asia and trade policy towards china. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. "washington journal" is next. ♪ good morning on this memorial day weekend as we celebrate what for many is the start of summer. also, a weekend to honor those paid theserved and ultimate sacrifice for our country. it is sunday morning, may 20. ahead, presidential politics in keep them around states in the president in japan this weekend talking about trade, china, and north korea. but we begin with the roads, bridges, and airlines. aaa estimates 40 million people traveling nationwide this memorial day weekend, more than 37 billion on the road.

this question, should the federal gas tax be raised in order to pay for america's infrastructure. if you say yes, (202) 748-8000. if you say no, (202) 748-8001. also, send us a tweet, [video clip] .- tweet, @cspanwj thank you for being with us on this memorial day weekend. we want to get your calls and comments on infrastructure and the federal gas tax. the highest gas taxes per state, pennsylvania has a gas tax in gallon,e of $.77 per followed by california, $.74. washington say is $.64 per gallon. hawaii is $.65 and new york gallon. $.64 per those with the lowest state taxes in gases, leading off is alaska, 30 three cents. followed by missouri and $.36.

mississippi and new mexico at $.37 along with arizona. we want to focus on federal gas taxes that have not been raised since the clinton white house. this past week eleanor holmes delegate from washington, d.c., talking about america's infrastructure and what needs to be done. stumped the congress for 25 years now. there hasn't been an increase in what we have been relying on, the so-called gas tax, in 25 years, it has lost 45% of its value. in fact we passed a bill for years ago, the majority of that money came out of the treasury. that's not the way it's supposed to be, supposed to work. it's supposed to work as a user fee. those who use the roads pay for the roads. there's inefficiency now in gas and therefore it doesn't pay for the roads. of ae really working off

transportation funding mechanism created in the eisenhower era. bring us intoe to the 21st century. but in order to do so, congress has to have the guts to understand that you can't pay for highways, roads, and transit without money. host: delegate eleanor holmes norton, subcommittee chair on highways and transit issues in the u.s. house of representatives, joined us this past weekend. would you pay more in federal gas taxes for america's roads, rail lines, and bridges? keep in mind that this contributes to the retail price of gas you pay for gallon. averages between $2.40 to as high as four dollars per gallon depending on where you live. especially higher rates in california and new york. the federal excise tax right now

is 18.3 cents per gallon. the underground storage tank fee is only point one cents, only of penny per gallon and as 2019, state taxes are averaging 28.3 cents per gallon. that's the average across the country. we will get to your calls and comments in just a moment, but quickly we want to share tubing tweets from the president who is in japan saying that great progress has been made with trade negotiations with japan. agriculture and beef playing in heavily, much waiting until after their july elections, where i anticipate big numbers are co- -- big numbers." let's get your calls. marvin joins us from philadelphia. good morning. caller: yes, i think the gas tax should go up.

eisenhower always set a strong transportation system makes a strong land. that was so many years ago. highways,s and they're going to start to crumble more and more if we don't fix it now. host: the you for the call. richard rogers with this tweet -- david, you also say yes. why? >> privatization is where some of the money should come from. we have to remember that the tax rate under eisenhower when he built that system was much higher on the wealthiest echelons of our society. collect your taxes for millionaires and billionaires that are not paying their fair share. some of that money should be

earmarked for infrastructure, not just a gas tax, but that would be a part of the revenue because the how a lot of needs. unpaid taxes would pay for a lot of it, if not all of it. host: david, the you for the call. it's commencement season for the military academies, remarks coming in annapolis on friday. next week the president will be traveling to the air force academy for the commencement speech. yesterday, mike pence at west point in new york, the headline -- the vice president delivers the commencement address and says is virtually certain he will fight on a battlefield for america at some point in your combat,ad soldiers in it will happen, some of you may be called upon to serve in this hemisphere." that from vice president pence. mike, kensington, to say no,

don't raise the gas tax. why? caller: i don't believe we should. thanks for taking my call, thanks for c-span. i think that here in pennsylvania we have the highest gas tax. $.77 per gallon. i think it has been -- when governor corbett announced that he would put this gas tax on the suppliers and we would never see the increase, he was exactly wrong. here in pennsylvania we have one of the highest prices per gallon for gas. so many people go -- if you go to ohio, anywhere you go, any other city has lower gas taxes, including new jersey. it really is a burden, it's ridiculous how much we are paying per gallon in pennsylvania. and i think unless they find a very equitable way to pay for

infrastructure, a very efficient not modifying it, i would vote for raising the gas tax. thank you, michael. now to wells, maine. thank you for c-span as always. i think the gas tax should be raised. not so much for infrastructure spending on roads and so forth, but just to lessen the use of automobiles. there are other ways to tax than the gas tax. reducing thene for use of automobiles in the united states, which are the most inefficient in the world.

autonation basically graced us in terms of how much we drive. call.thank you for the a couple of tweets. send them to us @cspanwj. crystal, wilkes-barre, you say yes, raising the gas tight -- gas taxes ok? caller: yes, i do. even though as the other person stated, we pay very high gas taxes. why are wele that's

discussing this when the president won't even talk about infrastructure? i'm running over potholes every day and he almost quit his job. but he contacts and send tweets like he did talking about the democrats. it doesn't make any sense, why have this discussion when he won't even do this -- his job? host: thank you for adding your point and calling from pennsylvania. caller: you're welcome. host: david, long island, new york. caller: hi, good morning. i just think this whole dialogue is a lack of knowledge. you have quoted several tweets about people talking about electric cars now, they won't lower the carbon footprint for many years to come. you are better off keeping an old car running because 90% of the car imprint is from the manufacturer. but moving on quickly, i'm

against the gas tax because i think we should all go back to what simon patton said at the end of the 19th century. the purpose of government is to lower the cost of business. forcing people to change jobs to a gas tax is an inefficient use. all taxes should come out of the general fund and we should learn about simon patton. i think we should be further than that, but a basic fundamental government should be to lower the cost of doing is this on all of us, which would mean the most efficient ways are income coming out of the general fund. thank you for taking my call. david, thank you. we recently passed 250,000 hours of programming on our website and among the events that you will find in the video library, conversations on this issue of infrastructure and how to pay for it. [video clip]

want to increase the gas tax and people who oppose increasing the gas tax, for whatever reasons, are probably going to feel the exact same way about this fee. the idea that this somehow solves the should people be charged more and should we spend more on transportation, i don't think it's true except in one way. an importantt's way. right now people don't know how much gas tax they pay and people to lower the money goes. only in the most general sense. there is no value proposition in front of them. thisuch more do we pay for thing than tapwater question mark i'm not sure, but it's a lot more and we do it constantly because it is a straight forward value proposition. it's a penny more convenient than drinking cap water. opportunitye that looking at transportation. with a mileage-based fee, at least half of the equation drink

-- changes are medically. the system inherently makes you much more cognizant as a driver of what you are paying. now it becomes transparent instead of this baked into the gas price that is volatile as hack. you don't even know what percentage goes, let alone how much you pay. this will be pretty easy to see, similar to your electric bill. so that will change that part of the equation. if the various agencies that spend the funds can do a better job on educating people about how their money goes to pay for things that they use, we may actually make some real progress on deep it to some extent or rationalizing the russian of how much we should be paying at how much we are getting for what we pay. that's a panel that we covered looking at infrastructure and how to pay for all of it.

you can type it into the video library under the search engine. 250,000 hours and growing at c-span.org. laurie joins us from hamburg, pennsylvania. good morning, what do you think? we certainly shouldn't raise taxes on the working people after cutting it for the wealthiest. this is historically how it happens. when they cut it for the people that will never run out of money after generations and generations, the working people always get taxed more. our taxes always go up the kiss somebody has got to pay for our infrastructure. host: thank you for the call. this tweets --

host: mark is joining us. good morning from hawaii, you have some of the highest gas taxes in the country. caller: [laughter] they spent knew what it for, ok, but on the federal its trails, forests, bike lanes in highways and cities. they got several things on the federal level alone. take california and hawaii both, they tell us they will spend it on this and that and you found out they spend it on this because they shifted it over. until they can honestly tell us what they are spending it on, no, don't raise it. you for thethank call. gary, good morning, jamestown, what's your take? it would be conditional for me. how much of these projects are

spent for contractor claims for additional costs? you know, these contractors are in a hurry to do the work here. dakota, grading a road, they will try to get that done as fast as they can, they are probably not getting proper compaction, it's too wet. too wet in the winter. you spend all of that money, you get a rough riding road. two or three years down the road -- you have to build it over again, spend the same amount of money. i would like to see more accountability when these things are built. that's my comment. thank you for the call. when did your state last raise taxes? mississippi, the last time they did it was 1989, before the berlin wall came down. 32 states raised their taxes since 2010. 12 states have gone to decades or more without an increase.

the last time alaska raised its taxes, you have to back to richard nixon, when he was in the white house. we are again talking about the federal tax on gasoline that has often raised since bill clinton was in the white house. jim, new castle, delaware, good morning. caller: i appreciate the comments from the guy in north dakota. the biggest problem is so much corruption when it comes to the roadbuilding industry. it seems to be a slush fund for politicians a lot of the times. to the contractor, the contractor gives the money back to the local politician. the people that oversee these projects on the state level concrete halfnd the time. we are constantly rebuilding roads that should last for many years but they only last for one or two years and they say it's .he weather, the truck traffic it's the fact that they don't put in concrete that is built for the job.

i'm not calling them corrupt, i just think that they are not what thef determining concrete is. i have a friend who worked on state jobs here in delaware and he kept the contractors to the letter of the contract and he ended up getting fired because of political pressure because they were not able to put substandard materials to the roads and that's the biggest problem all around the country, are not living to the law of the specifications for the jobs. that's why you constantly have to rebuild everything. that's what's running up the causes. look at the autobahn, i hate to say germany as an example, but a lot of those roads were built in the 40's and still in excellent condition. we really must pay attention to just following the specifications of the actual spec of the job and that is not

going on. the taxes are generally a slush fund for politicians, more so than anything else i think. it's a shame how much money is just thrown into the wind when it comes to infrastructure. since trump is a builder, i really would like to see him get into the nuts and bolts of the way that stuff is built in this country. you. thank this headline, before the whiteg the blue up at the house, the gas tax for infrastructure spiking fears of political backlash. of course since the story was written, the president, nancy pelosi, senator chuck schumer, a meeting that lasted all of three minutes with the president saying that as long as congress investigates, he will not legislate, so any plans for infrastructure at the moment are very much on hold. would you pay more on federal gas taxes to fix america's roads and rail lines?

good morning, what's your take on this? myler: good morning, you are favorite host to an through, great to see you. i agree with the president, we need to do something about infrastructure. the gas tax i have a fleet -- i have a few problems with. it's not a simple tax, it extends into various sectors of our economy. raising the cost of things that we will have to pay for. in thetwo, the tension middle east. things are uneasy in the middle east right now with iran. and, producer. if they decide to raise prices gas taxwe will have a in conjunction with the rays on oil prices, it could get really out of hand. host: seven, thank you for the call. another tweet him of you are -- -- viewer -- from this headline

