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on friday, and now lawmakers are regrouping and looking for a solution. our question to you this morning, what part of this bill is the most important to you? where should this money be going? where should lawmakers compromise and come to an agreement as the stalemate continues on the infrastructure and spending bill? we will open regular lines this morning. republicans, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. democrats, your number is (202) 748-8000. independents, you call (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, you can always text us at (202) 748-8003. and we are always reading on social media, on facebook at facebook.com/c-span, on twitter @cspanwj, and you can always follow us on instagram.

the washington post with the situation on capitol hill like this this morning. president biden attempted to quell an internal democratic rebellion friday, pleading with lawmakers to compromise as he tried to revive a $1.2 trillion infrastructure proposal and salvage his economic agenda from imminent collapse. biden made the overture during a rare meeting on capitol hill in the midst of an intense fight over two pieces of legislation that democrats were struggling to untangle. the first bill will fix the nation's roads, bridges, pipes, ports, and internet connections. the second package would authorize roughly three point $5 trillion to expand medicare, combat climate change, and boost a wide array of federal aid programs. democrats did not appear to have an immediate way to advance either types of spending, stymied by conflicts among their

own divided liberal and centrist ranks. for the second time in as many days, party leaders delayed a planned houseboat on a measure to improve the nation's infrastructure. president joe biden went to capitol hill to try to get this done friday. unfortunately, they could not get this done. here is president biden yesterday leaving the democratic caucus meeting. [video clip] [indiscernible] president biden: woah, thank you. i am telling you we are going to get this done. it doesn't matter when. it does not matter whether it is in six minutes, six days, or six weeks. we are going to get it done. host: we want to know what is

important to you in this bill. is it the infrastructure part? is it the social spending part? we want to know what you think is the most important part of the bill. how much should this bill be? should lawmakers cut it back? are they ever going to actually get it done? before your calls, we are going to jump in and get some news about where we actually stand on this bill. we want to know what you think about this bill. before we get to your calls, let's start with scott wong, who is a senior staff writer for the hill newspaper. good morning. guest: good morning. good to be with you. host: scott, where are we on this bill right now? all the lawmakers went home. what is going on with the bill right now? guest: we are not that far off where we were last week and even

earlier this week. not that much has changed. the dynamics are still the same. progressives are insisting on a deal on the bigger reconciliation package, $3.5 trillion of social spending package and climate package. the moderates are still demanding a vote asap on the senate passed infrastructure bill. there was one development we did hear from the president. he had never really laid out directly to lawmakers in the past where he stood on this. yesterday in that room with house democrats, he told them directly that these two bills, these two key pieces of his economic agenda must move in tandem together. one will not go before the other.

infrastructure will not go before the reconciliation package. he laid it out very clearly. there were grounds in the room and sighs from moderates when he uttered those words. there were frustrations afterward when you had the leader of the moderate problem solvers caucus put out a statement taking issue with speaker nancy pelosi, not going after biden, but going after it who had promised him a vote this week, a vote that never happened. there were cheers on the other from progressives, including pramila jayapal, who stood firm with her progressive caucus. she said she had about 50 who were willing to block that infrastructure vote should nancy pelosi bring it to the floor. this is all about political tactics. during this critical week for

bidens agenda, the progressives came out on top. host: is it a failure that they were not able to get anything done this week? is this just part of the congressional negotiating process? guest: we cannot call it a failure because we do not know the endgame. we do not know what the end results will be. we are heading into the fall. things get trickier and trickier the more this gets delayed. we are seeing joe biden's poll numbers start to fall a little bit, especially after the afghanistan debacle. there is some real urgency. house democrats, especially vulnerable house democrats. i spoke to abigail spanberger of virginia last night. she heads back to her district outside of richmond with basically nothing to show for it. she said she is going to keep

