talks about irs tax reform, tax law, and how to resolve tax problems.

host: connect with us on social media @cspanwj. a very good monday morning to you. we wanted to this story for a wild. host:the question of when you lt your political party and why. we want to hear from former democrats and former republican. phone lines for both of those groups of individuals. we show you this chart from gallup, recent numbers on party identification in the u.s.. as of 2017 42% of americans consider themselves independents, 27% consider themselves republicans. changeumbers do tend to over the course of the years. study from the pew research

center showing over a 15 month surrounding the 2016 presidential campaign 10% of republicans and democrats defected from their parties to the opposing party. the pew research center found those that switched their parties were less politically engaged than people who stayed with their parties. among republicans and republican youngg independents, people were far more likely to switch parties that younger individuals. have you left your political party? when did that happen and why? former democrats can call in on (202) 748-8000. former republicans can call in on (202) 748-8001. we wantre calling and to keep you up-to-date on an important policy story we are tracking. sharp words over the past 24 hours between president trump and iranian president hassan rouhani. this story from nbc news noting that the iranian president

cautioned president trump about pursuing hostile policies against iran, saying america should know war with iran is the mother of all wars. that president rouhani was addressing a gathering of iranian diplomats and said mr. trump does not -- should not play with a lion's tail, this only leads to regret. war with iran does with iran is the mother of all peace and war with iran is the mother of all wars. president trump responding on twitter, saying to the iranian never ever threatened the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. we are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death, because just." cautious." -- be

cautious." we will keep you up-to-date if the president updates his twitter and we will look for other reactions this morning as the week begins. the house and senate are in washington dc this week. a very busy week at the white house. for the first hour the question we have for you is, have you left your political party and if so, why and when? the line for former democrats and former republicans. we will start with a former democrat. george is in maryland. good morning. guest: -- caller: good morning, how are you doing? party ahe democratic few years ago. it was when president obama and theker boehner worked out tax and spending deal. my concern is the direction the economy is going.

spending, spending, spending and not paying for the deficit. that is the biggest issue. i see the left and right doing the same thing. they are cutting taxes and raising spending. my kidsbe a problem deal with. that is why i could not go to the republican party either. i don't feel like i have a political home. both sides are consumed by madness. right and a stream left are doing the same thing. both sides are running in crazy -- extreme left are doing the same thing. both sides are running in crazy directions. host: how long were you a democrat? i am 42 now and i was a democrat for 18 years. my family has been democratic. it sucks. boxes me out of any political relevance because i am not involved in any primaries.

we have something unusual with the governor who is a very moderate republican governor. he is popular in a state that is to the one democrats. as far as primaries go, if you are not the democratic party your vote is irrelevant in the primary because the primaries pick who is going to be the candidate. registeredave to be with one political party to participate in primaries in maryland? www.c-span.org absolutely -- caller: absolutely. my wife is unaffiliated has not been able to participate in any primaries. maryland is the most gerrymandered state. we have the most gerrymandered district in the country. it is -- that makes the primaries more irrelevant because it is going to be a shoo-in democratic or republican candidate, irrespective of it. it is a shame.

maryland is on all place. it generally could get more moderate but it is so carved up. host: thanks for the call this morning. tom is in florida, former republican. go ahead. i was a republican. taken -- were i was point i became a nonparty affiliate, an independent. at my core i am principally a libertarian. i did not realize that until i started thinking. i got older, i am 54. i am principally a libertarian.

i'm in the legalize and regulate camp. everyone thinks i am talking about weed, it is included. i think there are a lot of things from my parents' generation that are taboo that shouldn't be. point iealized at some am principally at my core a libertarian. i left the republican party because i could not be a democrat either. host: what is to view that you think shouldn't be -- taboo that you think should be? caller: i am a heterosexual man. if two men want to get together that is fine. if two women want to be married, fine. who cares? i know it has been said before. they have as much right as the rest of us to be miserable.

have anynment does not business trying to mandate morale of the. it is immoral anyway. have any compliments of the war on drugs, they go in and arrest at these low-level drug houses. the prison system is exploding with these people that are incarcerated. what do you do with the kids? you put them in foster care. what then? if it is a loving, caring, nurturing, positive environment, let the men or two women, kids are far different than my generation. they are in tune to what it is that is happening in the world. women adoptor two at the foster care system.

that is how i know i am a libertarian. back in the day they would say there is no way tom just said that, but i did. host: tom in florida. william is in illinois on the line for former democrats. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. -- i was a democrat my whole life, i am 67. i switched over to donald trump. mainly because the democratic party has supported illegal immigrants and i am sick of it. -- they spent 70% of their time as politicians defending illegal immigrants. that is a major issue with me. i am upset that both parties haven't solved illegal immigration.

when i heard chelsea clinton give a speech for hillary saying that her mother was going to put all of the illegal immigrants on obamacare, that threw me right off. that was it for me. until the democrats quit defending illegal immigrants and start supporting the middle-class and minority citizens of the united states, i'm going to stay with donald trump. a former democrat now staying with donald trump. htag campaign on facebook and twitter for those leaving the democratic party. it is the walk away campaign. this is the official facebook page. walk away campaign, it is much more than just a hashtag. encouraging democrats to leave that party. one of the reasons we want to ask that question this morning, have you left your political party?

if so, when did you leave and why? a prominent individual in the news who left his political party, james comey the former fbi director, and now former republican. here is a headline from national review from last week " james comey taking to twitter to urge americans to vote policyat in the fall:' difference don't matter right now' ." william in washington, d.c. is a former republican. caller: i was a republican and i voted for george w. bush. he said we would get out of nationbuilding and have a more humble foreign policy. then he invaded iraq which i knew would be a mistake before it happened. independent since 2003. like the previous caller in maryland you can't vote in the

primary. presidentaul ran for in 2008, that was a dream come true for me. i switched back to republican. just a vote for him. i never vote for republicans or democrats for president anymore. i vote for the libertarian candidate. no matter who it is. host: william, what do you think about the state of libertarians in this country right now compared to past years? caller: there is a lot of potential, but they need to come up with a better candidate. gary johnson was a two-term governor. it didn't feel like he had taken advantage of resources. there are intelligent people within the libertarian party which could school him on foreign policy. he did a terrible job.

he did a better job in 2012 than in 2016. they need a better candidate. host: william in bc. -- d.c.. mario is in ohio. caller: i think this is an important conversation. democrat and voted for carter. i remember registering to vote during high school. i was shuttled into the democratic party without thinking too much. i voted for carter and mondale. later on as i started working i politicalnking about philosophy and questioning why we have two parties. i think there is a utility for both parties. i think it depends on scale. in a smaller or local government where you can check on fellow citizens compassion might work. scale whendoes not

you get to the state level or a country level. that is why i believe republicans have a better way of approaching some of the problems we have be at immigration, the economy and so on. i think it is a matter of scale. there is a utility for both parties. sometimes you want to be compassionate but people abuse compassion. brady in colorado, a former democrat. caller: good morning. i want to say before i start, since colorado is one of those states where you have to be registered to a party for primaries, i am registered as a democrat. i would not identify as that at all. especially watching local and state politics over the past

year. seen -- i consider myself a lot more centerleft than i did before i started college. i am about to turn 21. i have seen here in boulder, wacky ideas from the way far left of the party. here in boulder we have a 65 foot height limit for buildings. what happens is it turns into whereegressive system property prices are through the roof to the point where it is worst than where i used to live in very northern virginia in terms of rent. the idea is that you have government intervention to prevent development. you can't build up even though there is this open space that the city has bought, you can't build out either. there is this housing shortage.

there are various other things surrounding that. i might vote for democrats 80% of the time when i'm given a ballot, but that other 20% of thei might vote for time there y candidates especially here in boulder. not goingme being i'm to be calling myself a democrat. centerleft, maybe liberal. host: could you ever see yourself voting for a republican? caller: i have before for boulder county. i think i voted for paul danish, whatever the boulder county board of supervisors is. he made a lot of sense to me. host: thank you for the call from colorado. noting that he is 20 years old. going back to that pew research study that looked at party identification in the

16 months surrounding the 2016 elections. the numbers, especially among young democrats and republicans come up research noting that young republicans were much more likely than older republicans and younger democrats to switch parties during that 15 month time period. 23% of republicans 18 to 29 years old affected to the democratic party during -- defected to the democratic party during the 15 month study. older republicans, just 17% of republicans 65 or older defected to the democratic party. on the democratic side, among 18 to 29-year-olds just 9% defected to the republican party during that 15 month study. among 65-year-olds were older it was just 5% who defected to republican party. this is all available on the pew

research center website. partisanof it is " identification is sticky but about 10% switch parties over the years." late 2017 andin studied a 15 month period surrounding the election. caller: good morning. i was a democrat simply because after the gore election with , when it --obama when it comes to abortion and other social issues. it was hard to support them because they were so radical. i started steering more towards

the libertarian way of thinking. i like it a lot better. especially with another ron paul. the republican party, i can't go becauseely republican there is so little compassion. systeme going to a blame versus maybe it is the policy themselves that is not working. right now i can't identify with a party. does that make you an independent right now? caller: yes. one of about 42% of americans identify as independent. that number is up three points from 2016 according to gallup

polling on party identification. a three-point increase in independent identity in america is larger than gallup typically has seen in years after presidential elections. gallup polling noting that it usually goes up after presidential elections. that three-point increase is much higher than what has been average over the past three presidential elections. a two-point increase after the past three elections. chase from germantown, maryland, former democrat. good morning. caller: thank you c-span. let me say this topic of outsideon is refreshing of the normal everyday talk we have calling in. that last statistic was pretty remarkable in that it indicates that the two-party system isn't really doing much for americans any longer.

for me, i am very liberal. i do hold a couple of conservative or moderate views here and there. my difference with the democratic party is i am principled on the notion of working together and people buying into what they helped create. with attention currently going on right now, the democratic to everyso reactionary single move that donald trump or republicans make that they don't have a platform. they don't have a long-term strategic view of what they want the country to look like other than resisting the current administration. in its own way because it indicates there is further divide going on between the two parties. no olive branch so to

speak. -- to work together on things. that is why we have this tax bill that was pushed down our throats then we had obamacare that was pushed down republican throats. nobody is going to work together. i am a redshirt independent now. host: -- a registered independent now. in i leftas writes the democratic party to become an independent in january of 2017. the democratic party is owned by billionaires and the defense and history. -- defense industry. we can afford to educate our kids or the job market for can give the department of defense a raise. -- a trillion dollar raise.

one more from mark. i left the democratic party but returned because i was not able to vote in primaries. i realized my vote would help give republicans an advantage and my values are more in line with democrats. we are talking to former democrat and former republicans this morning. former democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. former republicans (202) 748-8001. we want to hear why you left the party, when you left and what you consider yourself now. manny is in florida. a former democrat, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i left the democratic party after 2012. i supported barack obama in both residential elections. after 2012i saw the democrats were becoming more like what the republicans were when obama took office. resistance --ole

meaning the whole resistance, not working with congress. that is one of the main reasons why i left. i am talkingn about, i have heard the democrat message over 50 years saying if you give us this we can do this for you. 50 years later we are still talking about police brutality, racial injustice, we are talking about all these things. if the democratic party wants them to give me -- what's me to give them my boat can i am tired of it -- vote, i am tired of it. we have people coming here legally. it is a tragedy -- we have people coming here illegally. it is a tragedy when they are separated from families. it is a tragedy when black people are incarcerated and their families are separated. gave over 200 years of labor and i am a party that is supposed to represent me telling me that now it is the other party.