, "two of the candidates who voted to raise the gas tax in the last 35 years, bernie sanders and joe biden. stephen joining us from oregon, good morning. i just kindorning, of want to make it clear, i'm going to explain a couple of things. the town that i live in, the city just raised my water bill, ok? the school district wants to raise my taxes to build a new school. ok? now the federal government wants to raise the taxes to pay for roads. ok? that have a lady at work makes $15 per hour and she is supporting a kid. ok? bill, these taxes on her she's going to have to pay more for rent because she has got to pay the water bill.

it's, you know, house and property taxes go up. every year it seems like. she has got to pay more for that and now you want to charge her for gas? every time people say what i can pay a little more, you are also taxing the poor. ok? these taxes hit the people making $15 per hour. if you can afford to pay the taxes, send your money in, ok? help us out down here. ok, steve. going to john, sebring, saying no to raising the federal gas tax. we should point out, there is not a proposal on the table, we are just asking for your opinion. would have to look for a way to a pay for it, whether it is now in the coming years -- or in the coming years. not too many months ago

these socialist democrats said they didn't want to put on an id card because people couldn't even get the gas to get to the voting polling place. now they want to put a gas tax on everybody. this is the socialism coming out of them. two years ago there was an , i've seen it, if i can find it here minute ago, these illegal aliens is getting $535 billion a year of benefits off the taxpayers. 35 or not even counting $23 billion on the child income credit that they get off the taxpayers. if you figure it out, six years, 10 years, that's like $6

trillion. host: john, thank you for the call. mylan burke with this tweet -- you can write or do something tout it, iowa citizens voted raise the gas tax a few years back, we are getting it done. murray, thank you for waiting. go ahead. caller: good morning, steve. how are you? of these right-wingers calling and expressing the idea that you will not pay taxes in this country. he will pay taxes. the only thing is what your taxes will be go to -- going towards. further than that, your income taxes are going to be raised. more specifically, the income taxes on those who are very wealthy will be raised. that is going to be directed towards more health care for everyone. the last thing that i want to acknowledge is that i'm sick of

these both sides equivalencies coming from the corporate media. it was not nancy pelosi that tried to express some degree of and nowhere near the equivalence of the person in the white house. no food fight going on. there's one side trying to andess these crazy bromides nasty criticisms. like the person in the white house. it's not you, obviously, c-span, but you are owned by corporate entities. regardless of the situation, it's not both sides. raise the gas tax, raise income taxes, pay for the things that we need is a country. we are going to do those things eventually. host: thank you for the call. we are not owned by corporate entities, we are funded by the

cable subscription system. we are independent from any influence, if you have watched us over the last 40 years as we celebrate the start of our 41st year, you will see that we are direct, fair, and balanced without an agenda, but thank you for the call. this is from the front page of "the washington post," the "nancy pelosi backers saying that she showed up the president. too many democrats, house speaker antifa losey scored a victory over trump this past incenseding him so that he hurled insults at her and blew up negotiations on the one issue that held promise of a rare bipartisanship deal, infrastructure. withresidents allies, pelosi having a growing number demanding that she launch a

impeachment inquiry, a move that would give the president of fresh argument that he's a victim of overzealous democrats incapable of legislating and only interested in investigation. that story is available online. craig joins us from rancho santa margarita, good morning. caller: let's say no on the gas tax. just seems to me that we are weing more and more and don't have an accountability of where the money is actually going people that don't make a lot of money are going to basically wind up paying more than the people that have a lot of money. thank you. another tweet from of you are saying -- harry is joining us. good morning, from michigan. good morning.

i live in the place in the nation that has the worst roads and no one seems to care. every time we get on the road, the car rate. the local township, having to raise taxes so that they can pay for their own roads, that's embarrassing. youive in this country when can drive down the road anymore? i don't know what's going on in this country. i don't know. for 5g isbattle inside of time magazine and the controversial company helping china control the future of the internet. that's available online at time.com. let's go on to john in berwickshire, pennsylvania, good morning. i would like to make a few comments based on what i heard listening to c-span over the years. a few years ago they were saying how many trillions of dollars were parked offshore that the corporations would not bring back. host: right.

the discussion about that was that the democrats wanted to use that money either for infrastructure or to pay down the debt. now we have given all of the corporations a great big tax cut, the money has come back and it all went to the corporations. i called in this station i believe the last time the you steve forbes on this program and i said to him at that time -- i said the only republican president that balanced budgets in the last 90 years was dwight eisenhower. did it by taxing the richest people in america at 91%. he never let that go below 91% and he balanced budgets and pay down the national debt. steve forbes's response to me after i hung up was -- well, that's true, but in those days they had a lot of deductions.

heard,ow i have listening to this program, that amazon, the richest corporation in america, would not have paid any taxes before trump's big corporate tax-cut. don't tell me that these corporations don't have deductions today. thank you very much for taking my call. you forsolutely, thank the call. 7:30 here in the east, another half hour of your files and comments. we welcome listeners and viewers on c-span radio, coast-to-coast on sirius xm, or this free c-span radio app. we also carried on potus channel 124 every sunday. there is so much going on in britain, where we are aired on the parliament channel, including the resignation of theresa may. the president will be in france early in june to commemorate the

anniversary of the d-day invasion. weekly,"span's "the harry miller is in his 90's, he was 15 when he signed up to join the army and was part of the battle of the bulge. one of the bloodiest battles in world history. hope you tune into "the weekly," available on the c-span radio podcast and at. this tweet andth a dig at former president barack obama -- host: this from the american society of civil engineers on what it's to be done, a summary of the recommendations of that organization, "the u.s. has been underfunding the highway system for years, resulting in an $836 billion backlog of highway and

bridge capital needs, the bulk of it $420 billion is in repairing existing highways and another $123 billion is needed for bridge repair and $167 million is needed for system enhancement that includes a safety enhancements, operational improvements and environmental projects." up is christina, joining us from miami, florida, good morning. go ahead, christina. yes, hi, i watch all of , and as far as protections on gasoline, taxon gasoline is very inflationary. it goes onto the backs of the consumer and then increased -- increases the cost of , passing on the

higher cost for those products. the consumer would be billed twice. tax is very inflationary to the economy. both in the past, the future, and the present. host: thank you. this tweet -- is joining us next from ocean, new jersey. good morning. yes, good morning. i believe that we shouldn't raise the gas tax. because of the fact that the time passed when they raised the gas tax. what happens is the business owner, they raised their prices,

to. meaning we will be paying more for food and for everything else . they declared they had to raise their prices, too. that it will be wrong -- will be long before we are able to afford to pay for our infrastructure. social security, get that straightened out. i don't think that we should do the gas tax, you know? you have to think, you know, in the long run. in the future when you make decisions, especially when you are taxing the people like this. host: diane, thank you for the call. tray with this tweet --

host: send us your tweet at [video clip] .- send us your tweet, @cspanwj jerry, new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning, everybody. i do not believe we should raise the gas tax. i live in new jersey, one of the highest taxed states in the country, ridiculous. you know, we had tolls put in because we were told that would help. and then the lottery was supposed to help. that was going to raise all kinds of money to help. where is the money going? i don't get it. i don't think that you can put more money in the hands of these politicians. it's going to get lost. you've got bob cassio's wife in new york, they don't know where the money went. the government loses money and they just keep replenishing it and losing it.

you talk about obama bus infrastructure, it's true. all the money that he had, name one thing that it went to. you would emphasize that, i would appreciate it. as far as c-span being here, can you please, "new york times," "washington post," very negative. are there any positive articles? and if there isn't, it just goes to show you how biased they are. thank you. jerry, new jersey. on the infrastructure subcommittee that deals with roads and bridges, his take on whether or not the federal gas tax should be. [video clip] >> the gas tax was a wonderful infrastructure in the 20th century, but i drive electric cars now, i'm not paying my fair share. the gas tax is going to have to

go away and get replaced. we have some choices. the vehicle miles traveled tax. that doesn't mean that someone tracks you every day of the week. might mean that you turn it than -- that you turn in a form once per year. user fee that pays for highways. i think it's important that we keep it as a user fee. taxes are things that someone else pays so that we can benefit. i'm in favor of that. host: that is from "washington journal," republican from georgia. this from john, a tweet -- host: ray is joining us from holland, texas, good morning.

i was calling and about the taxes on the gas and i don't think they need to tax the gas more. i think what they need to be taxing is your for star and five-star restaurants. the rich, they are not going to cook a meal. they are the ones who can afford high out and go to all the for looting places -- highfalutin places. a table? that's a whole weeks of pay. i can think of a lot of other places to tax and get that money. thank you for the call. jodey with this tweet --

host: again, the last time taxes went up was back in 1993, when bill clinton was in the white house. haven, saying yes, increase the federal gas tax. why? are you with us question mark caller: hello? -- are you with us? caller: yes. i believe that we should raise the gas tax. but i also think that we should be raising taxes on a lot of other things, to. we should be instituting a tax on lotteries, you know? choosing much higher taxes on things like booze and cigarettes and e-cigarettes.

other things that we don't need to. dale, wakefield, louisiana, your take? caller: yes. line, ialled on the yes got a busy signal. called on the no line, finally got through host:. so what is your view -- through. host: so what is your view? yes or no? caller: my view is no. if you want to be fully in a write about manner, what you ask people who own cars who have to commute to make a living every day? a lot of the people you are taking calls from, they take the subway. do you take the subway? host: i do not, i drive.

you commute? how much do you commute? a few miles or 70 or 80 miles? work, i liveob i in a rural community in louisiana. the industry is 70 miles away. i have to drive between 100 and 120 miles every day to and from work. you are next. chesapeake, virginia, good morning. caller: good morning, steve. i worked in highway construction my entire life. back in the day, my grandfather and a group of pretty smart guys came up with a fuel tax to finance highway construction. , the money for the highway construction has been corrupted by different

social entities within the government. in my area, they came up with the hampton roads transportation planning organization, a federally mandated organization. well, what they have done is they have taken the highway amtrak,d put it into light rail, and especially the socialist bus company. that is where all the money is going. now we have tolls all around town. all of that would have been on this -- we have $1 billion wasted on a light rail system that has almost nobody writing it. the different branches of transportation should be separated and be able to stand on their own. bob, thank you for the

call. robert atkinson talking about that issue, here with one of the about we covered talking different modes of transportation and how to pay for american infrastructure. let's watch. [video clip] >> a lot of different variations, the system we would argue for is that the car itself has an onboard computer, we all have these now. through that system, the car through a where it is gps, one way gps signal, it would have downloaded the prices of the road that it's on and it would calculate those charges where it driving and it would send the money every month to the relevant jurisdictions. in my case, we don't have a bicycle road user charge, which i've always advocated for, but occasionally i will drive and for example if i drove this

morning i would have to pay some fees in maryland and i would have paid something to the district of columbia. i wouldn't have paid anything to the federal government. you can argue how this works, but i didn't drive on an interstate. that's how the system would work . the benefits? they are twofold. one, as i said before, a way to get high mileage with no gasoline cars to pay. the second is the ability to use pricing. agreement vast, vast among transportation economists to study this. if we could move to congestion pricing, we would genetically reduced injection and significantly increase the amount of capital to improve performance in the u.s. back your phone calls. temperance, michigan, jim, you say no to raising the gas tax. why? because the reasons they

are having problem is the tax cut. if you put the tax thing back, we would have the money. that's the reason. host: go ahead, jim. are you with us? bill, who hasn to this tweet -- host: paul, your next, what do you say? caller: i think no. host: why? if they would just stop with all of the illegal immigrants getting all the free health care and shutting down the border to just legal immigrants and save that money and quit sending this money to other countries to help them out , we would have enough money to pay down the debt and to start roads. i don't understand these people

want to raise taxes on the most rich. they are the ones bringing the jobs to us. and then taxing the roads? in thisenough money country, we could stop all the illegal stuff and then we would have the money. thank you for the call. if you say yes, time to raise the federal gas tax, give us a call at (202) 748-8000. and if you say no, (202) .48-8001 the president did have a very brief meeting to look at infrastructure. it was a $2 trillion proposal. house and senate democrats looking for a way to pay for it. had the plan gone through it would have been used to prevent bridges, asads and well as wastewater infrastructure, modernizing the power grid and expanding broadband in underserved areas. that was the proposal, a two trillion dollar package. the question was -- how was the president going to pay for it? in the moment it's -- at the

moment it's in limbo because of this agreement issues between the president and house democrats. dave joins us from jensen beach, florida. i don't we should raise it. i know we shouldn't. when you build a building or a house, if it's not done in time, the city starts to find you everyday. i say that if the lawmakers in washington don't get on board, i say that they should be fined every day until things start getting past. incentive.n we would be making money and getting stuff done. that's my thought. thank you for the call. mark is joining us next from oregon. go ahead. caller: yeah, i'm in favor of raising the tax. i'm a retiring contractor here. i have seen the prices on all of the materials go off and we have some real bad roads here on the

oregon coast. we get massive crowds of roads caving in. they are more expensive to build and maintain. we deserve the best roads in the world and it will be a lot more that.to do that's just what it is. that's my opinion. thank you. for the call.u jim, south carolina, you say no to the idea. why? caller: yes, sir. the government has demonstrated that they are chronically irresponsible with the money entrusted to them. they have squandered money time and time again. they have redirected money that was designed for specific issues that they felt needed to be addressed, but they are irresponsible and i don't believe that we should continue to, until they become responsible, that we should continue to provide this kind of tax for them to raise our gas tax.

thank you for the call. as we sat at the top of the program, the president is in japan for a four-day visit, he heads back to the u.s. on tuesday for a meeting with trade executives. he's also at a sumo wrestling event today. then he is back on the road later in the week as he travels to the u.s. air force academy for a commencement speech next thursday and then off to europe d-day celebrations commemorating the historic ofasion, 75 years ago, june 1944, the turning point in the war. the president traveled to england, including meetings with theresa may, hosted by queen elizabeth and her husband, and then on to france for the ceremonies there posted by president macron. clarita, california, good morning, what is your view on raising the gas tax? oh, it's absolutely incorrect.

back in 2017 governor brown put on the voting registration thing vote in a gas tax of $.12 per gallon, per gallon. they also released the registration for cars. so now i'm paying $200 a year to register a 25-year-old chevrolet. it doesn't make any sense whatsoever. meanwhile, while this was going on, republicans found out that those 56, $56 billion, was hidden away for emergency services that they could have used to fill in the -- whatever you want to call it, the roads, the bridges. it was there and they didn't need to use it. now they are using the money and they kept that 56 billion dollars hidden away.

they are using that money for anything that comes along, whatever it is. host: chris, thank you. this from another viewer -- is joining us from columbus, georgia. good morning. caller: i'm opposed to the gas tax as well. taxed on everye single thing that we purchase. .verything that we use i think the vast majority of individuals would agree. we are probably overtaxed. as a nation. but more so, the thing that really concerns me, i listened commentary that

you had from various politicians talking about this and how they would implement it. one of them mentioned some tracking device or, you know, using the computer systems in the technology that we have, the gps, what have you. that really sounds like someone knowing every single place that know, and inl, you turn every aspect of your life, you know? big brothers watching -- come on, man, we need to be really careful in how we implement things. there's no doubt in my mind. one of your other callers mentioned that we are going to be taxed. i agree. prettyeral government much does what it wants, you know? then you've got this other state thing going on.

i think a lot of us are really just oblivious to what's going on. you for the, thank call. a reminder, check out c-span 2's look tv this long holiday weekend. 72 hours of nonfiction books going into monday. a reminder, the house and senate is in recess for the memorial day week, back in early june. a house needs to vote on a package that was delayed because of procedural moves by house republicans. the bill that passed in the , this is a tweet from another viewer --

host: from buffalo, new york, kenneth, good morning. caller: i think the gentleman who proposed pricing, that's a good idea. there's always a decrease in usage. that's what we need in this country. car, butnce, i have a i have a bus card and a bicycle. most people have to start talking about that. they're using climate change as users, but however if that's not

enough, this is the richest country in the world. my question is, where's the money? for the call.u this question from liz -- host: john is joining us from north carolina. caller: good morning. what i think is if trump would reverse those tax cuts he gave to the rich, we could get a good start on paying for infrastructure. thank you, john. from brian --

quincy, michigan, brent, your thoughts? caller: the republican strategy as always is to let me by your vote of the tax cut and they do it because it works. $28 billion in subsidies were given to the farmers to make up for the losses because of the tariffs. i suggest they google jeff koons rabbit, just sold by managing's for $80 million. yeah, $80 million. host: i hadn't heard that. caller: just google jeff koons

rabbit. of him see a picture with a smile on his face and a big chrome rabbit. sold for -- actually, $90 million. host: lot of money, 80 or 90. thanks for calling from michigan. kenneth is next. talladega, good morning. hi, yes. i'm calling and saying no to the tax cut. raising the taxes? i think this is ridiculous. all of those in washington or whatever, they need to step down, america needs to put something down that works for the country. or for democrat.

taxes, taxes, it's the working. host: with what you pay right now for a gallon of gas, federal taxes, 18.4 cents per gallon. 24 point five cents per gallon on highway diesel fuel, the annual tax is on vehicle usage on america's roads and bridges, but also trucks and trailers. in texas we have to our cars. we haveegistration fee a tax on gasoline. you cannot get her car registered unless you can go to

that everything is working, it happened about three years ago. we are tax, tax, tax. we have construction on roads peopledges with all the moving into texas. for those people that talk about and those we are paying for free stuff, they are out of their minds. go along the, border. it's an absolute lie. we already being taxed. we don't need to be anymore. i want to say to the veterans, have a great day. in honor of that first young man who was an undocumented, his family from el paso, the first one to die in the iraqi war,

don't know where they service ay nephew, who died in iraq in 2005, i want to honor those veterans. host: thank you. i'm sorry about the loss of your nephew and all of those on memorial day a moment of silence and prayer and thought for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. we will have live coverage tomorrow. the president paying his respects late last week before heading to japan. he did so on thursday. out west in california, long beach, what do you say? caller: i want to thank c-span for giving us this platform to voice our opinion. my thought is those people that aren't going to pay any taxes are going to be the people that are least -- that have the least amount of money to pay taxes. i live in long beach, california

and 90% of the politicians who drive cars have california sponsored cars. we pay for their cars, the fuel. they drive those cars all over the place and we pay the tax, not them. i definitely say no to any new taxes until they decide to take the money that we give them now and spend it appropriately. host: thanks for the call. joe has this tweet, abolish the gas tax is what he says. tax each state for their infrastructure. they decide to tax their own residence on how to pay for it. 20/20 coverage as we check in on key battleground states including michigan. -- including pennsylvania. we are going to focus on michigan and iowa also new hampshire and florida.

later in the program we will and our attention to china a reminder c-span's newsmakers program follows the washington journal our guest is bill wells -- bill weld he talks about his policy differences with the president as he challenges donald trump in the republican primary in 2020 and some of these issues beyond the legal problems facing the president. here's a portion of that conversation. [video clip] >> on immigration i think we need more work visas, not fewer. that does not mean i want open borders. i know that in the western part of the states you talk to any governor west of texas and they will tell you they can't have the agricultural and construction industries without the additional labor that comes up over the mexican border. they are not all from mexico. they may be from other countries.

for example, canada has a successful guestworker program. they follow the season. the construction season or growing season and work for four months in canada and go back home. the notion that everyone who overstates their visa by 10 days in the united states is aiming to become an american citizen is a strawman to scare people into thinking there are 11 million people who will jump ahead of them in line and get benefits of citizenship without waiting. on china, i had high hopes for xi jinping. i thought he might have been more market oriented, in fact he was. he has gone right back to favoring the state owned enterprises that he said he was going to move in a market direction and that essentially is unfair trade because they and itese huge subsidies is not free-trade by any stretch of the imagination. , i've traveled abroad,

and africa, china is beating our brains in because they come in yousay i'm going to build the infrastructure you need and all i want is a five year requirements contract for all of your cobalt and copper and platinum and palladium and countries go for it because the u.s. is not organized along those lines. i think we have to be tough with china. sometimes it's good to be tough. i don't think it's good to think it's good tognore

insult allies and ignore them. 7:00 for those of you on the west coast. joining us from lancaster, pennsylvania is terry madonna with franklin and marshall college as the director of the center for politics and public affairs. things for being with us. we appreciate it. guest: thanks for having me. host: uphold came out recently showing in a head-to-head race between donald trump and former vice president joe biden the former vice president would beat him by more than double digits. what does that tell you about the state of play in pennsylvania? guest: in large part it has to do with the president's job performance which in pennsylvania in the franklin and marshall college poll, about 34% positive. that is the president's job approval. that is exactly where a guy named barack obama, president obama, was at the same time in

his presidency in the state of pennsylvania. the difference here is really profound. as i think you know, joe biden was born in scranton. he has scranton roots. talking about scranton, pennsylvania. he moved to delaware when he was 10. became u.s. senator elected in 1972. he served for 36 years and here is the key. joe biden visited pennsylvania frequently during his senate asrs but perhaps equally important, the state of delaware does not have commercial television so joe biden was covered by the philadelphia media market, the fourth largest market in the country. so routinely joe biden was in philadelphia, southeastern pennsylvania and into the lehigh valley on regular basis. the late senator arlen specter used to refer to his friend

senator biden as pennsylvania's third senator that did not always make republicans happy. host: you mentioned president trump who made i believe his 48th visit both as a candidate and now as president. part of the central state from where you are at and the president making reference to joe biden. let's watch. >> a great state beautiful state. the people are tough and strong and smart. my know them well. , joe biden deserted you. i guess he was born here but he left you. he left you for another state. remember that please. i meant to say that. this guy talks about i know scranton. he left you for another state and he did not take care of you

because he did not take care of your jobs. he let other countries come in and rip off america. that does not happen anymore because we are going to make america wealthy again. strong again. we are going to make america safe again and we will make america great again. thank you very much. the president last monday. as you heard that from president trump, your reaction? guest: of course he left the state, he was a boy. he was 10 years old. he had no choice but to leave when his dad moved to delaware ultimately getting into the automobile business. he still has a distant cousin there. he visits the state as i indicated earlier. he goes back to scranton.

he had no choice in the matter. he grew up with his family and wilmington, delaware. then the president went on to talk about, i guess he was referring to trade, which he does frequently, the bad trade , very effectively used by the way into thousand 16.

into thousand 16. donald trump is president of the states.states largely because -- the presidential election. 2016 let's go back to the election. donald trump with 48 point 2%, hillary clinton with 47.5% and donald trump beating clinton by just over 44,000 votes. how does that set up the president in his reelection bid in 2020? regardless of who the democrats nominate. guest:guest: we are still a little way off as you and your

viewers know so it is hard to predict. the way i put it, i don't think you can rule out that donald trump cannot win the presidency. we don't know what's going to happen with the democratic nomination. 23 candidates have a long way to go. we don't know what the economy will look like. we don't know what the situation will be in foreign policy. in my state i think i will not rule out that donald trump could not carry the state again. i'm not predicting it. i'm merely saying at this point you cannot make a judgment as to whether trump can win or lose state.te we are going to have to wait and see how it plays out --

candidates drop down pretty close at this point it is too early to fully determine who is likely to carry pennsylvania. host: i want to get your reaction to this piece by dan majors. looking at the age of some of the front runners for the democrats and the age of the that -- the age of the president. he writes it is entirely possible -- he was 70 years old the oldest man ever elected to a first term. next year he will turn 74, a year older than ronald reagan was when he began his second term. leaders in the race for the democratic nomination former vice president joe biden, 76, senator bernie sanders, 77 and senator elizabeth warren, who turns 70 next month.

your view. guest: no doubt about it age is an issue. directlymocratic -- but there is not any doubt -- here's the way i look at this. 75 could be the new 55 if you take a look at joe biden's support base is among voters over 45 more heavily with voters over 45 whether we are talking about african-americans for caucasians. so he does have a strong support base but here's the way i think about this. is the democratic party ready for a generational change? is the time for a new generation arrived? we saw that with bill clinton with baby boomers. we saw that back in 1960 with john f. kennedy. somethinge, that is particularly on the democratic side they are going to have to

work their way through, whether it is generation as well as ideology meaning progressive democrats versus the centerleft, which of these arguments prevails? we don't know yet but age could be a factor. what happens if bernie sanders or elizabeth warren or joe biden have a health problem that emerges in the next year and a half i could materially affect the way voters view the campaign? host: a good point because if you look at john kennedy, jimmy carter, bill clinton and barack obama, four of the last five democratic candidates were not the front runner getting the nomination and winning. guest: that is right. i am hedging my bets so to speak. with 23 people in the race we have the first of the democratic debates engine -- in june. the process has a long way to go. something else to think about,

when donald trump ran for the presidency, there were 17 republicans totally in the race. he went on to win. let's take a look at the democrats. the largest feel the democrats have had up to this point, 1976. jimmy carter emerged to win the nomination and also the presidency. my point being the size of the field does not necessarily mean that you are going to lose just because you might have battles going on between both sides between the various candidates you don't yet know how nasty it will get. we don't know if the generational divide that you accurately bring up, the ideological differences will emerge. how bitter the campaign will be. it seems to me given the lead that biden has, that some way, his rivals ultimately don't have to go after him probably for past votes some of which -- some of which he cast back in the

1980's and 1990's are now controversial. votes having to do with crime for example. votes having to do with his days as chair of the senate judiciary committee particularly when clarence thomas was up for his nomination to the supreme court and the grilling that took place of anita hill so there are lots of issues when he served in the senate for 36 years where someone who has a long tenure like bernie sanders that younger democrats can ultimately use against them. host: terry madonna is the director for the center of politics and public affairs joining us from lancaster, new hampshire stationed at franklin and marshall college we check in with him during presidential election years and my guess is we will be doing so again moving into 2020. guest: my pleasure. host: the headline from the new york times as senator bernie sanders is no longer the front runner bringing his campaign back home to vermont.

he was in montpelier vermont. a reminder phone lines are open. democrats at (202) 748-8000. for republicans, (202) 748-8001. i line for independence -- we have a line for independents at (202) 748-8002. tell us what you think as we gear up for the primary and caucus processes. the candidates front and center including senator bernie sanders in his home state of vermont yesterday. [video clip] >> we were the first state in .he country to outlaw slavery part of thea major underground railroad. we were the first state in the country to mandate public .unding for universal education more recently, we were the first

state whose legislature voted to legalize same-sex marriage. proud that vermont is a state which over the years has held its head high in the struggle for human freedom and that i and is a state know will continue to do so. host: senator bernie sanders and vermont. we carried it live yesterday. robert, from tuscaloosa, alabama. good morning. caller: great conversation with you and the gentleman talking about the candidates and the age. i am 82 years old. i have lost a lot of energy. a former school teacher and administrator. we need somebody who is young. here is a guy i'm looking at.

i think it's tim ryan from ohio. this guy seems to me he has a lot on the ball. i believe he would make a great president. there are other people who may be great. i believe elizabeth warren would. kamala harris. this gentleman, he is caucasian in america. not goingf color is to be elected again soon. but i believe the gentleman from ohio has a lot and he could move the country forward and he does not seem to be prejudiced toward people of color or different ethnic groups. i'm looking forward to him coming out of the pack in the future. thank you. host: we go to betty in waukegan, illinois. caller: good morning. you're my favorite, steve. i am an 80-year-old african-american born and raised in greenville, south carolina in

1939. you know what i went through. anyway, donald trump scares me. i have grandchildren, great-grandchildren and there was a time you wanted your family to watch the political but i don't even want my kids to watch donald trump. at his rallies sometimes there will be about three african-americans in the crowd. arer than that, all of them caucasians i guess i would use that word. theld trump, he's just not one. but anyway, thank you. have a good holiday. host: betty, you two. -- you too. in his stop in vermont's tiny capital it was to be a homecoming. it served as something of a

reset for his campaign. for months mr. sanders enjoyed the status of front runner holding big rallies to demonstrate his strength and barely deviating from his antiestablishment message even if advisors are urged him to talk more about himself. with the entrance of former vice president joe biden in a crowded 2020 democratic field mr. sanders is running second by double digits in most national polls. campaign aides are content for now senator sanders to sit in second place there have been signs of a battle to come. senator sanders has launched a series of broadsides against the former vice president attacking him for his history of supporting free-trade measures and for voting for the war in iraq. let's go to lester in oregon. good morning. caller: how are you this morning? host: fine, thank you. caller: i believe we should vote peopleple -- hearing

complaining about democrats and republicans. we should complain by writing complaininghem and to the democrats and republicans what we think. i'm tired of being taxed on everything. they raised my taxes to $3200 a year. i'm not picking on her but i instead should complain of people complaining like on tv here i think we should complain by writing letters. host: thanks. let's go to ohio. republican line. good morning. caller: the thing i'm the most concerned about with the democratic party is when you listen to them talk, their whole

agenda is revenge. that is what they talk about, spend the american taxpayer dollar so they can do investigation after investigation on donald trump. that does not seem like a cohesive conversation for the democrats to have to try to become president of the united states. the fact that the whole ideology of socialism is coming strongly into play, we are a capitalist country and we have success because of that. people that are asking for socialism in my personal opinion that they are clueless what it is or they would never ask or it because it is a destructive form of cover meant. -- of government. i'm hoping they have enough wherewithal to actually debate the conversation instead of what they keep doing. host: we will go to william from henderson, north carolina. caller: my name is william.

i think a democrat would be better because he keeps getting caught in lies. countless lies. think to be honest with you are younger opponent -- host: we are getting some feedback. if you get through be sure to turn that volume down. justin is joining us from case western reserve university he serves as an associate professor of political science in cleveland, ohio. things for being with us. is ohio surely a battleground state anymore or is it more solidly republican when it comes to national elections? battleground. it tends to lean republican probably by a little bit but it is a battleground. it is a state that is relatively

evenly divided which means it is a state that will tend to go whichever way national conditions tend to go. so when it is a year that is favorable for democrats it tends to go democratic. a year favorable for republicans tends to go republican. that is a sickly what a battleground state is. probably slightly republican by a small degree but it is a battleground state. host: i want to go to a story getting attention from the new york times. this is the headline. no boom town in youngstown, ohio. but blue-collar workers are sticking with trump. why? guest: i think it is a mischaracterization to talk about blue-collar workers overall. there are a couple of divides in politics. one is economic but another is racial.

if you look at voters and economics, one of the important observations is that, overall, people who make more money tend to be more republican but that is contextual. one of the important findings in partisanship and voting behavior is people who are wealthier tend to be more republican, more likely to vote republican, but that affect is stronger in poor souths, areas like the and wealthier places like connecticut, that effect is much weaker based on research by a statistician named andrew gilman. there is also a significant racial effect. whites are more likely to be republican than african-americans. when people talk about this blue-collar affect in places like youngstown what they are really talking about is a racial effect, not economic.