pushing for infrastructure, that bipartisan bill that already passed the senate. she had hoped she would be able to say we passed the infrastructure bill, and joe biden signed it into law. now she heads into a two-week recess with nothing but continuing that fight. there is some real disappointment and frustration from the moderates who had hoped to go back to their districts with something in hand. host: we have heard a lot about joe manchin and kyrsten sinema being the key votes in the senate. have they been able to move toward a compromise on this bill that makes it possible to pass in the future? guest: we have a number at least from joe manchin, 1.5 trillion. that is something we did not know before this week. now they have something to work off of that is much lower

obviously than what the progressives and joe biden want. progressives initially started at $6 trillion for this package for family care, child care, free community college, prekindergarten and addressing climate change on top of that. this has already come in the progressives' mind, fallen significant. i think all parties are good to work from there. we did hear some interesting news from pramila jayapal, the leader of the progressives. as she exited that meeting with joe biden, she said she was willing to come down from 3.5. that is something she had not said before this week. there is some slight movement. lawmakers have now left washington. kyrsten sinema, the other

senator you mentioned, she has flown back to arizona for a doctors appointment. she was night yesterday in the capital negotiating or sitting down with white house negotiators like we saw earlier in the week. it looks like negotiators for now are taking a pause. i am sure conversations will be happening through the weekend. for now there is going to be very little real activity after joe biden's visit on capitol hill. host: since you brought it back up, i was going to ask this anyway. did biden change any hearts and minds in his own caucus? did this lobbying by the president do any good? guest: it depends on who you ask. some people came away from the meeting saying it was a really good meeting.

it was a meeting to try to unify everybody, get everybody on the same page. there had been a real clamor to hear from the president. this was biden's first visit to the house of representatives since he was elected. there were a lot of questions on capitol hill saying where is joe biden in this process? we knew he was working behind the scenes. we know he was meeting with synema and manchin at the white house. rank-and-file house democrats had not heard from joe biden. it was a short visit, only 40 minutes. that is short by joe biden's standards, who we know likes to talk a lot. he did not take any questions in that meeting. when he came out, he said, i was

standing there with other reporters, and we were pressing him on when this is going to get done. he snapped back and said it does not matter when it is going to get done, if it is six minutes, six days, six weeks. obviously if you are one of those vulnerable moderates that is worried about bringing something home to your district, six weeks can cause some alarm. while some people cheered the meeting and said it was a positive development, there was some real frustration from others coming out of that meeting that they did not like what they heard in the meeting, that he was standing with progressives and wanted to keep those packages together. when he uttered those words that this could run as long as six weeks. at the end of the day, if we get it done, the american public is not going to care six days from now or six weeks from now.

host: we are talking a lot about progressive and moderate democrats. where are republicans in this process? is this a democrat only negotiation going on? are republicans taking part in this in any fashion? guest: for the most part, republicans are sitting on the sidelines watching democrats haggle over this three point $5 trillion reconciliation package. republicans will although no on that one. the real question has been will republicans in the house support the infrastructure bill that was bipartisan in the senate? it was a bipartisan negotiation in the senate between rob portman and kyrsten sinema. the republican leaders including kevin mccarthy and steve scalise were aggressively working this week to whip votes against that

infrastructure package. they don't want to give democrats any sort of legislative victory. they don't want to give joe biden the legislative victory heading into 2022. obviously there are a handful of republicans that would effect from the leadership that think infrastructure is too important for their districts. we are not hearing much from republicans because they are just happy watching democrats fight amongst themselves. when the other team is fighting among themselves, you stay out of it. that has been a good political strategy in the past. that looks like what kevin mccarthy is pursuing at the moment. host: we would like to thank scott one, senior staff writer for the hill, for coming on this morning and walking us through the next steps of the negotiation. thanks so much. guest: thank you for having me. host: we want to know what you

think about the negotiation, what you think this money should go towards. we want to know what you think lawmakers should compromise on when it comes to the infrastructure and spending bills. let's start with ken calling from san diego, california, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you very much for opening up with this topic. it is very important to californians as well as everybody across the nation. your question on c-span is what is the most important part of this legislation? us independents in san diego, we believe the most important thing that happened this week is that the 2400 pages of nancy pelosi's waste, fraud, and abuse is going into the trash bin of history after it has been shredded. there is nothing in this legislation that does anything for any americans.

