rallies today. barack obama will be in las vegas participating in the democratic get out to vote rally. at 7:30, president trump speaks at a rally in houston to support ted cruz in his reelection bid. watch both rallies on c-span. >> with the midterm elections days away, watch the competition with the control of con -- control of congress on c-span. see for yourself the candidates. make c-span your primary source for campaign 2018. morning and reporters roundtable on what impact the midterm elections that have on congress and its leadership with al weaver and jack fitzpatrick. miami guinness -- meyer mcginnis

on the growing federal deficit and fiscal policy pete we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. host: good morning on this monday, october 22. we are 15 days away from the midterm election and a new poll by the folks at nbc are talking about a surge in interest in these midterms. the surge has helped to drive up president trump's approval rating. while maintaining the democrats advantage as the party most preferred to lead congress. as we continue to take a look at midterms, we want to hear from black voters only this morning. what is your vote going to be in 2018? we have two separate lines.

for this first hour, black voters only. you are coming out to vote. are you leaning a particular way? what issues are most important. you can weigh in on social media. you can post a comment on facebook.com/c-span. lots of stores in the papers about the black vote. associated press piece that we noticed was published in the atlantic -- atlanta black star. here that they're asking pastors to text their congregants about the importance of voting and connecting with thousands of what to reagan's displaced by hurricane katrina. dozens of puerto ricans displaced by hurricane maria.

it is all part of an effort to avoid the disappointment of previous elections when low turnout dashed high expectations. 2016 was a low point for a lot of us. this comes from jamaal watkins. people have awakened in said wait a minute, we cannot lose like this. folks are fired up to reinvest in turnout. younger voters and voters of color tend to stay home. that is an ap story we read recently about the democrats efforts this campaign season. the republicans and specifically president trump, here is a little bit for my rally he did in ohio where he was appealing for the black vote. >> african-american unemployment has reached its lowest level in the history of our country.

[cheering] and african-american poverty has reached its lowest rate ever. lowest rate ever. [cheering] is a big number, right? how does anybody beat that number? we are going to have these people come in for over 100 years, they have claimed that they have wanted and they have lied to african-americans. remember of my statement, what do you have to lose? they believe it now. we are doing great as a country. i'm so proud. i am so proud of the kind of .umbers you are hearing my administration is fighting to deliver safety opportunity and justice for everybody. for everybody. we are asking as an example all african-american voters to honor

us with their support. get away from the democrats. get away from the democrats. they have done nothing. that was from an ohio rally recently. lots of calls coming in already asking about -- talking to black voters only for the first hour. johnny is up next. hi, johnny. caller: how're you doing? i am calling because i will be voting democrat. i have always voted democrat. i was a precinct chairman out here from the time i turned 21. my daddy sat us down in 1950 and made us watch nixon and kennedy. i have been a democrat since then. i think it is horrific the way most of the media -- the media caused this man to be elected.

like they were talking about on joe scarborough, these people believe everything this man says. they are deplorable. they are deplorable. host: to what do you attribute the surge this year in these midterm elections? because yousurge -- can continue to run it. you turned the whole kavanaugh thing around and had the republicans as being upset because the man was assaulting women. because somebody raised their voices and screened and cursed to think eric just to do everything he could think to do to those democratic senators. you were acting like it was ok to do that. how do they ask him, how did they say something about him assaulting women. the media is the reason donald trump's president right now

because you put them lies on tv every day. ,his man goes out to rallies these little racist rallies and they holler and scream and cheer him on. you are putting it on tv every morning, loop to loop every hour. host: thank you for calling this morning. the president has three rallies this week. houston, texas for ted cruz later today, an event we will have on at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. he will be in wisconsin this week and charlotte, north carolina this week. barack obama will be in las vegas today at 4:00 p.m. followed by that event with donald trump. campaign rallies life today. andident trump at 7:30 p.m. president obama at 4:00 p.m. eric, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call.

i am a registered independent. i will be voting for republicans. i live in maryland which is a democratic state. host: tell us why. caller: i am one of the few seeks who really tries to our politics through the lens of reason. the democratic party has been having the black vote for almost half a century, but they are getting worse for the blacks. when you take black on black baltimore is see at the highest but nobody talks about it. president trump is giving jobs to black people. also, [indiscernible]

by 2040 there will be more hispanics in this country than any other race. our black folk are going to remain -- host: you would vote for republicans this year. you will vote for larry hogan for reelection? caller: he is a good governor. host: been jealous is the nominee. what do you make of his candidacy? caller: i would like to see some other candidates in maryland. i am tired of maryland keep voting for democrats over and over again. host: thank you for calling. dwight is on the line. hey dwight. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm calling from california here . you are talking about 2018 midterm elections. we have a few propositions on our ballot.

vote will be looking at the problems. host: what are the top couple of things you have your eye on? caller: california is one of the most taxed states in the country. ourre looking to repel gasoline tax. ,ithout the voters approval just enacted. we are looking to repeal that. propertyoking to owners. they're looking to put extra tax on property owners. no on theking to vote rent control. we have a gubernatorial race between gavin newsom and mr. coxe. he will be getting my vote because the california libels -- liberals electing gavin newsom, it is like, we cannot vote that way.

what do you think of dianne feinstein? caller: she was good at a time but the time is up. the time is up. cavanaughion with mr. , that, to me, caused a lot of civil discord for her to hold back like that. me being african-american and when i say i do vote republican and i do vote democrat but i am not >> that with the democrat -- i am not lockstep with the democrat. even with president trump, president trump is the president and everything he does is not wrong. president trump is correct in some of the issues and policies he has been doing with. he is doing a good job in some instances. host: enqueue for calling. lots of other folks to get in this segment.

if you have made up your mind yet, where are you leaning and what important issues out there this cycle for you. we had a gentleman talk about the propositions in california. we want to hear about the issues involved. financial times has this piece this morning about u.s. politics, the battle for congress. black voters hold the key. m credit -- democratic midterm ex factor, is -- they are talking about. they are working to reverse the decline in turnout since the obama era. this piece focuses largely about

mccaskill.th claire wrapper andere is a activist. they write that missouri where east meets west and west -- and north meets south it elected mr. trump over hillary clinton by 18 percentage points in 2016 but in 2012.ted mccaskill we talk about the dynamics there and the potential for turnout. we ask anthony from virginia beach on the line. caller: good morning. how are you? my stuff is this and it is very simple. as a black man i hold fast to this, anything that supports

donald trump keep doing what he is doing. my big issue is immigration. illegal immigration. no one has the right to enter a man's country and tell them what to do. as iin virginia beach, have oftentimes stated, if you are a black man driving down virginia beach boulevard and you end up without your license, you are going to jail. what gives these other people to step into my country that we fought for, the stuff we have to go through to get to where we are today and we are still not there and come in and tell us, we want this and we want that. .ou do not have that right i'm sorry, stay where you are. suffer with your people or fight for what you want. we as black americans have fought and we have fought a long time trying to get to where we are. it is about time we open up our eyes and understand that donald trump is not against the black man. donald trump is for the black

man. host: thank you for calling. caller: david, what is on your calling.hank you for david, what is on your mind. caller: that last caller just raise my lip pressure to the next level. he is a buffoon. he is a buffoon. the other guy, he was able phone. -- he was a buffoon. let me speak a couple of seconds. i want to speak to the snippet that she had with trump. tout that the african unemployment rate is at its lowest. let's go back and if you understand anything about economics and i am presuming you do. forakes a couple of cycles the economy to turn around.

the economy started turning around under obama. -- some his policies people might of love them. the thing is is it is finally starting to take form and shape. unfortunately, we have a buffoon -- i like that word -- that is in the white house that wants to response building and say i am responsible for this. the question is how i am going to vote. i am going to say this is plainly as i can. ,s a community in this country african-american has been plagued by both parties. deeply byen plagued the republicans and the democrats. i'm in a situation in michigan were we have w stepanov -- we have stabbed now, she is running

against james jones. he would be ok if he was a white guy. with his credentials, businessman, he would fit that mold very well. he is talking out of a different language. --one in the black community i am not for what he has to say. forward, after what i have seen over the last two years with the vitriol and the rancor and the lies and the deception. these white people that are buying these lies that trump is disseminating, it is nauseating. i know for a fact, i am a veteran. my son is in the air force. my daughter is graduating from school and she is

contemplating going into the reserves. it frightens them. i don't want my kids in the military. schoolhost: want to let you got some other voices in here including that of jack. in terms of turnout and mobilization for turnout, derek johnson, the india -- p president talk to us a little bit about what his organization is doing to get folks out to vote this year. did was naacp, what we invested heavily in data. to really look at what is turnout among african-americans for midterm elections. we recognize there is a dip in turnout compared to presidential elections. we begin to target infrequent african-american voters. those who -- those are voters who vote during presidential

elections. we aggressively communicate to those voters to increase turnout . >> what kind of information are you -- >> we're looking at the most recent kavanaugh hearings and what that means to civil rights. we talk about health care, education, all of the bread-and-butter issues that is important. what we really look at is our polling data. african-americans feel disrespected. we talk about earning back our respect for the power of the vote. host: buzz feed has the story. black voters are underrepresented. black people are dramatically underrepresented. analysis by buzz feed is showing nationwide 12% of voting age identifies as black. -- which political

party controls congress next year. 82% of black voters nationally prefer a democratic house candidate over a republican. we have orlando on the line. good morning, virginia. morning.ood i came to talk about and i am asking you to give me that opportunity to speak. i am calling to talk about the black vote. number one, i am going to talk about the average black people, the average black family. wanted good health care, good education for the children and they wanted the opportunities that our caucasian brothers and sisters have gotten. i want to say this about donald trump saying that what do we have to lose? we have everything to lose. number one, he is a racist. this man has not just became a

racist. go check them out. the majority of the black people that are calling in that are voting for him, they have not experienced with the average black person has experienced. number one, i was born and raised in birmingham, alabama and i marched with dr. king. i fought for voting rights. donald trump has given the black people the okey-dokey. if you care so much about us, why does he not have black people on the staff. this man is using the black people to do and say what he wants to say and serve the average black people do not believe in him. the number one reason is because he is a liar. taught in aere christian family that liars all have their part in the lake of fire. all of those who follow the big fire is going to go to the lake

of fire. we don't want to burn in hell. this man will lie and a second. tv.s on national how is it he pulls the wool over the the people, sir? there are so many people who are following this liar who do not read the bible. they did, they would not be following him. liarsan has told more than all the presidents in the united states put together in his short time. he doesn't care anything about people of color. he doesn't care anything about anything but white people. he didn't want anything but colored people -- that includes immigrants and everybody that is of color. i love everybody. i want you to know that because i am a godmother to a white child. he has promoted racism in our country. he has come in and toward down

everything -- try to. truthr. king said, the may crush the earth but it may rise again. host: let's move on to don. caller: good morning. those people really, really stole my thunder because -- first of all, i am not black and i'm not african-american. i am a hebrew israelite juke from the tribe of judah. all of you black people calling in here you need to know that. you need to know that this president is the devil. he is a liar. that is all the devil means. the word the devil means deceiver. he is the biggest deceiver ever. i don't see how you black folks is hanging with this man because he don't care nothing about you

at all he wants is your vote. once you give him that, you will never know what he is going to do. he might put you all in concentration camps. he already got the mexicans in concentration camps. next, he is coming after you all. you seem like you don't even understand. this man does not give a damn about you getting a job. y'all are too dumb to see that? i don't understand it. how can anybody black vote for a republican? ever since then been around, all they have done is try to oppressive you, keep you down, keep you from voting and having your rights. they are hiring all right. i bet you cannot get any of these good jobs that these white boys are getting.

