florida atlantic university. later, the u.s. news & world report talks about the future of the u.s. construction industry. ist: and morning greatest it saturday, june 30, 2018. this marks six months since the thatment of the tax bill president trump signed into law. he touted the anniversary yesterday, said it provided a boost to the economy. the bill is losing popularity with the public and the benefits of largely gone to corporate shareholders. we are getting your thoughts on the tax bill.

republicans can call (202) 784-8001. immigrants can call (202) 748-8000. call (202)s can 748-8002. you can also reach us on social media. president trump talked about the six-month anniversary of the tax cut bill yesterday. let's take a look and what he said. to keep upverybody the great work. ing americans are in charge again. washington tried to change us. , instead we are changing washington. we are changing it for the better.

that's why our economy is booming, that's why our families are thriving, that's why our businesses are growing, that's why america is winning like never before. we are setting records every day. these are victories. what we are doing is straightening out our trade. our trade has been a disaster. we were being taken advantage of , friends andries enemies and those in between. sometimes our friends were treating this worse than the enemies. that is being taken care of very beautifully. host: as we can commemorate the anniversary, the washington post is reporting that the popularity of the tax plan is starting to fade. the president's most ardent supporters roared with approval when he talked about protecting respecting thed

flag. the taxmp pivoted to bill, the crowd clapped, but without the fervor it shown for many of his other applause lines. we're getting your thoughts about the tax cut bill. have you felt the benefits? from georgia on the republican line. caller: good morning. i am so fired up about the tax cut.

i think donald trump is the best president in world history. they are giving us the best economy. black unemployment is the lowest in history. i have never been so fired up. we're been named one of the best places in the world to live. to thank him for giving us this great tax cut. i think he is the finest leader in america. i'm having trouble sleeping at night. i have called your network for 30 years, i love c-span. host: i want to ask you a question. up, why doso fired you think the poll numbers are starting to flip on it? do you think people don't understand what it's doing? i've been a big stockmarket investor.

i really don't trust the polls. the people i talked to, we just love trump. he won with 82% of vote. president, the polls showed hillary would win. i don't put a lot of faith in the polls. sople down here, we are fired up about trump, i'm having trouble sleeping. i think he's the greatest in world history. host: let's take a look at what the washington post wrote about the tax bill. the supporters of the tax bill .2 economic growth at a time when the cuts are working. 2%.growth rate was 2015.as the best since some people expected to skyrocket to 4%.

from maryland on the republican line. what do you think about the tax cut bill? i'm trying to get out the message. i think there is too much of a narrative about the tax cut being just for the rich. pushing.eeps i'm going to put one point on the table. oe,eople understand our that is return on equity, on any regulation, everyone will be receiving lower prices. your utility bill is based on a tax rate, the old thirtysomething percent tax rate. that happened in 1983.

at the end of this year, people will get a return from their for theirmpany electric. going forward, the rate will go down. 5% andate them between 6%. host: is it too early for people to measure the effects? caller: i think they are immediately. that's one example i gave you. all of the regulated utilities will come before the commission in washington dc and they will and to readjust rates reimburse citizens for the electricity that was used this year. that's just one example. that's an immediate benefit to everybody. it's not just to the rich. the democrats have a

different view of the republican tax bill. let's take a look at the ad attacking the bill. >> ever wonder where all that money went from the tax bill? bunch ofady have a lamborghinis. >> i'm going to fill my pool with fiji water. >> i am going to give my nanny raise. i'm kidding. >> what you going to do with your tax cut? >> i didn't get one. >> good morning, everyone. where are we?

this is our democratic line. i think we are in for a rude awakening in a short time. the track scott in the trade was talking. we are going to see history. thank you. from we have laura calling michigan on the independent line. what do you think about the tax cut bill? do you see any differences? actually, the businesses benefited immediately. though theycitizen may have gotten a slight

increase, that is going to disappear. ofce i have the luxury sitting home having my own business, i have a chance to observe once going on. change some of the fallacies we are hearing from the administration. ,he stock market is doing great it's very erratic. a possible recession is being discussed. americans arege involved in the market? it's usually for the upper-middle-class and the wealthy. now, since this administration kind of hoodwinked the american populace into thinking

everything is fine, i just came back from europe about a month ago. hows heartsick to hear people in europe are talking about our country. host: i want to take you back to you being a small as this owner. -- business owner. how are you, what changes have you made as a business owner since the law went into effect? i am not in the upper echelon of business. i am a dependent professional person. i'm in the horticultural area. equipment, things

that i need for my business, prices going up. any benefit i might have gotten from a tax increase is negligible. it's possibly even less. it's amazing how many people fall for this story. workingt everything perfectly. thepresident talked to president of north korea. no people there are allowed to take notes. host: you mentioned the stock market. still shininge despite a rocky quarter in the market. stocks were all over the map as

investors dumped industrial stalwarts of fear of a trade war stifling global growth and increasing the debt on technology companies. we are talking about the tax bill signed into law six months ago. we are getting your thoughts as to how it's going. hello, george. the reason i'm calling is i would like to remind the tax plan has

been tried by every republican administration for the last 40 years. ofs just another example , otherwise economics known as trickle-down economics. it never works, not once. host: i want to go to this piece in roll call, a piece written by david winston. he has a different view. he said the tax bill is working. foraid tax cuts do's economic growth. .hat can be found in the data

do you think we might see those same benefits now? you got to look at the long-term perspective. wheremay be a short burst you see some benefits. now, you have to bear in mind that everybody may be receiving some benefit initially.

these things are going on the credit card. the tax cuts are a reduction in revenue. you are giving the corporations , that's a decrease in corporate revenue for the government. and our deficit is increasing. ohio tom is calling from on the democratic line. aller: i think it's short-term game for a long-term pain. what you had for the average worker, $16 more a week. , gas wasack obama

$1.89 a gallon, now they are almost up to $2.90 a gallon. that's over a dollar. 16 gallon vehicle, you just gave a subsidiary to theoil companies because $16 is going in your gas tank. 19 69.round in i know what unemployment was. you have part-time jobs today. walmart,orkers are at they got a pay increase. they are still going to earn welfare for corporate america. breaks to give tax workers that are working for a multimillion dollar company that

makes more money than gm. as well offe're not as we were 30 years ago, 30 years ago, there was a revolution that took place and the republican party has controlled congress most of the time. why we have big breaks for the rich and no breaks for the poor and wages of gone down. the american people know it. they are worse off today than they were 40 years ago. host: more from the washington post talking about shareholders. the harshest criticism is that it's benefiting one group of americans a lot, shareholders. invested in new

equipment other items it would make workers more productive. big companies of mainly been giving cash back to shareholders. what do you think about the tax bill? for me, it's benefited me. what i am doing with my tax aca isnow that the basically gone, i can go out and buy health insurance once again. it has benefited me emilio. host: why don't you think it's more popular? popularitythink the is decreasing if people have more money to afford things like health care? caller: the progressives are

bitter and they have to complain about gas going up, which is going to happen no matter what the taxes are. they are bitter. it's our money. i work for it. it's benefited me. that's all i can say. it's more freedom for the american worker. host: patrick is calling from florida on the democratic line. what do you think? strictly for the mega corporations who turned , my greatest concern is we are going to have another recession. it's going to be a depression.

with what donald trump is doing on trade policy, get ready to get your head handed to you. get ready to get your head handed to you. i'm 79 years old. i've seen it again and again and again.

this causes higher debt.

scramblee legislators and try to make up for it by , that money from the poor is typical republican ploy and people keep falling for it. i hope he doesn't get sick. any insurance that he is buying out here on his own and thinking that it's good because it's cheap, he's going to find out that doesn't cover the things that he needs. i feel for him. . am a beneficiary i am on medicare. insurance,'t have three months up,

with i was diagnosed breast cancer. the aca saved my life. i have nothing bad to say about it. there may have been some problems, not one republican it wanted to help fix those problems. with breast cancer. now, they are trying to destroy it. people are going to be worse off for it. i thank you for letting me speak. the: politico reports that tax law has hit churches as part of the implementation. republicans have imposed a new tax on churches, synagogues, and other nonprofits. tens ofld cost groups thousands of dollars. the rewrite requires churches, historically tax-exempt organizations to pay

21% tax on benefits they pay employees. they may have to start filing returns and pay taxes for the first time. it will be a significant financial and administrative burden. caller: amen to the lady from florida. this tax cut was the biggest $2 trillion more into the debt. these deficit hawks had a give away with the help of donald trump.

he will be well taken care of. all of the poor and middle class , we are the ones who are going to pay for it. everybody on the upper tier, a permanent tax cut. the rest of us are going to pay for it. needinghy the we are these programs, social security, all of these poor trump voters are going to regret they ever voted for this man. host: most americans haven't filed their returns yet under this new law. the full impact of it hasn't been felt yet. do you think there is a possibility that people can see a benefit from this? happened,at i think

they set it up so that people , after that, that's when they are going to start seeing that this doesn't benefit them at all. they gave people a little from think years and , they always say it's going to help the middle class. harley davidson is leaving town. he cannot bring back jobs that are already gone. that time we get a tax cut goes to the higher level, we wind up paying for it. they will need democrats to bail some sensibleut regulations in two save us from

being in a depression. host: reuters has a little bit more. the cbo predicts the tax cuts picture as they work to make these tax cuts permanent.

stan is on our independent line in florida. caller: i want to answer two questions. one lady called in a long time ago and said president trump doesn't take a salary. cut, he will tax make $14 million a year. a person called in, he said he thinks donald trump comes out and says something about the stock market and drops the stock market and then his buddies rebuy the stock. they are all daytraders. gotlady that does my lawn $1.68 more per week. $475 more a year just

driving. if you really want to save money, stay in the white house instead of going to his golf course every week where we have to pay for the secret service to drive around in golf carts. every time he gets on that plane, it costs money. he's flying down every other weekend. he's got people coming into his hotel, lobbyists every day. nobody knows who's coming in or going out. my cable bill went from $45 a month to $112. what do you think about the tax law? think he's doing a fantastic job.

