abby kiesa of the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement on the youth vote in campaign 2018. c-span's 50 capitals tour visits maine for interview with governor paul lepage. ♪ secretary of state mom pompeo -- mike pompeo and trump will sit down to discuss the death of jamal khashoggi. if hemnuchin will decide will travel to saudi arabia for the senate conference many have pulled out of in saudi arabia. the decision to pull out of that conference over jamal khashoggi's death. this is the washington journal. in this first hour, we want to hear from you about the republican tax cut last year and if it will impact how you will vote this november. the wall street journal's

the taxl-page argues cut and gop economic initiatives ballot.on the critics say the deficit and the tax-cut's contribution to that will be an issue too. here's how you can call us. different lines. if you make under $50,000, (202) 748-8000. if you make between $50,000 and $75,000, (202) 748-8001. $75,000,ke more than (202) 748-8002. you can also tweet us @cspanwj and post on our facebook page at facebook.com/cspan. the tax-cut and other economic initiatives the topic of the wall street journal this morning. growth is on the ballot, they argue. the editors argue that if republicans keep the majority, the economy will be the reason. they have not sold tax-cut reform well, but the growth has given them an edge over democrats on the economy.

and improved the public sense that the country is moving in the right direction. they show a chart showing the gdp, saying that chart shows a shift in the growth trend by quarterly change and gdp over the last four years. the economy avoided a recession at the end of 2015 and grew. growth has accelerated since consumer and business confidence have served. desk surged. -- surged. -- it grew 4.2% in the second quarter. it was the result of a decisive and deliberate policy shift that began with the trump presidency and the republican congress. that is one way the editors are looking at the tax-cut. the new york times says the , the $113deficit

billion increase in the deficit, $92 billion can be accounted for by the tax cuts. allrnment revenue from sources increased slightly by $14 billion, but this has not for the tax cuts projected to cost $1.2 billion. they will pay for themselves by increased growth. that interest increased by $62 billion because the federal therve pushed back against possible overheating of the economy because of fiscal stimulus. that is two thoughts on tax cuts and economic issues. we are asking you if those issues, the tax cuts or other economic policy, will affect your vote this coming november. you can call us on three lines. between $50,000 and $75,000, it is (202) 748-8001.

if you make under that, it is (202) 748-8000. if you make more than 75,000, it is (202) 748-8002. post on twitter and facebook. a couple thoughts on facebook. wish we had gotten a bigger cut but i am happy with what we got. we want to keep it. republicans down the ticket. allen says it is just a matter of voting and participating. he added absolutely. another saying now they are going after social security to pay for it. this has been a disaster for 35 years. twitteralso post on @cspanwj. let's start with john in florida, tampa. if you have tax cuts, they should not be no strings

attached, but rather tax cuts andh benefit america behavior for companies that will increase good paying jobs for u.s. citizens. companies with offshore jobs should have tax increases. companies which hire u.s. citizens and pay them a good wage should have tax increases. you have to have a that increases trade surplus or increases wages for the middle class or moves the poor into the middle class. those companies need to have tax breaks and tax increases for companies who have the opposite. all those things and before we let you go, how does that impact voting this november? our economic issues on your mind when you vote? they are. anything that increases a trade surplus for the u.s., that increases wages for middle-class ,.s. citizens and poor citizens

things that strengthen american u.s. citizen unions, i am for that. host: gerrit, minnesota, the line for those who make under $50,000. caller: i wanted to say that the tax break did not help me. --now it helps the rich helped the rich, but i wanted trumps people to understand -- trump's to understand it put america in deficit. where do they get the money? who is paying that off? china and other countries. trump is putting other countries for america because they are buying our debt. host: when it comes to voting matters, how does that translate? what impact does it have? i do not know if i am

purged from the voting list because what trump and the republicans like to lie about is saying that people infiltrate the voting system, like mexicans, which is all lies. host: that is understandable, but when it comes to economic issues, how does that affect your vote? caller: that is what i'm saying. i do not know if i'm able to vote. 3 million people were voted off to vote. they are not able to vote because they did not vote. christopher, chicago, makes under $50,000. what do you think about these tax cuts and what it means for your voting this november? aller: it is a growing

hole in the deficit. you see the numbers on various news sources. that is something republicans complain about when democrats have an idea for reducing anything at all. also -- host: does it matter to you as far as how you vote? caller: it does. i am coming toward retirement age. what of things depend upon money the government actually has to work with to maintain things like social security. that is a big deal. about if yoution will ever have a three-hour democrats get to call in like you did with

republicans yesterday. will in texas,to makes more than $75,000. caller: your tax question is vague. cars on property, taxes on -- we need taxes. we just need them to spend it properly. cuts last is the tax year and if it has impact on voting this year. caller: i do not think i'm going to vote. i am not sure yet. i am neither party. organizationn based on issues. are economics part of that issue? caller: yeah. they have a plane right now that can drop a mile of water half a mile wide that is a global supertanker. hello? host: as far as the economic

issues and your vote -- what do you think about when you make those decisions? caller: i think about all of the factors that have to deal with getting the most bang for your buck. this global supertanker -- host: let's go to build in wisconsin. -- bill in wisconsin. caller: every time republicans have been in, the price of gas has gone up. gas and wed $.11 on ended up paying 226 -- $2.26 for gas. and webush was in office were paying four dollars and $.10 for gas after the tax cuts. 20, 19 six -- 2016, when

obama left office, we are paying two dollars and $.29 for gas in wisconsin. yesterday, gas was as high as $2.97. every tax cut republicans have given us, the money has gone to the koch brothers. conservatives are not smart enough to figure that out. host: when you vote, do you ever vote based on gas prices? has that impacted who you voted for? i would rather paid $2.29 for gas than four dollars and $.10 -- $4.10. on twitter, economics are always on our minds when we vote. natalie off of facebook says president trump is doing great things for america.

the first president who kept his promises and decades. republican tax cuts are a tactic to purchase goes. those are just some of the thoughts. we're getting your thoughts on the phone lines as well. make under000 if you $50,000. if you make between $50,000 and $75,000, it is (202) 748-8001. if you make more than $75,000, it is (202) 748-8002. the issue of the tax cuts being part of the campaign cycle, particularly when it comes to debate. if you go to our website at c-span.org it is part of our campaign 2018 coverage. the commitment to bringing as many debates as possible from all across the united states all available to you there. we invite you to go to the website and see if a debate has been taped and aired. this recent debate between ted

cruz and that overlook -- beto --ourke out of texas senate the texas senate race. one of the issues that came up was the tax cut. [video clip] >> let's go back to a little history. in the 1960's, john f. kennedy campaigned on tax cuts, cutting individual and corporate tax rates. he passed it and the economy boomed. federal tax revenue went up. in the 1980's, ronald reagan campaigned on cutting taxes to get the economy growing. he passed it. the economy boomed. we did the same thing this time. with that tax cut, we are seeing the results. federal tax revenues have gone up. federal tax revenues are higher this year than they were last year. i was with you in iowa. i have heard you in the campaign

trail since 2012 saying how bad the deficit is. this would add to the deficit. is wrong.ojection that would have said the kennedy tax cuts and reagan tax cuts would've added to the deficit. the reason we have deficit and debt is because congress keeps spending. that is why we need to pass term limits, a balanced budget. theeed to stop out-of-control spending, things like socialized medicare. 90 second response. >> only one of us has started a small business. balance the books. made sure we deliver for our clients. only one of us has served at the local government level, every single year bouncing the budget and democratscans but as councilmembers entrusted with the responsibility to deliver for el paso. every year we did.

for senator cruz to say this is not going to bust the budget when we are on track to a deficit of a trillion dollars a year, he voted to add $2 trillion. --se tax cuts will follow flow to corporations who are already sitting on record piles of cash and the already wealthy in the country riven with income inequality. before and just after that vote, senator cruz $120,000 from the political action committees who represent the corporate interests who benefited from this tax cut. just one discussion on the tax cuts and their impact on the economy. we are asking you if those , economic issues overall, impact your vote this november. getting calls on the lines and posts on our social media sites. line is next and maryland, for those who make more than $75,000. caller: i think the tax cuts

were disproportionately weighed towards corporations. i am a believer that if you're , put moreut taxes money back in the pockets of taxpayers and less money back in the corporations -- corporations' pockets. we are the ones who spend the money. we are the ones who want to buy things. if we have cash in our hands, we will simulate the -- stimulate the economy more. tax cuts did not do a lot to my salary. a fairly high tax state. there may be an impact on taxes overall but i was not in favor of it. vote democrat anyway and this solidified my vote. host: so it will ultimately impact the vote this november. caller: it really helped solidify my decision, yes. host: let's hear from kim in

under $50,000. googling and looking up universal health care that we had before. yes, we did. we had it from the 1930's until the 1970's. dismantled and and the health care. and waitedtax cuts for it to trickle down. it never did. i am now in my 40's. i have loans because of reaganomics. we are repeating it. that is not good. maybe they have forgotten about the trickle-down economic plan in the 80's from reagan and it did not work for lower income people.

we did have universal health care that i googled from the 1930's until the 1970's. andre paying for our taxes i think, as a citizen, because we are paying federal, state, local, all of that, we are supposed to get health care. far as november, what does that mean for your vote? caller: my vote is for the these taxbecause cuts, especially for my husband, i am younger for my husband. my husband is elderly. i have been watching what the republicans have been doing on c-span. host: this is off of twitter. -- facebook. christopher says he's happy with paylarger piece tech and -- check and stability. everyone making under

$250,000 have been offset by inflation wages. the price of goods is growing. companies are alarmed at the debt -- mcconnell and co are alarmed at the debt and placing blame to entitlement programs. this from bloomberg saying it was a -- b senate majority leader blaming the rising deficit on bipartisan unwillingness to come -- to contain spending. he sees little chances of major deficit reduction while republicans control congress and the white house. a is disappointing, but not republican problem, he said in an interview. it is a bipartisan problem of unwillingness to do anything to address the debt. the remarks came a day after the treasury department said the

deficit grew to $779 billion. -- thejority mcconnell senate majority leader mcconnell also saying it will be the vehicle to do reform with one party in charge. entitlement changes, the driver of the debt that any standard, may beifficult -- difficult to achieve when you have unified government. that is an bloomberg. we will go to wendy from rapid city, michigan. as someone who has an income under $50,000 and has retired with just one tenant paying rent that is more than i get from social security, i when be starved corporations get a tax break as the government is starved for its programs. they do things like raising the

gas tax. i am paying $3.10 a gallon and i cannot afford to go anywhere. host: how does that translate to voting purposes this november? caller: i will not be voting republican. i am an independent voter. i usually vote for the individuals. this time, i cannot afford to vote republican. delaware, also making under $50,000. these republican tax cuts every time, it is a political ploy a -- ploy saying they want people to vote. taxes are not bad for us. they provide us with better roads, schools, and other good government programs that we all as american citizens enjoy. host: when you're making decisions on who to vote for, economically, what goes through

your mind? that is part of the reason why i am a democrat. the republicans are always going after tax cuts and taxing the rich last. i am a democrat all the way. host: from michigan, jean. caller: i wanted to say i am grateful for trump and the republicans for their tax cut. we are in a state of 2000 this year in taxes. we make about 75,000 dollars together, $70 -- $70,000 maybe. the affordable care was not affordable. we have pensions. it was $800 that we did not have to pay when i had to pay from my ira for health care. that excludes me from the affordable care.

the wages in this area have gone up from nine dollars at walmart $11.roger to there is more jobs in the detroit area and all over with low wages. my social security is going to be more secure. who are low income do not have any choice but to vote for socialism. if we have more jobs back, maybe they will be all right. aligns to your way of thinking on economics? who is similar to that? caller: you mean the people running for senators? host: people running for the house or senate that you will vote for. caller: john james and jeff jones.

