modernization committee looks at ways to promote stability and bipartisanship among lawmakers. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, funded babies television companies and more including charter communication. >> charter has invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big and small. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> this morning, i guessed from the national association of medicaid directors talks about new data showing medicare enrollment at an all-time high. then maryland representative

jamie raskin on the role of the justice department and biden administrations. and later, republican representative jeff fortenberry of alaska but biden's spending proposals and u.s. foreign policy. ♪ host: violent crime in the u.s., particularly firearm homicides, spike during the pandemic and continues at record highs across the country. the country. the biden administration yesterday responded with the president and merrick garland laying out a plan to focus on cracking down against illegal guns and bolstering the ability of local police departments to fight the crime wave. it is thursday, june 20 fourth, 2020 one, good morning, welcome to "washington journal." we will spend the morning hearing from the president on that plan, talking about the strategy, and hearing from you.

if you support the president, the line to call is (202) 748-8000. if you oppose it, (202) 748-8002 . -- oppose it, (202) 748-8001. we welcome law enforcement officials as well, (202) 748-8002. send us a text, (202) 748-8003. post your thoughts on facebook, facebook.com/c-span. we will look for your tweets as well, that's @cspanwj. we will play you some of the comments from president biden and the attorney general, merrick garland, from yesterday's event at the white house and hear some republicans and their views on the crime wave across the country. one quick program note, representative jamie raskin, who we had scheduled for 8:30, will be joining us a bit later, 9:30 eastern. here's the reporting on the

president's plan from the chicago sun-times this morning. chicago in spotlight as biden targets guns with anti-crime agenda. they write -- host: just a bit more from that article, they say that biden's plan would have the atf and of

work -- devote more resources to revoking the licenses of those who sell guns that land in the hands of criminals. host: a different view on the plan from rich lowry, of "the national journal," a contributing editor for politico magazine, writing today what the anti-crime agenda gets wrong, writing that if there were any doubts that rising crime was a real issue with a potential to do major political harm to democrats, that's the subtext of joe biden's decision to interrupt his push for his trillion dollar spending plan to announce this anti-crime agenda and it's a good thing --

host: read more at politico.com. just a quick look at some of the homicide rates across the country. we talked about this yesterday with analyst jeff asher, homicide rates through may of this year. portland, oregon, up 82%. tucson, up 76%. minneapolis, los angeles, 30 5%. philadelphia, 28%. again, your thoughts on the biden anti-crime plan. (202) 748-8000, if you support that. (202) 748-8001 if you oppose. for law enforcement officials, we would love to hear from you. (202) 748-8002.

here is some of what president biden had to say yesterday at the white house. [video clip] >> crime historically rises during the summer and as we emerge from this pandemic, with the come -- the country opening back up again, the additional summer spike may even be more pronounced than it usually is. for folks at home, here's what you need to know. i have been at this a long time and there are things that we know that work to reduce gun violence and violent crime and things we don't know about. things we know about. background checks for purchasing a firearm are important. a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. no one needs a weapon that can fire 30, 40, 50, up to 100 rounds. unless you think that the deer are wearing kevlar vests or something. community policing for programs that keep neighborhood safe and keep folks out of trouble. these efforts work, they save

lives. but over time these policies were gutted and woefully underfunded. in our conversation today we talked about a strategy to supercharge what works while we continue to push the congress to act on sensible gun violence legislation. host: president biden at the white house yesterday, we opened the program about -- asking about what you hear from the administration. if you support the president's plan, (202) 748-8000. if you oppose, (202) 748-8001. from "the new york times" this morning, a couple of stories. "with homicides rising, biden frees money for public safety, saying wednesday that states could draw from 300 and $50 billion in federal stimulus money to shore up police departments, vowing to crackdown on gun dealers who failed to run background checks as the white house asked to combat the alarming rise in homicide rates

in american cities, the speech making it clear that he hadn't -- he intends to approach crime prevention by wading into a national debate about whether the government should give police departments more resources or spend the money on mental health and other social services instead. the president tried to appeal to both sides on wednesday, saying that this is not the time to turn our backs on law enforcement or communities. under the plan, state and local governments will be allowed to use their designated $350 billion in coronavirus relief funds programs like hiring police officers up to pre-pandemic levels, paying overtime for policing work, and supporting community-based and high violence groups. governments struggling with high crime will be able to go further, hiring more officers than they had during the pandemic. they also do some analysis in the paper of the announcement yesterday.

this is analysis by alexander burns in the new york times. why choose? democrats seek to fund and reform the police, writing that "in the nash -- the nation's capital, the president but the weight of his office to hide a crime-fighting agenda, unveiling a national strategy

host: that's from "the new york times." the attorney general, part of that announcement yesterday at the white house. here's some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> the increase in violent crime is deeply troubling, so last month the justice department launched a comprehensive violent crime reduction strategy that is built around four principles. setting strategic enforcement priorities, fostering trust and earning legitimacy within communities, investing in community-based prevention and intervention programs, and measuring the results of these efforts through a decrease in violent crime. not merely by arrests and convictions as they -- as if they were ends in themselves.

now, we know the lions share of violent crime reduction work is shouldered by state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement partners. core to the strategy is support for the critical work you will be doing in the weeks and months ahead. everyone of our u.s. attorneys offices is working with local partners to establish an immediate plan to address the spike in violent crime that typically occurs during the summer. the law enforcement components of the department are making enhanced resources available to help prevent and disrupt violent crime and to focus on the most dangerous, most violent offenders. host: (202) 748-8000 if you support the president's plan, if you oppose. for law enforcement officials, (202) 748-8002. on twitter, we are @cspanwj. robert says to be honest, the

only way right now to curb future gun violence is to stop the sale of all ammunition and reloading supplies apparatus now . i grew up shooting many different firearms and like to target shooting, but. rick, baldwin, missouri, you are first up. go ahead. caller: please to be with you this morning. i listened to the president's speech. it's hard to understand, he was having trouble on the stage. anyway, i think the summer of love last year was the tipping point. there was so much crime last year, people allowed to run rampant in some of those cities. minneapolis.eing tucson, i'm not sure about that situation on the border. but letting people throw molotov

cocktas, botes and rocks at police, when is the ban on soda bottles coming? the ban on lighters? the ban on cloth that goes into a molotov cocktail or the other ingredients? when is that coming? when is the ban on just any of those things that were used? i think the country, this city allowed people to run rampant and i believe it is spilling over into other areas of violence right now, to the president banning cannons, citizenry armed with as much as they can once again to deflect and defend against the to radical government. host: all right, to eugene in albuquerque, new mexico, go ahead. caller: i will be candid, i supported former president trump and 2016 and i supported joe

biden in 2020. i support most of what the president said in his speech yesterday. the thing that i will disagree with, we need to get tough on the border and secure our borders. it's very dangerous, there are a lot of bad people coming across the country and i feel likes -- i feel like former senator john mccain is partially responsible for all of these illegals coming in. so. host: on the same day we got news on the removal of the head of the u.s. border patrol, the biden administration forcing out the head of the border patrol, rodney scott, clearing the path for an agency strained by a 20 year high in illegal border crossings whose top officials were broadly sympathetic to donald trump. scott published a statement on social media wednesday saying that he had the offer to resign, retire, or relocate and that it

did not provide a rationale for his removal, describing it as pro forma. host: on the topic on a mic opposes what the administration is ding out as far as crime goes . go ahead, mike. host: i just think that this is another failed attempt to pretend that this is a real policy. there's no strategy. it's a recycle project from the obama administration, policing justice systems back then.

it's another hollow policy. they need to pull together a strategy. the reality is that we are pushing so much money and rhetoric into this systematic racism in this country, he is going to be at odds you know, whenever it's understood that black on black crime is predominant in these major cities again, as the first caller stated, they have been able to carry on this violence for a year. it will become another racist issue, because this is primarily black on black crime in the inner cities. we will be no better than we were yesterday. have a good day. host: here is bob in pittsburgh. go ahead. caller: hate crimes and the

majority of murders and everything committed are committed by black people. guns don't kill people, blacks do, if you look at the stats. it's nuts. host: you think that the majority of crimes in this country are committed by black people? caller: 97% of blacks are killed by blacks. 29% of whites are killed by blacks. as far as the asians go, new york and california, 85% to 90% of these attacks are committed by blacks. why don't you say something about that? host: shouldn't the administration, regardless of who is being killed by the crimes, if the crime rate is up and it affects everybody, shouldn't and administration of either stripe be concerned about rising crime and whoever is being killed? caller: let the police do their job, quit going after them, let

them defend themselves against somebody. they have killed more whites in the last two years with guns than blacks. that's facts. the facts are out there. host: let's hear from stephanie in dallas, texas. go ahead. stephanie, stephanie, stephanie, make sure you mute your volume and go ahead with your comment. caller: i can't see. [indiscernible] host: ok, go ahead, stephanie, tell us your thoughts. caller: ok. well, my thoughts are that, having been active duty military with high-capacity weapons, seeing what they can do, i don't feel that with the magazines and

the guns, they should be allowed to fire at that high capacity. i agree with the biden speech yesterday. it's just something that's not necessary. yes, there is a high increase in the volume, in the number of homicides that have risen here in dallas, texas. but the, the governor, abbott, has set, has assigned a new bill, a law that is going to come into effect in september where anyone over the age of 21 can purchase weapons without having a background check. so the biden proposal would

hopefully limit that. host: ok, stephanie. comment here on the gun part of the proposal as well, stephen tweets that he supports something, better than nothing, republicans want guns everywhere in the country has a vast psychosis and guns are part of the symptom. there is no political solution for a dark old evolution. guns must go. it's a rise in violent crime across the country. here's the minority leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, from last month. [video clip] >> from coast to coast, american families are facing an explosion of violent crime on their streets and in their neighborhoods. 2020 saw violent crime skyrocket nationwide. the biggest increase in decades.

2021 is already shaping up to be even worse. last year, seattle saw a 61% increase in murders citywide. in 2020, minneapolis saw homicides hit levels not seen since the 1990's. so far, 2021 is about doubling last year's pace. here in washington, 2020 saw homicides hit a 16 year high. 2021 is already on an even worse trajectory. the situation is devolving across the country. in my hometown of louisville, as one report put it, the number of slayings of litter a the previous record. crime and delinquency have many causes. in some ways, the pandemic likely contributed to.

but it's impossible to ignore that these terrible crimes are coming precisely as so-called progressives decided it was time to denounce and defund local law enforcement. seattle for example cut police funding by 20%. minneapolis defunded cops by millions of dollars. the columbus city council approved $15 million in cuts. these boneheaded decisions are the direct result of anti-law-enforcement fads that have swept through the political left like a wildfire. host: from "the wall street journal" this morning, opinion piece, new york city voted and it was about crime, writing that tuesday the voters went to the polls in the mayoral primary in post-pandemic gotham and the vote was about one thing, crime. before the covid pandemic closed on the world, the annual tourist traffic numbered 60 million, an

incomparable crush of eager humanity and a big reason they kept coming is over the two host: that is from "the wall street journal." fred texted us from pennsylvania, president biden won't attack the real problems of street violence, stop trying to convince the public it's legal gun owners. this one, the war on guns will be the same as the war on drugs. if he somehow does get control over illegal gun transfers to big cities, the mexico cartels will get the guns delivered. from robert in michigan -- i'm for his plan and would take it further with restrictions on semi out act -- semi automatic

weapons, the same with gun carry in this last year. jerry, nebraska, good morning. caller: yes, this all started with the democrats in the news media villain icing the police departments. the pandemic has nothing to do with this. it all started when they started villain icing the police departments and the police. it's just a democrat ploy, thank you. host: in the bronx we hear from carmine, go ahead. caller: good morning, good morning. i would like to start with a question to you, the moderator. about the inner cities of chicago. host: go ahead. caller: i think you understand, i blame the media. i do blame the media.

