coverage today. on c-span, homeland security secretary kirstjen nielsen talks about combating terrorism. the house comes in, followed by .egislative business several bills on the agenda, including one to increase protections for young people and amateur athletes against sexual abuse. at 2:00 the senate is in to take ban bill that would abortions after 20 weeks. on c-span3, we get a preview of tomorrow's state of the union. later, foreign members of congress -- later, four members of congress talk about the current political climate. coming up on today "washington journal", will take a look at

the week ahead with arlene super bowl and out weaver. nina olsonadvocate talks about the new tax law and its implementation at the irs. ♪ host: the u.s. capital, the site of president trump us first u.s. state of the union, in which he is expected to take credit for the growing u.s. economy and make a pitch for infrastructure funding. you can watch c-span's coverage starting at 8:00 tomorrow night and you can go to www.c-span.org for more information. this is "the washington journal" 29th.nuary immigration is the topic. rate your party's efforts on immigration. could be the debate on daca, dreamers, security policy, or

some other aspect. half-hour, we will hear from republicans only. don't worry, democrats, we will get you in the second half hour. you support the president's plan on daca, (202) 748-8000. if you oppose that plan, (202) 748-8001. if you want to make your thoughts known on twitter, you can do so at @cspanwj. wait to hear from the party cost republicans, with a couple of things to show you now. this is the president's rapoza for the dreamers. itis expected to talk about during the state of the union tomorrow. in short it offers a 10 to 12 your path to citizenship for dacaximately 1.8 million

eligible immigrants with $25 billion for border security and other measures. it would limit chain migration, which it would only include spouses and minor children only, eliminating the visa lottery system. that was floated last week. yesterday, a shows lot of talk of republicans and democrats over this proposal by the president. we will hear from lindsey graham , who was asked about policy and his thoughts on the passage. [video clip] >> we will give a path to citizenship. we will do something substantial on the border. we will not cut legal immigration in half. phases, beginning with phase one. the bottom line is i'm optimistic. at the president continues the attitude he has expressed in his proposal, i know it's hard to do with president trump, but take a

deep breath, we can get there. america would be so well served to start fixing the broken immigration system. obama couldn't do it, bush couldn't do it, trump can do it and i hope we will work with him to get it done. host: again, that's senator graham speaking yesterday on the immigration plan. that orspeak about other aspects of the republican party plus efforts. if you support the president's .lan for dr., (202) 748-8000 .- for daca, (202) 748-8000 if you oppose the plan, (202) 748-8001. democrats will have a chance to comment in the second half hour. teresa is in tennessee. she opposes the president's plan . talk about that and other republican efforts on immigration. go ahead. caller: good morning. first of all, i don't know who lindsey graham thinks he is, saying what they are going to

do. donald trump is the president and he will veto him on anything that comes up. trump has given away too much. i'm hoping that he's setting a trap or the democrats to fall into and he's not really offering as much as he says. one of the things, y'all -- host: only because we are short on time, what do you think of the republican party's efforts overall on immigration policy? caller: there are a few who are standing,, fighting the democrats and their own republican caucus. the freedom caucus is fighting. we only have a few. lindsey graham sure isn't one of them. host: who stands out as a republican that you support on this kind of policy? caller: i did support cotton, but kotten has kind of wavered. i like general kelly. stopping --ly was

fighting to stop immigration. let's go to jack, providence, rhode island. jack approves of the daca plan. caller: hi, how are you. yes, i support the plan. i will give you a little background. latecestors came in the 1800s from germany. they were toolmakers. they settled in upstate new york. i'm in texas. i'm a retired engineer. what they ought to start focusing on, gradually, is skills-based immigration. the united states has done some things to better itself. maybe even in a bad way. ,ut at the end of world war ii they brought in a lot of our bad brethren from operation

paperclip. over 10,000 german scientists and engineers were brought into the country because of their tremendous mathematical capabilities. >> but as far as republicans think ofwhat do you the general republican attitude or effort on immigration? >> good question. i think that overall it's good. particularly senator cotton, ok? because if people come in with skills, that will help. a lot of people coming in from asia, for example, they have great skills in computer engineering. let's go to jan, in california, opposing the president's daca plan. slantedi sound pretty towards the illegals. we got 192,000 of them in california.

i was born and raised here, 74 years old. i have watched this state deteriorate and the leaders, feinstein and the rest of them that are liberal, if they would take a look, if people would take a look at what they have done to our state, they wouldn't want it. i'm anti-liberal. i see the younger generation has no respect, covering themselves with tattoos. >> when it comes to republican efforts, not strong enough enforcement of immigration policy? >> i voted for trump because of what he said. he said he was going to build a nice, big wall and deport these people. will thousands of them have to go back home and make mexico and haiti and these other places -- i have lived in low income, where we have illegals from every country.

el salvador, guatemala. they were criminals and they had criminal attitudes. i talked to them on a day to day basis. i was a crossing guard for a latino school. i watched the school protect them, call around, even the principal was involved. i found out, unfortunately i was in a second -- in a sanctuary city. when illegals smashed my car all of, she skipped out. amount on aogus fake injury and said she was going to mexico to buy pot and bring it back and sell it. that's exactly what she did. host: ok, that's jan, from california, some of your opinions in this half-hour on immigration. we have divided the line differently if you were a supporter of the president's plan, (202) 748-8000, if you support it, (202) 748-8001.

the plan is expected to be talked about at the state of the union. at "the new york times" this morning they talk about the border enforcement myth in an op-ed this morning. she says "the last immigration by ronaldl was signed reagan, legalizing immigrants in exchange for increased enforcement along --

"the newt op-ed is in york times" this morning. mary, pennsylvania, some airline, i. -- hi. caller: is very hard to get people who are already here. but i do believe that they should enforce the law for the criminals. i see that schumer wants to give them free education. well, i don't agree with that. i think they should be made to pay, just like everybody else. if they do something wrong, like destroy someone's property or commit a crime, they should do the time. i think we are a little too >> on crime. on crime.

host: what you think of the republican party was efforts on this? caller: i talked to get to people to agree on everything -- two people to agree on everything. the neighbors, family, anything. i can understand that there are just too many opinions. but i think that this country and these judges, in order not to be called prejudice -- i'm not prejudiced, i don't care if people are purple with think stripes or polkadots. if they are going to commit a crime, they are going to jail. ok, that's married in pennsylvania. two numbers, republicans only in this half-hour. call the line that best represents you. if you support the president's plan on daca, which we showed you earlier. if you oppose that plan, (202)

748-8001. you can, on that, comment on larger aspects of immigration policy, we give you that avenue. to that line, republicans only. we will get as many calls as we can in this half-hour and then we will switch over to democrats in the next half hour. alabama is next. susan, good morning, hello. caller: good morning. my view is that the swamp that trump promised to clear is in the lawful immigration. there are people that want to come to this country, they want to come in legally and that system is broken. if we could create -- if he could clean that swamp over there with the people who sit on these applications for years and years, if we could clear that and make the legal immigration workable andle,

effective system, we could perhaps discourage some of the unlawful who pour over the border without any vetting. we would create a respect for the people that we have here. it there wouldn't be a fear that you don't know who the people or youyour neighborhood, don't present people who burden the system. i have heard people talk about the fact that we should just put them in jail. in alabama, this was 20 years ago, i realize, we were in a program where we did a study and peoplet more on jailing than we did per-pupil in our public education system. i don't see jail as a solution. if only for burdening taxpayers. host: with all the you said,

were use of rise by what the president is offering when it is one in 8 billion? caller: nothing he does surprises me, i must say. host: david, tom's river, new jersey, you are up. points.two let's get real for the first time. dreamers? illegal aliens? no. they have been invaders since day one. let's call them what they really are. the democratic party has supported the invaders for one reason and one reason only. it has nothing to do with daca. it has to do with neutralizing the white vote. without been verified any kind of repudiation by nancy pelosi, two days ago, when she

showed the republican proposed immigration policy making america whiter. that's what she said. they want to neutralize the white vote in this country. that is what this is all about. line, youida, support are next, francis, what do you think? francis from florida? hello? let's go to jason, in albuquerque, new mexico. jason, you are next. go ahead. caller: new mexico has one of the largest populations of native americans in the country. claimre the ones who have on this country, more so than any immigrants, illegal or otherwise. the country was founded on immigration. that was the beauty of the american dream. you could come from anywhere in the world and learn to live in

this country and within a couple of generations, like for example, my family was here before america was america, they were french, but they learned to speak english. the same thing is happening with the hispanic immigrants coming .ver, legal or illegal i live in new mexico, very close to mexico, obviously. wonderfully nice people with every reason to hate us when our president says they are rapists, drug dealers, and assumes that some are good people. i have to tell you, sir, in my experience, i have yet to come across a single rude person since trump has been in office in new mexico and i just got back from there this evening. host: you are calling in, we're asking people to rate the overall onparty on

efforts on immigration, how would you rate that? caller: zero. republicans freed the slaves. immigrantso bring in from central america in a reasonable way. it's time to bring the immigrants in from latvia in a reasonable way. anywhere else in a reasonable way. ok.: one of the people sitting in a gallery tomorrow, lots of dreamers are a part of that. also a family from puerto rico, this is in "the orlando saysnel," spokespeople, it --

host: that is part of the story. attending the state of the union, and there will be a lot of so-called dreamers in the audience during the president's address tomorrow. coverage of the state of the union starts at 8:00 tomorrow. we will hear from you in the your thinking on what you think the president might say it what you are hoping he will address. the economy and other factors, o. watch it on c-span, monitor it on c-span.org and the c-span radio app. san antonio, texas is next. lynn, hello. to approve calling of the way the president has offered to treat this.

democrats getting what they want, with the dreamers assured of their safety here, trump and the rest of us getting what we want in stopping the flow. something that no one seems to think of, as long as mexico and all of these countries can dump off their people and get money from here, they will never reform themselves. we are helping generation after generation after generation suffer in that country because we keep giving the government .he out a revolution or something like that would be terribly painful, but at least it wouldn't last for as many generations as this has lasted. the rich people in mexico got their riches from the land grabs of the french king. --t: virginia republican pennsylvania, we will hear from

republicans only in next half hour. with dacadisagree altogether. reagan gave amnesty and that should have been the end of it. now it is daca? what will it be next? it never seems to stop. host: do you think that republicans will support the efforts or do you expect some of them to push back on it? caller: hello? host: do you think that other republicans will push back on the president's plan? >> it's up to them, really, but that's my opinion, i think it will just continue on and on and on. also, i believe that english is the first language here. if i go out shopping, i don't know what anybody is saying anymore. roger, honolulu, support

of the president's plan. hello. good morning. said,ike the president when he referred to the governments of those other countries in the southern with a derogatory term, it has come to this country, it has been here for a long time. it's getting worse. like the lady said in san rafael . the laws andspect they want everything for what they can get. kind of like -- would you leave your door open and let everybody come in and take everything that you have an and close the door and buy more stuff? would you do the same thing over and over? that is what california did and it's worse.

it's never going to get better until we have some change. we've got to get that wall. keep the drugs out. that lady that was on the show before this, katrina? trump and america? whatever it was. she said it right. all of those cities in the rust belt are deteriorating and they have been for years. so, roger, the president's plan that he offered, or the leak of the proposals this past weekend, is that something you go along with? why should republicans go along with it as well? you have to. it's like a leaky pipe. it's already in the country. no more. you've got to send the statue of liberty back to the french. obama sent the bust of -- you know -- uh -- host: we get you.