host: what positions do they take? caller: what you mean positions? host: when it comes to economics. caller: they are for the tax cuts and the exemptions. next we will hear from deb in portland, oregon on our line for those who make under $50,000. i am 43 years old. i am on social security, disability income. i make less than $25,000 a year from that. have had it up to here with more republican tax cuts. there is no benefit. you have not seen anything direct so far as tax cuts yourself when it comes to what you make or take home? caller: i do not take on

anything and i do not have to pay taxes on that. . have obamacare what i'm saying is i'm silly voter. i voted for bernie sanders. -- i am still a voter. i voted for bernie sanders. hoping congress would do something, if trump would not, about the state of our economic system. all we are talking about is gas prices on this show. say improvements are needed, what would you like to see? caller: i would like to see partisan politics and. i would like to see socialized medicine -- end. i would like to see socialized medicine. revampingke to see a of the corporate structures and hierarchies that we have had to deal with for decades. we will hear next from

bill in cleveland, ohio on the line for those who make between $50,000 and $75,000. caller: this is different lipstick on the same page. reagan tried to do this -- pig. reagan tried to do this. $1640 is what every man, woman, and child owed the u.s. government. if there is a deep state, every time they mention a tax cut it goes to the wealthy or a corporation. -- the democrats are not politicians anymore. they are janitors. -- comes and and -- clinton comes in and he balances the budget from a reagan fiasco. back starts to get things to normal from what bush has done. trump takes the credit and then blames obama.

it is horse manure. host: let's hear from net in illinois. nick in illinois. caller: everybody's going to vote on their party -- line. they have already made up their mind. it does not matter what their issues -- the issues are. they're going to vote for their feelings, which is not a good idea. it is better to be educated. it is too bad for all the hate. everybody should buy the book by michael savage called mass hysteria. it has a lot of history explaining that could teach people a lot and help them make up their minds about which -- what is really going on. what economic argument would you make going into this election?

give me specifics. caller: the tax cuts are nice, but i do not see where they are going to make a big difference. --does help, but economically, we need jobs. we are having problems there. well,hing is going real but for a lot of people, especially older, still working but still in the field like in the 50's or 60's, it is not so easy for a lot of them. even with great skills. if you have a college degree, that helps. not, itrest to do really does hurt. illegal legal and eating in the job market, -- being in the job market, that is having a major effect. people who should have

opportunities are getting cut out because of a lot of illegal people having jobs. i'm not against them, but the problem is it is bankrupting our country. it is not fair. you have joined us for the half hour or so, we are asking you about the republican tax cuts, if it will impact your vote this november. perhaps you are someone who supported it. maybe that factors into how you vote. we have divided the lines differently. for those of you who make under $50,000, (202) 748-8000. andou make between $50,000 .75,000, (202) 748-8001 if you make more than $75,000, (202) 748-8002. you can also post on the social media sites. the washington post has an op-ed

missing khashoggi, the saudi journalist believed dead. this was given to the post before his disappearance according to the editors. op-ed says what the arab world needs most is free expression. james khashoggi saying the arab world is facing its own version of an iron curtain, exposed not by -- imposed not by external actors provide domestic forces vying for power. during the cold war, radio free europe played in important role in fostering and sustaining the hope of freedom. arabs need something similar. we need to provide a platform for arab voices. we suffer from poverty, mismanagement, and poor education. the creation of an independent international forum isolated

from a nationalist government spreading hate through propaganda, ordinary people will be able to address structural problems that societies face. the last op-ed that he wrote for the washington post. you can find it online or in the republican tax cuts, will they impact your vote this november? makes undern, who $50,000. caller: i am deathly going to vote republican -- i think the world -- definitely going to vote republican. i think the world is spending more money. we are heading for the next great depression, so we might as well party. folks,ive money to rich they build factories. if we give money to poor folks, they buy drugs and alcohol. we need more factories. -- pretty soon it is

going to be the roaring 20's. host: who are you voting for? caller: the republicans. nothing can save us. the depression is coming. the office of management and budget director mcfaul meaning -- make phone -- mick out a statement saying the president is aware of the realities presented by our national debt. accompany --ming economy will create revenues, a step towards fiscal sustainability. this is a warning toward irresponsible spending. that was on october 15, the thoughts of mick mulvaney. joe is next from maryland. back to the original , istion about the tax cuts

think there is confusion about what was good about the tax cuts and what was bad. it was hard to argue that the corporate tax cut, which has added two jobs, the lowest unemployment we have seen in our , our u.s. history economy now is the number one rated independently. the first time we have been on the top of the list since 2008. we are seeing wages rise. i think the point to be made that we did flip taxes on the rich. we tried to fix that with the state and local taxes that can no longer be exempted. byhink that was a mistake having anything were the highest percent of their country -- the

country had their taxes reduced. ,verything people care about hourly wages, middle-class wealth, the gap is shrinking. this is a report today between the highest and lowest. i wish they would not have had any reduction on the highest level for the highest earners in the u.s.. host: do you think anything can be resolved when it comes to spending? they act like medicare and social security cannot be reformed. both sides realized something needs to be done. that is where the deficit is. it makes up 30% of the deficit. the other thing that should be discussed on c-span is sooner or later we will have higher interest rate for our long-term -- as interest rates go up, that is going to be another

wound that is going to hurt our country on the deficit side. we have to look at entitlement spending. we should increase taxes on the rich. corporate tax cuts, to act like that is bad for our country -- and makes us more competitive in the world. i would ask people, bipartisan, to take a look. host: joe talked about the federal reserve. heather long in the washington post talks with the recent fed meeting, saying top fed bankers at their late september meeting fight interest rates. reiterated their assessment that the economy is strong as the best way to keep it that ways to continue gradually raising interest rates. the fats raise the u.s. benchmark interest rate to a 2.5% and signaled it would hike again in december and three more times next year. that is in the washington post.

we showed you that debate in texas over economics. beingt comes to ads aired, this is the democratic congressional campaign committee, designed to put more democrats in the house and senate. this takes a look at the republican tax cut. a ceo is talking to his employees. [video clip] >> what happens when the average joe realizes we got the entire republican tax-cut? like all of it. >> they got a tax cut, ok? >> how much was your tax-cut? >> not a lot, sir. but for someone like sidetable, not a lot is quite a bit. he saves enough each week to buy a latte at starbucks. >> actually -- >> shut up, sidetable. remember that.

what is taking the lobster table so long? >> i am hungry. is dave in new york. go ahead. i live in new york. i'm a truck driver. want to comment on the caller who was talking about the socialized medicine. i live on the canadian border. across to getcome good medical care on the u.s. side because they do not have to wait so long for it. that is one reason i do not support the move for socialism. the other one is that the main --blem -- margaret thatcher eventually you run out of other people's money. i think it is a terrible thing that a lot of people are embracing socialism. i do not think we need to go that route.

i'm can's -- supporting conservatives all the way. did you see an impact from the tax-cut and is that going to impact your vote? not going to impact my vote. i'm looking forward to doing my taxes next year to see how much i have saved this year. right now, things are looking good on the economy front. there is a shortage of truck drivers. anybody who would like to get a good paying job, get your commercial driver's license. we need 50,000 more truck drivers in the united states. host: ted is next in illinois. is ed. my at -- it topic echoes a previous caller who talks about the surplus under bill clinton. in the past, the republicans were responsible or had commentary about the deficit and controlling the deficit.

it seems that has been thrown away. we --every republican or, leader, we have always added and cut -- quadrupled on our deficit. under obama, he was handcuffed for a couple of years dealing with spending from bush. it did not allow him to continue 'n clinton and the democrats concern. i think americans are forgetting that. as far as the tax cut, i am under $50,000. it has not much impact on me because i tried to be responsible for my spending and i will be voting democrat in the upcoming election. steve off of facebook says the national debt and health care and the cost of insulin will determine my vote.

also off of facebook, carolyn says i will vote for more money in my pocket. vote republican in november. this is from the republican, designed but more republicans on the house -- in the house. -- it is centered in the michigan eight district, where mike bishop is challenged by alyssa's lockton. criticizes her on taxes and other issues. [video clip] >> will you ever have enough to retire? will your medicare still be there? d.c. politicians make things worse, like alyssa's lockton. and sheon medicare would move toward government control of our health care with higher taxes. pelosiot afford to let

push slotkin on us. host: let's hear from mike in ohio. caller: good morning to everyone. pointd like to bring up a since mitch mcconnell spilled the beans. watch out, older people, which i am one. steve mnuchin, the treasury secretary, said these taxes, these tax cuts would pay for themselves. he was on the board of directors sears0 -- 2005 to 2016 of . look for him to do the same thing that they did to sears, drive them into bankruptcy. he will do the same for the united states. to the truck driver, you are a socialist.

you are driving on taxpayer-funded roads. that is socialism. if you ever collected unemployment insurance, you are a socialist. if you have a fire or police department, you are a socialist. fdic protected money in your bank, you are a socialist. keep that in mind. under $50,000, this is valerie. i -- the way i am voting my social security, as many others this year. which is good. cut. areas we cannot for people coming in the country illegal. money cut some of that back, as well as some of the pastors who have come on this show that are -- millions of dollars.

my message toward black americans, you need to be careful who you put in office, especially the young lady in georgia has anything to do with your needs or causes. she is after everyone else to make sure they're satisfied. please read it. host: this is usa today this morning. the president asking his cabinet for 5% of cuts. every cabinet secretary 45% for next year. -- for 5% for next year. the story adds that the president can ask cabinet secretary to cut budgets, the federal budget is approved by congress. lawmakers are free to drop their own spending plans. the president has leverage. the president also sending out a couple of tweets on different

issues, this one looking at what is happening along the border, saying i'm watching the democrat party because they want to open borders. guatemala, honduras, el salvador are doing little to stop this large flow of people including criminals from entering mexico to the united states. in addition to stopping all payments to this country -- -- if unable to do so, i will call of the u.s. military and close our southern border. that is from the president's twitter feed. on economics and the tax-cut and the november election is what we want to do for the next 15 minutes. (202) 748-8000 if you make under $50,000. (202) 748-8001 if you make between $50,000 and $75,000. if you make more than $75,000, it is (202) 748-8002.

up next, joe in georgia. i plan to vote for repose. i am on disability. -- for republicans. i am on disability. my wife is working. on her paycheck, we saw a little bit of an increase. heard who is a truck driver is a socialist -- i was a truck driver before i went on disability. truck drivers are not socialist. truck drivers earn their money. driving every bit of it -- some ofhe family drivers have to load our trucks.

it is not socialist. journal thisreet morning has interview with the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. taking a look and talking about the mueller probe, which he characterizes what is going on as appropriate, saying people are entitled to be frustrated. i can accept that. at the end of the day, the public will have confidence that the cases we brought were warranted by the evidence and that it was an appropriate yours -- use of resources. the investigation has already revealed effort by russians to interfere in the 2020 elections. i committed i would ensure the investigation was appropriate and independent. for an to comments you made during his confirmation hearing, i believe i have been faithful to that.

