place in iran and the response from the administration. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. washington journal is next. host: good morning. returning with a mid-january deadline to reach a spending agreement. congressional republican leaders spending part of the weekend at camp david meeting with president trump mapping out 2018 agenda. the president delivering his state of the union address on january 30. it is sunday morning, the seventh of january. we will focus on what the new year means for your health care. we will also address the growing unrest in iran. we begin with the president's latest tweets calling himself a

"stable genius." reaction toet your what he had to say on twitter. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8002 independents. send us a tweet. we will read them. join us on facebook. good sunday morning. we will read them. was begin with the president's tweets yesterday -- let's begin with the present -- president's tweets yesterday. wrote -- he wrote: -- he the president yesterday on

twitter. we want to get to your calls and comments on his description of being a very stable genius. headline of the new york times, trump declared himself mentally fit. president trump who sometimes -- who's a sometimes erratic -- vior whose sometimes erratic behavior --

that this morning from the new york times. much of this focusing on the new book fire and theory -- fire and fury by michael wolff.

yesterday the president addressing the book and also questions on his twitter comments. talking about the policy issues. this morning you are tweeting about your mental state. why did you feel the need to tweet about that this morning? >> i went to the best colleges. i was a very excellent student. became one of the top business people. went to television. 10 years was a tremendous success as you probably have heard. ran for president one time and won. and then i hear this guy that does not know me at all. by the way did not interview me. said he interviewed me for three hours in the white house. didn't do this. what i was heartened by because

i talked about fake news was the fact that so many of the people that i talk about in terms of fake news actually came to the defense of this great administration and even myself because they know he's a fraud. what i saw some of the people say if you look at his past books he did a book on rupert that was a terrible expose and it was false. i consider it a work of fiction and i think it's a disgrace for anybody to have someone do something like that. if the libel laws were stronger it would be very helpful. you wouldn't have things like that happen where you can say whatever comes to your head to he was never in the oval office. we didn't have an interview. i did a quick interview with him a long time ago. but i don't know this man.

i guess sloppy steve brought him into the white house. and of course sloppy steve is the new nickname by the president for steve bannon. this is from our friend carol saying there's nothing wrong with his mind but he is not a president to which we are accustomed. from david, people often say that they are rich smart or good-looking aren't. and there's another tweet from richard rogers. trumpet a not so stable narcissist who is a constant chronic pathological liar. the gop needs to put country over party. surprisert common surprise, another trump attack show. actually we are using trump's words to get your reaction. good, bad or indifferent. on the democrat line, good morning.

how cold is it in minnesota this morning? in minnesota this morning looking outside right now it is above zero. host: it was three degrees this morning in washington, d.c. caller: it has been 20 below zero for quite a few days in a row. host: warm weather is on the way we are told. go ahead. caller: i'm concerned about his mental health. donald wants to see us going into a war with north korea. nuclear wars are not good. tells kim jong-un that he's got a bigger nuclear button that kind of childish. he does a lot of name-calling. ,e talks about sloppy steve little rock and man, crooked

hillary, lying ted cruz -- little rocket man, crooked hillary, lying ted cruz. he's name-calling like kids in a schoolyard. that theymebody like can decide whether or not we are going to war or not? that's frightening to me. that's my comment. i don't think he's mentally stable at all. host: the washington post put together a short clip with some of the nicknames he has used over the years. michael in pennsylvania, republican line. good morning. the president saying i am a very stable genius. your reaction. caller: he gives us a lot of fodder. like muhammad ali.

theatricthat kind of mentality which we are not used to in a president. but i think it's kind of entertaining sometimes. i think he also has to do some some of thentradict ridiculous assertions by this media and to think that somebody who is -- who has amassed a large fortune as he has an somebody who has done so well in business and has raised what i consider to be a nice family and kept it together through all the difficulties that he has faced and i think it's kind of admirable. this book that's come out is ridiculous and the fact that it is selling like hotcakes shows how willing people are to believe that their president is a nutcase. and that's pretty bad for our country. to pull ushis leader

through some of the difficulties that we might face. is there might be some difficulties and it certainly has not worked in the past with the way we have treated north korea. debatend unprecedented driven by michael wolff's book. the mainstream media, the conjecture and trumps tweeted response to the same. another comment, it's nice to hear trump and i share something in common. we are both stable geniuses. on the republican line vincent from tulsa, oklahoma. good morning. ander: i am a genius myself i think trump is one. i will tell you who is not is ralph nader. host: ok. al in chicago. democrats line. good morning. have tobasically if you

call yourself a genius you are not a genius. if he was such a genius why doesn't he study, why doesn't he learn what the real problems are instead of pontificating? he golfs. he talked about obama golfing. how many times has he golfed this year? why haven't you shown his tax returns? most flawed is the candidate for president i have seen in my lifetime and i am 61 years old. he is destroying this country and if people don't see that -- if obama had done some of the things that donald trump had done they would be calling to hang him or whatever. it's ridiculous that we are letting this guy get away with this. he is ruining this country. bottom line. is this how actual smart people talk about themselves? hint not by discussing iq.

there are three traits i would report from the long trail of interviewing people are very intelligent. they all know it. virtually none of them need to say it. know what they don't know. the more acute somebody's ability to perceive and assess the more likely that person is to recognize his or her limits. that's from james fallows this morning at atlantic.com. how actual smart people talk about themselves. frank in new jersey. good morning. i just want to say the democrats love joe biden. they asked joe biden about president trump and he says could you imagine him saying my button is bigger than your button? that's crazy. breath the interview

asked joe biden are you thinking of running in 2020? he says i don't know. what about the senator that said you are too old to run? take him out. i will show him who's too old. i know i can take him. why when he makes cracks like that everything is fine. if president trump they would say that it's very childish. people are crazy. hearhear what they want to and they make cracks. president trump is the only guy that helping this country out and we should get off his back. host: why would we believe a person to self evaluate their own menstrual -- mental instability when they are a pathological liar?

another point of view, he is a marketing genius, not a mental health view it -- heavyweight. mark is next in california. good morning. caller: good morning. i have never heard of a bigger liar in my life. and i just can't understand what makes this guy want to lie so much. to me it seems like he would like to run a country instead of telling big whoppers about himself. thank you very much. host: will go to silver spring, maryland. victor on the republican line. court comestrump's from its center. more on the fire and fury book. victor, good morning.

caller: good morning. i love what trump is doing. he's driving the left even crazier. i have a comment about the democrats in general. they are the ones that are ull ong this transgender bowl= anybody. if you feel like a woman you can and somehe ladies room pervert can go in there and molest somebody. if you want to make sure that the restrooms are for women or for men, vote republicans. they won't put up with this bull from the democrats about allowing anybody to go in what restroom locker room shower whatever they feel like it. bunch of freaks. and some pervert can go in there and molest somebody. host: victor from silver spring. i don't think he is a genius but he is a master of trending --

branding and -- provocation. michael wolff making me around. his first appearance was friday on nbc's today show with questions from savannah guthrie. >> according to your reporting presidentround the questions his intelligence and fitness for office. >> let me put a mark around that in thehost: sound -- sand. 100% of the people around him. >> jared kushner, ivanka trump quickness is -- question his fitness for office? >> i want to be careful about who i spoke to because the nature of this kind of book is you grant everyone a veil. having said that, certainly chaired and ivanka -- jared and ivanka which in their current

situation is a deep legal quagmire of putting everything on the president. not us, it's him. >> what are some of the ways president was described to you by those closest to him? >> i will tell you the one description that everyone gave. everyone has in common. they all say he is like a child. and what they mean by that is he has a need for immediate gratification. it's all about him. this cease-and-desist letter. i still have sources in the white house and i know everyone was going -- we should not be doing this. this is not smart. and he just insists. he just has to be satisfied in the moment. host: from the nbc today show appearance on friday, author michael wolff. the book that blew up washington is available online. this is what it looks like.

i don't know what to make of michael wolff's excerpts. it is clear that steve bannon was a major source and i would not trust a thing that man says. a lot of the material falls into categoryood to check of journalism. there is some basic errors involving agents, dates and typos and the content seems designed to fit the media's preferred narrative that president trump is senile or crazy or both. reporting to confirm what everyone in the press already believes is a surefire way to maximize publicity and sales. it doesn't mean what you're selling is true. that from the national review and the essay. the book that blew up washington. rose from west virginia. independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. my opinion is that mr. trump is visibly clearly a disturbed human being and i just want to remind everybody that january 20

is going to be the women's march, national women's march again this year and people better get woke. this is our defining year and we better get started and get woke. gloria in meridian, mississippi. democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. balanced and is so so fair. i just returned from europe. i was in europe for christmas holiday. any person you speak with in europe they want to know what are you guys doing over there in the united states? is he stable? that's the first question that they asked. i can understand why they ask that. whove a 19-year-old child

is a college student in his second year. i would not tolerate for one moment him going around and calling someone names because he or they saye with something that is not to his liking. it's almost like a childlike behavior that's unexplainable. person can't give a reasonable answer to why this person does what he does. he is the president of the united states of america. the highest office in the land and let -- yet he continues to do this. absolutely asinine. i don't understand it. i can't get anyone to give me a reasonable answer as to why she does that it's not smartness. it's actually stupidity.

it causes people to think something must be wrong with him. that's all i have to say because reasonably grasp why he does it. i just cannot. everything that he does good he steps back two or three steps and does something idiotic that makes us think wow, why does this man do that? he stepped on his own message. from one of our viewers. all these people who call in as republicans sound just like racists. you can tell just like their racist commander-in-chief. another point of view from eric. donald trump must be a genius. somehow his hateful racist xenophobia got himself elected. gloria mentioned reaction from overseas. this is from the guardian newspaper in great written. mounts extraordinary defense of his mental stability.

donald trump issuing a volley of tweets that seem guaranteed to add fuel to a raging political fire. suggestions that he was mentally unfit to be president were out of the old ronald reagan playbook. reagan was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease, degenerative brain disease in 1994 five years after leaving office. the extent to which he suffered during his time in the white house remains a matter of contention. reagan went in office come along faced question over his mental state. forgetting names and making contradictory statements. that from the guardian in great britain. patricia on the republican line in minneapolis. caller: welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. i don't know what that woman from mississippi is talking about. everything you have read so far since i started listening has been negative.

every paper you read is a left-leaning negative take on trump. host: patricia, let me stop you there. no. stop. that's not true. i just read to you what the national review wrote about the book questioning the trustworthiness of the book. so that's simply not true. -- there might be one out of 15 things that you read that is positive about trump. host: and we just showed about what the president was saying. caller: you let other people go on and on insulting, calling republicans racist. i get on i try to talk. you jump in and talk over me every single time. host: patricia, i don't think i have ever talked to you in the past. the floor is now yours so please go ahead. caller: i have called in for years and you do it to me every time i called her you rarely let me speak. you have interrupted me about four times just in this call.

thereere are sources out that talk about the economy, his rolling back of regulation. the media that you could be reading. but everything spread all over your table is negative leftist propaganda insulting our president constantly. read ourthe tweets you insulting him, insulting -- calling republicans racist. that woman from mississippi, i don't know what planet she's on. but it is not at all fair and balanced. host: ok. patricia, let me begin by saying we are using the president's words as a starting point of this conversation. we are not using an editorial. we are not using any other point of view but the president of the united states. caller: you are reading articles that diminish him, insulting. every single day. every single day.

