caregiving. later, the utah governor talks about public policy issues in his state as part of c-span's capital fit -- capitals 50's ♪ it is saturday come april 28, 2018, a three it were "washington journal -- a three-hour "washington journal." we will talk about the white house correspondents dinner. the senate agriculture committee with a hearing earlier this week as we take you through the highlights from that event. we will have our discussion. give us a call and tell us about your top concerns and the state of rural america. a worldview or in the eastern or central time zone, 202-748-8000.

-- if you are in or pacific time zones, call 202-748-8001 or social media on twitter @cspanwj. on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. a very good saturday morning to you. a conversation with rural americans for the first hour. you can start calling him now and we will show you a few of the recent headlines impacting rural americans from the state journal register out of springfield, illinois. rural law enforcement health officials cope with the opioid crisis is the headline. , a headline, 39% of rural americans lack access to rural broadband. ae new york magazine with story of white rural america controls the debate over gas -- guns and immigration. npr recently, u.s. farmers say they are paying for donald

trump's actions. trade and its impact on farmers is an issue at the hearing this week in the senate agriculture committee. the agricultural secretary sonny perdue discuss the president's commitment to farmers during trade negotiations. and whereto go back the president looked me in the eye and said, i know farmers are worried about what we are doing that you need to tell them that i'm not going to let them be the casualties in this trade dispute. out a playbookng about all of the authorities or what we would do. i am with you, mr. chairman, i would rather have trade and aid, but when people are not doing , farmers understand, they do not like people who steal or cheat. they like people who play by the rules and that is what the president is doing and calling chinese hand.

there will probably be some discomfort and anxiety in the meantime, we all did. it has to be done. while the sabres have been rattled, there is time to get out on the table and i am hoping we will take advantage of xi conciliatory remarks about wanting to do some things and get back. it is a dangerous thing to think about, the number two economies in the world being in a trade war and that is not what the president wants, i do not think, but he wants them to play fair and the american people want them to play fair and play by the rules. we would love to have a fair reciprocal trade arrangement with every country in the world. our farmers have been productive and successful and we are at a disadvantage almost everywhere in the world with our agricultural products getting in. there are walls built up with protectionism that protect them. we let other products come in

almost at will. that is the challenges to write rebalance over things that have evolved over a number of years. that always has discomfort and anxiety associated with it. host: we are talking to rural americans this morning about the state of rural america, asking about your top concerns. a rural viewer in the eastern or central time zone, the phone number is 202-748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones and a rural viewer, 202-748-8001 is the number. tell us about the state of rural america and what you want from congress and the white house. recent survey from the kaiser family foundation went along with a washington post story on rural americans, talking about the various issues among rural voters. lack of jobs and drug abuse the biggest problems.

jobs and unemployment as the biggest problem facing rural communities. 21% of respondents said -- with drug abuse with 14%, the economy, 8%. education, poverty, and cost-of-living. safety, policing, state, local infrastructure all time at 4%. this came out last year. conversationve a this morning in the wake of the senate agricultural committee hearing. 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones if you are a rural viewer and 202-748-8001 if you are in the pacific and mountain time zones. good morning. theer: i am thinking economy and the country is on the right track.

bumpe seen a significant in my weekly paycheck. year to date, i am 150 hours of overtime. thanks to the economy and what i am calling the trump bump. i would like to ask a question to the democrat voters, what is the democrat agenda? and if godhey run on forbid they take control of the house and senate, what do they do? they are talking impeached donald trump and take back the tax cut, the money i have in my paycheck, they do not want me to have it and they want the government to have it. not enforcing immigration law. let everybody come in. i have seen polls where democrats support this spending .e.disbanding i.c it looks like bernie sanders is taking over the democrat party

which used to be for working people. host: what do you think the democratic message should be to rural communities? caller: it should be, ok, donald trump won and we will work with them to try to compromise. not like nancy pelosi who said the best way for border security is not a wall or to increase security but remotely grasp. to mow the the -- grass. know,ntrol, before we democrats and the liberal media blame the gun. they do not care if it was legally obtained. i have not heard any law that would stop people from killing people with guns. host: we are talking with rural americans only. asking about your top concerns in the first segment of the "washington journal."

