stock market action with gamestop. the alzheimer's association on the future of alzheimer's policy. join the conversation with your phone calls, text messages, tweets. next, on washington journal. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. president joe biden is pushing a $1.9 trillion rescue plan with lawmaker split down partisan lines on the cost. democrats say a large plan is needed to get the economy at contract while republicans are looking for a smaller plan, saying biden's plan would run up too much debt. with the pandemic running

throughout the country, what do you think? is more pandemic relief needed? if you are one of those essential workers, or you are a front-line worker, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. if you are unemployed because of the pandemic or because of the economy, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. if you work at a small business or you are a small business owner and you have been affected by this pandemic, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. if you do not fit in any of those categories, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8003. you can always text us at (202) 748-8003 and we are always reading on twitter @cspanwj and

on facebook. there is a big conversation going on on capitol hill about the pandemic release planned pushed by president biden. pew research did a study of what americans think should be the policy agenda for 2021 and as you might expect, economy and covid-19 were at the top. let's see a bit from what this article says -- according to pure research as the u.s. faces the twin crises of high unemployment and a pandemic, the majority of americans want biden to address the coronavirus pandemic, get there are wide partisan gaps particularly addressing racial issues and

dealing with global climate change but also dealing with covid-19 and reducing the federal deficit. as you can see from the graphic, the thing most people want as the top priority for the president and congress will be strengthening the economy at 80%. right under it is dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. this is not the only thing we are seeing. let me read to you a little bit from the pew research study. eight in 10 americans say strengthening the economy and did dealing with the coronavirus outbreak should be the top priorities for the president and congress to deal with this year. at the partisan gap over addressing the coronavirus is as large. 93% of democrats rate this as a

top policy priority compared with 60% of republicans though it ranks among the leading goals for members of both parties. let's talk to david calling from duluth, minnesota. good morning. caller: good morning. i think some that her plans would be -- some better plans for getting vaccines out quick glue -- quicker would be opening schools and having school nurses vaccinate people. host: what industry do you work in? caller: i am unemployed. host: how long have you been unemployed? was it because of the pandemic? caller: it is actually been going on a year i have been unemployed. host: has there been any job

opportunities out there? are you seeing any job openings or has the pandemic killed pretty much any chance of finding a job anytime soon? caller: the pandemic has made it worse here in duluth. a lot of people are struggling with mental health issues. most people are on social security up here so they cannot support themselves. host: what david is seeing seems to be going around the country. business insider has a story that talks about where the u.s. economy is right now and i will bury -- read a couple paragraphs from business insider. " the u.s. economy grew less than anticipated in the last three months of 2020 as the pace of recovery padded against the

coronavirus's resurgence. u.s. gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 4% in the fourth quarter. barring last quarter's record leap the end of they cared gain is the largest since 2014. economists surveyed by bloomberg expected growth of 4.2% through the period. the reading represents how much the economy would have grown had the fourth quarter pace lasted for 12 months." let's talk to brenda calling from maryland, who is a small business owner. caller: good morning. i just want to say, it is very disheartening to see politicians

play with our lives like this. i came to this country when i was four years old. i am now 27. before coronavirus i was working for a change. i am -- was working for a chain. i am an aesthetician. i went back to work one day. i realize this corporation did not care about me. they put no safety guidelines in place to protect me and i quit that same day. unfortunately i had to go on unemployment, which was really scary for me. i am a resident. i am not a citizen. i get to watch everything from the sidelines without being able to vote. it is frustrating to see these politicians play with us as if we do not have ills to pay -- bi lls to pay.

coronavirus is what we should be dealing with as a nation. other nations are doing a much better job than we are. host: yesterday president joe biden spoke to reporters following a meeting with janet yellen on the economy and the need for congressional action on covid relief. here is what president aydin had to say -- president biden had to say. [video clip] >> 30 million americans do not have enough food to eat this week and interest rates are at historic lows. the return on smart investments on the economy have never been higher. that is the consensus between dutch among economists in the country -- the contests us --

that is the consensus among economists in the country. i have been meeting all morning with other folks as well. we have to act now. there is no time for any delay. we get end up with 4 million fewer jobs this year according to moody's, and it could take a year longer if we do not act now. we could see an entire cohort of kids with a lower lifetime earnings because they are deprived of another semester of school. millions of parents, and maybe some of you, millions of parents, particularly moms are forced to stay home, reducing wages. future job prospects -- they have no choice but to stay home and take care of their children.

millions are out of work. future millions are held back for no good reason, other than our failure to act. the choice could not be clearer. we have learned from past crises, the risk is not doing too much, the risk is not doing enough. host: let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about whether there should be a covid-19 relief bill. one person from facebook says " not for federal employees who have not missed day paycheck -- missed a a paycheck. only the unemployed should receive them, if at all." " i am a pharmacy technician.

my hours have been reduced dramatically and my husband just lost his job. we definitely need help now!" " it should be $2000 a month on people are back to work, if covid related. this will help address the economy." " no. why? because it has nothing to do with covid relief. only our government's way of -- " _i think more resources need to be poured into the dispersal of the -- " i think more resources need to be poured into the dispersal of the vexing. -- the vaccine." caller: the democrats are going

to have to go it alone. the republicans are making excuses for not helping people. president haydn -- biden will have to go out and with the help of the vice president, not only pass this bill, but we are going to need another one probably during the summer months when the kids are out of school. i feel this is going to have to take place by the democrats by themselves in order to get the economy stimulated in get the economy on track. host: not everyone is in favor of president biden's plan. john thune criticized parts of the coronavirus pandemic stimulus plan and talked about its possible effect on the u.s. deficit. [video clip] >> republicans are more than

willing to work with democrats on additional targeted covid relief legislation. i will not pretend we do not have reservations about some of the measures democrats have proposed. i do not inc. an emergency covid relief bill is the place -- not think an emergency covid relief bill is the place to push through a higher minimum wage. it should not be pushed through congress in a hasty fashion. republicans are concerned about the in norma's amount of money -- enormous amount of money the democrats want to spend. we have to be careful about that additional spending and appropriate what is necessary to respond to this pandemic and with an eye to the burden we are

placing on young americans as we increase our national debt. the higher the national debt, the greater drag on economic growth and the higher the likelihood that young people will face tax bills in the future. while republicans have concerns about some of the democrats' proposals, we are dedicated to defeating this pandemic and we are ready to work with democrats on any necessary legislation that would achieve that objective. host: let's talk to bruce, who is calling from dover, new jersey. good morning. caller: i am kind of with the democrats even though i am an independent. i am a disabled veteran. i need the money because we are being shut down in our group

home. it is not like i cannot get it. i would be able to get it from the veterans. we cannot energize the small business sector. thank you for hearing me. host: let's talk to mike calling from chesapeake, virginia. caller: good morning. i would like to say, we need to support biden's plan. there is a lot of suffering out there. my wife is a daycare worker. i work for municipal government. i work part-time for a second government into lost that job when they -- and lost that job when they had to cut their budget by $1 million. every day i go to work, i do not know what i would have to do

because of the risk -- you go to work every day, you are risking your life. when trump came in, they spent money like a drunken sailor. it seems the congresspeople are not in step with the regular americans. they make a lot of money up there. there are probably new ones who do not. support president biden. they need to do this. host: let's go to joy calling from chicago, illinois. caller: good morning. it is very cold here in chicago, america. i am a small business owner, i am relatively new, i am african-american. one of my employees -- i cannot

help her pay her rent because i am unable to pay so i had to pull together family members to keep my business running. they have statistical data of the ppe for who has received the ppe loans so far and it is broken down by mail-female -- male-female ratio and ethnicity. it was 3-1 compared to men. 7000 female business owners and 20,000 male is this owners received it. native americans received 95 million. hispanics, you see 755 million.

asian, 582 million and african-american, 182 million. i thought i would touch on that because a lot of businesses are struggling and there are people getting -- small businesses are getting the old of the assistance -- the bulk of the assistance. businesses are struggling out here. host: what is actually in president biden's american rescue plan? let's look. what we see here is $1400 direct payments to american citizens. that would be topping off the $600 that passed in december to hit a payment of $2000.

you will see a $400 a week unemployment insurance supplement and an eviction moratorium that would last until mid september. $400 billion to fight coronavirus and reopen schools. expanded paid sick leave for workers, $350 billion for state and local governments, $15 an hour federal minimum wage. that is being debated in congress right now. is more coronavirus stimulus needed to bring the american economy on track? are you worried about possible future debt coming from this plan? let's go back to our phone lines

and talked to kimberly calling from north carolina. caller: good morning. i think that we are in dire need of this stimulus bill passed . i am in the hospital because i am disabled. i have yet to get my second stimulus check. i cannot afford groceries. i am sitting here in hospital. i have been here a week fighting an infection. we need, the poor people, -- as a disabled individual i do not get unemployment because i am disabled. i'll make it $1000 a month on my

disability service. what you hear in the background is my iv thing going off. the american people need help. the people who have not even got in the $600 stimulus check -- where is it at? i see six doctors a day trying to save my life. i have one lung so i cannot go to grocery stores like everybody else. i wear my mask religiously. i do not even go to doctors appointments like i am supposed to because of fear of covid. my anxiety has gotten so bad i

have turned to self-mutilation to help my nerves. we need help. the american people need help. host: hopefully she is getting the help she needs there in the hospital. let's dr. carl calling from traverse city, michigan -- let's talk to carl calling from traverse city, michigan. caller: i am for stimulus on the level of rent assistance and boosting unemployment. what i see as the direct payments, is people getting money into not having the right places to spend it that -- money and not having the right places to spend it. i work at a beer wholesaler. bars, restaurants, nail salons,

theaters, those local small businesses are not able to get the money because they are closed. people would like to spend the money to go out and socialize, but the places that need the money spent there are not able to open. michigan, we have a reopening schedule where up to 20 -- we are up to 25% capacity. i got my direct payment. i did not need it, but i spent it where i could on a tree contractor and a gravel contractor to do some work for me. i feel like i do not need the money -why should they send it to me- ? i wish i could see it more directly going into local businesses when they need it to take care of their employees when they are open. host: jerome powell elaborated

on the economy, the fiscal response to the pandemic and the need for a decision on how to spend further. [video clip] >> i would start by saying the fiscal response we have seen has been strong been strong -- has been strong and sustained since december. that is a key reason why it has been as strong. fiscal policy is important. i would add that we are a long way from a full recovery. something like 9 million people remain unemployed as a consequence of the pandemic. that is as many people who lost their jobs at the peak of the recession.