all the most insulting tweets. it's unbelievable. you never ever did anything like this when obama was president. host: patricia, that is not true. we will move on. thank you for the call. let's go to james in washington. independent line. good morning. was kind ofink this a -- i am not try ballistic, i try to take everything with a grain of salt. is he'suck out to me like will this guy is just making everything that comes to the top of his head. this guy, president trump has been doing this for a year. parse hairs.to this has been going on for a

while. i don't know why that stuck out to me so much but it just was like making everything up. in the moment. he's been doing it for a while. i don't know. pot calling the kettle black. i don't know where to go with that one. host: richard on the republican line. the president saying i am a very stable genius. your reaction. caller: good morning. i have two examples for you to consider, sir. at 7:39 p.m. eastern standard time cnn played -- an attack about his mental instability is ridiculous. beat all the other candidates and he is still the same guy. the cnn reporter said, keeping

all of them. he outsmarted all of them and he is still the same guy. a democrat in charge of part about trying to impeach him said, i agree with that. thankfully with the first amendment we can say anything we want and this helps my interests. at 7:39 p.m.on cnn eastern standard time. jefferson come after 200 years if he is not ever going to be forgiven then forgiveness is not on the table. going to forgive and they know that they are falsely bringing this mental instability how can a president of the united states of america be attacked like this? can you explain? host: a couple of comments.

this is from another reviewer. love that lady caller from minnesota. she was right on. and there's this, the trump apologist patricia upset over the quote from president trump and thinks he is being bashed. trump's own words. on the democrat line, good morning. caller: good morning, steve. do you like your job? i just want to say that donald trump is a traitor. he has sold out. him and his whole family has sold out the united states of america for money. that is the reason he won't show us his tax returns. that is the reason that he is enamored of putin. and who knows what other funds he is helping to wash through his real estate company. it's pretty obvious. i would say that republicans aren't racist or bigots as much

as they are -- i hate to tell them, traders. raitors. from richard, c-span's washington journal has a duty to set the record straight. that is not opinion, it is fact. go to fox news for misinformation. tell us what you're thinking. send us a tweet. steve is next from illinois. good morning, steve. let's go to jackie on the democrat line in oklahoma. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am not just like into bashing trump. caller,first color -- yes he is a pathological liar and it worries me all these people saying he has a mental illness that could explain his actions when personally i believe it's in his own agenda.

because then he can't be punished for anything that he's done wrong because he's mentally ill. just like with the tax plan that was suited for him and the rich people. pathological liar. especially saying the man who wrote this book michael wolff -- they showed pictures of him in the white house with steve bannon and president obama in the oval office. he says he has never met the man. i don't understand why he is still in the office. , whylike the last caller hasn't he been made to show his tax returns. business insider has a piece on michael wolff. here's the headline. the author of the explosive new trump book says he can't be sure if parts of it are true. the author of the book acknowledging in an author's note that he wasn't certain all of his content was true. the author of fire

and fury included a note at the start that cast significant doubt on the reliability of the specifics contained in the rest of the pages. several of his sources were definitely lying to him while some offered accounts that flatly contradicted those of others. but somewhere nonetheless included in his vivid account of the west wing workings. in a process he describes as allowing the reader to judge whether the sources claims are true. michael wolff making a number of media appearances. he will be on nbc's meet the press. audience onur radio this sunday morning including those listening on sirius xm. channel 124 carries this program every sunday morning. walter is next on the republican line from texas. your reaction to the president's tweets yesterday and what's being written about it today. caller: my reaction to you all

is that you are turning into nothing but a conduit out of dirt dumpsters like cnn. to bring forth people from the washington post, but guardian. when that woman called that why i called. she didn't get three words out of her mouth when you caught the tone of her conversation and jumped in and started berating her and everything. host: walter -- i wasn't a rating her. i just wanted to get the facts right. i will give you a chance to follow up. we have the same criticism when president obama was in the white house from democrats. we had the same cruises and when george bush was in the white house. this isn't new. all we are trying to do is give you a sense of what is being written about and what is being talked about and to hear from a cross-section of americans. caller: you are the person that is more experienced in knocking down foul balls that come into

you all's program. you have these amateurs psychologistand about trump being a dummy and a fool and a crook and a liar and stuff like that. and you allow them to just go on and on and on. ta did --ay all gre they let them talk about how bad off they were because of social security and she would step in with a yellow highlighter. i think you have two yellow pins. one that only highlights. she would come in and read to us from the guardian. everybody else, washington post and new york times and stuff like that. you need to go home this morning your bosses ought to turn around and listen to some of this stuff that you allow through and that you block and see where washington journal is just changing and changing.

what are we not including? what are we not including that we should? how would you change it? caller: well -- i don't know. try to appeal to readership and listenership that is a little more conservative than what you are -- paying attention to because they probably drop off out of the futility of thinking they're going to get anything heard or anything said on your program. host: but we do that. is basically -- the snowflakes can handle it but trump is basically a marine drill instructor going out and trying to shape up a bunch of snotty nosed unprofessional people that have been elected to office that use him to get into office and then turn on him.

a year down the road the ones that turned on him -- all he's got to do now is say he'll and they heal. the finances are a lot better. ifmp has done a great job you step back and stop if you step back and stop putting 91% against the guy. and show something positive. there's nothing that's anything positive on your program about trump. half the people voted for this job -- god, you ought to give that have a break. many people are saying positive things about the president. that's what this program is all about, including your voice. job,r: you all do a great i like listening to you and everything. you are leaning heavily to the dirt dumpsters that come out with this poisoning. -- poison. host: thank you for the call.

let's go to pat on the republican line from ithaca, michigan. good morning. first and foremost i want to apologize for my brother from texas. and minnesota and everyone else. this isn't about you. you're just reading the articles. they don't like what they are hearing. guff from it so i'm sorry about that. as far as politics go, we are getting what we paid for. aboutdn't want to think the policies. they never debated the policies. the debates were a farce. each and everyone pretty mostly due to the moderators. they let him run.

it's just the way it is. my biggest concern really is let us say for a moment we get rid of trump. he gets impeached or the joint amendment the 25th takes back. it doesn't matter. please gone. what do you got? hence, a man who couldn't even run for president? and that's not good. and i do believe he's in on it, too. if i was mueller i wouldn't be looking at trump -- well i would, but i would be looking at pens, i would be looking at the whole cabinet, everybody involved. nuneze republicans like who is basically obstructing justice. charge itile that should be all encompassing. it's his job to protect us. acts he finds criminal should take it to the limit and

everybody worried about what --s doing -- he's doing he's his job. everybody should relax. quit yelling at each other. my brother from texas, he's just mad. i can't help him. host: thanks for the call. they should get some stable genius club bowling shirts made up. this is from kathleen who says the caller walter is correct. book tv moving into the realm of fiction books. with writers like david ignatius who will be joining today -- joining us today. tv is on weekends and it has onn on the air -- book tv is the weekends and it has been on the air for nearly 20 years.

focusing on writers of historical fiction. national security thrillers and social commentary. the first sunday of every month. we hope you tune in and check out the full schedule at c-span.org. on the democrat line. morning.ood the biggest stable man to be a genius like he says he is -- good morning. trump and to be genius and be a stable man like he says he is why can't he keep his big mouth shut and do his job he was elected to do? the weekly standard writing on wednesday night before washington was completely consumed by michael dell's west wing tell-all bloody copublished

-- the notion that congress was concerned that president trump might be mentally unfit for office. the weekly standard goes on to refer to the article, washington's growing up session with the 25th amendment claiming more than a dozen lawmakers attended private briefings in early december with a yell psychiatry professor to discuss trumps mental health. the most interesting detail of onestory was that rebellious republican met to discuss her belief that trump is unfit to serve as commander in chief. the weekly standard reached out to every republican senate office to figure out which senator met with dr. lee and was unable to confirm that any republican senator actually met with the deal professor with the exception of the 12 senate offices we did not hear back from. every republican office flatly denied meeting with lee. a reason for that.

in and on the record phone call with the weekly standard yesterday afternoon lee admitted that her meeting with the republican senator was not actually scheduled. it was in her words accidental. you can read the full story at weekly standard.com. the washington post has put together some of the president's famous nicknames. the most recent is sloppy steve. it's available online. it runs 90 seconds. here it is. >> i love running against crooked hillary. i love that. you know, lying ted. we call him lying ted. sloppy steve brought him into the white house. this poor pathetic low-energy guy, he gets up and he does a commercial. i'm looking at little markup -- co and there's something

happening with him. little rocket man. we have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself. headline ted cruz. i have to be honest. people that i'm dealing with her the worst people. the failing new york times wrote a big front-page story yesterday. people that i'm dealing with her the worst people. we have a representative in congress who they say was here a long time ago. they call her pocahontas. she's back there. little katie. she's back there. that hillary as i said crooked hillary, crooked hillary. we have ashe is as crooked as t. crooked hillary clinton. we are going to get rid of that crooked woman. she is a crooked woman. she is a very very dishonest woman. host: that was put together by

the washington post over the weekend. it's available online and a look back at some of the president's favorite nicknames. indiana, republican line. the president says he is a very stable genius. your reaction. caller: i think that everybody needs to take a minute and remember that this guy when he ran for president he said that he's not a politician. and the fact that he ran for the highest office in the country shows that he's got some level of smartness going on. i also see the comments from the guy from texas. i wanted to let you know you ask if there is something you guys could specifically do and i think there is. ask some of these people who call in and say he's a liar to be specific and call out a lie. newspaper and on tv

all the time he is a liar and nobody says what he's lying about. so i would like to know specifically what these people if they want to call somebody a liar they should be able to point out what he's lying about. i get the feeling they're doing it mostly because they don't like the type of person he is. i think he's a good patriotic person. he's doing this job. he's not even taking a paycheck for it. look on theto bright side a little bit and give him a break. on happy new year. with the midterms looming congress facing a perilous season. congressional leaders at camp david this week mapping out the agenda for the year ahead. national review, the voice of america. nikki haley at the united nations and a piece by john miller and from the weekly in thed the crackup theocracy in iran. we will be focusing on the situation in iran later in the program. from our twitter page if you don't like to listen to the

facts, please don't watch washington journal and just watch fox news for your alternative facts. apologists are mad because trump and isg being reported. from jen, trump apologists from texas could not name one conservative paper with positive trump stories that we should read from here on c-span's washington journal. from highland trump and is being reported. park, illinois. good morning. good morning. the way i look at trump is that he's always campaigning but he's never governing. i think we have to separate what we know about trump from what his opinion. a lot of what came out this morning's opinion. of course he's a liar. he said he's going to give the middle class a big tax cut. what happened is that the cleaners got actually billions in tax breaks.

