are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television company in 1979. today, we are brought to you by these television companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. -- c-span took public -- c-span to public. major new relief package is needed in the united states. >> during this pandemic, millions of americans, through no fault of their own, have lost the dignity and respect that comes with a job and a paycheck. millions of americans never thought they would be out of work. many of them never even envisioned the idea of facing eviction, waiting for hours in

their cars to feed their families as they drive up to a food bank. millions have kept their jobs, but have seen their hours and paychecks reduced, barely hanging on as well. that is happening today in the united states of america. this is in the midst of a dark winter in this pandemic as hospitalizations and deaths spiked to record levels. there is real pain overwhelming the real economy. one where people rely on paychecks, not their investments to pay for their bills and their meals and their children's needs. you will not see this pain if your scorecard is how things are going on wall street. you will see it clearly if you examine the twin crisis of a

pandemic and the sinking economy have laid bare. host: president-elect joe biden's answer to those issues in the united states, a $1.9 trillion american rescue plan is what he is calling it. $1400 in direct payments to americans. that is on top of the $600 payments passed in december to hit the $2000 number congressional democrats and president trump had argued for. in addition, the plan would include $400 a week in additional unemployment insurance. eviction moratorium. 400 million dollars to fight coronavirus and reopen schools. 350 million dollars for state and local governments. the vice president and president elect proposing a $15 minimum wage. we will break down the plan even

more throughout this first hour of the "washington journal." we want to hear from you. did you watch the president elect speech last night? what you think about the need for another $1.9 trillion in federal spending to respond to the economic situation and fight coronavirus. getting your calls on phone lines but a bit differently. we will start on the line for front-line workers. wayne is in hampstead, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a construction worker, an electrician. a new hospital is being built right now. many other facilities. i think $1.9 trillion does not near fit the bill. i think we need an infrastructure bill along with an economic bill that would put people back to work.

our infrastructure is disastrous. our water systems are bad, nearly third world. our electrical systems are 50 or 60 years old. host: the biden administration is promising a plan on infrastructure and other spending on that to be paid for through tax increases on the wealthiest of americans and rollbacks on some of those tax cuts. what we are concentrating on is this immediate response to coronavirus and economic situation in this country. this $1.9 trillion on tap on top of the $900 billion passed at the end of last year. caller: i understand that, and absolutely. we need that money to the

poorest of the poor instead of the richest of the rich. that is what happened to the last stimulus. the one from march, most of that money went to the richest of the rich. they expected it to trickle down to the poor. we know what happens to the poor when stuff trickles down. they simply get urinated on and dumped on. host: that is weighing in maryland. this is rachel, the line for those were unemployed. rachel, how long have you been unemployed? caller: i have been unemployed for some time and i think this plan is going to work. with the money he is going to give us i think we will be able to stay inside, quarantine, and weight the covid out. thank you for taking my call. host: staying on the line for unemployed, tony in west virginia. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have been unemployed since last april. the covid situation, i had warned our senators about back in december. i called my senators daily telling them what was going on and what the donalds plan was. the donald had a plan. his plan was not to worry about it. he was going to let it go through the whole country, he did not care. he was protected. he did not worry about the people. if the fbi could get the tapes from all of my calls to our senators, this was preventable from the very beginning. the senators, one year ago, knew

what was coming. they did not listen to me. they do not listen to people. everything that the donald has done is from putin's playbook. host: that is tony in west virginia. some congressional reaction to this $1.9 trillion american rescue plan. nancy pelosi with this tweet yesterday afternoon. when president-elect biden was elected he told the american people that help was on the way with the covid rescue package. the president announced today he is moving swiftly to deliver that help and meet the needs of the american people. from bernie sanders yesterday evening. president-elect biden's covid rescue plan will provide our people with much-needed support such as the 2000 real or direct payments and a $15 minimum wage. i look forward to meeting with him and my colleagues in

congress to urgently provide bold relief to working families. bernie sanders, of course, challenged joe biden in the primary. marco rubio saying joe biden will unite the country and begin ensuring faith that government can work. if you focus on helping families with $2000 in a 100 day vaccination push. but we will have more of the same partisan fighting if the plan is loaded up with a liberal wish list. taking your phone calls asking you about the plan. the main components of that plan we have been talking about is the additional $1400 in direct stimulus payments to individuals , $400 a week in unemployment insurance supplements. we showed you that graphic with some of the aspects of that plan. joe biden addressing those top two points, the direct payments and the uninsurance -- template

insurance at the top of his -- the unemployment insurance at the top of his speech. >> i rescue plan includes relief to americans hardest hit. we will finish the job of getting a total $2000 in cash relief to people who need it the most. the $600 already appropriated is not enough. we have to choose between paying rent and putting food on the table. even for those who kept their jobs, the checks are important. if you an american worker making $40,000 a year with less than $400 in savings, maybe you have lost hours or you are doing fewer shifts, driving a truck or caring for the kids or the elderly, you are putting your life on the line to work during this pandemic and worry every week that you get sick, lose your job, or worse.

