infrastructure in the u.s. later, dion rabouin talks about his time piece about digital currency. all that in your calls, texts and tweets next. washington journal starts now. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. it has been another busy newsweek in washington, d.c. president joe biden and democrats still trying to find ways to come to an agreement on infrastructure and social spending bills while states and companies are debating vaccine mandate, inflation concerns arising, a supply chain issue is roiling on the coast, and legal battles are brewing over abortion laws and the generous sixth attack on the u.s. capitol.

what do you think is the most important issue going on right now? we want to hear from you about your thoughts about your top news story of the week. we open regular lines. republicans, we want to hear from you at (202)-748-8001. democrats, your line is (202)-748-8000. independents, you can call in at (202)-748-8002. you can always text us your opinion at (202)-748-8003 and we are always reading on social media on facebook at facebook.com/c-span, on twitter @c-spanwj and always on instagram @c-spanwj. another busy newsweek and washington, d.c. let's start the conversation with what is going on with the infrastructure and social

spending bills in washington. the hill has a story about what's going on right now between the white house and democrats in congress. a growing number of senate democrats getting inpatient with president biden's kid glove approach with the negotiating with joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. biden's approach is involved face a personal attention but little in the way of public concessions or discernible movement. after talks on the scale and scope of the democrats' $3.5 trillion reconciliation spending bill stalled in september, democratic senators expressed hope that biden's personal involvement will yield a breakthrough. yet after several one-on-one meetings with the president manchin and synema, democrats do not seem any closer agreeing than a month ago. yesterday president biden spoke

at a childcare facility in west hartford connecticut and promoted his build back better plan. he explains the high cost of childcare and the benefits of that plan's childcare provisions. here is president biden. [video clip] >> the average cost to bring your child to a childcare center is $16,000. that is after taxes, after you pay your taxes. the average two parent family with young kids spends 60% of their income on childcare every year. my build back better plan is going to change that. it is going to cut the cost of childcare for most connecticut families in half. no middle-class family will pay more than 7% of their income on childcare. [applause]

that is going to help parents get back into the workforce and make ends meet or maybe care for that -- i won't talk about it today -- but it deals with eldercare. 80,000 waiting to qualify for medicare and there are no spaces. we can afford to do this. look, you and the legislature were way ahead of the curve. there should be a place for their children. well, you know, what we want to do is make sure we encourage businesses to do the same. to get a significant tax cut to have an on-site facility to take care of their workers' children. you go to work with your child and have a serious facility on site. studies show when you have on-site care for the children center businesses have less

employee turnover, less absentees, and higher productivity. it's real. host: we want to know what you think is the top news story and what you think about it. let's start with paul calling from paducah, kentucky on the independent line. good morning. caller: what has me scared as i read an article not long ago is what makes third countries poor is corruption. that is what is going on in this country with the democratic party and their lackeys and the news media. biden is one of the most corrupt persons ever in the white house. they do not cover anything about his son and his art and all the lies he has said throughout his career. the supply chain is mostly truck

drivers. they only want union truck drivers. most truck drivers are independent. it is not going to change. they opened the ports 24 hours a day now. that's not going to open them up. it is just corrupt now. host: james calling from pittsburgh, pennsylvania on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. good morning, america. thank you for taking my call. you are an awesome program. the only people who can make changes is us. we the people have to make changes. we the people must get together and say, let's act like human beings. jesse, trump just doublecrossed the country, set the military

stuff over to kabul, and then they put biden in as puppet and started to say coronavirus. i don't believe in it. i believe it is a scam. it was a health care scam and a scam of the people and it is a shame. we the people have to get together and start a third party or we are going to be in a third war. host: susan calling from bradenton, florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the top issues that should be covered are immigration and energy. i think those two should be addressed and in terms of other callers i agree with what they said. there is so much about the biden family people need to know about. we know it is out there but it is not being covered. thank you. host: cnn.com has a story this

morning about the supply chain problems going on in the united states, especially as the united states heads to the holiday season. here is what cnn has to say. computer chip shortages, epic port congestion, and a serious lack of truck drivers, the world's delicate supply chains are under extreme stress. the supply chain nightmares jacking up prices for consumers and slowing the global economic recovery. unfortunately, moody's analytics warned supply chain just ructions will get worse -- warren -- warn supply chain just ructions will get worse before they get better. -- disruptions will get worse before they get better.

the imf downgraded the 2021 u.s. growth forecast on tuesday by one percentage point. they cited supply chain disruption and weakening consumption, which itself has partially been driven by supply chain bottlenecks like lack of new cars. some people looking at what is going on in washington and others looking at the coast with supply chain disruption. what is your top news story of the week? carolyn calling from alexandria, virginia of the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am calling because i never realized how white people are so dumb. they blame everything on the democrats. biden hadn't been in office that

long and if you know anything about the government, everything pulls from that president did the new president. you have to work nine months to a year to get that straightened out. the public knows that but i never thought they were so dumb. every time they want to get into office they want to do with they want to do. i have to give trump one credit. immigration is playing a good part in our economy and what is going on in america. i got to believe you would go to another country and help immigrants you would help american people. people are losing their homes, places burning down, flooded, where these people going to go? but they are going to find homes and bring them over here and pay

for them to be in homes. i cannot believe the united states would do something like that. help other people before they help their own people. host: vic calling from windemere, florida on the democratic line. caller: my problem is misinformation. people don't know what's true and what's not. they need to start checking these media companies. since biden has been president the poverty rate has dropped 45%. since biden has been president unemployment has come down to 4.5%. biden is doing an excellent job but getting smeared by fox news every night and people believe it. yes, there is corruption in the government.

yes, we have a global supply chain, it is global, worldwide. yes, we are going to have inflation of prices but that is to be expected coming out of recession. he is doing everything possible to help this. the fact that congress will not do their job. 28% approval rating and they cannot do these two basic bills. the way they are constructed we are not going to get anything done on roads and bridges and we need programs to help the women go back to work and we need quality childcare. thank you. host: dwight calling from fairfield, california on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. how are you doing this morning? host: i'm doing fine. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. my top news story is remodeling

my downstairs bathroom and bedroom. i don't have any problem with the supply chain. i am getting things as i need them. costs are a little high but everything is coming out ok. another thing, as you are well aware, we have a black news channel so we can get away from all these opinions and stick with c-span and the black news channel. that's all i have to say. thank you very much. host: joel calling from spring, texas on the republican . good morning. caller: good morning. i have been a loyal viewer since 1979, first day of inception. please don't allow people to categorically be racist. that's the first thing. when somebody denigrates an entire race and you sit there and listen, it is painful.

i will leave it there and have used you on that a little while. host: brin calling from northridge, california on the republican line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: my issue is i've done my own research and a lot of people seem to think the wall that trump was building only in mexico. they did not realize the actual wall was built around the borders throughout the country. another thing is i agree with the lady who said we should help american people first. i agree. darn right we should. it should be americans against non-americans but you should go through the proper protocol. that is what america is about.

not racism, not religion, not our skin. it is very simple. biden is not doing a very good job at all. i think he is too nervous and doesn't have what it takes to stand up and say, ok, this is what it's going to take. let's do this. i don't believe biden wants to do these things and kamala harris -- sorry, i get a little excited because i can't believe i get the chance to speak. host: alan calling from ohio on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: there are so many issues. a couple of calls ago the one

gal who had spoken of, if you listen to the news, the immigration issues and housing people i don't. . know if they are prioritizing them in housing but i think the president needs to resign. host: on tuesday house speaker nancy pelosi was asked about the status of the democrats' social spending and infrastructure bills. here is what speaker pelosi had to say. [video clip] >> he said you should do fewer things well. are you suggesting the package may ultimately draw universal pre-k, childcare expansion, free community college, or even the medicare expansion? >> let me just say $3.5 trillion, we are doing everything well.

the fact is if there are fewer dollars to spend, there are choices to man-made. members have said -- we will not diminish the transformative nature of what it is and some members have written back and said, i want to do everything. in the family section of it, the biden child tax credit, childcare and universal pre-k go together. that is -- they go together. they are part of the same -- a meeting the same need. it is issues related to home health care. we are still talking about a couple of trillion dollars but it is much less.

mostly we would be cutting back but that is decisions we can make. >> would you have to drop one of the programs? >> we hope not but we have to make sure we have a bill which i have also said we have to have something that to pass the house and passed the senate, passed the house and passed the senate. host: let's see what social media followers of same. here is one from facebook that says, inflations and shortages. a tweet that says, the supply chain issue is driven by pent-up demand straining our system. when we gave trump the boot people started buying big again after trump failed to upgrade our infrastructure. so what did you expect?

a text that says, there is a coin change shortage in central new jersey. does this problem exist nationally? is anything being done to address the issue? a tweet that says, covid is still killing people in the usa while other countries have many less deaths and higher vaccination rates. republicans promoted anti-vaccine, anti-mask death style and still deny any wrongdoing. fox news promoted this. 700,000 dead and millions injured. another tweet that says, the most important story is the mass of information war being executed on the public. the lies are large and continuous. one final post from facebook, energy costs are skyrocketing. the price at the pumps is forcing families to make our decisions. natural gas has increased in price so much of government is predicting a cold, expensive

winter fermenting americans. yet we live in the most energy rich country in the world. we want to know what your top news stories of the week are. let's go to the phone and talk to hanaphia from new york. i am sure i mispronounced your name. caller: it is hanaifa. host: go ahead. caller: this has been going on before covid that 89% of the bees in the united states are gone. i think we should get the local

governments to try and restore them or we are likely to be able to eat. i think that is really important for survival. there are reason for the colony collapse disorder, not enough diversity in crops, pesticide, there is a variety of things. but if we work on it we could restore the bees and i wish people would pay more attention to it. host: sandy calling from columbus, ohio on the democrat line. caller: good morning. mine is the voting rights. if you do not like what is going on and stopping half of the country from voting and dividing up and gerrymandering all over ohio, we do not have any win at all. we have a statehouse full of

republicans. they are doing the same thing in texas. if you are upset about what is happening, you cannot get anything done because you elected this republicans in the house and senate and they are fighting everything so they can have the power. that's what i have to say. host: let's talk to john calling from santa paula, california on the republican line. caller: good morning, jesse. my topic would be the budget, the trillions of dollars they are going to propose spending. i look at it in a different way. i look at it as it is not infrastructure it is assets and expenses. your assets would be your airports, roads, whatever. your expenses would be your programs. your assets are a direct return. you have direct ownership.

when you put money into expenses it is an indirect return because the other person ends up or the dollar you spend. you spend it you get a service, let's say, and they end up owning the dollar whereas you put it into assets, you own that asset, you own that dollar. the government with this bill that is so lopsided is not a good bill and it is going to cost america a lot of money through inflation. the dollar store is now dollar and a half store. the gas is up, the food is up, that will continue if the bill passes. inflation is another tax on poor people and middle-class people and not the rich. when you raise 5% of the corporations guess what? they are going to raise that on you.