more of that in the wall street journal if you want to read it. melvin, chesapeake, virginia. melvin in chesapeake? caller: yes. my only problem, my only grief is that the tax code is rigged. not for the middle class and lower class. it is for rich folks. host: let's hear from sharon in michigan. i'm calling about a previous caller who said that poor people do not need the money because they spend it on drugs and alcohol. i'm 60 years old. i am on disability. month after they take off for medicare. andhe time i pay my bills

bring food into my house, i have no money for drugs or alcohol, which i do not use anyways. i find that offensive. host: what you think about the tax-cut and the impact on the vote? the tax-cut on me does not make any difference because i am on disability. i do not have a spouse. that has no impact on me directly. but they are giving all these big tax breaks to billionaires and corporations and now they're wanting to cut social security, medicaid, and medicare. host: matt from maryland, hello. i agree with what the other caller just said. the tax issues do not affect probably 90% of the people in this country. i think you should be asking legacy of thehe

last four years and what trump has done to or for the economy should be the issue because so few people are really affected by the tax cuts. host: how would you answer that question? caller: i also believe you cut off democrats sooner. host: i want to ask you about your previous statement. he hung up. let's go to james in new york. taxes only affect the superrich. i agree with that. they are the ones who cannot keep paying taxes if they're going to reinvest in their businesses to create jobs and keep the country moving forward. if i'm superrich and own a corporation and i am pumping money to the feds, what chance to have to grow? to go toy prerogative work and throw it on the table when i cannot reinvest? voted a party line,

but i am ready to this year after what i have seen out of the democrats over the past eight years and the sideshow with kavanaugh. i cannot wait for the democratic party to be laying in ruins. go to the opinion pages of the washington post, the senate majority leader writes an op-ed on the vote on brett kavanaugh. -- senatemmit democrats mishandled a, -- confidential letter. parade of outlandish rumors poured forth. kavanaugh and his family were dragged through the mud. cheerede spectacle was on by and you're responsible media and my democratic colleagues, some of whom even read even the wildest personal smears into the record and the most outlandish accusations. victims deserve to be heard. these are not partisan positions.

little could be more cynical than pretending otherwise. that is how the far left saw to divide our nation. factual evidence were brushed aside. more of that in the washington post. james in new york. caller: i'm still on, i guess, sir. host: let's go to bill in maryland. i am 55 years old. the first vote i cast was for ronald reagan. the curve.n i'm a chuck driver, college educated. i have a bachelors. i know about the curve. obvious, if you look at the history of this country, that when we cut taxes we get more revenue and economic activity. it improves the economy for everyone. as far as the government

spending, people think that you can cut certain budgets for certain departments and that is going to make a difference. if you look at the overall budgets, the only solution is entitlement programs. are high in the sky when they think we can increase the size of these entitlement programs rather than reduce them. the reality is that bankruptcy is on the horizon for this country if we do not address entitlement reform. host: that is one of the topics jamie king brings up on facebook, saying they gave money to billionaires and now they blame social security and medicaid. tax cuts would be for themselves. notonly did the tax-cuts pay for themselves, they have me know trade deals. sayingf of facebook,

that is the result of the tax cuts. michael in pennsylvania, go ahead. i was calling about the tax cuts. it goes back for me to the affordable care act, when they instituted the individual mandate. americans have to pay this individual mandate which lets us pay for insurance we do not get, to pay for somebody else's insurance. that has saved me $420 a month this year. $420 a month to pay for something you do not get. somehow, this got through the former supreme court. the supreme court had to rewrite , the affordable care act, because it was unconstitutional. they rewrote the law. we had a supreme court making laws.

cuts andnto the tax what it has done for southwestern pennsylvania. it has got us moving, working again. for 14 million of us who do not have to pay the mandate, we think republicans and god. mark in new hampshire. i wanted to say that, ever since the last election, i no longer agree with the policies of the democrat party or republican party. i votinghy this year for the libertarian party. about economics that drive that? think -- we had it with president obama and now we are having it with president trump. there is not much getting done

to help americans to move this country forward. the libertarians, you have a third conservative, a third liberal, and a third independent. is not to say they always get along, but they know more on how to cross party lines and work with each other. i really think that if the former governor, gary johnson, if he wins the senate seat in new mexico maybe you could bring more of this to washington, d.c. to learn compromise so they can get stuff done and work together to move america forward. host: we are talking about the tax cuts. he hung up. from our twitter feed. democrats do not understand the word revenue. also michael off of facebook singh taxation is that. government -- theft. linda is in pennsylvania.

caller: i make less than -- the tax cuts will not affect my vote. i intend to vote democratic. i make less than $14,000 a year. said,aller previously medicare comes off the social security check. thathe media announced social security and a fishy areas will get a 2.8% increase -- beneficiaries will get a 2.8% increase. it is ironic. now that they want to mess around, they want to try to cut medicare and medicaid and social security, what is going to happen to the rest of us? the tax cuts benefit the rich. they were supposed to have rich companies reinvest in their have higher wages

for their employees. it is too soon to figure that out. they are not going to do it. they're going to keep the money for themselves. getting back to original question, the tax cuts did not help or hurt me. they had no effect on me. workhysically unable to and i'm 72 years old. people whoy for the are in their 30's, 40's, and 50's. they are going to see a country that is so far in debt they will not be able to get out. it is going to benefit the rich. that is my opinion. entitlements are a part of glenn off of facebook's concerns. the tax cuts did not impacting positively. they want to cut medicare,

medicaid, and social security. those will impact me. think god for the tax cuts and how our country is doing economically. it is doing the best it has in decades. in tennessee. caller: let me give you facts. from warren buffett. corporate taxes are only 2% of gdp. was 5% of gdp in the 60's. now it is 17.5% of gdp. as warren buffett says, medical was 5% ofcosts are the tape foe american economy. it is not the tax system crippling our businesses. it is our health care. even his partner, republican charlie munger says we must go to a single-payer system.

it is insane to cut these taxes. the onlyow, we are country that does not provide a single-payer health care and health care is where the money is. $3.2 trillion a year. democrats use this information. interrupt not mean to and i apologize, but november comes around. who do you vote for? caller: democrats. they're trying to give us health care and that is why i'm giving you these stats from warren buffett. health care is what is crippling the economy. this is paul ryan's what dream. .- wet dream host: that will be the last call for this segment. in the next segment, we will take a look at the midterm elections, particularly the house and those races that are the one to watch in determining that. join for a -- joining us for

that is roll call's simone pathe. later, we will hear the influence of younger voters. .ngagement she will have that discussion later on in the program. as we bring you part of our 2018 coverage here on c-span, last night's washington's eighth district debate between dino rossi the republican and democratic opponent kim schreier. the issue was that of attack ads. >> i have an opponent that comes from the resistance movement. you are telling the world you are not willing to work with anybody else unless they agree with you. my opponent has marched in more angry protests in seattle than parades in the district. i had my kickoff breakfast with steve largent of the seahawks. one of the eight protesters. put it out on facebook putting up a nasty sign about me.

i worked across party lines. you cannot work across party lines by doing that. we have enough people yelling in politics. i was very successful in business and politics and in life by not yelling at people. there is no way to work across lines by yelling at somebody. to give you a chance to respond. mr. rossi has said you are part of the resistance movement. and a mompediatrician and i got into this race because congress was not doing its job, providing checks and balances, attempting to take health care away from my patients and people from all over the district. i thought it was important to go to that or people all over the district. i don't think there is anything radical about one people in this country to have health care and to want a government that works on behalf of the people and not just on the behalf of special interest. that is the difference between a community pediatrician and

career politician. i will work for the people, not special interests. >> my opponent is running an ad from her campaign about business dealings. the seattle times went after that ad. they talked about mike mastro, the trustee going after him on behalf of the victims. ad, it said was that the is a character assassination based on guilt by association. he called it a lowlife smear. that is not the kind of campaign we want to see happen. we will talk about the issues. >> would you like to defend that ad? >> i stand by my ad. i'm kim schreier, i stand by that message. you want to see more of that debate as part of our 2018 coverage, we invite you to go to our website at c-span.org.

joining us now is roll call's simone pathe day, a senior politics reporter to talk about the vulnerable house members. remind our viewers where we are as far as the house, its current condition am and what needs to happen in order that -- or that to turn democratic. ofst: they need a net gain 23 seats. the house met looks different from the senate met. we are talking about two different elections when we talk about what will happen in november. a lot of the seats that are competitive our seats that hillary clinton carried in 2016 but currently held by republicans, so they are trying to walk his balance that republican base voters turnout, which means they have to appeal to talk shop also distancing themselves to appeal to the crossover voter. you have highlighted 10 of the most vulnerable. what determines the list? guest: a lot of hard work that

my colleagues and i put in. we do this multiple times a year, we started doing this a year ago. we updated it with six months ago, two months ago, one months ago, and then one more addition before the election. we talked to strategists on both sides of the aisle, we look at polls from outside groups, internal polling, we use the rankings and roll call provided by inside elections. we have a lot of experience covering these races. in many cases, we traveled to the district, so we have some anecdotal evidence about how these folks are being received at home. host: we will look at some specific raises. if you have some questions about specific races or what may happen if democrats take power, you can give us a call. (202) 748-8000 four republicans. for democrats.

independent, (202) 748-8002. in iowa, tell us who the contenders are. list isp of our problem, represents the first district. he has been on top for a while now. it just goes to show how quickly these races can move around. when we compiled a list of a few weeks ago, none of these were in the list. not reserved time. the nrc see had not, the democratic campaign committee had canceled their buy. they said we can move that money elsewhere, it will be better used. since we compile the list, we have seen some outside groups come into this district. it will be interesting to see when we reevaluate whether he will still be number one. that being said, blum is still vulnerable, he represents districts that truck carried, he may be a little too

conservative. he is facing a very competitive democratic challenger, state representative abby sink in our, who has raised a lot of money. as far as the state representative, what is her message? is it the president or other issues? guest: she is not talking about the president, which is a trend you are seeing from these democratic challengers. they made the mistake of trying to connect him to trump. the message you are hearing from her is reinvesting in the working-class, she talks about her father and a legacy that is meant to her, economic issues. blum is far as rod concerned, is the president reaching out for assistance? guest: not that i have heard. host: how close is he tied to the president, how close does he make that connection? guest: you hear a lot of republicans talk about him,

especially like blum, who is in the freedom caucus. it is to make sure his face turns out, that is a problem for the public's this year. if they are not motivated to vote, they will not show up. key more than other republicans is talking about the president. in a as far as turnout midterm, how big is that overall this time around? guest: huge. the enthusiasm gap is what could do republicans in in november. if democrats turnout in greater numbers come you have the potential for a wave. host: you talked about some of those ads. one sponsored by the congressional leadership fund, the other from the democratic campaign committee. politician abby think in our is one of i was most liberal legislators. nancy pelosi is backing her because she votes the same in congress. cities, granting

safe haven to violent illegal immigrants. massive new taxes on the middle class to fund a $32 trillion government takeover of health care. at the think an hour is nancy pelosi's dream. we cannot afford her in washington. problem is always looking out for problem. his company refused to pay workers for the overtime they earned, cheating employees out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. he walked away with a half $1 million payout. business toted a help companies hide their fda safety violations, leaving consumers unaware of their dangerous food or medications, so that he can make a profit. we cannot trust problem to look up for us. break those done for us. guest: the first and you saw attacking at the sink in our -- her ton hour, tying

nancy pelosi, which is something that you had been hearing, whether they say they would support her if she were to run or not, they are still finding ways to say that they would vote like pelosi. sanctuary cities is another message you are hearing in rural, largely white districts. host: as far as bitter commercials, is this the most you have seen, does it get worse from other races? guest: it gets worse. those are the lines that you hear most often regardless. pelosi. ,ost: (202) 748-8000 republicans. (202) 748-8001, democrats. independent, (202) 748-8002. tom, good morning. caller: thank you for having me on. i'm calling on the democrat line from pittsburgh. i am so happy to see the democrats may take control of the house, and they will. maybe the senate.

