on yesterday's federal reserve meeting and what it could mean for interest rates. an investigative then an update on the january 6 investigation. ♪ host: the u.s. senate is in at 10:00 a.m. eastern for several presidential nominations to consider. but what will not be considered is the president's social spending and climate plan as it is clear democrats do not yet have the votes to pass it and the news yesterday from federal reserve chairman jay powell that the fed will likely raise interest rates in 2022 and end fed monetary stimulus may further raise concern on the build back better plan's $1.7 trillion price tag. good morning. welcome to "washington journal."

thursday, december 16, 2021. we will get your reaction to that news from the fed and, more importantly, whether you think it will work and how inflation is affecting your life. republicans, the line is (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents and others, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003, and tell us your name and where your texting from. we are on facebook, twitter, and instagram you can send us a tweet at @cspanwj. on inflation, we would love to hear how it is affecting your daily life in terms of cost-of-living and whether you have seen a race or dish raise or increase in your pay that is part of the issue driving inflation. on the first piece, the social spending plan called the build back better plan, this is the

huff post this morning, democrats likely to put off vote on build back better to next year, unable to reach an agreement among themselves on several key provisions. democrats are likely to push back a vote on their social spending and climate change package into next year. the stalling of the big democratic priority is a blow for chuck schumer, who had hoped to pass the legislation into law by christmas day. the bills stills to be finalized in several key hole dates -- holdouts remain, including senator manchin. it was all but acknowledged it will be postponed until january at the earliest. the chairman of the senate finance committee told reporters democrats are considering all available options to pass us sternal extension of the monthly child tax credit payments, which will be interrupted if build back better is not made law by the end of the year.

we will have some comments from ron wyden for you in couple minutes. this is nick timiraos of the wall street journal, the federal reserve set the stage for a series of interest rate increases beginning next year, completing a major policy pivot that shows much greater concern about the potential for inflation to stay high. let's hear from fed chair jay powell. [video clip] >> at the federal reserve, we are strongly committed to achieving the monetary policy goals congress has given us, maximum employment. in support of these goals, the federal open market committee kept interest rates near zero today and updated its assessment of progress that the economy has made toward the criteria specified in the committee's forward guidance for interest rates. in addition, in light of the

strengthening labor market and elevated inflation pressures, we decided to speed up the reduction in our asset purchases. as i will explain, economic developments and changes to the alec warrant this evolution to monitor -- to the outlook warrants this evolution to monetary policy. economic activity is on track to expand at a robust pace this year, reflecting progress on vaccinations and the reopening of the economy. aggregate manned remains very strong, buoyed by fiscal and -- aggregate demand romans very strong. the rise in the covid cases in recent weeks, along with the emergence of the omicron variant, pose risks to the outlook. notwithstanding the effects of the virus and supply constraints, fomc participants continue to foresee rapid growth . as shown in our summary of economic projections, the median

projection for real gdp growth stands at 5.5% this year and 4% next year. amid improving labor market conditions and very strong demand for workers, the economy has been making rapid progress towards maximum employment. job gains have been solid in recent month, averaging 378,000 per month over the last three months. the unemployment rate has declined substantially, falling .6% since our last meeting and reaching 4.2% in november. host: fed chair jay powell yesterday. headline from usa today this morning, paves the way for up to three rate hikes in 2022 to fight inflation. the turnaround signaled during congressional testimony late last month, came after consumer prices spiraled higher, reaching 6.8% annually in november, and the unemployment rate tumbled to 4.2% that same month,

highlighting widespread worker shortages that could intensify and drive up wages. but the fed faces a delicate balance as it aims to curtail inflation without disrupting recovery. covid-19 spikes driven by omicron are threatening to slope an economy that is already set to cool next year. (202) 748-8001, your chance to weigh in for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and for independents and others, (202) 748-8002. would like to hear how inflation is affecting your life and if you think the fed's efforts will help cool things off. rosaline in campbellsville, kentucky. caller: good morning. this does not pertain to that, but i needed to ask a question. now that the debt ceiling has been raised, do you know when president biden will sign the bill to make it legal, i guess

you could say? host: it is i good question. i have not seen news -- it is a good question. i have not seen reporting that the president has actually signed that. caller: right, i do not think he signed it, but they did raise the debt ceiling. host: yes, they raised by $2.5 trillion, and they think the next time they would have to raise it or address it again would be after the 2020 two elections next year. caller: so that means we will still get our social security check -- host: it does. caller: one more question. on that inflation, they talk about next year possibly raising the interest -- i guess like banks, stuff like that. if you have already got a loan

taken out and you are making a payment, will that raise your interest again and make your payment higher? host: that is a really good question. we will have nick timiraos of the wall street journal on and a little while, and i will try to remember to ask. now to a call on the independent line. caller: good morning. i just do not really think that raising the rate on interest rates is going to have anything to do with us bringing down inflation, because that can add to inflation because it will raise prices even more with accosting were to borrow money. you want -- with its costing more to borrow money. you want to lower inflation, you have to do some type of price control. people running the employees and businesses, they do not see the effects of raising the prices and they come back around again