you put 5% on them, they are going to raise their prices. that's was happening and i w arn everybody about the infrastructure because it is an indirect return. host: let's look at some of the news stories we will be talking about during the show this week. we want to get your opinions on. we've already talked a little bit about the supply chain disruption. there are also stories going on about the inflation concerns in the united states. we will talk this hour about the debate over the vaccine mandate and the biden domestic agenda which we have heard president biden and speaker pelosi on. the legal battle over the texas abortion law in the january 6 select committee subpoenas.

there was a story about the latest move in the abortion law battle. here is what the post had to say. the justice department said friday will ask the supreme court for an emergency halt to the texas law that has restricted abortion access in the nation's's second-largest state to an extent not seen in 50 years. it followed a decision by a federal appeals court that allow the law to remain in effect. a lower court judge said last week the law was unconstitutional. the departments announcement means the court will be asked for the second time to put the law on hold while legal challenges continue. in a divisive 5-4 decision last month the court allowed the law to take effect. even the majority said it raised constitutional concerns. the development in texas could be a monument of reckoning for

abortion rights -- a moment of reckoning for abortion rights at the supreme court as opponents of the procedure see a new opportunity for victory because of the court's changed membership. three justices chosen by president trump were in the majority that refused to block the law last month. on december 1 the court will hear a challenge to the mississippi law that conservatives have urged to use to overturn the constitutional right established half a century ago in roe v. wade. more than 125 friends of the court have been filed on both sides. there is a legal battle going on right now in court over the texas law that blocks most abortions in that state. let's go back to phone lines and see what your top news stories of the week are. larry calling from north las vegas, nevada on the democrat line. good morning. caller: hey, jesse.

longtime listener, first time caller. i think the top news story is the fact that the economy is definitely doing better than it was. unemployment is down, some of the other callers called earlier. energy is being better represented by the president we have in biden. the last president we had was trump and it was constant negative, constant anger. now we can take a breath of fresh air knowing we are going the right direction. all we have to do is get a few republicans on board. they talk about freedom but none of them are free to say anything against trump. the one caller called earlier about hunter biden.

they have got to let that go. that is holding back the free flow of ideas. host: let's go to thomas calling from delray beach, florida on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning and how interesting the last caller is similar to what i'm talking about. trump added a lot of jobs but i am republican and i will happily criticize trump. i will happily criticize a lot of things he did. i think he was a bad leader. i think the way he carried himself was on presidential. but talking about hunter biden and letting things go, i agree. but i can't help but notice the hypocrisy between what democrats talk about on january 6 and how republicans and trump tried to subvert democracy. find, but isn't it hypocritical to say that when the democrats tried to push the false russian collusion myth against trump and

tried to impeach him? the evidence was circumstantial at best. muller was the former head of the fbi. he's an expert investigator. if there was something to find, he would have found it but he didn't because the evidence was not there. that was known going in. was that not subversion of democracy? if i could squeeze in one last thing, i know a lot of democrats are concerned about abortion rights. i am personally pro-choice. i am 28 most of my generation are pro-choice. the abortion law in texas is the last gasp of the dying fish. if you have ever seen a fish dying, it flip-flops and then loses oxygen and it starts getting slow and lethargic and loses energy, and finally, right before it dies, has a sudden burst of energy in one desperate flip-flop and that it dies. that is what this abortion stuff is going on. abortion is never going to be

outlawed in the u.s. it is dying out. it is an old way of thinking and pro-life is dying out and not coming back. host: let's talk to joe calling from maine on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning is thanks for taking my call. if i could comment on the guy from florida, please read about obstruction of justice. that is a crime. my biggest concern this week is the doj going after the criminals that were involved in the insurrection. i hope they prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. if this wasn't an election and the proud boys or anyone else

attacked the capitol of the united states, the republicans would not be burying their heads in the sand, obstructing the investigation. it is just ridiculous. i am 62 years old. i have never heard of any losing presidential campaign. they have always said, well, we wanted to check votes. they never attacked the capitol. mr. trump is going to get a subpoena and we will see what happens. host: there is a story in axios that talks about what the president is saying about the doj's subpoenas for the january 6. president biden said friday the justice department should prosecute those who defy subpoenas from the january 6 committee. the president's remarked came one day after donald trump ally

failed to show up for committee. the select committee will convene on tuesday to vote on pursuing possible criminal contempt charges. i hope the committee goes after them and holds them accountable, biden told reporters in route from connecticut. he answered in the affirmative when asked if the justice department prosecute those who defy subpoenas. that comes from a story in axios this morning were president biden says the doj should prosecute those who defy january 6 subpoenas. let's go back to our phone lines and let's talk to anne calling from jamaica, new york on the independent line. caller: good morning. my thing is voting.

i am an 80-year-old african-american woman. i remember when my grandparents could never vote in the south. to me, the most important thing, because all these other issues are very important, but if they take the vote away from us, we have nothing. we are going back to that time back in the 1920's as far as i'm concerned. the voting is the most important thing. if you cannot vote, all these other things are not going to matter. this is what the republican party is trying to steal from people, not to be able to vote and it is ridiculous. host: let's go to michael calling from stanford, connecticut on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. my biggest story is mitch mcconnell not wanting to raise the debt ceiling come december. what do they want to do?

remember a couple of years ago when donald trump had the government shut down for christmas? wasn't that great for all those families? i bet there was republican people loved that, having no money for christmas. now mcconnell is going to do it again. what is that going? to serve is he going to blame it on biden? how? down in texas this abortion bill, what are those people thinking about? they just do it to get props for trump? trump is a loser. he lost. he is not going to be president again. nobody's going to get him back in there. they used to always claim an empty vessel makes the most noise. trump makes a hell of a lot of noise. host: speaking of the debt limit, republican tom cole at the rules committee hearing warned democrats they will not be able to count on republican

to help them with a long-term debt ceiling fixing december. here is what representative cole had to say. [video clip] >> i recognize the necessity of addressing the debt ceiling. i have reservations of the course of the majority follow i urge. my democratic colleagues to begin workin when we do -- when we do we can raise the debt ceiling when necessary. unless and until democrats give up on their dream on socialist america republicans cannot and will not support raising the debt limit to pave the superhighway. if that continues to be the chosen course reconciliation is the only path forward to raising the limit again. the passage of this, democrats will have the time to get this done. i suggest you use it wisely. host: let's see what social

media followers are saying about their top news stories of the week. here is a tweet that says, more than 10,000 john deere workers went on strike. this is the first strike in 35 years. i feel as if this reflects how workers in the united states feel as a whole about being treated unfairly. here is a text that says, remove dark money from our politics. not knowing who is behind a particular message is dangerous to democracy. another tweet that says, a top news story is texas officials requiring teachers to present the other side of the holocaust. another tweet that says, free community college and senior care should be cut from the package. one last tweet that says, may be free market should actually focus on delivering services instead of cutting wages and benefits. our country could start

innovating again. we want to know what your top news stories are this morning. let's look at one story in the wall street journal that talks about retail sales, consumer demand and higher inflation. this story says, americans stepped up their spending in september, a sign of resilient demand and rising inflation as consumers head into the holiday shopping season. sales at retail stores, restaurants and online sellers rose seasonably adjusted 0.7% in october from the previous month. the commerce department said friday the rise in sales reflects persistently strong demand and higher consumer prices. consumers armed with stimulus payments and rising wages have stepped up spending this year, shrugging off the delta variant of covid-19, the end of enhanced

unemployment benefits and emerging supply constraints. retail sales, which are are not adjusted for inflation, rose 5.4% in that time. but still, economists see some reasons for concern in the months ahead, including supply chain disruptions causing backlogs and pushing up prices further, a slowing labor market recovery and aging consumers. this coming out of the wall street journal talking about retail sales rise, stronger consumer demand and higher inflation. what do you think is the most important thing to be talking about? let's go to nick calling from alton, illinois on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i think the most important news

story of the week is the intelligence of our democrat voters. my problem is i have listened this morning and heard every single democrat call in. not one admits the fact their party has had 83 of our 117 congresses, over 116 years -- 160 rather of our governance. . you have had power this entire time. you don't even need one republican vote in either house but yet, it is our fault? you are smarter than that. you aborted 30 million people. that's why you need the immigrants. have a nice day. host: let's go to mary calling from philadelphia, pennsylvania on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. my top story was the pandora papers and how president biden is going to rein in the tax

seats. people have been cheating us several decades to the tune of $29 trillion debt. we have glossed over the people of the panama papers. president obama tried to have people bring their money back with the repatriat act. you had to have a high security clearance to retrieve this information and i saw the tax scheme. it is listed under our treasury department. the state department and irs. our systems have been integrated since president reagan and now it is time to make sure these people pay their back taxes.

e-verify was only for your people to get the information, not to cheat the system. host: let's go to tim calling from alabama on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. there are so many stories out there but one of the ones i have concern about is, i guess you could say, the vaccines, the moderna and pfizer. friend of mine told me he went and got his shot and he put a small magnet on the side where he got the shot and the magnet stayed. from what we gather is what they call nan-ites in pfizer and moderna vaccine. nan-ites is a new technology

they are using. they call it nanobotics. they are tiny, small robots. host: sean calling from st. petersburg, florida on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. my story is steve bannon. i am a supporter of steve bannon. he is a patriot. if they try to jail him, wait until you see three percussions of this. or if they even try to indict president trump, that will kick over the hornets nest like you have never seen. believe me. we know the election was rigged. why doesn't anyone talk about arizona and the thousands of votes that were illegal? i have followed politics since 1992. followed heavily, watched c-span, watched every show i could. i know a president who wins ohio, florida and iowa wins. this election was rigged.

