partyline vote of 50-49. the bill now heads to the house and is expected to be taken up on tuesday. that house returns for legislative business later today. the senate is back tuesday expecting to work on the nomination of congressman marcia fudge to be secretary of housing and urban development. other nominations being considered this week include the epa administrator and judge merrick garland to be attorney general. live coverage of the house when they return at noon eastern on c-span. you can watch live coverage of the senate when they return tuesday at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span two. coming up on "washington journal," the yahoo! white house correspondent of the week ahead of the white house. then cristina marcos, congressional reporter for "the hill" looks at the congressional agenda focusing on covid-19

relief legislation. and openthebooks.com founder adam andrzejewski discusses federal coronavirus response spending. . be sure to join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, and tweets. "washington journal input is next. ♪ >> good morning. it is monday, march 8. a new poll 669% of americans plan to or already have taken the covid vaccine. that number is up significantly -- 69%. we thought we would check with you and see how the vaccine rollout is going in your area. here is how to tick bite -- how to take part in the conversation. if you have already been vaccinated once or twice, call this number, 202-748-8002. you can also leave us a text.

that number is 2024-748-8003. @cspanwj is our twitter handle, and facebook.com/cspan is where you can post as well. the pew research folks at pew research not have been pulling people about the vaccine. the number is 69%. they note that there is signs of growing public dissatisfaction with the country's response. performance ratings for half state and local officials have responded to the pandemic continued to decline and there is less consensus about whether restrictions on restaurants are necessary. there is more optimism than pessimism on the policies of biden's administration. there is also shared sense that

vaccination efforts will play a role in improving the economy, a top public priority, as administration efforts continue to ramp up. this poll talks about the vaccines and find public intent to get vaccinated on the rights. they write that 19% of adults have already received one dose. 50% say they are definitely, probably going to get vaccinated. there is that 69% figure, up significantly from 65% who said they planned to get vaccinated back in november. so more folks getting vaccinated, but somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of public opinion on how things are going so far. we will get to your phone calls and a couple of minutes. here is the white house covid-19 advisor, talking about the availability of the vaccine. [video clip] >> let me start with the fda and the cdc and dr. fauci, all have said the same thing, we have

three safe and very effective vaccines and americans should take the first vaccines they are offered. at the same time, we are working across all our federal channels, the pharmacies, community health centers, community vaccination centers, and with the state governors to ensure there is even distribution of all three vaccines. >> as far as the pew poll goes they do right that a majority of black -- of african-americans who plan to get the vaccine. the difference in intent to be vaccinated is generally smaller now than they were a few weeks ago. william from nashville, tennessee, you are first. how is the vaccination will outgoing? caller: it is kind of weird. i have a few friends who got the

vaccine who are not technically qualified. and then -- host: some more calls from folks who want to an. let's look at what is happening in other parts of the country. the new york times writes about coronavirus restrictions, a story that broke over the last couple of days in the response to everything that is happened. as cases fall, they write, states are rescinding mask mandates and reopening businesses and schools, prompting people to emerge despite uncertainty about the pandemic's future. in chicago, tens of thousands of students returned to public school this week. in mississippi, it ended its mask mandate too. restaurants in massachusetts were allowed to operate without capacity limits.

south carolina raised its limits on large gatherings. san francisco announced that indoor dining and museums and gyms could open. but health officials are warning that local leaders may be moving too fast. the governor of michigan said she was easing restrictions and allowing family members who have tested negative for the virus to visit nursing home residents. in massachusetts, the governor said it is time for more limits on businesses to be eased. that is a piece in the new york times the last couple of days. one more piece we found is from the mississippi governor explaining to cnn why his state is lifting the mask mandate and reopening further. [video clip] >> the fact is that in our state, throughout the pandemic, our approach has been to not only protect lives, but also protect livelihoods. we have to get our economy

rolling so that individuals can get back to work. let's talk a little bit more about the data. the fact is that at our peak, we had 1450 mississippians in hospital because of the virus. today, that number is below 400. at our peak, we had 650 mississippians in icu beds. at this point that number is below 520. the fact is we have seen significantly reduced levels. and by the way, unlike president biden, who wants to insult americans and insult mississippians, i actually trust mississippians to make the decision. they have proven that they can do so, and that is something i think is very important. the fact is the numbers don't justify government interaction at the levels we are seeing in other states. >> mississippians are watching right now. i understand you are lifting the mask mandate, but you still

think it is a good idea for them to wear masks when they are in public, indoors or when they are around other people. is that something you would recommend even if you are not mandating it? >> and not only recommend it, i encourage it. if you have not received the vaccination and you are going into a large crowd, or going out to dinner, i strongly encourage mississippians and people across the country to wear masks, because i believe that it does, in fact, reduce the ability of individuals to spread the virus. host: that was the governor of mississippi on cnn yesterday. a reminder about the four -- phone numbers, 202-748-8000 for the eastern time zone. mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. if you have already been vaccinated, 202-748-8002. we would like to hear your story. one of your in west virginia, in middletown, has been vaccinated already. correct? caller: yes. i already got my shot.

my wife had the moderna. host: how did it go? caller: it was an easy process. we just filled out the papers both times and they give us the shot, and we waited 15 minutes after the shot. we had to wait a month for the second shot and it was the same thing. everything ran smooth. we have had some effects. the first one, for me, my shoulder was sore for four days. the second shot, it was the same thing as the shoulder, but also, i had symptoms of a flu-like, or the virus, whatever, but as of today, i feel good right now. there is no more effect. my wife is not having anymore

either. host: west virginia is one of the more positive stories that we have been reading about. same situation for family and friends, people you know? are they having a positive experience like you have? caller: yes. my sister got her first shot. she is older than me but she finally got hers. there was a little bit of trouble about the way they were doing the ages of the people. like a friend of ours, there husband got a shot because he is 84. . she is 75. she did not get hers until last week. he had both of his already gone, and then she just finally got her first one. they are separating husband-and-wife. that is not good for them to do something like that. host: middle term, thank you very much for sharing your story. the new york times has a covid tracker. you can see how the rollout is going in your state.

they do things by percentages. that last caller from west virginia, 20.3% is the population in west virginia have gotten at least one dose. 12.8%, two doses. you can go around the country and see some of the other figures. in new york, at least one dose, 17.7%. white plains, new york, is our next call. mike. caller: are you." there. host: yes. caller: i got mine because my sister put me on the list. i was able to get the first shot. my shoulder hurt, i had a virus for about four days, and then it went -- but i have to say something else about the situation.

this was all bungled up, because if we had been smart early on and organized everything, this would have never happened. israel was able to vaccinate a whole nation. iceland was. and george washington literally vaccinated a whole army from smallpox. host: ok. mike, thank you for calling from new york. to new jersey, bill writes on twitter from new jersey, that the vaccine rollout here is doing fine overall. there is some backup with individual scheduling, but governor murphy is sending daily update on twitter. red states could learn from our governor, rights bilking. ernestine is calling from west virginia, as well, another viewer who has been vaccinated already. tell us your story.

caller: i was vaccinated in january, got my second shot in february, had no aftereffects at all. but i know some friends who had some mild reactions. we all got moderna. my sister's in delaware and she has gotten both of hers. i had no aftereffects. no nausea, no sore arm. nothing at all after the shots. host: ernestine let me ask you, what will change, if anything, in your life now in terms of how you go about your business now that you have been vaccinated? caller: i'll tell you, not very much, because i really was not somebody -- i am retired and i am 88, and i only went out when i had to.

i would go to the mall just to be able to walk and see people. so it really will not change too much, but i'll, i am really glad that our governor, even though he has opened up gyms and restaurants and things to higher capacity, he has still not lifted the mask mandate, which, i feel is really, like fauci and the virologists say, the mask helps and protects us and protects other people. and if we do that, we will be able to get out of this sooner. by the way, i have been at hospital work for over 60 years, so i might have a bias for following dr. fauci and the

virologists' information. from the very beginning, i masked and self-imposed restrictions on going outside, and i really have not had any effect. i enjoy watching c-span every day, and i watch other programs that i have found that i like, and reading. yes. reading. i have read things that i bought several years ago. even a book that i bought when i was in japan in 1970. so, reading, i have been catching up on back reading, it has helped me get through this. host: ernestine, thank you for sharing your time with us this

morning. one more call from honolulu. the new york times tracker, 19.2% of folks in hawaii have gotten at least one dose, 11.8% at least two doses. greg is there. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call. sort of true, it is only ages 70 on up, and emergency workers. but i have a story that i think a lot of people have. there is a certain hospital that was scheduling vaccinations, and we are in the island of oahu. i don't know if it was mismanagement or what, they had -- in the island of kauai. [laughs] i just wanted to say that hawaii, our numbers are so low. you are right, it is people of age and emergency workers who

are getting the vaccinations. people of my age have to wait. but thank you, c-span. god bless you. host: thank you for calling from hawaii this morning. here is president biden on saturday afternoon following the senate's passage of that covid relief bill. he talked about the impact of the bill on covid vaccines. [video clip] pres. biden: this nation has suffered too much for much too long, and everything in the package is designed to relieve the suffering and meet the most urgent needs of the nation and put us in a better position to prevail. starting with beating this virus and vaccinating the country. the resources in this plan will be used to expand and speed up the manufacturing and distribution of vaccines so we can get every single american vaccinated sooner than later. i believe we will have enough by the middle of may to vaccinate. it will take longer to get it in the arm, but that is how much vaccine we will have. host: that was a 50-49 vote in

the senate saturday afternoon on the $1.9 trillion covid bill. what is next, the wall street journal reminds us the house is set now to vote on the bill. we think the houseboat will happen sometime tomorrow. -- the house vote will happen sometime tomorrow. calling from grandville, texas, glenn. tell us your story. caller: good morning. i had two pfizer vaccinations. we had a vaccination drive. we do about 4000 people at a time. texas has had a really good turnout on vaccinations. i figure we have probably , over 20,000 people have already had their vaccinations. our deaths are down to single digits. icus are in the double didgits

and low 30's. recoveries are in the high 37,000s. so we have done well here in central texas. host: and we are reading more about further reopenings in texas. what do you make of it? >> it is an individual's priority if you feel like you don't need a mask while going through the drive through or restaurants drive through, i don't see any problem with that. but going to the grocery stores or big-box stores, i will still wear our mask. everybody believes their own priorities, so i don't see anything wrong with the mask mandate, it is not a necessity, really. walking down the street, you don't need a mask on. that is how i feel about it. host: glenn from texas, thanks.

