we will have that live on c-span. on c-span two, the republican national lawyers association holds a press conference. at 2:00 p.m., a discussion on federal spending and the budget hosted by the american enterprise institute. ♪ c-span is your unfiltered view of government, sponsored by these companies and more, including charter communication. >> broadband is a force for power. that is why charter has invested billions, building infrastructure, up reading 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. coming up this morning, the

latest on infrastructure and reconciliation legislation, government funding, and debt limit deadlines with congressman earl blumenauer of the ways and means committee and congressman ben cline, a member of the appropriations and budget committee. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning, everyone. it is friday, september 20 fourth, and it has been a busy week in washington and around the country. this morning, we will spend our first hour with all of you, talking about your top news story of the week. democrats, dial in at 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. an independents, 202-748-8002. text us, with your first name, city, and week, at.

202-748-8003. tweet us @cspanhistory -- @cspanwj. senator bernie sanders on the floor yesterday, talking about why he believes and democrats believe it should pass. [video clip] sen. sanders: we are at a moment when millions of americans have lost faith in their government. they think all we do is listen to the lobbyists and the billionaire class, and at this moment, do we have the courage to keep faith with the american people and show them that their democracy, in fact,

can work for them and not just powerful special interests? so let us go forward, let us do the right thing, let us pass this $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. host: budget chair bernie sanders on the floor. what you think about democrats' push about the $1.2 trillion bipartisan a restructure bill and the $3.5 trillion so-called human interest trucks are. jim jordan, a report looking from ohio, tweeting out -- "here's what is happening in d.c. democrats control the house, senate, and white house. they want to raise taxes. they cannot find the vote. who they blame for their failures? republicans senator jerry moran on the floor talking about his

concerns, overspending and inflation. [video clip] sen. moran: mr. president, i spent that time i was away from d.c. in kansas, and it is clear that inflation has returned. gas prices are up, prizes at the grocery store are up, and price hikes are on the horizon. unfortunately, prices at the gas grocery store and everyone else -- everywhere else puts the greatest burden on middle-income families already feeling the strains caused by covid-19 on their pocketbook. it is apparent, i think, but our spending here in the nation capital over a long period of time as part of the cause for that inflation, and in fact a significant part of the cause for that inflation, but it does

not seem to me that my democratic league are aware of the consequences of pouring a massive amount of more money, more government spending on already this inflationary circumstance that our citizens are now encountering. the democratic tax and spend spree will exacerbate our inflationary circumstances, meaning that the price will continue to rise, as we borrow more money to pay for these things, it means that interest rates will rise, and at some time, those who lend us money will be no longer willing to do so. while i am sure that many of my democratic colleagues will tell me the good things that will happen on this ending that is included in this bill, we cannot discount the people that they indicate they are trying to help would be the ones who suffer the greatest burden from increasing of everything that they buy. given the historic levels of

spending over the last year and a half, now is not the time to spend even greater amounts of taxpayer dollars. host: texas republican jerry moran yesterday. camilla jayapal from washington state tweeting out a push for the $3.5 trillion package, saying "i have been talking a lot about what the build back better invests in, but it also provides a working and middle-class tax cut," she argued, "for ensuring the richest of the rich pay their fair share. let's get this done is the story your top story of the week? patrick, an independent in florida, what is the top story for you? caller: i was sad to see the police reform bill fall apart,

and i am kind of surprised the police themselves don't come out. we are the last country in the world you can buy the burner, no trace cell phones, the number one contraband item in our nation's prison system, and they run extortion brings with it. there was a story about jeb bush and socialism, especially from red state representatives. you can start with joe mccutcheon's state, who gets the most federal dollars per person, per state come and go all the way down the east coast from grand, of carolina, 30% of their state budget is federal money. florida's state budget is made up of 30% federal money. go right over to texas, they get it. george bush junior, when he was

in office, you can have $250,000 in income, call yourself a farmer, and still get federal aid. i would say living in nebraska, maybe outside a metropolitan area, having $200,000 in income, you could live pretty well, but you are still eligible. the federal government is insuring bank accounts, unlimited bank accounts up to a quarter million dollars. that is the free market, and that is anti-socialism? give me a break. one last thing, for c-span, i still see you are still showing that reagan's tax cut that tripled the national debt, and it is going to be brought to us by leffler and forbes. good job of that, c-span. thanks for taking my call. host: all right, patrick.

on your first story, you may be interested on the front page of "the washington times," cities report a big rise in killings. john in brooklyn, democratic caller. good morning, john. caller: how are you? thanks for taking my call. i want to ask everybody was against it, why do they want to have their grandkids a country that is in decay? i want to ask the democrats why they don't get together, get your accountants together, and talk about the dividends that bill will bring in if they pass it. what will we gain from a? we don't want to have jobs, and the kids cost too much for your child, somebody to keep them.

we want to know why the democrats don't get together and tell how much we lose sitting in traffic, how much do we lose by bridges that decaying? and you want to have your grandkids -- hand your grandkids a country and dilemma. they don't do enough on what would it means our country and our economy, and we have jobs, but they are not future jobs, and i want them to do that. talk about the dividends. they don't do that. democrats, come on, wake up. host: all right, john. six republican comes out in support of the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

reporting from the hill.com. don bacon, despite the fact that their leadership team is whipping members against it. this comes as the speaker says she will stick to her commitment to ask house centrist to vote on that bill by december 27. progressives like congresswoman jayapal want them to vote on the $3.5 trillion spending package. gary, a republican. hi, gary. caller: hi. four things, the border come artificial intelligence, infrastructure, and and tent on the january 6.

why was mr. trump down in north carolina? there's no stadiums down there. the only thing down there is black water security services. is he trying to get them to come down and join his 1/6 party, at the capitol? and at the debt limit come every time mcconnell plays his chicken thing with the debt limit, the ira goes down 7% to 13%. he did this three or four times during the obama administration, and it would be six or seven months before i would recover my losses. we need to use artificial intelligence, because it is so much better -- like, when humans play with a rubik's cube, they do consist of 44, 45 turns.

ai can do it in 25, consistently. this would prevent the waste, fraud, incompetence, and partisanship, because it is going to be a food fight down about public trough over this, and it already is. we are watching it right now. thank you for letting me share, greta. host: all right, gary, you might be interested in a yahoo! news headline, january 6 panel subpoenas trump advisor. committee chair subpoenas the former white house chief of staff, mark meadows. , the former communications chief of staff, and patel and former trump advisor steve bannon. the four men are among trump's most loyal aides. they have been

subpoenaed by this january 6 special committee. eric in rome, georgia. hi, eric. good morning. caller: good morning. you need to subpoena mike pompeo also. these republicans, this hypocrisy, what we need to do, some democrats need to introduce the you vote no, you get no d ough. they should not get the money if they vote no. these supporters and the insurrection, they still get all the money the democrats get. they get an -- earned income tax credit, greta. cruise lines, they get the ppp, republicans did it. the reason why they can vote for these people talking about guns and abortions, because the democrats give them everything they need. they vote for racism and hate in this country and the vitriol.

what we need to do is file a bill, an amendment from democrats that say if you vote no, you get no dough in your district. what happens is the government has to opt in. they don't have to take this money. they are voting against it. they are voting against the debt ceiling. so why did they get any of these funds? no! you do not get it. say you have for republicans and three democrats, if those five republicans vote, 5-3, in any congressional district, no one gets this money. vote no, you get no dough. host: got it, eric. [laughs] all right, john, and miami, democratic caller. caller: good morning. about the economy, i noticed

last week that the oracle of oklahoma, bluebird, other wealthy people pay less than 1% in taxes, and i believe they should at least pay 15% to cover military costs. after all, they certainly have got more to lose than quite a few people. also, it kind of dawned upon me the other day, trump have those trade talks with china that fails, which resulted in farmers having to get subsidies. i think they are still getting these subsidies. i do not know if china is going to come back, if they can't count on us. i am just wondering if these increases in cost, inflation, if that is not due to the fact that the companies, they have been eating the costs, but now it is time for payback, so they have an opportunity to get some of that money back. host: ok, don, and florida. in arizona on the 2020 election,