thank you. host: thomas calling from naperville, illinois on the democrat line. good morning. caller: my major concern is the way the insurrectionists have gotten off with a slap on the wrist and how bannon is snubbing his nose to the legal system. our jails are full of african-americans who are in their for lesser charges and have not seen court systems for quite a while but yet, these folks who stormed the capital are getting slapped on the wrist and allowed to be at home with home monitoring systems? the legal system in this country needs to change and it is very discouraging. thank you. host: let's talk about what is

going on with the vaccine mandates in the united states. the hill has a story that talks about the fight between the white house and texas over the vaccine mandate. the fight over vaccine mandates between the white house and governor greg abbott is putting businesses in the metal. but many are for picking the white house's preferred policy. american airlines and southwest, which are both based in the lone star state, said they would defy the order that no businesses can impose a vaccine mandate on employees or customers and comply with president biden's mandate that all companies with at least 100 employees require vaccines or weekly testing for employees. other companies based in texas have already imposed vaccine mandates and have given no indication they will change their positions in the wake of the executive order. texas-based dell technologies has required vaccinations or

testing since january. a few major technology companies not based in texas do have a hub in austin, like google and facebook, and already require some employees to be vaccinated. southwest downplayed any fight with a home state governor saying biden's order superseded any state mandate or law. the airline has ordered its thousands of employees to be vaccinated by december 8. american airlines also said it believes a federal mandate supersedes state law. all this comes as florida republican governor ron desantis spoke in st. petersburg tuesday arguing that there should be some type of protection for private sector employees and workers who get fired for violating vaccine mandates. here is what ron desantis had to say. [video clip] >> i think the issue is going to be, looking at the private sector, biden announces this mandate on private employers,

like, a month ago? it hasn't been issued yet. i think the reason it hasn't been issued is it is a definite loser in court. we are prepared to contest that immediately. i know other states will do it as well. you are in a situation where you are going to force the businesses -- they want to hire. you are in a situation where you may be forcing them to fire employees. why would we want people to be out of jobs? it is unacceptable. i think what is happening in the private sector is some of these businesses are scared of the feds and they think they need to do that. i think every worker, not just police and fire, but every worker should be protected from losing their jobs over this. this has become a political issue unfortunately. this has become about politicians wanting to control people. why would you want to see people lose their livelihoods in the

place where this is the most outrageous with the hospital workers. these are nurses who have been working this entire time. most have probably already had covid and recovered. now they are going to lose jobs at a time when the health care system has been shortstaffed the last year. we just went through a delta wave. what is going to happen in the north? these cases are starting to rise. are they going to do this shorthanded without those folks? i think we need to, in florida, we should be providing protections. i think you need the legislature to pass the law. i don't know if it can be done unilaterally although we will look, but i think you need a law to be able to say, you shouldn't be terminated for this reason. i think that would put a lot of people -- give them some peace of mind. host: let's see what our social media followers are saying about

their top news stories of the week. here is a tweet that says, top story is rising inflation. mayonnaise $4.99. i paid $2.99 this summer. heating our homes in maine is going to be impossible. another tweet that says, january i paid two dollars a gallon for diesel. yesterday three p $50. a post from facebook that says, we have an extreme shortage of health care workers. people are being turned away from hospitals for lack of beds and staff. another facebook post, same as it has been for two years. global tyranny. another facebook that says, sending more evacuation plans to afghanistan to evacuate americans who could not get out as the country collapsed last month. one last tweet from twitter, how

many americans are still stranded in afghanistan? once again, we want to know what your top news story of the week is and what you think about it. let's talk to eric calling from duluth, minnesota on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i would agree the top story is pandora. there is a certain subset of the population that when it gets a hold of a financial resource it is going to hide it and disappear from the common coffers, no taxes taken off of it. it is hidden from us. when money is going that direction society does not benefit. biden is asking for a large chunk of commerce. what is he going to do with that? he will put enough out that will spray it with the common good, to people on the streets that need a break, to the women who need help taking care of children during the day. that is the common good.

then you think about the other side. how did they do in 2008 when we trusted them with the country's money? the country went broke. china had to carry all the paper for the debt that was incurred. that is how they managed. they failed. i think it is important to review history. it teaches. host: ben calling from woodstock, connecticut on the independent line. good morning. caller: good, jesse. thank you for taking my call. i don't know if you know about the nuremberg trials. i am just following orders was not a good enough excuse. the amount of news anchors and newspeople who are hung because they lied to their people. thank you. host: let's talk to rick calling from paige, arizona on the independent line.

caller: hello. first i want to comment about the person on magnets being in the shot. i don't understand that. i got the shot seven or eight months ago and didn't have a problem with it. first time or second time. until everybody starts getting the shots the economy is not going to improving the future. people need to get their shot and just do it. thanks. host: let's talk to robert calling from lie dell creek -- lidel creek, california. caller: good morning. the story missing since indigenous months is that, in the pastor 500 years -- past 500

years 82 per 5 million indigenous people have been killed. hello? host: let's talk to pat calling from long, south carolina on the republican line. caller: good morning. there is so much going on it is depressing but my main concern is our government overreach. this policy they have outgoing. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. there is so much going on it is just depressing people and making everybody anxious. my main concern is government overreach. this bill that they want to pass, there is so much garbage in it. why don't they donate money to build homes for our military that are handicap?

they want to go into our checking account to check every little dime. the average american is not evading taxes. if they want to change the tax laws, go out to the corporations. i'm getting confused here. they have to change the tax laws. that can raise the percentage of tax to 100% if they want to until they get the loopholes out. al sharpton, joe biden, they owe taxes. host: let's go to denise calling from florida on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. my concern is how we are teaching our kids about american history. i was listening to a news report that was talking about the texas governor where they are trying to make the teachers now if they

speak about anything white americans did to anybody else, they want them to have an opposing view. i don't understand what kind of opposing view you can give about slavery or the holocaust or how they treated indians, asians. i am purposely going to buy a book of what has happened so that i can teach kids the correct way. host: let's go to don calling from tremont, pennsylvania on the democrat line. caller: good morning, america. i want to bless these three cops they got shot in texas last night. one got murdered, shot in the back execution style. jesse, you will never report it. that is number one. on your list you did not put the border down. show the little girls with the border patrol getting dumped over the walls. report it.

host: let's go to dale calling from white lake, wisconsin on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. it is a local story that has been going on the last few days and i think it needs some interest drawn to it. it is about homeless people being arrested for sleeping in public areas. i don't see throwing them in jail is good to solve the problem. they are already down on their luck is struggling to make ends meet. i would like somebody to explain to me how that will solve the issues. host: let's go to matthew calling from emerson, new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you, jesse. just to the point of the one lady who called in, critical race theory is child abuse because it teaches children to hate themselves, to hate others,

to hate our police and hit our country. -- hate our country. there are many disasters currently going on with mr. biden and ms. harris but it is a terrible thing to be fired for a reason that is not the person's fault. for mr. biden to threaten people, including nurses who know something about medical things like covid, to threaten them, to be fired unless they submit to taking the vaccine they do not want -- maybe they had covid already and have the antibodies or maybe some of them are pregnant and they don't want to take a chance with their child or maybe things like, and this is a fact, women's menstrual periods have been irregular or excessive. that is unamerican.

that is mean and cruel to threaten people with that. host: let's go to mike calling from covington, north carolina other republican line. good morning. caller: hey, jesse. calling about two calls that came in. one was the einstein guy about the magnet and the pfizer. his friend told him it stuck. i was boostered yesterday and there is no megan in my house that shows attraction to the -- magnet in my house that shows attraction to the market. another called in about the justice system and how it was being unfair to some people and letting the insurrectionists out. i think they treated them worse than murderers and people all over the country they are letting out on the no bail system. just wanted to give my two cents. host: mitchell calling from

chattanooga, tennessee on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just listened to that clip you put on. how can anybody be saying things like that? i don't understand this. we have people that want to come to this country and if they want to come to this country that mean they like our system of government. our top person we put in that house is the president. he is our lead governor. he is governing against not just your personal interest or how you feel. he is talking about the whole united states and saving us. host: let's go to richard calling from nashville, tennessee on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. i work in a grocery store, one of the top chains in america. i do a lot of pricing and

anytime you walk into a grocery store and you see we have lowered our prices for you. they are lying to you. they go up. i have seen them go up on the prices. they lower the price one week and raise them twice as much the second week. when you walk into a grocery store right now they have not mandated masks in tennessee but it is coming. here's the point i'm trying to make. when you have hundreds of customers coming into a major grocery store every day and they don't wear the mask or not required to or they have the antibodies or maybe they had the shot, maybe they didn't, who knows? you're going to require your employees to be mandated to take the mask and we have had employees who have had family members dive heart attacks of this vaccine. i am not for it or against it but here is the point, are you going to make every customer, stand guarded every retail outlet and make sure they have their vaccine card when they walk in the door? here's is where the word liability hits with employees and customers.

i got to tell you from what i am seeing we got more people walking around without the masks being accosted then we do people with masks. workers are bending down in stocky shelves and the mask falls off. workers host: we would like to take -- thank all of our callers in social media users to chime in. host: later on washington journal. a journalist discusses the future of digital currency and what that could mean for the united states dollar. stick with us. we will be right back.

♪ >> weekends being -- bring the best of nonfiction books. on the presidency, a look at how the legacy of woodrow wilson affected things with the woodrow wilson presidential library. two programs on the reconstruction era in america. from the citadel military college, a foreman -- former mayor and professor kerry taylor will discuss the international african-american museums being built with president -- professor harvard -- harvard professor louis gates junior. brandeis university repressor abigail cooper will teach us

about african-americans during the reconstruction era, and how they strove for economic rights and all, including the right to vote, and contracts to choose where they were. watch american history tv every weekend, with a full schedule on your program guide and watch any at c-span.org. >> sunday night on q&a, the senior fellow and former wall street journal economist will discuss his book, only the rich can play. >> opportunity zones created across the country, and they gave wealthy people an incentive to put their money and the poor communities in exchange for capital gain tax breaks. we don't know how much money was given to them as a result of that arcane system of reconciliation with his -- which

is a household word. i would say, based on what we are talking about, tens of billions of dollars. they went into opportunity zones. unfortunately, i think the bulk of the money has gone into zones that didn't need the money. they were already improving. once the projects were built otherwise. >> david with his book, only the rich can play. sunday night on c-span q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcasts on the new c-span now at. -- app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and we are with matthew eby who is the founder and executive director of the 1st street foundation. he is discussing a new report on potential impact of flooding can have a major infrastructure in

the united states. good morning. guest: good morning. host: tell us what the 1st street foundation is. guest: it is a nonprofit for research and technology, to be more specific. we work specifically on flooding right now. for the last five years, we have built nationally available hydrodynamic flood models for the country. then we apply those statistics and that model to every piece of residential real estate, commercial real estate, structure, things of that nature to understand the likelihood of flooding today and how that might change over the next 30 years. host: where does the 1st street foundation get its money? how are you funded? guest: we are supported by a great family foundation. five dollars and $10 donation

requests and the grantham foundation, the high tide foundation. the larger family foundations that support us. host: let's get into the new report. it is a concerning report. the usa today wrote a story based on your report, and i want to put that headline that was pulled on screen here. one fourth of u.s. infrastructure is at risk of flood. tell us exactly what that report found. guest: a concerning title, to say the least. what we have done is we took that model we just mentioned and, originally, we looked at properties across the united states to figure out how many properties had flood risk. for this report, we spent the last year looking at operational risk, and what i mean by that is, we are trying to figure out

at what point water gets too high for a building or a piece of infrastructure. what we did, once we had all of the properties, was we pocketed the properties and five groups. residential properties, commercial, social infrastructure in a bucket. places of worship, museums, government buildings, your local schools, things that are a backbone of a community, if you will. critical infrastructure. utilities, the police stations, hospitals, things you cannot have fail for a city to operate. things that you cannot have fled because then they will have a detrimental effect to the community. hazardous waste sites, wastewater treatment facilities. those types of things that, once water floods, it is a horrific impact for the community.

roads. we took all of the roads across the country and we broke them up into one meter segments to figure out at which point, which segments of roads might flood. in all five we mentioned, we then said at which point will infrastructure fail? the hospital is built to 3.5 feet of protection. if the waters below that, the hospital should function. once it is passed that threshold , it is inoperable. we are looking at the operable threshold. look at a road -- if it has six inches of water on it, cars cannot drive on it. that is the impassable threshold for a road. something like a police station with a foot of water. it can withstand a foot of water because her desk before it becomes inoperable. we looked at these things to

make it impassable, and we deemed it inoperable if it was like we -- likely to exceed that property or road or whatever. with all of those things calculated, we then looked at each group and we found, virtually, critical infrastructure, the most critical, just by the name itself, it has the most risk. one in four pieces of critical infrastructure are not built to a standard that would protect it from becoming inoperable, given the current flood projections. host: i want our viewers to see exactly what you found and how many pieces of critical infrastructure would be in trouble. looking at the report, this is what we see. the united states has 2 million miles of road. they are at risk of flooding. 12.4 million residential properties.