sue, hi. caller: i discovered your program a month ago and i call in every day. i had neighbors living across from me, 18 people living in a three-bedroom house. they crawled through the windows and they did everything. there were felons. they were disrespectful. every time they needed to go to the hospital, they called an ambulance because they wanted to be first in line. come on, we are americans. they are just squatters. what's wrong with them? host: so, you are saying that republicans who go along with this, what, what do you think of them? >> look, the problem is already here, the problem is getting greater. are about these people they raising up in the schools? david, in westto

hollywood, california. david, tell us about the rating on the republican party over immigration efforts. caller: i think that they are going about it in the wrong way. thesegot to consider first-generation children as exceptional. they have done sociological studies of it showing that they are at the top of the class areas of worse, the dreamers are really very much excelling. some of them are in graduate school in that age. that's one item. subsidize, we send corn and we subsidize it to mexico. i have been told that millions of farmers couldn't get a price for their small farms where they sell their corn. so, they wind up going to the saloons of mexico city.

i would imagine that a lot of them are coming because they are sick of being where they were. think of the you president's offer on immigration? caller: he keeps changing his mind. what's the latest? host: the proposal to allow the dreamers to be put into the united states in exchange for money for border ready. is it the wall? i'm against the wall, that's a waste of money. it kills the wildlife that needs to cross regularly. so what about the technology that we can monitor the border without a wall and it would be much cheaper to do it that way. host: a 10 to 12 your path, thanks, caller, to citizenship -- thert of a proposal president's proposal. $25 billion for the border wall, that's just one of the features

for the proposal expected to be formally unveiled by the white house today. republicans only for the next five minutes. democrats, in the second half hour, we will get your thoughts on rating or party on immigration. if you want to start calling in now and giving us your thoughts, to requirements, you have to be a democrat and if you call in and you support the daca plan, you can make your comments plan -- comments known. we will take those calls from democrats starting at around 7:30. illinois, supporter of the president's plan. caller: how was your weekend? host: fine, go ahead, please. proposalhe president's , callers have mentioned that they are here and it would be a

lot more money to spend getting them back to a country where they do have family there. it wouldn't be that lost of a country for their -- for them. but i would like to see more of residency with an extended timeline. trump proposed a 12 your plan for citizenship and i agree with that. that gives them time to learn the laws, learn the constitution. for those that don't want to become citizens, give them residency so that they don't have to live in the shadows. so that they can get car insurance. if someone hits me in my car, it's not a hit and run. that's what i would like to see more of a change. make it legal for them to be here, to continue to pay taxes, you know? i want to the government, get them away from the government's pocket, but overall i think the trump lan is a huge heat -- a huge step in the right direction. "the wall street journal"

reporting that rex tillerson will be visiting africa in mark -- march. the visit was scheduled after mr. trump angered leaders by complaining about african nations in an expression that he used. the present said he used to from language. the state department spokesperson says the details of the trip have yet to be finalized. "i want to underscore that the united states even respects the people of africa and my commitment to the sovereign nation there is firm, mr. trump wrote in a letter their first reported by the associated press . harry, baltimore, maryland, go ahead. caller: i have been working here in maryland for years. many of the workers in the state still can't speak english. the second thing is, if they are here all this time, why not take

to apply for citizenship? we need to do something that they want to do. think of the't current track the president has taken is the right one? caller: no, i think it's the wrong one, i really do. they never decided to become americans until they started the democrats running it. george is in bushkill, pennsylvania. last call for republicans on this topic. george from pennsylvania, you are next. go ahead. in,er: since when bush was he had that guest worker program that could have been passed. we had that lower skilled work that we need people to do that would be a great idea. but that was rejected.

daca, these are children that were brought here by their parents. like 1, 2, 3 years old. republicans, we are christians. we believe in god and in having compassion, all of that. i think they should be allowed to have legal status and continue with their lives. host: ok. that's george in pennsylvania. at the 7:30 hour we switch to democrats. we want to hear from here. to rate your party on immigration efforts and if you want to, comment on the president's proposal that was formally unveiled today and talked about last week. for democrats only, here are the numbers to call. (202) 748-8000 if you support president trump's daca plan. if you oppose that, (202) can talk about

that, but talk about the larger aspects of rating your party on immigration matters. we will take those comments as soon as we get calls in. if you want to call in, go ahead, we will put those on and play as many as we can before .he 8:00 hour senator joe manchin on the state of the union yesterday, talking about the president's immigration proposal and his thinking on it. here is senator manchin, from yesterday. >> the president has laid out a template and we are going to work with it. how big do you want to go? 2013 be passed legislation in the senate, bipartisan. people said -- well, the wall. let me tell you one thing, we have the wall, we need to do what we can to secure the borders. we have $42 billion in expenditures to secure america with that piece of legislation

was also at there pathway to citizenship for 11 million people. if you want to go big, that's big. want to go medium or small? you can't have they on one end and then medium and small on the other. that is what we are trying to figure out. i have worked with susan collins for our common sense coalition, which i think is going to be the grounding, if you will, on what will pass and what can move through the senate. we will meet monday night and start over again to try to find that commonality and there is no way that anyone should be considering even more of a shutdown, even talking about it. is one's democrats perspective. for the next half hour you can give your thoughts, but rating your party on the topic of immigration. if you were one that supported the president's plan on daca, (202) 748-8000, if you oppose

that, (202) 748-8001. democrats only. herbert, your first up. go ahead. i don't want him to, what was it? a wall to be built? build a 60 foot wall, they can build a 70 foot ladder to climb over. or they get under the wall. what sense is the wall? $25 billion for infrastructure? and health care? it's crazy. host: that's herbert. , turn downwaiting the sound on your television, it makes things smooth for us. johnny, georgia, support line. i support the president's proposal as far as going tople who he is give a path to citizenship to and all that.

that should be done, those people are traveling back and fourth to this country long before any white man ever got here. my father was a cherokee indian. if you look at it properly, they didn't put in any paperwork when they first came. that do you think democrats should support the plan as well? caller: in part. they should support it in part, like i support it. they should support the number of people coming in and they to thegive full security land, but they cannot stop people from coming to a land that they came to freely before the white man ever came here.

gustavo,'s hear from go ahead. caller: pleasure to hear a voice again, pedro. people who serve the military, the energy for the country, than they are being challenged in a program like daca, it's unfair, , and it's likerk the youngsters that came over here in their early ages and now they are in their teens and 20's and they still serve this country, it's not fair and it's not right. far as democrats, what's next and how they should respond to the president's proposal? caller: they need to have shootout out back at the table. we help children around the world through conflicts and issues.

it's unsatisfactory. host: one of the profiles in the paper this morning, "usa today" talks about it durban from illinois -- dick durbin, from illinois. "what started out as a

host: hello there, opposer of the president's plan. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you, go ahead. caller: i oppose it because it's not complete. i give you an example. ,ery simple, you have a car fixing one flat tire only, when there are many flat tires, will that help the problem? daca are great people, but fixing that situation what fix the immigration problem. it will create more problems. who do notiblings qualify and their parents may still be illegal. i think that's just another problem. a bigger one. it should be addressed from many angles. not just one. got: democrats shouldn't

along with what the president is offering? caller: i agree with what you say. host: i guess i'm asking your opinion. they are giving into easy. illegal immigration is a sign of a thriving economy. a country with a lot of illegal a first worldt's country, mostly a western country, you know? a sign that the country is doing great. ok.: as we ask you to rate the party on immigration, talking about in "usaomy, analysts today" looking at the reports coming out, paul davidson therting that they project labor market will have added 180,000 jobs in january. posting a healthy game last

, the cold weather likely boosted spending on utilities according to alexander. host: again, the economy is expected to be a large part of president trump's first state of the union address. that is tomorrow, starting at 9:00, but our coverage starts at 8:00 with guests in your ability to comment leading up to the state of the union.

you can use our c-span radio app to monitor it. devon, georgia, support line, high. caller: how are you, sir? host: good, thank you. you're on. what do you think of your potty -- your party in terms of immigration? i'm a republican, calling on the lot -- the wrong line. apologies for that, democrats only in this half-hour. stephanie, texas. caller: i do support it. i believe it is a good deal. we have to do something. if the democrats go totally against it all the way, it's getting to where like what the republicans are saying, it's true that we don't want to do anything. i agree that we don't need the wall, the actual wall, but we

have to give some money towards building up our security and everything. something to eliminate everybody coming in. you can't just have everybody coming in. i am sympathetic to the dreamers. i believe that for the dreamers it's a great deal. it's more than what we were asking for. when you hear democrats criticizing, including the , what do youer think of the deal that the president is proposing in terms of passing? caller: the democrats need to talk to their people. the republicans are talking, you see more republicans on television talking to the people than you do the democrats, lately. they need to see that we do want what they want. but they are letting the politics get in the way of an actual agreement that can be

worked out. everybody knows it's not going to be an actual ball. give them money for some security. they are going to be able to have their families, parents, sisters and brothers. if the grandparents need to come over for any reason, if they are sick, get them on a visa or they have to go back out. they won't be allowed to study, that's what immigration was to begin with. letting people come over to visit, but then go back home when they need to. when it comes to your legislature, have you responded? caller: you are the first person i have called, but i have been watching a lot. everybody needs to call. everybody that is a democrat needs to have their voices heard, to. the republicans are letting their voices be heard.

marietta, georgia, alex, opposing the president's proposal. go ahead. thank you for taking my call. i heard the republican response. a lot of them, regarding criminality, i tell them all to go back and research your own family history. see what the criminality of it was when they first came here. however, the point i want to make is that i oppose it on the democratic side. the president campaigned on building a wall in mexico and mexico was going to pay for the wall. but that's a separate issue. the wall issue is a completely separate issue. first.th the daca issue these folks came here as children. they are contributing, largely,

in an honorable and large -- lawful way to this society. if you go to the latino communities, they have contributed in business, just like any other immigrants that came here illegally. why throw those people out? furthermore, if you research america, you realize that mexico and canada signed an agreement where mexicans can travel to canada without visas. wall touilding a prevent them from coming to america, also? rich, omaha, nebraska, hello. caller: i oppose the president's plan. i am a democrat. i've got a couple of comments. -- what we need to start doing, republicans and democrats have gotten away with playing all of us. we need to make the law, for anyone who hires an illegal

immigrant, it's a crime and they have to go to jail and pay a large fine. that's how we can stop the illegal immigration. and still we -- until we stop that, they aren't going to do anything. issued go for a dock at only if they made it illegal to hire any immigrant -- illegal immigrants. the gop has also tricked us. we have also made a criminal for them to be here. this would be a must they made a law for criminals. but we are not even talking about the rest who are in here. anything else that the gop and the democrats do, besides making a law that punishes them for being here, we are not going to ever win this. as long as they can get a job in america, they will keep coming.

we can put up a wall or anything else. i agree with the guy earlier, i don't want the wall because it will stop animals and things like that. i'm a nature guide, also, i get really think we need to do something about a that hire these people who come over here my family worked for packing houses for years and now they can't get a job because the pay is too low and they barely even want to hire minorities unless they are mexican or foreign, some type of foreigner. ok, that's rich, in omaha, nebraska. 15 minutes left for democrats to .ate your party on immigration talk about the daca proposal or larger aspects. (202) 748-8000 for those of you who support the plan, (202) 748-8001 for those of you who oppose it. we want to weave in the other

stories of those making news this morning. hillary clinton made a surprise appearance at the grammys yesterday in a taped skit. cnn reporting that the former presidential candidate was among experts --ad ."cerpts of "fire and fury here's a look at what took place yesterday. >> he had a long time. being poisoned. one reason he liked to eat at mcdonald's, no one knew he was coming and the food was safely premade. >> we've got it. grammy in the bag? >> in the bag. that was the sketch from yesterday. it prompted a lot of response in the twitter verse. this is from nikki haley -- host: it also prompted a

response from donald trump junior -- host: elk will illinois, doug, go ahead. oppose the plan. $25 billion is way too much and it shouldn't be for a wall, per se. we can increase border security without doing a wall and stuff. host: how so? technology. i mean, you can have drones and surveillance. you don't need a physical wall. is that the mischaracterization of what's