$2000 will go a long way to ease that pain. also provide more peace of mind for struggling families by extending unemployment insurance beyond the end of march for millions of workers. that means 18 million americans currently getting unemployment benefits while they look for work can count on the checks continuing to be there. plus there will be a $400 per week supplement so people can make ends meet. this gets money quickly into the pockets of millions of americans who will spend it immediately on food and rent and other basic needs. the economists tell us that helps the whole economy grow. host: the president-elect from wilmington, delaware. we are talking about that plan the president-elect unveiled last night. on the phone lines, if you're unemployed, (202) 748-8000.

if your small business owner employer, (202) 748-8001. front-line workers, (202) 748-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003. we will hear from will in nashville, tennessee. small business owner. go ahead. caller: -- host: do you want to make a comment or do you just want to saying? we go to richard. front-line worker. go ahead. caller: i lost my job about 20 years ago, i was in sales. i went into a grocery store and i got a new job. i got a job making considerably less money. fast forward 20 years, trying to get to retirement. i worked for a major grocery

chain throughout this country. they own everybody. there is no cleaning of carts. there is no sanitation practices. there is no social distancing. you have people stealing groceries. you have people standing in lines. have you ever been into a retail center and they have 50 to 20 registers but they only have one or two open and people are lined up? you are stopping the shelf on and i'll and all of a sudden you look up and there are 20 people around you and half of those 20 people will be complaining because your mask slipped over your nose when you been squatting and bending over. host: on this relief plan, is what you're hearing about it, you think it will be effective? what do you think is needed for the boots on the ground in those stores? (202) 748-8000 -- caller: what needs to happen, the hero pay

went away. that is a farce. that happened for about two paychecks. when you look in the stores, they say they have lowered their prices. they have not lowered their prices. they are lying to us. i do pricing. when you buy local bread for $.99, a month later it is $1.39, same thing with eggs. host: what you think about a $15 an hour federal minimum wage? do you think that will help? caller: i think that will help you write every day i take a break and i walk out in front of the supermarket and i look into the parking lot. i promise you i see cars that average $30,000, and then they walk in and they pay in food stamps. what i am saying is i think the working people deserve the money.

i have been working nonstop. i have not gotten a virus. i have not tested positive. i know all there is about this stuff. i am telling you that there needs to be a hammer put down. the guy that owns the market next-door to our major supermarket is shut down, but we are open. i understand you cannot close grocery stores because people have to eat. this is a farce. the $2000, that helps. tell me what money does not help anybody. host: that is richard in tennessee. orlando is in georgia, front-line worker. what do you do? caller: i am a truck driver. i think the plan biden is a great start. you cannot solve everybody's problems. the thing of it is a lot of people's problems are stemming from not having enough income

and struggling over the bills they have to pay like their water bill. they need that money. it is hard to get up and go to work in the morning and i think joe biden understands how hard it is for somebody to get up and go to work. i am up right now driving in our in the snow -- driving an hour in the snow. it is hard to get up. host: why do you feel like he understands that? what about him makes you feel like he understands what it is like to get up and be an open road truck driver? caller: i am not knowing if it is because he owns a business, but just from listening to him, i feel he can understand, just like what he said yesterday about families being poor and not having enough food. that is the case.

i trade stocks and i made $60,000 on bitcoin. i invest all of my paycheck into bitcoin and since july bitcoin has gone from $12,000 to $40,000. i sold that 40,000. i do not have a house, i do not have a car. i put all of my money into bitcoin. if you are working, if you have three kids and you have to pay bills, you cannot afford to invest in stocks, you cannot afford to invest in bonds because you have to buy food and clothing and book and masks for the kids. i think he understands by his speech yesterday. host: orlando, be safe, thank you for the phone call. one of the key components of the joe biden american rescue plan that would focus on families with children increasing the tax

credits that are available for families with children. that is just one part of a wide-ranging plan that joe biden released yesterday. the new york times diving into more on the tax credit aspect. the plan would temporarily increase the tax credits for more families and make them refundable, meaning people would get cash even if they do not earn enough to owe income taxes. under the expanded childcare tax credit, families with children up to age 13 would receive a total of $4000 for one child, over $8,000 for two or more children. families making less than 125,000 per year would receive full credit, while those receiving -- while those earning up to $400,000 would earn some virtual credit. the new york times breaking down some aspects of this bill, the joe biden plan.

