gigahertz spectrum bands next year. the expansion of wi-fi. we finished walls earlier this year. the second part is wireless infrastructure. networks in the future will look for a much unlike the 4g networks we are accustomed to today. we will see small cells that are inconspicuous and operate at lower power. we want more wireless infrastructure. deployment. this is a critical part of 5g, getting the wireline infrastructure in place to carry it into the core of the networks. if we get those components right, america will win the race to 5g. watch 8:00 eastern on c-span two. -- morning, karen mills looks at ways to bolster small business in the u.s.. and on your money segment, kevin

details a proposal for the postal service overhaul. a"washington journal" is next. ♪ it is monday, december 27, december 17, 2018. we are with you until 10 a.m. on the "washington journal." as democrats get set to launch a renewed push for medicare for all, we want to know what you think about the idea of universal health care in america. wethat the type of system should be pursuing in this country?

give us a call, republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. on can also catch up with us social media an. congress and the white house is beginning this week under a bit of a ticking clock of a government shutdown that would happen friday at midnight if they spending deal cannot come together. an update on the latest in those negotiations people go to jeff mason. how optimistic is the white house and congress that the shutdown can be avoided? guest guest: there is it? aer that so far -- that is question mark so far.

upre is a risk if they come with a deal that not enough republicans would be here to pass it because lots of republicans in the house are giving up their spaces and offices for the incoming freshmen who are coming in and not showing up in washington. that is one angle to it. there's also the fact that stephen miller, one of the top and immigration advisers in particular said on sunday that they are willing to have a government shutdown if approval for the president's boardwalk is not granted. the democrats are not on board with giving $5 billion for the still hasl, so that not changed. it is hard to imagine how it will in the next five days unless they just come up with a temporary agreement to keep the government open over the holidays and kick the can down

the road as it were to have this debate later. host: what is the president's schedule this week? canthere any tea leaves we read into his schedule to find out when some sort of negotiation or breakthrough could happen? guest: there is not a whole lot on the public schedule that we have been told about. he has various meetings the first part of the week, meeting with people in the cabinet today. he is meeting with outgoing secretary of interior ryan zinke e. he will meet with -- ryan zinke you. he will meet with the vice president. he is leaving for florida for the holiday for the end of the week. we don't know if that is something he will delay or go ahead with depending on what happens with the government shutdown. that is one deadline you would think the white house would keep in mind that the president was hoping to get out of town like another -- others in washington

and get back to their homes for christmas. host: any chance we see a repeat of live negotiations on television between the president, nancy pelosi, and chuck schumer? guest: that is always a possibility. he likes to have cameras in the room when he meets with lawmakers. leave thepy to cameras on while he met with nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. that kind of reality aspect to the presidency has been one that has shown itself in cabinet meetings and other meetings like that. i wouldn't rule it out. host: expectations for passing and signing the first step act that criminal justice reform act we have heard so much about? is that happening? guest: it is a much stronger possibility now than it was a week ago because mitch mcconnell has decided to allow it to come

to the floor. it is a fascinating case study and the potential for bipartisanship it has. it has support from republicans and democrats and strong support from the white house and specifically the president. his son-in-law, jared kushner, has been working on it for some time. question whether it would work. he said toward the end of the week that it would. we will watch to see if that happens. it would be a potential signal of the ability to both parties on legislationr going in to 2019. viewersr question for is about the universal health care system. i wonder what you think about the appetite at the white house for another fight in the 116th

congress in wake of the news on friday that the district judge ruling against the affordable care act. president trump welcomed the ruling that you just referenced during a short q&a with reporters on saturday. he said will work on health care and get health care and get democrats. who knows if they will go back to the drawing table in the new congress and try to fix some of the problems with obamacare. late --blicans the before the latest willing fail in attempts to completely repeal obamacare and democrats fought on and ran for reelection based on promises to really defend obamacare and american' right

for health care. both sides are talking about it. whether or not they can work on a compromise in the wake of this court ruling is a question for the new year. host: always appreciate your time. guest: my pleasure. host: we are talking about future of health care. she we have a universal health care system? here are headlines. health and law back on the table, referring to the u.s. district court judge's ruling on friday and the discussion it has caused among lawmakers in the wake of that decision. also this, the ruling injects anxiety into the health care system. future i'mto what you think about universal health care system? should the federal government do

this? the phone lines republicans (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8000 democrats, and (202) 748-8002 four independents. go ahead. caller: i can't believe i got in so fast. host: first color of the day. go ahead. caller of the day. go ahead. a judge in could texas do this after it would voted on. he has the choice to do this by himself with a couple other senators who agree with them. what is him the choice to do this for the whole united states of america? disgrace. i think donald trump put him up to it. thank you. this is the usa today

story about it, the district court judge reed o'connor, northern texas, was a 55 page ruling he issued on friday. it was a lawsuit brought by a coalition of republicans. it challenged the constitutionality of the 2010 aca individual mandate requiring people to buy health insurance. o'connor said when they eliminated the penalty for not buying insurance, the mandate was no longer constitutional under the taxation powers. the formal care act will remain in place while the legal battle over law which could end up in the supreme court continues. the rolling came on friday. we are looking ahead and some of the proposals are for a form of universal health care, medicare for all is one bernie sanders has been pushing with several others in congress. is that the type of system you see the country moving towards in the future. john, rhode island, republican, what do you think?

very conservative guy. one area i agree with the progressives is universal health care. i will give an education to your viewers and yourself. do you know when that idea started? it started from a conservative in germany. people, thegerman government should take care of the german people in the form of their health. 1878.eve the year was i could be wrong on the year. bismarck came along with the idea of pensions for the people as well and was a conservative. --stated he was doing this he was from a wealthy family, to stem the socialist movement. host: bring us to 2018 and the united states and why you think it should happen here. caller: we don't have it here? host: why should it happen here?

caller: because we are a great nation. germany is a great nation. everyone should have the right to take care of their health. that is one area the progressives are correct. take a look at the great nation of germany. they are a powerhouse in their economy. they could be a military powerhouse. they have universal health care. they are way ahead of their time. host: that is john in rhode island. , golorida, and independent ahead. caller: i think everyone should have health care. we are paying 2.5 times more than any developed country for health care now. it is very expensive, and they are not regulating it properly. they are not negotiating for medicare drug prices. people died every day in this

country because they can't even get prescription drugs because they can't afford it. that is another problem they need to solve in congress. a program called atlas m.d. that sean hannity head on his program, and they provide health care for $50 a month, and nobody is bringing these people on television to talk about something that could add to the exchanges. if the republicans want to give us a health care plan, fine, put two new ones on from the republicans and two new ones on from the democrats. put on universal health care for all our medicare for all or a public option, that should be on the exchanges. anything to to do change the exchanges. all they need to do is add programs. thank you. host: that is victor in florida. you mentioned plans offered by others. a story from the beginning of

november talked about these different plans to try to put them in perspective. we talked about medicare for all, pretty sanders -- bernie sanders a fan for that. what sanders wants is a federally run program charged with providing health care coverage to everyone, private insurances would not participate. in other words, single-payer with the federal government at the helm. to count skate matters, some democrats are covering -- coverage.r universal combination of public and private programs wherever one has access to health care. others call for a government plan open to everyone. in the article they has come are you confused yet? kaiser health news breaking them down.

we have invited them on the program in the past and probably will in the future as well. you can check out some of the writing on this issue. in los angeles, california, democrat. good morning. caller: how are you? host: doing well. endorsei was going to universal health care. you mentioned bernie sanders is a sponsor but i also want to mention president trump previously backed it around the time of his 2000 presidential bid, the unsuccessful campaign. it has 52% of republicans who also supported. obamacare was a right-wing idea started by the heritage foundation which drives me crazy that republicans to this day try to attack it in the manner they have. the true reason we don't have single-payer is because big pharma has been allowed to buy out politicians from both sides of the aisle, this was very

prevalent at the beginning of last year when you had multiple democrats, back in january and roughly weeks before trump got in office who voted against a proposal by bernie that was supposed to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the u.s. to that of other countries. shortly thereafter on twitter, people posted multiple big pharma contributors to the same democrats. going back to the bipartisan nature of single-payer, which is doing things in health care was able z to backcain and cru it. this is a problem that entirely has to do with money and , rather and people corporations and different companies seeking interests over that of regular individuals.

with more exposure, brought on mustnders' campaign, is a strip -- much stronger chance to get things done now. it is the only way to stop the cycle of people having to choose between paying rent and the cost of their medicine. thank you. l.a. that is just and in you bring up some of the polling on this issue. this is the pew research center asking whether the government is responsible for ensuring health care coverage. you can see the numbers have increased. those who say the government is not responsible, 38% back in 2000. that jumped up to 56% in the years after the passage of the affordable care act and then back down to 39%. those same the government has some responsibility for health-care coverage in the united states, 59% back in 2000.

60% as of 2017. you mentioned bernie sanders as one of the sponsors or the lead sponsor any medicare for all bill. there are house members and other senators who have joined onto medicare for all as well. jeff merkley tweeted on friday after the district court ruling diabolicalat the republican plan to strip health care from millions of americans took a big step forward. now the fight goes to the circuit court. time for medicare for all is what he treated last week an. have healthays we rate with black women more than white women with higher incidence to die during childbirth. of the medicare for all bill in the house says it is time to put people over

profit. i am proud to tell you i will be leading medicare for all in the next congress. i am excited to be leaving that come -- conversation. from last week. several more democrats we are asking your thoughts on the idea of universal health care paired phone lines for republicans, democrats, and independents as usual. nancy is in fargo, a republican. caller: good morning. i work for walmart and get my medical through the company. $43, and if anything happens to me, what is going to happen is i have to come up with over $13,000. i just picked up medical for my son, and he has blue cross blue shield now, and he has a pre-existing condition, and

basically he is covered. all he has to do is come up with $1500 if his lungs collapsed again and he will be fine. -- because iif have a lot of people who come to my lines and we are giving them bt and wit. wit -- e ick. i c i look at the licenses and it says medicare. --y have cash administered t.sh how and eb if we have all the health care been paid out, who is going to be given it? the people crossing the border every day. you can't fix things with a band-aid like schumer wants to

and say we don't border security. put up a fence and make it a done deal. america has to wake up. host: that is nancy in florida. universal health care issue coming up on the show in sunday -- on sunday. on face the nation, a woman was asked if it was time to move to a form for medicare for all. >> we need universal health care, and there are many ways to get there. the other is to expand medicare to each 55. there are a number of bills that i am part of, including the expansion of medicaid which i think is something we are not talking enough to about that senator schatz from hawaii is leading. also allowing for an expansion of medicare. there are many things we can do. but with an administration in place that seems bound and determined to take away people's health care, we have to protect people to have their health care

exist because they are talking about throwing them off for pre-existing conditions. host: that is amy klobuchar, democrat. in an article, is the time right for medicare for all with government in charge, it would be misery for all. this is the column that appeared in the duluth news tribune from the conservative heartland institute. he writes in his column, although promises about providing high-quality health care sounds nice, the truth is medicare for all would be a nightmare for tens of millions of people. first, medicare for all would push the u.s. further over the fiscal cliff and at risk to faith existing obligations without printing trillions of dollars. according to a study, medicare for all would add $32.6 trillion in the first 10 years of its implementation. outrageouslyis

expensive program would require a monumental tax increase, where the largest in american history, referring to the report. incomey a doubling of tax collections would be insufficient to finance the added federal cost of that plan. from december 3 of this year. friend is up in jacksonville, florida, a democrat. is up in-- fran jacksonville, florida, a democrat. what are your views? caller: i am for it. it should start as a obamacare as the base and work out the kinks. i heard i believe it was tim kaine talking about what people are calling medicare for all, which was actually another exchange the obamacare that was run by cms, which would take away a good amount of the

overhead that the private insurers have to have. all is kindcare for of misleading, seniors to get protective of medicare. senior, as if we are the only ones who can have decent or affordable insurance, and we don't want that infringed upon by younger people. i don't know what the , maybements would be starting at 55 and have that as an option on the exchange that you can still choose a private insurer or you can take what would essentially be a public option that was run by cms. also, with obamacare, there is no delineation between pre-existing conditions and not.