resistance is not leadership and that is all they have been doing. that's all they have been doing, resisting and not waiting. host: what would it take to bring you back to the democratic party or is that door closed? caller: i think that door is closed. i don't agree with trading one master for another. i am not an advocate for the republican party. i am a true independent. there are some things i like about the democrats policy was while they are trying to use me because of my color. there are things i like about the republican side. i support some things donald trump has done. i opposed some things he has done, same thing with barack obama. there is nothing either party can do to get me back. host: as a former democrat, what is one thing donald trump has done you support? caller: i support the move on

cracking down on illegal immigration. i live in the communities where drugs are being put in. i live in communities where gangs are running rampant. it is hard to tell me or justify to me that if we put a priority and allow thousands upon thousands of people to come into the country and give them spendingthat is millions of dollars that are going away from my ancestors and my people who need help right now. somebody else into your house if you can't take care of your own house. host: manny in florida. amy is in florida also, a former republican, go ahead. caller: i used to be a republican. i grew up in the church. the most natural thing for me was to be in the republican party. after living overseas in the late 90's and early 2000's, we

went to war against iraq, that pretty much changed it for me. living in an islamic country at the time. all the propaganda to drive us into war, it wasn't true. muslims are just like us. that gott was the war me moving away from the republican party. paul ind supporting ron 2008 and 2012. .ow i support bernie sanders republicans many down here in the south, that are going to be voting for bernie sanders just because of health care. and wealth inequality. i am an independent. i have never actually voted

democratic. i was not able to vote in the primaries because i had not switched by affiliation at the time for bernie sanders. innded up voting jill stein 2016. i have yet to vote for a democrat. if bernie is on the ticket in 2020 i'm voting bernie. host: do you think that bernie sanders if he does run again, do you think he should pick the same path and run as a democrat? caller: sure, why not? if he doesn't make it as a democrat, and he runs as an independent i will be voting for him. caller:host: that was amy in fla this morning. we are talking with those who have left a political party over the years. former democrats and former republicans. lines for both. about 30 minutes left to have this discussion. it is coming up on 7:30 on the east coast.

we want to keep you updated on other stories in washington and around the country. this story and the fallout on the sunday shows yesterday as president trump and his allies seek to contain the fallout from the release of hundreds of pages of top-secret court records documenting the fbi's investigation into a former to russia,de's ties that former campaign aide is carter page. portions of the document redacted. usa today notes that they provided new details about how the fbi approach to the early phases of the investigation into russian interference. the filings wade into the partisan debate over how much fbi evidence was based on the work of a former british intelligence officer with ties to hillary clinton. focus on the dossier alleging links between russia and the trump campaign made a part of the investigation and the evidence that investigators used

to obtain a wiretap on carter page. the british agent christopher steele was hired by research firm working for clinton's presidential campaign. that is the story in usa today. resident trump tweeting about this yesterday. just an hour or so the president tweeting we now find out it is the unverified and 30 dossier that was paid for by crooked hillary clinton and the dnc that was knowingly and falsely submitted fisa court which was a sponsor for the totally conflicted and discredited muller witchhunt. the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee, punishment adam schiff from california -- congressman adam schiff from california. >> congressman schiff says this confirms little about the

bargain of justice misleading the court's rate he said it looks more and more like a trump campaign was illegally being spied on for the political gain of crooked hillary clinton and the dnc. is that how you read the carter pages -- >> if the performance we had at helsinki took place before those applications were filed i think that whole interchange with prudent would have been a sense -- with putin would have been a central exhibit in the fisa application. just why the fbi was so concerned carter page might be acting as an agent of a foreign power. that application and renewals have been vindicated in substantial part by carter page's own words. in the u asked him about in which carter page acknowledged being a former advisor to the kremlin. the information they had when that application was in filed

included the fact that the russians were dumping these documents, that they had previewed the dumping of these documents through george papandreou a scum of the carter page had been a target of russian efforts in the past, that carter page had gone to russia and had meetings with public officials -- russian officials that page publicly denied. we can confirm he had meetings with russian officials. it was a solid application of renewal signed by four different judges appointed by three republican presidents. host: carter page was on cnn's state of the union yesterday. he was asked if he was an agent of a foreign power. >> jake, this is so ridiculous. it is beyond words. you are talking about misleading the courts. it is so misleading going through those 400 plus page documents. where do you begin. it is a complete joke and it only continues. really sad. >> were you ever an agent of a

foreign power? did you ever advise the kremlin or work with the kremlin on anything? >> no. i have never been an agent of a foreign power in any -- by any stretch of the imagination. g20 inave backed at the st. petersburg i may have participated in a few meetings that a lot of people including people from the obama administration were sitting on in geneva, paris, etc.. been anywhere near what is being described here. >> so you have advised the kremlin in the past? that was 2013 that g20 meeting i believe. >> there were experts from around the world talking about energy issues. -- myselfof countless

and a lot of academics and business people who were involved in these discussions. it was nothing. >> but you did advise the kremlin? clear, you didit advise the kremlin in 2013 or 2012? >> that is spin. i sat in on some meetings. to call me on advisor is way over the top. speaking of russia, continued fallout on the president's summit in helsinki. ,here is a story from usa today the focus on the interpreter president trump took with him to that meeting with russian president vladimir putin. " a growing number of democrats asking that that interpreter be summoned before a congressional committee to reveal what she heard during the meeting. they are demanding the interpreter turn over any notes she took during that meeting. the story giving some background on the interpreter, an

experienced and respected interpreter who works for the department of labor services --ch provides interpreters language services which provides interpreters for the white house. if you want to read that story it is in today's usa today. act to your calls. this first phone segment of the washington journal we are focusing on those viewers who have left one of the two major political parties over the year. (202) 748-8000. former democrats can call in at -- former democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. former republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. we want to hear why you left the political party and what you consider yourself now. fred is in alabama, former democrat, go ahead. caller: first of all i want to say the first 45 years of my life i really didn't follow politics. i was too busy finishing high school and college. two years in the business world.

25 years in the military. once i retired from the military i was an independent for a while to see what was going on. i was a republican for a minute. then i became a democrat. to be independent once bill clinton got into the thing with monica lewinsky. i'm going to stay independent. these people are crazy. thank you. call from maryland on the line for former republicans. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. this is the perfect call for me. it is my first time calling in. i left the republican party a long time ago as i realized both parties are not set up to to -- set up to serve their constituents, they serve themselves. thinkynical maybe, but i

the bickering back and forth tout issues are distracting us as americans. so that they can remain in power. it is bad if you think about the things they do on both sides of the aisle. this is what our government has devolved into. that is why i am a more libertarian over the years. i believe in a small government. make theirple own decisions. host: how long did you consider yourself republican? probably over 20 years. host: how did you pick being republican to begin with? caller: i was always more of a fiscal conservative. it appeared to me when i heard come when i would listen to

democrats speak it always seemed like they wanted to pick people against each other based on how much they had or how much they shouldn't have and how the democrats would say they are going to give certain segments of the population things back. you had a color a couple minutes ago that sums it up perfectly. sayingent 50 years they're going to give things to people and help them out but it does not happen. both parties are host: in it for themselves. -- in it for themselves. host: steve from ohio on the line performer democrats, good morning. go ahead. i am a fiscal conservative but i am a social liberal. first generation american. i became a yankee and 82. anderson was, was it back when carter was running?

"ere is a book called america, what went wrong." i was looking at it. destruction of pensions, increased medical care, federal 1960 toen it went from 1990. right now the rich people are running it and they are taking the money and walking away with it. the money is everything to them. i don't think either party represents regular america. life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. life means medical care. people should have basic medical care. i don't think either party is doing that. i will vote for whoever i think is best. host: you set your first generation american, what country did you come from? caller: canada. host: how do you think canada is

doing? caller: the cost of living is much higher. i don't know how anybody can afford to buy a house there but they do. the cost of living there is much higher. host: we appreciate the call. john in virginia, former republican. go ahead. caller: good morning. principle thatic individuals have a lot of act withnd they should character in their lives. that is why i was a republican. things like mr. bush sending us to war in iraq, ended up voting for barack obama because i wanted to send a message to the republicans that they should never do that again. that was the wrong move for our government and for our people. for the left and the democrats because they have

become too much, they have moved too far politically to the left. they are more socialist and communist these days. they are always looking for victims and those who are oppressed and using them to create stronger central power. they are always looking for victims and those who are i don't agree with that. so i became an independent and i voted for the person i think is asked. i am doing something about this. this is the final point i want to make. what does it take to create a new party in the u.s.?

caller: i believe you have to start at both levels. i think you have to start a grassroots levels but you have to raise financing from some of the large or political donors on the left and right who might see a benefit them forming a third independent party here in the united states. is, thestands for individual has to have personal responsibility. they have to work hard and self-sacrifice. , the the other side is we do need the government. we need an effective and efficient government. -- i have given my own party $30,000. i am about to go to the political donors and seek their help raising $400,000 initially

and start this process. host: what do you do with that first $30,000? caller: i use it most effectively creating a website and drafting, spending a lot of time on my own drafting political platforms that represent the independent line in the united states america. host: john from virginia, thank you for the call. speaking of those who have changed parties over the years, a couple of party switchers running for primaries taking place next month. here is a story in the washington post focusing on richard who is running for senate in minnesota. he served as an ethics lawyer for the george w. bush administration. he became a nonpartisan critic of president trump and is running for senate in minnesota and a democrat. he's trying to knock off interim tina smith who was

appointed after al franken resigned. there is no polling in the primary yet but it seems like painter will have an uphill battle against the incumbent." a former democrat running for republican, a split urgings parents over -- others born in democratic family to join the walk away movement and abandon the intolerance of a political philosophy that stands on the false platform of tolerance. that is the story in the washington times. mr. nicholson who is running for his party's nomination in the august 14 primary in wisconsin is taking on democratic senator tammy baldwin in that state. he is a former marine and said in a way against his democratic parents who he

says has turned them back -- who he says have turned their back on him because of his embracing conservatism. cut theeach of them maximum $2700 check for tammy baldwin's reelection. -- reelection." karen is in colorado, former democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. did not switch to the republican party. i have come along since healthy belief that there should be more than two flavors than chocolate and vanilla. there is such a diversity of people in this country. parliamentaryope, representation where it is 10 or 20% and you get a member in parliament. it is like our house of representatives but they are not doing anything.

