jerusalem as the capital of israel, or if they plan to reverse it by presidential decision to return the capital -- our recognition of the capital to tel aviv. >> i am interested in hearing more about what our presidential candidates plan to do to sustain our hbc's across the nation, as a graduate of a historical black college, south carolina state university, now an employee of an hbcu, morris college here in south carolina, i just want to hear more about what the candidates plan to do to sustain our hbcu's in these financially challenging times. >> voices from the road on c-span. " continues. with senior vice president the bipartisan policy center thisto walk us through

spending package that house democrats and republicans in the senate have negotiated. what you have is a package of a bunch of spending bills with a grand total of 1.4 trillion dollars, how does this compare to previous deals? about $50 billion more than what we spent in the previous fiscal year, about a $50 billion increase, 12 appropriations bills. it is two bills, they did not want to put all 12 bills on the desk of the president, so they have broken it into numeral two bills. they are reporting 2 bills. it is all the funding for the federal government through the end of next year at $1.375 trillion. host: why is it $50 billion more?

caller: guest: -- studies of guns, which for 25 years we have not had the authority to look at the statistics related to guns. a number of provisions increasing national institutes of health by $2 billion. increaseases -- 3.1% in salaries for employees and also money for the president's wall. about $1.4 billion. host: it is two packages. 4 bills,ge contains including the defense homeland security commerce, giant -- commerce, science, the other holds 8 bills to fund agriculture, labor, health and human services, education, energy, interior, veterans ,ffairs as well as the epa

congressional operations and water project. guest: it is all the government. is $1.4 trillion, that is only about 30% of all government spending. suchther 70% is in programs as medicare, medicaid, social security. safety net programs, food stamps, child nutrition. it only represents 30% of government spending. host: this is what congress has the discretion to spend, they have discretionary powers on this type of federal government. guest: correct. whether they want to spend money on a wall or not. that is all discretionary on the

part of the government, congress to spend money. the other 70% excluding interest is mandatory. some people call them entitlement programs. they are automatic spending because if you are age 65, you qualify, you get the benefits. it does not require the appropriation process to do that. what does this mean for debt --host: what does this mean for debt and deficit? this is another concern i have about this bill. while the discretionary portion is $50 billion more than it was last year for these programs, this bill has a number of what we call ornaments that have been hung on the tree this holiday season related to eliminating

the tax on medical devices, eliminating the tax on health insurance, illuminating what we call the cadillac tax and expiring some of the tax provisions and all of that adds up to close to $500 billion additional on top of this spending package. therefore, what i am concerned about is we are already running deficits of close to a trillion dollars annually and it is projected to grow out. this is the time the economy is growing out. it is those mandatory programs driven by demographics that are going to continue to increase the deficit going forward to a level we have not seen historically. host: if you have questions about the debt and the deficit

-- the president could sign this into law. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, your line, 202-748-8002. remember, you can also text us with your first name, city, and .tate with 202-748-8003 what -- what in this bill do you find surprising that they would agree to? guest: it is a compromise and at this stage of the exercise, the government will likely shut down if they do not pass these bills. has anything surprised me? not really. what surprises me a little bit money president will get

for his wall, but more importantly, there was language the democrats wanted to have to say he could not do what he did, toch is to transfer money add to the fund. he wanted $8 billion, he got one to allow himllion to transfer money out of other military account the wall. that was language restricted him and that was removed from this bill. that one surprised me a little bit that congress is giving up a little of their authority under the power of the purse to let the president make these transfers. host: there is a court case related to that provision making its way through the court system. -- immigrations

and customs enforcement are flatlined. you are up first, good morning. good morning. i amnow the main reason calling. what i need by that is having resolution for bidding to supply the united states of america with anymore uranium. our uranium -- host: we will go to christian

next, woodbridge, connecticut. .aller: yes, hello a fascinating topic and thank you for letting me have the opportunity to talk to the guest. i was wondering if the guest was aware the federal reserve has started quantitative easing 4. there has been a liquidity injection into the markets. the fed is about to become the biggest buyer of u.s. treasuries which means the federal reserve find iting money and i is quite remarkable considering we are supposed to be in the greatest economy ever that we are running trillion dollar deficits and that the fed is once again expanding its balance sheet, bailing out stocks, bonds, buying treasuries, allowing the government to keep things borrowed at a low interest rate through printed money, which could later lead to the depreciation -- the dollar

has been depreciating forever, but a further devaluation of the dollar. i really hope you could address a couple of those points i made and talk about whether you think that is right or wrong. i think monetization of the debt is something banana republics do. understand this is happening and largely has to do with an issue calling repose that come at this time of the year as banks needed the liquidity and this is a process the federal reserve is injecting that liquidity back in the market. it is somewhat of a temporary -- chairman powell has addressed this issue in his latest press report last week. i will say i agree with you totally. my biggest concern as one who still believes deficits matter is the accumulation of this level of debt going forward.