"hand count and audit affirmed. president biden beats president trump in november." this from the county chair, and a statement, you do not have to dig deep to the draft copy of the cyber ninja audit report to confirm what are already knows. the candidate certified by the secretary state and attorney general did in fact win. this means the tabulation equipment counted the ballots, as they were designed to do, and the votes reflected the will of the voters. that should be the end of the story. everything else is just noise. steve in normal, illinois. hi, steve. caller: how are you? the first thing we need to do is secure our border. we have a president, i do not know if he has the mental capacity anymore to see what is going on, but we need to do that, and they need to quit

going after trump, because you will never get him. he will be president in 2024. we need to look at her and joe biden and their dealings. and the "washington journal" needs to quit back the democrats. thank you. host: all right, steve. who is controlling biden on control and security policies is the question on the front page. the washington times this morning, also their front page, treatment of haitian refugees causes a split amid democrats, rifts between progressives in the biden administration widens. doug is on the line. caller: thanks for taking my call. the competence of the administration is the story this week and really since they first took office. the disaster in afghanistan, a disaster at the border.

a foreign relations disaster, because they don't seem to be able to deal with our friends or our enemies effectively. certainly the disaster with hunter biden and his apparent, possible criminality, and maybe even the president's criminality in collecting money that is a little dirty. so, frankly, i am not even sure they president is capable of doing his job. he seems to continually demonstrate that he does not have the mental capacity to handle host: it. thank you very much. host:doug in california. dan in bloomington, wisconsin, a democratic caller. caller: good morning. top story of the week, more subpoenas coming our way. more subpoenas, more formation, more paperwork.

we should probably be seeing everybody in jail by now. thank you. host: all right, dan. brock in newark, new jersey, independent. caller: good morning. thank you all for c-span. i just have a few comments. i will be fast. i want to send prayers to our troops protecting us at home and abroad, and thanks to all the health-care workers. my feelings are we need to stop the fighting. we need to get things done. it is said to see that we are in this state of affairs right now, where we cannot get the simplest things done. i suggest that we need to get our youth back to work. all these problems that we have come up of these jobs, even border safety, we need to put these kids to work, get everybody involved so that we can move forward, because a lot of the older people are just stuck on stupid at this point, excuse my language.

we need to move forward, we have so many issues, and they are all compounding at the same time. if we are not using a united front to combat these problems, it is just going to be a cancer waiting on us. host: all right. on the looming deadline facing congress, that is raising the debt ceiling limit, "washington post," front page, down to the wire, agencies prep for a shutdown in case the clock ticks. the speaker the house yesterday during a press conference asked why she is confident a bill raising the debt ceiling would be passed. [video clip] >> you have been talking about the debt ceiling, you expressed concern there. it seems as though every time we get close to the deal, and we hear all of these horror stories about the apocalypse, why would

we think that that would not happen this time? i know the position of the republicans. but why would we not think that this is going to be different this time? speaker pelosi: because, again, public sentiment is everything. the republicans were speaking today -- yesterday, saying they voted to shut down the government and not honor the full faith and credit of the united states of america. shutting down government at the same time as rejecting assistance for their own constituents who were affected by hurricane ida. again, we will keep government open. we have the votes to do that, and then we will go to the senate again. it is a national debate. why should it be that we, as democrats, always come to the

rescue when it is a republican president? we are not coming to the rescue of the president, we are coming to the rescue of our economy, families, the interest they pay on loans. that is the debate we have to have, and we must succeed. again, hopefully, we hear messaging on this, and fox news will get a lot of people writing into the people and saying let's not just reneged on the national debt. it is about paying. you know, the former president was famous for not paying his bills, and they want to do that again, but we cannot let them do that and jeopardize our economy. host: speaker of the house nancy pelosi. republican leader kevin mccarthy of california responded to democrats' arguments that republicans have a responsibility to raise the debt ceiling. here is what he had to say. ♪ on >> the debt ceiling, republicans do not want to help the democrats, you even voted against the cr. it looks like democrats are

coming is going to be a process for them to get this $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill through, which is the argument for why they should raise the debt ceiling on their own. so something needs to be done by mid-october. how are republicans not responsible for a financial crisis caused by not raising the debt ceiling if democrats aren't able to do it on their own? sen. mccarthy: first, because they can. democrats control the white house, the senate, and the house. they want to raise $3.5 trillion and spend in the next month. they have a maxed out credit card, and they want to get a new limit to go max out another one. in reconciliation, within the senate, they have the ability to carve out just for the debt ceiling to vote. they have a hard time doing that on their own, because it may harm them and raising all that money, but they are in the majority. they control will come to the

floor, so they have wasted all of this time. the only people who will get any blame for this is the democrats and their management. we have watched crisis after crisis, from the border to afghanistan to now putting our debt a crisis. why will they move a bill that they know will not pass come and they even took out the iron dome funding in it, to try to get their most liberal people to vote for it. why did they waste that time? why did they take the time to wall off the reconciliation with the debt ceiling in the facet in the house, past it in the senate, so people in america will not be harmed? because they cannot be managed. that is the only answer. host: republican senate leader kevin mccarthy. good morning. good morning. your tops news stories. caller: good morning, greta. in the economy this week, i heard on the news we are going to have shortages and paper

products again. does that mean my adult children might be given paper products for christmas, if we cancel care them? -- can secure them? why is this a problem? is it because we get products from other countries? we need our own country to secure these products and get them out of the public. i hate to do without toilet paper. we don't have sears catalogs anymore. [laughs] so i don't know what we are going to do if it comes down to that. and that is my main story of the week. it really kind of get me hard. host: ok, jasmine in new york. caller: good morning. how are you doing? i would like to thank god, every time a republican in the senate

come in the house, they do the bill, the democrats have to come and fix it. if the government shuts down, it will be the republicans because trump does not like to pay his bills, and he needs to stop, the republicans need to stop. number one, trump, the chinese -- because he borrowed money to pay the farmers' debt. right now, he owes tens of thousand dollars, and republicans -- gas prices are going up, because republicans always run up the bills and left democrats stuck with the bills. trump do not like to pay his bills, and it is republicans' fault and it is pres. trump:'s

default. host: all right, jasmine, democratic caller in new york. senator chuck grassley said of this tweet of his alarm going off. the 88-year-old, who is currently serving his seventh term, has been in office since 1980, and he wants an eighth term. he is running for reelection, the longest-serving senator. joan in cleveland, ohio, a republican. hi, joan. caller: good morning. host: good morning.

caller: i try you guys every day, and i am finally through. first of all, let me say to everyone, i miss my president trump. i think he is the best president we have ever had. and amazon pays no taxes. i do not understand your to all of this voting, let's do it the old-fashioned way, go to your precinct and vote. then we will not have all this trouble and recount and by mail. i think this is so ridiculous already that we go through this every time there is someone up for election. and miss kamala, the vice president, is going to be on "view" today, but she does not have time to go to the border? she does not have time to be on her job, but she is going to be

on "the view"? the president, the vice president, and all of these people and politics, going from the federal down, they have money, they have all kind of money, so when they throw a budget, to them, it is like a drop in the budget. nobody cares about the little guys. host: all right, joan. surely, florida, democratic caller. caller: good morning. host: good morning. your top news story? caller: well, i just want to say that i do believe that president biden will get his package bill passed through, because he has never failed so far. just don't give up on him, and don't give up on our speaker of the house, ms. pelosi, because

she has proven time and time again that she can do it. so has our president. i have a tremendous amount of faith in them. host: shirley, on that front, let me share with you from roll call.com. democratic leaders say they have narrowed a menu of options on how to pay for the sweeping budgeti package. in their reporting, they say chuck schumer made a brief appearance at speaker nancy pelosi's news conference to announce they have reached an agreement on how to pay for paid leave, childcare, climate, and much more. it quickly became clear that what schumer described as a menu of items and which pelosi deemed a giant step forward was not yet the major breakthrough needed to

resolve long-standing disputes among moderate and progressive democrats on the size and scope of the sweeping tax spending package. is that sears that the top democratic leaders and tax writers have narrowed the menu of options on how to pay for this reconciliation package but takes a controversial inheritance tax proposal off the table but leaves many others with shaky support. so there's more to learn on the negotiations that are happening behind the scenes on capitol hill. the white house press secretary reacted to this announcement of the framework. here is what she had to say. [video clip] sec. psaki: so it is a menu of revenue raisers. it is important to have discussions with a range of leaders, including senator sinema, senator manchin, a range of leaders, so we know what they look like. that is exactly the process that will happen. i will let that play out.

