washingtonc-span's journal live every day impacts you. coming up, national farmers union discusses the impact trump administration's tariffs is having on american farmers. christine mcdaniel talks about the dispute and the impact of tariffs. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal this morning. join the discussion. peter roskam and sean

caston took part in a debate thursday. they are buying for the illinois six congressional district. by fox 32 was posted chicago. announcer: one of the most watched congressional contests in the america -- in america. >> starving government resources. the battle for history. >> the democrats have a plan to put your picture on this side of the screen and president trump's picture on this side of the screen. is that going to work? >> i do not think so. >> mike flannery.

-- four starts now. >> good evening from downtown chicago. thank you to the form present the illinois congressional district -- i am mike flannery and welcome. guests more than 200 joining us here today. to hear whataiting these candidates have to say about the candidates, the republican incumbent and his challenger sean caston of downers grove. colleague, me is my mike. we will be inviting some of our guests appear to ask the

candidates questions and for the past couple of days, we have asked our viewers to submit their questions via facebook. explain where the six congressional district is. nor through dupage county. form.s not a orum.for rum -- a f as they prepare to vote this , the president is top of mine even though he is not on the ballot. voters have to be thinking about a flatter things. -- about a lot of things.

working ones time to tax reductions and those types -- hings when it comes to standing up, reflecting the interest of our constituency. many times, we are seeing a miss -- a mischaracterization. voters,i talked to the they are so frustrated by having

to watch the news every day. >> how is mr. trump doing? >> think he is the worst president. he is not the problem though. >> let me ask the congressman, spokeday, the president about the european union and calling a truce with your. rep.th your

>> yesterday seems like a good day if europe is willing to come to the table. fundamentally misrepresented my position three times as relating to children's health insurance. facts and character matter. >> we will have a segment on health care but let me let him respond. cap -- >> on trade, i think bob corker said it best.

we need to borrow money from china. >> is widespread agreement the chinese are cheating, offering subsidies they should not be offering, and stealing our intellectual property. >> these are two separate issues. our trade policy ideally makes sure our workers compete on a level playing field. not just on ip in china, but we ought to level the playing field. our trade policy is an element of our foreign policy. has been so since the munro doctrine. the president is destabilizing the entire world order, from pulling out of nato to

destabilizing the paris climate accord. >> he is proposing $12 billion for farmers, but what about manufacturers? >> that is a mistake. farmers want markets, farmers don't want subsidies. i predict we don't go in that direction. sean said tweets don't matter in the grand scheme of things. i think our language matters. i think our twitter matters. i think how we present ourselves in public matters. the notion we are dismissive about a misrepresentation -- not once, not twice, but three times. just delete it and go away? that fundamentally mischaracterizes having representatives for constituency.

>> you voted against the violence against women act, and kept a video on your website for three years saying he supported it. that is absolutely true. >> i voted in favor of the violence against women's act. there are two different versions. one had no restraint when it came to conscious objections. again this is a misrepresentation. how about this? >> you interrupted me. you voted against the violence against women act. you voted for the authorization that strict the funding by 30% -- stripped the funding by 30%. why you did that is on your conscience. >> you had folks that were going to be excluded based on the right to life issue. of course i'm going to stand up about that. >> let me ask about the proposal offered by colleagues in the

house to impeach rosenstein, the deputy attorney general overseeing the mueller investigation. >> got to have hearings, you've got to have a discussion. i would do the responsibility as a member of congress. sean has already made his mind up about donald trump. he has made up his mind on impeaching donald trump. on any objective measure, donald trump should be impeached. those are your words, sean. >> [indiscernible] >> let rosenstein testified. -- testify.