, by mostly trump and the republicans, they say the problem is getting worse because andhe recession under bush the increased deportations by obama and increased deportations by trump. the problem has not then getting worse. the net influx has been decreasing all the time. to characterize the children as invaders, when some of them were just following their parents and trying to escape from a country where they could have been killed, is just a wrong mischaracterization. in.: that's doug, calling politico, showing you the headline there, senator manchin, who you heard from on the sunday , senators, including him, want the state of the union tomorrow to show compassion towards dreamers.

that's just a headline. politico, this topic tied up in a large way, we are expecting, tomorrow. from utah, on the oppose line, live, you are next. one morning a biologist and ecologist called into your program and he was listing some of the damage that would be done by the wall. i don't remember who the host was. it was unfortunate that he was cut off that he listed for or five things and unfortunately i don't remember them, but they were all very damaging to the environment. especially to wildlife and even some endangered species. i think that there is not nearly enough publicity about the damage, the environmental damage that this wall will do. both from a to it,

political standpoint, for all the reason the previous scholars have mentioned. i don't think it will work, it's a waste of money and i am perfectly fine with immigrants coming here. but the environmental damage is the most important aspect, in my opinion. daniel, illinois, supporting the president has proposal. hi there. caller: the reason i support it is because of the path to citizenship. has been a failure of the immigration and naturalization office, and of congress, who have been kicking this down the road for 30 years now and they have not funded the offices that swear people in a citizens. there should be places in every state in the union where people and swear in an swear to the constitution of the united

states. --they don't want to stick swear to the constitution of the united states, we need to do or them. it has been a failure. congress has kate to the issue down the road long enough. it's time to make people citizens and add to the tax base. suppose you want democrats to sign on to the plan? some have already expressed displeasure with it. what do you think it means, ultimately, with these larger issues that you talk about? congress, democrats and republicans, they all have given this game. they really don't care about these dreamers. what they want is a way to have leverage within congress itself to get their agenda through. so, these people, the daca

dreamers, who i want to be made they are really the losers in this. no matter what happens. have a path to citizenship and they pass it, how long will they have to wait before they raise their hand, swear to the constitution of the united states, and then become productive members of society and contribute to the odtive mey and contribute to the tax base, which they already have been doing. that's daniel, illinois. "the orlando sentinel" reporting that corinne brown is expected today to begin a federal sentence for her part in a fraud screen -- fraud scheme that helps to end her career. she has not spoken publicly about where she will serve her time, but the minimum-security women's camp adjacent to the correctional institution fits the criteria that prison officials would have considered when incarcerating her after she

and wash reelection indicted. her district includes parts of orlando. her early -- her arrival is expected to draw heavy attention, but she will be a large part of an industry that is generally anonymous and filled with limitations. baltimore, maryland, rob, hello. >> all the democratic senators should have rallies like donald trump is always having. keep putting it in the mind of the american people that donald trump promised them that mexico would pay for the wall. it a government shutdown. call it a mexican standoff. that if american people he wants the wall, he's got to keep his promise and make mexico pay for it. host: so, they are not doing enough messaging on this? no, no, people have

amnesia all of a sudden. he told his racist followers that he would get mexico to pay for that wall. is going to pay for that wall? all those racist people like -- all those racist people who don't like mexico. how: the larger issue of your party handles immigration, you said the government should have shut down over this? caller: yes, they, they, they should have stayed closed. look, when mexico sends a check, like trump said they would, we will open it back up. host: february is the new deadline for passing a long-term budget. to be aident wants daca part of that. those thing coming up tomorrow likely in "the state of the union."

eugene, go ahead. i'm calling because i think this is a total smokescreen between democrats and republicans, just to game folks. the black man has been victimized in this country just as he legally. when they put these foreigners in here, they not only came to mexico, but through europe and the other countries. it's not just talk to here -- daca here, you got so many other illegal immigrants walking around here. the black man's job. you don't even talk about the black american man who has been victimized by racial discrimination and injustice. we can't even go anywhere going to another

country. we have been victimized by injustice by illegal criminalization. pennsylvania, on the support line, hi there. caller: i feel like down the road, in the fall, democrats will be replacing republicans as the majority. make it a high tech type of thing, rather than a physical stupid wall like in china, a memorial to the dumbest president we have ever had. this is such a stupid thing, i can't believe it. you know, the french had a wall to keep the germans out. they started to read fortify it firsty went into the world war. then there were airplanes. this is the dumbest thing ever ever heard of. pew research center,

putting out key facts when it comes to people coming through the country -- to the country through legal immigration means. one million immigrants receive lawful permanent resident status each year, known as a green card, putting them on the staff -- the path to citizenship. the pew research center is where you can find that fact , published in august of last year. rebecca, florida, go ahead. caller: like i said, if the immigrants stopped coming in

their, if they stopped paying ,hese people such low wages paid them the same way they paid american people, the immigrants wouldn't come the way they come in. richer, thetting black, the immigrants getting poorer because of that. one more call. somerville, massachusetts. this is donna on the opposed line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i support the democrats. i do not support republicans. i wish the republicans would have never got voted into office anyway. they don't even do their job. the people are suckers if they voted for donald trump. i voted for hillary clinton. how do you think the democrats overall are doing on immigration? particularly in light of this daca issue? caller:

each dock of person that came into this country illegally. host: and you support that? caller: yes. host: caller: why so? caller:what do you mean? host: why do you support it? caller: i support daca, i do not support donald trump. that's what i'm saying. host: that is donna, massachusetts, last call on this topic. this topic and others will be considered in our next roundtable guests, two reporters like thebout issues state of the union and other events going on. later on in the program, if you have questions about paying your taxes, but particularly the new tax law, this segment is for you. olson will join us to talk

about the irs, but also taking your questions on it. she will start at 9:00 eastern standard time. -- "washington journal" continues after this. >> the president of the united states. night, president donald trump gives his first state of the union address to congress and the nation. join us on c-span for a preview of the evening at 8:00 p.m. eastern, then the state of the union speech live at 9:00 p.m. following the speech, the democratic response from congressman joe kennedy.

we will also hear your reaction and comments from members of congress. president trump's state of the union address live on c-span tuesday. listen live on the c-span radio app or live or on-demand at c-span.org on your phone or tablet. c-span's history series "landmark cases" returns next month with a look at 12 new supreme court cases. historians and experts join us to discuss the constitutional issues and personal stories behind the significant supreme court decisions. 26 ating monday, february 9:00 p.m. eastern. we have a companion guide to help you understand each case better. "landmark cases: volume two," to get your copy go to c-span.org/landmarkcases.

for nearly 20 years, "in-depth" has featured the nation's best-known nonfiction writers for life conversations about their books. this year, we are featuring best-selling fiction writers for a monthly program "in-depth: fiction edition." join a sunday noon eastern with colson whitehead, author of "the underground railroad," which was awarded the pulitzer prize and the national book award. his other novels include "zone one," and "the intuitionist." sunday, live from noon until 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us for a discussion on many things, particularly in light of the white house and congress this week, are two guests. we are joined by darlene

supervalu from the -- superville by adam weaver. if you look at the papers this morning, this is from "the wall street journal," that the president is expected to soften the tone on the speech as far as tomorrow's presentation. darlene, what do we get a sense as far as tone eating into the speech tomorrow? guest 1: the white house has said he is going to speak in more optimistic tones tomorrow. contrast that with the inauguration speech he gave a year ago when he talked about american carnage and painted this very dark picture of the united states of america. he is looking to do a little bit of the opposite and be softer, more optimistic, more hopeful in talking about immigration and some of the other issues that we are going to hear him speak about. eaver, not only will

he address america, but the members of congress, what is he trying to sell to them on both sides? guest 2: a couple of things. the white house has been talking about an infrastructure deal. they wrote out this $1.7 trillion figure the other day that they said the white house -- administration would only kick in $200 billion of it. the other thing that has really been talked about on the hill right now is this daca issue. that is the thing ripping everyone to shreds up there. the white house rolled out their framework last week. 1.8 million dreamers that they want to have covered under any such deal, along with $25 billion for wall funding. that is going to be a tough one to sell to democrats even though chuck schumer has floated wall money in the past. host: darlene superville, how did the president and his team arrive at this proposal,

considering everything they have set about immigration, and particularly about the daca program leading up to it? guest 1: that is a good question. the president said last week that he wanted $25 billion for the wall and border security and you might remember that there was a meeting he had at the white house with chuck schumer on the friday of the shutdown were senator schumer offered him $25 billion for the wall and border security. that could be where that comes from. chuck schumer eventually took that offer off the table and then you have the white house coming back and saying we want $25 billion for the wall. the other elements of the plan have to do with the visa lottery program, which the president wants to see eliminated or dressing -- drastically changed. and then what they call chain migration or family-based immigration, where you can come here and then bring relatives, they want to narrow down that program. those are basically the four elements of the administration's

deal on immigration, including a fix for the dreamers. host: you know better than anyone else when the president talks, he talks to his base a lot of the time. in crafting this plan, how did they weigh what they want out of this over the concerns of their base? guest 1: i think it will be interesting to see because there has been a lot of pushback among the president's supporters over the portion of the plan that , a 10-12er citizenship your pathway to citizenship for these young people here illegally. you will recall during the campaign that the president talked a lot about wanting to do away with daca to his supporters regard any pathway to citizenship as amnesty. you have breitbart news that don"red to him as "amnesty last week. i think it will be interesting to watch and see whether the white house tries to peel back from that at all given the

pushback they have been getting. host: (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002, independents. if you want to ask our guests questions during this hour. al weaver, who do we look at in congress as of today, who are the ones hashing out these large framework issues? guest 2: you look on the senate side, you have the number twos. senator john cornyn, the senate majority whip. dick durbin has been highly involved in this issue. we will see what that means moving forward. they will need to get the nine votes in the senate to get any bill passed. on the house side, you have to look at the leadership, kevin mccarthy, who was on tv yesterday talking about any sort of deal. he is going to be one of the point people in the house. the other people you've got to look for of the conservative members on both sides of the bicameral. senator ted cruz said that this

would amount to no less than amnesty for these folks, as darlene mentioned. you have the house freedom caucus, who we are not really sure where they come down on this because on one hand they are very solidly red trump districts were trump did very well, but on the other hand, it is the amnesty issue and where they come down on that is going to be something interesting. from my sources, they want to meet and they get back in town. side am the white house a what kind of reaching out to these groups that al talked about? guest 1: you will remember a week or so ago when the president had the bipartisan immigration meeting that was televised and went on for an hour or so, there was a point in that meeting where he said, i will take the heat, whatever kind of deal this group gets and brings to me, i will sign it, you pass it, i will take the heat.

i think also it will be interesting to see how much of a sales job the president does, if he is really serious about wanting to offer these young people at pathway to citizenship, we will see how invested he is in trying to sell members on it. because that would provide them some cover to vote for it. host: is this the president reaching out directly? is this stephen miller, mike pence? who is doing the sales job? guest 1: that remains to be seen at this point. stephen miller is involved in the policy coordination, so is the chief of staff, john kelly, but as to who will be doing the selling, we don't know yet. host: we have seen nancy pelosi already weigh in, "make america white again" and other things. what is the buzz on the democratic side? guest 2: they are not happy about this at all. the two things they are very arried about, one is between $5 billion. chuck schumer lay down the marker the other week.