more of your calls in a couple of minutes. we want to check in with hunter walker, white house correspondent for yahoo! news, about the week ahead in the white house. a big couple of days here. the senate, major action on saturday passing the covid bill. the house, tomorrow. how much work does the white house have to do to finally get this over the finish line? guest: i think they are pretty much done with the initial package, but i think there were some things that came up in this debate that you are going to see as lingering issues for the white house, namely the $15 minimum wage was pulled out of the package. i think you will see progressives continue to push for that and push the white house for more action on that front. similarly, we have seen this continued push to eliminate the filibuster. basically, the minimum-wage situation was a casualty of the

filibuster, and you are already seeing continued agitation moving forward. also, there was the student that question. chuck schumer and elizabeth warren claiming joe biden can especially with append stroke that himself. the white house disagrees. mainly, the main thing going forward will be cleaning up certain elements of relief that progressives feel like the white house could have gone further, that joe biden wanted to go further and he got out of the way. . this was his top initial priority, and now we will see some of the trickier and more controversial bids get done -- controversial bits get done later in his term. host: just how significant is the passage of this bill for this particular white house, and for the health of the country? guest: it is huge. what we will see this week is joe biden highlight the progress that has been made on vaccines. the clip you played earlier was

illustrated. they moved up the timeline. we are on the cusp of having enough supply for the entire country. the figures of the percentage of people who have been vaccinated continue to climb. so you will see him highlight that. the president was very clear that covid and covid relief was his number one priority. i think he will do a bit of a victory lap on this bill. keep in mind that at the end of this week, march 11, essentially the anniversary of that big day when the world health organization declared this a pandemic, when the -- shut down, and when tom hanks got sick, when this really became real for a lot of people. so i think the progress is huge, because just about a year ago, we were seeing things come to an end. we were seeing in my hometown of

new york, overloaded icus, and morgues in the street. now we are seeing vaccines get into arms, and hopefully, the light at the end of the tunnel. experts do not agree with the fact that if you get vaccinated you don't need to wear our mask, but we are getting back. host: where will the president. two next? what will be the next major legislative push by the white house -- where will the president. pivot to next? guest: what is interesting about the focus on covid is that it kept some of these other things that were in joe biden's platform -- the education agenda, things and health care and immigration reform, it kept them off the table and let him focus on something that was quite partisan. he still has some bipartisan

things he has room to rack up wins with, infrastructure. that he has to get through the toughest of. i think -- immigration reform is something he has promised to address. he will need to do that to make good on his campaign promises. i think that is how it is going to be. host: what are you hearing about any joint address with congress? something we have been waiting for for a number of weeks now. guest: he kept saying that would be off the table until this past , this is something that eastbound that. i think we should see him get to that soon. but biden critics would point out that he will not -- he has not done a press conference. he has stayed out of the spotlight. but i think this is a big waiting and something -- a big

win for him, something he can take to the congress. host: one big question, the president pledged unity and to reach out. this bill, which was done under the special procedures to avoid filibusters, what will be the mood to work with the president of these other big-ticket items? guest: it was underscoring everything i am saying. you would think covid relief was a purely bipartisan thing but there were still problems here. there were elements of the initial package that did not make it through. it is clear to me that we are seeing republicans eager to stymie joe biden and stop his agenda. one thing i would note, you have seen republicans jump on the point a bit earlier about him not holding press conferences. people were completely silent when president trump did not do that for a record stretch.

so, republican opposition is very high. republican opposition is very high that will be a major thing. host: hunter walker of yahoo! news then you for your time this morning. -- thank you for your time this morning. this headline from usa today -- doctors worry as fewer and fewer people are getting tested for covid-19. in january, the u.s. on average had 1.8 million tests. it has fallen to 1.3 million. lewis is calling from arkansas. tell us how things are going in your state, the vaccine rollout. caller: it could be a lot

better. i am 87 years old and i have been unable to get vaccinated. host: hmm. so what has been your process? who have you been talking to? how have you been trying to get the vaccine? caller: i have been talking to the people that help take care of me, in the hospice. i have been talking to the nurses and the nurse's aides. i have been talking to my daughter, who lives in oklahoma. i have been talking to lots of people. host: what do you think the problem is, what do you think is not working about this process of getting a shot at your age? caller: the leadership, mainly, in my opinion. host: so what is next? what is your next move? caller: i don't really know my next move. i live all alone in the house at

the end of a dead-end road. my daughter lives in oklahoma, so she can only come every week or two weeks or three weeks, and she is a big help when she comes, but she can't come often. host: all right, lou, from arkansas. thank you. art is calling from new york. go ahead. caller: i signed up for myself and my wife. i told them i wouldn't take the shot unless she got one. we signed up for april 1. we were watching, it might have been c-span, i am not sure, and somebody from west virginia said he had been to the area and he got a shot. i called and complained about someone from out of state who had came in and got a shot in our area and we had to wait over

a month, two days later i got a call from the people who administer the shot telling me that my wife and myself are both scheduled for the shot in four days. i guess being a big mouth and complaining -- i was even on tv when i complained -- anyway, we both got shot. my arm was sore for a couple of days. i think my wife's was, too. we are scheduled for the second shot. host: thank you for calling. one other viewer on twitter this morning -- i had a buddy who was do get vaccinated in alabama. my 94-year-old old grandmother in law has not so lucky here in maryland. another tweet -- my husband and i went for a shot of the vaccine on february 21. we are set for the second on march 21. it was the first time we had been in a room with so many

people in over a year. i didn't realize how much i had missed people until that day. here is governor dewine responding to the news that texas and mississippi are reopening their states. [video clip] >> although i have a lot of respect for my colleagues in texas and mississippi, we are trying to do it the ohio way. with the vaccine, we are now on the offense that's that is a great thing. but in ohio, we can't give up the defense. we have found masks work extremely well. schools are a prime example. we have seen it in our retail. 93% of ohioans, when they go into a retail establishment are wearing masks. they have done a phenomenal job. our teachers have done a phenomenal job, kids are wearing masks every single day. we know that this makes a huge difference. as we push forward to vaccinate as many people as we can, as of close of business tomorrow, we will probably be over 2 million ohioans who have gotten there first does, about a million who

have gotten there second. we are moving very quickly in regard to that, end every day gets better and better and better. but as we are doing that we can't give up the defense. we have got to continue to do that. we put a goal out there, and we got to 50 cases per 100,000 for every two weeks, that's what the epidemiologist we consulted with side, that if we got to that figure we would be able to take restrictions of. host: 30 minutes left in this first hour of "washington journal. how is the vaccine rollout going from your state? we will hear from viewers on social media posts, and we will also hear from public officials. larry calling from oregon, vaccinated already. tell us more.

caller: i had one dose of pfizer. very little reaction. the volunteers are great. our problems are with the governor of the state. my political party has done a very poor job not following cdc guidelines. there hasn't been much consistency. my wife and i found at the same time -- she is 80 years old and she has not heard a word. my neighbors 99-year-old mother has not been vaccinated. her 60 something son has been vaccinated twice already. there is no rhyme or reason and there is very little communication with the public. we can find out much on the vaccines. they simply have a banner up online telling us to be patient. i have no way to plan for the future. i don't know when i will get my second dose or if i even well.

-- communication is very poor. once you get to a site, it runs quite well, thanks to the people on the ground, as usual here. so, yes, i have mixed feelings. very disappointed with leadership and very inspired by the hard work of all my peers. but we don't know what is coming next. communication is a big problem. everybody is frustrated that they can't contact anybody. there is no way to get through on the phone call to anybody. here, the counties are in charge. it is just mystical, what happens next is anybody's guess. so. they are working on it, but the problems at the top -- host: thanks for sharing the news out of oregon. idaho falls, caller, vaccinated

already. go ahead, please. caller: i just got vaccinated this saturday. it was supposed to be the 29th, but, yes, when they got the johnson & johnson here in idaho falls, it was well organized. from the beginning, i would call different grocery stores and they would say, go online and sign in for the help center. i think a lot of these people need to call in at the health center in an area and find out from them or find out from walgreens or drug stores and find out and go online. if they can't go online, they probably need to go inside and have someone assist them.

that should not be a problem that is happening. other than -- where i was going to was a big old place. as you go in and drive in, you do the paperwork and it went really smooth. you get your shot and you sit down and you wait 15 minutes. after that. it was well-organized in iowa falls. host: thanks for calling. jersey girl on twitter -- pennsylvania is still in phase 1a, which is health care providers and 55-plus. even in that category, it seems slow. my husband was vaccinated in early january. he is in health care. but i am in the last group. it will be a while. here is dr. anthony fauci talking on "face the nation" yesterday explaining his concern

about another surge. [video clip] dr. fauci: my concern is based on the fact that although cases are coming down, you have a very sharp diminution -- over the past week and a half or so, we have seen the decline has done this, it is essentially starting to plateau. historically, if you look back at the different surges we have had, when they come down and then start to plateau at a high level, plateauing at a level of 60,000 to 70,000 new cases a day is not an acceptable level. that is really very high. if you look at what happened in europe a few weeks ago, they are usually a couple of weeks ahead of us in these patterns, they were coming down, too, then they plateaued. the last week or so, they have had a 9% increase in cases. so the message is that we do want to come back carefully and slowly, but don't turn the

switch on and off, because it would be risky to have yet again, another surge, which we do not want to happen, because we are plateauing at a high-level. 60,000 to 70,000 new infections per day is quite high. host: dr. fauci on "face the nation." the washington times has this headline -- guidelines for people who have been vaccinated. dr. fauci said yesterday, the cdc will issue guidelines for people who have been vaccinated. expanded vaccine supplies have allowed the u.s. to reach 2 million shots a day, leading to increased protection about the virus. it is now adding a burning desire to see what is permissible. the high-profile doctor previously offered him some but what might be ok. for instance, small dinner parties in which all attendees have been vaccinated.

he says it is different when you step out the door into society where the virus is still, "at dangerous levels? guidelines are coming soon. kathryn joining us now. will come to the program, kathryn. are you there? i think we lost her. let's try jeff in florida. caller: yes. other than -- county in florida, the message that they are using here in florida is absolutely ridiculous. you can't get a vaccine. i am 65 and older and i can't get one. i have been trying since the first day to get a vaccine. twice a week, i try and contact publix, and you have to get up at 7:00 in the morning.

they keep you on the line for about an hour and a half and tell you, sorry, there are no more available. my 89-year-old -- lived in ohio. i called up there and got the board on the phone and told them i needed to get a vaccine for my mother, and she got one. i got her an appointment in ohio when i was in florida. she has received her two shots. i can't even get online to get one. they finally found out that one of the owners of publix, which was the only place you could get shot besides florida health, made some very bad contributions, and she has got exclusive rights in florida to distribute the vaccine.