i don't know why you all are to get you is going a good job. to get you a good job. host: going to move on here and we mentioned the president schedule here. on on wednesday and another friday in north carolina, in charlotte. the head of the midterms, trump avoids suburbs and goes where he is loved. they read here -- -- they write here --

that is in the washington post. several more calls from california. redwood city, welcome to the program. sir.r: good morning, martin luther king said somebody has to have a cool head. i will try to be analytical. i put my hand on my reformation study bible and said i have been republican since 1992. i have to leave the republican party because they have went to the alt-right. there is no coming back after trump made those charlottesville remarks.

there are good people on both sides. what is the alt-right. i will leave that aside. obama, the unemployment rate went down from 12% to 7%. he kept on going down under trump. thing.point out another thing. this is not just in california and new york but asians voted 76% for obama and 79% for hillary. 69%.voted -- jews vote predominantly democrat and latinos voted 70% for obama. it is not just black. agents after vietnam, asians voted overwhelmingly republican. one article i read, this been related from virginia said the

republicans have become so -- hillary got 79% of the asian vote according to asian defense league. it is not just black people. it is very similar to what we are seeing now with these big rallies. i'm a bible believing reform christian. i cannot go to a anomaly white evangelical church without something races being said. i'm not exaggerating. george soros was the cause of charlottesville. he bust the black lives matter people. defending confederate statues. it is like the 1920's movement of the kkk where it is very religious. people put up signs "jesus saves

" as they are about to lynch somebody. host: we will do this for a half hour more. your mind in 2018? who do you like? have you decided already. what issues are most important? according to diane on our facebook page -- here is the front page of the tampa bay times. the debate last night between ron desantis, a republican and former member of the house and andrew gillam. he is the mayor of tallahassee, florida. cnn debate marks the first meeting, harsh scuffle for florida governor candidates. his a couple of minutes as a talk a little bit about race. [video clip] >> you look at me as a prosecutor working with law

enforcement. it didn't matter the race of the victim. we were there to support. florida will know i will be a governor for all floridians. it doesn't mean we are going to agree on every issue. maybe if we disagree tomorrow, maybe a few weeks later we will find some common ground. i look at what andrew has done in terms of aligning himself with groups like the dream defenders. he stood with them and stood by them. one of their main planks is to boycott divested sanction the state of israel. they said israel is a genocidal, apartheid state. that to me is very divisive. i don't think he should've signed the pledge. he should disavow them. if you want to unify florida, taking positions about israel like that, that may be unifying if you're running for the mayor of gaza strip. we are a pro israel state.

>> let me say, my relationship with israel is beyond reproach. i'm the mayor of a city that has a relationship with israel with the city of omaha sharon. i've had rabbis come to my defense in this regard. that was a clever attempt to get away from the fact that mr. desantis himself used to moderate a xenophobic racist facebook page. when you became the republican nominee, your response was, i don't even do social media. that was after you got caught. on the facebook stuff, you can get added to these things without consent. i never consented to anything. i just discontinued my facebook. he mentions this conference. there was nothing wrong with this conference. the keynote speaker was a medal of honor recipient.

you can impugn his integrity like you are trying to do mine. you have not worn the uniform. that man is an american hero. i was proud to speak at the same conference. >> again, they come is meant let us know exactly where he was going to take this race the day after he won the nomination. the "monkey up" comment. he is that all he can to draw attention to the color of my skin. i've been black all of my life. this is the point. this is the only color that the state of florida cares about is the blue-green algae. they deserve a governor who is going to protect this environment after 20 years. they don't need to worry about -- host: from that debate last night on cnn between ron um/.ntis and andrew gill

>> i usually vote independent. i never did get anybody that i voted for it at this time when trump that president i voted for trump. the reason, not because of what i wanted. my believe in jesus christ. i asked myself what would jesus do. i studied all the candidates. i opened my eyes up, jesus showed me who to vote for. host: in these two years, what else has he shown you? what are you getting out of that vote? caller: excuse me? host: what are you seeing out of this president? caller: here we go. abortion.

i don't want no women out there killing babies. abortion is murder. -- there should not be abortion at all. immigration. immigration is ok but you have to do it legal. other things. trump, he is going to help the black people. black people, keep your eyes on jesus. forgive the white man. the stuff in the past is gone. today, theypeople have not done nothing to you. forgive them. move on. forgive all people. just do what the lord jesus want you to do. that is all i have to say. host: let's move on to mark and columbus, ohio. caller: how are you doing today? referring to the sky from california that said jesus want you to do the right thing. yes, he does.

was notack folks supposed to be here in the united states only because of slavery. we are still being enslaved if we think that these republicans are going to help us out. if they was going to help us out, then they would not trying to be suppressed our vote. we need to get together as black people, vote democratic and get these people out of their. trump is nothing but the devil. he reminds me of jim jones and all these black folks that want to vote for him and keep his agenda is doing nothing but drinking the kool-aid. host: more about money in the new york times. major donors provide money edge to the gop for the final election push. the right here -- they right here --

that is in the new york times and julius is on the line from greensboro. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to state something about the guy in virginia. of the state something about the guy that just left out from california. i don't know where the hell ya you need to get that steel plate out of your head. if trump would take one of my grandchildren in a cage, i am going to tell you something, wouldn't be no washington, d.c. there. all you people that follow donald trump, you are going to go along and you are going to be

in cages. have a good day. caller: harry is on the line. host: hello. i have been a democrat my whole life. until recently during the primaries with when i seen how the democrats all bow down to hillary. how i seen how they did what they did it to bernie. everyone knows they rigged that primary. i changed my voting status to independent and will no longer vote for democrat. the democrats, they don't do -- they don't do nothing for black people. they give us a good speech and act like they care, take our vote and do nothing. i'm not advocating for republicans at all. i am off the democratic plantation. i agree with trump in certain respects as far as illegal immigration.

most refugees or illegal immigrants that come into the country, they get sprinkled into black communities and now we have to compete with them. we have been competing all of our lives for jobs anyway. i am done with the democrats. i can't do nothing for them anymore. it'll do nothing for black people but give us lip service. host: more of your calls and a couple of minutes. washington post lead story, souders cannot quell the uproar over khashoggi. .he standing is at risk saudi arabia's foreign minister denied that the nations powerful young crown prince order jamal khashoggi's killing. that is in the washington post. washington times, answers on

khashoggi. turkeys president is vowing to go into detail in a major speech tuesday on the findings of his country's investigation into the death of the saudi writer. two of those stories today. on sundays shows, to members of congress. we will hear from adam schiff of california. and then bob corker of tennessee. here's a look. >> we should demand the audio recordings. i have to expect that turkey is holding them for now because they want to have this lever over the crown prince. there is this regional rivalry between these two countries. that is manifesting conflict in places like syria and elsewhere. we should demand access to those recordings. we should demand the publication of those recordings. the turkish explanation that they don't want to betray their

intelligence gathering methods. it seems there will be little additional damage done to their methods by disclosing what their recordings have to say. is he is behind it. i want to see the rest of the documentation. i want to know more about it that is my sense. i'm not condemning automatically. i want this investigation to be completed. if you look down and sit down with him, he is a very impressive young person, talking about the future of saudi arabia, pushing back against the wahab moving away fromists, -- if you listen to his vision of the future, it is

very impressive. then, if you look at what he did when he came in the power where he got the opposition in the ritz-carlton, detained them, tortured many of them. when you look the fact that lebanon has a concessional system and so there prime minister, the fact that he didn't like the way he was carrying out his activity, he arrested him. he has construction interest in saudi arabia. his wife lives there. they had a hold over him. if you look at the rookie withouthe made in qatar even talking to us, they put in place a blockade. he has made mistakes. he has gone forth and murder this journalist, he has now crossed the line. there has to be a punishment in price paid. i'm not rushing to judgment. do i think he did it? yes. let's finish this investigation. we have the best in the world.

we have intercept from the past that point to involvement at a very high level. let's let this play out. my guess, the united states and the rest of the world will believe fully that he did it. we will see. host: more on this story. headline in the washington post. presidents response could leave a lasting replay -- lasting impression. the saudi foreign minister was on the sunday morning shows. he had this to say about the missing and presumed dead journalist, jamal khashoggi. >> we're determined to punish those who are responsible. we're determined to ensure the institution that we have has checks and balances to ensure that something like this can never happen again.

>> you said you don't know where the body is. know? chopped up? do you >> we are working on this with our turkish colleagues. the public prosecutor has continued his line of questioning. we are determining what happened. we want to make sure that we know what happened. we want to make sure that those responsible will be held to account. host: just under 20 minutes left. .lection day, 15 days from now we're asking black voters about your vote in 2018. are you leaning one way or the other? we will -- what kind of issues are important for you? from quinnipiac university poll from earlier in october it says this. they talk about generic ballot test. but voters, 82% vote for democrats. hispanic voters, 63% to 28%.

white voters, republicans lead their, 52% to 42%. jonathan, hanging on from hampton, georgia. caller: good morning to i want to remind people that the jobs that mr. trump keep talking about our temporary jobs. temporary job is not the same as a job. a job means that you have benefits, that you have insurance, that you are going to be working the next day. all of these temporary jobs are not real jobs. don't come withabout jobs for black people because all the black people i know have temporary jobs. i don't know very many black people with a regular job.

we need to get off of that. and blackto trump people, i lived in new york in the 1980's. mr. trump one of those black kids that were accused of raping the lady in the park, he wanted them dead. i just don't think mr. trump and his party is the right place for black people to vote. host: on to jamie in severn, maryland. what would you like to say? ,aller: i wanted to say that the less color i liked his comment. folks, marcus garvey said it best. black folks really don't have real friends. you know what i mean? it doesn't mean we don't have any. he was talking about as a large

group, we have to learn to do for ourselves. stop looking for anybody else. somebody iss like going to help us, we latch onto that. we have faith in that person. it is clear that doesn't happen. party isrepublicans not the place for us. the democratic party has taken advantage because they have gotten used to us. it doesn't seem as though they feel like they have to earn our vote. separating -- as far goes, rest of everything i'm sorry, buddy. host: you made several points. paul is in gastonia, north carolina. caller: yes.

yes, the last two callers were a little bit more on the point than what had been going on with the rest of your callers in terms of why donald trump was in office and what was going on. of course, he is a prevaricator. the truth is not in him. a lot of things that he say. trump is ane is mr. opportunist. individuals on wall street, large corporations have found the messiah, an individual who will do anything to make sure that they make unprecedented , and they are able to keep all of their money so

therefore, the tax cut was right up there and the next thing that is going to come to support the tax cut because the deficit is unsustainable with these tax cuts are the social programs. social security and medicare. and medicaid. us those that have allowed to have a real middle-class. of course, that is being eroded by the things that mr. trump and his group are doing. i hope a lot of people see that. do it has very little to with a black and white issue. it has to do with who has the money and who doesn't have the money. host: mildred hanging on. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. under thistration

gentleman that is in the white house now does not reflect the makeup of america. privatelyous he has all-white desk practically all white cabinet and administration. what does that say to a black voter like me? i am a democrat because i believe in the objectives of the democratic party. disappointed in the person in the white house, his attitude toward women. disgraceful.ery there has never been a president , and i am 86 years old. there's never been a president that i disrespected as much is this gentleman and it is because he does not respect women. he does not respect women -- does not respect people of

color. he is a total disappointment. i have voted republican before, but there is no way i could subscribe to his vocabulary, his disrespect for women and he is just a disappointment. i am very disappointed in the republican party for even nominating and supporting a man like that. host: the new york times has this. trump may limit how one -- how the government defines one sex. this is a threat to the protections of those who identify as transgender. --onstration is considering determined by genitalia. the most drastic move yet in an effort to roll back protections of transgender people under federal civil rights law. you can read more in the new york times this morning.