everybody would be on an even playing field. you have to have the individual mandate. i don't know why everybody does not want to participate in having insurance. to me, that is a crazy idea. i know they promote it on talk radio. i listened to them tell the young people you don't need insurance and they want to do think off the back of young people. that is how insurance works. i have been working since i have been 20 years old. i pay for insurance and didn't use it. i was ok with that. it was there if i needed it. every young person should be wanting to participate in supporting their loved ones, old , ande, and all of that they can do it when they need it. in florida. you mention bernie sanders'

medicare for all bill. it has to do is some form of universal health care. a recent article try to break down those plans and show what they would do, the focus on ', all sanders a americans would get insurance. the question of whether the public plan and woollies would pay premiums and that would not happen under his plan. it requires a tax increase and requires the government to regulate health care prices. that is a chart they have comparing the various different plans from democrats on bernie sanders' plan and others and some proposed by think tanks in washington dc. you can check out that article and comparison. flushing -- next up from flushing, new york. obamacare has americans

and we need to stay in the system. i'm going for universal care because this will ensure that americans with pre-existing conditions would not be left out. supportsystem that has and there is no need to scrap that. for me, one of the good things obama did is obamacare. , try to fix some weits problems, and then .hould not scrap it that is not going to do good for the country. our -- to train should begeneration

going to medical school to be a doctor and give service. that is the way we change things. speaking of the affordable a federal judge in texas ruled that core aspects of the aca were unconstitutional. that will work its way through the federal court system. this is president trump's reaction to that ruling at the white house. pres. trump: i believe we are to get really good health care. exciting things happened over the last 24 hours. if everybody is smart, because we have a lot of democrats here aboutt and i am happy that. people don't realize i have a lot of friends who are democrats. democratsublicans and

get together, we are going to end up with incredible health care emma which is the way it should of been from day one and it is going to happen. it now has a chance to happen. host: we want to hear from you this morning. we opened the show by asking should the u.s. have universal health care westmark republicans , (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. pat is a democrat or go ahead. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i would like the american people to realize any time the federal government gets involved in your daily life, you are good to lose your own ability to make choices. you may get a, prescription, and you have somebody sitting somewhere that says no, you can't have that, in need to take this other drug.

that is because our congress allows the insurance companies to become the decision-makers between you and your doctor. realize it isto not free. the government will intervene and start telling you what to take and how to do it. the american people need to know it is not a right, it is a privilege. thank you. host: back, accustomed, georgia , augusta,m -- mack georgia. caller: aarp is stabbing seniors in the back by remaining silent concerning medicare for all. it is already underfunded. can you imagine if you put everybody on medicare for all? it is going to be very expensive for the individuals. i pay $500 for medicare and a supplement. i paid in 60 years, 60 years of

taxes to get what benefits i get from medicare. not complaining about medicare, it seems to work fine, but $500 a month $500 per month. you won't be able to afford it. the only way you will be able to do it is to ration medical care. if you want rationing, go for it. thank you. host: chicago, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. basically, if we look at our system, i don't understand why this is such a big deal. we spend so much money on wars and what have you, we as a country, we as the leading country in the world, we should be able to figure this out. everyone in this country should be insured. i think it would help

employment, it would help the health of the country. ,nd what we've done so far is it seems as though the republicans do not want people to be insured. i'm just looking at basically what the republicans do. they do everything they can to not give insurance to people. what trying to figure out we could do as a country to fix this problem. which we sure could go to war and spend a lot of money. we spent so many billions, trillions on war. we should be able to improve the health of our people. thank you for letting me vent. host: charleston, west virginia, republican. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i just, i want to counter what this point that the previous caller made. the issue is not that republicans don't want people to be insured. that, do we really want the federal government of the united states making our decisions for us?

in exchange for this promise of economic and health insurance security that cannot be achieved without some degree of tyranny. and by charity, i mean soft tyranny, hard here in a. the tier -- hard tyranny. the tyranny of the federal government saying we will pay for your health care. that's always the case when you involved.al dollars there are always strings to federal money. and we do not want the federal government dictating to us what we are going to buy or what we are going -- what doctors we are going to see. we don't want a bureaucratic washington dictating or deciding what the health decisions we need to make. liberty, folks. it's not about health insurance and it's not about health care. it's about liberty.

and those of us who oppose universal health care, those of us who have opposed obamacare beenday one, it has always about liberty. we are not willing to sacrifice our liberty in exchange for this empty promise of economic security. that's not what this country was meant to be. we were meant to be a free country, where individuals have the right to self-determination. it's that simple. and universal health care is unaffordable. it violates the principles of which this nation was founded, that you could read in the constitution or the declaration of independence. they are not mysteries. they are not being taught in our schools, but they are not mysteries. host: before we go, we saw in one or 15 congress, and ever that the trump administration republicans to appeal be a formal care act. you think that they should try january?n in

caller: absolutely. it should have been repealed years ago. it should have been struck down by the supreme court and i was shocked that colin roberts did the legal acrobatics, if you will, to justify keeping that wall in place. there is absolutely nothing in the constitution that permits the federal government to dictate what citizens purchase. there's nothing in the constitution. have and don't observe the constitution as our governing document, we have nothing the, ladies and gentlemen. because that's the document that guarantees our rights. it guarantees, it protects us from government tyranny. just after 7:30 on the east coast, continuing to have this conversation. the question, should the u.s. have universal health care. as usual, republicans, democrats and independents.

we show you some of the president's reaction. he was up early and tweeting on sunday although most of the tweets on sunday had to do with the pressure investigation. also on sunday morning, his personal attorney was on the sunday show. ruling out a sit-down between the president and the special counsel team. his comments came as recent that robertest, mueller wants to sit down with trump as part of the interview. here's rudy giuliani on fox yesterday. >> there are reports now that the special counsel is interested, again, in interviewing the president. as his office reached out to you about sitting down for an in person interview? >> yes, there are several unpaid parking tickets back in 1986 that have not been explained. >> seriously. >> seriously. unpaid parking tickets. >> is the special counsel will

going to end of the present? >> good luck. after what they did to flynn, the way they trapped them into perjury and no sentence for him? 14 days for papadopoulos? i did better on traffic violations. no way. they are a joke. over my dead body. host: that was rudy giuliani yesterday on fox. getting your called this morning, about 25 minutes left in this segment. the question simply should the u.s. have universal health care. florida, independent. can't afford it, and these parties are telling the parties -- the people of poisons the food supply is with all the herbicides, pesticides, insecticides. just,owth hormones, everything. the overuse of antibiotics in everyone sick.g

40% of our society is obese. and we subsidize coca-cola with food stamps. a billion dollars per year goes to soda. and then we subsidize these crops in iowa. allowed to never be vote first again, ever again. that's the first thing we need to do. there's just too many kickbacks and all that meat, all that sick meet that is put into mcdonald's hamburgers. mcdonald's and coca-cola need to pay for our health care because they are the root cause of all of our problems. two thirds of americans eat fast food. as a primary source of sustenance. it's a sick society, john. florida. this is maryland, good morning. caller: i want to say something the caller in west

virginia. he is so incorrect, it's disgusting. i don't know what he's talking about, didn't make any sense. host: go ahead. caller: you talking to me? host: yes, go ahead. caller: universal health care insurance, medicare for all, you would start them at the time that they would come off of their insurance company from the aca. i don't believe it would cost out ofe, maybe 20 to $30 your tax and that's all it would be. other countries have it. the only reason we don't have it is because of the big pharmaceutical companies and we all know that they own 90% of congress. that is the reason why we don't have universal health care. as we have politicians devoted to keeping their daughters happy and we all know this. i actually wish you all would have a show that would call out every politician who is tied up with big pharma. i know we have a website.

but people really listen when they see it on c-span. from the republicans who say we can't afford it, yes, we can. we could take a $5 billion that you want for a wall and start universal health care. and it would not cost that much, it really wouldn't. ofyou really put the cost what other countries paper health care compared to what we pay, you would see the truth. and i'm for it. and one more thing, i do not trust aarp. if they really wanted to be held to seniors, they would not be profiting off the two worst health insurance companies and i know because i have them both. united health care is very bad for women with health care. so things like that, people need to consider. the universal health care, we could have the option. for people who want to continue to pay nosebleed policies through the private insurance companies, they need to disappear. that's the reason why they are fighting a, because all the borders would not be rich anymore. take the money out of politics

and you will have a wonderful country. thank you. post: mary, you mentioned the border wall, $5 million of the president wants ahead of this shutdown for the border wall. he has said his senior adviser, stephen miller, the face the nation yesterday to talk about this upcoming shutdown fight. here's what stephen miller had to say. >> we are going to do whatever is necessary to build a border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration. to it, absolutely. this is a very fundamental issue. it's a question of whether or not the united states remains a sovereign country. or not we can establish and enforce rules for entry into the country. the democrat party has a simple choice. they can either choose to fight for america's working class or to promote illegal immigration. you can't do both. dark out there wiggle room on that? >> i'm not going to negotiate deals on air with you right now. host: democrats also going on shows yesterday.

chuck schumer was on nbc's meet the press. here are his thoughts on the president's $5 million for the border wall. >> president trump should not thend, there are votes for the wall in the house or the senate. he is not going to get the wall in any form. even the house, which is a majority republican, they don't have the votes for his $5 billion wall plan. in fact, ryan is afraid of what's going to happen, a day and a half before or two days before the shutdown. and they certainly don't have the votes in the senate. now, we democrats, leader pelosi and i, offered the president to options. as to how to avoid the shutdown. and we should not let a temper intrum of threats push us the direction of doing something that everybody, even our republican colleagues, know is wrong. leader mcconnell has said we should not shut down the government. chairman shelby has said we

should not shut down the government. and they should join us in one of these two proposals, which would get more than enough votes passed to avoid a shutdown. then, the president wants to president wants to debate the wall next year, he can. i don't think he will get it, but he should not use innocent workers as hostage for his temper tantrum to sort of throw a bone to his base. >> what you're saying is is no way. if those options, or that's it. >> those are the kinds of things that republicans have supported in the past and we have talked to them privately, even public with. a lot of them have said it's much preferable to a shutdown. they just have to have the guts to tell trump he is off the deep end and all he's going to get with his temper tantrum is a shutdown. he will not get a wall. that was chuck schumer yesterday. much more on the deadline later in our program. and likely throw the rest of the week. that deadline is friday night at midnight.

the government will go into a partial shutdown if a deal does not come together before them. for the next 15 minutes, this question we are asking is universal health care in this country. should the u.s. have universal health care systems. if so, what should it look like? north carolina, republican, go ahead. i don't agreeer: with universal health care. if you just take all the emotion out of it. number one, it's not economically sustainable. -- daniel, independent. go ahead. hello, good morning. and our country should have it, of course. in all of the world should have access to health care.

trump administration don't care about it and republicans don't want to get health care to anybody. on the other hand, these opportunity for people. host: virginia, democrat. go ahead. caller: i'm just responding to the gentleman in west virginia. we said we should not leave our health care to the government. if we don't, who do we leave it to, the insurance company? the insurance companies pre-existing care, they want cap doubt. i'm not sure who exactly do we leave our health care to? that is my question and thank you very much for taking my call. host: iowa, republican, go ahead.