919,000 commercial properties. 71,000 government buildings, churches, etc.. 36,000 airports, fire stations, etc.. these properties -- are these properties that are in low-lying areas, coastal areas? or is this around the united states? guest: when you think of flooding, you think of florida, texas, louisiana -- but what we have found is it is a nationwide trouble. places that you would not think of flooding, like west virginia or tennessee. these places are impacted by flooding -- infrastructure, roads. they are impacted in a severe way. if not higher than other states. the reason is because there is a lot of precipitation.

rain flooding. when rain falls down on these higher elevation areas, it flows into certain crevices. when you have tributaries and rivers that overflow, that is where you see that we do not have a model in this country are the current fema standards for participation -- precipitation flooding. they are not in the hazard area. because of that standard, and the higher likelihood of flooding, you end up with a lot of critical infrastructure that is inappropriate for the level that we have. host: how are you determining that these areas are at potential flood risk? are you only looking at areas that have flooded before? are you taking climate change calculations? which areas can flood, or these are the places that have flooded? guest: what we have done is look

at historical flooding. places that have flooded in the past inform our model. then we have a hydrodynamic model. if ansell -- fancy engineering model across the country. we look at the topography of area or elevation so we know whether water makes it -- from the sky or the ocean. where it would flow. based on that, we can project where the flood risk would be in the country, based on historical events, but also an understanding of what the current environment and current risk. with a baseline understanding, which we understand from a very unlikely or very likely event. where we would expect water to be every two years. we take the baseline model and we projected into the future

based on the intergovernmental catalog of climate change or rcp curves. what do we expect the environment to look like over the next few years? how will that impact flooding? we project scenarios. not just one scenario, but here are the likely scenarios. , based on the curves. we have an understanding of today's risk and the future risk. we have the current risk and we understand that and projected 30 years into the future for a. of a mortgage to give a good understanding of what the risk might be over that lifetime of the home or the road or a piece of infrastructure. host: let me remind her viewers that you can take part in this conversation about flood risk for united states infrastructure. we are going to open up regional lines. that means if you live in the

eastern or central time zone, you can call in at (202) 748-8000. if you live in the mountain or pacific time zones, you can call in at (202) 748-8001. keep in mind you can always text at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on twitter and twitter -- facebook. your report uses the term operational risk. when looking at the potential impact, what exactly does operational risk mean? guest: operational risk is the definition by the government, that if there is a certain amount of water at the building, it will not be able to function anymore. when you think about this for airport, for example, the faa

says that if there is a foot of water, planes cannot land, and that airport cannot operate anymore. the operational threshold for an airport is 12 inches. for hospitals, as mentioned earlier, three and a half feet. it is much more critical for a hospital operate under all extreme situations. that is where we will send people if there is an emergency. it has a higher threshold. each governing body has a regulation to the structure type to make sure it is built to the standards we deem appropriate. that is what we apply when we look at all of the individual pieces of infrastructure, social info structure, commercial buildings, residential buildings , and roads themselves. they understand the risk overall. host: has climate change pushed flooding into areas that we would not have considered flood

prone in previous decades? guest: yes. the interesting way of thinking about all of this is that when we have risks, or we are looking at building a piece of infrastructure, building a home. whatever it might be. we look at the current level of risk. based on all of the scenarios, what is the likelihood of flooding for the height i am building. i am going to build to the standard that protects against that. it is dependent on the standard which you are building, but if you did that 30 years ago, and that standard, the one and 100 events or 1% offense, -- events, and the environment as changes, it is more likely for a river to

flood, then it does not a 1% standard anymore. the likelihood is higher now. given that, a lot of homes are no longer safe because of the change in risk at the standard anymore. that is the historical moving of risk that now brings these things into a higher likelihood of flooding and becoming inoperable or just being flooded and having an impact on homeowners. host: in your report, you do point to several areas of the country that are at high risk. i want to read a little bit from the risk -- report that point that out. the predominant patterns of high-risk exists in the coastal areas of the southeastern united states and along the appalachian mountain region of the country. specifically, the highest concentration of community risks exist in the state of louisiana,

florida, kentucky, and west virginia. i can easily understand louisiana and florida. they are on the coast. what is happening in kentucky and west virginia that causes such a high risk? guest: this is the idea of a standard we build to. when you think of that, for the majority of structures in the country, are building standards are based off of fema's flood elevation. based off of our floodplains, how high should we be building structures that are in them, and if it is outside of the floodplain, it is not necessarily a high risk or higher standard we have to build to? . that is how we have been operating. they do not account for precipitation flooding by itself. there is remodeling or ocean

flooding from storm surges. high tides or nor'easter's. they do not model precipitation by themselves. that is how models are created and they have been doing it since 1968 when the program was originally started. the idea there is that because of precipitation not being modeled in, and precipitation patterns, rain patterns, they shifted dramatically, we end up with lower building standards and higher results. our model has modeled rain and precipitation in itself to say we are -- where are the areas where if there is a one in 100 or 500 rain events like we just experienced. what is the risk? infrastructure was built to lower stairs because it was not taken into account, they are at

extreme risk of becoming inoperable. that is why we see west virginia and kentucky at high risk. these mountainous areas where the rain falls at higher elevations and full through inflows into lower lying land, creating flooding events we have seen as of late. host: let's let our viewers take part in this conversation. we will start with one of our social media followers who has a question for you, matthew. the question is, most electric generating plants are built near water. are any of them in imminent danger of being flooded? guest: you can see with that as an example, each type of utility is brought into our model. we created a tool called flood factor. if you go to flood factor.com, you can type in your home address, your zip code, your

neighborhood, your city, york county, and it will show you what is at risk. if you type in norfolk, virginia, and you look at the city overall on the map, you can change the different dimensions of risk to infrastructure risk or social risk or residential properties, commercial, like i was talking earlier. with infrastructure, you can see what is specifically at risk. utilities, or the electrical power plants that you are talking about. a lot of them are built by water, like ports are on the water. but wastewater treatment facilities or waterfalls, those are all also by the water. a ton of them are at risk. this is the idea that you have to have these critical pieces of infrastructure near water for good reasons, but that brings with it a lot of risk. host: let's let some of our

callers take part in the conversation. tom in harrisburg, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. this is very important for all of us to listen to because it comes down to money. i am in central pennsylvania and like your guest said, in harrisburg, we have a one in 80 flood. flooding is the only natural disaster not covered by property insurance. you have to get flood insurance. you are required. it is thrown onto your mortgage. flood insurance covers nothing. immovable objects only, like washers, dryers, furnaces. anything flood water touches in your house, you have to get rid of and the flood insurance covers nothing and it is expensive.

mine was an extra $300 a month on insurance. guest: flood insurance is a tricky one. as the viewer pointed out, flood insurance is not part of the normal homeowner insurance policy. if you are looking to get a policy for floods, there are two important questions. are you in and essential flood -- in a central flood hazard area? if you are in a special flood hazard area, you will be mandated to buy it. it is mandated to be purchased as part of the mortgage. if you have a federally backed mortgage, they will ensure that you have flood insurance because you are in that high-risk zone and they want to make sure that mortgage is safe if something happens.

then there are people outside of the area who can still be in a high-risk area. there are a lot of properties in this bucket. if you are in that bucket, it is a bit cheaper to get policy previously that it was. on october 1, the government started a new program called the national flood insurance program. this is a new program that prices insurance based on the actual risk or property. now, a new pricing system is in effect. everything is repriced based on the risk to the property. if you have a high-risk home, your price will go up. in the past, if you have been paying a higher price but you have a lower risk, your price will go down. that all just started this month.

the biggest change we have seen in the past 50 years to national flood insurance programs which cover the vast majority of insurance policies across the country. it is an interesting shakeup going on which is a pricing change we need because there have been homes with lower risk that have been paying too much or the opposite. we have expensive homes on the coast that have not been paying their fair share. they have been able to get it for a cheap price. it is really the flood insurance policies, you are actually right. they do not cover the content to the extent that a lot of people think. it is important to know the details of your policy. also, the other thing that is important for the viewers to know is that there is a whole new pricing scheme being rolled out right now around -- that will impact millions of americans. host: as callers calling, i will

be looking up your city. for harrisburg, pennsylvania, it says that 6148 properties in harrisburg have a greater than 26% chance of being severely flooded or affected by flooded over the next 30 years. this represents 31% of all properties in the city. overall, harrisburg has a severe risk of flooding over the next 30 years, meaning flooding is likely to impact day-to-day life within the community. you can look up your city at flood factor.com. one of our social media followers has a question about how you figure out what will happen in the future. the follower says, those future models you are using -- when does the prediction accuracy become unreliable? when does it start to become nonsense? like hurricane forecast paths

can get pretty out of whack just a week out. how do you deal with what will happen in the future? guest: that is a great question. the first thing that we do is we look at what are called rcp forecasts. that is an acronym for representative concentration pathways. it is a fancy way of saying what are the emission scenarios for the future? how much co2, gases in the air, and how will that change? we created global climate ensemble which is all of these different ways of looking at what the outcomes will be in those scenarios. there is a doomsday scenario, which is a curve. then there is a picture scenario

which is a 2.6 curve. you have curves doing this, and social media viewers point out that it is dramatically different in the future. if you are looking 100 years out, which these curves go out to, it is a very different scenario and outcome. when you think about it, and the way we look at it, we are not 100% sure what is going to happen 100 years from now, and we do not forecast that far out. what we for cars -- forecast out is 30 years. we use the thirty-year scenario because of the. period of a mortgage. what will happen over that time? then we look at the rcp curves and they are a lot tighter after 30 years. the emission scenarios are a lot

closer together on different scenarios that might happen. within that, modeling those scenarios, we have all of them together. what is the high-end, what is the midrange, and what is the low? if you are on flood factor. you are looking at the properties in your area, you will have under the forecasted likelihood, a high or low percentage. it will give you a range. there is uncertainty in the forecast so you can see the worst case scenario, if those things happen, here is the level of floodwater you can expect under a 1%. on the low end, here's the level of water you can expect if the emission scenario are much lower's in the future. it gives you a range of uncertainty that can inform their decisions. we do not absently know if it will be 1.2 feet of water to your building. we believe that you have a 1%

likelihood of a 1.5 foot of water to .5 feet of water. host: two of the cities you pointed out that ranked high on several factors were new arlen's -- new orleans. one of our social media followers wants you to comment on the predictions for new orleans. let's start with louisiana and new orleans. what causes them to rank so high and have so many high factors? guest: the actual area in new orleans is below sea level. looking at the elevation perspective, just by pure virtue of the height of the land, it is a substantial risk. the water is going to flow to the lowest point of elevation. when you are below sea level, you are at a much higher risk.