at some point, it will have to be paid back. seele right now -- when you the polls, you find out less than 2% of the american public think the debt matters. that is understandable, but this level of debt has the impact of putting the burden on our children, grandchildren in the future and you have to monetize it and possibly increase interest rates. i think there is danger and i agree we have concerns not being addressed right now in this current fiscal situation. host: also included in the spending bill, the government deal to agreement is a do away with three health care taxes that were intended to help pay for the affordable care act, tax.ding the cadillac

provisions to shore up or a time to benefits for tens of as wells of coal miners as a 7 year extension of export -import banks, flood insurance extended through september 30 and the rural schools program would be extended for 2 years. is a patient center outreach program for another 10 years also. there are a number of provisions that are not related that have been added at the last minute. host: tracy in maryland. caller: please don't cut me off. i am a teacher in my 50's, so i can remember reagan coming out on the tv and telling the needed toeople we face up to our deficit and i like that. i can remember clinton having a

surplus. we area surplus and now so far in debt, i am so upset about the deficit, to not understand why any of the reporters will not confront trump and tell him we are in a booming economy, why doesn't he confront the deficit? i can remember before he went into office, obama had a $3.4 trillion budget. was -- our revenue -- we were in the red, of course. the trajectory was going down. now we are skyrocketing the other way. i can't understand for the life

of me why trump is not addressing this. knowmakes me so mad and i this is fixable and now we cannot even look back. host: is this fixable? guest: it is fixable. i want to tell her i am glad mad. i wish more americans and citizens out there would raise this issue with their elected officials. ands here on the hill worked throughout those years you mentioned in the reagan years, the clinton years, the bush years. during the clinton years is when we did, as the caller indicated, we did reach a balanced budget. we were on the path toward a balanced budget until september 11 2001. overnight, we went from projected surpluses into deficits. i agree with the caller that this is unprecedented that -- i would also point out that

president trump, when he was campaigning did say he was going to eliminate the debt and deficit. this is quite the opposite. i have been at this a long time. it is very frustrating for somebody who thinks the federal government should -- like businesses balance expenditures. your federal government from time to time -- not in times of war and times of recession for the difficulty here is that we are in a period of economic growth. we are still increasing debt and deficits. from my perspective, that is something that can be addressed. it requires leadership at both ends of pennsylvania avenue and also requires us to face up to the reality that we want a lot. we want infrastructure, health claire -- health care, better education.

if we want those services, we have to pay for them. for a republican staffer to say this, i will be chastised but i think i think we have to pay for the services we are demanding from the federal government that means looking at taxes and balancing -- increasing taxes. unless you are willing to cut back on services, particularly pensions, social security and medicare. it is very difficult. host: nikki. spring hill, florida. caller: i agree with william. so many areas in the united states needs money. it is no wonder the deficit has gone up. i do not know if there is a cure for. i know that trump has ideas. he has plans. he can never put his plans into effect because the democrats triesim at every point he to make.

he can't get anywhere. is a curenow if he all, if he has the silber -- silver bullet to fix the deficit. i wish they would give him a chance. as you can see, i am a true republican that i do believe in president trump. guest: my reaction is i agree. i consider myself a republican also. i do agree that what the president did achieve was a reduction in taxes. i think that is good, but at the same time, when you have a reduction in taxes that did not pay for themselves and helped create the deficits, democrats come along and say if you can create a deficit by cutting taxes, why can't we add to it by increasing spending? would you have a divided congress like we have today. i'llu scratch my back scratch yours, you end up with the situation we have today.