>> i strongly support the mueller investigation. there is no indication there is any need to step in. the mueller investigation should be prompt, and it should dispose of these issues. >> it costs you nothing to support that. >> we will go to my colleague who has an audience question. >> introduce yourself to the candidates please. >> i am an undergraduate student.

by the time i graduate i will , have over $100,000 in student debt. how can you help me tackle this financial burden? >> we should allow people to refinance their loans at current rates. we need to recognize that the pell grant program grows with the rate of college inflation. college rates have inflated faster then the economy. at the undergrad level, the state payments for state colleges have fallen to less than 25% of tuition. that burden needs to be addressed. if you don't fix that, you are not dealing with the root cause. >> i introduced a bill that

would require students to disclose the totality of the project. when people enter into college, one year becomes compounded after another. i have also been active on the ways and means committee looking at endowments. i joined other leaders inquiring of college endowments, how is it you are benefiting under the tax code, and yet these schools that are now flush with cash -- there has not been that approach to make that money available? we are actively working with the every student succeeds act. it is an initiative that needs some fine tuning. >> should there be more federal assistance for students? >> yeah, and there has been. the education bubble we are in is going to burst.

it is not rational to spend $50,000 a year for a degree coming out of these liberal arts colleges. >> the congressman is very proud of his role in passing the tax cuts that took effect earlier this year. you say he shouldn't be. why? >> look, if you're going to run a business successfully, you need to make sure revenues cover expenses. donald trump does not have that history. he runs businesses into the ground. the tax cut gave us $2 trillion of deficits. who paid for it? 83% go to the top 1%. one third of u.s. equities are owned by foreigners. they made more money from this tax cut flowing out to foreigners than the middle class that needs it.

it is not growing the economy. real wages are down 1.8%. businesses are not investing. there is a massive increase in dividend distribution. this was a gift. >> in sean's introductory podcast, he told us he is a multimillionaire, sold the company, and had the luxury and free time to figure out what he would do next. he came up with a tax plan that is a massive tax increase on the sixth congressional district. he proposed to raise all of the tax rates we lowered. he would cut the child tax credit, reimposed the alternative minimum tax on 30,000 people. he has stood with mike madigan against the property text -- property tax freeze. he said he is in favor of

a gas tax. he has said he is in favor of lifting the cap on social security earnings. that is devastating. here is what we have as a result -- 18 year unemployment low. we have 20 year manufacturing confidence high. i was out in downers grove off butterfield road. it was called flavor town. they pointed to a $4 million piece of equipment that they say they bought specifically because of the tax cut. not only that, it is helping them meet in for mental -- meet environmental standards? >> a $2 trillion deficit? are we going to have trillion dollar deficits forever?

>> no, it is less than that. the odds are it is 800 billion. but is still a lot of money. the last two american presidents have told the american public medicare is fine. it is not fine. we have 10,000 people stepping into medicare who are baby boomers every 24 hours. >> let's hit a couple points. you are quite right unemployment is at an all-time low. i hope you are as thing for two president obama as i am for that. we are at a nine-year economic boom that was created. let us recall he saved us from a massive recession caused by your tax bill liked. light.bill what you learn -- >> is congressman wright that

you would raise every -- is the congressman right that you would raise every tax cut? >> this tax bill -- let me tell you the way business owners think about things. you make money not based on -- let me not throw money out of the system, let's invest. when you're getting money in dividends -- if i am sitting on piles of cash, and suddenly i have more cash, investors say we need to make a distribution. that is what happened to the economy. it is leading to corporate dividends, not investments. we are sitting on cash reserves. >> why should voters vote for you to raise taxes? >> need a growing economy. there are two pieces to people's incomes. when wages are falling, when companies are not investing, when money is slowing out of the economy as a result of the tax bill, that is not putting money in people's pockets.

