. >> get c-span on the go. watch the day's biggest political events live object or demand any time, anymore on our new mobile video app. c-span now, access top highlights. listen to v pan radio, and discover new podcasts all for free. downed load c-span now today. >> tonight at 8 p.m. eastern, watch today's u.s. supreme court oral argument on the kentucky abortion law on c-span2. tomorrow the supreme court hears oral argument in united states a case the justice department as attempt to reinstate the boston marathon's death sentence. here on c spap, online at c-span .org or new video app. c-span now. good morning. it is tuesday, october 12, 2021. the house returns at 3:00 p.m. eastern to consider a short-term

increase of the debt limit. and president biden get set to hold a virtual meeting this morning with g20 leaders to discuss the future of afghanistan. but we begin with a question about the various challenges facing this country. we want to know what you think the most important problem is in the united states right now. give us a call on phone lines split as usual, by political parties. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text, that number (202) 748-8003. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. on facebook, it is facebook.com/cspan. good tuesday morning. start calling in now. the gallup organization regularly tracking this question of the most important problems facing the united states. here is they found in their latest september pulling on this

question. 21% of americans believe coronavirus is the most important problem facing the country. 19% saying it is the government or poor leadership, 16% saying economic problems are the biggest problems facing the country, seven percent saying immigration, another 7% saying the idea of unifying the country is a top problem facing the country. there problems president -- mentioned, judicial problems, the situation in afghanistan, the environment and i'm a change, and the lack of respect for each other, all those issued -- issues in the low to mid single digits in the latest gallup polling. when it comes to which party is best equipped to handle the problems facing the country, that question also asked i the gallup organization in its regular tracking polls. here's the latest on who is best equipped to handle those questions. by a 41% to 38%, u.s. adults say

they republican party rather than the democrats party can better handle whatever problems they name as the most important problem facing the country. last year, 47% said the democratic party and 39% said the republican party can better address the problem, back when the pandemic, the government, and race relations were named the top issues. those identifying the coronavirus as the most important problem widely said the democratic party can better handle it. by contrast, those naming the government as a top problem are more inclined to say that republican can better handle it. this morning, in this first hour of the washington journal, we want to hear from you, what you think the most important problem facing this country is right now. doris is up first out of worcester, ohio. good morning. line for democrats. caller: good morning.

i think the most pressing problem is the attempt to suppress the vote in state legislatures across the united states through gerrymandering and limiting access to voting. host: in which party do you think is best equipped to handle that? caller: the democrats. host: if you had a second most pressing problem, what would it be? caller: the thing that scares me every day is the coronavirus epidemic, so dealing with that and taking care of the second surge of the delta variant is important for me. host: thanks for the call. most important problem facing the country is what we want to hear from you. phill

the present issues like employment, race relations, pandemic. you name it. we have so many diversified opinions that we aren't on the same page as a country. i think it's very difficult to move forward unless we become a unified and more together and go forward in the future. we have some serious issues to deal with. host: on the campaign trail, president, then candidate biden, promised to unite the country. talked a lot about that issue. talked about it in his inaugural address. did you think we would be farther along on that front? almost 10 months into his presidency? caller: well, the thing is that biden was a nice pill to take

because we had such dramatic episode during the trump administration that we were just looking for something to be a little calmer. realistically, most of the people that are in government and many of the authority people that work in our behalf, really are not in tune with the reality of the average person walking on this earth or in this country. they just are not really. you can say anything you want to say, but can you try to plan a method to actually bring the average person together. i just don't think that it's possible about saying it -- host: whether we are together or not. do you think things have been calmer? caller: yeah. things are calmer. that doesn't make it like -- right now i'm feeling more

confused about what's not being truthfully told to us. then we find out all the time it's so many different levels of corruption going on. if we could clean house, get a brand new paid job if you want call it that, start all over with trying to understand each other and reason with each other rather than pitting us against each other. i think that would be a possible first step. in my opinion. host: jim, republican, new york, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. go ahead, sir. caller: my biggest issue: well, one quick comment. the lady talked about suppressing the vote. i don't know how you can see that when there are more precincts that had more votes than actual voters. i don't know how you can say they're suppressing the vote. if anything else, more people are voting than are actually on

the rolls so something is simply wrong. my biggest concern is suppression of the free speech with censorship, with media, and universities and all of that stuff are just muzzling any conservative voices. i would say that even includes c-span who, you know, pretends to be unbiased but they are quicker to promote stories that promote the left and leave out things like -- just one instance recently, lawyers that were indicted when trump was in office were quickly brought up and they made complaints but when mothers get indicted there is nairy a word. i see you suppressing the stories that are positive towards the right-leaning side and that's very frustrating to

me. i see media muzzling the right-hand side and not, you know, giving stories and then you have the big tech and stuff censoring free speech if it doesn't meet their narrative. so it's looking more like a communist, tyrannical system that just promotes one side. host: who do you trust then? who do you think is doing a good job on the issues that you want to see? caller: i used to -- it's hard to find anybody anymore. i go to the blaze or gateway pundit or stuff. i can't even trust fox news anymore. "washington post" and new york times are just totally way off the charts. there's just hard to find any media that you can trust anymore because they're promoting one side over the other. host: jim, i hope you keep

watching. we do our best to give you a chance to mostly focus on you and your voices. that's what we do three hours a day here with our phone-in conversation. but appreciate the call. david in flint, michigan, democrat, good morning. you're next. caller: good morning. i think, to be honest with you, i think our biggest problem in our country right now is donald trump. i think if he was not out there spreading all that false stuff to the right, to the far right people, i think we could have came together. because biden was trying to be real neutral. he was trying not to go too far left. he was trying to be neutral. but they keep fighting him. then, the democrats, we have a problem because we have manchin and sinema which are really republicans. and they keep locking -- blocking his agenda. mr. mcgovern: because of the bureaucracy -- [indiscernible]