and ceo of girls who code on her plan for moms the calls for more economic assistance. join the discussion with your phone calls, text messages and tweets. washington journal is next. ♪ host: this is "the washington journal," may the ninth. happy mother's day. liz cheney is expected to be removed from her position as house conference chair and joe biden is with several republicans at the white house to discuss his infrastructure plan. a recent gallup poll asked participants to list the most important problems in the united states. many listed the coronavirus, others listed government itself.

for the next hour we will ask you the same, what is the most important problem in the u.s.? here is how you can let us know. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us your thoughts on the most important problem, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. you can post on our twitter feed, @cspanwj, and our facebook page is facebook.com/c-span. this poll was taken in late april, a variety of categories when it comes to people describing what they thought was the most important problem and here are the top five respondents and what they said. they listed it as the coronavirus diseases in the u.s. as the top problem. a tie of 14% for issues of immigration and issues of government. when they were asked, 12% said

race relations was the most important problem in the united states. and then to the topic of unifying the country, 6% responding to that. again, that was taken in late april. there were other elements in the categories that we will show you as the morning goes on. the economy, which some had listed as a top problem, it was biden last week responding to the jobs numbers from friday. he spoke specifically on the economy and here is in part what he had to say. [video clip] >> there is more evidence that the economy is moving in the right direction but it is clear that we have farther to go. adding the most number of jobs created in the first three months of any presidency in our history since i took office. for perspective, in the three months for i got here, the academy added about -- economy

added about 60,000 jobs a month, not half a million. in the three months since i have been here, the economy has added 500 jobs per month. this is progress and a testament to our new strategy of growing the economy from the bottom up in the middle out. it's a clear testament as to why it is so needed. some critics said we didn't need the american rescue plan, that the economy would just heal itself. today's report underscores in my view how vital the actions we are taking our. checks to people who are hurting , support for small businesses, for child care and school reopening. support to help families put food on the table. our efforts are starting to work , but the climate is steep and we still have a long way to go. host: matters of the economy are a top issue and there may be

other things, too. call to let us know. democrats in the audience, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. the most important problems according to polled republicans, immigration was the top one. 25% of respondents listed that category. matters of government, 20% said that was a top problem. coronavirus and diseases coming in with 13% of respondents. 16% each for topics of unifying the country and the matters of unifying the root -- the economy. that's republicans. for the democrats in the poll, 27% was coronavirus. race relations at 19%. 5% of those's -- of those saying it was immigration.

mitch mcconnell spoke to that, discussing the goals and the efforts of the biden administration in where he sees himself as positioned responding to those goals. here's what he had to say in a recent news conference in kentucky. [video clip] >> 100% of my focus is on stopping the new administration. the best way to look at what the new administration is, the president may have won the nomination, but bernie sanders won the argument about what the new administration should be like. we are confronted with severe challenges from a new administration and a narrow majority of democrats in the house and senate to turn america into a socialist country and that's 100% of my focus. 100% of my focus is on standing up to this administration. what we have in the u.s. senate

is energy from susan collins to ted cruz in opposition. host: again, that's from mitch mcconnell, who spoke in kentucky last week talking about the biden administration. at this hour we are asking you about the most important problem for the united states. tyrone, thanks for calling. what is the problem? caller: i think the problem is our division. i think if we fix the racial divide and the coronavirus, immigration, we will still be at each other's throats. we haven't set -- settled our differences ever since the civil war. we had an attack on 9/11 and we was still at each other's throats. even on january 6 we are fighting each other. i think until we realize, like

he said, we work together or there will be trouble in this country and that's going to be the major issue. host: what do you think is the best way to solve those issues, whether it be politically or otherwise, what's the best way to solve that? caller: it should be collective within the mainstream media and our own families to understand that we do have this problem. we see it but we don't try to work towards making this thing work together. knowing that we have differences but being able to work through it. because we are so stuck in our own corners, we can't see each other as human beings. we are just at each other's throat and if we make a collective effort to try to understand that yeah, we need to treat each other more civil and understand we have our differences, than maybe, maybe

we can see our way through this whole major divide, because we gonna kill each other. we gonna have another major bloody conflict with each other if we do not understand that we need to get past these silly, silly differences. host: that was tyrone. new york. let's hear from jack in michigan. go ahead. caller: good morning. happy mother's day to all the mothers out there. i want to make a couple of comments if you give me a few minutes here. host: let's start with the most important problem at least to you in the united states. caller: the most important problem we have right now is the government itself, what they doing. what, whatever's going tell, that's what i think it is. that's my opinion. i'm independent, i vote most ways, republican most of the time, but i have voted, the

democrat party is not the same as it was when harry truman and john kennedy and then was in there. they changed it over. anyway, i supported all the, all the host: let me ask you, how would you specify that problem? caller: i supported trump after he didn't win. one of them asked, why would you support racism and bigots and he said well, if you give me a minute, i will tell you why i'm supporting him, the future of the country is at stake. any of you democrats what's out there what believes, what truly believes that biden wasn't involved with his son and the money and stuff he was getting

from china in the ukraine, if you really believe that i have got a bridge i would like host: to sell you. host:all right, that was jack in michigan saying that the biden administration and issues with government are the problem. democrats line, don, most important problem in the u.s., good morning. caller: i think it's congress, particularly the republicans, when mccarthy won't recognize january 6 anymore. the republican party messed up when they did not overwhelmingly impeach trump and remove him. now they are stuck with trump forever for a while anyway and you know, they are not realistic and the democrats got to learn to compromise a little bit. biden is a little too aggressive and some of his stuff, but mitch mcconnell has no interest in helping the country. thank you. host: don there, talking about issues of government again.

kurt rosenberg senior, talking about problems, hate for one another according to kirk. robert says getting everyone back to work and solving the supply chain issues caused by the pandemic and globalism. if this from facebook, the wasted budget and misguided priorities. talking about immigration and lack of morals, diane purvis saying that people who base their belief system on the surface without further evaluation like the people who take the kit -- take the click bait headlines. she says that the top problem. you may agree with those or have your own top problem in the u.s. and if you want to post again on the facebook page, you can do that. twitter as well. call us on the lines, too. april, rock island, illinois, republican line.

caller: the biggest problem in the united states is social media. they spread a lot of lies about racism and if you are white, you are told you are racist, if you're black, you're you are told you are a victim. host: is it the social media platforms themselves that are the problem or the people to post? caller:6 well -- caller: well, both. it's the platforms themselves and everything spread on them. people are brainwashed to think it's true and it's not true, it's just not true. host: as you are reading social media posts, how do you gauge the information that you read and determine if it's true or not? caller: i don't actually read social media posts. host: ok. let's hear from mary and ripley, iowa. democrats line. mary, good morning, go ahead. caller: hi there, hi there, i've

been trying to get in. the first and second is the virus and then racism. but we also have another problem in the united states that you haven't mentioned or nobody else does. it's the gop, the grand old party. there is no randall party, it should be called the top, trump old party. host: why do you think when it comes to the republican that this is a matter of personal or a person? why do you think it's focused on the former president? caller: well, because he speaks, the entire republican party speaks for trump. they don't have the interests of the united states at heart.

they follow just what he says and that's very apparent with what they have done to liz cheney, who is a very good woman , and mitt romney. they can't see it. all they can see is trump, trump, trump. sorry, but i'm 94 years old and that's the way i feel. host: that is mary in iowa calling about issues of government and the republican party that she specified when it comes to a top problem. some of the issues taking place over the weekend, with the fate of the chinese rocket coming to earth that has now landed in the indian ocean, according to "the washington post," part of the problem here is that the rocket entered the earth's atmosphere at 10:30 eastern time, some of

it ended and ended days of international speculation. there were no media reports of damage from falling debris, going on to say that videos on social media found that the 22 ton rocket host:host: again, that taking place over the weekend. most important problem in the u.s., independent line. utah, brian, good morning. caller: the truth has no agenda, you people. the truth is the truth. the media is lying to us and a lot of people suck it up. on climate change there's a guy, steve kunin.

he has written a book about climate change. 20,000 years ago we were in an ice age. we have slowly, every 100 years we rose a degree. that hasn't changed. the last six years we haven't done nothing. but they lied to us and called it global warming and that's just not right. and then also the government, big government is going to destroy us. right now i don't think we survive of biden -- surviveo biden -- survive o'biden. host: how so? caller: what's that? host: how so. you said they will destroy him -- destroy america. caller: pull your head out and look. host: sir, you made the claim, what would you qualify it with?

caller: well, ok, the damage executive orders. he had 80, 90 executive orders. congress is supposed to do that. it's supposed to go to congress, the senate. our government is supposed to work together and they are not. they are just doing whatever they want. this racist crap going on, there are certain people. louis farrakhan, why does he still get to speak? the ayatollah from iran, he's on twitter. they let them go and go and go. host: we will let you go there, you listed several of the problems you see. charles is next in washington, d.c., democratic line. caller: hey, everybody. happy mother's day. i think the biggest problem in america is lies. lysed from the president of the last administration.

lying to his wife, lying about his taxes, lying about the coronavirus, lying about the coronavirus -- the economy, himself. lies about african-american history in america, the contributions of black people in this country to help make it as rich as it is. that's what's destroying this country, the immoral. host: is that just the last administration or does every administration have a problem with truth telling? caller: as human beings, we are flawed and make mistakes, but no administration has lied as much is the last administration. lied about almost everything. the amount of lies that that guy told in the last administration reverberates today and is running through the country. people believing the election was not one by joe biden, -- won

by joe biden, those lies have caused a bigger ripple in this country with this insurrection that has taken place and the lies that they have told that other people are thinking about today in that election. host: that's charles, there, from washington, d.c. on friday the surgeon general, dr. murphy as part of the u.s. task force, talking about the federal effort to get more americans vaccinated. [video clip] >> we continue our public engagement campaign with positive movement towards vaccination goals. there is new data this week showing that vaccine confidence and vaccinations continue to increase. the proportion of adults who have received the vaccine or are planning to get it rose to 64% and 4% and for perspective this number was 34% in december and

has increased each month since then. additionally, at least 50% of every major adult demographic group across age, race, gender, education, and political leaning has already gotten vaccinated or wants to. that is real progress. that said, there is no doubt that many people still have questions about the vaccine, which is why we will continue to work hard to make sure that people get faithful information from voices that they know and trust. but it's also true that vaccines are only one piece of the puzzle . vaccine confidence, motivation, access. we have this reflected in the data this week that reflected a substantial portion of unvaccinated people had other reasons, other than confidence, for not getting their shots. the reasons included not enough time, conflicts with work hours,

uncertainty around eligibility, lack of information about where to get the vaccine and feeling the end -- feeling the vaccine might be unnecessary, among other reasons. host: again, if you want to see more of that press conference, head to our website, c-span.org. jennifer in madison, wisconsin, saying that when it comes to the most important problem, political divisions and economists need to work together to figure out how to do their job. michael in portland, oregon, says the most important problem might be credibility. that the usual suspects are deadlocked politics, polluted information environment, and the passivity of the electorate. there is a way that you can post your thoughts, to. if you want to text us this morning, it's (202) 748-8003. that's how you do that.