people who make more money tend to be more republican although there is a contextual effect. there is also a racial effect and it's important not to confuse the two and not to say blue-collar when what we really mean is white. host: when you teach millennial ageents, does the issue of come up in terms of the age of bernie sanders or joe biden versus mayor pete buttigieg or tim ryan in their 30's or 40's? guest: it does come up but right now it is hard to make any kind of assessment. it is really too early to figure out where these candidates stand in the 2020 race because right now what's happening is a very crowded field and between now and the actual primaries and caucuses a lot of these candidates are going to drop out before we ever get to the votes being cast and it's difficult to

figure out which candidates are going to drop out. so whether or not age is going to play much of a factor in which candidates drop out i don't know and by the time we get to votes being cast i have no idea which candidates are going to be left in the field. host: does congressman tim ryan have a path or a lane that would make him a viable contender in 2020? guest: i strongly doubt it. host: why? guest: first of all, historically, members of the house don't tend to make it that far. second of all, if you look at the other candidates in the field, one of the big distinction factors for candidates who make it through that winnowing process is that it is about garnering media attention. the candidates who get media attention, make it through the process -- the candidates who garner media attention make it through that winnowing process and get to the primaries and

caucuses. candidates who cannot garner media attention do not make it through the process. it is difficult to see what it is about ryan that will garner that media attention particularly when there are higher profile candidates. you saw what happened when joe biden made his formal announcement. there are other candidates who are doing a better job getting the attention for a variety of reasons. elizabeth warren is getting media attention, pete buttigieg, there are other candidates getting media attention. i have no idea what it is about ryan that would get media attention amid a field of over 20 candidates. i just don't see much of a path. stranger things have happened but right now the question is who gets media attention and who doesn't and i have no idea what it is about ryan that is likely

to get media attention. host: with cleveland being a strong democratic area and cincinnati a much stronger republican area, what is the swinging it -- the swinging part of ohio, the bellwether? guest: looking for a bellwether region is not really the right thing to do. do. tends to happen what tends to happen regionally is that --

joining us from cleveland. thank you for being with us. back to your phone calls from franklinton, louisiana, joy, you are next. caller: how are you? host: fine thank you. caller:caller: i want to say a few things. instead of spending all of spending all this money on trying to do this with trump, investigating, we could have did a lot. we spent a lot of money doing that. because something is wrong with them. host: richard you are next. st. petersburg, good morning. air.e on the

caller: good morning. my question is. let the american people speak. let's not let the house and senate speak. for over two years we had the president in ther and the housee can't get together, how can anybody expect person that's senate from the house or to run america? clinton in harris county, florida campaigning with the democrats in that state, urging them to flip the state from a republican state to a democratic state and also taking aim at the issue of immigration and the death of a number of young children along the border. [video clip] >> if this administration were serious about solving it instead of politicizing it, they would

stop the cruel abuses at the border. they would do everything in their power to ensure that there is a fair process in place that protects people's fundamental rights as well as legal rights. they would create a system to track the whereabouts of families so children don't get separated from their parents and maybe never reunited. right now, congress would be figuring out how to pass comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship, and that is not a pipedream. that was the bill that sat in congress for years and passed in the senate less than six years ago. dr. residents, like the young man we saw appear earlier, who grew up here, who see themselves as american with american respect for diversity and rights , should not have to live in fear of being returned to a nation they've never known.

host: hillary clinton, in houston campaigning with texas democrats. danny in atlanta, georgia. good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: doing fine. caller: this word socialism, the socialism is donald trump and his family. and now he's turning american farmers into socialist and welfare recipients. because of this incompetent trade policy. note, notpolitical one person in the obama administration was and dieted or went to jail. how many people have been indicted or went to jail in the trump administration? people forget that. not one person in the obama

administration was indicted or sent to jail. cut of.345 trillion tax taxpayer money, that was socialism going to the top 1%. these people kill me. they don't really understand about socialism. they are very quick to call the quick to call the democrats socialists. caller: good morning. thank you for your show so much. i wanted to bring up regarding the age. i feel it does not matter at this point with age. the main thing is we have viable candidates from both parties.

the vice president could be a younger person, obviously preferably female. some of your callers brought up about participating in politics. i can tell you that is a joke. i'm in north carolina. we have a republican faith level house. both of our senators are republicans in the senate. for years and years now i have been writing all levels asking for changes or to consider voting for things that i believe would support all of north carolina, not just my belief but generally speaking from the research i've done. it is personally a joke. all the politicians have blinders on. i don't know if they become corrupt once they get into that system. all i know is as a citizen my voice has been stifled. i would like to see from the primaries rather than this system of two states basically

deciding who's left in the across, a vote one day the united states. by the time they get to north weolina regardless of party have such a small selection left that i feel i've been left out of the process and that's it. thank you for the show and you have a wonderful sunday. host: thank you, deborah. dave, you are next little rock, arkansas republican line. caller: good morning. i have a problem with people making a point about president -- greatt the 2% policy for working people. why aren't there any wealthy african-americans complaining? benefitingcies are the working african-americans

however nonworking african-americans are making their complaints because they don't see trickle-down effect. we need to build the border and keep america strong. host: thank you for the comment. we go to pam in texas. caller: i'm doing great. -- i have to tell everybody god is in control of all -- , ii have to say about it is don't like the things that trump does. the young man said earlier where i'm more democrats --

-- ian-american and from agree with the other call i heard earlier. let the people speak. electoral votes that came out i don't really agree with that but whatever's going to happen is going to happen. that's all i have to say. let the people speak and we look to god and we need to come americanas one nation, . picking at this person and let the people -- because now the people are divided. thanks for the call from

longview, texas. this is the headline at politico,.com. florida takes shape as biden's firewall. it's available online at politico.com. thanks for being with us on c-span. we appreciate it. guest: thanks for having me. what are you hearing and seeing among florida democrats with the former vice president and the other candidates? guest: it's the way the photo democrats see the field, joe biden and everyone else. up by double digits in the state. florida does not have an early primary. however, if there are a number of candidates that wind up making it that far in the primary florida is shipping up to be a firewall for biden. in addition to the support in the polls you are seeing, largely name id driven, joe biden has also found a generous place for donations in florida

for contributors. he was here last week and during one fundraiser in orlando he might have cleared anywhere between 1.3 million dollars and $1.8 million. together hehem both may have totaled $2.2 million in contributions just for that swing. a lot of money for presidential campaign. host: something percolating in the democratic party circles, when he did the townhall meeting senator bernie sanders at 2.5 million viewers on fox news. this is the story from the boston globe elizabeth warren refusing fox news townhall appearances bucking a trend of the 2020 rivals. i want to share with the globe is reporting that senator warren reports she's refusing an invitation to appear on president trump's favorite tv channel bucking the trend of 2020 hopefuls appearing on the fox news townhall's to broaden their voter outreach.

she says "fox news is a hate for profit racket that gives a megaphone to racist and conspiracists." warren said in a series of -- about the nation's top rated cable news network positioning her to the left of her chief liberal rival in the race, bernie sanders who did appear. your reaction to all this, mark computer? guest:guest: elizabeth warren is running in a democratic primary and if you listen to voters it seems almost everything she says during the recent primary has made liberal hearts go pitter patter. elizabeth warren was the first want to clearly call for the impeachment of president trump. since then she has been slowly gaining support. it looks as if it is a wide strategy. positioned herself as being the conscience of the democratic

party. jan that there are practicality matters. there are a lot of democrats who do watch fox news. does everyone who watch fox news that she is who watches fox news a democrat will know it is one of, if not the highest cable rated new shows in the country --you are going to reach that is a captivated effort for opponents in may. host: donald trump defeating hillary clinton in the sunshine state by just over 110,000 votes getting 49% compared to 47.8%. florida,minded florida, florida with regard to the 2000 race. why is the state always so close? guest: it seems that just became a tradition after 2000. who knows what it is.

florida reflects the nation a little more shade -- a more red shade of purple. we had three general elections in a row with the republicans at the top of the tickets have won. florida is a dynamic place. a growing population of older retirees been here from the midwest or some might call the rust belt. you also have a burgeoning puerto rican population. people a number of already coming to florida from puerto rico because the economy was so bad. natural growth of the voter rolls. if you want to get real snapshot of the nation. it can sometimes help to pull florida. florida is a little more red shaded nowadays than it is blue shaded. that's not necessarily because there are more republicans in the state. the republican base has done a better job of showing up on election day.

.ost: mark caputo is joining us what lessons if any are there from the governor's race in florida? guest: that is a good question. theew gillum lost governor's race, tacitly knowledge the biggest problem he faced when he came out in the , he inherited a party with a bad turnout mechanism or apparatus. one of the mistakes the democratic party has done, it did not grow its voter rolls. president obama in 2008 and his 2012 campaigns, they made sure to help increase the florida voter rolls specifically voters of color and young voters. that proved to be the difference. in the years it did not happen, basically all the others, the democrats lost. what you're seeing now in florida is a renewed call from

andrew gillum and even michael bloomberg, former new york mayor , saying or have announced plans to have large voter registration , voter contact programs so that you don't see history repeat itself. florida being the nation's biggest swing state is a little more crucial for the republican to win the democrat to win. generally speaking at the democrat is going to win california and new york, two of the three largest states. if a democrat wins florida more than likely it means republicans can't win it. we see president trump has taken florida so seriously his campaign has broken of the nation in regions but in the southeast region florida is a separate region so it gives you an idea of how important florida is. host: in a crowded 2020 as an

eventual field is there a candidate you're keeping a close eye on that potentially could break true outside of those in the top tier right now? we talked about joe biden and senator sanders. kamala harris among the top three or four but who else do you think can break through? pete also came to florida on monday of last week and when he came, he had a pretty good fundraising himself. , $40,000from donors from onlookers at a small event in miami's midtown region. if you listen to democrats and pay attention to what mayor pete has been able to do, he has improved his standing and name identification. of thet in the beginning race for president name id is key and that is one of the

reason joe biden is dominating so much and so far. host: mark computer is joining aputo, wek com appreciate you being with us. kelly is joining us from santa clara, california. welcome to the program. caller: i want to support -- dissolute mr. president trump. thank you for such an awesome job he's doing. i want to know why clinton was allowed to abandon our soldiers and get people killed in the embassy and she has not been charged with treason. don't the people of the united states get tired of hearing the propaganda from the democrats and the way they do meet us down so much that we can't see the truth when it's in front of us? our education is so sad. you ask a child about the constitution they don't know

what the constitution is. i think it's time our teachers teach about the constitution and then we should be going back to a floating system when fuel goes upeverything else goes -- host: thanks for the call from california. leader, he was on the campaign trail over the weekend we also covered him at the washington post last thursday. conversation with robert costa. here's what the union leader is reporting about the mayor of south bend indiana now polling in the high single digits or low double digits. a primary states. saying president donald trump's consideration of pardoning convicted or suspected war criminals was slander against veterans. the mayor became the first 2020 hopeful to weigh in and criticized trump on the issue as a former navy reservist deployed to afghanistan for seven months back in 2014.