with that, eat -- there are a lot of protections built in there. there are a lot of levees and things that will ensure that the area is protected. all of those things are built to what is called a different standard. you can think of it as -- i have a home and the pump that i have can pump a certain amount of water. that water pump will protect me from a certain amount of flooding. the standard can be up to a one into event or a one in five event. but in a certain point, the pump will not be able to pump out enough water for what is coming in. that pump might be built to a one in 20 standard. in new orleans that is the same thing. they build a system and levees to a certain standard.

ida came through and it was a horrific hurricane, very intense. the levee system held up, which was great. the downside was that the utility was knocked off and the power went out. that was one of the repercussions in the critical infrastructure we were talking about. but the levees held up. what we forecast with our model, unfortunately, for the area, is that because the sea level rises and the intensity of the storms are changing, that standard that is protecting the area will not hold up in the adequate -- and be adequate for the future scenarios we have coming. because it will not hold up, it is showing a tremendous amount of risk for the area. we have one of two things to do. we can accept that, which i don't think anyone, including the person asking the question, thinks is the right way. we can continue to build the of the structure. we will have to build to a

higher standard and if the client is changing, the risk is increasing, and the levee system will be inadequate in the future. at what point do we start to rebuild against those levee systems because we know that there will be a higher risk in the current standard it is built to which is inadequate to the future? host: back to our phone lines. marta from manhattan in new york city. good morning. caller: good morning. i have two questions. i am looking at the map. my building would be dry, however, all around the edge of manhattan would be flooded. my question is, these predictions -- how do they apply to the bridge systems and, i think, manhattan would get all of its infrastructure flooded from underneath, like the sewers and electric. bridges interest me because we

are bridge bound. guest: tear point, the infrastructure in manhattan, as we saw, sticking with the example, the infrastructure underneath, the subway system, or where all of the water started to flow -- we had tremendous amounts of flooding in manhattan, especially around central park. even in new jersey, newark was rendered inoperable. that is what i was talking about earlier on. newark was not able to operate because of the level of flooding that was on the river. that is the same type of concept. to your question, what does it look like for new york? this is the subway system starting to flood -- fail from the flooding. the bridges themselves are a different type of infrastructure. because they are elevated at such a high level, they are over

the water, if you will. the systems, the infra-structure that holds them, our models are forecasting that they will be impacted. our models are forecasting the first part of the question that you had around your building. what is underneath. the coastal areas. the subway system and the infrastructure in manhattan is built underground. that is where the water will flow. the big question is, will the storm system go over the standard? that's what we saw with ida. we saw flooding because the infrastructure that could take water away from the city was not made to withstand the amount of water coming in and such a short. . period. you had something called the idf

curve. intensity, duration, frequency. when you have a ton of water falling in a very short. of time, the likelihood that your sewer systems were built to handle it is low. it is a different event and we are used to when we are building a sewer system decades ago. the change in the environment, the type of storms we are seeing today, it is a different thing than the standard we built them two decades ago. that is where we see all the flooding. host: let's talk to vivian in tennessee. good morning. caller: the morning. i was calling to talk about [indiscernible] we had a tornado that came through. people lost their lives. a man was trying to hold onto his twins. the water swept them away. the water swept them away.

it was coming through walls like i never saw before. another thing, are bridge in tennessee and arkansas. it was cracked. just imagine what would happen if all of those people coming across the bridge would drown. our representative is against the bill. i want to know why. host: go ahead and respond. guest: that is a horrible situation that you are talking about. i am sorry that you had to go through that, and it is not flooding in one element. you meant -- mentioned tornadoes and wildfires. we are seeing a lot of risks take place across the country and our infrastructure is at risk. artifice structure is not holding up. there is a bill, as the caller

mentioned, that mentions critical infrastructure across the country and is trying to build to a higher standard and fortify the infrastructure and harden. those are needed dollars -- the money and how the bills are being passed is not something that we focus on, but i can tell you, based on our finding and the data, the critical infrastructure and social infrastructure, the roads themselves, bridges, as the caller mentioned, those things are at risk, and they definitely need money. they need to be built to a higher standard or reinforced. i definitely agree that we need to be thinking about how to put money into these things, but i believe our data allows us to see the level to which we need this money because you can see what is at risk, and i hope all

the members of congress or the congresswoman represent her district, they will be able to look at this and understand why these dollars might be needed and think of that in terms of the constituents in their district. host: let's talk about what is in the bill for flood mitigation. in that bill is 3.5 billion for fema for flood mitigation actions and assistance. you also have $492 million for flood mapping and forecasting for the oceanic and atmospheric administration. another $80 million for noaa for the detection of droughts, floods and wildfires. is that enough money? can you start taking care of this problem? guest: it's a great question. the answer is, i'm not sure.

we just finished our modeling across all of the country to understand what is at risk today. now, there is a secondary analysis that can start to be done on what we were trying to fortify the we were trying to harden against this risk. but would that cost? the dollars and cents that go into that -- i do not know what the specific numbers, i cannot tell you if it is enough. but i can tell you what the risks are and where we see them. the restaurant fema and those dollars, those are for specific problems which are definitely needed. our model is dependent on those types of organizations providing data so we can do the root -- work, so we can create a model and tell you about the level of

risk, if it was not for things like noaa who create baseline data using taxpayer dollars so we could leverage them and as a nonprofit, run a different analysis and pass it out for free. those types of investments in data and understanding are critical, but to the big question of how much is enough for infrastructure, or is enough, i am not sure. host: let's talk to joe from charleston, island. -- rhode island. good morning. caller: greed and stupidity cannot be solved with money. what we are dealing with is that the earth is a living organism. if you approach a mother grizzly bear with her cubs, she will kill you. this is what we have done to the earth. we continue doing it. we need to build smarter in the floodplains or we will be wiped out.

we need to get people out of the flood canals. you can't build on an avalanche. you cannot build were tornadoes occur. we have millions of people coming in here, illegally and legally, and their polluting with a complete disregard for mother earth. host: is the solution to just stop building where there might be a flood? guest: there is an interesting item that came out of the white house this week, which was the domestic climate policy with a view of, we need to rethink where we are building and the standards to which we are building when it comes to floods. that is exactly what we are talking about here. what i've kind of was talking about earlier -- where are the

high-risk stones, and if her some reason we need to build there, or we already built there, how do we start building to a different standard that allows us to ensure that it will not become inoperable or that home will not be damaged if there is a flooding event that we can project will happen today? what is the useful life of the infrastructure of that home? the rethinking and recasting of the idea of where and to what standard is actually top of mind for the white house, based on what i saw come out this week, which is a great thing. it is exactly like the caller was asking. we need to really be smart about where we build and how we build up cities and infrastructure and all of those items area we cannot just look at current risk. we have to look at the life of the infrastructure because the risk is not going to be the same today as tomorrow. the whole era needs to be taken

into account. host: let's talk to bernie from louisville, kentucky. good morning. caller: hello. i am from louisville, kentucky, and we are on the ohio river. i was looking at the map, and we are 26% possibility of flooding. i had no idea. our local utility company, the water company has an underground retention for a lot of flooding since we are close to the river. it comes from overworked and undersized sewer systems, so we get a lot of backflow. are you aware of other cities that might be using that same type of retention method? do you think they are expected?

guest: sure. each city is a bit unique when it comes to flooding. i will give you an example. if you look at south florida, it is built on porous limestone. the limestone means that it is like a sponge. water can come up through the ground, if the water level is rising. in some areas, like manhattan, where it is built on granite, it cannot have water flow through. you can build a seawall around manhattan. you can protect against flooding from the ocean or hurricanes, storm surges, something like that. the solution for manhattan would not work because if you built a seawall, the water would flow up.

each area is completely different, and each area has to be studied to understand whether it is a good solution or does not. on the retention item that you are talking about on a local level, each is so different that it is hard to say that is a good idea or a bad idea, unless you're able to study it. a lot of local engineering firms we partner with provide our model to them to understand and study the area so they can decide how to build solutions to protect against that level of flooding. unfortunately, i cannot say, that is a great idea, or it is not enough, because i do not know the specifics. i can tell you that every local project has to account for the flood risk and the type of funding and ability to protect against it, and with all of those elements, you get a solution that maybe dramatically from one town to the next different. host: thank you to matthew, the

founder and director of the 1st street foundation for coming on with us and talking about the potential impact flooding will have on the united states. thank you so much for your time this morning. guest: thank you for having me. have a great day. host: coming up, we want to know, once again, what is your new story of the week? we will open the phone lines and ask you what we should be looking at, and what american should be looking at as our top story of the week. you can see the numbers on the screen. start calling, we will be right back. ♪ >> next week on the c-span network, the house and senate will be in session. watch on c-span and c-span2 with live coverage of several congressional hearings on

tuesday at 9:30 a.m. life on c-span. the senate finance committee considers police chiefs with border protection. at 730 p.m. eastern, live on c-span2, the committee will vote to reverse steve bannon for criminal content after complying with a subpoena. on wednesday at 11:30 a.m. eastern on c-span, the senate foreign relations mitty holds a confirmation committee for a few nominees. longtime u.s. diplomat nicholas burke, who president biden nominated to be the investor china. rahm emanuel is up for u.s. ambassador to the band -- japan. live on c-span3. merrick garland will make his first appearance before the house judiciary committee on issues facing the justice

department. at 10 a.m. eastern on c-span.org and the new c-span that -- now at. an appearance before the senate judiciary committee. watch next week on the c-span network, or watch on c-span now, our new video app. head on over to c-span.org for scheduling information or stream video live or on-demand anytime. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> a new mobile video app -- c-span now. download today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back and we want to know what your top new story of the week was. are there particular topics that were in the mainstream media that you want to talk about or

is there something else going on that you think americans need to know about? call in and let us know what your top new story of the week wise. here are some stories that did come out this week that you may want to talk about. first of all, there is a supply chain disruption that happened and will happen in the future around the united states. the inflation concerns are going on right now. the debate over vaccine mandates. the domestic agenda of president joe biden, stalling in congress. in addition, there are the subpoenas that went out and are being challenged by some with the january 6 subcommittee and the legal battle over the texas abortion law. let's start with a story coming out of the new york times that deals with what is happening with the vaccines in the united states right now. a new booster shot as been approved by the united states government.