brian, brockton, massachusetts, most important problem in the u.s., go ahead. caller: a gentleman a few back mentioned biden and his son. what father wouldn't try to take care of his son? he broke no laws, it's family, loves a son, lost a son. corruption and money is the biggest problem i see. i remember when trump and the vice president went over to ireland. the vice president stayed on the others of the island from a meeting that he had. they had those army planes they work refueling, 400,000 dollars or something to refuel an airplane. power, greed, corruption. these people are going to have to live with themselves and answer for their sins when the day of judgment comes. i'm not a religious person, but

that's the biggest problem, the almighty dollar. host: next democrats line, utah. good morning. caller: i was calling into say the biggest problem is climate change but on hold i changed my name -- my mind, the biggest problem is the gullibility and arrogance of my fellow utah'n who called in a few calls back. climate change really is the biggest problem. i think americans, they love convenience more than survival. host: climate change is one of the top issues when it comes to important problems in the united states. maybe you think foreign policy could be a problem in the united

states or you could look at afghanistan, in light of the announced pullout, september 11 according to president biden. they highlight the bombing of an afghan school there, felling at least 50. the times story saying it was a high school in the capital saturday killing at least 50 people, wounding scores more, many of them teenage girls. underscoring fears about the future of the nation. the blast came as rights groups and others expressed alarm that the withdrawal would leave women and educational social games -- gains particularly vulnerable and that they were afraid it would open a way for a lasting seas for -- lasting cease fire that the reality is that american troops depart, there has been more chaos than accord in recent weeks and the public

statements of the taliban have been triumphant, leaving many fearing that the insurgents will try to seize power through bloody military victory when gone. you can read more this morning about the bombing in "the new york times co. the most important problem in the u.s., independent line, we will hear from alan. caller: hello. the movie, the graduate, mr. maguire. mr. maguire said one word to dustin hoffman. are you listening? one word. empire. the reason for the empire is that our country lived for 168 years under the boot of the british empire. we then grain -- gained our freedom from empire and now empire has struck back.

the empire strikes back in the empire is in effect and it is the single aspect single disease . the disease of republics is empire. host: specifically, you think that there is an empire currently in the united states, you would cite that as an example? caller: we live under a dual party facade of a faux democracy, two parties that are dedicated entirely to empire as players, as puppets. but empire is the ruling structure in the united states and of the united states is the most powerful structure in the world. it's not the entire empire, but it is the global headquarters of the empire. this is a crony capitalist racist empire. host: ok, alan, talking about

what he sees as most important. we will continue doing this for half an hour and if you want to continue calling to let us know what the top problem is in the united states, (202) 748-8000 free democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and for independents, (202) 748-8002. a viewer from the twitter feed says that when it comes to problems they cite this, warning, america needs to pay attention to the cyber attacks, national grid, and infrastructure. that is one of the things, particularly when it comes to issues that that person cites, you can do the same. when it comes to other issues, such as politics and the environment, you have seen some people say climate change and a host of issues as top problems. susan in pennsylvania, democrats line, hello.

caller: hello. there are so many problems. shallow thinking, especially on a part of a group i consider myself a part of, white christian evangelicals. you know? some of the leaders of the christian evangelicals are not saying the truth that i believe in, based on money and power. also, look at qanon. that is i thankful of lies. shallow thinking that many christians just buy into. host: as a block why do you think that's a problem? caller: because of the influence they are having. social media, the lies that are spread are spread faster than any truth. i am my brother and his wife, i

know from many years speaking to them, that they believe, as far as trump goes, that he's sort of like a pointed? me, as a reader, open-minded to what he was about from the beginning, i was warned, i feel like i was warned but then open to it. that's the way i see it. just shallow thinking. please, people. don't just listen to one station, don't read one area. pray in your heart, put the tv off. pray, think, read, try to be open mount -- open-minded. it's not easy. i consider myself open-minded. i've always tried to think about it, pray myself and look at different things. listening to the catholic channel on tv, i could pray and feel like god is touching my heart and listen.

does this seem like it's truthful? or does it seem like they are lies for power and money? host: ok, that's susan in pennsylvania. one viewer talking about cyber attacks, that is playing itself out in real ways, forcing a shutdown among a major provider of gasoline and petroleum products. to find out more about this story and joining us to discuss it further is christian vasquez, the cybersecurity supporter. thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: for those just coming onto the story as it happened over the weekend, tell us about what happened to this petroleum provider? guest: this broke near midnight on friday. this is going to be one of if not the largest cyber

disruptions to the u.s. energy sector in history. it's pretty significant. this pipeline company that operates compliant -- pipelines carrying gases -- carrying gas to texas in new jersey revealed that they were victims of a hack attack and as a response colonial took down their systems and halted all pipeline operations. this was essentially when a criminal hacker went into the network to encrypt their files. host: as far as it stands today, any announcement from the company as far as whether they are going to pay the demands to release the information on the websites involved or as far as going on to figure out what is behind it? caller: so, they haven't really made any new announcements since

saturday. there have been reports in the media that there was a group called dark side behind it, but it is still early days and we don't know that for sure, but they are a relatively new operation and for extortion. they are a pretty well, one of the prime examples of this as a business. they have a really good operation here. they haven't said whether they are going to pay the ransom either. right now colonial is working with fire i, really major companies. doesn't seem likely that they will pay the ransom. it's kind of a last hail mary, if you will, if they decide to do it that way. host: one of the bits of reporting coming out of this, the demand for the public data around renewable energy development raising questions

about utilities and regulators fielding sensitive information while speeding up the grid going in a radical shift, and this goes on to say other things. digitization accommodates millions of smart technology spanning everything from rooftops, smart panels, electric vehicle chargers. the wave of accompanying data and publicly available tools for developers used by these sites can be abused by hackers looking for vulnerabilities in the grid. talk about these vulnerabilities. does this espresso larger concern that actual grids can be shut down, electrical or otherwise? guest: really what the story gets at is the digitization of the grid, placing more and more of these new technologies onto the grid. really, it's difficult these

types of equipment already on the grid. we are having new technology emerging with this old technology that is supposed to last for decades. in terms of whether or not the connection could be taken down, that's a difficult thing to do. there's a lot of work being done to make sure that there are backups in place to make sure that if something happens to the grid it doesn't go down with the press of a button. it takes some fairly six -- sophisticated knowledge in order to do that. with regards to this incident, one of the in's -- interesting things about ransomware is that it could go into the operational technology and that's what we are going to find out in the next couple of days, to see how big of the impact this had. this could come back up in the next couple of days, but if it comes into that operational technology side, it could take a

little bit longer, which is what we are waiting to find out in the next couple of days. host: what is the role of the federal government at this point? guest: you have the department of energy involved. you have the department of homeland security cyber office infrastructure security agency involved. president biden was grieved saturday morning. ferc, the federal energy regulatory commission was involved as well. we also have the tsa, which is in charge of the sale -- cybersecurity for pipelines. we have had a lot of different agencies look into it right now and additionally colonial hired fire i, that's another big one for them. they are having a lot of people look into this right now. host: christian vasquez, he serves as the cybersecurity reporter for eenews.

thank you for giving us your time this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will continue on with what you think is the most important problem in the u.s., jennifer in alabama, thanks for waiting, go ahead. caller: no problem, good morning, i think there are three problems. lack of cover -- lack of confidence in the government and immigration. third i think is pork bills. not having a clean bill that goes through that takes, you know all day long to read rather than five-minute. host: when you say the top one is government, can you expand on that? tell us why. caller: i think that what has happened is with the voting not being clean and secure in a lot of places, having voter id,

people don't trust that their vote is actually being counted properly. i think that there is a lack of confidence in government such as congress and such to get things done in a timely manner, taking time off when they should be working. things of that type of nature. host: fredericksburg, virginia, republican line, go ahead. caller: my opinion is that the biological warfare that is taking place on our country's hand with crypto and it is going to diminish and destroy the american dollar. you think you have problems now with the money with all of us who do have money, you will find out that your money is worth so much less than it has been in the past. the voluntary genocide going on

in this nation with this new administration appearing to be what bernie sanders put forth for the administration to act on is going to bring about a lot of problems. i hope it won't be as bad as i believe it's going to be, but i believe it will be historically violent. we are on a hot hot right now. many think tanks believe this who i am involved with and i believe that once again, the crypto, like bitcoin and all of them with the chinese making new crypto, this is going to usurp the value of the dollar. host: you think there are enough people involved in cryptocurrencies to impact the economy over what -- overall? caller: once jamie dimon put his thumbprint on it with now ups and so many of the other companies who are going to use it and allow it, it is a massive

arena of speculation and it is going to completely, this is my opinion, i'm never emphatic on anything, but i always want to state this is my opinion. and the opinion of so many think tanks. it's going to destroy the quality of the value you have saved all of your life and that's really what's important because when everybody is dirt poor, you are a perfect takeover , which i believe we are in right now, a beautiful place to be taken over. host: gary, connors ville, indiana, hello. caller: i want to say to that previous caller, he's only had important points to make about the value of the dollar and all that.

my two important concerns are lack of balanced leadership and lack of respect for humanity. it just has a way of expressing itself, when you look around. so much consideration or lack thereof in certain areas. economically and socially. there is so much violence and hate. discrimination and everything. i tell you what. if john lennon could come back to life for a short while and take a good look around at the environment, he would shake his head with a disgusted look on his face and said -- and say boy, we thought 1980 was bad. host: you said lack of balanced leadership, what did you mean by that? caller: just the fact that there is too much emphasis on one party over the other in a lot of cases. and we need a good mixture to

make things come out more favorable for the benefit of everybody. host: harry, they are, in indiana, giving what he thinks is the most important problem. when it comes to matters of immigration being a top problem, over the weekend or at least on friday the department of homeland security secretary a la hetero mayorkas visited a patrol center in texas and gave his assessment of what was going on with migrant children being held at the border. [video clip] >> at this facility in particular on april 2 we had more than 4300 individuals and of those, but approximately 3700 were unaccompanied children who were here for an average of 139 hours.