now, walgreens, since that was found out, is doing the rest of them, but you still can't get an appointment. you have got seniors, who are not the best at computers, trying to manipulate this thing, and it is just not working. . host: that was jeff from florida. gary in the state of washington rights in the text -- things are moving along here at a good pace. i have not been scheduled yet but i am next, 63 years with medical issues. i would ask, please keep up with masks, social distancing restrictions. i believe governor inslee has done a good job of planning for vaccinations and dealing with this pandemic from its start. keep up the good work, people. asa hutchinson is the governor of arkansas. he was on one of the morning shows yesterday and explained

why his state is doing some loosening of restrictions. [video clip] >> if we see the cases spike up in hospitalizations go up, we can reinstitute the mask mandate, because it goes through march 31 with specific guidelines. we can take the action that is needed. we are not out of the woods. , but at the same time, there is a drop in hospitalizations. because of improving the reputed, because of the vaccines -- because of improving therapeutics and because of the vaccines, we are in a good position. if it goes in the wrong direction, we can take the steps necessary. but people have to have hope. we have to give them hope that we can work our way out of this emergency. we have a good plan and a good balance in arkansas. host: joyce is calling from ohio now. caller: thank you.

i am an elderly person, and i am homebound. i got my first shot. they are doing a wonderful job when giving the covid-19 shots. but my problem is, i have to have somebody come pick me up. since the first shot, my legs have gone bad. i fall when i try to get out of the house. i can't get anybody to help me get the second shot, which was on the 24th, because i found out that a private company that i hired for a lift chair, they do not provide a wheelchair. you have to have your own wheelchair. i had to somehow put her down at the bottom of the steps and get down the stairs myself because

their liability would not cover the person coming to pick me up if i fail and they fell -- if i fell and they fell. there would be a lawsuit on both sides. so they couldn't get me down the stairs. i had no one to get me to my second shot because of that. it is going to expire, but if i go to walgreens, there is no way i can get there, unless somebody takes me and wheels me into the shot. if i go to walmart, they don't have that many handicap cards that i can wait in line. host: is there any local public program that can help you get that shot? caller: i have tried everything. i called health department and told them the problem, and they said, you better get the second shot. i said, i am trying, but i can't

get help getting down the stairs. they gave me a number, which that number had me call another number, which the department of aging said, well, gee whiz, we can't help you in that area. i said, i understand that because you are the department of aging. i have called everybody. i am 5'2" the person who took me to the first shot, god help them, they were wonderful. i was in an suv in the seat was up to my chest. they couldn't get up into the suv, so she called her husband, who had a small truck, who helped push me into it only got me to my shot, which they helped me there to get into a vulture and everything. back home, getting up into the stairs, if they had not stood behind me, i would have fallen

backwards. i can't get any help. host: good luck to you. we hope the next time you call in, it will be under better circumstances. that you will have gotten the completion of the shots. rick is in spokane, washington. . how is it going in your area? caller: first, i would like to say thank you for all that you do at c-span in keeping us informed. the rollout here has been exceptional. i have coordinated with my primary physician. they set up the appointment times. it was set up at the health care facility. it took 15 minutes and it was done. i have received my second shot last week. and now, now we have to sit and wait and see what the future holds. in response to that woman who just called you prior, i would

advise her to reach out to one of the there are programs that are designed to transport people in her condition, that works through her local department of health and human services, the one in her county. that is where she should really focus her efforts. it is unfortunate, but one of the realities of getting older is the simple tests can be challenging. host: let's hear from glenn in wisconsin already vaccinated. caller: good morning. i want to give a shout out to the people at fsm in wisconsin. a most excellent operation. in and out. my first one was on january --.

the second one was on february 20. they used the pfizer. in the first one, they tell you the information, that you could get facial swelling. that happened. i happen to have a --. you take it and you put it out on the nightstand. with the second shot, i am going through right now, a little discomfort. a little flap of skin that comes over the plate. a bit uncomfortable, but i am sure a saltwater wash, and a couple of days, it will go away. the operations here in wisconsin, in janesville, was seamless. they did a wonderful job.

i would like to say one other thing, if i could, in regards to the minimum wage. it years ago they would have put a -- on the minimum wage, i am sure it would be $15 today, if they used that method. this is kiss -- keep it simple, stupid, and we wouldn't have this hassle of people working for peanuts and then they have to apply for food stamps in the long run. so that's my --. c-span, you are doing a heckuva job. thank you so much. host: joe calling from arizona now. how did your vaccination go? caller: good morning. january 21, i made my first contact.

january 26, i got an email saying any questions i had -- i wound up making a phone call. january 28, i got my first shot. 26 of february, i got my second shot. all of this was done at the veterans administration in tucson, arizona. i had no pains, no bad feelings. i didn't even know i got the shot when the whole thing was done, and each time, it took 15 minutes from the time i walked into the time i walked out. it took me 30 minutes and that included the 15 minutes of sitting around doing nothing. other than that, a1 for the veterans administration. host: a text hear from steve, who is in ohio -- i tune in to

c-span every morning. me and my wife are scheduled for our second pfizer vaccine. we will continue to wear our masks and start increasing activities and interaction with our family and friends around april 1. . it will be nice to see our grandchildren then. on twitter, thoughtful processes right -- i just bypassed the state portal which suggested no appointments anywhere. i went to walgreens and was able to schedule in two last week, 10 miles away. hopefully this might be an option for you and others in the search. governor murphy was on cbs's "face the nation yesterday," and was asked about new york's miss counting of nursing home debts from this pandemic and asked whether the same thing was happening in new jersey. [video clip] >> are you confident that new jersey did not undercount,

deliberately or otherwise, nursing home deaths? >> were health department, our commissioner was explicit. black-and-white. if you readmit a previously covid positive resident, they need to be segregated and separated into either their own floor, their own wing, their own building, and staff as well. secondly, i think we started reporting probable deaths from covid as early as june. secondly, we hired a firm that came in independently and held up a mirror to our practices. it was a brutal assessment. lastly, we said to long-term care facilities, if you cannot separate, compressed and we will find other alternatives. and many did. host: governor murphy of new

jersey. calling from ann arbor, michigan, good morning. how is the rollout going in ann arbor? caller: it is going great. that lady that was having a terrible time getting her second vaccine, in our community, we have people who probably help official, trained people, that go into the homes of people who are homebound and gives them the shot. that way you are not exposing other people to, you know, folks in their homes trying to transport them, that sort of thing. i am sure the people administering the vaccines have had the immunization, and i am sure they can protect themselves. like i said, they just go to homebound people and make it simple. it is unfortunate that is not happening where that lady lives, but in michigan, governor

whitmer has done a great job trying to get vaccines out to as many people as possible. we think she's doing a fabulous job. host: thanks for calling, diane. we have got your governor, gretchen whitmer who was on cnn yesterday talking about the vaccine restrictions in her state. [video clip] >> here in michigan, we have been extremely aggressive. moving restaurant capacity from 25% to 50%, to what other states are doing, dropping mask mandates altogether, it is not a fair comparison. we are at the 10 yard line and we are taking another 10 yards ahead, while some are at 50 and they are dropping the mask mandate. that is a dangerous situation. because our numbers are low and vaccinations are high, we feel that we can do this responsibly. no question, we will keep tethered to the science and watch the numbers. host: comments from the governor

of michigan. in the washington post today, a headline says -- in maryland, a debate on vaccine equity. there is a picture here of a woman who is 102 years old. does not have a computer or smartphone. her friends spent weeks trying to schedule her for vaccination. the story says another person, and 93-year-old veteran got so tired of waiting for an appointment, that he drove around his washington suburb at random hunting for a vaccine. a partially blind 81-year-old wanted a shot but had no computer or smartphone to search online. and another resident, this one 102 years old, relied on short friends a few decades younger to help her through a distribution system best navigated by gen z. concern at prioritizing speed has heightened inequity statewide.

prince georges stands out, it has by far the most cases of coronavirus in the state and the lowest vaccination rate. governor hogan has cited vaccine hesitancy as a key cause for lacking rates, saying at one point that african-americans and latinos in prince georges, who represent 84% of the county's population are, "refusing to take the vaccine." but state and local leaders across maryland, blame the state's decentralized sign-up system, which they say prioritizes those with more time , technology, and information at their disposal over those who are disproportionately die. that is on the front page of the washington post. check is calling from massachusetts, welcome. caller: that is aaron. are you going to hang up on me? i don't want to say anything about the vaccine rollout.

listen. the issue today is section 230. why? host: we will move on. from georgia, harold. caller: good morning. i just want to thank our congressman, david scott, for organizing our vaccinations in clayton county here in jonesboro. i just had my second vaccination saturday, and yesterday, on sunday, i felt a little chilly and feverish but i took two tylenol and i felt better. this morning, the arm is kind of sore, but it is nothing to be bothered with. and i would like to say that, in new york, i have a brother in new york who is having trouble getting vaccinated. he was in touch with his physician, but they have not been able to organize and get him vaccinated harold, thank you

for calling. gloria now in upper marlboro in maryland. good morning. caller: thank you for the opportunity. i happen to be an 83-year-old african-american activist, blind as a post, and i was moved by the young lady who called in, and because of motor challenges, is unable to get out of her home to get her second shot. i would encourage her not to keep -- she has to get on her public radio station. it is an absolute disgrace that people with challenges everywhere are in the worst situation ever, because my governor, i had to spend $50 to go and vote. [laughs] in early voting, because i had

to go to the single audio line. at least he gave me the information. her senior services, aarp, just, i don't know what exists in her area, that i would become a vocal pain in they know what, because this is just awful. no one should be in the situation. but because people with challenges have no national advocacy yet. and i say yet, because i am going to try and interest someone from the democratic side to do that. thank you for the time. tell her to not give up and to keep doing exactly what she did today when she called c-span. somebody will reach out and help her. thank you very much. host: thanks for calling from upper marlboro in maryland. another tweet this morning -- i will be 57 in two weeks, says,

len. still have not been able to get an appointment near me. i will not give up, because i do want one. nubia rights, on twitter, my 88-year-old mother and i received our shots yesterday. my arm hurts this morning. the process was quick and easy going. i encourage people to sign up and get the vaccine. i want to travel this summer. janet is in florida, already vaccinated. janet, what city are you calling from? caller: dayna less county. host: how did it go? caller: i am --. cbs came over and join our nursing staff and shut all of us twice as. host: we got the two vaccines. host: how are you feeling?

caller: i am feeling great. they gave all of us two shots. i had all of that done by the super bowl. and i thought, we had a big show in tampa, who played in the super bowl, and we would to the celebration. we wore masks. we had already had our shots. and within a week, within a matter of a week, i had gotten sick. i said, i just had my vaccine! in the ambulance, as i was going to the hospital to get a test, to tell me that i had the virus, the ambulance driver and i were talking about it, and i said, yeah, i had my shot, blah, blah, blah, but i don't feel too good. i told him my symptoms, he said, sounds like you got the virus.

and sure enough, i did. but he said to me, you didn't wait long enough to celebrate. he said, you have several days, i think it was. host: did not wait long enough, yeah. caller: before the vaccine can do its job. so you are doing ok now? caller: i'm doing wonderful. host: things for calling. edna, tell us what's going on out there? caller: i don't know about the general population. i do know my son and i and my daughter-in-law have -- my son and i have procured our second vaccination, my daughter-in-law will be doing it. i'm a woman of color and going both times to have my vaccinated to a vaccination site i believe because it is my health care

provider serves a large number of people of color, older people of color, i counted a total of five people of color yesterday receiving vaccines. so something is not quite right as far as serving the community a large. it is a very integrated community and i was disturbed at not seeing the reflection of the population receiving vaccines. host: thank you for calling. thanks to everyone who called in. we will take a brief timeout, it is monday, march 8 and we will dig into congress a bit in the future of our legislative agenda. -- of the legislative agenda. later in the program we will

talk to the founder of openthebooks.com to talk about federal coronavirus spending, current and previous spending and what it all means. we will be right back. ♪ >> listen to c-span's podcast the weekly parade this week, a freelance journalist describes his two years in captivity in syria. plus a look at the future for syria. >> i hope and believe one day the outside world and the western nations at the g7 and -- will say on behalf of the people of syria we need to come to an accommodation with the government. we need to resume diplomatic relations.

they have a huge brain drain going on there. the near-term future is grim. >> find the weekly where you get your podcasts. >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's table cal -- cable television companies in 1979. today we are brought to you by these companies who provide c-span2 viewers as a public service. >> "washington journal" continues. host: a look at congress now. christina marcos, thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: take us back to the senate final action on saturday. what did it change about the $1.9 trillion bill that the house will have to wrestle with this week?

guest: there are two major changes that were made in the senate. the first one being the restrictions on the direct stimulus payments, that is a central part of the previous pandemic relief bills. rather than the maximum amount that one can qualify for to get a check is still incomes of $75,000 for individual. they used to be people up to 100,000. now that will beat cap to $80,000. a number of moderates were concerned there were some higher income people who were getting these payments when they didn't really need them. so that's one major change we will see. this does mean there are some people who got stimulus checks last year who won't get them.

the weekly insurance -- unemployment insurance supplement. additionally in-house bill that passed a couple weeks ago, that would've been $400 per week. but now it's going to remain at the status quo of $300 which was another change pursued by moderates in the senate. >> how much work will the democratic leadership, does the speaker have to do and perhaps the white house to get this finally passed we think tomorrow in the house. ? >> guest: we've been seeing some progressives expressing displeasure at the two main changes, the on a plumbing insurance payments and the restrictions checks.

i will no longer support this bill. the congressional progressive caucus said they weren't -- they weren't pleased terribly. they argue the change made was relatively minimal. they are willing to support this and go forward even if it's not their ideal bill in this case. host: phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. for democrats, 202-748-8000, republicans 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. we will also take comments to social media. we know the house rules committee plans to meet we think that tomorrow to prepare this final bill for action in the house.

we will see what part of the day this bill will come up. who are you watching? we talked about the progressives. who are you watching from this point forward? guest: the progressives, some key members to watch our lawmakers like alexandria ocasio-cortez who's been relatively quiet in the last 24 hours. late last week when senate democrats first began the change the stimulus checks like the maximum amount -- maximum income in order to qualify for anything is now down. she tweeted restricting the number of stimulus checks and having fewer checks go out by democrats is an own coal by the party. which is how she complemented -- which is how she commented. whatever signal she gives will be key for how progressives in

congress and from the country will perceive the spell. we are also watching centrists as well. is this a victory for them. do they see this going forward for how their approach on this relief bill. host: the democratic senator from west virginia making a whole lot of news yesterday into today with some comments about the filibuster. we know this covid bill avoided the filibuster through special procedures but the hell headline says he is firm on support of the filibuster, making it more painful -- but open to make it more painful to use. >> the filibuster should be painful. we have made it more comfortable over the years. maybe it has to be more painful. maybe you have to stand there. things we can talk about. whatever you take away in the

senate, the ability for the minority, however it may be to have input, why do you have two senators in a rhode island in two senators new york or california? why is there one body the treats everyone hopefully the ability to intervene and be involved, the ability to represent no matter how large or small. so the bigger person doesn't take advantage of the smaller person. that's what this is all about. >> but just to be clear you would consider making it harder to invoke the filibuster so that you don't just automatically have 60 votes that you need for any legislation. >> i would make it harder to get rid of the filibuster. i'm supporting the filibuster. i will continue supported. i think it defines who we are is the senate. but it should be painful if you want to use it.

you should make sure the place works to the point where i want to work with you. my republican friends are not my enemies. and my democrats are my colleagues, together we have to make this place work and it should be harder. don't make it painful for the other side. host: the future of the filibuster. what you think? >> it sounds like he is a little open as to some reform. non-illuminating it altogether as many progressives are asking, but as he explained there maybe there's a way to make it so rather than just you would need 16 order to overcome the filibuster, right now senators don't have to stand there for hours on end in order to hold up a bill. there may be other ways to do it , essentially put their money where their mouth is so it

wouldn't be quite as easy for senators to hold up bills, to physically drain them. >> christina marcos is a congressional reporter. first call for her is james in atlanta. caller: thank you. with the democrats need to do is start playing hardball politics. they have an equal rights bill. they need to put this bill with the payraise and anything else they want. joe mansion's estate is full of drugs and addiction he needs for treatment. they need to put these bills altogether so everybody gets what they want.

denying people the men wage raise. they are stopping what 99% of america wants. even republicans get the welfare checks, they get the unemployment checks. everything the democrats want. this is a bipartisan bill for everyone. if they don't want to work with democrats, they need to be ostracized because they are stopping progress because we put them in office to move this country forward. host: a little bit about the internal dynamics there in the senate on the democratic side. what do you make of that? guest: i think james is sitting on an important point that a lot of progressives are making. as it stands now, the equality act, that's another thing house

democrats passed recently and something they also passed in the previous session of congress when mitch mcconnell was the majority leader and republicans controlled the senate. and what happened to that bill, it did not get any action from the senate. republicans did not want to bring it up in the first place. now the democrats do control the senate, democrats are warning they could see the same result even though they are in charge of the senate now were house democrats passed all these bills that are top legislative priorities that then go over to the senate but then don't become law. they are doing how can we go back to voters who gave us control of both chambers on the white house and say we control all congress and the white house but we still couldn't get everything done because of the senate rule. that is weighing heavily on democrats right now and starting to move the needle a little bit in the senate where there is

talk of changing the filibuster rule because otherwise they do risk effectively seeing the same results as they did while republicans were in control of the senate. host: that caller also managing -- mentioning the minimum wage. there's a push for a bipartisan conversation on the minimum wage. what is next for the minimum wage? >> progressives are calling on the white house to present a plan for what they will do next because the white house hasn't said at this point how it plans to get that priority done. there are some republicans in the senate who've expressed openness to raising the minimum wage, not to $15 an hour, but for example is mitt romney in comp -- tom cotton introducing a bill. that would raise the wage to $10 overtime and index it to inflation.

so it's higher than the current 7.25 dollars but not as high as 15 the democrats are pushing. congresswoman uriah paul -- jira yapal was making the case there are five senate republicans on this bill but she questions whether they can deliver 10 republicans to pass the bill to raise them men wage in the senate. so that's a question of whether there is room for compromise their if it can bring more than five senate republicans on board or if democrats need to limited the filibuster. host: jim is in north carolina, independent caller prayed -- caller. caller: hello. host: you are on the air. caller: good morning. i want to make you comment.

when obama was elected any of the house and senate and got involved with a lot of smaller items instead of going for the big push, they need to understand let's get done what's most important first and then the little infighting we have going on in the senate and house is to go ahead and solve those other issues down the road. people do not like change. we all feel uncomfortable when something happens in our lives that's not the same. we can take a little bit at the time. let's take a little bit at a time and look at it is what it would do to the smaller business owners and whether or not they could go ahead host: host: with that cost. thank you for calling. before we go back to our guest, let's hear from the white house

communications director who is on cnn yesterday talking about the minimum wage. [video clip] >> president biden supports raising them in wage. he believes strongly that is the level at which people in this country who are working full-time can make a living wage and not be living in poverty. he believes that's a fundamental matter of values. >> but you don't even have 50 votes for that. >> there currently no active discussions about lowering the threshold. these are details that will get worked out. the senate just passed our american rescue plan, a massive effort to get aid to people who needed across the country. the conversation is going to turn to how we tackle the minimum wage and the president is looking forward to working with congress to determine the best way to do it. the president is committed to raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour. host: in what order is this?

is the burning priority, will, up soon or is it months away? guest: we don't know at this point prayed -- at this point. white house democrat of signal it would be an infrastructure package. that's another thing democrats are eyeing. to pass under the reconciliation process and that would allow them to evade another a public and filibuster on that front. maybe they can try again to push them in wage, but their skepticism that the senate parliamentarian would let it slide this time around when she wouldn't let it happen again in another reconciliation package. there's pressure on the white house to outline the specific plan for how and when they would have the minimum wage legislation go through congress. host: dan from new york,

republican call. >> good morning. i listen to all the soft science economic issues and social issues and these are all contingent on how we handle the virus and reality where we are now the virus what we know about the virus, three vaccines of dubious certainty at least, they have a lot of things going for them. there are some dubious certainty. since we only have a few months of data, we really have to concentrate now on where we started which was testing. we are not doing the testing, we don't really know the pattern. we don't know or we get all these data on television where they got this data from. is not following any clear-cut rules prayed the consequent to turn out to be we are planning

for something that's going to happen and we don't know when it's going to happen. we don't know if it's going to get even worse than it is now. so how about getting back to the key issue directing your entire national attention now which is the characteristics of the virus, the characteristic so the vaccines and how long it is estimated for us to get out of this picture. several governors are ready now saying let's all dance together. we are going to fall into a bigger hole again. all these economic plans and congressional stuff going now will be meaningless. host: thanks for calling britain guest: -- for calling. guest: a big part of this relief package is about $70 billion in funding for coronavirus vaccine and distribution efforts. it is true there are limits to federal power.

in texas and mississippi they are choosing to forgo mast mandates and allowing businesses to reopen. it is true there are limits even if there are these federal resources, governors or not choosing to continue pandemic restrictions and so -- until there is widespread heard immunity it will be more difficult to reach that point of relative pre-pandemic normality. host: we keep using the figure $1.9 trillion, several folks are sending texts and tweets like greg asking why is it still 1.9 with recent changes that should've trimmed the amount of spending? how much have we trimmed off? >> there hasn't been an official cbo report to come out with that, but democrats have been pushing for that figure because they argue it's what necessary to get the economy back on track

in the states and localities have resources. the democrats pushing on the stimulus checks insurance benefits. host: chuck schumer did say over the weekend it would do it again. guest: it seems congress is most likely send this bill as soon as tomorrow. shirley before the unemployment insurance benefits expire. host: i wanted to read a quote from representative ill han omar . she talks about the senate and told the hill the democratic majority in the senate has to come up with a strategy. you're not in the majority just to sit and do the same republican majority did with all

priority bills the democratic majority in the house sent to them. guest: she's making the point democrats now that they have control that they need to deliver on these priorities that they campaigned on. otherwise she and the other progressives say they risk being unable to deliver on these things. allowing certain document immigrants citizenship, voting rights, the list is very long. so they worn they don't deliver on these priorities the voters that send them to congress and gave them the white house it will be hard to explain to them next year and in 2024 that photo should keep democrats in power. host: judy is in rochester, new hampshire. caller: thanks for taking my call.

the one reason why that bill was not smaller than what it should be is because of all the pork that was in there. although we are building to san francisco and silicon valley, they have a lot of money failing out a lot of states because they don't know how to control their budget to their patient plans and other things. i was upset when i found out my senators husband, who has one of the largest lawyer firms in the area and another state got $1.8 million from his firm. i don't think that was right when there's so many small businesses that are suffering. there's so much pork in this bill, of the pork should be taken out, it should only be for the virus, nothing else. when can congress get their act together and do what's right for the public, for the american

people? now we have all these illegals coming across that we have to vaccinate them, being spread out to the country so the viruses can start up again and we will start all over. so that's my thoughts. host: christina marcos, your reaction. guest: there was a provision that would provide an extension of the bay area rapid transit system, but the senate parliamentarian ordered that provision had to be removed. that was something republicans were touting last week is something the argued was waste will spending and unrelated to the coronavirus relief. that's one provision that is no longer in there. the reason democrats do have that is because some any fewer people are traveling or commuting to work on a regular

basis that a lot of these transit industries are really suffering. so the provision in this relief bill is providing support for trains, for amtrak, the airline industry to help them get through this pandemic. so there's already mute -- until there's heard immunity and people are more comfortable being in close contact. host: the expander $3000 child tax credit would help 10 million kids living in property -- in poverty. what are the chances for success? guest: the one thing the bill does is raise the child tax credit by thousand -- $1000. and of the $3600 for each kid after. that's another major provision of the bill to help families

that are struggling. this is something democrats would like to make permanent eventually. using a big step forward. making that presumably very soon. >> adam's in indianapolis on the line for democrats. caller: good morning prayed thank you for excepting my call. my problem with the politics now is these politicians was to work for the people and at this point the american people are suffering, we have these old old politicians who been in office for years who don't want the country to move forward. they need to be out, they need to work for the people. they are not missing a check. the politicians not getting paid and are not out here suffering like we are. maybe they would change their mind.

right now it's pathetic, it's sad to see. we got these old politicians the don't want the country to move forward. they need to be gone. every last one of them needs to be booted out and get someone in there has been a work for the people. they are not missing a meal or paycheck. host: let's hear from our guest. guest: there are some members of congress who have lived in poverty. kyrsten sinema, who got a lot of flak late last week for voting against an amendment offered by senator sanders up after raise the minimum wage to $15.

she brought her thumbs down and to vote against that provision. she actually has a very compelling life story. part of it was for a time she and her family lived in the banded gas station. she said there were times that they didn't have running water. so she has that experience. most memos of congress to live -- some of them are very wealthy , some of them are millionaires. a lot of them are working to get this relief to people who need the most. host: silver spring, maryland. good morning prayed caller: thanks for taking my call.

if the voting rights act hr one, if that doesn't get elected, they are to find themselves in the minority and they are not in a like that. the truth is with a 50-50 senate we are done for if they don't want to get rid of the filibuster. because without passing that with 51 votes -- without passing that with 60 votes to overcome the filibuster, 2022 is going to be a bloodbath because all the redistricting is favoring the republican side because they spent the last decade and a half filling the statehouses with republican legislatures that are going to redraw these lines. host: thanks for calling. before we get a response, i want to show you a short clip from washington journal.

kind of like this caller was mentioning these potential outcomes for 2022, a redistricting could affect the midterm elections and future electoral college. here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> if you had run the 2020 presidential election under this projection bring electoral votes are also pegged to how many house seats each state gets, then joe biden would've won the presidential election with four fewer electoral votes than he did in the scenario we just saw. not overwhelmingly so, but big gainers. texas and florida are states republicans control in the process. they also control north carolina , a state that's gaining a seat. keeping in mind how narrow the house majority is now.

that means republicans would likely only need to gain five seats to win back the house and that narrow margin really makes this a high-stakes process because republicans could conceivably gain all the seats they need to bring the house to a tie in texas and florida alone . that's before you get to factors like the larger political environment in 2022 and the candidates the parties recruit. host: any thoughts there? guest: that is a big risk for the house democratic majority as they've outlined there. those are only a handful of seats republicans we need to flip in order to regain the house and it's possible redistricting get them over the margin alone. in the senate where we have them taking out these positions.

the reality is it's a very public and state, is to be more democratic but now the entire west virginia house delegation in congress are all republicans. there used to be a democratic legacy political family and then he lost reelection. so it's just joe mansion and arguably if he were not to run for reelection, democrats would be pretty hard-pressed to find another democrat who can win statewide in west virginia. he asked also recognize a few years to far-left he could risk losing reelection and so that's just a very delegate dance democrats have. in order to have a majority they have to win states that aren't as left-leaning and so they have to balance between those. host: we have one more call

left. i wanted to ask about one more item coming up in congress early this week. they will get a big security review briefing following up on the january 6 attack. >> russell has been leading a review in the wake of the january 6 attack. is scheduled to brief house members in sessions today about his findings. some of the things we are hearing ahead of time, recommending more capitol police officer's. that's also something the acting capitol police chief is asked for. in two appearances in recent days. they also argue the need more officers in general. given the threat.

also that there prepared for. they have at least some more officers ready to go in the event of an emergency rather than relying on law enforcement. host: mike in north carolina. caller: good morning. it amazes me. both parties do this, but democrats really love to do it and that his overreach. i'm going to go back to 1994 when bill clinton in the midterms. the one thing that allowed newt gingrich and the republicans to take back the house majority for the first time in four years was they overreached on guns. i think everyone will agree that was a major part of that.

so actually it was a pretty good thing because it led to divided government, it led to a republican congress. i was never a big fan of bill clinton but compared to today he was a pretty reasonable moderate. but they passed some balanced budgets, they got some things done and clinton in new tour able to work together. they were able to get some things done. fast-forward to obama with obamacare. i can't remember what the total, i think it still holds the record for the amount of seats lost in the house at the midterms in 2010. we all remember. 53 seats i think the democrats coughed up when they're republicans took over the house. and here we go again. rinse and repeat.

they will overreach on guns, they are overreaching on energy. the border is out of control already and we are already only six weeks into this presidency. i don't know whether it will lead to a compromise. i don't know if we are far too partisan to ever go back to a world of president reagan and tip o'neill or even bill clinton , it's amazing we look back fondly on how those men and parties work together then. that's my comment. host: final thought from christina marcos. guest: it is true that the democrats to carry the risk of potentially veering to far-left or being seen by voters as overreaching. that has happened in some elections were the party that controls both congress and white house get some big legislative priorities done and then take

heat from the other side for it and then the other side wins the midterm election. so democrats are trying to balance that here. that's why centrists are pushing back on the more progressive aspects of the ledge live goals going forward because they warn that in order to keep their already thin majority that they need to be careful. at the same time it's a lot harder to achieve bipartisan compromise these days. a lot of democrats especially the wake of january 6 when there were more than 100 republicans in the house who voted to uphold the challenge to the electoral college account. there's a lot of questioning if the other side is actually working in good faith and if they don't have that faith, it would make it very difficult indeed to get very much done on the legislative front with both parties. host: christina marcos, thanks a lot as always for coming on the program. guest: thanks for having me.

host: here is a look at the federal debt counter clock. you can see $20 trillion is the current u.s. national debt -- $28 trillion is the current u.s. national debt. the yearly deficit and the debt coming up after we take a short break. the congressional budget office says that debt is set to double in 30 years. we would like to get your thoughts on that figure and what it might mean. 202-748-8000, republicans 202-748-8001. debt -- independents 202-748-8002. we will be right back to talk about the debt. >> tonight on "the communicators," sally hubbard and brent talk about the advocacy of antitrust laws and

if they should be reformed. >> we have the statutes that were passed. the sherman act was passed in 1890, of the clayton act in 1914. the sherman act makes it illegal to monopolize. the clayton act says any burden that mesa dance will lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly is illegal. but meanwhile we've watched while hundreds of these mergers that would be illegal under that standard have been approved. >> there's this argument i think underlying a lot of criticism of antitrust today is really a feeling that big is bad the necessarily large companies are abusing competition or consumers. i don't think that's true in most antitrust forces don't think that's true. you need to discern large companies abusing competitive process, they are large because they are efficient and bring great services and popular services to consumers. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on

"the communicators." >> with the biden administration now leading the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic, follow the latest it c-span.org/coronavirus. search c-span's coverage of news conferences as well as remarks from embers of congress. use the interactive gallery of maps to follow the cases in the u.s. and worldwide. go to c-span.org/coronavirus. >> "washington journal" continues. host: looking for your calls. here's what the wall street journal had to say about this. the federal debt is projecting to almost double by the year 2051 reflecting rising costs for health care and debt service. the forecasts don't take into

account the covid bill that was proposed by president biden backed by democrats. democrats say the measures needed to ease pain from the business closures and job losses caused by the pandemic and related restriction on economic activity paid congressional republicans object to the size of the stimulus package and of .2 growing budget deficit and debt as a reason to keep spending in check. they argue the economy is already poised for stronger growth. budget deficits will widen in 2051, from 5.7% in 2031 driven largely by increasing costs servicing the debt. net spending on interest will triple relative to gdp in two decades eating up to 2051, spending on programs like social security and medicare will also rise. some of the basics there, boarding from the washington --

republican criticizing democrats are putting money in this covid bill that states do not need right now. here's what he had to say paid @cspanwj -- here's what he had to say. [video clip] >> i thing we would make better legislation if we had two parties work together. here we've crafted peas allegedly in our party hasn't had whatsoever. our president was gracious listening to us but did not accept any of our proposals. so we have before us today piece of legislation that has the benefit of only one party. there's some errors in that and some things i think we have to look at and try to fix. one of them is with regard to states and localities. at the time the president put his bill out there there was an assumption states had massive losses associated with the covid experience. but the data has shown the states did not have those kinds of losses. many states did not. 21 states are seeing a rise in

revenue. states of florida don't need more money, my state of utah doesn't need more money. california has record surpluses. billions of dollars in surplus. yet under this legislation california itself at the state level gets $26 billion more. and in total with its localities it's $41 billion. this is on top of their already surplus year. think about that. we will be asking the american people to allow us to borrow money from china and others, pass that on to our kids and grandkids so that we can send money to states like california and mine and others that don't need the money. host: the senate wound up passing that bill. it is on to the house now where the final vote on the bill as changed by the senate will happen sometime tomorrow. you can watch that here. phone numbers again, 202-748-8000 free democrats.