what we need is balance. we need to be able to control donald trump. he is out of control. the republicans are out of control. cut thatd in a tax will destroy our economy with a massive debt, and now they are after social security and medicare to pay for it. it doesn't add one dollar to the national debt, so why did they ask for it? because they cannot afford tax cuts for themselves. leave health care. very important to me. control donald trump. host: thank you. iest: that is a message that have heard a lot from voters, they need a check and balance, regardless of which party they are member of. we can talk about that when we talk about erik paulsen in minnesota's third district. this is a district that is used to splitting its ticket, the first time he has run for

reelection with a republican in the white house, why he is seeing some troubles. when it comes to pennsylvania, we will talk about it, but conor lamb, kiefer office. ring is up-to-date. guest: this is number three on our list. partially because of congressional redistricting. earlier in the year pennsylvania's not got completely redrawn. district lines changed, the composition of the district also changed so this became a more narrow trump district which means had a line's been this way in 2016, this district would have supported president trump by a narrow margin. so that puts them in a more difficult position. then you have the complication of running against conor lamb, a democrat whose name is very familiar to us. he has a huge fundraising advantage. he was a national name at some point this year talking about the special election in

pennsylvania's 18th district. now running in the 17th. that means he has built up a national following, was able to bank this money. it is hard to pull it out again some unlike that, plus any district that is no longer favorable to republicans. host: we hear from another republican, cheryl. i'm just joining so i'm hoping that i didn't miss this. i have a general question about polling. how do we determine -- i don't know anyone who has been polled or know that they have been. about thee doing people who have cell phones, landmines? there is a question as to who are they polling is always these polls but never a description as to how people are getting pulled. you are seeing more and more pollsters incorporating cell phone usage.

for house districts come usually toample size of about 400 500 people. 40% of that is done on cell phones. host: you talked about the race. we have a bit of their debate. here is a bit of that. you can see the full debate on our website at c-span.org. here is a portion of that debate between keith roth plus and conor lamb. >> if the democrats are take over the house, maxine waters would take over the financial services committee and she would be very aggressive with our community banks and credit unions. a choking off of capital from small businesses because of the overregulation that happened as a result of dog for. things that were meant for wall street trickle down to our local institutions. ms. waters believes. frank was written in stone and will not allow any changes. she opposed the reform bill we

had which mr. lim oppose which would have provided meeting for relief to community banks and credit units. they were not the one that started the financial crisis. mr. lamb in the last debate talk about leaving the power of the american government. i believe in the power of you. i believe in the service of the american government. we have to be very mindful of what government should be doing. about. frankt orphanage or reform or the power of the american government. your question was about how we campaign. i'm happy to hear him disclaim that mailer, i hope he's talked to his friends in the pennsylvania republican party to stop sending those things because it is not the only one they send. they send mailers that lie about my record on medicare. i've only been in office six months, i have never voted to cut it. i have been there six months, keith has been there six years. all of these mailers, so many of their commercials are about the. people don't like that.

issues aside, but one thing you also heard besides nancy pelosi but maxine waters. is that also a strategy among southern republicans? guest: maxine waters you are here more from president trump in these rallies that he has been holding in red states, particularly where democratic senators are up for reelection. he will mention a low c, schumer, and then waters to rally up the republican base. there is no one they don't like more than a california democrat. roth when it comes to mr. plus, is he getting support from other groups? strategists have conceded that this race is pretty much over for him. host: massachusetts is next, patrick. good morning, go ahead. not speakingre we about the pharmaceutical companies that made 600% profit? meanwhile we are trying to get

people's money versus the businesses of nursing. nurses should be getting extra money every day they go to work. we need people to take care of the people. pharmaceutical companies only make money off the people but we don't talk about that 600% profit. let's put another 300% into the people. host: pharmaceutical issues come up? guest: we are hearing a fair amount about pharmaceutical issues come especially when it comes to opioids, how much the industry is making, profit. you have seen a lot of democratic candidates talk about getting money out of politics this year, a lot of candidates taking a new corporate pack badge. they are not running just on the issue of campaign finance reform , it is just reforming the system and health care, particularly pharmaceuticals is one of the biggest vehicles in which they are caring that

message. host: we talked last hour about the tax cuts. our republican selling this as part of the november elections? guest: you are not hearing it as much as you may have expected six months ago when they were touting this as their biggest legislative achievement for the session of congress. you have seen it has backfired in a lot of competitive districts, new jersey, minnesota, new york. these are places that would have benefited from that. that has angered a lot of constituents in these more suburban, affluent districts where there is a catch-22 to the tax plan. host: this is run georgetown, kentucky. when is next. caller: i was wondering what ms. pathe thinks about the u.s. representative six the district and in kentucky here with the barber and amy mcgrath. i'm a huge supporter of amy and some of the ads are so negative

and they too tired to nancy pelosi. she is a wonderful candidate and i just wondered what ms. pathe thought about that. fascinatingis a race, one that we never expected to be talking about. raised a ton of money, over $3 million in the third quarter. in the first 15 days of october since the raised a ton quarter y another million dollars, so she has no shortage of money and we will be seeing more as from her because of that. but republicans have been hammering her, making the argument that she is too progressive to the district, even using her own words against her. at the same time, she has gained a national following because of that viral ads, videos show her promoting her military career, her past. it will be interesting to see whether the district is ready to vote for a democrat. she is talking about health care a lot, attacking andy

barr a lot. voters might be looking for a check and balance. host: what is andy barr's strategy? guest: he is attacking her for being a liberal, nancy pelosi. tim, you areta, next. independent line. caller: i called in on the independent line but i'm not an independent -- it is a party to the way i understand it. i am kind of a fellow without a party. i think it is ironic the subject you have this morning, who is the vulnerable party member? to me it is more of here is another fine mess that the two big-money parties have gotten us into. with some of these ads, they are just downright mean. when they talk about the masses coming over the border from honduras, el salvador and the like, and they are calling these people criminals -- these are

people in need. for all you christians out there, the bible says when jesus saw the masses, he took compassion on them. host: any specific raises you are watching in minnesota? caller: yes, the same old crap. thedemocrats and republicans. i'm looking more at third parties because i don't want to partake in this fiasco going on. tw and big-money parties that by their candidates into office. host: immigration as an issue, how often that is not come up? more from republicans trying to attack democrats. in that first ad you played, you heard rhetoric about sanctuary cities. thatis something more from republicans are trying to run on, the law and order message. you could call it a scare tactic. i would not say it is something you are here from democrats all that often but the caller raises an interesting point. the potential ability for negative ads to backfire. that is something i have heard a

on the trail.e they feel it is too negative and it is turning them off from both parties. host: erik paulsen and dean phillips. recap the race. guest: erik paulsen is an incumbent who has a really good track record of winning elections in a district that has been democratic. this district supported hillary clinton by nine points in 2016. at the same time, he won reelection by 14 points. democrats try to target him, tried to tie him to then candidate donald trump him even though paulson is nothing like trump in terms of demeanor and the way he carries himself but they say he will like him. he has.nd of the day dean phillips is not talking about trump, talking about paulson as being part of this corrupt congress, dysfunction in washington, running on a message of good government reform, getting money out of politics, health care.

not used to we were including on our list, has moved a pretty high on the list of most avoidable republicans because the district is difficult. host: here is a sample of the answer you will see in that race. >> i'm erik paulsen and i approve this message. >> who is dean phillips? a businessman who inherited his millions. repeatedly failed to pay his own business taxes on time. even worse for my philips says health care is a moral right. but he did not provide to workers at his coffee shop because he said he would that make money. now he is lying to cover it up. phillips,shonest dean another shady businessman who makes things worse. >> i was good at hiding. along.ulsen comes how can you have tens of thousands of people looking for you all the time and not one of the find you? i started to wonder.

exist?ik paulsen really where is the proof? some blurry photo taken from miles away? i had to come up with a plan. thousands from big pharma and votes to erode essential health care protections. so the most likely place to find him is that a big pharmaceutical company. and that is where i went. i was repaired to stay for weeks. it took seven minutes. shocked when i saw him walking by, i almost dropped the camera, but i got it. visual proof. bigfoot.rom me, erik paulsen really exists.

host: what has been the impact of that ad? drive it is trying to home two things, one that congressman paulson has been in acceptable. holdhilip says he doesn't town halls and if they do, only ticket entry. the other is the money in politics message i was talking about. here again you see big pharmaceutical industries pulling big. the idea is he is out for himself, not in touch with his constituents. phillips is running on this message, his slogan is everyone is invited. he drives around in his old 1960 harvester truck, opens up the side window answers people coffee. his idea is to get the people in the community engaged in his campaign. some are more receptive than others, but the bigfoot ad is a compelling way, his campaign thinks, to get people attention,

but also convince people of the fact that paulson is maybe not as responsive as he could be as a congressman. goes erik paulsen's ad using the word shady. guest: in this district you are not hearing all that much of a difference in policy issues. a little bit on health care but more on personal attacks. the attack on philips is that he is a shady businessman. host: georgia. gwen is next. hello. caller: i am calling because i keep hearing people calling in saying the president, the republican party plans to go after social security. i don't believe that's true. i have listened -- i heard the president say he will protect social security. and medicare. i don't know where these things are coming from. in addition to that, i want to remind people it took the republican party, along with the

democrat party, for almost 30 and allow ourack jobs to go all over the world. now you have someone in the white house who is finally trying to clean this mess up. they are not even working with him to do that. it is not something that can be done overnight but at least he is trying to do it. i think he should get some support. host: thank you. guest: social security and medicare threat is something you are here from both sides of the aisle, usually a scare tactic to will cut yourx medicare or social security. voters andhat scares is particularly salient this year because of the debate over health care. host: front page of the washington times, the headline says trump looks to take tough it in midterms. our midterms always about the person sitting in the oval office? guest: historically they are a

referendum on the person in the white house. the party out of power historically does pick up seats. host: how often do we see changes of power with a person sitting in office? fairly often. it makes sense for some reasons for voters to want a check and balance on the president. you are seeing that in hearing that more. it is not uncommon to have a divided government between the executive and legislative branch. joined byre simone pathe from roll call. she has a story, the top 10 vulnerable house races, which is what we are covering. also looking at senate races as well that are vulnerable. you can find that on roll call.com. florida, independent line. valerie, you are next. caller: hello. i'm calling to ask about -- she keeps mentioning about the money that democrats are trying to keep out of politics.