the tax cuts were great for the people. theasn't really kicked in -- kicked in. i think people should get behind president trump because he's the greatest resident he's ever had. he doesn't control the stock market. he's doing a fantastic job. he's locking up all the child molesters. coming.m is in some other news, the president acknowledging the horrific shooting in maryland this week in annapolis. they are times rights about our fallen colleagues.

they have the names of the five people killed at the capital gazette. please support your local media. their work is vital. the stakes are high. let's take a look at the president talking about that event at the white house yesterday. >> i would like to address the shooting that took place yesterday at the capital gazette newsroom in maryland. nation andd our filled our hearts with grief. americanss like all should be free from the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job. victims,milies of the there are no words to express our sorrow for your loss.

horrible horrible about, horrible thing happened. supports,our internal the suffering is so great. people, so of the great. my government will not rest until we have done everything in our power to reduce violent crime and to protect innocent life. leave your ever side. wishes and best regrets. a horrible thing. host: the president tempered his usual hostility toward the media. he has labeled the news media the enemy of the people.

we continue our discussion about bill.x cut how has it affected you? will we see more impact in the future? republicans can call (202) 784-8001. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. independent voters can call (202) 748-8002. bill is calling from indiana. i think it's terrible that the republican party has 1981axes three times since and we went in the whole from less than a trillion dollars to $20 trillion. now we are going in the whole again. any time you can't pay your bills, you have to borrow money.

a tax cut is crazy. and they know it. andonly ones that i can see i read the wall street journal, the big boys got there tax cuts and they are buying back their stock. they are not creating new jobs. they're not doing that. they got the biggest deal of the tax cut. the next ones with the they just are senators and congressmen. they got a big tax cut. no wonder they're not saying anything about it. the democrats knew better. goingn't keep the country by going into debt all the time. host: david is on our independent line. what do you think? caller: thank you for washington

journal and c-span first of all. thank you for my -- taking my call. this is the biggest stimulus we've ever seen. andve got people calling in counting fax from 1991. the democrats increased the deficit. charge more tax so they can build bigger government. my son made nine dollars and $.50 an hour. he works a lot of overtime. week, heets 40 hours a gets $28 more in his weekly pay. that's real money. he was able to get 4000 more dollars in his tax refund. host: the president has been

touting this law. they've been talking about the benefits. popularity ofnk the law is dwindling? skating ist your through polls. the polls have been false for years. nobody believes polls. the democratic party and the mainstream media are trying to dampen it. they don't want this country to succeed. the new york times reports that the president has a short list of people to replace anthony kennedy on the supreme court. he will reveal his ex on july 9. pick on to announce his july 9.

that will quickly kick off a confirmation battle. we are talking about the tax law six months in. what are your thoughts. republicans (202) 784-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. it independent voters (202) 748-8002. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call.

people have short memories. the taxce when they did cut, they did it temporary for people, but for big business it's permanent. they know they are going to have to pay the piper. you can't spend four dollars and taken to dollars. ronald reagan took deductions away from us. now they are talking about messing with medicare. into medicare for 35 years. it's not like they're giving me anything. i paid for that. talking aboute this. you are going to have to pay the piper sooner or later. people are -- say they are concerned about the

debt, they don't care about the debt. all they're doing is buying back stock. pete is on the republican line calling from florida. this, i amant to say a disabled veteran. i used to get a monthly increase with the cost of living. it wasn't much. stoppedme in and it completely. trump said he was elected he would help veterans. wife saids ago, my take a look at our bank account. we got a $60 increase in my disability check.

i am listening to people talk, they seem to know more. they know how much the president makes. they know how much somebody else makes. i get social security. make soly allowed to much. i would get some extra money. i hear some people say they lost social security. i don't understand where this comes from. they know more than anybody. says the person that cuts the grass only got $1.68.

that, ild give someone wouldn't complain about how much i make. from patricia is coming iowa on the independent line. caller: i think it's very unfair. i call it the corporate donor tax cut. they had to add loopholes to get through for the corporations. they cut none of that. already, what the corporations were paying was way less after all of theff loopholes they had. i think it was a good idea to lower the corporate rate, but loopholesd've cut the

to make up for that. that's what i didn't understand. instead they added loopholes. i am retired. because of the and that they have accrued, my medicare is going to run out in eight years. three shorter than it would have. it also over stimulated the economy. we are having to raise interest rates, which affects not only debt, butal that, -- credit cards and other things. i just think it was a bad tax plan. ifwould have been better they had done something bipartisan. the wall street journal reports that the auto import tariffs could drive up car prices.

general motors warned the trump administration the tariffs on vehicle imports would hurt its competitiveness and cost jobs. the comments submitted to the commerce department, they said its costs would raise and lead to higher prices for consumers. we are talking it to you, six months into the tax cut bill. are you feeling it? are you in favor of it.

republicans (202) 784-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independent voters (202) 748-8002. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a democrat and i have been for 40 years. it's hard to listen to this misinformation and people who take bits and pieces and put it together and call that truth. era, he's the one that ran it up to 19. i don't understand where these people get their information. maybe it's from the media. something has to give. caroline, what do you think about the tax law at the six-month point?

caller: the ladies it just called about the misinformation, we are misinformed. thati am saying is people did not feel the tax cut may not have been paying very much anyway. i don't send as much to washington as i used to. i used to send a thousand dollars more each month. i see a tax cut. children, whenee january or february comes around, they are going to ca $6,000 -- they are going to see a $6,000 tax cut. also, it is helping people in business. it's going to be helping children and businesses. this will help a lot of people to get jobs.

times reportsyork the nsa has deleted cell phone data on millions of people. they have purged millions of records while phone calls they gathered from american telecommunications companies since 2015.

and he is calling from seminole floor. -- seminole, florida. caller: i may have gotten a very small amount, i work for a pretty big company. i think the company made a lot more money than we are getting distributed to the employees. we don't see the bonuses and they are not going to be long-term. the people who really made out long-term are the businesses and the very wealthy people. we are going to have to pay higher taxes.

trump is much worse. forwardbill that he put with his cohorts, this is the paul ryan plan from a long time ago. they are trying to do trickle down economics, a discredited plan. if you read what economists will tell you about this trickle down economics, voodoo economics was what george bush senior called. up trillionsto run of dollars. that's two very rich people who are not going to share it with the rest of us. the middle class is going to suffer. it's going to be on our backs. host: tom is calling from honolulu. caller: thank you. i wanted to compliment you. astuteestions are very

and on point. thank you for doing a good job. thinkf your collars, i most of them are what younger people call woke. i would respectfully take issue with two or three callers who were very pro-trump. ,he guy that called before me he hit every point i would make. he sees the big picture and the details. that's what i call well-informed. the woman who spoke a couple of collars ago, she seemed very sincere, but she said we are not informed. she may mean that and really believe it, she has short-term tunnel the ocean -- tunnel

vision. maybe a few people she knows including herself, this is how it is affecting me personally. that must apply to everybody else. that's a fundamental mistake in thinking. from -- settlement he sounded like he was reading a memorized script from fox news. lawmakers, if their pitch was people would see more money in their pocket books, if people are seen more money, isn't that delivering what they promised? caller: yes and no. , ithat really happens consider myself a little person. if enough little people see

their take-home pay exceed the ,as prices across the board they are going to say this is great. i would say they are thinking short-term and only about themselves. host: dave is on the republican line. caller: good morning. they are talking about how they feel. i'm on disability. i am struggling to make ends meet. 47% of the population paid zero. how many got back more than they paid in? hear frustrated when i

people complain about not paying their fair share. the wealthy are paying for most of the programs. i don't envy the poor. -- the rich. he was trying to stimulate the economy and i believed it worked. host: have you felt the impact? caller: mine got a little bit worse, that's because of the race i got the year before from medicaid to medicare. i'm not able to get some of my prescriptions filled. lee is calling from mississippi. what do you think about the tax

cut law? caller: i don't hear anybody talking about the tax cuts are only temporary. for the top 1%, it's permanent. for the rest of us, it's going to revert act in a few years. -- act in a few years. once going to happen later. from oregon calling on the democratic line. caller: i am a first time caller, you guys are great. when you look at what this tax bill does, we are going to find it's basically abated switch. doubled the personal $12,000. to

they have eliminated the exemptions for children. a family that has a lot of children are able to claim a lot of exemptions. they will end up losing. then you have the child tax credit. i don't know what the cut off for that is. don'tincome people who pay or have anything withheld from their paychecks, they will whichly get tax refunds, is a creation of wealth. who is paying for that? thatnk it's ironic --ublicans

host: you're breaking up a little bit there. we're going to talk with the supreme court sport -- correspondent and we will talk later on, frank mora on central american stability and its impact on the united states. we will be right back. ♪ >> the c-span bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. in fairbanks, alaska, asking what is the most important issue in alaska? >> i was born and raised in fairbanks, alaska.

the most important issue to me societyalls that our seems to be building up. that for a nation built on immigrants and diversity, we are finding it hard to embrace our differences as a good thing. that is creating great divide in greater conflicts then we really need at the moment. ourhould be focusing problem-solving skills on something more important. not how we are different, because it is our differences that make us great. >> the most important issue to me is policy. in the united states, we have the misconception that we are falling behind compared to other

nations, but that is not the case. it is important for the public to understand and the federal government to work hard on making arctic policy important. >> i am a dentist in fairbanks. i have been here since 1976. i came up here from michigan, where i went to school. dental health is an important issue in the state, whether it is in the city, in the rural communities, especially in the , where there are not many care facilities. the dentists in this state have volunteered to we finished a mission of mercy. treated thousands of people, free of charge, or for two days. our second mission of mercy in fairbanks p the private sector bore the biggest burden.

a lot of the local treatment was donated by local dentists. great treatment out in the bush areas, where there is no private practice. i encourage everyone to remember their dental hygiene. >> i am a 32 year resident of fairbanks, alaska. the most important issue to me, currently, is our political divide. a moderated republican, and i worry about the future of our country. there is no room for moderation anymore. conflict, ands nothing really gets done in our political party. i would like to see changes, in that respect. worry about our worldwide

standing. her, we have been looked at as , a deliverer of good. that is changing, and not for the better. that is a concern for me. those are my issues. us july 21to join and 22nd, when we will feature our visit to alaska. watch alaska weekend on c-span, c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. " continues.journal bravin, wall street journal. who is on the short list? >> the president said there would be five people to look at. we have heard familiar names, starting with the people the president considered for the last vacancy with justice gorsuch.