you can see it in the numbers, the median income of the district -- people are not getting tax relief from this bill. they are getting it in an assumption rate. >> did you notice something? i listed the litany of tax hikes sean has advocated. you followed up and asked the question and he did not deny it. he is for raising all of these taxes. it would be a disaster. >> bloomberg did report that income purchasing power has dropped by 1.4%. >> there are two issues. one is the actual tax decrease. that is tax rates coming down. that is $4600 per family. he is conflating this and talking about another number,

and that is trying to create the other growth as it relates to the economy. what we are talking about is actual tax cuts. the 83% figure sean talks about is according to a misleading impression. >> i will give you 15 seconds, then we going to an audience question. >> the $4600 is based on made-up numbers. it is based on a family that could incentivize and did not and now takes advantage of the standard deduction. >> a question from facebook -- i have a medical condition and my medication costs $12,700 per month.

thankfully my insurance is paying for the medication. tell me what you will do to ensure i will always be able to get my medication, should i lose my insurance for some reason. >> we got to get to universal health care. we pay more than every country in the world, for health care and we have lower quality outcomes than any country. they have models that look like the aca with a public option. i am not talking about medicare for all. i am talking about a multiplicity of options where consumers can make the best choice. along with commercial for-profit providers. >> on drug prices specifically? >> there is a whole separate series on drug prices. peter voted to repeal the aca. he likes to say he is an

advocate for pre-existing conditions, but you cannot have access without affordability. what peter has advocated is allowing insurance companies to decide what to charge people. that will put people in a very difficult situation. rep. roskam: on sean's website, he says he is an advocate to providing medicare for all. mr. casten: no, you are taking the sentence out of context. if everyone wants medicare, you get medicare for all. i believe in consumer choice. >> part of the reason this pressure is because of high deductibles and co-pays. remember when president obama gave a speech in chicago? he said, if you like your coverage, you can keep it.

he made the representation that every family would save $2500. none of that turned out to be true. >> but what would you do -- rep. roskam: you have to increase competition. you have to do trade deals that enhance intellectual property in the united states. i just yesterday helped savings accounts to allow to save tax-free. it is pretty modest. >> it does not sound like she is making that much. >> we provide health care for all of our employees. we saw the benefits bringing down the cost as we were participating. hsa's are not helpful for those without the kind of income. >> the overwhelming majority of hsa users are under $200. >> the cdo said when he voted to

>> the cdo said when he voted to repeal the -- cbo said when you voted to repeal the aca, 20 million americans would lose health care coverage. if you don't have health care coverage, the fact that you have a hsa is like saying let's give everyone a roth ira to solve poverty. rep. roskam: plain language of the bill i voted for says nothing permits insurance to limit access to health coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions. here is where we are now -- if you are in the sixth congressional district today, and you are in mchenry county and you are in the exchange, there is one insurance company you can choose. that is not an option.

that is not an invitation for greatness. that is a manipulation for people. why is it after the passage of the aca we are so restless? because they overpromised and they underdelivered. >> you talk about republican sabotage. the congressman points out one insurer. my brother-in-law is getting clobbered with skyhigh premiums and deductibles. mr. casten: let's look at the facts. is the aca perfect? has there ever been a bill that was perfect? probably not. for 16 years, i was running companies. every year we saw health insurance premiums go up every year. >> what will you do for the small business guys? mr. casten: i was a small business guy. when the aca was passed, our premiums still went up unacceptably high. i still had to make decisions

about how much coverage we can provide and how much we would have for raises. as you get more participants in the system, as you get more healthy people in the system, the rates go down, and they did. do we have limitation in choice? truly. we have to take a great step forward and fix the patches. trump has been openly sabotaging this since he came in. rep. roskam: let me talk about the sabotage phrase. i heard it yesterday from what the democrats were saying on the house floor. we took part of the aca. this is a bill that was on the house floor yesterday. it took the catastrophic coverage from the affordable care act. we said, these deductibles are massive.