> secondly, i know you do not want to negotiate -- sec. psaki: we try not to. >> exactly. democrats say with regards to the child tax credit, with universal pre-k, is there any unity? sec. psaki: there is broad unity for lowering costs for americans, whether it is cost of college, cost of pre-k, it is all part of the discussion, child tax credit. there is broad agreement that we need to do more to address the climate crisis. there are extensive proposals both in the infrastructure package as well as in the reconciliation package. a big part of what we are talking about here, which is not a secret to you, are the size of the package. there are a range of different viewpoints on that. there are different viewpoints,

and we will have to unify it moving forward. host: from the white house sec. yesterday. the hill newspaper with the headline "democrats surprised, caught off guard by framework deal. carol in katy, texas, and independent. we are talking about the top news story of the week. what is yours? caller: i just want to voice my disappointment with our governor, greg abbott. iver this morning when i got up on the news that within 30 minutes from donald trump demanding that we do an audit in a state that he won, greg abbott ordered it, it every night, when i watch the news, i live close to houston -- there are so many murderers, and the majority this week have been by teenagers, and also we lost a houston police

man to a man that was out on bond and had several felony bonds against him, and also, just a few weeks ago, there was a new orleans policeman killed here by a man, out on bond, had several felony bonds against him. greg abbott seems to have no interest in the states citizens. all he is interested in is being a lapdog to donald trump. host: all right, cheryl. trump presses abbott, your governor, on election. we will go to jim in texas, a republican. we will show you and others headlines from around the country. go ahead, jim. caller: what i want to bring up is this new sweeping tax expansion of tax information reporting to be included in the

budget, the constellation process. this proposal, if enacted, would require banks and other financial institutions to report to the irs detailed information of inflows and out lows on every customer account with a balance of more than $600. this is -- if this goes through, the next thing they will want to do is know what is in your safety deposit box. i have not heard this talked about on this station. host: all right, jim. derek, chicago, democratic caller. caller: good morning. good morning. host: good morning, derek. caller: my comment is i just heard the piece that you did. you know, the debt ceiling, raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with the budget over the bill that the democrats

are trying to pass for infrastructure and stuff like that. the debt -- raising the debt ceiling is to pay the bill that actually trump occurred. i am just so overwhelmed and tired of hearing the republicans being so disingenuous. i can't wait when their followers, their voters start to read and really do research and stay out of these -- off the internet, reading these conspiracy theories and things, because they are just being had appeared that is my comment for this morning. host: all right, derek. here is majority leader chuck schumer, democrat of new york, on republicans' plans not to support the combination of continuing the government to avoid a shutdown and suspending the debt ceiling limit.

[video clip] senator schumer: republicans claim to want to avoid a default, but they are going to vote for one anyway. they say they want to a poise -- oppose a government shutdown, but they say they are going to vote for it anyway. they say they want that's a relief, but they will oppose it when the time comes. they can resort to sophistry all they want, but if they vote no, the republican party will be solidifying itself as the party of default, and the american people, unfortunately, will be the ones footing the bill, the high cost to pay for republican games, political games. but going to repoll -- default, they are telling the american people they are fine if they don't get social security checks. they say they don't care about her veterans. they are saying they do not care if the markets come crashing down, hurting people's pensions and ira's. none of this is an exaggeration.

economists wrote recently that a default would be, quote, "a catastrophic blow to the nation's economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic." he also warned that americans would pay for this default for generations. i hope my republican colleagues, who are thinking of indulging in the political game put forward by leader mcconnell, americans will pay for this default for generations. host: the democratic leader on the floor, chuck schumer, yesterday. now, the minority leader, publican senator mitch mcconnell of kentucky, responded to him. here is what he had to say. [video clip] senator mcconnell: republicans are signing a spotlight on the reckless spending spree that democrats are writing behind closed doors. the radical list it -- left is

pushing and all-new tips. using the pandemic as a trojan horse for permanent socialism. in president biden, identified as a moderate, is opposed to stop them or does not wish to. an avalanche. an avalanche of crushing contracts that would hurt families and help china. health care decisions, childcare charges, family finances, and daily lives. trillions upon trillions more in government spending when families are already facing inflation. none of this, of course, will get a single republican vote in the chamber. the democrats have not even consulted us. they have not tried to earn our votes. from the start, they plan to use a party line, fast-track process to ram through the senate this

version of their vision of america. that is white republicans will not help us unify democratic government with its basic duty to raise the debt ceiling. this could not be simpler. if they want to tax, borrow, and spend and charge sums of money without our input, they will have to raise the debt limit without our help. this is the reality. i have been saying this very clearly since july, and i think our democratic colleagues are finally getting it, because now they are fondling for bogus excuses. they remain confident they can spend trillions of dollars to remake the entire economy in a couple of weeks, but supposedly they just cannot play this procedural battle, hurdle without republican help. really? give me a break. host: senator mitch mcconnell on

the floor. patricia in temple, georgia, independent. we are talking about your top news story of the week. what is it, patricia? caller: i have got two of them. one, donald trump told everybody don't believe your own eyes, don't believe your own ears. republicans doing that, i think they are all retarded. number two, manchin and synema are hiding behind democrats. all they are for our republicans. the debt ceiling, republicans did it three times when trump was in office. all this to do with is helping the middle-class and the poor people. that is why republicans don't want to help. the majority of them republicans are nothing but thieves, and mcconnell's wife got caught during the trump administration, but they didn't do nothing to her. and mitch mcconnell and chuck

grassley, these two need to go on and retire, find him something to do with his wife. host: all right, patricia, here is bill in new york, texting us to say the story of the week is the question at the border. with the haitians. trump's treatment of the migrants, the media has little to say about biden and his treatment of the haitians. seems to be a double standard. that was bill. katina says why are taxpayers finding the one billion-dollar iron dome when our political leaders cannot come together to meet basic needs of american citizens. and derek showing that maricopa county officials announced joe biden was and is the winner of arizona. deborah, biden won maricopa

county, surprise surprise. can anyone who thinks otherwise explain in detail? you have ed in south carolina, the top story of the week was the proof of the "new york post" story that hunter biden was not only true commit was perfectly suppressed by the media to american voters who lied about the government. china, ukraine, russia for the shakeup of new biden business. the story of the week, youngstown, sandy, a republican. hi, sandy, go ahead. caller: let's see. about the infrastructure deal, they spend a lot of money that was not on the infrastructure. we don't have the money for this bill. now they want a $3.5 trillion for -- i don't know what they wanted all for coming to take over the country, to collect the

economy, who knows? we don't have the money. we don't have the money now to pay what we owe. and then the border. they are overrunning the border. i mean, it is the duty of the president to protect the american citizens, and he does not even care. they don't even know who is coming in. terrorists? people who have covid, and they want everybody here to have covid, american citizens, to have covid shots. and i sigh video on tucker in 2015, when they were putting all kinds of illegals in, that biden said the reason they are letting so many illegals and is they want white people to be a minority in the country. shouldn't that be our decision, who we let in, not his? he is supposed to be protecting -- his only job, main job is to protect the american citizens,

and all they are doing is everything -- nothing good to this country. everything they are doing is hurting the country. host: all right, sandy, in ohio. what is in the $3.5 trillion so-called human infrastructure package, the reconciliation bill? you have heard that word many times. it establishes universal pre-k for three-year-old to four-year-olds, expands the child earned income tax credit, requires electricity utility sector to generate from clean energy sources by 2030, reduces prescription drug causes. those are some of the top line proposals of white democrats are pushing $3.5 trillion for with that package. roger in abilene, kansas, democratic caller. hi, roger. caller: i have to agree with the

republican just called, the border is the biggest problem. i live in a rural area. i would hate to every night look out my door and think there is somebody out there who wants what i have. these people, what they live with its unbelievable right now, and the government that won't help then, i mean, it just shocks me that that continues. i can't believe us as a people allow this to keep happening, and i don't know what to do. it is terrible. on your budget, this is the most foolish thing i have ever heard of. have you ever went into a consultant and on your financials, and they said well, the first thing you need to do is your employer needs to pay you a lot more money? it is foolish, what they are trying to do. as they said, the democrats can go ahead and pass all these bills they want, but they are

going to own them then, and that is what they don't want to do. was our next problem? oh, the fuel prices -- host: roger, can i jump in and ask you about the economic concerns people have about not raising the debt ceiling? economists estimate that a default would wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth, because the u.s. economy to shrink by 4% over the following 12 months, and push the on employment rate back up to 9% from its august level of 5.2%. caller: does this concern you? yeah, sure, but i am not sure if that is all theory. it is very much theory. are these the same guys that will this if we shut down the pipeline the gas would be the same? no. the most foolish thing is the gas and fuel situation.

my sun was on a track rotation committee in d.c. quite a few years back. he said that the people that make the most money on gasoline and diesel is our government. they get 20 -- i think right now it is $.26 for every gallon that is sold in $.38 for every gallon of diesel that is sold. these checks are enormous. he is on that committee and said so much money came in before the transportation committee that, many times, he was there when john mccain was on that committee, and he said they were trying to rob money all the time. but they had plenty of money to do whatever they needed to do on infrastructure, and i never figured that out. host: ok, roger in kansas. as we go to terry in boone, iowa, an independent, we will show you headlines from other papers around the country. hi, terry. caller: hi.

my top news story of the week is when you guys and all the news media suppressed for how long come a year, more than a year? that would be the hunter biden email, the hunter biden computers, laptops that happened to be real, that everybody said it was russian disinformation. i believe you guys even said it was russian disinformation. where's your headlines on that this morning? you don't have a paper in front of you to show all of us it is real? how about joe biden owing half $1 million in taxes? we have not talked about that this morning. where is that? are you guys not wanting to have a call in session? let's have a call in session on hunter biden and joe biden's dealings overseas and the laptop and the emails that are all real. host: all right, terry, you showed your headlines. donald in poplar bluff, missouri, republican caller. we are talking all the top

stories of the week. what is yours, donald? caller: well, in your talk already, twice you have allowed people to get on your program and disparage republican voters. one called us stupid. another called us retarded. we are not so slow that we don't know what is going on in our political scene today. we know the democrats are trying to maneuver so that they have a radical hold on the elections. we are not going to put up with it. host: all right, donald. jack in mechanic falls, maine. a democratic caller. caller: nothing could be more opposite from the truth. but anyway, i wanted to call in and say what is a top story for me is the subpoenas that are going out to trump's allies, and

wondering what is going on with the dome we put up. i have not heard a whole lot about that. host: jack, sorry, what? you have not heard a lot on what? caller: i'm sorry, i did not hear you. host: ok, jack, the durham report? caller: no, i have not heard a lot about that, and of course the big story is, i lost my train of thought. [laughter] host: i'm sorry. all right, jack. we will go to carmen. hi, carmen. caller: hi. how are you?

my top story would be first this bill we cannot pass. i suggest maybe we need term limits on our senators and congressmen. they have been in there for too long, and all it does, it is the same people fighting with each other over and over again. we need fresh blood. i mean, there are other people that can do their job, not just the mcconnells and the pelosis. you even have a president now who has been a career politician for 40 something years. do we really need these people? we cannot get anything done. it is just a stalemate with this constant fighting. second of all, the border. the border is a big one. we have immigration, and our immigration laws are not broken. when an immigrant comes into this country, he must have a job, he must have a sponsor, so he does not become a burden on the taxpayers of the country. there are all kinds of laws that govern immigration in this country. but if you have these open

borders like we have right now, it does nobody any good. it seems to me that when the republicans and democrats both, when they need voters, we have to have this big influx of immigration, and the first thing that is talked about is becoming citizens. not every immigrant to this country as a citizen, and i would like to remind the people that the only thing citizens don't have the privilege -- i mean, noncitizens don't have the privilege of doing is voting. so every time i hear all this stuff, is it just that we are imparting these voters, and we really don't care? we don't care who they are, we don't care if they have a job? we have our veterans on this street with no jobs. we have young men and women that are hooked on drugs that are living on the streets. we need psychiatric help for these people. we don't have the money for that. we are not spending any money on our own people, and yet we are

allowing this border to be overflowing, overrun, and nothing is actually being done for the little guy of this country. and i think that is because we have too many stalemates, old people, the same people running the country. we need to change that. people, please think of term limits for both the senators and congressmen and i think also for the supreme. host: all right, carmen. tom, republican, fort lauderdale, florida. caller: hi, my name is tom, and thanks for taking my call. i am disappointed about everything. the border is just one thing. i mean, look, they are already allowing illegal immigrants, people that are not citizens, they are allowing them to vote in some localities, and they are saying, well, you know, it is just local elections, so they should be able to vote. it is all a scheme. host: what proof do you have a

bag? caller: read it. it is in the news. in new york, some cities have done it already. there's plenty of prove out there. host: just wondering where you read it. caller: then you are unaware. you don't know. host: i am asking for columns from you to share for others who may be interested in reading it. caller: i just read about this morning in new york where municipalities across the country are allowing noncitizens to vote. that is not news. that is right out there. you can dig it up anywhere. i am sure it would not be too hard to find, but you do not want to talk about it, because that is part of this. e schema. they want millions of noncitizens to vote, and that is just for democrats. that is a problem. with these congressmen, senators

make $200,000 a year. they are all millionaires. they'll trade on the stock market, because they have insider information to make the rules and laws, and they are able to do it now. i mean, if that is not an elephant in the room, i don't know what is. they are all corrupt they are all getting rich, they are taking care of themselves and their families, and they are selling out our country for it. the border and immigration is just one thing. i've read that we had maybe over 1000 citizens and green hard holders in afghanistan still, and yet the line is, oh, we have got 100 people there. no, no, there's a lot more than that, but nobody wants to talk about it, because they wanted to go away. host: maybe this is the headline you saw. "democrats want to let

immigrants vote in new york city." that is from the "new york post." the minority leader and majority leader, $193,000 a year. ted, democratic caller. hi, ted. caller: thank you for taking my call. i do not know why people are guilt tripping each other. $3.5 trillion is to help american people. what is the big beef about infrastructure? number one, we have crumbling bridges, roads, and on and on, and we need to update our schools all over this country. so i don't understand, you know, why american people themselves, these people, i am just going to

say it, the republican people are against helping their own selves and helping the american people. we have spent over, what, $6 trillion for two wars that we should not have even had? i don't understand that. $6 trillion gone. you have got 20 million people over in afghanistan starting to death. where did that money go? host: all right, ted. rhonda, sacramento, california, independent. your top news story of the week. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. the caller from wisconsin made a really important point on our government today. my main thought this morning is the border. i am against open borders. i am against that, because we already have hundreds of thousands of people across our country who are homeless.

there are so many issues going on, and it is almost like once we put out one fire, another one arises. i listen to republicans, i listen to the democrats -- i feel like, are you listening to us, the people? are you awake right now, listening to all of the callers that you are getting, calling income into our cries? get it together. host: who are you talking about? lawmakers? caller: yes, lawmakers are they watching "washington journal"? are they listening to us, the people. all my life, i have been democrat. all of my family are democrat. become an independent because as i listen and watch congress and watch the senate daily on the floor discussing and squabbling and

yelling and talking, and i feel like we are not getting answers. we are not getting help. host: many of them watch this program. patsy in florida, republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have been trying for two weeks to get through. i just got a few things to say to everyone. first off, god bless america and american families and all the americans in our country. just check this out. jesus, jesus. you are all mad. host: we will leave it there. we are going to take a break. we will talk to lawmakers. they will take your questions and comments about the debates happening in washington. up next, earl blumenauer, democrat, and later republican

congressman ben cline, who sits on the appropriations and budget committee. ♪ >> here is a look at our live coverage today. banning restrictions on abortion providers and patients. we will have that live on c-span. on c-span, the republican national lawyers association holds a policy conference outside washington, d.c. at 2:00, a discussion on federal spending and the budget hosted by the american enterprise institute. >> joseph stalin had been dead for three years when his successor, nikita khrushchev, stunned a closed gathering of communist officials with a litany of his predecessor's abuses, meant to clear the way for reform from above.

his secret speech of february 20 5, 1956, shattered the myth of stalin's infallibility. this is the way a harvard university press introduces the book moscow 1956, the silent spring, offered by professor kathleen smith. >> author and professor kathleen smith on this episode of book notes+. listen at c-span.org/podcasts or where ever get your podcasts. >> you can be part of the national conversation by participating in c-span's studentcam video competition. if you are in middle or high school student, we are asking you to create a five minute to six minute documentary that answers the question, how does the federal government impact your life?

using c-span video clips, which are easy to find and access at c-span.org. our studentcam competition awards $100,000 in cash prizes. you have a shot at the grand prize of $5,000. entries must be received before january 20, 2022. for tips on how to get started, visit our website. >> "washington journal" continues. host: back with us this morning is congressman earl blumenauer, democrat of oregon, member of the ways and means committee. let's begin with the announcement yesterday on the hill that democrats in the white house -- in the house and senate and white house have come up with a framework for the so-called human infrastructure package of 3.5 trillion. what can you tell us? guest: this is a dynamic

situation. there are lots of moving pieces. i have not yet been able to get the detail. i am looking forward to being on the hill this morning. the leadership has been hard at work trying to weave together the positions. there is in the 3.5 trillion -- there are a wide array of things that the american people actually want in terms of dealing with early childhood education, paid family leave, opportunities to expand coverage of medicare activities. we have been working hard with an unprecedented package dealing with climate change and green energy. a number of provisions i have been working on for years in terms of the incentives for wind and solar, historic preservation, making polluters pay for leaving toxic waste around the country.

the tax that paid for the superfund expired 25 years ago. republicans refused to renew it. we are going to clean up hundreds of toxic waste sites around the country. host: the hill newspaper with the headline democrats were surprised and caught off guard by this framework deal. were you surprised and caught off guard? guest: i am well aware of the fact that leadership has been working hard. there are razor thin margins on capitol hill in the house and the senate. there are strongly held positions, including some minority positions that have to be listened to. the leadership is committed to doing that, moving forward with the infrastructure this next

week. there are lots of elements to be integrated. they are moving forward to preconference some of these provisions to deal with the differences between the house and the senate. i am well aware of the activity that has been going on with the staff between the two chambers. i have no doubt the leadership is trying to weave these items together for a very productive week. this is a work in progress. it is going to take a significant time to make sure the various voices in the democrat party are heard. it is remarkable that republicans basically have not been engaged in these items. i have been working hard on legislation to help rescue restaurants, which were just pounded. we developed some bipartisan

legislation to provide a lifeline for them that ended up handing out over 100,000 grants. we are working to try to give others of flow. there has been very little actual participation when it comes time to vote for implementation. i hope that changes. i hope there is not a face down over dealing with the debt ceiling, the funniest issue imaginable in terms of suggesting there is no government spending. the republicans know that the debt ceiling allows us to pay for bills that the american government has already run up. at least half of that was run up under republican administrations, not the least of which was the deficits under president trump. we have worked with republicans when they were in charge to enable us to move forward and

have america pay its bills and not have an artificial crisis. i am hopeful we can avert it this time. host: congressman blumenauer is here to take your questions. democrats dial in at (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. text us as well. include your first name, city, and state to (202) 748-8003. from the reporting, there is not a top line revenue number, nor is there a topline spending number for the $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. is that a problem? guest: it is understandable. there are a lot of moving pieces. there are different people who have conflicting priorities. there are lots of good things we can and should do. i am perfectly willing to allow this process to work out.

there is lots of give-and-take and take. it is not too late for my republican friends to be engaged. i have a great deal of confidence that the leadership under speaker pelosi, who has been through these battles -- i have watched her for over 23 years as she has navigated that -- will be able to engage a wide spectrum of opinions. i watched her do that through the affordable care act and through the pandemic. leader chuck schumer is committed to work as a team even though there is tension between the house and senate, to say the least. i look forward to working with my senator, ron wyden, who chairs the senate finance committee as we go back and forth and exploring opportunities to reconcile differences and have a product that we are all proud of. host: congresswoman jayapal says

several progressives in the party are willing to vote against the 1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that could get a floor vote this coming monday. are you willing to vote against it? guest: i continue to support the approach we had that we would consider both the bipartisan infrastructure and package from the administration that the leadership is proposing. we can and should consider them both. we will start that process this next week. i stand firm in support of the arrangement that we had and hope we can do that. i attempt to avoid posturing in terms of absolute. i strongly support the approach we had that the two track is fair and will get the votes that

it needs. we can do both. host: indiana, democratic color. you are on the air with the congressman. caller: hello. i think one of the biggest problems on why you are not getting your republican help to raise the debt ceiling is because i think they did that during the obama term, and he ended up spending more money from president george washington to president bush combined together, one democrat took the national debt sky high. trump did not do it that bad. obama did it a lot worse. biden, don't even have a clue what he is doing. another thing i have to say to our soldiers and that is you took an oath to defend this country against foreign and domestic terrorism. what do you think you see right in front of us? thank you. host: congressman, why don't you

take the first part of his comments. guest: a little bit of revisionism in terms of what happened to the national debt, which skyrocketed under ronald reagan. president obama inherited an economy in freefall. over 700,000 people lost their jobs in the first month he was in office. we worked hard to try to stabilize the economy, dealing with some reckless activities, cowboys on wall street in terms of what they were doing with financial instruments that exploded that threatened to take down not just the national economy, but globally. the obama administration, i think, did a good job. there are things that they did that i had less enthusiasm for, and i think there are things we could have enhanced. given the hand he was dealt, i think he did a good job.

what happened with president trump exploding the deficit -- for example, a very interesting over $2 trillion tax bill that ultimately did not make a huge difference to the economy. we got very little in return. these are real challenges. looking at the numbers in terms of deficit spending, it has occurred under republicans and democrats alike. i think some of the critical things we are spending on now, we have never seen anything like this with the pandemic, dealing with the huge challenges that president biden inherited, left behind with the trump administration.

even getting blamed for the situation in afghanistan. donald trump gave an agreement to the taliban in february of 2020. he started drawing down american troops. he set a deadline. they enabled the release of 5000 taliban prisoners. and then somehow as present biden is trying to negotiate that, people forget what donald trump left him in terms of the economy, in terms of afghanistan, in terms of challenges we have had with trade. i think there is some perspective that is needed. host: john in tennessee, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. guest: where in tennessee are you from? caller: i am from brentwood, tennessee. i am really opposed to this spending bill. i am sorry i disagree with your

guest. he is totally slanted toward the democratic party on this issue. he is still blaming trump after 10 months of him not being in office, which i think is wrong. the other point i have to make is the spending bill is so full of democratic wish lists and the democratic pork that is in the bill. i downloaded the 2700 page bill. it is unbelievable the things that are in it. yes, we all want the care for child care, reform for health care, but to spend $2 trillion, $3 trillion, $4 trillion, $5 trillion just to get our bridges and roads built with the bs that is in the bill. guest: first of all, it should

be noted that the proposal of the democrats are advancing is actually paid for. we propose raising the corporate tax, which was slashed with the republican tax bill. i have been working on this for years. i heard from the corporate community that wanted the corporate tax adjusted. we were willing to do that. none of the people that came to my office over the last decade suggested we slash down to 21%. that is outrageous. the effective tax rate that is actually paid is about 7%, which is lower than our competitors. we are suggesting to adjust that. these items, you call them pork, i think that is what the american want. we are the only industrial country that does not have paid family leave. we are in the midst of this pandemic. we are finding out what difference that makes.

having universal preschool at a time when families are struggling with the pandemic, when you cannot take care of children, this is an economic impact as well for the families as well as something that makes a difference for the children. all of these items that we are talking about, if you poll the american public, these are things they want and that virtually every other rich country provides. we are suggesting that we go ahead and make some adjustments. for instance, help rich people understand that they need to pay their taxes. 20% underreporting for people who are in the top 1%. 20% of their income is underreported. if you look at the top 0.1%, that number doubles. we are suggesting that maybe we help these rich people to

remember to actually report their income and collect billions of dollars. we don't have to have sky high deficits indefinitely. there are things we can do in a balanced way that will generate revenues, promote fairness, and be able for us to pay for things that other rich countries have that the american families do not. the pandemic has made it clear that it is desperately needed. host: we will go to connecticut, roslyn, independent. caller: good morning. i just have a question or two, maybe a comment. i don't understand why the republicans and democrats cannot work together. they work for us. we don't work for them. when they come to office, they come with machetes. they know that we are not going to receive anything. it is terrible for the country for those families that were in

the military fighting for america. nothing is done when i keep hearing the same question and they are saying american people want this. it is not that we wanted. we need it. i worked for the government for over 25 years. i took care of my father. when i went to go back to work, there was no job. we have experienced a lot of these things. where do we go? who is going to speak for us? when will it happen? we know it is not good to be overnight. the things that president biden was trying to do, we are going to have to wait. in the meantime we also need help. guest: your caller makes an important point about being able

to work together. looking at the headlines, one might conclude we cannot work together. i chair the trade subcommittee on the ways and means committee. we worked together with donald trump's u.s. trade representative to take a treaty that performed the old nafta treaty, and on a bipartisan basis we were able to do something that was much better. i would say the democratic priorities prevailed, but it was done on a bipartisan basis. there was a vote last night on the national defense authorization that was bipartisan. i do a lot of work with animal welfare, which is not a partisan issue. unfortunately, the stuff that gets the headlines is partisan. there are some bright red lines tossed down particularly by the senate minority leader, mitch mcconnell, on things that are

just breathtaking to me in terms of a willingness to play russian roulette with the american economy and the debt ceiling. there are opportunities to work together. i believe we are likely to get some of the bipartisan infrastructure. at the end of the day, the work we are doing now on ways and means, senate finance, the commerce committee deals with priorities that are supported by the american public. i think there is a path forward that we will be able to get this done. i hope there is republican support, but if not we will go through the reconciliation process and be able to deliver things that the american public don't just want, they need. host: in maryland, democratic color. -- caller. caller: i can tell you exactly how to get mansion and --

manchin and synema vote for the reconciliation, put it in the debt ceiling. that will give you the best way to get the progressive reconciliation bill through. put the debt limit and the reconciliation bill. i know three democrats voted against medicare negotiation of drug prices, and it did not make it out of committee. is the medicare negotiation of drug prices going back in the reconciliation bill? thank you. guest: that failed in the commerce committee on a tied vote. there were three of my colleagues that opposed it. it was part of the reconciliation package that we approved in the ways and means committee. there are lots of moving pieces here. the leadership is dealing with a very diverse group with very

narrow margins. there are a number of paths forward, as your caller suggests. at the end of the day, the stakes are so high, the things we are fighting for in terms of improving social security, protecting families, protecting the environment at a time of climate crisis, things that need to be done to recover from the climate disasters that are related to weather that have pounded people across the country. in the pacific northwest, we had three consecutive days this summer of 108, 112, and the day after that 116. hundreds of people were killed and hospitalized. these are issues where the government needs to respond. at the end of the day, people will be able to accommodate these differences because the stakes are so high, and the

public on some level understands that. host: dave in georgia wants to know if amnesty for illegal immigrants is in the $3.5 trillion bill. guest: the senate parliamentarian has ruled that it is outside of the rules of reconciliation to include immigration reform. we had bipartisan legislation that passed the senate that speaker boehner would not allowed to be voted on in the house, similar to a with ronald reagan. we need a reset in terms of immigration. where would we be for people here working in the u.s. economy who do not have proper documentation? they are vital in terms of health care. we need to recognize they are here. we need to deal with the fact

that they are part of the american fabric. we ought to allow them to earn a path to citizenship. we have done it before. it is the humane thing to do. it is the realistic thing to do given the activities that are here. to somehow suggest it is all up illegal immigration threatening -- it is all illegal immigration threatening the foundation of our country -- many of them have blended families, we need to get real about it. we have done it before with ronald reagan. we have bipartisan senate legislation. we can and should do it again. host: john, pennsylvania, republican. caller: good morning. four points to bring up. first of all, we are at 30 trillion in debt. naturally people want free

stuff. you guys are offering free stuff for everybody. everybody wants free stuff. you say it is paid for. why don't you pay for our national debt? you say these rich countries have all these programs. most of those countries are socialist. they have the programs. my last point, sir, is that china has 1082 coal-fired plants. they are building 272 more. do you think the u.s. is going to go to war to tell them to tear them down? i don't think so. please respond. guest: well, we are not going to go to war over china's coal-fired power plants. we are in a war with the environment, and it is a race we are losing. i have seen those effects in the pacific northwest killing people.

the notion that somehow everybody wants free stuff and that the only countries that have that are socialist is absolutely false. look at all the rich countries, japan, germany, not just what happens in scandinavian countries. virtually every country in the world has a way to provide for families for paid family leave. countries have ways to provide coverage for early childhood education for their children. there are a variety of different governmental approaches, but they all are able to meet the needs of the families. i respectfully suggest that the united states doesn't have to be the only rich country in the world that cannot provide the services for our families. we have got legislation that we are working on.

what we are fighting for is to allow the u.s. government to be able to negotiate prescription drug prices for our senior citizens. the federal government is the largest purchaser of prescription drugs in the world. we are paying four times as much is anybody else, allowing the federal government to negotiate those prices would save hundreds of billions of dollars. every other country does that. the u.s. should not be the only one that provides this gusher of money to the pharmaceutical industry because the u.s. has to subsidize the pharmaceutical industry and their development. it is fascinating. the highest prices for pharmaceuticals in the world are paid by americans. the jobs are in india.

the taxes and profits are paid in ireland. this is a devil's bargain we need to change. these are things we can do. every other country does it. i hope we can navigate our way through the politics. host: one last call, shane in texas, independent. caller: good morning. thank you for your knowledge meant of what trump had tried to start with negotiating with those pharmaceutical companies to get prices down for americans. i want to make two comments for you. you made a statement about making the rich understand their need to pay more in taxes. guest: no, what i said is that we need to make sure that the rich declare their income and pay the taxes that are due. 20% underreported for the top 1%

of taxpayers. the top 0.1% under report 40%. these are taxes that are due, and they are not paying them. caller: ok, understandable. are you familiar, do you comprehend the term velocity of money? guest: what is your point? caller: instead of paying one person, the government come if a rich person deducts a dollar and goes and spends that dollar, it goes to a business. guest: that is absolutely not what i am saying. what i am saying is that they are not paying the tax that is due. you pay, i would venture, the taxes on the income that you make. you report it and pay taxes. we are finding that rich people under report an average of 20%. host: congressman, let's let

shane finish his thought. caller: hi don't pay taxes on the stuff i deducts. that spending goes to a business. that business pays an employee. that employee goes and spends money at another business. that is where your velocity of money comes through. let's go to the second point. host: we are out of time with the congressman. i will have the congressman respond to that point. guest: thank you. my point is we should not have the velocity of their money off on other priorities when it should be paid to the federal government to reduce the deficit or for services that the public needs. this is a pretty simple approach. it is something the public strongly supports and will make a big difference in making sure we are able to give them the services they want. host: always appreciate a

conversation with you. thank you. guest: thank you. host:host: i learned a lot. we are going to take a break. when we come back, congressman ben cline, who sits on the appropriations and budget committees. >> weekends on c-span2 bring you the best in american history and nonfiction books. saturday on american history tv on lectures in history, a look at the 1863 new york city draft riots and civil war newspapers with city university of new york professor joshua brown. he discusses how cities around the country experienced the events. then on the presidency, ronald and nancy reagan. a tribute to the former first lady on the centennial of her birth. speakers include nancy reagan's biographer and people said.

august marks the anniversary of reagan's tax cuts passing into law. arthur laffer and others looked back at the legacy of president reagan's economic agenda. but tv features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. the president at the conservative center for women and her book how to raise a conservative daughter. she is interviewed by terry lucas. then at 2:00 p.m. eastern from chicago, we will feature and reviews with myles harvey on his book the king of confidence and marsha chadwick with her book franchise, the golden arches in black america. watch american history tv and book tv every weekend on c-span2. visit c-span.org.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us this morning is congressman ben cline, republican of virginia, member of the appropriations and budget committees. your vote this week to continue funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. guest: it is unfortunate that we are in this situation, greta. we are facing a looming government shutdown of october 1. that is due to the lateness of president biden's budget submission and the fact that speaker pelosi has used it to type an increase in the debt ceiling, always a controversial subject, to a bill the senate has already said they will not accept. we are in a brinkmanship between leadership right now. stay tuned to see how it goes.

hopefully we can resolve it and not have any shutdown or impact on the american people. host: the treasury secretary wrote that 97% of bills do is spending from previous congresses and administrations. why not pay that bill? are you responsible for doing so? guest: we can have a bipartisan conversation about how to address the debt. we want to find bipartisan solutions. unfortunately, we have been shut out by speaker pelosi, senator schumer, and the white house about conversations about what they are doing with this $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. the debt ceiling would cover primarily past debt. moving forward, if we are going to cover the debt that has already been accrued, we have to have some changes in place

moving forward so we don't continue to kick the ball down the road. we are already $30 trillion in debt. one of our colleagues likened it to having a sewage pipe burst in your house. you are in deep in, forgive my french, krapp. instead of fixing the pipe, you choose to raise the roof line. that is what fixing the debt is a can too. we need to fix the problem. host: did you demand the same changes of president trump when republicans approved raising the debt three times? guest: i was appointed in 2018. i think we need to be responsible stewards of the debt. i think it has gotten out of control. i was elected by my constituents to rein in wasteful spending, to

give back control to the state and the people. i am continuing to try to do that, recognizing the $30 trillion in debt we have is too much, and it is weighing on future generations. we don't want to compound that moving forward. host: economists protecting that if the government were to default, it would wipe out 15 trillion in household wealth, cut the value of u.s. stocks by a third, because the u.s. economy to shrink by 4% over the next 12 months, and pushed the unemployment rate up to 9%. your reaction? guest: all the more reason for democrats in congress to reach an agreement to get this done. if they want to work with republicans on a bipartisan deal similar to what happened when the sequester was adopted and we took steps to rein in spending -- i was not there yet -- but those are the steps that need to

be part of an agreement to take control of our wasteful spending. what they are asking is for us to go along with a debt ceiling increase, cover the debt that has already been accrued and then not have any reforms to the system. they can do it by themselves. the house is democrat-controlled. the senate is democrat-controlled. they can pass it through reconciliation with only 51 votes. the president is a democrat. they don't need republicans. if they want us to come along, we have certain requirements in terms of cutting wasteful spending that are going to have to be there. host: the house is slated to vote monday on the infrastructure package that passed from the senate. how do you plan to vote? guest: i am concerned with nancy pelosi playing politics with what should be a bipartisan agreement. core infrastructure is something we can all agree on.

roads, bridges, airports, trains. what has happened is the core infrastructure agreement that happened between republicans and democrats has been hijacked once again by speaker pelosi, tying it to a $3.5 trillion boondoggle. she calls it human infrastructure, which is a term that until i arrived here and this bill started to be debated was never used. human infrastructure is whatever you want it to be. she has thrown in the kitchen sink into this bill. host: how is it tied to that? aren't they separate votes? why not vote for the 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure? guest: the progressives in the house have said they will not vote for the 1.2 unless it is preceded by the 3.5. they want the human infrastructure bill passed first

through the senate and the house before they even vote on the $1.2 trillion core infrastructure bill. you have a bait and switch essentially. when you are doing that with the american people, they do not like it. host: it is still separate votes. guest: sure, but you are linking the two. if you say we are not going to bring up 1.2 until we passed a .5 or that they are going to be considered together, then you have dynamics within the democratic caucus to ensure that both past. i will not be part of any kind of gamesmanship or head fake whereby a core infrastructure bill passes and is the key to unlocking $3.5 trillion in spending and additional debt on future generations and big bloated socialist government programs. this is a bernie sanders budget.

he is the one who wrote the plan. he is trying to get joe manchin to come along with it. fortunately, joe manchin coming from neighboring state of west virginia, understands the impact that type of spending will have on our economy and negative impact on our debt. you see inflation going up already. the price of gas is up, the price of food is up 15%. this type of spending cannot continue. host: patty in new jersey, republican. caller:caller: you are up first. hello. how are you? guest: i am good. how are you? caller: i am good. i want to make a comment. as a republican, i want to say briefly that i am so upset at the tenor of the republican party right now and the hypocrisy of mitch mcconnell. i really wish the republicans would come out of this

conspiracy theory land that is so harmful to children and people, things that are just not true. with the pandemic people are dying because of it. i would like to say about the infrastructure deal, i think it is too high, the 3.5. my suggestion to you and your congressmen and senators, please come together. that is what we send you therefore. come together and bring it down. for example, the college, the junior college part of the infrastructure, the human infrastructure deal, well, i really don't feel the taxpayer should have to blindly pay for college for young people unless they have the aptitude. there are lots of programs right now for that.

you have to have the aptitude to go to college and the desire to go. i think there should be things, constraints to some of these so-called giveaways, which they are. i feel it is too high. that is what the senate and the congress is for, to come together. host: heard that point. congressman. guest: you are right. we should come together. if nancy pelosi would ask for our input, we would be happy to provide it. she, with a three seat majority, has decided she has a mandate essentially to pursue the largest spending bill in the history of this country. with a tied senate and the tiebreaker being the vice

president, somehow they should be able to force through all of these new, expensive, socialist federal programs. that is just not what the american people want. i am a member of the problem solver caucus, which is a caucus in the house that has an equal number of democrats and republicans. we try to come together around issues where there is common agreement. we are not all of one mind because there are conservatives like me in the problem solvers caucus and liberals as well. we try to find areas of agreement. core infrastructure was in agreement we had a while and back. -- a while back. can we agree on bridges, roads, airports and rail stations, yes. that began the conversation on

infrastructure. if we had stuck to that, we would have a good bill that would be supported by almost everybody. unfortunately, it has been hijacked bipartisan interests. we are where we are. we will continue to pursue that bipartisan conversation. host: explain if you are part of the problem solvers caucus, you support this infrastructure, why not vote yes, join five of your republican colleagues for the $1.2 trillion package and let the chips fall where they may on the 3.5 trillion? maybe it does not pass in the senate. guest: what is being done is putting the two together in a way that says regardless of the way you feel about this 1.2

deal, and i have some concerns that a lot of the provisions in that bill are unnecessary, are related to climate change and other issues that are not core infrastructure issues. the fact that it is seen as the key to unlocking this $3.5 trillion bill because if you pass the structure bill, the moderates have said they will be more likely to consider the $3.5 trillion human infrastructure bill if they first get the 1.2 trillion core infrastructure bill. that is where i have to disagree with my colleagues on the other of the aisle. if we were doing just a core infrastructure bill, i would be glad to support it. because it is being tied to the larger bill, republicans cannot agree to that. host: vivian, tennessee,

democratic color. caller: good morning. i am sick and tired of you republicans going around and saying everything is too much, infrastructure, everything poor people need is too much. mitch mcconnell got up there and said he is not going to vote for any deal that congress, democratic congress put up. that man said it out of his mouth. you all up they are along with him. you in virginia, you know you got poor people. you all voted against the infrastructure deal, but it passed. your people got the money. republicans got the money. i have seen people talking up there. you are republican was glad to get that money to help out. you talking about infrastructure. wiped out people's homes, floods. down in texas, you saw what ted

cruz did, ran away while the people freezing. water busting in. do you all care? no, sir. you don't care about anything. host: what is your question for the congressman? caller: this is what i'm going to tell him. why you go against everything that the poor people in the working people need? guest: thank you for that. you talked about the disaster relief. that is important money people need down in the gulf coast. that is part of the continuing resolution to keep the government running. what you're seeing is pelosi not looking at what is the art of the possible. she is looking at reaching as far as she can to the left to get everything she can in there. taking a bill that is designed

to keep the government running and putting in disaster relief money and then tacking on an increase in the debt ceiling, totally different conversation. if she wants to negotiate with republicans, it would require concessions on their part. they are not willing to consider concessions in terms of spending. we are spending too much money in washington. it is not our money. it is your money. we want you to have more control of your money because you know how to spend it. that is why we are supportive of reducing tax burdens, not increasing them. this tax increase democrats are proposing is the largest tax increase in history. it is going to fall on everybody. there are tobacco excise taxes. there are taxes on corporations and people earning over $400,000 of year. corporations get their taxes raised, go ask any small

business what they are going to have to do. they are going to have to raise their prices. that is why the american people are going to suffer under this tax increase and not benefit. all the new spending coming out of washington is going to reduce the impact of the dollar in our economy. it is going to make it more expensive for people to buy things. it is going to hurt us moving forward. host: john in vicksburg, independent. caller: i want to say about all this money going on in washington, something that is being ignored and has been ignored for 20 years has been a brief history. on september 10, 2001, donald rumsfeld chose that date to say he could no longer account for

$3.2 trillion in past transactions of the defense department, pentagon basically. i think money used wisely would go a lot further than money that is just thrown out there. there is no trail for it. nobody looks at what is going on. how much more money has the pentagon wasted? like another caller said, republicans never want to do anything for the people. all they want to do is take care of their business constituents. that is not only the republicans. the democrats are the same. they are all bought by corporations. that is the way it is. guest: john, thank you for your comments. what we have is a lot of waste in washington. the defense department is no exception. we just passed a defense authorization bill that funds the pentagon to record levels.

i voted no because there was not accountability in this bill for what happened, the tragedy that occurred in afghanistan, the loss of life, 13 soldiers killed from that bomb with that ham-handed withdrawal from afghanistan by the biden administration was underway. i have called for the secretary of defense to begin investigative proceedings against the chiefs. we should not throw more money at a pentagon that is incapable of withdrawing us from an active scene like afghanistan without the tragic loss of life we saw. we need reform in the defense department.

i hope to eventually support the authorization bill for the defense department because i support our troops. we need to ensure they have the resources they need going forward. when it goes to conference, i hope there is more accountability language put in the bill so i can support it. host: we will go to houston, texas, charlotte, a republican. caller: good morning. i don't know if representative cline can address this or not. two things, but actually three. people keep talking about how all these other rich industrial countries have this medical and educational for free. if somebody could please tell the american people just how much taxes the people in those countries pay for that. my brother lives in an eu country. i am here to tell you the taxes

that the american people would not want to pay. the other thing is chuck schumer yesterday, it gets disgusting after a while. you hear things, and people accept them. the fact that chuck schumer in congress said that social security, if this debt ceiling, if the republicans did not get on board, the social security checks would not be going out. he did not say it in summary words, but he said it. that is totally untrue. the scare tactics ain't working. people are tired of it. keep referring back to 1950. 1950. we did not have welfare back in 1950. host: i will have the

congressman respond to what you said. guest: you are right, there is too much doublespeak in washington and too much hysterical warning about things that will not happen. social security checks will go out. one of the problems we are facing down the road is the solvency question of entitlement programs. we have to make sure those are there, whether it is social security, medicare, medicaid. we have to ensure those are there for future generations. in current form, they are scheduled to run out of money in just a few decades. what nancy pelosi and chuck schumer are proposing is to expand those programs now and make them insolvent even sooner. we have to put the brakes on this type of irresponsible

spending program, irresponsible spending plans for the future and make sure we keep them sustainable into the future. host: chris in ohio, democratic caller. guest: it takes infrastructure to build infrastructure. if you want the infrastructure bill, but you don't want the people who are going to build this. how are they going to build this? people are going to need health care. they're going to need daycare. they are going to need education. this whole package is going to lift folks, and you republicans don't want this to happen. you don't want people to prosper and get from under your thumb so you can rule rather than govern. thank you. guest: thank you for the comments. it is important to note that democrats control the house,

senate, the white house. if there is something they want to pass, they have the votes. if they want our votes, then they need to come to the table. they need to talk about the changes that have to happen here in washington on behalf of the american people because americans are fed up with washington. they call it the swamp for a reason. too many bureaucrats are making decisions that impact our daily lives. we need to control -- to return control to the people. i would like to vote for core infrastructure, but i am not going to vote for something that is the key to unlocking bernie sanders budget. as long as nancy pelosi and chuck schumer continue to insist they are linked, then we have a problem, and you will not get the votes of most republicans.

caller: hello. if i have ever problem -- if i have a problem, if they did not vote for this debt ceiling, the little man that was on there before tried to blame president trump for biden stupid pullout of afghanistan. president trump had an approval by the un security council of a plan to withdraw from afghanistan, which biden tore up because they wanted to do it their way. we saw what happened. we had a beautiful young man from tennessee that was killed. biden goes in with a drone and kills seven young children. his opinion ratings are dropping like a rock. you need to stand your ground. host: the house is going to come in shortly.

i want to give the republican a chance to respond. guest: that young man who was killed in afghanistan, he was transferred through my district in virginia, volunteer fire and rescue, police department, frontline workers were waving american flags and thanking that man for his service. we thank our men and women in uniform for doing their part. we want to make sure that washington response to the needs of the people. we can do that best by letting you keep more of your money and making decisions that benefit your family. what the left is trying to do to this country through this $3.5 trillion boondoggle of a socialist bill bernie sanders is

pushing. we are going to fight every step of the way. thank goodness for c-span on both sides of the debate. most media outlets do not. they only put on one side. viewers are watching c-span because c-span welcomes both sides of the debate. that is why i am on c-span. the other networks don't do this. we need to make sure we push back on the democrats plans and their false assertion about what is happening here in washington. we are going to continue to fight to be responsible stewards of your tax dollars to ensure we bring down the debt and balance the budget and make sure that we encourage fiscal responsibility. we will continue to fight for that and articulate it on places like c-span. host: