♪ >> forward march. >> today on c-span, washington journal is next. later, senate intelligence committee vice chair, my corner, on security. and about one hour, we talk china.rade with

then, wall street journal reporter will maudlin and william branch from the center for strategic and international studies discuss the new trade agreement with canada andstudiee agreement with canada and new mexico. -- and mexico. ♪ everyone onorning, this friday, december 7. in the wake of the november elections, both parties said they could come together on an infrastructure deal. we want you to tell washington where the money needs to go in your community. what are your top infrastructure needs? regionally.he lines eastern central part of the country, dial in at 202-748-8000 . mountain, pacific, 202-748-8001. you can tell us on twitter @cspanwj or facebook.com/cspan.

start dialing in now so we can get to your phone calls. we will begin with a story out of kentucky and this story in andkentucky herald leader it is about a family, that tailors, who have five kids and their infrastructure needs deal with water in their community. the story reads, in a nation awash with technological advancements, the lives of many families in eastern kentucky are dominated by the absence of one basic thing, reliable water. never knowing whether they will have running water the next day, families like the tailors cope like collecting rainwater and relying on the generosity of friends and families to do things most take for granted, letting the kids take a shower, washing pots and pans before -- after dinner. they are one of many families affected by crumbling water infrastructure across central appalachia where long outages often leave customers without

running water for days or weeks at a time. outages like this -- like this left the tailors feeling neglected. like his who live every day not knowing if they will have water for bathing and cooking, not -- much less, drinking. what are your infrastructure needs? what are the priorities if congress and the trump administration were to come to a deal on infrastructure, where do you think the money should go where you live? the tailors say the martin county water district has been the subject of heavy scrutiny from state regulators for years because of its leaky water lines which lose nearly three of every four gallons of water the district treats before it can reach customers. poor water quality and reliability and shoddy management, local officials have warned the district was weeks away from financial collapse. with more than $1 million in debt and barely enough money to meet payroll at times.

in november, the kentucky public service commission, which regulates most utilities, issued an order issuing a permanent higherat makes the bill than it was in march. the state approved surcharges to help the district fund repairs and pay down the debt. taylor's water $90.is now closer to let's hear from susan in fredericksburg, virginia. what are the top infrastructure priority needs where you live? caller: thank you for taking my call. i suggest we organize it regionally because some of our needs just like the quote about appellation, that crosses state boundaries. i would love to see our

infrastructure -- it also creates jobs and that is a historically depressed region for so many decades. i would like to see it organized in a regional way to do infrastructure projects like i have heard everyone speaking about. rhodes, tunnels, bridges, airports. .ven sewer systems they are breaking all the time in the washington area. regional, do you think it is the federal government that has to bear responsibility for this or is it the state coffers? caller: i would like to see it be a partnership in both ways, both the planning and the money end of it, a partnership between the states and the federal government, yes. host: susan mentioned the area for the -- where the taylor's live is one of the poorest in the country, in martin county -- one of the 20 poorest in the

state and the average household income is shy of $30,000. this is a story written by the herald leader is part of a collaborative effort by the lexington herald leader charleston gazette mail, and western public broadcasting coordinated by the ground truth project. it is a series that will be running on the water infrastructure problem in that area. in newport, kentucky. good morning to you. what is it like in newport? caller: thank you. we have a problem in northern kentucky with an interstate .ridge i-75 to i-71 bridge they have been trying to figure out who is going to pay for it and how to pay for it. everything from a toll bridge, etc. but nothing has never -- has

ever been done about it and president obama made a speech here during his tenure and nothing was ever done about it. i would like to see money come -- with ase evidently bridge like that, it is not going to get any better. thank you. host: what about how to pay for all of this? if your community is struggling to pay for it, do you think the federal government should pay for it and if they do, would you support a gas tax in order to improve the infrastructure where you live in across the country? supportyeah, i would one 110%. i don't think the whole weight of it should be on the federal government. i think maybe -- the states, ohio and kentucky trying to figure out with a bridge -- how , but i think the

federal government could kick in a little something on it and maybe get it moving because nothing has and done about this and this has been going on i've, 10 years. host: james in kansas, top infrastructure priorities where you live. caller: i live in kansas and i was thinking roads and bridges are really important. host: ok. why? what is it like there? caller: the roads are horrible and the bridges are almost 100 years old and it is a safety issue. host: what are your local officials saying? caller: they just say there is no money, there is no money. i would even support a small gas tax. host: two callers saying they would support a gas tax and pay for it.

as many of you know, that is part of an initiative in france, a gas tax to deal with climate change. it is the front page story in the new york times, french protests reveal clash, healthy climate versus lower tax. vincent picard describes himself as a militant ecologist, but when protesters took to the ranks., he joined their he acknowledges the tax might encourage conservation considered critical for a healthy planet, but with the nearest train station 35 minutes away, he has to drive to work every day. i am conscious we have reached the end of fossil fuels and we have to modify our habits, but he added, you have to continue to live. the gas tax is part of an effort started by france in 2014 to raise the tax on fossil fuels to fight climate change. the so-called yellow vest

protests have become the biggest obstacles to such attempts to encourage conservation and alternative energy use. inside the new york times, they note people are frustrated because they are already paying six dollars a gallon for gas. let's go to richard in massachusetts. caller: good morning. in -- itax was put wasn't put in for public or amtrak is part of that and people don't even know that. they have their own police department, $50 million a year it takes for the police department. that is what the politicians do, they take your taxes, what it is supposed to be four and they don't do it, just like social security -- that is the problem, greta. host: you don't trust them? caller: i don't trust them one

bit. it is a shame. that is my comment, that they don't use the money, they get plenty of gas taxes, believe me. host: richard in massachusetts. mike in ohio. caller: hello, greta. how are you? host: good morning. caller: i think maybe the money could come out of the military budget. it seems like we spent all that money and we got these aircraft carriers and now all this stuff, trillions of dollars in like japanefueling tanker over and the crash those guys had, what are they doing with all this stuff? and then they are selling it to saudi arabia and we spend more money in our military than almost the whole world combined and then they tell us the military is broken and selling all this equipment. these military contractors -- we

need some over tight -- oversight, transparency, and accountability on these bases we have around the world and the problems we are creating with countries that no more about us than we do. i think wasteful defense spending is the biggest problem we need to correct and we can help this company by helping -- country by putting it into our infrastructure. host: chuck schumer writes an opinion piece. today. he says, let's pay for an instructor bill with money from a tax cut for the wealthiest americans. the senate democratic leader is saying any deal with the president also has to have climate change in it. -- boldsays is our plan new investments in clean energy and climate resiliency one step on the path to 100% clean energy

youomy and we could -- said, we should make a massive investment in renewable energy infrastructure, especially in exciting new technology such as battery storage and make our infrastructure more climate .esilient those items belong in any infrastructure bill. they were included in the senate democratic proposal last year. we can add and should go further. we should provide a permanent tax credits for clean energy production and storage, election -- electric vehicles and energy-efficient homes. this can mitigate the impacts of climate change and grow the outdoor economy. we should significant a reduce methane produced -- ethane pollution and we have to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere. all of these policies can and

will create good paying green jobs. this sounds similar to what some to democrats elected congress for the 116th congress are talking about led by alexandria a casio cortez who was at an event monday with senator bernie sanders and this is what she had to say about a possible new green deal. [video clip] >> there is a lot of legislation that has been drafted to start addressing smaller issues, transitions in coal, whether it is -- our energy infrastructure whether it is battery -- looking at battery grids and so on, there is a lot of work that has already been done. it needs to be consolidated and green newder the deal. when we try to solve this issue piecemeal, we will not get it done in time. that is why we are asking for this great, ambitious, cingular

plan and that is why i believe the progressive movement is the only movement that has answers right now. we are the only ones drawing from the lessons of history, from franklin delano roosevelt, some of the ambitious projects we have pursued in american history and that truly is the scale it will take. i think there is so much work that has been done and there are some outlying questions especially when it comes to investment in technologies. when we choose to invest in private -- when we choose to invest in new technologies, we deserve a return on that investment and for far too long, we gave money to tesla, a ton of people and we got no return on that the public made in creating technologies and it is about time we get our do. if you want to listen to more about what the new member of congress had to say along with bernie sanders, you can go to our website, c-span.org.

it was a climate change town hall. the wall street journal had a story in sunday's edition. in 2018, a package that would have compelled cities and states to come up with at least 80% of the funding for infrastructure improvements was dead on arrival in congress. this time around, people familiar with the plan say the to include akely lot more federal cash, which makes it more likely to pass muster with new democratic leadership. mr. defazio, who briefed reporters after democrats won the house majority in november said he delivered a message to the white house legislative affairs chief and she agrees a successful deal would have to improve major new federal funding. -- help set funding levels for

existing federal programs for roads, bridges, and railroads. the decline in quality infrastructure is creating a threat to our economy and safe. mr. trump's approach has been a moving target during the first two years and mr. trump talked about it in the wall street journal and now thinking about proposing again a $1 trillion upgrade to the nation's road, rail, and energy infrastructure. go?e should that money richard in nashville, tennessee. where in nashville, tennessee, do you need the money? caller: we need it in roads. look at the united states on the map. when you look at tennessee, you have i-40, interstate 40 from i-10 in california. i have traveled this whole country. when i moved to nashville as a little boy, there were two in thepers downtown

immediate infrastructure of downtown. there is over 15 now. private enterprise's building condos and buildings and everything else, but they are not putting the money in roads and bridges, which creates a traffic jam. i-65 rows from chicago to the gulf coast. that,s my problem with you have major interstates running through cities like nashville. they come from four lanes into two lanes and that creates gridlock. the problem is the politicians. they promise, they go to washington, you send money to washington and they allow you to have so much back. infrastructure never gets done between the politicians and some of the honest ones. -- the crooked ones and some of the honest ones. this past year, they declined giving our firefighters and police officers a raise.

milliont gave amazon 15 -- $50 million tax break. amazon created a place over here in south nashville, so they gave them state property worth millions with no tax implications. they never hired the amount of people they said they would. until we reign in our good politicians and get the money to where it belongs, this country will never grow like it needs to grow. host: susan collins and others on twitter bragging about the money they secured for their states. , delightedis tweet to announce a major win for main, $26.6 million in transportation funding coming to , woodstock, freiburg, and others. this will improve our infrastructure creating jobs and increasing safety. susan collins bragging about bringing home money to her state

. if you live in those areas, want to hear from you this morning. where do you want to see the money go? let's go to mike in north carolina. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good morning. caller: i live in north carolina. i have for 12 years. i have lived in a lot of places in this country. north carolina probably does it the best i have ever seen it. granted, we have a benign inter-climate. we don't have the salt on the roads and the plowing the north has. we have a high gas tax and most, if not all of the gas tax money we pay on our fuel, diesel and regular gasoline goes where it is supposed to go and our roads show it. it is a true pleasure to drive in north carolina on the two lane state roads and the interstate federal highways.