for instance in new york, the mayor who allowed [indiscernible] detectives, police officers off the street. i know you may want to cut me off [inaudible] i'm not a trump supporting liberal sorry, conservative, but whenever people speak outside the mainstream media narrative, you cut them off. we know why crime is the way it is in chicago. we know why crime is rising. this is why eric adams is winning in new york. because the media promoted aoc. and i'm not conservative. they promoted all these big names for people who came out for the woman who wanted to defund [indiscernible] all the famous people came out for wiley, who worked for nbc.

you know it's true. it's, it's, it's the media. new yorkers are smart. host: what do you think eric adams will bring, assuming he wins the primary and becomes mayor of new york, what do you think you will do about violent crime in new york? caller: i honestly believe he's going to put detectives back on the street. he's going to flood the subways with police officers. criminals, if they don't fear crime, they are going to commit crime. in the democratic agenda you couldn't say anything bad about criminals, given what happened to george floyd. but the media ran with george floyd. any time a police officer has something on their shoulder, it's front page news. [indiscernible] host: i am going to cut you off a little bit because you are breaking up, the signal is bad,

but we got the gist of what you were talking about, appreciate you calling in this morning. front page of "usa today," "derek chauvin may place -- may face long prison sentence, facing off against a minnesota judge. derek chauvin has said -- sat in his maximum security cell -- we will cover that host: host: hearing live tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 eastern here on c-span. you can also watch it on c-span.org or listen live on the c-span radio app. peachtree city, georgia, let's hear from scott, next. go ahead. caller: yes, sir.

i liked what mitch mcconnell had to say because i like turtles. host: california, joseph, supporting the president's plan, go ahead. caller: i would like to speak to the big elephant in the room, the pastors. the pastors in america. i'd like to have this discussion with y'all today about the changing of the heart. as you speak to your parishioners, please talk to them about changing of the heart . the word of god, it changes our hearts from wanting to kill your brothers over ledges and political differences without being remorseful about it. we can have these differences, but wanting to kill family members over political and religious differences without ian remorseful? that's the key teaching of christ. the church has failed us tremendously by simply teaching -- tremendously.

by simply teaching the changing of the heart, believing in the peacefulness, voluntarily giving up your guns and saying i don't need this because i am protected by the great almighty god above us. pastors, church people, change your hearts. do not want to kill your brothers over religious and political differences without being remorseful about it. host: ok, joseph in compton, fresno, california is next. caller: i disagree. my first question is, are you going to show the [indiscernible] says use the nukes? secondly, we all know that this has been going on for a very long time. i watch cnn, mostly people protesting and burning cities down. this does not other than fixing back what they done before.

i don't understand [indiscernible] you want to vilify half of america because hate crimes are going up, who couldn't see this? like stevie wonder could see that. host: this is the headline from "the washington times," biden crime strategy to focus on guns, here's more on what the president had to say about that at the white house. [video clip] >> the last time we had data on who was pushing these guns it was 20 years ago. 5% of gun dealers, it turns out, in the study we did, showed 90% of illegal guns were found at crime scenes, sold by 5% of gun dealers. 5%. 90% of the guns found at crime scenes. these murders and debt -- murderers are breaking the law for profit, selling guns to kill innocent people. it's wrong, it's unacceptable,

the attorney general said we would crackdown on them. in april i announced the justice department would be issuing an annual report on gun trafficking so that we could update the data. today the department is announcing is it just did a major crackdown on stemming the flow of guns used to commit violent crimes. zero-tolerance for gun dealers who willfully violate existing regulations. let me repeat, zero-tolerance. if you willfully sell a gun to someone prohibited from possessing it, willfully failed to run a background check, willfully falsify a record or fail to cooperate with tracing requests for inspections, my message to you is this, we will find you, we will seek your license to sell guns. we will make sure you cannot sell death and mayhem on our streets. it's an outrage. it has to end and we will end it. host: president biden yesterday

at the white house. back to the piece on the gun focus of this anti-crime plan. the mr. biden plan includes adopting a new justice department policy allowing the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives to revoke licenses the first time they violate law, including selling a firearm to a person who falsified records or failed to run a required background check at the justice department will also create five new firearms strike forces to track the flow of illegal guns across state lines and the strike forces will be active in new york, chicago, los angeles, and washington. gun related deaths are up in 2000 21, with 9400 20 americans killed so far according to the gun violence archive, on pace to surpass the gun related deaths of 2020 that was the deadliest year in more than two decades.

by this time last year there were 7795 gun deaths and 296 mass shootings since 2021, up from 218 during this time in 2020. pine bluff, arkansas, good morning to ken on the law enforcement line. go ahead. you are on the air, go ahead. caller: ok. my thing is i just, can you hear me? host: yeah, go ahead. caller: my thing is, i don't trust joe biden when it comes down to crime? because of the, the, his crime bill back in the 90's. host: that he helped pass?

caller: yeah. i think it gotta be bad for the black community. when you get the federal law in it and everything? that's just my thing about it. host: all right. let's hear from philip in big sandy, tennessee. next up. hi there. host: good morning, good morning. i support what he's doing. you just played a clip on your tv show a minute ago showing mcconnell talking about the deaths. blame it on the republicans. every time biden or the democrats want to pass some kind of gun reform law, the republicans stand in his way. you know, washington, d.c. is getting to be a joke anymore.

i used to think we had smart individuals there, but it's barnum & bailey circus. that's all i have to say. thank you. host: earl is in aurora, indiana, opposed to what the president is proposing. caller: thank you [feedback] host: i hate to stop you, make sure you mute your volume and then go ahead with your comments after that. caller: i got it muted. ok, biden actually said that they knew who the people were. why don't they go in get him? come on, when he was in, the cities helped to clear out this mess. they would not, the mayors would not let him do it. that is the problem. it's not the guns. this 5%? those guns were stolen. those guns were stolen.

that 5%. you can't stop. someone who wants to commit a crime will steal a gun or whatever they need to kill somebody. it's absolutely stupid that they think guns kill people. it's the people that kill. host: all right, to austin, texas on the support line. this is mark. welcome. caller: good morning. host: market, you mute your volume on your set and go ahead with your comment. caller: ok, good morning. i just wanted to say, for all the conservatives calling to complain that you guys hanging up on them and everything, you guys are supposed to when they are talking nonsense, stuff that's not true. but back to joe biden and this gun policy plan or whatever it is. guns are gonna be here. they will always be here. people gonna have them, people gonna use them regardless

whether you try to stop them or not, you are not going to stop it. but at least let's pass something that's sensible. something to try to curb this. because if we don't curb it, what are we looking at? the same state we have been getting. i understand why other people want to stand in the way of this. innocent people are being killed. innocent people that have nothing to do with what's going on are the ones being killed. that's what i have to say. thank you. host: what's the situation like in austin in terms caller: caller: of violent crime? we just had a shooting here a couple of weeks ago here on c street and the thing about it is the governor here pass the law to allow people to just walk around with guns, it starts in september. with the violence that just happened last weekend or the weekend before, these were kids that had guns down where

grown-ups should have been at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning. come on, let's get sensible with this, america. you know? that's all i have to say. host: thanks for your call. republicans have been pushing back on calls to defund the police in some circles, including andy barr, in a speech on the house floor, talking about that same issue. here's the kentucky republican. [video clip] >> fatal felony attacks on officers spiked early in 2021, coming on the heels of major cities in the nation, chicago, new york, los angeles, vowing to defund police departments. it's no wonder that these cities have tragically seen a devastating and tragic increase in homicides and shootings. this is what you get when you call to defund the police. [no audio] host: sorry about that. i guess that video froze a

little bit. apologies. some reaction on social media to our question in his first hour about the administration's anti-crime proposal. high crime areas need capital investment for opportunities to be given to people who have few opportunities and all agencies need more holistic ways to fight crime. it's not just about criminals. anyone can pick up a gun, a knife, etc., in these stressful times people are emotional powder kegs. commenting on what we played from mitch mcconnell, it occurs to me that conservatives think that increased spending on anything is ineffective except the military, it's an odd inconsistency. this one says hard for me to agree, but it's a good idea to bolster police departments but we also must have safety for all americans. we must change and if the principles are adhered to,

perhaps we could see success. in alabama, tim, go ahead with your comment. tim, alabama, go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm looking at the show and seeing the crime thing they are talking about. they want to input more police officers into black communities, saying black people are committing crimes. this is the same story that they used in the 1994 crime bill. going back to chicago, going all the way back to richard daley, who was the mayor, he, what he did to black folks back when he was mayor, he locked up more black folks and put more black folks in jail, and falsely.

they picked him up off the streets -- pick them up off the streets, tortured them for crimes they didn't commit. right now this whole thing is about creating a fear of black people in america so that you can increase police forces, going into black neighborhoods, black schools, arresting more people. what they should be doing, and they don't talk about this at all, putting more money into education, jobs. more money into businesses. what you see in black communities is where they have decreased the money into businesses. the neighborhoods are run down, the kids have nowhere to go, nothing to do. now we talk about having to fight crime in america? this is another racist way of dealing with crime with 21st century what you call jim crow

laws. host: you mention chicago, the mayor of chicago i believe was at the white house yesterday and is facing obviously a huge spike. as a black woman, african-american woman, what should be her response as the mayor of the city facing this high crime, particularly this violent crime wave in chicago? caller: as an individual, a mayor, she can't do anything too much really, she's not going to get funding to put teachers and schools. to uplift the community. she has to go along with what they proposing about this crime bill. and if she don't, she won't be mayor. you know? there has never been, in new york, detroit, chicago or california, where all of you have these race problems, there

has never been money put into the education system. look at the money they put into crime fighting. they build more prisons here in alabama. governor kay ivey had a bill -- wants to build three more prisons to put people in. why don't they build more schools? why don't they, you know, they want to, this is a way of incarcerating more people of color in america. host: thank you for your comments this morning. (202) 748-8000 is the like to call if you support the president's plan on fighting violent crime. (202) 748-8001 if you oppose it. if you are a law enforcement official, that line is (202) 748-8002. we will go to that line and show you the headlines from papers across the country as we do, including the advocate, from baton rouge, louisiana. sycamore, georgia, david on the

law enforcement line. go ahead. caller: i suggest they open up guantanamo, gitmo, send these people down there for trial. go in there, pick them up, i don't care the color, pick them up and carry them to guantanamo bay and they will stay down there. that will scare them up. these people are crazy. ok, thank you. host: anita is next in imperial, missouri. caller: thank you, bill, for taking my call. host: sure. caller: when i was growing up, there were very few guns in the city of st. louis and the surrounding regions. in the 1980's the nra became the spin doctors for they gun manufacturers and the more that they sold, the more money they made. greed brought us the problem and anything that biden can do is better than the mitch mcconnell rhetoric. i can't help wondering if mitch

mcconnell has stock in these companies or how much money they have given him for his political aspirations. again, thank you very much. host: to thomas here in the nation's capital, who opposes the plan. good morning. caller: i sort of agree with that, but the methodology going through it is a little bit wrong. first of all, i think that going for the gun dealers themselves, you should prosecute anybody who's breaking the laws that exist, but these gangs and people who want to get these guns illicitly, going through people that don't have a background criminal record, that would kind of make it difficult to sort of isolate the dealerships there. secondly, i think that based on the running platform of biden and the democratic party in 2020