"you've got a president who faked a disability to get out of serving when it was his turn because he was the child of a millionaire. a president who also is pardoning war criminals who have been convicted by the military system of justice you and i know damn well would hold us accountable if we did something wrong. from belfast, new york. henry you are on caller: caller: the republican line. thank you for taking my call. and thank you for having a professor who is not a liberal on the line. citizen a natural born but an immigrant in 1959. i would ask the people who are knowocialism, whether they -- what the name nazis stands for. that was the national socialist

party in germany. i wonder whether they know what , theppening in venezuela richest country in the world and the -- one of the poorest i came to the united states as a military man. they sent me here to learn to fly airplanes and i served seven years in the dutch air force. one of the things i learned in my flight training here was the constitution. i loved the constitution in -- myison to the loyalty home country. we came to the united states and failed a vote.

i'm nearing age 90 and therefore my voice and the fact that we host: going toer move on but thank you. happy early birthday as you turn 90 and thank you for sharing your story as an immigrant from holland. we go to conway, missouri. you are next on the democrats line. caller: thank you very much for c-span. i want to talk about the wells fargo deal in san francisco. by athing was brought out consumers protection act written by elizabeth warren. it it brought them -- itught

brought the light on wells fargo. this is what i'm interested in. and i think she will bring about a calmness in this country. not only that but all over the world. your could she when in state of missouri? caller: i doubt it because we have -- he has never called for an audit on anything. int: you voted for trump 2016 and now you will vote for elizabeth warren in 2020? caller: i have given up on

trump. host: because? caller: i believed in the wall. some of the things he's done. he gave the military industrial military industrial complex without any question. i watch fox, cnn and msnbc. more.d i watch fox the bias i see on msnbc and cnn outweighs the bias on fox, at least on fox shepard smith, chris wallace, they are rather neutral.

i don't think shepard really cares for president trump. mark mcallen, even though she leans republican i find her to be neutral. sean hannity and tucker are very pro-trump as is judged -- judge jeanine puro. the hatred that comes out of disgusting.is all you have to do is research and look and see what they did with michael avenatti. they never came back and apologized. both msnbc and cnn treated michael like he was a god and now there is no mention of him. i wish that the republicans and the democrats and all of the pundits would do a little history searching. they like to criticize attorney general william barr. i want to point out one of the

things the democrats like to criticize about attorney general barr is that he is in president trump's pocket. and he is biased. doesn't anybody remember i was a big john f. kennedy fan. doesn't anybody recall that jfk had bobby kennedy, his brother as his ag? this is the headline from the milwaukee journal sentinel. trump-pence to wisconsin as both parties prepare for an epic 2020 fight. craig gilbert is the washington bureau chief for the bureau sentinel. thank you for being with us. just how ebix will 2020 be in the badger state? guest: it reminds me of 2004 where wisconsin was probably a top three or four state. the candidates were here all the time, saturated with television advertising. it turned out to be a close race

nationally and in wisconsin. all of that could repeat itself. everybody expects a quote -- a close race. be heavilys going to targeted by both sides. performance we had in three of the last five presidential races the state has been decided by less than a percentage point. host: 22,000 votes was the difference between donald trump's victory in wisconsin and it has been often mentioned that hillary clinton did not set foot in the state. as you talk to wisconsin democrats back in milwaukee, what are they telling you about the mistakes she made and lessons for 2020? guest: just the fact that democrats are holding their national convention in milwaukee in july of 2020 to give you the answer to the question, the party nationally and democrats

in wisconsin look back with great chagrin and regret at the fact that they kind of took the state for granted in 2016. hillary clinton, as anybody knows, did not campaign here during the general election phase, donald trump did. investments and get out the vote operations you would expect in a top ground state. i don't think anybody questions that is going to change. whoever the democratic nominee is, the state is going to be a huge target, particularly when you consider, along with michigan and pennsylvania these are three states that have been .oting democrat pretty closely pretty consistently until donald trump came along. host:host: with donald trump getting 47.2% of the vote in wisconsin, and i know this is water over the bridge but you

had a republican speaker of the house, a republican governor, why didn't the democrats take the state more seriously? host: the public polling and apparently private polling gave them a lot of confidence that they were going to carry wisconsin. i think some of that with the history of the state. some of that was donald trump's negatives in the public polling. donald trump had one of his worst primary contest in wisconsin in 2016. he lost to ted cruz late in the race. a fair amount of never trump sentiment in the republican party in wisconsin. in the end republicans consolidated behind him to a large degree not so much in the suburbs but in small towns and rural areas. from obama toft trump and a lot of small towns and rural counties that took people by surprise. it was almost freakish when you look at the history of the

state. you can look back and say the democrats were foolish taking the state for granted. the brought expectation on the part of republicans that they would lose the state. host: let me talk about one candidate in particular, senator amy klobuchar. she spent her birthday weekend in iowa campaigning for votes in the caucuses there. how would she potentially play out in wisconsin? primary wisconsin's primary is late in the process in april 2020 is going to depend on how she fares. it would depend on how she does in the earlier states and whether by the time wisconsin rolls around. in a general election scenario if she is a nominee, currently, you know, you would think it is it istive, you'd think being seen as a little more of

the centrist candidate, that that is a positive. not a well-known commodity. we do not have a lot to go on at this point. replacingelection scott walker, how significant was that and are there lessons for democrats? guest: it was significant. scott walker one for reelection and democrats kept boehner heads against the wall. they finally defeated him in part because donald trump is sitting in the white house and that was a very motivated -- motivating factor for democratic voters. it is also some significance, not huge, that there is a democratic governor instead of a republican governor. you noticed republicans had a really remarkable level of leadership in wisconsin. scott walker was a national figure. reince priebus became white

house chief of staff. paul ryan, they all directed resources and to wisconsin -- into wisconsin. that is kind of gone now. that is a negative for republicans. on the other hand, donald trump is the incumbent this time timed and has all of this to organize a campaign in states like wisconsin for the general election this year which he did not have last time here in terms do not know if i there are clear takeaways from tony's victory. tammy had a bigger victory in the u.s. senate in wisconsin and did fairly well in some rural republican care -- counties the donald trump carried in 2016. the lesson was she campaigned on the economy and health care and thatme crossover issues

donald trump talked about which was appealing to some voters outside of the democratic base. , our go to gilbert person when we want to find out what is happening in the midwest and wisconsin in particular. thank you for being with a spirit we appreciate it. guest: ice to be with you. 31 years ago, rolling thunder made its way to washington, d.c. final in the capital. , theirst who founded that founder and executive director of rolling thunder. thank you for being with us this memorial day sunday. flex thank you for having a

spirit it is the final one in washington dc. expensive, there's too much interference, running around this, that, and every thing else. spend our money more wisely than spending it down here. the increase of everything every year is entirely too much. it costs us to it or dollars to put this on. host: what you telling organizers for next year and beyond? our --we usually have last year, we had 90 chapters throughout the country. line withrs are in the spirit we will put events on throughout the country on the west coast, east coast, up north, down south, midwest. all over.

memorial day 2020 will be nationwide. i was infantry. host: the term rolling thunder refers to what? did inthe mission they north vietnam. the vivid her b-52 doing a bomb raid, it sounds at the same .hing goinglet's play the first thunder and get your reaction. >> in 1987, admitted vietnam that. we wanted to do something on the pow issue.

i have the idea to do a march. input in. to put our due to health reasons, ray had to leave and get out of it. around 1992 after the fourth run. this onen organizing had a lot of brothers who have helped me throughout the years to do this. back in 1995, we decided to turn it in to an organization because we have our power here on memorial day weekend, but we need to harness it to demand the united states government while we are here. , the sgt. artie muller very first rolling thunder now joining us live in washington, d.c. over the years, how many people have participated? guest: millions. i do not know how many this year but i that we have over one million people.

there are motorcycles everywhere you look, every hotel in every restaurant. all over washington, d.c. the pentagon, i think we are overflowed. are supposedly filling up the south watt this year. and every channel it worse comes to worse, we will turn 110 into a parking lot. host: what is going to your mind this morning? guest: i really proud of the veterans and supporters we had over the years. this year, those who have, in really full force. for those the government left behind. leave nonment says we man behind or woman behind in the military, but they have. is sad families never had the

closure to have loved ones come home. during the vietnam war. there was very heavy coverage during the war. at that time, they were bringing and of our pilots through they were all tied up and walking down the street with hands tied. people were throwing things at them. they knew who they were. they have them on tape. a lot of them never came home. where are they? down was a lot that went in cambodia. they never came back, neither. host: who do you blame? guest: the government not doing their job. they can account for money and equipment, but they don't account for our troops.

of bones fromlot different cemeteries from world well, yourseas, and know, that is all fine and good, but nobody really works on the issue, and i've had some ideas on a live issue through the years. here, if naftae those that are constantly fighting our president of the united states donald trump, if they put their energy to fighting, what happened to these prisoners of war missing in action, they would be doing some useful instead of costly battle and someone who has been doing something very good for the country and is really trying to work things out with north korea, with the head of north korea, because we have to have peace.

we don't need a war with north korea. we need peace. he has set down and talked to that man. he has gotten the man to loosen up a little and come out of north korea for the first time in all of these ears. no other president has ever done that. i tip my hat to that -- i take my hat off to that man. he has to a lot of good for the country. he has put people back to work. and that is the way should be. host: let me share with you this tweet from president trump. he said, the great patriots of rolling thunder will be coming back to washington dc next year and hopefully many years to come. it is where they want to be and where they should be. have a wonderful time today. thank you for the great men and women of the pentagon for working it out. well, i know he means well.

story isnow what the with them working it out with us. there would have to be a lot of discussion and a lot of changes for everybody who comes here and our organizations that help with this together. sgt. artie muller, now retired from the army and the founder and executive director director of the rolling thunder event taking place in washington, d.c. thank you for being with us. and thank you for your service and all of those who are in service of the military on memorial day weekend. we will take a short break and when we come back, china, japan, trade. michael will be joining us in just a moment from the hudson institute. we are back in a moment. ♪

♪ tonight, joanne freeman. >> scores of congressman in a mass brawl. punches, it is an massive encounter. what is really interesting to me was people at the time looked at a group ofey saw was

-- northerners and a group of seven and running each other. it looks like a battle. that is striking. it certainly did look like a battle. not that long before the civil war. >> sunday at noon eastern, in-depth is live with author and hoover institution senior fellow on the campus of stanford university. >> people complained that george washington and thomas jefferson condoned slavery. slavery was there for centuries before they were ever born. neither of them thought the office of the presidency had any power to do anything about it.

lincoln did something about it because he did so not just as president but as the commander-in-chief in a war. applied to only people who were in rebellion against the united states. otherwise, there was no basis. .> he has written many books join the interactive conversation with your calls, tweets, and face the questions. watch live sunday from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern on book tv on c-span two. washington journal continues. host: we want to welcome back michael pillsbury, who served in the george w. bush administration. hustonow the huston -- -- hudson institute. let me begin with this headline from the new york times and tweets by the president over the weekend who is in japan.