what he thinks about women. that was broadcast on television. he demeans women. and he makes fun of them. so he can't deny that. that's a fact. and when he came to charlottesville he acquitted both sides is equal. even though the other side was a anti-nazi organization. if we just are looking at what we know it's obvious that the minister arranged -- the man is deranged. who are running for congress in the next midterm election are going to have to decide whether they want trump standing next to them on the podium when they campaign or not and my opinion is that they will not want trump anywhere near them when they are running for office. another point of view from jennifer rubin. it's available at washington post.com.

the stable genius isn't even functioning as president. anyone who listens to him speak off-the-cuff about health care or tax legislationyou will not raise any specifics or make a logical argument for this or that provision. it's all great, fabulous, the biggest, etc.. it's evidence of a total lack of abouttanding or concern what is in any given piece of legislation. there is a serious question whether he knows what is in the affordable care act, how medicaid works, how the gop health care bills would have worked. to shy away tend from asking questions that will provoke a dreaded about what is in any given piece of legislation. word salad. we are playing with fire, counting on the ability of others to restrain him from launching a nuclear war and nearly as bad, jettisoning our representative democracy. vice president pence, the cabinet and congress have a moral and constitutional obligation to bring this to a stop.

that's from jennifer rubin. nikki is joining us on the independent line from the walkie. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i used to call once a month, once every two months and now i have tried calling a lot less. i figure maybe throughout the year you get about 20,000 calls a year. with several million people watching i thought i am better off listening than calling. i have been meaning to call about this for a long time. people called accusing you that you are going way to the left or way to the right. whether you need to read every single article on washington journal from washington post or new york times wall street journal. people have a choice. here in milwaukee i open up the milwaukee journal today. every single article in the first section is either associated press, reuters, new

york times or washington post. how many so-called papers are left in your community that have a investigative journalist? that have a journalist in baghdad, in london? they have no budgets. the papers are thin. for all that you guys do on c-span we pay a few pennies a month on their cable bill. only to get washington journal, to get congress live. to get the senate on c-span2. think tanks and programs that you bring to us. , living in washington, d.c. the president has been driving the daily agenda of the news for the past two years. when he was president-elect, when he was running for president and now his tweets. tomorrow morning he brings another controversial tweet.

i don't understand when people do not like thei don't understae do not like the program, they can go to cnn, msnbc, fox news. you bring in conservative radio talk show host on your program. you bring michael savage. people don't have to listen to bill press. you don't have to live in florida to listen to rush limbaugh. just go turn on your tablet. you can live stream it to there are so many options for people and we pay a few pennies a month and we call in once a month to put our two cents in and people still complain about what? i don't understand. you have no obligation to the left, to the right, to the middle. you bring us what is out there so we are informed. how am i going to be informed other than listening to c-span? and people take this three-hour segment and they based their entire judgment of c-span based on a three hour segment.

you bring in conservativei was . there was a symposium in washington about left and right talking about this presidency. listen to the whole thing and then be thankful for what you are offering for us. if this isn't the bargain of the last -- biggest bargain of the last 35 years i don't know what is. thank you and all of the people who work at your organization. host: you clearly watch the network and know a lot about c-span. now go get some sleep. don't be up all night. thank you for the call from milwaukee. andelcome all of your calls comments. good, bad or indifferent. very transparent. we do try our very best to present all points of view including that of the president who tweeted yesterday which is the basis of our question is first hour today saying i am a very stable genius.

now the russian collusion after one year of intense study has proven to be a total hoax on the american publici was up all las. there was a that the democrats and their lapdogs the fake news mainstream radio are taking out the old ronald reagan playbook and screwing mental stability and intelligence. on the republican line from new york, michael. good morning. caller: i just want to start off by saying you said it right when you said transparent. you are being very transparent and thank you for battling apathy. because that is what our nation faces today. how you seeazing

the two sides going back and forth. i'm am sitting here watching your program every sunday. i get up and i get a cup of coffee and i sit down and watch you. i watch how people interact with you on the telephone and it's quite amazing across america. if we had a good president we wouldn't be as divided as we are today. host: you are a republican, right? i was a republican. i couldn't get through on the other line. i used to vote republican. honest to god. there used to be a republican party. it used to be something different than it is now. i think the parties have become corrupt in some way. what we have to start looking at today is to put candidates up that are really worthy. and so far it's hard to see it. we need somebody that's going to

come in and do the job. donald trump is failing at his job. he hasn't done hardly anything other than tax tax cuts -- passed tax cuts for the very rich and wealthy. if you look at the way the tax code is structured now, it's not saving the working class of america. you guys have to wake up and smell the coffee. even the republicans. wake up. look at this. problem that got a is looming. we have a president that is unhinged. you can't deny it looking at it. you are scratching your head saying am i really seeing this? is this guy for real? he is messing with north korea and nuclear bombs and they are talking about buttons? you are talking about people's lives here. host: where is tyrone, new york by the way? finger it is in the

lakes. it is in a wonderful place by watkins glen. it's very tranquil here. it's a very nice community. we have some very good people here and if you like wine and beautiful wine country with lakes, this is a good place to visit. host: the finger lakes are beautiful especially in the summer. michael, thanks very much for the call. we will have from the president in just a moment. a couple of other newsweeklies. politico magazine, the robots are coming for the swamp. from the washington post sunday magazine, the reflection issue. a look at anita hill and others in washington, d.c. that have shaped the agenda. businessweek, we are taking deadly risks barely earns anda living range -- wage millennials are finally moving out of mom's basement. here's the president yesterday on north korea.

i spoke with the president of south korea. he thanked me very much for my tough stance. for 25 years they haven't been using a tough stance. have been giving everything. look at what bill clinton did in -- did. he wants to give them everything and i said years ago on meet the , you have to have a certain attitude and you have to be prepared to do certain things that i'm totally prepared to do. the president called me and we had a great discussion a couple days ago and he thanked me very much. i very much want to see it work out between the two countries. i would like to see them getting involved in the olympics and things go from there. he thanked me. written people have that without my rhetoric and without my tough stance and it's

not just a stance. this is what has to be done. they wouldn't be talking about olympics. they wouldn't be talking right now. are you confident they are taking the conversation beyond the limits? >> i hope they do. we have a very good relationship with south korea. i would love to see it go far beyond the olympics. absolutely. kevinthe president with mccarthy, vice president pence and other congressional leaders at camp david yesterday. as they map out that republican agenda. joining us on the phone is cerro westwood. she is following all of this for the washington examiner as congress returns this week. both the house and the senate. let me begin with this photograph from camp david yesterday of the president and the speaker of the house and mitch mcconnell. what came out of this meeting as best that you can tell what is the agenda moving ahead for

congressional republicans? uncertainty.lot of president trump in the white -- theas been pushing first thing they want to tackle out of the gate in 2018. we know that paul ryan has been more focused on welfare reform. specifically going after floods in the medicare program. something president trump has said he does not want to do ever. on the campaign trail he promised he would not touch that program. and mitch mcconnell has been more focused on just preserving republican majorities in 2018 against a potential -- some of these are competing priorities and republicans thought they needed to have some kind of summit at camp david to sit down and decide which one they are going to focus on in 2018. host: this back-and-forth between the house speaker paul ryan and mitch mcconnell on the issue of entitlements. that seemed to be part two of

what house speaker paul ryan wanted to do after the tax bill. who do you think is going to win that legislative battle? will it be the senate leader? the majority leader is actually against going after medicare because he knows that any sort of entitlement reform would require at least 60 votes in the senate. that's a really tall order. fact that republicans have an even slimmer majority now that senator doug jones has been seated 51 to 49 is a very unforgiving margin. sort of on his own in terms of wanting to push them during an election year. but he has claimed in recent interviews that his conversations with trump have yielded progress. the trump is starting to come around to the idea that this is something that needs to be done so it's entirely possible that at some point this is something trump could get behind. host: we're talking with sarah

westwood, white house reporter for the washington examiner. wall must be part of that agreement. will democrats go along with that? >> and credits said building the wall is a nonstarter. ever since immigration started to become a topic of conversation to have said they had zero interest. maybe more funding for border security they could get on board with. maybe looking at some of the programs trump has talked about, and the visa lottery program is one of them. that is something democrats could get behind. but it is difficult to state any single democrat coming out in favor of the wall, given that the wall is not even universally supported within the republican party. host: your piece references

infrastructures, saying that is where both parties can agree. abouthe president talking 400 billion dollar investment in infrastructure, will there be a compromise on that? that was the conventional wisdom at the beginning of 2017, that infrastructure was potentially the only policy area and democratsans could come together. and there are a lot of questions about why the trump administration didn't start off with infrastructure to grease the wheels. that blood nowf between republicans and democrats and we are heading into an election year. it is difficult for any democrat to come on board with any thing.

i don't of that a lot will get done but it is something that the trump administration will be pushing aggressively. host: sarah westwood, thank you for being with us. the senate returned last week. the house holding a few sessions but they are officially back this week. coming up in just a moment, we will break down the new year and the health care bill. answering all of your questions about what to expect. we will also talk about entitlement programs. later, we turn our attention to the situation in iran. a.m.akers airs at 10:00 the democratics senator, chris van hollen.

we talk with him about 2018. you make priorities, will that be defended the senators up for election or will you go on the offense to win races like nevada, arizona, tennessee? >> we think we can do both. if you look at the incumbents, we have a lot of battle tested incumbents. have been they successful, sometimes in politically difficult states, is because they always focus on the people in the state. that has been the north star. to havell work hard that. there are a number of pickup opportunities out there. , as in the case

of alabama, no state is safe. >> where do you think you can expand the map beyond one set of party started merging? are up this time. 25 are democrat incumbent senators. there are eight republican seats. alabama was a seat that we recently picked up. and all of the aged are going to -- all of them are strong potential states. having said that, the state of is a big pickup opportunity for the democrats. arizona is in play. i wouldn't discount any of the other states.

the two-term governor of tennessee always governed based on a pragmatic governing approach, trying to address issues that were important to people regardless of party. host: we you tune into c-span's newsmakers program. that is available online at c-span.org. senator chris van hollen is the guest this week. he is the chair of the senate campaign committee for the democrats as we move into the midterm elections in 2018. we want to welcome back a long time c-span friday. a quick note, we are breaking our phone lines down differently. if you are currently insured through the affordable care act, inshore through medicaid and medicare and uninsured. let me begin with the affordable care act -- what has or hasn't

been repealed? hast: the only piece that been repealed was the individual mandate. the requirement that must be all have insurance or pay a fine along with taxes. that doesn't happen next year until 2019 so this year the mandate is in effect. i think people are confused about that. the healthelse in law is still there. host: if people vote to , what did they see and what were they able to obtain? guest: they were able to obtain state except every for where there was uncertainty. say that they don't have any idea what is going to happen. and so they will bow out. to sign upho went

were able to find coverage. they did find in many cases that premiums had gone up. however, if you are under 400% gotoverty, those people good deals for complicated reasons we will get into about trump canceling federal payments for different subsidies for lower-income people. and people who got help paying premiums, many of them were able to find good deals. people who pay their own premiums, not so much. mcconnell said this was a nonstarter that they would not take up a repeal and replace of the aca this year. do you believe him? guest: he said that and then he said the opposite. i think what most people are thinking is that if they can come up with something that could get a majority of votes, , if they coulds

come up with something to get the votes that i'm sure mitch mcconnell would be happy to put that on the floor. i think what he was talking about last week with with a 51-49 senate, it does feel unlikely. almost 10 years that the affordable care act has been in place. what has worked and what hasn't worked? guest: people are looking at it much bigger than just the individual market. therefore double character and visual market is only somewhere 10-12,000,000 people. of peoplet majority have insurance through employers. and there were some small changes around the edges, primarily more protections and benefits. then in some cases, employers had to provide preventive care with no co-pay. there is a requirement for insurers to pay the majority of the premium amount.