and keep raising the prices because labor will keep charging more, so they have to keep up. some of them will have to eat the extra expenses right now. their bottom line, they are making 5, 6 times what it costs to produce it, they are making 5, 10 times more than what it really costs to make the product. so they're going to have to lower their expectations, some of the employers. only way i can see it. host: thanks for that. norman is next in monroe township, new jersey. caller: good morning. i am not an economist, so i have a very simple question. i retired in 1988 when the estrus rates were between -- when the interest rates were between 10% and 15%, so i did very well. i rolled over my 401(k). i rolled over all my money that i got from my company into cd's, and i did well.

then i had no stock at all, got rid of all my stock and decided to put it into cd's. now, the interest rates went down to nothing, and i'm suffering. i can't live the way i did when i retired. what took so long to raise the interest rates? how did it help? the gentleman before me made a very good point, interest rates go up and it is going to cost more to live because, as he said, they're going to charge more for medicine, for drugs. so how does the economy work? i am not an economist. i do not understand. host: let me ask you, norman,

back when you are getting those 18% on your cd's, your certificates of deposit and such, do you remember what your mortgage interest rate was back then? caller: back then, i accumulated vacation, so i was able to pay off my mortgage. i had a 30-your mortgage but paid it off in about six years. host: what was the rate when you paid it off, do you remember? caller: we had this deal through the company, it was 11%, the mortgage rate. host: to your question, what may be behind it, here is reporting of the "washington times," the report on the rate hike. they say the shift reflex mr. powell's acknowledgment -- reflects mr. powell's acknowledgment about credit the

fed earlier characterize the inflation spike is mainly transitory, a problem that would fade as supply bottlenecks caused by the pandemic would resolve. the run-up in prices existed longer than expected and spread from goods like food and energy and cars to services like restaurant meals and hotel rooms. it has weighed heavily on consumers, especially low-income households and particularly for everyday necessities. and then the higher wages many workers have received. jay powell talked about inflationary pressures at the news conference yesterday and they continued supply chain disruptions. [video clip] >> supply and demand imbalances have continued to contribute to elevated levels of inflation, in particular, bottlenecks and supply constraints are limiting how quickly construction can respond to higher demand in the near term. these problems have been larger

and longer lasting than anticipated, exacerbated by waves of the virus. as a result, overall inflation is running well above our 2% longer wrinkle and will likely continue to do so well into next year. while the drivers of higher inflation have been predominantly connected to the dislocations caused by the pandemic of the price increases have now spread to a broader range of goods and services. wages have also risen briskly, but thus far, wage growth has not been a major contributor to the elevated levels of inflation. we are attentive to the risks that persist with real wage growth and there could be upper pressure on inflation. we continue to expect inflation to decline to levels closer to our 2% longer wrinkle by the end of next year. the median inflation projection of fomc participants falls from 5.3% this year to 2.6% next

year, notably higher than projected in september. we understand that high inflation increases significant hardships, especially on those least able to meet the higher cost of essentials like food, housing, and transportation. we are committed to our price stability go, and we will use our tools both to support the economy and a strong labor market and to prevent higher inflation from coming entrenched. we will be watching carefully to see whether the economy is evolving in line with expectations. host: jay powell yesterday, the fed chair. a cnn poll on the economy came out, and here is the headline. most say government is doing too little to fix inflation and the supply chain. they asked people to rate the overall economic conditions, with the pole saying 63% of those polled said the economy was in poor condition, 37% said good.

they asked whether the government was doing too little, too much, or about the right amount on inflation. doing too little, and this was done before the fed's announcement, 72% said the government is doing too little, 5%, doing too much, and 22% about the right amount. debbie is next up on the independent line in georgia. caller: good morning. i am calling because everything has gone up so much, i do not see how they can do anything good about it. this says 5.9% for 2022 for my legal benefits, but they are increasing medicare to $170.10,

which is more than almost 15% increase in the medicare, but only an increase in the cola 5.9%. i do not even understand their math of how they are trying to help people. prices have gotten so high that by the second week of the month, i have no money. i might have a few dollars, but it is not even carrying me two weeks. -- about once a month. host: is that enough for you, to go to the grocery store once a month? caller: i put as much as i can in the freezer, and i have to be very careful how i spend,

otherwise i will not be able to pay the utility bills. even out the utilities are going up. my utilities and the insurance that i have to pay, everything has gone up. so this increased cola thing, it is just not going to make a difference. host: and that is the cola, your cost-of-living increase on your social security, correct? caller: right, i get social security through my benefits because my husband died. when he was alive, we were getting $1600 a month. then he died, they knocked me down to about $1200 and did not include my social security from working. host: appreciate your call. to earl on the independent line.