rick, are you with us? i am.: yes, i think everybody needs health care so that should be a universal thing. but if you go to the constitution, if you read that, just soak that in, i don't think it says anything in there about universal health care. but i'm on medicaid and i love it. i hope everybody can get it. montana, independent. caller: good morning. listen, according to the universal declaration of human as offered by the u.s. security council december 10, 1948, article 25 says health care is a basic human right. and you agree? caller: yes. i mean, a universal declaration of human rights adopted by the un security council saying that

health care care is a basic human right. of all the people who are calling and saying that it's a privilege are absolutely wrong. a few facebook posts as we have in having this conversation. nick writes, the government can't even get the da system right, what makes you think they could do universal health any better, no thanks. jan asks why, get your own insurance or go without. the force socialized medicine down our throats because in the end, we all lose. yes, it would save us more than we currently spend. the system is failing our people. this is us using our collective resources to ensure that we have equal access to health care. and one more thing of course, at the very least we should have a public option topped into medicare and we can continue to have more insurance for those with extra coverage. those are a few comments from social media. you can join on facebook or twitter or give us a call from

california. republican, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i totally agree with universal health care and i think that our country and our economy must care about this issue. appreciateto dedicating a very special .rogram yesterday and i want to add something here. the yellow vest protesters said iran's revolution, it inspired them. and i want to ask you something that if it is possible, please. this, aboutg about what they said that the revolution inspired them and they want to do something.

thank you. california.dam in always appreciate suggestions for future topics and appreciate you watching yesterdays show. a democrat, chicago, good morning. caller: hello. i do believe we should have universal health care. every county has a form of health care that we pay into, so we are already paying and universal health care. if we could do away with county care and contributed universal health care for young people, young people get ill as well and mandatoryd play into health care as well.

host: whether you thought the government was responsible to ensure health coverage. breaking down some of the yes thatrom the pole, the government is responsible and there should be a single national government program, 33% said that. yes, the government is responsible and there should be a mix of government and private programs, 25% agreed. those saying of the government is not responsible to ensure health coverage for all, 33% said that we should still continue medicaid and medicare. there should be no government involvement of any kind. a few numbers available. universal numbers on health coverage in this country. david is in maryland, independent. go ahead. i would just be concerned about that we can't bills orour current

balance our own budget or even keep the government open. governmenttrust the with the most important thing which is our health? thingk that the liberty would have to be sorted out. i don't really think the government wants me dead and they don't want the best for my health. think thate to sometimes you have to go through these medical procedures and there are very important decisions to make. and there is some tests that maybe my pregnant wife, i wouldn't want her to take because it might endanger the baby. but maybe if the government in charge of things, there's a possibility that they would say you're not going to get your things covered unless you do this first. or unless you pay all your parking ticket. i think maybe a solution could be something with the state. that way at least with a safety net you can move to another state. host: what are your thoughts

about the affordable care act? caller: i thought it was great for me at the time because i was in my 20's and so being able to stay on my father's health insurance for a little bit helpingnd did a really me to be able to save up and afford a down payment on my first home. personally at that time, it helped me. host: do you think it's still a good thing? part aboutleast that staying on your parents health insurance for a while. that's definitely something that i would like to keep. i don't really have a lot of other first-hand experience with other portions of it. can'tthe idea that you bar somebody from insurance or that they can't pay more due to pre-existing conditions. yeah, i think that's also something that would be to stay. utah,ray is in

republican. go ahead. there are multiple facets of government health care . let's just say if you are paraplegic and cannot physically work, you have to have a government health and health care. a veteran other in -- of the vietnam war and i've utilized the health care system which isn't the best, but it's certainly not the worst. and i'm very lucky to have it. because of the health care system that i've paid into for years of service. during the vietnam war. so government does have to be involved in some of these health care issues, but if you are an able-bodied person, you should be paying your own health care. you are actually responsible for your own health care. host: bernard is in chicago, democrat. caller: i don't know where that

guy is coming from, but i think in it since 1995. i voted justin brown and it's excellent. every part of it. they are miles ahead of all the i'm doing well also. i firmly believe the government should be responsible for health care area that's why we have the government. we could take a percentage of the money that we spend on military. when you look at how much we spend on the military throughout the world, rather than just defending our own shores, but

treaties we have with other people who are really not our friends but we have them anyway, that money could be diverted to having health care for everybody. and i think that's the way to go. there's plenty of money to be to recklesslyage spend a lot of money that doesn't need to be spent. thate you go, you said this is part of the government. what would you say if you had a chance to talk to the caller who said this is not in the constitution, this is not something the government to get involved in? caller: why does it need to be in the constitution? i don't understand that concept. i don't understand that concept. back when the constitution was written, you didn't have these huge pharmaceutical companies, these huge hospitals. things have changed since the constitution was written and i don't get the idea why it needs -- why everything that we do needs to be tied to the constitution.

unless it goes against what the constitution says. host: thanks for the call. linda is in staten island, republican. caller: hello. i'd like my fellow americans to take notice. first, we should rename the .ffordable care act i would like americans to run for the doctors are people and should not be put on a pedestal. the play god with our lives. because i have horror stories from new york of these quack doctors in which doctors trying to control our lives. with their experimental practices. and misdiagnoses. first issue is that you have to take care of yourself. and quality of care act, not

affordable care act. nick is next in minnesota, democrat. go ahead. caller: i'm for universal health care. because a lot of people aren't covered or can't afford insurance and we should have a program or people to cover it and help us. host: you are from minnesota, we shared a clip earlier talking about this issue. her support of universal health care system. what do you think of for as your senator and talking with her as a potential candidates for presidential elections in 2020? caller: i feel she's on the right track. she seems to be a very good person for the state. and for the country. brother thatd a had a heart attack. he actually worked for walmart.

and had two stints put in his heart. but insurance doesn't kick in until six months from now. so how does he pay for? virginia, good morning. caller: thank you for taking the call. i actually and a chemical engineer and i downloaded a file called healthy united states. that is, it's actually created by the federal human health services and the cdc. when i read it, it's like the beginning of the document, it said that 65 and above 90% of the population is under prescription drugs. to 65, 70 2%s 40 under prescription drugs. i think it's much more than just universal health care. it would be great to start with universal health care. but the issue would be also preventative care. -- become part of

their culture. whate need to understand registry numbers are to chemicals and what exactly is a chemical association because if you have 140 million chemicals or more, a lot of them are also theoretical and they are patented at the patent office but they've never been synthesized, crystallize, or produced in a laboratory or in industry. i don't think the majority of the 327 million americans really understand what that means. and also, the education levels here. you've only got one point 6 million engineers and 3 million non-engineer scientist. 4.6 million out of a population of millions of americans. really, you have to ask yourself, where are the knowledgeable people in fines, technology, engineering, mathematics. host: that's virginia. our last caller in this first segment, but stick around.

more to come including up next, a conversation about the state of small business in this country. we'll be joined by former administrator of the u.s. small business administration and later in our weekly segment we will be focusing on postal reform after a recent task force moved the condition of a u.s. postal service. stick around for that conversation later today. ♪ >> the very government under which we live was created in the spirit of compromise and mutual concession. >> thomas jefferson questioned the need for a senate. >> let's follow the constitution. >> the framers established the senate to protect people from their rulers and as a check on the house. >> the fate of this country and

even the world lies in the hands of congress and the united states senate. announcer: the senate: conflict and compromise. a c-span original production. journeys,business tradition, and the role of this uniquely american institution. wednesday, january 2 at 8 p.m. eastern and pacific on c-span. >> this week on the communicators. federal communications pai on key chair ajit issues for the fcc and one for season the future including 5g and spectrum sales that allow 5g innovation. >> this is facilitating america's superiority in five to technology. there are three parts to it. getting into a commercial

marketplace, and we are doing that right now. 24 gigahertz auction will start after. auctions and 37, 39, next year. we talked about the six gigahertz band and the next generation of wi-fi. we recently finished some rules earlier this year. the second part is wireless infrastructure. the networks of the future will look very much unlike the 4g networks that we are accustomed to fit eight. -- to today. we want more wireless infrastructure in the marketplace and this is a critical part of 5g. getting the infrastructure in place to carry all this internet traffic back into the core of the network. if we get those three components right, america will have 5g. >> watch the communicators tonight on c-span two.

washington journal continues. host: amid the holiday shopping frenzy, discussion about the state of small business in america. guest, former head of u.s. small business administration currently working with bipartisan policy center mainstream finance task force. we will be to some of the task force work but right now, what is the definition of a small business in this country? how is it somebody called a small business according to the federal government? >> it's delightful to see you and i always love to talk about small business. this is actually a really interesting question. what is small? the numbernition of of federal agencies, small business is anybody with fewer than 500 employees. now, that's the general definition but if you want contracting, every single industry has a different definition because if you have a manufacturing company with 100

people, that's small. but if you have an accounting company, that could be big. the other thing is, small business comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes like out of the 30 million small businesses in the u.s., 24 million have no employees. so most small business is just or person in their office doing what they do by themselves. limitis there an income for small businesses, is there a point where you make too much money to be considered a small business? guest: for certain programs, there is. as i said, it really depends on whether you are talking about a high gross venture, one of the people who are going to be the next google in silicon valley or you are talking about a main street small business, somebody who has got a shop. they don't really want to grow. and each of the policies that we make in government, for each of these kinds of small businesses, needs to be tuned up to their

needs. one of the mistakes that i think they make is that everybody thinks one-size-fits-all. not true in small business. host: we will talk about that this morning. i should note that in this segment, specialized for small business owners, (202) 748-8000 we would love to have you as part of the conversation. all others, (202) 748-8001. our guest, the former head of the small business administration. we've spent a lot of time in recent weeks talking about the ups and downs of the stock market. how much of the stock market is made up of small businesses? guest: none. small businesses related to the stock market because it's a barometer, but that's really the larger businesses and that's what of the reasons why economists sometimes forget about small businesses. the fed is too busy watching monetary policy and macroeconomists are so busy with consumers and investments. and who is worrying about the impact of small business on the economy?

the answer is half of the people who work in this country only work for a small business. that's half the jobs, so you better be worried about it. in trying to understand the state of small business, was the best metric to determine how well small businesses doing? of my you hit one favorite subjects, there aren't enough metrics. we do not track the health and well-being of small businesses. we don't track how many loans are being made to small businesses. the best numbers that we have really are the small business optimism measures, the surveys, and the fed surveys about whether they are getting capital . things we did is put in some requirements that we start to measure, but they have yet to be implement it. we are sort of flying blind. imagine flying blind in half the economy. host: what are they telling us right now? guest: right now they are

telling us some good news, which is that small businesses are doing better than they have been doing in 10 years. end of the recession, the recovery, which was very slow and bumpy for small businesses. we could talk about why. now, finally, they are doing well. but there are always clouds on the horizon. easy optimism started dip. they are worried about uncertainty and uncertainty is, as you know, all over the place. the stock market is something which means people have less money to spend maybe in their small businesses. .nd the trade and tariff wars they are worried. host: talk about the impact more of the trade wars on small businesses. where are you specifically seeing it? guest: when i was working for obama, we did a huge amount to give small businesses the know-how and the capital to export.

suddenly, the technology, you can tell your business, your goods far away. if your you don't know market is going to be open, all of that investment that you made, it suddenly is uncertain. it's up in the air. lobstermen in maine are really suffering because all the exports that they used to make in china has stopped and canada is making those exports. we really have to keep our eyes on small businesses and when you hear about the trade ands, it's a very bad tone nobody is worrying about opening doors for small businesses. host: 30 million in america? we hope some of those small business owners will join us. for all others. what is the main street finance task force? guest: a great partner when i was in washington has joined the

bipartisan task force. and she and i and several others intoir and investigation whether we should have financial services reform to benefit the main street small business owners. and the answer is yes. desperately. lot of work being done on financial services reform right now, but it's not the right kind of work. is, we get a lot of things to do with consumer protections. all of those consumer turns out, they don't apply to small business borrowers. small business borrowers are not afforded the protections of a disclosure of how much they are going to pay on a loan. facts and duration of the loans, all of the prepayment penalties, that are now afforded to the consumer. so, why is that?