wall street journal has the picture of the caravan, this long line of migrants apparently headed toward the u.s. they are resuming their trek, and -- trek, honduran migrants mostly. as we look at the picture, the journal says that mexico finds itself in a tough spot. the caravan puts mexico in a tough spot. "there's a pressure from president trump to return to migrants but how do you do that? in, andet them all tomorrow you will have four more caravans. it could get complicated. spread, the caravan includes 5000 people. it could be as high as 7000 people. the photo there in the wall street journal.

back to our callers. black voters only talking about this midterm election season. alex, new york. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to say that, yes. i do believe that democrats have not done enough. [indiscernible] i have not seen enough done about black education. i would like to know [indiscernible] moving forward with the election . right now black unemployment is low. the economy is doing well. obamacare is not going anywhere. however, at the same time, i am a republican and i do believe that republicans need to be fair when it comes to immigration. all of the legals, including the europeans should be deported. i do not believe that trump is

the devil. i believe that trump is ignorant. he is old school did he comes from a time when there were a lot of white individuals who were leaders and trump believes the same things. i do believe he is not fit to be president. --as an educated republican i want an educated republican who unites america. caller: to josef on our facebook page. we welcome your comments on social media and by phone. political friday, a action committee in arkansas will not end the airing of an ad in little rock saying like men will face rape accusations if democrats win. not pullsaid it will

these ads in a hotly contested race in arkansas. is a look at that had. [video clip] >> our commerce meant french hill and the republican knows that it is dangerous to change the presumption of innocence to guilt especially for black men. if the democrats can do that to a white justice of the supreme court with no evidence, no corroboration and all of her witnesses including her best friend say did not happen, what will happen to our husbands? when a white girl lies on them? >> girl, white democrats will be lynching like folks again. >> i told my son, don't be messing around with that. if you get caught, she will cry rape. >> i am loading to keep french hill and the republicans because we have to object our men's and boys.

lynchingsntences and when a white girl screams rape. >> paid for by black americans for the president's agenda. not authorized any candidate or candidate's committee. host: french hill did come out against this ad. that was a story that was developing last week. pamela is an upper marlboro, maryland. good morning to you. caller: good morning and think you for taking my call. i am voting democratic all the way. i want to say that there will be a blue salami -- blue sunol me. cap 53,000 black votes being questioned down in georgia here in 2018, to have over tens of

as other newsell -- university which is a black college down in texas in a white county, to have for decades for the right to vote. they want to get out. they are going back and forth in the court to have the indian being questioned. in north dakota, for them to have addresses were for decades they have used post office boxes. these shenanigans being employed by the republicans and the gop, not only against blacks but other people of color, it is a shame. there is no question i am voting democrat. like folks should vote democrat

all the way. we don't need white folks to tell us how to vote what our interests are. our interests are the same as yours. these shenanigans need to be howated, the same thing many bubbles is in the bar of soap. in east be exposed. -- it needs to be exposed. around the country, 538.com has a picture of them. he is on the left. stacey abrams is running in georgia. andrew gillam from -- who we heard from earlier. -- this year, democrats have chosen like meant to be the gubernatorial candidates in georgia -- and florida. they write that it is unlikely all three will win and it is

possible that all three might lose. moreover the three candidates stand widely different chances. that atread more about 538.com. a couple more calls here. david from denver, good morning. caller: wonderful program. i will be voting democrat. we have started voting in colorado. that me tell you why. i served close to 30 years in the air force beginning under the clinton administration during hwb bush, two terms of 2016and i retired in during the second obama term. feel a fear of this administration and i've never felt that way before. fear?what do you

caller: i listen to his rallies. he is not talking to me during those rallies. 30% ofalking to those hard-core white people who support him. the economy, it was already trending well when president obama left. his job is not to mess it up. yet, with his instability, i don't know if he will. paul, he is the most in my lifetime. some of your callers have referred to immigration. let me say this. do you think he would've been separating white children from their parents the way he separated the children from

their parents at the border? that is my outlook. host: thanks for calling, david. last call is from mark. what would you like to say? caller: good morning. like the last caller, i am a veteran. ,hat i see in this country now how this country is leaning his russian oligarchy in american politics. i want to save this republic. i want this republic to be a cost to show republic. get rid of this unnecessary weight. how much has he traveled all of this country and wasted our tax dollars. that is all i have to say. politics thismark, for week. 15 days to go before the election. we will have two rallies on

today, one with former president obama campaigning in las vegas, and then president donald trump will be in houston for ted cruz later today. two rallies happening live on c-span. we will take a short break and let us know what our other segments are. to gets -- two guests coming up next. al weaver and jack fitzpatrick. they will talk about the future theeadership in congress, possibility of nancy pelosi returning ask speaker, and -- returning as speaker. went e federal deficit up to $779 billion. maya macguineas will talk about how that happened and what the response may be. plus lots more of your calls. we will be right back. ♪

>> this week on "the communicators," university of pennsylvania annenberg school of communications professor joseph privacy issues. tomost are not designed protect your privacy, most are to give lawyers an idea of the kind of information companies can use about you, often share about you. if you go to a retailer, say ,roger or target or walmart they will tell you that they use just about everything you do in relationship to them. they take your information, use your information, they share parts of your information. informationn buy about you that will complement

the information they already have. >> watch "the communicators." tonight at 8:15 eastern on c-span 2. >> the c-span bus is traveling across the country on our 50 capitals tour. we recently stopped in hartford, connecticut. looking forward to the november midterm elections, we are asking folks which party should control congress and why. >> i am an independent voter. i usually do not have a strong opinion on who takes over in midterms or presidential elections. but this year, i am basically , just becausetic a lot of things have been happening in the republican not sit wellst do with me from a moral standpoint. i think there are a lot of people in the republican who disagree with their leaders, but they are not actually coming out and saying so, they are just

toeing the party line to toe the party line. that is where i have to draw some distinctions. there are a lot of things i find a verbal in both parties, and i myally tend to vote conscience, but this time, i am voting for who i think we'll have the moral high ground. >> i would like to see congress go to the democrats, just to see a change in values and views and try that for a while. i am not sure if that is going to matter, but i would like to see just a change. >> as a democrat, i would like to see my party take control of congress. if congress changes hands and democrats are in charge, we will have policies that are more pro, pro-life, pro-environment, and a very necessary check on an erratic and unreliable white house. >> voices from the states, part

of c-span's 50 capitals tour. "washington journal" continues. host: 15 days until the midterm elections. we are talking about congressional leadership and the future of it. at the table is al weaver, political reporter for the "washington examiner," a repeat guest. thank you for coming back. we also have a first timer jack fitzpatrick, congressional reporter for bloomberg government. thank you for joining us. let's start with you, jack. what are you hearing about control of the house? guest: the expectation is this buteaning democrats' way, there is a little hesitation as far as the talk about a total wave election year. this will be important when it comes to the margins in the will and senate -- they matter almost as much as who

wins each chamber. it will matter or nancy pelosi -- four nancy pelosi, if she wants to the speaker. it may be a closer call than initially suspected. host: speaking of margins, a story over the weekend side senate republicans could get as many as 56 positions in the senate next term. what are you hearing? guest: that is not a bad guess. but the likelihood -- right now, there are 51. the most likely outcome is they and up with 53 or 54 at this point. it almost seems as if they have the north dakota race in the bag. heidi heitkamp has really fallen off. but some of these other states where republicans are looking up -- indiana against joe donnelly. havene thing republicans become increasingly bullish about is montana, with the attorney general ran against jon tester, the incumbent democrat.

tester always had high favorability in the state, but -- and then rick scott in florida. he has a boatload of money. he has run a pretty effective race. but right now, the hurricanes are making time stuff. host: we have phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guests, al weaver and jack fitzpatrick. republicans can call (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, your number is. (202) 748-8002. let's transition to congressional leadership and campaign 2018. let's start with you, jack fitzpatrick. we found this piece -- pelosi confident democrats will retake the house. she said do whatever you have to , to the folks who are running, just when. she has basically saying if you have to campaign against me to win your seat, go for it.

tell us more. guest: there are actually dozens of democratic candidates who have said they do not plan to support pelosi for speaker. in any year when you are talking about a potential wave election , and you have people like conor lamb in conservative areas, where democrats think they can come up with a surprising win, you will have some members vote against pelosi the reason she is confident is that there is not a significant chain -- name challenging her. but sort of symbolic opposition to her, as long as vote and see a protest they win enough seats. if she ends up with a five seat majority in the house, a lot of those members will be in a tougher position. host: we want to show an ad from

the 22nd street of new york. how they are approaching advertising and the race with regards to nancy pelosi. here is a look. [video clip] >> claudia tenney is standing with the president to secure the border, strengthen i.c.e., and deport criminal illegal aliens. give taxpayer to benefits to illegal immigrants. trump-tenney or pelosi-brindisi? the choice is easy. host: al weaver, what do you make of the linkage there? guest: something congressional leaders have been trying to do is tie democrats to pelosi. large stillat

think pelosi is a great person for them to run against. i talked to one republican strategist last week in texas, doing some coverage, and they pelosi -- we do not need anything else in those districts. it is something you will see all the way through election day. they have been running this for 10 years. why stop now? host: jack fitzpatrick, we found this piece -- nancy pelosi -- in the "l.a. times," she is hinting at a short-term lease at house leadership. she sees herself as a transitional leader, she writes. so if she becomes speaker next term, how long do you suspect she would stay and who would take her place? guest: i have not heard anyone arguing that she be there for a particularly long time, and

asking around, you hear gases -- guesses of one, maybe two, terms. she wants to be speaker again, that is clear. but one last shot may be pretty much it. you can almost see her preparing to be speaker under a trump presidency. it is not like she is talking about imagine what i can do with a democrat in the white house. she is looking past this election. but that is all we are hearing for now. host: let's take calls for our guests. kirby from mississippi, democrat. good morning. caller: yes. about the midterms and -- the democratic blackis a party full of people, white people, women, and everything else. the republican party is a party of just racist white men.

i think it is all about who benefits from who is in charge. benefit.ll white males even white females. it is not black women or men and children holding anyone else back. i think we are being tricked. i think all white women still vote with the republican party, so they can benefit from white men being in charge. if the democratic party is a party of everybody, of different different people, then we should be the majority, and we should be ruling. three white gentlemen sitting there -- i think you are intelligent enough to know that something kind of greeks here. if hillary clinton had that something kind of ree -- something kind of reeks here.