a lot of changes to medicare. experiments to pay more for value for better outcomes. and those things are still a work in progress. the individual market part of it has been a mixed bag. premiums are higher than were expected. people have to pay more out of pocket. that means high deductibles. that is something that everyone agreed to be addressed but that isn't the direction congress seems to be going. host: wire premiums getting so much more expensive? provide 10 have to essential benefits. many of which the individual market did not provide before. prescription drug coverage. mental health, substance abuse care.

they had to offer the benefits , peoplethe other side had to pay much more out of pocket before benefits kicked in. that was how they would keep the premiums affordable. and theush on a balloon other side goes up. before the affordable care act, premiums were relatively low. if you were healthy. but if you needed a benefit, you were basically out of luck. so we moved the individual market in a different place. we created winners and losers. some people are doing much better and others are doing much worse. host: at what point does that trajectory become unsustainable? guest: that is the question. the insurance industry has a problem with it. they're worried that healthy people won't buy insurance although economists and analysts thought that the individual mandate wasn't strong to begin

with. there were a lot of exceptions and people who could get out of it. and they are sure what impact that will have. the other issue is that the president will talk about this, the labor department issued regulations to make it easier for people to get lesser health insurance. and there is now a concern that this will hold even more healthy people out of the market. insurance is going to become prohibitive. although the irony here is that the federal government is helping people pay premiums. that goes up as premiums go up. host: alex abner is the new choice and there is a confirmation hearing this week. he is a pharmaceutical executive. what does he bring to the job and will he faced trouble getting things done?

guest: he has spent a significant amount of time in the building. he knows how it runs. knows all the agencies and what the departments do in this sprawling cabinet department. a lot of democrats complain about his ties to the drug industry at a time when that is a big political issue. that i don't anticipate that he will have problems. democrats thought this was a good pick. host: the senate finance committee meeting will be live on tuesday and we will have coverage of the confirmation hearing for the president's choice. again, that is tuesday at 10:00 a.m. and our phone lines are open and we are dividing them between people who are medicaid and medicaid recipients at (202) 748-8001. uninsured, (202) 748-8002. others. .202) 748-8003

what is the big story were working on for the year ahead? what questions are looming? one thing that has been , one thing that never happened was small businesses. small businesses got left out. there were so much attention on the individual market. large employers have traditionally offered health care insurance with an individual mandate. the ones who are having the biggest of italy under the existing health care system before the aca for small businesses. cost went up. they had trouble finding coverage, affording coverage. there were supposed to be small business exchanges but in many states, that never even launched. there hasn't been a lot of help for small businesses and it is a really big problem.

the president says that this will help us all businesses but it is unclear. there is a problem with manyesses that employ millions more americans who buy their own insurance on exchanges. host: let me ring the conversation back to speaker ryan last month when he was asked about the entitlement issue. here's what he had to say from december last year. >> when you talk about entitlement reform, it is clear that one of the things you are talking about is a obamacare. >> yes. and welfare reform. system that isre trapping people in poverty and making it so people don't work. >> are you trying to do any reforms to social security or medicare? >> he hasn't shown as much interest in that so we are working with the president on entitlements that he is

supportive of. you cannot use budget reconciliation for those rules. it is a health-care entitlements that are the big driver. so we spend more time on health-care entitlement because that is really where the problem lies, fiscally speaking. host: let me pick up on that point. as we approach $21 trillion in debt and health care is driving much of that, seems to me that this is an area that should be addressed but based on what we are hearing, will not be this year. guest: the president insisted he would not touch medicare. toucho said he wouldn't medicaid which cap not to be true last year when republicans try to turn this program into a block which would cut it, significantly. big surprises last year was how popular medicaid was. we have always known that for senior citizens it was

popularity. but it was not aware that it had the public support that it appears to have. host: you can go and check out the reporting of the guest but let's get to the phone calls. glenn joins us first. and receiving health care through the affordable care act? caller: i would like to point out that i'm not the only one. everyone who has insurance is receiving insurance under the fort care act. much of my benefits is a lack of a cap. so that would be in place is not for the aca. this is distortion. what is driving the health care is simply the fact that we're under taxing billionaires.

who don't want to contribute back to society. plus billionaires who made a lot of money in insurance and pharmaceutical markets by overcharging. so whether it is a single-payer system right away or it is medicare for people over 50 to start who can buy in at an affordable price, the distortions in this economy theuse of health care and psychological distortions of people not being able to wake up secure in their lives, it is unheard of compared to all of the other countries in the industrial world. host: we will get a response. guest: that was an important point. pretty much everyone has insurance under the affordable care act. the caller is right that there are changes to people's insurance you have employer insurance.

no lifetime limits. allow little children to stay our new plan until they were 26. and requiring insurers to pay premium dollars in claims. that, the biggest problem is prices. and the affordable care act took small nibbles around the edges of that but didn't try to address that, head-on. republicans and democrats fundamentally disagree with how to address problems. high prices, republicans want a market-based system which will lead to more competition. but democrats are more interested in things like what other countries do, capping how much you can charge. those are fundamental differences. and i think it is part of why we haven't been able to address this. there is an enormous problem with the cost of health care,

compared to the amount that people can afford to spend on it. host: because of her insight, it she is one of the go to people when we talk about this topic. we welcome her back. she is the chief washington correspondent for pfizer news and she is the title -- she is author of a book and the co-author of another book. she previously worked for npr and for the national journal. the next caller is in washington. kathy, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm just curious. medicare, it is our money going into medicare so how does that push the debt? money, what we have been putting towards our future. get a percent of the

benefits i'm not sure how that is driving the debt? i'm much or how people can say that giving health care for all is wrong? that is what you want. we want your money to be going towards health care. i'm not sure how that is pushing towards the debt? with the affordable care act, i am all for it. it doesn't issues. we have to educate the people who have the plan. the pages ofging preventive care, only. or not emergency room's. you might does not aware of those issues. i would like you to go into those, that would be great. guest: it is an important

misconception. saying that it is our money and we're just getting back the money that we have put in. and sociale security, people get back much more than they put in. health care is tremendously expensive. i don't have the numbers on the tip of my tongue but if you get sick at all, most people who get to medicare age eventually get sick and user coverage and by aare pays much more, march, then people have contributed, even over a lifetime of it being withheld. that is one of the reasons why it is being added to the debt. medicaid comes out of the general fund. so health-care entitlements in particular are expensive. and that is why people want to after health-care costs. not medicare driving so much as the underlying costs.

host: the deadline to sign up for the affordable care act was last december. the exchange enrollment ended with a .8 million enrolled in coverage." guest: there was a lot of pushback on that tweet. administration cut the advertising budget and they close down healthcare.gov for a number of days during the enrollment time and the aroma time was only half as long. premiums went up and still, almost as many people signed up who signed up last year. open enrollment is still open in a number of states that do their own exchanges. notably, california.

the original open enrollment time was three months but this time it was 1.5 months. host: for those of you listening, we are talking about health care 101. and what changes may mean in 2018. bruce is a recipient of medicaid? caller: no, medicare. i wanted to thank obama for taking it hundred billion dollars from medicare to finance his failed health care plan. it seems to me that we got a 2% raise and social security and then they raised a medicare prices by 30%. i just got a notice in the mail. so thank you, very much.

guest: the caller is correct in that there was money from medicare savings that went to finance the other pieces of the of portable care act but ironically, when money comes out of medicare, it comes out of provider payments and premiums go down. , these if you pay less out premiums are percentage of how much medicare pays. so if you lower the prices that they pay the premiums, it will be less. premiums are now starting to go up again and that is a function of health care prices going up more. even when medicare is paying less. medicare tends to be leaner other that is necessarily the case. the big reductions in medicare, a lot of those were from insurance companies who have plans they offer through medicare and from some of the experiments that i have been talking about to try and figure

how to better pay for health care without actually just paying people to do more. which what has essentially and what we've been doing for the last 50 years. lisa is a medicare a -- is a medicaid recipient. where: i about situation you are on medicaid and you get make $50 more you than you are supposed to with medicaid into can't afford it. what in the world do you do? live at the edge of qualifying for medicaid and qualifying for the affordable care act. in arkansas, one of the things they did was they brought the people and to private plans. so when this would happen they would switch over but it would be seamless. they would basically go from one to the other and back again depending on what they were

qualified for. it is a difficult situation. a difficult situation at the other end for people who are getting health care subsidies, premium subsidies who suddenly make a little but more and aren't eligible for subsidies. and people there are actually talking about taking pay cuts to keep their subsidized health insurance. but the medicare problem is is still a problem that isn't really being looked at. host: j is uninsured. good morning. caller: good morning. have always loved c-span. just to hear this and everything that this president has done is infuriating. not that i would have ever voted for him. how --i don't see

not that i'm for welfare in any shape or form because i have worked on my life since i was 14 but i'm caught in the conundrum in that i don't know what to do anymore. i can't afford to buy health make too muchare money at the present time to qualify for -- and i am too young -- for medicaid or medicare. does a person in my situation do? this is really difficult and i did a story about this a couple of months ago. it is mostly people who are because premiums can rise because all people can be charged three times as much as young people.

if you earn too much to get medicaid and you are over age 40 but particularly over age 50 and still not old enough for medicare, health care is prohibitive. what hasn'ting and been working? this is one of the things that hasn't been working. this is what drive some of the calls for the medicare buy-in. to let people who are 50 or older purchase medicare insurance even though they are not quite eligible. that is one idea. and get olderve and sicker people out of the main health insurance to make the premiums cheaper but it would bring healthier people into medicare. so it would make medicare a better risk pool. but that is something that congress has not been able to do and it isn't something that republicans are looking at. host: when do premiums ever go down under the affordable care act?

guest: premiums ever to go down. but they rose fairly slowly. health-care spending in general recentn rising slowly in years. but we have seen spikes in the individual market as newer and healthy people signed up and insurers at the beginning had no idea how much should charge. they have never served the market. sickhave no idea how many people would join. how much they would cost. how much deferred care these you would need. some over shot and charge too much and that we did see 0% premiums, on average. but some of them undershot. arizona was a good example of this.