the path ahead is still uncertain. all that said, the judgment on how much to spend and in what way is one for congress and the administration and not for the fed. these conversations are going on now. there is a discussion now around those precise questions and that is appropriate but not for us to play a role in specific policies. host: let's go back to our social media followers and see what they have to say about whether more covid relief is needed. here is a tweet that says " the millionaire politicians are taking their sweet time when it comes to helping working people, but they always move fast when it comes to funding corporate welfare, tax cuts into the military industrial complex. -- tax cuts and the military industrial complex." " as always -- no matter what

much of the stimulus will go to people who do not really need it, however, how do you pick winners and losers? america is a very rich country." " democrats controlled the white house, the house, and the senate. if a package is needed, do they need republicans?" " blanket relief, no, targeted relief, yes. enough with throwing unnecessary money around!" " yes, but only for those that have been making less than $80,000 per year and are currently laid off.

it is ridiculous they would send a retiree like myself a stimulus check as covid has not affected my income at all." let's. go back to our phon lines and start with rob -- let's go back to our phone lines and start with rob. caller: thank you for taking my call. i agree with the person you just quoted. people who make $350,000 a year do not need another stimulus. i would like to see c-span do a story -- leonardo spa in italy change to the votes. host: -- leonardo spa in italy changed the votes. host: next caller. sometimes my southern accent works, sometimes it doesn't.

caller: i am an essential worker with a beverage company in west branch. as far as the covid relief package they are trying to put ray right now -- put through right now, i think the american people need it. i think this country is hurting and it has been hurting. a lot of problem is with the way the congress and senate have been going with their vendetta against the previous administration. the white house did not seem to care about the american people. they cared about their vendetta and making sure trump got put out of office. do we need the stimulus packages? yes. will we need more? i'm afraid we are going to. host: you are afraid that they

are going to add more that we do not need or you are afraid the economy will need more? caller: i'm afraid the economy will need more. we are a long ways from being over this because the last i heard -- correct me if i wrong -- couldn't -- the company is making the vaccines do not have the vaccine to distribute -- the company making the vaccines do not have the vaccine to distribute. host: let's go to james calling from texas. caller:, good morning. thank you for c-span. i would like to just express briefly my opinion on the upcoming democratic move on the

senate and the house. i agree with my senator and my representative that this is the way of the world presently. these essential payouts need to be made. whether you are out of work or working full time, this money will assist everyone. the fact is, i am a musician, a gig workers, married to a medical person who is an essential worker. you see both sides of the economy. i have worked three days since march 2020. host: are you a bandleader? are you in a band? are you a soloist? i know a lot of theaters and restaurants that normally higher mute -- hire musicians have cut

back because of the pandemic. host: -- guest: -- caller: it is hit or miss. i am a bandleader of a band that specializes in weddings and corporate events. essentially, my mainstay were private parties and weddings. it has just ceased to exist. the weddings taking place are usually covered by a dj who wears a mask and plays records. i am all for that. i would rather see the economy come back stronger than ever and have everyone vaccinated. i just hope it happens sooner rather than later. host: let's go to joseph calling

from st. mary's georgia -- st. mary's, georgia. caller: i want to talk about that stimulus package -- most of that money is going to go to the big cities like california, new york, they are going to get all that money. the people who really need that money -- go to the suburbs, clean the neighborhoods up, open everything backup and we will be just fine. if we do not, i believe china, russia, afghan and all that will start a war. i feel that that is what maybe might happen. that stimulus package, they need to give it to the community. host: each state is making its own decision about how to open

or close businesses because of the pandemic. the new york times has a map that shows the decisions that are being made by each individual state about whether businesses in that state are open or closed. businesses are mostly open across the center of the country with mixed decisions in the northeast with new mexico and oregon being mostly closed. when we talk about the national economy, keep in mind states are doing different things when it comes to deciding whether to open or close their businesses because of the coronavirus pandemic, just like states are making different decisions when it comes to whether people are required to wear a mask.

as you can see, there are different decisions going on in different states when it comes to wearing masks with some states saying it is mandatory and other states having no restrictions or having it sometimes required. when we talk about the country as a whole when it comes to the stimulus package or whether businesses are fully open or closed, those decisions are being made at the state level. chuck schumer discussed the need for further extensive covid-19 pandemic relief into the reasons he believes that should be done now -- relief and the reasons he believes that should be done now. [video clip] >> schools are closed in many states. restaurants and bars, travel, are in crisis. janet yellen, who days ago was

confirmed by a large majority of our republican colleagues just told us with interest rates at historic lows, the best thing we can do is act big. that is what yellen said. given these numbers, given the weakening state of the economy, big, bold action is called for. at a time when the country needs a boost would be a responsible. we are in them -- be i rresponsible. we are in a once in a century crisis. the dangers of under shooting a response are far greater than overshooting. we should learn the lesson of 2008 and '09 when congress was

too timid in its response and it took years for the economy to get out of recession we must. -- out of recession. we must not repeat that mistake today. we will consider a very strong covid relief bill. our preference is to make this important work bipartisan, to include input and revisions from our republican colleagues or bipartisan efforts to do the same. if a republican colleagues decide to oppose this urgent and necessary legislation, we will have to move forward without them. we have a responsibility to help the american people fast, particularly given these new economic numbers. the senate will begin that work next week. host: the poverty rate in the

united states also is going up because of the coronavirus pandemic, and that was pointed out by a member of congress earlier this morning. we have a tweet from congressman raja who says " americans are suffering. we need relief for working families who are struggling to keep food on the table and funding for programs that aid those who need it most." :: the -- " the end of 2020 the sharpest rise in the american poverty rate since -- the poverty rate increased by 2.4% during the latter half of 2020 as the u.s. continued to suffer the cannot make impacts of covid-19.

that percentage point rise is nearly double the highest increase in poverty since the 1960's. an additional 8 million people nationwide are now considered poor. moreover the poverty rate for black americans is estimated to have jumped by 5.4 percentage points, or by 2.4 million individuals. the scholars' findings released monday put the rate at 11.8% in december. while poverty is down from readings of more than 50% a decade earlier, the new estimates suggested that the annual census euro tally due in set -- since his bureau --

census bureau tally --" let us know what you think. let's talk to marshall calling from brooksville, florida. caller: good morning. what i am talking about here is we are doing a stimulus package but we cannot get nobody to work. that is the biggest problem. they are getting all this money. why should they want to work? i own a construction company, and it is hard to find somebody to go to work because they are getting all this money. they keep telling me why should i go to work when i got all this money? host: you have jobs available and you cannot find anybody to fill these jobs? caller: that is very true. how did they expect the american people to pay all this money besides taking it from the

american people? the american people ought to wake up. this will hurt us and hurt us a lot. host: that is a marshall from brooksville, florida. he says there are construction jobs available in brooksville, florida. let's go to mississippi. before you get started, tell me where morton, mississippi is. caller: are you familiar with jackson, mississippi? host: very. caller: it is east of jackson. host: going back toward alabama. now i know where you are, lila. caller: i am a nurse, but i have not worked since march of last year. i have two elderly sisters and a special needs nephew. i attempt to do all the running for and take care of because basically the only job i was

offered was see in covid patients. i would be a covid nurse. i cannot be a covid nurse 16 hours a day with a covid patient then come home and see two elderly people and a special needs adult. so i have lived off my unemployment, which in mississippi is $200 a week and they tax that. they're saying " you make more than you did before the pandemic hit." this is not true. people are being falsely fed information. mississippi is a poor state and unfortunately the last people were -- who were in office -- we accept the least amount that comes out of washington and we do not even attempt to do better with trying to help the people who need help.

i called our state health department this weekend asked if i could set up some kind of program to give shots in the area in this rural area because i want to help -- i was a home health care nurse. nobody has contacted me. i have not been able to schedule shots for my family, myself or to give shots in the community. host: let's go to melody calling from lake charles, louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i just feel the money should be allocated to hire some people who will come out from college this year. host: go ahead, melanie. caller: also, how do young

people who are in the job market, but unable to find a job, how are they qualified for assistance from the government? do you know? host: let's go to jenny calling from hamilton, ohio. caller: thank you for taking my call. i work at a hospital, and i am 73 years old. i have been there 25 years. i have to work to make ends meet. i have a disabled son i care for. i was working full-time. now i am only getting to work one day a week. i am really scared. i have always worked. lots of times i have worked two jobs throughout my life, and i am scared how i am going to make en suite -- ends meet.

the stimulus package is needed badly. that is what i have to say. host: let's go to rick calling from new york. caller: how are you doing today? host: i'm good. go ahead, rick. caller: so much money goes overseas to other countries. let's keep it here and support small businesses. i am in a small town area, and i do not go buy at big stores. i try to take care of people. big businesses, you do not see them taking out ads in the local paper for high school teams. you do not see other countries taking their tax money and sending it to the united states. we need to take care of our own people. host: you think the pandemic relief money is going overseas. what did you mean by that?

caller: you look at the stuff when they come out with these packages -- a good example is gender studies overseas. we have to keep money here. read the whole thing. we are only told -- if you pull it up and read where all the money coming out of these packages is going to -- host: go ahead, david. caller: i am a little ashamed of my country. all the cowards in this country are afraid of a little flu. these little businesses should

tell government to get out of their business. host: you said you are an essential worker -- what kind of work do you do? caller: i build military weapons. host: and you have not been affected by the pandemic at all in your work? caller: no. you have to wear a mask wherever you go. that is ridiculous. anyone with a little more than a pea for a brain would know unless it is airtight, the virus is going to get you. it is a little flu. what the heck do we even need a vaccine -- host: what do you think happened to the 400,000 plus people died from it? caller: people die from the flu. people die every day of the year. this is getting crazy. i could understand if it was 40

million who died, but it is 400,000. host: you do not consider that to be a lot of people who have died -- not a normal death, but a death that would not have happened without this coronavirus? caller: most of them would have died within -- who knows? most had pre-existing conditions. they would have died anyways. host: let's go to betty calling from medina, new york. another new york caller. caller: i just heard -- north carolina. i think the money should go to people like that. people really suffering in this world. you know what? god is in charge of everything, and nothing happens without him seeing it.

how you treat the least of my people -- i do not know what else to say. host: on thursday, the senate banking committee held a confirmation hearing for president biden's nominee., she was asked about her views towards dealing with the covid-19 pandemic. let's see that exchange. >> i share janet yellen's view, which is our focus right now needs to be on getting through this pandemic to provide aid to small businesses, but also we need to ensure state and local government can be providing for firefighters, transit workers and they are stepping up in ways they did not budget for last year. in our last session, not providing relief -- job losses

provided a drag on the recovery. to ensure we have a swift return to economic health, providing aid to state and local governments is part of that package. host: let's go back to our social media followers and see what they think about whether another coronavirus pandemic relief package is needed. here is a post from facebook that says " i am sure many small businesses need help." here is a tweet that says " stimulus money is helping us keep our economy afloat. think of it as trickle up economics." " i am an essential worker on one job, but significantly fewer hours now. i cannot return to my second job yet.