the democratic party does not point out -- they let the republican party run over them. even now, donald trump has not showed his taxes. we kind of cover it up, move from one thing to another. is allowingic party him to do everything else like this -- host: thank you for your comment. al weaver? guest: he has from mississippi. that is another big state where senate races are being run this year. hyde-smith was nominated back in march. guy whos mcdaniel, the gave a talk on a run for his money. it will be a state to watch for. host: what else are you seeing out there from nancy pelosi in terms of her helping other candidates? how much money is she raising,

how effectively she or her democratic colleagues? guest: when you ask candidates about her strength, one of the first things that comes up is fundraising. she has always been a strong fundraiser. one of the points she is expected to make to her caucus, starting in the lame-duck duck after the election, is if they win, she will be seen as having a thorough role in that victory. that is why a lot of people who have said there are objections to pelosi, but we expect pelosi to pull it out. the expectation is if democrats win, she has been a strong enough fundraiser and has done enough on the campaign trail, despite seeing her on so many ads, that she will take a lot of credit for that. host: if the democrats do not win, kevin mccarthy's name is up top. he is next in line, correct? guest: yeah. host: how is he positioning himself now?

thewho else may be part of gop leadership, whether or not they are in charge? number onerthy's thing is fundraising. he has raised about $50 million for republicans. mccarthy has really been out on the road. he is raising a lot of money for the and c4 candidates. it has been his top project the next -- the past 10 years, ever since he started young guns, a project to help elect republican members of congress. trying to position himself in this race a little bit. last time in 2015, he had a tough time getting the 218. most folks -- it is a little more tenuous, especially for republicans to hold the house with what is expected to be may be a five seat majority at the best. it will be a very slim margin, no matter what. it will be a tight window to cut it.

host: walter, you are on the republican line or al weaver and jack patrick. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i believe the democratic party aboutstantly, you hear identity politics. i served in the military -- martin luther king was right. we should be judged for the content of our character rather skin.he color of our i thought we were all americans. the best thing to do is let democrats show who they are -- a bunch of communists and socialists. from 2010 on, when the tea party started and mr. obama was president, that democrats had lost tremendous amount of power in congressional district's, the state house, the governorship,

and it is only because most americans want a job, hardware, secure borders, respect the police. the more these democrats popped out and show who they are, the more republicans will take over. i really do not believe people understand the wonderful concept of donald trump. america first. take care of american citizens. everyone else is secondary. i think this blue wave will be destroyed. everyone said hillary would be in charge. and we have seen how that worked. once you get back to americans first, no matter what, you are -- stop putting them in boxes -- the democrats will lose every time. host: thanks. jack fitzpatrick of bloomberg government, why don't you take that one? guest: you heard a series of things that have played deeply into this election and the 2016 election. you heard the phrase "identity politics" used, which really both parties have accused the

other of engaging in. but that is kind of a sign that we have been increasing divisions -- democrat versus gendercan -- by race and , and an increasing focus on immigration issues on the campaign trail. in the last two years of congress, sort of pitting democrats against the trump administration on border wall funding and some of these issues that go straight to the demographic divisions in american politics, probably even more than pre-obama administration. 2008,very true that after the obama administration was not successful for democrats, as election gains. they lost in 2010 and really couldn't gain anything back after that. question of a blue wave, there is no guarantee the democrats can win the house.

that is the expectation. they are not expected to win the senate. we will have to look over the final results to see whether you can call it a wave or just a pretty good year or democrats. -- for democrats. on the borderuch wall. mccarthy on the house side, gop side, his bill would fund the border wall in boost his speaker bid. will this come to fruition in the spending battle that will happen at the end of the year? guest: i am not sure. right now, the more realistic ideas $5 billion being for immigration. $5 billion is somewhat reasonable, i think, at this point, although senate democrats are not a big fan of that. it would get through the house, but probably not through the senate and a lame-duck. but the 23 billion dollars mccarthy has brought up, that has been a major issue for the president. but as far as helping with his

speaker possibility, i am not sure about that yet. i talked to some conservatives, who said if he was serious about this, why not put this forward months ago, a year ago? why put it forward now? so that is the other thing. host: would he have a challenge for speaker, by the way? guest: the challenge would be himself. the 218 margin. steve scalise -- from what i understand, he is gearing up in case you cannot get the 218. therthy, his number is for 18 number. host: let's go to terry in florida. caller: good morning. god bless you and god bless america especially. several questions. i would appreciate it if you andd ask your guests probably some of the callers line.g in to your c-span

and i really love and appreciate -- great work. wonderful. i am posing this question to america especially. would you vote or would you support a liar? appreciate if you could answer that with a straight face. and thank you for putting up with that question. host: jack fitzpatrick, one perspective there from one viewer. guest: that is an interesting question. the trump presidency, i think especially for democrats who oppose him for all sorts of obvious reasons, has kind of aised the issue of honesty in way that may be a lot of voters did not expect, almost shedding a different light on the monica

lewinsky scandal, for example. honesty inn of how an impeachment process goes, the question of how honesty in the cavanaugh hearings go. you heard democrats making arguments that maybe if brett kavanaugh was dishonest about even something fairly minor, --ut phrases in his yearbook that perjuring yourself is a very significant thing, there may be some voters who would say yeah, i would support somebody who has lied at times, if i think they are doing what is right for the country as far as policy goes. and we might be in a time when more people who believe that would acknowledge it. but we are hearing a lot of almost aer honesty and rethinking of how that plays into politics. host: let's hear from avery, democratic caller.

caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to have the two gentlemen address my issue as it pertains to voting. in particular -- in particular, people of color. i do not subscribe to the identification as a caller, per e -- black, white, hispanic, they are all misnomer's. but there is another point i would like to make. women, people of color, has been voted to -- the right to from the inception of this country. even 100 years past, the civil rights movement and martin luther king and those who fought for people of color, the right to vote, did not accomplish that. what we have is a voting rights the which if i understand

is aorning programs, it bill. it is not a law. it requires a presidential signature every six years or so. and if a president, whoever that may be, sitting in office, were to choose not to sign the voting rights act, would that mean that people of color would resort back to not having the right to vote, and why is it, after 50 years past the voting's right -- the voting rights act, that no one, republican, democrat, and whatever your ethnic persuasion may be that you are in political office, no one has addressed gratifying and making a law and legal the right of people of color to vote. we have a voting rights act that needs to be signed by a president every six years ago -- or so. technically, it is like a permit to vote. host: al weaver, you want to

respond? guest: voting rights is a big issue, especially in the wake of the brett kavanaugh situation. part of the voting rights act was struck down by the court. one point democrats have made is president,t have the we could have a majority of democratic judges. it is something people are concerned about. ad targeting a dccc barbara comstock in virginia's 10th district. another interesting race. [video clip] >> which virginia member of congress votes the most with donald trump? barbara comstock. she voted with trump 98.7 percent of the time, including the trump tax plan that gives almost all of the benefits to the richest 1% while middle-class families pay higher

taxes. comstock voted to add trillions in debt. and republicans want to cut social security and medicare to pay for it. fitzpatrick, tell us more, virginia's 10th. guest: it is clearly a competitive race for barbara comstock. kind of aeen surprising -- maybe not surprising, but more in other areas of the country, a focus on federal employees and other ads. and one additional point about the voting rights act. one notable issue is that the supreme court actually left some of the voting rights act in play, but the portion that provided federal oversight of election changes was taken out. that is why you are seeing particularly a focus in georgia, for example, where thousands of registrations were canceled by the secretary of state running.

that is something the federal government may have stepped in and locked -- blocked that, but they cannot any longer. host: we have a little more in virginia. several tight races. guest: definitely. but comstock is the big one. she has one of those targeted numbers by democrats in the last couple of cycles, unable to take her down since she won i. the other one is the richmond area. race is one of the bellwethers in republican circles. he is very close with mark meadows. he is a thorn in the side of leadership. but in the district, he is championing what he has done in congress, which is something you usually do not hear here. host: we have corbyn,

independent. where are you leaving -- leaning? in the senate race? caller: beto. but i appreciate you letting me call in. i would like to ask -- can you hear me? host: we can. keep going. caller: i would like to ask about the cavanaugh deal -- kavanaugh deal. we have a lot of fbi agents getting fired because they went through the emails to pick out words that they said to make them partisan people against trump or against the administration. they say anyone against them should not have a job. he comes out,

against the democrats, and they say he needs a job. own they doon his know how to cherry pick it. and when it comes to the republican party, why is it a when it comes to social security entitlements. all of the base that i listen to, republicans, they want to do away with this. can you explain what they are going to do? i do not believe they understand if they do away with security,ts, social which is social security, medicaid -- host: thank you for calling. jack fitzpatrick? guest: mitch mcconnell sat down

with some bloomberg reported last week and brought up, when we asked about the debt and his plans to address it or what he hopes to do to address it, he specifically brought up entitlement spending, medicare, medicaid, and social security, and said that is where it had to be from, you cannot make it up through tax increases. but he did say this is such a hot button issue that anything that would significantly cut socialg, especially on security, medicare, and medicaid, would get so much pushback that you will probably not see a unified republican government take that on and that he really would have preferred if they could have done something under the obama administration. the difference was the obama administration did not want to do that so you see, especially republicans, kind of between a rock and a hard place.

they do not want to raise taxes to make up for the difference. but they want to cut spending, somehow, or at least impose limitations, raise the age for eligibility, that kind of thing. but in these two years they have had of a house and and my house controlled by republicans, they figured they would focus on other things rather than do something that would get so much pushback. host: al weaver? thing, thet president has shown an aversion to do anything with medicare. and social security, his campaign promise was i will not change any of this. that has really hampered mcconnell and house speaker paul ryan from doing anything on that issue. number two, he mentioned the cavanaugh situation -- kavanaugh situation. that has had a major effect.

there is enthusiasm for republicans. democrats have had the energy. they have had the anger. republicans really were unable to find anything to get that going. kavanaugh seemed to spur them in that sense. trump is pushing the jobs not bob's type of thing. but kavanaugh is giving them a boost as far as republican voters. host: al weaver, political reporter for the "washington examiner, joining us this morning. mr. weaver previously reported " and jackily caller, fitzpatrick is congressional reporter for "bloomberg government." at thergy reporter "morning consult." this for another 25 minutes, talking about campaign

2018. a lot of discussion is focused on the leadership, what it might look at depending on who wins, and what they might do. daniel calling from bell gardens, california, democratic caller. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: i want to say that my president is an intelligent media -- idiot. what i mean by that is he is helping out white privilege, and white republicans are eating this up. gerrymandering, all kinds of things going back and with these games. but i am going to vote democratic, because it is my right as an american. host: thanks. chesterfield, new hampshire. democratic caller. caller: good morning. "washington journal," you guys rock. i love this forum.

always --icans are you asked republicans why they like the republican party, why they, may, support donald trump, and they said the republican party wants to help americans. but every time you turn around, the only americans they want to help by the wealthy. the rest of us, they want to do with any thing that helps the sick.the elderly, and the what helpsot see americans by doing away with social security or cutting into it. i do not see what helps americans by taking away health care. that is why i will be voting, once again, for bernie sanders in 2020, in the upcoming residential election in a few years. because he is the only candidate that really knows that we have to invest and our people and have to invest in our country. because all the other countries

are doing it here they are investing in their people's health care, in their people's education. i am talking the masses, not the top 15% who can go to the best schools and get the best health care. but the actual masses in their country. 40 years ago, we used to be in the top three position for having the most intelligent industrialized nations come out of all of the industrialized nations. we were duking it out with france and china as to who has the most intelligent population. five years after that, we place. down to 36th pretty much the same thing happened with health care. i believe it is because other countries are investing into their people come into health care and education. if we do not do it, we will -- we already have a very unhealthy population, and we already have one of the worst health care

systems for our population. we still have the greatest hospitals and research and development for the wealthy, but as far as our general population, our masses, we are one of the most unhealthy populations out of the industrialized world as well as one of the most uneducated. will be votingi for bernie sanders. because he is the only one who believes we need to actually invest in our people and in our country. host: thank you. al weaver, mentioning health care they are. we wanted to the democratic agenda. should they take over the house, there is a recent headline -- pelosi outlines democratic agenda if they take over the house. tell us what she may be looking to do. guest: the issue for democrats at large is if they win the majority in the house, they will be the minority in terms of the senate and presidency.