and a lot of places they had to double premiums but it wasn't because there was some kind of strange plague it was just because they charged way too little the year before. individual not most insurers have had enough time now to figure out what to charge but it has turned into a pretty high amount. host: this is a question saying, will dental insurance ever be reasonable in this country? guest: that is good question. it adds to the cause of what we have been talking about, an expensive and prohibitive cost. there is a lot of discussion about oral health and its impact on the rest of your health. and it has been underappreciated. there was a huge spike in mental health which finally resulted in legislation being passed although not necessarily it

being implemented. i think oral health might be the next step but i have no idea when that will happen. host: you can follow her on it's -- andgoat but let's go to gina. caller: hello. alabama. i have spoken with you before about the primaries and lori moore. host: absolutely. i was glad to see that jones won. i am a republican but i did vote for doug jones because i do have some sense. the one part that i've never agreed with is that most of the poor kids in alabama are on medicaid. and when they reach 18, they lose their medicaid. on athey go to college pell grant which is why i am so

glad they did away with the individual mandates. i have one more point. my stepdaughter came here from california. she is 38 years old. she doesn't work and hasn't worked in years. full medical. and to me that is unfair. and she gets medicines covered and everything. and before my mother was in a fsiing home, she was on because she was a waitress all my life and she didn't pay enough into social security making $.50 or two dollars an hour. veteran 100% a disabled and not only do i receive via a compensation, i received my social security disability, which evens out to $5,000 month.

drew a little over 700 sick ande got down and was a permanent resident of a nursing home. my sister and i were in burger king one time and the manager about a memo and said all of his employees couldn't get over 20 hours a week because of the affordable care act. so that is why a lot of people are working to part-time jobs. i know people who work 20 hours at mcdonald's and then go to hardees. is there full-time they are required to have the affordable care act. host: think you for the call. disco there was a lot of

discussion about employers cutting back hours to not provide health care. it is actually 30 hours per week. it was a little bit overblown. employers were saying that when in fact, the a were already not having to do it or they were just using it as an excuse all the were anecdotal cases of people losing hours because of an employer mandate requirement. to the medicaid issues, alabama is a state that did not expand medicaid. so when kids lose chip and age out, they do end up uninsured. expandedr states with medicaid, they would remain eligible. it is a difficult issue about people who want insurance and don't want insurance. should you have some kind of insurance? obviously this caller has talked about some of the safety net programs we have. social security -- it isn't a

safety net. that is what you qualify for if havere disabled but you worked. if you don't qualify you get s s i, a different subsidy program. that is for low-income people who are disabled. so there are a lot of programs and they don't all indirect that will together, which is another issue that perhaps congress would like to take up at some point but it doesn't seem to be on the agenda. this is a tweet from steve saying that it recently restored benefits for people over the age of 21. guest: i didn't know they had taken them away. i knew there was issues with immigrant coverage but i didn't realize there were age issues as well.

host: let's go to jack. caller: i would like to say, first of all, your guest, julie, withbviously is agreeing all of the line that obama created. when each took $800 billion for medicaid and he said insurance would go down and you could see her same doctor. so i'm glad you are talking about this because this was a created in- obama eight years nothing but lies. for the ghazi and iran and health care. everything he did. and it will all come out through everything you have on, no

matter what it is. it will all come out. guest, the reason that the younger people don't have to pay anymore is because when you were young, my age and currently, they used to give insurance. reasonable because they were young. and like the other woman who is talking about all these issues, i went through this with my mom. there are so many programs that obviously had been added through the swamp in washington to pay for. and all the health care insurance people take advantage of this, just like college costs. well, the president did say premiums would go down and they did not.

and he did mention that you could keep your doctor. the way insurers didn't have to continue all of these requirements is that they could restrict doctors who could participate which upset a lot of people. i never said this was all great and everything is running fine. even president obama said it could use help. there were agreements that there were parts of the law that weren't working well. host: would you agree that once it is started it is difficult to end? guest: it is. i was surprised that the support for medicaid. i think that is something that has frustrated republicans who want less of the government involvement in health care but what we're seeing is more of a government involvement. the other side, people complain and even the caller mentioned this. the affordable care act has been created to keep the private insurance industry a major part of the health care system and

sometimes that winds up in private health care. pay executives huge salaries and bonuses. so there are people who dislike that part of it. and there are people who dislike the government part of it. host: george is joining us from maine. you are uninsured? caller: yes. i havet was, my wife and our heads above water trying to survive. we pay taxes for criminals in jails who have health care. -- hown turn around and can you do that? for health care? was on theoint mandate, when we got our taxes,

you pay a fine. your shared responsibility payment. and when youit fill out your amended return, triedou get is that they to shift the responsibility of your fine over to social socialy where -- security, that might be wrong. but they take the fine and shift it. -- excuse me, they tell you you have a refund coming. when you know you don't. paper,e you sign that they take the refund and hold it to pay your health care costs. your individual mandate. and takecan come back

it to court and take your house and garnish wages and all of that stuff. guest: actually, they can't do any of that. he only thing they can do if you don't pay the fine is take it from your refund. but there was a huge debate in congress about people putting in -- being put in jail and having their wages garnished and the law explicitly says they cannot do that. the only thing they can do is deduct it from your refund. and i should point out that there are many people who don't have to pay the fine. , and then't afford it cheapest plan available to you is more than your income, they make it so you don't have to pay the fine. the insurance company is unhappy with how many ways are for people to not have to pay. object was not so people who couldn't afford it would be punished.

younger people do pay less. they pay far less in premiums. thethis year, a cousin of court and the way it worked, there were a lot of plans that if you had a subsidy you could get a bronze plan for nothing. most plans were under $75 a month for younger people because they are healthier. so it is easier to get relatively cheap plans. a good way to get insurance in case something bad happens. host: our topic is health care and our guest is julie rovner. -- "lessas this tweet talk alexander murray and how it will affect the aca."

it was scuttled and this came back again and where does it stand? guest: we do have to go back and talk about this. there are subsidies to help people pay premiums and for the lowest income people who buy their own insurance, at 230% of property -- of poverty, people who are not that much money cap 80 deductibles so they, in addition to getting help with the premiums, get help with the cost chairing for deductibles and co-pays. there was a fight over whether that money had been prorated by congress. there was a lawsuit. trump was able to stop the payments and he did that before the open enrollment started. back in october. and what ended up happening was that they found a different way to get the money. they raced premiums, they raise

it on silver plants. premium subsidies are links to that. so they're getting the money back from a different pocket of the government. what the alexander-murray bill has limitedone what subsidies for two years. in september and if it had than it would've have been fine for 2018 but the fact that it hasn't passed and we talk about 2018 "it is closed and at that point, if they put subsidies back insurance would have to refund it. it would be a huge mess. so there is some thought about doing it to push the subsidies back starting next year. there are a lot of people who are questioning whether that is a good idea. because the way the state regulators worked around the absence of the subsidies was to provide free plans for the young

people. in some states they only put the increase on the silver plan. so if you have a cold plan or plot and you don't have to see the increase, either. it has shaped out in a way that wasn't expected. host: this tweet -- a huge part of it is diet and exercise and we don't talk about that in the mainstream media. can you talk about that? guest: we do talk about that. there are ways people can get solved healthier. programs that the employers offer. the idea of eating better and exercising more and stopping

smoking and drinking in moderation, these get covered to a considerably large degree in mainstream media. the: welcome to conversation, joining us from massachusetts. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. a doubt 500 company, a tremendous company. i pay over $6,000 out-of-pocket for the insurance and our deductible is over $6,500. one of the highest counts. is an employer subsidized program. peoplear a lot of howing about obamacare and expensive it is but it is still very expensive. i know in massachusetts and in new york that a lot of private practices are now being purchased or consumed by large

conglomerates. and the doctors no longer have their own pratt is. they actually work for one of the corporations. and i'm curious. how is that impacting the cost of medi-cal care? consolidation is a big issue in health care. the caller is correct. we saw this in the 1990's as well. it didn't work very well. it came back apart but we are now seeing the console edition again. and there is always a concern that if you don't have a lot of competition then they could raise prices at will which some of them do. it is something that necessarily helps the cost side of the equation. the has been an arms race between the medical industrial complex and the insurance industry. there is a concern about insurer consolidation. we've seen companies tried to

buy each other. paid toention has been consolidation among health care providers. ,hen you are the only hospital you can dictate your price. because all five insurers need a contract with you. so it is a big issue on both sides. host: our guests work is available at kaiser health news if you want to check out what the health care bill means. up next, new york. a medicaid recipient. go ahead, ralph. caller: my question is people and families with long-term disability individuals. in last years reporting of the bills that passed and went before congress, i didn't see anything covered about how those would have affected the existing waiver programs. that applies for people

with disabilities? i wonder if you could save them about that. there are arelated, lot of national companies and managed care companies have touted their success with driving down costs for medicaid managed care. that is true for some types of services but they haven't demonstrated clinical success or clinical outcomes on the medicaid managed care. guest: medicaid serves a lot of the disabled in america. it provides, in pretty much every state, benefits that are not provided under most private insurances. it was not clear how the row begins planned to handle that if it was affected with the disability programs. the caller is talking about waivers and that is states who apply to the federal government to offer waivers that might not already be offered or are offered in a different way.

a lot of interesting ideas are coming up out of the states in terms of serving the disabled. but the elderly and the disabled are the most extensive parts of the medicaid program. because some concern these are vulnerable populations, both who need the services that are provided. if states want to continue to provide them, this'll be part of the ongoing debate about how the federaltes and government pay for medicaid and what should happen in the future. and again, it comes back to how much health care costs. illinois next. catherine, good morning. caller: good morning. question is not for me. i have medicare and i love it. they better not tap into my medicare. but my question is for my son. i have a son who lives and works

in another country. when the requirement for you to have health insurance in the u.s. came out, i applied and i did all the paperwork and i applied in the state of illinois but he could never get it. one of the big reasons i wanted it for him is because when he comes to the states, i always like him to have coverage in case he gets sick or falls or whatever. and i could never get it. he would come, i go with a company that provides this cheap insurance that will cover him in the event. andied to use it one time it was worthless. these plans that have true coverage. it is really important. my question for you is, should i have been able to get coverage

for him? butorks in another country he is a u.s. a citizen. his address here is what we live. what do you say about that? i gave up on getting him coverage. host: where does he work? caller: the czech republic. he has insurance. in other parts of the world, they cover you, there's no question. it is just that i've tried, repeatedly, to get great coverage here in illinois and they deny him because he didn't live here all year. host: let me take that one step further. if you come to the u.s., which he be covered?

guest: if you are a foreigner, you would be covered by your country. if you're a u.s. citizen who lives overseas, you are not , the mandate does apply to you. there was a lot of concern about whether they would have to pay a fine because they are not there so the caller is right. it can be difficult to get health insurance if you don't live in the district of columbia. it is tricky. there are short-term plans. the president would like to expand plans. many of them don't provide for a much in the way of benefits. are definitely questionable and they can deny if you have a pre-existing condition or if you get sick, they could not renew you. so there are definitely issues around this. can carryoreigners their own insurance. it is an issue.

host: james made the point when the caller said that the government should not tap into my medicare but the government is medicare. let's go to julie and massachusetts. a medicare recipient. go ahead. caller: think of a taking my call. ,y question for julie is about can anything be done about what i perceive as the hideous administrative overhead that you engagement every time you engage with the medical system? a few months ago there was an article in the wall street journal where one of their reporters interviewed a physician in the heartland. close his practice down and reopened it as a concierge where he charged $85 a month to belong.

