>> coming up, jerome powell joins a discussion on the economy hosted by the national community reinvestment coalition. live coverage starts at 2:15 eastern, you can listen with the free c-span radio app. 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 have pretty good public transportation. that made the deciding factor whether i use it or not. i am an elderly person now and i am totally reliant on public transportation. for certain age groups like younger people and older people, you are very dependent on it. it is necessary if you live in the city area or even a suburb. host: thanks for the call. if your listing on c-span radio app, we are focusing on public transportation. one component of the infrastructure debate in washington. the house and senate both in recess but there will be hearings this week. we go to william joining us from eureka, california. good morning. caller: good morning, steve, and all of the listeners.

i am a retired grain town driver -- a retired greyhound driver. people do not talk about greyhound anymore. the government does not even want to help them. remember the trailways and greyhound competition? there is no competition. greyhound absorbed trailways when they were in trouble and saved all the drivers their retirement. today greyhound is owned by a company called first group in england. it is not a u.s. company anymore, just like budweiser. they are not a u.s. company anymore. thought ought to be given to greyhound because they have been for sale for two years because they are losing money. when it is all subdivided up, when some big outfit like some rich person buys greyhound, they will subdivided and make all the small companies again and i guarantee it will collapse because all you need is one or two small companies not provided

the driver when a busload of people come in, they are supposed to switch seats. it will not happen. i drove when they had an extra board. if there was only one passenger stranded somewhere, they would send an extra board driver with an extra bus to pick up that one person. today, you wait until the next one is scheduled to come through. greyhound needs help and the government does not want to help your thank you very much. caller: -- host: a special election in the fifth congressional district of texas with the passing of the former congressman, his wife moving ahead with the runoff. cnn projecting wright would take the first bought, and ellzey who defeated the democrat had been locked in a tight race for second, ensuring the seat will state in republican hands.

matt joins us from maryland. caller: how are you? host: good, how are you. caller: i am all right. as someone who rides public transportation, it has never been efficient. ever since the gentleman said, before the auto industry and eisenhower struck a deal so everyone would have to buy cars. there are people that do not drive and their people who need public transportation. ever since that deal, our public transportation system -- i think we are back to where it was before that deal they made. now we are at least 80 years behind in our public transportation system.

you should not have to wait 40 minutes for a bus. that is ridiculous. they should not be that far apart. people have to work. i live five miles from d.c. it takes me about an hour to get there. between waiting and the time it takes to get there. host: using the subway or the bus? caller: both. it is crazy. why should there be some people that have to go to all that trouble to get to work? host: thanks for the call. a busy week for the president. he is back on the road. joining us on the phone is darlene superville who covers the white house for the associated press. thank you for being with us. let's begin with the trip today and the trip thursday. what is on the agenda.

caller: good morning. today the president and first lady are headed down to yorktown, virginia. part of what the white house is calling the getting america back on track toward. they are not calling it infrastructure week. we have dispensed with that. they are down to yorktown and it is part of the infrastructure plan the president has proposed and is trying to sell with a lot of these trips across the country. they will visit an elementary school and also stop into an hvac repair class at a community college. joe biden has been a longtime community college teacher and advocate for community colleges. on thursday, 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 again talk about the infrastructure plan and visit a water plant in new orleans. host: let me follow-up on what

the debate has been over the last few weeks. we saw that yesterday on the sunday programs, defining what is infrastructure. there seem to be two different definitions based on your party. caller: exact -- guest: exactly. most of the republicans we heard from on television would say infrastructure is typically a hardware things, the concrete things we know of. breaches, airports, roadways. train tracks. transit. infrastructure. high-speed internet. getting into more parts of the country. the president wants to expand that definition further to include things that are not what you think of traditionally when you think of infrastructure. that is where the debate lies. the debate is also coming down in terms of cost. the president has proposed $2.3

trillion. there are members of congress saying wait a minute, let's step back. that is too expensive. the republicans have proposed something about one fourth the size of what the president has proposed, $568 billion. there will have to be a lot of movement towards the middle on some sort of dollar figure that both sides can agree on. host: we are talking with darlene superville who covers the white house for the associated press. the other big debate is the border and questions other the vice president will travel to the border and also when the president will be there. guest: the vice president is having her first meeting with the president of mexico. it will be a virtual meeting. he is not coming to the white house yet to see anyone in person. it is part of the assignment the president has given her to deal with the central american countries, central american, and the regions -- the reasons a lot

of children are arriving at the border unaccompanied, without any adult supervision. the white house has made clear she is not dealing with border enforcement and who to let in, who to keep out, she is dealing with the other side of the border and the reasons people are coming in the first place. host: the president continues to meet with democrats and republicans. what is next on the agenda in terms of trying to reach an olive branch with republicans on some of the issues? guest: back channel or behind the scenes tops are going on bream much every day between the white house and the lawmakers. senator capito of west virginia who was the top republican on the senate public works committee has been very involved with talking to the white house. senator rob portman was on television yesterday. he has had conversations with the white house.