the ferry systems, the raleigh-during -- raleigh-durham airport is under constant expansion. somehow, north carolina has figured out how to do this, as well as the charlotte airport. we have two major cities. i know a large problem with the northeast and states like new jersey, illinois, and new york. i don't want to politicize this too much, but it does seem to fall along certain lines. there gas tax deployment needs to be audited. who, but itw by is a known fact a lot of the gas tax is siphoned off to support public pensions, to support other government programs and it doesn't get to where it is supposed to go just like the prior caller said about corruption. i don't think a dime should be given to any state that is not

already willing to open their books to show where there gas tax is being deployed for the building of new roads and the maintenance and repair of roads. probably thing that should be addressed, but it is not sexy. trainnot a shiny new sexy and not green or whatever. as we saw from flint michigan, our infrastructure regarding water and sewers and so on and so forth, that should probably be looked at very close across the country, especially in corridor's where the country existed for over 10 years. i know hurricane sandy really caused a lot of damage. i know i think governor cuomo and mayor the blog seo visited with president trump about shoring up some tunnels under new york city. that is the nitty-gritty stuff that needs to be done. it is not a bullet train. california is throwing away

billions of dollars on a train that will probably never run and hardly nobody is going to use it. i think we really need to take the focus and put it on really, truly nitty-gritty projects prayed all this green stuff -- we saw what happened -- we see what is happening with general motors, they are closing a plant that makes the chevy volt. tesla has been on life support for a long time. pull out the subsidies and tesla probably goes under. we have more oil than we know what to do with. the fact is, we have more oil than we know what to do with and until that changes, i don't see people wanting to buy electric cars unless we are forced into them by the government. flint, water, let's take as a canary in the coal mine situation and re-examine all of this and auditing all the gas tax money that gets collected by

the federal government and the state. where is all of this money going? we are talking about tens of not hundreds of billions of dollars. -- you canu go to see how high the gas tax is in your state. charge see how states different amounts across the country. primarily, this money is supposed to be used for roads and bridges and infrastructure repairs. that caller was talking about he doesn't believe in some states it is being used in the proper way. robert in baltimore, what do you think? caller: i think for baltimore, the roads can be better. everywhere you look, there is a toll bridge you have to pay to go across and the roads are still bad.

for california, where i am countylly from, the same devin nunes is from and they should stop people living in the mountains, they should leave it to the wildlife. they should allow every household to collect rainwater. collecteduses rainwater like in appellation where it -- appellation -- they would not have a water problem and people should be allowed to make their own personal infrastructure and the government will not have to do as much. if every household in america had a solar panel and collected water, that would help the electric grid and the water grid or whatever it is called. a lot of stuff, people can do

themselves. host: more on the fuel tax in this country. the united states federal excise tax is 18.4 cents gallon, $.24 per gallon for diesel. it was last raised in 1993 and is not indexed to inflation. , state and local taxes and fees add up to about $.31 to gasoline and $.31 to diesel for a total u.s. average fuel tax of about $.49 per gallon for gas and $.55 per gallon for diesel. mr. fazio, who will be chairing the transportation and infrastructure committee in the house when the 116th congress withnes this week sat down the atlantic for a discussion about what sort of deal the two sides could come to on infrastructure and here is what

he had to say. [video clip] >> i think the president really wants to do and infrastructure package and i need his help because we will have to do some revenues and we will need him to show people it is ok to do a little bit of revenues. my proposal, penny for progress. it is a to minimize approach i minumus even the -- dim approach -- i will not go into the complexity. we can then project that income and bond and we could figure out week -- we figured out we could bond to the point of filling the hole in the trust fund and adding $17 billion a year for new capacity and resilience and state of good repair and all the things we need to deal with. i think that is a pretty do minimus -- solution

hopefully they will like it and i will propose it to the white house. host: you can go to our website, c-span.org, to listen to the entire conversation they had defazio.r the wall street journal this morning, the headline, funding bill passes, averting a shutdown. congress passed a two week spending path. shortly after house vote, the senate passed a measure on a voice vote, extending funding through december 21. president trump said he would sign the short-term extension. 7 sending bills are set to a.m. on saturday as lawmakers face an impasse whether to fund border security. president trump defended $5 billion, but democrats have balked.

the president expected to sign that. let's go to chuck in bethesda, maryland. good morning to you. caller: thank you for having this great debate on infrastructure. i think infrastructure in america is timely do. i think that is one of the reasons president trump got elected. it is sad he waited two years to make this happen. america needs to invest in railroads. i know it is a 100 year technology. i disagree with the caller from north carolina. if we build on behalf of -- high-speed rail in certain core doors, americans would use it. especially when a lot of suburban and urban areas are getting congested. i live in bethesda. the cost of living is getting so high, especially with amazon moving to arlington, rent is going to get higher and more people are moving further out

west in maryland, especially frederick and if you look at i-270, it is a parking lot from :30. to about 9 governor hogan wants to expand moreeltway and make it 2 lanes and i-270, expand it where there are homes up against the highway. railtually expand commuter service or expand high-speed rail. if you build it, people will use it. our county executive in montgomery county has a plan for rapid transit, for bus rapid transit. if we build the infrastructure of public transit, people will use it. especially in congested areas and i think it will make a profound effect on climate change. i apologize, i think a gas tax is needed. i love this idea of penny for progress. the bottom line is i think gas

and oil is a part of the past and we have to look toward the future if we want to save this planet and the more people growing and increasing in this country and we have got to invest into public transit sooner than later. it's not all about amtrak, but it is about virginia rails coming to florida, the bright line and so and such. i think the city's should come together and combine some of these rail systems so we can have effective transit, especially with amazon coming to him -- arlington and new york. andy harris who represents the eastern shore part of maryland sent out this tweet talking about grants he received from the transportation department, the same with susan collins, that tweet we read earlier. my statement on the 20 million -- $20 million infrastructure

for the new i-95 interchange in cecil county, maryland. mark, what is it like there? a callerhere is not that has called him that i disagree with anything they had to say and i think the overall theme of what i am hearing is there is a huge lack of trust for our representatives. in the era craddock manner in which things get done, which is a big ship slowly turning and number two is the excessive cost they spend to get things done. in hampton roads, where i am, i think our state has done a really good job as far as .anaging a lot of the roadways we have a couple issues with a couple tunnels and i guess about

10 years ago we came into a really bad deal with governor mcdonald where he signed a private partnership deal with some of the tolls -- some of the -- my fellow just americans across america, be very leery of when these politicians say private partnerships. we are in a deal in the state of virginia where for the next 20 years out, there are no limits to what they can raise the tolls pass.the easy path -- ez for people who have to travel regularly like in a sales capacity or construction capacity, it is nothing to ring up $150 in tolls every month and i think it is really a travesty because the money is in play and like some callers mentioned about the wasteful spending in the military, it is all across

the board. until we can regain some trust and fidelity between the constituency and some of our congressional leaders, i don't know and see how the situation is going to get any better going forward. host: we showed you peter defazio's thoughts on an infrastructure deal. he would be leading the committee for the house democrats when they take over in january. there is a story in the washington post this morning -- the new york times actually about how some democrats do not want senator joe manchin -- the democrat of west virginia to be the top democrat on a key senate committee that deals with climate change. during the first run for senate in 2016, joe manchin took aim, literally at a climate change bill, shooting a bullet through .t in a television ad

now some are declaring him unfit to be the top democrat. as the senate undergoes the post election shuffling of committees , he has been a leading contender to be the senior democrat on the energy and natural resources committee. over the past several days, two aspirantswhite house -- made fighting climate change a signature issue have joined environmental advocates calling on chuck schumer from new york manchinmr. mentioned -- out of the ranking spot. the 20 senators who receive the most money from coal mining interest in 2018, he ranks 11th .nd is the full democrat

dan in stafford, virginia. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i agree and disagree with some of the comments about rail. trains are a great idea. i believe them. high-speed rail in california, that is not something that is not affecting the rest of the country. what i mean by that is there have been federal funds that help subsidize the building of .he so-called high-speed rail the aspect of looking at that is it affects three states. every citizen that doesn't live in california is affected by california high-speed rail. that thing will not even turn a profit or get into the black .ntil like 2040 at best

say like in the washington, d.c. area, it makes sense to have trains. they sort of did a gate the traffic -- everyone sort of talking about amazon. that makes sense, i get that. is a good idea -- let's make sure we are forecasting usage. they have models they build on what they think people would pay for fare. there is no model needed for washington, d.c., you know there is traffic north and south of 95, it is a parking lot. we can prove that like the president called about the toll for the ez pass. california took federal funds to build a high-speed rail on the .et they will generate funds

guy proved he could have bought a fleet of like 500 buses and could have operation in a year, not 2030. i am just saying, high-speed rail is a good idea, but let's make sure we do it where it makes sense and our money is being used wisely. host: dan in stafford, virginia. the washington post, heather knew it of the state department is the president's u.n. pic, to replace nikki haley as ambassador. there is also this story in the washington post about north carolina and the republican party warned over irregularities. when representative robert iger lost his primary by a narrow margin, he suspected something was amiss. ballot stuffers.

the concerns stemmed from the rural tallies where a challenger named mark harris won 437 absentee mail-in votes. the three turn incumbent received just 17. director and a regional political director of the national republican committee that they believed fraud occurred. their account provides the first indication state and national republican officials received early warnings about voter irregularities in north carolina and the person they point to is this man pictured in the washington post this morning, led a get out -- the vote effort for republican harris andal -- mark

the race results have yet to be certified due to allegations of fraud. the headline inside the newspaper is the democrat has withdrawn his concession as north carolina inquiries go on. the executive director for the state initially played down concerns laws were broken, but told the washington post that if the state election board can show a substantial likelihood possible fraud could have changed the outcome of the november vote, we would fully support a new election. some headlines for you in the washington post this morning. , new port richey, florida. thank you for hanging on the line. what is a priority for you? about thewas calling gas tax because apparently in 1990. congress approved an increase in the gas tax, but only allotted half of it for new revenue and building projects.

i think we should think about tagging the gas tax to inflation . we know export more oil than we import. will be cheaper for a while. in california, people will probably be losing their stuff basically because jerry brown is having problems because the gas tax is too high. that is not representative of the united states. we need to fund the transportation trust fund, which has been rated since 1990. make it so they cannot spend that money on deficit reduction, cut that somewhere else. that is not the problem the infrastructure bill is supposed to be handling. reid in union,- washington. that caller is right with the

way the government just raise the funds like social security. i have a quick comment to make about this issue. i wanted to criticize c-span respectively. i watched you every day. i love your program and the way you work here, greta. my only real criticism is with upro who is so quick to hang on people. quitne said, can you hanging up on people so quickly and what did he do? he hung up on them. the last time david horowitz was on, someone called him a nazi. on the left, of course. someone calls on the democratic line called him a nazi. and instead of hanging up on the caller, when david horwitz got a little hotheaded, you criticized david horowitz and said mr. horowitz, do not attack our callers.

