technology in all of our lives, in every sector in domestic policy applications and national defense. we have a long chapter on national defense and military applications of ai so. i think that perio and what makes it difficult tod place in a widespread scale in a short period time and we are struggling to deal with it. >> darrell west tonight at 8 p.m. eastern on "the communicators" on c-span two. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> rod band is a force for empowerment. that's why charter has invested billions tilting infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering

opportunity and -- in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving way front row seat to democracy. at (202) 748-8003. we want to begin with this headline from the new york times . "america has long favored cars over trains and buses. can biden change that?" "when congress writes new transportation bills about fourth bits of the money goes to highways and roads. roughly 80% of the trips americans make our by car and light truck. just 3% by mass transit. " some experts think that is getting the casualty backwards. decades of investment in roads and highways starting with the

creation of the interstate highway system in 1956 in the eisenhower administration has transformed most cities and suburbs into sprawling car centered environments where can be dangerous to walk or bike. by the reliable transit options remain scarce. that is this morning from the new york times. tweets coming in saying how much federal funding for public transportation should there be? it is not the bargain of the south carolina taxpayer to subsidize the subway in new york city. this from southport branch -- city dwellers think only of themselves. the midwest farmer will not take a bus or train to feed his cattle or plow his field. let's get to some official reaction from a senate hearing last month. the new transportation secretary pete buttigieg on the issue of public transportation. >> the american jobs plan will move us away from our overreliance on fossil tools and tort net zero carbon emissions by 2050. it will spark electric vehicle

revolution, building a network of 500,000 electric vehicle charges across the country in urban and rural areas and provide rebates to make electric vehicles affordable for more americans. the plant will double federal funding for public transit, making it a more reliable and accessible option to more people. by investing billions to make travel safer for all americans, whether they moved by car, public transit, foot, bike, wheelchair, or any other means. it will reduce congestion on the road and pollution in the air. we draw inspiration from the new deal's infrastructure project and president eisenhower's interstate highway system, but we cannot afford to rely on the original version of the roads, bridges, and airports they built all those years ago. the need for new investment is impossible to ignore. we see it in the sections of california's highway 1 that fell into the ocean, in the gulf

coast flooding that halted rail service after hurricane harvey, and in the loss of subway service for millions of new yorkers after hurricane sandy. we see it in the storms on our coast. the flood of the midwest. the wildfires in california, and the deadly snowstorm in texas. we must adapt. host: that from the transportation secretary pete buttigieg before congressional hearing. according to the american public transportation association, here are some figures. americans took 9.9 billion trips using public transportation in 2019. people boarded public transportation 34 million times each week day. nearly half of americans have no access to public transportation. it does employ more than 445,000 people. on twitter, this comment. the problem with small government is you get small results. joe biden is bringing us back to

going big as it should be. the republicans out with their own transportation bill that includes a scaled-down version of what the biden plan includes. shelley more cap about from west virginia -- shelley moore capito outlining some of the details. >> let's define infrastructure. you can see our definition of infrastructure. physical infrastructure. what do people think of in our states when they think about infrastructure? roads and bridges. public transit systems. rail, which could be passenger rail. water and wastewater. i will stop there to say the first part of this infrastructure package could come up in front of the entire senate next week and it hopefully will with the ep w bill on clean drinking water and wastewater we passed unanimously. every republican and every democrat voted for this.

important inland waterways. airports, broadband is the infrastructure that if you asked just the question 10 years ago we would not have thought to do it, or if we had we would've been very futuristic. broadband is a core infrastructure package. lastly water storage and safety. it is important for you to realize this is the largest infrastructure investment republicans have come forward with. this is a robust package. when we look at where we are focusing our infrastructure needs. host: that is senator shelley more cap about -- shelley moore capito. if you a regular user of public transportation, give us a call at (202) 748-8002. a lot of tweets coming in. lizzie saying i will not give up my pickup truck to be packed into electric deathtrap.

that is how i feel like 90% of this country as well. your phone calls, northwood, new hampshire, mark. caller: good morning. i spent most of my working life as a painter and i had to drive to where the jobs are. sometimes as much as 150 miles round-trip each day. where i live in rural new hampshire there are no public buses or trolleys or trains. you have to have a vehicle to get to the grocery store, your doctors appointment, anything you need to do, you need a car or a pickup truck. the big government only mucks things up. let's look at the war on drugs, the war on housing, the war on poverty, the war on hunger. all we have done in the last 65 years is muck things up. host: we will leave it there. we go to tennessee, chris. what kind of public

transportation do you use? caller: argues buses all the time and i think it is a great -- i use buses all of the time. can i talk about a terrible waste of taxpayer money? we have a sheriff chasing people around with a drone in tennessee. i think public transportation is a great idea. host: we will go to mike joining us from cary, north carolina. caller: how are you? host: how are you? caller: i am ok. i love this debate. it has been going on for so long in this country. i used to live in denver and i watched for so many years as they battled over the light rail system. i will try to be concise. i can ramble. america as a country, we are a big country. four time zones. for the last 100 years, give or

take, as a society, through a combination of government investment and private investment we decided to invest in roads and airports. planes and cars. it is what it is. at the time there was no people attached to fossil fuels. fossil fuels were good. they got us away from having to kill whales. john d rockefeller probably save more whales than any human being on the planet. this is where we are accurate 100 years of infrastructure -- this is where we are at. 100 years of infrastructure, miles of freeway. airports all over the country. i think it is 15,000 airports. the big ones get notoriety. they're are also smaller regional airports. this is where we put our money. americans generally do not want

to get on a train. americans do not want public transportation. it is needed in city areas, new york, boston, cleveland. like the previous collar set, rural areas, i am a regional sales director. i cover the southeast. i need to do that with a car. there are simply no other choices available for my profession. this is the case for many professions. the democrats have been fixated on trains for a long time. they have spent tens of billions of dollars trying to get this high-speed train built in california right along the san andreas fault. that is a comedy in and of itself. it is still not even finished. outside of the northeast and maybe the upper midwest area around chicago and the west coast area, trains are just not viable.

they take too long. the fastest train goes about 150 miles an hour, maybe a little bit more. a plane goes 450. i do not get this fixation on it, especially with the advent of eponymous vehicles, electric cars coming online -- with the advent of autonomous vehicles, electric cars are coming online. we have the highways built. they just need to be modified to host electric vehicles. options are coming along. if trains were so good, where as private enterprise in building these trains so people will ride them? they are not. people do not want to ride them. host: i will leave it there. this is -- when a caller says the government needs to stop they can send back their social security and stimulus. the buffet law allows that. the price tag is a big debate

between democrats and republicans. the democrat plan in excess of $2 trillion, the republican plan $800 billion for that gop plan. this year marks the 50th anniversary of amtrak, a service joe biden used when he was in the senate, commuting from wilmington, delaware to washington, d.c. he is back in philadelphia friday. the president had this to say. >> we have to do more than just build back. we have to build back better. today we have a once in a generation opportunity for amtrak and rail and intercity rail will play a central role in our transformation of transportation economic future. to make investments that can help america get back on track, no pun intended. before the pandemic amtrak's ridership were on an upswing. the northeast corridor has been making money for a long while, but last year the amtrak system was projected to break even for the first time in history.