yet, she keeps him bringing all of the money that the candidates are raising. what exactly does she think they are going to achieve by that? they are getting all this money and then they are running the , which you are saying is negative and not good. can you please explain that? question.t's a good the candidates would say we are talking about two different kinds of money. the money they're interested in getting out of politics is so-called special-interest money, pledging not to take money from corporate pacs. dean phillips is not taking any pac money, from the leadership pacs from congress, labor unions, industry associations. the money that a lot of these democratic candidates are raising in huge sums -- we are seeing some of them raise $3 million and a quarter to and this is from individual donors. in a lot of cases, small donors

donating 100, $200. not always from the district, so that is an attack from republicans, that these candidates are raising money from outside of the district, national money being fueled by the democratic resistance to donald trump. but it is accurate to say that they are talking about two different kinds of money. host: kentucky, republican line. randy is next. caller: that fellow that called in earlier that said the pharmaceuticals were making 600%, i have never done any investing. i would like to start investing in the stock market. all: we are talking about the races, what races are you watching in kentucky? caller: everybody is a democrat here. we cannot vote republicans. locked out. host: we talk about the money spending, the center for responsive politics saying when

it comes to this costs of this election, $5 billion could be the price tag. how does that sit with past elections? guest: every election cycle, it seems to me, gets more expensive . besides the candidate money, tons of outside group money being spent in these districts. you have the party campaign committees, super pac's from each side of the aisle spending money, on top of the millions spending,dates are probably billions across the country. host: closer to home in washington, d.c., virginia tech, barbara comstock is the incumbent. is a race that washington, d.c. area voters are sick of hearing about. democrats have been trying to target barbara comstock in 2016, supposed to be a close race. hillary clinton carried this district by 10 points. comstock survived, a political strategist, very savvy. becauser will be tough hillary clinton did carry the district, she is running a

democratic state senator who is well known in the district, fairly well-liked. she has the name recognition to go against comstock. comstock has been trying to distance herself from the national party, paul ryan, president trump, knowing that is toxic. she voted against the republican health care plan. another thing she voted for the republican tax plan, which is not so popular in an affluent district that benefits from the state and local tax adoptions. sampling of the ads than those of you in the washington, d.c. area are seeing about the virginia 10th race. >> when a congressman invited me to his house alone late one night to discuss my internship, i declined. the internship disappeared. when i came forward to share my story, the first person to support me was barbara can't stop. she believed me and stood with me. barbara is a fighter for women and she is working across the aisle to stop this kind of abuse of power. she has passed landmark

legislation to combat sexual legislation -- harassment in congress. no more secret settlements and no taxpayer bailouts for predators. barbara introduce bipartisan legislation to increase transparency in the workplace and hold predators, no matter who they are, accountable. we are at a pivotal time. women are stepping for to claim their power at home, in the workplace, and in government. it takes a leader like barbara comstock to create change for women on important issues like sexual harassment. >> i'm barbara comstock. i approve this message. >> barbara comstock may as well be barbara trump stock. she is against protections for pre-existing conditions and sabotage the health care market, hiking insurance rates up to 64% in virginia. agrees,trump stock voting with him 98% of the time.

jennifer wexton believes health care is a right and voted to expand medicaid in virginia. >> change is coming. simone pathe, the barbara comstock at talking about sexual assault. is that -- is this a first for the campaign? hast: this is an issue she been very vocal on, especially in the me to europe. this was released right after the kavanaugh hearing, so when the issue was still raw, coming up in political condition -- discussions. it's a perfect example of how she is not touching the more politically divisive things, not talking about health care, taxes, certainly not talking about donald trump. this is a way to tell her bipartisan -- which came up a lot in the ad -- achievements without respect to party. jennifer wexton, she is making the connection directly to the president. guest: this was her first negative bad calling barbara

comstock trumpstock. she voted against the republican health care plan but that is not stopping democrats i'm trying to use that against republicans, saying they voted for it in committee. in this ad, they say they still support president trump. talk about brett kavanaugh. how much influence will he have in the week leading up to november? guest: we have seen a little bit of a bump in republican enthusiasm based on the limited polling i have seen since the hearing set concluded. anecdotally, on the trail i have heard republicans say, probably was not going to vote democrat before but certainly not after the way those hearings went. i think those voters were probably always going to turn out for republicans. it will be interesting to see what the net effect is. it is unclear whether this boost in enthusiasm on the republican side can sustain itself for the next few weeks.

as we know, a lot can happen in a short amount of time. california, richard, democrat line. caller: great discussion this morning. i would like to talk about the senate race in north dakota with high camp and kramer. heidi heitkampd for voting her moral conscience to not voting politically help her in her campaign. citing the fact that her mother is a sexual assault survivor. that shows a lot of moral courage. the way i look at it now, basically we have two sex offenders on the supreme court, nominated by sex offender in chief trump. that being said, i don't see how anyone with a moral conscience can support that. also, the thing in north dakota that is more disturbing is the attack and voter suppression going on with the native americans.

they really support high camp. it is a republican thing that has been done in legislatures all over the country to target democratic core groups to suppress the vote. they talk about voter fraud. this is suppression of the right to vote in our country under the constitution. they are doing a lot of work in north dakota to solve the situation. host: thank you. guest: heidi heitkamp has a real race. on our rankings of senators most of honorable, she is number one. this is a tough state. donald trump carried it by double digits. interesting to note, she and her opponent, kevin cramer, were elected to congress and the same time in 2012 egos north dakota is one of the states that hasn't our large representative. so voters are used to voting for them at the same time. this time they have to make a choice. aherently, that puts heitkamp

tough position because it is such a republican state. week, she had a bit of embarrassment with information being released. guest: not a good look for a campaign. they had run in a newspaper a newspaper from a supposed sexual assault survivor. not clear that they got the sign off from these women to have their names printed. so you are seeing some backlash on her campaign for disclosing these people's information. host: louisiana, republican line. al, go ahead. caller: good morning, america. instead of spending all this money to build a border wall, let's spend some money and build a border city and make that city go from coast-to-coast, from sea to shining sea, for all americans to enjoy. instead of building the wall, spend the money on the city and let's make people all-inclusive. these people coming as refugees, they have a right to come.

additionally we have accepted refugees and everything that goes with that. let's build a city, not a wall. host: in new york, the 19th district, john faso on the list on tough races. guest: a district that is, a trump district but used to be more democratic gonna associate isn't kind of a tight spot. voted for the republican health are plan after promising constituent that he would vote to protect existing conditions. democrats have made a huge issue of this. we will see this in an ad coming up. he is going up against antonio delgado. republicans are attacking the democrat for his past as a wrapper. that has plays a huge part in their attacks. this one could come down to the wire. host: thank you for the setup, here are the ads. tumor.ve a brain i was kicked off insurance. . need you

i promise that we will not take this away from you. >> this bill passed by one vote. this razor thin margin is going to throw millions and millions of sick people out in the cold. >> house majority pack is responsible for this advertising. city politicians are crushing upstate families, just like nancy pelosi and governor cuomo, big-city wrapper antonio delgado supports their takeover of health care. the cost, $32 trillion. to pay for it they have to double everyone's income taxes. just like walmart and pelosi, antonio delgado supports it. higher taxes, crippling debt. we cannot afford big-city liberal antonio delgado. can you expand on that a little bit? they refer to him as a big-city

rapper. guest: he had a brief career as a rapper, but he is also a road scholar, went to harvard, but they are choosing to use that against him, arguing that he does not fit with this district which is part of the hudson valley, a bit more upstate than new york city. the issue is he is not one of us, perhaps some racial undertones, some have suggested. whether or not that resonate with voters is yet to be determined. one thing about the tax plan, you said people are talking about it. you are not hearing republicans talk about their tax plan what you are hearing them say democrats would support higher taxes or that they did not support ataxes or that they didt support a middle-class tax cut. you are seeing that in that ad. host: you also saw governor cuomo,. the 22nd district, you are hearing a lot about governor cuomo as well.

controversial, politically toxic for democrats in new york. host: simone pathe is with us for a few more minutes. ed in indiana, go ahead. the immigrants have come into the united states. . taxpayers have to pay for them. where do they get support from on the way, do other countries do it, what happens there? ed in baltimore, maryland. independent line. yes, i live in a deep blue city, in a deep state. and yet, we have a significant independent neil simon running against a long-term deep blue better -- democrat ben cardin, who is mostly known as a do-nothing democrat. i just want your opinion, see if there is anything going on

nationally, opinions nationally, in that race. the caller is likely to have senator ben carter and it back in office. race, larryvernor's hogan, republicans with a 20-point lead over ben jealous. is that still consistent? what do you contribute that to? guest: this is one of those interesting races where you have a blue state but a republican governor who is popular. similar situation in massachusetts. he has gotten a lot of credit for taking care of bread-and-butter issues like infrastructure. i would say he has a fairly comfortable lead. that is consistent with the information. host: other than the ones we have talked about, what is the one you are most interested in watching? guest: maine's second district is interesting to watch, the first time we have included bruce on our list. he is running in a district that

donald trump carried, a democratic district, union membership, rural, working-class voters. he is running against a very different candidate who has run before, during golden, a marine veteran, former aide to susan collins, a former state house assistant leader. what is kind of unprecedented is that maine will be using what is called ranked choice voting. we ever wins automatically has to get more than 50% of the vote. unlikely that either candidate will do that. there will be four candidates on the ballot. voters make their choices, who they want first, and if that person doesn't win, they have to make another choice, so that those first choices are reallocated to the second-place finisher. we have not seen this used before. it is thought that this system of voting will help democrats,

but yet to be determined. this is one of those districts where democrats need to make inroads with from voters. host: we don't have time to show the ads but both of them have a really military veteran focus. as far as that, what do you see happening? guest: we have heard a lot about the democratic candidate to our veterans. jarrod golden is a veteran. bruce pollock win is not but he is still using that in his advertisements. definitely an argument that veterans are good candidates because of their ability to him so-called ability to work across the aisle. a lot of them talking about when they were in the trenches, nobody asked whether they were a democrat or republican. that is a constant refrain, regardless of what side of the island they are running on. host: diane in minnesota. go ahead. caller: good morning. long time. st. cloud, minnesota, ever heard of it? terrible, how how

terrible. all i have to say this morning is please, people, vote republican. we need to clean the mess up. we have to get the train moving and clean the mess up. please vote republican. host: second district, jason lewis versus angie craig. give us a cap on that race. guest: this is a rematch of 2016, which is interesting to see how the candidate do things differently. angie greg is doing things differently, a new campaign team, talking about her personal story of growing up poor in rural arkansas. in 2016, she talked a lot more about being a businesswoman. now you see her in ads on the farm and the wearing a jean jacket, trying to convey a different message, talking about working-class economic issues, not talking about president trump, not trying to use jason

.ewis' controversial comments she is not talking about that. important difference in this race from 2016, there is no third-party candidate on the ballot. in 2016, they took a percent of the vote. it is thought that took away phase ofe cragg's support. this year she could have better odds of defeating jason lewis. the 10 most of vulnerable house races, available on roll call.com. one more update, when will that take place? guest: right before the election, early november. host: simone pathe, thank you for your time. coming up, we are going to consider the impact of young voters in this election cycle. abby kiesa of the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement will join us for that discussion when washington journal continues.

q&a,nday on c-span's professor at the university of california hastings law school in san francisco talks about his biography of chief justice john marshall. legacy wasshall's really obscured by a single opinion, his decision in marbury versus madison, that establishes the principle of judicial review. that is what he's known for. was act is, john marshall soldier in the revolutionary army, very important, the judge advocate general of the army, served at valley forge, was a leading figure in virginia house of delegates, probably the indispensable man in the ratification of states. he was the guy that really persuaded the majority of virginian delegates to go along with ratifying the constitution.

without virginia, there would not have been a constitution. he was an important phone that negotiations with friends. he was secretary of state. all of those other contributions he has made is a founding father kind of get forgotten because of the significance of his one decision in marbury versus madison. at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. 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, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. host: a discussion on the impact

of the youth vote in the november elections. abby kiesa joins us from the center for information and research on civic learning and engagement. she is the director of impact, also associated with tux university. a little bit about the organization. we are part of the tisch college of life at tufts university, the only college dedicated to civic life at a university. we are in applied research center and we focus on leveraging research to close systemic gaps in young people's civic participation. we are working with people on the ground, research on policy, how various settings and people affect young people's participation. with the goal of trying to increase and diversify young people engaged in the united states. tell usat does research about young people and their participation in midterm elections, how does that compare to this year? guest: this is a really unusual

year, and really exciting. this is my third midterm working at circle. been veryeady different from 2010 and 2014. we just got our pre-election poll data and we are seeing that young people who say they are extremely likely to vote could indicate a very high increase in turnout. the young people who are more likely to say they are extremely likely to vote have been contacted by campaigns. that is another thing we are seeing this year that is interesting. young people being contacted by campaigns at similar rates, which is highly unusual for a midterm. we are also seeing, over the course of all of 2018, a lot of young people's activism. that is another thing we are this is really something that started in 2017 with elections in alabama, virginia, we saw this with activism throughout this year. we have seen continuing high registration rates, high

interest in young people, thinking that the 2018 elections mean something for their community. host: if you go to the research that our guest talks about, several charts. one of them talks about congressional candidate support among 18 to 24-year-olds. walk us through this. guest: what we are seeing is something similar to what we have seen in recent elections. if you look within youth, you see a lot of differences. yes in aggregate, people are more likely to support democratic candidates come including those who are extremely likely to vote. , 45% ofoung people young people interested in supporting a democratic candidate versus 26% for a republican candidate. in supporting an independent candidate of various ideologies. when we look within young people, we see young people of color are much more interested in supporting a democratic candidate than white youth.