it is always, fraud, and abuse. we are very pleased that at least for this week and the next two weeks that nancy pelosi has failed to fleece the taxpayers of more money. i want to thank c-span. i have been a loyal viewer since 1979. thank you very much. remember, vote out more democrats in 2022. host: let's go to chris calling from maine on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am always amused by guys who call in like that and say it is all fraud, waste, and abuse. name three things. if you go to investor pedia.com, it breaks it down. $135 billion to deal with forest fires and how to manage these forests that are burning up on

us by going in and regularly cleaning out the brush. maybe it is the hearing aids for the elderly? right now people have to pay for their own hearing aids. giving medicare the ability to pay for hearing aids. ab that is fraud, waste, and abuse that will not help a single american. medicare, you can negotiate drug prices. remember went republicans unanimously voted to say that medicare is not allowed to negotiate drug prices? the v.a. negotiates drug prices. medicare cannot. they have to pay whatever the drug industry demands. maybe that is the waste, fraud, and abuse that last caller hates. maybe expanding broadband internet into places that do not have it. there are lots of places that do not have broadband. these people that have their children go to school remotely did not have access to the internet. maybe when you go through

further prods of it to expand pre-k education to all children, not just wealthy people so kids across the country can get an early start on their education. maybe that is the fraud, waste, and abuse that last caller hates so much. host: let's go to matt on the republican line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine. go ahead. caller: i have six that i think is waste, fraud, and abuse. giving free college to immigrants. 79 billion for more irs agents. 12 billion for government electric cars. 25 million in bias training. what is for billion in distance learning? have a nice day. host: let's go to charles calling from tennessee on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. everything joe biden has

proposed, i have checked it every way i know how. it would be paid for without a problem. the problem is i was born and raised in west virginia. those people could most certainly use these things. some of them i am sure are going hungry. you take joe manchin. he is having parties with these republicans. lindsey graham and so on. it has nothing to do with that. i am absolutely positive he is not going to have a chance, and the democratic party is not meant to have any kind of chance because this nation is being run from florida by donald trump.

if you look at what is going on, people, wise up. host: let's take a look at what is in the democrats $3.5 trillion reconciliation package. here are some of the top line items that are in that bill right now. the bill would establish universal pre-k for three and four-year-olds. it extends child tax credit and earned income tax credit. it creates federal paid family and medical leave benefits. it would require the electric utilities to generate 80% of power from clean energy sources by 2030. it makes community college free for two years and reduces prescription drug costs. those are the top line items democrats say are in their three

point $5 trillion reconciliation package that is still on the hill along with the infrastructure bill. where do you think lawmakers should compromise? what should be taken out of the bill? what should go into the bill? let's go to ronald calling from boston, massachusetts, on the independent line. caller: good morning. that is too much. 3.5 is too much. you got to bring it down to between one and two were just above two. everybody knows the president did not do the right thing. people are looking at that. i was in south korea from 1964 to 1965. i was in the vietnam war in 1966. i know what was going on. i am now 81 years old. i was born in west virginia. my father was named after the first president. you got to look at this. those figures is not going to go

through. 3.5 is not meant to be approved. host: let's talk to shawnee calling from freeport, new york, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. i look at it like this, the democrats need to stop the infighting. they need to go on and pass these bills so they can help those who are the fabric of this country, which is the middle class, who are struggling. we need that reconciliation bill. i have grandchildren in college. my daughter and son-in-law are struggling to pay for their college education. they need the help. host: where do you think the compromise is? what should they cut out? caller: they need to add more. the moderate democrats, that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, they

are undercover republicans. what we need of everybody come aboard to help pass this legislation. if they do so, the democrats and the people of this country, which are the middle-class, the fabric of this country, they will keep it all together and hold things together. host: keep in mind the democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill is parted with the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. right now in the infrastructure bill, you have $100 billion for roads and bridges. $66 billion for freight and passenger rail. $65 billion for broadband internet. $46 billion for severe weather resilience operations. $39 billion for transit. $25 billion for airports.