the other comment i wanted to make which i don't know if people are aware of, all these politicians in congress, especially the ones that are , iinst health care for all used to be married to somebody that worked for the government. we had incredible health insurance. two thirds of which was paid for by the taxpayer. government is paying for all these politicians platinum health policies well people can afford basic health care are left in the dust. they are saying it should be private, the government shouldn't take care of everybody , and my tax dollars are paying for their health insurance. it is total'. host: mark is a former

republican. go ahead. hello. i was a former republican. i am now independent. and it ismy mind mostly because of donald trump's immigration policies. this administration lies repeatedly. it is abusing children. these women and children are not a legal, are not criminals -- are not illegal, are not criminals, this is not a problem created by democrats. trump has created this false and mess perhaps only for

his political goals to perhaps orce us to get used to discriminatory and hateful beliefs. this whole immigration dilemma is turning to a crisis which i as a person that lives in waco, texas, reminds me of the -- as the ultimate tool to end this issue. perhaps it is going to be out of control. all of the children are kind of --a place host: you're worried that is was

going to happen here? caller: of course. you have parents, they have children, we have this huge national dilemma and it seems completely unsolvable. the president keeps pushing it to the edge and exacerbating. noticing whatly it might resemble. host: about 10 more minutes left in this segment. we are asking you, have you left one of the major political parties over the years? we want to hear your story, when that happened and what you consider yourself now. both my performer democrats (202) 748-8000. -- phone line for former democrats (202) 748-8000. phone line for former republicans. (202) 748-8001. we will have our panel discussion on the week ahead in

washington. joined by daniel newhauser of the national journal and ayesha rascoe of npr will be here. a busy week at the white house here on capitol hill. it is the last week the house is in before they break for the august recess. here is a story on the front page of the washington post about the summer topic that republican members can't seem to avoid. republican voters deal with controversies brought up by president trump, the story notes it has become a common pattern for house republicans across the country. president trump sparking national and local controversy run policies regarding trade in foreign policy and throughout many of the most vulnerable .ouse republicans for a loop that story is in the washington post on the front page. ,peaking of the 2018 election an update on some of the numbers

coming out of the campaign funds for the various groups. this focusing on senate campaigns. the big-money races for the senate are heating up. groups aligned with senate majority leader mitch mcconnell raised some $22.9 million in the second quarter and entered the third quarter of this year with nearly $44 million in cash on hand according to figures provided by groups in the federal election commission. records that have been released on the democratic side, posting strong fund-raising figures and continuing to show financial muscle. the senate majority pack had about $13 million more in the bank by the end of last month than their republican counterpart, the republican leadership fund. -- senate majority pac the senate leadership fund alone had $19.4 million. shat is a couple of the pac

that will be playing in the midterm elections. plenty more fundraising store is expected to come out as is federal election commission numbers get release. callie in daytona beach, florida. the line performer republicans, good morning. caller: good morning. i was a republican years ago. my father and mother were republicans. my dad passed away about 12 years ago. he was a very authoritarian type, my way or the highway. there was no room for discussion. i started looking into the democratic party in my 20's. i believe the corporate power structure is what is rolling most of the republican party. i did not vote for hillary. i can understand how attractive it is to vote towards the murky middle, that is what i call

independents. here is why i am a democrat, i don't believe in unnecessary wars. i don't believe in corporate power or they are destroying every regulation or national resource, every environmental protection. called -- called " why i am a democrat." by ted sorensen. you ask an independent, what do you believe in, what policy . they say, i agree with that, maybe not. never talk politics with a flounder. they don't stand for anything. i want the democratic party cleaned up and get a good leader. trump is no different from bush or cheney. my way or the highway, corporate power, or unending wars. host: who would be a good leader for the democratic party? caller: they are taking all the

oxygen out of the room now. you can't focus on anything. i know what they are trying to do. if you get into that fight it is very murky. like a flounder. very murky. we will know it when we see it. nashville, a is in former democrat, good morning. i made comment to your operator when i called some the reason i left the democratic party was under the carded ministration. i just turned 18 i got to -- carter administration. i just turned 18 and i got to vote. my mother side they were republicans, hard-working and got up every day and went out what they need to do. on my dad's side, they come from the other side of the tracks. my other side was not rich, they were hard-working people. on my dad's side they thought someone owed them something.

they were going down to the welfare office or food stamps come every time someone had an illness they tried to get on disability. as i grew up i got to live in california, indiana, i lived in the rust belt come of the free in california, i lived in the south where they said racism was rampant. i grew up in alabama where george wallace integrated schools. i did not agree with that and i was a democrat growing up. i am an independent. i'm not a republican or a democrat. i voted for trump because i was raised to believe in god, family, country. my mother raised us to believe you find the good in all people, it is up to you not everybody else to tell you what to do. for you to find it needs individual in this country. what i'm afraid of and what i have seen in the past five years is racism has turned around. it has gone from black to white.

been on the black person side. i know what they went through years ago. i think martin luther king would be a saint -- ashamed of his race if he heard the way they were talking. when i turn on the tv all i see is people saying very negative things. it is muslims, it is keith ellison, hillary clinton. host: how have you experienced racism? caller: ini people walk up and call me a hunky. honky. i was standing in line in a grocery store and a black person had to go around and to the going around he pushed me and didn't say excuse me. host: you think that was because of your race? caller: i know it was.

it happened again and again. when you meet other people and they say the same thing. i am not taking away from the african-american community. they had been handed a bad hand. someone who has traveled this country and lived in different parts of this country and talk to different ethnic backgrounds come i will tell you this right , i have never been a racist towards blacks. in today's society i feel like i am a target. i don't like it because i was raised different from that. when you put us all in one bushel it is creating a tied in this country. it is not going to be able to be solved if we don't come together as one people. it takes democrat and republican. it takes place right behind you in washington. those idiots better get together because they are causing conflict in the country.

look at the democrats and what they have lied about and look at the republicans and what they have lied about. if you look at what they lie about we take a bulldozer and clean everything in washington. the candidatehink you voted for, president trump says things that are true? -- aren't true? caller: you have to look at what somebody says and what they do and ascertain what is the best situation for you and your country and your family. whatimes i vote based upon is good for god, family, and country not for my individual taste. i am not perfect and i'm not right all the time. i want everyone to have an opportunity. if you're going to take out of my paycheck to pay for somebody to sit on their foot every day. i go into the store and all i see is welfare, food stamps, and foreigners. i see americans standing on the corners bombing for money. ing for -- bumm money.

i know people that are vietnam vets that don't have money for a better at night. host: that is richard in nashville. host: our last caller in this first segment of the washington journal today. we will take a look at the week ahead in washington from both ends of pennsylvania avenue. we will be joined by dan e.uhauser and aisha rasco nina olson will be here to discuss reform efforts, implication of tax cuts and jobs act and how to resolve tax problems with the irs.

>> supreme court nominee bret cavanaugh continues to meet with senators on capitol hill. follow the process on c-span leading up to the senate confirmation hearings in the vote. watch live on c-span. anytime on c-span.org or listen with the c-span radio app. tonight on the communicators tina pidgeon, general counsel for alaskan cable provider gci, talks about how the company makes a broadband possible for small villages across tundra, glaciers and mountains. then come incoming president of the alaska collaborative for telemedicine and telehealth, christopher dietrich come on providing health care to remote

communities in alaska. watch the communicators tonight .t 8:00 eastern on c-span 2 >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today, we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white , and, the supreme court public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> washington journal continues. host: on mondays when congress is in session we like to look at the week ahead in washington. to do that we are joined by reporters covering both ends of pennsylvania avenue from capitol hill, dan neuhauser is a staff

correspondent for the national journal. ayesha rascoe is white house reporter for npr. weeks most anticipated hearing is mike pompeo's appearance before the foreign relations committee. how is the white house approaching this hearing on wednesday afternoon? ayesha: it seems like they are setting up -- we have had a big foreign-policy week that just passed obviously with what happened in helsinki. it seems like pompeo has been defending the administration's approach, defending the president's decision to have issued a second invitation to bring putin to washington. i'm sure they will be talking about that, having a message on that. there's also this thing with iran. on howjust give a speech this administration is going to be appealing to the iranian people and basically saying america is with you.

not necessarily -- it does not seem like they've gone to the point of asking for or looking for regime change but they are sending out this message that they want the iranian people to know they are supported and i guess to see what happens. host: the hearing on wednesday afternoon, timed for about 2:30. the white house schedule was released over the weekend. president trump having lunch on wednesday with secretary of state mike pompeo. is that likely a working lunch? ayesha: it's pretty standard that they have these lunches with the secretary of state and the president. i think what is interesting is, this administration has had being on the same page as the president at all times. you saw that last week with dan s.ate

part of what they will want to do is speak with one message and figure out what that message is going to be. host: democrats blasted the presidents performance at the helsinki summit. the hearing was called by senator corker, republican chairman of the foreign relations committee. his secretary of state pompeo likely to face tough questions from democrats or republicans? daniel: republicans, people of the same party of of the sitting president, will be more deferential to the officials of that white house. in this hearing was called to talk about north korea. now they have folded in russia and i would not be surprised if there were questions about iran too, given the president's late-night tweet essentially threatening some kind of a war roh iran over president uhani's statements. senators do not know what was

said in the private meeting with putin for two hours there they are trying to figure out what are the next steps in north korea diplomacy. iran is likely to be on the chopping block. host: the late-night tweet, 11:30 last night the president referring to comments made by iran's president. president trump saying never threaten the united states again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. we are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death. is that going to scramble republicans on capitol hill to have more of a focus on iran and the ran nuclear deal -- the iran nuclear deal? daniel: it might. there's been a pattern where trump will tweet something late at night or early in the morning and then the entire news cycle it comes that and everything

congress works on becomes that. i think this russia thing is lingering in a way that other issues that trump has put to the four have not. he's tweeted about players ineeling in the nfl all kinds of things in it has not managed to take over from the fact that republicans and democrats have been critical of how he conducted himself in front of vladimir putin. democrats going so far as to openly say -- democrat leadership openly saying he is compromised or otherwise beholden to putin. republicans not going that far but still concerned about his performance. i think the russia thing is likely to be at the fore. host: the status of additional sanctions on russia, where are we on that legislation? daniel: i would not expect anything this week. marco rubio in chris van hollen have this act that would put additional sanctions on russia

or any other country that metals in the election and it would make the dni 30 days after that election confirm publicly whether or not the election was hacked or compromised. marco rubio is pushing it. he was on the sunday shows talking about it. there is caution from republicans. president trump seems to conflate the election hacking with the collusion issue. so any go ahead on that would appear probably to trump to be a slight of him. has beensha rascoe, it about 8.5 hours since the president tweeted that. are we expecting more on iran today? what have you heard? ayesha: i think we are trying to see exactly. it seems like it was a response -- it is not really clear whether this is part of a bigger

strategy. the sanctions are about to go back into effect since the iran nuclear deal -- is that a preview of that? a preview of a tougher stance or new position by the white house, or was president trump responding to what he saw from iran? it's not clear whether this is a larger strategy. host: we're previewing the week ahead in washington with ayesha --coe and then newhauser ending on newhauser. if you want to call in, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. any officialsng from the trump white house to make up to capitol hill and

whether an official capacity like mike pompeo or unofficial? ayesha: it's not clear right now. still a lot of questions about what happened in helsinki and any agreements made or anything like that. it seems like the administration is trying become the same page itself and what that messaging is. it is not clear exactly what happened or what was agreed to what happened at of this meeting. president trump says it is a success but he is not explaining what that success means for the american people. host: since the helsinki hearing- what are you on the john kelly front? ayesha: there have been questions for a very long time. people are able to hang around in his administration with clouds over their heads for

months at a time. it does seem like, regardless of where john kelly status is now, he doesn't seem to be diminished in the sense that is he having an impact on messaging, strategy . you can't really see that right now that he is really having that much of an impact and it really seems like president from is kind of running his own show whoever the chief of staff is. host: what did you make of the vanity fair story last week that said john kelly had reached out to republican officials and congressional officials to encourage them to push back on the president's statements and performance that helsinki? daniel: i don't want to cast doubt on the story. gave sherman has a lot of sources. i checked around with house republicans, rank and file. people who know leadership. no one heard of kelly calling around that i talks to.

he does not have deep relationships on the hill. they are legislative affairs director to handle that kind of stuff and they had not been called or had not heard of anybody who had been called by kelly. there wasn't some thought that to puts being put out some pressure on him to leave or make him look bad. a lot of leaks. behindonally a lot of people's backs behavior. host: we are talking to dan newhauser and ayesha rascoe. we point you in the national journal if you're interested in the week ahead in washington on sunday there are stories on the outlook for the week ahead. the author of this week's story, thatewhauser, focusing on -- along with that pompeo meeting being the topic to shore