we said, let's attach a health savings account to this. all the time we have been hearing across the nation, let's fix the affordable care act. let's take the ac anda put an hsa on it. we are told the same thing sean told us today. that is not sabotage. mr. casten: hsa was an option we provided to employees. it was not in the of their health insurance. -- not in lieu of their health insurance. when she has bills that big, i can reasonably assume she does not have the income to put money aside in the hsa. catastrophic insurance coverage recognizes that as human beings, every one of us in this room could have something unfortunate that we could not afford to pay. telling someone to buy an hsa is cruel. rep. roskam: attaching it to something that already exists? >> some of the demonstrators outside this building have been

organized by the national abortion rights action league, planned parenthood. obviously some of them are concerned about abortion, and they are opposed to you, congressman because you are , pro-life. they feel it nominee brett kavanaugh is on the supreme court, abortion could cease being a right. rep. roskam: i am pro-life. many people in my constituency are pro-life. i think the question for sean, why is it he moves to compel taxpayers to pay for abortions even when they reject it? he celebrates that he will repeal the hyde amendment if elected to congress. when a child is in the womb, there is no dispute in terms of science as to whether a child is capable of experiencing pain.

we have a bill that will protect that child. sean is opposed to that. mr. casten: i respect that peter's moral view is different than mine. that's fine. we can respectfully disagree. my fundamental issue is this -- moderator: do you favor any limits at all on when or how an abortion is available? mr. casten: for me this is entirely a matter of choice. the choice about what is the right decision for a woman is up to her and her doctor. peter is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and insist. moderator: would you move viability back? mr. casten: this is where the numbers don't lie. one in four women in this country will have an abortion before she turns 45.

true for republicans, democrats, catholics, jews, red states, blue states, regardless of access to clinics. the only thing that differs is how safe that procedure is and the only thing that's been proven to reduce the incidence of abortion for people whose opinions i respect like peter is making sure you have access to contraception -- and full maternal health services. >> from the harmless point of view, it doesn't eliminate it and we have women who try to get an illegal abortion who are harmed or who die. rep. roskam: i'm pro life. i believe that life in the womb is worthy of protection. i find it shocking that sean will impose no limitation whatsoever. he likes to talk about western european health systems. western european health systems do not allow late term abortions so there's no limitations

whatsoever and under sean's world view, taxpayers are compelled to pay for it. i find it very troubling. mr. casten: here's the distinction. i view abortion like a medical procedure like gallbladder surgery. i don't want anyone to have to have one. the conditions that would cause a woman to decide to have an extremely invasive procedure that she's going to grapple with the rest of her life, that's a hard decision. i don't think anybody takes those decisions lightly. when we -- when we legislate what the right thing is for specific individuals, i'm almost surprised to hear a republican take this position. this is an individual rights issue. this is a do you trust people to make the right decision for themselves. rep. roskam: and taxpayers pay for them all, that's sean's view. mr. casten: all of the evidence

is that we do not reduce incidents of abortion. rep. roskam: you're going to compel people, american taxpayers, if the hite amendment is repealed and you said you look forward to the day to repeal the hite amendment. why would you compel someone to do that if they find it morally offensive. mr. casten: it's a false choice. before roe v. wade was passed, rush hospital had an entire room dedicated to sepsis. we put women's lives at risk. moderator: to my colleague with questions. >> thank you for participating in tonight's forum. >> my name is jerry freda, i live in inverness. according to sources, homes in the 6th district will be more expensive and it will be more

difficult to run government as a result of the passage of the tax law. what do you plan to do about this? rep. roskam: this is the not what's happening. what we're seeing is robust economic activity. state of illinois has more money that's come in as a result of this. the types of businesses that we're talking about are now expanding. i was up not far from you, jerry, in mchenry county, visiting with a mother and daughter who own a childcare business and they said, look, i asked them, how is business and they said business is booming. i said why? and they said because of the tax bill. so what we're seeing is economic activity. we're seeing taxes go down. we're seeing the type of investment this i mentioned a couple of minutes ago, a manufacturing company in elgin, expanding business.