the new york times says, a key federal committee voted unanimously friday to recommend johnson & johnson booster shots, clearing the way for all 50 million people who got at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine to receive a second shot. if they received a recommendation as expected, boosters could be offered by late next week. committee members made it clear they believe that johnson & johnson recipients might benefit from the option of a booster of the pfizer or moderna vaccine. this is something a top fda officials said the agency was considering. with a series of votes over the past month to recommend boosters for all three coronavirus vaccines used in the unite states, the panel set aside significant divisions and skepticism about whether extra shots are needed and edged ever closer to the goal that

president biden laid out in august when he called for boosters for adults. that is coming from the new york times. the fda panel recommending booster shots for those who received the johnson & johnson vaccination. before we get to your calls, we want to point out that white house press secretary jen psaki was asked about the executive order that was put out by texas governor greg abbott, saying that companies did not have to follow the presidents vaccine mandate. she was asked about it and here's what she had to say. >> what the president -- when it comes to what the guidance is now, -- [indiscernible] >> we know that is federal law

overriding state law. i would note that when we put out our guidance, on the presidents announcement about mandates several weeks ago, he made clear that, again, as i said earlier, requirements receive any state or local law and superseded. nothing was discussed and excuses minutes for say ordinances. we put out guidance putting that clearly. fundamentally, beyond the legal aspect which is unquestionable in our view, the question for any business leader is, what do you want to do to save our lives and companies? how are you going to create a workforce where people feel safe to go into their work as is? what is fundamentally in the interest of your businesses? we have seen from economist after economist, and any business leaders who work to implement mandates, implementing

these mandates create certainty, reduces the number of people who are out of work sick, and worse, and that is good, ultimately, for businesses in the economy, but also saving lives is something fundamentally, business leaders can do, by working to implement these mandates. i would note that a lot of these citizens are doing this on their own. from the federal level, the osha requirements are the next step. >> governor abbott knows that the federal rule supersedes state law, so why did he do this? can you elaborate? >> when you make a choice that is against all public health information and data out there, it is not based on what is in the interest of the people governing. it is perhaps in the interest of your own politics. host: let's go to our phone lines and start with joe who is calling from alexandria, georgia, on the republican line. good morning.

caller: good morning. i love c-span. it is a great network. all the people are wonderful. i think the big story is a poll showing that glenn young will be elected governor of virginia. i voted for dave for president. he was great. there was an economist that predicted that glenn young will be elected the governor of virginia, and this will lead to republicans taking over the senate and the election of a republican president. being elected governor of virginia is one of the biggest news stories this year. i am certainly -- i hope he was the governorship. host: let's go to alisa on the

independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. do you hear me? host: yes. go ahead. caller: my top story of the week is the abortion debate. i don't understand how estate can override the constitution. i don't get it. can anyone help me with that? host: let's go to patty in st. petersburg, florida, on the republican line. good morning. caller: high. . can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: i think one of the most important issues that came up this week from the front pages,

but certainly, is whether or not whether we should cancel the cash payment system. to do so would make a fantastic difference in the way our culture moves on all levels and would very severely hurt the four -- the poorest population. host: what were you saying they would replace the cash system with? caller: well, that is at the moment, they are thinking of something similar to bitcoin. credit cards. what they would base it on, i am not sure. there are a lot of suggestions, but the idea is that we want to get rid of cash system because they think it cost too much to lose -- use cash when you can use credit. host: stick around, because in

about 15 minutes, we will be having a discussion of a recent time magazine article that talks about the future of digital currency in the united states and we will have the author of that article here on the show, and we can ask him about getting rid of the cash system and if it will ever happen. let's go to tony who is calling from walcott, connecticut, on the democrat line. morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: go ahead. caller: i have to think. -- two things. it is columbus day, and we have gotten rid of that indigenous peoples week. the bigger's -- biggest problem is that the person we name our country after, he was the worst.

he was a slave owner. we need to change our name to our continent. where the rest of the bills? we start to show the country the rest of the money that will be spent in the spending packages so that people can get on board. show the high levels of the good stuff that is there. thank you. host: another new story is they bipartisan white house commission was split on whether the supreme court should be expanded. i will bring you the story coming from cnbc earlier this week. bipartisan white house commission agrees that congress has the legal power to expand the supreme court, but the group was divided on whether lawmakers should actually do it. that's according to drafted discussion materials released thursday by the white house.

the draft materials came out of the court all time low approval ratings that center on a political polarized issues. a growing chorus of critics have called to expand the size of the bench. proponents include former presidential candidates and cabinet members. other commissions conclude that adding seats is likely to undermine rather than enhance the supreme court's legitimacy and its role in the constitutional system. that's coming from cnbc on a split commission on adding

supreme court justices. it let's go back to our phone lines and let's talk to cj was calling from minneapolis, minnesota on the republican line. caller: thank you. good morning to you this morning. i want to shed light on the pipeline here and the blackout with the news media here. that reason you don't hear anything about it is because it's not getting any coverage. at the same time, they are in violation of another native treaty rectified by the congress of 1861 and here we go again. this government could never be trusted as long as they keep trying to keep the native american people from having a voice and even being recognized. thank you. have a nice day. host: let's talk to jd calling from oklahoma city, oklahoma on

the independent line. jd, good morning. caller: i heard that when the republican governors get together on the border, they were talking about creating laws in their states to weaponize people to go after illegals and create a bounty on them, kind of like they did for abortions, kind of like having, is that true? host: let's go to liz who is calling from tampa, florida on the democrat line. caller: liz, good morning. caller:good morning -- caller: good morning. i want to call real fast to talk on the january 6 situation. i wanted to talk on the january 6 since jewish and and i wanted to say that i was more than happy and pleased -- i wanted to

talk on the january 6 situation and i wanted to say that i was more than happy and pleased. the whole time -- the entire time of diminishing certain populations. i love polly side. i'm really looking -- i love p oly-sci. that trial is the crux of what we represent in our government and what we are going to stand for and the line that we are going to draw. i'm passionate about it, but somebody like that needs to be addressed or there is room for it to happen again. host: former president donald trump spoke at a rally in iowa. he attacked what the bite in the presidency has done so far. here's a little bit of what -- he attacked with the biden

presidency has done so far. >> joe biden and the radical left have brought our nation to the brink of ruin. it's never been anything like it. after just nine months under biden, violent criminals and bloodthirsty gangs are taking over our streets. it's illegal aliens and deadbeat cartels are taking over our borders. inflation is taking over our economy. china is taking over our jobs. the taliban has taken over afghanistan. lunatic leftists have taken over our schools. radical is socialist's radical socialist -- and you can't say i did not warn you. i also can't say you did not get out because you got out and voted night -- like no sitting president has received.

the election was rigged. but as disastrous as the biden administration has been, no one can blame the great state of iowa because, boy, we did really good here. host: let's see what some of our social media salt -- social media followers are saying is the top news story of the week. my top news story is the continuation of the push for everybody to get a covid vaccine. all the vaccine does is coat self. at the government can control the masses with threat of illness. here's a tweet that says, i have a cone news item. in march, ohio legislators

passed a bill that took away our governor's privilege to write cobit mandates. one final text that says steve allowed -- to write covid mandate. one final text says steve bannon being allowed to defy congressional subpoena. i'm terribly disappointed that he and trump other cronies are not hauled to jail by the next day. let's look at what is being done as far as international travel and the covid-19 pandemic. here's a story coming out of axios that says the white house will announce plans to lift travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers beginning november 8. the move will allow vaccinated travelers to visit the u.s. for the first time in more than 18 months. the announcement applies to

international air travel and travel across u.s. land borders. effective november 8, must provide proof of being fully vaccinated to be eligible to fly to the u.s. fully vaccinated travelers will also be required to present another -- and negative covid-19 test taken within three days of travel prior to boarding. foreign nationals traveling to the u.s. via its land borders for non-essential travel, must be fully vaccinated and able to provide proof of vaccination and desk to border officials upon request. calling from maryland on the independent line. good morning. caller: i want to make a comment about covid, but for some want to state the people need to wake up and realize that the

two-party system in america is at the wallop desk a duopoly. we really don't have a church -- system in america creates a duopoly. we really don't have a choice. while we fight one another, they keep moving their agenda toward the totality in government that they desire. it's hypocritical that the abortionists have been using the my choice by a bureaucrat, by a politician. the last person i would trust. it is my body. it is my choice. what i go to my doctor and he says you have this ailment and here are the various treatment you can take, at the end of the

day it's my decision whether or not i utilize those medications or either utilize those treatments. people have to realize that the government cannot solve our problems because they are our problems. host: let's go to terry who was calling from north carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: morning. kudos to the last lady from maryland. both parties are as corrupt as they can be. it is my opinion today, the biggest story should be the interview with joe rogan and sanjay koopa. -- sanjay gupta. it joe rogan exposed how cnn has been lying to this country for generations. c-span, you use them as a major news organization.

you can clear all this up. you can actually show us the undisputed proof that donald trump colluded with russia. host: let's go to lee who is calling from des moines, iowa. good morning. >> i am an army veteran and on january 6 i was appalled at what they did to the white house. as an army veteran, and i've been with the v.a. for years, i was appalled. that's all i have to say. thank you. host: let's talk to ben who is calling from mississippi on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. top story for me would be your

callers calling in saying that trump was not colluding with russia or didn't have nothing to do with the election fraud. he did. and they proved it. they proved russian collusion. the own thing about it, said he could not invite desk said he could not indict a sitting president -- said he could not indict a sitting president. the senate controlled by republicans refused to even look at the evidence. they covered it up. just like they used to do back in the 60's and 50's when somebody gets lynched. the person against -- the person that does the lynching, they have an all aristocrat jury and

they will -- and they will acquit to gather did the lynching. host: new jersey on the democrat line. marsha, good morning. caller: one of my top stories this week was about the supply chain economy. all of these merchandise that is coming into our ports, and i saw all of the merchandise sitting there, and i think that trucks have to come and take all this merchandise to their proper place and truck drivers should be paid more money for their work. this is supply chain economics. get all of their merchandise -- get all of their merchandise to the proper place. host: president biden announced

in the operations expansions at the port of long beach and los angeles to deal with some of the problems with the supply chain in the united states. here is what he had to say. >> together, these ports are among the largest in the world. the best way to make that point is it's 40%, 40 percent of shipping containers that we have poured into this country, come through these two ports. today, we have some good news. after weeks of negotiation, the port of los angeles announced that it is going to begin operating 24 hours a day seven days a week. this follows the port of long beach is commitment to 24/7

announced just weeks ago. a 24/7 system, what most of the leading countries in the world operate on except us until now. this is the first key step to moving our freight and transportation nationwide to a 24/7 system. here's why it matters. traditionally, our ports have only been open during the week monday through friday. generally close down at night and on the weekends. staying open seven days a week through the night and on the weekends, the port of los angeles will open over 60 extra hours a week. in total, that will double the number of hours at the port is open for business. that means an increase in hours for the number of workers -- that means an increase in the number of hours for workers. host: let's talk to cynthia who

was calling from menifee, california on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. first of all, i have three things i would like to talk about. i have truckers and my family and the only reason they can't get to the ports is because their trucks have restrictions. if it's not a newer truck, the ports, especially the one in california, are not allowing them to go in and pick up the cargo. second, the last gentleman talking about trump, it has been proven that, the only thing that was proven is hillary clinton proved -- hillary clinton paid for the dossier and the democrats are the ones who created this. that -- created this to get trump out of office.

number three, the lady or gentleman speaking about covid. i've had covid and i had it really bad, but it was no different from the flu. i do have antibodies so i should not have to have that vaccine. host: let's go to tim who is calling from arkansas on the independent line. good morning. caller: morning. i'm glad to hear some of the callers are up. california does restrict truckers. opening 24/7 is not going to make a bit of a difference. you've got to have a brand-new truck or you can't get in. they won't let drivers come in with older trucks. everything with this economy that is behind the slowdown, or we don't have enough people, this is all man-made stuff.