host: were small business is specifically excluded, or that just overlooked? guest: i think there was an argument that they were business savvy, and why do you need to disclose to them. they're smart enough to know. so they did a survey, they went out to small business owners and they asked them, here's a loan. and these are the terms. how much is the interest rate? and the answers were all over the lot. 5%, 30%, 50%. i teach now at harvard business school and i tried it on the students, the alumni. and they couldn't get it. so my conclusion is that it's complicated. and why would you not want to be transparent and disclose to a small business owner? it seems like a no-brainer to me. if people want to find out more, where can they go? guest: there's a website and we have a whole set of recommendations out there which should be a great guide and remember, bipartisan. how many things can you think of

that congress could undertake in this next year that really, truly are bipartisan? small business is one. host: more of those recommendations as we go until about 8:45 this morning. landed from richmond, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. , many peoples would like to go into business and they have a good idea. my opinion is a lot of people in small businesses really should not go into business because it's hard to deal with laws and stuff. but because you something about that. the health insurance that you discover talking about, that's hand-in-hand with small business. it's because you can't have people working and then they get hurt on the job. in virginia, if you have small

business, you got five or six people working for you. it's about the numbers. you have to have health insurance. but i think that the thing that small businesses do wrong is try to make all the money because if you have small businesses, you have to pay payroll tax. and payroll tax involves unemployment, state and federal. and it also involves your social security. post: you bring up a few issues. guest: you brought up whole number of great issues. you are exactly right, because small businesses hard. and a lot of people give it a try and they failed. but it is kind of the path to the american dream. and the fact that we have an open access to starting your own business and growing it, that's really part of the fabric of our economy. now, you bring up also, health care. one of the most

important thing to small business owners is that they provide health care to their employees. and the reason is they want their employees to stay with them. it's like a family. they want to grow. but they don't have access to affordable health care and that's one of the things that i was really happy with in the affordable care act, is that we were going to be able to provide more market prices for small business owners to go and buy health care. and we are seeing them doing just that. host: your task force recommendations, do any of those have to do with the health care side? guest: no, the task force recommendations are really focus on the finance area. also think that's an area were small businesses really rely on government to have their back. because small businesses, if they are going to start up, they need access to capital. and one of the reasons it's something that you also mentioned. small businesses have cash flow.

and jp morgan did a study. most small businesses had 27 days of cash bumper. and other than that, if the customer doesn't pay, they could run out of money. and when it run out of money, things are over. so one of the things that we want to make sure is that they have access to a line of credit. that's the kind of thing that the bipartisan task force was talking about. host: have you make that easier? guest: turns out, there's a moment right now in finance where technology may change the game for small business lending. on this been working and writing on this since i left government and came to harvard business school. and the reason is that technology is going to make small businesses much more understandable to a lender. up until now, small business owners that wanted a loan had to

do a pilot paper work, walked down mr. he, talk to the bank, wait three months for an answer, and maybe it's a no, and then they go to the next bank. now people are online. you can fill out an application in half an hour. and you got an answer the same day. in the money can be in your account the next day. that is known as a small business lending. so it opens up a whole set of doors. the next thing that happens is that amazon, paypal, square came in the market. now you have big technology companies and entrepreneurs and the banks broke up. wells fargo and jp morgan and bank of america said wait, we are not going to see this market to the new guys. so they started paying attention to small business owners. so all of this is good news for owners.siness as long as they know what

they're getting into. host: maryland, go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you doing? i'm a small business owner. i started my small business two years ago and it was so hard to get a loan for a small business. so i had the banks and small they seeanies and when that you're starting out as a small business, you still have to get a loan from them. basically what i did was i use to start myney small business and up to now, i still haven't gotten any loans, to get a response back. and they do come back, it's either no or high interest rates. thank you very much. host: before you go, what kind of business is it, what do you do? caller: electronic repair and phone repair. host: thank you for sharing your story.

guest: thank you very much for that call. the smalltalk to all business owners, because we need more of you. how many electronic repairs do you need? a lot. so, why is it that it's so hard for you to get money to help start your business? the reason is that it's hard for bankers and lenders to know what's going on inside a small business. we call that come in economics, information capacity. but all the sudden, with new technology, you've got all kinds what's going on inside a small business. of data streams. so a small business now, instead of just being judged on their credit score, the new way is it you get permission for them to listen to your bank accounts, your credit card records, all of the information about the better business bureau, whatever is going on in your business. and that gives a much better sense of you as a business owner and the finances of your business. ablehat happens is you are

to make a better credit decision. there's less informational capacity, there's more transparency. and it's done faster because it's done electronically. so, that is really the new standard in small business lending. the issue with startups is that they are new, and they don't have any history. and also, there's an issue with small loans, because it's hard for a bank to make any money on a small loan. so we are hoping that all that will change with the new emergence. host: virginia, kevin, what kind of business? caller: we are a business consultant. host: what is your comment or question? caller: good morning. thank you for doing this. we talk to our clients about and especially when we prepare them for financing because we have a

lot of small clients that believe that just because they have a great idea or just because i have certain aspects, i should be able to get a loan, and that's not the way it works. but the other side of that, we know that a huge number of people fail. a lot of them fail because of the decisions that they make because they don't have any insight or view into parts of business that they really should understand. they don't have the analytics or have not developed the analytics or they think that my cash flow in my lossthey don't have the sy balance sheets for my financial statements are the only things i need when in actuality, there's a lot more to it. what i'm hoping is one day as we get the financial technology in place, you also get the analytics in place to help his misses individually as well as across the industries. host: thanks for the call. are a i have to say, you

very impressive man because one of the things that we talk about book is thehcoming concept called small business utopia. and that describes a small business analytics task force. today, what happens, is the small business owner will open there account. then they will open their quickbooks account. then, they will open a turbo tax account. then, they will open a square or whatever their payment system is. .hey are sitting there i was talking to a small business owner in maine who runs a microbrewery and she said i'm sitting in bed with five screens ton and then i'm supposed integrate all of that information in my head into a cash flow analysis and see whether i need to draw down on my line of credit. how is that supposed to happen? well, all that technology i was talking about that the banker uses to determine if your credit

is worthy, that same information is now sucked up in data pipes and could very easily be put into a small business dashboard. so the small business owner opened their dashboard and, let's say we tell the story of alex, who is the coffee shop owner. and it's 5:30 in the morning, she opens her small business dashboard and her boss starts talking to her and says you should probably draw down on your credit line and pay your and you are going to need to do some advertising because dunkin' donuts is giving out a coupon. that kind of intelligence enable future shouldenables -- be coming soon the small business owners and i'm glad you describe it. host: and the book is coming soon, march of next year. have you ever run a small business? guest: i have.

and i've been a venture capitalist investor for about 30 years. so i have been involved in growing businesses all my life and i come from a family business. i come from my grandpa who came as an immigrant and he started in the back of a shoe shop, started with two machines making textiles and i worked for him when i was growing up. in the summer. he used to say our family doesn't work for other people, they work for themselves. we are the people of small business. it's kind of in my blood. host: joe, new jersey. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i'm a retired military officer coast guard and i'm in a i want people to know that have these small businesses because mine is right here in new jersey. i want to see an advisor.

it leads to a banking union called union bank and is a small business administrator for loans. one thing i wasn't aware of, there's no product specific to military veterans. which i would like to see. second, i got a lien from my hear, so i would like to her talk about those items. there are currently no products sba, andans from the was the significance of putting a lien on a house? thanks for the question. guest: first of all, thank you for your service. one of the things that has been really important is to help veterans come back and start small businesses, because veterans have a lot of leadership ability that they have proven in their service to our country.

and it makes them very, very strong small business owners. veterans over index in this country in owning small businesses. so, i agree with you. there should be a veteran small business loan. we did a whole number of things when i was running the sba with michelle obama on returning veterans. and we actually got franchise low feeo give veterans or no fee to start a business because that was a really good fit, the majority of business plans and it just needed a good leader and good operator to step into it. i think that the excellent idea. and i would support it. host: what about the idea of a lien being put on his house? the sba does require a personal guarantee. and i used to say to people we take your house, we take your firstborn, we take everything. why? because it's taxpayer money. and we are playing with taxpayer

money and we need to make sure that we protect it as much as possible. and it's true that lenders and bankers always want collateral. and so, one of the things that's happening now is they are finding other ways to make collateralized loans. if you have a loan right now where they take some money out , the square,e other people do this. it's a very good way to pay back because automatically it goes back to them. but one of the reasons -- host: in addition to a credit card fee, this can also be a fee that goes to help a back the loans? guest: a lot of the new lending that's being done now has a repayment system where it's coming through your swipe. , outf your automatically of whatever revenue you have coming in. and that's a good thing, because you know that you can sort of, if your sales are down, maybe you don't have to pay as much of

that day or that week. but it's also a bit worrisome and you have to be careful of it because that money comes off the top. it's not like you run your business and whatever you have left, you repay your loan. and that's good for the lender because that's collateral. they have the collateral for the money that's coming in. say is of the things i you have to have transparency because a small business owner has to understand the deal that they are signing up for and making sure that it's going to work for them. host: joe in michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions and one comment. is there any data as to the curve of the small business that iuring the years small business opens and they closed during the economy? and the other question i have, i have two odd jobs. and a labor shortage is difficult for me.

when theiced affordable care act came out, it got worse. because i fell under the threshold and i did not have to provide insurance. so we didn't come to me. so my other question, do you think universal health care would be a boon for small businesses? guest: once again, a number of great questions. first of all, on data, you are singing my song here because there isn't a lot of data to have small businesses understand what could happen to them in different parts of the cycle. collecting more understanding, more focus, so we can drive our economic policies related to data. care, exactly the point we were talking about earlier. small business owners who don't provide health care are at a disadvantage when it comes to workforce. time, what dothis small businesses worry about? they can't get trained workers.

right nowation policy is actually hurting many small business owners. host: would you go as far as to say that universal health care would be good for small businesses in this country? guest: i am glad we are having this discussion and this conversation because small businesses really need a voice at the table. on what kind of health care solution is going to be possible. finally, i think thanks in part to obamacare, everybody has figured out that small business and others need health care. others need health care. and people need health care. it can't just be if you work for a big company, you get health care. host: fairfield, connecticut. small business owner. what kind of business? guest: caller: a piano technician. first off, i want to apologize to c-span listeners because i asked a very bad question during the election and i'm very sorry for that. this is my fourth small business that i've owned.

i'm covered under health care under the affordable care act, and i think having universal health care will relieve the entrepreneurial spirit for small businesses in this country. the fourth point is that the sba loan process is very easy, you work with a local lender that is a specialist in process. the fifth point is score. the sba also sponsors local chapters and if you are starting a small business, use the score chapters to help you get started. post: why was that process so easy for you? what helped you in that process? caller: it was a smaller institution in the area for people that were running departments who knew the process and that were willing to help. they didn't say no right away. they were willing to help and walk you through the process. and you didn't have some sort of collateral or whatever it's

called. they were really good and i've done it multiple times to start my various businesses. congratulations to you. we call you a serial entrepreneur. he i'm really glad that brought up the sba process. we spent a lot of time trying to take down the paperwork and make it more streamlined. and i really have to say, the sba is one of the great gifts that americans have. other countries don't have this kind of loan guarantee program. in fact, people would come see me and say how can we develop one? because when credit markets froze, small businesses just got crushed. and one of the things we know and we should keep in mind for a recession that might be coming, is that those who are credit dependent suffer the most in the financial crisis and we are able