mr. casten: the question was about property values. with the tax regime, you've essentially eliminated the incentive to own versus buy. i'm saying the national association of realtors who knows the most about this says the net effect of the bill will be to lower property values. a gentleman i met in downers grove who has a business that buys and rehabs apartments has retuned his business to say this is a great time to be renting, buying properties and renting them because it's supply-demand. if you reduce the incentive for ownership, you increase the

pressure -- moderator: mr. casten, you propose to ban assault weapons and large magazines attached to them but millions of americans have those weapons and enjoy them. why would you ban them? mr. casten: for a real simple reason, unless your job requires you to kill large numbers of people quickly, i don't know why you should own a weapon that's designed to kill large numbers of people quickly. i like eating meat. i don't particularly want a piece of venison that's been strafed. this isn't interfering with people's rights to be sportsmen or people's rights of self defense. this is putting guns in the hands of people that have an intent that is only designed for military uses and when we now have people coming into schools and communities, how do you defend against that? this should not be a hard choice. moderator: mr. roskam, you got zero in the last election cycle from the jim and sarah brady campaign to control firearms and 93% rating from the n.r.a. many argue that banning assault

weapons is common sense. rep. roskam: i had a real interesting meeting with a group of glenbard north high school students after one of the recent shootings and we're at a very challenging time as it relates to this issue right now, that is, violence. i'm in favor of the universal background check. i voted against the national rifle association when they proposed a reciprocity bill for concealed carry that would not have honored illinois standards. i stood up to them and voted against it. i actively advocated to get rid of bump stocks, which was the big problem in the vegas shooting and the treasury department, based on urging from members of congress like me, abolished it. we also moved forward to the stop school violence act which gives schools the tools that they need. it's an issue that's -- moderator: why would anybody need an assault weapon?

rep. roskam: first of all, assault weapon is a loaded pejorative term. moderator: it's hard to define. military style -- rep. roskam: good luck defining it but beyond that there is a right to bear arms in this country. we have a constitutional right to bear arms. this is something we ought not to be dismissive about and if we want to amend the constitution, so be it. but what i've tried to do to reflect this constituency is to find a sense of balance, to have common-sense things that make sense and at the same time recognizing, look, part of the other problem is this is a mental health issue so i've advocated a red-flag law. we've seen time and again where family members or law enforcement locally have gotten the word that somebody is not stable, not well. let them go in and get those guns. mr. casten: one of the most heartbreaking things i've heard on the trail, you did meet with six of the glenbard students. i met with 600 of them. i'm sorry you didn't show up for that. it was moving.

the parklands students came to the district a couple of months ago. i was chatting with one of the kids outside and he said i hope you win and i said thank you and he said when you get elected, do something. moderator: my colleague has an audience question. >> this one tends to steer more personal. coming to us from facebook, kimberly jansen. she wants to know -- campaigns typically focus on candidates' achievements. i think you learn more about a person through their failures. tell us about a significant failure in your life and how it shaped you. moderator: mr. casten? mr. casten: how much time have we got?

i became real concerned about climate change when i was 29, working as a consultant and decided this wasn't a technology problem but a business problem and because i was filled with the hubris of youth i thought the world needs more of my brain so i took over a small and struggling manufacturing company and i took it from a $3 million business to $9 million but along the way we went through $1 million but i had to struggle making payroll and making hard choices. coming to appreciate that however great your ideas may be in the long term, if you haven't thought through all the steps to get there, you need to be careful and i hope i learned that lesson since then. rep. roskam: april 13, 1992, was a hard day for my wife elizabeth and me. we were in the midst of campaign for state representative and were very cavalier. elizabeth was expecting our second son and we thought, oh,