president biden on friday said these two bills are linked. one will not pass without the other. let's talk to rita, calling from pennsylvania on the democratic line. go to morning -- good morning. caller: good morning. they need to sit down and pass this bill and start funding the police so people can be a lot safer and put more money into social security and stop struggling the way they are medicare and medicaid so they can make ends meet. host: where is the compromise for democrats? we see the argument is between democrats. where is the compromise? caller: there should be a compromise. need to be attending to. host: let's talk to steve, who is calling from florida on the

independent line. good morning. are you there? steve, turn your tv down. are you there? let's go to ray calling from washington, d.c., on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: is there a compromise for democrats? are you there? caller: can you hear me? host: is there a compromise for democrats? caller: there is really no need for a compromise in my opinion from a progressive standpoint. you see progressives holding the line for things that are essential to the infrastructure of society in terms of expanding on the earned income tax credit. i think we have reached the impasse where we see senator

manchin and synema are not as democratic as they say. we see pelosi, she definitely did not have the votes to bring it to the floor. i think it is a good opportunity for us to push together some progressive ideals. this is really our opportunity to spend big. the framing of this bill in terms of the number and price point of $3.5 trillion, i think it is more of a messaging. think about how much money we spend on the pentagon and security every year. it is -- just for the folks out there, this is a marquee bill that has taken cuts. when we think about the debt ceiling, it is not real. it is not a household budget.

it is not something. this is a big time to spend big. any cuts we make our cuts to families, everyday people that put biden in office. host: let's talk to jennifer, who is calling from michigan on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am in agreement with the infrastructure bill. i think reconciliation, there are going to have to be cuts. i am a true believer in everything on that bill. if we want to get it passed and have agreement, i think something is going to have to happen. it is very sad because childcare is very much needed. community college, i think if anything, i would try to cut down the numbers a little bit. we have to be understanding because we know synema an d manchin, they are not on our

team. we need to make this work for the entire country. host: let's talk to kathy, who is calling from fremont, california, on the democrat line. caller: i am not real informed on this. in fremont, the community colleges are not very expensive. i have been there in the past. fremont unified has pre-k classes already. this is the district. i don't know who is paying for it. that is an area i see that is already somewhat taken care of. host: house democratic chair akeem jeffries says the divisions in the democratic party on this bill are not insurmountable and has played down what other people are saying are divisions in his caucus. here is what representative jeffries has to say.

[video clip] >> it says a phony, silly narrative. democrats are a coalition. we are incredibly diverse in every possible way, racially. we got the congressional black caucus, congressional hispanic caucus, more women serving in congress right now than at almost any other point in american history, more members of the lgbtq community serving in congress than ever before, diverse in terms of religion. we are diverse in terms of life extremes. we have got veterans, national security professionals, nurses, doctors. we have got lawyers. we have got everything in the house democratic caucus. we are also ideological.

no one has waited until the 11th hour. we are still in the infancy of joe biden's presidency. we have already done something of a norma's significance -- of enormous significance. the american rescue plan. the infrastructure agreement and the build back better act. i believe we are goinghost: le'r social media followers are saying about spending bills on capitol hill. here is one post from facebook that says it might be confusing to see democratic politicians actually engaged in negotiations and passing legislation. that's because democrats are not a bunch of far right extremists. here is a text that says we need a waterline system that is capable of collecting water