then we had the pandemic. they are still a huge backlog in maintenance, a huge need to modernize our stations, our breaches, our tunnels. we are talking about critical jobs like the hudson river tunnel, the baltimore potomac tunnels, and the susquehanna river bridge. in my american jobs plan i propose spending $10 billion a year on passenger rail and freight rail. of this, two thirds would support existing amtrak routes, including the northeast corridor, and nationwide. we are talking about union jobs. we are taking care of the riders, laying track, switches, modernizing stations and repairing and rebuilding this vital infrastructure. host: the president at the 30th street station in philadelphia on friday. our website has all of our programming at c-span.org. kirk has this tweet, there is

never been a viable public transportation option because the automobile lobby convinces you to drive yourself like an idiot. sergio joining us from florida. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm good. how are you? caller: i am fine. i am a transportation writer in south florida -- i'm a transportation rider in south florida. where i live in orlando, they have been complaining about their bus systems, small buses, especially here for the trains, all kinds of things because we need better transportation because people are complaining about bad transportation, especially where i live in south broward county transit needs to

update their transit all around florida. host: how much are you willing to pay for that? caller: whatever it takes, my friend. i do not care how much it costs. host: we will go to carl joining us from portland, oregon. good morning. caller: i listened to the last caller. host: what we are looking at is what the price tag is for the biden plan that includes about 115 billion dollars for highways, roads, and main streets. $85 billion for public transportation. amtrak would get $80 billion, but also modernization expanding its routes. airports getting $25 billion and inland waterways and ports getting $17 billion. go ahead. caller: i cannot fathom all of that in dollars and cents. i know if i have come from areas

that hav

host: a busy week for the president. he is back on the road. joining us is a reporter from --. what is on the agenda? >> the president and first lady are headed to virginia.

it is part of what the white house is calling the getting america back on track to her. -- two or bang. it is part of the -- tour. they are trying to sell across the country and visit an elementary school and stop into an hvac repair class at a community college. jill biden has been a long time community college teacher and advocate for community colleges. on thursday, just the president alone is back on the road. this time he will be going to louisiana, visiting lake charles and new orleans, where he will talk about the infrastructure plan and visit a water plant. host: let me talk about what the debate is.

defining what is infrastructure. two different definitions based on your political party. guest: most of the republicans we heard from yesterday what say that infrastructure is typically the hardware things, the concrete things we know of, bridges, airports, roadways, train tracks, transit, and high-speed internet and getting that into more parts of the country. the president plans to expand that definition further to include things that are not what you think of it traditionally when you think of infrastructure. is that is where the debate lies. it also comes down to in terms of cost. the president has proposed something on the order of $2.3 trillion there there are a lot of members of congress that are saying, that's step back.

it's too expensive. the republicans have proposed something that is about one fourth the size of what the president has proposed. they will have to be a lot of movement towards the middle on some sort of figure that both sides can agree on. host: she covers the white house for the associated press. today is the border and questions when the vice president will travel to the border and also the president will be there. guest: the vice president later this week is having her first president -- meeting with the president of mexico. it will be a virtual needing. he is not coming to the white house yet in person. it is part of the assignment the president has given her to deal with the central american countries and the reasons that a lot of children are arriving at the border unaccompanied without any parents or supervision.

the white house has made clear she is not dealing with border enforcement and who to let in and keep out. she is dealing with the other side of the border and the reasons people are coming here in the first place. host: the president continues to meet with democrats and republicans. congress is in recess this week but what is next on the agenda in terms of trying to reach an olive branch republicans on some of these issues? guest: act channel are behind the scenes talks going on everyday between the white house and lawmakers. the top republican on the senate public works committee has been very involved in talking to the white house. senator on television yesterday has had conversations with the white house. a lot of the behind the scenes talks will continue this week and next week we should see the president actually inviting

members into the oval office to sit down and have some discussions with him. he has also invited the top four congressional leaders to come into the oval office. i would expect that netmeeting would touch on a range of topics and i'm sure the infrastructure proposal the president has would be one of those things he would want to discuss with the leadership. host: do you have a sense that it will reach any tangible results in terms of democrats and republicans working together on infrastructure? caller: -- guest: it remains to be seen. >> since the members are appearing in person, let me remind everyone that pursuant to the latest guidance for the house attending physician, all individuals attending the hearing in person must wear a face mask. if you are not wearing a face