we were so cavalier about the ease with which young couples go through child bearing and we went to elmhurst hospital and were in an emotional freefall when we learned our son, jack, had died, and he was born still. that has shaped me. that has formed me and that has really influenced how i view the world. moderator: let's switch to immigration. mr. casten, many of your fellow democrats, some in congress, are demanding to abolish i.c.e., the immigration customs enforcement agency. mr. casten: i don't support that. i think it's the wrong question to be asking. what we need to deal with is that we've lost a way as a country. our history is based on being the country that attracted the best and brightest to our shores, that created homes for

people, that recognized that some of these people are refugees and asylum seekers. we've done a lot as a family to help some of those folks come over and that we're now sitting at a place that is not only reducing our visa programs but we're actually kidnapping babies. this is not a conversation -- no, we should not abolish i.c.e. of course we need to make sure we have a screening process to bring people into the country. moderator: what should there be on immigration? mr. casten: the piece to grapple with and this is a difficult civil liberties issue. the overwhelming majority of undocumented immigrants in this country are visa over-stays. if people were sneaking across the border and that was the preponderance, trump's conversation about laws would

maybe make sense. what we have in this country from a control perspective is we screen people, they pass our screens and they stay longer. that's a tricky issue on a civil liberties front but we have a lot of people who have come here through various chance and in 2006 peter voted against a bill that would have provided amnesty for people who had come here legally. in 2009, you sponsored a bill that would remove birth right citizenship, people who were born here. in 2015, you voted to report people who self identified under daca. the situation we have now with what trump is doing at the border, the reason you're not standing up to it is trump is carrying out the policies you've been long advocating. rep. roskam: when sean's party was in charge, nancy pelosi was speaker and harry reid -- they thehen harry reid was the geordie leader and president obama was president they got , everything wanted but they did nothing as it relates to immigration so when the young man the other day, sean, tells you to do something on gun

violence, how about being a party that's true to do something on immigration. here's the bill -- let me make this point. i voted in favor of a bill -- this within the past couple of weeks, that not a single democrat came on board. would have brought border security. would have fixed it for the dreamers and would have ended the family separation policy once and for all. what sean has advocated for which he didn't mention is he's in favor of sanctuary cities and sanctuary states, having law enforcement locally and at a state level put a stiff arm with federal enforcement. moderator: build a wall at the border? rep. roskam: i get it. walls work in urban areas. they're not particularly successful all across so you need different technologies in different areas. walls work in urban areas. moderator: mr. casten, is there something you didn't tell us about your proposals? mr. casten: again, this is -- i

used to think this is a center-right proposition. i wasn't in congress before. i can't make decisions about how they prioritize things. but this is a local control issue. overwhelming majorities of police are saying it's hard to do effective community policing if people don't talk to you. you talk to first responders saying if someone in your town has a rare virus, we'd like to know that, we want you to come forward. it's hard to do that when you don't trust the government. there was a tragic statistic when houston invited i.c.e. to come in and essentially went against what you're advocating, there was an immediate decline in domestic violence incidents exclusively among hispanic women. it was not a reduction in domestic violence. it was a reduction in reported. so one can have a sound, robust immigration policy while still respecting the agency and authority of local communities to make decisions about those

issues that matter. rep. roskam: when you have local law enforcement and state law enforcement that is banned from cooperating with federal law enforcement, how does that make any sense? we've got thousands of pounds of heroin that are coming in that i.c.e. is catching. we've got thousands of pounds of fentanyl that is coming in that i.c.e. is stopping so the notion of putting an artificial barrier on this issue and this issue alone makes no sense to me. i'm against the sanctuary city and i'm surprised sean advocates for it. moderator: we have a question. scott schneider, take it away. scott: please introduce yourself and pose your question. >> paul farber from willowbrook, illinois. my question is, how would you work with the other party to pass bipartisan legislation? scott: thank you. moderator: congressman? rep. roskam: i've done it. i worked with barack obama when he was president of the united states and we worked closely on passing the anti-boycott