president from kicking off his a visit today of japan sunday by playing down north korea's recent tests of missiles, on twitter say north korea fired off small weapons was to serve some of my people and others but not me. the japanese officials are worried about that sort of small weapon that could potentially strike japan. what is going on here? guest: it is a big issue. it has something that has been improved in the last 10 years. the japanese are very sensitive and they're willing to spend money on missile defense against north korea. whenever they test any kind of missile, it gets the attention of the japanese public. they have been concerned about debris falling into the territory, which has already happened in the past. we are trying for over the last decade to provide japan with the best missile defense technology there is. the president's tweet seems to be out it -- about a technical

matter p or john bolton says this could be a violation of un security council resolutions that basically say north korea will not engage in any provocations. a test like this itself is a provocation. hand, the president is correct this is not a violation of a major sort that would cause new sanctions to be put on by the united nations -- nations. both the president and his national security visor can be right. host: guest: there -- host: there is a 12 hour time difference but the president a short while go with this tweet. tonight in tokyo, my great honor to present the u.s. cup to a sumo great champion. likeis the relationship between president trump and the japanese prime minister? guest: it could not be better. they jokeoth very accomplished politicians. abe laid out entertainment aspects of the tpresident trumpy

that aid persuaded him to go by saying this was even bigger than the super bowl and that he, the president, would be the sole foreign guests in the first new emperort the would receive, that this is the first time in 200 years this kind of think that happen. i think the two of them get along extremely well. under the surface of what is is a lot of consultations of both trade and the security area. i have frankly worked for a lot of presidents in the past. it is a jury and come true when you get the president's time attention for watcher days to focus on security matters. not justlly entertainment a lot is going on under the radar, you might say. host: including a round of golf yesterday. guest: [laughter] this has inspired gels in beijing because he does not play just -- play golf.

he got gels when it's up prime minister a code -- prime minister abe. i want to play off this headline from wilbur news and talk about your book. trump easy trade war hitting some snags as china plays the long game. bloomberg writing that china is doubling down rather than caving to u.s. demands as the president is announcing a $16 billion aid top of billions last year as farmers now pay the first line of defense, they are paying the price and terms of trade with china. what is happening on that front? have made chinese may a colossal mistake or they listened to a lot of critics of president trump. the moderate republicans who hate tariffs, love free trade, don't approve of these talks in principle. did not listen to nancy pelosi and chuck schumer, who totally support the president on the china trade talks.

they have been quite public about it. shooter -- senator schumer tees trump that he was not being tough enough. they wrote a letter to president trump warning him to be tougher on china. this is a rare example bipartisan cooperation between speaker pelosi, leader schumer, and many other democrats, and president trump. but the chinese did not see it that way. they thought they would pull back the concessions they made in an attempt to renegotiate the whole thing. that has triggered the president putting these much higher tariffs on. host: the issue of "the long game," your book. china's secret strategy to place america as a global superpower." strategyina formed a in the early 1980's. they realized their economic ed.ategy had not work

they decided to try a whole new approach to economic growth and they would go for 6% or better, ideally 10%. very few people thought they could do that. they brought a number of nobel prize-winning economists to china and got the world bank deeply involved. worked strategy has beyond everybody's wildest imagination. they have gone from 10% of our gdp to closing in, getting closer and closer to surpassing us. what is china'2025 strategy? serve --rategy i described in the book, call it secret because they did not tell everybody we had -- predatory economy and it build up the world's largest foreign reserves. us is a 300-year-old strategy you are not supposed to do now under the wto.

instead what happened was the chinese success surprised everybody. in a way, we are the victims now china own assistance to during the last 30-35 years. inwn quite knows what to do light of the extreme strength the chinese now show. president trump has twice said china wants to surpass us but it will not happen on my watch. i think he has got bipartisan support for that. host: you have a new book coming out. guest: yes. want to look more closely at the u.s. china relations, the assumptions we made. reagan, and you cannot find more of an anti-communist than him, he started the program of selling weapons to china. it six of our weapons systems. he also started the cia cooperation project with china and we have built into our government the sense that china

is our partner even more than japan pair that is why the president's it to japan is so important. tilt back to a democracy. shift seeing a strategic of important proportions that the american president is going to japan so many times, not visiting china appeared and when he did, it was rather stiff. president is going back in less than a month where there may be .ome -- progress do you think there will be an agreement this year on trade? i don't think anyone involved would make an agreement like that. reneged and will not set a new date. up salaciouscheted

affair themselves for a long dealing -- they are demonizing the united states. the whole united states is having to block the chinese rise. host: our guest is michael pillsbury. the president often refers to you in his speeches. would you serve in his administration if asked? guest: of course but he has a clear asia strategy. it goes by the short name of the free and open end of pacific. means he needs ambassadors who have his point of view place in the number of key ambassador openings. a lot of job openings left in the trump administration.

but i also like being a scholar and working on my next book. caller: china wanted to remain neutral. -- do you have any comments on the issue? the complicated issue of the 1930's classes is something i want to deal with in my next book. they didn't want to take side energy -- take sides, and it vote -- evoked the chinese involvement. one point of view demon -- demonizes the japanese. the other says there was internal weakness inside china and the american will was not the smartest. we perhaps played too much toward the chinese side.

we set to meet in 1944. that may have undermined the other side in china, which was more for democracy and free market. what you raise is an interesting historical question. what happened and what lessons can we learn that are relevant today. out one of the real challenges is wishful thinking, that china doesn't have any strategy, and you are saying it is just the opposite. they have a strategy, i think they have not volunteered. it is hard to say they hit it. there is a famous set of meetings they had on board a boat in 1985 where they had nobel prize-winning economist from the west tell them what they should do with their state owned enterprises. chinese very cleverly with this advice and the help of investment banks, they sold these dinosaur -- dinosaurs on

wall street and hong kong with capitalizations in the tenderly dollar area. they created what they call correctly the national champions. the some of the largest summit is the world now are chinese. 1980's back to the early secret strategy. we did not think it was happening, did not believe they could do it, and we had this kind of false narrative. i blame myself in part. want a freehey must market. it must want capitalism. because what they are doing seems like that. but they preserve the top half stateir economy for the to control. they're keeping the top half of the economy, industry, .echnology, communications

only the bottom half would be open to the free market. time magazine at three cover stories. now this wasell me not our fault. we did not lie to you. you just believed this wishful thinking. is michaeluest pillsbury, a leading strategist understanding china and asia. --ning his doctorate doctorate from columbia university. paul, good morning. thank you for waiting. >> what i have seen and i believe is the case is actually corporate america, basically you international companies

in many cases, trade agreements and lobbying aggressively and effectively to have a situation in which a whole variety of other efforts effectively may be theoretically getting into the chinese market. they predicted american policy to begin with. as a result, that is something that is left out. there is a huge lobbying effort to make sure china has not been dealt with as most american policy experts perceived for some time now. china's predatory activity is a benefit to corporate america. the following i'm saying? host: yes thank you. guest: you are correct in large part. there are aspects of corporate america who lobbied for china and they are opposed to tariffs and opposed to breaking down on technology issues what can and

cannot be sold. they function as a pro-china lobby. however, there is another part of corporate america that believes they have in seriously blocked from forcible technology transfers. view from the chamber of commerce studies that changed rather sharply in the last few years. that has changed now. they are quite concerned about being plundered. the number of cases of chinese predatory behavior, has gone way up.

it is systematic. then they obtain it through the front door. if they cannot, through the backdoor, either stealing or espionage or bribing corporate officers to defect to their side. this is what others besides president trump wanted to stop, particularly in the labor movement. it is cutting jobs. asking doesn't seem to work. they will make promises, with a denied wholesale. as the have been seen main instrument to bring the chinese to the table. out reneging and backing

could spell the beginning of a technology were that could go on for decades, fighting over who will be the technologically most world, uswer in the with the chinese. artificial intelligence, they are beginning to pull ahead of us now in some areas of technology. host: what is the relationship like between the chinese president and kim jong-un. guest: one of the most challenging puzzles that faces the united states. it appears on the service that they are not friendly. i laid out what china is trying to do globally. on the other hand, there appears to be some cooperation in helping north korea invades sanctions. president tweeted several times and talked about how he needs china to help more with north korea. and vote helped a lot

for these resolutions which are the key to a maximum pressure campaign but there are areas where china could do a lot better. philip, joining us from los angeles. with michael pillsbury. caller: how are you today? michael pillsbury we're fine -- host: we are fine. caller: your book is really eye-opening. guest: buy some more copies for christmas presents. caller: i certainly will. thank you for it i look forward to your new book. host: what is the title? guest: it does not have one or if it does, it is secret. regardinge question about the checks yahweh is pulling in terms of advancing to 5g.

president trump basically give a pass and he was hard on them initially. int do you see as the role terms of 5g and the u.s. reaction to it and why is 5g so critical when the base of chum support is in the industrial i look forward to your answer. thank you. host: time magazine has in depth on this. helping china control the future of the internet. what is your response question -- response? a little unfair since you read my book. now you know the answer. the president has not given a pass. let's not be so harsh criticizing president trump. the deal that was struck by law

is cte has to pay more than a million dollars fine for its violations. to have american inspectors inside the company. the issue was he asked as a favor not to destroy 7000 jobs in the company. but to have the -- pay the fine and accept the new monitoring system. that is the success. in terms of why 5g is important, it is part of this, that 5g is the heart of the internet. whoever can do surveillance, cheap equipment, they are getting themselves into what you might call the technological heist -- height of this new competition. over the next few decades. president trump is clear he wants america to dominate the 5g world.

i happened to meet the number two guy at huawei in a conference not long ago. he was witty, saying we could have stopped this if we had a bigger popular -- public relations campaign. i do not think that is true. it is based on very solid evidence presented in vancouver by canadian prosecutor. committedself had bank fraud. case.s a micro thehows how serious president is about maintaining technological supremacy. you called this cyber intrusion by the chinese. explain. the op-ed is about the

importance of a device to undo this model vacuum in 1980 passes. they are dead set on it and they believe in it. they turned it into the second-largest power in the world. from their point of view, maintaining their model which intrusion, they need this very badly. it is not like a bad apple or something they can disavow so easily. having the tariffs put in place and then taking them off as a china's is complying with their agreements, i think go. is the long way to the president's goal supported by many in congress has been that we need a world of zero tariffs, we need nontrade barriers here the goal is to increase u.s. china trade and increase investment by both sides.

in a rules-based way where there is systematic cheating that does not have anymore, that is why the tariffs are so important to keep on. host: we welcome our radio audience in the area. on the free c-span radio app. channel 134. our guest is michael pillsbury. our next called it -- color is from georgia. caller is from georgia. caller: i have a couple of thoughts to get off my chest. the only thing about medicare for all, i guess what i would record,know is, for the having congresspeople vote for medicare for themselves instead of having the five-star health wanting tohey are

pass, i remember in the obama plan,talking about his they all refused to change their five star plan for medicare. we are really focused on asia in particular and not medicare for all. do you have a question for the guest? caller: no. host: can the u.s. whether a trade war? guest: yes. the u.s. is well-positioned in many ways for the trade talks and trade disputes. our economy is the strongest ever. the present was to dwell on the most number of jobs in american history. the average american unemployment rates at all-time low. -- the chinese are the ones who are suffering. us is a question for that president to consider. can or should he undo the reneging and get back toward the 90% or so eat arty agreed on?