that has to start with judge and anotherman federal circuit judge, one in total fear, the other in cincinnati. we also understand there is wase brett kavanaugh, who not on the first list that the conservative leadership provided . he is in the d.c. circuit court. there are other names we expect to be considered. we heard at least two women will be considered. those probably include amy coney , just confirmed recently. a former notre dame law professor. larson -- joan larson, a former state supreme court justice in michigan.

those are probably among the women. there is also talk of a judge from the six circuit in cincinnati, who is close to the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell. that certainly cannot hurt. those are about half a dozen names who we expect most of those people will be closely reviewed. probably some meeting the president today. host: are there any names that jump out in front of the other? is there anyone who is ahead of the pack? guest: that is hard to know. at this level, the people the president will meet with have been carefully vetted for their ideology, the consistency, their reliability. the most important thing for the conservative astonishment, which is focused on shaping the judiciary, is they will not have a surprise.

they want to know -- they are not predicting the outcome of every case, but they want people reachan believe will decisions and almost every matter. i am not expert a dark horse candidate. with this president, perhaps more than others, there is the pride factor. he likes suspense, but hangers. on the other hand, this is one area where he has not deviated from the playbook. surprised advisors the way he has in foreign policy and economic policy. in onwe want you to join our conversation. if you are a republican, we want you to call in at (202) 748-8001 . if you are a democrat, call in at (202) 748-8000. independents, call in at (202) 748-8002. we are talking with jess bravin of the "wall street journal." were you surprised at the

announcement that justice kennedy was retiring? guest: was i surprised -- yes and no. i did not know in advance. severalice was asked times over the past term, what are your plans come are you going to retire? i dotock answer was when decide, you will not be the first to know. i certainly was not the first to know. in fact, we know even his colleagues did not know for sure, that he did not tell them until after the court rose for the summer break. they have their private meeting after the session, as they always do. that is what he told them. he had not informed them in advance. we understand. partly, it is that one weight to prevent the leak, i guess, but it is also for the same reason people do not like to be lame ducks. if you know someone will be leaving, you kind of look at them a little differently. that may be a reason as well, that he wanted to be just one of the team until the time came.

i was surprised in that sense. on the other hand, in addition to the discussions and rumors and wishful thinking and despair full thinking among vers people in the country thinking about him, there were signs in what he was doing on the bench. my suspicion that this was it for justice kennedy came earlier this term when we saw the opinions, first in the cake shop case, whether it was a constitutional exception to a civil rights law for gay people, and secondly the gerrymandering case from wisconsin and maryland are these were areas that were very important to justice kennedy. finally, cases had risen where he could resolve significant constitutional questions. he is 81. reasonably, if you was on to say something, after pondering these issues for many years, this

would be the opportunity to do it, when he would be the deciding voice. choseh those cases, he not to psu left it for some other day. i thought what is he waiting for? it seemed to me it was almost i have done as much as i can, and i will leave these very difficult issues for another person. that is when it first began to think, ok, he is done. host: let's go to monica, calling in from texas, independent line. caller: how are you today? host: fine. what is your question? caller: i am concerned about judge kavanaugh. i understand he wrote some to -- since our president is under investigation, he seems to be leading -- leaning towards keeping our president in charge. is that true or not true? guest: i am not familiar of

dsdge kavanaugh writing op-e for newspapers. there are prior legal issues where he has had occasion to of a over the exposure sitting president to criminal indictment. his suggestion is that you could not do that or may not be able to do that. i do not know that is determinative over how he would rule in a specific case. but it is an area of where if he were nominated, he would be strongly questioned, certainly by democrats on the judiciary committee. thee kavanaugh did work on special counsel investigation of president clinton in the 1990's. one would think that cap star --

kent starr and people on his team were not too reluctant to president.a sitting in any event, kavanaugh was on a team to see if the president have broken the law, so he will be able to possibly say that is another factor to look at. host: jonathan from minneapolis, independent line. caller: good morning. first off, thank you for the intelligent conversation. thank you for the information you put out there every day. i want to say i am afraid for our country at this time, with coming.v. wade decision

it makes no sense to me. he needs to find a liberal, someone of african-american descent. blank showill be a myself so i would not get in trouble. for the people who did not vote in this election because they could not choose between trump and clinton, now you know what it is important. it is my rights, your rights, everyone's civil rights are down the toilet. god bless america, because once this economy crashes, everyone will get angry. good luck, god bless, and have a great day. host: let's go2net tosha from troy, and -- let's go to natasha from troy, michigan. caller: thank you to c-span. valuable service for people who choose to avail

themselves of information, unbiased. as a republican, i am disappointed in the chaos being called in our country. number one, what offended me greatly was the actions of mitch mcconnell in holding up a rightful presidential nomination to the screen court -- supreme court. i wish there could be some sort of legislation that could be passed so that, in the event, that there is a vote of vacancy that occurs, it must be filled within a, say, six months period . it was a gross miscarriage of justice of what happened to president obama not being able to select someone for his party. now, we have this chaos created. it seems to me a republican frankly, ias just --

have no words that express my feeling. there are words, but some of them i guess i cannot say on tv. a real if trump were president, that cared for the country, he would appoint merrick garland, a person that was highly qualified. and he would show the country that he is not so biased for his own party but he would be looking out for the rest of the country. really put a salve of quietude -- my own word -- so people do not get so worked up. i am 75-years-old. i have never seen my country in

such disarray. host: is there anything the democrats can do to stop the president's supreme court pick? guest: they can deploy their thoughts and prayers. but as the prior caller noted, due torent situation is elections where republicans control the senate and the white house, the two arms of government responsible for making the decisions. unless they can sway a couple of republicans that it is not appropriate to confirm a particular nominee unless they can hold the other, their entire caucus of 48 votes in the senate, it seems very little they can do. this as any to frame election issue to try to get their base more aware of this particular function that the president and senate have, but i

do not think so. host: friday, supreme court chief justice john roberts spoke about the retirement of justice kennedy. [video clip] >> you feel a sense of loss. i assure we will feel a sense of loss as a going to the next term. he was an extra ordinary man, and extraordinary jurist. he was deeply committed to civil discourse and collegiality. he taught that by example. very widely read, very thoughtful. one moment, he was talking about socrates and plato, and the next moment, talking about his time as a teenager working the oil rigs in the gulf of mexico. for a wonderful role model public service. and very committed. you know if he goes off, he would be teaching or giving speeches or other types of engagement. civiceen on improving

engagement, making sure people andrstood their heritage were fully committed to government. he certainly was someone who thought that without that kind of civic engagement that the american experiment would be imperiled. --t: is justice kennedy's does justice kennedy's retirement change the ideological balance on the supreme court at all? guest: it is almost certain to do that. justice kennedy, in a way that is different from other conservatives on the court, does not come up in the modern conservative movement, where you have very disciplined organizations looking to grim candidates -- groom candidates for judgeships. a process that, to one degree or another, produced the chief justice himself, john roberts, justice alito, certainly just as

arsuch -- justice gorsuch, product of the conservative legal pipeline to the high court. justice kennedy came from a different era. he, as a boy, new one very famous california republican governor, warren. he knew governor ronald reagan more then a decade later. he was reagan's personal attorney p it on the supreme court, we have seen justice kennedy reach conclusions on cases that -- he is a conservative man by nature. that is his background, his temperament. on some issues, he went his own way as a maverick and infuriated the leaders of the conservative movement today on issues like gay rights and sometimes things like capital punishment. in mourning -- the reason

liberals are in mourning is they knew that sometimes he would be with their argument. steve from michigan, calling on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for having me. i want to say as a republican that i think president donald j trump should wait until after the summit with bladder put in before he should name his nominee. host: we have heard from the president, saying he will announce his supreme court list on july 9. thean has a list of all candidates for president is considering on our website. see previous supreme court programs on

c-span.org/supremecourt. what was kennedy's affect on cases and would they be decided artsdifferent way with an conservative? guest: that is a great question. for liberals, moderates, independents, for people who want to see someone who may vary line,he conservative justice kennedy really returned to the fold. he was a solid vote for the right wing of the court. not join the liberal side ofany 5-4 decision consequence. this year, you saw a very conservative justice kennedy. it was made incredibly clear during the last week, where justice kennedy joined the other

four conservatives on issues ,nvolving voting rights abortion rights, the president's travel ban. even on a case involving searches and seizures, where the chief justice wrote an opinion paring back the police power to throughone's location cell phone towers, justice nt side.was on the disse if you will miss justice kennedy, it probably will not be because of this term. host: let's go to akron, ohio, calling on the independent line. caller: god bless everyone. i would like a comment on a response on what i say. coryors elizabeth warren, booker, and others say no person under a criminal investigation

should be able to nominate a supreme court judge. it is good to remember supreme court justices, too, can be impeached. the five republican justices are judicial murders who have -- murderers who have turned down -- hunter,such is a dove something that would disqualify him from judging others in 19th century britain. a monsantoomas was attorney. he is on the court because jerry little died in a mysterious plane crash. had astice kennedy's son questionable relationship with trump. he worked with georgia bank -- deutsche bank for 10 years. trump could not get american loans because of his defaults.