within white youth, young white men are actually slightly more interested in supporting a republican candidate than they are a democrat or independent candidate. what women are more interested in supporting a democratic candidate, though not to the extent of young people of color. host: what do you think are driving the trends? guest: some of it is peer-to-peer outreach. we see a lot of amazing youth groups on the ground doing issue organizing, and important states, especially among young people of color. we also see a lot of issues that have been raised this year that have really been of interest to a lot of young people. gun violence, immigration issues on the border, separation of families, i think are mobilizing young people to be thinking about their own communities, how these issues affect their life. host: when it comes to the biggest influence on a young person, how she or he will vote, what is the largest influence? guest: it depends on young

people. that is one of the things that we try to emphasize. and haveple grow up many different civic and political influences on their life. every young person's civic socialization is not the same. where young at people hear about the elections, it really can differ widely. the biggest influencer of where young people are hearing about the 2018 elections is family. for some people that is surprising but when we look at the research, we regularly see there is an influence of and the people around young people a great deal, like family, siblings, extended family, friends. point 6%,ly, 41 according to research, followed by network television, and on facebook. talk about social media's impact. guest: this is one of the things that my colleagues started looking at in our pre-election data, the role of social media.

young people have gotten a little bit of a bad rep, i think, undeserved for doing things online, not showing up off-line. but the analysis was really amazing, showed that the relationship between young people following candidates online, signing petitions online , and the relationship to off-line activism like marches, attending rallies, things like that. social media isn't necessarily a place where young people are only doing things. there is a relationship between online and off-line. that is also where young people are discussing things, getting information from family and friends as well. i don't think we can write off social media as a bad place when it comes to civic engagement. host: abby kiesa of circle joining us two-legged the youth vote and the midterm elections. if you want to give your thoughts, we divided the line differently.

ages ofre between the 18 and 24 years old, give us a call at (202) 748-8000. if you are between the ages of 25 and 64, (202) 748-8001. 65 and older, (202) 748-8002. if you like, you can post on our twitter feed. how are the parties doing in reaching out particularly to young people? guest: this is interesting. we have the data to compare 2016 and 2018. in aggregate, we see young people are being contacted by campaigns at a similar rate to 2016, which is highly unusual. but when we look within that, we see an increase in outreach to young democrats, decreased outreach to young independents. young republicans is roughly the same. what we are seeing is young people who are more likely to vote for a democrat, who are registered democrat, are receiving more contact from

campaigns. host: what does the research tell us about the most successful way to reach -- personal contact, social media, a combination of things? guest: i think we have to remember that it is a whole buildup to the election that influences whether a young person votes. one contact can be important, can move someone, if it is really interactive. a young person talking with someone. can have thewe see biggest impact, talking to a family member, close friend, or someone you are familiar with about things that matter to you, making a plan to vote. host: in cycles past we have talked about enthusiasm, interest, but then the actual day of voting comes up, and do you see people come out? far about what you see as as this election is concerned, if people do that, particularly

young people. are seeing al we lot of interest in this election regardless of age. when it comes to young people we are seeing many signs and signals that this is extraordinary. are seeing hybridization numbers, high rates of contact, a lot of young people saying that they believe their generation can make change in this country, and that these elections matter. -- we are seeing something very positive this year. i do think the next two to three weeks that are a great deal. we need to remind people how to vote, young people need information about where, when. may want to look at their ballot at a time. some of these basic pieces of information are things that many different people, including election officials, and can help people do on the local level. host: public religion research institute tells us that 35% of

americans 18 to 29 are absolutely certain they will vote in november. that coincides with what you are seeing as well? guest: we found 34%. signs and signals that this is an extraordinary midterm year when it comes to young people. to put that in historical context, over the past 40 years of the highest rate of turnout in a midterm election that the census has found was 26% in 1982. higherg close to 30% or is absolutely extraordinary. host: what is the top issue for a young person voting? again, we have to say young people are very diverse, lots of issues that young people care about. as a whole, in our poll, we found affordability of family health care was most important. amonglook amongst youth, black youth, racism is a significant thing. when we look at different regions of the country, different subgroups of young

people, we have to consider the issues they care about are different. host: do they look at specific things in the news cycle, for example, the kavanaugh confirmation process, discussion of entitlements, economic issues, are those things and register when it comes to a person pulling a lever? guest: i do think so. when we ask young people about what issues are really going to determine their congressional vote, certainly the economic issues are very significant for young people. health care, is an economic issue in a lot of ways, so is the availability of well-paying jobs, which is sending that rated high. absolutely, those are affecting young people. and their everyday lives. host: ages of 18 to 24, (202) 748-8000. 25 and 64, (202) 748-8001. if you are 65 years and older, (202) 748-8002.

if you want to ask questions to abby kiesa with the group circle. another chart looking at political skepticism among 18 to 24-year-old. guest: reason this is an unusual election year with the common conventional wisdom about cynicism is that, if you are cynical about politics, you will maybe not participate. it is the exact opposite in our research, people more cynical about politics are more likely to vote in 2018. this is an interesting finding that young people are turning the cynicism into going to the ballot box. host: the specifics, when asked about the most rheumatic change could occur is people banding together, 72% says yes, in 2018 versus 60% -- and 2016.

-- 64 -- 67% in 2016. -- responded guest: there is both more cynicism and more hope this year. this is interesting and i think as a testament to all of the young people who have been organizing this year and showing young people's voices matter. one of the things we see strongly in this is that young people, regardless of party identification, think they as a group can change the country. democrats, republicans come independents, 81% think they can change the country and the sentiment has been building over this year and probably 2017. host: someone in the 18-24 year bracket, mark from oklahoma city. go ahead. caller: thank you for having me. you were talking about what are

the issues driving young people. question and is no i wanted to give you a few items that will make me get out and ons are voting. climate change, the republican party is still calling it a hoax. health care is in a terrible state. gop are doing nothing even though promises were made. if we want gun law sanity, smart gun laws that the american people agree with the congress will not do because there many pockets of the donors. terribleown tax-cut is for this country. wonder why, you will your benefits have been cut. voting rights, gop on the wrong

side of that. women's rights, republicans on the wrong side of women's rights. host: what would you like to ask our guest? caller: what areas are you seeing? i cannot find any areas where the republican party has ideas about the future. host: goodbye. guest: thank you for your question and sharing what you are voting for. one of the things we saw, a couple of things we saw in the polling relevant to what you are talking about, you mentioned gun laws and our research shows that this is a significant import to this election. partially because, when we asked young people whether they support gun violence prevention, more than half of young people said they support that. among the young people who say they're actively involved in the gun violence prevention movement, those young people are

highly likely to vote in this election, 50% said they are extremely likely to vote. compare that to 34% overall, a significant increase. it is clear that having conversations about gun prevention violent -- gun violence prevention has motivated people in the movement to vote. i also wanted to point out that, when you look at young people interested in voting for a republican candidate, that is 26% of 18-24-year-olds, taxes are a high issue. for that group in particular. double mores almost likely than overall to care about tax cuts. another example of how young people are very diverse in what they care about. and where they are in this country. that is something we have to emphasize. host: gaithersburg, maryland, cole, go ahead.

caller: first time caller. i've voted in every election since i was 18, registered democrat, my question for the speaker or the guest is, how do we get more young people out to vote? how do we incentivize them? one of the main things happening now is that people are terrified because they're not represented, terrified because there is no economic benefit to them. i really think we need to find a new way to get people to vote every time. guest: one of the things, you talked about when people start voting when they are 18 like he said he did, that can make such a difference on lifelong voting. that is one of the reasons people care so much about focusing on young people, is

because voters is a let -- voting is a learned process and more likely you are to vote your lifetime is much higher when you vote as a young person. that is why things that start when people are teenagers can be so critical. this is why just to give one is why we focus on high-quality teachings about elections and voting in high school. it is absolutely possible to do that in a nonpartisan way. young people who learn about elections and voting are 40% more likely to vote when they turn 18. we need to remember that this is not a partisan issue. young people's participation in democracy is about all voices mattering and not a partisan issue. is one wayeducation to do it in another way is focusing on elections in a clear and transparent and visible way so that all young people can find out about elections and know about them.

and diversifying how we talk about elections and where young people can learn about them is something that can be important to young people, including a lot of low income people. we did a study with an organization we have a partnership with and we found that there are basic information that young people need about casting ballots. and about voting and where to go and that is a knowledge gap we can close. host: this is connecticut, ferris. caller: good day. the more modern -- general joseph e dunford, he had a great role in the recent elections in 2016 and arranged for the present president to be in office after completing a silent

military counter group against the georgia rose, clinton, obama -- george soros, clinton, by a -- obama cabal. host: do you have a question? caller: yes, the question is, don't you think it is ridiculous to have so many more undereducated and inexperience and youthful people voting in our country? could you comment about your interest in lower voting age is and having people voting at age six? would you be happy with that? guest: thank you for calling in and your question. i want to emphasize that youth engagement is not about partisanship. they'll partisanship can be one reason people vote, it is about

democracy and making sure we have a strong democracy and all voices matter. the reason to focus on young people is because voting is a vigil and we want to have a strong commodity -- habitual, and we want to have a strong community and all communities represented in the democracy. to do that, we need to start early. young people are stakeholders in our community. this is something very important , civic engagement is important and young people care deeply about issues in their community and they deserve to have a voice. expertise,ignificant young people have expertise in many of the issues that face our community. encouraging young people to vote put out and -- i will be dead

soon. ihool shootings are sad that have not been in a school for 50 years. >> i cannot keep track of what lies matter. -- like a meme on instagram. >> may be able to share this on facebook. >> young people never do. >>. i do >> midterms, primaries, every single election. >> we are a generation of doers. >> not whiners. >> we are doing. host: what do you think?