as darlene mentioned earlier, it is this issue of chain migration that is roiling within the democratic ranks, they really do not like this narrowing down to only spouses and children under 21. because it was previously parents, siblings, a bunch of those. right now, they wanted as nuclear as possible. the other person you've got to watch a speaker ryan. he is going to be a key figure to watch. one of the reasons he became speaker was he would always talk about any bill, especially an immigration bill, has to get the majority of the majority. that is going to be a tough sell for the republicans. what does trump do? how does he try to sell this to members? possibly say brian and his speakership -- ryan and

possibly his speakership if it gets to that level? host: darlene superville, we have seen the president say, i will accept this and then soften what he wanted, are these must haves? guest 1: right now, they seem to be must haves, but the president has gone back and forth on other issues and he could very well change his mind, change some aspect of it to bring along members of congress. host: (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. darlene superville from the associated press who covers the white house. al weaver of "the washington examiner" and services their political reporter. .on, you are on with our guests go ahead with a question or comment. dacar: in my opinion,

started in 1986. had two -- hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: they have had two generations of children since 1986, i'm pretty sure. if you are only going to include 1.8 million, i would like to know how this retinal scanning fromming along to keep paper sharing. host: we will leave it there. aside from the last part, history always comes up in these issues. what does the president see far as how his proposals advance those things? guest 1: that is a good question. [laughter]

this has always been a tricky issue politically. again, it goes back to, i think, just how much of an effort he puts into trying to sell it. immigration has always been a difficult issue. we have a deadline supposedly now of february 8 to get a deal, which seems a little bit unrealistic for an issue as complicated as immigration. i think time will tell. host: the deadline, how does that factor into these negotiations? guest 2: i think it is there, but i don't see the february 8 thing being a big deal and i think it will probably go to march or even the summer. mean, the history going back is really fascinating. , a couplek to 2013

years ago, one of the key figures was senator marco rubio and he is nowhere to be seen on this issue right now. he is either playing a silent role or hanging behind the scenes depending on who you talk to. i think the history of this is a real factor, given who is involved and notably who is not. host: from california, the independent line, justin, hello. caller: hi, i wanted to ask your guests, does the daca legislation address say if family that comes across the border with a young child a year from now, if they pass this legislation and we deal with the people who are here, the children brought over illegally previously, are we going to be right back into the same problem a few years from now, or do all young children brought to the u.s. illegally in the future get rolled into daca? is this issue addressed? guest 2: no, those kids would

not be under this or any legislation coming forward. any bill right now would work for the kids between the ages of 16 and 36 that were brought here in the past however many years that are under this dreamer status and have been rolled into daca or were afraid to rolled -- and role in daca -- enroll in daca. affect orld not impact those who come in moving forward. they would not be covered under any bill. guest 1: the only thing i would add is that one of the talking points coming up with a solution to daca's you often hear republicans say, we need to solve this situation now so that five years from now we are not back in the same situation where you have unaccompanied minors being brought to the u.s. and creating sort of a similar situation that we are grappling with right now. host: the headline from

"politico" when taking a look at the speech tomorrow. -- sub headline says the midterm elections, this being the elephant in the room. how does the white house account for that? guest 1: because we have midterms this year, the legislative window for the president to get anything done, infrastructure, immigration, there is a list of issues that have been carried over from last year, like the debt ceiling that has to be done with. the window for getting stuff done is even shorter than it is in a normal year. those are some of the dynamics the president has to play too. that the side of it is republicans lost a seat in the senate. they are now down to 51 seats instead of 52. it is a little bit harder for them to get anything done.

i think some of that is why you are going to see the president take this more optimistic tone, speak about bipartisanship, because that really is the only way to get anything done as al mentioned earlier. republicans now need nine democrats in the senate to get most major legislation passed. host: does the white house the president trump taking a more active role in campaigning, particularly for those in the questionable seats? guest 1: i think the president would like to be out there campaigning for republicans a little bit more. he has to be careful where he goes. not every member of congress is going to want him to come to their district because his popularity is so low, his story below a new president it is -- hiso have to be low,arity is historically low for a new president. guest 2: the average going back

many years is 24 seats. average is losing 24 seats. the house democrats 26 to overtake republicans. we will see what happens. i think you are seeing a little bit of a play out in pennsylvania, western pennsylvania, you have a republican state legislator out there and he is running in this seat and if you look at the polls, trump is very polarizing. i saw a poll the other day that had 49% favorable and 47% unfavorable. won by 19 points in 2016. that underscores that this is a trump district, a place where he should have a big impact, but i think we are going to see that. the race is in march. i think that is one place to look for in the coming months. host: in new jersey, charles on

the independent line. caller: good morning. i appreciate your show very much. soquestion is why are we worried about the kids that are already here illegally and so less worried about more people coming through the border illegally and what we are going to have to do in the future if we don't do something to protect the borders right now? so, where should we go? , more emphasis on the wall going up and more border security, and less emphasis on the undocumented children that are here illegally right now. , the darlene superville white house, do they see the wall the same as during the campaign? guest 1: during the campaign, they made it sound like a contiguous 2000-mile wall along the mexican border. lately, he has said he never

meant it to be a contiguous wall. naturale lots of barriers along the border and you don't need a concrete wall. he has talked about see-through elements, where you can see through the other side who is trying to come over or toss drugs over. there are a half-dozen or so prototypes that are up down at the border and he is supposed to make a trip sometime down there in short order to go and see the models and maybe weigh in on which version he likes better. but to go to the caller's question, part of the issue with the docket children is that the president -- daca children is that the president has ended the program. once that program ends come march 5 were sometime shortly after that, then you are going to go back to a situation where these people are living in the shadows, living in fear, that

sort of thing, so you want to sort of solve that issue and is desired coupling to solve that problem with demands for border security. ist: al weaver, if the wall not going to sell with democrats and some republicans, what version of border security are they proposing? what do you think democrats think will work? guest 2: that is the $10 billion question right now. democrats, senator schumer laid down the marker during the negotiations and told trump, you can have whatever you want and border security in essence. people have been talking that he offered up to $25 billion that trump has requested in this negotiation and that is going to be the major issue. i want to go back to the caller for a second and they mentioned how they want to solve the issue moving forward, but i think that it's one thing the white house is pushing. that is the goal as far as chain migration, as they put it, and

ending the visa lottery, that they are trying to nip the situation in the bud so that we don't have these problems anymore. host: from decatur, illinois -- i'm sorry, decatur, alabama. hello. caller: hello. concerning the wall, we pay taxes, we get soldiers and we put them in every other country, why can't we take our own soldiers and put them on the borderline and let them control the border? you could use the national guard as backup when they are training. why do we have to spend borrowed money to build another wall? the arguments you commonly here on this front is the cost, the price tag of these overalls? guest 1: he's asking for $25 billion to do this. he did say he could build a wall

for less when he stopped by general kelly's office. you might see the price tag shifted little bit, but with any regard, it is still an incredible amount of money for a wall that a lot of people think is not necessary. guest 2: i think the other thing you've always got to mention is going back to the campaign. i don't cover the campaign for the "examiner." was that trumple would say who is paying for the wall? the answer was never the u.s. taxpayer, it was always mexico. that was his campaign promise. host: that is a hard promise. he said it at almost every rally and that is not going to happen now. guest 1: there was a call and response during the campaign. guest 2: that is obviously not going to happen. that is a little added wrinkle. ,ost: on matters of economic tomorrow's state of the union, the president's role in

economics. al weaver, first of all, what will the president say to tout that? also, what will be the expected response from congress about the reality? guest 2: the republicans are going to love it. that is the one thing the president has going forward heading into the 2018 midterms. he can say, look at the economy, look at the stock market. the stock market is at record highs. unemployment is where it is at. black unemployment to jay-z. that is one thing he and his team have really been touting. you look at last week, he went about thend spoke economic success in america right now, i think you will see more of that in the speech.

he was not like his inaugural address. and he got rave reviews. i was talking to peter king about this and he mentioned how the president, his major issue has always been stepping on his own toes. he one example. after the joint session, everyone is talking about how he did a great job, but two days later, he said that obama wiretapped trump tower. i think that is going to be the issue, how does he respond in the next few days? he is not going on the road to sell this. that is going to be the million dollar question. host: does that surprise you that the president will not be selling this on the road? guest 1: absolutely. it is surprising. he is going to west virginia to speak to the house on thursday to speak at the annual republican legislative retreat,

but one could argue that members of congress are not the only ones that need to hear more from the president after this state of the union. you need people out in the country who will like to hear from their president and how they are going to sell the infrastructure plan and where we are going to get $2 trillion from to build roads and bridges and how is he going to sell the immigration deal that he has put on the table? host: tax breaks will also be part of his pitch tomorrow. guest 1: tax cuts will be part of his speech tomorrow. he is very proud of that, as he should be. harkening back to his appearance at the world economic or on, he heked about that -- forum, talked about that a lot and how it has spurred a lot of companies bringing money back to the u.s. companies are giving their workers $1000 bonuses. you will definitely hear all of that tomorrow night in the speech. host: i suppose now if the timetable works out that people will start seeing more money as

part of that in the next couple weeks as part of their paychecks. guest 1: that is good timing. the speech is a good segue into people opening up and seeing slightly bigger paychecks. host: al weaver, i want to play you a clip of yesterday's show. it is interesting to see how democrats approach this. here is senator bernie sanders. he was on "face the nation" yesterday. [video clip] should beverybody pleased when any worker gets a raise, but what we should also note that the tax bill should add $1.4 trillion to the deficit. at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, billionaires and large multinational corporations do not need tax breaks. it is the middle class and working families who do. host: al weaver, at the same time he talks about the price tag, he has to deal with the

balance that if people get a tax break, i suppose them a credit still have to wrestle with this issue on a wide front. guest 2: i think senator sanders give a good representation of where democrats are, they are happy that you see citizens getting thousand dollars bonuses from apple and whatever, verizon, home depot. they still go back to this, eventually, it is going to go to the corporations. that is the line you are always going to hear. this point. other companies are laying off folks in order to do this. walmart was an example of that. it is a little bit of a counterbalance that democrats have to deal with right now. how do you deal with these folks getting a bump in their paycheck the next few months. do you manage that while still pushing this, eventually,

it is not going to happen? host: darlene superville, the white house has built this tax cut on the idea of sustained growth in the economy that will pay for it? guest 1: the president has talked about how the tax cuts will unleash all of this economic growth. we got a gdp report and it was slightly under 3% under the last year. -- over the last year. they're counting on the alter ego down economics theory that cutting taxes will benefit is for wildly massive economic growth. host: how does the white house react when they hear that -- hear people say that the current economic climate is due more to president obama's term? guest 1: he does not like it. [laughter] guest 1: he is the only opinion that counts when it comes to that. he thinks that it is because

america elected a businessman to a degree and that brought some new optimism to the country, to workers. he talked about consumer confidence being up, manufacturing confidence being up. he attributed that to himself and his personality and what he brings to the presidency. host: not surprising some of those comments coming from democrats on capitol hill. sean spicer, when he was still the press secretary, he came out when they got the jobs report, he quoted the president saying something to the effect of, "they may not have been real then, but they are certainly real now." [laughter] guest 2: it is always funny when you do with the president about a jobs number and he takes credit for those. host: let's hear from john in bethesda. caller: good morning. i think we all can agree that legal immigration is great,

illegal immigration is bad, and when you look at what happened in 2014, where we had massive numbers of undocumented young children coming across our border and what you see happened more recently with the uptick in ms 13 and also human trafficking and also drugs in our communities, those have had huge impacts on it. that theo make sure next administration, whether it is democrat or republican, does not force all of these illegal immigrants on us and will abide by the law. host: mr. weaver? makes ani think he interesting point. issue people want president

trump to address is the opioid crisis. susan collins said she wants to see him mention that. that is one thing to look for in the address, how he talks about that and addresses that issue. host: darlene superville, anything to add? guest 1: there is supposed to be some mention of opioid crisis in the remarks tomorrow night. host: on top of all that, you mentioned the plan for infrastructure, the desire to see that happen, do we see any more details of what we have seen floated? guest 1: i think you might. the white house was not very specific on that point when they briefed reporters on what the president would say. the senior administration officials kept saying they did not want to get ahead of what the president would say, but i think you will hear more detail. host: one of the things that have been floated as far as the ,ublic and private partnership is there something that both

sides can come together on whatever track it goes down? guest 2: it depends. mark short was on the sunday shows talking about we are going to have this 20/80 slid on infrastructure, federal to state and local. i think that is going to be something to look for. is likely note going to get a 20/80 split. tois going to be interesting see how democrats respond this week. i'm sure they're going to pan it and i'm sure they will be open to it on the other hand. it is going to be different than the immigration issue. this is something that israel dollars and cents and -- is real dollars and cents and something they can really negotiate out. but there is a short amount of time given the midterm elections. host: charlie is next in north carolina, republican line. caller: morning. i had a couple points. one is, america is number one .he most open country

we take in more legal immigrants than any country by far this past year. number two, we talk about the cost of the wall, but we never talk about the true cost of the daca kids and legalizing them, giving them citizenship. there is a lot of these daca kids that did not register, so the total number may be 800,000, but more estimates say it could be doubled up number. a lot of those daca people have kids that we have been educating and daca kids that are american do get in the system. the cost for the hundred thousand we are talking about, if we legalize them tomorrow, it could be up to $40 billion and if we give them legal status, how about the parents that originally hopped over the fence in the first place? we have to pay for them as well. when we are talking about a tight budget, discretionary money for veterans and elderly

and poor people, if i were a veteran or an elderly person or a poor person, i would be totally against daca because we are going to have to take money from them to pay for these money to make them legal citizens. host: ok, charlie. guest 1: i would say that the amount of money you are talking about that would be spent to help daca children and people that are here illegally is probably a small fraction of the overall federal budget. is thatsecond thing is even though children are coming here illegally, you want to educate them, you don't want to have sort of a segment of the population that is running around that is not educated. and in the long run, that will benefit the u.s. and providing citizenship for them, they will end up paying taxes and paying into the system, and in some ways it may balance itself out. guest 2: you see that issue in years past.