we're the only country in the world that allows five men, ponds of the rich, to -- pawns of the rich, to erase the will of the vast majority of americans. it is time to elect justices and limit them to 9 or 18 year terms. well, there is a lot there. the caller obviously unhappy with the conservative majority on the court. a viewer in general should think about the fact that we are not talking about robots on the supreme court. know what i am talking about. you have covered it for many years. if hunting is a disqualification on that court, justice elena kagan would not be there. she did not hunt before she was on the super court, but she became close with estes scalia -- justice scalia and became a

good shot. she's a member of the liberal wing. i do not know about the case the caller mentioned involving justice alito, but there was one case where he did not realize until after the vote that he had -- he owned shares in the disney company before the court. had he not voted on the case, disney would have won. he voted against their interests. it was not of benefit to them. i do not know that we are looking at personal corruption on that court. i have not seen it, if that is what callers are worried about. or conflicts the way we sometimes see them with elected officials. a final thought -- the caller said justices of the supreme court should be elected. that is something many people who watch the judiciary carefully find somewhat

problematic, because if you can campaign for a office -- an office, you need to have money to do it. elections involving judges raise a whole series of questions that we have to think about carefully. three justices on the california supreme court lost their seats, principally because of their careful review and -- in overturning the death sentence. if your concern is capital punishment, and you think that should be limited, it is unlikely that popular election of judges will lead to that result. host: from north carolina, calling in on the independent line, bobby. good morning. caller: i have a question and a comment. i think i heard yesterday that donald trump and his sons and daughters spoke to justice kennedy and told him that it

would be good for him to go ahead and retire now and give him an opportunity to put someone else in for justice. is that true? guest: i do not know exactly what they said. we certainly know that many republicans were not shy about helping justice kennedy would retire, precisely for this reason. this sort of thing has happened before, in 1955. president johnson prevailed upon justice goldberg, who had just been appointed to the court three years earlier, prevailed upon him to step aside so he could appoint his own personal friend and lawyer to the supreme court. justice goldberg did as requested -- resigned from the supreme court after only three years, became u.n. ambassador, and basically vanished from the national scene after that. two years later, president justice tomailed on

clark to step aside, so he could ramsey asark's son attorney general. he said it would look bad if i appointed the son of a supreme court justice of become attorney general. thurgood marshall was appointed to that vacancy on the supreme court. presidents have historically their choices. one virtue of lifetime tenure is the justices do not have to pay attention unless they want to. host: margaret is calling in on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i am calling because here on eastern long island, you're not being broadcast through cable television -- cablevision. what i call and report it, they say it is your transmission, which i do not believe, because i can watch it streaming, but i

cannot watch it through the tv. just so you know. host: we always appreciate people watching is however you can. can we expect any more retirements in office before the next term? guest: no. justices, even if they were inclined to retire, they tend more than one vacancy at a time. we certainly do not expect on. -- one. but we know to expect the unexpected. host: we would like to thank jess bravin for joining us this morning. guest: always great to see you. host: coming up, frank mora will be here to talk with us about central america and u.s. immigration policy. later on our spotlight on magazine series, we will look at the construction industry with andrew soergel from u.s. news & world report. ♪

>> tonight, former first lady lady michelle obama talks about her upcoming memoir "the coming," reflecting on her time and life in the white house. she is joined by the librarian of congress at the american -- >> people think i am a unicorn. like i do not exist, like people like me do not exist. i know there are so many people in this country, in this world, who feel like they do not exist, because their stories are not told. or they think their stories are not worthy of being told. in this country, we have gotten to the point where we feel there are only a handful of legitimate stories that make you a true american. so if you do not fall into that narrow line, it is like you do not belong.

but we all belong. i think my book is -- it is the ordinariness of an extraordinary story. >> watch tonight at 7:45 p.m. eastern on c-span 2's booktv. columnist -- >> we send such confusing messages to young people. young women -- i do not envy them. this was a story i put in the book about a number of women athletes who have posed topless "sportstopless for illustrated." one i quoted said i am proud of my body and i want to help young woman who may have body image

issues. crock.ling is that is a women should be dignified. they should remember that when they disrobe, it is hard for people to take you seriously. a man looking at a picture of a topless woman is not going to say "oh, look at that fantastic athlete. isn't it wonderful that she does not have problems with body image?" no. he's going to think about sex. he is not going to think about respectfully either. if women want to be respected, they have to behave in a way that will elicit that. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on "q&a." the c-span buses traveling across the country on our 50

capitals tour. the bus stop in fairbanks, alaska, asking folks what is the most important issue in alaska? >> i was born and raised in fairbanks, alaska. i believe the most important issue to me is the walls that our society seems to be building up. for a nation built on immigrants and diversity, we are finding it hard to embrace our differences as a good thing. divide creating great and greater conflicts when we really -- than we really need at the moment. we should be focusing our problem-solving skills on something more important. not how we are different, because it is our differences that make us great. >> the most important issue to

me is arctic policy. particularly in the united states, we have the misconception among a lot of the public that we are falling behind in arctic policy compared to other arctic nations, but that is not the case. it is important for the public to understand and the federal government to actually work harder on making arctic policy a bigger issue than it is currently perceived. >> i am a dentist in fairbanks. i have been here since 1976. i came up here from michigan, where i went to school. university of michigan. dental health is, of course, a very important issue in the state, whether it is in the city, in the rural communities, especially in the bush, where there is no access to many care facilities. the dentists in this state have volunteered. we just finished a mission of mercy. treated thousands of people, free of charge, for two days.

i think it was our second mission of mercy in fairbanks. the private sector bore the biggest burden. a lot of the treatment here was donated by local dentists. of course, the government facilities, public health, offers great treatment out in the bush areas, where there is no private practice. anyway, i encourage everybody to remember their dental hygiene. >> i am a 32 year resident of fairbanks, alaska. the most important issue to me, currently, is our political divide. i was raised a moderate republican, and i worry about the future of our country. because it just seems like there is no room for moderation anymore. what we have is conflict, and nothing really gets done in our

political parties. i would like to see changes, in that respect. i also worry about our worldwide standing. historically, we have been looked at as problem solvers, and the deliverer of good. and i think that is changing, and not for the better. that is a big concern for me. those are my issues. >> be sure to join us july 21 and 22nd, when we will feature our visit to alaska. watch alaska weekend on c-span, c-span.org, or listen on the c-span radio app. "washington journal" continues. host: florida international university's frank mora will be with us later to talk about central america and u.s.

immigration policy. for now, we will open up the lines so you can talk to us about any public policy you feel like talking about this morning at the phone lines are now open. for republicans at (202) 748-8001. democrats at (202) 748-8000. independents at (202) 748-8002. you can always reach us online @cspanwj on twitter. on facebook, it is facebook.com/cspan. if you have a public policy want give us aout, please call right now. the topers" interviewed the -- committee. with issues was where is the president taking foreign policy?

if you want to talk about any policy going on right now, make sure you call us on the lines. we have bill calling in from illinois, republican line. caller: good morning. let me just mute. just mute my tv. calling, basically come about the supreme court nomination. the last guest referred to the who,e -- conservatives basically, in a political sense, were -- where most conservatives are interested in this supreme court nomination are basically people who are interested in

strict construction of the constitution. int upsets "conservatives" the nomination process is the certaint they want other social issues decided their way. but instead, they would like people to look to the constitution for a determination of how these issues should be decided. or, if it is not in the constitution, it should be referred for a political process to the states, in terms of always using roe v. wade, people have been upset because we still, after many years after roe v. wade, this issue has not

been resolved. it would have been preferable to turn it to the states for a political decision. thank you. host: thank you. steve calling in on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i appreciate talking to you guys. i just wanted to bring up all the different calls we hear from day-to-day. i think the underlying fact is there is a philosophical difference in people. there are people who think government is the answer to everything, and they hate the governmentwant small and care about god and country. that is where you see the big divide amongst everybody. agree for aemocrats big government and all that goes with that. and republicans tend to have a

philosophy that government should be small, and people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and that god is important in their life. that is all i have to say. thank you for taking my call. host: thank you. ron from albuquerque, calling on the democrat line. caller: good morning. i think, 50 years ago -- i am old enough to remember if the years ago, when bobby kennedy was assassinated. the thing he said the night after he won the california primary was we cannot allow us to be divided by races. every soul counts, and no soul counts more than anyone else's. we stand united, together. i will never forget that. it is more important today than it was then. host: thank you.

eileen calling in on the independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. publicned the lines to policy. this has always been my position -- if you were a veteran, you -- ifnot receive veterans you're are not a veteran, you could not receive veterans benefits. if you did not pay into medicare, you would not be able to draw from medicare. i ink no one should try from a system that they have not contributed or paid into. this is why we are adding to this debt we have had. thank you for taking my call. calling from the republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: how are you doing? caller: i am doing better.

i was put in jail or six months. it destroyed my life, my credit, but it is still -- i am still off the mystic about the united states. the reason i brought it up is a lie. of a woman said i did things to her that i did not do. you brought up the tax cuts. i was so ecstatic about the tax cuts. what donald j. trump has done -- he has given the american people the opportunity to become successful. business first president and america is the number one corporation, because that is what the united states of america are -- a corporation. why isn't it in the best interest of the american people to have some sort of small business corporation represent their personage? an americantruly be here, each and every citizen needs to have some sort of business entity that they own and operate in order to truly

of what theefits next states has to offer to the world. we are in a global economy. it is in their best interest to position themselves globally. thank you. keep up the good work. and tell brian lamb i said hi. host: ok. lynn from illinois calling on the republican line. caller: good morning. it is so nice to talk to jesse. this is my first time. for immigration, what people are do not do -- what a lot of republicans realize, and i hope other democrats do, this is an invasion happening in our country, just like what is happening in europe. you have people who act as asugh -- americans who act though we are supposed to

embrace invasions. these people do not know history. they will repeat these mistakes. that is my call. host: thank you. i want to remind viewers that topsmaker" interviewed the democrat on the on services committee. where the top issues that you can see tomorrow is where is donald trump taking foreign policy? [video clip] >> the president is cozying up to kim jong-un, vladimir putin, while pushing away traditional allies in europe. tot is most concerning thing me -- are we moving away from the notion that the united states believes in economic and political freedom and towards a strawman approach to government -- strongman approach to government? promote democracy and economic freedom. this presidency seems to be moving away from that. havingeeting with putin,

a conversation -- fine. it is just a larger trend of where he is taking our foreign policy that is troubling. >> the nato summit is coming up. could you give us a little perspective on how you see relations with nato allies at the moment? what your expectations are for the summit? and does the administration deserve any credit for pressuring allies to increase defense spending? beene administration has pressuring allies to increase defense spending for a long time with mixed results. that is always part of it. the concern is that this president has basically said, at different times, that he wants to move away from nato and move away from european alliances. he has a lot of people around him, most notably secretary totis, who wants to try