it is a major messaging point. democrats -- i talked one democrat last night. they made the point that it will be health care care, health care, for the next couple of weeks ahead of election day. we'll see a lot of members push -- it is a one issue they see that voters care the most and the one issue where they can make the most gains as far as any particular issue. host: your thoughts on health care and whether that issue is resonating, mr. fitzpatrick? guest: clearly for democrats, that is the top issue. that is everything you are hearing from democrats on the campaign trail. in an economy that, by so many metrics, is doing well under a republican president, that is one way to cut into that. health care is a pocketbook issue that affects people's finances so significantly and their sense of financial

security. it is almost a counterpoint to when you see the stock market doing well, unemployment numbers -- democrats do have something to carve out of that and say well, we can do better, at least on health care. host: an ad from a pro-democratic group, targeting republican incumbent john faso in new york over his votes on health care. [video clip] >> i have a brain tumor. i was kicked off of my insurance. i need you to say i promise that we will not take this away from you. >> i promise. i promise. >> this bill passed by one vote, this razor thin margin will throw millions and millions of sick people out in the cold. ishouse majority pac responsible for the content of

this advertising. ,uest: throughout this election chris van hollen in the senate -- every time something comes up, whether in the news or whatever the latest trump scandal is, always comes back and says he thinks it is a pocketbook election. i think that is true. republicans are really pushing the economy. along with their tax bill. host: if republicans stay in control of congress, do they have a health care agenda in mind? guest: they want to go back to repeal and replace. say they hold onto the chamber. the senate will likely pick up a couple of seats, so have 53, maybe 54. then the house will be very slim. but last time around, it was john mccain. he is unfortunately not here

anymore, but that was the one impediment for them. and that roadblock will be gone, although a much more narrow majority in the house could make things more difficult. texas for the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to answer the question about voting for a liar. i do not age the lying, the -- i lying throughhe the media. i base my on campaign promises kpet. i'm 67. i've been an avid follower of history and politics my entire life. i cannot remember any of the president coming as close to making as many promises, keeping as many promises, and when a promise has not been kept, like being able to totally get rid of obamacare or getting his wall built yet, continuing to fight for it. usually, they will make an

effort, it fails, and they go, well, i tried. not him. he is still fighting for it. i've never seen so many accomplishments in such a short period of time. that is something he is saying that i eve is true. as the voting rights act, the part that got struck down was a to the 17 relating southern states and the district of columbia, which is interesting, where after 50 years or 60 years of being under close supervision, the deal was that they were going -- they wanted the ability to make changes to their specific areas without having to get permission beforehand to do it. it does not mean that they are not under supervision. it does not mean that they cannot be overruled. it does not mean they can do anything they want. it just means they are put on the same footing as the rest of the united states which, i might mention, with all of the things about voter suppression -- take

a look at the states that provide early voting, which is probably the biggest thing you can do to encourage voter participation. you hear about long lines and adelphi and new york -- they do not have early voting. most of the states that do not allow early voting are in the northeast. explain that one. take roe v. wade and kavanaugh. de one talked about roe v. wa except that he will do away with abortion. not so. the states would pass abortion laws for visual states. the whole thing is about whether the federal government could pass a law or whether the supreme court could pass an edi beover whether it could legal nationally. it was whether the judicial system could say this is what the constitution allows for. voterid -- you look at

participation, minorities in the southern states most affected by that. you will find they are way up. in 1976, you had school busing that went into place. i was much younger then. i was not too happy until i did a term paper. it changed my mind. i became in favor of school busing as a means of better anorcing -- creating environment for integration. the only places where there were riots were in northern states -- boston, detroit. go back and check their records. that is where riots were had. the issue, racism, all of this stuff -- it has been a national problem. it has been more obvious in the south for obvious reasons, but it has been a national problem. host: mr. fitzpatrick? guest: you covered a lot of issues. i have to compliment you on a very accurate description of what happened with the voting rights act. it basically was federal changes to over

election systems. it could even be changes to in places that had a record of some sort of discrimination going back to the 60's. the court -- the 1960's. the court ruled federal government can have that kind of oversight, but they were wrong in choosing which areas to put that oversight on, based on things that officials had done decades ago and not sufficiently allowing them to get out from the federal oversight. also, on the issue of the supreme court and state by state issues, you mentioned the concerns over kavanaugh and roe v. wade. it is correct to mention that

along with gay-rights marriage. with would not put that opponents to kavanaugh. many states would protect a woman's ability to get an abortion, but opponents and critics of kavanaugh and wade, thatof roe v. is the point. that they should be as equally available as possible around the country and others should not be some area where a supreme court ruling kicks off a series of ballot measures in conservative states, and then it is sort of up in the air. host: jim in missouri, democratic caller. caller: good morning. missouri went for trump in 2016. we also elected governor greitens.-- governor greitens fully embraced

trump-ism. worker's comp laws. a sex scandal. our republican legislature chased him out. i think trump-ism is highly overrated in this state. ais next cycle, we have medical marijuana initiative on the ballot. i think this will motivate democratic voters to get out, and it could really skew the election. that will be it. host: how do you feel about the incumbent senator running for reelection, claire mccaskill? caller: i am voting for claire. , elected state attorney general, now he is running for the senate without ever fulfilling a full term. i am not too impressed.

host: all right. thank you. al weaver, anything else you want to say about that senate race? guest: that is another tight one. that is another one republicans are counting on to increase their majority. they have been more bullish than they were before. earlier in the campaign, he was mired in talk about him being lazy -- there was criticism about him working out at 10:00 in the morning, stuff like that. the ire of some republicans up here. since then, he has run a strong race. but mccaskill won a tough race in 26 -- 2006. she ran a really good race against todd aiken, who really self imploded. an ad from a show of-gop group, on behalf republican senator dean heller,

running against democrat jacky rosen. [video clip] >> what can you get for $6 million? allieselosi and her spent over $6 million to elect jacky rosen, and she voted with pelosi to shut down the government. put funding for nevada's low income kids at risk. she puts campaign cash before nevada's children. senate leadership fund is responsible for the content of this advertising. president obama will be in las vegas today to campaign for democrats they are. take us to nevada. what are you looking for? guest: the combination of obama campaigning there and that at tells you a lot about the faces, popular and unpopular, for democratic voters and what republicans like to focus on. as we mentioned earlier, pelosi, for a long time, has been a

long-standing feature in republican ads against democrats . and this question of who are you going to support or speaker, it is nothing new. in 2014, there was a republican primary add with pelosi in it, because mike simpson supported funding for national parks, and some of it went to san francisco. if you can fit pelosi in, you will obviously do that. obama making the rounds is a strong thing for democrats. one of the criticisms of him during his presidency was almost that, at times, he was not political enough, not making enough of a case for obamacare after it was passed. it is unsurprising to see him going to some of the most competitive areas, but because he is one of the more popular faces for democrats, obviously. host: our political coverage continues today on c-span. we have two live events, one

with former president obama, campaigning in las vegas at 4:00 p.m. eastern time. insident trump will be houston, campaigning for ted cruz. both of those events live on this network. we should point out the president is up and tweeting, talking about the caravan here. it looks that sadly like mexico's police and military are unable to stop the caravan heading to the southern border of the u.s. i've alerted order -- border patrol and military that this is a national emergency. will this issue play a role in these last two weeks? guest: it will, mostly because the president will not let up on this. he has been going after this for a week now. he is holding rallies almost every night now, even multiple realities. he brought up the caravan in montana and arizona, i think in nevada also. he is really going after this

issue. an immigration was the issue that republican -- that propelled him to the republican nomination. this is an issue he thinks is a winner for him. it is something he will not let up on, especially ahead of the spending fight in early december. he will want his wall funded, and that will be has vehicle. guest: -- host: does this issue motivate the democratic base or republican base or both? guest: it seems republicans are more intent on using immigration while macaws are shifting back to health care as much as possible. one thing i noticed from some of your callers earlier was the phrase "i support immigrants but not illegal immigrants." and yet with this issue and with this caravan, we have seen fights over people seeking asylum, people seeking to come here -- none of the people in those caravans are saying i am a drug dealer who will try to sneak through.

i am not sure if we can resume they are going to make an asylum claim specifically. but that is more along the lines of what they are going for. we have interestingly seen some of the debate over immigration shift towards limiting claims,ion, asylum refugees, that kind of thing, rather than strictly about illegal immigration. and yet the border wall kind of encompasses all of this for republicans. host: pete from wheeling, west virginia. thanks for waiting. caller: good morning. i was going to speak -- this summer, c-span covered it. the summer meeting of the dnc. they get together, obviously, to nail down some of the last rules and that sort of thing before their convention. i am from west virginia. and i am a republican. oft is almost an unheard

thing 40 or 50 years ago. today, the state is becoming considerably red. and we have a senator running for reelection, mansion -- manchin. i've nknown manchin all my life. i knew his uncle. he was in politics, he had some problems. interesting phenomenon where you have a democrat in west virginia kind of fighting for his life. a lot of people are not giving him the rubberstamp. i like the guy. he is a go along, get along sort of guy. i voted for him for governor. embracement of the national democratic machine, when he thought hillary was going to win, is setting me back a little bit.

and i do not know if i can support him for reelection as a democrat. host: ok. let's hear from our guests, starting from mr. fitzpatrick. guest: one notable thing he did not mention was the senator's vote against brett kavanaugh. i think a lot of people were wondering if joe mansion -- m anchin opposes brett kavanaugh, does that change things for him among conservatives in west virginia? that is one voter who does not seem to think that necessarily saves him. manchin is an interesting person. he has been going against the grain for national democrats since the obama administration. west virginia, eastern kentucky, in a lot of appalachia, moved strongly away from democrats, at least with the obama administration. there were some holdovers voting for democrats, more conservative

democrats, before obama. with a has had to deal national democratic party that is just not popular with his constituents for a pretty long time now. it interesting that this recent vote against a hotugh, which is such topic issue for conservative saturdayth an eye on -- senate races, is not guaranteed to help him. host: want to add to that? guest: manchin -- for all these democrats, donnelly, heitkamp, he is in one of the best positions possible. he struck a chord with independence in the state. no matter how hard republicans try to tie him to the national democratic machine, it is tough to do. manchin is in a good spot. an enviable position for most

democrats. host: let's go to chicago. good morning. caller: i want to comment on the --lysis you have people on who present themselves as impartial. predict what to the trends are in terms of voter turnout and that kind of thing. are otherwisey prompted, i do not hear from -- analysts, then factoring in if we are dealing with an even playing field, and we have fara electoral -- a fair electoral system. so are they factoring in the fact that so many voters are being removed from voter rolls.