runoff in the areas where we have flooding regularly and move it to areas where we have droughts and wildfires. each landowner should keep their water rights while allowing this to run along highways and bridges should be replaced. i agree many other things should be done but perhaps we can divide topics to humanity enhancements and the traditional infrastructure. here is a tweet that says i find it frustrating that our legislators who are supposed to be negotiating for infrastructure projects are on a two week rate. now, it is our turn as constituents to let them know we expect positive results. another tweet says i agree with joe biden. it does not matter if it is six hours, six days or six weeks. there is no rush. the people who are causing all the bs is the media. they are the ones who say these bills have to be passed right now. in one last tweet, for every

kiersten mansion -- kyrsten sinema and joe manchin, there is a cheney and aikins anger. -- a kinzinger. how do they get this past? -- passed? let's go to radford, virginia with kenny. caller: something that is going to be an increased in -- increase in cost is the requirement to get all energy from wind and solar or nuclear. this is going to be paid for by people that pay their electricity. it will be paid for by companies that use electricity and it will increase electricity by hundreds of percent.

i am an engineer. i'm not against going to solar power. i am chemical, not electrical. this requirement will be a massive increase in costs on everyone. host: let's go to michael, who is calling from michigan city, indiana, on the democrat line. michael, good morning. caller: good morning. joe manchin and kyrsten sinema, it should be altogether. they should pass the whole thing. they need to. because the people need everything in this bill. host: politico has a story this morning talking about which part of the bill that americans seem to want most from a recent poll.

i will read a couple of paragraphs on the pole to you. americans support letting the government negotiate drug prices above all the other major priorities in the infrastructure and social spending packages before congress, according to a new politico poll that suggests health care is at the top of most responders minds. the drug pricing plan could be in peril as some centrist democrats spar with nancy pelosi over the scope and details. democratic -- are considering scaling back or dropping it entirely from the $3.5 trillion social spending package. ask to choose -- asked to choose among 20 policy where it is, 39 people picked direct price negotiations with drug manufacturers first. that was followed in order of preference by increased federal spending to prepare for

pandemics, more resources for long-term care, to include dental vision and hearing care. all of the proposals are included in the $3.5 trillion social spending package and have been hotly contested as the democratic caucus splits over ways to lower the price tag and garner enough votes. we want to know what you think are the most important parts of these bills. where should they cut? what should they keep? let's talk to tyrek. caller: i'm calling, because i have seen a lot of change in california. we thought we would get a high-speed rail train and we never got it and there is a lot of traffic on the freeway because people barely -- they tore up the roads and people barely get to work. you can't get people in the

restaurants because they have so many regulations. everybody knew where joe manchin stood last year. everybody on the other of the democratic party, it is not the same democratic party as it used to be. other things happened in the media. you can't blame the media. you have to blame people because everybody has a choice. host: let's go to daniel, who is calling from savannah, tennessee, on the republican line. daniel, good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with the infrastructure bill part of it. the roads out here stink like crazy. [indiscernible] it is paid for by the lottery. host: let's talk to julie, who is calling from north port,

florida, on the democrat line. julie, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was a republican for many years but have been a democrat since donald's presidency. my feeling is -- donald trump's presidency. i feeling is republicans -- if her publicans want to vote against this, don't do any projects in republican states. let's see if we can get this going. republicans who need projects done, let's get them on board and get these projects going. this is desperately needed. both the infrastructure of roads and highways, we desperately need that. and some of these social programs that are there to help the children and the elderly, let's get this going and drop the republicans that don't want this. they don't vote for it, they don't get any money. host: let's talk to sheila who is calling from personnel,

oklahoma -- purcell, oklahoma, on the republican line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. that one man did a good job of laying out the different things the bill provides. one way to cut, they don't need three-year-olds going to school, paid for them. some of them will be in diapers. do we need our teachers changing diapers? that, for three hours, is a daycare project. oklahoma has four-year-old programs. our state pays for it. they can pay for it, like they do for kindergarten and everything else. they get government money, you know? they don't need the three-year-old and four-year-old programs. the states can take care of that. as far as i understand, the