charles and jasper, indiana, what do you do? caller: the farmers need to be treated better. they are producing the food for the world or the country. let's get rid of all political parties and all work together to make our country great again. political parties have divided our country so let's try it without them. there has been no compromising among party members. let's all put our country first. host: are you a farmer? caller: i have a farm, yes. host: what kind? farm, i bought it from my father. host: we played the clip of the agriculture hearing, the discussion about the trade policies of the trump

administration, are you concerned or are you hearing concerns from farmers about what the trade policies and trade negotiations could mean for you and your fellow farmers? caller: i have not. i am one of the farmers. i own a farm. i have a renter that rents the farm and grows corn and soybeans. i am all for the farmers. host: thank you for the call. talking to rule armors -- callers only. ralph and new hampshire -- in new hampshire. caller: we have good things economically and bad things in new hampshire, the tax cuts, they are essential and that helped a great deal to keep money in the pockets of people. the bad is health care, that is a problem appear, particularly

with the opioid crisis. we are need the -- we are near the canadian border and a lot of opioids comment and there is almost no treatment and the ones there are are not effective. that is a problem. and we do not have providers who are accountable. they get paid the same if they heal properly or if they do not do anything at all. we need more accessible and more accountable and more transparent and less costly health care up here. host: our state and local officials more effective than federal officials? who do you think is to blame? caller: wide varieties of people you can blame. you can blame the health care lobby and washington, d.c., the american medical association, they created the artificial positions shorter and the pharmaceutical association, and the american constable association.

been given the license to steal from poor people. host: thank you for the call. kay in missouri. good morning. caller: thank you. thank you for taking my call. i am in the middle of the country, the land of section eight housing, which i have always maintained was a subsidy for landlords. not poor people. we are the land of huge plantations, farms, which are also relied a great deal on, farm subsidies. there are no more small farms. may i quote this without getting cut off? host: go ahead. beler: let not young souls smothered out before they do quite a deed's and fully flaunt

their pride. it is the world's one crime, babes grow dull, it's poor are boxlike, lip and let denied, not that they starve, but starve so dream leslie. -- dreamlessly. they seldom read, not that they serve, they have no -- not that they die, but they die like sleep. we still have the same problems here of no public transportation. you have to fly and to do that you have to be well off. we have no health care essentially for everybody. you have to travel miles. friend andyyear-old dr. send someone 30 miles to -- and the doctor since someone 30 miles to pick her up, she has

cancer. what will we do about the 100,000 physician shortage the country is facing over the next 10 years? host: what was the quote you read from? basha lindsay. he did other poetry. a folk poet who went around the country selling his poetry. fat chance he would have to do that today. host: thank you for the call. is more from the senate agriculture hearing this week on the state of rural america. north dakota republican john hoeven was asking about various crop programs including crop insurance and risk management in the farm bill being debated right now in capitol hill.

>> on the farm bill, number one priority is crop insurance, do you share that as a number one priority or talking about the importance of crop insurance? >> i think it is the number one priority from a risk management tool. saw -- the evolution we the revolution in the 14 farm bill in producer's participation in the risk management activities, i think that is more palatable for the public and we think appropriate. we continue that. there is fine-tuning that needs to be done and specialty crops and other crops in the hurricane , we did not have the actuarial data and the premiums where they should be. we hope to find tune that. npp is helping but the farm bureau probably has another product that may help dairy more in the crop insurance area.