that there is legitimate voter suppression. andif we can have faith -- even factor in the russian infiltration of our electoral system. how can we have faith in a system that we do not have a fair playing field in terms of how people are able to participate in the voting process? host: albert, thank you. we will move onto ronald and then hear from our guests. boston, independent caller. caller: good morning to the host and mr. fitzpatrick and mr. weaver. i was born in west virginia. the weight they are going right now -- i wish they would stop beating around the bush and say they would cut medicare and social security and tell why they are cutting it and stop .aying miller income

what is the middle income? $50,000 a year or what. you cannot say you are going to cut these two programs and then not tell what you are going to replace it with. it has to be replaced with something. in peacetimeed south korea, and i was in the vietnam war. and my brother should have been generals. he was commissioned and i was two stripes in vietnam. host: thank you. anything you want to respond to? guest: the thing about offering a replacement for medicaid -- that was one of the big issues when it came to replacing obamacare. for years, republicans have been saying we got to repeal obama care, and they never sold a

replacement, necessarily. when they tried, it was too late and they were not able to do it. that is an issue plaguing republicans still, to a degree. selling has always been a tough issue for them. even the tax bill. they keep saying it will talk -- cut taxes, which it may have and probably did for a lot of folks, as it is still underwater far as pulling is concerned. host: kathy in virginia, democratic line. caller: good morning. i want one of these gentlemen or both of these gentlemen to explain to me, and maybe some other voters, why are we called communist and socialist? i am not a communist. i know what a communist is. i am an old lady. i am not a socialist. i understand health care for all is a big deal about them, and they are trying to -- there are so many issues. i was just thinking while

listening to the other callers, it is funny that we are close to halloween, and all of the ads i've been seeing on tv and these ugly flyers i am getting in the mail -- by the way, i am voting for tim kaine. but chuck schumer, they keep making him out to be the bogeyman. and nancy pelosi, they keep making her out to be the wicked witch of the west. there is so much name-calling that comes in our direction, and the only bad word i can think of to use is "gop" or something. givejust want to know -- me an explanation of communism and socialism, how it relates to the democratic party. host: we have time for final thoughts from our guests, beginning with jack fitzpatrick. guest: the label of communism and socialism on democratic candidates go so far back i am not even really sure where to start. you talk about and all

sorts of things. it's something that obama had to deal with recently. it's interesting that you bring of being labeled as socialists which is usually what you hear from democratic candidates. sanders,ou have bernie who considers himself a democratic socialist. and you have an increasing number of especially young liberal democrat activists and voters who really don't want the word socialist to be considered such a bad thing, and the sizing that they are not calling for a government takeover, to consider themselves a democratic socialist. there is aright now, battle over the goalposts of defining what is an insult and what isn't. remains a communist pretty significant insult, but there's a continuing debate over

if the word socialist should be just a bad word for democrats and not every democratic voter thinks that it should be such an insult. i think it's going to be a really interesting -- and the house is obviously up for grabs at this point. i did in formal polls with sources the last couple of days, you see more and more folks wondering whether republicans can keep this thing. they have a very slim pathway to getting this majority and getting it but i don't know if folks are feeling optimistic. emocrats are predicting a slim majority. it's interesting to hear at this point. we will see what happens in two weeks. >> our guests have been out and the work of his colleagues. we have also been joined by jack fitzpatrick, bloomberg government congressional

reporter. website.is a thanks to both of you. we have one hour left in this monday edition of the washington journal. we will take a short time to talk about the budget deficit. treasuryumbers from ballooned to $779 billion in the fiscal year that just ended. we will talk about why that happened and what can be done about it. we will be right back. ♪

announcer: washington journal continues. >> today is monday, so this is our monday segment about your money. we are talking about the federal budget deficit which is up. us, the president for the committee for a responsible federal budget. they give for joining us. >> happy to be here. >> here's a headline from the budget surplus. deficit jumped by 70%

as spending surges. to $779ar amount of 70% billion. explain what went into that increase. these numbers are really disappointing. we do have large budget deficits in this country when there is a downturn or a recession, but when the economy is growing like it has been an unemployment is so low and people are going back to work, you expect the budget deficit to be coming down. theseal story behind numbers is not just that they are pretty massive, which they are. it's that we got here so much because of self-imposed policy choices. over a third of this budget deficit comes from policies that we passed just in the past year. big tax cuts, big spending increases. nobody paid for anything. the result, unsurprisingly but troublingly is large, large budget deficit. will let start raising

enough revenue to counteract the deficit? guest: there's two stories behind tax cuts. let me start by saying i think we do need tax reform. the corporate tax rate was so high we were not competitive around the world, so we brought the rate down lower than it needed to be and we put in a lot of other tax cuts that weren't necessary in terms of competitiveness. no matter what tax cuts you want, two things. you need to offset those costs either by broadening the tax , we have over $1.5 trillion in tax breaks per year. or you need to raise other revenues or cut spending. what we ended up doing was telling -- and not going to mince words, an untruth which is that tax cuts pay for themselves. they help grow the economy. economic growth will be higher either in the short run if it deficit finance like it was

grow the you will economy. you will not grow the economy anywhere close to pay for itself. tax cuts do not pay for themselves. all we would have to do is cut more taxes and it would be free. that's not the case. they can grow the economy but you have to make up the difference. it would probably offset 20% of the entire cost, so this is kind of a myth about free lunches. host: explain what the annual deficit and the cumulative federal deficit is to the average american. guest: a lot of these affect the average american. is how muchdeficit we borrow every year and the debt is how much we have accumulated over all of the years. and we have way too many years of borrowing. we should be borrowing when the economy is weak and we should be making surplus when the economy is strong. instead, we have a national debt

held by the public that is $50 trillion. the total that is close to $21 trillion. these are the highest they have been relative to the economy since we cannot of world war ii. of reason it matters to all us is that it actually slows economic growth. we should be figuring out how we can grow the economy, we have a real challenge moving into retirement. how you grow the economy? one of the best ways is to have manageable debt, which we do not. number two is going into a recession. you want to have a fiscal flexibility so that you can respond, so that you can have a stimulus. our politicians will fight about it, but you want a fiscal room to respond, just what you want in monetary policy. interest payments are the fastest-growing part of the federal budget. that means whether you are a republican who wants tax cuts, a democrat with spending

increases, an independent like i am and you want a variety of different things, it's not going to happen if your interest payments are the biggest part of your budget. finally, i think this is really becoming more of an issue, we have a changing economy. globalization technology, robots. if we have a budget that does not let the government partner with the private sector's figuring out how to make this work for all of us who are going to need retraining throughout our careers, maybe change of jobs anymore times than our parents and grandparents are if we have a government that is so ossified and so written that it den,t -- and so debt-rid they are going to be more disruptive to american workers. host: numbers at the bottom of the screen for our best. talking about the federal budget, specifically the numbers that are of syria also a committee member of the fixed the debt campaign. guest: the kennedy -- the

committee, a bipartisan group that focuses on the budget. we work on the numbers, we try to put out impartial analysis and make improvements in our fiscal situation. we are also well aware that if and when there is time for a big that deal, hopefully that will happen soon but i'm concerned because it seems to be on the horizon. you need an outside force from people around the country who actually care about this issue, because members of congress year give me a tax-cut during give me more stunning. i don't want to pay for. and we need to build a coalition of people who will actually call the members of congress and they actually, i don't want to be in trillions of dollars of debt. i want you to be good to the economy and think beyond the next political election cycle. fixed the debt is part of this bipartisan group that is much more rational. host: i want to hear from mitch mcconnell to get your response to what he had to say on bloomberg news about the reasons

for the federal deficits. >> i have to ask you about the national debt. $41 trillion. the deficit, $779 billion. some predicting that could reach $1 trillion in 2019. was going on with the debt? driven by the three big entitlement programs that are very popular. medicare, medicaid, and social security. that 70% of what we spend every year. the subject we were just discussing, the funding of the government, is about 30%. there's been a bipartisan reluctance. because of the popularity of those programs. hopefully at some point, we will get serious about this. we have not been yet. that aould appear divided government might yield a easier. >> we had the opportunity during

the obama years and it would have been a perfect time to do it. took it out of the political arena and made it possible for it to be successful. we had the chance to do that during the obama years because we had divided government for six of those eight years or unfortunately, it was not achieved. host: reaction? >> this one is very complicated and polarizing. here's a situation. social security, medicare, medicaid absolutely need adjustments with programs. out sost funds will run they will not have sufficient money to pay full benefits out in early 2030 which is not far away if you are counting on those programs. what really is not productive in pretending we don't have to fix those programs. but really is true, is our sense of ways to fix the program. spending productions, retirement age changes, more money in the

rover. i wish we could put the issue of whether we have to fix them aside and make that fighting about how. but the senator mcconnell's point, of course they need to be reformed, but the republicans just made this incredibly difficult by passing a massive unpaid tax cut. that should have been revenue neutral tax reform that could have helped the economy and been fiscally responsible. instead -- and i say this nonpartisan -- the republican office is set to have big tax cuts that did blow a hole in the budget deficit. now there say we need to fix social security and medicare which was true before the tax cut and is still today. but you have messengers who have lost credibility and have made it so much harder. at the time that they were trying to talk about cutting taxes. cut,nly you can do a tax it's really irresponsible. saying you are making a much more difficult environment for entitlement reform and as a result there is

a much more difficult environment. ae way we are going to get deal done is what everybody comes to the cable and we talk about entitlement reform, spending cuts, and revenue increases. the problem is not just social security, medicare, and medicaid. it's also that we had a massive spending increase and an even more massive tax cut. my final noteworthy that republicans did have a very powerful tool, reconciliation. there was very much hope that they would use that to put some of the negative performance assurance security and medicare. they opted not to. in many years of republicans talking about budgets that would down budget which honestly is too aggressive, we are not going to reach balance in a decade. but we can make improvements. but they finally have a chance to fix their budget, they actually saved nothing on the spending side of the budget. no real reforms were enacted, no spending cuts. it's a little rich to frame it ,hat way when the bottom line

do we need entitlement reform> absolutely. but we also need people who have not just made the situation worse. in birmingham, alabama. democrat. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing fine. you really stole my thunder and everything you just said. that was so true. everything you just said about youbudget and the deficit, told the executive. please let me finish my thought. you are the one person to even bring this up because you said you wanted president obama not to even get a fourth year. that's like the devil getting with god. i am a senior citizen, i'm

retired. i'm not going anywhere. i'm sick of the republicans throwing this lowlife stuff to make us want to vote for them out of this. we've got to be vigilant about social security. to come to the table and do it the right way. i want to make my last point. somebody came to help her. democrats are running on the white thing. you can't spend money when you are shut down. got to run on health care and we've got to work on -- thank you. not keep doing what you're doing. host: thank you. thank you for those compliments and reinforcement of the message. i'm going to take a moment to talk about social security because this is such a contentious issue and i think so many things are contentious right now and is trying times

because we are not focusing on policy for the long-term and we are not focusing on working on these issues together in bringing compromises which you have to what may have different words of you. here's the deal on social security. we do need to make changes. there is absolutely no question about that. we do not have enough money to pay all the promised benefits. i kind of think we talking about -- are we going to slow the growth of benefits and are we going to do that for everybody or just people who can afford it and make sure the people who depend on the program have the full benefit they are promised. we are living longer and social retirement ated 65 with life expectancy at 62. that has changed. even though the ages gradually moving up, we need to move it up more to reflect. does that mean that a bricklayer or someone who has been standing on their feet their whole life should have to work until 70? absolutely not.