reinforce though, but it is a tug-of-war. the first speech he gave come up that he wanted to reassert every nato countries should defend another. he did not say it. a week later, he kind of mumbled it. i do not think the way the president is going about this will ultimately strengthen the alliance. i am really worried that he does not even want the alliance to continue. make sure you join us for "newsmakers" sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern time, where we talked to representative adam smith. alabama, democratic line, jesse. what is your question? caller: i just have a comment. what i want to say is this country has been sold out to russia. the reason i say that is because has not showed his

taxes. he will not go to mar-a-lago, because putin did not -- told him not to go. he has sold this country out. he reason i say that is when took money to build that wall, he will take all of that money from the treasury and put it in his account, the show he is rich like he says he is. he is broke. he does not have any money. bailey from alexandria, virginia, calling on the independent line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine. how are you? caller: i am doing good. my concern is towards the immigration process at the border with the u.s. and mexico. i strongly believe mexico should pay some price is over here. i hope the u.s. congress can hold mexico a cannibal by allowing them for

illegal immigrants to cross their border. i think democrats are making a big mistake. if the democratic party is not careful -- i saw how they handled this immigration issue. they will pay a big price this coming november. host: thank you. donald calling from burke, virginia. caller: good morning. i was thinking yesterday how we could win the united states drug war and how to do it. we -- i contacted the president and senator warner about the politics. what you think? host: donald, your concern with

the drug war, do you see a lot of issues there in burke, virginia? caller: yes. we have a problem here. they are legalizing marijuana in canada. it is getting out of hand. and also here in virginia, out in washington. it is a possibility we could have a field report. they destroy drugs in california by fire and they bury it. it is just a possibility. thank you. res in columbia, maryland. caller: good morning. i wanted to mention one thing. "invasion" word when it came to immigration. it drives me insane that the

people in this country use that word for this issue without fact. the majority of the folks that -- here, crossing the border actually, the numbers have gone down year-to-year. the amount of folks that actually come here to this country and -- i do not want to say illegal. that is not the right word. they are not here with proper paperwork. are people who have visas and overextend them. they are people we said over here, come study or work. and because of our system, which is really a bad system, they stay longer than they are supposed to be. it is not an invasion if you invite someone here. it drives me insane where -- i come from an immigrant family in a country where i saw my family

come to this country with nothing. and today, they have -- my parents have two sons who not only have great jobs and businesses and were able to move forward in a couple decades -- the same country is turning away folks just because they want to come here. crime in these communities are less. they are excellent putting more money into a system -- it drives me insane that people do not want to look at the numbers. the system is broken. i get it here we need to fix it. i also believe the borders need to be secure to about things coming in. -- to bad things coming in. host: the president announced he would make his supreme court pick july ninth. c-span has profiles of all of

the 25 people on his list that you can find on our website, c-span.org. you can also check out previous oral arguments for the supreme court and other supreme court programming at c-span.org /supremecourt. columbus, north carolina, calling on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: i am fine. make a i want to comment. i am independent. i vote according to whoever i feel is the right person. i do believe that the president is trying to better this country. nobody is giving him a chance. this is where i am thinking, because i am independent, the democrats the way behave that if i had to become a member of a party, i would definitely lean being republican, even though i am not too impressed by them either.

host: thank you. john calling from florida, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling for several reasons. i see things going wrong with america, no one is trying to fix them. first of all, we need to recognize everybody as human beings. it is the same for one as it is for all. we need to address that issue p that is preventing -- preventing us. we need to recognize that fact. we have too many people that want to line up in little boxes and run things the way they always were. it is a new era. we need to move on. until we do that, we have problems. until we have respect that we all like, nothing is going to

happen. if we can move forward as one body, i would say that we need to address our financial situation before anything else. that is really what is hanging us out. spendingnion, we are too much on our government and war machines that are doing little for us in reality. they say they are protecting us, but we will have these phony dictators running around the world, doing deals with the united states. and the president is pretty much useless. i have a lot to say, but not enough time. thank you, sir. host: thank you. we go to cynthia from connecticut, calling in on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to thank you for giving us, we, the people, for giving us a forum to speak.

presidentthank the for putting himself out there. i believe he is a true patriot. i believe he wants to help the people of this country. i want to address this up in court. i am so happy with what i think? i think we are having a reboot right now. i think we are going back to the day that our forefathers set up. this great country with this great living document, our constitution, and we will be living by the constitution again by rebooting our supreme court. i am thrilled. have before you go, you any -- do you have any particular pick you want the president to choose? caller: i really do not. as much of a conservative i am, i really believe in our constitution. i am a little concerned about roe v. wade. i do not know that it will be

revisited, but i think i would like a woman, because i think she would be a little more sensitive to that. having said that, we need to be guided by the constitution and not by a personal feeling. that is what i want. i want a constitutionalist. host: thank you. next, we continue our spotlight on magazine series with a look at the construction industry with an article by andrew soergel of u.s. news & world report. we will be right back. ♪ >> watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. include today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war, the constitution, and

the session, and at 8:00 p.m. on lectures in history, popular culture during the 1840's. sunday at four :00 p.m., salute to the canadian army, and at 8:00 p.m., white house art. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. on c-span this week at 8:00 p.m. eastern in primetime, tonight from the atlantic's conference on the american idea. >> if you look at the rhetoric, viewed as the are minority controlling the media, silicon valley, hall street -- wall street, they love minorities. they love immigrants. they want to help the poor in africa, but they do not care about the real americans. >> tuesday, the weekly standard host a conversation on the millennial generation. >> what is happening really is bad in high schools and

universities, people not reading certain books because they are triggered. but people making these revisions are not the millennials, they are the baby boomers. >> wednesday, oldman sachs chair and ceo lloyd blank fine. >> you could go through that currency where they say this is what it is worth because the government says it is, why couldn't you have a consensus currency? me, i don't do it. goldman sachsin, has no bitcoin, but if it does work out, i can give you the historical path light as it happens. >> thursday, racism in america. >> black fears of white people are totally justified. white fears of black people are not. friday, actor and activist kirk cameron, attorney general jeff sessions, and senator cory gardner speaking at this year's western conservative summit in colorado. thee are hammering

criminals in violent groups, especially ms 13, that vicious gang. it is one of the most violent and inhumane groups in the world. kill, rtto, get this, ape, and control. online, on c-span, and on the free c-span radio app. host: we continue our spotlight on magazines series with a look on the staterticle of the construction industry. joining us is the author of that piece, andrew soergel. what made you decide to concentrate on the construction industry right now? guest: business is booming right now. i think this is an industry worth looking at. by the end of april, the wage gains that construction workers have seen outpace any other industry in the economy, more than tack, finance, business -- ch, finance, business, and

it is driven in part by there is a general sorted -- shortage of workers. they are having a hard time finding people to fill those open jobs. we can get into the nitty-gritty of what that generally means, but the key take away here, there is a complaint of a shortage of workers. it is creating unique opportunities, but also some challenges for those in the industry. if you are a construction worker, it is a great time to be doing what you are doing. a lot of people are willing to shell out for your services right now. host: but why you say the industry is ailing? guest: the industry certainly could be further along than it is right now. theink we are seeing effects -- we saw for several years the effects of the housing collapse, the great recession, builders were a little reluctant to get back into the game. this isn't always the case, but the construction industry tends to trend with the economy. we are in the midst of the second longest economic recovery

that we have ever had. there is a lot of demand for , andng, office buildings the number of construction workers that are available to build these new facilities simply has not kept up with demand. host: we want you to join the conversation. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want you to call in at (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. and if you actually work in construction, we want to hear from you. we want you to call in at (202) 748-8002. now, how has the industry it depends onst: where you are in the industry. there are worst-case scenarios, like an example of a senior , wherety in arizona construction of that facility was ultimately scrapped in part because there were not enough workers and in part there were reports that hire construction prices related to steel tariffs

were making it a little difficult to get the money to make this facility, get it off the ground. use the other companies who -- you see other companies, exxon mobil, they have had to retool during the process of building what would be the largest gasoline plant in the world in texas, and they are having a hard time finding workers to complete their jobs. we have had reports coming out that they have had to retool some of the processes that they aren't lamenting to get this off the ground -- they are implementing to get this off the ground. countries addition to the to they -- adjacent industry, home depot has pledged money to skills training programs to build this over the long term and get folks trained into this. these really are skilled jobs. it is not the kind of thing you are i could walk in off the street and fill these positions. skills training is important and there is a lot of investment in that. host: let's go to joe from missouri, who is in retired

construction. what is your question? caller: good morning, andrew. i am glad you are on the subject, because i was a union sheet metal worker for 41 years in chicago. and when the depression hit , we weren cook county out of work for months and months. i served a four-year apprenticeship. these are skilled jobs. when you are a journey man -- for fours you train years -- it took me another 15, 18 years to get confident in what i was doing. when i was 60, [inaudible] working, iyou are would move back to chicago but i do not have a home there. it is booming. i did globe pipe, metal roof, ironwork application, but it

takes a long time to learn that stuff. it takes a lifetime. i am glad you are touching on this subject. thank you. guest: absolutely. you touch on a number of good points. theink this is -- one of difficulties with this industry is because it is, in a sense, tied to the regional economy and the national economy, when things are going really well, there is a huge demand. when there is not, people really hurt. i am excited to be writing about this industry. the economy is doing well right now and there is a lot of demand, but it is certainly something to keep in mind, it might not always like this and it takes quite a lot of training to get where you need to be in the industry. kathleen from los angeles, california. good morning. caller: good morning. this is really a good topic, because i have a radio show in los angeles and i had a los angeles building inspector, a whistleblower, and a building designer on my show. that 80%,told me

during this construction boom in los angeles, 80% of the workers are illegal workers, illegal aliens. you have not touched on that yet. in los angeles, anyway. that is the main issue why you do not see american workers doing construction work. they are being undercut by illegal aliens, and i am also told that the work of illegal aliens, the work product is not as good. i think this is an important subject you should touch on and when we talk about illegal aliens, we don't talk about its impact on american workers. we never discuss it. we always discuss the impact on illegal aliens. the impact onssed american workers. and i wonder why that is -- if you studied this issue you should know this, right? you should be discussing it. guest: i am glad we are on this

topic. you raised a couple of good points here. it is worth taking a step back and looking at the national association of home builders, which estimates roughly 30% of the construction industry is immigrants, legal or otherwise in states like california, texas, that percentage is up around 40%. certainly when you get into certain communities, it will get higher. on --rces have focused certainly there is some demand to bring more workers in. this is one avenue, but i do have to stress that again, with the folks i am talking to, opening a floodgate and bringing in an unbelievable number of workers is not the strategy. it is one option that people have floated, again, the skills training programs are another. -- i understand the

point about the pay undercutting and i think there are certain examples in this industry and others where that has been the case, but you are seeing american construction worker wages rise at a than any faster rate other, so i am not sure these workers are coming in and undercutting workers. in many cases, they are filling openings. --t: let's leader read a little in your article. since 2018, employers have been looking to fill an average of 200,000 12 --s 200,500 -- 225,000 construction each month, according to the bureau of labor statistics. that average is eclipsed in only one you're going back to 2000, when the bls first began tracking the data and that your was 2007. . these include higher-level jobs as well?