i am medically unable to wear a mask. massively frustrating. i would love to go back!" we need clarification on mask exemptions for those with valid medical reasons/" " chief powell into the treasury secretary both say relief and stimulus is vitally needed to keep recovery on track and primed for when virus gets under control, which is key to everything." " economists warned that a sustained recovery will not likely take hold until vaccines are distributed and administered nationwide and government enacted rescue aid to spreads to the economy, a process likely to take months. in the meantime, millions of americans continue to struggle." caller: i have a small business.

i own my own spa. i have not worked since march. i have plenty of clients ready to come back, but i cannot work. everything is hands-on in a massage in a small room, in an enclosed space. i do not get unemployment. i am having a hard time. i do not know what else to do because i cannot get the vaccine yet. not old enough in the state of iowa we are only doing age 65 and i do not know when i am going to get back to work. host: what are you doing to prepare to ribbon? -- prepare to reopen? are you keeping your employees on call? how are you making payments on rent, electricity, all the things you need to run a small

business? caller: my employees are contracted, so they rent rooms out of myspace, which i am not doing. i cannot purchase stuff. my lotions, everything i need for massage, i cannot purchase them if i cannot use them. everything i have right now is just going bad. i am just in a terrible situation. i have a husband. he works. so i am good there. host: were you able to get any ppp loans? caller: no. not at all. i have been with my credit union for over 20 years and they could not help me. i do not have tax people. i am not a big business. i have three people who rent from me and no help. i wish they would pass another stimulus package and make it

more to help small businesses, instead of helping -- they consider a small business a business that has like 100 employees. i consider that a person who is very well-off. they need to help small business owners everything we get from a small pet -- stimulus package goes back into our economy. host: let's go to garner, north carolina. robert, good morning. caller: we do need as stimulus package -- a stimulus package. people need $1400 to keep the economy going as the president said. we talked about 30 million people -- yes, we do need that.

people do need help. because we are dealing with a pandemic. i think congress, as far as the democrats, they are trying to do all they can. host: let's go to marty calling from clinton, oklahoma. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a 63-year-old man and i just had five different operations on my heart. i am drawing social security. amit making $13,000 a year -- i am making $13,000 a year. it is difficult to receive here in the state of oklahoma. what i make a year, they are hollering $5,000 a year -- i live under the poverty line. it is hard. they need to push the stimulus check as hard and as fast as

they can. some of these people can get back out into the world and open their jobs back up and help little people like us. host: let's go to michelle who is calling from piney point, maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call. we definitely need the stimulus and one of the colors said something about -- callers said something about those who are wealthy not needing the stimulus. the middle-class, may be the poor population really does need the stimulus money very badly. we just came out of an administration that was very divisive, very negative. it does not matter whether you are republican or democrat or independent. we are all americans.

we just came out of an administration where the president did not even inform the american people -- hopefully people will really look at this closely and think about it -- our president is supposed to care about what happens to the american people. host: let's go to peter who is calling from gordonsville, virginia. good morning. caller: yes or. -- yes sir, thank you. i was calling with a different question. i think the united states government ought to publish the statistics on people who have comorbidity who have passed away. it is deceiving because the majority of people who have passed away have comorbidity issues, which would have

affected them regardless of covid-19. i think the american people should see those statistics. host: i think you can find those exact statistics you are talking about on the cdc website. one of the things they have already said is that, if you just look at the numbers of people who have died per year, you see an extra 450,000 deaths that statistically should not have happened over this past year that they are saying happened because of coronavirus. so if you are arguing that coronavirus did not kill people, they already have statistics to show that that is probably not correct. caller: i have a personal experience of someone in new york city who went in for a heart attack, ok? on their certificate, covid-19 was put. it took lawyers to get that off. host: so you're saying because of that one incident the rest of

the deaths were not because of coronavirus? caller: i'm not saying that. on the news, both the right into the left, no one is actually -- right and the left, no one is reporting who actually died from covid-19. host: let's go to patricia in selma, alabama. caller: we definitely need a stimulus package. i have been unemployed since march of 2020. i am a retired teacher. as you know, most teachers are unemployed because they are on virtual learning. we definitely need a stimulus package. we are inside the schools. parents are working. the students need to be in a safe zone as well as teachers.

montgomery school system has more deaths from covid. directors and teachers have been lost due to covid. host: let's go to terry pulling from winchester, tennessee -- calling from winchester, tennessee. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a question and then a statement. . my question is, there was a country who said they would conquer us from within. every time i think about covid, that pops into my mind. i wish someone could tell me what country it was that said that. my statement is, i have worked in health care most of my life. i now live on social security, and i can barely get by.

prices keep going up and up and up. our government needs to help people like us because it is getting to the point where we are not going to be able to get then we will not be able to pay our rent. host: we want to thank our collars and social media followers who contacted us for that segment. , coming up, roben farzad will discuss with us the state of the u.s. economy and the latest news on the gamestop stock market action. later, robert egge of the alzheimer's association will be here to discuss the anniversary of the national alzheimer projects act and the future of alzheimer's policy. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ >> tv has -- and american life,

journalist dan the rain talks about the life of kamala harris. then, "the great demographic reversal: aging societies, waiving inequality, and inflation revival." sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern, new york times topic: is charles rowe on his book "the devil you know." he's interviewed by robert woodson. watch book tv this weekend on c-span2. >> the senate next week considers more on president biden's cabinet nominations. monday, a photo set for alejandro mayorkas to become

high am when security secretary. tuesday, pete buttigieg to have the transportation department. other possible pending cabinet nominations include veterans affairs and commerce. the house meets for a pro former session. members are planning a budget resolution. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with public radio full disclosure host roben farzad, who is here to help us decipher all the news we've heard this week about gamestop and read it in the stock market and hedge funds and making this make sense to us. guest: good morning. host: let's set the scene.

tell us what happened with gamestop, reddit and the stock market. guest: revenge of the nerds is the easy way to call it. you have a group of diehard renegade retail investors. a lot of them use the app robinhood. the honor of gamestop. gamestop is a struggling mall retailer that sells video games, comic books and other things. the stock has been assailed by short-sellers, these hedge fund investors that can go in and borrow a stock and that it will fall and put pressure on the stock. kind of a feeding wolf pack mentality. these guys meanwhile want to defend the alamo. they say we can ruin their lives.

we can make their mischief painful and difficult by banding together and buying gamestop stock. not for any fundamental reason. not that anybody is driving to the multibyte videogames of this company is out of the woods in any measure. long story short, when that happened in these people engage in that self-fulfilling prophecy, the stock is up 15 fold in less than a month. that really hurt the short-sellers out there. they are getting the sensitive vindication and the little man won over the wall street fatcats in the country is fascinated. host: for those of us who read peter lynch's "beating the street" in the -- and decided the stock market is not for us, what exactly is shortselling? why is it effective? it seems like it would not make sense to bet for a company to

fail, which means the stock would go down. what is the hedge fund part of this? explain how believing in a company, even though it's not a great company, would hurt the hedge fund. guest: suppose the hedge fund is skeptical. go back to enron in 2001. i hedge fund short-sellers was notoriously skeptical. financials don't seem to make sense. every time i asked more and more about the dynamics and particulars, they footnote the financials even more. they move stuff off the balance sheet. i have a thesis this is a scam, that something is decidedly un-kosher. someone looking at lehman brothers in 2007 saying their exposure to real estate and the bad debts is worse.

there is a lot to this massive iceberg. i don't believe it should be a $100 stock. i believe it is worth less than that, maybe worthless. what you are able to do as a skeptic, and you have to be a hedge fund a lot of times. there are requirements are having lipid assets and financial sophistication or investors with enough of a risk tolerance. you can go say let me borrow the shares. hook me up with $10 million of enron stock. since i'm borrowing them, i'm going to take them and go out and sell them in the open market, get the $10 million of proceeds myself. in the future, fight over those shares back to the brokerage firm. i'm betting if they fall from $100 to two dollars, when i have been vindicated, i can go back and close the short position by buying all the shares back. hi pocket the difference between

$100 and two dollars. the difficulty with that is let's say you buy a stock. the most you can lose is what you put into the stock. i by $1000 of the stock, that's all i can lose if it goes to zero. the short-sellers can just keep losing money if they are wrong. tesla. there was no shortage of short-sellers two or three years ago. we think it is a scam. he's not going to make money on cars. i don't trust his financials. the problem is when they were shown to be wrong and tesla is turning a profit and suddenly added to the s&p 500 index, all the skeptics have to cram back into the room and by the stock back to cover themselves. that causes this buying frenzy. this unnatural thing. tesla has now become those valuable carmaker in the world. a large part of that is the short squeeze.

these guys on the wall street bets reddit forum can cause that. we can cause the tipping point by going and in a mischievous way buying the stock in making their lives difficult enforcing this game of chicken for the hedge funds don't know if they stick around long enough. i can't lose millions of dollars on this. what you are seeing is a short squeeze. is esoteric. we buy indexes or mutual funds. he's a kind of drips in the lake of the ocean what happens but it is fascinating to see animal spirit back in retail investment the life we have not seen in 20 years. host: let's talk about robinhood. there has been a fear -- furor of them blocking trades.

guest: robinhood is an app. it has not been covered a lot on wall street. the collapse of the trading. he used this he adds on tv. gigabyte 50 years, sometimes you have to pay $150 to trade a stock. there are 70 brokerage firms and apps like robinhood who will offer free trades. they have taken out the friction. you don't have to second-guess if i go out there and speculate if i have to pay $10 here or $20 there. they come out, robinhood, under pressure and restricted people from investing in the stocks, these speculative things. the wall street bets community

is targeting gamestop at amc. that caused a huge pushback from investors saying you are allowing the hedge fund short-sellers to go in there and pressure it and we are trying to do something to counter them. we have skin in the game and risking money. that is not fair. i think a lot of people are chiming and saying, are these guys supporting market manipulation? people are deciding fundamentals be damned. i like the concept of gamestop at amc and blackberry, nokia, blockbuster video. i would to go out there and defend their honor. is that market minute relation? that's an open debate. these small investors, this pack of -- there are many metaphors. this swarm of fish, whatever he want to call it, they are fronting their own money. they are on the line.

