that people over and over again made the choice to put themselves in harm's way for the sake of fellow humans. and that is very instructive and something that we really need to continue to remember. >> jessica delong, sunday not at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q &a. you can also listen to q&a as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. john: club for growth president david mcintosh is with us on set at "washington journal." remind us of what the club for growth is and what you do there. representative it is good to be back -- david: it is good to be back with that one. club for growth is the largest

political organization in the country. we have different components. not-for-profit -- not for-profit advocates for lower taxes, less regulations, smaller government. we have a pac where members will bundle contributions to candidates the pac endorses, and that helps them tremendously. think it to pick which candidates they want to support. at we have a super pac, club for growth action, that provides independent expenditures. if we endorse a candidate. this cycle we endorsed dead by -- ted budd in north carolina for senate. members contributed to the pac, at the super pac is announced 5.2 million dollars raised already to help him in the primary. we will run our own ads telling the voters of north carolina why he is the best pick for next senator. john: i want to get into your work on election 2020 22, but

you are joining us in a week where senate democrats and the biden administration rolled out a 3.5 million -- 3.5 trillion dollars human infrastructure package with a variety of social and educational programs what was your reaction tuesday night when senator schumer came out with the $3.5 trillion number. david: i realize you have got democrats faced with a situation where they really want to include tax increases as part of that bill, and they want to expand welfare programs. they call it human infrastructure because there is no buildings, roads, no real physical infrastructure that is being paid for with that. i realized when they decided to go all democrat on that bill, then they have to negotiate with moderates, mainstream democrats, with the radical left, bernie sanders, get everybody on board. if they were trying to get a bipartisan bill, they would have to negotiating with republicans. you would see a more moderate,

probably a lot less spending, less deficit created. john: a bipartisan infrastructure framework is being worked on right now. senator schumer said he wants final details next week. do you support that smaller bill, the more hard infrastructure bill negotiated with a group of republicans and democrats? david: we don't of the details yet, so when they say it is all paid for, we don't know what that means. is going to be hard to keep them on separate tracks. so in the end, that infrastructure bill could be motor fuel for the larger tax increase spending bill. nancy pelosi has said that, she won't consider an infrastructure bill until she gets tax increases and everything done by reconciliation. john: and that reconciliation process, how hard is that the move something for reconciliation? and when you were in congress, were big bills like this moved through the reconciliation process? how often? david: we used a much more

regular budget process when i was in congress. most of the time, we would do all 10 or 11 of the spending bills separately. they would pass, be signed or vetoed, you would negotiate between house and senate. for a while then, both sides threw up their hands and had this big omnibus bill. now they are all trying to do it through reconciliation, code word for 50 votes rather than 60. there are rules limiting what you can do and that bill, but they're putting spending into it, which we never used to do. we would do spending separately and reconciliation was for things like social security, medicare and taxes. john: viewers joining the program with david mcintosh and the club for growth until 8:40 am easter this morning. start calling now with your questions or comments. we began talking about the enhanced child tax credit checks that started hitting bank

accounts yesterday, part of the $1.9 trillion american rescue plan passed in march. were you would support of expanding the child tax credit program? david: no. that is a welfare program run through the tax code. it is refundable and people got it whether they pay taxes or not. they run it through the tax code because it sounds like a tax cut when it really is just another payment program. we have to be careful and we were against the covid relief bill because of the huge debt it increased. but it also disrupted the market. you see all these extra payments create huge incentive for people not to go back to work. if you have eaten in a restaurant recently, you would notice maybe they don't have as many servers as they used to. that is a direct result of this covid ale playing out through the end of the year. john: the enhanced child tax credit was a program -- the

child tax credit was a program that started in 1997 pit this just adds more money in a different way of getting the money out great but the program in 1997, were you in congress for the debates over the original child tax credit, do you remember? david: yes, i do. i don't support it when they make it a refundable tax credit. it was probably backed up into a package that had tax cuts that i did support. so i may have ended up voting for the bigger bill. john: back then, it wasn't a refundable tax credit? it was a credit you got on your tax bill. david: on your tax bill, which makes sense to me if you do child tax credit as a natural reduction of your taxes. that is like extending the child exemption, only they do it through a credit. we have always had that as a way of recognizing that families with middle income that extra expense -- middle income have extra expenses when they have children. but when you turn it refundable,

it becomes a welfare program. john: john is out of clifton park, new york, independent. good morning. you are on with david mcintosh of the club for growth. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. these space programs by these various billionaires shows the failure of trickle-down economics upon which you base a lot of your stances and everything. how is that putting these billions into space, instead of improving conditions of the workers that make these people the richest men on earth? i would like a better understanding. you are talking about welfare and everything else yet at the same token, you ignore these billionaires pouring all this money into space. the only people able to fly with

them are also billionaires and millionaires. program where they are forcing taxpayers to spend the millions of dollars on something like that. my view is if somebody has been successful in creating a business and making money and the customers have rewarded them so become -- so they become a billionaire, if they want to spend it on a rocket out of space, that is their choice. if they want to spend it on building mansions, they can do that. i do not think it is the right role of government to tell people how to spend their money. host: maximus on twitter with this question, why is the club for growth anti-trump and pro liz cheney? is that a correct description? guest: no. that is an interesting question. we have not endorsed in the primary but we are looking for a challenger in liz cheney because she voted for a lot of compromises on the democrats on a lot of the big spending bills.