$1.9 trillion is what he will be pursuing at the start of his administration after he is sworn in next week. in connecticut, unemployed, good morning. you're next. caller: i thank god for joe biden and i think he understands and he is going to stay true to his word. i have a niece who has her income tax mailed in a year ago and is sitting somewhere on a desk. maybe those type of people could be looked into. what if the riot on wednesday was a form of trojan horse planning bombs from the bottom to the top. i think there should be a bomb squad to check it out. host: i do not presume to know about the inside workings of security when it comes to that sort of thing, but there's been a lot of security sweeps on capitol hill and a very heavy

security presence here since the roadblocks around capitol hill, even overnight this morning have been spreading farther from capitol hill. plenty of national guard troops around the capital station along fences. multiple fences around washington and around the capital this morning. showing you some of the scenes by union station this morning. john is next out of rio rancho, new mexico. small business owner. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span and thanks to brian lamb for this great service. i think it is a good start. clearly what was done so hastily and politically ham-fisted late, the steering match between pelosi and mitch mcconnell -- i am a lifetime independent. that kind of gridlock politics

where everyone is testing to see which way the wind is blowing every 10 minutes drives me nuts. for now, with both houses of congress, even with a narrow majority, i think it is another interesting topic, the incredible power kamala harris will have given the balance of the senate and she being the tie-breaking vote. it will thrust her immediately into a more powerful vice presidency. the stimulus money, of course, any economist will tell you what is number one thing that drives the economy? consumer spending, especially when people are in debt or needing to have basic essentials in their homes and that money will go right into the economy. it is a perfect kind of stimulus because it is support, it is life support. as far as the covid deployment,

i do not want to get too much into the legal ramifications right now. lawyers will be doing that. the criminality this trump administration is ending on -- listen, as a christian i want to reach out to president trump. he is alone and that white house come and for all of his sins he is a human being and i am required by my code to reach out. president trump, if you ever should hear this, listen, you are loved. as much as you are hated by many, i will take the time to send you some love and hope you search your heart and for these remaining days do what you can towards love. i heard it in your voice once. go check out the clip of him when he got prank by stuttering john on the howard stern show

and he thought it was senator menendez. he was extremely empathetic towards the man he thought was senator menendez. a side of president trump he does not like to show in public because he was talking that shows weakness. it is not weakness, it is a strength. i hope you rely on it in this darkest hour. host: that is john out of rio rancho new mexico. to follow-up on your points, you are talking about the 50/50 split in the senate and the power of kamala harris. we talked about this program on tuesday. james walner took a deep dive into how 50/50 split works in the senate, the power of the president of the senate, the vice president. to your point about the stimulus checks and their effectiveness, john taylor would disagree with you. john cogan and author come and

john taylor a professor at stanford. they co-authored a column. "$2000 checks will not boost the economy." they write such spending does nothing to stimulate the economy. it only adds to the federal debt. they took a look at a report that studied the effects of that cash payment by the cares act last march. that report finding most respondents reported they primarily saved or pay down debt with their cash payments, with only about 15% reporting they mostly spent it. they write the payments have done little to boost the economy. another round of checks would bring the total cost of direct payments to more than $900 billion. that is greater than the 2020 military budget. they say economic assistance can be justified on humanitarian grounds, not from the discredited idea of stimulating the economy. if you want to read more on that

, today's washington journal. heady in byron, georgia. go ahead. caller: what i am saying is i do not know why republicans are not on board with the $15 an hour minimum wage. i see it as the government is subsidizing walmart. you have adults with kids working at walmart making five dollars or $10 an hour so there are food stamps, housing vouchers, their kids get free lunch tickets. all of that money is coming from the taxpayers supporting walmart. finally, if the republicans support the bill, we will force walmart to pay the people the living wage and reduce taxes on the rest of us. thank you. host: evelyn in indiana. go ahead. caller: i think this is a joke.

i want to know why these measures were not passed before biden took office. we all know nancy pelosi fully admitted she held off until we have a new president. the politics -- i want all of you politicians to know, you've made millions off of the american people. all you have done is divide, race bait come and push fear mongering. you shut our businesses down, you cost us millions of jobs. thousands of businesses have closed. aoc. this whole situation is not ok. $1.9 trillion. we will get $1400, whatever. in reality that does not help us. what would help us is lowering our taxes, lowering your insurance. lowering costs. $1.9 trillion, what are we going

to be paying in taxes in the future. host: your question on why did not happen before, to go to december, $2000 direct payments were passed as part of a plan supported by president trump. it did not get a vote. joe biden sang with democrats in control of the senate they have a better chance that they would still have to cheer this -- clear the 60 vote hurdle in the senate to move legislation. caller: what was less bill they just passed, and millions went to other countries? host: i'm just answering your question why it did not happen before, the legislative roadblock. caller: that is my point. we pass millions and billions to the other countries during a so-called pandemic while the american people are dying and out of work and our kids are screwed when it comes to school.