with all due respect, you are a great moderator, but that is over the line to criticize david horwitz for defending himself. what i have to say about this green stuff and the infrastructure is first of all, the green economics would work if it worked economically. you constantly hear these lefties that are tree huggers with their green wings floating in the atmosphere that think about it like an emotional perspective. it feels good for all of us. we can get -- if we could get away from anything dirty, we would. if a company could invest $.92 on the dollar, they would have done it 50 years ago. we cannot drive a diesel truck based on algae. it doesn't work. until it actually works, we more door on the potomac -- spread it around to etc..ies like solyndra,

it gets to be too much wind democrats want things -- the difference between conservative and a liberal is we see the world the way it is, not the way it could be, hypothetically. we will go there if we can debate and get to a natural order. they see things with sort of their hands over their ears and their eyes closed and reach out and spend the money. to people, spend more money. we want to get there, but we can get there when the business community can make a dollar on it. host: all right. washington state in michigan. old andi am 78 years when i was 18, i started work in construction and the only freeway we had in michigan from tot time was detroit ypsilanti. we build everything from chicago

1994, 1975. we built all the freeways. we paid the people for the ride up, buildll the holes all these bridges and we give it to the younger generation and now they don't have enough money to patch the holes in the road. something is wrong with our gas tax. we had an election here to raise our sales tax for road construction and i said they will never get that 7% unless they make a special checking account for that money to go directly -- directly to road construction. they wanted to use that money in other places and that is why we have the problem. we need to control politicians somehow. host: robert in michigan. roger stone was in michigan and he spoke at the american priority conference in washington, d.c.. here is what he had to say about

the special counsel investigation and the impact of it on him. [video clip] >> few americans, i think, could withstand the kind of legal prof cological exam i have been under. -- as reported long before the appointment of mr. mueller as the special counsel, that i was among three advisors --donald trump the candidate probable cause, i ask? years ofhas been 2.5 hell. not only was i under surveillance in 2016. i also know mr. mueller and his strikeforce examined every

aspect of my personal life. my family life, my social life, my business life, my political life.my sex fbi agents have been seen rummaging through my garbage. my cleaning lady was interviewed by the federal bureau of investigation. any of that does have to do with russian collusion? i am sure many of you heard yesterday i invoked my fifth amendment rights when it comes to the witchhunts being conducted by the senate intelligence and senate judiciary committees. just for the record, i informed through my attorneys, both of those committees that i would not be turning over three

tractor-trailer loads of documents for them to root for and i will not testify unless i am allowed to testify in public so the american people can hear every word. host: roger stone yesterday and the president tweeting about mr. mueller as well. robert mueller and leaking, lying james comey are best friends, one of many mueller conflicts of interest for it wasn't the woman in charge of prosecuting jerome corsi -- a total witchhunt. of interest bect lifted at the top of his republican only report? will andrew weissman's horrible past be listed in the report? will all of the substantial and many contributions made to the campaign of crooked hillary will

be listed in the top of the report? will the people who worked for the clinton foundation be listed at the top of the report? will the scathing report let -- written about james comey be a big part of the report? the lying and leaking by the people doing the report lovelyo bruce or in his wife molly, many of the fine people of the fbi -- fired people of the fbi be listed in the report? the former fbi director james comey is slated to be on capitol hill to testify behind closed doors about the clinton email he led at the agency. cameras will be staking out that interview and hopefully we will see him come to the cameras and

get some reaction. you can go to c-span.org for more details. one crime, two punishments, justices ok with that. a coalition of liberal and conservative supreme court justices appeared unlikely to balk -- block federal and state governments from -- we will have the oral argument of that case and you can go to our website, c-span.org, to find out when that will air. the wall street journal said fed may slow interest rate increase pace. whether to signal a new wait and see approach. broadals think the direction of short-term interest rates will be higher in 2019 as they push the benchmark, they are becoming less sure how they will act or how far they will need to go and they want to assess how the economy is

holding up under moves they have made. back to our conversation with all of you. what are the infrastructure needs where you live? wayne in hanover, pennsylvania. caller: how are you this morning? host: good morning. caller: i want to second that emotion about pedro and i will not even call in when a man is there. he don't give anybody know time. he is arrogant and that is all i have to say about that. as far as this gas tax, that is forced. gas taxt need to put a on anybody and everybody. the people who use these .ighways -- i am a truck driver why should i be paying more taxes for commerce when i am not using it? that is not fair. the fairest thing to do is the traffic that is going through these places that need all this

ss, you knowez pa what i am saying. a toll. .all thediculous toll legislation they just came through like the pennsylvania turnpike, they just go up willy-nilly whenever they want. are we in debt? this and that? it doesn't work that way. that has been paid for. the bay bridge, for example. they don't do that with the bay bridge print they control that. that is just another thing. anyway, i wanted to say i am not in favor. everybody wants a tax, we don't need a tax print i am a democrat. we don't need a tax on everybody. and the people that are using it, let it be done. host: tony in santa fe, new mexico. thank you for joining us. caller: good morning, greta.

how are you doing? my big problem and i think what we need to do on infrastructure is remember that it is not the economy, stupid, it is the environment. without the environment, you ain't got the infrastructure. it isn't going to matter. how about the subsidies from the oil companies that we give billions of dollars? how about putting it into -- there is a chinese proverb that says if you plan for one year, plant rice, if you plan for 100 years, plant trees, if your plan is for the future, educate children. we will have to teach our children how to live in an environment that is based on -- an economy based on the environment. you cannot live on a dead planet, can you? host: the washington times this morning, u.s. defense fossil fuels and nuclear power.

president trump may be pulling the united states out of the paris accord, but the administration is making a hard sell for its side of the story at the climate summit underway in the heart of poland's coal producing region with delegates struggling to reach a consensus on writing the rulebook for reducing emissions and battling climate change. climate sector representatives event onizing a major monday on the continued role of fossil fuels and nuclear power. official wellsnt griffith the third will lead the event billed as a showcase of ways to use fossil fuels as cleanly and efficiently as possible. at the gathering in germany led by george david banks through a protest from environmental groups. the u.n. climate summit -- eveng in poland

though the president withdrew from the climate deal -- there is this headline in the new york times this morning at opec talks day one, no deal to cut output. opec and did a meeting without striking a deal to produce oil output and without any clear sign one would be raced when officials from the organization, russia, and other oil producers reconvene today. saudi arabia's energy minister told reporters he was not confident -- he had said in the morning that all options were on the table and that a reduction of one belion barrels a day would adequate to balance the markets braid one billion barrels a day would likely be considered a modest cut by traders and said he would -- he had heard a range of numbers. the representative whose country represents 12% of global oil

output said he met with american special envoy brian hook on wednesday and said mr. hook refrained from asking saudi's not to cut production, but added i don't need permission to cut. but here from jamie in mount vernon, washington. caller: it is nice to talk to you. just wanted to say we should think of this more from mother earth that we have a child at risk and we have to take care of this child of ours. i think it is ridiculous to see all these people in the carbon industry and how they just take the bribery. in washington, i feel i live in all the best of the 50 states. it is washington state, not the d.c. on the east side and people need to watch out for who is behind the boards of the special projects and they need to really look at the transparency and

hopefully educate themselves and watch our government in action. it can help people to understand where these decisions come from and what is at stake here. we have this earth at stake. it is our child and we need to deal with it now. caller: a couple of comments on lightr, steve says more rail transit and rooftop solar replacing aging water systems. --reasing internet action access has become part of our infrastructure. i live in a rural area where what we can get is about one step above dial-up speed, that is the biggest need in my area. we have a few minutes left for this conversation. what are the top infrastructure priorities where you live? we will go to wexford, pennsylvania. we lost wexford, pennsylvania. tony in new york, good morning.

caller: good morning. i would like to say one thing. hello? host: you are on the air, we are listening. caller: i live in new york city and i have been here all my life and what i see is we have subway problems and they keep complaining about it, but they have bicycle lanes, scooters now. people are not using the bus lanes. another thing, you have the drive and west side highway, you .ave one person in the car make it a law, two people in the car, we would cut back half of the people driving into the city. one other thing, the tunnels, bridges and all of that, i remember when i used to pay $.50 to go through the tunnel. now it is $15. why? i don't see them being cleaned. i don't see nothing being done. the money should be going to those things.

that is all i have to say. thank you. host: george in california. california?t in caller: we are between the camp fire and the carl fire. 70% of the land is federally managed. also -- apologize, i have to cut you off because it was very difficult to understand you. i hope you can call back another time. when we come back, we will look at the future of trade relations with china. we will talk to michael pillsbury and later, we will continue the discussion on trade by examining the trade agreement between the u.s., mexico, and canada. william mauldin and william

reinsch will join us for that conversation. ♪ >> saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, conversations with two retiring members of congress, lamar smith of texas retiring after 32 years in the house and democratic representative michael cap one of of massachusetts -- michael of massachusetts, who was defeated in the democratic primary. >> you faced a contentious primary, did that surprise you? >> not at all. i have been telling people for a while my constituents were angry. they are very angry. they are angry at the democratic party not standing up for certain things. they are angry donald trump got elected and the way he governs.

they forget we have a republican governor in one of the most -- if not the most democratic state in the country and yet he is one of the most popular governors in the country and just won an overwhelming victory. the partisanship is not it. my constituents are angry,t upset, and want change. you are a mr. smith goes to washington? >> not everyone will remember, but i shamelessly played on that theme when i ran for congress, and we had bumper stickers that said "send mr. smith to washington." be anided it would interesting idea to try to auction off a poster from the "send mr. smith to washington." i called jimmy stewart who was in washington, and he

autographed a poster for me which we auctioned off at my first or second fundraiser in san antonio. i had a friend pay $1000 for that poster.he has the autographed jimmy stewart poster at his house today. that brings back happy memories, too. lamarresentatives smith and capuano. listen on the free c-span radio app app. "washington journal" continues. host: a senior fellow and institutef the hudson for chinese strategy and former assistant of asian affairs for the george h.w. bush bush -- george h.w. bush administration. president trump has called you

the leading authority on china. what is your background? guest: i was born in california, that is why i am naturally friendly. i went to stanford and got a phd from columbia university, and was sent to study chinese were a couple of years. in those days, everyone thought that was insane. that china was poor, backward, angry, and seen as the cause of the vietnam war. there is a secretary of state when i was an undergraduate that said we are fighting in vietnam because a billion chinese will be coming south into the rice bowl of asia, so why not study chinese, is what i thought. this is the great enemy of our time. everything changed beginning with president nixon and pushed further by president h w bush. now we are shifting back towards seeing china as wary.