down in texas right now, there is a special election going on in texas six. ron white and his now widow susan was down there. often times we will align with trump's alignments but other times we make our own choices. we look at where they stand on limited government, lower taxes, less regulation, growing the economy and pick candidates that way. host: who is jake elsie? guest: he is her opponent. the two interestingly about this race, they call this a jungle primary, democrats and republicans vote together. the democrats were -- they did not turn out so two republicans ended up being the final two choices, susan wright and jake elsie. host: giving a flavor on what that does in getting involved in

races. we want to show one of your ads in the texas six race against jacobs he -- jake. here's the ad [video clip] >> bill crystal bakhtin publicans -- backed republicans who tried to -- maybe the most vicious never trump hitman said he was impressed and gave him a campaign contribution. he trashed conservatives and bashed ted cruz. jake elsie is wrong about trump and bad for office. host: how many congressional races do you plan on getting involved in or a better question, how much money do plan on spending in the 2022 cycle. guest: last cycle we raised $103 million, it was a record for us. we are hoping to increase that and have even more funds available in the next cycle. host: in a midterm? guest: in a midterm. we have a progressive -- and

republicans are ready to give and support candidates because they see taking back the congress as a huge mission in order to create balance. part of that is driven by the biden, pelosi, and schumer going so far left, having to appease their far-left, and that will give republicans a lot of momentum in this election. we will probably endorse about 30 to 35 candidates. we do not endorse all of the republican candidates. we have in the past endorsed democrats who voted for the bush tax cuts. it really is on the philosophy we look at. host: club for grillo --club for growth has gotten this in the past, but why get involved in primary races? there's criticism that why not say that money for the general election to elect conservatives as opposed to interparty fights? guest: it is our view the primaries determine the heart and soul of the party.

forever, the republicans have run on less spending, lower taxes, but when they get into government in washington, voters seem to think they forgot the campaign pledge. we look for people who are committed to that, they have a record of working for that in the past, and they will be champions for conservative principles, lower government. i think when we help them get through the primary, then they can affect the party once they are here. host: what is the clubs relationship like with the party committee, the national republican congressional committee and the other committee as well? guest: both committees have said they will stay out of the primaries. so we do not run into them -- speaker maccarthy has said similar things, though if one of your people can't win in the general or we think they are a bad candidate, we may oppose you. for the most part, we work in the primary space, raise money for the general.

once our candidates when the primary, our interests are aligned, so we can work together with them. host: sounds like you think kevin mccarthy will be speaker again. guest: that is certainly what he is pushing for. he is the leader now and i do not see the reason why that would not happen. we will have to see. politics is a lifetime and a year. host: evansville, indiana is next. this is deborah, a democrat. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: doing well. you are on with david mcintosh. guest: hi, deborah. caller: hey. i was wondering if in biden's economic plan for families if he plans to include anything s forsi recipients -- anything for ssi recipients. we worked and we live on 799 dollars per month. we barely make it now, so i'm wondering if he is looking at any recurring payments for us for help. guest: first of all, it is good

to hear from a fellow hoosier. i represented muncie in the middle part of the state. i have not seen anything in the biden plan that directly would do that. there are several, vega, general provisions, including one that talks about maybe on the revenue saving they will look at health care. i do not know what they mean by that. if they're trying to have savings, that means they might try to cut back on some of that. we will have to wait and see what the details are before we know for sure. host: anita in missouri saying the club for growth, for whom did david mcintosh complain when trump increased the deficit with tax cuts for the rich? guest: so the tax cuts for the rich did not increase the deficit. brought in more revenue during the periods after they were enacted. the real deficit increase was the spending that was also done. and yes, that happened during

the trump presidency as well as now during the biden presidency. we have a long record of opposing both. we do not think the big spending bills are good for the economy, and they expand government in areas that interfere with economic growth. guest: where do you think you have butted heads with the trump administration the most? guest: most things we objected to where the spending bills. their trade, we are very much committed to free-trade. there, we reached a middle ground. we were very laissez-faire if you will for open markets. the president made a peer space of -- a persuasive case that it is not a level playing field and he wanted to use the tariffs to force them back to the negotiating table. our view was if the goal is in the end to reduce tariffs, we can understand what you are doing tactically to use them in the short-term. host: maryland, this is jackie, an independent. good morning.

caller: how are you? host: doing well. you are on with mr. mcintosh. caller: hey, mr. mcintosh. really interested. it is -- i am a history buff and i remember southern strategy. it sounds to me your organization is really a cover for the racist beliefs and actions of any party that would seek to help african-americans. the southern strategy said we can no longer use the and word but if we use lower the taxes, smaller government, all of those things, he said it will hurt blacks more than whites. guest: i could not disagree more, jackie. our policy helps blacks and other minorities. we saw that during the trump years where they had record unemployment -- low unemployment for blacks and other minorities.

we are for an economic policy that helps everybody, and frankly that is better than a big government policy that tends to help the rich and elite. that is why you see a lot of these alien and send millionaires supporting the democrats in the last election. they liked big government because they can afford to pay for it and they get all of the benefits. whereas a lot of times minority families n >> c-span's washington journal. every day we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we discussed policy issues that impact you. saturday morning, rob richie of fair vote, a group that supports ranked choice voting and election reform. and then, higher education policy examining if there is a college financing crisis in the u.s.. watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern 70

morning and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text, and tweets. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, indicating charter communications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment. that is why 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. peter: sujit raman is a former assistant deputy attorney general in the trump administration and is our guest this week on ". the communicators" what was? ? in your portfoli t