a lot of those talks will continue this week. next week we should expect to see the president inviting members into the oval office to sit down and have discussions with him. he has also invited the top four congressional leaders into the oval office for a meeting. i would expect that that meeting would touch on a range of topics, and i am sure the infrastructure proposal the president has would be one of those things he would want to discuss with leadership as well. host: do you have a sense it will produce any tangible results, especially with republicans and democrats working together on these issues? guest: that remains to be seen. you still have a lot of the behind-the-scenes work going on at the staff level. that is where a lot of the nitty-gritty of negotiating is done. you may get the president and some of the leadership getting closer in terms of a dollar

figure, or even what they want in the bill. it is a wait and see. host: one final question. we were watching the briefings. a number of reporters inside the white house. what is it like for you covering this president during this pandemic and are things beginning to loosen up? guest: things have not loosened up yet for the press. there are still just 14 reporters in the briefing room every day for the briefings when they are happening. there will not be a briefing today. we are waiting for the white house correspondents association to work with the white house and take their guidance from white house medical officials and the coronavirus rules in the district of columbia to decide when to start to loosen things up. host: darlene superville on the white house beat for the associated press. her work available at ap.org.

thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. host: back to tweets. jody writing about a greyhound stop in oklahoma. it started a few years ago and we do not get the refugees as much anymore. we had hobo camp at the campground but no more, saying it is said. continue with your tweets @cspanwj. our phone lines are open as well. we go to chicago. good morning. caller: good morning. i grew up with public transportation. in high school i would hop on the subway and the train and get to school in the public bus. i think public transportation helps the economy. when my parents did not have to take time off work to get to school, i had to get to school on a bus, a public bus, not a school bus. i grew up in chicago -- there are a lot of rural parts in

illinois that would benefit. their economies would benefit from reliable public transportation. it is a hard life when you do not own a car and you're in a rural area and need to get somewhere. it takes more hours out of your day, more resources out of your pocket. it stifles the economy not to have reliable public transportation. host: let's go to richard in louisville, kentucky. caller: i do not want to see one dime of my money going to another big dig. boston dove that whole or that tunnel -- boston dug that hole or tunnel, there are a lot of good union jobs there. how much money did they make? do you honestly believe i want to give joe biden $2 trillion. your program on yesterday about the government and what the government should do for the people. government is the problem. get the government in los angeles. look at the government in new

york city. look at the government and all of these big cities. it is terror -- it is terrible. i do not want my money going to any transportation for anyone at all. host: thank you for the call. this is the headline from the washington times. the president's aid defending huge spending to boost the -- chris wallace pointing out that adjusted for inflation the wall street bailout and the new deal cost far less than what the president is proposing. cecilia rouse is the chair of the council for economic advisors, and she is asked to defend the price tag, including $2 trillion plus for infrastructure. >> president biden fundamentally believes government can be very effective and we all need to pay our fair share. what we have seen over the past several decades is the wealthiest americans, the big

corporations are getting wealthier and paying less in terms of federal revenue. to ensure everybody pays their fair share, not to increase taxes on the middle class, nodding please -- not increase taxes on anybody making less than 400,000 per year. the second is the corporate tax rate is proposed not to go back to where it was in 2017, just to have an increase. with the tax cuts that happen in 2017 when we reduce the corporate tax rate so dramatically, we have not seen a similar increase in investment and incorporate competitiveness. president biden is saying everybody should pay their fair share, and yet internationally we do not want to be disadvantage. he is also working with other countries so we have a minimum tax internationally so there is not a race to the bottom. >> don't you think we will be less competitive if we have the

highest corporate tax rate in the world as opposed to in the middle of the industrial world? doesn't that necessarily say we become less competitive? >> of course we do not want to hamper u.s. competitiveness. to the contrary. the idea is to ensure corporations are paying their fair share, to button up some of the loopholes which of met corporations were putting more money offshore, off of the u.s. soil, and having a global minimum tax so we are working with our trading partners, working with the rest of the world so corporations are paying their fair share worldwide. host: that is from fox news sunday, one of the five programs we re-air every sunday. cecilia rouse is the chair of the council of economic advisors. the republican plant which is spending far less than democratic includes about $300 billion for roads and bridges,