, we did something pretty bold. president obama and the economic team allowed me to raise the guarantee rates on the sba loan to 90%. banks back to0 sba lending in six months. 10 years ago right now, when this country was really suffering in the grips of the recession and it wasn't sure how things were going to come out. the sba has an important role to play and we should be grateful for it. host: is the sba doing a good job playing that role in the trump administration? guest: small business is a bipartisan issue. they value small business owners and the sba. i am very happy the sba is growing and continuing to provide these services. one of the things jim mentioned is the score counselors. there are 12,000 score counselors helping small business owners and by the way, they are free.

go to an sba small business development center, that was mentioned earlier or a score counselor and have them help you figure out until the small business dashboard comes out, have them help you figure out the plan. host: do you know linda mcmahon personally? guest: i do not know her. she is a small business owner and she has been saying the right things about small business and the sba. guest: we have a phone line for small business owners, 202-748-8000. all others, 202-748-8001. in herndon, virginia, go ahead. caller: i am a small business where actually a startup we are developing software to put out for commercial and government use. i have been having a hard time sbir phase 2 to get a loan to start phase 2 and

i have been turned down twice and told and directed to go to micro-lenders or accounts fractionallenders or lenders, which are bad when you did not put that in your overhead. i think it is hard for small businesses to get going and i back orink banks should tell you to go to a fractional lender. it is not good methods. it will put you in debt. host: thanks for the call. guest: she is describing one of the things we are very concerned about in the bipartisan center mainstream finance report, which is people who end up with a very high cost loan and maybe they don't even know what all the costs are because they are hidden prepayment penalties or hidden costs and we believe there should be transparency. small businesses should have a

wide array of new options. one of the things that is coming that is sort of a good news and bad news story -- lots more opportunity, but some of those new products are very high cost and if a small this miss owner doesn't know what they are getting into, they can have a lot of trouble getting out. i really challenge the financial services and the regulatory environment and congress in this coming year to take on this problem because technology and innovation will not wait an hour financial regulatory system is all caught up in duplicate of an --ra layers -- duplicate if extra layers.d phase 2?t is sbir guest: they are a whole series

of loans -- of grants that are made from the federal government research funds to small .usinesses about 3% of all research funds get set aside in a program. entrepreneur who has got a research agenda to get funded. money. actually grant sometimes, to grow the business and commercialize research, you need more working capital and she is probably trying to go to the bank to get that funding. sbir phase 2 is hard to get. i am surprised she is having trouble. int: another karen waiting mills river, north carolina. go ahead. caller: good morning. we used to have a small business

years ago and we got out of it. the -- tax was high. i am not sure where it is now because we are out of it. we get offers and checks in the mail for small business loans. every week there is a check in the mail for $100,000, $150,000. that is the way it is everywhere now because of this financial bubble we are in. everybody is trying to land you money. the problem is nobody is talking about in 2019 and 2020, we have a huge financial crisis. the prices of homes are way up. to me, it is not a time for anybody to be trying to start a small business or taking out any loans. mortgage prices are through the roof right now. something is about to happen and i don't think anybody should

going into debt on a small business loan at all right now because they may not be able to repay it. could not have said it any better. i think it is a flashing red light, warning, warning, warning . if you are getting a lot of offers in the mail, do not touch them because they probably have hidden costs and fees. i think your instincts are right and i think you might have a career as a financial product or. -- predictor.ir act a into the dodd frank whole set of things we were concerned about. one of the issues is we don't even collect the information to know whether there is predatory activity going on and if we collected that, we would know and we would be able to go after it. host: how big of a problem do

you think it is? guest: it is a growing problem. into aare coming relatively unregulated space. there is no federal agency that regulates non-bank lenders. they have to be regulated at the state level and people are trying to do this, but it is a pretty simple fix. the truth in lending act does not apply to businesses, it only applies to consumers. if we say it applies to small businesses, we would be able to get a handle. host: ed up next in tennessee. small business owner. caller: good morning. this really ties in to the health care. did you know corporate taxes are only 2% of gdp and health care is 17.4% and as warren buffett says, the tax system is not crippling our business around the world, it is the health care

gobbling up profits. i think they need to tax these corporations and trump is giving these people per minute tax cuts and it's already almost as low as you can go. it's all about health care. we spend almost 3.6 trillion dollars a year. the number one cause of bankruptcy and we waste $.33 of every dollar wasted in our health care system. said, i am a believer small business owners need access to affordable health care and i think you have that right, that ends up being an important part of their cost. they want to provide for their employees and how do we get marketplaces where they can continue to access it? i think they are worried when uncertainty hits and we should focus on getting to the right solution. host: just about five minutes left with karen mills.

phone lines for small business owners and all others as you call in. we found out amazon is coming to the d.c. area as the former head of the administration whose help small businesses grow, how do you feel about amazon? guest: amazon is an interesting player. in some ways could be the player that has the most impact in the new world where technology is changing small business lending. all of these small businesses and compete and sell on amazon, this turns out to be a good channel for them. they are able to reach more people with goods and services and amazon has started to lend to them. amazon has lent about $3 billion of loans already to small business owners. they haven't really entered this market. in china, -- financial is the big player, kind of the alibaba affiliate.

i would be surprised if amazon did not become one of the biggest small business lenders going forward. i would make that prediction. julian waiting in new mexico. go ahead. caller: i own a small construction company and i will tell you what is eating my lunch is workman's cost. anywhere from 10% per employee to 50% depending on the job we do. they don't come in and do the right thing, everybody goes into disability. now the government is picking up what happened to that person which workman comp was supposed to continue taking care of. i think we need to look into workmen's comp. real carefully. thank you. guest: there is a whole list of

workmen's comp. is something i also hear from a lot of small business owners. one of the reasons we are really focused on technology changing the game in places like financial services or insurance is it will help small business owners. right now, this notion about informational capacity and not being able to figure out what is going on in a small business owner hurts them when they try to get insurance rates and a good loan rate. i am looking forward to this revolution to maybe some small business utopia, some more dashboards for small business owners and access to services seamlessly. if we don't remember the important role small businesses play in our economy and we don't pay attention to them in washington, we will not be serving really what is special about our country, which is that small business is the path to the american dream. host: what next for the mainstream task force for the

bipartisan policy center? guest: i am hoping i next year we are able to get a financial services reform bill. this is something congress could come together on and that is what we need. it would have a big impact on the economy and it is not that hard to figure out what the solutions would be. small business really needs the help of a streamlined regulatory system that protects them and allows them to get access to the capital they need to grow and flourish in this country. -- you can mills look for her book in march 2019. thank you so much for your time. up next on "washington journal," time for open phones until the top of the hour. let us know what public policy issue you want to talk about. you can call in now and we will be right back. ♪

announcer: this week on "the --municators," the federal chair on key issues before the fcc and what he first sees for the future -- foresees for the future. >> this is facilitating america's superiority in 5g technology. getting more spectrum into the commercial marketplace and we are doing that with the auction right now. 39 bands next and year. 6 gigahertzout the band for the next generation up -- the second part is wireless infrastructure. the networks of the future will look very much unlike the 4g .etworks we are accustomed to

we will see small cells that are relatively inconspicuous and operate at lower power. modernizing rules to promote more fiber deployment. this is a critical part of 5g, getting the wireline in place to carry internet traffic to the core of the network and if we get those components, america will win the race to 5g. ♪ this very government under which we live was created in the spirit of compromise and mutual concession. >> thomas jefferson questioned the need for senate. >> let's follow the constitution. >> the framers established the senate to protect people from their rulers and as a check on the house. >> the fate of this country and maybe even the world lies in the

hands of congress and the united states senate. >> the senate, conflict and compromise, a c-span original production exploring the history, traditions, and role of this uniquely american institution. >> please raise your right hand. >> wednesday, january 2 at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific on c-span. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: it is open phones on the washington journal until the top of the hour. any public policy issue you want to talk about. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. we spent the first hour of our program talking about the future of health care in this country. it was about two minutes after the segment ended the president sent out his first tweet of this

morning talking about health care, focusing on the court case -- a federal judge in texas ruling core aspects of the afford will care act were unconstitutional and the president saying this morning the deductible that comes with obamacare is so high it practically is not usable. we have a chance working with democrats to deliver great health care. a confirming supreme court decision will lead to great health care results for americans. we noted the president continues to be in negotiations. will be this week ahead of that friday at midnight deadline for a potential shutdown. if a spending deal isn't reached, there will be a partial government shutdown. the president also tweeting his thoughts on the border wall which is at the heart of the disagreement on a spending deal coming together. the president wanting $5 billion and he said which is at the heat of this this morning,

anytime you hear a democrat saying you can have good border security without a wall, write them off as another politician following the party line. -- far greater safety and control. that was the president this morning. we will look for more of his tweets throughout the program. what public policy issue do you want to talk about? let us know. kenneth in new york. caller: concerning the health --e -- universal health care for all those people ranting and raving about socialized medicine, we already have it, don't they understand that? -- when they are insurance,n't have they go to the hospital and the hospital has to treat them and who pays for it? we pay for it. complaining we cannot insurance, afford it -- what we cannot afford is the present system because the

present system is going to it.rupt us if we keep with because the present system is a profit generating engine. and millionsaring of people are getting dividends. why should that be? we need universal health care because it is in the national interest and as one caller commented in the declaration of human rights, health care is a right and it should be a right in this country. since we already pay two or three times per capital what countries like canada and havend and europe pay, we universal health care, it should be cheaper, not more expensive. host: this is the headline from

the wall street journal, health law back on the table in the wake of that u.s. district court decision out of texas. many republicans said on the campaign trail they supported some of the goals of the aca, most prominently ensuring coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and now republican lawmakers will have to decide whether to disport legislation or -- senator jack grassley -- chuck grassley said his committee would hold hearings on the health law in the 116th congress. leo in walton beach, florida. democrat, go ahead. caller: immigration. open the wall in san diego. illegals onlyhat can be in a sanctuary state created that way they will find

out we need a wall all over. thank you. host: carl in des moines, iowa. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. in iowa, a state of corporate controlled farms with some of the worst water in the entire country, it is not on fire, but it is poisoning us daily here who have to drink it hurried it is disturbing to say the least. iowa was one of the most diverse lands geographic spaces and now it is one of the least because of king corn. everybody in this country needs to be concerned about the environment and i am a huge advocate for their green new deal. it hits on all areas in our country, jobs, environment, health care and the only way forward for this country out of

our messes is to completely overhaul our economy and redesign it not for short-term consumptive practices, but for .ong-term, sustainable lives we have only got so many years got on this planet before we over the cliff. we have to do something with carbon taxes and we have to hold people accountable who are ruining this entire planet. we have to stop giving money away to big oil because they are job creators. we can do it differently. it can work. host: that is carl in iowa. this is roberta in california, republican. caller: i want the people listening to understand i am the mother of a dead child.

withthe mother -- a mother those of her breasts gone from breast cancer and children with epilepsy, so we have pre-existing conditions all over my family. my children, even though they have them, are not in the doctor's office every time they turn around. my son has not had a seizure for 30 years. we use a lot of high talk and dishonest talk and a lot of crap. i called in today because i want to talk to everyone listening about this young lady that died -- made the trek across the desert to get to this country. in california, we have known this for 30 years. three, 30 years under presidents that i know of, this has been going on forever.