language to protect the economic interests of israel, our close ally. i worked with the obama administration on making sure that the trade adjustment assistance was in place, according to the georgetown university's lugar center, i am the most bipartisan member of the illinois congressional delegation. i got every member of the house of representatives, both republicans and democrats, to join with me to take authority away from the internal revenue service in abusive cases where the i.r.s. wasn't doing the job. i've done it. that's my history. and i will continue to work that way. moderator: mr. casten? mr. casten: when your signature achievement is passing a $2 trillion deficit that got nary a single democratic vote, it's amusing to say you work on a bipartisan basis. i put the comment, we should hold our members of congress to

the same standards we hold non-politicians to and my c.f.o. and i, we raised a decent amount of money. i never asked him where his politics were because it doesn't matter. i'm sure we disagreed on issues. my chief of engineering, we built a lot of projects together. i don't know his politics. we shouldn't lose that because we're members of congress. i would thinking that if i win -- i would think that if i win and perhaps randy holtglen next door wins, i would imagine we have a lot of things to cooperate on that have nothing to do with party affiliation. moderator: are there grounds for you to cooperate with president trump? mr. casten: if there are issues we see eye-to-eye on. of course. moderator: give me an example. mr. casten: one of the few things he's done that i do agree with is that i think his increase in arming some of the eastern european countries. moderator: ukraine?

lethal weapons to ukraine? mr. casten: i'm glad he did that and if had been in congress, i would have supported that. rep. roskam: sean has said that his words don't matter in these different formats but he called the republican party in december of 2017, the pedophile party. he called the work that i've done on a bipartisan basis on opioids, which, frankly, all across the congress, this has been a very good thing. sean described that as b.s.. so, i mean, this is one presentation today but the sharp elbow of edginess is in stark contrast to that. that sort of aggression where you basically put down and the politics of ridicule and i think that members on the other side of the aisle are going to come running over. that's not the way it is. that is breaking down relationships. that's not what you described, sean.

mr. casten: what makes me tremendously sad, look at my background. why is there nothing in the republican party that i can find attractive right now? i have tremendous respect for john mccain and the generation that's unfortunately passing out of the party. i have been endorsed by bill riley, head of the e.p.a. under george w. bush. i have a lot of history. one of my very good friends is a republican state senator in arizona and he told me he's retiring, not because he doesn't have character and values, but because he can't figure out a way to campaign on his morals and win his primaries because of the toxicity that's come into the party. rep. roskam:toxicity into the party, toxicity sean has introduced into public life by calling an entire political party a party of pedophiles and taking a body of work and dismissing it as b.s.? moderator: is it time for a better relationship with russia, mr. casten?

mr. casten: no, no. look, i think -- i think one of the things that i think almost every president of the last five has made a mistake on is underestimating the fact that we have the threat in russia. george w. bush said we won the cold war, let's pivot. bill clinton didn't focus on it. barack obama said the 1980's called me, they want their foreign policy back and now donald trump has a bromance with vladimir putin. moderator: your party's president says it's time to have a better relationship with russia and drop sanctions. rep. roskam: i was on a meeting on tax reform in the white house after the helsinki presentation and i was troubled by that and i went up to the president afterwards and asked him if i could talk to him about russia. i persisted and i told him the story of three years before when

i led a delegation with the jewish federation of chicago and we went to jerusalem and i had a chance to meet cher anski and he cheranski. natan and he said when ronald reagan spoke with clarity and gave his famous speech, calling it an evil empire, he said he knew it was the beginning of the end for the record soviet union and the guards knew it, too. i communicated that to donald trump. he was very defensive. i chair the house democracy partnership, a bipartisan group that works with emerging democracies. i have been to ukraine three times. moderator: why do you think he's not responsive when you talk like that? do you think the russians have something on the president? rep. roskam: i don't know. but here's what i do know. we need to be clear on this and recognize it is malevolent nature of the russian regime. they are aggressive.