is the rick perry when he was running for governor, he can under attack for supporting the dream act in texas that gave dreamers access to in-state tuition. republicans did not like that back then. you are seeing this issue crop up again. this is the issue that crops up with the republican base when any path to citizenship is mentioned for dreamers or daca children. the larger aspect deals with what the larger idea of what america is and how we approach these specific policies. is that something the white house is cognizant about? guest 1: i think so. you have heard mark short, the white house legislative director, in recent interviews talk about wanting -- why they want to help the docket kids

because they are going -- daca going toause they are school, they had no say whether they were brought here or not, largely they have no criminal backgrounds, they are trying to make something of themselves, which is in essence the american dream and why would you want to toss those people out of the country? that is one of the arguments you have heard from the white house in recent days. host: on the democrat side, you had those like luis gutierrez harshly criticizes party because of the giving and so easily as far as the shutdown and these immigration principles. guest 2: and you saw that in the interview with senator sanders yesterday. i think he was asked, do you think this was worth it? he said, morally, yes, i think it was. that the shutdown was worth it. that is what you hear from a lot of democrats. you hear it from the centrists who came together to forge a deal in susan collins' office that it wasn't, but that is the line you are hearing from rank-and-file democrats, that

that we should have kept going with the shutdown a little bit longer. that this is worth it for the dreamers. larger point, it is a big issue in the 2018 elections, especially if nothing has happened by then. it could rile up the democratic base to take back the house. host: from jacksonville, florida, josie, good morning. caller: hi, i just wanted to mention that the daca's had several requirements they had to fulfill before making an application. costs $250 or $500, they apply every two years and pay that amount. there are thousands of daca's serving in the u.s. military. they are doctors, nurses, teachers, accountants. some people think they are not doing anything, but these are people that are serving our

country and our economy. we said to something about legal immigrants, trump hires green card workers in mar-a-lago. they are foreigners. they are not u.s. citizens. to do the jobs of landscaping, cooking, serving. then you go to the florida state database, people looking for jobs, there are hundreds of people looking for those jobs, but trump does not hire u.s. citizens. he hires green card workers. thank you. host: thanks. let's go to mel in louisiana. independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. we speak english in the united states and if we let the daca's give anything, they should learn english. and as far as in my community, the majority of the daca's are

here on green cards. does the ama check them out to see if they are really truly daca's? all of the guest asians in my area are owned by foreigners. senator lindsey graham intimating this could be the time when the trump administration resolves the issue of immigration. what is the likelihood of that? guest 2: i'm not sure yet. i'm not sure. 5think it goes past the march deadline. i think some folks think they have until the summer given this court order or longer. it depends what happens in the courts. i'm pessimistic anything will get done by march 5. i think there is too much division right now.

we have senator schumer who has laid down the marker on the border wall and you have trump who has laid down the law on the dreamer issue. two goodhose are starting points. it is going to come down to the chain migration thing. that is going to be the main issue. the democrats like calling a family reunification. i'm not sure yet. i think they can get something done. on the size of it. you can do large, medium, or small. the trunk proposal is medium. -- the trump proposal is medium. we will see something happen in

the middle ground, but i'm not sure. guest 1: there is a school of thought out there that says just deal with the daca situation. take the framework the white house has released an narrow it down to what you can get done in the next few months and then deal with the family reunification or the chain migration p7 it and the visa lottery piece of it later on. and any other changes the white house may want to propose to the legal immigration system. those issues are so sticky right now. host: another topic of the last couple weeks, particularly the last 24-48 hours, the idea of the devin nunes memo. where is the white house currently on the release of this memo and why have they taken the stance that they are? guest 1: the president, as i understand it, wants the memo to be made public.

as we'll know, the russia investigation has been something that has troubled him from the very beginning. he has called a witchhunt, a hoax, and mark short was on television yesterday and talked allt the white house being for transparency come as a the memo, let the public read it. host: with kevin mccarthy, who was on the program yesterday and one of the things he talked about was the memo on "meet the press." we will get your response, mr. weaver. [video clip] >> i read it. the committee voted, this is the process, devoted to allow members to read it. they have the ability to vote to move forward, then it would go to the executive branch. >> why are they afraid to send this to the justice department for review? >> aren't we separate but coequal? don't we have a responsibility for oversight? you have the executive branch and the legislative branch. as the legislative branch looks at it, they will send it to the executive branch, they have the

approval whether to declassify and put it forward. >> do you want the president to declassify the memo? >> having read the memo, i think it would be appropriate that the public have full view of it. host: mr. weaver. put some context to that. guest 2: it is real interesting to hear that. you have a lot of conservatives out there, especially those on the intel committee, saying, we want this out there. they also say what is in this memo is to explosive do not come out. the justice department is saying , you can't do that, you shouldn't do that, we want to see it first before sees the light of day. on the other side, you see the senate intel committee, they are operating on their own investigation on the russian meddling. they can't see it. they really want to see it and they can't. they are supposed to me today at 5:00. 13 republicans on the panel, nine democrats.

they're going to vote to released the memo at some point. it remains to be seen what is going to happen. how heavily it is redacted, that sort of stuff. host: the white house is positioning that if they do decide that? guest 1: i believe the president will sign whatever the house will send him on this matter and then at some point the document will be released to the public. i'm not sure how soon after he signs it it becomes public, but there is a process. host: how long lasting of the story will it be about the president reportedly wanting to remove robert mueller? guest 1: it lasts until the next bombshell story comes out about something that people say that he did or said with regard to the investigation. there is one of those a week or two of those a day depending on who is reporting on it. so, the shelf life of any controversy lasts as long as the next controversy involving the president.

host: al weaver, on the congressional side, one of the sidebar stories is one of -- the potential of a legislative protection for robert mueller. guest 2: i think it is still kind of status quo right now. of republicans cannot yesterday and said, we don't think there is a need for it yet. despite all of these comments, the president has not fired robert mueller. susan collins mentioned that he does not have the authority to fire robert mueller. obviously, "the new york times" isorted that rod rosenstein in terms pocket right now and trump is angry with him. whatever the next story is going to break, whether it is something with rosenstein, who knows what is going to happen. among republicans, there is not much appetite to do anything on the robert mueller issue. they say that it would take time to go over it.

i'm sure it would passes bipartisan support. host: this is gwyn from birmingham call and alabama -- birmingham, alabama. caller: you can fool some of the people some of the time, but some of us are not living in donald trump's tv room. you, darlene.k to as far as those tax cuts, tell me how it is going to help a woman or a man on unemployment. tell me how it is going to help a woman or a man that is a babysitter. that is not going to help us. we want a minimum wage that can help you get over what you need to get over. concerned,aca's are these immigrants, everybody is not in ms-13.

these people come over here looking for better work. these people that are dealing drugs -- host: ok, thank you. darlene, the first part. guest 1: welcome, the theory behind the tax cuts is that cutting taxes will lead to economic growth and that will lift all boats and help all people. i cannot speak specifically to the callers situation. time will tell as to whether it actually works out that way. host: a viewer on twitter says -- you son nancy pelosi and debbie wasserman schultz dismiss the idea of the tax-cut cut and the benefited has to people. guest 2: that is the one issue republicans are going to have moving forward is selling the tax bill. you mentioned a little bit of it.

one thing republicans are going to have to do if they want to win in 2018, they need to sell the tax bill. last week, the congressional aadership, they came out with memo that said, if you sell the tax bill, you will do well. a new poll had them at 45% approval. but they say that they did a -- thatwing it at about the tax bill is underwater right now. this is something that republicans have to confront. host: from tennessee, republican line, wesley. hello. caller: yes, good morning. i was listening to the young lady earlier who brought up a point about president trump referring to the russia investigation as a witch hunt.

the information we have is that dnc was already being russians. the that was brought about, they had the information, yet they did not do anything, yet after the election was over, trump had warned that they want to do drum -- jump all over trump even though they knew the russians were already involved in the dnc and then one wikileaks started releasing all of their information, it was like as if president trump and his information -- organization were the ones that they were releasing at all to, when in reality, you can remember the james comey, after they started being released, he came out with stuff that he said he had on another investigation opened up because he knew all of the lies that he had been telling were going to come -- he coming out. that is why he came up with all

he came up with all heated trying to cover himself. host: thanks, caller. any response? guest 1: um. no. [laughter] guest 2: i don't want to touch that one. [laughter] host: let's go to amsterdam, new york. republican line. caller: good morning. i'm definitely a huge trump supporter. that there is another way around building this border wall. we can probably do a human wall. as everyone knows, hunting is a $1 billion industry. i propose that we use -- that we to permits and we are able engage in nonlethal -- use nonlethal bullets or force and americans would flock to the border and it would boom the border economy.