we do not and should not have ever had this happen. we have politicians that refuse to tell the truth. we have politicians that lie about everything when it comes to these issues. i am a mother, a grandmother, and a great grandmother. i do not lie and it is time for the people of america to understand this young girl died because we did not take care of our borders anyway and every way we can so we don't have people making this trek for their children to die. i am begging you, call your politicians and tell them to build this wall, do anything we can. my daughter is dead because of drugs. we have got to do something about this border where these drugs are coming across. thank you for listening. please call your politicians and tell them to get off their rear

end. it doesn't make what difference what color or religion we are, we have got to pick our problems in this country, not cause them,. host:end that is roberta in san diego on the idea of a wall and the potential shutdown that could happen on friday. npr, pbs recent poll, newshour marist poll found 57% of the country wants president trump to compromise on the gridlock.l and not 36% say he should not, even if it means a government shutdown. plenty of editorials about this topic including gridlock this fe washington times, time to finish the wall. if the security is at stake, here is enough money to pay for it. that lead editorial ends with somethingtrump grasps democrats -- americans do not. when immigrants enter our country and demand assistance

rather than ask for it, it is not charity, but tribute. if medicare can afford to waste ,oney in improper payments there is clearly enough money to pay for a wall to protect us. 'tis the season to get it done. the president looking for $5 billion for his border wall. we will see what happens in the ongoing negotiations expected to take place. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. carol in massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: good morning to you. i grew up in great britain and i was there when the health service started. with. chaotic to begin people rushed in from europe to take advantage of our so-called

free health service. it is not free. when everyone calls in and says we should have it. this country has too many people that live in it that don't burn very much and many people who earn a lot. our taxes in england went up for individuals -- my uncle paid a lot of that was money out of his weekly payroll. i think it is very easy to say we should have national health. someone has to look at the resistance americans have to increased taxes and it is easy to glibly say we should have it, but it is costly and there are a lot of problems when you begin. that in england they have had it for many, many years, things have straightened

out and people seem to be doing ok and they are healthy. i think it is something people have to face, but it is going to be very expensive and there will be a lot of division because americans are independent people. their ownto do things way and this, i think, will be the biggest problem. tot: just a gentle reminder turn down your television when you are waiting to speak with us. it makes the conversation go a little bit easier. michael in tennessee, republican. go ahead. caller: i wanted to comment on the wall. i just don't understand why people are so against having the wall. it worked in other countries and there are so many crack or easy places for them to get in and

they get in and we give them freemedical, free food, everything. i am not against immigrants coming in. my father is from ireland, they came in the right way. the wall works. when you have something that is that tall and that hard to climb and get over, the wall works. this country is in a bad shape and the only reason we are working right now is because of evangelical christians like franklin graham going around the country and getting people to pay and ask for forgiveness for our sins in this country. host: is it worth shutting down the government for $5 billion for the wall? caller: it is worth shutting down the government because these fatcats have gotten rich -- if they had the same insurance some of us had, i can promise you these guys would fund the wall and everything

else. if they did not get paid because they did not show up for work like some of us do in america, they would not hesitate to support this wall. it shutting down the government, absolutely. shutting down everything to protect this country from the evil coming in these other countries. there are some good people coming over here for the right reasons. the evil guys are getting mixed in with them because they know perhaps they can slide through the crack. i am absolutely, shutdown the government. host: samuel next in georgia, a democrat, go ahead. caller: i am calling in regard to the guys complaining about the wall. president trump, when he is mexico as a candidate -- is going to build that wall. there will be jubilation,

shouting, screaming, laughing and all of a sudden he has changed his mind that we, as taxpayers, are going to have to build the wall and no one has called him on that. stick, my representative, to your guns. the president said mexico is going to build a wall. let's hold him accountable, let him go to his own account and build the wall. host: who is your representative in georgia? caller: david scott. host: have you written or called your congressman on this issue? caller: yeah. them like every week. host: what kind of response do you get back? caller: i will be firing up again today.

they pass it on and if not, i call his washington office and i let him know how many votes in my household and how many members of my congregation that support him. we must have trump to build a account.of his own host: samuel, our last caller in the open phones segment. up next is our weekly "your money" segment. we will talk about postal reform. we are joined by kevin kosar for that institution -- conversation. we will be right back. ♪ >> this week on "the

communicators," federal munication commission chair on key issues before the fcc and what he first sees -- foresees [video clip]e fast plan.t our 85g there are three parts to it. getting more spectrum into the commercial marketplace and we are doing that with an auction right now. in it -- in addition, gigahertz band. three. five we recently finished roles earlier this year. the second part is wireless infrastructure. the networks of the future will look very much unlike the 4g networks we are accustomed to today. instead of 200 foot cell towers, we will see small cells.

we want more wireless infrastructure in the marketplace and modernizing rules to promote fiber deployment. getting the wireline infrastructure in place to carry this internet traffic into the core of the network and if we get those components right, america will win the race to 5g. "washington journal" continues. host: each week in this segment, we take a look at how your money is at work in a different federal program. we return to the topic of the u.s. postal service in light of a new white house effort to reform u.s. ps. back at our desk, kevin kosar, the vice president of policy. when was the last time the postal service was not in the red? guest: not in the red?

it has been more than a decade. the postal service has financially struggled year after year in part because of mail volume dropping. there were 200 13 billion pieces of mail being delivered by the postal service 10 years ago and that number is down to under 150 billion. that's a huge drop and that means a drop in revenue. host: what is the usps task force? guest: that was something president trump ordered. he directed the treasury to look into the postal service to examine its business model and finances and ask questions about how can this organization be made a viable? host: here are some of the answers to the questions asked. here are numbers from the report pret -- reflect $89 sheets

billion in liability can't -- liabilities against the deficiency of $62 billion. start with the operating loss in the reasons for those. host: the postal service -- guest: the postal service has a huge labor-intensive network. it has to deliver to just about every business and every home in the united states six days per week. it is one growing every year as our population gets bigger. the postal service has to go and law requires them to do it 6 days a week. the postal service also has to employ mostly unionized labor and labor unions want to do the best they can for their members, so they bargain hard and that costs.ising labor host: we talk about the financial condition of the

postal service. a special line for postal workers, 202-748-8002 costs. host: is that number. otherwise, our phone lines regionally. eastern and central time zones, 202-748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. you can start calling in now as we continue to go through that report. the liabilities, $89 million in liabilities. what are the biggest ones? guest: much of it is retiree health benefits. things that postal service promised to do for them when they retire. instead of putting money aside ahead of time to be ready for the benefit costs, the postal service for the longest time try to pay out-of-pocket each year for them and in 2006, congress passed a law saying you are facing a financial armageddon and you need to set aside money for this. the postal service was forced to pre-fund retirement benefits for a few years and they quit paying

into the fund, which means the obligation is going to grow bigger and bigger and a big kind of existential threat here is money runs out of the fund and the postal service has to be bailed out by taxpayers. usps unfunded payments, $307 billion for normal retiree health benefit obligations. $815 million gin cost -- $815 million in cost -- $1.4 billion for unfunded liabilities to the civil service retirement system. host: the postal service has a wide range of debt. the calculations i have seen put it over $130 billion unfunded debt. they have $13 billion they borrowed from the senate -- fed. they have retiree health benefit setgations, even if you

aside that loan, there is a big issue, postal service vehicles. more than 180,000 vehicles and a lot of those are more than 30 years old and breaking down and maintenance costs are going up. some of them are even catching fire. there is a youtube video of postal vehicles bursting into flames. to say nothing of the 30 some thousand post offices they run and retail services they have. departmentreasury report released this month and what we have been talking about is titled usps, a sustainable path forward for it is there one? host: there is 1 -- guest: there is one. the postal service is the only entity in america that goes's to everyone home and businesses -- goes to everyone's homes and businesses. the trick is to figure out how -- se that

host: kevin kosar is our guest. he is with the r street institute. guest: it is a free-market think tank in washington, d.c. and we work on a variety of issues. host: where did your interest in the postal service come from? 2003, i came to washington, d.c. to work on the congressional research service -- they help members of congress and congressional committees and i had a supervisor who worked on postal reform. i said, i am the new guy, why not do it? i became the head of postal work at crs. host: we will take your questions about postal reform in the financial state of usps. that special line for postal workers if you are not working right now or even if you are,

202-748-8002. otherwise, the lines are split up regionally. john in south carolina up this morning -- up first this morning. caller: looking at this young i think herning and doesn't know what he is talking about. the postal service was originally set up like the military, you know? your mail was free. it was not set up to make a profit. the postal service does make a profit. the government is sitting on $55 .illion of the postal money you sit there and you are saying this and saying that, you want to privatize it because the postal service makes money. host: what is the $55 billion you are referring to? caller: he knows what i am talking about. it is the surplus money the

postal service was making years ago. host: that is john in south carolina. kevin kosar? guest: there is $55 billion -- maybe closer to $50 billion in the retirement health benefit fund. they were required to put that aside and it was a cash infusion congress made toward that fund. that money is supposed to be there and drawn upon each year by the postal service to fund retirees' health benefits. the cost is about twice as much as that 50 some billion dollars, which means there is a big chunk of change that is needed in order to cover those costs. host: is the white house and congress on the same page with these reforms? is this something that has to be passed by congress or something the white house can do on its own? guest: the white house has put together a plan that requires congressional action. there would have to be a major

postal reform law passed. discussion document and certainly, there will be a lot of things in it that congress will object to. host: what do you think some of those things are? guest: it suggests we should not mail anymore.k a lot of folks in rural areas will complain about that. abolishrt suggests we collective bargaining for union employees. that is not going to go over well and it suggests to bring in more revenue, the folks that said advertising, mail catalogs should have their rates increased greatly. that will not be popular. host: what happens if nothing happens in congress? guest: probably a slow bleed situation. the postal service has $11 billion in its bank account. it is going to keep having to draw on that cash as it runs

deficits crude as time goes by, that money will go down, down to the point there is no cash left and one day the postal service cannot turn on the lights. i think congress would take action. host: how far away is that day? guest: right now the postal service is treading water with the amount of cash it has been able to hold. we get another quarterly financial report in the next month and it could show cash position is eroding. ,ost: two walnut, mississippi jerry. good morning. caller: i have a question for mr. kosar. about your package rates. individualnow why an is -- of a private citizen can ship a package to a certain

destination for a certain price or they can go through ebay and paye other companies and two dollars on shipping? you cannot tell me you are not making money on larger packaging it ase you all went up on few years ago because of fuel. now fuel has dropped, but your rates isn't dropped. guest: that is true. parcel prices are going up. the postal service asked about a month or two back of its regulator the authority to increase parcel prices even further and the regulator approved it. parcel prices will go up 7% to 12%. why do parcel prices keep going up? one of the arguments is the postal service has not been pricing high enough. the postal service does compete with the private sector and for

the longest time, they have had prices that are significantly lower. i think the postal service's deal is the future of the business is parcels and bringing in more money through parcels because paper mail, the volume keeps going down. host: in virginia, andy, good morning. caller: the reason the postal service's underwater is because they have to fund the pension program 75 years in advance. guest: is that correct? host: that is a claim that has been out there for a long time. the government accountability office years ago put out a report where they said that is not the case. i think it is one of the things that is important to remember. as a loss as postal service was supposed to pay into this health services fund for a decade and after that, they were supposed to take a mortgage on the remaining obligation and pay

that amount. the postal service only paid for a few years and they quit paying. it has cash on hand, it could put more money into that fund, but it is keeping the money in the pocket. even though it is skipping the pension fund and the retiree health benefit funds, it is running deficits. host: why did they quit paying and who made that decision? it is decided by the postmaster general and the explanation seems to be the desire to preserve liquidity. let's keep enough cash on hand, let's not reduce our cash position. they are either anticipating large expenses or the possibility business will continue to shrink, which means they will need to draw on that cash to keep the lights on. host: we are talking postal reform, the state and future of usps. if you are a postal worker, 202-748-8002. we would love to hear from you this morning.