we have to recognize the malevolent nature of the iranian regime. mr. casten: here's what's usually troubling. i think the idea that donald trump understands that story is troubling in itself. you could have voted to compel the president to release his tax returns, you didn't. we would then know the answer to the question of whether or not there are conflicts there. please allow me. at a macro level, we live in a peaceful world, post world war ii, because of the amazing effort put forth by multiple presidents from truman to eisenhower forward to create the stability of this empire. moderator: do you favor changes in treaties, nato? mr. casten: russia has a life expectancy of less than 50. they have an economy almost completely dependent on oil and the only card they have to play

is a huge nuclear arsenal. they have a vested interest in destabilizing that world order. we are effectively today carrying out russia's foreign policy. why we are doing that is secondary to the fact that we are and we need to fix that yesterday. moderator: congressman? rep. roskam: sean makes the reception about tax returns. the tax return policy of the internal revenue code has a limitation that says it can only be used for the purposes of determining whether the internal revenue service has violated the law. you start shopping around. moderator: the proposal in springfield, you can't be on the illinois ballot unless you release your tax return. rep. roskam: how about running for governor? will pritzker release his? moderator: i'd do it for governors, too. rep. roskam: should j.b. pritzker?

mr. casten: i'm not sure. i want to stay on the topic we're at. whether or not every politician releases tax returns is an academic question. whether or not our current president whose own son has said a lot of our money comes from russia, whether our own president who for the first time in recent history has not released his tax returns and has not divested his businesses, it's in the national interest for us to know whether he has entanglements. interest for us tr he has any entanglements. our final social media question -- more women and young voters are in gauged in this district selection. what steps have you taken to listen to their concerns and to represent their interests? i think you said young women -- was that the question? >> and also represent their

interests. as i mentioned, the students organized a debate and we had 30 people show up. last week, we brought in some really impressive individuals. if there are people that feel like i am not listening to them, i'm going to reach out to them. congress, i have had over 455 meetings in this constituency. in the office, in schools, at companies and at roundtables and so forth.

>> there is criticism that you do not hold town hall meetings. >> fair enough. senator durbin back in the obamacare debate in 2009 recognized that town halls were manipulated. this isi have conducted that i have met over 20,000 individuals over the course of the time. >> we are running out of time. let us have some time for closing statements. mr. caston. i am not a career politician. says we have an

obligation to act as a check and balance on the executive. not a rubber stamp. he signs with the administration lock, stock, and barrel even at the expense of his district. he would even take away from his own constituents. rather than voting to protect our students come he voted to protect the nra. choose -- he does not see it as a right to choose. to elect -- we are in an

incredibly tumultuous season in our public life and the challenge we have is a relationship with one another when we talk to one another and not passed one another. each occurs in a litany of descriptions that i have brought out. my opponent ridicules and demeans people. it is troubling. what i have demonstrated is a capacity to bring people together. i have done that in that committee and with the internal revenue service and i have done that with the obama administration. i stood up to my party when it was appropriate and i voted with them when it was appropriate. it is difficult to be active in this process. our country is the envy of the world. i am asking for your votes in november. [applause] thatdies and gentlemen, concludes our forum.

what?ow i learned some things. this was a substantive exchange, well worth the time. gentlemen, thank you. thank you, all. [applause] >> today on c-span, "washington journal" is next. justice anthony kennedy discusses his decision to retire from the supreme court. in about an hour, we will talk to national farmers union president roger johnson about how terrorists are impacting -- administration trade policy with

christine mcdaniel at mercatus center. then our spotlight on magazine features ben austen, author of a story on community policing strategy. ♪ good morning. it is saturday, july 28, 2018. it is 7:00 a.m. on the east coast, and a three-hour "washington journal" is ahead for your. in our 8:00 hour, we will stand time talking to american farmers. in our 9:00 hour, we will hear from some of the country's police officers. to american talking veterans after a week that saw a confirmation of a new veteran affairs secretary and president trump addressed some troops, we to hear howed veterans view president trump an