-- topicdu jour. daniel: a health savings account basically allowing people to put more kinds of money into them allowing people to spend more kinds of medical procedures. democrats see this as an end .round to repeal obamacare the last couple of years, if they are allowed to use more of this obamacare money it would discourage people from getting the basic plans obamacare needs to exist. it's going to be a contentious .hing it's not all set. i would not be surprised to potentially here objectives. host: this is the house last

week before the august recess. how much longer is the senate expected to be in? daniel: another two weeks after that. mcconnell has said he wants to keep them in a little later. they still have to brake for august recess. keeping democrats here for long as possible seems to be a pretty good strategy for republicans. host: the president's schedule is out for this week. if he expected to talk about health care issues at all? ayesha: i know he's talking about made in america today. he's dealing with some of that. his push for made in america. there's also going to be a visit from an eu official to talk about -- to try to de-escalate tensions on trade between the white house and the eu so it will be interesting to see what happens with that. so far all we've had is

escalation and the president keeps threatening to put tariffs on imports of automobiles which would be a huge deal. host: that showcase on made in america, is that happening at the white house? ayesha: i believe on the white house lawn. it is raining but it is supposed to be happening. host: this is inviting american-made companies to come and the president will walk around and talk about the products. ayesha: i believe last year there were some pillows made in the u.s. and various other things. they talk about the products. it is to support this idea of we're going to make more things in america. host: let's get to your calls. what do you want to hear about? from capitol hill to the white house, earl is in orlando, line for democrats. , ther: i would like to say

last couple of weeks what i've been seeing from the republican party i'm happy to be a democrat. the way i see it the republican party every day in the senate and the congress they get up and put a piece of duct tape over the amounts to make sure they don't say anything bad about donald trump. that, i voted for a man have to be honest with you, they know this man was not honest. 74-year-old man and i've never seen people vote for a man --t would expose his ex-wife you know what i'm talking about. and do what he did. host: earl talking about his thoughts. put the of stories in today's paper about the president polling numbers and where they've gone helsinki.

this story from the wall street journal. president trump's drop approval jobng rising to best approval rating rising to 45%. the highest marks of his presidency. up one percentage point from june. period buta four day started before the summit and continued after it. support from 80% of republican voters. only george w. bush in the aftermath of september 11 2001 had a higher approval rating within his own party. daniel: it just continues to be the case number what trump does whether it is perceived good or bad by the media or by his own party on capitol hill or elsewhere his base continues to stick with him at historic levels. i don't have a nation for it. he remains -- i do not have a

nation for this. he is perceived that he speaks his mind -- though not have an explanation for this. he is perceived to speak his mind. earl thinks the republicans are bending themselves into pretzels to defend the president this is why. any slight is a job killer. it will end your career. there's just not a lot of incentive politically for republicans to criticize him. host: yet the polling is different when you focus specifically on the helsinki summit. abc's a washington post poll conducted wednesday through friday of last week finding 33% of americans overall approved a president trump's handling of the meeting while 50% disapproved. 18% said they had no opinion. 56% disapprove of trump theessing doubts about united states intelligence agencies conclusions that russia tried to interfere in the 2016 election. there does seem to be a

difficult ayesha: -- they do seem to be a disconnect when you look at republicans support and you look at the larger electorate. it is different. usually what happens is, just like with helsinki, there's a sizable amount of people who do not agree with the way that was handled and often times it takes a little while for these things -- we are looking at the news every day but other people, helsinki, they are just learning about it now so it takes time to bake that in. that is i think where the concern could be for republican when you get to the midterms, not just looking at your base but all these other people who are very upset at the president. does that make them go to the polls more than someone who is sadly happy with president trump? president trump is not on the ballot in 2018. host: ashley is on the line for independents. caller: hello. how are you. ? host: very well.

what is your question or comment? caller: becoming disappointed of politicians policy and police forces. issue on separating kids from their parents is not a new thing as we all remember in the aar 1993 police forces seized compound of people living in .aco women.dren, two pregnant mexican people. their kids are separated from their parents -- sorry, i can't continue. host: dan newhauser, you done a lot of reporting on the immigration story and what's

happening in congress when it comes to the separation of families. as efforts continue his or any onse along lawmakers how long that will take? daniel:daniel: the court ruling mandates it should be finished by thursday. that is obviously not going to happen. 360 something children reunited according to the last court filing by the administration. the 500 or so remain. i think 600 or so families they are looking into the parents to see whether or not the real parents or whether they should administration appears like it

is trying i don't think he is naive enough to think this could be done by thursday. host: ayesha rascoe, i want to bring you in with your thoughts on this process. ayesha: this whole issue has been an issue for this administration to deal with. when it comes to trying to put together an actual plan i think there is a frustration that it has taken so long to get families back together. they areme time, while

trying to do this reunification the white house is still saying we don't have enough laws at the border and we need changes a nothing like that seems to be happening with congress so you're kind of this stalemate where you have the status quo, what the administration did with the family separations and then you also have the white house saying we need to do more at the border we need to make changes so this does not happen again. nothing is happening in congress now. host: billy, go ahead. caller: i would like to know how long -- these cheap tricks trump keeps pulling. he changes to something else. i'm wondering if his son is doing these tweets. it sounds a 10 or 11-year-old guide. 's a few bricks short of a

full load. host: how do you follow president trump's tweets?how do you decide which ones to write story on and which ones to -- daniel: was the question kind of how we change our reporting based on what the president does? it's highly variable it really depends on what the president tweets. when the president tweets it. what else is going on in congress. i know there's a perception that the media and congress is just kind of lurching around from tweeted tweet fly-by-night. these things are heavily discussed in newsrooms. what's important and what is not and when the president says something i guess i kind of hate when people say it's just a tweet. it's a presidential statement after all. for instance with the iran issue he is obliquely threatening war, maybe even a war that people have never seen before which i guess people can take to think

nuclear war against iran. shall we not cover that? this is important. we have to make these decisions even if it makes -- means letting things fall by the wayside. the child separation issue has fallen off of most front pages as of the russian issue. will the russian issue fall off the pages because of another issue? we don't know. it is complicated. host: you are on the frontlines lines of knowing which issues to cover. ayesha: these are presidential statements so they are important. outlets havenews tried to do in the age of president trump is to try to discern when something is newsworthy and when it is not. when he brought up the football players again, the nfl last week, that seems to be a bit of

-- i don't know if you try to get a distraction but i think there was less attention paid to that because he said these things before. we know by now he wants football players to stand for the national anthem. we don't need one million stories on that. i think there is something where you try to say he said this before, making the same point again. is he trying to distract. there's also a point of when he says things and does not provide evidence to back it up i think news agencies now try to make that point. to not just repeat what the president says, but say he said this but did not provide evidence or something to that extent. daniel: if he's trying to get russia often front page is not doing a great job. he tweeted the whole thing is a hoax so he spent all last week own casting his doubt on his intelligence community and the russian investigation and today he tweeted that the thing is a hoax and that is why the obama administration never notified him about it.

host: just to keep everybody on the same page, president obama knew about russia before the election. this is the president about 14 hours ago. why didn't he tell her campaign because it is all a big hoax and thought crooked hillary was going to win. daniel: i'm sure what the white house will say ayesha: -- i'm sure what the white house will we don't that tweet thatis the hoax the issue president has desolate white house has right now and president talks about the molar probe he says it's a witchhunt. there have been a lot of indictments so is he saying all of that is fake? and when you press the right white house you don't get a clear answer. does he think the indictments are fake or does he think anything pertaining to him and his campaign is fake? question.ng to be the i'm sure the white house will say he did not mean the whole thing is a hoax. he just meant some part of it. host: is there a white house briefing scheduled for today?

ayesha: i don't think so. they often schedule them later on. they don't necessarily let us know first thing in the morning. hoax?id he mean by daniel: as long as they don't say he meant to tweet was not a hoax. host: andy in new york city, republican. good morning. he is getting low marks on global trade, immigration and russia. are saying people nonsense about americans because of trump post decisions. no one seems concerned about american dignity. i'm afraid of this issue. young children on the border separated from their families and later put into cages.

as a father of a survivor of issuei should say this must ring alarms. we must stop trump. history should not see again .hooting and killing people more than 20 people just burned. host: what did you want to pick up on from that? daniel: i could not hear it. the issues he did talk about was the trade issue at least at the beginning of his daniel: it seemed like the same person from last time. host: a story from the wall street journal. senate finance committee chairman orrin hatch ratcheting up pressure for trump to reconsider his policy.

warning republican senators may be willing to risk legislative confrontation unless the president starts to reverse course on trade take us through how that may play out this week. daniel: very rare to see this. republicans have traditionally been a party of free trade so tariffs are not really their thing. he will be hard-pressed to find republicans on capitol hill who agree with what the president is doing. they are deferential to him, giving him pretty long leash and saying we understand what he's trying to do and we know it's going to be some short-term pain. if it means a better deal with china, the eu, we're willing to give him some time to do it. i feel like that time is coming to a close. farmers are hurting, washing machine prices are going up. this is coming months before an election. i believegoing down they are starting to worry about how their own party is going to fair in the elections and they

are worried about the pain that is going out economically because of this unit they believe there's going to be a long-term gain it's not happening quick enough so we will see if there's any effort to clawback some of the terror of power that congress traditionally is supposed to have but has advocated to the executive branch for years now. this has been going on for long time now. they've given the president a lot of leeway. they are talking about it now so we will see. ayesha: this is an issue where president trump does not seem to be backing down at all when it comes to tariffs. this is one of the issues that most animates him. on this trip last week in europe he was still talking about tariffs and how we are being mistreated by our allies. eu, canada and everyone else. saying that he is willing to do more.

willing to go to automobiles when it comes to china they will put even more tariffs on. all the products from china. on this issue it does not seem the white house is backing down. i will be interested to see whether they face pressure from congress, whether that would force the president to back down . right now he is sticking with it. host: greg is in new jersey. a democrat, good morning. for letting meou call him. i wanted to talk about the helsinki summit and i will step back first to the bombing of syria which i thought was an orchestrated event between the syria, russia, and trump. i see the same thing happening now. there is anhink axis forming between certain countries syria russia, trump --ntry i call it come trump

trump country because i don't think it's really america israel, netanyahu. i think this should be one of the things country should see an protest against. all the other things put aside for now because this man is a maniac. if anybody can't tell that just examine him. i go along with the person who called last week, a lady who shared he is the devil incarnate. tot: ayesha rascoe i wanted ask about this story out of the middle east getting some reporting today. the israeli military in coordination with the united states and european allies is vacuum in hundreds of syrian rescue workers known as the white helmets from near its border with syria in a complex and first of its kind operation is what it's being called. what are we learning from the white house about u.s. involvement?