this is a really fiery debate that will spill over into next week and the rest of the year. host: let me provide viewers and followers they can join in on this conversation. if you want to talk about what's going on in the stock market and the economy, we will open up the regular lines for this conversation. democrats, you can call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, your line will be (202) 748-8001. independents, you can call at (202) 748-8002. keep in mind you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media, twitter and on facebook. like we said earlier, this is an esoteric conversation going on that seems to be affecting only

a small segment of wall street and the small bettors -- small investors on robinhood and similar apps. are there any concerns this could cause a stock market crash or even bring the economy down? or is this just a flash in the pan? guest: there is worry this could cause more volatility. they could cause you to think twice if you see strange echo chamber movements and individual stocks. -- in individual stocks. differ holding the broad index, it should be muted because these companies are tiny players. if you are diversified, your protected. you cannot trust the information flow coming out. the worry is a band of retail investors could come up with a prophecy, whatever it is, and self fulfilled it. that's a dangerous amount of power. the small investor has this

power. you can band together. this unionization sticking it to the big you will hedge fund in the lore of what these people are saying. it is not like the little rascal gang collecting $.25. these are people fronting thousands of dollars. it's a high-stakes game of chicken. there are investors -- there was a piece in the wall street journal. they devil just for giggles -- dabble just for giggles. that's dangerous. people will get burned. there is room for manipulation, for things -- you look at gamestop. suddenly a company with billions and billions more of market valuation than it had a month ago for no fundamental reason other than this battle between

small retail investors and short-sellers. could it turn real? could gamestop make enough paper money on these small investments to go out and sell a ton of stock and by itself another reality? that is when this gets meta. so much of this seems stranger than fiction. i could not have predicted it even weeks ago. host: does this make a difference for a company that is still open like gamestop, like blackberry? we saw a similar jump in hertz stock last year after they declared bankruptcy. does it make an actual difference ideology the audi to these companies who stocks are being that around like this? guest: if it lasts long enough

in the market capitalization is sustainable in the bank takes it seriously enough to allow the company to come in and do a secondary offering. then again, sell more stock or something like that, what are you going to put into the prospectus or the offering statement? well, we are so blessed we are suddenly worth $5 million more than -- $5 billion more than we were a month ago. please buy the stock. there's not much to hang your hat on. you take apple for example, 1997. maybe it was 60 days away from bankruptcy. it had really kind of innovative is way out of morass and over 25 years become the most valuable company on the planet. tesla gets out of its short squeeze and something worth a lot. added to the standard & poor's 500 index. institutional investors can come in.

they can parlay that and sell that to investment bank and say let's do a bond offering on this. let's do a secondary stock offering. i don't know if a shell company or gamestop suddenly comes out, i don't know how you pitch that. we have this ragtag group of investors that likes us and sell stocks into that momentum. that is speculation. the longer it does last, the executives do bank money because they are pegged to the stock. it would be so fascinating if the reddit community could sustain this for so long it creates a company. i for example love rc cola. on the last person in the united states who seeks out rc cola. could i create a movement where i have rc cola separately traded from its parent company? we run up the stock and sell stock and build a marketing budget and flood the place with

rc cola and suddenly give pepsi and coke a run for their money? that's a tall order but it might be for a great screenplay fodder. host: i remember rc cola. my grandfather paid me in moon pies and rc cola. guest: love them. host: the same question came in from one of our social media followers. i will put it in his words. we have a social media followers saying, "he mentioned market minute relation in regards to the reddit community. how is there behavior different from hedge funds who push the stock price down?" guest: hedge funds are working on it. this is a fair criticism. hedge funds are not allowed to engage -- no one is allowed to engage in a pump and dump scheme to put out false reports and make things up. there are bears reports that have been vindicated. i front of enron, lehman brothers. there are dozens more that have

failed. they fell on their face. one hedge fund came out in 2012, 2013, and said chipotle's days are counted. you cannot charge seven dollars for a burrito when taco bell is coming after you. i was like this guy has never been to a chipotle or recently at taco bell. he was wrong and lost money. that's the price tag attached to it. your skin is in the game if the stock goes up. they are also regulated. they can't go out to do these schemes where they pump something or dump something and do the opposite. it's a higher stakes more regulated game. i see the argument of an apples to apples comparison. the question is, are you seeing anything that says i think these hedge funds, their thesis is wrong and i believe there is

much more in the way of fundamentals at gamestop? if we buy the stock we will be vindicated? that is fair game if you going out there and saying let's attack for attacks sake and make of this narrative or fiction, i think the sec could be all over that. host: speaking of regulation, we have a story from axios. senate banking chairman says he will hold a hearing on the current state of the stock market in response to the events of this week. "it's time for the sec and congress to make the economy work for everyone,. not just wall street." what can congress do and should they be getting involved with reddit and robinhood shortselling? is that something congress to get involved in? guest: i don't know. there are regulations. fair disclosure.

you have to come out and offer -- you can't get anybody first dibs material information. it has to be released in one fell swoop. what are they going to regulate? free speech issue. a bunch of people on a reddit community want to risk their own money and take on a group of adult investors who are out there with a riskier than usual behavior in shortselling. as long as there isn't misrepresentation or calling a broker in boca raton to pump this and have mom-and-pop investors on the other side of the trade, i don't see what congress can do. congress wants to have its say and call hearings and say we have to get down to the bottom of it, they try to do it with a flash crash in 2010, markets will market. what can i say? host: let's let viewers take

part in the conversation. veronica calling from tampa, florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say i never look at this station. i don't. tiktok. i have learned so much about the stock market. these millennials are basically telling amc is going to the moon. i spent $2000 this week. i never did anything like this before. if you go on tiktok, you listen to these kids and they are telling you -- tesla, the guy that owns tesla, debbie says don't put money on that, that's it. got money. it is not a game but that is

what is pushing this. that is what is driving this right now. tiktok. there are millions of people spending money because these kids are telling you how to do it. host: she brings up a great point. elon musk and others are now getting involved in this. what effect does their statement have on this whole market manipulation/reddit/hedge fund controversy. guest: market influencers. elon musk infamously got himself in trouble by saying -- he effectively secured an acquisition price for tesla at $420. it turned out the sec came after him and sanction him. you can't just do that as a ceo. millions of people are following you, you have to be careful what you say. material information.

it's a fascinating conversation. there is a group of skeptics that say they are sophisticated hedge funds and institutional investors who trade by the fraction of the second enter paid a lot of money to follow global markets 24/7 and look at the dimensionality, things you cannot even imagine. trades. there is absolutely no way in the world retail investor can compete with them, the algorithms they have programmed. if there is a rush nac $2000 going this -- and they see $2000 going to $6,000, that the dopamine hit. heartz saw its stock bumped up because of a robinhood-centric echo chamber.

the company is not solvent but suddenly there is funny money left on the sideline. same thing with amc theaters. how does it make money? people coming in and blowing $12 on a coconut popcorn. that is not -- coke and a popcorn. that is not happening right now. if wall street bets on reddit is defending the honor of the stock, you have to ask yourself twice, three times, four times as a person coming to that game late, to my going to be the one holding the bucket when these guys leave and something else happens? suppose there is a market shock next week and all this echo chambering gets flushed out of the room. in my going to be the one who bought the stock at $20 and he goes down to five dollars when everyone has exited rapidly? that is one of the huge perils of speculation.

go back and see if any people got burned like this in 2001. 1999, 2000, 2001. the last time we had an of retail investors piling into a late bull market trade. host: we have got a bunch of people throwing red historical market crashes. people talk about dutch tulip bulbs. they talk about work edges and this follower on twitter says this is rather similar to 1929 when all sorts of stock thieves and shocks pumped worthless stocks up until the end, which did not end well. does it look like those situations where you have the tulip bulb bubble in the mortgage bubble and the tech bubble? will we see a bubble that could burst and affect the economy?

guest: it could happen but what is the line that the market can remain irrational longer that you can remain solvent. was it alan greenspan he warned about irrational movement in 1996? the tech market. the dotcom bubble peak in 2000, then it fell 80 plus percent over the next two years. this can happen for a long time. let's not forget about the backdrop. we are still in a financial crisis. the fed -- money is super easy and cheap. the fed is buying all sorts of debt and supporting the financial markets, which have had an enormous run. it makes this magical thinking possible. i want to quote from the great jason zweig. this is a remarkable moment. it's as if a bunch of cows

potatoes watching a lakers basketball game on tv barged onto the court and proceeded to block lebron james and mercilessly dunk on anthony davis. that's an amazing feeling to have. i don't know how long it will last. host: it's quebec to the phones and talk to william from feeding hills, massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. this story goes back almost a year. if you go on youtube, a guy name roaring kitty. he's been buying gamestop for over a year. six month ago, he put out a thesis saying they will be able run on gamestop -- bull run on gamestop. his idol but 9% of gamestop.

then in october, kramer on cnbc says that is a mistake. cohen doubles out and now owns 12%. he keeps putting it youtube videos as part of wall street bets. he watches youtube videos. roaring kitty is amazing. hello? if you keep looking at it, they gets more interesting. he's happy when i got to 20. then it gets to $60. then he puts at a big youtube video. he's all happy. that is when it took off. host: i think the person the caller was talking about is profiled in one of the papers this morning. this individual investor, roaring kitty.

talk about how individual investors are moving these markets. guest: there is real paper value on it. i'm looking at the 52-week range on gamestop. when the market crashed it hit three dollars a few weeks ago to open the year. the stock was at $18 or so. he closed at $325. the market value is $23 billion. you are not talking about a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars of market cap on a stock among friends. at some point the physics, the gravity of fundamentals have to reassert themselves. if we get past this and the malls open up again and you look at the viability of this company, and also e-commerce is exploding. how competitive is gamestop against amazon or -- i'm not a

simile with the sector as other people but suppose you were making the same argument with blockbuster. when netflix was ruling the world. blockbuster will come out and really defend against netflix. can we really see the streaming revolution ahead of us with netflix and disney plus at hbo max and everything? it is interesting, the extent to which these investors -- i will not call them a bunch of kids in pajamas and their parents basements with mountain dew and extreme doritos. and there is significant sway here to be able to move a company from a piddling market capitalization to $23 billion. host: the profile i saw about roaring kitty was in the new york times yesterday. i will read a couple of paragraphs. "over the next few years, he began tweeting about gamestop,

making youtube and tiktok videos about his investment. he started livestream his financial ideas. other users began following his every move and piling into gamestop. "if he is in, we are in," one user wrote on tuesday. roaring kitty, who is keith gill, a former financial educator in massachusetts has now become a central figure in this week's stock market frenzy. inspired by him in a small crew of individual investors together at him and they put themselves against sophisticated hedge funds and upending wall street's norms in the process.' keith gill is not someone who does know anything about the stock market. he was a former financial educator. he seems to know a little bit about what he is doing here.