if you can't, you should not have to. and we need a strong disability system to cover those as it can't work. for those of us who can't, we should work out another program. we make miscalculations about how we safeguard inflation. there are ways that we should put more revenue into the system. probably through the payroll tax which is was dedicated to it. we can do that by lifting a payroll tax cap. or, we can lift the rate. we will all have different opinions about the way to fix social security and actually, there aren't right or wrong on this. we are entitled to different opinions, but what is wrong is to not do anything about making changes when we know we can pay these promises. we know people depend on the program and we should get to work because the sooner we make these changes, the better it would he and certainly, baby boomers making into retirement want to do it quickly. thanks again for your questions and comments. . hope you can wash it down

host: on to mike in houston, republican. on the air. in 1999 the0guest: federal government had a balanced budget with $2.2 trillion. isn't it interesting that the mainstream media never takes five minutes to talk about the trend of where the inflation of hard toing has occurred many things going on in than the to talk about important thing that you were discussing. while you were discussing what you said about social security, where is theed

inflation rate occurring. what programs -- we don't own our own individual social security? i can't take out social security right now. i'm told how much i can get. i'm told that i can withdraw. i can't pass it on to family if i want to. i don't own it. it's not denied for ownership, .t's the federal government's that the program that is to be more nimble and more flexible in the business. there's no flexibility built into them. no ability to be -- whatsoever. dynamic changes in our economy and yet these programs run like a ships with the weather. thank you for calling. you host: are, of course, calling from c-span. host:. if there is any time that takes the place to look at the charts, think about where the group is. thanks to c-span for doing that

because i do think it is important. the mainstream media as one of the only places that can help us have these discussions and right now, if you were like a tabloid moment than digging deep into policy issues. i'm right there with you. i think c-span does a great job. what i will say, you are right. the spending growth does come in a number of concentrated places. it comes from the aging of the population, it comes from growing health care costs, from growing pet food. as i mentioned before, the fastest-growing part of the budget is -- you certainly have to look at those areas. we also have to recognize that if you want to spend money on things, you need sufficient revenue to cover that. we can talk about what that revenue should look like you're did having fewer revenues when you are spending leads to the budget deficit which is the problem we are talking about. what i really want to pick up on his, we don't have a federal

budget that is nimble. if there's one thing we are all it's that the pace of change is faster than we are used to and comfortable with. you feel like you're constantly trying to learn about new things, particularly in the area of technology. that certainly seeps over into the entire economy. what you don't have is a nimble federal government at all. as new needs and opportunities come up, what you want to do is what are the policies that would best meet them?" ifwe are going to do them, they should be done by the federal government or the state government or the private letter. how are you going to pay for them? instead, what we have is a bunch of programs. social security and medicaid, intergenerational nature makes a lot of sense. they are so hand,

large in terms of their growth compared to the rest of the budget, they are not leaving as much room to think about what are we going to do. worker retraining and lifelong learning. how are we going to keep our workforce update modern and competitive for this very big our economy. nimble is is something i think we should strive from the budget. it's something we do not have right now. i completely agree. >> there is one of those charts on the front of a pie. ryan mcginnis can now explain what is notable. but the outburst, we are familiar from the bundesliga. discretionary outlay barely a third of the number. 1.40 one million. explain what the rest of them are doing. it of they is mainstream media doesn't cover it, the political class spends all their time focusing on the discretionary portion of the budget. that's one third of the budget, about half defensive half domestic discretionary.

that is the budget where appropriations focus every year. they don't regularly succeed in passing appropriations bills. this past year they put a massive budget buster where they increased lending by $320 billion for two years. did not even try to offset the coast. it was a huge loss for fiscal responsibility. drama isere all the and is there going to be a governor and how to report things? but the bigger part of the budget, mandatory spending, programs where, if you meet the requirements, you will be paid. but it's also veterans, government pension, agriculture and intro. it means legally if you qualify, you won't get your benefit. but if therefore not part of the budget. those bigger programs are going faster than the economy, faster than the rest of the budget. because of the budget process, there's told him to how are we

going to oversee these programs? how are we going to make sure they stay solvent. they get passed by in the budget process too regularly. there is an important thing is an important thing going on for the joint flex committee which is looking at how to work on the budget process. probably not a lot of people are paying attention but it was really important because i felt it very problematic. there is an opportunity for those committed to make a number of changes that would improve how we do budgeting. including more oversight of this two thirds of the budget that basically was under the radar on most important programs in many ways. not getting scrutiny or being budgeted for each year. one of my biggest objectives for budget process reform that i hope they look at is we don't have a fiscal goal. every year we start off with a budget. if you were at a business, your goal could be something else.

we don't do that in the federal budget. we should pick a goal. year.very welcome to the economy. unfortunately, the fiscal hold is too deep. where we planlan to get down according to debt targets every year and then a budget has something for an. joint flexpe this committee will take a look at some of the important things we can do to improve the housing budget or if they can't get it done in the next few months, they will take the opportunity to keep working on these issues and accompany them. antonio,is in san --ependent college or independent. >> i would like to address the budget. if we got word of corporate welfare and stop the lobbying and got rid of citizens united,

i think we could probably come to an agreement about how to provide for those who don't have. that's my first point. my second point is this. in the previous segment where the african-americans were calling in, i think that, first of all, we to stop the hyphenated idea and start if betsya history book devos allows for that for the adults and the children. recognize the fact that science has provided us with open information that we know that we are all brothers and sisters. and we all came from the same place. and this country that we call our country, it's not ours. it belongs to people that we took, denying the vote that is native american and they probably provided us with the needs for survival in this country. thank you.

host: thank you for calling. how to reduceea something? i want to add the voice of from. i did not want to leave out the statement he made wednesday at his cabinet meeting where he lost by 5% of budget. trump: i'm going to ask each of you to come back when it's a 5% budget cut. whether it's the secretary, administrators, whatever. to going to ask everybody come back with a 5% cut for high think you will all be able to do it. there may be a special exemption, perhaps. i don't know who that would be but if you can do more than five, some of you say i can do much more than five. i have heard about the pads for 15 years. per dollar.ery year

one penny every year. up to four in five years, the country is in good shape. let's start with the five penny plan. i think you can do it. i will blast to ask everyone sitting around the table, your some patienceains during well. i would like you to come back with a 5% cut. get rid of the fat. everybody at discovery can do it. it will have a huge effect. 0 the president says his work for you is 5% doable. >> a 5% cut is doable.

we will hear tons about how it absolutely not remember this i percent cut comes after a two-year maximum in the description if that is. we just spent much more important above five dollars a dramatic increase from where we were supposed to be in the budget for the next year. the second point is the penny plan. if you cut 1% out of the budget every year for 10 years, you will get on fiscal ground. the problem is he is talking about just the discretionary portion, which is only one third of the budget. if you really want those savings to make a difference, they will tie them to the full budget. the president has put out an agenda which mathematically is not going to include a physical situation. tax cuts,led for increases in spending, and promises not to fix social

security, medicare,. those are the things we have done and those are the things that have led to a situation that's much worse. it's not going to get where we need and these disconnects -- the fiscalts situation represents a willingness to make hard choices , to put policy before politics. the focus on long-term issues and to compromise area to solve problems which right now is kind of the opposite of what our government is doing. we are focused on the politics. the, immediate gratification. we want the parties to continue

to fight with each other so we can blame it on each other. in many ways, i think in that situation, it is reflective of just how broken and government is. i absolutely think that altering the way model -- lobbying works would all be improvements. i really just like what the color set, which is that we have to get back to a point in this country where there is more that unites of and divides us. and we have to do that and we have to be willing to face our big challenges. the debt is certainly one of the most important ones because the fiscal foundation for the whole country. but it's not the only one. if we focus on being divided, we are not going to solve these tricky problems. host: democratic caller. caller: good morning. , they can't get along, they can't get anything accomplished. withshould be doing away

the pensions, all of it. they have to live like the common person. old,since i was 16 years that is not an entitlement. anyway, that cash was not even -- should not even have been part of the government. just as money that they have taken out of my checks since i started working. i'm going to end up not having anything because of them. they have dipped into it how many times? that's just my comment. host: ok. one more call them back to our guest. virginia, independent color. caller: i would like to focus specifically on social security and ask a few questions. understanding that 37%, almost 40% of americans rely solely on social security and retirement.

another portion rely heavily on social security. i believe what the issue is, it's a moral one. and that is, are we as a country going to decide that social that we is a program totally back and support and believe in, and reject the republican attempts for decades to privatize it? we all know what mitch mcconnell's objectives and the republicans objective is. they want to starve the beast, they want to shift unprecedented wealth to the top 1% which they have. and then give tax cuts, unprecedented tax cuts. and then not pay for them and turn around and say ok it's social security and medicare and medicaid that is the beast that we have to rein in. and we as a country need to decide. are we going to fully back a retirement system that has

worked for generations? or are we going to allow the republicans to tear it apart? there's a very simple solution. start getting a huge paycheck in october because i have reached the cap. my husband reaches the cap. we are both more than willing to continue paying the payroll tax. i know i won't get out of social security what i put in. absolutely i won't get what i put in. in my 35 years of working. but i'm ok with that. i want people who haven't earned as much as i have earned, have not had the benefit that i have had, don't have the training that i've had over my career, haven't had the luck that i have had -- i want people to live comfortably in retirement. i, we areband and perfectly happy to continue paying that payroll tax. and that is all we have to do, get americans to realize that we

do, regardless of being a democracy, we have socialist aspects to our democracy and one of those, two of those are called social security and medicare area which, by the way, are very popular which mitch mcconnell agreed. so, why don't we educate americans? americans on the outrageous lies that are being perpetrated by the republicans. host: thank you very much for your comment. guest: they focus on social security, not surprisingly. do want to point out one thing which is that social security benefits are not going to disappear. even when the trust funds can't afford to pay benefits in full anymore, they will still pay the vast majority, over 80% of what you have been promised. it's not like you are going to get nothing. we have a structural imbalance.

we have made promises that we can't keep and we have to make changes. the second color, absolutely this is a payroll tax cap as one of the ways we can make changes. it won't fix the program in its entirety, but it will do a lot. like we talked about, you can also look at the retirement age. we could look at increasing peoples because so many do depend on the program. when i go out to town hall meetings, one of the questions i always get if i don't bring it a lot oft about -- people are willing to pay more on the payroll tax cap. and a lot of people are also willing to say that if i don't have to have them. but if i need them, i want them to be there for me. and i think there's a lot of commitment to having that insurance in the program. made threat this program, i think the colors reinforced. we have to do something. we can't pretend -- we can't fix

these problems the same day. we are not going to fix them. let's get in there and talk we have apolicy area social security simulator where you can go in and i promise you, you can make all the choices and changes to see how you would fix social security. the firstk that's step in education. letting people try their hand at what solutions would have and then called members of congress. don't tell them to keep your hands on social security, tell them how you would fix it. host: our guest is president of the committee for responsible federal budget and a member of the committee of the sixth campaign. thank you for your time. guest: nice to be with you. host: about 20 minutes left. we will do some open phones after a short break. --ublicans (202) 748-8000 democrats (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002

announcer: washington journal continues. host: before we go to calls, we are going to go to texas where patrick is joining us by skype. he is a political reporter for the texas tribune. we're talking about trump's rally in texas. this rally was set to take place for ted cruz at this nrg arena in houston but it was moved.where has it moved and why ? guest: it was moved to the toyota center which is a larger venue, the original venue had a capacity of maybe 10,000 people at most. is 18,000,ue probably 20,000 people. double the size, but certainly worth noting that the president set very high expectations for the rally back in august when he announced on twitter that he was going to be coming to texas and holding a rally. we are still,

seeing a lot of enthusiasm surrounding the event and the trump campaign announced one day afternoon that they had requested over 100,000 tickets online. while they were still going to have it at the center, they were going to add this huge tailgate at the site of the rally this afternoon here to try to accommodate some of those folks who wanted to come partake in the festivities but could not actually get into the event. again, a little short of the high expectations for one of the largest stadiums in texas, but still, you see some real enthusiasm surrounding it. host: trump and ted cruz, we know they have not always gotten along. during the presidential campaign. for a while after that. what is their current relationship like right now? after all, the president is going to campaign for him. the center is going to meet him down there. caller by all appearances, guest: their relationship has certainly improved.