61 billion dollars for public transportation, as well as $44 billion for airports. $20 billion for railways and $17 billion for ports and inland waterways. that courtesy of cnbc. mike has this on our twitter page. some of these people whine about spending federal funds because other states problems are not theirs. i wonder what the u.s. means to them? they want all of the states to be countries. right-wingers seem to line up with states becoming independent countries. susan collins from maine on cnn state of the union on paying for infrastructure. >> the $600 billion republican proposal is a fraction of what joe biden is offering. you say biden's has $938 billion in traditional infrastructure. are you willing -- is that a

good point for discussion? >> at this point i think now that the republicans have put forth a reasonable offer, it is up to the president to do a counter offer to us. i would point out that if you look at all of the president's recent proposals, they total more than $4.1 trillion. that is the amount we spent to win world war ii. this is an enormous package when you take both the traditional infrastructure parts and the huge expansion of social programs the president is advocating. >> it world war ii dollars. your point is it is a big proposal. you said a modest increase in the corporate tax rate would be ok with you to help pay for infrastructure because biden is

proposing tax increases to try to pay for some of these proposals. the current corporate tax rate is 21%. biden wants 28%. would you be willing to meet in the middle at 25%? >> let me tell you what i will not support. i will not support american businesses paying the highest corporate tax rate among developed countries in the world once again. unfortunately that is what 28% would be. that means jobs would go overseas. i think we need to look at a wide variety of pay fors, but first we need to determine the scope of the bill and we need to determine what the top line is going to be. there are a host of different ways to pay for it. that is premature to get to until we decide the amount and

what it is going to cover. host: that from cnn's state of the union. a full interview available at cnn.com. we are focusing on the use of public transportation and how to pay for it. the republican plan, the president's plan, billions of dollars apart. bobby is next from st. paul, minnesota. thank you for waiting. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am 74 years old. i am retired. my income is social security and a small pension. i do have quite a few medical issues. i depend on public transportation. at first the bus system in the twin cities, and now i use what they call metro mobility. metro mobility is subsidized. i will give you an example. in downtown st. paul, if you take a bridge across the mississippi river or any one of the bridges, you come to the

wonderful town of west st. paul. from west st. paul to the university of minnesota where i have to have follow-ups for my surgery, follow-up visits with specialists, the cab fare is about $30 one-way. $60 round-trip. with metro mobility is $3.50 and $3.50. therefore, it is subsidized and it helps people like myself who are on a small income that can survive. may i make one extra point on the bill they are trying to put through, the infrastructure. i am being cynical. i look at this coming i know this is simplistic. i look at this bill is a big chocolate cake.

the frosting on the outside is bridges and all of the things we normally think of infrastructure. when you cut into the cake you hit a lot of pork. i may be incorrect on my term, but they used to have a bill which strictly goes through one thing at a time. i think if you continue to add on all of these earmarks and this and that, i think it complicates the thing. i think they call it clean bill. i'm not sure. host: thanks for the call. politics from inside the washington post. swing district retirement spelling trouble for democrats. a report with the announcement that a representative who headed up the congressional campaign committee for the democrats in the 2020 cycle will be stepping

down at the end of next year. her district viewed as one of the swing districts. i want to share a week from a reporter that was posted in march related to the transportation secretary. she said our neighbor sells used bike and last week he met a customer at a pizza hut. he said he was waiting for the person one black government suvs pulled up. pete buttigieg popped up, pointing out he sold a hybrid commuter to the u.s. secretary of transportation. my neighbor had been talking to buttigieg's husband all along. this response from the transportation secretary. "good bike. explain why i needed to swing by pizza hut parking lot, but we got there." we go to randy in michigan. caller: i would like to start by thanking you and all of the

other men and women it takes to bring us this program. host: we thank you for watching. caller: i live out here in a county of only 58,000 people in the county and we still have public transportation for the folks that cannot get around. we have had public transportation in this country since the wagon trains because the government opened up the west so folks could head out west and open up the nation. that is what we did. we got to have it. i do not know why the people are carrying on. we all have to complain. public transportation is our american spirit. we take care of one another. you take care of yourself and your family, but you work together to build a nation. let's get back to working together. some of the republicans, i am getting tired of their no, no, no. we will stop the afghanistan war.