wasif you needed care, it $185 and they got to write in. and the wall street journal said , how can you run your business with these low prices? and he said, when i was running a traditional practice, 60% of my revenue stream went to administrative overhead. and i thought that sounds up aerated so i called fellow with reliant medical group who processes claims and he had worked there for 30 years. so i called him and said that i just read this. what would you say? and he said 60%? that sounds about right. is a big problem. there is an anonymous amount of administrative overhead and health care and health insurance. in running a doctor's practice. it is one of the things leading to the consolidation for doctors practices that could get paid a

salary when they have to do paperwork and hire people to be in the back offices in billing and claims and fighting with insurance companies and with patience. -- well,aper intensive i guess these days, more we havey intensive -- people who can't talk to each other and if you have multiple doctors, there are multiple patient portals and multiple passwords and they don't talk to each other and it is something that is crying out for streamlining that in the united states, we don't have a single health care system like they do in some countries which would certainly make it easier. we have many private providers. and we have many different insurance companies and they all need to document things. host: we will conclude on that note. julie rovner, thank you for being with us.

attention we turn our to the situation in iran. the unrest in that country. isning us here at the table the foundation for the defense of democracies. and we also will check in with been are times bureau chief. the first on c-span news booktv and american history tv, we travel around the country as part of our c-span histories tour and today, springfield illinois. of the at the history museum on the square in springfield. here's a preview. had a man who is an attorney and he came here as an attorney for the railroad. he was an absolute genius at marketing and making things happen. and he was one of the committee of people that were pushing for this highway.

offered the number 62 which didn't suit them at all. they thought it was demeaning. it sounded like they were second-best. one thing led to another. aprilry convention it 1926 came up with the idea that 66 sounded good. it was catchy and it looked good on paper. so they called and asked to be given the number 66 and other people in the committee agreed. and the rest is history. , iconic inrewed 66 folklore and music and so on. host: our c-span cities tour is traveling to the midwest to see springfield, missouri. check that out today on c-span twos booktv. and on american history tv online at any time.

a senior defense analyst -- guest: a nonpartisan think tank focusing on security issues. host: the unrest continues in the country. your response thus far? arrest -- so, the far, the unrest has been fought on and now it is time for the reality to be the rhetoric and for the rhetoric to meet the reality. the u.s. is looking to target tehran with nonnuclear threats with nonnuclear sanctions. u.s. is likely to import some sort of sanctions in response to the sanctions in tehran. who is behind these protests? interestingly, these

protests in begin in the country's capital. they are the urban poor. they are rural religious people. they tend to live on the periphery of society. those who have not benefited from the economic policies and those who have not seen change in their status since expectations are raised for living standards in iran and those who want a better life. ultimately, while this was started by an economic issue, there are political reasons the protests became political and remain political. host: will they result in significant changes within the government's or inside country? aest: i think -- and i am perennial pessimist as an iran watcher -- they will not change the foreign security policy. a bend inhem chanted

syria, think about us. on the home front, i think it is mainly to accommodate them through subsidies, they are looking to cleave the protests in half, repress them with you subsidies and in the political makeup, i do not think you will see a change in course of control. host: joining us is new york times bureau chief. thank you percent in a few minutes with us. in a piece you posted, you say -- thank you for spending a few minutes with us. 10 youece you posted, shed any light into u.s. involvement -- can you shed any light into u.s. involvement with the protest? guest: [indiscernible] what they have consistently been

doing is putting sanctions on this country and therefore undermining its economy to an extent that the potential --rency almost lots of value and theret its value is too much on this country. the islam republic has a long history of sanctions on its economy. its leaders are ideological. [indiscernible] politics, i think there have been sanctions for many years and often nuclear sanctions with the united states when they were supposed to lift them.

[indiscernible] www.c-span.org -- it was done by republic readers -- leaders, and technically -- anke host: sorry, in interview, rex tillerson said at some point, the people of iran will decide this is not how they want to live any longer, adding at the u.s. continues to deport their mission, calling for a peaceful transition of power inside iran at some point. let me ask you about that. well result in any change of power? iran has gone through many crisis in the past years. what is the case now is they are unpopular. you step out on the streets and people complain, and also a lot

of [indiscernible] that is people say leaders are bad -- the leaders are bad, but if you ask why they are protesting, [indiscernible] they have seen [indiscernible] come out of it so a lot of to move to asitant revolution or takeover. that is something you could also see. there were millions of people on the streets, but now the focus has largely died down. it could stir up any minute, but these people are dissatisfied, absolutely, so i am not seeing

the beginning of a complete takeover. host: we were talking with thomas are drink -- thomas erdbrink from tehran. the former iranian president was arrested for pointedly inciting some violence. can you shed light on that? aest: he has been controversial figure since leaving office. before he left, he had a falling out with the supreme leader of iran. he tried to run for president and failed. he was supposed to take up a low-level political post and he is doing anything but remaining low profile. the are looking to use budget in the initial unrest, as thomas mentioned, as a leverage of pressure. with them, the islamic republic, but the supreme leader are looking to crack down on him

within the right flank of the islamic republic. those political leaves have called him a deviance currents. host: we will try to connect with thomas. first, rachel from tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to comment on the special attention nikki haley and the president have been in the unitedtest nations security council. i watched that meeting. it was truly -- i was the comments by nikki haley calling out the iranian government for internal when in my own country, in the united states, i have seen what my government bys to protesters, whether

wall street, or black lives matter, and i find it hypocritical that this continues to go on. iran's been crippling since theth sanctions revolution in 1979. host: thank you. guest: the sanctions that your caller were referring to is issued quite recently in relation to iranian's nuclear trends -- transgressions and they were lifted. i would respectfully caution some between making a moral equivalence between united states of america in the protest permits and the protest iran permits and those that the crackdown on. host: our guest is behnam ben taleblu, a senior iran analyst for the defense of democracy. frome rejoined from tehran the new york times, thomas.

how widespread and tout expensive are these protests across the country? guest: definitely this is the first time in the history that i have seen multiple protests in dozens of cities between some form of protest. definitely wide scaled, but the perer of protesters dissipating is hard to measure. iran is a big country with 80 million people. it is not a country where you peopleily protest and are on the streets or have an on the streets in the past week, it is definitely something. host: behnam ben taleblu, quick question. guest: thanks, thomas. you initially framed the grievances of economic but when

you moved on, how do you think the public of iran will try to put the genie back in the bottle now that protest had drifted from attacking the government to the system itself? oro, saying they preferred extolled the founding father of the last monarch dynasty, how do you think this genie, which may not be a regime change, but transformation, could we put back in the bottle, if at all? can they do this? andt: i am now in tehran there are no protests at the moment. i am driving by one of the places where students had an uprising here. they managed and they played a skillful game, and they know that they are unpopular. with certain decisions, they will allow more money to flow

and soople's pockets overall, they have many dependents. i do not know how it will be in the future. it might not be what all people want but the result of what will happen. were09, millions of people on the streets. it is the political season to establish the regime. also, they are seeking a relaxing of islamic rules. the middleo release class back into the fold, so they have a lot to explore. will they be successful? time will tell. host: thomas erdbrink, the new york times tehran bureau chief, thank you. guest: thank you.

host: we will continue with your phone calls as we look at the issue and situation in iran. leo joins us from maryland. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning, sir. my name is aliah. i am calling to comment on an issue in iran. it really should have been outright that anyone should have a peaceful protest. world, a riotthe must be condemned. however, america policing iran right now, from their point of view, is to honor the iranian democracy. to othercompare iran countries and regions, iran is more democratic than saudi arabia. host: thank you for listening. we will get a response. guest: i do think that violence should be condemned. we are seeing the outburst of

people who have been oppressed for 30 plus years. why regime should be worried now more than before is because those taking to the streets and or financial bank institution should have been the social basis of this regime. i would not equate one regime to another or one type of protest to another, but i would stress for our callers that there is something happening on the ground that is going to be hard to put back in the bottle, no matter what iran's public does. host: 202 is the area code in washington. 748-8000 for democrats. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. charlotte is next from baltimore. caller: yes, my comment for your guest or question, he told a previous caller not to drop a moral equivalence between the way protests are treated in this country and how they are treated

in iran. he did not explain. before i asked him for his response, he must not have noticed what went on in baltimore when they came in with tanks, or what they did in missouri for the michael brown protests. i do not know why you would not draw a moral equivalence. some places are talking about some people ran over protesters in this country. the caller was correct. this country they do a lot to disturb iran's democracy. that is my question. host: thank you, charlotte. guest: i just would not be nude the iranian protesters by trying to set washington is behind the protest. political, social, economic scenes, ever since its inception, and even though protests may have a social, economic or religious the near, i have been part of the iranian

people's best for democracy. host: steve is next from oklahoma. our line for independents. watching that was u.s. special meeting also, and seeing a lot of the other countries were saying that was an internal affair, and that we should not be meddling in their business. what do you think about that? so this is a great point the caller made when referencing the uns conference by other members of the p5, like russia, china. this is a long-standing modus operandi to say that anything that goes on in any other state is an internal matter. this is a way to curtail u.s. power and insulate themselves from the repercussions they would face for repressing

domestic dissent at home. host: we're talking with behnam ben taleblu, the senior iran analyst for the foundation of defense of democracies. you made reference with thomas erdbrink about past years. does this feel different in 2018? guest: there are differences from 2009. the 2009 protest after a national phenomenon of a stolen election were centered around major urban hubs. primarily, major urban centers featuring a lot of urban middle class. ofse feature the social base the regime. while economic in nature, and they targeted the government, they also, like the 2009 protest, brought into target the entire system. the difference is this be they targeted it. it took hours for them to

condemn the system. 2009 tout a week in asking, where is the belt, condemning the broader system? one thing i would stress for callers, there is a myth that there is an urban rural divide in iran over who is the best guardian of iran's national interest. i can tell you the islamic republic of iran is a poor guardian of iranian interest. in 2009, when the consensus was that the regime had failed that and they were huddled in a corner and did not want to risk going into the streets, they had negative sentiments toward the regime. now we see people in more rule areasagree with -- rural agree with them, so their resolve to stay on the streets put them in sync with their more urban counterparts. host: what is your background? american,m an iranian born and raised in the united states. my parents immigrated in the

early 1980's. host: if you are a demonstrator in iran, do you face repercussions on the government? guest: definitely. i think the iranian people have the right to be afraid. i would understand if they did not allowed in protest area what you see now, when iranian people risk their lives, is because they think there is something worth going to protest and they feel like they are backed into a corner. i am not one to condemn a critique or to coerce someone to go into the streets, but i think what you see now, not just in a ami urban centers, or like second largest city, where protests began, but in rural areas, where there is great reputational risks to going out, these are great people who have bad th -- who have had their backs against the wall. i can sympathize with them. my support is to them. i think u.s. support should be there, too. host: to our radio audience, we

are talking about the iran protests, and our guest is with the foundation for the defense of democracy. we will go to rita in florida. good morning. caller: good morning. very strange world we live in now. the iranians, they are the enemy, i get with the trump administration is trying to do, and the saudi's are our buddies. we thousand americans died, , mostly saudi's a part of the group that attacked the towers. now you see alex haley pushing for jerusalem to be the capital, constant provocation, going nuclear treaty deal. it reminds me of bush-cheney. and an iraqi dissidents, who helped to make the case to go torque against

iraq. i do not trust this man on now and i do not trust the trump administration. i believe they are trying to destabilize the middle east and continue with the war. host: we'll get a response. guest: fortunately, no one is calling for war. to think that war could save the iranian people is the answer to the protest with economic malaise or social or political grievance of the people i think is full hearty. no one is talking war. just a correction to the statements. is merely aneal executive agreements. every country has a political by an but not necessarily -- buy0 n -in, but not necessarily. one other point that caller mentioned of iran being the enemy, iran isn't the enemy. i would caution the caller. the islamic republic of iran, meaning the government of the country, is the enemy. what we have seen clearly is

divideere is a sharp between the iranian government and people, something officials in washington could do well to listen to. host: sydney next from alexandria, louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to ask this man if he remembers in 1953, we overthrew over there to steal the shalee installed and brutalized the people for 25 years, and they started by getting the people in the streets rioting. they were paying both sides so that they would fight each other, and now the same thing is deemed done again. host: thank you, sydney. guest: i respectfully is free with the caller a little bit. the reference -- disagree with the caller. it is important to look at the archival record on this event in