for republicans, 202-748-8001. independents 202-748-8002. we have eugene from connecticut on the line now. good morning. caller: good morning. this is a very important issue. the federal debt has an interest rate around one half of 1% at this moment. the federal reserve system has interest rates near zero in order to stimulate the economy. they have made a mess of the entire financial system and this goes back to 1913 when the federal reserve system was created. if the interest rates goes back to anything like normal, currently the federal government spends $523 billion to pay the

interest on this gigantic debt. that is second only to the pentagon budget. if interest rates increase only a little bit to 1%, 2%, 3%, that cost of interest is going to $1 trillion, a two trillion dollars, trillion dollars. it is going to bankrupt us. it does not have to happen this way. you have to understand money. money is created by wall street. the treasury department does not create your money, of the federal reserve system does not create money, wall street does. that's the fundamental explanation that economists and mass media and congress does not want to explain. the constitution says the congress will coin money. read it in the constitution.

in 1913 under the federal reserve system, congress abdicated that right and gives it to this so-called fed institution, of the 12 federal reserve banks are owned by wall street, that is true. it is a privatized system that hides under an image of republicans to duchenne, the fed. -- institution. president lincoln dealt with this in 1862. he was losing the civil war. he created greenbacks, he took the advice of the head of the ways and means committee and he created greenbacks with no debt. the fundamental difference between greenbacks and the federal reserve system ease that you don't have interest rate on it. host: thanks for calling. let's hear from jeff on the

federal debt now. caller: i haven't called yet. i've been listening for a long time. personally i think this whole issue -- host: randall's town, maryland. democratic caller. caller: how are you doing. i was calling about the national debt you were talking about. and the money we are going to lose. what about the money they are saving. that's good to be a lot of pension checks, social security checks, money that they will have so they will have a lot of extra money so i don't know why it is about this data.

host: thanks for calling. in the pages of business insider, brian hamilton writes america's soaring national debt is a looming disaster. he writes a rising proportion of what we pay in taxes is going only to mandatory spending, fixed payments on programs like medicare or financial items like the interest on outstanding debt funded regardless of the health of the country or economy. as of now our country must pay 69.9 percent of tax dollars simply to meet fixed obligations that cannot be reduced. in 1962 is about 32%. you would never lend money to a business that consume 70% of its revenue just to meet overhead obligations. we have lonnie calling from tampa, florida. caller: high. -- hi. america is a business.

businesses borrow money, expand their business or recuperate from what they've lost and they keep on moving. what is the big deal as long as we make the payments and every buddy gets back to work. host: let's hear from chuck schumer. he did a brief news conference on saturday after the senate passage of the bill talking about the covid-19 bill. [video clip] >> i spoke to a number of people in the house over the last few days, including the speaker. they feel like we do. we have to get this done. it's not to be everything everyone wants, especially not a massive bill like this. the beauty here within our caucus is we all realize we have to pull together to accomplish something. that's far more important than our differences.

that's true of my caucus and of the house and senate. >> do you think the president will be signing it before the march 14 expiration? >> i definitely do. i have no doubt about that. everything we said we would do. we said we will put together a strong bill, and do the things american people wanted, no matter what happens we would not stop and power through and get it done. and we did. what is bad? nothing. host: chuck schumer from saturday there. sing the house is set to vote on the bill after narrow senate approval. we think the house will take this up tomorrow. sometime after noon the house will begin work to take its final action on this bill as amended by the senate. another lonnie, this time from

south carolina. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions. the republicans never complained about the deficit when it was for tax breaks. they never complained about the deficit when it's rich white men 65 and older working in congress. there is no complaints from congress when they want to spend money that way, but once the democrats spend money, every republican in the house and senate is all about the deficit. where is the trickle-down effect -- trickle-down effect from the first to trillion dollars tax break they gave business? what about amazon and walmart? they can afford to raise minimal wage of $15 an hour. the tax break they got under trump would cover any increase in minimum wage.

why are people complaining about $15 or handing the american people $1400 in a time of need? they need that five or $10 million they collected but they didn't complain about it. that's hypocrisy at its best. host: let's hear from chris in reston, virginia. caller: good morning. the previous caller took my line. the republicans never complained about tax cuts for the rich which never benefited the economy. but when it goes to the people who really need it, they keep complaining about deficits. where were they when the tax was going on? it never helped anybody.

romney talking about the state getting more money, the state can use it to build more clinics for people to meet their needs. but they want to give it to the billionaires who don't need it and they keep giving it to them. you should put the debt of the united states when they put the tax cut for the rich. host: i'm pretty sure we did. caller: i hope so. every time they want to help the needy or poor, the people who really need it, they talk about deficit, but when the tax-cut comes for the billionaires, 87% of it went to the billionaires, nobody complained about deficit then. have a good day. host: jimbo from bakersfield, california.

independent voter i am concerned about our sustainable -- unsustainable national debt. repealing the tax-cut could cover the cost of the relief bill. repealing tax cuts for the most fortunate among us is the first step to reducing the national debt and regaining our financial responsibility as a nation. another writes i don't want to see that debt clock again until all americans have a job, a place to live and food to eat. throw in a vaccination or two while you are at it. didn't see the deck -- did not see the clock around the tax-cut bill. on twitter, when it hits one quadrille you and, the debt -- quadrillion, i will worry. caller: i want to make sure we understand what we're talking about here. imagine for example -- by the

way, when congress passed this $1.9 trillion, they sent information to the u.s. treasury. the treasury issued bonds guess who's purchasing those bonds question mark the federal reserve. -- bonds? the federal reserve. that money has been dispersed to u.s. citizens. that means technically the debt is owned by the u.s. citizens. 70% of u.s. government debt is owned by people within the country or institutions. not even government agencies. which means it's not real debt, it's a way to create more money. that's all it is pretty we play these games -- all it is. republicans played that when the democrats are in power and this is what you are seeing again braden -- again.

this is exactly what is happening. host: the perspective of nate there. let's hear from irene in virginia. democratic caller. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i do not think -- there's nothing wrong with people getting that money at all. for all the republicans the last four years getting rich off of us, no one said nothing because it was working for them. people in these poor states like westridge inyo you, arkansas, mississippi, all those other poor states, if they don't want the money they don't have to take it. call their congressman and senators and tell them they don't want the money and see where they get with that. i think everyone deserves that

money regardless. it does not matter whether they are white, black, republican, democrat. it's ok to take the money. if it's going to help them, to better their situation, there is nothing wrong with that. that's what we work for. we pay our taxes and this is the money we actually get back. they are not giving us anything. those people who worked, this is their money. we worked for this money. anybody who worked in this country 25 or 30 years of their lifetime, you deserve every bit of that $1400. host: thanks for calling. the new york times has this headline. with $300 monthly, the relief bill ushers in a revolution in child aid. this child benefit is making the policy revolution.

though framed in technocratic terms as an expansion of the existing tax credit, 80's essentially guaranteed income for families with children and can do children allowances that are common in other rich countries. the lead editorial says all of this or rides -- arrives when the covid vaccine is accelerating and the national jobless rate is already down to 6.2%. the goal of these democratic programs -- the point is to expand and solidify the role of government as the guarantor of every american's income on linked any obligation to work writes the wall street journal this morning. that's the lead editorial which they title the covid welfare state. jack from ohio. democratic line. caller: thank you. i want to: real quick and agree

with the last five caller -- call in and agree with the last five callers. americans aren't as ignorant as the highly rich think we are. my lord, the money they go through and go through and spend, it is ok for them to do it. democrats fight for the people, we cannot have that. same baloney we have heard. when is this going to stop? host: terry, danville, virginia. caller: hello, c-span. thank you for having me on. i would like to chime in. i don't see the need to have $300 for unemployment extra.

we should not do that. most business where i live, they are looking for workers and they cannot keep anyone because people are laying back on unemployment. they will not come to work. as far as the $1400, i hope they would have a return to sender type step, so those that do not need that and would like to return it could. i would hate to go in debt. that should be one of the nation's greatest fear. i don't want anyone to be in fear, but we should consider giving back that money if you do

not need it. get rid of that $300 unemployment extra. host: keith, kentucky, republican. are you there? i think we lost keith. let's try lou, california, democratic caller. caller: i have not heard anyone talk about the military budget. i think we are spending too much on the military and i do not think it is necessary. we can kill everyone on the planet three times over now. let's cut it in half and spend the money on the people. host: a couple of other comments , one at twitter, where was this national debt concerned when passing tax cuts. how much revenue did they eliminate with that legislation?

i may need help from a republican rep to show me how to survive on minimum wage. to the last caller's point, loop tweets -- lou tweets cut the military budget in half. leonard. go ahead. caller: [indiscernible] thank you. host: we will take your calls for a couple minutes. what we are going to do is walk through some of the spending in this covid relief bill and talk about spending since the pandemic started. we will take your calls for that segment. back to the wall street journal possibly story on the house.

the bill is expected to be a close vote in the house after the senate narrowly passed the bill. how speaker pelosi must hold her caucus for another houseboat. biden's top legislative priority . key progressives appear poised to support the relief bill. many expressed frustration at changes that curtail the extension of unemployment benefits and block the effort to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour. alford, chicago. caller: good morning. concerning the national debt, we need to take a page from the heroes of the world war ii era,

when everybody came together. weight melted excess steel, women worked in the warehouses. we spent every cent we could to save the united states from war. today, we do not look upon those people as having squandered american resources. today, we talk about how children in the future, we are leaving them with the national debt. they would be flat -- they would be proud to see america came together bypassing this debt that was needed at a time of a national emergency. thank you. host: thank you for calling. that was our last call for this segment. we will plunge deeper into these

numbers, the current coronavirus stimulus bill and the previous bills. our guest will be adam, he will give us his perspective on the numbers. this, as the house prepares to vote tomorrow. we will be back in a moment. ♪ >> listen to c-span pasta podcast. two years in captivity in syria. plus, a look at the future of syria. >> it is a long, hard road. i believe the outside world, the western nations will say, on behalf of the people, we need to come to an accommodation of the

government. we allow students to come back. the new term future is grim. >> this is c-span's new online store. to check out the new products. with the 117th congress in session, we are taking orders for the directory. shop today at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our guest now is going to help us take a look into covid ending, policy, all things

related to the pandemic and he is going to talk about some of the numbers. he is founder and ceo of openthebooks.com. tell us what it does. guest: our mission is summarized as every dime online in real time. last year, our auditors refiled freedom of information requests and nearly every public body in the couplet -- on nearly every public body in the country and we display it all on our website. that is so regular people can hold your officials accountable for tax and spend decisions. we have a petition that fits with this segment.

it is at the federal level. you can hit the. it is called read the bill. our legislators do not have time to read the bill. we have a representative republic. if our representatives do not have time to read these bill, we have to petition on that basis. host: let's read the numbers on the covid bill. it should get past tomorrow. let's break some of this down. individual payments, 430 $7 billion as part of this bill. money to state and local governments. 300 $50 billion. unemployment benefits, $230 billion. more money for the paycheck protection program, $7 billion.

what do you see in these numbers? guest: these are big numbers. if you count the dollars related to funding the coronavirus pandemic, it is about eight to $900 million. that leaves an x or -- that leaves an extra $1 trillion not related to the payment. if you need more testing or dollars for vaccinations, more payments to small businesses which are hurting, deliver a bill on that basis, a targeted skinny bill that directs money to people who have need. some of these other things that are being funded, to the tune of $1 trillion, save those for

another day. host: we will take your calls in a couple of minutes. we are reviewing the covid bill that is about to get past in the house -- get passed in the h ouse. chris murphy, the senator from connecticut, took issue with criticism that non-covid priorities are in this plan. here is what he had to say. [video clip] let's look at what was broadly part of the cares act that was supported by every republican and what is part of the american rescue plan. my republican colleagues thought everything in the cares act was covid relief, whether it was designed to attack the health-care crisis or the economic crisis. their work stimulus checks. not as big as the one in the

american rescue plan, but they were covid relief. now, according to republicans, they are not covid relief. there was an unemployment extension. that was covid relief in march of last year, but now, it is not covid relief. there was money for vaccines and testing in the cares act. in the american rescue plan, money for vaccines, testing. small business relief was conceived in the cares act. now, it is not covid relief, according to my republican colleagues. there wasn't state and local funding in the cares act. there was rent and mortgage relief. there is rent and mortgage relief in the american rescue plan. since democrats took control of the white house and the senate,

all of these things, which were categorized as covid relief by republicans in march are no longer covid relief. you are supposed to think of these as extras, as democratic priorities. host: what you make of those comments. guest: i am a senior contributor at forbes. i wrote a view on the waste in the cares act. it was extreme. on the paycheck protection program, everybody voted for it. nobody had time to read the bill. we found loans and grants flowing to hollywood. kanye west got over $2 million. the sneaker company has a value

of over $3 billion. robert redford's sundance institute. over $3 million worth of ppp money. the producer of the godfather, he got -- he has got two companies. they got $8.5 million. when these bills are rushed, there is a lot of waste. host: is their wasteful spending in this bill? point to a couple of things you think should not be there. guest: there are billion dollars pieces of waste and million dollars. let's take $1 million piece of waste. we identify a new part for federal workers.

there are cash payments for individuals. if you are a federal worker and if your child costs school is not -- your child's school is not open, the perk says you can stay home and take care of your child and you get the equivalent of $1400 a week for 15 weeks, up to $21,000 paid to stay home. we know the average federal worker makes over $100,000 a year on cash compensation. you already get 12 weeks of unpaid time off for family leave. if you are on the job for three years, you have 43 days of paid time off. that is holidays, sick days, vacation days.

almost every week, if you are a federal bureaucrat, your work week is a four-day work week already. host: republican, illinois, you are on. good morning. caller: good morning. i enjoy your website. very informative and entertaining. one thing i heard at the beginning of this was money to count tuna in the gulf of mexico. is that true? are they spending money to count fish in the gulf of mexico? guest: we have not heard that. when they dropped the bill, we read the entire bill. senate read did the bill.

-- senate read did -- redid the bill. some of the changes, we found a new section, $75 million. a one million-dollar piece of wage going to national public radio, big bird. on their balance sheet, nonprofit organizations, they have hundreds of millions of dollars. host: marion, hello. caller: i have to smile at your guest. you just talk the talking points. you talk about hollywood getting ppp, you don't talk about churches, who do not get taxed. many churches have gotten money.

let's not be so partisan. host: let me get a response. go ahead, adam. guest: we map every single loan. many have turned into grants, between $1 million and $10 million. there were many churches on that list. we segmented for national journalists. we sliced it, sent it to journalists. they wrote articles, made national news. for everybody out there, if you believe government money comes with strings and influence, it is troubling america's churches

were getting big payments out of that ppp fund. we are a nonprofit. we are a public charity. we could qualify for 300,000 dollars through that program. we would never expect -- we would never accept government money. that would harm our mission. we are funded by people, individuals, foundations, we accept no government funding. caller: thank you. i am sorry, but it is blah blah blah, what you talk about. you are funded by wealthy people who have an agenda. the $1.9 trillion is for vaccines, but everything else, because of the covid crisis, the

states and local counties need money. the revenue is down. everything related to covid, it is a covid relief. it is going to help us. the $3000 for the children who are poor, all of us are suffering. i don't think you get this. it is depressing to hear people like you talk like this. guest: there is real pain out there. this is a pandemic. we need targeted relief. america is rich enough to provide for a robust safety net. where there can be debate is when that safety net turns into

a hammock and impinges the future. in terms of local and state funding, we have done oversight on where this bill would send the money. california, the government would get $26 billion. the second is tribal governments. they would get $20 billion. we looked up the population of native americans. there are about 3 million. on a population, there are $6,700 per native american flowing to tribal governments. that exceeds any other allocation. puerto rico has 3 million people. they are getting $4 billion out of the program. host: keith, good morning to

you. caller: we are spending so much money it is like it is not real money. the people in the country are wondering how long is this going to go on? we are paying about $400 billion in interest. on our debt right now, can that 400 billion, if we do not incur any more interest, cannot go up when things come due? if that grows too big, we are not paying down the debt. when will it, to a point where people say we spend more money on interest than the military that people complain about? guest: we have the same view on

the national debt as mike mullen said back in 2011, 2012. long-term, our national debt is our greatest national security threat. our national rollout with arm in arm with dr. tom coburn. he wrote the book called the debt bomb. this works until the moment it does not. let's walk through a brief history on the national debt. when barack obama took office, it was about $10 trillion. when trump came into office, it was $20 trillion. after four years, when he leaves, it is 28 trillion

dollars. if we pass this, we are going to go north of $30 trillion. host: u.s. debt set to double over the next 30 years. explain what a higher debt means to the functioning of government in washington and the country. guest: in relation to the economy, it is a huge part of the economy. we have not seen the level of debt to the growth domestic product since world war ii and we have not fought a world war. it starts to crowd out government services because you have to spend. when the government spends money, it crowds out private

investment. government investment is prioritized. i want to give you examples. on the bailout of states and localities, we took a look at your hometowns receiving dollars and beverly hills is getting billed out to the tune of $6.2 million. i don't think 90210 needs a coronavirus bailout. the hamptons are getting billed out north of $8 million. key west, $10.1 million bailout. greenwich, connecticut. they are getting $20 million out of this bill.

some of the wealthiest towns in the country, like atherton, california. they are getting $1.4 million out of this bill. you can look up your hometown on our website. my hometown is the 36th richest place in the country and we are getting 2.1 million dollars of bailout out of this bill. we do not need it. host: conrad, philadelphia. caller: have you ever looked in the books to see how much money we sent overseas to all of those foreign countries? maybe if they stop sending our

money overseas, we could fund anything that goes on in the united states. host: what is your perspective on how much this country spends on foreign aid? guest: ice caller: -- caller: the money they sent overseas to all of the rich oil states, we send more money overseas then we taken from overseas. let's stop spending money overseas and we would not have a problem. host: thank you for calling. caller: when -- guest: when trump looked at removing the united states from the world health organization, we looked at how much money funded the who. it was smaller than what people realized.

host: let's hear from david. caller: on foreign aid, boy is he off. it is the tiniest fraction of what this bill is about. it is not close. the thing that is bothering me, the u.s. has gone through cycles and crashes. 1907, a horrible crash. we are living in a time where

most of the people cannot remember what the last bear market was like. go back to 2008, 2000, we had bad downturns. the average interest rate on our loans has averaged 5.5% going back to 1913. we are living on borrowed time when it comes to interest on the national debt. as we start to creep up, at some point, reality is going to sneak in. there is no free lunch. you cannot print money. i do not know what they are thinking. listening to them talk the other

day, they said the forward pe is 22.5. in recent years, it has been 17.5. at some point, it has to go down. host: thank you for calling. guest: it is a good perspective. let's talk about the total toolbox of administrative, legislative, and federal reserve response to the coronavirus over the past year. these amounts are stunning, large, it is hard to get perspective. there is about a $10 trillion to $11 trillion toolbox. let's break it down. administrative response to an emergency, coming out of the executive office of the president, about three quarters

of $1 trillion. already allocated is 4.1 trillion dollars. what is not talked about is the enteral reserve. they committed to $5.9 trillion. they disclosed they have only used about $2.8 trillion of that money in response to the coronavirus. congress has left $1 trillion on the table. it is unspent, working through the system. there is another one point $9 trillion congress is putting on the table. after all of this spending, let the dollars work through the system. if there are people at the end of the day who have needs, target a bill to serve those people. host: as we look at the state

recipients, california on top, florida, $17 billion. mitt romney mentioned florida. if a state is doing ok or well right now, can they refuse this money? guest: every state should analyze, every local government should analyze whether they need the money and if they do not, send it back. all of this is borrowed. there was an allocation formula on the $350 billion sent to states and localities. rather than population, it went to unemployment rate. in west virginia, with joe mansion, a swing senator, we were interested to see how he would vote on this bill.

west virginia, they lose $1.5 billion. california and new york, they are the winners in this bill. california, they reap an extra $6.7 billion. new york reaps a little over $6 billion. florida is a big loser. ron desantis cap the state open -- kept the state open for business, so they lose over $2 billion in this bill. host: here are figures before this current bill. paycheck protection program, $796 billion. this is since march of 2020, prior to this current bill. individual payments, $730

billion. unemployment, $630 billion. state and local, $340 billion. k-12, 102 billion dollars. talk about the larger figures and what they mean in the future. guest: unemployment, with 40 million people unemployed at the height of the pandemic, congress flooded the system with unemployment benefits. this was pushed to the states. they had to fill these claims, california has steadied this. there was a tsunami of fraud. california believes 27% of all money they sent out in terms of

unemployment benefits was a ripoff, was a fraud. fraud on a scale we have never seen in public agencies before due to states having outdated systems. they were under resourced, under budgeted, and they did not have basic internal financial accounting controls to send out the benefits to people who were unemployment -- who were unemployed. the scope of the fraud could rival $100 billion. the department of labor admits 10% of that was stolen. out the door, 630 billion dollars. that is a $63 billion fraud. we believe that. we looked at the admitted improper and mistaken payments over the course of the past five years. they average between 9% and 11%

during that period. 10% is a reasonable estimate. in this current bill, when they add more unemployment benefits, that is going to push the fraud number up to close to $90 billion. it could exceed $100 billion. host: dave, irvine, california. caller: [indiscernible]

bill clinton was lowering it. it would be down now, but guys like this don't get it. all of the republicans said, you have to -- and what do republicans do? they take away, they want to cut social security. republicans go to war and they do not pay for it. they say we have a debt problem. until you start taxing the rich, let's say they get $5 million, let's tax 90%, not 30%. host: let's hear from our guest.