we can pay for some of the infrastructure. then maybe we do not go as high on the corporate tax. we keep the republicans out of the wargame we can have nice roads, bridges, transportation. that was just my opinion on the subject. host: we appreciate your opinion and all of your calls and comments. the focus is on public transportation. how much should federal dollars be used to fund public transportation, an that came up yesterday on abc's this week. >> on your point about democrats reportedly joe biden and top democrats are willing to make concessions, or break the plan into chunks and are contemplating the counter offer of $568 billion. could you get behind that? >> yes. we are working closely with the administration. four of us present this plan the other day. it is focused on core

infrastructure -- roads, bridges, airports, things people think of when they think of infrastructure. things that will get our economy firing on all cylinders. the problem is president biden's proposal, only 6% of the money goes for roads and bridges. they have more money for electric cars than they do all of those other things. >> i have to stop you there. the 6% for roads and bridges figure you and other gop leaders have cited has been fact checked multiple times. the total amount for what you've have called traditional infrastructure, roads, bridges, rails, waterways is more than 25% of the biden plan. do want more? >> what we are working with, and shelley talked to president biden thursday. i've been working with the other powerful joe in washington, joe manchin, and we are focusing on core infrastructure. president biden calls it hard

infrastructure as opposed to soft infrastructure. i believe there is a deal to be had. host: that on abc's "this week." back to the new york times story. america has long favored cars over trains and buses. can biden change that? "mr. biden, along time amtrak writer and proponent will face hurdles to make the nation more train and bus friendly. his plan still needs to get through congress where lawmakers often prefer money for roads. nationwide -- the coronavirus pandemic has led many americans to avoid subways and buses in favor of private vehicles and it remains unclear when or whether transit ridership will bounce back. the biden administration may also have limited ability to sway the action of state and local governments, which still account for the vast majority of transportation spending.

many key urban planning decisions are made locally and they can determine whether transit systems thrive or struggle." in durham, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. i had a couple comments about this. i was a high school teacher in rural maine for many years and there was not much in the way of public transportation. i worked in a high school that was 70% free and reduced. many families struggle to have vehicles for the adults and the families, never mind the children. i had so many students complain they wanted to get a job but they did not have the transportation to get the job. i was also a small business owner in the community at the same time and i thought about how great it would have been to have student workers work, and also spent money in my business and all of the area because the students were able to get a job because they had transportation.

i also think the student situation with public transportation, i would love to grow a generation of americans that feel like the government is working for them and is a benefit to their life. when we have students that feel as though they cannot get to work, cannot get a job, we are starting out early telling them our system does not work. whereas if they could put that worried to rest and go out and start being a functional member of society, they would feel good about our country. i also wanted to add a comment. the gentleman who called in around 7:30 about the big dig in washington. i know about that firsthand. the gentleman late all the blame on the government at the time. it was actually a corporation, and that was a huge part of the problem. it was not all the government's fault there was a problem with the project. it was the corporations that were involved.

i think this attitude towards government has become a detriment to our society. susan collins pointed out we spent a lot of money to win world war ii. i would like to point out that after all of that big spending to win that war and to free the world of nazis, we also had a period of american prosperity the country had never seen before. we have evidence that government spending can set our country on a strong financial trajectory that could expand our middle-class as it did after world war ii. i advocate, let's get the middle-class going, starting with our young people who cannot afford a car, who would like to go to work and earn some money and grow up thinking america helped me with my life. thank you so much. host: thanks. jan with this tweet, asking, doesn't it cost more to replace the road or bridge than to maintain it? this headline from cnn.com.

" unlike biden, americans do not see a new infrastructure as a priority." loretto joining us from cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning, steve. good morning, america. infrastructure. we needed and we need it back. -- we need it and we need it bad. our roads and bridges are over 100 years old. we have neglected to maintain what we have been provided over the years. then additional problems have piled up on top of that. now -- do you wait until there are holes in the roof before you replace it? it digs me that all of these

republican people are calling in complaining while they are cashing their stimulus checks. i do not get it. republicans squandered $2 trillion with their tax cuts. it was supposed to be for jobs. that was before covid. where is the money? what happened? trump said he was repatriating four trillion dollars from offshore banks? where is the money? why would they get up and say something like that thinking nobody is going to look into it? i am waiting to hear where is the $4 trillion? we have the money. we have more billionaires than any other country in the world. host: loretto from cleveland. from washington post.com, a

comparison of the democratic and republican plans. here is how the gop infrastructure plan stacks up against biden's plan. some of the details include cities and states across the country are pitching in new kinds of infrastructure projects and offering fresh estimates of existing proposals as they chase grant funding that the biden administration has tied to environmental and racial justice goals. selena reynolds, general manager of the los angeles department of transportation did not plan to apply for a federal infrastructure were rebuild america grant. a $900 billion pot of money targeted at the economy boosting projects. it has typically been used to back major highway projects and other work to reduce congestion. shortly after pete buttigieg was confirmed as transportation secretary, his department announcing it would judge projects based on racial equity and environmental benefit.

reynolds assembled a team that would scramble to put together an application. the city seeking $45 million. the money used to finance major streets in south los angeles, trying to remedy some of the harms caused by the interstate highway running through the area. the proposal calling for bike lanes, savor crosswalks, and by sporting islands. back to your phone call on the issue of public transportation. ruby in chicago. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. the into -- the issue is not infrastructure, it is modernization. we are not talking about bicycle lanes. we are not talking about these kind of revenue generating for-profit entities like uber. the city of chicago and major cities has to have public transportation for those people trying to transition from one level employment to the other. that is what makes these cities

great, being able to have access. it must be comprehensive in terms of security come in terms of repair, in terms of maintenance, in terms of job training, and in terms of preparing people for the kinds of transit they need and also we have to make those cars and buses. that enables the country to go forward. i did not look at it as infrastructure. i am happy the president has a plan where most of the top 25 cities in america -- they have not submitted their plan and do not have a plan. that is why this is very positive. host: we go to georgia. justin, good morning. caller: i used public transportation off and on in my life. i'm about to use it again. there are several things many callers have said. first of all, the infrastructure has to be done smartly. second of all, people to understand this aspect of public

transportation, you have to be in shape. right now the closest public transportation for me is seven miles. i have a car. i can easily use my car. i purchased any bike to make up the gap. the biggest thing with biden -- buttigieg is totally untrained, unqualified. public transportation has to make money. you cannot just keep throwing it down a never ending hole. it has to be done smartly. there have to be gaps for people that are handicapped, because there is no way if you go in transportation in atlanta, you have to walk almost a quarter of a mile to get from the parking lot to the station. climb several steps. i got a bite on order and i will use that to -- a bike on order

and i will use that to bridge the gap, including the seven mile walk just to get to it. host: we go to nate joining us from milwaukee. caller: thank you for having me. i was going to make a trio of points. the first point is i have used public transportation to get to most of the jobs, as well as a good chunk of school i have been to. i think it is great. i would also add on the idea of cost that most types of transportation never pay for themselves. the roads do not pay for themselves. neither to the highways. the talk of needing money simply because you have this, which makes the rest of the economy go, and that pays for the road. the road is not do it for itself. one of the other points i wanted to get to was global warming. we have this massive problem

called global warming. all of the changes we need to deal with -- to make it as least bad as possible are extremely valuable and definitely belong as infrastructure. i notice you had a clip about the tax rate globally should i would point out that people who oppose dealing with global warming are actually fighting against the free market, because with global warming is the activities of fossil fuel companies, and we are avoiding having them pay for their own damages what a typical company ends up burning somebody's house down. rick -- you do not have fossil fuel companies paying for their damages. claims like coal is the cheapest form of energy are deceptive because they are not paying

their whole bill, they are essentially getting socialist protection. host: from bloomberg news, the headline "the price tag for the biden plan, $571 million." kamala harris focusing on this aspect of the president's proposal. >> can they raise their families, get to work, satisfy their basic responsibilities and functions to raise a family and be productive in their community and in their lives? that is the context in which i think about this very important subject, which is the subject of public transit. when i think about it, i think about good transit equals vibrant communities. if we think about it in terms of an investment in public transit, it is an investment in job creation. it is an investment in improving communities, it is an investment increasing access and

opportunity. if there is a bus line within and a bus stop within walking distance and not half a mile from someone's house, what that means in terms of their ability to have access to the job that may be miles away from where they live. often it is the case for working people in america they cannot afford to work where they live in the need to travel some distance. it should not require you have this financial ability to own a car, pay >> we will have to leave this reported program here. you can finish watching on a website. we go now to marks from federal reserve chair drumm powell, live coverage on c-span. chair. powell: his actions were to watch like a hawk markets and reporters worldwide. i know a different side of chair powell.