certainly there are openings for positions on cruise doing this physical labor, but it is certainly not all physical labor now. some companies have even shifted to more technical, more automation focused. there is even a trend that has been going on for several years that has picked up steam, modular construction. it is building parts of facilities on assembly lines and transporting them. it is great if there is a clement weather. in the winter, you can sustain this industry, but there are a wide range of jobs open. host: billy from michigan, who works in construction. good morning. caller: [inaudible] host: billy, are you there? caller: yes. [inaudible] can you -- host: can you turn your television for us -- down for us please? caller: i have it. billy, so wee lost

will go to rob in san antonio, texas. you are also in construction. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and especially this subject. i have been in the construction industry for 30 years, and i have seen the slow decline in our workforce that entire time. it has been a threefold process. started in the late 1980's driving all of the high school kids and the younger generation towards the tech industry. we took training programs out of s, we startedol grading construction as a profession. started to lower the wages. we started to drive down costs. we did this as the lady from

, lettinga alluded to in a lot of illegal labor which drove down costs, which drove out anybody who would want to get into construction. is that wehought looking for a way ,o get people into construction and now we have been talking about this since the late 1990's. now this is ground zero, and i see no hope for getting more people into construction. thank you. host: -- guest: i would like to offer a bit of hope. i think points one and three are linked, and we certainly have seen a lot of stigma develop with construction, with trades jobs in general. yes, whether it is budget cuts or senior refocusing -- or

refocusing, we have seen some high schools remove some shop opportunities that might expose kids to a career in construction. at the same time, we are seeing a renewed focus on apprenticeships, pre-apprenticeships, really reaching out to kids and trying to show them that this is a thriving industry right now, and you can make a very comfortable living here. you really can. i think the school point is a good one. very interesting program at the milton hershey school in pennsylvania. i spoke with some folks there, this is a school that specifically caters to the lower income backgrounds. some of the students live there and they have several different avenues in trades and tech. they have a journalism have, -- cap, and construction is one of these paths they can send kids

down. home inds will build a a community during their junior and senior year, work with senior construction officials and staff. they completed their 52nd home in the community. their funding mechanism is a little different, but the milton hershey school is named for the chocolatier milton hershey and they get some of their funding for the hershey -- from the hershey estate. but this is an example of a high school going out there and creating an innovative program and getting students hands-on and interested in this. there are certainly many other examples of this across the country. i hope that provides a little , therehope and optimism does seem to be an interest in getting kids into this. host: you touched on the salaries and the age of the construction industry in your article. the wages of production and non-supervised construction employees climbed 3.6% between may 2017 and may 2018.

those in the construction industry are, on average, slightly older than workers in the rest of the economy, with a median age of the two point x -- 42.6 years old. only 1.8% of the industry's workers are between steve and 19 years old, while fewer than 9.4% are younger than 25. how do we reverse that trend? should that trend be reversed? when you are seeing such a small percentage of in many cases, what is a fairly physically demanding profession filled by young workers, i think that is worth examining and looking at. i think some of the skills training programs, these apprenticeships are in avenue enue theren av where you can jump in and make a difference. because this is a physical industry, folks are going to age out of the workforce.

if we do not address this problem now, this problem will be exacerbated in the years to come. host: mary from seattle, washington. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to tell you about my dad and some of the things he learned about the economy that i think we need to understand today. y dad was a welder, pipe fisher, plumber. --worked on energy products projects all over the world. he organized during the great depression, and i think this is a very important thing for us to remember. his last project was the geysers in california, the first time ever thing, he worked on nuclear, pipelines, hydroelectric. he was a master welder and i do not think we understand the skill that goes into these jobs and we don't respect them enough . as a pipeline welder, you have to what they call test out every

day, and if you do not make that test in that morning, you gather up your stuff and you leave. you go back to wherever you came from. i am talking about union welders. there is a high amount of leasttability, or at they're used to be, and i really worry there isn't anymore. my dad taught inner-city kids in new york. it is very important not only that we teach and get people skills about this, but we also have to get people organized. i don't know how the unions should work in a new economy, but i do not think it is just construction that needs to be organized. i live in seattle, we have a lot of tech workers that work on contract, and it is not a workable way to run any economy. but what my dad taught me, and i am so grateful, having come up in the great depression, was

that capitalism can do a lot of good things, but it can't provide security. that is why you need your union. that is why you need your safety net. and people have to wake up to this again. nobody can really do it for workers except workers themselves. i hope they will start thinking about that again. the union points, i think, is an important one here. the 14% of the construction industry, which does not sound like a lot, but 14% is unionized. that is double the national average for all industries. i have spoken with folks who have been adamant about the unions getting out and playing a more active role in banging the drum, especially with young kids and helping solve some of this age disparity we are seeing. i think the point you made about the skill it takes to work a lot of these jobs is an important one. it is one that it seems we have turned a corner on the stigma

that somehow these are not skilled professions. you need quite a bit of training. i love writing about this industry. that does not mean i have the skills to go out and work in it. david from chicago, illinois. good morning, david. for thishank you topic. i would like to reference the caller from los angeles who talked about illegal aliens, and the last caller that talks about our role of the capitalist system. if we want to put our capitalist services back into the real economy, we have to control our labor market and make a hire americans first, president trump campaign promise. we can do that by passing e-verify, which was eliminated in these awful gop bills. we can repeal the hb2 increase, and also bring back rick and

davis. one of the travesties is that they brought in all of these illegal aliens to rebuild new orleans and set the people, descendents of enslaved africans to come back and rebuild their own economies and their own buildings and houses. of scamminga lot going on and we will not solve this until we passed e-verify, which will make sure that everybody working in this country, in our country is legal to work here. this has been undercutting wages all over these blue-collar service jobs, which have not kept up with inflation. i will -- i do not want to make this an immigration conversation. certainly one aspect, one potential solution to the fact that we do not have folks in right now. there is some kind of consensus that immigration reform would make sense. h2 b visas, and you have

mentioned in some instances with agriculture focused instructions, h2 a visas have been access and there is some support for reform on this is --ams, but when construction needs to be done in the u.s., it needs to be done in the u.s.. ofs is in some sense a type goods producing job, and with manufacturing it can much more easily be outsourced. i think there is an understanding that needs to be solved internally here, whether that is reforming the visa systems to make more sense, that is certainly something that has is onescussed, but that of several possible solutions and it does seem with the folks that i am talking to there is quite a bit of focus on young adults and even folks who are a little older providing training programs, that they might be able to switch careers into this if this is something that might make sense to them. host: we are talking with andrew

soergel, a senior reporter with who news & world report, wrote the article "where are all the builders? " david in california, you are an electrician. good morning. caller: good morning. i think there is a lot of excuses and finger-pointing that there is no work. work out here.f we are with the international guild of electrical workers and we are in demand of apprentices, electricians, and if someone wants to learn the trade and work, the hardest part for most people is to go out there and apply and look for the job. all they have to do is have an education and pass a drug screen test, and there is plenty of work for everybody if they want to go ahead and actually do work. guest: there certainly is, and i think that is a narrative that you are hearing across the

country. there are a lot of folks who are saying again, i think we get idea that you don't necessarily need a four-year degree to be successful in this economy. this is the kind of thing, there are apprenticeships and skills training programs where you can make a very comfortable living. i will tell you a story. one of my contacts has a client whose son came out of high school, went into a training/apprenticeship program, and the kid's 25 years old right now, a foreman, and is making $75,000 a year. that is not what i was making at that age. college education is absolutely right for some folks, and trade is absolutely right for some folks. i think there is a better understanding now, and a push to get a better understanding out there now that there is no one-size-fits-all to what makes a successful american. host: is there a congressional

solution to any of this? it is difficult. there have been talks about legislation, and it has more, but the state and local level. scott walker --, up at the state at the state and local level. that walker passed a bill limited the amount of apprentices to supervisors 1-1. so that means you would not have a bunch of supervisors supervising one apprentice. sense, it is a more complicated industry and manufacturing, because of the outsourcing and the technological advancement we have seen. instruction is a good producing job that frankly has not been as susceptible to the automation wiping out jobs as we have seen in other goods producing industries. there certainly has been more on the ground in states and local governments, congress does not seem to have picked this up yet as something we need to push

forward. maybe they will one day, but that has not been the discussion to this point. host: matthew in new jersey, good morning. caller: thank you, good morning, gentlemen. is 100% right. he said it twice that business is booming right now. unfortunately, we would not know it if we listened to the fake news media. booming and the economy are booming because president trump has reduced unnecessary,d unfriendly business regulations of the last administration, and most people -- most people in this country and everywhere want a job, a good economy, lower themselvessafety for and their families. this is common sense. this is why the state of california, run by mr. jerry brown and the democrats, are

losing people left and right. they are leaving that state because of high taxes and high crime. god bless america, gentlemen. america?ll, god bless i think there are some interesting points there. in the folks i have been talking with, certainly yes, unemployment is down, business is booming, there is no debating that. this is something that has been growing for several years now. i have not spoken to anyone directly who has said this tax bill and certain policy has pushed this forward. it seems to me more of a trend that has gone on. if that is the case for certain folks that have benefited, that is great. the talk i am hearing is that this has been a long time coming , that again, we are in the midst of the second longest economic recovery this country are at, -- has seen, we