guest: we have one party in washington, d.c. it is the party of let's get rich together. we have been hard on congressional republicans. far too often, republicans join democrats to drain the u.s. treasury from the right. republicans were in control for the first two years of the trump administration. we were running trillion dollar deficit during boom times. republicans have not stood on fiscal conservative principles for a long time. host: washington post speaks to that. on the right, congressional republicans may fret about higher deficits, but the most

popular politician among their voters does not. donald trump blew past concerns about the deficit while running on protested -- unprecedented peace time debt levels. on the left, lawmakers have learned to ignore fears about spending too much. here is a quote. it has been a major shift. people have gone from being antigovernment to beyond being a neutral, to thinking, we need the government. it has to help us. guest: ronald reagan's quote,

when somebody knocks on your door and they say i am from the government and here to help, you -- that was not a situation you wanted. far too often we are too willing to embrace that. the current bill, the one point -- the $1.9 trillion bill, saying it is not related to the pandemic and the virus, i want to give you an example of this. that is k-12 education. during the pandemic during 2020, congress allocated 60 $7 billion to k-12 schools. many are not open. in this new bill, overnight, $120 billion is allocated to the k-12 schools. the white house spokesman admits the budget office did the study,

95% of the money is going to be spent from 2022 to 2028. one third of that money is going to be spent after the 2024 election. why allocate the money now if you needed in the future? make legislation, convince taxpayers and constituents, and deliver funding at that point. there is no need to obligate the american taxpayer right now for that funding. host: isn't this money poured into the economy? money that will be spent immediately? unlike the trillion plus tax cut that poured into the stock market. when you say waste, you mean money that will be rapidly spent guest:. since these are government

programs, what government program is running well cut -- is running well? we look at the 20 largest federal agencies going back to 2004, admit when they improperly pay. it is a payment to the wrong person, the wrong amount, the wrong set of rules. in 2019, we had $175 billion worth of improper and mistaken payments. in 2020, we got the latest numbers through the door, it spikes north of $220 billion. that is $17 billion a month. half billion dollars a day. $1 million a minute. the largest culprit are the two large federal programs, medicare and medicaid. 126 billion dollars was admitted by health and human services that was mistakenly paid out of

those programs. the irs administers the earned income tax credit. in this act, that gets a boost. the irs admits last year, one out of every four dollars, it was improperly and mistakenly paid. we reached out to the irs for comment. they said it will continue and they do not have the resources to stop it. caller: thank you for letting me speak. president biden is doing a great job, pouring that money into the economy so people can get back to work, and get a vaccine and get back to work and start paying taxes. he is doing good. they need that money so people can get back to work. host: thank you for calling. guest: thank you for that

comment. people need gainful employment. the jobs report came out friday. it was massive, 400 thousand jobs added to the economy in february. january numbers were revised to about another 100,000 increase. in the first two months of this year, the economy is coming back. about half a million jobs have been added to the economy. do we need a massive stimulus at this point when you have the vaccination? vaccinations are up to 90 million doses that have been delivered. hospital asians are down, deaths are down. we are coming back. the greatest story is the comeback story. we are going to do it again. we do not need to do it with trillions of dollars of cash.

host: one of the other threads of this conversation is about unspent money from previous bills. here is a clip from the republican from louisiana talking about this. [video clip] >> i am disappointed the president took the position that we need to spend $2 trillion now , even though there is $1 trillion in previously appropriated funds that we have not spent yet. a reasonable approach would have been to say, do we need to spend $2 trillion? maybe we ought to spend the other $1 trillion and see if that will do it. another approach would have been to say, maybe we ought to

reprogram some of the $1 trillion that has not been spanked. we appropriated $70 billion to our elementary and secondary schools. they have only spent $4 billion. why are we giving them another $160 billion in president biden's bill? maybe the schools did not need the full $70 billion we gave them. maybe we can reprogram some of that money. host: this idea of reprogramming. can you give us a budget lesson explaining what the senator is trying to say? how does that come together? guest: it is hard to spend these psalms. specific to education, $67 billion allocated to k-12 schools.

all of that has been spent except for $10 billion. i want to give you an example of how the money has been spent. about $100 million was spent in chicago on infrastructure, upgrading all facets of the schools to make for a safe and comfortable learning environment. high schools still are not open. finally, the union has agreed to come into the classroom. we took out a look at how much a teacher makes. on pay and benefits, they average $108,000 per year. put that in contrast to parochial schools in chicago. catholic schools, they have been back in the classroom since september. teachers make half. you can be a phd in the catholic

schools and your pay tops out at 60 thousand dollars. host: lewis, waycross, georgia. good morning. caller: how much money the lawyers and doctors got from ppp -- i would like to know how much money the lawyers and doctors got from ppp. guest: they got hundreds of millions of dollars. there is a purpose to some payments, certainly. it might go down as the worst decision in the last 100 years, to do something that was never tried from a public policy standpoint before. that was a lockdown, when you shut an economy down, when you throw 40 million people out of work, there is an argument it is akin to eminent domain.

specific to health care, there were multiple programs, not only from medicine, but from dentists , to keep the health care infrastructure of the country strong while the country focused on this pandemic. host: there is procurement fraud in the military. does your website cover that? guest: we want to do an oversight report on the military . we covered this a bit. we did a report on use it or lose it contract spending. -- we hired millions of dollars spent on lobster and snow crab

at the pentagon. this led to hearings in the house with generals addressing the armed services committee, asking them to tie the appropriation to the united states military to rules on eliminating wasteful use it or lose it end of year spending and we are proud of that work. host: brenda, jonesville, virginia. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to ask adam, what did he think about the republicans not voting with the democrats to try to help people and then, all of these people trying to feed their families and cannot feed their families, they are getting in lines to get food to feed their families. everybody in congress is not

going without a check. they are getting their check, regardless. guest: thank you for your comment, your question. from the republican standpoint, they look at where we are at now and it looks like the comeback story is unfolding. furthermore, our auditors took a look at household income in 2020. because of the aid, the 4.1 trillion dollars congress through at the economy, the virus, individuals, household income rose in 2020. that gets back to the point with $1 trillion unspent of the fortune dollars. let the dollars work through the economy. if there are areas, testing, vaccinations, restaurants have taken a particular hit.

airlines, or other industries, small businesses, individuals come in with a targeted relief bill. host: tell us more about open thebooks.com. guest: we are up against a national think tanks. some of them have $100 million a year budgets. last year, we grew our budget to $2.8 million. we have about 30 full-time equivalents. we have about 23 full-time employees that filed and followed up with and mapped to our website, the production from those freedom of information act requests, and captured $6 trillion. the remaining folks are auditors. we open the books and we audit

those books. our audits make national news, like what we are talking about today. host: how long have you been around? guest: we launched in 2013. we did something historic and unique. we took the federal checkbook, pushed it to your cell phone with a mobile app, which localized federal spending into your zip code. i wrote the editorial in 2013. we launched, on a state-side basis in illinois, the super bowl of corruption, where we are based. we started posting all pay and pensions and checkbooks as early as 2011. we took that out on a national basis. host: this piece you wrote in

forbes, anthony fouts she, the highest paid employee in the federal government. why did you write this? how much does he make? guest: we got the federal payroll through the door. the most highly compensated federal employee was anthony fauci. he has been at the health and service -- the health and human services since 1968. we are holding the last 10 years worth of federal payroll. in the past four years, his salary increased up to $417,000 in 2019. in 2020, a spokesman confirmed he got another increase, up to $434,000. out of 4 million federal

employees, the number one, most highly compensated is dr. anthony fauci. host: he is 80 years old. would he make that kind of money for being around that long? guest: some make the argument he is the most uncompensated. host: let's hear from sue, kentucky, independent color. -- independent caller. caller: i love him opening the book. i would like to know how the government is spending our money. nancy, all of them. open the book on them, where our tax money is going. they have their big homes, new cars. we are the ones out. we are the ones struggling.

i have been a democrat, i have been a republican. i am an independent. the american people are sick of it. we own nothing. we have to pay them. we are fed up with it. they need to cut them people down. they need a cap on their pay. they do not need to -- in there. guest: this system has been gamed by the elites. i want to take you to a couple of examples. the ivy league colleges, it is the 25 colleges with the largest endowments. 25 schools have an endowment

north of $320 billion. that is one third of $1 trillion. they do not need taxpayer help. on the cares act, $13 billion was allocated to universities and colleges. we took a look at those 25 wealthy schools. in the cares act, they were allocated $1 billion of our tax money. they cannot make the argument they need the money, but they want the money. host: anthony, west bloomfield, michigan. caller: we send them to congress , the bills get so inflated. we expect our representatives to do what is best for us.

can you explain about the process? they have been talking about adding earmarks to the policy. it sounds like that is already in there. guest: earmarks are the gateway drug of corruption. dr. tom coburn, he was instrumental in delivering the earmark man when congress banned them through a rule change. that has been reversed by democrats. both parties are responsible for this. i want to tell you how hard it was for our auditors to get detail on the $350 billion in this bill flowing to state and local governments. we tried for a week to get specifics. a line by line accounting on the

30,000 counties and municipalities that would receive $120 billion out of this bill. it took us a week. we were asking republicans and democrats. within 12 hours, we had oversight on where the money was going. i detailed some of these wealthy communities getting money. you have large cities that are mismanaged. new york, they are going to get more than $4 billion out of this bill. we compared that versus the state government and new york city will get more money than 25 state governments out of this bill. chicago, they are right up the road from us, we are in the suburbs. chicago, the bonds are junk status. they are going to get to billion dollars out of this bill. that outranks 12 states.

host: founder and ceo of opent hebooks.com. thank you for your time. we appreciate you coming on with us. we thanks to our viewers -- we say thanks to our viewers and we will see you back here tomorrow for another addition of this program, “washington journal.” enjoy the rest of your day. ♪ day. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> you are watching c-span, your unfiltered view of government. c-span was created by america's cable television companies in 1979.