otherwise, in the eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000 . in the mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. kevin kosar, you have come on to talk postal issues a couple times. one time i believe it was about the president's dispute with amazon, that he wanted to change the deal usps made with amazon. remind us where that dispute was about and where we are on it? guest: where did that stem from? we know the president is not a fan of jeff bezos and the washington post and he had many criticisms of the post and the president brought up this issue of parcel pricing and made the accusation the postal service was losing money on every parcel they delivered. that opened up a real interesting can of worms because it is not just amazon, but many large companies make deals with the postal service to either send bulk mail or enormous numbers of parcels through the

system. those deals are not something that are posted online. they are commercially sensitive information in the public cannot see them. that fueled suspicion about whether or not there was backdoor cronyism going on. host: who signed off on those deals? do they have to make money? guest: the postal regulatory commission has to sign off on these deals. host: who runs the postal regulatory commission? guest: it is a bunch of appointees. presidentially appointed, senate confirmed. they are a nonpartisan agency. i don't think anybody has ever accuse them of being in the democrat or republican bag. they are very technocratic. you have folks who used to work on capitol hill, folks who worked in other agencies that have something to do with postal work, it vaires. up next in south

carolina. where are we right now on that amazon deal? there is notnow, just one amazon deal, amazon has a variety of arrangements with the postal service because it has a variety of things in the mail stream. each of those deals have to be renegotiated. the prc, the regulator has required crisis -- prices to increase. i would assume amazon and others will, at some point, have to pay more to ship parcels. host: we don't know when that would be? guest: right. one would have to look into the filings of the -- at the postal regulatory commission, where these things get sorted out. in south to mary carolina. thank you for waiting. caller: i have had this idea for a long time. instead of having male 6 days a week, havel 6 days a

it on mondays, wednesdays, fridays. let me tell you what, people can get used to anything. most people don't get enough mail for 6 days worth of mail. they can wait and get it another day and i think that would save a lot of money because trucks would not be running and the post office would not be opened using utilities. i think for all the new employees you hire, you ought to give them 401(k)s like other people instead of having federal benefits because the federal government is breaking us. i think health care and retirement benefits, let them go on medicare like everybody else. give us all a break. we want a post office. i think people can adjust to anything. thank you very much. host: your thoughts on mary's suggestion?

guest: it sounds like you have been doing your homework on postal reform. the trump administration suggested the postal service start delivering mail based upon demand. and that taking all forms of mail to all homes and businesses 6 days a week, focus on those that really need to get where they are going. example, prescription drugs, the postal service carries packets of prescription drugs. there is a good argument for those being delivered 6 days a example, prescriptionweek. advertising catalog mail, probably an argument for those not to be delivered 6 days per week. host: portland, maine, richard. good morning. postal worker. maryr: i would say you and are not focusing on postal reform. you are focusing on deformation of the u.s. postal service, the destruction of the u.s. postal service. as you know and you can explain better than i, the postal

service is required to contribute these in or miss --unts of money every year enormous amounts of money every year to retirement in fund the matter of aem in a few years that could be taken care of over the course of decades. that is one measure republicans have done to try to destroy the postal service. second, we could have public banking. we could have the kind of banking services the u.s. post office department had at one time in the 60's so poor people and people who have a hard time maintaining the kind of bank accounts of commercial banks could use post office is in the same way they use these check all sorts ofces

ways. eliminatingsimply three or four days worth of thisl delivery every week, is not postal reform and this is not what the american people want. the american people admire the u.s. postal service. mary is an outlier and i would say -- your ideas are nothing than advancing the agenda of right wing republicans to undermine the postal service and privatize, privatize, privatize. host: let kevin kosar respond. how many years have you been a postal worker? caller: i worked for 20 years for the u.s. postal service and it was a wonderful job. this was some time ago. -- the service the u.s.

postal service used to provide has deteriorated quite a bit. richard.ank you, all i can say on the first count is that if we keep doing what we are doing, you are basically guaranteed to have the postal service go bankrupt. the postmaster general, who is certainly not a conservative republican, has said very clearly, our business model is broken. we cannot control our costs, which rise every year in the model doesn't work with mail volume plunging. that is the basic economic problem. healthack to the retiree benefits fund, is like a bad penny, it just keeps coming back . the postal service is not going broke because of the retiree health benefits fund, they have not paid a nickel into it since 2012. it is running deficits because

mail volume has plunged and the keep increasing. as far as the accusation there is people who want to privatize the postal service, i don't know of anybody who thinks the postal service is financially valuable in a way that you are going to give it to the private sector and they will get rich running it. we are talking about an organization that has $130 billion in pension and retiree health benefits debt. that is not an attractive organization for a takeover. host: what is the most valuable component of usps? guest: the logistics system for making last mile delivery happen and the boots they have on the ground for it all the postal workers out there who know the routes and where people live host:. pat is a postal worker, huntington, west virginia. caller: hello. good morning to america. i was a rural mail carrier for

37 years, the last mile people. we took it in the country as far as you could take it. this gentleman was a little disingenuous. he indicated when he first introduced himself he so -- somehow worked for the government. the organization he works for, i ust wikipediaed in. it is a conservative libertarian think tank. when you mentioned the word libertarian and he just skirted by it a little while ago, that means he is against labor unions. he is against the labor people that work for the post office, that get dirty every day suckng these ruralust on routes. he was disingenuous i indicating somehow he had a -- a job in the government. host: hold on for a second and

let me let kevin kosar respond. guest: let me clear something up. i spent 11 years working for the library of congress as a civil servant and a nonpartisan paying into my tsp and doing all the things federal workers do and four years ago i went to work for a not-for-profit. neither i nor the r street institute is against unions print if you look on our website, you would also find there are a number of pieces about trying to reinvent unions century to make them more viable because we view unions are valuable for america. host: are you part of a union as a postal worker? caller: i am a proud union member. i still have the card i got in 1998 -- 1978 when i joined the postal service, the exact card for 40 years i belong to my labor union and i still do and i

am getting ready to join another labor union on my new job and i would like to say -- not like to say where that will be. this man is disingenuous. libertarians are totally against labor unions. host: before you go, do you think labor unions need to be reinvented for the future? caller: i know what reinvention means. it means doing away with people's right to organize in the long run. i know what it means. this is gentleman is not pulling the wool over my eyes or any other union people out there. thank you for giving me so much time today. host: is there anything you want to add? guest: you can believe anything you want to believe. you will find things on our website written by our president and others about really interesting ideas to modernize labor unions for the 21st century. one of the pieces eli did was andy stern, a

major union figure. host: rstreet.org. we continue to walk -- talk postal reform. mark in virginia, good morning. are you with us? be sure to stay by your phone. ron in michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. .y concern is postal theft and i grew up in the 1950's 1960's, we knew the mailmen by first name and i still remember his name. told -- now we buy cash cards and over thanksgiving i brought the subject up because

my $100 cash card was stolen from a card i sent to my niece in california. every one of my members of my family each said the cash cards were stolen and it added up to about i'm for the postal service but i think they need competition or something because postal is epidemic -- postal theft is epidemic. guest: postal theft. yeah, there are certainly a small number of that apples with the postal system itself. the inspectors general and postal police have pointed out incidents were people who work for the postal service have thived from the mail or not delivered it. i think a larger problem is outside the postal service.

the people who will get into mailboxes and take valuable things. drug addictsey are and often times just bad apples. it's a big, big deal in the 21st century. it's a really lousy to have electronics and gift cards and things stolen. was really frightening is when we have dangerous drugs being put into the postal system. stuff like fentanyl. and then there's the possibility of explosives and drop. we all remember almost 20 years ago, the unabomber. that scenario is still possible. fact that the postal service system has been sufficiently secure that we had a repeat of that. host: how does the mail carrier get a route? how does usps decide where one ends and another begins? guest: that's complicated. it the shifting demographics of where people are moving it,

estimated mail loads per house. ofre's a whole bunch calculations and then it also has to be worked out with the unions. you can't make a route so big that a postal worker is forced to work 12 hours per day to cover the whole route. there has to be a fair back and forth. host: who determines how long it's supposed to take? masters are post the ones who direct post offices and post masters are in charge of the letter carriers who worked out of the post office. but they have some level of discretion to work these things out but otherwise it has to be decided at a much higher level from the postal service unions. host: camp florida, good morning. caller: hello? good morning, merry christmas to you. host: and you, go ahead. caller: i wanted to ask him, i have seen you a couple times, i wanted to say two things will i will try to keep this short if you don't mind. the first thing that i wanted to overall, het the

did mention it would have to go through congress. myot two pounds of stuff in mailbox this last election cycle so i don't think they are going to do anything. anyway, the question that i have is, in the 21st century and going forward, trying to take care of the overhaul of all of this stuff, the congressional isoffice that you had held, i guess, and the library of congress, who pays for that service? is it congress that pays for that? and my next question, if you have any answers at all, could we use some of the electronic for that we have thieves all over the parts of this country for sending money overseas to help subsidize some of the overhaul? guest: congressional research inside thethe unit

library of congress part of legislative branch. it gets funded through an annual appropriation. congress has the sit-down and spend money on it just the way you would spend money on the rest of the federal government. now, the other idea -- host: a question on the crs reports, a lot of valuable information, history, a lot a breakdown of legislation. those used to not be available. are they available now? guest: yes. this was done through an act of congress this past spring and it's something that our institute had a role in. we were basically in a situation where he had crs reports available to lobbyists and other folks who have to get them, but the rest of the public not get this information. we work with congress and congress passed a law and taxpayers are getting a little more value. host: a variety of topics. is there a website you can go to for those reports? if you google congressional research service reports you should be able to

find the site or find the site we created. host: and the other question, on use of email? guest: wasn't quite sure how electronic medications could be used to generate revenue to fund the postal service. we think about reforms for the postal service, things that will help the financial condition, we have to remember that postal service is an enormous entity. $70 billion per year to run it. if we want to reform it, we have to think of revenue streams that are going to bring in $1 billion per year in profit. host: time for one more call in tucson, arizona. postal worker, go ahead. people calling in talking about eliminating days of delivery. and what they don't understand is that the mail stream constantly flows. and if you stop for a holiday i or something, the next day, you have two days worth of mail.

every monday you have two days because the mail is continually falling on sunday. everything else. every time you eliminate a day, you are building up a double day of volume for the carrier. before you go, do you think the postal service needs to be reformed? there are certain things that could be performed, i imagine. but i hear a lot of people calling who don't understand what's going on. they are growing, not shrinking. from, but moving away they are building new houses. you have new neighborhoods built. you have added onto your route temporarily until they could make adjustments. to add a new route. host: if you are in charge, what recommendations would you give usps moreke sustainable? caller: the sustainability, i

don't know. that's beyond what i could understand as far as finances go. usps more sustainable? but i do know that it's growing and i'm looking at more carriers rather than fewer, more rather than less service. host: thanks for the call. guest: you are absolutely right. a challenge, it is because stuff is being dumped into the maelstrom on a regular basis and if it does not keep moving, it's going to pile up. but it's also the case of because male more you have been decreasing, it has contracted more than 25%, there is a little more wiggle room in order to remove days of service if that's what congress wants to do. host: the last minute or so, was next for postal reform? we have reports on the treasury department, what are you watching for next? guest: we are looking to see what the committees of jurisdiction in congress are going to do. we had in election, so there's a shuffling around of personnel. with senate and homeland

security and the house oversight and government reform. the really question is whether or not we are going to have leaders of those committees on both credit republican side who prioritize the reform which is a real tough issue. and also, put in the time to work in a fair, across the aisle way. leaves can you read of what they've said? guest: so far we are not hearing a lot. whether that means they are keeping the cards close or they are just not engaged is unclear. democrat from maryland, he has worked on postal reform for many years, he understands the issue. we will see what happens. don't know who's going to be leading up this time, honestly. host: we will have more time in the future to come talk about it. we always appreciate your time. guest: thank you. next, we will end today

in open phones, about 20 minutes before the top of the hour. want to hear what public policy issues are on your mind this morning. on lines were republicans, democrats, and independents as usual. you can start calling in now, and we will be right back. ♪ >> this week, on the communicators. communications commission chair andey issues before the fcc what he perceives in the future including five g and spectrum sale that allow 5g innovation. >> this is facilitating america's superiority in five g technology. there are three parts to it. in justne, getting more commercial marketplace with a 28 gigahertz auction right now. 24 gigahertz auction will start thereafter. 37, 39, in just commercial marketplace with a 28

gigahertz auction right now. and 47 spans next year. in addition, we talked about the six gigahertz for the next generation of wi-fi. we recently finished some rules earlier this year, suspected is one part. the second part is wireless infrastructure. networks of the future will look very much unlike the networks that we are accustomed to today. relatively inconspicuous cell towers and operate at lower power. we want more info structure in the marketplace and third, -- a critical part of 5g, getting the wire infrastructure in place to carry all internet traffic back into the core of the networks. if we get those components right, america will win the race to 5g. >> watch the communicators tonight on c-span two. washington journal continues. usual, washington journal ends at 10:00 today.