when our administration began, we inherited a system that had been torn down and dismantled and i said at the time, in late march, that we have a plan to address the challenge of the unaccompanied children who were apprehended on the border. that the plan would take time to execute and it would be difficult to do so, but this is what we do, we do the difficult work and we know how to do it. today, there are approximately 700 children in border patrol custody along the border and they are in the border patrol custody for an average of 26 hours. today at this facility, rather

than approximately 3700 unaccompanied children, there are 334. rather than custody of around 139 hours, they are here for approximately 24 hours. host: that press conference took place on friday and if you go to our website you can find not only that event, but several delegations that have taken trips to the border, particularly to look at the issues of migrant children and make comments about it. that is from the website. the reaction from the post saying that it was the democratic congressman from texas who said recently released photos by the biden administration showing a nearly empty center is misleading and that children are being held in a nearby facility. representative cuellar called out those photos last week from the center. he said that the kids are in

other facilities operated by the department of health and human services and that all they are doing is moving kids from one tent to another tent, saying they are not in border patrol custody but they are right next door, he set on wednesday. more of that on "the new york times co. it was the topic of a subcommittee hearing last month featuring the ranking member, clay higgins of louisiana, giving his take on what was going on at the border. here is some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> the decision to use prosecutorial discretion in that sector, most people are not able to be immediately expelled or released without ever being entered into removal proceedings . border patrol agents on the ground told us, told me that the federal government has become the largest facilitator of human

smuggling at the border. that's the perception of the boots on the ground when you talk to those guys. that the law enforcement mission has been transformed into facilitators of illegal crossings. that should be a wake-up call for congress and we should work together again for solutions. another persistent issue around border concerns, the activities of cartels. months old babies and toddlers don't just appear at the southwest border on their own. they are smuggled to our borders by cartels who don't care about their safety or well-being. they are not hydrated or fed properly. or the adult holding them, if they are related to them, that's very much in question. cartels only care about cash. they are making american cash dollars hand over fist. host: that hearing is also

available at our website, c-span.org. james, pennsylvania, republican line, go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. the biggest problem in america is politics and prejudice. that's all i've got to say. host: can you expand on that? what do you have to say about that? caller: politicians are all out for their money. they don't know what it's like to have boots on the ground. they don't know what it's like to manufacture something. host: and the connection to prejudice? caller: democrats, republicans, since when did america become democrats or republicans? why can't you be united? host: ok, there's james. a lot of people giving opinions

when it comes to the most important problems in the u.s.. this is based on a gallup poll that was taken in late april. as far as the findings around the top five problems listed, it was coronavirus or disease, 20% of those expressing concerns around that followed by immigration and the government, each coming in at 14%. race relations was 12%, they said it was a top issue, top problem in the united states. then this idea of unifying the country, 6% expressing that. sean is next up from key west, florida, independent mind. caller: i believe that we are ignoring the 800 pound gorilla in the room, a potential for civil war. you have to understand that congress was attacked by people who consider themselves to be correct and are supported by a large majority of those in the

united states, but the other people need to be hung on the steps of the congress. take into account the arizona recount by those who seem insane by one half of the people in doing god's work by the other half. how do you reconcile these points? you can't. everyone knows they have a friend or relative to whom they disagree the point that they have no longer discuss it and how long does that go on before we come to terms with the problem that the nation is being put through the horror that it was for four years under mr. trump and trying to get out from underneath it is not something that's going to happen. host: there's a story on the hill, to give you an idea, defense lawyers for capital riders to get you towards the u.s. capitol going on to say that the defense lawyers for those suspects are getting towards the building in may and june and federal prosecutors

made the disclosure in late april for a man seen in video pushing against police officers while attempting to enter the capital on the lower west terrace. usa today reported the story late in the month last month saying that attorney emery cole said that capitol police arranged for that towards the capital. the hill.com is where you can find that story. we will hear next from ty, hartsville, south carolina. caller: i think that what's going on is, like the last caller said, with the trump administration with regards to how he did at the state department, a lot of the immigration issues could be solved, the exercises we had

with central and south american countries, we would stabilize those areas and keep it from happening. i'm not sure about the numbers and those who were coming in then, but we didn't see what's happening now. at one time with southern command for the army was based there around panama and was relocated in the mission that went with it was kind of like degraded. that, i think coupled with the way the state department has been excluded from a lot of their duties because of what happened with the last administration have hurt and exasperated the situation in the last thing is politicians. we are not democrats, republicans, and independents. we have these guys and we give them work from us, thinking about the country.

it really makes me mad when eyes see a lot of the, what is it, especially on the republican side, these guys pledging fealty to one guy. when they come in the room they say hey, here's the honorable so-and-so, everyone stands up, everyone pledges allegiance to the flag when he comes in, but these guys are acting like they are just out for themselves and they should be thinking about the country. they should be ready to take a bullet for us, not for their own self interests. host: a viewer on twitter saying that when it comes to problems they are not just one, that all the biggest problems are interrelated. voting should be easy, equitable, and accessible for every citizen and guns should be for responsible adults only. everyone else, including police, need to be in jail, in therapy,

or both. three, living wages. medea says lack of educated thinking and citizen participation. another viewer on twitter, saying climate change. we can't breathe, drink, or eat, we are dirt -- doomed. the liver tony and, says neoliberalism worship of the free market our problems, important problems to him. let's hear from richard in brewster, new york. caller: good morning, everyone. thank you, pedro. god bless america. i think the problem is china, china, china. politician led corporations and companies have gone to china, who hate us and want to bury us. a third word -- third world country 50 years ago, we are asleep at the wheel and don't know how bad china is.

they are building ports in the philippines, upgrading them. they are building the largest aft -- aircraft carrier in the south china sea. the silk road as they call it was the major trade group in that area, harassing votes -- boats. in government we gave them the technology, they stole it, we didn't give it. they are people that hate us and they do trade with cheap labor, slave labor, making products like sneakers, doing high-tech. i don't know where the country is going. president lincoln said our country will fall from within and brian lamb is a hero and patriot because he does cease man and god bless america. host: c-span, book notes podcast if you want to listen where you get your podcast, other venues as well, all of that available if you want to see the various

things that we offer around content concerning politics, if you had to the website, paul in fort lauderdale, florida, republican line. caller: i think the biggest problem in the united states is that the news media is totally failing their role that they should be having with regards to upholding freedom in the united states. there is no free, open and robust, capable debate of the important topics that our nation is facing. cnn is on tape saying that their job is to issue propaganda to defeat republicans. whether it be lying falsely or whatever. tell me how excluding the president from media isn't

totalitarian. it is completely totalitarian. the bias of the media is totalitarian. there is no free and open debate on the conservative side to refute the bias of the press. it's very, very dangerous. i contend that the reason behind what happened at the was there was no free and robust debate about what happened in the election. there is proof that there was fraud in the election. let me give you some examples. a judge in georgia was going to cancel the national elections in georgia because the machines were found to produce fraudulent results. there's all kinds of fraud that needed to be debated. the more that is suppressed, the more that you are going to have outbreaks like the capital. host: ok, if that's the case, then, when it comes to the media and your assessment of the media

, where do you get information from? he's gone. let's hear from kurt in brownsville, new jersey. independent line, good morning. caller: thank you for having me lack today. it's was recently, i found god. half the country rolls their eyes at this point. we lack laws, we lack of a god, which to me god is love. now you, you love your neighbor, you love your fellow, patriots. i'll kill you, love your parents. you can't fix anything without a spirit of love. i just, i think our problem is that the lawlessness is out of control. there's absolutely no law.

sit on that one, america. host: that is kurt from brownsville, new jersey. the last caller talked about the law. if you go to "the washington post," talking about police departments, particularly smaller police departments and the issues that they are looking at with how they relate to the communities they serve. just a couple of lines from the story by mark berman saying that half of all police department have fewer than 10 officers, three out of four have no more than two dozen and nine out of 10 employee only 50 feet or fewer sworn officers. brooklyn center, minneapolis, fit comfortably in the majority. experts say that while smaller departments have benefits, including being able to adapt communities and higher officers with local ties, the agencies are also typically able to avoid the accountability that is sought as a part of a national

movement to restructure and improve policing. mark berman wrote the story and if you want to read more about it this morning, we will take one more call on this topic of most important problem in the u.s. we will hear from francis in michigan. democrats line, good morning. caller: i think the most important thing is truth, we need to have more truth. host: what do you mean by that? caller: if you look at things, you can find that there are things that are not true that are being told to us by the republicans and i don't know how many things are bad by the democrats, but they are wrong and most things i feel we need is to search out the truth to find out what is really true. host: how do you determine that? caller: that's a good question. i don't know. host: so, and i'm curious only

because when you hear a statement or a fact, you verify it by other sources? what's your process? caller: one thing, i worked the polls this year. to be in that position you find out a lot of things that the people are saying are not true because of how they do it. it's very complicated. they do a lot of things that kind of keep it honest. which i feel we had an honest election and the republicans keep saying no, it wasn't. so, how do you fight a lie? host: ok, francis. adrian, michigan, democratic line, we will finish off hearing from you on most important problems in the u.s. but we appreciate all of you participating this morning. on this mother's day, two guests

joining us to discuss issues related to families. first, carrie lucas and her concerns on the american families than. later on, the girls who code co-founder on her marshall plan for moms that includes in part calls for direct cash payments to some others for their parenting efforts. those conversations, coming up on "washington journal." ♪>> american history tv on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story, every weekend, today at 2:00 p.m. eastern. charlotte henry on her experiences as a dog handler with the air force during the vietnam war. the 19 sunday to film, a time for peace, documenting president nixon's -- 1972 film, a time for peace, document and president nixon.

we visit san francisco to hear the story of the chinese in america and tour the streets of chinatown. exploring the american story, watch american history tv, today on c-span3. >> we are not only trying to do this theoretical work that we are interested in like particle physics, but we are trying to connect real-world problems with our ability to get work done. i found myself becoming an expert on racism and homophobia and transphobia because i needed to fight for myself. i found that in order to feel like a person in the field, i needed to fight to make room for other people. >> theoretical physicist and author chanda prescott weinstein on the mysteries of the universe

and her struggles as a black woman in the field of physics, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q&a. you can also listen to q&a as a podcast where you get your podcasts. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: our first guest of the morning is kerry lucas, she is the president of the independent women's forum, here to talk about the american independence

plan. guest: thank you for having me. happy mother's day to all of the mothers out there. host: for those who may not be familiar, what is the independent women's forum and who backs it? guest: we are a nonprofit backed by a wide variety of individuals, most of our contributors are authors. we are supported by large foundations. we tend to be considered a conservative organization. we are right of center. we have been in existence since 1992. we believe all issues are women's issues. we spend time thinking -- talking about childcare and paid leave. those will be big topics. we also cover education and national security. please check us out at i w f.org. host: the first two make up a large part of what president biden calls the american

families plan. you cite three things to look out for. before we talk about the specifics, overall, when you look at the plan as a whole, what are your concerns about it? guest: might concern, the central problem with this approach is it is about expanding government's. it uses government as a solution to the american families problem. we can have an important discussion and conversation about how we can better support families to give them our tax code and be more family-friendly and prioritize hoping families, to keep more of the family they -- money they earn so they can make choices. this is about taking and spending $1.8 trillion on behalf of the american people and on behalf of american families and it would take away a lot of choice and control room families.

that is what concerns me. i feel like in washington, 1.8 chile in dollars is a number that does not mean anything. -- $1.8 trillion, is a number that does not mean anything. we should be thinking about how much money we are spending. that is almost secondary to this idea of who is making the decision. this is a government solution and a government imposed vision on american families and that is what concerns me. host: one of the elements of the american families plan, when it comes to dollar figures, $800 billion of things going to extending the check -- income tax credit. also, credits to the affordable care act. what do you think about that approach within the plan? guest: i think that there are elements of it that, certainly there are provisions in the tax that need to be extended,

specifically to help provide tax relief to american families. i think that there is a tremendous amount of spending and government spending that will be put forward in this. that is what i find concerning. we are going to spend another $1.8 trillion, i wish more of it would be going toward empowering families, instead of growing government, which is what a majority of those dollars are going to do. host: you listed childcare as a chief concern. can you elaborate why? guest: this program, the american families act is really -- it is a big portion of this is about expanding childcare in america. on some levels, i am a mother of five kids, i have used daycare at different times for my children. i understand and want there to be plentiful options for american families.

what this would do is put the federal government, in particular, in control of a lot more of our childcare systems. right now, we have had a big change in our childcare system over the last 10 to 15 years with a consolidation of small childcare programs regular did away and the growth of larger sectors. what the government needs to be doing is instead of saying no, we will start regulating and making government approved childcare centers and subsidizing american families, we should be saying let's give parents more support so that they can make the care options that makes sense for them. for lower income families, they don't want to pay childcare. they are depending on somebody who lives in the home, another family member, a grandmother or aunt. we should not have a system that

penalizes those families and provides subsidies for families who want this one option, which is government-subsidized sanctioned childcare programs. guest: our guest is with us and if you want to ask her questions about issues concerning the american families plan, (202) 748-8000 for democrat. (202) 748-8001 for independent -- republicans. for independents, (202) 748-8002 . if you want to text us, (202) 748-8003. you can get to us on facebook and twitter as well. -- they highlight the district of columbia and highlight this fact that the average cost of childcare centers for toddlers in d.c. is $23,000.

a two parent household would need to spend 12% of their income for child care for one child. the lack of affordable childcare mix it difficult for women to remain in their jobs, with a 22 percent gender gap in workforce participation between mothers and fathers in d.c.. it adds they would pay more -- no more than 7% on childcare for it how would you respond to that? guest: i am glad you brought up d.c.. it is a perfect example of what is wrong with our childcare system. the d.c. government has passed a regulation that has been defending regulation that requires every childcare worker must have the equivalent of a college education. about that for a second. d.c. has long been the most expensive childcare system in the country. and here we are, saying you cannot provide childcare unless

you have a college degree. this will force childcare workers out there, something like one third of them will have to go back to school to meet this requirement. it is one of those things that moms and dads know, what makes a good childcare provider? who is it that you want to take care of your kids? they don't need to have a college degree. they need to have a lot of patience. they need to have background checks to make sure they are a responsible adult read the most important thing is patience and a loving attitude. this is the kind of regulation that makes childcare needlessly expensive. ira a report on childcare systems and looking at what is going on -- i wrote a report on childcare systems and looking at what is going on in the state. you don't have to be a libertarian and say you don't want any regulations at childcare centers. there can be things for safety and health to make sure people are in a safe space. you look at some of the

regulations that are out there and everybody would look at that and say that is crazy. they will regular the number of balls given at any childcare per childcare center. people will say forget it, this is not worth it and it is too cumbersome. i don't want an inspector to come in and looking at the toys i have to make sure the balls are the right size. there are things people would recognize are completely crazy. before spending another $100 million, let's make some common sense cuts of rules that are pushing childcare providers out so we can increase the supply and have people provide loving care for children. that is what children -- parents want. host: what convinces you the

quality you can find at a larger center -- guest: what parents want is they don't want a government approved, big and industrial childcare center. they want something that replicates a home environment. frankly, a lot of them wish they could stay home. they don't want more of their money going out through taxes and being dangled in front of them to give their babies to a childcare center, government childcare center. most of them would rather have a parent or family member at home. something that is very ironic in this whole conversation is we are sitting here after a year of covid, where we have had the outer failure of our nations k-12 schools -- nation's k-12 schools. i am in virginia, not too far from washington, d.c.. it was a month ago, i have five children ages six through 15.

it was a month ago that they were all starting to be allowed back into the government's public schools around here. i am a proud public-school parent. i am a big supporter of our public schools. they utterly failed people like me. i am fortunate, i have been able to still do my job and work from home and be supportive of my kids and their education. a lot of parents, especially parents who are single moms or single parents have had many fewer resources. the public schools absolutely did not prioritize the needs of those families. it is absurd that we are saying good, let's double down on this and create system replicated on our failing k-12 schools and bring it down to zero so we can depend on government sanctioned childcare centers. they prioritize the needs of workers instead of families and kids. i hope there are some moms and

dads out there who might call in and talk to me a little bit about the care that was not provided during covid and if they had any experience with public schools. if you really want the nation's three and four-year-olds stuck in the same buildings that would not allow your children in for the last year and if you want a similar system replicated for kids younger than three. i think it is completely crazy to be trying to replicate what we just saw fail so miserably. host: we have a couple of calls lined up for you. ed is in lewiston, maine. democrats line. go ahead. you are on. caller: good morning. people deal with their budgets on a daily basis. we will go above the minimum wage, 10 to $11 per hour. that person is probably taking

home $15 -- $1500 per month. let's say they are working full-time. $250 a week for daycare. they are left with $500 to pay for rent, their cars, insurance and everything else. that assumes they don't have health insurance. they probably have medicare or whatever is out there, which conservatives hate as well. you sit here and you say we should not be giving money in the form of tax credits to people. we should not be passing out this money to working families. you say we need to empower parents but they need to have better choices. how on earth do people have better choices when we have the choice of taking home $1500 a month and spending 1000 on daycare and not? you talk about these ideas that have no specifics whatsoever. guest: can i ask you a question?

do you think somebody making $300,000 should also pay 7% on childcare? a big portion of this -- i agree with you that we need to find -- the woman who is making $10 an hour and is paying $1000 for daycare, you are right, you can't make a living off of that. we should find ways to support her. you look at the amway act -- -- family act, we are not talking about this pre-this is an entitlement for every single american family. caller: the vast majority and bulk of the money is going to tax credits and other subsidies to help people get daycare. a person who makes $300,000 a year, i have no clue what you are talking about. a person making that much should not have problem paying for daycare. -- problems paying for daycare. i am talking about 90% of the

american population who can barely afford to pay for daycare in this act provides them with cash and assistance so they can go to a private daycare center and obtain back and afford it so they can go out and work. host: carrie lukas, go ahead. guest: i think we are talking past each other a little bit. what i was criticizing earlier was not the tax credit portion, though i think we should be extending the tax credit, including refundable tax credits that help people with the lowest income. i absolutely want to reward work and help families who need it be able to afford care. when we are talking about the thing that is interesting and has been under covered in the american families act, this is not about low income families alone. especially in creating this -- i am looking at the section on

three and four euros. this is about paying for it for everyone. -- three and four-year-olds. this is about paying for it for every one. i think we can talk about trying to find ways to help make light and make -- life and work affordable. conservatives and liberals can agree that we do not want to price or make it impossible for somebody who is getting that all-important first job and getting their foot in the door to climb the economic ladder, we do not want to make it impossible for somebody to start working. health care can be a big barrier. a lot of states have in the beta programs that are specifically adhering to that. how much should the government and the federal government in particular tilting the playing field? for everyone, the middle class and up, to --

this is something where they say in the american families act that no family should spend more than 7% of their income on childcare. this is something that will be going from the workers who we all think deserve some help, people who are struggling, up through the middle class and to the highest income. let's not pretend that this is all just about helping the poor. this is much more sweeping than that. host: let's hear from kathy in stevensville, maryland. republican line, you are on with carrie lukas. caller: good morning. it is nice to talk to you. guest: good morning. caller: i wanted to let you know that i am a grandmom. my grandson is five. we have taken him and put him in

a preschool. last year, of course, with everything that happened, they had to close down. this year, he was in the preschool and they have been going to school the whole year. my daughter, she was going to school for her masters. we helped her with the schooling for our grandson. and we babysat. when the pandemic struck, they said don't see your grandchildren. we have had our grandson the whole time because if we didn't, my daughter could not have worked and she needed her job. what i wanted to get at about the public school system, we decided we are not going to put him in public school this year. we put him in a private, christian school. because, of course, it costs money, we are hoping. i think that is happening a lot around the country. i have been very disappointed in public schools for years, anyway. as far as having this government daycare, i thought that is not going to be good.

but private, we have private daycare's around here. my next-door neighbor is absolutely lovely. we have lots of wonderful people that help with the children. i think, the other thing i want to say about personal responsibility, we can't expect everybody to pay everything. and if you can't afford to have children, maybe you should think about that and figure out what it will cost you before you have them. but i am an older person. host: miss lucas, you can respond to that. -- miss lukas, you can respond to that. guest: i love intergenerational help when it comes to kay. it happens a lot. there is a lot of -- kids. it happens a lot. there are a lot of grandparents who help step up and care for their grandchildren. when you talk about helping american families, there are a lot of people say i don't have that and there are people who don't have that extended family

and supported network. we need to -- supportive network. we need to have solutions. we should not have government solutions that push out things that are working. there are grandparents are involved in raising the next generation. it is good for the kids, parents and grandparents. the grandparents enjoy having that involvement and sense of connection to the next generation. it is a win-win. i worry when we come in and have a government program that says we are basically going to make it free or almost free for you to start sending your kids to the government daycare down the street, grandparents are not needed anymore, we may always -- may as well use this government provided program, i don't think there is anybody who thinks children will get better care from the government program down the street.

there will be a lot more social isolation, which is a problem, especially for older folks. by taking this role, this important role they play out of our families. one more, i would love to touch on one other point the caller brought up, which is this idea of private school. one of the things that has been revealing over the last -- during this year of covid is we saw the difference between schools and providers that see the customer as parents and the children and the schools that see the customers as politicians. in the public school's, they don't care if parents are happy or unhappy because they know that many parents cannot afford to take kids and enroll them in private school or find a different school of choice. they know that we are captive

and can't leave. so they don't care and that is why our public schools, many public schools, not all of them. some have tried to open their doors. but, most of them fought to stay close. in contrast, around the -- closed. in contrast, around the country, i know it is true in maryland, private schools fought to keep their doors open. they were trying to push back on governors and city officials that said no, you cannot open your doors to the children and provide service. they fought and did so, safely. you look around the country and around the world and schools have not been major factors -- vectors of covid. there are schools in virginia that are fighting to stay closed fall. i am a big supporter of schools rights. all of us, we need leverage. we need to be able to have our

public schools or school systems look at us and say i do care what you want and i do care how your child fares. i don't want them to suffer another year of lost learning, which is what has just happened for so many public school families. host: let's hear from doug, he is in fairfax, south dakota, democrats line. caller: carrie, i am a democrat and i believe in taxing the rich but biden has gone too far. if somebody's wife has a baby, he gets three months leave. i am self-employed and i mostly work all by myself. if i had to pay somebody and then hire somebody else, that sounds a little crazy to me. is the government going to pay those people or what? guest: i appreciate your phone call and i am glad we are turning to paid leave, that is something we have not brought

up. that is a big proponent of the american families act. to start off and answer your question, the taxpayers are going to end up paying for this. paid leave is one of those, there have been competing proposals out. the outline we have for the american family act, it does not stipulate how the paid leave program would function exactly. is this something during covid that was a mandate put on employers that you have to provide paid leave to your workers? it looks more like this paid leave program through the american families act will be modeled more off of legislation than entitlement. creating a new payroll tax so that every worker will start leaving a little bit of their income and it will go into the government and the government will pay out a series of benefits. i really appreciate what you are talking about with employers because i do worry about this. i worry about this. again, it is not that nothing

can be done and workers don't need paid leave, they do. there are a lot of workers out there who lack paid leave benefits and we should be trying to find ways to target support at them. what the american families act would do is create a sweeping, one-size-fits-all, government knows best regime where every single american worker, including those who are self-employed like you, you would be expected to administer this for yourself. if you decided to hire somebody, you would also have to do this for your employee, and would be expected to comply. instead of having conversations, there is a lot of small businesses out there who provide -- most businesses provide paid leave. that is something that is often lost in this. this would upend all of the existing paid leave arrangements that exist out there and go through a government system,

which can be very generous. they are talking about up to three months off from work for not only having a baby, sickness, the cover things like remit and adjusting -- bereavement and adjusting to a loved one's military deployment. there is a lot covered. domestic violence. all of these things are worthy. if somebody loses a loved one, i work with that person to make sure they have time off. but making this one-size-fits-all government program where you have to apply for benefits from the government and keeping track of the number of hours you are off, you cannot check emails during those times because you're supposed to be off when you're receiving government benefits, it will be a tremendous amount of red tape and incredibly inflexible. women say flex ability is mike

-- flexibility is my number one party. -- priority. i worry that this will be taking away much more than it gives people. host: carrie lukas, 200 billion dollars slated in the plan for universal pre-care -- pre-k. the editor of the pittsburgh post-gazette talked about this aspect of the american families plan. mr. biden's pledge would ensure equal access to benefits for parents and children alike. experts chalk up some of the benefits of pre-k, the importance of having reliable daycare, more so than the exquisite value of a formal education environment. it allows parents to work more easily and pursue higher education, thereby increasing their earnings potential over time, leading to better outcomes for children, especially those

in laurel -- lower income families. what do you think of that assessment? guest: the question is not are we going to help people who otherwise cannot work. a lot of times, the left is going straight to this idea that we don't do this, parents, there will be a lot of parents who cannot afford to get their foot in the door and find work opportunities or find an education. if we want to talk about providing more subsidies or more support for low income workers, let's have that conversation. that is not what we are talking about here. this is talking about giving every single american child free access to preschool. to government approved preschool. this does not mean that, our caller from maryland before mentioned this, the christian preschool she was using. there will be a lot of regulations that come with this preschool program. this will crowd out a lot of the

preschool programs and childcare programs that exist today. they have different types of services and values that have a religious aspect to them. your government is going to come in, just like they do in k-12 schools and say here you go, here is your curriculum, here is this tandem. here is what it has to look like. this is going to be -- this is for every child. it is not just about helping the poor. if we want to talk about helping the poor and making sure they have opportunities, there are a lot of people who are low income and have kids. we want to make sure they can start climbing up the economic ladder and work their way up to independence. that is something we can all agree on. if that is the conversation we are going to have, why are we talking about making it her every single american -- for every single american family who is capable of taking care of

themselves? host: independent line from georgia, this is harry. caller: thank you, c-span. happy mother's day and all of that. we have a paradox here. since the unionbusting of the reagan era, it now takes two parents, two family members to create an income to support a child, right? what you are essentially promoting here is only have a child if you can have one income earner supporting the whole family. we have created an economy where you can't do that. so, you know, why not have the government -- which is us --

create program where everybody gets taxed and have it essentially like social security, where the money gets taxed and everybody gets the benefit, the same. because, otherwise, you are segregating the poor. what you are trying to do is segregate the poor into a welfare program, rather than a general program. answer me that. guest: were you talking about for child care, specifically? i don't know what you mean in terms of segregating the poor? do you mean into daycare centers? it is incredibly pardon as we think about providing people with support for child raising, we should be talking about giving them money, not giving them access to like a special government childcare program or something like that. this is about providing

additional economic support. you are right, when we talk about -- i do think when we talk about the problems of limiting something, when we are looking at our public schools serving k-12, you have had, during the era of covid, a huge exodus. thousands of kids and parents who are pulling their kids from public school and are moving them. making sure kids will provide in person learning that will -- making sure they will provide in person learning that will better reflect their values. a lot of schools are increasingly politicized. we see this happening right now in our k-12 schools, that people with means who have the ability to do so are getting out of government schools that they don't see as serving their kids

interests. i don't want to replicate that. i think we should have school choice, not only when it comes through k-12, but when it comes to childcare and preschool. that comes in the form of money. that is why i think the most appealing part of the american families act are the extensions of tax credits that gets money in the hands of lower income families. i want to challenge this idea that nobody can afford to have a stay-at-home parent, because there still are a considerable -- a minority -- but there are a lot of families out there that make significant financial sacrifices to keep a parent at home. often, that is people who have lower incomes. there is, in some ways, a writer for the national review wrote a piece for the wall street journal that describes the american families act and the childcare portion as something that is written for and modeled

for people who want to work more. it will take money away from every american worker and the majority of parents who are working say they wish they could work less and spend more time with their kids. instead of saying we will take more money from you, you will be taking more money from their one earner and say we will pay for a daycare system, which you don't think is best for your kid. when you ask parents, parents overwhelmingly think what is best for a child is to have family-based care. and if they can't have that, they want things that are closest to rep. keating: that. they want extended family -- replicating that. they want extended family if they can't have a parent. government childcare is the

least preferred choice for parents. it is funny we are saying all of the eggs -- let's throw all of the eggs in this basket and make it so everybody is expect it to put their kids in the government school or that government provided institution. the least preferred option, making it so that is the pathway to dangle money down for subsidies for parents. that is strange and i think parents out there should ask is that really what you want for your kid? host: our guest is carrie lukas of the independent women's forum. joseph is next. caller: what happened to responsibility? being able to plan your child? i am approaching retirement and pay high taxes on local schools who provide early-morning care, breakfast, lunch, dinner through

the summer. even when school is out. as somebody who -- why would somebody who has never had children have to pay additional taxes for the government? guest: i appreciate what you are saying. there is a sense of unfairness or a sense that -- i think about the families who sacrifice to keep a parent home will be asked to pay more for somebody else's kids to go. especially two income earners. i think that is unfair. obviously, there is a sense and i don't want to dismiss the idea of the government's role here. the next generation is an important assessment. we need to make sure kids are getting an education and are well cared for. providing support and trying to mix sure kids and families who are financially struggling --

make sure kids who are financially struggling at least have bigger tax breaks. i am open to the idea of refundable tax credits and other subsidies to help families during the crucial years when the kids are being raised. i want to quickly bring up something. i think it is important that people remember this has been tried in other countries. there is an interesting study on what has happened in canada. our neighbors to the north. when they provided five dollars a day for day care, there was a massive shift of kids from all income levels coming into this daycare program. there was a huge boom. they thought it would be good for the kids. research showed that there was tremendous, lasting negative outcomes from the expanded use of childcare.

one other example here at home, we talk a lot about president biden -- he mentioned it in this american families act statute -- the idea of getting kids into earlier care and preschool programs will lead to better life outcomes, leading to better workers who are more profitable and have better school outcomes. a study from the -- he cites a study from the 1970's of a small group of kids. it is telling he does not cite headstart, which is supposed to do just that. the problem is that there has been a congressionally mandated study of headstart and that has shown that there are no lasting benefits that researchers could find. kids who participated in headstart were no better off than their peers who did not. maybe we want to do it, maybe

they are making it easier for mom and dad to work. maybe that is what this is all about. let's not pretend that this is about having the kids have better outcomes, when there is nothing to suggest sticking them in either preschool or childcare is the best way forward. host: mary writes that many moms raise children alone. we can ask or wonder why men abandoned the children or are unfit to be around them but we need to recognize and support solo moms. guest: absolutely, mary. i completely agree with you. we need to make sure to target the people who need it so they can raise their kids and those kids can grow up and thrive. host: is that accomplished by means of a tax credit break or what the president is advocating? guest: i don't know why we have to have money go through all of the hands and go through all of

the regulatory burdens, go through the federal government and to the state government. we have seen again how, i know in theory my kids are getting more than $10,000 a year being spent on my kids in virginia. a lot of parents are saying give us some of that resources so we have leveraged over our providers. ash leverage over our providers. ash leverage over -- leverage over our providers. if i was a low income mom, i would rather have the money in my pocket where i can make choices that make sense for me and have people who want to serve me to get the opportunity to take care of my kids that have a local government entity who says you can drop them off here but i don't care. host: let's hear from barry in

greenville, south airliner. caller: good morning. happy mother's day. i have been listening to miss carrie lukas. i am not trying to be to judgment. when i start hearing the words -- judgment till. when i stick -- judgmental. when i start hearing the words socialism -- i am not concerned about $1000 to get the same kind of day care. in the city government, you don't say he's rich so don't get his garbage. things worked out better when you add everybody as a whole to

the system. they are paying taxes. they should get some benefits. whether they make $300,000 or $1 million. host: ok. we will let our guest respond to that. guest: i did not use the word socialism. i don't think that is what we are talking about here. we are questioning how best to provide support for families who need it. i appreciate the garbage analogy . when it comes to schools, that is to apt of an analogy. what we see with k-12 schools is something that should give us pause. public schools are supposed to be the great equalizer and having everybody go to the same school, they are run by the government.

public schools are administered by the government. they receive money from taxpayers. the parents are incidental in the process. we have seen what that led to last year. that is why sony parents, -- so many parents, parents of all income levels have been trying to find alternatives, because the school failed them. i don't want that to happen on a macro scale for younger kids. we see that. public school systems are supposed to help everybody but they don't. we see a tremendous achievement gap that exists for rich and poor. and it is a tragedy. it is a lost opportunity. i think we can do better. host: carrie lukas is the president of the independent wyndham -- independent women's forum. thank you for your time and

happy mother's day to you. guest: thanks and happy mother's day to all of the mothers out there. host: she has unveiled a marshall plan for moms. we will talk about the aspect of that plan -- aspects of that plan when washington journal continues. ♪ >> monday night on the communicators, ed, ceo of first that authority talks about his company's high-speed broadband for first responders. >> we provide full public safety. we have seen time and time again where commercial networks cannot handle the type of surges that occur when a national disaster like the boston city bombings occur. public safety did not have access to any communications tools. we have preemptive service that

acts as a foundation for all broadband medications. it has been a complete game changer. >> watch the communicators, monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. ♪ >> the new york times is calling get a new age of cold war competition. the pickle and economic tensions between the united states and china. -- political and economic tensions between the united states and china. we examined those tensions and among our guests is jennifer hillman, a georgetown university law professor. she understands what we are facing from china, especially when it comes to technology. >> what is headed to the united states is the challenge to make our own economy more competitive. part of the problem we are seeing in market aftermarket, particularly in the markets china is moving into, is that often times, the united states does not have a competitive

alternative to offer. >> the china struggle, both economic and militarily, is a defining part of america's foreign policy, in part because china has outlined a clear path forward, according to dean chang . >> china knows what it wants. the china dream of a great revival of the chinese people. what that means is that the chinese president sees a china that will return to being the dominant power in asia. and a major power, if not the major power of the world. >> more of our conversation on c-span's the weekly. you can listen and follow wherever you get your favorite podcasts. >> c-span shop.org work is c-span's online store, with a collection of c-span products and every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations.

go to the directory with contact information for members of congress and the biden administration cabinet. browse our newest products at c-span shop.org. >> washington journal continues. host: our next guest is the founder and ceo of the organization known as girls code. we appreciate your time. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: for those who don't know about your organization, can you give us an explanation? guest: it is a movement to close the gender gap in computer science and technology. we have taught over 450,000 rows to code and reached about a half a billion people through our work. -- girls to code and reached about half a billion people through our work. we believe that when girls know how to code, they will change the world.

they will solve covid, cancer and climate. host: you have started something called a marshall plan for moms. you wrote about it in an opinion piece for the new york times. i will redo the headline. the perfect gift for mom is money. can you explain? guest: last year, under covid, i started the year with a newborn baby. i was going to go on maternity leave for the first time and get to enjoy it and spend some time with my baby and then covid-19 happened. and i found myself having to go back to work with my son who was a couple of weeks old. having to school my five euros and save -- five year old and save my global nonprofit. i got covid-19 but it barely registered. my liver field, -- failed and i had acne on my face because i was working 16 to 17 hours.

when i looked at my blue screen, every mother looked exactly how i felt. when the schools open, we will be ok, we were grinning and bearing it. i got two weeks notice before i got an update saying schools were not opening. they never thought about us. they never thought about when they announced this hybrid learning module that there will have to be a default caretaker at home, maintaining her full-time job. at that moment, i kept saying to myself, where is the plan? where is the plan? the numbers came out and we have lost over 2.4 million women from the workforce. our labor market participation is where it was in 1989. 30 years of progress, gone.

i started this as a movement to say we need an economic plan. we need to give some ideas of what that looks like. host: what are the elements? the first element is direct payment to moms rate can you -- moms. can you expand? guest: every mom i talked to said i need cash. some needed it to put food on the table. some needed it to pay rent. when schools closed and we did not have a structure of care and affordable childcare, moms were forced to either move in with their parents, make unconscionable choices. they were having to supplement their paid leave -- paid labor for unpaid labor. the only thing that was going to get them out of that crisis was cash. that was why i proposed basic income payments for mothers. that has shown up in the form of a tax -- childcare credit.

every parent will get $300 a month to help them make those kinds of choices for their family. host: the elements of the american family plan captures what you are proposing. how much is enough in your opinion? guest: i think the president is doing an incredible job of recognizing that you cannot build america back better unless you built motherhood back better. in preston biden's american families plan, he is proposing affordable childcare, rebuilding the structure of care. part of what we are trying to do is say beyond legislation, we need a national reckoning on motherhood. we have to change culture and social norms. engaging the state and making sure we can take care of our families is the first step. host: our guest is with us until

9:30. (202) 748-8000 for the request. (202) 748-8001 -- (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. there was a recent op-ed by two women, talking about the marshall plan for moms that you propose. they write this. a marshall plan for moms incentivizes emily's to make the choice of having a mom stay home, a decision that can have dire long-term financial implications. when a mom wants to go back to the workforce, there is a 30% chance she will not get the -- she will ever get the full-time position again. this encourages moms to stay on the sidelines, this empowers them. -- disempowers them. how do you respond to that? guest: i disagree.

i think the problem is that we assume if we give mothers support that they will choose to stay home. i think that if you look at the evidence, if you look at what is happening, you will see that is not true. the reason why a mothers income goes down if she takes a year off of work, almost as high as 40%, is because we do not have enough off and on rams. the financial sector is broken -- off and on ramps. the financial sector is broken. 70 mothers have to make the decision between childcare and their jobs. people don't want to have kids because they can't afford to have kids. we don't have a society in america that respect motherhood because we don't offer enough support. i was a daughter of refugees and my parents came to this country with nothing. when my parents could not afford $50 of childcare, i was a

latchkey kid. we made people every day make unconscionable choices between having a child and work. we have to make it possible to help and support mothers, support parents and start to compensate unpaid labor and recognize the cost of care. 86% of people who are doing the housework at home or moms. the reason why -- are moms. the reason we are not able to get that promotion or get the nursing degree is because there is not enough support. that is the only -- this is the only country where that is the case. host: you heard her talk about the element of paid family leave and a formal childcare and pay equity measures. workforce and training programs and developing plans to safely reopen schools five days a week. this plan got a full-page spread in the new york times recently. and also a lot of support. are you getting support from capitol hill on this? guest: we had two bills

introduced in congress. the first was introduced by congressman. -- a congress meant. the second was introduced by senator klobuchar. cory johnson introduced a bill in the new york city council. here is the thing. we cannot shorten the economic recovery for women unless we have a plan. the reason why we have not seen this expansive growth, one of the reasons is because people don't have a plan for how they will pay for childcare care. until that changes, we will never have a true economic recovery. our labor market participation is where it was in 1989. at the start of this pandemic, women were 51% of the labor

force. now only 57% of us are in the labor force. that is deeply problematic for the country. especially when 70% of lower income families are run by a single breadwinner who is a woman of color. host: i apologize. the numbers are (202) 748-8000 for mothers. (202) 748-8001 for all others. i apologize. we will start by hearing from a mom in maryland. this is elizabeth for our guest, the founder and ceo of girls who code. caller: i was brought up in germany and i am familiar with the german rules and regulations for women working. women who are on maternity leave, they don't get penalized for their retirement. i lost about a year of social

security, because i stayed home for five years and i raised my daughter a long time ago. went back to school and got my degree and became an occupational therapist. i never found it a good time not to be home when my daughter was at home. i worked during that time. the women who get penalized for maternally -- maternity leave my social security -- by social security, i don't understand it. i think women should not get penalized in social security while they are on maternity leave. that is all i wanted to say and i thank you. guest: such a powerful point. there are so many things in our laws that penalize mothers. two things i want to bring up by this color. first, she talks about the difference of what women get

here in the last, women go back to weeks after giving birth. some countries, you get to 28 we. to me, that is a cultural value, a moral value. how are we going to treat families and children? when you get that support in the early years, they live longer, they are healthier, they make more money, they stay in school longer. the evidence is clear that type of investment -- it is very important. our social security laws discriminate against mothers who stay at home. all of these mothers, the 2.4 million mothers who did not have a choice and had to leave the

workforce so that they could homeschool their kids in the middle of a global pandemic, they got zero social security benefits. zero. when they go back to the workforce, on average they will lose 40% of their salary. when i tell you these numbers, it is clear to me that it is broken. even the tax code essentially penalizes single income breadwinners. single mothers do not benefit from it. these things have been deeply embedded into our policies, and it needs to be changed. we had to provide medicine to support all families, regardless of what they look like. >> --

host: she talked about in light of what the president is proposing saying that the majority increased 26% in 2016 to 55% in 2020 and it offered paid paternity leave. a federal government paid leave program liver dessert -- reverse this trend. many employers already have programs would reduce or eliminate their benefits. guest: i think they are committed to paid leave and thinking about how to pay for child care. this is something that the workers want to see. only four out of five private sector workers have zero access to paid leave. 95% of the lowest wage workers

have no access to paid leave. the private sector offering it to the smallest portion of the population has not shifted much. in the earliest months, darkest months of this crisis, if we had offered paid leave to every american, we would have lost less of our citizens. people might have had a mother today that they are celebrating with. it is unconscionable that we do not offer pain leave as a nation. republicans and democrats alike think that this is something that we should offer. the fact it is not getting passed in congress because we think it will be too expensive does not make sense. ceos are offering it as a incentive to come work for them. if you are rich you get it and if you are poor you do not? that is not right.

lex thank you for taking my call. my life is european, polish. she worked on covid back in the day. she has her phd. being a single mother with a child when she was overseas in germany, there were some resources there, but she was also getting her phd. he much a full-time job and raising a single job. the laws protected the men more than women. take a bicycle or walk to work. in saying that, we also have -- they had some resources there. they had more resources than they had in germany, but she was not enabled. there is a consequence when we

support everybody and give everything away. some people have to work very hard. it is not meant to be used on the time. there has to be a combination of logic. businesses cannot succeed if they are constantly taxed to death. those are the incentives. host: that is stephen in florida. guest: i think it is the private sector as well. if you think about paid leave. the vast majority of fathers, when offered it, they do not take it.

if you take time to take care of your child, we do not respect that. we really need to shift social norms. one of the things i am talking a lot about is this idea of the unpaid leave and the type of labor being done in the home. if you do not have gender justice at home, you will never get it in the workplace. the opportunity for the private sector is to say, how will we shift what is happening in the home? what are the incentives we will offer to make sure that we get to parody in the home? i do not think this is all about the state where the private sector doing it. i think we need a national reckoning. covid-19 has offered an opportunity to look at the way things are done and how we give

support to families. acknowledge that this is broken. it is not working. how can we build this differently? maybe come up with some new ideas. we want people to have kids and grow their families. that is good for society, but they cannot do it alone. host: this viewers says, i imagine half or more of the women who have not returned to the workforce are scared to death of coronavirus saying, surprised you have not mentioned this, but given the money is not going to change that. guest: absolutely, the increased vaccination meats will make people more comfortable in going back to the workforce. another piece of it is some of the policies, paid leave, pre-k,

we are still fighting for them. even if we get to higher rates of vaccination, article after article, mother's are not returning back to the workforce because they do not have enough care, not enough ability or they cannot afford it. childcare in this country is so expensive that many look at that and say, how do i fix this? caller: good morning. how are you today? when you are talking about social security, i am 77 -- we used to go back six weeks before we were allowed to come in medically. any kind of workplace.

it does not affect your social security at all. they are totally misleading you on tv. what it does affect is your private benefits that you earn at a company. if you are off a year and you have to work eight years to get it, it will take you an additional year to earn it, but social security? the government does not look at when you work or anything. they take the 10 highest years of what you earned. you better correct some of the things that you are making your statements on. if you are not right on that, you must be wrong on other things. >> let me address that point. let's say you are making $50,000

and you have to leave your job to take care of your kids. when you leave your job, you are making $50,000 a year. you get zero the following year. when you want to go back, you will get 40% less and when you started. the next 10 years of your earning potential will be less than when you started. people in-depth having less social security benefits. that is exactly what i am saying . i think that proves that the social security system is broken. it has been a long-standing conversation that the way social security benefits are calculated and done disparate -- disproportionately discriminate against women. host: there is an article that

shows the participation since 2020 of january. women with kids are most affected by that, this idea of school and when it will reopen. what is your sense by this fall if school would be open five days a week for children to attend? click -- guest: i am in the middle of it. i have two young kids. my son went back to five days a week. it was a game changer for me. for us, we do not know what is happening in the fall. there is a tremendous amount of uncertainty. it is just not an on and off switch. a lot of women had to leave the

workforce, reduce their hours and go into a different type of job because of what happened. you cannot assume that everybody will go back to the workforce exactly where they were at. there is plenty of evidence that shows it will not happen. it took between eight and nine years to get back to where we were at. i have spent my life working in gender equity and technology. none of the reasons why this frightens me so much and why i have dedicated my life to this is because i saw what happened. in the 1980's, we were very close. we were almost there. then we started pushing women out. by the time i started in 2010,

the technology workforce was around 20%. for the past 10 years, we have really been focused on getting more women, but we have been able to make incremental increases. it has been so hard to make up those gains that you lost. when you lose jobs that quickly, when you push that many women out of the workforce, it is not an on and off switch. we will not go back to 2020 by september, unless we have a plan and unless we look at, why did that happen? it was not a choice. we did not choose to legally -- leave the workforce. we were pushed out. we do not have paid leave and many of them and found themselves in jobs that were not pandemic proof.

again, we need to come up with a federal we -- work retraining program for women that will not be able to go back to the jobs that they had. retail will never look the same. host: what do you envision this program looking like? do those programs already exist? guest: there is talk about it in congress, but i think we need to talk about what those ideas are. they say that they will see a boom in the care industry. i have spent my life teaching. i think there are enormous tech -- opportunities. you can shift the amount of money that you are making. the idea of retraining and

healthy americans getting good jobs is something that we should focus on. host: founder and ceo, our next call from -- from christine. hello. caller: good morning. yes, good morning. this is a great topic. i am a mother of five. i raised them on my own without any child support. i have 13 granddaughters. i tried to help out the best that i can, where i can. i had to leave the workforce due to an illness. i took care of people with mental illness. you cannot be out of work for a year and think that you are

going to go back into your position. you lose your benefits and your status. they will hire you back, but you are starting over again. the big topic for the daycare, headstart was just starting with my oldest daughter was born. she was ready to go into headstart and that was a great program, but through the years, i went back and i noticed there are too many children in the headstart program. i do not think it will help in that area. they need to open up more. i feel like mom has a raw deal back in the day because the money i was making, they adjusted that to my social security because you are not

making, not even $15. i was never home for the holidays. mothers work a lot of second and third shift. there is no daycare. your oldest child is responsible , or maybe a neighbor. it is still dangerous. it is on the parents' mind the whole night. i feel like i just had two little ones born this year so my daughter is wondering -- i am moving so that i can be there to help with this little one. jesse: -- host: thank you for telling us your story. guest: there are 70 mothers that we are celebrating today. 70 grandmothers and generational

care. this is a hard year for mothers. mother was left $800 billion in lost income because they had to supplement their paid labor for unpaid labor. if mothers made minimum wage on all of the unpaid work that they do at home, it would be one point $5 trillion. we need to have a conversation. motherhood is a job. so many of us are operating on two jobs. not all parents are treated equally. mothers take a year off or three years off to care for their kids and go back into the workforce, many companies have an algorithm that if there are any gaps in your career, your resume is spit

out. has to be corrected. mothers make $.25 less then dad. when you look at the pay gap between men and women, it is not for childless women. it is between mothers and fathers. when a dad walks in, we say he is great. he is stable. when a mother walks in, we asked, she committed? mother was say to me, i work at target and i asked a boss if i could pick up my son's laptop at school and i got fired. i worked at a company and my son interrupted me on a resume call and i didn't get a promotion because my son is interrupting me too much. we as mothers, we hid our

children. we knew we would not be celebrated for it but penalized. that needs to change. host: our next caller is from california. caller: i have some problems with the accounts that you have and the other guest have, where you said help like this helps the kids and makes the community better. everything else. the other guest said it was not true. she said in her research that it did not happen. the lady with five kids, bless her heart. she was worried about her kids. she should have thought about it years before that instead of having five kids.

of course it is going to cost you money. me, i do not have any kids. it's all this extra money coming in for child care, pre-care, the child tax relief -- what am i getting out of it? i did good. i did not have any kids. why would that be fair for me to pay for the person down the street's kid, when i do not have any kids? guest: it is interesting. these are very different perspectives that we have in our culture. you do not get anything. the state owes you nothing. on the other side, we do not want to give benefits to mothers because we want him to stay in the workforce and not in the home. we have a real conflict in this

country that we need to discuss. even if you do not have kids, living in a society where children are protected and supported is good for you. less crime, people are healthy and live longer. look at japan. look at what has happened there. people are not having children. their society is plummeting. you have to ask yourself, even if you are not getting a benefit , there are many things that i do not get a benefit for. as an american citizen, i think it is good for our country, and we should invest there. that is the spirit of being an american, the sense that we are neighbors come in this together and we have to ask, what are we as a culture, a society and a nation, what do we want for ourselves?

i want to feel as though we are protecting our most vulnerable in our country. host: our next call is from illinois. caller: hello. i have a couple comments to make regarding the money you expect the government to pay. as an example, you are not bringing up the fact that social security has paid over all these years, the women who have never stepped into a workplace. they get half of their husband's social security and he gets his full social security. somebody who has not worked a day can get half their husband's social security.

i contributed to social security and to a pension. when i went in for social security, they cut it by 60% because they said i got a pension but both of those were my money. on top of all those that i am paying, our government is letting in hundreds of thousands of people and we are paying billions of dollars for then. why are you not addressing that, if you find that there is a problem that we should be giving more free childcare? the more free you get, the more free they want. host: that is cecilia in illinois. guest: i grew up in illinois, so i am familiar with the community. my parents came in as refugees.

there are a lot of immigrants. i have dedicated my life to teaching girls. i love this country as much, were more than anybody. i believe we live in a nation where immigrants can contribute and give back. i'm sorry that you feel that immigrants are taking things away from you, but i think they are making our country better. host: as far as a follow-up, is there something to continue? what do you want to see? guest: this week we made up a mock flower story. a lot of mothers say do not get me cards or roses. get me things that i need.

paid leave, closing the pay gap -- there is agreement on this across the nation amongst mothers, but i think this conversation shows that we need to keep having a conversation. ironically, motherhood is a controversial topic. i want to see the family plan pass. i will do my part. i will get them to ask for what they need, so they can actually thrive and not just survive. i want municipality states and the federal government to have a plan on how to shorten the economic recovery from others. a lot of conversations are about child poverty. we do not talk about how to get

mothers back in the workforce. how are we supporting them? i would night to see a task force in the white house that is dedicated to this. host: this is our guest with the organization mothers against covid. it was the topic of careers, particularly girls and those careers. i want to play a little bit from the education secretary and how he responded. >> girls who code reported over 70% of girls expressing interest in stem. many girls -- in order to diversify the personnel, how can we better monitor girls? ? is a great question and it shows how our system needs to evolve.

if they are interested in it early, how are we losing them by the high school years? we need to do a better job connect our female students in the field. we need to be more assertive and aggressive. we should bring in mentors to come in and talk to our students . host: that was a from the secretary. what happens now as far as stem programs as schools get back to normal? guest: many of my students, especially my black students were having to take on caretaking work. they were not furthering their

education. all of the progress that we have made is gone. we need to make sure that we are specifically intervening with the children that we lost and doubling down on teaching them skills that will help them get into the workforce. we are going to teach more girls, more poor girls, more girls who have been left behind, making sure that they have opportunities to get jobs in the future. when i talk about solving issues, it will be young girls who do that. adding to what the secretary of education said, in addition to mentors and figuring out why the pipeline is leaky, we need to realize that we need to meet girls where they are at.

girls want to change the world. if we can demonstrate the connection to coding and change making, that is how we hook them in. we taught more girls to code then more -- most school districts. we will continue to do that. not the ceo anymore but the founder. thank -- host: thank you for correcting that. guest: we have a new wonderful ceo on the board. host: thank you for this time and happy mother's day to you. guest: thank you so much. host: the house will come back into session later this week. one of the things they plan to take up is an effort to return -- remove liz cheney from her position. this is over her responses to the previous president, donald

trump. democrats, your number is (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents can call us at (202) 748-8002. take this because when washington journal continues. ♪

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briefings and response. use the gallery as maps. go to c-span.org/coronavirus. >> washington journal continues. host: we hear reports that as of this week, republicans will attend to remove liz cheney from her position. a recent piece is taking a look at this. it is titled liz cheney must go. saying liz cheney is bad for the republican party, which is why the media is so obsessed with her. no one is surprised that the democrats are suddenly championing cheney. the liberals were team romney. why would they not be team cheney now?

it predates the former president donald trump. the sooner they cut ties with the likes of cheney and kasich, the better this topic came up and one of those people, a republican of louisiana, one of the seven republican votes to convict president trump asked about the surrounding issue. >> i cannot speak for other people, but i believe being honest but the american people works. if they ask about the constitutionality, i say watch youtube. you will come away convinced that it was constitutional. these are good americans. the more they do their investigation, the more they will understand that it is reasonable to hold the position.

that is our process of getting to that place. >> do you still feel comfortable in that party? >> there are still some people who are upset with me and there are still people who are pleased. host: we asked about this effort about removing liz cheney. if us a call at (202) 748-8000 for democrats. for republicans, (202) 748-8001. for independents, (202) 748-8002 . again, it is one of the ways you can let us know your thoughts. one of the people responding to this whole situation was president biden himself.

here is his assessment of the situation and the republican party. >> you said you do not understand republicans. what does it say about them if they oust liz cheney from leadership? pres. biden: it seems as though the republican party is trying to identify what it stands for. they are in the midst of significant many revolutions going on in the republican party. i have been a democrat for a long time. we have gone through periods where we have internal fights and this agreement. i do not remember any like this. as one of you said -- i'm not embarrassed by identifying them. one of them said on national debt -- television, we badly

need a republican party. we need a two party system. i think the republicans are further away from trying to figure out who they are and what they stand for than i thought that it would be at this point. host: another person on twitter says integrity must be eliminated from our party at all cost. another writing under the headline liz cheney and the big lies. it must be said that it suddenly seems a valkyrie of made halflings. she is willing to risk her political career to call out donald trump's big lie. mccarthy is totally disgracing himself. it has been a dizzying fall for

one of the most powerful political families in the land. someone who could be the first woman president. again, from the new york times, talking about this. our first call is from my. democrat line. go ahead. you are on. caller: i have a question. as a democrat, liz cheney should stay in her position. it was a basically conservative supreme court that went before the world and america and stated this was the most fair and honest election that we have had. what is the argument? host: how does that deal with

liz cheney? caller: because she criticized the republican party for not listening, that the election was fair and honest. if any election was not fair or honest, what happened when hillary clinton one by so many popular votes? this one, trump loses by 7 million votes. how in the world could this have ever been rigged? host: ok. democrat line. caller: essentially, i can echo what the previous collie said, but i live in a small town about 70 miles from new york city.

i had a conversation with a friend who was republican. she is very upset by the republicans. he said what has happened to my party? i do not understand it. i said, are you a rockefeller publican? and he said, yes. there are a lot of people who are loyal republicans and have voted republican. they are not happy about it in my town. others went for trump in 2020. but there are a lot of people who are upset about what has happened, especially since january 6. host: dave says, i do not care for cheney, but she will be proven correct. the gop risks looking more

foolish by denying what she says. michael says, simply it is all personal. let's hear from nancy. hello. caller: two quick comments. time magazine did in article about how progressives had participated in the election and pretty much gave it to joe biden. it is out there. the second one is why do democrats care what the republicans are doing? i do not think the democrats have anything to say. if she wants to speak out and have her own voice, republicans welcome it. they do not have a unified, single talking point and that is how they have been. this is how they want to

operate. host: what do you think of the effort by republicans to remove her from her position? caller: if leadership feels like that is viable -- i think they should stay at the state level. i do not think there should be a large, national federal government. host: independent mine, you are up. caller: hello? the reason why i called is, i am very disturbed at what happened january 6. there is such a denial. the biggest reason for all of this is because people are trying to stay in office. they will do anything to stay in office and i think there should be a limit on the time you

choose to do politics, all the way to trying to become president. once you get in, you kind of lose what the purpose was. host: because of the position liz cheney has taken, what do you think of this effort? caller: there are very outspoken people who do not want to upset the apple card and get trump upset. they want to keep their position in office. they will literally do whatever they need to do. if that means getting liz cheney out of office, that is what they will do because it has become -- that is more of a concern in the american people. host: liz cheney herself making

an op-ed piece available in the washington post. the gop is at a turning point. she wrote this. republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the constitution in the immediate wake of the violence. almost all of us knew the cause. we witnessed it firsthand. mccarthy left no doubt in his remarks when he said the president bears responsibility for wednesday's attacks. he should have denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding. now mccarthy has changed his story. each of us swears an oath to uphold the constitution. electoral college has spoken. many have rejected the former

president's arguments and refused to overturn the results. again, liz cheney making those remarks. you can find it online. democrat line, mary, what do you think of this effort? caller: i think it is shameful and i think liz cheney is speaking truth to power, but there is no room for her in the republican party now and a handful of others because they have turned into an authoritarian cult. what they are going to do statewide with the voter suppression, it will not just be voter suppression. it will be the leader nullification. democracy is on the line.

for the likes of donald trump, for one man, who has lied to the american public and encouraged the insurrection on our capital? it is sad. sidney powell, one of trump's attorneys working on the conspiracy, the manufactured fraud, she said it best. she got sued by dominion for taking part in the big lie. in her defense, she says, no reasonable person would believe what i have been saying. what she is really telling you is that the people are gullible and will buy anything that they are being fed. host: let's hear from blake.

caller: thank you for having me. that is the dumbest thing that i have ever heard from your last caller. he could not get anybody to show up to his rallies. we know that the election was stolen. we had 75 million votes. no president ever got that many and somehow president biden shows up with 80 million? host: we are talking about liz cheney. what do you think about that situation? caller: that is what i am getting at. how are you an effective if you decide against your constituents? everybody knows that the -- it was working for the people. black employment was at the

highest. household income was at the highest. everything was at its highest. host: should liz cheney stay or go? why or why not? caller: she should go because she does not represent her constituents. he was there for quite a while. she understands the internal workings of the washington mob. most of the people are tired of the washington mob. host: we will keep it there. i want to show you a little more about the former governor of new jersey, chris christie. here is part of his response. >> if you look at the atmosphere

everybody is talking about regarding donald trump, it comes from a swing district in new york state that president obama won twice by dowdell -- double digits. president trump won it from -- with double digits. what liz cheney did, who voted 90% of the time with donald trump. >> the right qualifier, on policy. >> i say my words very carefully. that is what you do here is say it the right way. that is what she will do. i campaigned for her in her first campaign. youngest woman elected to the house of representatives. i also like liz cheney. i think she is smart and tough, but i think she is doing what she wants to do. i do not think she wants to be

in leadership anymore. she expressed it in a way that was antagonizing the people who were against her. you have an entitlement to be in congress. host: fox news reporting on their website that she is telling republicans on the fence that she intends to serve just one term as gop chair. they will attempt to replace her as soon as next week adding that in her conversation with coley she has said she intends to serve in leadership and then she intends to seek the top republicans by on the committee where she currently is a member. we will hear from richard. caller: good morning. i want to address joe manchin. he comes from a poor state.

what the biting agenda is for all americans, those major bills , police perform in that should not be voted on with him helping the current president. host: this is not about joe manchin today. this is about liz cheney. caller: i think liz cheney has spoken truth to power. thank god that she is standing up with the other house of representatives from illinois, making a strong stand for reality. host: we will hear from 10 in uniontown, ohio. caller: good morning and happy mother's day to everybody. i have an issue with one of the comments made concerning liz cheney about why do care about what republicans do? this is our country. we have to care about what the

other people are doing, the other political groups in our country is doing. that is what it is all about, the polarization. liz cheney is part of the issue. i give her a lot of credit for doing what she did. anyone who goes across the aisle and vice versa, i give them credit for voting for what is true. many people across the aisles to get things done in this country. host: let's hear from the top republican in the house. this is mccarthy talking about the situation. >> there is no concern about how she voted on impeachment. that decision has been made. i have heard about her inability to carry out the job and the message.

we need to be working as one, if we want to win the majority. that is the message about going forward. combating joe biden and what he has done to this order, making it insecure. not opening schools or getting us back to work or back to normal. that is the message that we should be talking about. it is more concerned about the job ability and what is our best step forward to work together, instead of attacking one another. host: we are talking about the vote this week to remove liz cheney from her leadership position. dependent line, hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. i will tell you, i am saying this right here.

everybody needs to go see on youtube and you brought that up from the first guy on the program. i did that and i did the research. i came up with this other program -- he is the founder of the society and robert welch. his prediction is exactly on the money with what is happening in washington today. also, -- host: color, we will stop you there because how does this directly relate to liz cheney? caller: you will see. i cannot remember which one it is where they take command over both parties. this is 1958 we are talking about and i believe they have done just that. it is a smokescreen. host: we believe you there.

let's hear from brian in akron, ohio. go ahead. caller: it'scaller: i heard it is supposed to be the fourth round of stimulus checks coming out? is that true? host: collar, that is not the topic of this conversation this morning. it is about liz cheney. what do you think? are you there? he dropped. frank also talking about liz cheney. is liz cheney a martyr? for anyone who has spent last week and a subterranean bunker, they are at odds with kevin mccarthy, house leader and having -- on the verge of removing her for daring to say

that it has no cause. she assigned a significant portion of the blame to donald trump and rightly voted to impeach him. she rightly said he betrayed his oath of office and put the last endangered. she keeps saying that so right about -- self-righteous about his fealty to trump. again, it goes on to say that more is available --. caller: good morning, every. my comment on liz cheney? i think that she should keep her position and i think that we

should work together to make the nation a better place to live. let's get rid of the divisiveness and have a great day. why -- host: why should she keep her position? caller: she has been in that position for a long time. she has talked to her counterparts. i think she is doing a great job from the knowledge base that she has. me, as a commoner, we have to be able to know how to discern when somebody tells us, regardless of what party we are a part of. host: body is in houston, texas. caller: i do believe representative cheney should keep her position. i think it is an embarrassment that this country is letting a

demagogue like donald trump lead us down this road. thank you. host: bobby there in houston, texas. this is from washington d.c. caller: hello. host: you are on. no head. caller: i think liz cheney is in a good position. the problem with the republican party is that they try to gather all things and get around the big lie. all of them supporting this big lie of trump. that is one thing that has to be straightened out, the big lie. and they can go forward. as long as that lie is there, they will remain a separated party. host: ok. one of the things that happened, aside from politics, it was elon musk, tesla founder, spacex

founder, guest of the show. as part of his program, he dealt with the opening monologue. here is a portion of the monologue. >> i am making history as the first person with asperger's to host snl. [applause] >> hardly the first to admit it. do not make a lot of content with the cast tonight. i would like to share with you my vision for the future. i believe in a renewable energy future. i believe humanity must be a spacefaring -- spacefaring civilization. those seem like good goals, don't they? i think if i just posted that on twitter, i would be fine.

i also write things like 69 days after 420 -- i do not know. i thought it was funny. that is why i wrote haha at the end. that is just how my brain works. to anyone i have offended, i want to say, i reinvented electric cars and i am sending people to going to be a dude? host: that was a story about his monologue at "saturday night live." that is it for our program. for all things falling on politics is the week plays out in as the house comes back, and you can go to our website. we wish all of you in the

audience who are mothers a happy mother's day today and we will see you tomorrow. thank you for watching. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] ♪