since then, cruz has emerged as a pretty reliable ally of the trump agenda whether it's on tax care, especially judges. being a local proponent of brett kavanaugh as a member of the judiciary committee. i think that relationship has improved. i don't know necessarily what the personal relationship is like but i think that the overall relationship has improved because they align on so many issues and priorities. heterms of what cruz needs, does need a kind of enthusiasm booster for the republican base, based in texas. he has long talk about how his biggest problem is complacency. having the president come down and have a rally, get all of his attention and get people really fired up i think is certainly a net positive for him. host: there's a headline in one of your recent pieces, beto o'rourke congressman, the challenger in this race.

their second debate last week, speak about the congressman o'rourke. exactly where the polls are at right now. we have been reading so much about congressman o'rourke's massive fundraising advantage. is that still the case and why hasn't that money meant more to the numbers? guest: in the last few weeks, cruz has expanded his lead in the polls. you can see it's expanded into the high single digits. essentially as a result of that. you have seen a much more aggressive campaign from o'rourke since the beginning of this campaign. he has talked about wanting to take the high road, not wanting to go negative. but you have seen him including at the most recent debate, really take a more aggressive stance toward cruz and right after that debate, he started putting up his first negative tv ads which is something a lot of us were, based on what he was saying, and a lot of us were not expecting him to do. inclearly understands that

less than three weeks till election day, he needed to change his strategy to limit and provide a bit of a sharper contrast with cruz. that has been a very notable shift in his overall tone. host: will any of the house candidates be there tonight? was notable about any of those races? guest: the one notable person who won't be there is john culberson who is a congressman and houston who is amid a very tight reelection race. the one notable republican who will not be attending. i think it makes perfect political sense. trump narrowly lost his district and 2016 at every paul that i have seen and trump is still not very popular at all in his district. keeping his distance is probably the smart thing to do.

guest: thanks a lot for your time. guest:thank you. host: from campaigning for ted cruz -- from campaigning for ted cruz. from -- trump campaigning for ted cruz. life campaign rallies on c-span. on to open phones now in california. republican, was on your mind? caller: thanks so much for taking the phone call. a couple of things that are very fundamental to our society. one of them hit home years ago when my great grandma was on old age benefits. she got $29 per month and her rent was $21 per month in 1954. today, we have a very similar situation.

rents skyrocketing, food skyrocketing. people on social security actually need to have their benefits doubled, not even sustained, but double. how much would that cost our country per year? about $1 trillion per year. that's what it would cost. that's what tax cuts just give to the rich. anyway, the important part of this process is our new fundamental change to our society. we are going to robotics, we are going to a new technological wonder. usingt process, we are tariffs which will occur on january 19 of june thousand 18 for steel and aluminum to raise the cost of autos by 30%, transportation by 30%. there is no way back from that. this is not going to be able to be rolled back. somebody is going to have to take responsibility and the

people who are on fixed incomes have to adjust. host: thank you for calling. let's hear from sumter, south carolina. the product line -- democratic line. caller: i want to talk about selection of federal judges yesterday. how i wanted to point out think the system is broken and we need to do something about it. i would give you the example, but the old way required some civility between both parties in this election of judges. that has gone away and it looks like it is not going back. consequently, my example would two senatorsave from wyoming with a population of 3 million people. i don't know exactly. you have two senators from

california with a population of, you know, 30 million people. senators carry the same weight on the selectin of there.oing to be in with the elimination of the 60 vote choir and of the filibuster, that offset the equality of trying to take a smaller, populated and made everyone happy select that possibly full-sized goat improve. the way it's set up now, you have 3 million people in wyoming telling 30 million people what do,.elieve iand sntil that 60 rule finds it

way back to the system, it's not working. host: ok. bobby is in roanoke, virginia. independent color. -- independent caller. caller: i would like to address your last guest regarding social security. host: ok. caller: i understand that the total cost of social security actually is sell sustainable over time. but it's like an untapped reserve. nowadays it is a cap reserve. out -- tour hands make a long story short, i think that the more guests actually addressed before 9/11 how to avoid $3 trillion went missing under the budget. that should be addressed because -- i would just like to make that clear. and with the harambe, we need to protect our borders are that is

an invasion of our sovereignty of our country. i just wanted to make a couple points. i appreciate you taking my call. host: we appreciate you calling. new hampshire. republican caller. caller: high, they university michael. -- hi, thank you for taking my call. you have someone on one of your earlier segments and i thought he really made a couple good trump, heut how has accomplished so much in a short amount of time. part of it can see, is due to -- i mean, the economy is booming. there are hiring signs everywhere. companies are hiring, i got my first race in like 15 years --

my first raise. companies have a higher sign-on bonuses. it seems like there's a lot more optimism and unthinkable role of the. i'm happy about that. as far as social security, i just wanted to say one thing. younger, i'm in my mid-30's. i think we got to encourage younger people like myself to step up a little bit to the plate and take some responsibility. we might not see social security or it might be reduced. host: what is a -- what are you saying? i just started a 401(k)

using my own. i'm not putting a ton of money into it, but more young people like myself, we should start 401ks and maybe the government can say, you know, they could just start 401ks and if we do, give us some kind of a tax break for our own future depending on the government. host: thank you for calling. ohio, thank you for waiting. republican caller. what would you like to say? caller: good conversation on the budget that needs to be taken care of. is barred, it has to be paid back at a current rate of interest, not euro percent. the other thing is our immigrants in the country, if we don't downsize its going to cause a lot of liabilities.

we also want to try to save on our health care. when you break the first one, take the savings to the next ones. one is take the lottery money and help adjust social security budgets so it does not go bankrupt. i will hang up so you can give your answers. host: let's see if any callers have anything to say in response. kansas city, good morning. i've been watching c-span for 10 or 15 years. gets me is one president obama was in office, they show the deficit on every news station going up every day, every day. now, you don't see it.

this president is spending money on, i mean, pre-much whatever he feels like. with saudi arabia controversy, with the reporter getting murdered or whatever. he seems more about making a deal by selling american-made whateverequipment or than the actual person. like, thinking more about money than the actual person. and he still has not showed his tax returns and he was to see president obama's birth certificate. i don't understand from supporters -- they talk about the ratings. fox news, they don't realize that democrats watch them, too.

just to know what on the president's mind. it's not that they are the greatest news network in the world, you know. democrats are not stupid. we watch, too. host: kenneth, georgia. independent caller. caller: with the gridlock in congress, would term limits, by any chance, relieve this gridlock and force senators and congressmen to come to the table and sit down and negotiate? host: what do you think? caller: i think it would take a way a lot of the reelection can learns -- reelection concerns. instead of trying for real i can, he knows he's not going to be reelected, he can go ahead and do some work and make the country better. host: what do you make of the feedback from someone who might say we already have term limits, they are called elections.

if you don't like what is going on, vote them out. caller: those really aren't term limits. i know people in my family will vote democratic no matter what. other people in my family will vote republican no matter what. there are no term limits that way. host: thank you. miami, florida. democratic line. arnold. there? caller: i'm carlos. host: where are you calling from? caller: miami, florida. host: the right city, wrong name. go ahead. know my daughter is married to a canadian and up in canada they have a system. daughterw is that his

had a hip fracture and he took her to the hospital and it was free and operated. lines,lk about such long because you have an emergency, you can make an appointment and eventually a doctor. alaska, theyve in will pay for your medical school. and then you have to sign up for five years to serve in alaska out of celery -- salary. i don't know why they don't look more into those systems. host: ok, nevada. linda is on the line. caller: hello. host: are you linda? caller: no, my name is dave. host: are you calling from nevada? caller: no, i'm calling from california. host: go-ahead, i think we have the wrong lines punched up. --can you hear

me? i'm having trouble. host: we are going to move on, we aren't connecting properly. are you there, linda? caller: i am here. thank you. you had a gentleman a few callers ago talking about how much trump has accomplished. the problem is, it's all negative stuff. the tax cut is hurting people, not helping. it's helping billionaires and millionaires, great. but nobody else is getting much out of that. it also increased our deficit. by $1 trillion already. so, that's not a good thing. you rolled back regulations that allow chemical companies to use poison sprays on the food we eat, the food our kids it, he has rolled back regulations for that allowspany

them to dump waste into streams and rivers and eventually ending up in drinking water for people and animals. he wants to sell off public lands to mining companies. you know, it's just one thing after another with him, pulling out of the iran agreement so that now they're going full steam ahead with their nuclear program. and he's done something good, that would be great, but he hasn't. host: ok, linda, you are our last call. thanks to everybody who called in this morning. we'll be back with another edition of "washington journal" tomorrow, 7:00 eastern time, just like every day. 15 days until the midterm elections. we'll continue to show debates, and live events today featuring former president obama and president trump campaigning around the country. enjoy the rest of your day. see you back here tomorrow.

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] >> coming up next on the c-span networks, remarks by the first female director of the national air and space museum, speaking at the national press club in washington, d.c. live starting at 1:00 p.m. eastern, here on c-span. and later, two campaign rallies. first, former president barack obama in las vegas at a get out the vote rally for democratic senate candidate jackie rosen, live starting at 4:00 p.m. eastern. and at 7:30, president trump speaking at a rally in houston in support of texas republican senator ted cruz in his

re-election. live coverage of both rallies here on c-span. and a debate between republican and democrat in virginia's first district, u.s. house race, live at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. you can also watch live online at c-span.org or listen live with the free c-span radio app. with 15 days until the votes are cast, make c-span your primary source for campaign 2018. >> this week on "the communicators" -- university of pennsylvania anberg school for communications professor joseph turrow on web privacy issues. >> most privacy policies are not designed to protect your privacy. they're designed to give you an idea, or at least the lawyers an idea, of the kind of information the company can use about you, often share about you. so if you go to a retailer, say, kroger or target or

wal-mart, they will tell you that they use just about everything you do in relationship to them. they take your information, use your information, they share parts of your information, and they even buy information about you that will sort of complement the information they already have. auch watch "the communicator" tonight at 8:15 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> washington state democratic incumbent senator maria cantwell debated republican opponent susan hutchison in their second debate, sharing their views on the environment, healthcare, immigration, medical marijuana, and the possibility of president trump nominating a supreme court justice in a presidential election year. this is about an hour. ms. guenther: good afternoon