, increasing police presence is predominately going to lead to repeats of things that we saw in recent years. you know? the next breonna taylor, the next to me a rice. i think it might hurt the democratic party long-term. thank you for c-span and thank you for taking my call. host: thank you for calling this morning and listening to c-span radio in the washington area. the fbi director was on capitol hill yesterday, testifying at a budget hearing on his 2022 budget. he was asked about the spike in violent crime in the country and here's what he said. [video clip] >> so far this year the number of officers murdered on the job is surpassing last year's. tragically includes the loss of two members of the fbi family as senator moran and mentioned.

both shot and killed down near miami in february. we honor dan and laura's memory every day through our work, work that has unfortunately not gotten any easier given the diverse array of threats that we face as a country. that's why i appreciated having a candid conversation dear with all of you during the classified roundtable back in march and i wish that i could tell you that we have got all the resources we need to carry out the mission to protect the american people and uphold the constitution, but the funds that we are requesting will go a long way towards doing just that. host: by the way, all of that hearing is available on our website, c-span.org. this is from npr and their reporting on the effects of the pandemic, leading to the biggest drop in u.s. life expectancy since world war ii, the new study that life expectancy decreased by nearly two years

between 2018 and 2020, largely due to the covid-19 pandemic, declines most pronounced among minority groups. in 2018 they write that averitt -- average life expectancy in the u.s. was 79 years and it declined to about 77 years by the end of 2020 according to a new study published in a british medical journal, saying that they hadn't seen a decrease like this since world war ii, it's a horrific decrease in life expectancy, according to stephen wolf, author of the study that was released on wednesday, based on data from the national center for health statistics, including simulated estimates for 2020. that is from npr. you can read more at npr.org. on our question about the biden administration crime strategy announced yesterday, this text from barb in ohio says what strategy, all i heard was take away guns.

arlene is in st. joseph's, michigan. you are on the. -- on. -- on next. caller: good morning. i didn't hear anything new. it was more of the same. we have plenty of gun laws and at the same time, he opened up the borders and now more and more illegal guns are coming in. so, he has done nothing. people have got to remember, guns are not walking around killing people. people are killing each other. it is a new culture here in the united states. they do not get arrested, they have all the snow bonds stuff. they don't want police in this is the result.

host: let's hear from mr. brown, calling from maryland. mr. brown, good morning. caller: good morning, sir, how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i listen almost every morning but i think your program is a platform for racist white people to spit out the same old rhetoric they have been for the last 60 years. if you want to talk about crime and guns and things like that, sir, i'm from the black community and i know that the police and the black community are not they are to stock the crime among black people among each other and you have a place in naples, italy, it's his -- it's the same crime rate, the same thing, but they are white people, not black people. when you want to talk about crime, it's a situation where you have a supply of guns deployed to the city that gets in the hands of the young people

with no guidance or kind of direction. poor opportunities, no summer jobs. but i don't think it is fair for these white people to get up on television and keep talking about the crime rate in the black community. the white people kill white people, too. i don't think the black people coming into the community are coming white people, but like the fellow said, it's a thing to spike fear as a reason to lock up black people as somehow or other. if you put people in a provocative situation, you will have the same. naples, italy, it's not black people in naples, italy, but you have the same problem as any other big city, people are poor and doing what they have to do to make a living, bringing conflict among people within their own group. white people kill white people, to. there are a lot of poor white people in this country that kill

white people. you have this program every morning, i watch it every morning, you have these white people spitting out the same old stuff, that black people are criminals who have to be dealt with and i don't think it's fair to a large minority of black people in this country. host: appreciate your input. this is an open forum for topics that come up. from the white house, public policy issues, a major announcement from the president is a topic we will discuss, but i hear what you are saying in your comments and i appreciate you calling in this morning. gina, picking you, mississippi, thanks for calling in. caller: to the gentleman that just called, i watch the show pretty regularly and i think there are just as many black people that call and as white people, number one.

number two, until the black community stands up and takes responsibility for what is going on in their community, things are never going to change. host: where do you see the black community not standing up for their own community? caller: let's start with the lack of fathers in the home. let's start with chicago, where black on black crime is so prevalent. why don't we just to be honest on this show for months? i don't see it anymore. i don't see honesty from the democrats. we have a president with dementia and you can't even understand what he says when he was giving his speech. host: we will go to mike in modesto, california. caller: you got me sidetracked, now we got to get into this black-and-white thing. i was going to put out a warning here that the people that stormed the capital, that's just the tip of the iceberg. all of those people, the gun

movement at this point is irrelevant. all of those people have got their little cabins packed with automatic weapons. all those people are waiting for is somebody that they like, like donald, to say they have taken over and we have no choice, you know, second amendment, that's what it's for. now we know we all have to get out there and do the right thing. god knows, the number of these people that are blowhards, how many of them actually want to get armed up and storm someplace . on the black-and-white thing, this idea that blacks are just, it's just their nature, you know? put anybody in the pressure cooker of these ghettos, where they took all the industry out of their and it's like the mafia. when you don't have anything, the tough guys rise up and they

start, you know, moving the drugs and the women. it's not because there's something wrong with black people. just imagine what it's like, when you go to apply for a job, you know what that's like. everything about this is about taking care of your family. you can blame other people when it isn't working for you, but just imagine you are going for that job and you are black. just try to get into what that is, you know, like host: all right, reaction from members of congress to the president's plan. kevin mccarthy tweeting this, democratic cities seeking to defund the police and are now surprised there is a crime crisis and the biden solution is to blame guns and lawful gun owners instead of the embrace of the defund the police movement. val dennings, former sheriff with the orlando police department, saying that nothing is more important than the

safety and security of our communities and i support the efforts to reduce violent crime in our neighborhoods. marjorie taylor greene, representative from georgia, client -- crime is exploding and it's the result of their left-wing policies of defunding the police, blacking blm, antifa, and cuddling with criminals. from senator blumenthal in connecticut, important leadership against gun violence that is heightening death, trauma, and fear. congress must match his courage and conviction. in mckees rocks, pennsylvania, mimi, go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. not only have these liberal cities defunded the police, but there is no cash bail and the criminals that are arrested are

let out of jail the next day to commit the same crimes. so, how do you stop this crime wave? you have to change what you are doing. thank you for taking my call. host: back to the bronx, joe's supports with the president is supporting. good morning, joe. caller: good morning, bill. how are you? bill, i have listened to the conversation over and over and over. i am saying what is causing these people to follow these white men republicans from the south who put these things in their head to make them believe that we have that much crime and

crime being committed by a group of people? a group of people they tell you to believe in the big city, they are talking about black people. i want to know. when they talk about defund the police, this is not what the people are talking about. the people are talking about if you have somebody, a family that calls the police to say we have problems at home with a son or daughter. it comes with the police. not to have the police come with guns. it's not what's going to resolve the problems. host: joe, new york, appreciate your call. i want to show you this story that happened overnight, channel six in south florida, one a

building collapse there. a tweet here from sam brock of nbc, it's a video from sky news. that's a look at the condo building in surfside, south florida, that collapsed. part of the building collapsed overnight. the tweet here from sam brock, nbc, south florida, 10 people treated on the site one confirmed fatality from police, dozens dispatched, 50 hotel rooms next door have been evacuated in the collapse. we will keep you posted on any further developments as they continue the search through the wreckage of that partially collapsed condo in south florida. a couple of more calls here caller: i know a lot of people

disagree, but you really have to go back to the election of donald trump. donald trump came to say make america great, great job for america, to put americans to work for a living. so many people opposed him. he said close the borders, people can come in, more people that can work, can get a livable wage and get more money. they should close the border. but the media distorted everything he said. they said he was a racist, but he is looking out for americans, trying to put americans back to our, get americans off on the street and stop killing each other. he can sustain his own family. he's not going to be concerned about crime. if you put a person to work, he is at bed at night, p pairing to go to work instead of staying up late at night trying to rob someone. the media did a totally to service to this country and to the president, president of the united states. everything he did you fought

against it. everything he tried to do for america, even black spotted -- fought him. the naacp, fighting to keep the borders open, less jobs -- open. the more the borders open, the less jobs for people in the community. host: a quick call from mac who supports the biden plan. go ahead. you are on the air. we will wrap it up at that. more ahead here on "washington journal." up next, we will be joined by the executive director -- director of the national association of medicaid directors and will talk to us about the rising numbers of folks enrolling in medicaid across the country. later on, we are joined by representative jeff fortenberry of nebraska who serves on the appropriations subcommittee and will be talking about president biden's spending policies.

morehead on "washington journal." ♪ >> coming up today on c-span, the house is working on a bill to provide contraceptive care to women veterans and legislation requiring financial institutions to collect data on credit applications by lgbtq-owned businesses. there will also be votes to overturn two trump arrow rules on lending practices and worker discrimination claims. in the evening, live coverage of former vice president mike pence speaking at the reagan presidential library and in california. on c-span two, the senate is back to consider legislation to let the secretary of agriculture allow farmers and landowners participate in environmental credit markets. senators are also considering a judicial nomination for the seventh circuit court of appeals.

on c-span3, education secretary miguel cardona testifies about priorities for his department in front of the house education and labor committee. that is that 10:15 a.m. eastern. there's more to watch on our website, including a house oversight hearing on paid family and medical leave that gets underway at 10:00 eastern. at the same time, environmental experts testify before a house science subcommittee on efforts to reduce plastic waste. at 11:00 a.m., the house modernization congress committee look at ways to influence stability and bipartisanship among lawmakers. >> "washington journal" continues. host: federal figures show medicaid enrollment is at an all-time high. here to help us understand that is the executive director of the national association of medicaid directors, matt salo. welcome. guest: it's great to be here. host: from axios news, medicaid

growth. the chart is dramatic, the take-up, the spike up from 2020 to current day, what they are calling the medicaid enrollment boom. why did it spike so much? guest: before, i want to get in to reasons of the spike, i want to set a baseline for what medicaid is. it is the most important program, i would argue, in this country. it is a health and well-being system that, pre-pandemic, provided health care services, ascot -- access to health care for 40% of the kids in this country, provides coverage for 50% of the earths in this country, is the largest payer, largest access point for mental health and substance abuse treatment and is the nation's long-term care treatment program. it's important to understand how important and meaningful the medicaid program is to so many

people across this nation in every state and territory. i think the other key piece is that, by design, medicaid is a first responder when it comes to any major either state or national emergency, whether that be hurricane katrina, whether that be something like 9/11, or whether it be something like a pandemic. medicaid is designed to grow, to expand, and to help provide access to vital health care services to many more people during a major crisis, during a major situation like we have had over the past year. by design, medicaid has grown over the past year, as we have seen hit significant numbers. we are at 80 million people covered by medicaid, which is about one in four americans. this is, by design, the

congressional action, which helped lead to this, set out a policy that said -- and this was similar to what happened during the great recession about a decade or so ago that during a time of economic uncertainty and during a time like we had during the pandemic, you've got to say, this is a really bad time for anyone to become uninsured. what we have done over the past 15 months or so is essentially said, under no conditions should anyone in the medicare program lose their coverage, lose that access to service during this public health emergency. that has really led us to this point where, now, we are at 80 million people, though i suspect that situation is going to change probably toward the end of the year. host: you said medicaid covers

40% of kids in this country. is that there the children's health insurance program? guest: when we talk about medicaid, we talk about the 80 million people, and the kids, and such. it is a combination of the medicaid's and the kids health insurance program. we sometimes call that chip. in almost every state, chip is essentially run through medicaid. the benefit package is exactly medicaid, run by the same people. it looks a little different. there are slightly different rules, but essentially the same thing. we bundled the two together to get to the 40% of kids into the total 80 million number. host: how has the rise in enrollees in medicaid stressed the medicaid providers? guest: everyone is under stress, quite frankly. the good thing is that the congressional action that created the situation where no one loses coverage and leading us to 80 million on the program now came hand-in-hand with

additional federal dollars. medicaid, i think the key thing to understand, what are the big differences between medicaid and medicare? medicare is a federal program, but medicaid is a state program done in partnership with the federal government. the states run it and the states and federal government to share in the financing of it. what we have seen over the past year plus is, during this pandemic, during the public health emergency, the federal government is contributing more dollars than usual. and that has been helpful, necessary. unfortunately, i do not think it has been sufficient. quite frankly, what we have seen over the past year plus is the additional money that the federal government has been putting forward tout the states really is going to pay for the additional people on the program. -- program but does not provide

enough resources to be able to support and strengthen the providers, the physicians the, the dentists, -- physicians, the dentists, mental health programs. they have been under stress and strain too, and that has been a key priority of medicaid directors across the country. how do we find the resources to be able to stabilize and support health care providers so that the access that medicaid beneficiaries are getting, crucial access during this emergency, is meaningful? host: is it fair to say some of the pandemic funding that helps states expand medicare helped those states expand medicare under obamacare? there were 35 to 36 states that -- medicaid rather, under obamacare. so this additional money during the pandemic must bolster that?