you want our opinions, let us talk. this whole situation is screwed. it is going to help to a point but it is not going to help in the long run because cost is going to be raised. host: that is evelyn in indiana. this is brian out of newmarket, maryland. how long have you been unemployed? caller: since the start of the pandemic. i have to say i disagree with bidens $15 in our plan and the tax breaks for people with excessive amounts of children. i think you are encouraging people to not aspire to be anything. the caller before that was talking about walmart and those people making $15 an hour, if that is the pinnacle we aspire to, to be the head bagger at walmart, or are we going to try

to get educated and get a career in that be punished for being successful? i feel like as a single male with no kids that i am being punished when it comes to tax season, where people who've made poor decisions and decided not to go to college and have five kids are getting gigantic tax breaks. host: that is brian in maryland. aurora colorado. unemployed. how long have you been unemployed? caller: hello. host: how long have you been unemployed? caller: my name is wally. i've been unemployed for some time because i am a cancer recovery. still trying to believe god for my healing, which he promised he would do for me any day now.

how are you this morning? host: i'm doing all right. is what you are hearing about this plan something you would be able to support or are there parts of it you would support? caller: i cannot support joe biden. i do not like the name where he invoked the name of -- host: that is wally. let's go to connecticut. unemployed. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to add a few thoughts if you could give me a moment. i think the number one news story that has been completely blocked by the media since this pandemic began is what the federal reserve has done to save the stock market. they pump $5 trillion into these

wall street banks, the cares package, currently all of this money into the treasury, which is steve mnuchin. he has $500 billion in localization funds purposely used to prop up the stock market. 90% of the people in this country do not have a significant portion of the stock market. all of this cares money has gone to the stock market. you heard that guy talking about bitcoin before. i know it. i watch the stock market every day. this is the biggest bubble since 2000. it has exceeded 1929. nobody is talking about all of these trillions upon trillions of dollars that has gone directly to the wall street banks and they are using it to goose the stock market.

how do you have the biggest pandemic in our history, with millions of people filing unemployment every week. the financial crisis was only 700,000 people. it never got higher than that. this is the most important story that has never been reported over the last seven months. the federal reserve is backstopping the stock market, not just backstopping it, but dropping helicopter money on it. nancy pelosi has admitted it on the house floor. nine out of 10 economists say the federal reserve is one of the sole reasons for income inequality in this country. we have serious issues with our monetary policy. host: you mentioned the unemployment situation in this country. you mentioned the weekly unemployment report yesterday

and they're making the front pages of the national papers today. the new york times noting though more than half of the 22 million jobs lost last spring have been regained, a new surge of infections has prompted shut down and layoffs that have hit the leisure and hospitality industries especially hard, dealing a setback to the recovery. the latest evidence came yesterday when the labor department reported initial claims for unemployment benefits rose sharply come exceeding one million for the first time since july. this is mary out of orangeburg, south carolina. the line for frontline workers. caller: i've been trying to get a hold of you all week. what i wanted to say, and a couple of hours -- what i do is work on the food bank, i give out tons of food to people and we do it at least four days out of the week.

use the other time to up the food. the point, i've been trying to get a hold of you, i had my granddaughter here. a five-page letter to get the highlights of the incident at the capital. host: we do not have time for a five-page letter. caller: i was not going to read all of it. i was just going to give you the highlight. i want you have a pencil and paper. i will give you the names she wants you to have these gifts on and that would put a light on what happened last wednesday. host: i will take the suggestions. run through them quickly. caller: the title of one book, "rising out of hatred." she would like you to have derek black and she wants you to have rich wilson back because the stuff she was going to talk

about when she was here, they know a lot about what went on and can give light on it. also she wanted to explain the part with antifa and black lives matter, and being where on a different subject i will not going to the highlights about it , but it was not planned. host: i appreciate that and thank you for the suggestions. always appreciate suggestions this morning. wanted to point out rick wilson, on this program i guess it was september of last year was last time he was on. we are a daily program and we invite guests on a daily basis. i appreciate your suggestions. it works better when it is a back-and-forth and we can respond to you. thank you for the call and thank you to your daughter for watching and her suggestions. i want to come back to this topic of this 1.9 trillion dollar american rescue plan the president-elect proposed

yesterday. he will be pursuing in the 117th congress. a closely divided congress. this plan likely to be an early test of his ability to move legislation, to work across the aisle as he has promised to do and we have been breaking down that legislation throughout the morning in this first hour of washington journal. this is charles out of columbia, south carolina. small business owner. good morning. caller: i want to ask your question. i have tried to get through most of the week. i have called over the last couple of years, once a month, once every last couple of months. i think of been pretty reasonable with my comments. lately, and it is leading up to the election, i have two di >> live to capitol hill to hear from speaker nancy pelosi. speaker pelosi: