there was a big settlement already, now there are further suits that just the last couple months, and dozens found by -- many by cities, states, banding together to look at this. so the company is in big trouble. the question remains, is any of the litigation going to reach the family? in the current wave of lawsuits, no family members are named. in 2007 with the big settlement, no family members were named either. it was interesting because it looks like all the top executives from the company went down, the ceo, general counsel, chief medical officer, but that guy had just been promoted to ceo pretty recently. during the time when oxycontin was promoted and when the epidemic was born, the top executive was a member of the sackler family.

but they stepped aside after the federal investigation started. the way the media covered it, it looked like the top people had taken the fall, but in fact no members of the family were named in the suit. host: we are talking about the piece you wrote, "the secret of a family making billions on the opiate crisis." you mentioned earlier when talking about that, the way that oxycontin was made, or the reach was broadened, i want to take a pullout from the story. "had pulled off three of the great marketing triumphs. the first, selling oxycontin. promoting the sackler name. the third ensuring as far as the public is aware, the first and second have nothing to do with one another." the point you are just making, why hasn't the controversy over oxycontin specifically, and the

opioid crisis more generally, stuck to the sackler's at all? christopher: they made one really fateful decision, they did not name the company after the family name. they did not name any of the products after the family name. so it is not sackler pharma, it is purdue pharma. the family was three brothers from brooklyn. they grew up in working-class family, the family owned a grocery store. they got their start in pharmaceutical advertising and the patriarch, arthur sackler, he is most famous for devising the campaign for valmum in the 19 -- calum in the 1960's. and it is interesting, what he did with the value was -- valum is similar to what his siblings

did with oxycontin. there was a drug already on the market that was very similar to sackler hadrthur the idea of taking the similar substance and marketing it for a huge range of indications and elements. -- ailments. he created the concept of psychic tension, what we think about as stress. he said it could be at the root of all problems. you have a headache, sleep problems, if you have indigestion, sexual problems, all these physical conditions could maybe be treated by valum. ure all,e anchor -- a c very similar to what happened with oxycontin. this drug on the market already targeted at cancer patients, but the company had the idea, what if we market it for a range of conditions. host: we have a lot of callers waiting to ask you questions.

iris is calling from new jersey. caller: good morning. i wanted to say that you guys are doing a great job. i watch you every day. i have a grandson who has adhd and he has narcolepsy. wait, i cannot hear you. host: go ahead. you are on. caller: my daughter is having problems with the insurance company. they are refusing to give him the medication, which is --, that he needs for his condition. '4".s 12 years old, 5 he is very well tested. his doctor checked and triple checks, he does the brain scan everything months. host: let me ask, is the drug he

needs, are they opioids? caller: i do not know. they are substance controlled. i guess you would call them that. they are refusing, i was afraid it would happen, that with deregulation, what they are talking about doing, the insurance companies will not want to cover the necessary medications. host: i appreciate your issue, but i think it is not quite on-topic on what we are talking about, profiting off of opioids. christopher glazek, if you have insight you are free to weigh in. christopher: i am not sure the case is exactly the same, but it raises an issue which comes up a lot, there is always a balancing act between delivering medications to patients that really need it, and preventing addictive medication from flooding the market and creating

all the public health problems. it is something we struggled with with opioids for a long time, so you have very organized patient groups concerned that with all the headlines about the opioid epidemic killing thousands of people, it is like 1000 people every week, that they will no longer be able to get opioids that they need. it is a difficult problem to go through. one thing i would say, this is - shift inas been a attitude about this and last year the cdc issued guidelines raising questions about whether powerful, long acting opioids are actually appropriate for treating chronic pain longer than six weeks. there is not strong research that suggests they are effective for chronic pain, because they change your pain threshold. so they work well for a short amount of time, but if you are taking them week after week and

month after month, the dose has to be constantly escalating. so that happens to be a profitable business model if you are selling the drug. if somebody is taking it and they need more and more to keep up, that is a nice profit stream. host: ok. mary and calling from pittsburgh -- mary anne calling from pittsburgh. caller: good morning good i suffer from chronic -- morning. i suffer from chronic pain and i need my medicine. you are blaming the drugmakers for all these problems, when you should be holding the people responsible, themselves. i do not go out and look for heroin. you are, i think that you are appalling because you are saying it is everybody else's fault except for the person who put the needle in their arm. i think you are wrong, because you do not understand chronic

pain. if you do not have it, you do not understand it. everybody is being punished because everybody is doing everything else with the needles, you are not seeing heroin coming in across the border. i will wait for your response. christopher: sure. 80% of heroine addicts -- heroin addicts actually started on a prescription drug. there is a hard distinction on the one hand, and people taking drugs as prescribed for chronic pain on the other, it is fuzzier than it might seem. you have case after case of people who are prescribed opioids that are too strong for their condition and they become addicts and it ruins their lives. there is absolutely a large group of patients who need opioids to treat their condition and it is important to keep it available to them, but we need to look at the other side. something i would say, obviously

we have a tendency to blame addicts, and if we do not we often blame the doctors who prescribe it, some of them are involved in illegal activities. sometimes we blame the distributors. but what i really wanted to look at in the investigation, taking an aerial view of the whole problem. who is profiting most here? who has the most aerial view of what is going on? who has the most granular data about where the pills are going, who is taking them and he was prescribing them? it turns out to be the person at the beginning of the chain, the manufacturer. purdue pharma built of market and now we are dealing with the consequences. host: we have hope calling from california with experience with opioid use. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am a doctor. and this is a great topic. i know in the middle to

2000's, congress passed a bill that makes the companies responsible. so why is congress allowing the products this down market? -- to stay on the market? christopher: that is a good question. some of these questions might be best addressed to the fda. their role is a big part of the story. when they approved the application for oxycontin they made what seems like a number of mistakes in allowing the company to make claims about it, and the company then went beyond those claims, which is a source of a lot of the litigation. part of the issue is whether callers brought up, that there are patients who need these drugs, so there is concern if you issue, or take them off the market entirely, issue blanket prohibition, that you will be preventing cancer patients, terminally ill patients, and other kinds of patients from

getting the drugs they need. other countries do not seem to have this problem in the same way. the united states consumes by far the most opioids compared to any country in the world, more than 50% and we are only 5% of the world population. other countries have not had a prescription drug epidemic. that is one thing that drew me to the investigation also. purdue pharma and the sackler family, which owns international companies, is now trying to do in other countries the same thing they did here. they are reprising their greatest hits in terms of pain, doctors giving speeches on their behalf, downplaying the addiction. they have gotten into hot water in the united states, but now they are taking their same tactics and they are going to china, colombia, brazil, they just released a study in

colombia that suggested that 42% of the population -- 47% of the population suffers from chronic pain. that is half the population. host: we are talking with christopher glazek about his piece in "esquire" magazine, about the family that owns purdue pharma and how they have profited off of oxycontin, while in epidemic rages in the country. talk about, how the viewers have pointed out, that the opioid crisis is much bigger than oxycontin, but talk about how much of this can be attributed to this drug and this family. iss oxycontin, related -- there other drugs involved? talk about those. christopher: i was shocked in my reporting how much responsibility experts pin on

this one company and on the family behind it. the issue is that purdue pharma, through its aggressive marketing, they ended up changing medical taboos and customs in the country. they built this market. then everybody else feasted on the carcass. then we have all the other big manufacturers getting stock in the game, making their own opioids. they saw the profits produced from was making and they went after it. there is an interesting question, purdue pharma is a privately held company going to tory asleep secretive -- and notoriously secretive, owned by one family. they did not have to make the same kind of disclosures about what was going on at the company if they were publicly traded, if they were like pfizer or johnson and johnson. would the big boys really have done the same kind of thing pretty fermented in the 1990's

thehing purdue did in 1990's? they are privately held, they do not have to disclose certain things. did it enable them to be more aggressive, take risks with regulators that other companies would not have taken? i think it is a good question. but the broader point is that we tend to think of these big, public health crises as the result of these large and personal forces that are complicated and unfold over time, that are hard to understand. that is true to an extent, but it can distract from the fact that a lot of social problems take form from the action of individuals. and to a degree these prescription drug prices -- crisis in the united states, it really does have its roots in actions taken by executives of

particular companies. host: we have a twitter comment that i will read to you. "we could fix a lot of family fortunes from growing by indian foundations and other nontax entities." is that part of the problem as you see it? christopher: there is a question about our culture's tendency to allow billionaires to -- their reputations through donations to museums and universities and medical research and, you know, and they are tax-exempt and many people think it is actually not a good idea. i am not sure the tax exemption is the most important element of the problem, but certainly the settlers -- the family had purchased goodwill by investing their fortune into these blue-chip brands, into the metropolitan museum of art and

others. devise a lot of goodwill -- it b uys a lot of goodwill. i spoke with those that received donations from them over the years and they had nothing but amazing things to say about the family, they are the nicest people, the best donors. their strategy is different from some people. you have bill gates for instance who started this single giant global behemoth the gates foundation, really involved in causes like malaria and other diseases. you have andrew carnegie, in the 19th century, who founded thousands of libraries with his name on it. what the sackler family has done is they chose institutions that already have endowments and the attached their names to those institutions by buying and. -- in. it is a different strategy, but effective at making them a beloved family and the charity circuit. host: i want to get to some

questions we still have. dan calling from columbus, georgia. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i was just watching this. and years ago i was prescribed oxycontin for pain. they did not try me on it, they just threw me on oxycontin, which i got addicted to. buti have issues like -- you really cannot understand someone's pain unless you are living it. but i got off of the oxycontin by the way of methadone treatment. now i am stuck there. what do i do about that? host: go ahead, christopher. christopher: it is a good question. another really difficult thing about the opioid epidemic is that we have the interest in trying to prevent new addicts

from being created, and we have the question of how to best treat people who are currently addicted. we know the best treatment for opioid addiction is this medication assisted treatment, which involves some kind of opioid maintenance. if you can get people on a standard dose that they take every day that does not increase, that satisfies their physical dependence on opioids and it does not disrupt their lives, evidence shows it is the best strategy. we do that a number of ways and methadone clinics are a successful approach to that. likeso use medications subject ask -- and new medications are being developed, also. when you're talking about the opioid crisis, we have to get rid of all the opioids, well, that could be a catastrophe also. many people are addicted and we need to make sure that that is

protected, these maintenance doses. when we develop tools to get them off of the maintenance dose, that is something we are hopeful about. host: karen is calling from colorado with experience in the opioid epidemic. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am so glad to have an opportunity to say something about this, and i am sure i am speaking for millions in this country. i am 53 years old. was atil i was age 29, i world traveling musician. guide takingay people down the colorado on trips. careerad this great trajectory. with aot diagnosed disease, an excruciatingly

bladder disease that technically they do not call terminal, although we are what iminal, and they -- went through in those last 20 years, the first six years i did not want, i did not want to start any pain meds. but it doesn't take long before you say uncle. and what is missing from all these conversations is everybody is talking about addiction. um, i do not know where everybody is getting their information, but patients that have been barred from congress testify because when somebody deals with chronic

pain there is a certain amount you can distract yourself from, but when it becomes above level 4 or 5, somebody's personal level, it becomes a terminal illness and it started affecting me and i ended up getting gallbladder disease and others. i was the picture of health for my first 29 years. host: karen, we only have a little bit of time left and i want to give christopher a chance to respond. christopher: i am so sorry to hear about the caller's medical problems. and i would like to reiterate effectiveds are an treatment for a lot of people and it is important for those that need the drug, that they get the drug. the issue we have, with the medical system in our country, when you connect the profit motive to a highly addictive medication, the opportunities and incentives to overprescribed

are so great that it is up creating problems like we have, like the opioid epidemic, where millions have died. you have pharmaceutical companies at the same time giving money to doctors, you know, and giving money to pharmacists and distributors in a sophisticated system for incentivizing each part of the chain to prescribe more and more. other countries do not have the prescription drug crisis we have, and it has a lot to do with, almost everything you do with the profit motive from the manufacturer. host: ok. christopher glazek, thank you for joining us to talk about your story. they can find it on esquire.com. you can also find christopher on twitter. thank you for joining us. christopher: thank you. host: coming up, we will be taking more of your phone calls.

democrats can call (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, and independents, (202) 748-8002. first, newsmakers interviewed the texas attorney general and he spoke with reporters about the president's proposed border wall and what is happening with immigration. here is some of the interview airing tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. what do youous, think would happen to the economy of texas if you succeed in your agenda of chasing out everybody working without a visa? >> the goal is to protect the border and what i said is, i do not know if the wall is something that will go throughout the entire border, but i want the most effective means of preventing illegal immigration. from a safety standpoint, two,

people should not be able to come illegally. el paso has a fence. they have a border with mexico. before they put it up during the bush administration, they had one of the highest crime rates in the nation and now it is one of the safest cities. there is no reason to not put up a wall in some places if it provides safety for our citizens. >> what is the status of those trying to cross illegally into texas? we saw an uptick under the obama administration. what has been happening recently and what kind of situation as it put border patrol into? i saw a report of catch and release because the beds are full. >> illegal immigration is an ethically down, largely because of the message from the president, it has been strong and good. i had the opportunity to meet

with local police departments, border enforcement, numerous times and they are excited to do their jobs, because under the obama administration they were not able to enforce the law. they were just letting people in. the numbers are coming down and one is the message that people know. if you come, you will be arrested and you will be sent back. it works. you let these people do their jobs, you let border patrol and customs and enforcement and local people do their jobs, we are actually successful in preventing that you immigration and protecting citizens. >> you are not seeing more migration? >> no, it is significantly down. >> is there -- announcer: washington journal continues. host: we are taking your calls in this segment on open phones. democrats, (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . we are waiting to hear what is on your mind. we will look at headlines in papers across the country. chattanooga's free press in tennessee, focusing on the allegations that are creating a divide among republican women. roy moore, the alabama senate candidate, his wife has remained a defender, and it takes the front spot in that they prepared american news -- in that paper. american news says, wherever the oil is, it is our responsibility -- a transcanada representative responded after the leak of more than 200,000 gallons of oil from the keystone pipeline. the grand rapids press in michigan has a photo including some of the biggest news

stories, including the president's trip to asia, the controversy over ucla basketball players shoplifting, as well as bob menendez's mistrial and to the sexual misconduct allegations against roy moore and senator al franken. finally, the houston chronicle, the top of the headline, testing officials' patience. the governor saying the billion-dollar request is an adequate to help those still suffering from the effects of hurricane harvey. and we have someone on the independent line. stephen? caller: i follow a lot of these military campaigns and i want to just point out, because this is not really in the news, one battle was in afghanistan. it was the united states air force and it was the u.s. army

led operation, and there was a gunship -- and these guys fired so many shells in an ambush, that they called in the gunship. they thought it was going to blow up. that is one battle that was really historic and i wanted to point that out. another one is the victory in raqqa, by really unknown u.s. marine corps artillery units. they are called first battalion -- marines. many, i dofired so not know how much, so many shells out of their artillery. i mean this is not happened since korea. said thatl quoted, this particular marine corps artillery unit killed more isis members than anybody. even the u.s. army special

forces in the battle against raqqa. i want to note that having ground troops makes a difference. campaigny in this isis in the middle east. you know, a lot of these were connected right to terrorist attacks in paris and in brussels, just connections, you know. slavery in women, child soldiers, these are very definitively evil people. so i want to note that these two battles are very historic. if i had my way i would bring them forward. this is my way of doing it for special recognition. unitse it is underrated and i am so proud of my guys. host: ok. cornelia: from cottonwood, idaho

on the republican line. what is on your mind? caller: good morning. i just wanted to kind of tie in with the last program and i really commend christopher andek for his research investigation, and i hope he continues to do that, because i think overall we have problems with corruption. between the fda and the pharmaceutical companies in general. heard one ofmay i the idaho senators took a $500,000 donation from a prescription company. i do not know it for sure, i just heard it. but there are other senators, dick durbin is a big one that takes donations from prescription companies. i think that needs to be looked at. where the donations are coming from to these political parties and individuals in the parties,

because i think it affects both sides of the political spectrum. and you know, it did not used to be that prescription drugs could be advertised on tv. and nowadays, they just have one prescription drug advertisement on tv after another. which encourages people to back their doctors -- beg their doctors for these prescriptions. there are natural ways of treating pain. for instance, vitamin d is just overlooked and people should be tested for vitamin d levels, because just plain old vitamin d, which is dirt cheap and you can buy it over the counter, is very effective for some kinds of ailments and pain, that is just not looked into because there is no real lucrative business for vitamin d. host: ok. in a programming note, this

weekend c-span's cities tour takes you to burlington, vermont as we explore its history and literary scene. today at 6:30 p.m. on book tv, all of our nonfiction book tv programs aired together in one andall on theing r war of 1812. >> many people have misconceptions about the war of 1812. they think it was all about the star-spangled banner and the british attack on washington. and that it was not very important, like a hiccup in history. it really was not just the war of 1812, it was the end of the american revolution that had been going on since july 4, 1776. it was a long struggle with the british over trade and rights, and the british wanted basically to take us back. it is much more important than

the way it is taught in school. host: again, that was c-span's cities tour. you can catch this and all of that programming at c-span.org/citiestour. annie is calling -- anne, sorry about that. what is on your mind? caller: i was going to say roy moore should take a light detector test. he could prove his innocence. there is no reason for the women to take a lie detector test, they cannot go into civil courts and take things from him. but he has everything to gain from taking the test. host: in other headlines, from axios, the report that the war on isis is killing 31 times more civilians than originally claimed. it says the war on isis is claiming civilian lives at a rate of 31 times higher than

previously acknowledged, according to new york times reporters who conducted an 18 month investigation. the staggering number "is such a distance from initial claims, that it could be the least transparent war in recent american history." it says the coalition claims that one civilian is acclaimed to be killed -- one civilian is killed in every 100 airstrikes, but on the ground analysis shows that one is killed in every five airstrikes. mimi is calling from consulting, what is on your mind? caller: i would like to offer a suggestion for sexual harassment abatement. that would be to get together progressive and conservative and evangelical groups to put out a report card on commercial firms

and various government firms, give them a score on how they deal with sexual harassment. and seem a 10 or a 0, if we can put pressure on them by shaming them instead of the women that are shamed into it. host: is there any concern about how accurate the gauge might be, considering how many women have said that they were discouraged for so long for reporting sexual harassment for fear of backlash from employers or the public? caller: sure. i thought about that and i think that we should offer a liberty medal for women coming forward, some kind of reward for women who courageously do that. i saw the bit about sally quinn coming forward, her complaints about i think john tower, who

was a former secretary of defense. votes becauseve she had heard about the story, so we have to get out and we have to get a reward. give a freedom medal to those women that come forward. host: ok. we are taking calls from viewers. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. jim is: from pearl river new york -- from pearl river, new york. caller: talking about the tax package, which is now before the senate, and the concept of bringing the corporate dollars earned offshore back. there should be a provision, that the corporations who received the money back, they should not be allowed to buy their own stock back.

they probably should not be allowed to pay down debt. they should be channeled or encouraged or forced to use money for new projects. if you are buying back your stock, you are basically not finding anything else better to invest in and is a negative force that will accomplish nothing and it certainly will not help the economy. host: and in other headlines, the wall street journal is reporting that lawmakers are sparring over disaster relief. " lawmakers from both parties, the latest request for emergency relief funds, falling short of what it needed to recover from the devastating storms, and brace for a political fight over how to pay for it." in the funding request on friday, the third today, the white house at for $44 billion in emergency disaster relief and say just a trimming federal spending by $57 billion to offset the cost. the budget director mick

mulvaney said in a letter, that the leaders at the white house would be requesting additional funds later to help puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands recover from hurricane maria. that more time is needed to assess the damage. and jeff is calling from florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: yes, i was calling about the ban on importing trophies of dead elephants into the country. i wondered who got a hold of his two sonsand if had any input on allowing it to um, overturned. host: do you think the president should have backed off of that proposal? caller: absolutely. everything i have read on the numbers of elephants and how

they are decimated, it is a terrible ruling. two very unstable countries that allow them, they say they allow them because it will help support the elephants that are left. but i do not see the money being funneled in that direction at all. host: again, the tweak from the president -- tweet from the president last night, saying that the rollback will be on hold until it is reviewed. "will update soon with secretary zinke. thank you." host: we have a caller on the republican line, as we continue to take calls on the open lines. good morning, sergio. caller: what i wanted to say is they only talk about the high class and middle class people, what about people who only make, or only get $8,000 to live off of?

a thousand dollars a year to $8000 a year to live off of. how can we do that? we already worked 30 years of our lives paying taxes to all these republicans. and these people, they cannot get fired. there are laws they cannot get fired. they should be fired for getting nothing done. they just talk and never do nothing. what is the deal? there should be somebody, all the american people should get together and fire all these guys and put in new people, because they are too old. they have no good ideas. they have got nothing. they just talk. we need smart people in the government, not stupid people like all these old people. they are too old. they are back in the last century. they are too old. host: ok. in other headlines, in the washington post says that the

puerto rico utility chief has quit amid the crisis. the executive director of the puerto rico electric power authority resigned on friday, weeksuestions on repairs after the logical grid was destroyed. he had been questioned about a 300 billion -- about a $300 million contract signed with a small firm, instead of more experienced firms that usually rush to these storm ravaged areas. the rates were substantially higher than those paid to others. it was later canceled. the government announced the resignation, saying that roa mos tenure had become unsustainable. we have charlie on the line. caller: hi. i love your show. statistically,

when people were just getting their opioid painkillers and doctors were not getting in trouble, where people overdosing at the rate they are now? or has doctors being punished for giving out opiates, has increased the deaths? and i am looking at police action, police pulling people over for dui, if somebody is on an opiate they cannot tell. does that prompt people to take opiates to get away from the drunk driving thing? are there any statistics? host: unfortunately, christopher anymore, not with us but maybe somebody can shed light on that. we have a caller from washington dc. caller: i was falling asleep last night watching c-span and the hearing with senator corker,

to discuss taking on the nuclear first strike, how the process -- to keep theops president for firing off a nuclear missile without the informedf -- the consent of congress. it was alarming when they got to the point, they were talking about maybe mcmaster, but if i heard them right there were discussions last year, or earlier this year rather, to initiate a nuclear first strike on north korea. i was floored that i had not heard more about it. now i have to go back to the archives and watch the episode again, that corker hearing on nuclear first strike capability, but i think it is something to pay more attention to right away. host: that was the foreign relations committee hearing earlier this week about nuclear

strike authority for the first time -- strike authority. for the first time in decades looking at restricting the president's ability to make the first strike. and it can be found in our archives on c-span.org. and in other headlines, from the hill reports that if you like you can own a piece of the wedding cake from president trump and the first lady's wedding. the souvenir cake from the wedding is up for auction. julian's auction is expecting it to sell around, expecting each piece to sell around $1000. it was a white truffle cake that was a take-home gift from the wedding. according to the item description, the actual cake,

which reportedly cost over $50,000, was a seven tier cake wir contained too much e to consume. we have someone on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. we found this morning that c-span once again has been hacked by the ability of a couple days ago, somebody individual,-- an chuck, it would be on today to explain how the tax bill is going to affect people. tock explained what happens your taxes and where they go, but here he is. of the formeriate representative -- a democrat of

course, so he crafted the whole morning about where the taxes go, but he failed to include, and so did greta the other morning when she gave the address twice, but did not give the government address. do you know and have you given what the government says, the dot.gov address, for where your taxes go? huck went on to whiz, all the benefits are going to the rich. we did not get an explanation that the rich pay all the taxes. uckaddition to that, ch talks about the great income from the taxes paid by

immigrants, illegal immigrants, but he never mentioned that when he was talking about what pays for your taxes. i wish c-span, which i watch every morning, would to our call in program. thank you very much. i love sees him. >> coming up tomorrow, we will democraticgn poster pollster here to discuss public opinion and key issues facing the trunk presidency and the congress. donald trump presidency.

they will be discussing the president's authority to launch nuclear weapons. we will be back at 7 a.m.. have a great saturday. , we will take a look at the hurricane aftermath in puerto rico and the virgin recovery efforts. after that some debate from the floor of the tax reform bill which passed the congress. this weekend c-span cities tour takes you to burlington

vermont and with the help of our table partners exploring the literary theme of hurling 10 from the shores of lake champlain. cartoonist maher and discusses book, the full vermont. vermont in the age of trump. >> we wanted to put out a book voted forrmont hillary clinton in greater numbers than any others they. state so itsmall doesn't amount to much. we wanted to put together a book answer the question, what do we do now with donald trump in charge? >> in my view, against most of the values and characteristics that vermonters have. >>