-- bolstered that? guest: i think of them as separate issues. when i think about the affordable care act and medicaid expansion, there was clearly a large financial incentive for states to take up a pretty significant restructuring of the program and a big expansion. the fed to pay for all of it for a couple years, then continued to pay for 90% of it in perpetuity. that is an enormous amount of money. the additional about the -- amount of funds we got over the pandemic is a much smaller number, and it really is kind of keeping the doors open, if you will. with the additional people, as we ramp up to 80 million people covered, get one in four americans on the medicaid program, that additional federal money is keeping is even stephen just to pay for that enrollment growth. it has not done anything to acknowledge the providers who are out there try to figure out

how i keep my doors open either on the front end of the surge where they are getting so many people coming in where they are very sick, or on the opposite end of the search which is what we have clearly seen during the pandemic is there is a certain kind of tampering down of people rushing out to go get care because if you are worried about the virus, you probably do not want to go and hang out in a waiting room full of a bunch of people who might have the virus. some of that utilization of services has dropped down, which for a lot of providers means they don't know where -- that kind of messes up with their business. if they don't have any patients, if they don't have people coming in the door, how do they stay afloat? we are trying to figure out how to do that. that has been a struggle because

a lot of states have been struggling with economic uncertainty over the past year or so as well. it is a difficult dynamic, but hopefully when we will be coming through on the others have quickly. host: matt salo is the executive director of the national association of medicaid directors. we welcome your calls and comments. (202) 748-8000 (202) 748-8001 -- (202) 748-8000 is the eastern and central time zones line. it is (202) 748-8001 for mountain and pacific @cspanwj @cspanwj. if you are medicaid enrollee, the line is -- for mountain and pacific. if you are medicaid enrollee, the line is (202) 748-8002. guest: combined state and federal we were about, the last time we checked, a little north of $600 billion per year. host: how much additional funding came from all of the measures passed over the past year in response to the pandemic? guest: it is a significant trunk of that. if you add it up, it is probably

in the $50 billion range or something of that nature. so a sizable chunk of money but nothing that is a complete game changer. it is still a very large program. medicaid is on average about 20%-20 5% of the average state budget -- 20%-25% of the average state budget. it is a significant, meaningful, important program. host: for an enrollee, doesn't function like every other health insurance, you have a fee and co-pay or whatever? is there a monthly premium to pay for medicaid, for example? guest: yes, but one of the great things about medicaid, while it serves similar to health insurance you would get from medicare or from a job or anywhere else in terms of access to physicians and all sorts

of health care services, one of the great things about medicaid, there is no benefit -- beneficiary medicaid contribution. there is no premium, no deductibles, no real enforceable -- you can have nominal co-pays for things like prescription drugs, but in essence, the medicaid program designed to be the health care safety net, designed for low and lower income americans really takes the sting of the cost of health care. we all know the cost of health care is a few problem this ash is a huge problem in this country but it takes the sting of the cost of health care away from the beneficiaries. they are able to access a broad network of services, of health, of well-being services, things that help them thrive in their community, without having to

worry about how my going to pay for this. host: with this additional 10 million medicaid customers during the pandemic, what is the most common sort of issues you are hearing from your members at the medicaid association? guest: one of the things i think we have clearly seen over the past 15 months or so is we think about medicaid as having an important role, probably more than three, but we saw about three major pillars of the health care system. one of which is mental health and behavioral health. as i mentioned, it is the largest source of funding for mental health and behavioral health services in this country. the second and for -- is for kids. 40% of kids, 50% of births. the third is long-term care. medicaid, not medicare, net

-- medicaid is the long-term care program. what we have seen is the pandemic as really jeopardized and threatened those three pillars. on the mental health and behavioral health side, we have clearly seen the past 15 months have really put a stress on everyone, not just medicaid beneficiaries but everyone. substance abuse challenges are up, mental health challenges are up. this is a problem, and we are going to have to figure out how we have to continue to strengthen medicaid to be able to help these folks through. a similarly with kids, across this country kids have been kind of ripped out of the social structures they have come to expect in schools. how do we -- or not being able to go to regular pediatrician visits to get all of their critical vaccines.

we have to figure out how do we kind of re-create some of those solid structures to be able to help these folks once we get to the pandemic. similarly with long-term care, we definitely have seen whether it is the mortality rates in nursing homes that kicked off the pandemic or whether it is the struggle to ensure home care workers have access to ppe or other types of safety equipment, we have to make sure that medicaid is going to continue to be strong and be there for the people who rely on it. once we get through this pandemic. host: our line for medicaid enrollees, (202) 748-8002. we will go to greg on that line in colorado. go ahead. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call, and i just wanted to let you know that i have been on medicaid for over 10 years and

it is a lifesaver for me. i am a self-employed house painter here, and last winter i did not work for three months. that is typical. it was not just because of the covid situation. it is so cold here, there is barely any painting to be done. i could not afford normal health insurance. i make 15,000 to $20,000 per year -- $15,000 to $20,000 per year. the program here is fantastic, and i want to thank your host and let him know we really need to stay behind this program. host: thanks, greg. guest: i think that is a great point. thank you for calling in. i think one of the interesting things about medicaid is if you don't pay a lot of attention to it, it is easy to say, "i don't really understand what that is. that's something for other people."

and people can kind of do this, "it is a low income program. it's over there." it really has a very wide and incredibly important reach throughout communities, young, adults, older with physical, intellectual, developmental disabilities, people struggling with chronic conditions, people who are in between jobs or things of that nature. it is an incredible lifeline, and i think we would certainly stand by the work we have done to make medicaid a world-class health care program for all of the people who needed. i think everything we do is done in service of improving the experience of the beneficiary, improving the health care outcomes they can come to expect , and in trying to make the health care care system focus more on how do we get and keep

people healthy? that is the mission of medicaid. host: a caller from colorado said he made typically less than $15,000 per year. is there an income cap or level over which you are not eligible for medicaid? guest: there is. medicaid is extraordinarily complicated. there are lots of different categories, so your income threshold, if you are a pregnant woman, is fairly high. income thresholds for kids is also high. if you are an adult, a working adult you get into questions around, if you are in a state that did the medicaid expansion under the affordable then, basically all adults -- then basically all adults can be covered up to 130% of the

federal poverty level, which -- 138% of the federal poverty level, which depending on your family, can be around that income limit. part of the challenge is, at least in terms of understanding who might be eligible or understanding how this works is that, in the states that has not done the medicaid expansion, as you pointed out there is about a dozen of those, there are gaps and are working-aged adults that might be below -- working-age adults that might be below the poverty level but do not qualify for medicaid. part of the reason why it is so hard to fully appreciate and understand medicaid, it fails what i call the bumper sticker test. can you describe what you do on a bumper sticker?

for medicare, it is easy. what does medicare do? health care for old people, bumper sticker. i get it. what does medicaid do? you can say is it health care for poor people? that is actually not accurate, because 40% of kids, 50% of the births, all of the long-term care. this is not a poverty program. then, you get into situations where individuals may be below the poverty level and not eligible. it is extraordinarily complicated. some of it has to do with the fact that it is run differently in each of the 56 states and territories. it makes it hard to put it in a neat box and makes it hard for people to understand but it is there and able to be understand. host: next up, georgia, good morning. caller: thank you for accepting my call. i have a question.

when a potential patient goes into a medical facility, do they have the right to deny that person based on their character that they must provide care? after 40 years in social work, i had an opportunity where people were landing in this country for foreign countries -- from foreign countries. if they needed medical, we were work hired -- we were required by law to offer medical service. guest: one of the things that goes on in the health care system, wavy on medicaid, that there is a requirement on hospitals -- way beyond medicaid, that there is a requirement on hospitals to treat or at least for refer any patient who walks through the door for any reason, regardless of their start us -- their status, health care status, their income, regardless of their ability to pay.

often times what happens, if you have someone that is uninsured, walks into an emergency room with an emergent condition, the hospital will stabilize them, take care of them, figure out what is next, and then go through the efforts to say what is going on here? are you eligible for medicaid? and can we get you enrolled? what we see a lot as people who will enter a facility, hospital, or something like that to our uninsured and walk out of it covered by medicaid. host: question for you from peter in charleston, south carolina that asks, are photo ids still required to enroll in medicaid? they were absolutely in south carolina in the recent past. has anything changed? guest: i think there is an important consideration to be made when thinking about something like eligibility.

as a significant program, a really important program, as i said, covering 80 millions americans -- 80 million americans, spending billions of dollars a year, we want to make sure we are covering people who should be covered, and some of that is making sure their identity is who they say they are. one of the big challenges of medicaid, and frankly one of the challenges of anything in the public policy round, is trying to find this balance between trying to be concerned about what we called program integrity -- call program integrity, making sure there is no waste, fraud, abuse, or misuse of the program, to make sure the state taxpayer dollars we spent, the federal tax dollars we spend are being spent appropriately and accurately.

that is an important consideration. we also have to keep in mind that we also want to be practicing good government. good government has to be responsive to the people that needed. you don't want to create too many barriers between someone who is actually eligible for services or anything and getting those. part of the problem is those two considerations can sometimes lead to outcomes very different from one another. part of the challenge of state governments, of government in general, how do you find this wee spot in the middle of making sure that services are available to the people who need them easily, effectively, efficiently, and how do you make sure it is done accurately? that is the gordian knot of government.

how do you figure that out? sometimes you will require some type of identification check to make sure you are who you say you are. most states will do that differently, so i don't know the specifics of south carolina, but states will figure out how do you do that, how do you hit that sweet spot of we are spending the taxpayer dollar wisely but also being responsive and accessible to the folks who use it? host: joe in ash, north carolina. go ahead. caller: let's explore this a little bit. medicaid is -- and medicare in the old age and the disability act are all trust funds. the government has a lot to take the money out of the trust funds and put it into the treasury department. at this moment in time, the treasury department owns all of the trust funds, close to $6 trillion. if you put $500 billion every

year, you could expand medicaid, medicare, and disability. -- and the old age, and disability. that's what you have to do. if you are person so saying you are and people are, then you must do away with that law, because they only pay a percent back in a 15-year balloon. as far as the hospitals go, tell the gentleman it is the and paul act they enacted that they have to give -- impala act that they have to enact and give you care and send you to another doctor or hospital if they have to. guest: so you are talking about the imtala law, of course. i will put aside medicare and the other things because we don't do that, but medicaid is not actually a trust fund. medicaid is a program that is

driven, in large part, by state generated revenues and a lot of the decisions about who is covered, what is covered, the design of the program, how much you pay providers, a lot of that is almost entirely driven at the state level. again, it has to be linked to the capacity of the state to pay. state general revenues, and as folks may appreciate every state has to balance the budget. every single year, again putting at us at a different trajectory than the federal government. there's a lot of federal dollars in the medicaid program, but it is not a trust fund. it comes out of the -- it is entitlement spending, to get into that kind of level of detail, but there is no separate set aside or pot of money that

medicaid comes from either of the state or federal level. host: matt salo, it is coming up on 8:30 or so, i wondered if you would stay with us and we have a number of colors. guest: sure. host: thanks for that. we will go to allen, texas. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know, considering the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants we have coming across the border and the fact we are giving them all of these programs and everything, what percentage or how many of those 80,000 in increased medicaid enrollment, how many of those are considering the illegals coming across the border that the government is giving all of this free stuff to? guest: so the reality of the situation is undocumented citizens do not qualify for medicaid. they are not part of that 80

million figure. they are eligible, potentially, for emergency services coverage, if they present, if they show up in a hospital er. which, again, getting back to the point about the law and the fact the hospital has to take care of someone regardless of their insurance status, regardless of their immigration status, because we don't want hospitals letting people die on the streets. that is not what we should do as americans. so can someone in this country without their papers get emergency treatment at a hospital? yes, they can. on the -- are they on the medicaid rolls? they are not. host: let's hear from mike in texas. caller: good morning. i am curious, matt, about the annual inflation rate of

medicaid. i'm curious because what i reflexively impose is when patients, who are the consumers, and doctors, who are the service providers, there is no communication about cost. when you think about the two industries in the united states where inflation for consumers, we eat that inflation rate and it comes out of our pockets. the two industries where inflation in the united states outpaces all other consumable activities, higher education and health care. in both instances, the consumer does not know what the costs are because of the faceless neighbors paying the bill. the faceless neighbor pays the bill. if people go to the doctor and they have some kind of ownership of the cost, and i want to help people, i want to help people who cannot help themselves, i was raised that way, but my issue is let's give them some

kind of way to make the purchase of health care for themselves so they can shop. when you buy a car, when you buy insurance, when you buy a house, whatever you buy, you have options and choices. medicaid does not provide that. looking at the inflation rate, what is -- rate, that is my ultimate reflection. look at the number per recipient, what is the cost, the inflation rate, from 2010 until now? i guarantee it outpaces a bag of groceries every single year. host: ok, mike. we will hear from our guest. guest: erased a couple interesting points there. one is, and i have -- you raised a couple interesting points there. and i have been in this business for some time now, the cost for medicaid on a perversion basis or in general has been outpacing inflation and outpacing state general revenue growth for the

entirety of that time, 25 years, probably longer. it is why medicaid is now 25% of the average state budget. we know it was first created in 1965 and it was envisioned as a much smaller thing. that leads to certain challenges, but these can be overcome. i think the really interesting thing at the core of your question is what are we doing or what can we do that is meaningful about trying to flip the script on health care cost growth? the way i would answer that, the way states medicaid directors across s th -- across this country are thinking about this, the narrative we have had for decades or trajectory we have had for decades, basically arguing about the cost of services and the cost of services keeps going up, not just an medicaid or medicare, but everywhere.

cost of services goes up and up. are we getting any healthier because of that additional cost? i think the argument we are making is, not necessarily. so what is happening, the revolution happening within medicaid, and i think it will be meaningful not just for the 80 million people we serve but the rest of the health care system in the u.s. is a transformation of basic health care delivery model in this country. so that we are not arguing about, well, the cost of this mri or cost of this appendectomy is going up and up, and what we do about it? what we are really trying to say is we need to realign the financial incentives, big picture in this country, for health plans, hospitals, physicians, everybody.

so that we stop just saying, " well, we are going to keep paying you for every service you deliver, regardless of whether it is meaningful or not." rather what we want to do is say, step back and say, "are you getting and keeping your patients healthy?" if you can do that, we will pay you more." -- "if you can do that, we will pay you more." that's creating a revolution in health care and how we think about the social drivers of health, things like access to affordable housing, access to a stable nutritional supply, trying to prevent trauma and other adverse events in kids. these are not things the health insurance system or health care

has ever really grappled with. but we know that trying to provide these interventions in nontraditional ways has an enormously meaningful impact in the lives, the health, the well-being, and ability to thrive in the community for the people we serve. that is what medicaid is all about. it is trying to get away from that arguing about the cost of a widgets going down the conveyor belt and saying let's step back and say we want to be in the business of better health. that is what we are trying to do. host: matt salo is that executive director of the national association of medicaid directors. thanks for being with us this morning. guest: thank you. it was great to be here. host: a head on "washington journal," and a open forum on your issues of public policy and politics, including things we talked about already, the president's anti-crime package announced yesterday. we will talk about word of an

agreement on an infrastructure bill in the u.s. senate and hear from you at (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and for independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. go ahead and start dialing. we will get to your calls in a moment. ♪ ♪ >> american history tv on c-span3, exploring the people and events that tells the american story, every weekend. saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern, an author on his book jim bridger, trailblazer of the american west, saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history brown university professor kate nelson talks about the guerrilla warfare on the confederate and union side during the civil war whose tactics included ambushes and surprised raids on unsuspecting troops and towns. at 7:00 a.m. eastern, -- 70 5 p.m. eastern, a law professor on

the definitions of free speech in france and the united states and if france's model would work in the u.s.. sunday, at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the presidency, a discussant about nancy reagan's legacy with a columnist, and the white house historical association president, expiring the american story. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is our open form here on "washington journal." we hear on issues of public policy and politics including the things we talked about this morning on the rising crime in the u.s., and even if you didn't get through the medicaid section, the rise in the number of medicaid enrollees, we have a comment on that. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and independents and others,

that is (202) 748-8002. it looks like there may be agreement on infrastructure spending, at least in the u.s. senate. a capitol hill reporter from bloomberg tweeting this, "biting meeting set a gang on infra cert -- biden meeting senate gang on infrastructure." the story broke overnight and here is the reporting of roll call. their headline, bipartisan infrastructure framework heads to the white house. they say speaker nancy pelosi and chuck schumer late wednesday blessed a tentative bipartisan agreement on $559 billion on new infrastructure spending that a group of senators and white house aides negotiated. this has a move along -- this has -- but warned it has to move along with a larger partisan package to get democrats. one can't be done without the

other, all of us agree to that. we can't get the budget reconciliation bill done unless we are sure of the bipartisan bill. we welcome the bipartisan agreement saying we support the concepts we have heard about, pelosi and white house aides agreed there was enough progress to continue their approach. that is from roll call -- -- rollcall.com. to nate in milwaukee, go ahead. caller: thank you very much for having me. i was calling in part because of the program yesterday with judicial watch and also the hr one bill. i hope senator manchin's efforts to put a compromise through, one of the things i think is important to the bill of gerrymandering at the state level, but it worked for the u.s. house. i think gerrymandering is an

extremely problematic thing for our country because states are turning into laboratories of undermining democracy rather than being for it. i will point out both that the wisconsin really has not had an honestly elected state legislature for the last several years. there is an excellent article titled "documents cast new light on redistricting process real partisan motivations." that's back from august 1 of 2012 that basically revealed a bunch of documents showing the legislators in government or picking their own districts to pick their own successes -- their own successors. this resulted in a court case which judicial watch dropped and a -- an opinion on. during various federal courts through this court case, the

republicans from my state ended up getting find for trying to conceal documents -- fined for trying to conceal documents and claims to support transparency. it came in supporting the republican side. i do not believe judicial watch's claim to be nonpartisan is forthright and honest, because here it was trying to defend rigged elections and from its own brief and from its own brief in the court case it said one of the true hallmarks, that is me quoting them, of partisan gerrymandering is not respecting established political boundaries. one of the areas in milwaukee county has a suburb called west dallas that used to basically have mostly its own status emily district. that area was chopped up by the

republicans and even dragged across county lines. because they were trying to manipulate what the election was -- host: what year was that suit filed? caller: the gill v. whitford court case ran several years. i'm searching for the top of the document now. host: that's all right. i think we got the gist of the story but thank you for sharing with us. part of that conversation in yesterday's program. "washington journal" is available at c-span.org. steve in ohio on the republican line. go ahead. caller: i am a 74-year-old black man, retired. you know black people need to take care of their own. i am a black man and i am taking care of my own kids and the turned about -- they turned out to be ok. their parents need to take care

of them. all of these people in ohio are killing each other and they are black-owned. we have had 95 murders in columbus. 90 people murdered were black and were killed by black people. this has to stop and has to start at home. people need to take care of their own backyards. they say black lives matter, they do, but that needs to be funded by these people, these athletes and entertainers and get down to these ghettos and start helping these black kids. thank you. host: junior in kentucky, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i was just wanting to say something on the infrastructure. infrastructure is a problem for everybody. so is water, good roads, good bridges. as far as i was hearing a bridge collapsed there in washington, d.c., and you know, it is pitiful we live in a country

that our bridges and roads have become unsafe. and so much money being spent. it is unbelievable that other countries, in japan that they are so far advanced than we are , it is not a republic -- a republican thing, or a democrat thing. we have some that want to stand out but say it is my way or the highway. i think it needs to come to a stop. i really do think the president should say hey, if nobody wants it, we will stop it. we will not do anything, we will just forget about it. host: thank you for pointing out the bridge collapsed. it was a footbridge in d.c., i believe it happened late overnight, a reporting of news, d.c. 295 reopened after the pedestrian bridge collapses

injuring five. to our next caller in new philadelphia ohio. jetta, good morning. caller: yes, i want to give my opinion on the medicaid. host: yeah. caller: the medicaid in this country is for people who do not make enough money to take care of their health, but what i have found over the years -- i have been on medicaid since i was about 32 years old, and i am 69 now. when i got on medicare, they took the medicaid away. i still could not make it. i could not pay for all of the prescriptions and the testing i had done, all of the surgeries i have to go through, and i have dealt with cancer, dealing with multiple myeloma right now, and i had kidney cancer and had a

parcel operation on my left kidney in 2018. i started making phone calls to columbus, ohio. finally, after 200 something phone calls, i got a man that said, "you should be on srs." i said what's that, and he said specialized recovery services. we have it here in ohio. because we do not have the mental hospitals or the mental doctors like we used to have, there was all of this money sitting there, so they asked what to do with it and they told me that trump said use it for the chronically ill. the major problem with medicaid is i don't get one paper, i get three or four of the same papers sent to me. that costs money that could be used. also, to go 52 miles because they give you a traveling

allowance, to go 52 miles from my house to cleveland clinic, it's cost $350. host: do you have to take a taxi or over to get there? is that what you are doing? caller: no. they have hired private companies to have this set up. host: i see. caller: 52 miles at $350 and they don't try to get more than one person? they take one person at a time? yeah, we might have to wait a little longer there, but for that kind of care and amount of money, it should not cost $350. i don't know if it cost free hundred $50 per person if you have more than one, but i try to schedule of my appointments -- $350 per person if you have more than one, but i try to schedule all my appointments on monday. host: i bet. reaction on twitter, this says,

medicaid needs help and does not reimburse doctors enough to take it. most americans need more care because they went without insurance or medicaid in -- medical care in red states for years. our next caller, good morning. caller: i'm glad the republicans are worried about borders. they did not worry about the border at the white house. they got this thing out called newsmax, fox news, and others, constantly saying that joe biden lost and trump won. i'm glad they are worrying about something, and i want to see her conviction, and i hope she does it, because people want fox news and that's all they do is say trump won, the fbi where -- f.b.i. was there, fbi were in the crowds. he also downed the virus, don't take the shot, that is why people don't take the shot.