guest: i think it is more positive to talk to young people about what they care about and show young people there are other young people doing important work in their communities. what we saw in our data is that 81% of young people think their generation can change the country. and over the past few years, young people are doers and doing important work. and generations need to work together. necessarilyt align with some of the messaging. host: mike in north carolina. go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you guys? host: fine, go ahead. caller: where to begin? i don't know. i was one of the first youth voters when they dropped the

voting age to 18. i voted in 1976 for the better first time, i was 20. i followed this whole youth vote thing. it is funny for a lot of reasons. so many people put so much emphasis on the importance, i guess because they want the votes. i was pretty stupid when i was 18 and through most of my 20's i was pretty ignorant about how the world works and economics, finance, just about come even our country, i graduated from the university of colorado at boulder and i can barely remember studying the you,itution, and god bless you seem to be a nice lady but i have heard you say it three or four times, about our democracy, ok. host: what would you like to

talk about specifically? caller: why do we place so much value on the vote of our young people, yes they are passionate, yes they have a lot of -- to be concerned about and invested in our country, but their knowledge of how our country and our constitutional republic works is inadequate. host: thank you, i have to leave it there. guest: thank you for talking about your experience in voting in 1976. that is the 1972 election is when the first time 18, 19, 20 euros could vote. 20-year-old could vote. stakeholders in our communities and having important experiences to bring to bear on the most important issues facing our communities and our nation. young people are in the middle of them. and have the energy and interest

and the steel to work on -- steel to work on the issues. -- skill to work on issues. this is why civics in high school is crucial because in addition to leveraging the interest to work on solutions by giving young people specific knowledge about those issues and how those issues have come to be problems. also, how they can contribute to solutions. when it comes to young people and democracy and working on issues in the community, we have a lot of ways to bring that to bear and harness the energy and enthusiasm, as well as the commitment that many young people are making. about,es they care issues that affect their community. education and action civics is one way people are trying to do that while building up young people's ability to have more of an impact on the future. host: good morning america,

students from parkland, high school in florida talking about their role in the elections. here is more what they have to say. >> if young people show up in 2018 and in elections in the future, young people determine the winner, the largest voting bloc in the country and we show up about one in five normally. the polls are in our direction and the feelings and emotions are in our direction. we are hyping up this generation to actually make history on november 6. i thank you for coming in, know you will be working for the next three weeks. that is the input of one young person, is that square with this election, do they have that kind of power? guest: absolutely, already people, in a congressional election primary by us, my colleague did an analysis in a massachusetts seventh to see young people of color turned the

tide for the winner as a challenger. we did some analysis of the democratic gubernatorial primary in florida and young people of color were a determining factor in an important race that has turned into an even more significant race. we have seen young people in fact the issues important, impacting important races already this year, and the likelihood young people can of senate and governor's races is very high and something we put in our significance index. there are many places where, if young people are mobilized, they can determine the results. host: ed in pleasant valley, new york. question, the one first age of the children that are eligible to vote, i believe we are in big trouble if we will believe what these children

think they know about life. and it did notd hit me until i had children and built a home and was taxed out of everything i own. these kids have everything free. i watched what went on in a college for 40 years. i agree with the caller before, these children have no idea what life is about. they can make all the rules -- laws but when they get into politics, hang on because we will be in big trouble. guest: thank you for calling in and sharing your experience. from my home state of new york. i think the data shows that the youth population in this country are somewhat dramatically economically bifurcated and when we talk about young people's experiences, there are young people who have a lot of wealth and entitlement, and they expect

that, but still a lot of young people who have been failed by society and do not necessarily expect much from it. such as the roughly 30% who drop out of high school. thirtysomethings still getting started in life with their parents helped and 13-year-olds -- and 30-year-olds already parents. young people have different experiences and bringing those experiences to bear in voting and what is good for them and their communities. host: mike in north carolina. caller: how are y'all doing? the guy from new jersey put it in layman's terms, he said what i was going to say. election, imy first could not wait to vote, jesse gets running against harvey for senate in north carolina. votedst election which i in and i have been voting ever

since. a lot of it goes down to education. is now from when we went to school, they taught history, taught meanings of socialism, which now they will socialism to the word of communism, like margaret socialism is fine until you run out of other people's money. the people want everything gave to them and do not want to work for it unless they make $100,000 per year. it goes back to the education system. they need to put the history back in education and tell them what socialism brings. host: thank you. guest: thank you for calling in, mike. you that education is very important. that is why we have been working and doing research on how civic education in this country can be

strengthened and improved and be effective for all young people, regardless of what community they are in. this is one of the reasons why we work with organizations like generation citizen on the action civics course they do in school so young people can learn about the history of varieties of issues and think about solutions to those issues in their communities. this is a promising effort to get young people to be more engaged in their communities and also to bring their energy and expertise to bear on issues in our communities. host: abby kiesa with a group circle to talk about the youth vote. more information available on their website. thank you for the -- thank you for your time. host: a short set of open -- open line phones --republicans call

202-748-8001, democrats call 202-748-8000, independents call 202-748-8002. us to talk about the impact of hurricane michael and elections in florida is steve of the tampa bay times. good morning. good morning. guest: i am here, pedro. host: what do we see post-hurricane michael and directly, how it may affect the upcoming elections. guest: there are about 200,000 or so voters in an eight or nine county region west of tallahassee, centered by panama

city that were devastated by the storm. lots without electric power and roads are not passable. people focus on other things other than the election. the election will go forward. these are all strongly republican counties in florida has a long history of close statewide elections and we have two very competitive races for senate and governor. efforts are being made to allow people to vote in a way that we will have some of these counties, fewer, bigger, early voting centers people can get to between now and election day. host: an effort from governor scott and there has been resistance to this idea of the election going forward? guest: this is directed by the supervisors of elections, florida, like many states, elections are administered at the county level by elected election administrators.

they have taken matters into their own hands. the problem we have, the serious problem is to medication. self -- is communication. cell phone service is still spotty and voting by mail has been very popular across the state in the last couple of election cycles. a lot of people voting by mail that obviously and destruction of mail service -- obviously a disruption of mail service. they say they will make every effort to make sure everybody's mail the balance -- mailed ballots are accounted for. host: what position is rick scott is in? he has to manage the elect -- the hurricane recovery and his election. caller: he has delegate -- guest: he has delegated, he

appoints the chief elections official and that is the secretary of state. who has been meeting with county election supervisors and hearing their concerns. -- they do not want ambiguity, different counties doing different things to accommodate these hurricane problems. much more advisable for the governor to issue an executive order that has a uniform set of situations for all of these counties. the idea of delaying the election does not seem to be a plausible solution here. the governor of this state does have the legal authority to delay a state election but not a federal election up to 10 days. the lights are coming on little by little in counties.

people trying to get their lives back together. host: that is steve bousquet. you are breaking up. can you move closer? when it comes to the campaigning itself, you mentioned the governor's race and senate race, the candidates, have they held off on campaigning or is it still going forward? guest: it is a mixed bag. rick scott dismissed campaigning for the senate and his wife has been a campaign surrogate. spent more of his personal money in the senate race and still aggressively advertising on television. the hurricane zone, the hurricane damage is to the far northern and western extreme of the state and far from the large population centers. the hurricane has disappeared from local tv newscasts in orlando and miami. -- this is not have a

statewide effect. in the governor's race, the democrat andrew gillum has been preoccupied with hurricane recovery because he is a resident of tallahassee, a city graced by the storm. -- the mayor of tallahassee, a city graced by the storm and the republican candidate continuing to campaign. host: i'd update on efforts on the florida election, particularly after the impact of hurricane michael. mr. bousquet, thank you for your time. guest: thank you. 9:45, penny, buffalo, new york, democrat line. concerning the previous statement of young people going to vote, it is interesting in 2016, they asked all of the candidates who they

thought was the greatest threat to the country. only one candidate who had the sanders, he, bernie said climate change. only interesting that the -- all of these old people calling in talking about young people not knowing anything, the only person to mention climate change was a young person. it seems to be that is the right answer. they'd better start thinking about that because it will not when mar-a-lago goes underwater and new york city is underwater, everything will be turned upside down. host: john in california, republican line. caller: good morning.

i would like to respond to the last caller. i have worked all of my life and i have put back into the system, and i have a real problem with people who are homeless and high school dropouts like the lady said, 30% of high school dropouts, i have a problem with them voting and not having information or being uneducated. i would like to see anybody who votes has to fill out a tax return because if you do not, you are not making money and on welfare, you need some type of engagement with america before you can vote. i hate it when they are taking idea of whatave no is going on and having them cast a vote. that is a big problem. everybody should vote, they should have to fill in a tax form and everything is right

there, that is the way to handle it. you get to vote, involved in the government. host: why should a young person be discounted because they do not have that kind of life experience? caller: i am not saying life experience, they could have no life experience, they just have to fill out a tax return. they can say zero. at least they have to fill it out and go through all of that problem. if you have ever tried to fill out a tax return, it is hard, let them go through that and start thinking about the issues. maryland,and laurel, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say that young nowle that are growing up are much more mature and are much more educated and much more aware.

they care more about the environment and more about people. partisan than the folks who are calling, their 52. i am 56 and i rely on the youth to bring us into a new generation because they care more about our world, our earth, each other than these older folks. i welcome their votes. i welcome them to vote. host: the new york times editorial page takes a look at recent interviews by hillary clinton and categorizes them as such, hillary clinton's master saying she smacked down the notion that her husband should have resigned over the , it constituted an abuse of power which it did and what have been mr. clinton -- she said she had no regrets of

how she handled her personal life in the 1990's, "i did what i thought was right and feel very good about that." she rejected not having contended fully with her husband's accusers makes it hard for her to be an effective supporter of the me too movement . she said it was the most comprehensive investigation that she believed came out in the right place. the article says it is one thing for a wife to stand by her spouse, especially when both have long been the targets of partisan warriors set on destroying them but it is no good that bill clinton's response to the sexual scandal was trying to tarnish the reputations of the women involved. and while the degree to which mrs. clinton point in such dispute,ay remain in she denies playing any role, her fundamental complicity is beyond

reason -- reasonable doubt. line.n, texas, republican caller: i meant to call the independent. i wanted to comment on callers before, especially older ones saying the youth vote does not matter, they have nothing to prove since they have not gone through life. i agree with your guest before hand, saying that they are completely today then 10, 20 years ago. yes, you have stereotypical things of saying they're lazy friends who want to vote and want to make a change. robert f kennedy said the young generation is the future. and we are depending on the young people. to say that these older people

completely delegitimizing the youth vote is crazy because the same thing is happening to them 50 years ago. it does not seem like anything is changed. people should be looking out because everyone is trying to make him be the underdog and the youth will be the underdog for this election, especially in texas. host: concerns in canada from those in the united states and canadians over the decision by the canadian government for a legalization of marijuana, usa today writing out of vancouver, saying legalization in canada has prompted the u.s. border block canadians working on the cannabis industry from traveling south into the u.s., even in states that legalize pot. they can importantly been visitors.f -- ban anyone working in the canadian legal marijuana industry works and that -- is that

host: jacksonville florida, democrat line, fran. caller: am i on? host: you are. caller: i tried to keep up with what goes on, especially with the president of setting me. -- upsetting me. the latest ignorant thing i heard him say, he has not changed one bit, when he was running for president, saying he knew more than the generals. recently, saying that he knew more than general mattis. i just started to feel comfortable because there was

tension because how the president keeps everything at a high-volume. i saw a press conference with general mattis, talking with the president -- with the press and answering their questions, sounding reasonable, i started to feel calmer. trump then says i know more than mattis. people come and go and he will probably be gone. and my anxiety is coming up again. i had to say that. host: jim mattis a subject of a story and reuters out of singapore saying he told his chinese counterpart thursday that the world's to top economies need to rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict. friction can undermine military contact when beijing

updated plans for him to travel to china in october to meet the defense minister there. retaliation for recent u.s. sanctions come a growing warhpoint -- a better trade -- better trade war -- bitter trade war. new jersey, republican line. geter: we are trying to iters to vote republican and will be a tough race and i'm encouraging young voters to vote -- november 6. host: what race are you talking about? caller: republican party race? host: which one?

party. conservative host: that is lester in new jersey. theom has a posting as of 17th about the senate race between bob menendez, current senator, saying he has a seven point lead among likely voters in a 20 ps university poll released on wednesday. a steady but narrow advantage over his republican challenger. 51% to 44%. 5% of likely voters remain undecided and 10% of each candidate's supporters said they could still change their mind. we have open phones for 10 minutes.