knowing mandarin chinese and having this expensive education has been helpful. i'm no longer thought of as being completely insane. host: would you describe china as the great enemy today? not.: certainly our cooperation outweighs our competition. president trump has a different vision of china. he first wrote about it in a book 18 years ago. you can still buy his book called "the america we deserve." he says china is the greatest challenge our country will face. he is not angry and hostile in a military manner. he is talking about trade, the economy being ripped off by technology. it is prophetic. have you spoken to him? guest: i would not say spoken to. he questions me. he has tough questions and will

basically want to know how the chinese think about various subjects. many times talked about the chinese saying to me they are afraid of him because of the tariffs. they have translated these discussions of china in his past books. one. is more than in one book he says to get leverage on the world's best, negotiators what he calls the chinese, i need to be unpredictable and put them off balance. he has succeeded. they often say, "he is the smartest president we have ever had to deal with." they give the reasons why.i tend to see this phase of president trump's relationship with china as unique. it is different than the original opening with president nixon and dr. kissinger. period.n a new

there has been a lot of national security cooperation with china and the 2 economies are close together. the american side is feeling a little exploited. if you do an overly inflammatory metaphor, one person said to me, "this is like going on a date with a known rapist." this is all being covered on the front page of our newspapers. the strong bipartisan support for what trump is doing, nancy pelosi was one of the early critics of china, especially over the tiananmen incident. her relationship with the dalai lama. she took the lead to get him a congressional medal of honor and brought him to washington many times. chuck schumer, senator schumer,

endorsed the tariffs the same day the president trump put them on. in this period of harmony and andor, the relationship policy towards china is a very example of bipartisan cooperation. you even saw this yesterday with senator warner saying huawei is an arm of the government. senator marco rubio said the same thing. this is a change from the china i have observed over the last 40 years. these conversations with the president, where are they, how do they come about, and what questions does he ask? guest: in the white house in his office and he has his advisors. i am not allowed to talk about the discussions or this would be my last visit to the oval office, but he is a

sophisticated student of china. he has 12 to 14 hours with president xi jinping. he has a great deal of phone calls back and forth. sometimes president xi calls him, sometimes he calls president xi. the calls, according to the people present, are often an hour-long. this is a very rich relationship. i think it will easily manage an event like concerned everyone yesterday, the arrest of mrs. meng. host: let's talk about that. is thethis company, what fallout? guest: you are like president trump. [laughter] that 100 yearook marathon i have a discussion of the national champions system.

in violation of their agreements with a joined the world trade organization, the chinese government and communist party will pick out a sector or company and nurturing with what for international norms would be illegal. they will spy for the company around therets from world. they will provide illegal subsidies to the company. 's case, the founder is a military officer. a couple of senators yesterday used the term "arm of the chinese government." they have roughly 100 companies called national champions. companya 35-year-old that was nothing when it began. they claim by their hard work

espionage orith no subsidies. they have surpassed apple in sales of smartphones and turned into the world's second-largest telecom company. isn't that nice? that is no longer what experts think about huawei. the arrest, the request for extradition and presenting the evidence to the canadian authorities by the department of justice was providing the details, which could be revealed today. mrs. meng, according to canadians, will have a bail today. the judge will have to decide how bad it is. what is the bail? will he take her passport? will he leave her in jail?

will he let her simply go back to china? the story tomorrow will be with a canadian judge decides on the evidence. the chinese do not see it that way. they have been on the phone with me and are very angry. "this is a human rights violation," the spokesperson said. she does not know what the charge is. a wonderful newspaper in china called "globalist times." attacking america all the time. the head of it is a friend of mine. he is territorial that this is an american plot to damage huawei because of huawei's growth. huawei is totally innocent and likeed the term that means hooligan behavior by the united states and canada. you can expect pressure on canada, too.

you violated her human rights and let her go today. of the canadians will implement the rule of law in their agreements as well. host: what are they charging her with? guest: no one knows. one senator thought it was violation of the iran sanctions. was that thentator u.s. provided technology along the way. we used to say the national champion thing was good, why not? if they have technology mrs. men g may have signed an agreement "we will not transmit this to iran or north korea." this is pure speculation, but if she violated that that would justify the canadians detaining her. summit with the chinese president, the tariff

truce. guest: it is a test of the relationship between president trump and president xi. the white house has made it clear that president trump did not know about this in advance. host: the arrest? guest: the arrest. this opens a challenge for the chinese side. they have conspiratorially thinking. this cannot be. he must have known as we sat down for dinner this arrest was taking place. i call that giving red meat to the conspiratorially thinkers in beijing. president trump has a lot of critics. they tend to jump on any little thing that goes wrong. i have noticed a cackle funnier voices, he has ruined the trade

talks. how good he arrest mrs. meng. she is so prominent in china and this is terrible. the trade talks, according to a chinese statement yesterday, that the president tweeted last night, he says i agree with the statement, the chinese commerce ministry is saying we are confident there will be a good outcome of the talks within 90 days. the teams are working together already. it took some time for president xi and his team to get home. they stopped important goal. they stayed in argentina. they stayed in panama. there has not been immediate results since the dinner last saturday for good reason. i am quite confident this is not going to affect the trade talks. the criticism of president trump seems to be whenever there is an opportunity everyone has to attack can. him.

host: the markets don't seem to like the back and forth either. is anotherpowell factor, but the huge drop began to as the market realize it is not as bad as it sounds and the president did not know, and in the chinese statement last night, stunning. president trump's reelection to some degree will hang on his promises. this is one of his biggest promises. he will fix the u.s.-china trade issue and he is well on his way to doing so. china, "theent from teams of both sides are having with eachmunication other. we are in full confidence an agreement can be reached in 90 ." s "i agree," says the president.

says this ison inexcusable and executives should not travel. cis who sayss at if i was an american high-tech executive i would not be traveling to china now because they will take a hostage and try to have hostage negotiations.there is a one in 10,000 chance , but i would not advise american high-tech executives to not visit china. the prime minister of china two weeks ago announced, we will open our market wider than the last 40 years. they have been reducing the negative list. you cannot invest in the negative list sectors. that has been reduced so there are more investment possibilities and china. caution is needed. steal, they still

break agreements. i am optimistic about the u.s.-china agreement, and so is president trump. host: hi, matthew. caller: good morning, c-span. hurting ournow, economy by starting a war with china. this war is an obvious mistake. think [indiscernible] guest: i just finished explaining my optimism. i don't think there is any declaration of economic war against china. we have to be careful that people want to refight the election. if you know a commentator or

expert supporting hillary clinton or bernie sanders and they make a harsh comment, "president trump is starting an economic war with china," you have to correct. that is not a trump campaign supporter. the chinese will be able to do this. there are three chinese experts on american politics i know well . they are quite sophisticated about the nature of our debates, the supreme court. don'tof americans i meet have the sophistication of these high-level analysts in beijing who advise president xi. he is not an ignoramus who does not know much about what is going on in our politics. host: are you a trump supporter? guest: i was on the transition team. i supported a different candidate in the beginning. on the transition team in trump towers when i came to realize

that he had a long list of campaign promises and was quite them.s about implementing i cannot claim to be a trump supporter from the beginning, but i am an admirer now, especially when the chinese express such admiration for him. good morning. i won't ask how you are because you are on live tv and you have probably answer that already. what do we do to influence china to be a moral influence in the world, and has that improved with this president of china? what is his attitude towards being a moral leader as a global power, and is it improving, or do we see it getting worse with him? guest: excellent question. i don't know the answer. i can tell you in my book i tried to calculate how much money and effort to we put into

making china think more about democracy, following the rule, what you refer to as being a moral leader. this is the second biggest economy in the world. it looks like our democracy budget, democracy, human rights, freedom of religion, is very small. under $50 million a year. very few people are involved. there are very few programs. for example, the department of justice administers to strengthen a chinese bar association. they have a journal in china "alled "the rule of law journal to invite our judges to me chinese judges. impact.bably has some it seemed to have an impact in the environmental area. they did not have an environmental protection agency at all going back to the 1980's.

with american funding they created an environmental protection agency and raised its higher.gher and they had none of this in the 1980's. these programs have some positive effect. i suspect that ought to be much bigger, even double. we have radio broadcasts in mandarin, voice of america and a radio free mandarin service. this has some influence, but frankly they also watch "house of cards." this feeds the conspiratorial thinking. cards" they are doing each other in, even murders. how the speaker of the house rises to become president. the chinese enjoy the show but think this is how things work in america. meng is arrested in vancouver and the americans say this is a minor law enforcement matter, nothing to do with the

president, is not credible to the conspiracy thinkers watching "house of cards." 90-day care of truce, what happens? guest: the truce is not the goal. the goal, this is why the president has named ambassador lighthizer to be the negotiator -- he enjoyed great success in the 1980's in japan under president reagan, who i also worked for -- the idea is to convert the verbal commitments from president xi into a document that would be legally binding. somewhat to call it a treaty, somewhat to call it an agreement -- some want to call it a treaty, some want to call it an agreement. that is the idea. to come up with a written agreement negotiated by our

trade attorney, ambassador lighthizer. they have a team. what they were saying in a statement last night at 8:00 p.m. at the president is quoting is that they are confident they can reach an agreement with us within the 90 days. after that, there could be wrangling and bickering if the agreement is being implemented. can get back to cooperation in some areas. there are other issues. the south china sea, human rights violations, the one million islamic leaders, you might call them, in these concentration camps. a long list of issues. the trade deficit can be solved. there has already been discussion of this. we can ask them to double their purchases of american exports. liquefied natural gas, or

soybeans, airliners. long way too a helping president trump implement his campaign promise. host: the biggest demand of us. from them on us? we don't have to go through all 10, but what are the big ones? guest: they have complaints against the united states. story.s a very amusing president trump sent a delegation to beijing. everyone was concerned. the secretary of commerce, navarro, theer american side presented the chinese side with a document points subdivided into 24 under each 8. the 142 an annex called

points. the chinese promptly leaked this . the american side somehow had the chinese 10 points and made them public. bloomberg ran the whole thing. online you could google the negotiating positions in the list would come up. the phase we are in now is more confidential. there has not been any significant leak of the three-our dinner. host: roger in virginia, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. my question, you're talking about the deficit -- can you hear me? host: yes. caller: donald trump was part of the trade deficit. guest: how so? caller: look at the jobs he has in china. why not bring some of that back and do away with some of that deficit? host: let's talk about that.

guest: i don't think there is a trump hotel in china. host: trump ties being made in china. things made in china. guest: his critics have pointed out when you go into trump tower there is a gift shop to buy souvenirs. you turn them over and of this tie is made in china. products like that are more efficient and inexpensive to manufacture. that is part of the issue of the 2 economies. the economies are so inter-blended. the so-called global production chain. it is difficult to re -source. many companies are doing it now, going to indonesia and india, for manufacturing. a couple went into ivanka t rump's boutique in beijing. ivanka is very popular in china.

with's a biography of her her smiling face looking very beautiful on the front cover. positive.book is the idea has been raised in american politics chelsea clinton will someday run against ivanka trump for president. who will win? they think ivanka will defeat chelsea. this is the image we have. the supply chain is part of it. they are very proud so many american products are made in china. host: grand rapids, michigan. caller: good morning, greta. i think you, mr. pillsbury. one comment i have is that i think america has a sanitized is. of who china

when i was in school in the 1950's and 1960's it was called red china and it is still a communist country. and think of the chinese as another economic partner, which they are not. they are not our friends. instituteconfucius attached to various universities around the country. those things are very dangerous. thanks for your help to mr. trump. host: we were showing the book while you were talking. go ahead. guest: we are much more wary about china now than the last 40 years. it is what i, with good intentions and my heart, blame this on henry kissinger. he has not changed his mind. kissinger, tory whom i was an advisor, he never backed off the country's

enthusiasm for china that began in 1971. that is what the chinese are worried about. they know some of their oldest friends have doubts. they have not yet publicly expressed concerns. on the other hand, you can go too far. there are a number of super hawks, more hawkish than i am. they ignore the cooperation, they ignore the benefits, they ignore the possibility of negotiating with the chinese to get them to reduce their worst abuses. it is good of you to bring up these concerns. i hope you buy "the 100 year marathon." you will find more to raise your concerns about china. the optimism about changing china is still with a lot of people, including me. i think that is one of president trump's goals he. s china to stop the theft and abuse.

there is a long list. the chinese are very aware of this list. they are always checking, how much pressure do you have? how much of the congress supports you? how about dr. kissinger, did he see you and explain why you shouldn't do this? we have a policy debate about what to do about china. independent.an caller: good morning. i'm watching with great interest and i will get the book from the library. yes, sir, with respect to you and your years, the japanese in the late 1980's and 1990's were the first group that clued in to the veiled deceptive nature of china. there is a deep antipathy between the 2 nations, but they have clued me in and i have remained resolute that the business of pox -- 1 -- of hawks

. one could be forgiven that at times you sound a bit like neville chamberlain. -- aism is a night nice thing. guest: i've never heard that before. there is always a first. the genocide in the 1950's. i want to focus on taiwan and trump. he used taiwan as a bargaining chip to taunt the chinese with no real -- he has thrown them under the bus. declared that the trump administration is going along with the one china policy. taiwan represents something spiritual, financial, and

strategic. we have thrown them under the bus again. i reject this. i would like you to respond to taiwan. guest: it is a delight for me to find someone who out hawks me. i get a lot of criticism for washington. in i do not think you are right about throwing taiwan under the bus. president trump has done a number of things the taiwan government has expressed appreciation for. existence depends on having roughly 20 nations recognize their existence as a nation, down from 190 total. less than 20. some of the central american countries, when they began to change sides, president trump sent an envoy and raised objections to the trend.

that is not throwing taiwan under the bus. there has been arms sales offered meeting taiwan's requirements which we have to do under the taiwan relations act, but not really. very vague that we would provide weapons to taiwan for self-defense. an aggressive arms sale package to taiwan to insight criticism -- to incite criticism from china. been instances where taiwan has been treated well by president trump. i would not say that i reject your criticism of him, i would just say it is not as bad as you think. the one china policy is not the way that we express it. when president trump made his first official comment as president -- he is very careful -- he said president xi has asked me, at president xi's

by our onewill abide china policy. that phrase is different than what china says is the one china principle. the difference is to not accept that the sovereignty of china extends over taiwan. taiwan is in an undetermined category. the united states is following bill clinton, the first to say this, that whatever happens with the final solution on taiwan it has to have the consent of the people of taiwan. that to me implies a referendum. i do not agree with you on throwing taiwan under the bus. he has made it a crusade and tried to tell the chinese you need to be more like taiwan. some presidents have done that. host: what are you watching for over the coming days and weeks on this relationship and

negotiations? guest: there are a number of things and play. whether or not the u.s. navy does patrols in the south china sea. that maneuver to keep their weapons radar turned on and launch helicopters during they chinese 12 mile limit. president trump has not done that. innocent passage, it is called. no harm go through in chinese. that has been done since president obama in 2012. challenging the chinese in the south china sea is one area. second, how quickly there are meetings between the delegations. third, when they set another round of visits. visitill president trump beijing and president xi jinping here. here's never made an official state visit. ae mar-a-lago trip was

personal session. these are the three to watch. i suspect there will be progress on all three. you can tell that i am an optimist and receiving criticism from the super-hawks. the: senior fellow for hudson institute. turn our attention to the agreement between the united states and agreement, what some are calling nafta 2.0. we will be right back. ♪ ♪

>> talking about the life and death of a war correspondent in "an extremist." and stayednt further longer. she was braver than the rest and was the person who got the best stories and made the rest of us feel a little bit ashamed. >> sunday at 7:00 p.m., the national review's richard burr kaiser discusses his review of john marshall. >> marshall was always the smartest man in the room. many of his colleagues were brilliant jurists themselves, but they acknowledged his superiority. >> 9:00 p.m. is turn on afterwords, tucker carlson talks

about his book. he is interviewed by the chairman of the americans conservative union -- american conservative union. >> if you give everyone a vote but a small percentage share in the spoils, they will be angry and punish you with the political power they have and elect populism. populism is a red alert something is wrong in your democracy. president trump is a warning to the rest of us this is going in the wrong direction. thepopulation could not get attention of policymakers so they elected president trump as a break the glass in case of emergency. you're not listening to me, i will get this orange guy. >> listen on c-span2. people who with 4 became future presidents. jimmy carter, bill clinton,

barack obama, and to my surprise , donald j. trump. >> publisher of many best-selling nonfiction books. >> i came to understand about donald trump, and this is profoundly important to how things work now, is that donald trump in his heart of hearts believes he always wins. this is a guy that has been in new york real estate, gambling, real estate, boxing, beauty contests, television, construction, never been the target of a criminal investigation. that is astonishing in new york city. sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. "washington journal" continues. are back.

at our table to talk about the u.s.-mexico trade agreement we have william reinsch and william mauldin. thank you for being here. let's begin with the factors that led to this trade agreement. mauldin, explain what is in the deal. are ina lot of things the deal similar to the north american free trade agreement, nafta. this is president trump's attempt to renegotiate the agreement.is a promise of his in the 2016 agreement election. he said he would renegotiate nafta or pull out of it. now there is an agreement between mexico and canada. structure rules for the auto industry and labor and other things. it will come up for a vote sns next year. president trump has indicated he will pull out of nafta if usmca.s does not pass

the u.s. would be left with nothing. that is where we are now. host: i want viewers to listen to the president talking about the benefits of this agreement at the g20. [video clip] >> the usmca is the largest most significant balanced trade agreement in history. all of our countries will benefit greatly. it is probably the largest trade deal ever made also.in the united states new trade will promote greater trade access for american exports across the range of sectors, including farming, manufacturing, and service industries. host: mr. reinsch? guest: it is not really the largest agreement ever signed. the european union was probably the largest.

i think the agreement has been well received in the business community. in the agriculture community, certainly. there is lingering nervousness because there is one loose end, the stell and aluminum tariff -- steel and aluminum tariffs he put on and did not take off. farmers are hurting because of the retaliation. there waiting for the loose e to end to be tied up. organized labor in particular have problems by and large. people are going to say it is a useful agreement. it takes a modest step forward. tariffs were zero for a most everything. this doesn't change that. it has upgrades. digital trade, which was not a 1994 issue when they did the first nafta.

good stuff about financial services, patents, intellectual property. ironically, most of it taken from the tpp agreement. there were a few what we call poison pills that were unacceptable to canada and mexico. most have been compromised. on the whole, people have positive feelings. host: would you say that everyone won? guest: not everyone won. as bill points out there are issues to be resolved, including and aluminum tariffs on canada and mexico. not even the steelworkers union wants steel tariffs on canada. that is a problem. there were big compromises. disputeot to keep and

resolution system called chapter 19 that u.s. trade representative's wanted to get rid of. he wanted to kill that thing. yet butted up against it as a ande lawyer for years they had to let canada keep that. mexico had to make deep compromises of where manufacturing could locate.they had the laborn to hire requirements, etc. car had to behe made by workers who makes $16 an hour? guest: that is correct. we are hearing from the auto industry it is workable. it depends on the supplier. their r&dr in some of and high wage work. it is not literally 40% of every worker involved in the car has

to be paid $60 an hour, but that puts pressure -- paid $16 an hour, but that puts pressure on mexico to raise wages or lose growth from auto suppliers. guest: that provision is more of a bank shot. mexico will not immediately hour.wages to $60 an it means mexicans will have to buy more american and canadian content by workers making that much money. the original proposal was to have in addition to the 75% regional content, 50% u.s. content. they could not sell that to mexico and canada so they came up with the wage thing to do the same thing. will is right. the car companies think they can live with it, some of them. it will force all of them to adjust their supply chains.

people estimate some models of cars across the u.s.-canada u.s.-canadaross the border six times during the construction process. companies will have to reevaluate all of that. changing will cost them money. what they will change to will probably be less efficient than what they've got now if they have a good supply chain manager. now, you will have a less competitive u.s. automobile industry because to survive they have to compete globally. 95% of the world's consumers are outside of the united states.if you want to survive as a big company you have to compete all over the world. this will make american cars more expensive long-term. host: inviting viewers to call

in with questions or comments about this trade agreement between the united states, mexico, and canada. we want to hear from you if you think you will be helped by this, hurt by this, or if the tariffs impacted you while the negotiations were going on. the prime minister of canada at the g20 summit had this to say about what more needs to be done. [video clip] >> the task is not done. there is more hard work to build resilient strong economies that support families everywhere in canada.as i discussed with president trump , the recent plant closures by general motors, which affects thousands of canadian and american workers and their families, are a heavy blow. make no mistake, we will stand up for our workers and fight for their families and communities. is all the more reason why we need to keep working to remove the tariffs on

steel and aluminum between our countries. i thinkhe gm issue, that prime minister trudeau identified it as a huge one. i was out at capitol hill looking when ohio's 2 senators had met with gm's ceo mary barra. they did not get commitments either way, but it is a huge issue because the plant in ohio looks like it will be idled. ontario has lost a gm plant that has been there forever. we do not know how this will resonate in the nafta debate, but it will probably be there because the trump administration is trying to bring auto jobs back to the country. gm's decision may not be directly related to nafta or usmca, but it will be debated next year. guest: there are always other

factors. a few years ago 50% of the vehicles sold in this country were passenger cars. now it is 30%. americans are switching to trucks, suv's, and crossover vehicles. there has been a significant decline in demand of what produce.tories i don't know why gm did what it did or if it made the right decision, but when people stop buying passenger cars and buy trucks, you make more trucks and fewer passenger cars. that leads to changes like this. what car executives have to figure out is in three years is demand going to shift back and we will be caught short? host: when the prime minister says we will fight for workers and their families, what options does he have? see ifthe biggest is to you can move truck or crossover vehicle or electric vehicle production into the old plants.

atticularly, they will look electric vehicles because that seems to be the wave of the and most of the automobile manufacturers are in that business one way or the other. if you see consumer switching to them, you have to build more. that is the most likely thing that will happen. convinced general motors to make more chevy cruz is when they are not selling very many. host: oscar in vienna, virginia. democrat. caller: i wanted to comment about the steel from china is inferior to america's steel. in mexico, toint, stop the construction of an airport in the capital. is because they want $12 billion

for the airport construction. when you look at south american countries that the old hydroelectric plants for $4 billion. ecuador, for example. they built a hydro on the amazon river and it cost them $4 billion. why isn't mexico getting help from u.s. companies to build this airport? vagueould create a surplus of jobs for not only american construction companies, but mexican laborers. there is a disconnect. that is my question. host: is there a connection? >> there could be. i don't know enough about that specific case. the president halted construction of that on the expense.f excessive i do not know who the contractors are. i do not know if it will be companies.xican

american construction companies would be very anxious to build it. most countries have, we call them buy american rules. in mexico, they are called buy mexico rules where local companies have the edge. i'm not sure there much of an opportunity for americans. i would point out in nafta one of the disappointments in the u.s. insistedthe on reducing the government procurement obligations. buying less will be from canada and mexico, their governments will be buying less from us. i thinkticular project, the americans had a better shot at it before. they will have less after the usmca is adopted. guest: one other thing related

to that that i heard on capitol hill is there have been changes in investor state dispute settlement, a system that allows investors active in one country to challenge the government of another country if their contract is violated or rights are bridged. this was scaled back dramatically. the trump administration and investor lighthizer were against it, but it was scaled back and mexico and eliminated in canada. it is possible workers active in mexico may not get compensation if contracts were canceled. will we are talking with .auldin along with bill reinsch , nafta 2.0, the

united states-mexico-canada trade agreement. many of you probably remember when president clinton in 1993 negotiated the nafta deal. i want to show you what he had to say about how it would be good for the united states. [video clip] again, is thece most productive nation on earth. this productivity holds the seeds of future insecurity. productivity means they can produce more or fewer people can produce more. we cannot stop global change. we cannot repeal the global economic competition that is everywhere. we can only harness the energy to our benefit. the only way for a wealthy nation to grow richer is to export. find new customers for the products and services it makes.

, is, my fellow americans the decision that congress made when they voted to ratify nafta. guest: clinton thought it exactly right. few we were talking about a minutes ago. the united states is a mature economy. if we get 3% we are doing well. if you want to grow as a company you have to trade internationally. then, we live in a world of global supply chains where everything is made everywhere. it is essential companies be made international. thanks to the internet, thanks to ebay, and other companies amazon,t, alibaba and even the smallest companies can be international. on the hill i worked for senator rockefeller. mrs. rockefeller helped women in

west virginia who made quilts market their quilts. they are on ebay and can sell them all over europe, asia, and thanks to ups and fedex they get there. thanks to paypal there is a whole system. of that.to be a part if we negotiate agreements to pull us out of that, we are toast long-term. host: what promises were kept and what promises were broken? guest: thank you for playing that clip. the ratification in the senate was the first vote i remember watching on cnn when i was in high school. importantis a really vote. one onet to cover the usmca. clinton added something that the

late president h w bush did not have, labor and environmental provisions. there is a lot of concern about what ross perot called the great sucking sound of american jobs going south of the border. with globalization we saw jobs multiplying overseas in manufacturing and a more complicated supply chain arising. you have people, especially in the industrial midwest, very upset about that. that concern and blaming it on nafta, as well as some of the agreements with china, has only increased. that is why we saw bernie sanders and donald being so popular in 2016.this agreement is an effort to do better by those workers. if you ask the trump unions.ration and labor the usmca they hope will do a better job of keeping standards high in mexico so companies will

not be as tempted to cut corners and outsource there. host: will jobs come back to areas that lost jobs? guest: by and large, no. so far hasesponse tended to be that this one is better, but not good enough. work.needs to be more than to pelosi has focused on this, as has senator brown from ohio and others. there needs to be better provisions on enforcement. this is a chronic problem with trade policy in the united states. the people that negotiated these agreements were good people.when they are finished they go to the next negotiation and agreement. they are not in charge of enforcement. they have a lot of priorities, particularly in the trade business. you have to worry about drugs, you have to worry about migrants. they have a huge portfolio.

sometimes trade enforcement falls to the bottom of the list. it is hardming back, to say. there will be some, no question. there will probably be more to leave. companies tend to make economic decisions. if they discover you can be more efficient, cheaper, with more quality stuff in china or mexico, they will go there. companies tend to look at fundamentals. host: thomas in michigan, democratic caller. canada i am looking at outside my window, a georgia-pacific plant. a lot of unhappy canadians about steeleel tariffs on the that they make. this beion is, how will

policed? i have been a lawyer for 56 years, and i cannot picture this being policed properly. host: do you know? guest: that ties into what bill was saying about enforcement being key. people want to believe trade agreements are enforced. when it comes to steel and the steel tariffs, related a little to nafta, certainly the customs and forces that rigorously in terms of where the steel is coming from.the commerce department has tracked down transthat has been -shipped. that you rely on future administrations and it makes it more difficult for themto make a case against at the world trade organization, another trade group that has

threat in this administration or come under question. the jury is still out on that one. great question and we'll have to see but certainly there are a lot of people in congress0 who want to see stronger enforcement. them is the leader pelosi, ouse, nancy assumed speaker. say. is what she had to >> this bill has good features to it. you t doesn't matter if don't have enforcement. enforcement in terms of the enforcement in terms of the environmental provision. also central to going forward is that mexico is supposed to pass would are address -- and would address the wages working conditions of mexican workers. to exploit ere workers in mexico or exploit orkers in the united states or

in canada. o, so, again, that is fundamental to our going forward with that, and that hasn't yet.ned ost: will moulden when will congress take this up? guest: there is trade promotion and the process can take six months, for example, if in january ump says he wants to put out of nafta in six months, then congress will six months to get a package together and get that through or like that. it could take longer. we talked about enforcement bill, but what the pelosi are presumably next speaker is also getting at is the political uncertainty next year. we have the democrats taking over the house of representatives.

ambassador light hiezer worked closely with unions to make this palatable to them. they are divided, if there's a democratically controlled house, have the power to pull out of this agreement. in the see what is package and the political winds next year. underestimate o the risks of getting this through congress and even if a people are supportive. christi, pus independent. hi, daniel. no er: why is there recognition for the pent-up large international catastrophe hardware? wildfires like the pollution in the sea and all the plastic floating around. for hardware to harvest and do respondg and be able to

to those kinds of catastrophes, there. a million jobs thank you. that's all i have to say. host: your response? guest: i hope the president is to this segment. he's the one you need to convince. of that n awful lot kind of catastrophe happening. it is only going to grow. in climate er change, but i think there's people in the administration that need to be convinced that problem.a big and, actually, you're on to to thing because one way convince reluctant parties these and at this is a big issue -- is to convince them there's a lot of money to be made there created 's jobs to be and goods to be sold, exports to be sold. think it is a good line. host: is there any part of this that deals with the climate?

really.no, not the president pulled out of the paris accord. believe all doesn't of this stuff. i don't think there is anything there.environment in guest: i don't think so. i think the republicans discouraged anything from climate change being in try to reements, so you limit the number of decisive in the usmca,a or ut the public finds ways to be decisive about almost everything hether it is the access to edicine or language used for the lgbt community. there are many who will vote on are sensitive. host: rod in virginia, independent. morning to you. caller: good morning. my question is how can the out dent unilaterally pull f an agreement that was

ratified by the legislature? iranian thing, by the was ratified legislature. guest: i looked that the. is -- at that one. it is not sure that he can. a long, complicated story. the short answer is the laws and nafta agreement are not clearly drafted. nafta says a party can pull out. the party? the parties identified are anada, the united states, and mexico. the agreement doesn't address thegets to act on behalf of party. unfortunately, neertsd does -- does u.s. law get to gree who can act object on behalf of a party. some provisions apply to congress. everybody in congress thinks it is their decision and the

president can't do it without them. any president will argue, no, it.he gets to do the lawyers will tell you, it is tossup, is this an article one agreement, which congressional, if it is article 2, it will be a presidential thing. he'll probably win, but it is a close call. marvin in go to ohio. hi, marvin. caller: hi. there is a two-fold agreement here. companies are, absolutely highest redit -- highest profits they ever had and then they turned moved their small car dealership manufacturing to mexico, built a $4 billion plant here.they could have done

number two, small cars, we're small cars in america, we're buying small cars all over the world. prius are made in japan, so cetera, and everybody thinks it is grand because it is high nd we're going on a which makes no sense whatsoever. we're selling ourselves out that with the companies are doing it. basically that's all i have to say. thank you. host: okay will moulden. guest: this is -- : guest: how do you incentivize that. the problem that g.m. and others have run into is they are making money from s.u.v.'s, pickups.rs, and they are not doing that well because of oil prices and everything else.

them it makes sense to make the smaller margins in markets likely to buy e them, is up as mexico. but, of course, they would like them duty free into the u.s. as well. that's causing political problems. course, we have a major trade trucks on the input of and s.u.v.'s into north america. tariff for cent pickup trucks, so that encourages pickup trucks to be in north america and the u.s. rather than in europe else.ia or somewhere i think you hit on something really important. this agreement will do that much because small cars any large ng sold in numbers in the u.s. right now and the profits aren't for the d attractive big automakers. ost: john in chesapeake, virginia, republican. caller: good morning c-span.

host: good morning. caller: my question is -- my amount of the regulations obama slapped on everybody caused a lot of to leave here, and tax of course, all the money they charge to send our goods over there and then they pay any tax here. that's ridiculous. then you have the drug companies us way more than they charge other countries, and know, our you government's going broke from know, drugs that were getting in here to help the american people. host: okay. bill. guest: i don't have a lot to say about that, don. industry isn't something that i spent a lot of time on. the obama about regulations, the impact on that?

guest: i'm a democrat. i was a fan of the administration. i don't run a company and don't have to deal with it every day, to 'm not the best person ask about it. my experience has been that more to economic fundamentals than they do to issues around -- issues around the edges. the last back to question before this one. ou know, there's a lot -- you're right. he was right. cars,'s a lot of passenger imports being sold. said, at will and i both people are buying fewer cars. consumer change in demand. companies respond to fundamentals. he reality is if people are going to mexico to build stuff, i think it has a lot more to do costs -- including wage mexico.- in

i would argue that american egulatory policy is not generally a deciding factor when they make that decision. i want to make one quick colleaguessome of my cover regulation and they are covering the massive removal of the trump that administration is engaging on. those who cover trade policy are additional regulations being put on in the form of or things that prevent companies from sourcing materials where they want to get them. are different parts of he regulatory agenda, and the domestic is different from the international where the trump administration seems to be adding regulations. host: let's talk about the usmca agriculture -- the agriculture industry dairy.ically will moulden what was agreed to

this impact both united -- canada and the states? interesting what the obama administration negotiated would have extra canada.oducts going to it seems like we have more of that with the usmca. is an issue for many states that boarder canada. but canada has a supply-management system that imports e amount of from the u.s. and other countries in a way that supports farmers. it is different in ontario and quebec. one of the thorny issues in the nafta negotiations and in usmca. the dairy farmers are not joy.ing for they don't have a new untapped market, but they do have more canadian market. what's more important, if this

passes, then they won't lose their dairy access to the o, which is one of great advantages to nafta. i think american companies, i numbers, but they sell a ridiculous amount of cheese and other products in mexico. are relieved this thing has been signed and is headed to congress. interrupt. could i think the dairy farmers are relieved, other farmers not so much. as we were talking about in the beginning, if you're in the corn, soybean, other business, commodity crop businesses in the midwest, you're far more affected by the retaliation of steel and aluminum tariffs than anything else. until those are removed, those have problems. if you grow tomatoes in mexico, unhappy because then you wanted a special provision to complain about dumping tomatoes in

the united states. dairy people, will is exactly right. they are winners. winners, but ig they are net winners, and that's important. i think the midwest farmers will e happy once the steel and aluminum tariffs are addressed. minutes left in our conversation about the new states-mexico-canada trade agreement. the u.s. added 155,000 jobs in november. the unemployment rate is at 3.7%. those numbers coming out from the government this morning. paul, new york, independent. caller: hi, c-span. 'm glad you brought up the subject. back in the 1990's when nafta signed, we had two big plants here in new york, one of

electric, which i worked for. remember the union telling us to go out an vote for bill is funny thinking back. our plant was eventually shipped to mexico. i was lucky. i ell under the provision think called the trade adjustment act. they paid for college. lost my manufacturing job and became a teacher. of looking for some kind conversation between you two as o what do you do with american workers when they lose their job? r better yet, what do you do with american workers when they can't afford to go to trade or to college? host: paul, what were you doing that time? how much were you making? making i believe i was $14 point 50 an hour.

host: did you think you were going to stay? caller: yes. we had a big happy family it tore the opportunity when we lost the jobs. to : then you went back school to become a teacher? aller: yes, because of the trade adjustment built into nafta. i don't hear people talking about that a lot. fact, our plant personnel director made us aware of it and for it.d me sign up what do you do with workers who, job, of all, lose their and, secondly, workers who haven't lost their job but can't this to go to college in new economy? guys?at it, you guest: i love this call. i love you. 20 years working on capitol hill and most of them were to save the program you're talking about. reagan tried to get rid of it, both bushes tried to get

it, trump hasn't tried it get rid of it yet, but he's not promote it.ng to it is a really good program. nfortunately, there weren't many people like you who were able to successfully take advantage of it. credit for it. a lot of people don't take advantage of it because they don't know about it. a lot of people don't take advantage of it because they have the imagines to change their careers in a way.ficant we have a lot of people in exactly your situation and there's not enough money to do them. the program exists. the program is truly bigger and it was when you took advantage of it, it is still not good enough. host: how does it work? guest: how it works now is if you are certified, and what the did you t decides is, lose your job because of a trade? -- in paul's se case that is obviously what happened. certified, and then what

happens is you get a longer period of unemployment benefits. a state program, but the federal government tacks on i year, year itional and a half to that. ou didn't get all of this back in the 1990's, now you can get job training assistance. if you get into a job program, the government will pay into that program. can get relocation assistance. he's in new york, if you find a nevada, the government move.help pay for you to -- can get hsh support health insurance support. that e latest thing happened in the obama dministration they put in essentially kind of a modified income support -- support model program. $14.50 an hour g

an hour, w job is $10 asically $14.50, he is worse off, the government will support half of that for a eriod of time to ease transition. these are all important things help people transition. one of the problems is people take know about this to advantage of it. michael in go to crosby, texas. good morning, michael. question or comment? caller: they are making deals with different countries right not going to talk about china, the united states. the united states call china try to work it out? ou don't call somebody a name you want to work an agreement? why do the country believe in

open door? hy they got to say -- host: i understand your point. moulden, how does the impact the oes it trade with china? call, thank you for your michael. it doesn't. nafta, with some new provisions a new name. partnership, ific the deal signed under president obama that was never ratified president trump pulled out of would have put pressure on helped d would have probably achieve some economic some s in china at least agreements on treating intellectual property better. is t now the administration confronting china directly with tariffs on their products, they $50 billion and added another $200 billion.

more in the future. there's a 90-day or something 80-day cooling-off period. but, you're right, it is whether that el, will work in getting china to ddress its intellectual property issues and many other issues in its economy that u.s. businesses are unhappy with. kind of talking i think about negotiating style and tactics. a question, do you use carrots or sticks? is a stick guy. his approach to trade the iations is hit them in face an keep hitting them in the face until they fold. sometimes that works. it works with the koreans, you it argue about whether worked on usmca, and we don't if it will work with the chinese. so far it has not. inclined to t seem go down another road.

the president said, i am it e senator from man and was a reminder to china that those tariffs may be coming if are economic reforms and trade improvement are not made. guest: is that like batman? -- cia: it is guest: it is a new one. caller.e go to our caller: you hit on climate change before. why is it that the rich people, trump and them, they don't pay a carbon tax, yet hey want to go around the country talking to us about all the carbon that's being released the he poor people, or middle class is supposed to pay carbon tax. until they start paying carbon believe in climate change. guest: right now nobody pays a carbon tax because we don't have

one. there was a vote in this last election, in washington state, i to put one in, and it was voted down by the people. referendum. i don't think this is an immediate issue, but, i mean, if do have one, everybody will pay. i don't think there's going to distinction between rich people and poor people. new york, in independent. caller: good morning. understand is why people never give ronald reagan the credit for starting nafta. never about trade. it was about setting up low-cost mexico.uring in this started in 1988. that was long before clinton nauchlt so the project -- nafta. so the front was on full board. george bush sr., he said he was glass-steagall. clinton bought this stuff

about trade.as newt gingrich worked well with thought it was trade. it was setting up low-cost manufacturing jobs. was the one who tried up and ross perot to blow the whistle on it. you guys commented how it was that put in the provision that provided them trading. has been losing sylvania.e 1972 when this has been going on for years because of unions and other reasons. okay. let's talk history. guest: bill, that's an interesting point. did a piece in the wall street said that they were president the late bush's -- putting his nafta legacy on the line because he with drau from it whether congress passes his version or not. mail. a lot of

some peement thought it was unfair to talk about that during mourning. some people thought they don't like nafta and therefore they clinton.on ertainly in the 2016 election, president trump blamed it on hillary clinton when bill ratification e fight. and the h.w. bush administration the agreement with mexico and canada. in e seeds were laid president reagan's administration. i believe he talked about a free zone of north america. claiming this on -- you can blame several presidents. there been credit to spread credit.or the is that fair? guest: it goes back even further. we've been losing manufacturing jobs since the 1970's. decline.een a clear

one of the interesting things -- i teach this stuff at the of maryland. there's a cool graph that contrasts the number of jobs in manufacturing industry, which is straight line downwards and the total value of output, which is a line upwards with some blips basically and it is mostly technology change. more stuff than we ever did but we're doing it with fewer workers. up, and vity is manufacturing jobs employment is down. right, you're exactly bill, that various policies of presidents of both parties have contributed to that. policy question now being debated in washington, are there or should do that can effectively reverse that? question asked earlier, are those jobs going to come back?

complain that they are all gone and you're right that they are gone, but do we back?em i think that's harder than losing them, frankly. is in warsville, new york. of you help me with the name your town? caller: that's it. yep. good morning. of you is, to both s there the same amount of social programs in the united states? s that effectively involved in canada and mexico? i'll hang up for your comment. of?st: same amount host: worker programs? something hey have similar there? guest: i think our program is stronger than the mexican program. know about the canadian program. most -- most developed economies one. if you look at it globally, and this is too long to get into, in the world, believe it or not, is probably

denmark, and if you had 45 minutes, i could explain why. think mexico is probably not as good as the american one. host: we have time for one last call. good , in pennsylvania, morning. caller: the fast-track trade encouraging to me. ongress has no talk, just an up-or-down vote. i find this unacceptable. i would like to know if instead of all the and assistance authority providing people to have a new job, how ty to get a about congress putting an amendment to help the community subsidizing the fact that the government made them job because of a bad trade deal and we have to make a newby helping them with occupation? how about congress putting amendments that actually reflect

is happening in their community when they lose the job before the trade deal and the trade deal so it is o the benefit of the people of the -- of that district. hope that's an understandable question. because congressman john mersa trade ever vote for the deals and i believe that's why. me say, i worked for heinze for 14 years and i'm a fan of the late congressman murtha. it is not as visible as it might be, but congress actually has a shape of about the the bill that will implement this agreement. you're right, once the president it formally, they can't change it. but an awful lot goes on between that happens, e and what goes on between now and the time that happens is a negotiation. congress is going to go to the president and say we want to

these commissions and they will actually have meetings to decide that. the house ways and means committee which senator heinze was on, they will write the bill. they will write the bill that they want and they will hand it president and say, here, submit this back to us and we'll it.s submit something different and you take your chances. there really is going to be a negotiation. now, whether that negotiation will end up being about what you i can't o be about, say. guest: the other side is if you end,allow amendments at the you would have amendments on a variety of small issues and votes at d chip away another state or district. you would have a hard time central trade agreement with canada and maekts. mexico.e -- negotiating with all of those people in two countries might be too complicated for washington days. guest: which is why we have the

procedure we have. host: will moulden when will the president submit this to congress? i don't know exactly when. we'll have to see. in e full of surprises here washington. we expect that after the egotiations that bill spoke about, those will proceed as quickly as possible next year probably hey'll start by spring trying to submit something in the ideal world. too long, you get into the middle of the year, public the ntial will take -- publics -- politics will take hold. the same thing with the ttans-pacific partnership, or -- t.t.p. guest: i can make a fearless and then if you want you can have me back in four explain why i was wrong. there are some things that has to happen after agreement is and one is the independent trade commission study of the net

impact of the agreement. days to ives them 105 do that, 105 days from last that ironically ends up being the iedz of march -- id es of march. that gives time for the that we were just talking about. i think you're going to see the formally submitting the bill late march, early april. time en congress has a limit of 90 days, and those are days they are in session, not calendar, to work on it. i think most people figure it the august by congressional recess. so look for the actual voting to take place in july. if you want to learn more bill go to ciis point org moulden you w will

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host: and our conversation with the next 25 r minutes, what are the top infrastructure policies where you live? we divided our lines. 202-748-2000. in the mountain area 202-748-2001. this is from the kentucky harold eader about the water infrastructure in that area in martin county. one of the 20 poorest in household ith the income average of $30,000 in 2016. and the story features the taylor family. they have five kids. report that with all technological advancement is one thing they don't know is they will have water. they cope by collecting rain the jen relying on

rosry of friends and family that take for granted, scrubbing the floors after the children go taking to play and showers. inside the story, the harold reporters note that the drive 40 ily have to miles to wash pots and pans if they do not have any water. martin county where they live, the water been the subject of heavy scrutiny because of the loses ater lines which three out of four gallons the it rict treats before reaches customers. poor water quality and shoddy management, local officials have warned multiple times that the district was weeks away from financial collapse. the taylor family and those who live in this country, their watertructure need is the supply. what is it where you live? andover, rth

massachusetts. good morning to you. go ahead. not sure people are still interested in this. s some people may recall there was a series of gas line explosions in massachusetts, and looking at-large number of residences that don't have heat. unacceptable manmade situation. shoddy contracts between the state and local and i think ies, this needs more national it from to prevent happening again. host: what are the state and local officials saying about how they will and fix it? caller: there have been multiple town halls and elizabeth warren by. come there is a lack of communication between the natural gas contractors the and state and local representatives, and there's a

lot of frustration. those questions you are asking we're uncertain of. slightly removed from the problem since my heat but een reconnected the they are telling us they are doing their best to continue to matter pipes and it is a of manpower. pay do you know who will for it? caller: currently it is coming out of the energy provider's hopefully it will continue to stay that way. frank in west to virginia. good morning. top infrastructure needs where live? caller: greta, this could take forever. i live in west virginia. tell you, i know people who haven't had water for a long of the fracking deal. there's a class action lawsuit few of west virginia, a them, because they haven't had water for a number of years, five, six four, ears, and then not too long

ago, they vote on -- voted on a road bond issue. to west ve been virginia and went on a secondary stateyou could charge the toreest virginia because it your car up. don't know what to say, west virginia, there's a lot of things, but this water issue fracking and stuff and what is going on to cause people to have water and then they told them they said because it decreases the value of your property. said we'd like to sell our place, and the companies -- the fracking said, well, go ahead and sell it. they said we can't sell it because our water's no good. so, you know, greta, it is good you.e you have a good day. host: your senator is at the a story by new york times. the west lds to deny

virginia key senate role on climate. first runs during the for the senate in 2010, joe from west e democrat virginia, shot a bullet through climate change ad. and now some are declaring him to be the top t democrat on the committee. s a post-election reshuffling of committees. he has become a leading contender to become the leading on the energy and natural resources committee. but with past contributions from coal companies are causing a know according to the center for responsive of the 20 senators who received the most money from in 2018, g interests mr. manchin ranks 11th and is sole democrat. richard in verona, missouri.

richard, you're next. caller: okay. highway the state department built a new highway, 60, across the state. and they took four lanes all the way. now our senator, roy blunt, when he as running for election, bragged that they have four lanes all the way cross the missouri. well -- across the state of missouri. to monet, pringfield we don't have four lanes. little passing lanes, which are death traps, so do ink that we should something about this highway a lot ction and there's of factories -- there's a lot of ndustry in this corner of the country right here and people use that highway quite bit, and be a good place to start with some building some roads.

caller: who should pay for it? in ou support an increase the gas tax? caller: yes. we have to build america just live down here in the ozarks doesn't mean we don't just like ighway everybody else. ighway 44 bypasses these two towns and it is a -- it is a traffic hazard. you know. is in there, they give us passing lanes, which but, you know, the enator said we had it all the way across the state, we don't. he lied to us. an : richard supports increase in the fuel tax " excise tax is 18.4 cents. was raised in 993 and not attached to inflation which increased by

64.2%. taxes and fees gallon for cents a a total u.s. average fuel tax of gallon for tax in diesel.ts of gallon for what are the top infrastructure needs where you live? the s our conversation for next 20 minutes or so. keep dialing in. you us examples of where want washington or your state to send the money in your community. us on the phone is rusty political s a reporter with wunc in north about ballot lk fraud allegations. making these o is allegations and what are the charges? state gord of election -- board of elections is investigating two counties southeast of the capital

raleigh. republican who leads the mccready in north arolina's ninth congressional district, they said they ampered with absentee ballots and potentially violated the law y deliberating them and maybe discarding them. inordinate number of ballots requested but never turned in. that what is the evidence there was tampering? on t: there are signatures forms and records kept by the county board of elections, hundreds of absentee by a known led political optative trying to get the mark harris campaign. he personally p signed this form, handling hundreds of

ballots. that is unusual. dallas, person named seems to be a relative, a small hands f people had their on absentee ballots and that is suspicions.ot of host: what happens next? guest: the board of elections and elayed certification that is with a vote with two of members.board there are state republican senators who say there should be looking san task force into a history of impro prieties counties, buthose this was a bipartisan vote on delay rd of elections to certification and hold a public hearings on the investigation on 21st.ore december until then, nothing -- nothing is happening. is continuing.on there are district attorneys, rosecutors in various counties looking into possible criminal wrong doing around votes.

in the mean time the house of representatives, a new congress with a new democratic party in, they hold the ultimate jurisdiction over the house of representatives. vote to mselves, can not seat mark harris until an investigation is completed. what is the democratic the mean doing in time? guest: he had been kind of quiet yesterday. this is a rapidly developing situation yesterday. saying -- he's a combat veteran with the marine corps. it was phrasing, but posted in a video. he said, i did not serve in to come r my country back and have this kind of -- potential voter fraud take place. he believes that the investigation needs to be was, ine and if the vote fact -- in the election was, in by voting impro prieties, there would need to be

a new vote. host: how are republicans of a new to the idea election? guest: that response has changed depending on who you are talking to. the head of the republican party, dallas woodhouse, earlier of dismissivekind of the need for an investigation and pressing for certification the results. but he himself came out yesterday and said there needs o be a public hearing and airing of facts by the elections he wouldestigation and fully support in light of enough evidence he would support a new election. he also felt that if the evidence was clear that there not enough votes to change the outcome, there should be certification. is asking for a full investigation and a new election if it is warranted. host: and the national republicans? guest: i am focused mostly on the democratic party in the state.

as i said, in -- in fact, i kovach, you this, that who is tied to a lot of uestions about voter fraud and it was from the republican party, he himself has said that there needs to be a real he himselfon because said there needs to be evidence north r fraud in carolina. host: thank you for your time. guest: you're well come. host: back to our conversation infrastructure priorities in your community. before we get to that, though, moments ago , just as he was leaving the white ouse confirmed to the press that bill barr will be nominated s the attorney general to replace jeff sessions, and newhart will be nominated as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations. the president confirming hose stories on the front page

of newspapers this morning. .b. in crescent springs, kentucky. we are talking about infrastructure. there?s it like caller: we have a bridge that we privilege.l the b.s. it is a very well-travelled commerce h a lot of going in and out. we need a new bridge to get ohio river. we've been working on getting an which would put an infrastructure to go around parts of kentucky down south. but there's the real issue. the money that was supposed to be put to this bridge? kentucky transportation building, that group of people, hat did they do with that money? host: what did they say? caller: we don't know. under rule -- the democrats have been doing this,

bashear was our governor governor who new has been working hard to get the eastern bypass in. with the ave issues bridge. it is a double-decker bridge. bridge.lethal every time you go across, you across pray you get without some horrible accident happening on it. what needs to be done is we need out what the democrats did with the money. had obama come over here on the ohio side and said they of the bridge. they are putting street cars in, which we don't need. bridge.a we need a get our transportation, our interstate commerce around. all right. j.b. in kentucky. home springs -- in palm springs, california. hello. it is palm spring,

raining and it doesn't take much have flooding. we need to address draining. top of the city and the water where i live about six in-take ducts drainage that they are -- they are not connected with anything and the water sits stagnates. the water has to travel one mile just to find an open drain. the er thing here is streets themselves, they only put asphalt -- they put the of the sand.p there's almost nothing underneath there. i'm from philadelphia. in chicago for 30 years, and i've got family that works bridges and repairing bridges, and, you know, tens of be sands of jobs that will created is going to be a boom to the economy no matter what are, and it is just interesting listening to people's issues from one end of other.untry to the

thank you for taking my call and holiday have a nice season. host: the unemployment rate and out.for november are 3.7% unemployment rate and added last month. the wall street journal on story, the trump administration trying again to fulfill its infrastructure pledge that the president made campaigning for the oval office, and they say that is reintroducing r plans a $1 trillion of the nation's rail, road infrastructure. that failed during president in office.st year in 2018, a package that would have compelled cities an states 80% of the with funding for the infrastructure was dead on arrival. instead they voted to increase in other programs that sends money to local government

or infrastructure as part of a budget deal. it goes on to say that this time round people familiar with the white house's plan say that the will stration's efforts cluf more -- include federal cash which should pass in the house of representatives. in the senate, the schumeric leader, chuck rice in the washington post that if there is going to be infrastructure change, it include our plan. and including resiliency for the energy and we could finance the bill by reversing the orst give aways in bill, those gifted to the wealthiest of the wealthiest. the plan from democrats should ake -- would include making -- massive developments in renewable energy infrastructure, especially in exciting new as battery uch storage and that make our infrastructure more climate

our water and waste water systems. that belongs in any infrastructure bill. indeed they were included in the next democratic proposal year. we should provide permanent tax redit for clean energy storage and energy-efficient homes, we hould invest in conservation, wild life and deferred maintenance on our public lands ecause this could mitigate the impact of climate change and grow the outdoor economy. rebecca in east st. louis, illinois. you.cca, good morning to caller: good morning, greta. host: what are the roads and are you -- where you live? caller: well, my main concern is for the state's infrastructure state infrastructure that -- that -- that trickles own, i hate to say the word trickle, but it trickles down to the local - to

infrastructure projects that state of had in the illinois, but thanks to our new mentioned that he'll go ahead and invest into upgrading ourlike power grids for number one. okay, rip in fredericksburg, virginia. good morning. morning.good thanks for taking my call. ou don't really understand the infrastructure, go to caracas mush, ago, it turned into same thing is happening to us, as all the as soon illegal immigrants get to the there will be a gridlock like there is in which is a d.c., gridlock. we need public transportation free. needs to be host: all right. steve in california. steve, good morning. caller: good morning.

to say that we do a lot thermal power here in california, but there should be worldwide.is you can drill down pretty much anywhere in the globe, give it time, but the fact is there are certain areas that we to do that in. it has a 20 kilometer average to to a heat source to boil water and get a steam plant. how we should emphasize that couldure and -- help. host: let's listen to the president earlier this morning nominations his for the attorney general and the united assador to the nations. >> i want to confirm that bill one of the most respected highly in the country, respected lawyer, former ttorney general under the bush

administration, a terrific man, terrific person, a brilliant man. i did not know him for -- until through then i went process of looking at people and choice from day one. respected by republicans and respected by democrats. will be nominated for the nited states attorney general and hopefully that process will go very quickly and i think it quickly, and i've seen very good things about him even over the last day or so people thought it might be bill barr. so bill barr will be nominated united states attorney general position. i think he will serve with great distinction. want to inform you that we her neurt, somebody who now well and has done a great job working with mike pompeo and

over at the state department. nicky going to work with haley to replace her at the united nations. the ill be ambassador to united nations. she is very talented, they and i think uick, she will be respected by all. neurt will be elected as ambassador to the united nations. ones.are two big i will have another one that i army-navy nce at the game. i can give you a little hint. the joint o with chiefs of staff in succession. and i look forward to telling ou -- host: the president earlier this morning. time.s from easing rules on coal industry climate change. bruce in from pittsburgh. bruce. aller: what we need in

pennsylvania is an infrastructure that is free like new york gets with their train california. california, neither of them states are paying any part of that structure for the trains getting. are it is all being financed, and we should get a part of that and it should be free for us and they do the same thing. nother thing that we could benefit from is occasional people used to talk about robots taking over and f these factories stuff, well, education being taken over by computers is here now.

>> former fbi director james comey is on capitol hill's morning. he is testifying on a house committee on what he knows on the molar investigation. he faces a court deadline. u.s. employers added just 155,000 jobs in november. the labor department reporting that the unemployment rate remained