coronavirus. he is excited to be joined by vice president pence and members of his task force. you can watch the president's comments live at 5 p.m. eastern on c-span. until then, here is some of today's "washington journal." calls in a couple minutes. ,tephen ellis joins us now president of the organization on taxpayers for common sense. what taxpayers for common sense is, what's its mission and how are you funded. guest: thanks for having me this morning. i hope everyone is doing well. sense we for common are national nonpartisan budget watchdog. we turn 25 this year and what we do is we scrutinize the bills. it doesn't matter whether it was president clinton, president bush, president obama, president

trump, we will look at what's being wasted to seal we can effectively spend our taxpayer dollars and work in a wide range of areas whether it's national security spending or agriculture spending, infrastructure. in this case, disaster and emergency spending and so we are funded by individuals, we are a nonprofit, we are funded by charitable foundations. don't seek money from corporations or trade associations or unions or from government. and so we are trying to be an advocate for the taxpayers to try and make a more responsible government. on towe ask you to come talk about the $2 trillion spending bill, this emergency spending bill signed into law by the president on friday. what is your general take on this legislation in terms of the

price tag. will it make an impact here? >> it's a staggering price tag. 2.2 trillion, it's not clear how much it will be, it depends on how many people are eligible for the checks that are being sent to people. scope.taggering in gdp, it is10% of the almost half of the government normally spends annually. amount ofis a huge cash that's going out in addition to a we normally spend on the government. something they're trying to keep the economy moving as we go through the pandemic, it's not a stimulus really in that respect, this can be more

legislation and spending to come. situationain in a what many essays running a significant debt and deficit, how does a $2 trillion bill like this get paid for. guest: we borrow. we are already supposed to run a trillion dollar deficit a year which would be in the of seen since right after the 2008 debt is at a are level percentage of gdp that we haven't seen since right after world war ii. certainly that's one of the things we've been very critical of, the fact we did a deficit finance tax cut in 2017, we should've had deficit neutral tax reform, we had increased spending in the last several

caps andsus the budget so we put ourselves in a red zone and now we are having to .eal with a very real crisis we can't just ignore the pandemic, we can't just say there won't be pain-and-suffering, their airlines that aren't flying, their companies that can't have employees come into work. so there has to be a response. it's unfortunate we are in this very difficult fiscal situation to deal with it. host: phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. we have two separate lines for callers geographically. 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central part of the country. out in the west mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001 . we will get to your calls on this bill in a moment. of this to details

trillion dollar aid package, there is something called a $500 billion major corporate liquidity allotment. 360 $7 billion in small business loans. $130 billion in hospitals. 150 billion in state and local government. attention toe most you out of those price tags for those programs? guest: clearly the business and municipal loans category, that is a quarter of the bill and that's the one that's gotten a lot of attention for a couple reasons. loans, 4 billion in billion in loans and 17 billion dollars set aside for businesses essential to national security and a lot of people have intimated that was put in there

for boeing for defense aerospace company out of washington state that that was really for them. they've disagreed and secretary mnuchin said it may not necessarily be for them. this is under largely discretionary, the treasury secretary working with the fed throughout many sectors of the economy. fund wet's the slush are concerned see how it's implemented, the actually created some oversight mechanisms that we can get into. they created a special inspector general which is similar to the financial crisis when they created tarp. they are overseeing how these funds are being meted out. direct cashees, or

injections where we take a share of the company. mostto me is one of the interesting, concerning but also has is to give get about potential in the overall program. billion going25 to the passenger airlines this is separate provision that is for providing another $25 billion airline to keep employees employed and another 4 billion for the cargo airlines. about actuallys giving companies money that they can continue to pay their employees. and are on a plum entry doesn't go through the roof. back to that last slide. $200 billion with the bill is calling to vested priorities with childcare assistance. what your take on that amount. >> these are all big eye-popping

numbers. this is a big eye-popping problem. it is so unique that this country it on the seams way to put it when you think about how the point is its national in scale, it affects all sectors of the economy. a national disaster located in one part of the nation or another. crisis whichcial was in the lending situation. make an --and to pandemic and pan economic crisis of it is because people are having to deal with either they can't get to work or their work can't have employment and so we are providing assistance to families and -- as individuals. because one thing that we know

about pandemics is there is a time where we don't know when we won't be in this crisis situation and you want to have an economy still there to actually operate, this is not can be making people whole, this is not going to actually be a stimulus are making people better, it's basically a bridge to get to a time or we can rebuild the economy. host: more details and figures in this bill congress has approved and the president has signed. we have 45 more minutes with our guest and will take the first call in hialeah, florida. caller: good morning. when the gentleman talked but his primary concern with the small business loan. as soon as i heard the word free

money, i never heard that the ad states before. -- thever heard the mood word free money. we have defined what happens to the money, who is going to dictate to small business owners if his truck breaks down in the truck he uses for his family and he takes it to the mechanic in the mechanic charges and $3000, now he uses the money that the government gave him to fix that has a, now his family good truck to ride around in but the guy across the street, all justts is $1200 and that's enough to eat and maybe pay the rent. how does he get to drive around his family? that's not fair. host: jamie, thank you for

calling. your reaction that callers comment. i don't thinkst: i said free money. none of this is free. as a matter of fact we are all going to be on the hook for this money and we are adding to our national debt and that we are paying interest on that is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. i don't think that is free money. businessjust the small , it's also big business and that's where i was more concerned. but even in the small business administration, one of these being about loans and loan guarantees. so essentially you are expected to pay it back at may be a low-interest or no interest but the money is supposed to be paid back. and on these loan specified in the law they are not to be forgiven. so you can't just at some later point decide in future

leadership we are to forgive these loans. that's mostly in the larger business once but i have to look it over. secondly the idea the person across the street from the small business owner, they are employed somewhere hopefully as well and by helping those business whether it's large or small that these people are going to stay employed. but as i said before, there is going to be pain. it's not that much money when you think about the context of a 20 some odd trillion dollar gdp. that's going to be a real issue. , bute are going to suffer that's the reality of the situation. this is basically a bridge in the economy, not a lifesaver. host: another slide on the bottom of the screen. 35 billion in emergency transit funding. 30 billion in emergency education funding.

what do those have to do specifically with this pandemic we are facing right now? on the on the -- guest: education side there's a lot of teachers that are out of work also to all the schoolrooms and classrooms have to be cleaned and taking care of before students can go back to school. most of them won't go back until the fall. or any of them will go back. and then on transit, anybody who is watched the news or has looked at the newspaper has seen scenes of completely empty metro buses and subways and that's a real impact because they are losing their revenue. some of that is going to support municipalities and keep those people employed because a lot of

this is not about the business is about the employees and the people working for the transit really, weso it is are in a brave new world. we are in a situation we have not found ourselves in before. typically i'm very critical of deficit spending unless it's an emergency and then it becomes about accountability and transparency and that's very important as far as tracking where the money is going pretty -- is important. time we brought an extreme of money even with the tax breaks so not sure they , i'm not sureem --

i assume you keep things running and everything but why do we need another one already on top of this. it takes care of the businesses already, this backup plan with another 4 trillion to help out on this. why don't we keep the government from just wanting to go ahead and greet another package for every thing else. why do we need one so immediately? can they not wait a little while and see if we need to do something and where we actually need it? host: three packages so far in increasing to 3 trillion plus. the perspective you have to that callers question. the first point, a $1.5 trillion deficit finance tax cut and we were originally promised deficit neutral tax

form which we still need to do tax reform. it's something where you can't have it both ways. congress can't say we should cut spending in the not cot spending and then still do something. we are all about trying to balance and have a smaller deficit as a percentage of gdp. to the comment bernie made about why do we need a third package. -- ernie made about why been the third package. even when this was passing the crisis in new york city was not as dire as it is right now. and it's going to get worse before it gets better there and other places. we will have to see. one thing he shouldn't worry as much about his congress has to be here to do this and they are , they're going to have

to figure out a legislative package to actually do this and needs to be targeted and smart. we've always argued there should be triggers to these packages. we should be able to meet out the money over time so that you hit a trigger and will allocate more money. this program is working the way we intended, we will shift it to another way and that's what we need to be moving towards. one other item in the package one the callers brought up is the $1200 one-time check. it's a higher amount for a married couple an additional 500 for child. you mentioned this type of thing is not necessarily meant to make people, wanted to ask about the payroll tax because that was something that was talked about

byly on in this third bill limiting the payroll tax, why did that not make it part of this bill and is that something you are looking at in the future. guest: there are two ways of looking at payroll tax and that is it's a slow burn. it is relief to businesses or individuals after payroll tax paid for by the businesses and the other have paid for by the individual and this goes into social security and medicare. and so you get a small amount in each paycheck that would be allocated over time. so it's kind of slow, there is no shock and all about it. you have to have a job to be able to get the benefit or have an employee to get this benefit and third is that it actually is taking revenue away from social

security and medicare which are programs that are also in trouble. would happened after the 2009

host: the president questioned the constitutionality of the to notifyirement

congress immediately if the administration unreasonably withhold information requested by investigators. you can see a fight brewing, huh? guest: absolutely. the inspector general, that was one that basically re-created tarp from back in 2008. two, it is based on the existing law. i do not know any preclusion of them be able to do that other than inspectors general. to some extent, this is the tug-of-war that has been going on through successive administrations where the executive branch do signing statements where they sign the bill into law but issue a statement saying this is how we are interpreting the law and how we will implement. at the end of the day, it is a sign of how the executive is going to treat it. it has no place in the

constitution or law. the firsttrump is not one. president obama said as a candidate he will not do any signing statements and did plenty of them while in office. a lot of it will come down to personalities. someve seen good ig's and not so good ig's. it will be who the president nominates, how independent are they? how quickly is this person going to be nominated? how quickly are they going to be approved by the senate? that is something else that will be a real question. host: let's hear from mary in richland, washington. good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen. thinkingon is, i was -- i'm sorry. i was sitting in the other room so i do not get distracted by the tv. i was thinking at wanted to know, jeff bezos is an american,

correct? overver pays taxes and is trillions of dollars -- worth over trillions of dollars. they can getway some taxes from them and the 1% so we don't have so much to pay back? because it always falls on the shoulders of the people who don't have it. by the time people get the $1200 checks, they are in the hole for a lot more than $1200. one other question. i'm sorry, but i have seen you before and i was impressed by you on another -- i guess it was another channel. i love c-span. what about the president's children? how do they get paid? how much do they make? host: you can take either or both of those questions, mr. ellis. guest: sure. jeff bezos, he is the richest

man in the world. he is worth more than 100 billion dollars, not $1 trillion. i cannot tell you what tax he or any other individual pays or does not pay. but amazon, certainly like other businesses have been creative in the past, avoiding taxes. we are advocating for clamping down and making sure businesses pay their fair share. so this also brings to a question and the numbers get .uge and hard to keep in mind $1 trillion is 1000 billions. it is a million millions. it is hard to get that scale into your mind. one thing to point out, you would be making about $65,000 a

year, but it would take you 3000 years to make it to $1 trillion. anyway, leaving that aside to her second point, the president's children to my wholedge, especially ivanka works in the administration, are not being paid. but separately, they all work for the trump administration so they are getting paid out of that entity. again, i cannot tell you how much taxes or the payments for any individual. pres. trump: thank you very much. thank you.