ayesha: we have not heard much from the white house. syria has been one of the issues the white house and president trump was talking about during his foreign trip and how to deal with that issue. still a question going forward. basically, what can be done and what is the u.s. role in syria because president trump has said he wants the u.s. to be pulled back from that assumes possible as long as isis and these other things have the debt dealt with. it is a question of how much the u.s. will want to be involved. host: less than 25 minutes inner week ahead in washington roundtable. taking your calls on lines for .emocrats, (202) 748-8000 republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

kathy, go ahead. caller: it seems to me that every time i get on this station and watch people especially ,oday every person that on here the guests, are liberals. to the ever have people on their for donald trump? i did not think so. as far as talking about how he stood up to iran, what are we supposed to do? we're just supposed to take it and not say nothing so they can threaten us? i've not heard of any ships on our ocean anymore. since we got a strong man in the white house. as far as those poor little children they got in custody now away from the parents, i'm sorry about that but i will tell you what i would do. i would make it a law, a felony to come into this country and

you get two years in prison automatically. you get your day in court and that is it. that would stop it. i hear these poor little kids their kidnapping people's kids and bringing them across the border with them because of the fact they figure if they are a family unit they are more likely to stay in this country. host: you have two reporters on with us who spend their days covering these stories a in and day out. i will let you pick up on what kathy was talking about. daniel: they studied the feasibility of locking up these people. it turns out to be much more expensive to lock them up than it is to let them go or let them stay in the country while they work with a social worker to get them through the immigration law process. for the children who come here,

if it's a felony for their parents to come here is a going to be a felony for the kids? will you detain them as well? judges found that's against the law so that is not a great option here. you can detain them together, separate them or let them go together. not really a lot of other ways to do it. the obama administration chose the latter of the three. republicans have now tried the other two and have been blocked by the courts from pursuing either. it seems now what is only left is the third. host: the house appropriations thatttee is taking up $51.4 billion homeland security fiscal 2019 funding bill that bill including some $5 billion for a border wall. how likely are democrats who oppose this issue going to be able to stop that in committee

on house floor in the senate? daniel: in a senate they will be able to stop that. i'm of the the senate appropriations committee has any illusions of including that kind of some of money in their version of the bill. in the house it could pass most likely it could depending on what else is in the bill how conservatives interact with leadership on this one but democrats i don't think would ever vote for that level of spending on a border deal because they see that as their bargaining chip to get a deal for daca folks or potentially toe kind of legislation insert congress into the border separation issue. for republicans to put that on the floor, and this is an administration request, it just seems like that is a negotiating position they are going to stake prettyt they see as a high number and try to whittle their way back to something maybe democrats would see as a reasonable number don't think

any amount of money will fly with democrats this year. host: will the present react to that if the senate does not approve that funding? ayesha: i'm sure he will be upset. he has threatened longer-term that if he does not get funding for the wall maybe there will be a shutdown. there has been a sense when it comes to this white house that when it comes to the budget and funding of the government that they have been -- that the president has kind of given in a bit too easily so he was complaining about the last budget deal. it will be interesting to see what they end up doing. where president trump will draw a line in the sand and say -- when he will say i must get funding for my wall or else. host: jean, democrat good morning. caller: senator rand paul came on c-span and he talked about selling drugs and selling heroin and cocaine and everything like

that. he told it on tv and this has been going on in this country for a long time and the government is turning invisible and raping guys like me. it's a cover-up. i've been trying -- i'm a lawsuit against the fbi and everything like that because i've been getting robbed, coming up with inventions, i've been writing to msnbc, abc. i've been coming up with ideas for this country. i paid off the deficit. host: his drug policy on the agenda for this week? -- is drug policy on the agenda for this week? daniel: it could be discussed in the context of a border issue. i will go back to what we were talking about earlier. if there is a shutdown this a border wall issue is likely to be the thing facilitating it. president trump has staked out

his position on spending bills. he said i'm never going to do this again. so house republicans have been maybe we will have a dhs shutdown, some like that instead of an entire government shutdown where this particular bill gets snagged between what democrats want and what -- and what president trump has demanded. worst case they try to do an omnibus again the president says where's my wall money and does not sign it or it could not pass congress perhaps. host: another major piece of legislation, the farm bill to bring us to the status of the farm bill. daniel: farmers are hurting now. soybean prices. all the tariffs trade war between china particularly and the trump administration has been pretty bad for them for their profits and this is

already a bad environment for farmers where their wages have son stagnating for years republicans particularly who have control of the floor and represent a lot of agricultural states and districts and interest want to get this bill done because it has subsidies for farms. the issue at always with the farm bill is it deals with supplemental nutrition assistance program more commonly known as food stamps. steepicans into a pretty work requirement on that. a newer thing they've been talking about for years. they decided to include it. if passed in the house with no democrats supporting it in the senate they don't have those work requirements so we are going to have to see how they could conference those bills together. even a lot of republicans in the house don't think the work requirements will ultimately be in their because it's a democratic nonstarter. there's another issue.

chuck grassley's attempt to limit how many subsidies can go to farmers that have other relatives. offshoots of their big farm even house republicans -- most house republicans, don't want this in there. they say farmers are hurting enough. now's not the time to cut back subsidies. the freedom caucus is pushing this. this amendment -- chairman mark meadows had tried to put in the house version of the farm bill even though colin peterson the top democrat on the agricultural committee is against this he says i don't know if i can help this year. they excluded me from the process. i try to get them to not have these work requirements on snap in their and they went around me so i don't know if i have a lot of leverage work with them on this other issue. this might be the year that grassley wins. host: if viewers want to read he awaits is the story by

dan newhauser. christine in rhode island, the line for democrats caller: i want to say thank you for c-span id also for all of the media have a few things i try to write them down because there's so much. i think trump is going to use trump card for the immigration. this is what he's using for these people with the immigration and as far as the republican party circling him i think they are terrorist and they need to be charged with what they are doing to this country. , think they are terrorizing keeping the chaos going and propaganda with north korea and israel and russia, this is all propaganda. another statement and want to make, how people calling and say that people don't want to work,

they want to get food stamps. they incarcerate people where they get fed i know what they call it when the go to jail and they can't vote. it takes away people's rights to vote or to even find a job this is the big issue of major incarceration so they just end dolosing everything host: you want to go to criminal justice reform and the latest out of the white house on that? ayesha: the white house has been working on this issue she talked about when they look at -- they look at prison reform basically they are supporting legislation and they want measures that would help people who are incarcerated to get involved in programs, give them incentives to get involved in programs and rehabilitation and other things that will help them when they get out and they are also

talking to companies and corporations about hiring people who were incarcerated talking about giving people a second chance when they get out giving them options for getting jobs and getting back on their feet. this is something the white house has focused on a lot. i think it's still working through the senate trying to figure out what will happen next on that. this does not include sentencing reform which will change the way people are sentenced when they go to jail and kind of receipt -- reduce car sentences that are out of the war on drugs. this would focus on helping prisoners were already incarcerated in helping them when they get out. who is the keys host: -- was the president's key ally in congress on those issues? daniel: rand paul has been big on that. ted cruz is working on something and of course the congressional black caucus has their own legislation on sentencing reform

and all kinds of issues. the problem is time is running short and they have other work to do. i would not expect anything before the election. there is a possibility of some lame-duck legislation. this issue has become surprisingly bipartisan as far as both democrats and republicans in congress spearheading it over the last couple of years. that theret know will be the appetite to bring this up when we've got any number of other issues sucking all the oxygen out of the room. lame-duck remains a possibility depending on what happens with the election. i don't know if there's time. left inout 10 minutes this segment. criticism from viewers about confidence in congress the 2 accomplish various issues. wild and wonderful has a question. is there a committee in the house and senate that is competent to conduct meaningful

investigatory -- investigatory hearings? what is a committee that would fit that bill? daniel: the oversight committee, the intelligence committee, judiciary committee, these of the committees that handle subpoenas investigations and so on and so forth. the main issues that have been called for investigative powers have been so highly politicized that it's been i would say difficult for republicans to conduct these investigations meaningfully for fear of angering donald trump. like i said earlier, he seems to conflate election interference issue with the russian collusion issue. there are some overlaps but they are not exclusively the same. one can exist without the other. fromort of admittance

anybody that election interference happened seems to central off in a way that he thinks would maybe prove the collusion issue. this is what you keep seeing him tell the line of whether or not he believes his intelligence committee on that the investigations have not been as meaningful as we are useful. host: ralph is next, independent good morning. ralph.d caller: i would like to know when president trump was running for president he was yelling at obama and one where he said i do not go on vacations now he spending $3 million every week going on vacation, how come nobody ever says anything about it? host: the presence vacations his trips. ayesha: the white house is very sensitive about this issue. president trump was critical of former president obama for vacationing and golfing so now

you see when president trump does go to the golf course many times they refuse to acknowledge or confirm that he's actually golfing. they are kind of sensitive about this issue so you will get pictures of president trump on the golf course but you will have a white house that won't confirm he's actually golfing. people, critics of president trump look very closely at the amount of time he spends at his properties in bedminster and mar-a-lago. it does get attention. the question is what ultimately happens with that. does he faced any type of repercussions at the ballot box for that? host: perry is in pennsylvania, independent, good morning. caller: i wanted to ask your guests in their opinion, what have they heard could have been

a possible topic of conversation during the two hours of the .rump putin meeting ayesha: it did take a while for us to get this information. what president trump said and what was said by press secretary sara sanders. apparently they talked about denuclearization, nuclear arms, reducing that. they talked about syria, they talked about basically this idea of having the u.s. and russia, they're kind of working groups being able to talk to each other about these different issues and a lot of that had broken down. communication between the governments have broken down because of actions russia had taken. starting the communication up again. they talked about trade. a bunch of issues we don't know in detail what was actually

discussed or what was agreed to that we have these broad outlines of what they talked about. host: from your perspective on capitol hill as members try to figure out what happened behind closed doors what are you hearing? daniel: the things they talked about in front of those doors when they came out and had the press conference, for instance handing over the former u.s. ambassador to russia for questioning. that was talked about behind closed doors and president trump seemed to indicate on stage he thought it was a good idea. they walked that back after taking it through a little more. the implications of that going forward. in congress they will try to find out did president trump agree to other things like that. a kind of reinforces the negative perception of trump that he goes into meetings with people listen to what they have to say and is easily swayed. this happened during health care debates, democrats would bring up ideas, republicans would say

actually that is not a republican idea we should not do that and he would back down from it. it kind of seemed like that is the same dynamic going on here where he agreed to this when everyone in congress thinks is a preposterous idea, handing over former diplomats to russia for questioning. walked it back after getting a lot of flack from it. there be looking for other things like that. is anything concrete? was it tentative stuff? host: the president commenting on this exact topic. when you hear the thickness talking negatively about my meeting with is imprudent and all i gave up remember i gave up nothing. we talked about future benefits for both countries. , which isng very well a good thing except for the corrupt media. ayesha: the president's definition of nothing in other people's definition is different . he says he give up nothing when he went to north korea but he

did agree to stop the military exercises between the u.s. and south korea. so for a lot of people that is something he gave up but he will say he give up nothing. i think that is the question. when he says he give up nothing, what is the definition of that? host: kansas city, missouri. line for democrats, good morning . caller: trouble be speaking tomorrow in front of veterans. that is almost like an insult because he dodged the war. also, he promised mexico would pay for the wall. i don't understand how you can support this kind of man as being president. it's almost embarrassing to the united states.

host: can you give us any more info on this speech remarks at the federal and wars of the united states national convention tomorrow. ayesha: we know the president has focused on veterans. a huge part of his agenda. reforming the v.a.. i think this will be part of that, highlighting the administration's work to help veterans and overhaul the veterans administration. host: laura, garland, texas. good morning. .aller: good morning good morning to your guests as well. the caller made reference to the border wall that president trump supposed to be holding, why is he trying to put so much pressure on congress, on the to fund this wall when he said in the beginning that

mexico was going to pay for the war? i don't understand it. is he backing down on his word, his promise? he promised mexico would pay for the wall. is he now trying to get congress, the people, to fund the wall? host: what does the white house say to those questions of when or if mexico is going to pay? ayesha: the white house says somehow someway mexico will pay for the wall. basically maybe through some reimbursement or through trade or something that they will pay for it that there is no -- they don't have any technical plans. it's obvious at this point they will ask for congress to fund the wall and then they are making the argument they will at some point have mexico provide funding. it's not clear how that actually happens. how that would actually work.