we need both ends of pennsylvania avenue to -- willing to -- if you want to try to do something going long-term. that has been untenable in a divided congress. host: michael in austin, texas. caller: hello. good morning. i am a student at texas university. i do a lot of work in student government. consensus we see here at the university about issues of taxes, especially the younger people, we will be carrying over this. benefiting from a lot of the stuff that is happening, we do believe that jeffrey epstein killed himself. host: we're going to move on. yes, i am off the subject but i would like to see and --ite house grow up

the country. host: in what ways? are arguingway they back and forth. is that we be -- is that what we voted for them for? host: we are talking about the $1.4 trillion spending agreement that both sides have negotiated and the house vote for. this president could sign this bill into law by the end of the week. i want to go over some other provisions that are in it. time, -- in more than two decades, democrats announced research into gun violence. the dickey amendment language ordering this centers for disease control not to lobby in favor for research into gun control. the national institutes of health received $12.5 million each in researching the issue appeared legislation would also provide 41.7 billion dollars for

medical research at the nih, in year 7% increase. republican leaders are touting the fact that the deal does not include new funding for international efforts to aid family and replayed active health. they are proud the legislation would deliver a $22 billion increase in defense spending as well as a military pay increase -- the largest such in a decade. guest: this is a very big bill. at one point, $4 trillion. one item you did not mention that i like is they did increase the pell grant award. 6000nts now can have up to -- up to $6,000, a major increase on the pell grant which is important. -- there are winners and losers if you like throughout this, but when you're talking about $1.4 trillion to

fund the government, there are lots of programs that are receiving some increases. there are some that are being flat too. staff,t goes out to the particularly having been a former staff member, technically we had an agreement we back in july. it has taken us five months to get to this point where we can divvy up that one host: host: $.4 trillion. host: some of that is for election security. let's go to randy in burlington, north carolina. caller: i would like to make a glad youbout -- i am are there bringing sense to all of this but it seems to me in the big picture that our government is more concerned with kicking the budget can down the road. they seem to me or interested in putting off the inevitable.

spending, butnd they do not want to look at how howontrol the spending, or to cut back or eliminate some of the debt. budgets --usehold business budgets coming commented on that -- you can't do that. it is impossible for me to adjust my budget in the debt direction without having some long-term effect on my personal income. for the government to constantly be looking at it as not important, just spend a bunch of money and deal with it later, just does not seem responsible. i do not think it is fair to attack the president about it. i think it is a problem with government overall. the bureaucrats in washington take up the biggest part of any budget deal that is done because

that spending is solid. you can't reduce it currently. guest: thank you very much. -- thatthe analogy to a it is kind of like the termites under the front porch. you can step out on the porch, but one day you will step out and go through. exactly what you said, in the short term with low unemployment, low inflation, people say why worry about the debt and deficit? here is thathave it is long-term. it is reducing the standard of living for our children and grandchildren. they will have to pay for this debt and deficit one way or another. soht now, things look good, why worry? spend money, cut taxes, don't worry. you will have to worry about your future generations and what this impact will be on them. host: darrell in missouri. caller: yes. we are spending a lot of money

on stuff like -- if we could get the border wall fixed and spend some on immigration. once we get some of that down, we can start saving money and have less people to do that. i think the sanctuary cities -- tps, wewe are paying are bringing people over and paying for them and they won't go back to their country. so, we need to look at that. before we canoney save money. guest: again, i would point out of theis is one third whole spending we are talking about. it is a large bill, 1.4 trillion dollars per let's be clear that even reducing spending may be -- after we build a wall so to speak, or whether you reduce spending for bureaucrats here in washington, it is still a small

portion of what is really driving our spending. entitlement programs, mandatory programs need to be addressed if you want to talk about spending and not taxes. host: texas, independent. caller:caller: i would like to money are we going to end up spending, and who is going to pay for that? guest: good question. in fairness, i can't answer that. i do not know. it is coming out of the investigations here in congress are coming out of the budgets of those individual committees. the congress does have part of this funding -- obviously is funding the legislative branch. that is where the funding for these investigations and carrying on the activities of your federal legislative branch takes place. host: columbia, missouri.

we know that $1.4 trillion tax cut for the rich should never even have been put on the debt. the rich did not need that. they did not want that. we also know the debt that we have, we know who is going to hurt. people's retirement. they are going to get rid of people's retirement. if trump gets back in, they are going after social security. all people who have worked all their lives. people who have worked all their lives. guest: i would not anticipate that any elected official, whether they be republican or democrat, will focus on those who are in retirement. needthink that there is a coming quick