hotels,breakfasts, restaurants, transportation. it is a nonlethal bullets. when these illegal immigrants are crossing into our country, we would be able to just hit them with a nonlethal bullet, with a background checked american. host: thanks, caller. a couple of questions. senator joe kennedy. the democratic response. congressman, thank you. what is the message, as first choosing him, but the message that democrats want to sell through the response. guest 2: joe kennedy is in the democratic caucus as one is the more up-and-coming stars in the party. mn tim ryan and seth maltin, a few others. joe kennedy. the one thing you always hear from democrats and from others

is how nancy pelosi does not allow others to rise within the party. you saw this on a few occasions. chris van hollen ran for the senate instead of moving up in the house. xavier becerra, instead of hanging around and trying to move up the ladder, he went off and became the attorney general of california. i think you are seeing a little bit of a way for democrats to file.ithin the rank and he is a good face of the party right now. when i give someone else a shot like that? host: as far as the creation of , do we knowpeech who is going to write it for him? guest 1: his chief speechwriter is stephen miller. his staff secretary is the man by the name of rob porter. he has been heavily involved. what usually happens is you have a lot of different cap and agencies that provide input, so it is a government-wide process in terms of receiving information, what cabinet

departments are suggesting the president highlight, all of that is taken in, whittled down. as i understand it, there have been several drafts of the speech and the president has been providing input into what he would like to say. it does not strike me as being on the order of president obama in the way that he was involved with his speeches. they would often put out photos with the text and his handwritten comments in the margin. they would show him huddled with speechwriters. we have not seen any of that yet from this president. but the process is going on and we will hear the final product tomorrow night. host: do we know any of the practice that has gone into it? guest 1: i don't know of any practice sessions. the president stayed in town this past weekend. forlly, when he is in town the weekend, he will play golf at the golf club, so he did not do that this weekend, so perhaps there was some preparation with

him closeted up in the weekend -- white house a weekend. host: barney in florida. caller: these people are talking about the border wall and have intof y'all ever got building work? do you know how hard that work is? host: what's the point? caller: are trump voters going to pick tomatoes, oranges, strawberries, cabbages? no. get more food stamps than they do. that is ridiculous. host: we will hear next from christine on the independent line in rhode island. caller: yes, good morning. host: go ahead, you are on. caller: yes, i was just calling because i don't consider trump as my president of the united states. first of all, if he wants the wall built, go in his own pocket

and take it out. children or these families that have to come over to the united states and leave their children, how would you feel as a parent to go through this and to leave them? and it is the corporate companies that use immigrants and they know they are not legal to pay them less money than what they are paying their employees. and i just feel like this country is going backwards instead of forward. trump -- paul ryan and the rest of his clan need to go. when obama was in office, they fought him tooth and nail on everything. i have not heard anything from paul ryan with all of this russian crap going on. i just feel like he is setting this country so backward. host: ok, christine. , the republicans are

going to meet this week, what is on the agenda for the meeting on wednesday? guest 2: they meet wednesday to go to greenbrier in west virginia. , last year, they went to philadelphia and rolled out the plan to overhaul the tax reform plan and the other plan to repeal and replace obamacare, which obviously has not happened , but something that could be on the docket this year. they tried twice last year and neither exactly worked out as they hoped, but it is all party matters. i'm sure 2018 will be discussed. mentionedthe caller about the resistance. you have a pheromone to democrats tomorrow who will not be in -- a fair amount of democrats who will not be in attendance tomorrow. i believe they are all wearing black, as if they are going to a funeral tomorrow night. president will

travel left to the speech, what is expected as far as agenda matters? i suppose it is immigration. immigration, we have to get the infrastructure plan. right now, it has just been talked about. as far as i know. and i suspect at some point that he will travel the country at some point to continue selling the tax cut legislation. he has done a number of trips on that. there is a need to get out into the country and promote that some more and so that on the public, so i would expect that. , who darlene superville reports on the white house for the associated press, and al weaver with "the washington examiner" thanks both for joining us. guest 1: thank you. guest 2: thanks, pedro. host: state of the union covers

starts tomorrow at 8:00 on c-span and you can monitor it on our network and on c-span.org and you can also go to our supervil io >> this week on the communicators, we take you to electronics show in las vegas to speak to leaders developments.

watch the communicators tonight at 8 eastern on c-span2. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's companies and n is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. of the united t states. [applause] president night, donald trump gives his first state of the union address to congress and the nation. join us on c-span starting 8 the eastern, then state of union live at 9 p.m. ollowing the speech, the democratic response from congressman joe kennedy, we'll hear your reaction and comments of congress. president trump's state of the night, dress tuesday

live on c-span. listen live on the free c-span available live or on demand on your desktop, phone or tablet at c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. welcome back nina olson, i.r.s. national taxpayer advocate here to talk about the implementation of the new tax law, amongst other things. good morning. remind people about your position, the role you take at i.r.s. guest: i am the voice of the the i.r.s.side i head the taxpayer advocate 17-1700 about employees, who are supposed to taxpayer solve their problem with the i.r.s. and make legislative and administrative the mendations to mitigate problems. host: one thing you have written about, including your report to tax law passed and signed into law by the president. ready to implement that? guest: that was major concern of

ine because of the budget cuts the i.r.s. experienced since inflation 20% in adjusted dollars and then you have major list like new tax requires, i don't know, about 400 new changes to forms. are 140 filing season systems that need to be to ogrammed and people need be retrained and taxpayers need of the ucated on top regular work. i've been very concerned about that. plugging along, doing things, but it has put in additional st for funding for tax reform implementation to congress. deficienciese were leading up to this, what were by? caused guest: i think some is there has been underestimation of the taxpayer service and outreach in education. i think people have not given credence to the fact that

any major change is going to anxiety to the taxpayers of the united states. they want stability in their terms of their relationship with the tax collector and not having answers knowing and not necessarily being able to get hrough on the phones or the i.r.s. cuts tax law question the lines off on april, day after filing season ends, so if you call on that day, it's is nobody there to answer and to me, it's, particularly with the new law, just when i'm thinking well, how is this going to affect me next year. 2017 return, i see hat happened in 2017, what's going to go away or be added in 2018? up the phonei pick and call the i.r.s. as of now, there will be nobody there to answer the phone, i'm concerned about that. host: these are things we'll consider in our hour with nina olson, if you have questions for her, it's 202-748-8000 for the

eastern and central time zone. and 202-748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zone. e will also, you can tweet questions or comments at c-spanwj. among questions taxpayers may this time, what are they? they are looking to the i.r.s. to get answers. obviously what we saw in december was concern about the property tax limitation and i there was great deal of confusion and still working its way through and i think we'll facing some fall-out of that for years, as people say, well, i paid in advance and that should be contribution to my estate or whatever, whether uphold that, i don't know. now what you are seeing, i think people's minds, are amounts hholding correct? the i.r.s. has put out new withholding tables, but they're still working on the w-4 form, where amounts correct? the you used to claim

exemptions, but now no personal law, for under the new this current year, have you to form and the i.r.s. is also working on little on ite like a calculator their website, but don't have the new form or calculator out going to have to fudge, i tried to do it for yself last week and it took me literally about two hours to thought was t i right amount to be withheld every two weeks, which is how i make sure i wasn't under withheld and also wasn't money in lot of because i don't particularly interest-free loan to anybody, you know. host: normally in those kind of past, someone he call the i.r.s., someone pick up answer.end and have an fwee uest: right, could have an answer or do the calculator, they realize that is critical. 400 i say, there are about forms, publications, rulings

revised based on this law and that is going to and a year to a year half, if not much longer going forward, just to get basic the basic out of provisions of the law. the: listen to the words of treasury secretary, steve mnuchin, interviewed about the process and get his response, how his response and then get your take on it, here he is. >> it is a massive amount of treasury and the i.r.s. yesterday. we just announced new withholding table, so people get tax breaks in february, is uld say good news, there nothing we've identified so far that we think is particularly problematic that we think we technical correction. there are like 80 sections of he bill that are left to the secretary to put out regulations, we have a lot of work at treasury in the i.r.s. now, very often when you pass new tax legislation, the i.r.s. has more work, doesn't seem to new evidence of hiring more

gent-- agents. do you not need to do that? touches every aspect of the i.r.s. from technology to forms and we are speaking with congress about for ng additional funding the implementation. we would expect that we would ire significant number of people to help with the implementation. get from that?ou guest: i agree how he's assessed it. administration put out a request just a formal request for 397 million dollars two years, and 19. hours, me equivalent outreach,to deal with education, taxpayer ark cy -- assistants. is new hires and that is

significant. just about two year, we have to now to be ramming able to do the testing, seasona, for next filing and it is really just, you know, not very long in something as massive as this to redesigning significant number of systems, so delays in getting that, you know, two the i.r.s. will implement this bill, this law, they don't get funding, what will they take the to reprogram order the systems and things like that? that is where i'm really concerned, we've seen that happen before, when i.r.s. did theget funding to implement affordable care act and they put on hold very taxpayer friendly important improvements to the computers, to the system, assistance and i'm worried if we don't get funding, we'll again and i don't want that to happen.

ost: nina olson, i.r.s. national taxpayer advocate. 202-748-8000 for those in the eastern and central time zone 202-748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zones. we'll start in new jersey with pat. with nina olson. go ahead. caller: hello, mrs. olson, can me, has the i.r.s. changed the way it is implement the affordable care act? many times on "washington journal" the only way for them to collect a was to withhold my refund. month ago i got a letter asking me to file amended showing proof of payment or pay penalty. the do they do to affordable care act? one more thing, new tax law, 2018 the penalty fw away in or would i wait until 2020 to avoid that penalty? thank you. guest: okay, first on penalty tis my understanding and believe studying the act the same time as everybody else,

very large bill. go away for -- the tax year 2018 for the returns in 2019.are filing my understanding is it going yearfor returns of the tax 2019 for the returns that you'd 2020.ling in if i'm wrong, somebody can correct me, but that is my understanding of it. terms of implementation, the law says that the only way the collect is by either basically offsetting the refund payments.rs making you have a refund of your regular tax return and the they will offset the amount of the penalty up to the your refund and it will still be a liability on the books if you get a refund the year, they can offset it against, if you owe from the ear before, offset it gaebs next year's refund, as well. they can't go out and levee, into your bank account or wages.

now, that doesn't mean they letters out to you, if they have questions about correct ou have the coverage or some people have not reconcile orms to what subsidy they have gotten in advance and then what they might at the end of the year. the i.r.s. will normally through return send out letters saying please send this information or else we will this penalty because we don't think you have the right coverage. notice that he you've gotten and that may be something easily resolved if you the the receipts or evidence and things like that. that goes to, you know, you need get ll the i.r.s. and through on the phones and depending on what time of year t is, that is a very challenging thing to do. but i would not ignore that i always tell people, do not ignore notices, the worst do is not respond

because the i.r.s. in many ways s a machine and it will keep rolling and nonresponse means that you agree you did something rong and you don't want to be in that conversation. host: today is first day that people can file? yes, january 29th. host: florida, you are next, ahead.go caller: yes, good morning. he i.r.s. is antiquated, we live in the 21st century, did you hear of black chain and algorithms. things that monitor your can't i.r.s. do the same thing and at the end, as your income goes up, take more if your income goes down, take less out. you a the year, send check or rand paul said he wants smaller government, so why don't advocate lobbyists and talk and -- mnuchin host: caller, we get it. guest: first thing, i'm not a i'm a federal

employee, appointed, was appointed by the secretary in 2001. job is described by congress in the internal revenue code, is to be an i.r.s. employee, but be independent and speak up for taxpayers. in fact, your points are really well taken, about one, how is.quated the i.r.s. i have written pages and pages nd page necessary my annual report to congress pointing out antiquated and behind the world it is. change, useust block of artificial intelligence. oldest s. has the two databases in the federal to the nt, according government accountability office, the systems where we hold individual tax information of the business taxpayer information and that's scary when you think about that. the other hand, you know, one thing that we don't have in our ystem and the system that you describe, where the i.r.s. knows

what money you have coming in. of although we have a lot information reporting of wages income,rest in dividend other countries have what they pay-as-you-earn system. what you make from your employer an exact rate and all have you to do at the end of the year, you don't have to do anything, you know, the government knows this you mation and tells whether you were -- that you are done unless you've had self-employment income or had stock sales or something like that. and only then do have you to file. that amount of information can be a is a burden, burden on employers or independent contractors and so been political will to do that kind of thing. my office has actually this year proposed something like that and we're working on a study next year to show what the rest of steps ld does and what the i.r.s. could take to get

closer to that. related questions off twitter. diana, how come they can't revent identity fraud except say, file early, if the address is different, why can't they question this? security? will fraud increase this wreer? guest: yeah. my office, om 2005, because we get the cases from 240,000 s, we get about cases per year from taxpayers who really have problems with i.r.s. the number one issue that we 2010 has ince about been identity theft and it in the -- it ed used to be that identity theft person e a one-off stealing somebody, getting a social security card and trying cute by half. it moved to organized crime and efforts.d and that is what we've seen. the i.r.s. has a lot of filters using, artificial

intelligence to try to identify schemes and d the things like that, put some that that have happened helped, we are now, congress last year was first filing season, this is the econd, ordered employers to give us their w-2 information by anuary 31st, when they file with social security. and what that has done, given th, by ay is the 29 wednesday, we will have most of w-2 information so we can run returns through as they come in to see whether this is a fraudulent return because the up and doesn't match the real return that the taxpayer is. we were able to not stop as many legitimate didn't have n we that information, we didn't know which was the correct return and you'd have to stop both. that puts a burden on the