absolutely, i do believe crop insurance is at the top of the list as far as risk management tools for the safety net. host: we will keep showing you some more of the news made from that hearing this week in the senate agriculture committee on the state of rural america. as we have this conversation, rural americans only, tell us your top concerns and the state of rural america. in the eastern or central time zone, call 202-748-8000. rural american in the mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. a few tweets have come in, especially in the wake of these clips, when was the last time anyone at the rural america hearing actually got dirt on their hands? -- in idaho, we

are 48 in k-12 education and the governor's race, each candidate promises to cut taxes and you get what you pay for." " we will probably just pay more in farm subsidies." robert says policies forcing hospitals to close, export products and produce dwindling with gas prices rising, box stores shutting down. it is getting difficult." we want to hear your thoughts and concerns on the washington journal. roger is in austin, texas. good morning. do you live outside the city in area --ea -- in numeral rural area? an eight rural job? caller: i worked in the country

outside of austin. , everybody is talking about the agriculture and all of this stuff. not even the white people, not even black people, not even spanish people, nobody is making a comment about the police taking into custody white men that pull guns out at police but black folks cannot pull out phones in the get killed. nobody is questioning that. how can you killed 12 people in a van and stand outside with a pistol and tell the police to kill you, shoot me, and the white man do not die. the black man can stand in his grandmother's backyard or somebody else is making a phone call and you shoot 20 times until a black man and there is no concern?

that is not murder, just another negro dead.\ host: spencer in maine. caller: good morning. i just wanted to call in. this may be a coincidence but i live in maine, it is in the national new in our area with a manhunt going on for a man who has shot and killed one of our sheriffs deputies three days ago. the manhunt is literally going on in my backyard. one of the reasons i called in, it is very rural here. farm country in maine. without the second amendment, without the right to protect ourselves right now, most of my neighbors would not be able to stay in their homes. this guy is on the loose. there are hundreds of police officers looking for him.

we would not feel safe to be in our homes without the second amendment rights. it is a scary situation, when you have kids, hard for the farmers to get out and work their fields with him on the loose. without the second amendment, it could take 10-15 minutes for some of us to get help. from the sheriffs department or the police as of where we live. at least 10 minutes definitely. that is one thing in rural america that is different that we deal with. the outside influence of the politics coming from the people from the cities who are moving to the rural areas and trying to change our way of life. it is a big concern for me for rural america. the: how else have you seen change of the folks trying to change your way of life? caller: huge change. maine is a vacationland and we

have a lot of lakes in this area. up-of-state money has bought camps on% of all the the waterfront. the taxes have gone through the roof. local people cannot afford a vacation home in maine. unless you go way up north. that is one of the big of fax. -- fx. effect. and knocking down old farm houses and building vacation homes. that is great as they support our economy. mainers cannot afford to have a vacation home in vacationland. yes, we can make a living. taking care of out of state or's summer homes -- stater summer home. when they drive the taxes of, it is hard.

host: be safe this morning. caller: thank you. host: the divide that he highlighted in his call reflected in this story from the "washington post." it is from late last year and it went along with the poll we showed you earlier. the rural divide is the headline, the political divide they note between rural and urban america is more cultural than economic, rooted in rural resident deed misgivings in the rapidly changing demographics, the sense that christianity is under siege and the perception that the federal government caters mostly to the needs of people index cities. according to a wide ranging pull that examines cultural attitudes. the kaiser family foundation survey of 1700 americans, including more than 1000 adults in rural areas and small towns, finds deep-seated kinship and rule america and a stark sense

of estrangement from people in urban areas with nearly seven in 10 rural residents said their values different from those in big cities including four of 10 who say the values are very different. that divide is more extensively in rural america than in cities, about half of urban residents say their values differ from rural people with less than 20% of urbanites think rural values are very different. alongside a strong rural social identity, a disagreement between rural and urban america center on fairness. who wins and loses any new american economy and who deserves the most help and society and whether the federal government shows preferential treatment to certain types of people. president trump's anti-immigration rhetoric touches on many of the frustrations felt most acutely by rural americans. that story is in the "washington post" from june 17 of last year. surely in santa rosa, california. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i was born and raised in san francisco and have lived in america for quite a while, i live in kentucky, all over the united states. i have never been out of the continental. rural and big city america, we are the same. i have gotten along with everybody, farmers, people from manhattan, and kentucky, which is a beautiful state. why don't americans -- i am an older person -- are younger get along with everybody and knock off the fighting and the difference. we are all made by the same person. don't let anybody drill oil on my california coastline. that would be the worst sin this administration could ever make. california has the most beautiful coastline in america.