for those of us who don't know anything about the stock market, is this something we should stay away from and sit back and watch? would you say people with money to spare should jump in? guest: i am skeptical because i'm an agnostic. the best you can do is to keep costs down and keep trading down, buy the index to ride the market return over the long haul. commissions have gone away in the market has never been as democratized and access is never as easy as possible. you can invest $50 in an index. there are all the services that cater to mom-and-pop out there. it is not just the province of high net worth investors anymore. i'm skeptical of a person to the game coming on and saying i found my muse in this roaring

kitty or whatever form on twitter or facebook or snapchat. i will take that gospel and put money behind it. what makes you so smart you can be vindicated by that? there are many super wealthy people that have paid a lot of money to track the market 24/7 globally, every aspect of trade, scrutinize them. they pay $25,000 a year for bloomberg terminals. the odds are so stacked against you as the newbie investor. can it be different this time? maybe. maybe this is a true revolution in changing of the guard but history suggest that will not be the case. host: we have an argument from a social media follower that you can respond to. this person tweets, "i'm in favor of capitalism and the free market, but this needs regulation.

many small investors are going to lose lots of money and will never invest in equities again. that is not good for our economy." he's worried when the crash happens, that will run people away from the stock market and keep them from investing when the crash eventually happens and they lose their money. do you agree? guest: it has happened before. the retail investor was flushed out of the room and the early off after a time at the beginning of the century. people were talking about the stocks of the day. aol, yahoo!, cisco, qualcomm. we cared about earnings and watching cnbc and waiting for tiktok and the minute to minute post. think about how much has changed since. news by the second. you can get it over twitter, facebook. social media has democratized the soapbox. you used to have to get our

financial tv or get quoted in the newspaper to get published. now anybody with access to reddit or twitter or anybody who has a smart phone can post a video on insta. they can build a following and enough people believe it, that is something the sec will have to consider. this has real-world implications. i go back to the fact companies that were afterthoughts a few weeks ago added tens of billions of dollars of market capitalization. that could all disappear again just as quickly as it materialized. if individual investors get caught in the crossfire and you lose a generation of them -- there were many people who swore off the market for good after 2002 and 2008, much to their detriment because the markets ran up again. they did not use situation to diversify or buy a sober portfolio of index funds or etf's.

many people are now wondering, should i get back into the mix? fomo. fear of missing out. that's an aspect. maybe it is much more indicative of a proxy stock market than a normal stock market. host: let's go back to the phone lines and talk to orlando from georgia. democratic line. i think i lost orlando. chris is calling from alexandria, virginia on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. good morning, roben. i was working on my taxes and had your show on. i thought i would chime in. it is kind of ironic that we are talking about market manipulation and looking at the private sector. the really bad actor is allowing

this kind of shenanigans to go on is the federal reserve. the european central bank and other central banks making money cheap and allowed this kind of stuff to happen. i got out of the stock market years ago, except for my 401(k). i don't dabble in it anymore. i think one of the other areas in the economy on the rise is crypto. with the dollar becoming as cheap and getting into the gutter as it is i think we will see more bitcoin purchases and increasing the price of other alt coins that will change the economy. you factor in senators like schumer crying for yet more and more bailout money because people can't take care of themselves -- i'm not saying

that is anyone's fault, but people are getting into the mindset that we will go to the government hat in hand and the government will keep printing money. eventually -- i don't know if we are to the point of no return for the dollar will collapse. i think we will see a flight of capital into crypto where that kind of manipulation can't happen. host: cryptocurrency. what do you think? guest: i wish somebody could explain crypto to me in 30 seconds or less. back when we were having thanksgiving dinner they would be the crypto friend with a life-changing meaning of life observation to share with you. talking about bitcoin and a theory him --etheruium, if you

have something that is meaningless and the federal reserve keep printing it and saying we are at maximum. cleaning congress and the white house to take over and right now this 1.9 trillion seven this package. there is even a nickname for the stimulus check holiday stimi. gamestop is becoming synonymous with certain actions in the market. i do wonder if this will be the vindication of bitcoin versus the dollar, which has been in some ways debated by this activity. that is a controversial thing. i don't know if bitcoin is a pure hedge against the debasement of the u.s. dollar and printing money as it is billed to be. other saying you should be in swiss francs four precious metals. talk to one of these gold funds out there.

this is the kind of thing you think would make a perfect case for gold. property speculators say you should get a mortgage for 2.5%. the best hedge against inflation is real property and real estate. it's really a meaning of life question. you have thousands of different theories and philosophies about it. host: i just a member of the story in the new york times from a couple of weeks back where this guy, stephan thomas, he had to guess is to figure out the password that is worth $220 million of his bitcoin. apparently you can't recover the money if you forget your password to the account. that is enough for me to stay with it right there. i can't always remember my keys are. guest: i'm looking for that first series of garbage pail kids i misplaced in 1987.

host: i remember those. mike calling from bethesda, maryland on the democratic line. good morning. caller: great show, guys. i have a quick story and a question. when i first saw -- i'm a professional day trader. when i saw gamestop popped, i tried to short the things and there were no shares to short. i did a quick search and saw kitty was involved. i went long twice and must admit close to 200% in several hundred seconds of holding. what a deal. here is my question. i saw last night that robinhood put a restriction on going lot

on amd, d as in dog. why is that? why would there be a restriction on amd? a bona fide big company. guest: i am not familiar and i don't know the rhyme or reason in this policymaking. it is a brokerage firm and you have the qualification if you have the risk appetite and the demonstrated risk into liquid assets to be able to do whatever you want to do. robinhood also has to raise cash. the market maker, the middleman. do you have all this volume and you are suddenly in the spotlight and you need to buttress your own balance sheet. they have thousands of different reasons. i would pay attention not just a robinhood but what is happening at schwab, ameritrade, e*trade. a lot have been

consolidated. order flow has been consolidated. we have seen a spike, especially in tech stocks that have run up tremendously. people have been homebound for the last year. a spike in trading volume. i would look at information these companies reveal. robinhood is in the spotlight but not the only game in town. host: ron from michigan on the independent line. caller: my portfolio consists of 10 stocks. of the 10, they are doing well except for maybe one which is a medical stock and understandable. the thing i want to know is i happen to -- first of all, i'm a day trader to some extent. i don't stick to the tv, to my screen all day long. i went in the other day and was up almost $11,000.

i tried to sell and i was blocked out. everything came crashing right back down. i am into nokia for about three poi -- i have made almost 100% on the stock. i find it difficult to understand why i could not buy more of the shares the other day, except for the volatility of the market at the time. my question is simple. this is for political reasons and you might know what to answer or for legal reasons. i have about $6,000 sitting on the sideline. i'm being told -- i do my due diligence. i don't just buy a company on a whim. i buy it on the basis that it's a good buy. should i wait until the smoke clears or should i try to get back in on the basis of what

happens going forward? host: what you think? guest: i'm not qualified. send me the money. what you want me to say? host: you will take $6,000 in bitcoin, right? guest: susan william bloomberg always asks sophisticated investors if you have $10,000, what would you do with it? there are so many different schools of thought. people would say stick a chunk of it into savings. stick a chunk of it and to paying down debt. put a bit of it in a diversified portfolio. if you have some left over that you would like to use for your funny money -- people forget what it's like to take cash out of an atm and have cash and spend it at places. yes, in times of animal spirits, the fear of missing out is so overwhelming. you are hearing stories of people making extra money.

thinking about that $6,000, it should be $90,000. is just as easy for that $6,000 to turn into $3000 or $2000. there are more sober risk-adjusted ways even though nobody wants to hear that. it's like a teacher telling you to drink milk and do your homework and stay in school. it is not what you want to hear but maybe what you need to hear. host: one last caller. stephanie calling from long beach california on the independent line. caller: good morning. this is a phenomena on social media. it gets online and everybody looks at it. the cable companies pick it up. soon enough everybody is talking about it. it's almost impossible to really pick stocks. if you want to be smart, pay off your credit cards.

that's the most expensive think you got going. you cannot compete with the big guys. they can trade millions of shares in a nanosecond. i know a person does not have the same insight or information. it changes on a quarter of a .4 million shares ended so fast. we can't do that. if you want to do this for conversational value and you have six month of mortgage payment in the bank and credit cards paid off, go have fun. host: go ahead and respond. guest: there are people that for animal spirits to keep your arteries clear, put some money aside if you have the means to speculate and gamble. that is what it is. i would not go out there saying there is money to be made on tiktok. i'm not so sure about that. they are very few free lunches out there. keep your costs low.

keep diversification high. don't look at it often. when you have extra cash, pay down debt. put into the market into diversified indexes. set it and forget it. over the long haul markets tend to go up. if you're lucky, you will beat inflation and look back and say thankfully i missed out on that bubble, on that bubble, but i'm doing well in retirement. this is a long game. host: we would like to thank roben farzad of public radio's full disclosure for being with us this morning and walking just through these complicated topics. i will take your unwanted bitcoin off your hands if you have money to just throw around, right? guest: and you can send me an rc cola. host: and a moon pie. coming up next, robert egge of the alzheimer's association

discovers -- discusses the national alzheimer's project act in the future of alzheimer's policy. we will be right back. ♪ >> american history tv on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. coming up this weekend, today at 2:00 p.m. eastern, retired u.s. army general vincent brooks on african-american military service and modern-day challenges with cbs correspondent bill whitaker. sunday at 4:00 p.m. eastern, the nasa film "apollo 14." at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, please visit plymouth, massachusetts to explore every created

17th-century colonial village depicted in 1627, seven years after the mayflower landed and went about 160 pilgrims lit the -- lived there. the post-world war i era -- explore the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> the discussion on social media and free speech with harold feld, and randolph may. >> they used for satan journalism if it bleeds, it leads. therefore the headlines were always crime stories and that sort of thing with people

disparaging about traditional media. same thing is true with social media. in place of if it bleeds it leads, if it enrages, it engages. we have these algorithms that are weighted towards giving us the most extreme views first. >> i disagree with a lot of actions that twitter takes, facebook, google. from my own perspective of someone right of center, free market conservative, to my way of thinking there is a bias in their actions against those that have perspective. nevertheless, that said, i have always said these companies have a first amendment right to put up on their platforms what they wish.

they have a first amendment right to take down what they wish. >> social media and free speech today at 6:30 p.m. eastern on the communicators on c-span. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with robert egge, the chief public policy officer of the alzheimer's association and executive director of alzheimer's impact movement. he's here to talk to us about the 10th anniversary of the national alzheimer's project act and about alzheimer's of america. good morning. guest: great to be here. host: let's set the stage with some basic information. what exactly is alzheimer's? guest: alzheimer's is a progressive disease. it's a disease that leads to death over a course of 48 years