for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8002 for independents. post on our twitter feed. journal talkst about the extension of credit lines to mexico being offered by the trump administration, saying the treasury department official said wednesday they would triple the size of a credit facility known as the exchange stabilization agreement potentially allowing mexico to borrow 9 billion -- money over a previous agreement, mexico has had a $3 billion line with the u.s. federal reserve which is not expected to change. the expected formal signing of the credit deal by the treasury secretary and mexican counterpart shows the trump administration is seeking to boost ties with mexico as the

countries prepared to sign a new u.s.-mexico-canada agreement in late november. times, ahe new york story about north korea out of washington about new sanctions against that country, saying that sanctions imposed -- the trump administration has stopped american aid workers from going to north korea as it pressures pyongyang to the mental their nuclear weapons program according to humanitarian groups , though sanctions imposed by the united nations last winter have forced a groups to severe limit activity such as shipping farming equipment to the country and north korea is one of the world's poorest nations and the citizens grapple with food shortages. the move by the cap administrations is part of the -- mum pressure can patient republican line, lee from alabama. caller: you are my favorite on

c-span. you are the most honest one. i really appreciate that. what i would like to make a comment about, these kids today in college and high school, and byers, they are being taught the kids that were hippies in the 1960's and now are professors in college. they were pushing socialism, know, thoseyou well that kept up with what was going on. have ane kids do not ,ducation in american history they have plenty of marxism, though.

it is a shame to see these kids hollering like insane people. host: that is lee in alabama. linda is in georgia, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have been listening to people on your show this morning kind of knock the youth group from voting. i taught school for 37 years. i am very encouraged with what i see. the current curriculum some people are worried about is actually a great curriculum. it did steeper than when i was in school -- it did steeper than when i was in school -- it did steeper than when i was in school, we learned meaningless

him dates and times and forgot them. divorced is getting less than we were and we are. and we never experience school shootings like they did. encouragementf about what i see on tv and what i hear from the young people. i am fully behind them. host: richard in missouri, democrat line. caller: i am calling, the voter suppression deal we are talking about. i have a grandson who just turned 18, old enough to vote. missouri, they said you can go to a drivers license plates and registered to vote. he went there before the said theyand they

never received his forms. he had to go to the county seat to register which is quite a ways away. bunch just maybe cap people -- kept people from registering. host: stephen in massachusetts, independent line. caller: thank you very much. i am in consensus with most callers about the youth voting. else, they doyone not know the constitution. they should learn the constitution and what it means. i pledge allegiance to the flag, what is allegiance, i was 12 before i -- to make my point, it would be great if they voted if they knew the constitution and the reason why we have the right

to have arms, not to hunt, a tyrannical government. host: you knew all of that before the first time you voted, unity constitution that well? caller: i did not. who knows who i voted for? i am an independent, i did not vote for hillary clinton or donald trump. this is john in trenton, new jersey, republican line. 98 -- kennedy in 1 -- we gotget smarter smarter in school those days because we were taught history. even though i stated democrat, i learned that. -- stayed a democrat, learn

that. for the current situation, my granddaughter and grandson, one will be a physician's assistant, will be in aeronautical engineering and we play a board game ever christmas where you pick history and geography items, like current events, and the other items rtv, movies, i never answer those. my basis of voting is based on history. i know more about it. i do not think those kids learned that. host: got you. thank you for calling and thank you for all of you who called. c-span'sp 47 on capitals tour across the united states, 50 capitals as part of that effort and today takes us to the most eastern capital city of augusta, maine. we sat down with the main governor paul lepage about public policy issues and here is

the issue. >> c-span's 50 capitals tour takes us to maine and we are pleased the governor paul lepage is government josh is joining us. -- is joining us. what have you accomplished in eight years, what are you proud of? moment is biggest when we paid off the hospitals, we of $750 million to hospitals and the previous governor had leased out a liquor business for $100 million over 10 years and the liquor business brings in about $55 million per year and i thought i was good to bring it to pay off the hospitals. i thought it was an important part of turning the economy around and getting money back to the hospitals. since then, the economy has boomed. host: the unemployment rate in

maine is about 3.7%, how did you get that low? guest: that is what happens when you lower taxes and put money back into the workplace. people want to invest and this is what is happening. what kind of jobs are you hiring for? guest: right now, you can get a job in maine for specialists in the medical field, doctors, engineers, professors. area ofts is a big concern to us right now. construction jobs, trade, you name it come anywhere from -- you name it, anywhere from $12 our, we need00 for people. an issue we are talking

about in washington and around the country is the new proposed trade agreement with the three countries in north america. what is your initial reaction to the trade agreement? guest: the work the president has done was needed and warranted. i have not read every detail. , i was talking to my daughter who lives in canada this morning and she says everybody is furious and furious in maine so it must be a good deal because everybody is mad. what concerns me is that we have a coalition in the united states that put is -- putting tariffs on lumber and eastern canada and southern québec has been exempt for 40 years. they removed the exception. states, arenited paying historical prices for lumber because of the greedy industrialists and mill owners

around the country. one of them unfortunately is from maine which sevens me. -- saddens me. ,ith puerto rico and houston floods, people trying to rebuild their homes and lives, and people, mill owners in the united states making historical profits. that goes under the radar screen . i find that unsettling. it is concerning that greed would take over being good corporate citizens. host: what is the trade light between maine and canada and what is the border region like? guest: it is phenomenal, we have three points between québec, new brunswick, and maine and our economies are intertwined. we have canadians who only and and lumber mills in maine and mainers who own lumber mills in canada.

over the last 100 years, we have had a tightknit relationship with our economies. that is what concerns me, when you have groups in washington that put artificial tariffs and use states like maine as collateral damage. our state is 90% forest. there is no possible way we could have the effort for sure with one million people to harvest and process all of the wood that needs to be cut every year and we depend on québec and new brunswick to do a lot of processing. we process 40% of our annual cut in the process 60%. rate, we the exchange are selling our laws to candidate in u.s. dollars and a 27% tariff put on it and the lumber does not come back to the united states. it is going to the middle east. that concerns me because they use the metric system and we use

a standard system. to get that back to the u.s. will take years and years and years. host: one of the issues you have been dealing with recently in maine is medicaid expansion. what is the status? guest: i have been trying to oncate the democratic party -- you have to pay your bills. they have four campaigning saying that medicaid is free. it is free as long as we come up with $200 million. we have a program, we have a formula to get it done, it is a matter of funding it. they refuse to fund it. it will get funded. probably the day after the election because they have been campaigning for a year saying it is free and there is no need to find it. there is a 200 main dollar -- there is a $200 million price tag do from our state to make it work. i believe in good fiscal responsibility, i believe in paying our bills, i think if

they find it -- fund it, they came in and said let's get it done, it could be done at lunchtime before the end of the day. we could make it sustainable into the future. or some reason, they refuse to acknowledge it costs money. host: another issue in washington is criminal justice reform. what are your thoughts about that? , when i am very concerned we talk about criminal justice, what concerns me the most is legislators who put laws on the books in our courts, either for one reason or another, they are overworked, they make plea deals because they cannot get everybody through the system, or they are lifetime crime, they put -- light on crime, they put people back in the streets.

if you will not punish, get the law off the books but if they will be on the books, you have to abide by the laws of the countries and states. that is not happening. uis'we have 16 overies and they are all the board on who prosecutes and who does not, some prosecute 90% of the oui's and others it is like 20%. host: should there be a border wall between canada and maine? guest: probably in western canada because there are some problems. dumping issues in the western part of the country but in the east coast, no, there does not need to be. we need to be diligent and i would like to see the canadian government and the u.s. government were closer together on the issue of terrorism and drugs. as far as canadians and americans, i grew up crossing

the border without having to have a passport. i do not believe we need a wall. i do think we need to be enforcing the laws on the books which oftentimes we do not. host: governor lepage, you have one of the lowest approval ratings of all of the governors in the u.s. does that bother you? not realize i was one of the lowest in the u.s., that is fine. i will take the rap for it. if you have the highest, that means you are not doing your job. host: what does that mean? guest: that means you have to do the job you're hired for and you will not please everybody. our system is a system -- when i took over, we were drowning in red ink. we needed to fix it. one wise man said, everybody wants you to run government like a business until you do.

i did run it like a business, our economy is hot, it is moving, we have more jobs than we can find people for fear -- people for. we have historic revenues and in the last two months, stork revenues, -- historic revenues, after i dropped taxes, revenues growing up. my political correct? no. people knew it when they voted for me, i would not be politically correct, in 2014, despite a low approval rating you say i have, i said a record for most go -- most votes for a governor in maine. what is your relationship with president trump? guest: it is good. i believe what he is doing for the economy is great.

we never thought we would see a 3% or 4% growth factor, we were struggling with 1% under the previous administration. the economy is doing great. the one area i caution is the area of tariffs. if we put terrorists on other nations and they -- tariffs on other nations, we feel that in maine, they are collateral damage, the chinese have put tariffs on lobsters and we cannot sell lobsters to the eu because of trade barriers. there has been retaliation between canada and the u.s. but i believe that has been resolved this week. that should be healing itself in the net year or so. i am not a big fan of tariffs. other than that, he is doing a marvelous job. host: how is your health? guest: it is excellent. if it was any better, it would be illegal. host: you had to cancel a recent

trade trip because of health. guest: i had an episode but there was no reason, my health cardiac issued a but everything is fine and no damage to my heart. they thought it would not be wise to go to europe. , until they found out what was going on. they have not determined what caused it to have given me a clean bill of health. review and got a they said they cannot believe it or my age that the lab work and physical condition of my body is excellent. host: is your wife, probably the only governor's wife who is or was a waitress by your governor, is she still a waitress? host: just in the summer months, she loves to work on the coast and does it in the summer months -- she is now down in florida

getting the house ready for the winter. i think i see her this weekend. host: governor, what is next for you, another office you would like to run for? guest: no, politics is out of my life. i did it because i thought it was important. the state of maine has been generous to me, starting out on the streets and making it to the governor's mansion is something i am proud of. it would not have happened without people supporting me, and time for my wife and i to give back. i have lived the american dream and it was important we give back, we have done that and time for somebody else to do it. time for my wife and i to spend time together. host: very quickly, share a little bit about your personal story as a youth. guest: as a youth, i was

homeless, at 11 years old. ofan away from home because a dysfunctional family. i have a family of 18 brothers and sisters, it was dysfunctional and being on the igh end of the age bracket, was the oldest and i took the brunt of the beatings and i wanted to move on. i worked my way up and managed to get to college and had a reasonably, modestly successful business career. i went into government as a mayor and the governor of the state of maine. i have had a wonderful family and great wife. grew upul lepage speaking french and did not learn english until you're how old -- guest: 13 years old when i started speaking of which -- speaking english and some people who helped me speak english are olympia snow's first has been

tragically killed in a car accident, a big mentor in my life, and a few other less well recognized people. in lewiston and auburn. they helped me get through high school and college. fact, they invited me for lunch and i never left. lepage is the interim governor of maine and we appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. thank you very much. part of our 50 capitals series is available. we will see you. ♪

>> with election day less than a the control of congress in question, see the competition for yourself on c-span. from seatdebates house and senate races. make c-span your primary source for campaign 2018. > with 19 days to go until te midterm elections, c-span is bringing you a number of debates. jvernor charlie baker debates gonzalez in the massachusetts governor's race. then the debate for washington state's eight congressional district. -- running against rob arlette. the washington post has published an opinion on jamal

khashoggi before he disappeared this month. he wrote about the lack of press freedom throughout the air road, sending recent crackdowns on the media. -- from theat international community. ater today, we will bring you discussion on the future of the u.s. and saudi arabia relations following the disappearance of jamal khashoggi. it begins at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. charlie baker debated democratic challenger j gonzalez last night in massachusetts. c-span is sure primary source for campaign 2018. >> this is a news presentation. the debate between incumbent governor charlie baker and challenger jay