that is all i have to say. host: ed in a pleasant valley, new york. your thoughts on the state of rural america. caller: i live in midstate new york. i grew up, born and raised here. we had a lot of dairy farms, we had local area producers, the local dairy plants. as time went on and ever since the 9/11, the rural areas have changed with commuters living up here and they bought up the old farms the locals could not keep going because of the taxes. they filled the farms with horses. great farm with horses but they produce nothing. biggest state gets the tax write offs, and we people in the middle are paying for everything that is going on in new york city.

vehicleo register my and i'm looking at the fees, they added a $20 use the for my vehicle and i asked what was the $20 use the? the county needed more money. she says, you are paying $50 every time you register your vehicle the nta tax. i have not been on a train in 40 years but i am paying $50 every time i register my vehicle every three years. that is going on. people do not know because they do not look. people do not look at what is going on. host: who is your congressman in pleasant valley? caller: congressman, i do not know offhand. narrow whoave mullah is running for senate. host: do you think washington understands these concerns? caller: no.

no. , we have not benefited from the donald trump tax thing because new york is so overly-taxed. we pay for everything we do. i have a home that i built and live in. i have to get out of new york. i have inherited a small family farm that right now is nothing but a tax burden on me because i'm trying to save it. i wanted to live on the farm. i sold my house. homes, realreclosed estate is booming but it is only people who walked out the door. host: were you a trump motor -- voter? caller: yes, i was. host: staying in new york, dan. caller: thank you for taking my call. the last caller hit it on the head.

here right, i own a farm and i had my assessment reassessed a few months ago and they had it almost $800,000. i talked to a local realtor and said what could i get for my farmland per acre? they said $2500 an acre, half of what it was assessed for the -- assessed for. they talk about the subsidies, but the government picks winners and losers. if you do not have people, grant writers, you are not going to get in on this stuff. america, i do not think there should be subsidies for farmers. right now, there is way too much milk and they cannot figure out what to do with it. they are doing everything to get rid of dairy farmers. the inspectors are brutal about the inspections.

if they cannot get rid of you that way, milk prices are horribly low and they charge farmers a fee to pick up the milk at the farms. host: an inspection -- brutal about inspections, an example? caller: in the old days, in the 1950's, the floor has to be smooth as a baby's bottom. there would be rough years and you would fall on hard times and have issues with your milk. they would shut you down and you would get started back up once you got things in order. now, you get booted out and you are out for good. there is no getting back in. the milk companies do not want farmers. i have heard three or four states -- we have lost 350 dairy farms here and they told them you are done. you have to find something else

to do with your milk. host: were you a trump motor -- voter? caller: yes i was. a couple of voters asked about their voting patterns. here is a poll from npr showing the shift in rural voters, shifting towards republicans. according to exit polls, support for republican presidential candidates among urban and suburban voters, they have held steady since the 2008 election. 2012, 316 for urban voters and you see the shared that voted for republican candidate and in red, democratic candidates and blue and other candidates in green. is farthest right, this rural voters. 2008,e the shift from

going towards republicans in each of the past presidential elections. voters, 62% of rural voted for republicans. 34% voting for hillary clinton. pa in montanam. am is in montana. c-span and iten to have to laugh at everyone's thoughts on how they would like everything changed. but they do not want to change themselves. for instance, the lady from california who says she is traveling all over the country and loves everybody. do not go for oil off my coast. where does she think the oil will come from and