-- four to eight years. dementia refers to when you start to see the effects of memory loss. he started notice the signs of it. that is dementia. something a clinician is able to pick up. of all the causes of dementia, alzheimer's is the most common but there are others as well. host: what are the symptoms of alzheimer's? guest: there are quite a few warning signs. sometimes it is difficult to disentangle what is typical such as remembering where your keys are and what is chronic. in extreme cases you start to find you left your keys in the refrigerator, that something unusual. what we say is you should be talking to your health care provider if you have concerns about this.

it's an important conversation to have. when you start to see things different. often you may not recognize it but your loved ones a good friends could notice it. pay attention to early warning signs. be sure you talk about it with your health care provider. host: who is at most risk with alzheimer's right now? guest: fundamentally the most important factor is age. that has long been known. it is as true today as it has ever been. the older you are, the higher risk of dementia. there are other factors with elevated risk. african-americans are about twice as likely to have alzheimer's than whites. for hispanics, about 1.5 times more likely. the first dominant risk factor is a. there are about 200,000 americans under age 65 with alzheimer's disease.

did affects young and old alike. host: how many people right now suffer from old-timers in america -- alzheimer's in america? is there a difference between dimension and alzheimer's? guest: to answer the first question, there are more than 5 million americans with alzheimer's. about 70% of dementia is caused by alzheimer's. what is dementia? dementia is when you start to see the memory loss associated with alzheimer's and other causes. it can be caused by strokes and other factors as well. host: right now it is projected about 13 million people ages 65 and older will be affected by

alzheimer's by 2050. are we ready to take care that population in america? guest: no, we are not. that is one of the most alarming facts about alzheimer's. it will progress rapidly unless we have a means to treat and slow its progression. right now the course is alarming to be sure. today alzheimer's is having a massive impact. if you look at 2050, it is all the more sobering and alarming, our need to act. there is good news. we are at a much better place than several years ago. there is much to be done. we're still waiting for the first fundamental treatment. there are some treatment for symptoms of alzheimer's and we are thankful for them. they don't change the underlying progression of the disease. that is what we need to have in our hands to make a difference. host: what impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on the

treatment of all timers, whether it is the moving funding away, making the care of people with alzheimer's more difficult. what kind of impact has the pandemic had on people who suffer from this disease? guest: it's been a terribly difficult year for those with alzheimer's and dementias, especially because of covid. without covid, it is so difficult. with covid, that much harder. there are several reasons. the most fundamental is for those with alzheimer's and dementia, which is 70% of the 5 million i mentioned, we know how much harder it is to get the medical care you need for not just your alzheimer's but other conditions as well. they also have other chronic conditions. in addition to that, by the time you get to age 80, 75% of those

with alzheimer's are nursing homes. long-term care settings have been hit especially hard. we all know this now. over a third of deaths have been with those in long-term care settings. that has been the fundamental part. it is not just the fact that when you're in these nursing homes you are more likely to contract the disease because of the close quarters and the congregating care that make infection control difficult. beyond that, another at a has been the isolation that so many face where they can't see their loved ones. that is difficult for anybody. we all face degrees of that through the pandemic. especially for those with cognitive impairment, how much more difficult it is when you don't understand why you cannot see those who you love. you can't quite grasp the reason

for it. we have the utmost urgency to make sure we defeat the pandemic as well as alzheimer's and make sure we can restore those in long-term care settings. host: i want to remind viewers they can join in on this conversation. we will open up regional lines for this conversation. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call in at (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. if you have personal experience with alzheimer's, we want to hear your story. we will open up a special line for those with experience with alzheimer's. that line will be (202) 748-8002 . keep in mind you can always text

us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media, on twitter and on facebook. now, robert, this is the 10th anniversary of the national alzheimer's project act. tell us exactly what that is and tell us the goal of effectively preventing and treating alzheimer's by 2025, which was in that act, is still possible. guest: thank you for asking that question. several years back, prior to 10 years ago, we recognized in the community how little is being done at the federal level. we experienced that as a community the lack of urgency. the facts went that different 10

years ago, but it was very alarming and concerning then. despite that, the federal government wasn't responding in a way that we would hope. for instance, there has been no increase in alzheimer's research funding for decades. the same is true when we talked about care and what people experienced. there was no real focused conversation in the united states about what needed to be done to improve the care situation for these americans. it wasn't that we weren't asking . we have people coming to washington, d.c. every year talking to members of congress, but the answer was always the same, it was fundamental concern but also a sense that they

couldn't do anything about this. so 10 years ago, we created a bill and we had to have some patience when we did this, because we recognized that for a moment we had to take a step back and lay out the fundamentals of what needed to be done and how the consensus in congress and a bipartisan basin -- basis about the fact that we are not doing enough and there are important steps we need to take immediately. that is when we went to congress and they said, to their credit, yes, this makes sense, we can do this. the bill asks -- require the federal government to create for a first time a unified national plan to address alzheimer's and other dimensions. it was passed by congress and put into law this month.

and what remarkable progress that has been. host: the wall street journal has a story in today's paper about the new drug in front of the fda. i once read a couple paragraphs. they said there alzheimer's drug candidate will go in additional three months of review by the u.s. food and drug administration after a panel of experts voted the agency shouldn't improve -- approve the drug. the stakes are high for biogen. the company could have the best-selling drugs in the world fueling growth to come. the drug is a monoclonal antibody derived from the cell

from no patients with cognitive design. it is designed to clear from the brain what is thought to contribute to alzheimer's disease. what does the possibility of this drug being approved by the fda mean for this community? guest: it would be a very important step. it would represent the first drug approved on the basis on the fact that this drug would address the underlying disease itself and so the progression of the disease. that said, the degree of slowing would be incremental, perhaps on the order of a 20% slowdown. the question you might ask is, well, does that really make a difference? the reason why we leave this drug should be approved is not

because of biogen or any other country -- company, but as a science-based organization we believe the science is sound for approval. we do think it would need continued study after approval, certainly, but the other part that way so heavily is what our constituents think about this. on that basis, with credit to the fda, they need an extra meeting to listen to advocates of those with the disease whom play -- you explain just how important that degree of slowdown and what it would mean for their ability to interact with loved ones and have greater independence than they would have other had. it would mean the world to them. based on the science and our community, we think it should be

approved. we are appreciative of the fda for taking a long science-based look to whatever decision they expect down the road. let's let some of our viewers take part in this conversation. let's call from dan -- let's take a call from dan in hot springs. caller: i'm having a difficult time right now. guest: i'm sorry to hear that. caller: my wife struggles with it. this started back in probably 2010 or 2011 when i started noticing things.

i did not want to acknowledge that this could be happening, although i have seen it before in her family and her dad. i'll just hang up. guest: that is very difficult. no one wants to acknowledge this. i am thankful that you have in terms of what is going on. it does not make it easy, it is so difficult, but it is helpful to recognize this and go for help. there is a 24 hour a day, seven day a week, 365 day a year free helpline that people can call and qualified people are there. the toll-free number is1

0800-272-3900. we -- 1-800-272-3900. it is a difficult road. right now, the reality for people like the color we just heard from is similar to what it was 10 years ago. we still are waiting for the first new treatments that are going to fundamentally change this disease. for diseases like heart and cancer, where we see heading in a better direction, not so with alzheimer's. host: one thing the caller noticed was that he knew the wife's family had alzheimer's as

well. looking at the website, they say the greatest risk factors for late onset alzheimer's are older age, genetics, and having a family history. sober people who have a family history of alzheimer's -- so for people who have a family history of alzheimer's, what should they do to make sure they are either prepared or can prevent the disease from happening to them as they get older? host: right now, the most important thing, and i want to say at the outset, a lot of americans have dementia and alzheimer's in the family. it is very common. it is very important to be vigilant, especially if it is prevalent in your family, but also to understand that some of parents who have alzheimer's or siblings don't themselves develop it but it is a risk.

it is important as you age to be very important to listen to family members. nobody wants to hear this say it to someone else with conversations are important. under medicare, there are annual wellness visits and you should expect once a year that your condition -- clinician will work with you and help you assess whether you have any early detection or warning signs. and you have that, -- that conversation with them once a year. if there are concerns, it should lead immediately to a thorough workup of what is going on. sometimes it can because by reversible conditions that you might face.

it could be caused by sleep problems or depression, but quite often it can be a sign of dementia and the -- and it should be taken seriously. host: that's go to john in springfield, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. my wife is 72 years old and came down with dementia after 50 years of being married. i put her in a nursing home. there she ended up with the coronavirus. they stuck her in a room by herself and left her there and she passed away. i feel that they should have sent her to the hospital. talking about family members, my mother away passed away from it. my sister-in-law, two years older than my wife, is in a mental hospital because of alzheimer's.

both of them got angry, mean, they want themselves. they hit, they threw things at the family and everything. my wife didn't come down to that because of the coronavirus, but them sticking her in a room by herself with three other people died the same date from the coronavirus and everything, don't you feel that they needed to -- she needed to be sent to a hospital? a bit there was a chance she could have lived? guest: first of all, i am so sorry to hear that story of what happened. it is heartbreaking and all too common this past year. i don't know the words for it. the statistics bear it out but that is a cold way to look at it. it is hard to hear but they cue

for sharing that story. i don't know the circumstances particularly with your wife, so from what i under stand don't want to guess at what the appropriate decision was, but absolutely we need to find the best way to care for those. i will say we strongly support public health experts and are looking at all populations, including those with dementia, vaccinations as soon as those are available. the federal government has prioritized the community and stick with it. that is fundamental. there have been difficult circumstances across the board. for those of our health care workers, and for those in

nursing homes, it has been so difficult for workers as well. i recently learned that those who are nursing home workers is the most hazardous job in the country. this workforce is not well supported and this is not my way of bashing the owners of nursing homes either. they do a lot to create the best they can for those under their care, but the system across the board, there may be certain situations where we will see things that lead us to be very angry about what happened, but by and large that has been a pandemic that has taken everyone by surprise and pushed already fragile systems to the breaking point your story illustrates that. host: let's talk to marcy who is calling from jarrett's phil,

maryland. -- from maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call to let me share my story with you. my husband was diagnosed at 55 with early onset, and this is one of those topics we talked very little about. i know early onset is 65 and under, but at 55, you are not prepared. we don't have support you would have if you were older. at the time he was diagnosed, it took two years to get a diagnosis. and at that time we went through most of our savings account. when he got his diagnosis my daughter was in high school and we were talking about college and i was going to alzheimer's support groups. it was very confusing. my question is -- what is your organization doing today to address the complications that occur when someone so young and so ill-prepared and society is not prepared to help those of us