infrastructure bill, if the democrats would allow that to come to the floor, that would pass. republicans are on board with that. they are not onboard with the $3.5 trillion bill. host: let's talk to stephen, who is calling from florida, on the independent line. stephen, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? my whole thing about this is people can attack 3.5 trillion dollars, plus another $1 trillion, plus we spent five or $6 trillion for covid relief. how are we going to pay for this? if you are an average person and you make $100,000, you can't spend $300,000. you will never be able to afford everything. some of these programs will drive up the cost for every american and people don't realize that. we can't have all the energy

being on 80% renewal. we need a balance, right? i'm all for the clean energy. we can't do everything. clean energy, we are one of the lowest polluters in the world. if you can't control the other polluters, china is building coal plants like they are going out of style. raise tax on the rich, people, if they ever sat down and looked at a balance sheet, we are already broke. how can we keep giving away stuff? this country is a country of opportunity. you are supposed to earn. we should not be on a government handout. help people who need the help but they are not supposed to be on the government program for their lives. i don't know how we are going to pay for all of this. they need to start cutting a lot of stuff. help the person out. i make enough money. i did not need checks during covid relief. i gave it back to charity. why didn't they give everybody

checks? there should be a means test. if you are making $30,000 or $40,000, you need more money than somebody making $70,000. host: with congress gone from washington, d.c. after coming to a stalemate on friday on the infrastructure and spending bills, it seems like president biden is also heading out of washington, d.c. we have a tweet from catherine watson, who is a reporter for cbs news digital, who says that with his legislative agenda up in the air and no clear resolution in sight, president biden is heading to wilmington, delaware, for the weekend. he will leave at 9:00 a.m. the house is gone, the senate is gone and president biden is heading out of washington, d.c. for the weekend. we suspect negotiations are still going on behind the scenes. the major branches are doing the negotiations on this bill. the executive and legislative

branch have left washington, d.c. the house is gone but the senate will be in later on today. half of the congress is gone today. let's go back to the phone lines. let's talk to bob, who is calling from texas, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i have been watching the show this morning since the start. you have had nine democratic caller and about eight independent callers. and now, a total of three republican callers. i don't see that as equity. maybe you want to have more input from democrats, because you feel this is a democrat issue. but you state -- should state that at the start. host: we can't control who calls in. we take the calls as they come. caller: ok. there is an equivalent amount of money for roads and bridges,

$100 billion is going, supposedly, to transportation. does that seem right? railroads, transit, airports, you have an equivalent amount of money there. if you look over the social spending, you have more money than for the infrastructure. i think democrats have their priorities backwards. host: let's talk to deandre, calling from miami, florida, on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. here is the thing. we have pushed a lot of money into the economy unnecessarily over the span of a long -- short time. the u.s. national debt is $28 trillion. 97% is debt to gdp ratio. that is a bad imbalance.

i feel we should just prepare to be well-off and self-sustaining on our own. this is crazy. how are we getting all this money? it makes no sense. any economic person would be hunkering down in a bunker, somewhere. host: let's go to charlotte, who is calling from texas, on the publican line. good morning. -- on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling about your question on compromises and the 3.5 trillion dollar bill. i feel like they should do away with free college for illegal immigrants. they should do away with

increasing the internal revenue service. they should do away with tree equity, whatever that means. there is some stuff in there that is never mentioned. what does it mean? what are they going to do with the funds that they want to allocate? it is just ridiculous. all they want to do is point out things like elder, childcare, but they never get into the weeds. and also, what about the park, and nancy pelosi's district? should taxpayers be paying for all of these progressive equity programs when we don't know what's in there? host: let's talk to steve, who is calling from cool bill --

calling from ohio on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm 69 years old and i have been around for a while. i think that -- i think both parties need to quit being challenged. we have priorities in our life. they are going to take what comes at them, as it comes at them. throwing all the stuff in, there is to double much fighting. there is to double much pork. we can't run our lives like that. everybody would be going bankrupt.