1953, as well as the declassified material. there was a cia engineered coup that failed, but there are reports about attempts by the clerics to link up with foreign intelligence agencies, something not mentioned today in the islamic public is the pivotal role of the seminaries and clerics who present the shot as a defender of the faith and dried-up the government, the one toppled in 1953, which when he had stayed in power for some time, moved from having democratic to authoritarian tendencies. ,hose who watch iran closely the stopwatch is something that would draw our attention. if you are looking at protests in iran, if you start your watch a 1953, do you started that 2009? the scope and scale is what is important here. host: let's go to john in new

jersey. good morning. caller: yes, i am talking about the protesting in iran. but a cias nothing agent. there is -- they are trying to overthrow iran without the use of force. they are using the people to overthrow the country. it is israel and the united states. they are involved in trying to overthrow iran. host: is that the case? guest: i'm sure that the israeli government and american government would like representative government in iran because the assumption is a more represented government in iran would not only reflect the people but more in line with u.s. security interests. i think the caller is quite slander their against me as someone who works for a nonprofit, nonpartisan research association. he is going a bit too far. i think the iranian people are the people we should have the

spotlight on and let's not rob them of the agency and legitimacy behind their grievances, and that's not rub their noses in the dust. host: do you still have family there? guest: i have extended family there i have never met but i have never been, unfortunately. i think the analysis i have provided would make that ticket one way to a certain perverse degree, i am proud of the fact i can speak freely in this country. united states of america has been a great home to me and my family. i think there is a level of dispassionate analysis that iranian americans need to take in the full do that they have had a century long struggle. host: why would it be a one-way ticket? wiley to be held in iran if you traveled back -- why would you be held in iran? guest: i have written articles, they have been critical, and fundamentally, like i told the previous caller, i believe it is

a poor guard of the iranian national interest. i wanted to clarify that iran is not the enemy. look at the state of the united states, there could be a fair amount of overlap. how they have denuded their own civilization, i think there is legitimate room for criticism they're not very tolerant of criticism, for an or domestic. mistake ine make the 1953 in 1954? guest: i think there is a great quote by a chinese minister, when asked about the legacy of the french revolution, he said the jury is still out. i would say the jury is out on 1953. it did lead to pushing more reforms and perhaps it was

pushed to fast. there is evidence that the leader had different intentions. it pushed the country too hard and too fast in a certain direction. even when he was in power, with absolute power comes absolute corruptions, if i am not messing that phrase up to bat. it set down the parliaments. -- it shut down the parliament. can not want to open up a of worms, but those of us to watch iran, it depends on when we start to watch. is a critical juncture, you will see this original sin of the crew. if it is 1979 and the hostage crisis, you will always see it as this. in 2009 is the juncture you start looking at iran, then the urban unrest is how you will see it. if 2017-2018 is how you look at it, then the economic issue and

the role of iran in syria is you look ator how iran. this is a historical question of scale and scope, and of the interest and how dispassionately can be. host: what is the economy like in iran? guest: imf is projecting they will have economic growth around four-ish percent -- host: better than the u.s. of thebut the scale iranian economy to the u.s. economy is the comparison. makehave been looking to political reforms and with them are economic reforms. he submitted the parliament a highly controversial budget, which shed light on the country. iran remains a highly dependent oil economy. they have raised expectations postnuclear deal, but their structural reforms for the banking sector, modernization of

it, have not been made. it is not as tight in the foreign market as one assumed. host: jill in south carolina, good morning. southl in nort carolina, good morning. i would encourage viewers to google the foundation for defense of democracies. this gentleman refers to it as nonpartisan, but it can be referred to as neoconservative by many other people. new conservatives believe in using military power to have american position economically guaranteed, and this is nonsense. this whole thing about the peacock prone, that was set up to protect british petroleum and oil, and this guy probably was the shah and his right-wing a known

jewish radical in the united states, these people are all for the project of new american century. they are the same people that .ot us knee-deep in iraq 16 years of war, hasn't that been enough for us? guest: i would ignore the slander against our president, who was on a panel discussing the iran issue with a civil society activist this friday. but to the question about military source and power, i would just say it military power underwrites u.s. and global security. nobody is talking about military force with respect to iran. we are talking about keeping the spotlight on iranian people. host: next from wilmington, north carolina, anne. caller: good morning. i wanted to know why this gentleman felt it necessary to say he was an iranian-american,

when he was born in america. why doesn't he called himself an american? host: let me be clear, i asked him about his background because i think it has context the fact he came from iran. caller: but he said he was iranian-american. why is he just not american? divide inat starts to the country, when people have to say -- when he was born here. he was not born in iran and then came here. guest: that is right. the host mentions, he inquired about my ethnic background, but yes, i am born and raised in united states, proud u.s. citizen. -- tocaller's -- two the the callers point, there is a , and unrelated, a book

about what kind of nationalism exists in the u.s. by sam huntington called "who are we?" i would recommend the caller read that book. host: let me go back to these earlier points about demonstrations that i had asked how widespread they are, but how long-lasting will they be? weeks, days, months? guest: gift thomas is correct there are no protest in tehran today, it which i heard about something their january 5, generally six their time, that is telling. the second is, they are continuing on the periphery of iran, in provinces that border the country that has nothing an ethnic that has minority. even if they end tomorrow or go on for a year and they change the fundamental political makeup of the public, which i doubt, they will have proven one thing, the iranian people will not let

2009 be the detriment on their quest. host: do you worry iran will have nuclear capacity at some point? guest: to a certain degree, they have it now, even if the nuclear deal was to tempt it down and permit enrichment of uranium, which is needed for nuclear weapons. and to phase in industrial scale capacity after 10 years, one of the problems is or 10 years in washington, our focus has been the nuclear issue to the detriment of the human rights situation in iran. a way to combat the presence in the region and to deal with missiles, terrorism, and money laundering, basically, other issues, sononnuclear when we come to the expectation that sweet when the present is expected to wait them, how do signal the protest support and live up to the address he made

what he linked iran's nuclear and nonnuclear threats? nuclear is not the primary issue, but some reason it is the inescapable 800 pound gorilla in every room in washington. host: let's go to jason in virginia. good morning. caller: how are you doing? good morning. say thathe gentleman the american people and government should get behind the people of iran. that is all cool, but looking at america's history, they have not stand up for anything right. look at apartheid, the civil rights movement, so i applaud the brother for speaking for his people, but the think about it is -- you cannot expect the american government to help you out because they have not even helped out in apartheid. we knew it was wrong but we did not do anything about it.

so you have people getting beat down protesting in the streets and nothing was done until later down the line. my fingers, that stood out to me, and i feel like america will not stand up in less there is an interest to them during right now, it does not seem -- interest to them. right now, it does not seem of interest to them. guest: no response there. host: let me go back and we will hear from nikki haley because there are a lot of comments about her. how would you assess her performance question mark guest: most recent -- her performance? guest: most recently? host: in the last year. guest: i would say quite well. one of the challenges is getting the u.s. to be seen as a long-standing, credible partner. advocate, i would say she has been a good job as ambassador to the united nations, in particular during

the iranian missile that crashed. there was material evidence behind the charge that began in the obama administration that iran was providing material support against yemen. that is when she came into her own and i applaud her for standing with the iranian people at the security council. host: on friday, here is what she said -- [video clip] nikki haley: i call on all of my colleagues to amplify the message of the iranian people. i call on the government of iran to stop censoring the voice of the people and mr. access to the internet. in the end, the iranian people will determine their own destiny and let there be no doubt whatsoever the united states stands unapologetically with those in iran who seek freedom for themselves, prosperity for their families, and dignity for

their nation. we will not be quiet. to call the attempt protesters puppets of foreign powers will change that. the iranian people know the truth. and we know the truth. they are acting of their own will, on their own behalf, for their own future. nothing. americans from standing in solidarity with them. in 2009, the world stood by passively while the coast of the iranian people were crushed by their governments. will not be silent. once again, the people of iran are rising up, asking for something no government can legitimately denied them. they are human rights and fundamental freedoms. comments of nikki haley this past friday. as you look ahead on base but she is doing, the administration, what will happen next? guest: i expect the protests in

iran to go into rhetorical support for the white house and hopefully more bipartisan members of congress. ultimately, a flashpoint to be next week when the president has to wait nuclear sanctions. he may decide not to levy nonnuclear sanctions or get new ones to target the nonnuclear threats, particularly human rights violations. i think every branch of government should keep the spotlight on the iranian people and let them be the primary protagonists in this story and let them speak for themselves. host: our conversation with behnam ben taleblu, a senior iran analyst for the foundation for defense of democracies. you can follow their work on twitter behnam ben taleblufdd -- you can follow their work on twitter@fdd. more on the president's tweets yesterday -- i am like really smart. a very stable genius. that will be where we continued the sunday morning. the president tweeting those

comments yesterday. tell us what you think at (202)-748-8000, i like the democrats. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. and (202)-748-8002 if you are an independent. you are watching or listening to "washington journal" this sunday morning. we are back and a moment. ♪ >> monday night on "the communicators," clear on location in murray hill, new jersey, for the first of a two-part interview series. it is one of the premier research facilities in the world, providing work and radio, astronomy, and laser information theory. theiscuss what is new in munication's technology and research. >> the problem we have is we have a ton of data. in the next era, we will connect everything to your environment, you, infrastructure, buildings,

cities, so we will see what is going on and begin automated. your energy will be automatically managed for you. your car may be automatically driven. all of that requires a change in how you build networks and the cloud has to make that work. i think cloud will come with age and the network will become valued again and devices will be everywhere, on you, a new, your car, a big change coming. that is when we will see the increase in productivity. >> watch "the communicators" at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> tonight on c-span "q&a," -- >> i propose action instead of words. i propose action now before it is too late. i propose it for the sake of a better world but i say again, and again, and again, that i propose it for our own american self-interest. meyer with his