who are in that situation. i know we are a small minority in this, and the problem is when we try to speak up and i have attempted to go to the state of maryland to talk to congress, no one wants to talk to us because we do represent such a small population, but it is very difficult because i am trying to be a caretaker. once again, being so young, we don't have the grown children or the friends who are retired that can come over and sit with him. my husband lost his driving ability also at the time he was diagnosed. so if you could just share what your organization is trying to do to help the early onset, i would be very grateful. and once again, thank you for all you do. guest: that is kind of you to say. i am so sorry to hear your story. if it were just the disease on its own, in some ways it would

have our nation's attention more for that group. it is a significant portion of our country that is younger with alzheimer's. . they are so often neglected. one thing that we did is an organization, now that there is a mandate to create the first plan is that we had listening sessions over the country, over 100 of them, to create that first national plan. one thing we heard was the issue you highlighted, and that has been a focus of ours. i used terms like good news and i temper them with what i said. we understand that good news right now is a relative term for those struggling with this disease. good news that this past

congress in part because of the plan and because of agnes -- because of advocacy of people like you, it included the younger onset alzheimer's act and that is now law and there are provisions. they make available services to those who are younger with early onset as you described that have long been available to those who are older. this might be shocking to people, but there are services that you can get if you are older and develop alzheimer's but even more circumstances as the breadwinner of the family and couldn't work. we would all say that is a place we should especially focus, so why were they left out? the answer is not a story with villains but the way things

evolved and we developed a lot of services early on for those with dementia. the overall structure we have in our country to support has 60 and over. it makes the same services that can be very helpful to those who are under 60. we are working hard now. this is law. it makes a difference to families like yours. host: we have a social media follower who wants to know if alzheimer's has anything to do with the activity by the education of people? the question is -- is it true with people with little education and non-brain challenging lives are more at risk for alzheimer's? it doesn't have -- it doesn't have anything to do with that? guest: there seems to be a robust body of evidence that

your education, especially early in life perhaps, does have a strong bearing -- a significant bearing on your risk of developing dementia, alzheimer's to be specific, later in life. we see strong hints of that and much research has been conducted . we are less clear about the significance of things you might do now. there are many important things you can do that would be worthwhile to lower your risk at any age for alzheimer's or its progression. if brain activity later in life has the same impact early in life, but we do see that linkage. one we urge thing -- people to do is just general common sense. exercise we know is helpful. we may not know the degree, but it is a good thing to do for

many conditions. eating healthy is certainly another one. we encourage people based on scientific evidence that is emerging but not yet fully confirmed but certainly to say -- estate socially engaged, whether it is by phone, resume, however you can. things like that are important to do. host: let's talk to mark, who is calling from norfolk, junior. good morning -- or folk, virginia. -- norfork, virginia. caller: my mom for the last three years of her life had dementia. the last social media question was is there anything you can do . what i have surprisingly seen is that those who play bridge for any amount of time consistently

seemed to have been able to maintain their mental faculties. i don't know the studies between the link of laying bridge and alzheimer's and dementia -- of playing bridge and alzheimer's and dementia and that might be something to look at. i have a friend of mine in north carolina who has a doctor's degree in chinese medicine and so that becomes a whole another political name as far as -- vein as far as eastern medicine versus western medicine. and it is shown that the psychedelics are now being studied. they had a story on real sports on to players who had cte and they went to peru and they took

some cocktails of psychedelics and basically what happened is it wound up rewiring their brain. they went from having constant headaches every day, suicidal thoughts, and it rewired. so i would just like to ask your guest -- has there been any discussion of psychedelics that could maybe have an effect on dementia and alzheimer's? guest: thanks for your question. the thing about bridge is if you enjoyed, that much better. it does connect. i don't think it has been studied to my knowledge and i wouldn't speculate about impact in any specific way, but we note social engagement is important and mental engagement can't hurt. i think it is great for people who are able to do that to enjoy

activities that with others. in terms of the eastern medicine , i don't have anything to add on that front. i am just not aware of any research specifically on that that i could cite one weight or the other. but it is a good opportunity to talk more generally about research. one of the things we saw with the national alzheimer's project is that researchers stagnate at a shockingly low level. less than $590 a year for a disease that affects 5 million people and is terminal -- 500 million dollars a year for a disease that affects 5 million people and is terminal. over $3 billion per year and it is where these days to hear something nice about congress, but on a bipartisan basis, i have only great things to say about congress.

they were able to work to increase reach search funding -- increase research funding. it is important because there are many hypotheses that bear detailed study. when you have a little bit of funding, you can only focus in one area when you know full well that other areas could hold the key. because of this increase in funding, thanks to bipartisan senate and house, we are in a much better place. still, $3 billion per year is not enough, in our view, when talking about that, but it is such a difference. our direct costs of alzheimer's dementia is over $300 billion a year. that doesn't count for care vision -- caregiver investment. now we are investing in research about 1% of what it costs our country each year in direct

costs. that is closer to where we need to be but we are not there yet. we are very thankful to congress for the steps they have taken. it is a dramatic difference from 10 years ago. host: what do you expect of the new biden administration and what do you expect avenue congress when it comes to policy and funding for alzheimer's research? guest: we are hopeful and looking forward to working with the biden administration, as we do with every administration and eager to do so. we are hopeful. we know as vice president biden then and now president biden appreciates how important medical research is to progress on diseases like alzheimer's. we are appreciative of the

opportunity to have advocates on the campaign trail and that he made mention of it throughout the address to the country how important the disease of alzheimer's is to our country. when it comes to congress, we have always been especially focused on congress, here in washington and with advocates across the country and we have done so with 535 member base. that is the number of house members there are and we talk to each and everyone as often as we can to make sure they understand what needs to be done. we have seen important progress. i mentioned the alzheimer's act from a few months ago and the increase in research funding but there have been other improvements as well, the agenda for alzheimer's dementia needs to be at the top of their agenda.

the need is so great. i say that recognizing this new congress faces probably more pressing issues than we can remember in some time. even more so today. we are sympathetic with that, but that does not change the fact that we have major things that we need to do. we need to increase research funding for alzheimer's dementia . we also face our care system in a way that i think on a bipartisan basis members of congress agree. when you have alzheimer's dementia, i'm sure many of the colors have lived through, he face a difficult situation, even getting diagnosed. if you're able to do that, which happens all too rarely, then trying to find your way through this maze of services that you try to patch together is overwhelming. that is the reason why i stressed our 800-number.

it is one service outside of government to help you navigate. but that shouldn't be necessary for those services. we should have a system that when you have this disease or you care for someone who does, you can patch more easily the care you need. one thing that i will mention that is a help to people is that now because of our advocacy, there is a care funding benefit paid you can go to your doctor and they can help assist you with thorough care planning as often as you need it to make sure you have a plan that recognizes what your needs are and is one step towards putting things together that you need. nevertheless, in this new congress, we will ask them to take next step in developing what is necessary, copperheads

of system of care that meets the needs of those alzheimer's or dementia and it doesn't exist today. host: let's start with peter calling from melbourne, florida. good morning. caller: good morning, sir, how are you doing? guest: good, thanks. caller: good morning, how are you doing? guest: i am doing well. thank you for calling. caller: i am taking care of my mother and she has dementia. one time when she drove off she got to the intersection and did not know if she should go left or right and she told me about it and we discussed it. my grandmother had a similar problem. i was there for my mom.

she became childlike and frustrated because was like she wasn't in control of what was going on. it was like she was losing -- i say every once in while she was losing another card from the deck. it made her very uncomfortable. but anyway, i hung around in my brother helped out. it is a learning lesson. this happened 20 years ago. i have a sister who has dementia. i've got the beginning traits of it. i am 70. i just wanted to share it with the people that come it is like they get childlike. they don't understand what is going on.

guest: thank you. that is so true. and thank you to those who are providing care. that is what makes it work. people are much better off because of you offering your time. you raise a good point. i think we see behavioral changes, and i am not speaking as a doctor but just for my understanding, for two reasons. one, it is frustrating. you can imagine. what a frustrating experience to lose your independence and to not be able to do much about it. that would make me quite frustrated at times i know.

in addition to that, sometimes the disease can change the brain as the disease takes hold and that can lead to changes in behavior that are quite unlike what you've seen from that person, fits of anger and other factors. of course, it is not their fault and it is a disease that can change the way people behave. i am glad you pointed those things out. it gives us that much more understanding and empathy for those going through this terrible disease and providing support that we can on this journey. host: let's take one more collar, marianne from fairhaven, new jersey. the morning. caller: hello. my name is marianne. my husband has been diagnosed with lewy body dementia. i have a movement disorder and i

am his main caretaker. we don't have a lot of help, but my husband is progressing pretty fast. he has become very depressed. he sobs a lot. he shuffles when he walks. it is hard to understand him sometimes. he is very confused. the psychiatrist that gives him medication, he has been on several but they haven't worked. and he is suggesting that he have shock treatment. he has told me that this sometimes not only improves the depression but helps the lewy body disease. i wonder if you could address that. guest: again, your call just

captures why this is so pressing for our country. thank you for being willing to share that story. so sorry you are living through that. i am not qualified to speak on shock therapy. i would mention again the 800 number that you can call to talk through these issues with trained people ready to help. it can help you sort through those things. you are talking to a health-care professional which is the most important you can do. and i just want to say thank you for illustrating how important this topic is. policymakers need to hear from all of us and you can do it from home at the state or federal level and you would do a great

service to everyone. want to make sure that we reach a better system of care in the treatment for lewy body, alzheimer's, and other dementias. we would like to thank robert egge: who is the chief public policy of her for the alzheimer's association for being here. thank you so much for coming on and giving us your experience. guest: thank you for having me. i appreciate it. host: coming up, we will take more of your calls and comments on the one point $9 trillion coronavirus pandemic relief bill that it's working it's way -- the $1.920 correct -- $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package that is working its way through

congress. >> sunday night on q&a, investigative journalist lawrence roberts talks about his book, mayday, 1970 one, which examines the spring offensive when tens of thousands of anti-vietnam war protesters, including veterans, came to washington, d.c. in an effort to shut down the federal government. >> story to tell is a much larger one. it is the story how we as a nation, people, individuals, does the just and system deliver justice into people stick by principles are they caught up in their own fear to stand against the tide. it is a story between the clash between the embattled president in this case, richard nixon, who confronts a social movement in the streets in this case, the antiwar movement, just as he is

trying to get reelected. what constitutional lines did he cross in an effort to stay in power? >> investigative journalist lawrence roberts sunday night at 8:00 p.m. on c-span's q&a. >> you 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 that -- to provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. -- who provide c-span to viewers as a public service. host: we are back and we want to know what you think about the coronavirus pandemic bill going through congress. you think there should be more? do you think there should be

less. let's talk about the american rescue plan. there is $1400 in direct payments. that would top off the $600 in december for a total of $2000 to american taxpayers. there is a $400 week unemployment insurance supplement. you have the eviction moratorium that would go through mid-september. 400 billion dollars to fight the coronavirus and reopen schools. $350 billion in the plan for state and local government. a $15 an hour federal minimum wage, expanded patent sickly for workers and increased tax credits for families with children. that is what is being debated in congress under president biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan. the washington post has a story about how democrats plan to do this.

i will read a couple of paragraphs. on covid relief, democrats are poised to move the biden package to the senate using the budget reconciliation process, allowing them to pass it with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually required area democrats have frequently -- required. democrats have free play pointed out that republicans could still vote for a relief package that relies on the reconciliation process, going down that would mean far less were public in support, if any, would be required for passage. democrats' new assertiveness is in part a combination of weeks of anxiety that the impeachment trial former president donald trump would consume much of the start of the biden administration. so once again, democrats are talking about, though they haven't decided, using a budget reconciliation move which would require less support from

republicans to get president biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus pandemic relief bill through congress. what do you think? let's go to james, who is calling from atlanta georgia. james, good morning. caller: i have a couple remedies we can do to solve this problem. people who voted for trump voted for his judges, but what we could do to save money, if certain governors and senators don't vote for this bill, we could put a stipulation in their where they must opt in in order to get this aid. we are not going to give anybody who doesn't want it. they argue and they talk about the deficit, but the $2 billion tax break to the rich, but not

to help the people in their state, they don't want to help for. other people in other states have been able to get this, but if the governors don't opt in, they shouldn't get this in their state. they don't need to use reconciliation or listen to anything the republicans say. they need to move on ahead and order to help the american people. this is what we put them in office for. we knew what was going to happen. so if they don't want to vote with this bill, this is what is going on in joe mansion's state -- joe manchin's state. they voted for term. host: let's go to john calling from orlando, florida. caller: good morning.

thank you for c-span. connected to what you just had on that previous episode with the alzheimer's, as a person taking care of an elderly member who is home full-time, i have received no stimulus from any stimulus given out so far. white is it that they have chosen that the people who have no money who are the most needy get nothing when high earning retirees are getting the full amount? host: let's go to a call from new york. did i pronounce your name and city correct? caller: basically. my name is an indian name.

thank you so much for taking my call. i have been a huge fan. i am glad i was able to get into quickly. host: go ahead. caller: i am a professional musician. basically my job as a performer was eliminated because you are not allowed to have crowds. so when the pandemic hit, i came back from a tour in texas and got a job as an essential worker in a grocery store and did that for eight months. my wife is a nurse and has a steady job with decent pay. the money i was making as a grocery store employee was not enough to live on. as a musician self-employed, it was very difficult to get unemployment. it is tough. i heard you had a musician on earlier from texas. our whole industry has been

basically at a standstill. i am now doing zoom teaching and performing as much as you can, but until the pandemic is under control, most of the big stars in the industry are not going to be out until 2022. in the meantime, we need help. host: let's go to carolyn from west union, illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. i comment is the part of the package that provides $307 billion or trillion dollars to the states. those states that the governors run up the debt so high that they can't afford, like illinois, new york, california, to pay their own bills. i don't think that the american taxpayer should have to build these people -- bail these people out. i don't understand why biden

would want to bail them out when there are so many other people out of work that really need the money. those states either, correct your books or leave office. people don't need people like newsom and comeau -- cuomo. host: the story about the coronavirus package quotes to from the brookings institution and i want to bring it with set about the package. they wrote this week that mr. biden's plan would increase economic activity by 4% the sheer and 2% in 2022. that increase would speed the economy's return to the path it was on before the pandemic hit. without another aid package, they estimate, the economy would remain smaller by the end of

2023 then it would have if the recession had never occurred. but if the package is enacted, they predicted, the economy would be larger by the fall than it would have been on its pre-pandemic path. they caution that those forecasts are subject to a great deal of uncertainty. once again, that is coming from a new york times story about biden pandemic stimulus plan. let's take one last look at the social media followers and see what they are saying about a possible stimulus bill. here is one tweet that says, federal unemployment bonus does you no good if your state is behind in paying out unemployment claims. those people are really hurting. someone, anyone, really needs to look into this. here is something from facebook that says, yes, states and cities need to get people vaccinated and people need to pay their bills.

another post from facebook says yes, but not so much for people making over $60,000. another post says, i have been positive since january 5. i and my husband can't go back to work until there is a negative test. we need it. one last post says, open the economy, send kids back to school. that is covid relief right there. let's go back to the phone lines and take some calls. we will start with david con from duluth, minnesota. david, good morning. caller: thanks for having me. this company really needs to wake up right now and get the boots running. if we use the military and also if we had the troops getting some vaccines in this country

rolling, we could do a lot better. i also feel with everything going on, kids need to be back to school and we aren't educated to teach these kids come the teachers are. i think they should open up schools and have nurses help the students and open up church volunteers to help in the poverty neighborhoods. host: i do understand that in some areas in like maryland, they are moving teachers for the head on the vaccine line so they can safely reopen schools. we will have to see how they handle this across the country. let's take a call from st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: i have been listening to

some people saying that we need to get a stimulus because people are hurting. and also, do those politicians think about the foreign aid money they have sent overseas and also do people realize how many perks they get? we do need to get the stimulus money. host: let's go to leonard, who is: from north dakota. leonard, good morning. -- who is calling from north dakota. leonard, good morning. caller: i am from north dakota and that california population, they pay the whole country with their taxes paid they have millions and millions of people. they need people out there. they pay for everything california.

thank you. host: let's go to jose who is calling from texas. caller: and q for having me. -- thank you for having me and taking my call. my concern is, the congress is divided and they don't care about people. they only care about their paychecks. but what about us when we are unemployed and hours have been reduced in the workforce? that is my question. host: let's go to richard, who is con from allianz, nebraska. good morning. go ahead. caller: i am just calling to say that you take states like new york and california and they do have a lot of people and it does take a lot of people to pay

their bills, but do they ever stop and think about all the money we waste, i shouldn't say waste, from the hurricanes and all that in the south. the rest of the country pays for that. so when they need help, i think new york and california could use a little help once in a while. host: let's go to lenny calling from texas. caller: i think the reconciliation seizure would be best, because if including the gop, they will want to include corporate entities and part of this package and right now, those with small businesses need this money. i believe the packet should go through as large as it is.

this is a tragedy that is going on now. if we don't go big into it, all it will do is get worse. that is my opinion. host: let's go to georgia. morning. caller: morning. thank you for taking my call. i would like to say that i have been on the ground in georgia. i am military retired and 100% disabled soldier. but i see the number of people here unemployed and we need to get that assistance through. it should not be a democratic or republican thing. congress needs to pass package and prepare to pass another one. host: let's talk to ken who is calling from south dakota. caller: i am all for a stimulus

as long as it can go to the people that need it, and from what i can see, the money is not really getting to the people who need it. we are spending lots of money but it is not getting to the people who need it. host: who would you say is in the greatest need of the money that the government is planning to use for the coronavirus stimulus bill? host: people who are out of work and small businesses. they haven't spent all of the first stimulus bill. host: how does the government figure out who needs it and who has spent the first seamless package money and who doesn't? how do you figure that out? host: they have tax records. i'm retired and i have an income, and yet they are sending

me stimulus money that i certainly don't need. basically, the sumas money goes to anyone on tax records. host: let's go to will who is calling from orlando, florida. will, good morning. caller: you are touching on the problem -- how do you figure to get it to the people need it the most? in orlando, the whole state of florida is tourism revenue dependent. florida is the perfect storm peered we had the fourth lowest unemployment -- dormant. we have the fourth lowest unemployment compensation -- perfect storm. we have the fourth lowest unemployment compensation. vegas is a post-apocalyptic looking city. florida is also -- reopen does

not in rebound. we have been open and the local economy is fine, but there is no cruise industry. american tourists didn't come during the summer spike and ring the post holiday spike. it is desperate. a couple earning $150,000 don't need a nickel if they haven't lost any worktime or income. vegas, i just watched a 20 minute video, it is a literal ghost town. the tourist industry is not going to recover in these areas for years to come. host: stuck to ingrid calling from elizabethtown, kentucky. caller: this is very important call. thank you for taking my call. in europe, the government pays the rent for the people so they

don't have to go out of the house. and then at the end of the year, they pay it to the renter and at the end of the year the one who owns the property has to own the taxes, not like over here. then they don't have people on the street. it doesn't make sense to have empty apartments and people on the street. the government pays. once that on the apartment till things to throw the people out and then at the end of the year, they have to pay the taxes on the rent. host: let's go to bruce who is calling from south carolina. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: in the stimulus bill because i only make $1400 a month.

we really need some help here. thank you for taking my call. host: stuck to sue, is hung from exeter, new hampshire -- who is calling from exeter, new hampshire. caller: there are plenty of people in various income brackets that need assistance. people assume 70 making $60,000 or hundred thousand dollars doesn't necessarily need assistance. everyone has bills to pay. you can check out the taxes and i think demonizing democratic state saying that they waste money, maybe not so, you need to consider how much the states pay into federal taxes and what they get back. so if we all do our homework, we can figure this out. thank you so much. host: i would like to thank all of our callers, our social media

followers, in viewers and guests for another great "washington journal. remember to keep washing your hands and stay safe out there. join us again trump won for another edition of "washington journal." everyone have a great saturday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] former trump came the first president to be impeached twice -- democratic presented to reading the impeachment before the senate. >> he wants removal from office

and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the u.s. >> the following day, senators were sworn in as jurors in the trial. senator rand paul requested it went of order to dismiss the charge is unconstitutional. >> i make a point of order that this proceeding which would try i that citizen and not a president, vice president, or civil officer violates the constitution and is not in order. >> the motion was tabled in a senate vote. the senate approved the rules of the trial and adjourned until tuesday, february 9 prompting the start of the senate impeachment trial. watch the trial live at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two, street -- stream at c-span.org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> the senate foreign relations

committee committed considered denomination of tom is -- linda thomas-greenfield -- denomination of linda thomas-greenfield. she most recently served as assistant secretary of state for african affairs during the obama administration. her confirmation hearing is just over two hours. >> the foreign relations committee of the united states senate will come to order. having a little trouble with the chairs here. the chairman promised me that the incoming chairman has promised me things will get better when he becomes chairman and we'll hold you to that, senator menendez. good morning, everyone. we're here for a very important nominatn