just stick to the issues. stick to the priorities and get america going. make everything prosperous and let all americans be proud of their country. that's all i have to say. quit being childish and greedy. host: let's go to shelton, who is calling from columbia, south carolina, on the independent line. caller: thank you, c-span. i don't want to see the government shutdown. but, i do want to see speaker pelosi and the president keep fighting for the 3.5 trillion. i think it is a worthy fight. everybody talking about the pork and different things that the

money is going toward. all i will say is keep fighting on, speaker pelosi and keep fighting on, mr. president. i saw trump waste so much money it was ridiculous. i think this is a good purpose for the money. thank you. host: let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about the infrastructure and spending bills and how to get past the stalemate. here is one text that says take the word human out of human infrastructure and then, and then only will republicans vote for it. human infrastructure will help us all. another text says they should take all the stuff out for the illegal immigrants. illegal is illegal, no matter how you slice it. another text says a restitution spending bill for working families. i would like a safe way to live in my homeland.

another text says the concerns i have regard personal privacy rights as a regards to the changes being made to personal information and banking institutions and the data they readily make available to the internal revenue service. the whole thing smells of government overreach. too much fine print for me. a tweet that says most great nations take care of their best and brightest, not america. and another tweet says, i would be fine if none of it passes. infrastructure is fine where i live and i don't want the democrats to bankrupt social security and medicare for i die. we want to know what is important -- before i die. we want to know what is important. what should be kept? let's go to danny, who is calling from arizona on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm fine. go ahead. caller: i'm on a border tone. this is getting scary.

besides all the illegals coming in, there are tons of drugs coming into every border tone in the southern states. the fact that -- jesse, i have a question for you. two things. why should illegal 80 and's get free health care -- aliens get free health care in college? what exactly is tree equity? can you define that? host: we will see if we can find someone who can define that. you can always go to congress.gov if you want to read the bill itself and find out what is in the bill. of course, to see all the congressional action that is going on, keep it here on c-span. you can always go to c-span.org. let's go to kevin, who is calling from maryland, on the democratic line. kevin, good morning. caller: good morning.

i just want to let america know how popular this bill is. no matter if it is a fox poll, abc poll, that bill is very, very popular in every state. let's talk about the debt limit. donald trump raised the debt limit more than any president in history, just in four years, he outdid barack obama in eight years. that is just a fact. where were all of these republicans when they did this tax cut for the rich? you did not hear anything from them. every time someone tries to help out the middle-class, it is always a problem with republicans. i just never understand that. thank you. host: let's go to kirby, who is calling from annapolis, maryland, on the independent line. kirby, good morning. caller: good morning. first, i would just like to say, thanks to c-span.

so much better than a lot of the major new sources. and, it is always -- it is a great way to get in my -- get my information. second, i will volunteer that i am an active duty naval officer and i am in contracting. i think -- my biggest concern from that point of view is the ability to spend that much money . one of the issues in afghanistan, i can't -- i can't even imagine how much money walked off and how we tried so hard there, tried so hard to make it work but controls were not in place. the difference in this country is we have so many controls in place that the mechanisms to contract, to spend the government's money, is so

laborious and it takes so much time, a lot of these controls i think are unnecessary. i think they are holdovers from past mistakes that we have worked out because we wanted to make sure we had absolute accountability with the public's money and we have the public's trust. that is important. it takes so much time to spend the money that we have. and, if you shove this much money through the system, the bottleneck will have to grow exponentially. the controls are not in place. and, i think it would be sad to see. when people talk about fraud, waste and abuse, i don't think the issue would be with bad actors. i think the issue would be just having accountability. being able to go back and tell the public where this money went. it is too much money. we are not set up for that

system. if this was a world war ii situation, where 75% of the population was involved in -- with the government effort, along with private industry, that might be a different story. right now, the way everything is set up, that is a huge amount of money to track. host: we had a question from a caller earlier that was asking about what tree equity is. and we will bring in an article from focus.com that explains what tree equity is. according to the tree equity score website, the term refers to the idea that there should be enough trees in specific neighborhoods or municipalities for everyone to experience the health, economic and climate benefits that trees provide. the biden agenda views trees as a basic right for every u.s. citizen and were found to be scarce in low income areas and some black neighborhoods.

the conclusion is the map of tree cover in america's cities is too often a map of income and race. it hopes to address social inequalities by offering all citizens the health, economic and climate benefits that trees provide. american forced -- forests claims trees reduce heat related illnesses. that is the tree equity being talked about in the social spending and infrastructure bill. that's go to david, who is calling from edmond, oklahoma. david, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to comment on one aspect of the spending bill. as a 65-year-old, in my views, armed with a high school diploma

and work ethic, americans had a pathway to the middle class. the sophistication, the evolution of our economy, the sophistication of our jobs now has exceeded the sophistication of our applicants. and our young people now no longer have an achievable pathway to the middle class, with only a high school diploma. so, we have to recognize that. as a matter of fact, i would even say that homeownership was one of the most fundamental aspects of the american dream, in my youth. that seems to have been replaced by motor vehicle ownership today

by -- with our young people. homeownership is the impossible dream. we have to provide these kids with specialized education. those two additional years of education are necessary host: let's talk arthur who is calling from michigan on the democratic line. the morning. caller: good morning, i am calling about america as a whole and a disregard for all people. spending bill is --. host: i think we lost arthur. let us talk to lisa, who is calling from california on the independent line. lisa, good morning. >> hello. >> go ahead. >> hello?

>> you're on. >> can you hear me? >> we can. go ahead. >> ok. given reading a lot of things that are in the bell. , so i was wondering if you have any information about electric vehicles and who would be getting these benefits to buy them. the wealthy people. otherwise, what are the rest of us supposed to drive if they are banned all of the cars by 2030 because don't like gasoline. number two, do we really want irs getting more money after lois let chapter pension and the irs never turned over the records that congress requested. i think that is terrible.

now, they want more money? what are we supposed to do? watch them and see if they try again? do we have people who will actually fight for us? >> let's go to ken, calling from nevada, city, cover 40. republican. good morning. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm fine. go ahead. >> i think the backbone of america is the taxpayer. the one study i have never seen is what is the percentage of taxpayers and each party, which i think would be important to see. i keep hearing democrats say the trump tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. 100 60 million people received tax cuts on that program.

as far as i know, there are not a hundred 60 million billionaires and millionaires in america. . >> coming up next, nathan hardy will be here to discuss the 2020 college free speech referendum. later, susan, the director of unite here local discusses freedom about act. visit us. just stick with us. we will be right back. >> shop c-span is c-span's online store. shop for apparel, books, and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase helps to support our nonprofit operations.

shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org. >> next on the c-span network, the supremes court starts to term on monday. listen to the oral arguments live online at c-span.org or on our new c-span now at. house of representatives is out but the senate will be working. watch live coverage on c-span two. on tuesday at 10 a.m., to hearings. the judiciary committee hears from the administration's desire to renew an act. watch that on c-span. on c-span three, watch as the congress subcommittee here is testimony from a former facebook employee who provided internal documents about the company's handling of information. children's privacy, and the use of the platform by sex traffickers.

watch next week on the c-span network. or you can watch the full coverage on c-span now, our new video at. head on over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to stream video live or on-demand anytime. c-span, your unspent -- unfiltered view of government. >> c-span on the go. watch the day's biggest political events lives -- live or on-demand. anytime. c-span now, axis top highlights. listen to c-span radio and discover new podcast, over free. download c-span now, today. >> washington journal continues. we are back with nathan harden, >> who is the education editor and project coordinator with real clear education and he is here to discuss their publications recent 2021 college free-speech ranking. nathan, good morning.