legitimate taxpayer. have to say, that is getting better. you know, the thieves are very, very clever you know, mole that you whack down, there is nother one that pops up in another scheme and it is just very, very difficult. my thing has been then, if to have some going legitimate taxpayers caught up do his, so what you need to is give them one employee assigned to their issue. them call and tell their story 20,000 times to people.t just this year, the i.r.s. has agreed to do that, it's taken i'm since 2005 to agree and sorry it took that long, but now assigned t one person to your case, who knows your really work with you, so you won't fall through

the cracks. of course, if it doesn't work, he taxpayer advocate service and there is an office local one inr advocate office, every state, there are 79 around country, some states more than one and there you will get with you ee who stays from start to finish and if you have more than one year caught up, we're not going to close the case until we resolve all the issues. taxpayer advocate .r.s.gov, website for taxpayer advocate service, find more office about local offices. carolina, hi th there. caller: hi, how are you? i'm calling in to ask a question like this year, will you be able o take your interest off your home and your property taxes? what do you call it, i get one pay per month and i work for the state and i don't know. i want to see if i can still use

or will it xt year end after this year? guest: right. so when you say this year, for that you are filing 20 2017, the old law is in place, you'll be able to local income nd taxes, if you can itemize, as taxes on your y personal residence. ow the same thing with your mortgage interest, there's the current restriction that the oan has to be a million authorize or less. now going forward for this year, 2018, the year we're in, 2019, the iling in rules have changed. so there is a cap for your state local income taxes and then of property taxes combined $10,000. more than $10,000 and you $10,000 in than

able to will only be claim up to $10,000 in '18. you can deduct mortgage interest, but only up $750,000, except some mortgage loans are grandfathered in. if you had a loan today or esterday -- or rather end of 2017, and it was a million, then of grandfathered in. there is a lot on the mortgage where youide, that is need to look at the rules to the issues guidance on that i.r.s. and gethe answers to tax law questions or to a el you need to go preparer. one thing i recommended to the i.r.s., i think it is just in lutely necessary, addition to keeping phones for open beyond ions april 17th this year, is that

phone line,edicated like for people like you to be able to call a toll free number those questions without having to hire someone right away. answer may be oh, these are the basic rules and you may well, i don't understand the basic rules and now i need to consult with someone. is fine, but your government should give you basic basic information. host: this is 2017 1040, any major changes to this form know about?d guest: not really. is more he main change in procedure when refunds will e issued for people getting earned income tax credit and advanced child tax -- getting he child tax credit and they were involved in that. delayed unds will be until february 15th and they probably won't go out until the 10 days after that date.

that is the law. -- ou know host: delay attributed to what? guest: measure congress put in, about re concerned improper payments for earned income credit, refundable don't even have to owe taxes and you would still is given back and it to the working poor primarily who have children, so it is to to low income working families, but there has been, it's a very complex provision so there is a lot of error in it, not the most dollars thing, the going out, congress has been concerned, they have said, let's get these w-2's in early, give i.r.s. chance to match them, chance to look at the returns before we issue the refunds. refunds ave said no every year on those two provisions for returns with provisions until april 15th. host: sheila in louisiana. there.

guest: hi. caller: good morning. 2017 ation 17 for the income tax year. is it still incorrect on the website, the i.r.s., could you tell me when you are going to update it? is an you are saying it old publication? have you checked this morning? because if you -- even last filing season hadn't the , the forms are for 2016 tax year, which was last year's filing season. it is my understanding that a lot of the new forms went probably over this weekend, going to do 'm something very unusual, which is address and -mail you can let me know, so i can get it fixed. my e-mail address is

nina.e.olson@i.r.s.gov. let me know if this morning or ater this afternoon, it is not the 2017 version for use with tax forms. host: let us know how many people respond. is really interesting, i tell people, if you've got problems, you can certainly come to me. we have local office necessary each state and those phone and rs are on our website the blue pages of the phone book book nybody has a phone anymore, and go to them, they are the ones that are going to assign pen the case and you a case advocate and if you yourl me, please don't put social security number in an e-mail, just tell me the issue and then i'll have one of my call you back. but it is interesting, people do good way to is understand what is going on and what taxpayers are experiencing respectful of the

act if you send me 20,000 emails, i won't be able to answer. 17?: what is publication guest: sort of your taxes, it describes everything, pretty everything about an taxpayer tax -- needs. it contains a lot of instructions that you otherwise have to get individually. and it used to be available, you could call and are order it and to be available in librarys and things like that. the i.r.s. has been reducing the forms it makes available to people in paper. get a lot of frustration about that, it is a cost-saving penny wise and pound foolish. host: this is mike for nina olson, island, florida, hi there. caller: hi. for us calling low-income earners, like $30,000 less, next year supposed to

deduction.standard my question is, would you ofommend changing the number dependents you claim and the ther thing is, are your property taxes and any other deductions, if they don't add up 24,000, then you just take the standard deduction? thank you. guest: to the latter thing, that is the intention of the law. viewed, what congress they -- i agree with this, that don't lification, if you have to keep all your receipts and stuff and you can just take single and if $24,000 if married. just not it is worth -- it will be better for ou to just claim the $24,000 standard deduction if your are below e over -- that amount, rather, i'm sorry. again, s of exemptions, what i was talking about at the

beginning, the i.r.s. has given employers, made public to employers, new withholding percentages based on the new aw, but they're not as precise as we'd like them to be because hey are based on old exemption things like personal exemption which usal exemption, don't exist anymore for this coming year. i would wait a bit until the supposed to get out of new w-4, maybe by the end february and i would sort of wait a bit to see when that form gets out, i would definitely do that and give it to your to make sure you're withheld properly, that will nable them to do the right calculation, same time, they'll have a calculator, where you in basically what you think your property taxes are taxg to be and state income and mortgage interest and there

you can tell whether you should standard deduction or not. that will help a lot 6789 i myself, just t for walking it through, what i knew of the law, it took two hours. you u want to do that, could do that on a nice rainy sunday. host: several states that have taxes, reports they will try to find work around, what through your mind when you hear that? guest: i think we will be in litigation for a long time. know, you know, another thing people don't think about, trickle-down effect to any ederal law change, many, many states, their income taxes are tart with the federal adjusted gross income and then add this back and deduct this. state taxable the income and then they factor it on. maryland, for example, determined, their treasury, taxpayers end y up with a tax increase because on the feds ybacks

and they're trying to figure out neutral, e it revenue like do change their law so you end up where you were in 2017, don't owe more because of the federal changes. 'm sure other states are wrestling with that. some states may see reduction in depends how the states work off the federal income tax. this whole issue with property tax, you know, i think that again, it just underestimates people feel, you know, people want stability in their get , they don't want to into "i don't know whether i'm owing too much or too little and mean to me," and when there is vacuum and not nough information out there, people react and that is why i think it is so important for the there, to get out proactively, explain provisions, down and get as much information out there as quickly as possible. and have that there.number up we don't know what taxpayers are

worried about, we need to hear way is to ers, one answer, hear their questions. is : from akron, ohio, mike next. caller: yes, i don't really have a question, just a concern. a victim of i.d. theft, yself, i will never forget the day, august 9, 2013, somebody third bank a fifth $40,000 out withdrew f my checking account and an hour later went into another fifth third bank and withdrew savings account. i get a phone call asking me if lately.n to chicago the second bank, they finally found out five minutes after the the lobby that they were taken. have an ethnic last name, nobody in akron ohio with my last name, outside of me, my dad brother. maybe five family necessary

chicago with my last name. nigerian, is, i am not the person who did this was nigerian, and misspelled my name, my first name is transcribed.d e biggest insult of my life. got detective from chicago working on this case, akron police department on this case, o satisfaction, i've done everything i can, how could they do that, twice in one day? caller.anks, guest: this is the splurge of identity theft and so many pieces. what you described is the financial sector dealing with that. and the second bank, obviously had done some very good train employees about recognizing suspicious questionable d transactions and i think and this is regrettable, that has been slow to come pervasive and w

horrible this is. i keep saying to people, there more important than your identity, this is your identity. nd to have it taken from you, then to spend the next four, having rs of your life to deal with repercussions of being taken is devastating in itself. banks have at the woken sxup are doing more training. arlier caller talked about blocking, artificial intelligence and data mineing detection filters being able to see a transaction that raises questions and stop right there and ask for more more ntation and ask for identification and see if it is spelling your first name wrong. like x side, something that happens to you, you need to

ca all the i.r.s. and they will make you prove this happened nyour case, you filed a police can send that to the i.r.s. for the next filing season, they called an ou what is i.p. pin, a separate number that know, it is lone not like your social security number, your social security number is already out there, you pin on it f. i.p. i.r.s. gets a return that they t have the i.p. pin, won't process it, they know that that is either from the thief or forgot your i.p. pin. if you put your pin on, they you know it is from you and won't be burdened yet again by because your theft return will go through and they others.op the but in your case, because the

fraud didn't happen in the tax outside the tax system with the banks, you need to call the i.r.s., if you haven't already. sometimes that system doesn't work and sometimes you have had, you know, returns before you had i.p. pin held up n. that case, i recommend you come to the advocate service, if you are in ohio, we have several cincinnati, eland, they will take your case and work with you and stay with you the whole thing until we get this figured out. 'm so sorry you are going through this. host: nina olson, the i.r.s. ational taxpayer advocate, founded executive director of the community tax law project. has her masters from from -- n, law degree how did you end up in this position? guest: by accident. mentioned, founded first low-income taxpayer clinic that operated like a legal aide.

we in virginia covered entire low-incomerginia for folks who might have problems ith the i.r.s. and with the state tax aigence and he got olunteer lawyers and accountants to help represent taxpayers before the i.r.s. that brought me to the attention of congress and so i testified congress about the problems those folks were having nd next thing i knew, in 2001, people said, we want you to be the national taxpayer advocate, am.e i host: ever been a position like that before? guest: this position had been or another e form since the '70s, congress put it '90s and in the early then late '80s, early '90s, and in 1998, made major revision to the office that it is today. other person who is there, valoverson, took the and or a year and a half i've been it since 2001. host: how many staff in your office? budget for your office?

uest: my budget is $206 million, with about their 12 million we make in grants to taxpayer clinics around the country to represent taxpayers. have about 1750 employees united states. in washington, d.c., 250 people on he headquarters working various things. i have a whole branch that works systemic problems, local 200 somewhated thousand cases from taxpayers, but we look at, here is a that doesn't just affect one taxpayer, it affects a group. be the law is written in a way that has unintended way the law is administer side harming taxpayers, we call that systemic i have a group of folks that look at that and work with the i.r.s. on teams and changes to processes and

most importantly, this is lot of work, reviewing i.r.s. instructions to them ees before they send out to employees f. we can solve problems before they each go out employees that create problems, that is a really good thing. mark from norfolk, virginia, go ahead. aller: yes, good morning, mrs. olson. i want to thank c-span for having on you. ago, i calledears in and you made yourself available, i was able to leave of the r with one producers and it made a huge wife's nce in me and my tax life and so now we have been of three or four years, being able to get some s, versus owing like ungodly amount of money. i wanted to say thank you very much and keep up the good work. mark, in a general sense,

what problem about you have and how was it solved? caller: what happened, the owed $80,000 in a general taxes. a what it was, there were couple revisions over some years boggedme kind of way got down in the system and so after journal, i think mrs. olson, i think number one out of er two person washington, d.c. contacted me and that made a huge difference. was dealing out of your denver office, mrs. olson and the staff unbelievable. with the help of the taxpayer advocate and my accountant, our just turned around like drastically, and i'll never that and i thank c-span and mrs. olson, thank you very much. really nice to hear. sometimes we do drop the ball and again, if we do drop the want to know about it. and i go out to my staff and you having e is lems, do you need help

there a technical or legal issue you need to work through? to get this eed problem solved? but i'm very glad to hear that kind of thing. want to say something about the amount, you know, you thing.ned $80,000 there is a new law that and effect i wrote about in the annual report to congress, in 2015, congress law that said that anybody who owes more than $50,000 to the i.r.s., and has a certain point, i.r.s. certified, the must certify to the department of state that these people owe $50,000 or more, this year it is $51,000 adjusted for inflation, they will not be able to get a new passport or if they apply renewal, they will not be able to get the

renewal until they deal with their tax debt. either get into pay it in installment nto an agreement or have an offer and compromise, the i.r.s. created for example, if you really cannot afford to pay your taxes, then you can get called currently not collectible status, where we action ke collection against you, but the debt still is there and will accrue pen alt and he interest. this is very serious and i about how of concerns the i.r.s. is administering this program. i wrote in the annual report and blog that i also just if you have a t debt over $50,000 i recommend ou come to the taxpayer advocate service very quickly so we can work with you, like this turned out what he's saying, i can't discuss the ase, but from what he said, there was a lot of

misunderstanding and that wasn't owed.mount that was we have a lot of cases it takes us a while to get the i.r.s. to and at and go through figure out what the correct amount is, often less than $50,000 f. we can get that, you won't be caught up in this program. local taxpayerur dvocate and we have on our website, office numbers for each state and you can say that you c-span from his on the national taxpayer advocate. call.suggested you host: lincoln, nebraska, mark is next, hi. helping es, i've been i.r.s. cid, off and on since 1985. and i was wondering, on the 211 is that 10% for the first and 7% for the reward? guest: so the cid is criminal

investigation division of the revenue service and i think what you're referring to whistle blower, percentage of hat your lead would provide to criminal investigation division your at they collect from lead that you would get a percentage based on that tip. admit, i'm not familiar with the percentages. e-mail want to leave your address, or your phone number ith the folks here at c-span, can have someone call you and more specifically answer your questions. my staff who, on you know, works on that, works that program is working well, etcetera. staten island, new york, doug is next for nina olson, hi. c-span, i ank you, wasn't aware of the national

taxpayer advocate, so it is a this.ure to actually see we just don't get this from other stations, thank god for you guys. you, mrs. olson, i want to ask three quick questions. number one, i'm disabled and i don't have a computer, will i get be able to call and tax forms from the government? it was very hard the last two of phone calls until i finally got through, number one. two, has anything really changed from last year or will i use d deductions, 1040-a, i'm retired, and have just social bit of and little pension. yeah. these two things, i was get ring, how does one through this if they're not going to be able to get the forms through the mail anymore, have of us don't computers. host: thanks, caller. guest: you raise a critically question. my office did research study

this year and we identified are 41 million u.s. taxpayers, based on nationwide sample ofpresentative taxpayers who filed returns within the last three years, are actively taxpayers. 41 million u.s. taxpayers that have broad-band access in their home. they are doing dial-up. 14 million re are .s. taxpayers that have no internet access in their home. here is disabled are a large percentage of that group. my message to the i.r.s., the .r.s. has been because of budget cuts, really trying to push people online. they have been, you know, trying get, they think that is the cheapest thing and it may be in the short term, the cheapest thing, but my -- what i've been trying to say to them, you away from any single service delivery channel, you to maintain the phones,

maintain face-to-face, have you mailing out forms, as well as online, and you have strongest case in point. if you have difficulty i don't want everybody in the world to call the taxpayer advocate service to seriously, cucall your local taxpayer advocate if you really can't get it and we print out forms and get them to you. it is frustrating, the i.r.s. sites and they have taken the position they send out certain number of forms and when they run out, they're not refilling them. that is to me, crazy. because if taxpayers are taking the trouble and saying, i want front of me, we want people to file taxes, we should they want in order to get them to file the taxes. so, you can reach out to your taxpayer advocate if you can't get it through the normal just know that i

will be using you as an example to maintain all delivery channels. amni-channel n environment, you maintain everything because some people will be comfortable doing online, others will not. and we need to be there for all taxpayers. host: you talked about staffing issues, what is the strength of comes to audits and collections? guest: it is interesting, this in the annual report, i tracked what i think are core unctions in the i.r.s. from about 2011 to the end of the september, 2017, 2017. and pretty much every single core function, collection employees, the appeals officers, the outreach and education people, all had declines between 32 and 40%, just in the number people. but auditors declined only by 2%. so that is a very interesting

figure to me, the i.r.s. has that audit employment and yet when i'm out in talking practitioners, they say that the auditors, they are not happening, audits that has me wondering and we'll what are this year, auditors doing, if they are there, you know, people are aying they are not out auditing, what are they doing? host: one time the i.r.s. was collectors, e debt how did that work out? guest: second time, actually stopped it, when they it, it was highly ineffective. but congress changed the law and it has been in place since march of 2017 and in my report this year, i report out some results. report, i actually, i ersonally think collecting taxes is an inherently governmental function and cannot congress has but passed law and that is law of

the land, my job is to make sure are not harmed in the process. what we've found is that the majority, pretty much majority taxpayers making payments have income that would qualify as low income for like representation from my clinic. worked at.that i we know of the people who have agreementsinstallment from private debt collectors, 45% of them, the i.r.s. they not collect a dime, put them in currentsly not collectible status, cannot to pay basic living expenses and pay their tax. program, ow from the the most vulnerable people are answering the phones from the debt collectors and making payments, payments that were ldn't collect if we making calls and finding out financial information. of is actually the design the program as the i.r.s.

designed it. my criticism this time around is i.r.s. has designed it, that they are sending taxpayers level out to the private collection agencies to work. and could screen them out we will see what the i.r.s. does in response to my concerns in have shown. i know both republicans and democrats on the hill, i shared concerned, re very they say that is not what this program is about. is from georgia, this ellen. ellen. caller: hi. yes, hello. host: go ahead, you're on. mrs. olson, i have been listening to you this followed you over the years and i several times said, if you have questions, call your i.r.s. office. atlantan georgia in the area, there are three offices numbers. two phone

if you call the first phone a recorded message telling you, you have to make an appointment to please call the line and it automatically hangs up on you. to see s i've been able there, is no way to call just to ask a question. so i don't know how it is in states, but this is definitely a problem. guest: well, you are not calling that ice when you get line, you are calling the main i.r.s. number and what you raise really important issue. the i.r.s. has a walk-in site, a walk-in t really site anymore, they have gone appointment only for all intents purposes, so if you torp show up there, they would pretty tell you you away and to make an appointment and we have told them, recommended that handle -- continue to handle walk-ins, people are showing up. offices that i have in georgia and actually one in ing to open savannah in the next year or

two, but it is not there yet. have two offices in atlanta and one is in downtown atlanta peachtree. and there you can walk in and get help without an appointment, but the number is on our website true, you may get a recording if the intake person is on the line with another person, but they should be calling you back. and if they aren't, well, i've e-mail address and you can let me know. ut the number for the taxpayer advocate service is different from the i.r.s. i will also tell you that there number for the and nal taxpayer advocate that is not staffed by my employee, staffed for the phone the i.r.s. if you talk to them, they may be able to quickly solve your problem. they will put you through in realtime to one of my advocates, who will then

take your case in and get your out to the appropriate local office as in mirror where live. so there are number of things website up e our online, but if you have problems, you can let me know. from lexington, virginia, peggy, hello. caller: hi. concern is with the affordable care act, penalty hat people had to pay for not having insurance, is that something that is going to be 2017?in effect for guest: right, it will still be yes.fect for 2017, and you will need to address the on your return or i.r.s. will send you a notice adjusting your return for that as a previous caller noted, the only way it can collect it offsetting refunds or you making a voluntary payment. massachusetts, tony is

next. caller: hello. hello. caller: good morning. my wife and i are both on social and we only -- social only have topients declare 85% of their social year in income next 2018, is that going to be 100%? guest: i don't think so. haven't seen that provision, i think that provision still remains. that is a really good question and i will make sure that the makes that clear on its website, that is really, i'm grateful that you called because other people will have concerns about that, that is obviously omething that people need to know. host: bob from washington state. hello.: host: you're on, go ahead. caller: yes, i have two questions for next year. my first one is a small business in a home. allowed to 're

deduct professional amount, but ext year i heard we're not going to be able to use it for small business in the home, h&r block, l like taxes, if nder the you are senior citizen, like me received e, we 15,100 this heir ear, this year it is $15,200, plus personal exemption, which brought us up to almost $24,000. year, the new one says they do at $24,000 do anything extra for senior citizen? guest: yeah, really great i don't the in, answer to that, i'm still wading law.ugh the this is great opportunity for me to hear all the things i don't know so i can make sure that is out there. i know that they have eliminated provisions, i just don't

know about the extra for for over 65, my hunch is they have eliminated that and build-up for certain disabilities and i will look the that and make sure i.r.s. makes that very, very forward.ing you know, the deduction for the haven't seen nmy looking at the law, i haven't seen any there ist for that and rate for this standard business use of your phone. so i haven't seen any that.tments to host: as person who files taxes, to is good time to stick software-based service versus person, an accountant? how much -- what is reasonable price to pay for those thing? guest: i don't know a reasonable

price to pay. personally feel that people should be able to prepare their returns, they have the privilege taxes, they shouldn't have to pay arm and leg for the taxes.ge of paying but i also know from having been a return preparer that people had extraordinarily simple returns were so anxious doing i'd hey kept coming to me, say, don't come back next year this, is silly, you are wasting it money, do it yourself, is anxiety factor. if youi think, you know, have fairly, you have complex things, you may want to consult if it is justeven consultation fee, even if you software you don't miss anything. software gets more and more year in and year out, but each year we see things hey leave out, we get complaints on systemic agency side. you have ut to say,

missed something. we found with affordable care whole bunch of a exclusions and exemptions to the penalty people have been talking a number of software companies hadn't asked about didn't ask the taxpayer about that, got socked with penalty when they didn't need to. are able to go back to the companies and say, you need to hadeprogramming here and we got that addressed. nd i know that the software companies are eager to find out how the i.r.s. is implementing they have to nce, program their stuff to be ready for next year's filing season. one does i.r.s. endorse type of software over another? guest: no, they do not. alliance, ree file which is an agreement with a rade association of the software companies and you can go on the website and you can hit the free file button. will see is i don't products.19 different

most people have found it very confusing in usage of free file down and down nd and down and down from the years everybody.sn't cover there is a tool, which is called that is able forms, what i use, just what i've been do, ng the i.r.s. should cukey in, link , to instructions and it does you can electronically file for free and submit it for free and so that is there and has fewer users, but i'm one ofn them. someone for to pay the privilege of paying my taxes. host: nina olson, national the i.r.s.vocate for -- ayer advocate.ooh irs.com. time. for your that is it for our program today, another edition comes your way tomorrow 7 a.m., see you then.

>> conference with remarks by lawmakers and cabinet members at 2 ter senate returns eastern and recesss until 4:30

to take up a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks and c-span 3 is live with preview of tomorrow's state of the union we'll hear from white house counselor kelly ann conway, nancy pelosi and angus king, later, members of congress talk about bipartisanship and civility in the political climate. >> this week on the communicators, we take you to lasumer electronics show in egas and speak with industry leaders leaders. watch the communicators tonight 8 eastern on c-span2. >> the president of the united states. [applause] >> tuesday night, president donald trump gives his favorite tate of the union address to

congress and the nation, join us on c-span for preview of the eastern,tarting 8 p.m. then state of union speech, live speech, following this the democratic response from congressman joe kennedy, also comments reaction and from members of congress. tuesday night, live on c-span, free c-span radio app, and available on the desk top, phone or tablet at c-span.org. >> this week on newsmakers, senator from oklahoma, number wo republican on the armed services committee, senator james inhove, thank you. you.ood to be with >> patrick kelly, defense and ter with cq roll call joe gould, congressional reporter with defense news, joe, go ahead. so senator,