they are listening to fox news. why don't the people on fox news take a little variety and watch cnn? people were hit over the head with baseball bats, brass knuckles, kill nancy, hang mike pence, they were all roaming these were -- running these republicans. host: overnight, there was a collapse in surfside florida of part of a condo building, and we showed you some of the video earlier. there's a statement from the mayor that so far, one fatality has been confirmed. that is the reporting of channel six in south florida. here's the mayor of surfside. >> the building was substantially full. >> how many people are unaccounted for? >> it's unclear, because those people don't live in it, they are just donors. we will have to go through the process the next couple days to

try to piece that together. >> [indiscernible] >> i think were talking a lot of units. a third of a building, i understand that building was over 100 units. so it could be at least 30 units. host: it is our open forum. for eastern -- (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 free democrats, (202) 748-8002 for independents. cnbc says initial claims for unemployment insurance remain elevated last week as employers struggled to fill a record amount of job openings. a first time filings total 411 thousand in june 19, a slight decrease from the previous total of 418,000 and were stand the 380,000 dow jones estimate. let's go to john in pennsylvania. republican line. caller: good morning, sir. host: good money.

caller: open form, right? host: yes, sir. caller: i just want to wish britney spears the best. i have been under a psychiatric care for 40 years, and i have been on her lithium drug she was worried about from watching the news channels. i wish her the best, number one. number two, i think there is an old drug out there called prolixin. the most important thing about mental health is you want to have to be helped. you want to have to be helped from the inside. host: we appreciate that, john. william in cleveland, good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling about young adults and the crime rate and guns. in cleveland, we used to have, within my walking distance, we used to have six or seven basketball courts where kids could play basketball.

the city took chainsaws or saws and cut down the basketball courts. host: why? caller: pardon me? host: why did they cut them down? caller: they said the criminals were selling drugs at the best cabal courts. instead of putting police on the courts to get the criminals away where the young adults had someplace to go to plea basketball and spend their day, they chased the good kids out to the streets. now the good kids are out in the streets committing the crimes because they have nothing else to do. i believe that is a big part of the problem, the kids do not have anything to do and crime sucks them in. the basketball courts, the younger kids had ways to go and play with the older kids and

that taught them morals, wrongs, and rights. so that is part of the big problem. host: before them cut -- before they cut them down, were police patrolling that's and trying to break that up to prevent it from happening? caller: no. i became blind within the last 20 years -- within the last 10 years i stopped driving. i gave my best, court on wheels -- my basketball court on wheels to one of my friends sons and he used to put at the end of the driveway and play basketball. all of the kids used to play basketball at his house. the police went around in the pickup trucks and collected all the other basketball hoops that the parents had grown to kids. host: about what years did this happen in cleveland, william? caller: they took all of the basketball hoops down i would say about 10 to 15 years ago. they just took my basketball hoop from my grandkids last

summer. host: the police took it in a pickup truck? caller: pickup trucks drove up and down all over the side streets, collecting basketball hoops the kids would put at the end of their driveways. they said it was hazardous, but all of the adults on the streets were sitting out watching the kids play basketball, enjoying its. host: thank you for telling us that story -- enjoying it. host: thank you for telling us that story. this is the wall street journal, u.s. afghan government is hastening the u.s. fall. u.s. intelligence committee colluded last week that the u.s. afghanistan -- officials of knowledge of the new assessment said u.s. intelligence agencies revived their more optimistic estimates as the taliban swept through the northern afghanistan last week, seizing dozens of districts surrounding major cities. afghan security forces

frequently surrendered without about -- without a fight. the new assessment of the overall intelligence community, which has not been previously reported, is now aligned more closely with the analysis that had been generated by the u.s. military. the military has withdrawn more than half of its 3500 troops and equipment. arrests are due out by september 11. joe biden meeting with the leaders of afghanistan tomorrow, scheduled for tomorrow at the white house. it is chris next up in louisville, kentucky. caller: i have a few things to posit to you but the first thing is america is in a bad situation. americans need to think. if we don't do the things necessary to keep our democracy, we are going to lose it. the next thing i want to ask

about, people are always asking about white privilege. i am an african-american and a proud troop. if that 75 your old guy was an african-american, i am from france. if you couldn't tell, i couldn't. i want to give you an idea of white privilege so all white people could understand. the thing of the riot of the capital january 6, 95% of those people were white. they allow them to come, create havoc, then go home. then they used photos and things to start arresting them. i'm old enough to have been a part of the civil rights movement and i remember when we were protesting, when we were marching, they already had the vans, the paddy wagons, and things to arrest that nobody would get to leave. sometimes they would arrest us on the spot and make us stay there. it white privilege is why people to come to the capital of the

united states of america, tear it up, then go home. if you didn't know what white privilege was before, there it is. the last thing is about the critical race theory. i wish you would play what general miley said yesterday about the critical race theory. host: to matt gaetz? caller: yes. that is something that needs to be all over this country because, first, why people don't understand what it is. the republicans are using them as a news to try to make critical race theory as a big old bogey barrel. all of it is not white people individually doing things, it is the system created to empower them. when things are going well for you, they don't worry about anything else. i wish you would show critical race theory and white privilege. thank you. host: chris, thanks for pointing that out. we covered that here yesterday

with the secretary of defense, lloyd austin, and the joint chiefs chair, general mark milley. some video of that here. you can watch it online at c-span.org. you can find that specific clip right on the video. we have played that several times in the overnight. you can find it again at c-span.org. he pointed out the capital attack headline -- attack, it headline here. indiana grandmother first sentenced and capital right, three years of probation, not jail time. tampa, florida. a couple more calls here. tampa, florida is next, linda, democrats line. go ahead. caller: hi, i was just wondering , all of the ones that was there january the sixth, i was wondering why i'm not hearing the word treason. my understanding of the word treason is when you are against this country.

our representatives take an oath ended up awesome me that they know they are lying. nobody is doing anything about them. i've not heard anybody say anything about their oath. they know they are lying. i cannot understand why i have not heard that word, treason. can you make me understand what the word treason really means? i always understood if you are against this country you are committing treason. host: the u.s. house comes in in an hour, until that we have several members of the house. george fortenberry of nebraska is joining us on a number of issues including the administrations spending proposals and maryland representative jamie raskin, a member of the judiciary committee. will talk about his role on that

community that's on that committee and the role of the justice department. -- his role on that committee and the role of the justice department. >> but tv has top nonfiction books and authors every weekend. at 6:00 eastern on afterwards, a look at the u.s. response to the pandemic. he is interviewed by former senate majority leader will first -- bill a critical look at the 16frist. -- bill frist a critical look at the 1619 project. the amazing story of george w. bush's post-presidency, his former chief of staff recalls his 25 years after leaving the

oval office. watch book tv this weekend on c-span two. >> washington journal continues. host: congressman jeff fortenberry representing the first district of nebraska, a member of the house appropriations committee. you are with us to talk about a number of issues including federal spending. welcome to washington journal. guest: a pleasure to be with you. host: it is spending season, let's start with the proposed budget so far. what is yourwhat is your imprest the president is asking for? guest: it is important to offer insider process, the president proposes a budget and congress can ignore it or take part of it. it is ultimately congress's decision. the budget accelerates spending,

it has new debt to be financed. it is the philosophical divide, are we going to centralize more government in washington or are we going to let america run as we traditionally have with a federal process where there are states and locales and other forms of community associations that take care of problem's? -- problems? on the appropriations committee we are engaged over separate areas of public policy -- 12 areas of public policy, i am the ranking member on agriculture. it is one of the bills that we work on this month and come to some consensus. it will be hard to get to some sort of consensus with this amount of spending and centralization in the hands of the washington, d.c. establishment. host: it seems like president

after president, congress after congress we have a trouble getting a hold of the deficit. the latest figures on the proposed budget, it projects deficit above $1 trillion for the rest of the decade, a five percent growth in the economy for this year. it estimates the growth over the next year 4.3% and 2% for the rest of the decade. do you think those are too optimistic? guest: any administration has to defend this proposal. we all hope that economic growth and opportunity versus of all persons can have access to meaningful work. that is one of the best ways to solve social difficulties but also budgetary crises. more people working, more revenue comes in, when there is access to meaningful work and upward pressure on wages, that is helpful to everyone. there are consequences to this level of debt and deficit spending. you were seeing it at the gas

pump, grocery stores. it is called inflation. inflation is taxes that are hidden from everyone on. it hurts -- from everyone. it hurts the poor the most. people who are on fixed incomes you have to live paycheck-to-paycheck were stuck in jobs that do not have upward mobility are heard the most -- hurt the most. host: i want your reaction from the senate side, senator shelby said that they would accept the $1.5 trillion budget with more for defense. is that something you could support? guest: one of the hard realities is we live in tents, difficult world. our defense mechanisms create the space for diplomacy and economic development.

defense spending is about our own security, creating human rights, dignity. it is one of the areas that we have been able to agree. it has to be lucked out and discerned carefully because it is one of the larger parts of the budget. generally you have some agreement around defense spending levels, in a negotiation combined with the health and deliver bill. the other bills tend to not get through. we are talking about 12 separate appropriations bills until the last moment when an agreement comes together. the leverage point is defense where you generally have agreement between republicans and democrats. the spending levels, republicans tend to want to see more emphasis on defense since it is a critical first principle of government to keep us safe and you safe.

we are in a mix about how this will work itself out in deliberations. with the other appropriations bills across 12 spending areas. defenses usually where we come to agreement, other bills get stuck. there is 12 appropriations bills, defense being one of them. agriculture being another one we are working hard to create conditions of stability for farmers and ranchers and those who have food insecurity. we are entering into a phase where we are expanding the agriculture family and focusing on farm -- farmers of the future, regenerative agriculture. huge implications for diplomacy worldwide. it assists our military by creating conditions for stability around the world. so they do not have to go in. i am giving detail on the components of the appropriations

process because they are affecting one another. host: george fortenberry, our guest we welcome your calls. republicans of the line is (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents and others (202) 748-8002. you serve on the appropriations subcommittee for state and foreign operations. you mentioned the spending bills congress must pass. let's focus on the relationship between u.s. and israel. changes in israeli leadership in recent weeks with a new premise or, new government in israel and to changes of the biden administration versus the trump administration, what do you see? guest: we witnessed another traumatic outbreak of hostilities between israel and the palestinians. nobody wants to see that.

for decades we focused on the roadmap for peace based on early negotiations. ivo's both had a view that the roadmap for peace needs a foundation -- i have always had the view that a roadmap for peace needs a foundation. what i have worked on is the partnership for peace act, the former chair of appropriations, need to load -- nita loeb on that and get it it goes back to this idea that trust is essential before they are building blocks of peace. it builds traditional people to people exchange programs does something innovative -- but does something innovative by using the finance corporation by creating the investment in business, capital projects that will attract other investors, is really and palestinians.