what's clear is congress is going to pay for it and the rest, we don't know. host: time for a few more calls in a week ahead washington roundtable. caller: i would like to ask i hear a lot of politicians talk about russia these days. i don't seem to have heard a lot about it prior to that. host: how far back do you consider prior? caller: prior to january 2017. host: are you talking specifically about the obama administration? previous and ministrations before that as well? i guess you could caller: go back as far as you want i just never heard a lot about russia and putin. january 2017 you cannot turn on

a station having anything to do with the news that hearing about russia. daniel: russia is the topic of the day no doubt about that. the does not mean they want to talk about before. we had a cold war with russia. they were big players in world war ii. i don't know how far back i should go. in the last administration obama met with putin before and he was outwardly tough on him. it's been a tradition for , reagan, tear down that wall, to be tough on russia because they're considered adversarial to us. the reason they are in the news a lot more now is because our intelligence community agrees they tried to hack and influence our elections and now there's been 12 indictments against

russia. one woman in jail, maria who .-- maria butina i'm not surprised there is more focused on russia. that is not take away from prior focus on russia. host:, new york city, line for democrats. good morning. caller: in the past the people have, obama, hillary, they did talk to putin but they were not under investigation. donald trump and all the people around him are conspiring and have been conspiring allegedly but the information coming through and that mueller will bring forth is going to show all this. it blows me away that the people that support trump don't see that. since 1979of trump it he has conned people day in

and day out and now he is on the world stage and it is dangerous. what do we do about this? old.3 years i've never ever worried about a man in the whitei have always hr those people whether i agreed with their policies or not. they were men. there was integrity. there was morals. with this man in the white house today there's absolutely an empty shell of a human being. host: ayesha rascoe, the caller saying sooner or later referring to the molar investigation. any updates? guest: no. there's no update on mo eller. ueller. he's the only one not leaking. -- only one in the town not leaking. there is concern that russia has hung over this administration

like a cloud because of the intelligence community's assessment that they did interfere in the election and they did it with the hope of getting president trump elected. saying putin in helsinki he did support trump getting elected. host: ayesha rascoe is a reporter for npr. dan newhauser with the national journal on twitter. thank you both for your time. up next, iris national taxpayer be here nina olson will to discuss implementation of the tax cuts and jobs act and how to resolve tax problems with the irs. stick around. we will be right back.

>> supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh continues to meet with senators on capitol hill. confirmation process on c-span leading up to the senate confirmation hearings and the vote. watch live on c-span. watch anytime on c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> tonight on the communicators. tina pigeon, general counsel for alaskan cable provider gci talks about how the company makes broadband possible for small ,illages, across tundra glaciers and mountains. then incoming president of the alaska collaborative for telemedicine and telehealth christopher dietrich on telemedicine to remote communities in alaska. watch the communicators tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span2.

c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress. the white house. .he supreme court and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. he is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> washington journal continues. host: each week we like to take a look at how your money is at work in the federal government. today we will focus on the irs with the help of virus national taxpayer advocate nina olson joining us once again. -- irs national taxpayer advocate nina olson joining us once again.

i had an organization, the taxpayer advocate service that is inside the irs but also independent. we help taxpayer solve their problems with the irs. it could be something the irs is doing or not doing creates economic harm to them or because they have been trying to get their issues resolved and they haven't been able to do it through normal channels. they can come to one of my 79 offices around the country. host: you are independent of the irs. who do you report to? guest: i report to the commissioner of the irs by law. i and my employees are inside the irs so we can see the data and find out what's really going on. i am appointed by the secretary of the treasury and that access a safety valve. my direct boss cannot hire me nor can he fire the national taxpayer advocate. host: you also make plenty of reports to congress on issues facing the irs. what is the most recent report?

guest: i'm required by law to provide two reports to congress each year and they have to go directly to congress before anyone in the irs or the treasury department or the white house or anybody sees it other than my own staff. june 30th inne was which we informed congress what we were focusing on for the next fiscal year starting october 1. there were a whole bunch of issues we were saying we were going to focus on. quite a will go through few of those issues on the washington journal. we are inviting you to call in your questions about the irs and concerns about interacting. take yourre to questions and comments. eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones (202) 748-8001. olson, one of the issues he

will be focusing on in the next year is the continued implementation -- you will be focus on -- focusing on in the next year is the continued implementation of the tax cuts. what lessons have we learned about how this is being implemented? guest: this is a heavy lift. the irs has to reprogram computers. they've have -- they have scores of tax reform forms that need to be changed. the treasury department has wanted the irs to come out with a new 1040 and eliminated -- eliminate the 1040a and the 1040e. people it will be very simple. others will have instead of just one or two forms they will maybe even have to file six schedules. that's out there for review. or you can gopage

and look at it and i would encourage people to go and look at it and weigh in on what they think. irs andried about the the heavy lift for the filing season getting all the systems programmed. will this filing season need to be delayed? in many ways they are going to get it done. they will get it done. i don't doubt that. my second level of concern is what doesn't get done in order to deliver tax reform? some of the normal improvements for taxpayer service and things like that get put on the back burner while you are trying to do something like this. host: what seems to confuse taxpayers the most when it comes to the tax cuts and jobs act? guest: one thing that is going to be a big issue for small business and self-employed is 199 cap a. 20% reduction for pass-through entities. that could be sole proprietors, partners, persons who have limited single owned limited

liability companies. the first draft of the regulations for that provision that didn't yet go public or 261 pages and i don't think a small business person is going to read 261 pages. i think it's down to about 135. but it's very complex. worried that different advisors will say one thing or another thing. the irs may say something completely different. host: you have talked about your concern about a shrinking irs budget. and how that's going to affect taxpayers. when it comes to the tax cuts and jobs act what more requirements are being put on the irs and was there any money built in to do that? guest: there was about $395 million that congress gave over two years for the irs to implement that and it will be able to hire more employees, particularly to answer the

phones. in my june report we tested some questions under the old tax law. that came out of this program. last time a lot of people called up and said, has this changed? first of all what we've done in my organization is we have created a website at taxpayer advocate. irs.gov. you can go there and look up questions by topic or you can formlly go to the 2017 1040 and click on the line and see whether anything has changed in the law whether it has gone up or gone down. if you click on dependency exemptions that like there are no more dependence. we have a child tax credit. at least you can look at your old tax return and say i wonder what's changed for next year. that's on our website and we

tested some questions calling into the irs toll-free line. old law, law that hadn't changed and new law and we got really varying results. or has not been a lot of training on irs employees. if you call it may not be able to get answers to your questions as you are trying to plan and that's what i'm really concerned about. are people going to get good aboutation from the irs the tax reform. host: give viewers the website one more time. advocate.payer irs.gov/tax changes. with ninang questions olson. talk about your interaction with the irs. brett isup first -- up first in florida. caller: good morning. and i tooklover ira about 10,000 last year with no

taxes. how much can i take out with the new tax law without paying no taxes? all, depending on your age, if you are 59 and a half or older then you won't have an early withdrawal penalty on an ira. because if you take your money out of the ira early before you are of what the congress has determined is retirement age starting at 59 and have they are going to penalize you because it is supposed to be in your savings for retirement. at that point congress and the increase the standard deduction to $12,000. muchs a baseline for how you would be able to take out. that's the standard deduction. think about that as the baseline. it also depends on what other kind of money -- income you have.

that $12,000 covers all of your income. host: james in jackson, mississippi. go ahead. caller: good morning. i know you are on the show about three or four months ago. i found my taxes on february 1, 2018 of this year. in the situation going through right now is that i have a 13-year-old and i have twin girls and their 11 years old and i have been claiming them since day one. now i'm getting an audit. and they want all this information. i'm in the process of going to the tax advocate as we speak. they want all types of information. birth certificate, school records. shot records. my apartment plumbing records, w-2 forms. i was wondering how long does

that take to be processed because i have been calling the irs twice a month for the past i would like to know what is the hold up on this and how long will it take before i get my tax return. have a nice day. guest: thank you for calling. first of all i do encourage you to go to the taxpayer advocate service. you called in so you can tell them that their boss sent you. if you look in the phone book on -- or on our website there is at least one office in every single state. wherever you live there is a local taxpayer advocate office serving your stay. some large states have more than one. when you go to the taxpayer advocate service you get one person assigned to your case and you will have an 800 number that rings right onto that person's extension. you might have to leave messages for that person but you are leaving it for a human being who has responsibility for your case.

legos goes to what you are under. you are under an audit which is called a correspondence audit. about 75% of all irs audits of individuals are done by correspondence which means that no one human being is assigned to your case. every time you have called the irs you have gotten a different person. and they are just looking on some system to see notes of whomever has made that -- talked to you before. but nobody is assigned to just handle your case. and a lot of times the documentation gets sent in and it just sits there for a while until somebody is available to work it. what you need to do because this obviously you need to get through this. the system isn't working. it has been long and delayed. get to the taxpayer advocate service. we will get you one person assigned. the bad news is that the easiest and fastest way may either we ask you to send us everything

you have sent the irs. because we may not be able to find it in the irs. if we can get it from you then we can bundle it up perfectly. send it over and say, you need to deal with this in a certain amount of time and if you have questions you have to come back to us. we may say, you've got enough information. you don't need any more information. make the decision. as person is entitled etc. host: the caller's concern is about audits. you have coined a term, real and unreal audits. what is the difference and why do they concern you? guest: an audit under the law as an examination of taxpayers books and records like what this gentleman was discussing. you can claim something on the return and now what it got to backup your entitlement to claiming your children as an exemption. have they lived with you for more than half the year? have you paid for more than half their support? etc. so that's an audit. the significant and that is that

once the irs is doing it, one audit for ataxia. it is very unusual for them to do a second audit for the same year. you are done for the year unless there has been fraud or misrepresentation. with an unreal audit which is really the bulk of what the irs the in its contacts with taxpayers, takes like sending them a notice and saying you left off your 1099 for interest off of this return. here's the extra tax. or you left a w-2 off. or you haven't filed a return and they create one for you based on all of your w-2s that they've got on their systems. lately they've been doing an enormous amount of math errors. you did something wrong but it doesn't amount to a full audit. that is youwith could do a full audit and any kinds of these other contacts, the irs has said they can go back several years and do these math errors which they've never done before. so you don't get any finality on

your tax year. the other thing that it does is they report out an audit rate. right now their figures are less than 1%. but if you add in all of these like unreal audit and it's closer to 6% or 7% is the coverage of the united states. there's a lot more work going on and they are actually reporting and i think that is a transparency issue. so there are taxpayer rights issues, finality, appeals, and the transparency and accuracy of the full picture. host: our breath in georgia -- barbara in georgia. good morning. caller: my husband died two years ago. he had an ira with a local bank. they send me the amount and so on. cpa.t it to my he pays tax on it. they won't give me the payout.

i send them a certified letter saying please do that. nothing. they won't do it. guest: so you are asking for a full distribution of the account? caller: no. i'm just asking for the regular amount that is payout. i'm 80 and the account is dwindling down. won't talk tobank me. guest: because it's not in your name? caller: is that why? guest: i don't know. one thing you might want to do is go into the local bank with the death certificate. they can roll over that account to your name and it want have any tax consequences because it's a rollover from a spouse to the survivor spouse. and maybe that will help. if they can see that you are the beneficiary of this along with the wealth or if the document

demise it goes to you. caller: well -- ok. cpa said was they are holding my money hostage until i get an appointment with this high-powered sales pitch. guest: that may be true, too. i would resist that. you might want to call your state consumer protection agency. because that's not appropriate. that might be something that they would be very concerned about. that that's going on. you might have some remedies there. host: thanks for the call. jen is in michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. sure if you can answer my question or not. do you actually work for the irs? i missed the very first minute. guest: yes.