it joe biden's new mandate make sure there's not going to be hospital staff to take care of you. he's going to makes year that there's not police to take care of you. he's going to make sure that there's not ems people to take care of you. this is all by design. this is -- there is no reason to mandate anything. host: we would like to thank all of our callers. coming up next, dion rabouin discusses his time magazine piece on the future of digital currency and what it could mean for the u.s. dollar. stick with us. we will be right back. ♪ >> weekends bring you the best in history and nonfiction books. former and current members of congress discussing their favorite book.

a second chance for the republican party, the conservative movement, the nation and ourselves. native kid becomes a congresswoman. mitch mcconnell shares his reading list. afterwards, former u.s. democratic bennett nelson of nebraska talks about his favorite book. on the decline of bipartisanship and his recommendations to restore. he is interviewed by -- he is interviewed by senator ben staff. watch online anytime at book tv --booktv.org. >> his wife melissa and their

dog dora sat -- set out on a road strip to retrace george washington's visits while president to the original 13 states. what came from the adventure was his latest book. in search of washington and his legacy. the u.s. first president said his goal was to bring the country together. traveled as far north and as far south as savannah georgia. >> you can listen to book notes on our new c-span now app. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with our spotlight on magazine segment and we are here with dion rabouin who is going to talk to us about his recent time magazine piece.

it could doom the almighty dollar. good morning. >> guest:guest: good -- good morning. thanks for having me. i've been following this central bank digital currency space for quite some time. i do some reporting on central banks and what's going on with the world with money and it was clear that no one had done a big , exhaustive, authoritative piece about what's going on in the central bank digital currency space. the biggest question i had was, why was the u.s. so far behind. china has already rolled out there -- rolled out there currency the way all money is printed. the bills and coins that you have in your wallet right now. they are rolling out a digital version of that. you don't need a bank account.

you don't need an internet it can -- you don't need an internet connection. just like you have paper currency, they are already rolling that out in cities across the country. they are testing it. across borders, using this digital currency the way that we are using dollars in the u.s.. this is already happening. here, we are talking about a paper that may or may not come out that's going to say should we do this. here's the pros and cons. we are not even at a point where we are so country are moving forward. the big question i have was, why are we so far behind. what is contributing to that? could we catch up if we want to? host: let's make sure we are using the same terms and we know what we are talking about.

the find what digital currency is. is that it coin, what exactly is digital currency? -- is that bitcoin? what exactly is digital currency? guest: a digital currency backed by the simple -- by the central bank. that is the same as a dollar or nickel or quarter. the things you have in your pocket. the 20's, 100s, exact same. if they get a system in place, you will be able to use it to buy things at the grocery store, to shop online, to do all the things that you do. that is very different from bitcoin, cryptocurrencies that people conflate with digital currencies. digital currencies, it's an

umbrella term. sandals are shoes, but all shoes aren't sandals. is very important to point out that most people don't use crypto for currency as in buying and selling. they use it more as an asset. those are digital currencies because they do have exchange value. people do pay for things with digital currency. mostly with the dark web. one dollar on a piece of paper. that would be a piece of paper note. i want that. i will pay a dollar for that. even the value might start to increase. that would technically be paper money. the same way cryptocurrency was technically digital currency.

is that the same as a dollar bill that is backed by the full faith of the u.s. government. is that -- does it have value to it? yes it does. the two are as different as those two things. host: why is the u.s. find? i want to point out the part of your article that says not only the china is ahead, but other countries. the bahamas announced the integration of its digital sand dollar to the stock exchange while australia, malaysia, singapore are moving forward with the world's first central bank digital currency exchange program led by the central bank of central banks. it's not just china moving ahead with digital currency. it is other countries. what is the united states

waiting for? guest: that was what prompted me about wanting to do this article. the answer is two or three fold. the biggest burden, i'll toss, think that keeping us as a country -- the biggest birding is the -- the biggest burden is the banking system. in china, it's the central bank, the people's bank of china that's leading the effort. it technology -- most people pay through why the central bank has stepped in and said we are going to control how people pay for this. all those countries, the banking system, the commercial banks, chase, bank of america, wells fargo, they are equivalent to china in terms of here's what you will do for the banking system.

you are not going to make a ton of money on this. you are not going to get wealthy through the system. you are going to facilitate what we tell you to do and that's how this is going to work. the system and the uss decided, we don't play that. we don't want this thing to come about and they put a lot of lobbying efforts to making sure that it does not. the american banking association put out and testify before congress that digital currencies are a problem. they say they it can do more harm than good. they said things like, another large banking organization has come forward to say they don't even think the federal reserve has the power to do this, that it could only be authorized by congress despite the fact that it is very clear that they are responsible for printing money. the argument is, does digitally printing money count as printing money.

it means less profits for them. the other issue is a lot of folks are sympathetic. they say they don't have any issues with our digital currency and digital payment system. echoed the language used by the american anchors association saying this is a bit of a solution in search of a problem. -- american bankers association saying this is a bit of a solution in search of a problem. he doesn't really see the use for this. he said something like no one has come to me and shown me a solution for this. when i have spoken to people who were dealing with this on the ground, they say the technology, we could roll this out pretty quickly if we needed to, but the problem is the banks do not want it and we would need the banks to facilitate it.

we could not do this out side of -- do this outside of the banking system. we don't really think this is necessary, we don't think it's helpful. the other thing is it's not clear decision-making in terms of who is overseeing in terms of what regulation is in charge and would be taking over not only the pushing outs and creation of this digital money, but is it the securities and exchange commission? there are at least 10 different organizations group -- who could have some hands in this pot and all of them are battling over turf and it this is my part, this is your part. there is a huge bureaucracy problem. there is another problem with the banking system putting its foot in the way saying we don't feel like you guys should do this. there's regulators who say this is more harm than good.

we don't think this is the thing we should be pushing forward on. host: let me remind our viewers that they can take part of this conversation. we are going to open up the regional lines about the future of digital currency. that means if you are in the eastern or central time zone, you can call 202-748-8000. if you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, you can call 202-748-8001. keep in mind, you can always text us at 202-748-8003. we are always reading on social media on c-span and -- facebook.com/cspan. the question is why would the u.s. want to issue digital currency? should taxpayers be concerned?

guest: that's a great question. it's one that is at the heart of this. the federal reserve has been saying they are going to put out , it was going to come out into live. i think it was, then it was september. then it was sometime soon and we still have not seen it. there is going to be a taper at some point -- at some point. the case that i have heard through my reporting is the banking system is inherently unfair. it punishes folks at the lower end of the spectrum and rewards folks at the upper end. credit cards rewards points. that is used by wealthier upper income folks. folks in the lower economic spectrum use debit cards that come with account fees,

overdraft fees, maintenance fees, things like that that staying lower income people who don't have the money to pay for those fees. a lot of the banking system does penalize poverty. that is one thing that folks have been talking about for years. you can go out and you can spend, there's no reason for you to do things like go and get a payday loan or go and get your check cashed at some places want to charge you 5, 10, 20, $30 to cash your check. you have to get from getting your paper check to getting your paper money in your pocket. that penalizes the poor. there's also the idea that traveling cross-border transactions. i have a couple of family members whom i send money to and if there's ever an emergency, like they need $1000. i try to send them $1000.

if i do a bank transfer, that's 20 take five to seven business days. -- that is going to take five to seven business days. all of these things to go to the banking system take excessive time or have a lot of fees associated with them. digital currency would eliminate all of that. you can spend digitally. there is no middleman. that is one of the benefits. it also makes things breeze through easier where we are already doing things digitally. money is already ones and zeros in the system taking that out and using paper complicates and makes that more expensive and allows things to profit at a really spectacular level. host: several of our social media's followers want to know whether digital currency will

require people to have internet access, mobile phones? are those disadvantages by requiring people to have those things if digital currency requires you to have that? guest: no, you would not need a digital desk and internet connection. you can access it -- you would not need a digital -- know you would not need an internet connection. you think of zell, paypal. central bank currency -- digital currency would not allow -- would not require you to have an internet connection. china is pushing this forward. china is the biggest country doing this right now. you named another -- you named a number of others, but china is obviously the biggest one. if they are able to implement this, they are ruling -- rolling it at the beijing olympics and showing hey, this is how you use

digital currency. if they use it first, they get to set the rules, so to speak. differentiation in the payments so we've always said the rules. the government is less so in your business than they are in china. the government -- china wants the government to see everything. if they get there first, develop it first, they get to be in the drivers seat of the citing the rules of the road and how things go. that's another reason why the federal reserve wants to push forward on this. some folks and government want to push forward in this because they don't want to allow china to set the rules going forward. to come back to your initial question, yes you probably would. the government as a program to get people mobile phones. even if you just wanted a mobile

phone or digital bank currency, you could get some of those free phones from the government. the odds are this will not place and get rid of paper money. it will be a complement to paper money. if you really do want banknotes and want to keep them in your pocket or in your mattress -- or it under your mattress, you can do that. host: let's go to our phone lines and talk to don who was calling from las vegas. good morning. caller: good morning to you. i want to ask the question as an american, why in the world would americans want to follow in china's footsteps? there's only one reason. because china wants to control the digital, financial system through their digital currency. they are going to have, they are

going to be able to see every transaction that goes on in the banking system. if america is doing the same thing, we are giving up our sovereignty. they are already starting with this starting to get the irs to spy on our bank accounts. they're going to make it so that they can stop transactions, they are going to say you cannot buy this or you can buy this. they are not going to let us use it. the government will have complete control over our money. host: what about her concerns? guest: her concern has been voiced by a lot of americans and voiced by a lot of politicians. it hits on both sides. what you said about china is correct. they do want to know what everyone is doing. they do want to be able to step in and know about all of the transactions that are going on in the country. this is also one reason folks are pushing the u.s. and federal

reserve to make and put forward a digital currency so that it would not follow the chinese model. if the chinese model becomes and the government does see and able to interject in any final -- and any financial transaction, folks are saying the federal reserve which is already looking into this question and examining says -- needs to find a way the government isn't able to see every single transaction. it may be only transactions over $500 or one thousand dollars or certain transactions with -- certain transactions would register. that would be a question of which government agency oversees this. i think it has been pushed forward in sweden were only certain transactions are available to be seen by any government or regulatory officials. that concern is a valid one.

it's the problem and solution. people are saying we want to stop china from being first, from laying out the rules of the road and saying only thing -- and saying the only way to do it is let the central bank and government view every single transaction. the u.s. needs to step in and create a system that allows more privacy, allows more freedom for transactions. also does not allow for money laundering, fraud, things like that. there's got to be a way to do both. on one side, this is what we should. on the other side, this is what we shouldn't. host: we have to also be concerned with computer, security, viruses and all of the other concerns that we have with anything flowing through the

internet and digitally. what are security concerns with digital currency? what is being done in other countries to make sure their digital currency is secure? guest: this goes back to a note joke where the police as the bank robber why did you rob the bank and he says that's because the money is there. opportunities for theft. we do have the federal deposited insurance that controls the currency, apparatuses that prevent folks from hacking and stealing money. that is part of the development. the reason china is rolling this out is because they know hackers are going to try to get in and steal people's money. what they are doing is green out different ways to secure the system. it's not just china.