it will create projects of joint benefit. when politics lurches left or right or something blows up, it is hard to unwind those things that are benefiting both people. that is the foundation to the roadmap to peace. i just had dialogue with secretary blinken on this issue. it seems to be a priority for the administration to implement this approach. i hope it helps. america has a long history with israel, israel is a key ally. we have given a definitive amount of money for israel's defense. america brokered the peace treaty between israel and egypt in 1979 after four wars. we have been in the middle of a process continuing to help israel with their defense but

also the egyptians. that is a peace model that has held for 40 years. a gives us hope and optimism that things can change when there is courage and commitment. but also a foundation of trust. host: reporting on the partnership for peace act, 250 million dollars over five years, for people to people israeli and palestinian grassroot program's and joint economic ventures to boost the palestinian economy. when you see the outbreak of violence in the middle east between israel and palestinians does that frustrate you in terms of being able to get a project like this and make this project effective? guest: that would be the most natural way to look at this but i look at it as creating the preconditions for this approach to be implemented quicker.

the time is right because of the conditions you mentioned earlier. coming out of a traumatic event, people searching for new ways to develop understanding. a new tool that i am hopeful will be leveraged aggressively to create equity investments, particularly in agriculture investments that benefit israelis and palestinians. that is the way to create interconnectivity. -- host: a headline about his trials this week. blinken back in europe as u.s. tries to reestablish u.s. leadership role. after president biden met with european leaders and russian president vladimir putin, they can spend time with representatives of those countries.

from berlin he travels to france and italy for leadership talks and multilateral meetings on syria, as land -- islamic state and the group of twenty. what do you think the relationship between the u.s. and the eu is now versus the trump administration? guest: in order to answer that fell that you have to go back to the post-world war ii. -- post-world war ii period. the welcomes out of this massive conflict, tens of millions are dead, the united states is cast into the role of the world's superpower. a number of multilateral institution -- out of world war ii flowed a number of multi- lateral institutions, people participating in standardization's of commerce and diplomacy to create the standards of peace.

we have to tend to those things. we can forget how important they are because they came out of a massive conflict. the transatlantic alliance was very important to america, europe. over the years, this was president trump's contention and i agreed, countries that benefited from america's sacrifice in terms of troops and funds as they advanced and stabilized and became great economies have an obligation to pay a proportionate stair -- share for their own defense. it is not fair to ask american young people to die for europeans when they're young people will not do the same. this is trying to rebalance the dues to nato, other multilateral organizations. when you have a problem with friends, you hold the hand of friendship tighter. it is important to engage with europeans and find areas in

which trust can be rebuilt. even with enemies it is better to try to find methods in which we can be in conversation. not being pollyanna-ish that we are going to solve every particular problem, this is about creating conditions for stability, peace and opportunity for all people. we have to understand that it is offense, diplomacy and development as a three legged stool underwritten by the foundation of justice and human dignity. or we are in another type of arms race where arms get smaller and smaller and the ability to inflict great harm magnifies tremendously. that is not the right way forward. diplomacy has a key role in trying to create conditions for peace. host: calls for congressman

fortenberry, (202) 748-8001 for the republican line, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. kathy in leslie, georgia, republican line. caller: i want to talk about the budget. we need a balanced budget. we need to take off pork barrel spending out of the budget and address what our federal government was put there to accomplish. that is to protect us and take care of our interstate highways. they have gotten into the insurance business, food business. i know we need protection on some of the food. i know we need detection on medications.

there are things in this bill that go beyond the protection of our citizens and and up being pork barrel spending -- end up being pork barrel spending we cannot do. as a taxpayer i have to be responsible for how i spend my money. host: congressman fortenberry? guest: thank you for the observation. you have made a number of important points. what is going on in washington is a philosophical fight as to what the nature of government is going to be. are we going to centralize more control and spending in the hands of the federal government or are we going to take a more traditional view that there are multiple levels of

responsibility? the first responsible -- the first responsibility for you is you, when your credit card bill comes at the end of the month, you have to pay it. you can string it out for a little while but not long. the federal government has an open credit card. it can pile up debt. it is a hidden form of taxation, inflationary pressures. it sells our debt overseas to places like china who are benefiting from this wealth asset shift. built upon an earlier wealth asset shift, international corporations and their profiteering moved manufacturing from america to china where art lacks labor and environmental standards. that means they can produce goods cheaper. they make the stuff, we buy the stuff, we run up debt, they buy our debt. it is a dysfunctional marriage.

they build up the military and are on this international march with extracting resources and paying a third oriole -- authoritarian regimes. there is a lot of dislocations when you spend. you are saying get affect your prices for gas -- it affect your prices for gas and groceries. it's a tough slog. there is no magic answer. we have to be deliberate as we do two things. have government that is accountable to you and provides public goods and services while trying to provide for a healthy prosperity and growth so people have opportunity for meaningful work. that will help solve our problem. host: let's go to the democrats line from tom in maryland. good morning. caller: thank you for the last

comment. could you give us insight on how you and your colleagues in the house, the u.s. innovation and competition act that the senate passed the week before last. it is the $250 billion emergency supplemental, how do you view that? guest: i would have to look at the specifics of that and the levels of spending. but i was encouraged by the trajectory. trying to get us to refocus that we cannot hollow out our manufacturing capacity and our ability to make critical supplies. we saw this in the pandemic, we had a shortage of basic medical equipment. we came to find out most of our drugs and precursor to drug ingredients are coming from

overseas. a portion of which is china. the irony is the coronavirus originated out of china, the same place on which we are dependent heavily for a lot of our drug ingredients. this renewed focus on trying to strengthen america internally for supplies is a place i am hopeful democrats and republicans could agree. host: you're the cochair of the nuclear security group, a headline from fox one of several reporting on eight ransomware attack in contractor doing energy department work. how concerned are you, confident are you in the nation's nuclear bread to the end of the desk grade -- grid to fend off these attacks. guest: i i have the privilege of

representing strategic command -- i am confident that we have to be careful with nuclear weapons. i have the privilege of representing strategic command. we have to reduce the probability as close to zero as possible opening incident, attacked, digital attack, any mistake that could imperil the world. the commanders and personnel who work on this are extraordinary. they are on top of this. we need to be refocused as an international community on trying to prevent the next kind of nuclear arms race, prevent the technology from spreading, coming to a better understanding in which we can reduce the number of nuclear weapons by

having enough or adequate deterrent. these are the complex questions. it is hard to pay attention to this when it is not an imminent threat. after the cold war ended we moved on but as we have seen of late russia aggressively modernizing nuclear capability. we are as well now. and china aggressively expanding nuclear capability. we have to wade back into these questions of arms control and diplomatic negotiations about trust. also the abilities to defend ourselves against any kind of attacked once the country is so digitized. host: waynesville, north carolina, claudia on the republican line -- waynesville, north carolina, claudia on the republican line. caller: you're a breath of fresh

air. i understand what you are saying. you are plainspoken. i like your perspective. of negotiating with other countries and working with them for big picture solutions. rather than what thinking -- what with the visionary thinking. i like the perspective president trump had, i do not want to make this republican or democrat, i like the perspective of peace through strength and the abraham accords. we were proud to be in ally with israel. -- an ally with isreal-- israel.

i hope you can move a great power in government. you have a great head on your shoulders. guest: thank you for your generous comments. i am proud to be a member of the united states congress. i have always believed public service is an honorable and high calling. it is my hope given all of the difficulties that we face that we can regain the sense that being in public service is that, simply being here to help, leaning into the most complex, difficult problems. with a focus on one fundamental, human dignity. every person matters, counts. how do we create a more just and orderly society where every person not only matters but can flourish?

that not only applies to us in america but that has to be the architecture for human relations. most people want to have the ability to use their own two hands and mind to create something good, provide for themselves and their family with a healthy form of nationalism and pride in their culture. if we try to focus on these fundamentals, it creates that human dialogue, the possibility of trust, friendship. that is important for peace. host: as the ranking republican on the agriculture committee i want to ask about the drought in the west. the headline inside, "heat dome and drought threatening to ignite the west." are we getting any indication of how this will threaten the u.s. and cattle supply in the -- u.s. food and cattle supply in the

country? guest: we had volatility in the commodity markets, overall they have done well part of the inflationary problem. one of the deeper issues as we saw during the pandemic, it sur ged and went away but there was a moment where we concerned about the food supply. this is not something we consider, we have the lowest grocery prices in the world. we do not think about where our food comes from, we have study supply based on the stewardship of farmers, ranchers and incredible national resources and that we have an innovative and sophisticated system that flows out of university land grant systems. these are the basics for civilized order in society. when you go overseas one of the most important people you see is the minister of agriculture. we do not tend to take it here

weather patterns -- we tend to take it for granted here. we have the university of nebraska to monitor these events. i am telling you this because agriculture is a central task is essential to human flourishing -- agriculture is essential to human flourishing. one of the pumps in the cattle market is the -- of slaughterhouses. we had four plants controlling 80% of slaughter capacity. when you have a backup, you cannot hold an animal back long. this causes supply chain disruption. there was a moment where we were in the study dialogue with the secretary of agriculture to make sure we were in front of this problem.

you suffered being wasted because it could not get to market because of transportation and logistical supply constraints. the department of agriculture put together a program to put that into the hands of people who needed it. we have a sound and secure agriculture system to protect people who have food integrity through government programs, extraordinary community organizations to give food to those in need, it comes from the gift of natural resources and value was viewership of farmers and ranchers. host: let's hear from eileen in new jersey on the independent line. caller: good morning mr. fortenberry. it is so good to listen to you. i want to say something and then i have a question i would like to ask. i hope that you can give me a direct answer.

since this administration has been in power this country has gotten worse. it is going down and down. i do not think i have to mention what that is, with the racism, crime, cost of everything. i have a question, when is somebody going to do something about joe biden? he is not a well man. anybody who is half intelligent can tell to look at him. host: i will let you go there, we are running short. do you care to respond or wrap up with other comments? guest: eileen makes a first good point in the sense that crime, inflation and illegal border crossings are surging in this country.

there has been a deliberate mechanism to stop crime, local police department's are going through an important national conversation about the reforms of police so can be based on relationship, community policing and use of force when necessary. as it flows out of relationship with the communities in need. inflation is related to the overspending in washington and economic dislocation. that is a tax on the poor. we did not get a chance to talk about the crisis on the border. you cannot have a just and orderly immigration system when there is chaos and disorder at the border. all issues we need to focus on, if we can do it with solidarity and critical thinking and stop pointing fingers we can get underneath this and back to work.

and restore our confidence and sense of greatness. host: serving his ninth term in the u.s. house, representative fortenberry of nebraska. we are joined by another congressman, jamie raskin, democrat of maryland to talk about a number of issues including the role of the justice department under the current administration and trump administration. ♪ >> c-span landmark cases explores the stories and constitutional drama behind significant supreme court decisions. sunday at 9:45 is drink getting versus wainwright where getting was denied a court-appointed lawyer. the supreme court ruled under the sixth amendment the accused must be provided a lawyer if they cannot afford one or the opportunity to defend themselves. ask landmark cases sunday night at 945 -- 9:45 eastern.

or watch any time c-span.com or the -- c-span.org or the c-span radio app. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: maryland congressman jamie raskin represent montgomery county suburbs joining us until the house comes in at 10:00 eastern. good morning. guest: delighted to be with you. host: i know it has been a late

night, thank you for being able to make it in time to join us. i would not as his specifics but in general, the biden administration's response yesterday to the rising crime across the country. what you are hearing is he taking the appropriate steps? guest: i believe so. we have to focus seriously on this problem, gun violence is out of control. we have outbreaks of gun violence that are 15 to 20 times higher than other developed, industrialized nations. that is unnecessary. 75% of the american people support a universal gun background check on gun purchases in united states, because of the internet loophole, private gun show

loophole, the law has been working with our big calls and we need to close those loopholes . it has been stymied by the senate and the filibuster. a lot of the progress we need to be making on gun violence or other issues alike prescription drug reform -- issues like prescription drug reform have been stopped by the senate. host: has the administration asked the democrats in congress to pass any additional gun legislation? is it something your committee will take up? guest: yes, there is so much more we need to do. we are stuck with a number of basic issues. the universal background check on some violent criminals, people fleeing justice, this is

foundational to having gun safety. there are other things we can do with the manufacturers of so-called ghost guns. guns are being produced at home with an effect printing machines that allow people to assemble the parts and print them out and escape the system. under the second amendment, people have a right to have guns for the purpose of self-defense or hunting and recreation. the supreme court is clear that we can impose a regulatory screen to make sure guns do not get into the hands of the wrong people. the biden administration and the department of justice has been focused on us point to close this loophole -- focused on us to close this loophole. we cannot get the senator asked the senate to be a partner moving forward. host: i wanted to ask about the

attorney general's comments here reflect in the new york times. "i watchdog is the best position in the inspector general to review the trump era justice department, not him." what are your thoughts? guest: in the normal course of things, the department of justice is the one department that changes the least from one administration to another. with this traditional distance and separation between the president who sits on top of the federal government, a political actor promoting policies and the department of justice whose work continues from administration to administration. the problem is the last president tried to convert the department of justice into a personal and political law firm.

when donald trump was trying to motivate lawyers in the department of justice to sue to overthrow the results of the election where joe biden beat him by more than 7 million votes. that is a fact, historical fact, legal fact that was established in 62 federal and state court cases. remember the former president tried to bring cases to overturn results and it was rejected everywhere it happened. nevertheless in his final days he was trying to galvanize the department of justice to go to court to sue on his behalf to overturn an election. the theory of that lawsuit mimicked what the attorney general from texas brought in texas suing other states to overturn their election.

none of them had legal merit all of them were factually baseless. the department of justice was contaminated by these efforts by president trump to conscript them. it has but the current attorney general in a awkward position. ordinarily the attorney general do not like to investigate their predecessors to get away from what they were going. unfortunately he has to do that. truth is a difficult route to go but the only road to go when it comes to corruption of the justice process. there have been revelations about the department of justice going after members of congress, investigating their telephone records. we do not know whether these are a few episodic and eccentric

exceptions going after adam schiff, eric swalwell, my colleague from california or part of a broader pattern. congress is determined to get to the bottom of that. we cannot accept this politicization of the department of justice. turning doj lawyers and people of against the president's enemies or perceived enemies. host: congressman raskin with us until 10:00 when the house galveston. (202) 748-8000 for republicans, (202) 748-8001 for democrats, independents and others (202) 748-8002. we understand this because as a byproduct about whether a special panel will be set up to investigate the generous six attack. what are your thoughts? -- the january 6 attack. what are your thoughts? guest: we have not heard the

details, we were interested in creating a 9/11 style commission populated outside of congress with former attorney general's, former president's. to assemble a distinguished group -- former presidents. to assemble district was group, the legislation that democrats supported would be five democrats five republicans to investigate the events are generally six with the terrible violence, insurrection unleashed against us and the causes of that. and what we need to do to prevent any replication. unfortunately republicans blocked it, pleading no interest in studying this for that we could not get additional information. that is completely false when you look at the 9/11 commission,

it established a comprehensive and meticulous record about what happened. and identified gaping holes in our security structure and the causes were tracing back the attacks. we can do the same thing here. if cannot do it with a bipartisan, independent commission, the speaker is taking the right approach by saying we will have to do but in the house of representatives if we will not -- do it ourselves and the house of representatives if the senate will not be partners. it is not certain whether she will create a new committee for this purpose or use the homeland security committee to do the job. we know the united states of america is going to investigate and get to the bottom of this attack which left several people

dead and more than 140 of our capital and metro officers injured and wounded. we had officers who lost eyes, fingers, who had heart attacks or strokes. officer sicknick died the next day, it was a brutal attack on america, an attempt to overthrow our election aced on a lie. -- based on a lie. the big lie that president trump had the election stolen from him. as long as there are people do not want to reckon with that lie, we are going to be able to heal and move forward. we have to deal with the reality that took place. there was also an explosion of violence by white supremacists, militia members, oath keepers, proud boys.

we have to look at this as part of a growing pattern of extremist violence. the department of homeland security, fbi declared this the number one security threat to the american people. domestic violent extremism if we were attacked on january 6 by al qaeda or isis people would not try to sweep it under the rug. we cannot be afraid to pursue all of the information to get to the bottom of this atrocity that nearly toppled the government. host: let's go to callers, mike first in california. republican -- north carolina. republican line. caller: i was asking questions.

one is his definition of a white supremacist. i hear all the time that this is the most dangerous thing in america, white supremacy. are they 74 million voters who voted for trump, does he consider them all white supremacists? has he ever been in a bad relationship? you start out liking each other and it ends up a bad relationship. how are we going to settle this or get a divorce? excuse me. host: we will hear from congressman raskin, definition of a white supremacist. guest: a white or racial supremacist is somebody who

tries to elevate their own race over and every other thinking their race is superior to others. we have seen the sordid history of racism and anti-semitism and racial supremacy movements in nazi germany. we have seen also in apartheid south africa. and we have the history of slavery in our country, it was the original sin of america. the spring court told us in the dred scott -- it was in the constitution the supreme court told us. it took the bloody civil war to overthrow white supremacy as the basics of our society and constitution. the vast majority of people reject white or racial supremacy. the vast majority of americans reject racism, sexism, misogyny and so on.

we saw that there are organized groups of people who are still focused on the promotion of white supremacist ideas. i did not get the second question. he was think that there is a relationship that is no longer working, the vast majority of the american people reject that. the vast majority of americans reject the idea that we are two different societies and we have to go back to civil war conditions. the way i see the explosion of some people on january 6 is that they are frustrated that most of the country including people who voted for biden and trump rejects racism and does not want to go back to the nightmare of jim crow and segregation and racial violence. we had people here on that day

chanting not just hang mike pence and where is nancy, but brandishing confederate battle flags and chanting racist slogans and wearing racist and anti-semitic t-shirts. the department of homeland security and fbi has been right to identify this point. we have seen the spines take a lot of lysing america. in charleston, south carolina where black worshipers were murdered, in pittsburgh we saw a furious white supremacist unleashed on a mostly hispanic people in el paso, texas. we have seen anti-gay, anti-asian violence. i am glad the department of justice is making it a priority to monitor this with federal,

state and local law enforcement to monitor it and event feature attacks. host: you mentioned the former vice president, he is speaking at the reagan library this evening. c-span will cover that suite later today. are you surprised that he has not been more forceful in terms of his response to the january 6 attack? guest: let me saint vice president pence played an honorable role on january 6. donald trump had been using -- say vice president pence plate and honorable role on gender six. donald trump had been using every attempt to -- january 6. donald trump had been using every attempt to get him to use

that hereto for unused power to reject election sites. congress does the counting of the electoral votes under the 12th amendment. trump in his and his -- in his lawless leg was trying to say that was up to the vice president and reject the electors from georgia, pennsylvania and arizona. that is what provoked the fury against him and told pence earlier that day that he could go down in history as a hero work something else -- or something else. too early in the morning to be quoting the former president. after this campaign, they turned the mob against him and that is pro-trump supporters got this idea that it would be okay to go after trump's vice president.

pence has been i would say unusually circumspect and inappropriately diffident about what happened. he is a politician like the rest of us. there are a lot of people who received a lot of death threats and there was a lot of violence. mike pence is probably not wanted to press his log with the drum model -- lock with the trump -- luck with the trump mob. trump has been telling people that he will be restored to power in august. i saw my friend george fortenberry on c-span prefer this, he complete a positive role because he is a reasonable person. to reject all of that and say that we have one president at a time in the states of america.

that is joe biden nt one -- and he won fair and square. the rest of this is dangerous propaganda. that will be a healthy thing just for the country, constitution put would help the republican party to make them great. host: want to get a few calls before we wrap up. reginald, indianapolis, go ahead. caller: i have a couple of questions. back to gun reform, one of the things living in a community with a lot of the guns. a lot of guns used in mass murders or murders in my neighborhood are not the created in my state, area.

we do not havewe do not have tho make these guns. is it illegal to go after the individuals that sell the gun? hold them criminally liable? guest: half of the firearms recovered come from out of state, i was involved as a state senator in passing our ban in trafficking military style assault weapons. it does not work if you do it in one state which is why you need federal law to crack down on

weapons of war in the streets of america. you asked the question of if you can go after the sellers. that is what our legislation, hr eight -- hr8 is about. there are people refusing to do criminal background checks, selling guns online, at the gun shop -- gun show, parking lot of a 7-eleven with the illegal. right now those are tuples being exploited. we need to make that illegal -- those are loop being exploited -- loopholes being exploited. we need to make that illegal. congress had many years ago that manufacturer guns cannot be held liable for the resulting's of

guns in violent crimes, mass murder. -- resulting crimes of guns in violent crimes, mass murder. those who knowingly deal weapons to criminals, knowingly put guns into the, underground would be responsible for the devastation they cause. host: fred from south carolina, republican line. caller: i have a few questions. why have the democrats ignored the crisis at the southern border? when joe biden was running for president, he said no member of his family would own or have anything to do with a foreign entity.

hunter biden holds 10% of the company that he owned before the election. why has there not been a hearing on influence peddling by hunter biden and his uncle? host: we will hear from congressman raskin. guest: president biden named vice president kamala harris to be specially focused on the crisis at the border. and to deal with the influx of immigrants coming in. trying to develop a plan for regional stability, to get governments in the area to work on preventing the causes of the problems we are experiencing. i do not know the answer to your question about whether the

president's son olds -- owns 10% of the stock. if you're interested in preventing the problem of foreign corporate influence in american elections, you should be for hr1 or s1, there are provisions called get foreign money out. i was author of them in the house and it became part of the overall package. it is one of the pernicious side effects of the citizens united decision that foreign money has flowed through corporate spending and elections. we need to put a stop to that. and make sure that corporate spending does not become a passageway for illegal foreign money to get into our elections. host: the vice president kamala

harris headed to el paso for a visit tomorrow. we have two minutes left, a call from ontario, canada. go ahead. caller: i am concerned looking from here. i said the particle system there and it looks toxic. after a literal insurrection, the right wing seems to be self radicalizing and getting worse. i wonder what you think the possible solution is if millions of people think they need to take their country back? guest: thank you for that point. the extreme polarization of politics is not just taken place in america, and the internet is becoming a tool of radicalization. it will be important for our

political parties to defend democracies, order, elections. that is why i hope to find friends and the republican party who both recognize that our constitutional order is something worth defending rather than attacking from the -- it from the outside. until the selection we have never seen a situation where people in a major political party refused to accept the ballot and results of a presidential election. what donald trump is doing is corrosive and destructive of the norms of a constitutional democracy. the liberal constitutional democracy requires us to accept when we lose elections. we had 62 federal, state court cases, stays themselves casting the votes.

the idea that people are still offering at tencent is a remarkable and dangerous thing. the department of justice has announced a multipronged set of policies to prevent this kind of polarization and attack on the government. we are invested in democracy. democracy is something that everybody needs to take care of. host: we have to take care of democracy, i hate to cut you off but your colleagues are coming in for morning speeches. we do not want to interrupt. thank you so much for being with us. guest: thanks so much for having me. host: that will wrap it up. the house is coming in now forte morning speeches and legislative as begins at noon. the majority and minority leaders for more hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with time equally