a place for construction should and is booming. kevin from pittsburgh. you work in construction. good morning. kevin, are you there? caller: hello? host: we can hear you. good morning, what is your question? say -- i was wanting to good morning, how are you doing? host: could you turn the television down? it is making it hard for us to hear you. caller: young men and even older men, but [inaudible] let's go to natalie, in chandler, arizona. caller: hi, i just wanted to let you know that here they also have that program. i have been directing my son towards that vocation, and he was really, really good. i did notice while he was in

there, there is a behavior component unfortunately, because unfortunately, our young men are a little bit [inaudible] and some of that rowdiness, he did encounter some things while he was attempting to go into those. i just want to let you know it is a very vital program, and i am very proud of our men in this country. i'm very proud that everyone at this time is standing up and giving everyone, every creed and caller a chance to go into this. color, acreed and chance to go into this. i did see the rebuilding of katrina, i do see the boom that arizona is growing by leaps and bounds, and many states are. it is very encouraging to see, no matter who is in the white inse, no matter who is

forcing us or how we are talking, and i just wanted to say that i hope we get better. i think that we really are a bully society, and i hope we get better in the way we choose to treat each other and talk to each other on jobs and in relation to each other just period. much for allowing me to make my comment. the program is absolutely wonderful, and i was able to really redirect my son after we .ried in another vocation he is a big guy, he is very skilled with his hands, and that is all i wanted to say. i just want to say we choose not to be a bully society anymore, and thank you for letting me make a comment. retiredd in oregon, a construction worker. how are you? good morning.

i wanted to say ima member of the local 290 in oregon, southwest washington. i'm a licensed journeyman mymber, still have all documents. i have been gone out of the traits now for three years. i was able to leave and had enough time behind me the day i turned 56. the trades are absolutely the of what any young man that has any kind of skill set at all. to anr had to talk employer about what i am going to get paid to day. today. had -- paid i never had to knock on a door to get a dispatch to go to a contractor. we are absolutely the top drawer of the mechanical industry. our programs at a minimum our --e years -- our five years are five years, you come out of

a training center, which is accredited, and it will be the equivalent of an associates for one person, male or female. this is one trade where females and males are paid exactly the same, where a woman is not making $.70 on the dollar. , andis 100% for the sexes i really appreciate that. i worked with some really fine women on some really complex task, and they were absolutely up to task. i think that with 100% certainty if we would have vocational training in the high schools as a starting point, that would be the starting point for every young person in the country. however, that is not what goes on. thank you. host: andrew, how does the construction industry compete with college and the military for these high school mines? -- minds?

guest: that has been the million-dollar question for some time now, and there was a period they were not keeping up as well as they could have. i think you definitely saw during the great recession and certainly in the 1990's and 2000, there was an idea about let's go off to college, get a safe job, and what seems to be in all of that is in many parts of the country, this is a relatively safe job. there is quite a bit of demand here. i think now there is a much greater focus on getting these in all of that is in manyshop programs, and the callr mentioned really getting into the schools, which for a while those have been eroded. there now seems to be funding from the private and the public sector to expose kids to this at a younger age. ,ost: robert from garland texas, in the construction industry. caller: yes i am, thank you for taking my call. you give a lot of statistics,

and andrew, i do not know what that guy, where he lives, making $75,000 a year, probably up in the states where they are unionized. noe in texas, there is union. the union companies do not even bid jobs anymore because the open jobs can outbid them. i do not know anybody who makes that kind of money. it is very hard to get a job now because of the immigrants that come into the country, because i go out on the job and i might be the only white guy out there. there are maybe two or three. , maybe 30in the trade years ago. three -- $34 and hour. up with thekeep

rest of the economy, because i am making $40 an hour now. the company does not keep up with that. they know we are a society that wants to make money and all the guys, all the companies that do construction work and own the companies, they are the ones that make the money. it just has not kept up with it. i love being in the trade, but i am on the job and i go into a place where there are people i want to use the crib or next and get through -- crimper next and get through. i go back in, 30 minutes, where per at?crim i told you i needed it next. mey will undercut me to make

look bad, and the people in mexico, they do not even need to get over here and make applications. come on over, i got you a job. that is all i have to say. the statesliving in that unionized, maybe you can make $75,000 a year, but then you need to keep up with the economy there. in texas, it does not work that way. i used to ride to work in cars with guys, we would all get together, it is not like that anymore. unfortunately, we are just to spread out. spread out, but when you can get your guys all out there, it is easy. they can all pitch in on the gas and whatever. and from garland to fort worth -- do you how far away garland's is from ft. worth? it is about an hour and a half drive. how bad does that cut into my pay? pretty bad.

and look how much the gas has gone up. andrew, how much do construction salaries vary from state to state? there is a lot of variation in both what the salary is and what the job market look like. the top 10% of construction workers are bringing in $63,000. so this is a foreman, specifically for the folks on the site, about $63,000 annually , the top 10%. but you have a pretty large variation from community to community, state to state. the caller made some good points about what is happening in texas, and it might not be what is happening in the next of dust the rest of the country. i look, vermont, dakota, they have construction employment rates below 3% and in some cases to present. contrast that with alaska, mississippi, arkansas, those unemployment rates are much higher than the national

average. so it really does very. -- vary. a lot of these are national statistics. by and large, what i am talking about is what i have been hearing across the country, but things are different state to state. host: jean from orlando, florida. caller: good morning. i would like to give some information about how this could be corrected as far as the illegals and the jobs. i have lived in florida for 43 years and i can tell you, i have had one lawn person, never a cleaner, nothing that has ever been legal. they work they cash -- for cash only, and our regular people cannot compete with it because if you are incorporated and paying federal taxes, social and paying your occupational tax, you cannot afford to work for what they do. but the main thing i want to say is -- this is really important

and i do not hear anyone talking about it, every time you live in illegal a job, you are putting some woman or man on welfare that is costing you $30,000 or $40,000 a year. employer is not paying social security or taxes, and the illegal is not either, and they are sending their money back to mexico. you have billions of dollars going back that way, but our social security is going broke. we are $21 trillion in debt, and no one seems to care. we need to get e-verify enforced, and any employer that hires them will be rated, go to jail, and pay a hefty fine. this could be put into a separate account to where it pays for the wall and later to maintain a wall. did thethe only way to business is down.

they and the illegals are making out, and legalized citizens are hurting. toil we get our congressmen wake up our citizens, thinking about what these illegals are quit trying to get them here when they are taking the country down. i think this is an important point to make and i think it is one of the reasons we are where we are today in this shortage. immigration and illegal immigration, immigration in general to the united states has gone down over the past two presidential elections. ever since the great recession, we have hit a lull. i understand the points you are making, but a part of the reason we do have a shortage and certainly a lot of this is internal, but we are having fewer undocumented or documented folks come over and work in the united states then was the case 10 or 20 years ago.

again, this immigration piece is one of several potential solutions that have been offered here. i have not spoken with anyone who is gung ho about the 100% way to fix the shortage, fix the industry is to just bring in a lot of folks from all over the world. this seems to be a problem that is going to require a piecemeal solution, that will require a little bit of alteration, whether that is the immigration landscape, the young folks coming up, but i cannot stress enough, immigration is one aspect of a much larger problem here. host: thank you to andrew the senior reporter at u.s. news & world report, also wrote the article "where are all the builders?" thank you. we will open the phone lines and talk about any public policy you would like to for the remainder of the show. i want to remind you that republicans call in at (202) 748-8001. and) 748-8000 democrats,

independents call in at (202) 748-8002. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday night on afterwards, hanna-attisha discusses the flint lead poisoning crisis in her new book. she is interviewed by michigan senator gary peters. >> let's talk about your actions, because you heard that there might be led in the water. in the water. what were some of the first actions you took. >> the point that i realized there was light in the water was not until august 2015, and it

happens to be at my house over a glass of wine with a high school girlfriend who happens to be a water expert, formerly with the epa in washington, d.c., when d.c. went through a similar lead and water crisis. mona, have you heard about the water? it is not being treated properly, and because there -- of that there is going to be led in the water. that is when i needed to take actions. i tried to get children's blood levels, because that is what the state and the county has surveillance programs for, like we track flu and hiv. i could not get that government data. i did my own research and our public hospital to see what was our children's blood levels, and it was the easiest research i have ever done, looking at the changes and lead in the blood levels, and what we saw was alarming. night at ids, sunday

neglect p.m. eastern on c-span twos book tv. 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2's book tv. >> brad thor will be our guest on in-depth: fiction edition. his other books include use of force, the lions of lucerne, blacklist, state of the union, plus 14 more thrillers. interact with brad for by following him on twitter or facebook. , in-depth: series fiction edition, sunday with brad thor, live from noon to 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. washington journal continues. the remainder of our program today, it will be open phones, a chance for you to talk about any public policy issue. we will go ahead and go straight

to mark, calling from florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you sir? host: i am fine, how are for you this morning? caller: i am good. jesse, it is good to see you. i have been busy working on my union job, so i apologize to folks that do not support organized labor. i also want to share with the listeners that the last guest think head, i do not mentioned it, but we have a program for the armed forces called helmets to hardhats supported by the armed forces and organized labor. we take people with various backgrounds from the armed intos and transition them organized labor, whether it is a carpenter, aabor, plumber or ironworker, and we give them credit for time served . when i say giving someone credit, if it takes them for five years to become a journey -- labor,anized later

we would give you time served in toward yourrces credit asian for your journeyman status. so a person can make -- you are accreditation toward your journeyman status. so especially for people who are in the u.s. navy or in the combat engineer fields, which is what i did for myself, i am grateful i had knowledge and was lucky to be brought up by a father and a grandfather that knew about organized labor. so both of those things were right in front of me. for the gentle man in texas, i feel -- for the gentleman in texas, i feel sorry for him. in a way, he is a victim of what happened in texas, a right to work state. i am sure he is a hard-working person and he is trapped now by his agent experience. i will share with the gentleman from texas that organized labor does have jobs in texas. bechtel just contracted with one of the city governments, it might have been dallas, bechtel