"for the last 20 minutes of our program. to hear was on your mind, any public policy issue you want to talk about, the phone lines are yours. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 the house will be in for a brief session at 11:30 today and then we will be back to meet in full session until wednesday this week. the senate expected to meet at 3:00 today. we will have gavel to gavel coverage depending on what you want to watch. phone lines are yours, we'll start with st. louis, missouri. democrat, go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. theuld like to speak to reorganizing of the postal service. i think one thing that people don't realize, and i used to be in the military, but mail

carriers have to go to every address every day if they have mail or not, they have to go to it. when you try to compare the post office to some other carriers, you just have apples and oranges. therefore, when people left the cities and thought building suburbs, post offices have to cover those areas. in addition to gas, in addition mean,tal buildings, i it's just a different animal. so, people want to cut the costs but the costs keep going up even though the volume is being reduced. host: do you think are have to be some changes at the postal service and if so, what would be something you would recommend? think the postal service made a huge mistake when they let fedex and ups take a lot of their business. if they had been forward thinking, but they were not able

for whatever reason to visualize what the future would look like. now, most of the postage packages are held by fedex and business should be held by the postal service. and they need to find a way to get that back if they can. host: upper marlboro, maryland. go ahead. i also want to respond. when the airlines operate, they are subsidized by that things i think that have applied to the post office, if they can't make subsidize, live

the rest of the money to the people operating. the post office is one of our oldest agencies and it should be maintained no matter what. it's thatt think expensive for them to do that. host: arkansas, republican. go ahead. caller: good morning. i love c-span. and everything that you all do is just fantastic. i watch every day. i wanted to talk about the wall. marijuana in canada. and now they're are going to legalize marijuana and mexico. and we are going to have to build a wall on both sides of the united states? people are going to figure out that they need to legalize it everywhere. that's all i got to say, thank

you. wall,speaking of the congress and white house are operating under a ticking clock this week. a partial government shutdown would take place at midnight on friday if they spending deal is not reached before then. this is the headline from the washington post, the possibility of a shutdown looms. trump and democrats refuse to budge. the president demanding $5 billion for his border wall that critics call wasteful. face theiller was on nation. stephen miller is the white house senior adviser. he had this to say about the white house negotiating position when it comes to the border wall. >> we are going to do whatever is necessary to build the border wall to stop this ongoing crisis of illegal immigration. absolutely. this is a very fundamental issue. at stake is the question of whether or not the united states remains a sovereign country. whether or not we can establish and enforce rules for entrance. the democratic party has a simple choice.

they can either choose to fight for america's working class or to promote illegal immigration. you can't do both. >> is there wiggle room on that $5 billion? >> i'm not going to negotiate a deal on air with you right now. host: but negotiations seem to be happening on the sunday show. yesterday, chuck schumer was on nbc's meet the press yesterday and had this message for the president on the border wall. >> president trump should understand, there are not vote for the wall in the house or the senate. he is not going to get the wall in any form. even the house, which is a majority republican, they don't votes for his $5 billion wall plan. in fact, ryan is afraid of what's going to happen, sent all the household until wednesday night, a day and a half before the shutdown. and they certainly don't have the votes in the senate. now, we democrats, leader pelosi and i, offer the president two options as to how to avoid the shutdown.

and we should not let a temper , threats, push us in the direction of doing something that everybody, even our republican colleagues know is wrong. leader mcconnell has said we should not shut down the government. chairman shelby has said we should not shut down the government. and they should join us in one of these proposals, which would get more than enough votes past and avoid a shutdown. then, if the president wants to debate the wall next year, he can. i don't think he will get it, but he should not use innocent workers as hostage for his temper tantrum to sort of throw a bone to his base. when you are saying is there is no wiggle room. those options are nothing. >> there's those options were the kinds of things that republicans have supported in the past and when you talk to them privately, even publicly, a lot of them have said it is much preferable to a shutdown. they just don't have the guts to tell trump he's off on the deep end here and all he's going to

get with his temper tantrum is a shutdown. he will not get a wall. host: getting your comments. an independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i have three. one question, two answers. verse question in regards to the post office. and the question is, on the medical coverage, i just want to clarify that you have open enrollment late in the year. that isings i know of not included in the enrollment department and that is when a person gets married, adoption, and also if you have a baby. you can put those on your medical coverage all the time. the second thing is information. number one, this country has become what you call tribal.

that means everybody is into their own military or way of thinking. and the third thing, thebecome . economy is just simple. we have to find a way to put money in the hands of people that don't have it. because people who are rich do not. people who are poor need things, and that excites the economy and puts people back to work. ideas, but different we have to stop this tribal warfare that is going on in this country. because everybody is segregated, everybody is in their own world. and nobody gives a dam about the other cultures or anybody. we are humans and we belong to god. and if you don't believe it, keep doing it and we will suffer the consequences. i'm finished. host: in the bronx, new york, democrat. caller: concerning the postal service, i would like you to invite the president of the national show so he can explain to you in exclusive details about was happening with the

bleeding of the post office. as far as moneywise and the deals. he will tell you exactly was going on with it. i would very much like to see that. thank you. host: we will reach out, thank you. donna, pennsylvania, republican. about: i had a question if trump shuts the government down. will that affect social security? host: it's a partial government is a list ofre about eight federal agencies that would be shutdown for security -- social security would not be, i don't believe, included in that process. the military is funded, veterans issues are already funded through fiscal 2019. congress is funded, the legislative branch of government, the funding bill that they need to pass and in

the house and senate. there are eight spending bills that have not been passed this year and so those are the parts of the government that would shut down. i will pull up a list for you. nebraska, republican. yeah, i'm thinking maybe i got to run for president because these things have to be done. like health care. why don't we just give every person health care so people don't get sick and wind up in the hospital on disability. houseed in nebraska medicaid for all. the legislature has yet to take the money and the government says i'm not going to pay taxes or anything. but i think it's cheaper in the long run to cover people for medical problems. host: what else would be part of your platform?

caller: one thing would be to tax system. i think we see much more of a system. you earn more money, you have to pay more taxes. i don't believe it's natural to have billionaires in a good economy. thanks forak system letting me call. host: virginia, democrat. go ahead. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. you, witht to ask , irish people can come to the country and work for a visa that 10,000 people come from a mile and work. can you elaborate why that never can cover this issue that paul ryan's last days in office, he

wants to bring irish people to this country to work. he would never allow other people to come into this country. do you know anything about that? no, but we can certainly look into it. what do you think the right way of doing illegal immigration in this country should be? an immigrant, actually, i do understand people. they come from a lot of countries who has a big problem. but i think that we can't close our borders. we are a country that has a right for the people to come here. i mean, if they come here ilegally and ask for asylum, think the judge should make that decision. we shouldn't have a border and say no one should come. we are all immigrants coming from somewhere. i believe that irish people deal with this, italians, they deal with this.

people deal with this on foxnews. these people are garbage and they make our country. this kind of language cannot treat us as immigrants. we are cleaning their houses. take care of their older mom and dad. we need these people to have a decency to bring them to this country. and i think that we should respect that. you qualify as an immigrant for asylum, they can go back. but the reality is we need to give them the benefit of the doubt. here are the agencies that would be poised to lose funding if the government shutdown does go into effect. the purpose of transportation, housing, urban development. agriculture,or, treasury, commerce, and just as with homeland security. that's the fight for the border wall. many of homeland security law enforcement agents would keep working for the shutdown because

they are deemed essential, each agency comes up with a zone shutdown plan, its own guidance on who is deemed essential and .ho's not deemed essential richard is next. republican. go ahead. caller: i'm not coming out on tv? host: you are on, go ahead. first of all, i want to really thank trump for being a patriot. he's not a politician. second of all, i think that if everybody could figure out how these immigrants are moving from guatemala all the way down over here to the border, because you , there have to be some kind of shenanigans going on over there with whoever it is trying to make sure the united states over here.

it's not our fault. we have laws and policies against these illegal immigrants. citizen to be a legal to come over here, to go through the process. do thehe application and right thing. we can't let anybody into this country. just like me in you. if we run a stop sign or we run a light, you are going to get pulled over and we are going to get a ticket. we have a lot of these illegals that are walking around over here and they get picked up were sent back. but they are breaking the law. just a few minutes left today. one other note of a topic of interest on capitol hill. it's round to her former fbi director james comey and congressional republicans. the cnn story about that testimony set to take place today. the former fbi director back on the hill to face-off behind closed doors once again with republicans on the house

judiciary and oversight committees. that's james comey arriving on capitol hill this morning. committee is also interviewing former attorney general loretta lynch behind closed doors. according to sources that talked with cnn, he sat down with lawmakers from both parties for a six-hour interview earlier this month where republicans quizzed him on everything from the fbi handling of the hillary clinton email case to his ofwledge about the fbi's use trump and russia as part of the russia probe happening on capitol hill today. time for just a couple more calls before we end our program. david is in grand rapids, michigan. independent. good morning. so, they passed that tax law. what they did with that individual mandate is then made the tax zero. they didn't do away with tax. so that judge in texas doesn't know his laws. so it's going to be overturned. just for the language.

the tax was not dissipated. the tax is still there, it's just zero tax. the other thing i wanted to say is we got to get donald trump out of there. they do. host: georgia, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. obamacare needs to be done away with because president obama did not even want to get on obamacare. he vetoed it when he wanted it. they wanted everybody else to get on it. , well,hink health care we should get the same amount of health care as congress and the president. and therefore, it should be unconstitutional and we need a border wall. we need to stop these immigrants coming into the country. coming into the country. coming into the country illegally and just making

everything chaos. every country has borders and america needs a border to the south and north. thank you. speaking of immigration, i want to finish up from a viewer earlier in the segment asking about the status of the bill that would impact irish immigrants. this is the story from late last week from politico. paul ryan leading congress with a nod to his irish ancestors. could provide irish nationals with thousands of additional u.s. work visas each year. legislation cleared the house on november 28 on an uncontested vote. it's increasingly likely to clear the senate this coming week. aide thatto a gop politico talk to. the measure has stirred opposition from the alt-right politician breitbart who dealt with the program amnesty for irish lobbies and said it would

take jobs away from u.s. college graduates and give irish access to unused visas. which currently are available only to australians in specialty occupations that require a bachelor's degree or equivalent. in return, ireland would offer additional work visas to americans among other concessions. that's going to be the end of our program today. we are going to take you now over to the heritage foundation this morning. on a roadram today is oldiative turning five-year . the program today talking about history and future of that initiative. live coverage on c-span begins now. >> what it is, what is attending to do. chinese, intentions behind it. in fact, in terms of nomenclature, it was called a couple different things. at one point, maritime silk road.