eastern caribbean, south africa, all those countries you named. this system is being tested over there for exactly this because the system has to be safe. it has to be secure. here in the u.s., there's got to be a level of privacy. allows for as many people do use it as possible. this stuff isn't easy for exactly the question you asked. this is exactly why officials are taking their time. security is just one part of the concern. i don't have the knowledge of what needs to be done for it to be secure. i can assure you that m.i.t. and places around the globe where they are looking it where to keep hackers. host: some people in congress

are concerned about what a cost -- cashless economy would bring to the united states. i want you to listen and respond to this. during a house hearing, representative sylvia garcia some of her concerns about going to a cashless system. here is what she said. >> there are poor people that are not going to be able to access basic necessities of life. even something as simple as handing the cash to a child to get their meal at school, being able to pay a cash bond when one of their friends or loved ones may be in jail, being able to put cash in an offertory basket at church. those things cannot be done with credit cards. if not everybody has a credit

card. the sense of frustration for someone calls this attack, let's put ourselves in the shoes of someone who can't get to a bank, can't get to a credit union, does not have an account, does not have the capacity, the language capacity to understand and to be able to manage an account. yes, this is about making sure that we have financial inclusion. our economic banking system needs it. it needs choices, choices for the consumer to make. host: you were talking earlier about the penalties that the or pay to use cash and check. she was talking about the penalties the poor might have debates when you go to a cashless society because they have to learn how to use, they would need a cell phone.

they would need to figure out all these things. do you think her concerns are warranted? guest: the concerns she is making are some of the concerns the banking committee has made in favor of a central bank. he is also talking about accounts, every american would have an account under his proposal. the money would go directly there. you can do all the things she talked about in that speech or in her remarks with central banks digital currency. you can transfer love -- you could transfer money straight to a loved one. no one is talking about getting rid of cash. this would be a supplement to cash. most folks use debit cards or credit cards. the people that don't could still access cash or this digital currency which would be available to them at the

offering plate at church, they could do a digital offering plate. pass around the ipad, everyone puts in their sensual bank currency -- everyone puts in their central bank digital currency. you can spend this directly at stores. no paper checks, no going to your bank account waiting three days for the funds to clear. that argument is usually one in favor of digital currency because it is different from credit cards. it is different from debit cards. it gets the money directly from the source to the person and that can be transferred anyway way the person likes. it is all available without need for internet connection. host: let's talk to ray who is calling from tennessee. caller: let me ask you this.

no more yard sales. no more flea markets. no more buying cars off craig's leads -- craigslist. i bought my car from craigslist. i paid cash. explained to me how i'm going to go by a really good bedroom suit at a yard sale or a flea market using digital bitcoin. and another thing. i read this this morning. 11 million people in russia, russia has this too. you haven't said nothing about that. 11 million people were hacked last year. digital coined. i'll listen for my answer. guest: ray, i will answer your question. you first talked about yard sales, buying on craigslist. you can do all that with digital currency.

i will have a wallet that will have might central money -- central bank money in it. i would transfer that money to you. you would have one, we all have these accounts. i can still pay you cash if you prefer cash in your hand. if we all have central bank digital currency, that's the thing. i don't have chase. you don't have wells fargo. we don't have banks that don't interact with each other. i've got my wallet. i send it to your wallet. i'm not a baller like you. i don't have a car. if i wanted to buy a car, i could pull out my phone, transfer $1000 from my wallet to your wallet, you see the money in your wallet as soon as you give me the item. it's as simple as that. the question is really just do we get folks like ray who is

seemingly skeptical of what he calls digital bitcoin on board with this mission? let's not mislead ourselves and say that everybody wants this. there are lots of folks who are not trusting of the government to do these things. that's part of why we are supposed less than sparta while we are behind. we have democracy and we have different and his agent tasked with a lot of different things. russia is another laggard. part of their digital system is relying on other institutions outside of the central bank to do this. i'm not aware of the hack he spoke of,. -- i'm not aware of the hack he spoke of. different from bitcoin and cryptocurrency. digital currency is an umbrella term. it means all of those things.

all sandals are shoes, but not all choose our sandals. digital currency is all kinds of different things. all of those things are not the same thing as central bank digital currency. host: privacy and digital currency, this person writes, the government already knows how i earned every penny i have. digital currency will keep track of every penny i spend it. where is our right to conduct our business in private? cash gives me anonymity guest:. guest: -- absolutely. that's a valid concern. how do we allow people to have privacy while also stopping things like money laundering, human trafficking, things like that. it is a tricky question, but if

a cash transfer from one party to another is under a certain amount it would not transfer that it would not register. cash transactions under a certain level would only be monitored by certain agencies. it would only rise to the level of being seen by somebody like the nsa if you are transferring large amounts of cash or making consistent transfers of large quantities. there is that back and forth. that is a legitimate concern, one that folks in the federal reserve say they are working to address and we will see how that goes. safety, security and anonymity is going to be part of any u.s.-backed central bank digital currency. i think a lot of folks who have become very distrustful and wary of the government are going to say, i don't want this even if this rolls out. i want to keep cash.

i think those full would be in the minority and a shrinking minority as we use digital currency more and more. no one is talking about getting rid of cash entirely. people who are dubious of the u.s. government can keep the banknotes. they will find that fewer and fewer people are willing to accept those. host: let's talk to mike who is calling from long beach, california. caller: my question is in regard to the value of the dollar. does this have any effect on the u.s. being the regard this being the reserve currency. what if you lose your phone? >> great question. the idea that this would be secure, you would have a password or something like your fingerprint or other method to keep it secure or someone could not find your phone and login.

a lot of people keep their bank account on their phone. i think this would be the same way. it would be a digital currency. it's not like the money is in there. you have digital access. my assumption would be that you would have a new phone, you would put your account on that new phone and you would have access and no one else would. these are open questions because we are waiting on that paper from the federal reserve. the answers to those questions are supposed to be forthcoming. we just haven't seen them. the other part of your question in terms of, i'm sorry. what was the first part of that question? host: to be honest with you, it

slipped my mind as well. let's go to bill who was calling from florida. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have two questions. the first question is i and is -- my understanding is that bitcoin is going to have 21 million. the dollar, making more dollars. why would a person want to own a federal reserve digital currency if you would own bitcoin. that is my first question. part of that, with the u.s. government have to been -- have to ban bitcoin like it was

banned in china. i understand that digital currency should be programmed. what about the federal reserve saying you have your currency here on deposit, but the economy is doing poorly. we want to goose consumption. if you don't spend 10% of your money in the next 60 days. -- if you don't spend 10% of your money in the next 60 days, it's going to disappear. guest: i'm glad you asked the question because that helps me remember the other question the other caller asked. it's about the value of the dollar. how this could affect the value of the dollar is quite simply, if folks have another option it

makes the dollar less valuable and it costs us as a country a lot of our geopolitical power. one of the main uses of the dollar because it is the world reserve funding currency, the u.s. can say we don't like what you are doing over there and we are going to restrict your access to the banking system which operates on dollars. if the dollar is not the main currency or dominating one, the dollar is used in like 70% of transactions worldwide. it is over 90% of fx transactions. if that starts to go down, the others would lose -- the dollar would lose value and we would lose some of our geopolitical power. very important to watch there and i don't think the development, experts that i talked to say the development is not going to be the thing that

does that. what could do is open up the currency space a lot more than it has been. back to your question, most folks i talked to who are the regulators and authorities see bitcoin and the dollar central bank digital currency as two separate entities that don't have much to do with each other. there is a fixed amount, federal reserve cannot print more bitcoin. no one can. there is a finite amount of it. colors the call then, they prefer that. they know -- some of your callers that called in, they preferred that. it will still be a choice. it is not going to be do i want a or b. it is going to be do i won't --

do i want a and b? there is a lot that could be very rare. it could be something that could be used pay for things down the road if i sell it. do i want to hold this thing to make everyday purchases? to answer the last part of your question in terms of could the federal reserve take away percentage of your money. that is something that has been proposed. one of the things that people who backed the central bank currency says -- you better spend this buying 30 days or were taking it away but more the fed could inject everyone's bank accounts with $1000 and say ok this $1000 is only there for the next month. if you don't use it, you lose it. the idea is there will be laws in place, structures,

regulations. they could not go into your bank account and take the money out. it is a thing that comes down to trust of the government and trusting the guardrails that are put up. host: let's go to george who was calling from new mexico. caller: i have a couple of questions. the first one will be is this some sort of situation where you are saying that it is a fixed value but yet it is traded on the market and the $5,000 or whatever it is now? what if it is $15,000 -- $35,000 or whatever it is now? what if it is $15,000 tomorrow russian mark another thing. this country has been hacked -- what if it is $15,000 tomorrow? another thing, you are telling

me that this is going to be secure? i don't believe it. i think this falls under the category of rainbow do which was sold in the 1930's. it doesn't make any sense to me guest: guest:. thank you. guest:guest: -- to be clear i'm not telling you anything. the authorities behind this are saying if and when we do this it will be secure. i'm sure there is a technique if you wanted to talk, they would tell you how the situation or system could be secure to keep hackers out. that is not something i'm telling you. i'm telling you that this information will be or should be available in a paper presented i the federal reserve. i'm not saying it will be secure and there will be rainbow stew for everybody. i'm telling you that is part of the stock -- art of the

discussion. we are conflating cryptocurrency and central bank cryptocurrency. it is not going to fluctuate in value. it will be backed by the full faith and trust of the government. that's where it will go. it will not fluctuate in value. it will not be on the open market like bitcoin. cryptocurrency is not really currency because it fluctuates wildly in value. the time it would take to pay an item at $100, i want to pay for that in bitcoin. it could be worth $10 or $90 with bitcoin. that's one of the things -- that's one of the arguments in favor of digital currency rather than cryptocurrency, which is an asset that fluctuates in value 24 hours a day and can swing wildly as we seen this week.

20% from where we started last week, where we ended last week. that would be backed by the government, that we would know has the assets and federal reserve which can perform overnight market to keep the values steady the same way they do with the value of different things like the u.s. dollar, the greenback we all keep in our pockets. difference between bitcoin, cryptocurrency -- bitcoin cryptocurrency and digital currency. host: is it eight if ra -- is it a if or a when the u.s. will go to digital currency? guest: jay powell has not been

an advocate for this. it has been governor brainard who has been leading the charge onthat will be big whether we se president biden come out and renominate powell as fed chair or nominate someone new. most folks think will be leo brainard. that is very lucky to push forward on central bank digital currency. it is almost certain when in a short timeframe. with jerome powell until the hand is forced. at that point we will go forward and have to move into the space. it's a matter of when and the timeframe depending on who is leading the federal reserve. host: thank you for being here with us this morning and talking just through this time magazine article. the u.s. losing the global race to decide the future of money and it could doom the almighty dollar. thank you so much. guest: thanks so much for having

me. host: we would like to thank our other guests, callers and viewers of washington journal. stick with us. we are back tomorrow morning for another addition. have a great saturday and continue to wash your hands. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2021] ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? it is way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to enable

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