is one of the largest union construction companies in the aited dates, to build high-speed rail to one of the major city areas there. i apologize for not knowing. bechtel also does refinery work. he might want to check them out. i would share with the listeners in 1998, i was making $10 an hour, and that was nonunion. i worked nonunion as a company traveler. at working in construction nonunion, and when i went into union, i have so much respect for unions that i had trepidation of joining the union. i did not know of my skills would be high enough. within two years, i was working in chicago and went from $10 an hour to $28 an hour. to the gentleman from texas, our wages do go up practically annually in the city of chicago. there, they are approaching $48 an hour. and it is not just about the dollars on the hour, it is about polity of life, standard of living. you are working towards a pension at some point, like the

gentleman from oregon who called, you could retire at 55 or 56. you still have enough of your life left to where you can appreciate it. you have a pension waiting for you and health care provided by the contractor, like for professional athletes. all in organized worker is is a worker that can stand on his or her own two feet and have a contract. you, caller. let's go to michael from erie, pennsylvania, independent line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm fine. caller: all right. i just wanted to speak a few words about how the legal immigrants -- illegal immigrants are taking american jobs. say i have been in the commercial industrial roofing sector for the past 10 years. at 8:50 dollars -- $8.50 an hour, and it took me 10

years to get up to $15.75. and then we go to the home depot here in erie, and we have illegals holding signs, saying will work for cash or something like that, eight dollars or seven dollars an hour, and i find that really, really obnoxious. thank you, michael. calling in from shreveport, louisiana on the democrat line. caller: good morning. reiterateg in just to something that the guy just said illegals coming in and taking our jobs. company wheret a it was all americans and two months after i left, they laid and il the americans

thing that was something donald trump had mentioned. i also know that the democrats are not taking the credit for the jobs that have been created from obama. obama set up everything, and they are not saying nothing. they are letting trump get out there and run something he created, but obama set up everything. it would have been a lot better if the republicans would have worked with president obama, and i really didn't think mitch mcconnell was serious when he said they would make sure that they would not vote for anything, and i think it is very sad for him talking about nominating a jury to replace this one judge that retired. as he got out there, two hours

after this guy had died, and said they wouldn't nominate nobody because it was an election year. and i really think that mitch mcconnell needs to retire and go home, because he is just holding back america with the rest of them old cats. yesterday, president trump commemorated the six-month anniversary of tax cuts during a ceremony at the white house. [video clip] >> i just want everyone to keep up the great work. common sense is being restored in washington again, because everyone and hard-working americans are in charge of their government once again. washington tried to change us, but that is not going to happen. instead, we are changing washington and doing it quickly and for the better. [applause] that is why our economy is booming. that is why our families are

thriving, that is why our businesses are growing, and that is why america is winning like maverick, -- never, ever before. we are setting records every day. these are victories and they are your victories, and now what we are doing is straightening out our trade. our trade has been a disaster. we were being taken advantage of as a country by many, many countries. friends and enemies and those in , and sometimes our friends in terms of trade were treating us worse than the enemies. i want to just tell you that is being taken care of very well and very beautifully. robbie, from stone mountain, georgia, calling in on the independent line. caller: good morning, how are you sir? host: i'm fine, how are you? caller: i am good. i wanted to make a comment on your last guest, about how fantastic the construction industry is now? i am an electrician in atlanta,

georgia. construction is, jobs are really wide open now. however, if you live in a right to work state, you don't get the benefits of all of those wage increases. it just doesn't happen. as a matter of fact, we are in contract talks now to take stuff away from us now. we have lost stuff for the past 10 years. every time we have a contract, we lose something, and they are still trying to take more away. a good industry, but if you live in a right to work state, you do not reap the benefits of all of these raises that your last guest mentioned. all right. we are going to go to margaret, calling from arizona on a democratic line. good morning, margaret. caller: good morning. host: we can hear you, go ahead. caller: yes. your previous guest, andrew from u.s. world report? i wanted to mention some things

that weren't mentioned. one is when the mexicans do get here, they are given jobs. they are not taken the jobs from american workers. what they are being hired by is illegal employers who are star to do exactly what they want to do, -- scot-free to do exactly what they want to do, and a cheat the country out of taxes and the taxpayers as well. it is dances around and not said like it is. mexicans do not go around putting in applications. when they get here, they know where to go to go to work. they know who is hiring them and they make a practice of it. it is not mentioned and it is a big factor as to why illegals are working on these construction jobs. so somebody should address that angle of it. thank you. host: caffe from st. louis, missouri, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i want to make a comment on unions. unions are not for everybody. i worked for a company that was

union, and i paid my dues just like everybody else did, but when my company closed up, the union did nothing to help the women that work there. jobs, madethe men sure they got work, but every time we would go and check on the jobs, they would always tell us they did not have none. we had to find our own jobs. and another thing i want to mention is there is a new campaign going that a lot of people don't know about, and it is called the walk away campaign. anys for any dependent, independent, any democrat that wants to walk away from the democrat party, can join the walk away campaign. we are getting a lot of people walking away from the democrat party. in north carolina, calling in on the democratic line. good morning. good morning.

good morning c-span and america. look, trump always plays his card out ms 13 and how they are committing so many massacre murders in the united states. to find out when the last time they went inside of the school with a machete or went inside of a theater with a machete? all i know is he is trying to deviate from the neo-nazi parties who go to schools with ar-15's, who shoot up theaters, who do a lot of stuff that he doesn't want to talk about, who .he real true terrorists are look back in south carolina, when a young boy shot of a aurch and killed -- shot up church and killed nine people. that was not ms 13, that was the klansmen. he was affiliated with the klansmen. the one inut

the waffle house going to shoot up for people having breakfast in the morning? that was not ms 13, that was the klansmen. this is something we should all america, we have the neo-nazi party and the klansmen. i think it is totally ridiculous that everybody wants to blame ms 13, but nobody can find out what kind of massacre they have done lately. yesterday, president trump spoke about the shooting in the newspaper office in annapolis, maryland. [video clip] i would like to address the horrific shooting that took place yesterday at capital gazette newsroom in annapolis, maryland. this attack shocks the conscience of our nation and fills our hearts with grief. journalists, like all americans, should be free of the fear of being violently attacked while doing their job.

of the victims, there are no words to express our sorrow for your loss. horrible, horrible event. a horrible thing happened. pledge ourfering, we internal support -- eternal support. the suffering is so great and seeing some of the people, so great. my government will not rest until we have done everything in our power to reduce violent crime and to protect innocent life. we will not ever leave your side. so our warmest, best wishes and regrets. a horrific, horrible thing. host: mickey in arizona, calling in on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning.

i live in a fairly small town. my grandson moved up or about a year ago. layer inainter, a tile the construction industry. i was absolutely shocked at the fact that over half the jobs that he applied for wanted to pay under the table. one of them pays every other week under the table and one of them every other week by check. competethat in order to with the illegals that come in and are willing to work under , and ite very cheaply is something that probably should be looked into by the irs or something, because it is keeping wages down. i did not understand that so much when i heard that it keeps wages down, now i totally understand it.

i think maybe in a do not understand that. what i wantedt is to share and thank you so much. lafayette, from indiana, calling in on the republican line. good morning. caller: hi, how are you doing today? host: i am good, how are you? caller: not bad. everybody wants to raise the minimum wage up to $15 per hour. the first year it would be great , but where is it going to stop because if everybody gets $15 stop,ur, where would you at $20, $30? where would you put a cap and how would you get paid it? in the beginning it would be great but how would you go forward? ever mentioned that. they only look at today, not tomorrow. troy from detroit,

michigan, calling in on the democratic line. caller: yes, i have a question really quick. msald trump is talking about 13, like the other gentleman pointed out, but what they pointed out -- what they don't look at, the adl, they do not go s and the other organizations that are racist following donald trump around, like the kkk. all of the jewish organizations come out against --, so where is the adl when it comes to donald trump and these racists and the kkk following him around? host: and that's it for today's program. tune in again tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. for another washington journal, and enjoy the rest of your weekend. ♪

>> best-selling author brad thor will be our guest on in-depth fiction edition, live sunday at noon eastern. spymaster, will be published on july 3. his other books include use of force, the lines of lucerne, blacklist, state of the his other books include state of the union plus 14 more thrillers. -- interact with brad thor by phone or facebook. -- orecial addiction special edition sunday live new to 3 p.m. eastern on c-span two.

columnist my chair and on her book "sex matters." we send such confusing messages to young people and so young women, they are -- i don't in the them. this was a story i put in the book about a number of women athletes who have posed topless or semi-topless for sports illustrated and one of them i quoted who said, i am proud of my body and i want to help young women who might have body image issues. my feeling is that is a crock. women should be dignified. they should remember when you disrobe it's very hard for people to take you seriously. of a looking at a picture

topless woman will not think, look at that fantastic athlete. isn't it wonderful she does not have any issues with body image? no, he is going to think about sex. angela merkel, the chancellor of germany, did not take off her house to prove she does not have body image issues. she wants to be respected. if women want to be respected, they have to behave in a way that will elicit that. sunday at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span's "q&a." tosunday night, efforts prove that children in flint, poisoned ine being "what the eyes do not see." she is interviewed by michigan

senator gary peters. >> let's talk about your actions. that there might be led in the water -- when did that happen and what were some of the actions you took? >> i did not realize it was led in the water until the end of august we 15 and it was not from seeing patients. it happens to me at my house over a glass of wine with a high school girlfriend to happen to be a water expert, formerly with the epa when d.c. went through a similar crisis. she said, mona, have you heard about the water? i said everything is fine. she said, no, everything is not fine. it is not being treated properly. and because it is not being treated properly, there is let in the water. i realized i had to take action. i tried to get children's blood lead levels. we checked that. i could not get that government

data. at ourd my own research public hospital to see what was happening to our children and it work illy the easiest have ever done looking at the change in children's blood levels and what we saw was alarming. >> watch sunday night at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span two's book tv. next, delta airlines ceo of an talks-- ed basti about changes at the airline. he also looks at terrorists and immigration policy and delta's joint bench -- he also looks at andace --tariffs immigration policy and delta's joint ventures with ot