if he continues to with up nationalism in china, the danger is chinese have a wonderful tiger, hardde the to get off. continues that americans overthrow the communist party of china, he has really backed himself into a corner. and we are looking at a longer trade dispute than i would have forecast. david lynch from the washington post made this point i would like your reaction to. if donald trump is able to reach a trade deal this year, he will run on it next year and focus on the positive or the democrats will focus on the negative. if he does not, he will run in 2020 and hope to get something done in 2021. guest: i think the president is

concerned that if he has a bad trade deal on democrats accuse him of selling out to the chinese because of friends on wall street, this is a nightmare. this is a president and mr. trump whose base is against wall street investment banks. he is for training the swamp, against control of american policymaking by goldman sachs, a name that is to be thrown around. jane -- be a bigger danger to the president's race. if he gets a bad deal and democrats pounds on him, right now, they are supporting him. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are outspokenly supporting president trump in the trade were with china. them are saying he is not tough enough. if he has a bad trade feel with loopholes and does not have enforcement and does not deal with subsidies and does not deal with the china 2025 program you mentioned earlier, then he

becomes one herbal with his own base. beot of these people seem to supporters of bernie sanders as well as president trump here they look for differences between them. it would be a bad thing if i were the campaign manager for and i seetrump democrats agreed he didn't take on china in a serious way. that is the concern i hear. you can get more information at hudson.org. our next color is from trenton, new jersey. peter. caller: good morning. i would like to ask a question. economic gdp growth rate is success, whichic country would you say has the best -- has been the best practitioner over the last 30

years? kind of a trick question. i can tight with the chinese say. it is chinaay appear they would say our capitalist policies have raised it hundred million people out of extreme poverty, they built a , turn chinaclass into a global superpower, so they would want to take credit for applying capitalist policies. between the commanding heights and reigning under the control of the government and state owned enterprises, national champions, accounting for half of the economy, then you are really only looking at the other half of the economy, which is -- which has not surpassed america and anyway. america would be the winner of who has done the best on the economic growth rate and fairness to the people the country.

and it would not be european countries. they would be loan growth and low on a combo schmitz. in case you are interested in numbers on the trade deficit in the u.s. and china, we will put them on the screen. $347 billion in 2016. billion last$380 year. guest: have we lost him? host: dan is on the phone. i have a question for you personally. do you think donald trump is smarter when it comes to the trade issues and most of the past presidents we had and another question, do you think some of the people coming into congress that seemed like they act more like foreigners than americans, do you think they harm our country? president trump smarter entree. even his critics admit america

being disadvantaged back in the 1980's when he was a democrat, he took out a full-page ad of ,he new york times in 1987 started to write about it in a book which has a long section on china which says china will be the number one challenge in america in the future. he has been at the trade issue on the democratic labor side of it. to shift now and become a republican obviously bring some under criticism for the free trade moderate republicans. but i think there is no question he takes it more seriously and spends a lot of time on it. involveden personally in china trade talks as well as was going out with japan, which he just waited -- tweeted a few hours ago. host: and that tweet is right here --

what will happen in july? guest: we don't want to demonize on congress for acting behalf of foreigners. so that is going back to the original american congress with thomas jefferson and the french. we want to focus on the concept called globalization. a lot of members of congress are globalists and do not see on theies as important border with immigration or in trade talks. that view is disappearing. more patriotism and american first ways of thinking about trade are increasing. i would rather see members of congress change their views away that demonize them is working for foreign powers. i can see why some would say that. and the tweet with making great progress? guest: i think it is true. the japanese army no really

well, a friend of mine. president reagan's deputy representative. he achieved earth shattering successes with the japanese, who are tough negotiators, to get an improvement in the trade deficit. i think they may be making concessions to him out of this familiarity with just how tough a negotiator he is. host: july elections? guest: i would not want to talk about that. host: jerry in north carolina. all the things donald trump say, the economy is so good for black people, we are doing so well unemployment. how come it you talk about interest rates come you go haywire? guest: so you are not afraid of

president trump then. host: how about robert in georgia. caller: good morning. i'm pretty sure most of the in ourin washington and government understand the communist party is ultimately in part -- in charge of what is going on in china. that means the type of equipment to the night states computers, electronics, all kinds of things that could gather information that we buy of gettingis capable the users,e from just about everywhere in our economy. the people that are responsible for purchasing or making the choices to purchase or have the ceo's of built are the the companies that decide to have the equipment purchase at the cheapest place possible in china. the problem i see now as it you

refer to globalism as a mindset, i think it is more of an economic reality. that the ceo's are trying to get goods at the cheapest possible rates. they recognize the problem china poses if they try to turn them against us. if you allow ceo's to keep making these decisions, you will get the problems we face today. guest: i think that is right with some good news, that there was a proposal recently supported by democrats as well as republicans that finally passed the house 400-4. you don't get that kind of sweeping majority on anything anymore in washington. it was to crack down on chinese investment in the united states. up until the new law, china could pretty much going to any corporation, large or small, in

particular in silicon valley, and by super advanced, high-tech small companies where the innovator had something that had enormous potential. it sold equipment has eluded to cheaply, american companies. huawei took advantage of this. under the new law, all of these chinese technology acquisitions can and will be reviewed by the u.s. government. security is part of the process, which used to be voluntary. under the committee for foreign investment in the united states, you could come in and say steve, i am thinking of selling my new high-tech invention to the united states, but if you did not, the government would not reach out and take a look at what you're doing. all of that is changing now. there is a much more assertive process. what they are discovering is

really quite shocking. the chinese have gone far with joint ventures in high-tech areas. loophole and as you mentioned, ceo's would agree. some piece of software that would be crucial to artificial intelligence. the chinese would buy the company and by the technology. they don't even know about it. we are fighting back but it has been after 20 years of the problem going on. >> let me share with you what the business round table said with the u.s. and china. that are deeply concerned a return to escalation with china will hurt the u.s. economy, businesses, and business roundtable members

oppose higher tariffs, taxes paid for by u.s. consumers, manufacturers, and other businesses. secretary of state mike pompeo addressing the issue on cnbc this week. >> i don't know the answer to that. i have spoken with secretary mnuchin almost every day. the center ofn at actual negotiations. i have seen them make real progress. hope they can continue to appear these issues are not only important to the united states. these are good for the world. good for people of china. if you get this right, it will create a trading system that will continue to create prosperity all over the world. >> you are in touch with steven mnuchin most everyday and you have seen progress, but recently, has there been a more downbeat sort of outlook on what happens? himo meetings scheduled for to travel to china. hope by the time the show ends,

they are back at it. it is important for the conversation to continue, important for both. it is tough. the transition we're asking china to make to make these trading rules is no doubt a big ask. but it is important for the united states. president trump is firmly committed. guest: i think secretary pompeo reflects accurately president trump us his views on this. at an impasse where the chinese will not come back to the table. there is no date set for the 12th round. he'sationalistic rhetoric using to play to his own base is really quite dangerous. can it be done at the ministerial level? best: the final deal would between the two presidents. i do not recommend they bicker for the next several hours mano a mano in a small room

somewhere. this is too complicated. been done already that we thought the chinese had agreed to. it is very specific and technical. that,y would come back to close the deal to it there holding out on, we would have the grand daddy of them all. the two largest economies. $13 trillion in almost $20 trillion in our case. long-term framework is what everyone wants but the technology theft, enforcement, how much china could get away with cheating if tariffs are removed. these issues are still up in the air. marathon: 100 year china's secret strategy to replace america as a global superpower." michael pillsbury. joining us in silver spring maryland, good morning. caller: permitted to string

along as long as it has, it took someone like trump to have the andage to stand up to china do something about it that i'm a democrat. why has -- have these other administrations with this carry on until there is so much conflict and so much needs to be re-verified, reformed. thank you. guest: that is an excellent question. you may not believe my answer but previous presidents i do not think have read my book. president trump has prayed -- praised it in his administration has as well. the book argues china has really deeply held strategic getmptions that they can away with the spirit as president trump said about president obama, he let them get away with murder. the chinese have been accustomed to thinking american presidents will raise the trade issue in a

kind of casual manner. but not really do anything about it. the president thought this way in the 1980's. chinese conduct has got a lot worse and it has become more difficult to ignore it. american companies begun -- have begun to complain. allies, the same problem themselves. they all have examples of their technology being stolen. they are all brought together with so many voters and crucial states like pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, being affected by the chinese predatory trade policies. all these factors being brought together i think as part of why president trump was elected and probably why he will have to have a much tougher handle, and china has pulled out of his talks.

host: joining us from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i would like to know onhael pillsbury's thoughts the high percentage of chinese or our top graduate programs here at u.s. universities and what a cash cow it is. is correctink that or the universities themselves want to maintain those relationships. tuition, as high as $15,000 or higher. it waswent to stanford, $1200 per year. the whole issue of the 400,000 chinese students here, is where the globalists conflict with the patriots here the patriots are saying well, how can we allow this? in many cases, chinese technology companies have contracts with american universities, that if a

professor in the physics department discovers something, he will showed it to the chinese first or the graduate students in the laboratory can openly email laboratory test results back to china. this is all globalism gone wild. the way, it is good for universities, but is it good for us to transfer technology to china in the most sensitive leading areas, and it used to be thought to be ok because america, blessed by god, having such a large continent, that we were going to be the number one power the world for sure. now that the chinese have done so well and are coming up close behind us, the president is saying it will not happen on my watch, what can i do to combat the chinese technology acquisition. i think you will see some areas in the university world that will be changed. host: less than a minute. real quick question. florida. caller: thank you.

to pillsbury, i would like situation withhe the currency and chinese currency because during the promised the president on day one he would declare china a currency manipulator. so what is going on? the president is paying the price for this. he had good reason to declare china on day one a manipulative. the chinese rs up -- less outrageous than they used to be about manipulating currency. who wants to smear them and put sanctions on when they are getting better in syria? on the other hand, bernie sanders campaigned on this as well and he makes a fair point and says i will declare china a day one manipulator on

of my presidency. joe biden has been silent on this so far. this is a matter among the democrats, are they going to criticize president trump for not filling his campaign promise, or are they going to be 10 on china than he is? biden so far sounds less anti-china than other candidates. i am watching closely to see what happens. senior fellow at hudson in washington dc, michael pillsbury thank you for stopping by. guest: i can see rolling thunder outside. host: let us know if and when you join the trumpet -- trump administration. its final one in washington, d.c., after 31 years. checkout the interview we did early in the morning with the founder of rolling thunder. the washington journal is back live tomorrow morning at 7:30

eastern time on memorial day. we will be joined by the author of the book "the first wave: the d-day warriors who led the way andictory in world war ii," mary louise roberts. to all of you on this long memorial day weekend, thank you for being ♪ announcer: next, newsmakers with former governor william weld, and then a house hearing on how to maintain diversity in the intelligence community. andiv