i'm inside. my organization is inside the irs. but congress has created this organization with all sorts of safeguards around it to protect our independence and our mission is to advocate for taxpayers. i think the reason why we are inside the irs is because we need to have access to the taxpayer data. we need to be able to see what the irs internal rules and regulations are and what's driving the irs. are outside the irs is very hard to get that information if not impossible. caller: ok. since the beginning of last week since this change occurred, my understanding is treasury lawetary mnuchin changed regarding dark money with different entities. was the beneficiary so they don't have to disclose where they are getting their money? do you know anything about that or any of the other corporations

or entities that are going to benefit from that change? guest: so this was a treasury announcement last week. and i'm not involved in that aspect of the policy at this point. i was not consulted. just to be clear, the law requires that 501(c)(3) charities, these are your are charitable scientific organizations for which if you give money you can get a charitable contribution if you itemize your deductions. those charities have to disclose to the irs the name of any donor that gives over $5,000 year. that's the law and that hasn't been changed. that's for charitable organizations. what got changed last week was a ,egulation which treasury makes

so treasury changed it, which applied the same rules that applies by law to the c threes. that's what we call the charitable organizations. forother kind of nonprofits which chart contribution deductions aren't eligible but they are nonprofits. they aren't taxed on their program income. that includes what we call social welfare organizations that can do some -- that are designed to do lobbying and can do some political campaign activity. trade associations like the chamber of commerce etc. and it used to be that anyone who gave any of those --anizations five dollars $5,000 or more, the names had to be reported to the irs. treasury change that last week. some privacy advocates have been concerned. the annual returns of all of the nonprofits are made public or have to be made public because

they are getting attacked -- we are subsidizing them because they are not paying taxes on the money that they received. so those returns reporting their activities and expenditures are public. the schedules of the donors were not disclosed because that's a privacy issue. some occasions, 14 times over the last several years, certain donor names were disclosed by the irs mistakenly. they didn't redact them. i think that gave fuel to the fire to hide this information. that is a big controversial thing and members of congress are very concerned about it as well. i don't know whether they will take action legally and change the law to read the same way as it does right now for the charitable organizations. host: do you want to talk about the history of irs scrutiny of political organizations? that meant in terms of

impacting irs's budget down the road? what a lot of a this comes from is that at one point in 2009 through 2012 the exempt statustax to these organizations and i have to apply for it. so the welfare organizations don't need to apply for it but they would like to apply because they would like to have letter from the irs saying you are tax exempt. there were a whole bunch of tea party groups also occupy groups leading up to the 2012 election that were applying for status to be active, particularly after the citizens united supreme court decision. irs had questions. many of the employees had questions about some of these applications and they help them asking for guidance from national office and the guidance either didn't come more wasn't

very clear and these organizations were held for years. congress asked for the inspector general to do a review and the inspector general found that the irs had a list called be on the list, bolo, that had freedom,e tea party, occupy, 99% and they would pull organizations with any reference to that and put them in a pile waiting for guidance. that resulted in a whole series of hearings. people losing their jobs. people resigning. it resulted in the irs's budget being cut so that today we are at or below 2010 levels. we estimated that if you include budget hashe irs's been cut by 20% since 2010. host: about a half hour left with nina olson. the national tax their advocate taking your questions and

concerns about your interactions with the irs. john is in singh augustine, florida. good morning. caller: my question has to do with forms. i'm one of those folks that still files taxes the old-fashioned way. always place my order over the phone in january. this year it was done january 3. i made several subsequent follow-up phone calls and did not finally received the last of my forms until sometime in mid march. of course i was getting one story after another about the fact that congress didn't do anything until late in the year. late in getting their forms put together and so forth. is it going to be even worse now or can you give me any suggestions about how i can expedite getting forms to be filled out?

guest: the comment about congress enacting changes late in the year is actually accurate. every are certain provisions in the internal revenue code expire. we call these sunset provisions. some of the reason that happens is when congress enact something that might reduce federal it also reduces federal revenue. and the way congress does its budgeting you look at a 10 year window. so if it goes beyond that it may create on paper the huge cost and also in reality. so they sunset did. they say it's going to sunset after five years so it reduces the cost on paper, not in reality. thatroblem with that is every few years there are 40 or 50 tax law provisions that sunset. this year in 2018.

there were a bunch of provisions that ended on december 31 20 17 and unless congress acts to filed them when you go to your 2018 returns either they won't either or usually what happens is congress extends them in december 2018 and the irs can't print forms for something that is not the law. we don't know whether congress is actually going to do that. and that's what happened last year. some of these extended provisions got extended so late in the year, irs had to hold up its printing schedule. and that's a problem. all these new forms coming out. i encourage anyone to go to irs. does. they do have a place where you can look at under the new law various forms that you can see what it's going to look like going forward. and they are in draft form now. so you can see what they look like.

if you are really interested in that you can do that. don't have an extender form, an issue that has caught up with the extenders and the people on the phones can actually tell you that. they are really tell you the truth when you call about that. if it's just the system isn't working you can go to a walk-in site and get them to print off a form. they say to make an appointment but they also say that they will handle same day walk-ins for things like forms and making payments and things. visit the taxpayer advocate service if you don't have internet and my folks can print off the form. host: question from twitter. how does the irs make sure that companies like turbotax and h&r block get it right? the irs has an electronic return filer office and they work closely with the software companies. one of the concerns that i have is that the irs doesn't do

testing to my knowledge. they don't go out with scenarios to see whether people have done things right according to the irs. a couple years ago my employees started getting complaints. we have what we call systemic advocacy function. not just dealing with one off taxpayer cases but systemic issues. in that office we got a whole bunch of complaints from taxpayers saying that the software didn't allow them to enter certain exemptions for the penalty for not having insurance. sure enough when we went in we found three or four of the software companies had not asked the right questions or hadn't calculated the red exemptions that they could have automatically from the data. we were able to get them to change it. to my knowledge there is no testing of that kind of thing which i think is a real problem because so many taxpayers you software today.

host: in hampton, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. you and one to miss olson. it is good to see you here. out one grossint reaction of you in week ahead in washington. a wacoler said he was survivor. you laughed at him. what's funny? you are ashamed. you get paid for that? host: i don't remember laughing about that. i do have a second. what's your question for the irs? with thisat is wrong tax law? you might be sticking your employee with a tax bill without

even knowing it. it happened. host: i'm not quite sure what the question was. -- guest: i'm not quite sure what the question was. host: are not sure what it was either. we will go to maxine in wesley chapel, florida. good morning. caller: i think she answered my main question. the question i have is because insurance wasi the 2017.o expire for and then after i have filed my 2017 itax in 2018 for wasn't in the turbotax. for that exemption. and then later on i get a letter from my mortgage company that said on february 8 they had agreed to allow the mpi insurance deduction.

so that meant i had to go and file an amendment. when i go onto to the irs website that tells me that i have to allow 16 weeks from my refund. and so it has now been 18 weeks and when i go back on and look at the status it is still showing processing. so how many more weeks to i have to wait? first of all, mortgage insurance premium and you are absolutely right. this is an example of an extender legislation. because you probably file your income tax return early you had an early version of the software. are in the exact same situation as the irs. their early persons are not going to include things that aren't yet the law. so they might send out updates later on when congress enacted things. but maybe you didn't get the

update or you filed already before the update. so you do have to file an amended return. said 16 weeks to process. you have gone 18 weeks. what i would suggest is you reach out to your local taxpayer advocate service office. tell them i sent you. we can find out where the return is and most likely it is sitting somewhere that needs to be assigned to someone to process through. we can get it signed. and get them to process it through. once it gets in its just a simple thing like that. the machines will take care of it. it is getting someone to actually look at it. and this goes to the cuts. when they are not enough bodies to do the volume of work and the work is incremental. there's the normal work of just going through the regular filing season and then you add onto that they extender -- late extender so folks have to fire amended returns -- file amended returns.

for each taxpayer that's two returns. millionit affects 10 that's 10 million more pieces of paper the irs needs to process. that means more employees need to be there to do the extra work. it sort of snowballs. host: in terms of the amount of employees at the irs and whether they can do all the work that they have any tough about the role of private debt collections agencies when it comes to collecting all the taxes? guest: the irs doesn't incredible job -- taxpayers do incredible job. involuntarilypay $3.7 trillion a year with their income tax returns and through the payroll system. that is just extraordinary. then the irs itself through its own collection employees collects about $40 billion year. but there is still a lot of debt. that isn't collected out there.

several billion dollars on the books that the irs is not able to get to to assign its employees. arguef that debt we would the vast majority of that text there cannot afford to pay and that's why they haven't paid it. they can't make their basic living expenses. congress said many years ago, , passed into law that the irs could use private debt collectors and pay them on commission. but they only said that debt collectors could collect full or put taxpayers into a five-year installment agreement. they could get financial information to put that to the irs so the irs could put them in an account called currently not collectible hardship. which means you can't afford to pay your basic living expenses so we are not going to get blood from a stone.

the first go around didn't work. irs stopped it because it was not really being very effective. came back a few years ago in mandated rather than saying you can use this, you have to use it. looking at the data. it has been in place for a year. what we have looked at is that about 20% of the taxpayers who are actually making payments to the private debt collectors have income at or below federal poverty level. the wiki and income was about $6,000 a year. under no stretch of imagination with the irs collect any money whatsoever from that taxpayer. taxpayers whohe are entering making installment agreements, their income is below the allowable living expenses which means they can't afford to pay their basic living expenses but they are making installment agreements. and when you look at what

happens to those installment agreements more than a quarter of them, 26% of them default me. -- default. which means they start making payments and then stop. to the private% debt collectors to the 18% with the irs. the irsthat's because isn't screening out taxpayers who really can't afford to pay before they send them to the private debt collectors. say i personally believe that the collection of federal tax debt is inherently governmental duty. requires the exercise of judgment and discretion you just can't -- people's lives are complex. you need to have a conversation with taxpayers. that's not what i'm looking at in my analysis of this program. congress has already spoken. they want -- they are mandating the irs use private debt collection. so what i'm looking at is how is the irs implementing it?

f for notet an screening of persons that are not allowed to pay -- not able to pay. when they get private debt collectors they agree anything to just get off the phone. host: a nonprofit coalition working to advance this program that we are talking about, that group out with a press release earlier this month saying nina olson has consistently made false and misleading claims about the irs and its private debt collection program. own political agenda. they say the program is growing into a successful public private that strengthens the irs and provides funding for federal programs benefiting millions of americans. it also offers taxpayers voluntary and manageable solutions that allow them to achieve a zero tax balance. guest: first of all, they misspelled my name so we can talk about accuracy.

no political agenda. i am not a political appointee. i am not senate confirmed. my agenda is in the internal revenue code. congress has mandated that i help taxpayers solve their problem with the irs and make recommendations to mitigate those problems. so to make taking money from people who cannot afford to pay their basic living expenses actually goes against congress's intent where it has put into the basicnsideration of living expenses in various collection activities that the irs does. so what i'm focusing on is how the irs is choosing the cases to send out the private debt collectors and i think they are selecting them in a way that harms low income taxpayers who cannot afford to pay their basic living expenses. and that means medicine, food, housing, basic transportation. we are not talking about going to harvard and having vacations in the bahamas. so i think that is squarely within my mission.