book about the man in the middle of the american century. >> he finds himself in opposition. 1930'se democrats in the take majority in the senate, he is in opposition for the next dozen years, and that means that to get anything done, which often meant resisting some of franklin roosevelt's initiatives, there needed to be a coalition. he had to reach across the aisle. >> "q&a" tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span. "washington journal" continues. host: a live look at the u.s. capitol on a very cold sunday morning. single digits in washington, d.c. congress is back this week. the senate returned last week and the house this week with a full agenda, including the spending plan over daca, the

future of the chip program, and other issues the president put forth in his state of the union address. the president tweeting the following -- now that russian collusion after one year of intense study has proven to be a hoax on the american public, the thecrats and their lapdogs, mainstream news media, are taking out the old ronald reagan playbook and screaming mental stability and intelligence. myually, throughout my life, two greatest assets have been my mental stability and being like really smart. crooked hillary clinton also played these cards very hard and as everyone knows, went down in flames. i went from a very successful television to a top star, to president of the united states on my first try. i think that would qualify as not smart the genius, and a very stable genius at that. the washington

post, the president defends his fitness for office. that is where we begin. texas,rom el paso, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. trump has been getting attacks since he declared he would go for office, but political parties did not one tim, even fox news was against him until he won. there is a poll a couple months 92% ofcnn, i believe stories about trump have been negative. this is nothing new. him. not vote for i was deployed at the time. we did not get our ballots in a timely manner. he is president. give him four years. c when he gets done -- see when

he gets done. if he gets done enough, i will vote for him in 2020. i might vote for a democrat, but for what they are showing what they have on their bench, it is extreme,g far left, you know, elizabeth warren, nancy pelosi, sanders attitude towards what is best for the country, and that is not what is best for the country. yell the loudest and everything else, but the country wanted that. that host:, we would have had hillary clinton. tanks. tv, we arebook beginning our in-depth series, all of 2018 come with the authors of fiction books but authors who have written thrillers or fiction stories based on their expertise in history. for example, our guest today at noon eastern time is david ignatius.

the fiction series on in-depth, which is 48 hours of tv of depthtion books, and in at noon eastern today, 9:00 on the west coast. we hope you tune in. christopher in chicago, democrat line. aller: my wife and i had choice, like so many americans in the last election. we know full spectrum dominance is calling for the takeover of planet earth and space, part of the efforts. hillary was leading that effort. , and shes into libya was very much in favor of destroying syria. we voted for trump. we know that people call for his impeachment before he got into office, and we think he was

probably going to, if because to his own impeachment, by being unable to resist conflict of interest. we expected that. the news media, in particular, and the democratic party, has allowed the elected president of the united states to do his work without trying to destroy him from day one. host: christopher from chicago. on cnn's state of the union this morning, a question was asked about wolff's new book. here's the exchange. [video clip] is so trail in the book contrary to reality, the experience of those who work with them, my own experience the last two years with him. on the campaign, i traveled across the country with the one.dent on term force -- on trump kforce one. we went from rally to rally.

i saw a man who was a political genius. host: stephen miller on cnn's state of the union, one of the five sunday programs would air on c-span radio, available on their website at www.c-span.org. democratrizona on the line, good sunday morning. caller: good morning out there. i basically think donald trump is a con man. a genius he is not. views the ability to sell a bill of goods that you do not necessarily want to buy. my wife and that voted for him, but i knew within one month after the inauguration that he was a phony. that is my opinion. host: next, john from california, republican line. we are giving your reaction to the president saying he is "a very stable genius.' good morning.

caller: good morning. i would like to agree. i would like to say that you have got a man who has graduated from the top of his last at wharton with honors, that says something. you have got a guy who can build skyscrapers in new york and las vegas that is probably difficult to do, and that says something. you have a guy in the first year of office to solve many problems that barack obama could not isis, theke first is second, to bring our economy back, the third to have the gas prices fall at the pump. they were five dollars under obama. we have had so many success that came within one vote of repealing obamacare. is ifason he is a genius you look at the way he works, he outlines clear goals that are achievable, and he sets a path to get to those goals, and he

follows that path. it is a clear, clear path of a successful man. i am so glad he is working for me. around the world, we should count our blessings. the guy is a real smart guy. people that do not think he is smart, they are the dumb ones. [laughter] that is all i have got to say. i think you have a lot of russians calling in on the show. host: peter baker with a story on the front page of the new york times -- a stable genius trump declares, he is mentally fit -- "president trump, who has erratic the hader in office unprecedented an debate about his mental health. he accused his critics of raising questions to score political points. in a series of twitter post that were extraordinary, mr. trump insisted that his opponents and news media were attacking his capacity because they failed to

prove his campaign conspired with russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. his engagements on the issue is likely to fuel the long are you -- arguments about the state of mind that has thrust the country into uncharted territory. democrats in congress have introduced legislation to force the president to submit to psychological valuation and mental health professionals have called for his removal for office and others called it a dangerous accident or even a cover for partisan attacks. the president is scheduled to get a complete physical for later this month. it is also available at nytimes.com. from pennsylvania on the democrat line, good morning. caller: i would like to disagree with the previous caller. i do not think he has been successful in any of those areas varied i think that economy was

on that course anyway. he has been a national this chris, especially when it comes to national affairs. he has insulted every ally we have had. he has cozied up to dictators. i think people like the previous caller obviously have been jaded by a news network that is propaganda and that is fox news, 30 years of fox news have resulted in this dilemma, with a precedent destroying our state decimating the fbi and our intelligence services, and the independence of our judiciary and our investigative capacity. the justice department is supposed to be independent of the president. we are leaning toward a dictatorship and people better start paying attention.

this robert mueller investigation has got to stay on its brooding, and they are attacking everything about it -- on its footing. this makes republicans were silent complicity intrusion -- complicit to treason. host: how much snow do have over there? caller: six feet. it is unbelievable. i know you are from here. it is unbelievable. but beautiful, too. host: mark from pennsylvania, thank you. from the new york post -- do not worry, america. i am like really smart, a very stable genius. about nine minutes ago, the president with another tweet -- tomorrow he will issue fake news oh words -- not sure how, but at 5:00 eastern, and this morning he said "i have had to put up with fake news from the first day i announced i would run for president.

now i have to put up with a fake book written by discredited author. ronald reagan had the same problem and handled it well, so will i." , we morning from england enjoy hearing from you. good afternoon. caller: it is good afternoon and it is a pleasure that we have been allowed to speak on your program. can you hear me? host: we sure can. say i: i am phoning in to -- we have programs where we have questioned and they have phoned in, what is said on your program would never be allowed. where i do nots agree with what you say at the table and the right for you to say it is wonderful. you get the opportunity

to speak out. did you hear me say that? host: absolutely. you had a second point. with thehe second is talking about president trump, i get emails every day from the president. he calls me his friend. birthdays, to write to him, and the comical thing is i have never emailed your program and i would not even know how to emailed president trump, but -- and i'm not an american citizen -- but according to him, i am his , and to mem a member when you get old, you read things that come through.

one of the things that comes online is i am a friend of president trump and i have an account number i don't respond to. host: thank you from england. if you want to emailed us, it is simple. journal@cspan.org. review, theyonal are writing about the book fire and fury. i do not know what to make of his experts, written in the national review, it was clear steve bannon was a major source and i would not trust the thing he says. a lot of the material follows in the too good to check category of journalism. there are some basic errors involving ages, dates, and typos. the preferred narrative that president trump is senile, crazy, or both, and everyone in the press already built leaves it is a surefire way to maximize publicity and sales. doesn't mean what you are selling is true.

on the democrat line, dorothy from north carolina. go ahead. caller: i would like to make two comments, a couple comments. give me a minute. one is everybody knows that something is wrong with trump. we know that from the comments that come from his own mouth. it buters, they hear they make excuses. to go on to something else, steve, i would like c-span to put on those deregulations and what they mean to the american people, not the businesses, but to the american people. deregulatings consumer protection so we cannot sue a bank. the other one, i remember him getting some ceo, i do not know if it was the epa or what, but we need to know about those deregulations he has done to hurt.

i know the keystone pipeline is supposed to be leaking. he is trying to get them to 's sides ofe arctic the water, we needed to put what he deregulated and how it help or hurt the american people, not the businesses. how it hurt us. host: thank you. jennifer rubin has a piece -- the stable genius is not even functioning as president. it is available at washingtonpost.com and here's an excerpt -- anyone who listens to him speak about health care or tax legislation knows he will not raise any specifics or make a logical argument for this or that provision buried it is all great, fabulous, not even a sophisticated marketing ploy, but evidence of a lack of understanding of any given piece of legislation. they are serious questions on whether he knows what is in the affordable care act, how medicaid works, or how the

republican health care bill would have worked. she goes on to say " unfortunately, interviewers tend to shy away from asking questions that will provoke the dreaded word salad, we are playing with fire. counting on the ability of others to restrain him from launching a nuclear war, nearly as bad as jettisoning a representative democracy. vice president mike pence and cabinet members have a moral obligation to bring this to a stop." don in california, you are next area of -- you are next. caller: i want to comment that for him to say he is a stable genius shows how ignorant and uneducated we are in the united states. until he shows us his tax could goand how a man bankrupt with billions of dollars and turn around and now he has billions of dollars, he cannot be believed, and to

cannot be trusted. thank you. host: donna is next from virginia. caller: good morning. interesting morning. host: it has been. caller: i have a question and comment. first, i have been watching since 1979, so i am dedicated every morning. wonder who picks the items you read and highlight? is it you or the producers? host: it is a combination. we have a team of producers, and the host, and we try to look for a cross-section of what is being talked about and are presented host, and one the or two producers, plus, people who research these segments and the m a day or two in advance. -- book them a day or two in

advance. host: over the years, i have seen a lot of changes on the show. i have to agree. i am a true independent. i voted for jack kennedy, george bush, i did not vote at all for either of the years of obama ran because i did not like either candidate. thatd in the recent years you guys, the host, i can pick out which one of liberals and which ones are conservatives by the articles you pay, and by the way, you keep people on the line if it is to your liking. you will keep them on a long time. i have to agree, it is not unbiased like the show used to be, and it is disappointing. contactually going to the producers and see what is changing because you are ruining a show that i have always admired. host: how would you want to change it? what differences would you put in place?

caller: i did vote for trump. like i said, i am an independent. i am very happy. it makes me feel good to be an american again since he has been elected, but the bashing that you hosts do, and whether you are aware of it or not, i do not know. , can tell you, kimberly, greta you, john r all liberals. it is obvious by the articles you pick, and by the time you allowed people who are liberals istalk and bash trump obvious. i very disappointed in all of you really. the only thing i would say is we had the same criticism when president obama was in the white house and they said we were conservatives. caller: no, you did not. host: sure we did. caller: i watched you every morning since the time the show came on. anything against

obama. it was obvious and then as it is now. it is disappointing. i wish you would all get together and start doing, picking things that are much more fair and unbiased, give trump a little credit where it is due. this morning, i have seen so many negative things that you have read and it is disappointing and it is not fair to the public listening. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org] we hope you tune in and we hope you check it out. and we're back tomorrow morning with a live simulcast with the "washington journal" on c-span radio and c-span washington. a busy week in washington. we will turn