months, reach out to your elected officials with c-span's congressional directory. it contains all of the contact information you need to stay in touch with members of congress, federal agencies and state governors. order your copy online today at c-spanstore.org. morning, ahis conversation with secretary of state mike pompeo on national security issues come alive and 11:00 eastern on c-span -- security issues, live at 11:00 eastern on c-span. on those held in custody by customs and border protection. then president trump gives an update on u.s. infrastructure needs come alive from atlanta. continues. host: jim tankersley joins us via zoom for a conversation about the joe biden campaign's new series of economic plans. the first was released last week, the second came yesterday.

first, explain the pitch the biden camp is making with these spending investment plans. guest: thanks for having me, it is a pleasure. what joe biden is trying to do is counter president trump on the economy. the president won the election in part on the strength of a populist pitch to americans who , and makinghind appeals to the industrial midwest about manufacturing. the first part of joe biden's new plan he put out last week is called "build back better." live laughtle like love, but for the economy. with the former vice president wants to do is promote more of what he calls a buy american youth host. he is going to get the government to spend hundreds of

billions of dollars more on american-made products. he is going to take other steps to make the country produce more things here so there are more manufacturing jobs, something that presidents and presidential candidates for a long time have promised. the former vice president is leaning into it here in an effort to take away some of donald trump's industrial midwestern support. host: $700 billion investment plan came out last week, followed by yesterday a $2 trillion plan linked to climate change and economic recovery. dive into that. guest: it is a different topic, you might say. as anyone who has paid attention to the way democrats talk about climate change over the last decade knows, it is being framed by biden as a jobs issue. he is talking about making things in america. in this case, electric vehicles, overhauling infrastructure. he wants to get america entirely

off of fossil fuel production and on to clean energy. spend $2plan to trillion increasing investments in american infrastructure and creatingn in hopes of what he says will be millions of union jobs in the clean energy sector. the president's campaign and --ers worn would threaten warn would threaten jobs that already exist in fossil fuel. host: what else are you expecting? guest: we expect two more big speeches. he has promised this is going to be a big bold plan. seeingch step, we are the former vice president being willing to spend more money. had the comparatively smallest plan in terms of new federal spending in the

primaries, but he is moving more toward the visions of candidates like elizabeth warren or cory booker in the way he is a federalideas like guarantee program for federal workers which would expand the federal workforce. ftc in theike the fdr era. biden is certainly nowhere close to the level of spending that elizabeth warren or bernie sanders had during the primary, but he is signaling a willingness to aggressively tax very high earners and the wealthy in order to fund what his campaign calls investments middle-class.e of four are two out plants in and we are at $2.7 trillion in spending.

who is going to be taxed? how much does he expect to raise from that? where else could this money come from? guest: he had in the primaries a plan just north of $3 trillion in tax increases. that is growing now. he is talking about reversing that of the trump tax cuts benefited large corporations and the wealthy. he would raise the corporate income tax rates, raise taxes on capital gains which are largely paid by higher earning investors. i think the campaign has drawn a , people that we would consider the upper-middle-class, or truly the lower rungs of high earners will not see tax increases under his plan. what he is promising as he can do all of this on the backs of the rich and big companies. that is something that democrats in the primary raced to see who could tax the rich more.

proposalsa lot of democrats have lying around for different ways to tax wall street, or multinational corporations, or wealthy individuals. it appears biden is going to be deploying more of those then he said in the primary, but nowhere close to a bernie sanders level of tax. host: the biden economic pland and economics in general are the topic. you can call in. the phone lines are open to democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. , (202) 748-8002. i would be remiss not to ask about your forthcoming book, "the riches of this land:

the true story of this country's middle-class." what are you writing about and why are you writing about it? then 10 years one has an economics reporter in washington a sickly chasing this question of why the economy does not work for the middle class in the way that all americans had hoped and expected after the golden era of the decades following world war ii when we pulled millions into the middle class and delivered on the american dream. economyound is that the has stopped working for everyone because we stopped breaking down the barriers that exist that keep talented people from getting ahead. what economic research and history shows us is there is a group of workers who, when they surged into better opportunities , the entire economy benefited. that includes women, workers of color, immigrants.

empowering them is the key to revitalizing the economy both overall for the middle class, and particular coming out of a pandemic recession when we know that black workers and hispanic workers and women have been on the front lines, essential workers for health impacts and economic impacts. investing in them, getting them back to better opportunities, reducing racism and sexism that has held them back, that is going to help not just those workers, but everybody. it is going to help white workers in ohio. it is going to help men and women. it is what history shows us lifts the entire economy up and i think it is the recipe for another golden era in america. land""the riches of this out just in time for your late summer reading. derek, lake land, minnesota. caller: good morning, america.

i have a couple of comments. i am not complaining about this. washington journal i have been watching for 30 years. times reporters on, maybe you should probably have a segment with barry weiss talking about a resignation. a newspaper that is supposed to be about the first amendment is not about free speech. it is very bad over there in your newsroom. your editors have been sticking up for -- i will get on. host: let me just say, jim tankersley, do you want to comment about the editorial side of the paper and how much involvement or interaction you have with that? guest: i don't. i know some of the folks who work in the editorial, but they are a different department than ours.

you should read the resignation letter and i will tell you about that. my point is this, on top of that, the free press has no free speech. that is really crazy. you brought up $2 trillion, binds plans to bring electronic vehicles and electric vehicles and other stuff. we have done that before with obama.

our aprilase look at by michael shellenberger. he was the original green new deal guy in the early 2000's. he saw the corruption on what happened. obama brought in $80 billion and went to a handful of people who were basically, you invest and lobby to the government and you get a return of x. these guys made off like bandits. host: picking winners and losers.

guest: i think it is the concern any the government gets involved in trying to promote a particular sector of the economy, which is not just something the obama administration it, but something the trump administration as very much try to do and something joe biden has talked a lot about doing. they are aware of those arguments. their argument is this is where the economy is going. low carbon future is upon us, there is a race across the world to be the leaders in the technology. and governments are getting involved everywhere. i think the flipside to that argument is exactly what the caller said, there are absolutely choices you have to make. electricity prices will likely go up in the event of certain climate policies. it is true electricity prices have been fairly muted over the last decade or so because of technological advancements and things like hydraulic fracturing and not all of the predictions have come to pass about any of it.

i know michael shellenberger. the to cover energy for "chicago tribune," and i have been deeply steeped in the arguments for a long time, but i will send economic arguments about clean energy have evolved over the last decade. the administration, the current administration, certainly has a policy that favors particular types of energy. they very much are actively trying to help coal, for example. that is something we have seen from presidents across time as they try to promote the things they believe are most important to the national economy and interest. i think in a way, democrats are reacting to some of that and much more aggressively pushing their visions. host: the caller mentioned green new deal. $2 trillion. does not go as far as the green new deal, but free of those folks come they involved in coming up with -- with the green new deal involved in helping job

biden create this plan or any of the other economic plans he is rolling out? off, ajoe biden, first deep veil of secrecy over who are his closest advisors on the economy. there is a role among the people -- rule among the people, some of the taskforces advising him that they are not allowed to speak to the press about their involvement. it is also true he has had a very public process, the unity process with his former primary rival bernie sanders where many allies to' recommend policy. those definitely include some green new deal folks. it is unclear as of yet just how much impact those recommendations will have but they clearly had some. , the materials of

the campaign, but who biden staffs future administration with, what policy he chooses to emphasize over others if he is elected, those are the sorts of things that is difficult to tell now but you can look for clues based on those people around him and who he seems to be drawing guidance from. host: fort worth, texas. evelyn, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. my concern is regarding the as how our relation is way ily because the understand it, since president office, weeen in have very poor relations with other countries like european countries and especially with china because as i understand about