i think the concern from the thatte debt collectors is you and i in this age of identity theft and scams, if we see an unrecognized phone number , weing up on our phones don't answer it. we let it go to voicemail. the people who are the most vulnerable, the elderly. people who don't have that kind of sophistication and consumer protection pick up the phones. they're the ones talking to the private debt collectors and they are also the ones that can't afford to pay. this can all be avoided if the irs and an algorithm that screened out these people and in the 21st century it is shameful that the irs has not done that. host: we've got about 15 minutes left with nina olson this morning. taking your calls, looking to solve your tax problems. joe has been waiting in illinois. good morning. caller: good morning c-span. make you for taking my call. i think c-span does a wonderful job.

over 65. and i'm i was wondering is that exemption still going to be in place in the new tax code? guest: yes. and i actually know that for a fact because the last time i was on this show someone asked about that and i didn't know the ander and i went back actually that led to our creation of this tax change website so you can go to the 2017 1040 or onto the site and it is 508 compliant if that helps you. which is the code section that says that it has to be visually adaptable for people that need assistance looking at things online or translated into audio. that you can look and see that on that line of the return for that particular provision yes, it has been retained under the law. sharon in georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to call and let

everyone know that if you can hear my voice, no matter how small your tax problem is, please contact your local tax advocate. because they will help you. thank you. host: it sounds like you have a story to share of your own. have you ever done that? caller: yes i have. i had a problem with some taxes. the bank didn't send me the form that i should have filed with my taxes. upouple years later they end saying that i owed taxes. so i got in touch with the tax advocate and they did as much as they could. they looked at the problem. they will help you. that's what i really want to say to any taxpayer out there. they will go the extra yard to help you. guest: thank you for that and i'm glad that happened. i do hear occasionally from people where we have fallen down on the job and i just want to say where that has happened that what you need to do, we have

local offices and people individual people are assigned to your case. one person to your case. sometimes that person may be out sick but they are assigned to your case. and if you feel like the service isn't doing a good job then reach out. every office is headed by a local taxpayer advocate and that's the head of the local office. reach out to that person. me if not you can contact and my phone number. my email is out there. you can contact me and we will figure out a way to take care of you. host: denise in upper marlboro, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a problem about the tax cut. itause when i file my taxes stated that after the president signed the jobs cut act it would be applied. and i've never gotten it.

guest: the tax cuts and jobs act doesn't apply to the return that you just filed. in 2018 but it was for the 2017 tax year. teen is the first year that the provision in the jobs and you won't really see the impact of it until you file your 2018 tax return in 2019. one thing that i really suggest people do is there's a new w-4 out for calculating your exemptions and there's also a calculator that the irs has on the website. it isot really easy, but a calculator out there and i really encourage people to either use the new w-4. it's not required by law that you do it. w-4 or the calculator to make sure you have

enough withholding taken out. most wage earners if all of your income is just coming from wages you are going to be pretty ok. if you self-employment income or other kind of income you might want to use the calculator to make sure you are not shorting yourself. host: stella asked, how much can i just might get an attack of ways yo? guest: i forget the annual exclusion. it might be up to $2000. can look it up on the irs website. there are also private websites. it is indexed for inflation. and youre married spouse and you can gift the same amount it would be doubled the amount. if you go over that in any given year generally you would need to file a gift tax return and then there's an estate tax at the end

where you calculate it all up. the law has changed those thresholds and raise the amount that would make a taxable estates of that very few people in the united states lead -- very few people in the end would have to file an estate tax return. host: taking your text questions with nina olson, the national taxpayer advocate. with us for about 10 more minutes. rodney is in clermont, florida. good morning. caller: i was calling because i had an issue with the taxes. andife has multiple myeloma she was out of work for about a year. thats paying our taxes they had told us to pay extra. this cancer is a very vicious cancer. most people don't live for four years with this. she had a stem cell transplant so it prolonged her life little

longer. but my thing is, the hospital -- it gets to be so expensive. we owe so much money in hospital and ourd medicine co-pay is ridiculous. she's trying to live. you know? my thing is i don't understand $15,000, 10lt -- thousand dollars. i'm getting all these letters. i explained that them when they first went to the hospital. i don't understand how can i get this off of that because we can't really afford to do this. guest: is this about a tax? you're getting letters about a tax problem? the irs is saying you own them? let's assume that's the case. that you are getting letters from the irs and you got all these other medical bills. there is a provision called

offer in compromise. let's say the debt is correct. you got behind on your taxes. here you've got this catastrophic illness in your family. can't afford to pay the taxes and you are really struggling right now. the foreseeable future. there's a program called the offer in compromise program which will compromise the tax debt. ands say you owe $30,000 the irs will look at your ability to pay. that's where those allowable living expenses come in. how much do you need to live and hear that would include your medical expenses that you are paying out. because you need them to live. and any transportation and things like that that go with that. i can calculate the monthly amount that you can afford to pay. it could be zero. that you can't afford to pay anything. and they look at your assets. they come up with a number which could be very low. we have compromised debts for

taxpayers at $100. is based on your ability to pay. any sound that you have even some very special circumstances there. and that gets rid of your debt forever. you have to promise that you will be in tax compliance for the next five years or the debt will get right back in place. that's part of the deal that you make. and i would really encourage you to call your local taxpayer advocate and one thing that they can do and i don't know your financial situation but if you are low income and that's not a level, that's 250% of poverty level. there are low income taxpayer clinics around the country who are designed to help people like you and they have lawyers and cpas and enrolled agents who are volunteers and attorneys on their staff will take your case free of charge and represent you

before the irs. so if you call the taxpayer advocate service they could not only help you with your case but maybe even refer you to a low income taxpayer clinic, give you the names of the clinics in your area you might be able to get assistance from their to resolve your debt. didn't want to run out of time without asking you about this story print thousands of americans will be denied a past board because of unpaid taxes. irs officials provided details on it passed in 2015. guest: congress passed this law. they have the line for like that child support. support.hild the child-support agencies would tell department of state, don't do than the passport until they get their child support. if it is passed that saying if you have a tax debt today its

inflation-adjusted so it's over 51,000 and you didn't get an offer in compromise. --'re not in installment of installment agreement. the states to tell department you have the debt and the state department will not give you a passport or renew your passport unless you get into an installment of -- agreement. i have been looking very closely at the procedures for that and i have a lot of can serves about the way it is in and in that program. host: what are some of those concerns yet the guest: they are not giving taxpayer sufficient notice. if you give the taxpayer's 30 day notice before you are going to certify that meets constitutional procedural due muster. it gives you a chance to come in before the harm has happened. we have already seen cases where the irs has certified people incorrectly instead they send

out a letter pretty much at the same time that they sort of to the department of state so the harm is already done and you are backing up something rather than having a 30 day period to really fix it or go in and say, i don't know this debt. we have had situations where the taxpayers don't owe the debt and a half to get it all result in a get it all resolved. host: ruth is in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i was calling to ask weston. 2012 my family -- college kids -- guest: i missed that. could you repeat that? in 2012 my son went to college and i sent his

paperwork. ok? 2012. and his school closed. he didn't get new kind of degree or anything. but i had to pay the money back and he didn't get no degree. school closed and they took my money. i was wondering why did they do that. i thought when you go to school to go to get some kind of degree so you can move on. guest: there have been a number of things -- the issues we have been looking at our student debt where the schools have closed. there is thatns the loans are written off. you don't have to repay them. you end up having taxable income because you got debt forgiveness. provisionsave been where the treasury department

has said you actually don't have to pay any taxes on that debt forgiveness dealing with some of these closures. i think what you are saying is you actually paid hard cash for the education and they closed and didn't get any education. that's not as i understand describing it in tax issue. but there i really would go to your state attorney general which has a fraud division. they may be looking at that action and there's -- in their state about that school. there may be several attorney general's looking at that. you may be part of that action. so if you paid it out and you were basically robbed or fraud was committed. go to the consumer protection agency or your state attorney general because often under state laws there's remedies. host: what if she had used 529 college savings plan money to do that?

would there be any penalty on her for using that money if the school closed? guest: i don't think so. but if she had been she could go to the taxpayer advocate service and we can figure it out. i haven't seen that area. -- scenario. the irs saying it is disallowed because you didn't get an education. that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. that she go to the taxpayer advocate service. host: susan in dayton, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a retired social worker /mental health therapist. and i work contract and receive a 1099. i file a schedule c. i'm calling about that 20% reduction for sole proprietors. i thought i would receive it as long as i didn't make like over

$250,000 or something. guest: ok. so the rules are not yet finalized on that. that it doesn't go into effect until this year. so you will see it on your 2019 return. proprietor as long as you are not in certain professions you would be eligible for that deduction. and i haven't seen the final rules to know whether mental is one offessional those professions. but you are right. there is also an income cap or an income threshold as well. is go tocommend you do the irs.gov site to be able to see. they will publish the schedule c form and then the instructions and it will be published in draft.

it won't be finalized but that will give you a heads up as soon as they publish it as to whether it has changed. you can also go to our text changes to. -- changes site. we will put up the schedule c and link to the irs guidance as soon as they have it out. be another way because the whole point of our text change site is for you to say what has happened to my tax is their newere information and an easy way to navigate it. host: did that answer your question? i think we lost susan. in alabama. good morning. back during ivan, the hurricane down but gulf shores -- by gulf shores, i live about nine miles from the beach on the golf course. i had all of these beautiful live oaks.

ii had won the side of my house that was blown all the way over to the middle of the fairway. i lost my river birches, pine trees. branchdid, there was a , forestryuniversity and other stuff and i went to them and got an estimate. i took pictures and everything. i got an estimate on what those trees would cost to replace. they came up, they gave me brochures and they based it on live oaks and mobile in places and they gave me an estimate of around $30,000. i called the irs back when you could talk to them and not a robot.

i talked to a supervisor and told them what i had done and could i claim that and he said yes you can and with the hurricane seasons coming up, this may be some information that people ought to know about. $30,000 onlaim that my income tax -- i got to claim that $30,000 on income tax. i was glad to sell our house that april and get back up here in the mountains. i did not want any more hurricanes. guest: i am sorry for what you went through. and inseen both in texas i haven't all of those places and have seen the devastation and i am really sorry for what you went through. i will say this. the casualty loss rules have changed for the 2018 return. one of my takeaways from this

program is that i need to make sure that we have that form up on our tax changes website. peoplean make sure that can check out what is going to 2019lowed in 2018 and going forward, and what is not going to be allowed historically. host: i wonder if the call speaks to the importance of talking to a live person. caller: you prepare your cell -- guest: you prepare your self for something challenging and there is no replacing talking to a live person. you can check the balance on your account and make sure things are moving properly. when you have issues like that, when you have collection issues, you need to talk to a live human being, somebody who is -- who preferably has skin in the game. host: we all -- we are all very

happy to have talked to you and have you with us. that is going to do it for this morning on the washington journal. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern, 4:00 pacific. have a great monday. >> coming up live today on c-span at about half an hour, steny hoyerp announces the make it in america plan. week,g at congress this the house is that today at noon

eastern for speeches with legislative work starting at 2:00. on the agenda is an extension of the flood insurance program and health-care legislation that would repeal the medical device tax. it is also possible that members will take up a compromise bill between the house and the senate , sitting defense programs for 2019. the senate is back today at 3:00 p.m. eastern to consider the nomination of the next the a secretary -- v.a. secretary. as always, although the house live on c-span and see the senate live on c-span2. are --sman steny hari steny hoyer coming up at 10:00 eastern -- 10:30 eastern. on monday, when congress is in session, we like to take a look at the week ahead in washington and to do that, we are joined