caller: good morning. i would just like to mention -- i operate a small family farm here, and fertilizer costs here for next year are projected at doubling. in other words, where i am paying $80 an acre last year for fertilizer costs, it will be $160 for next year. it is going to be next to impossible for me to recover those costs in dealing with my customers here locally and pass that on. and if i borrow and cannot recover that money, i am going to be losing land or machinery or something in order to pay those costs off. so this action that is going on with this inflation is just

deteriorating and aging away the country and its abilities much faster. host: i am am glad -- i am glad you called in this one appeared we saw a piece this morning about your predicament. i wonder if it reflects some of what you're going through, escalating costs leading some farmers to shift acreage towards less fertilizer incidents of -- further lies are intensive crops -- towards less fertilizer intensive crops, like soybeans. they is the lower grain production could translate into higher prices for commodities like corn. the higher costs for such commodities would further inflate prices and pantry staples like cereal and cooking oil, as well as beef and other meat. caller: -- this country and its ability to go on. host: what do you raise on your

farm? caller: hay, grain, and i raise some lambs. host: again, appreciate your insight this morning from idaho. we will go to columbia -- go ahead. thank you era columbia, south carolina, next. this is on the democrats line. caller: hello? host: go ahead. we are listening. caller: you know, i have been working, running a kitchen over here for a while -- sorry, i have a baby that is awake. we have been seeing price hikes all over the past few months. it has just been crazy. everything is just -- you know,

it is an interesting time. host: are you passing that cost on to your customers? caller: n actuallyo, -- no, actually. for the most part, since we are a locally owned business, we should be, but we usually end up taking the hit more than anything. but yeah, it is just one of those things, because everything is already so high and we are in a place where most things are already priced pretty low, and to compete, we can't really go much higher than we do. so we have things like chicken wings, which for a few months went from being about 25 cents a win forg us to almost one dollar more. host: so you keep the price, like for a dozen chicken wings?

caller: that was the issue. we ended up having to raise that one. finally, i think it has gone back down to a think around 50 cents to 75 cents. but that was one of the most crazy ones. right now, we are seeing more of an issue with ground beef lately. host: what is the name of your restaurant there in columbia? caller: it is twisted spur. host: all right, we will let you go there with your baby. capitol hill today, the house and senate are in. the house just today pro forma session. the senate has some nominations to take care of. the news yesterday that they build back better plan is not getting to vote before christmas. this is a member of fox tweeting that the senate is in today, work goes on behind the scenes on the social spending bill but it's chances are dimmer now for completion before the end of the year, democrats trying to generate enthusiasm to alter

senate procedure to pass voting rights. this was the house speaker yesterday, nancy pelosi, still optimistic on the passage of the plan. [video clip] >> this is called the legislative process, and we have our rules and they have their rules. i am still hopeful that it will pass. i am not going to have a postmortem on stomach that has not died. -- on something that has not died. i think we will have legislation that passes. there are certain deadlines, and i respect the process and i respect senator manchin. host: bacteria calls on inflation and the news of the fed planning to hike -- back to your calls on inflation and the news of the fed planning to hike interest rates. we go to david in ocean city, maryland, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning to you, sir. the reality of what you're talking about, the real genesis of it is free -- there is no

such thing as free. when the transition from one party to another, they took that word free and beat it to death, generating the beginning, the genesis of inflation. and when that occurred, along with the pandemic, it created a slowdown, slow everywhere, worldwide. feeding free with the pandemic and with this build back better, it is a cancer. and the present administration that we have is too cheat, not too faced, too -- not two faces, two cheat. they are undermining the integrity of our information and

need to be safe and sound. and they have completely obliterated the basic fundamentals of our american republic. it is said to say that this country is going through something that is flying by the seat of their pants, no game plan. they lie, they smear, they distort. they always do, but the reality of what we are seeing now is a slow destruction of a wonderful idea that came to reality. thank you. host: to joe in ash, north carolina. caller: yeah, where i live, i live about 10 miles away from the atlantic ocean, and in this area here, we have at least, if you go 10 miles circular, we have at least 25 new building projects for homes. and each one of those will run from 250 to 350 homes.

this reminds me of the debacle that they did before with the prime rate, but most of these more runs out there do not know, if i have 1000 widgets that cost $10 and nobody wants to buy them so i drop it to five dollars, than all of a widget, so everybody starts raising the price up. and then when you go ahead and start producing 10,000 widgets, you have to drop it because there is too much competition. that is what is happening with the dollar. you have got to quit this nonsense. in these homes over here worth about 150 thousand dollars, three bedroom, are now going for $300,000, and this is totally ridiculous, just skimming everybody. and once this building craze gets over with, who is going to buy them? who can afford them? it is going to fall apart again. host: back to the cnn poll on

the economy. on the supply chain, they ask if the government is doing too much or too little. doing too little, 70% of those surveyed said too little. this was done before the fed action yesterday. 7% saying the government did too much paired rating the president on the economy, approve or disapprove? approving of the president's handling of the economy, 45%. disapproving, 54%. a call from myers dell, pennsylvania, republican line. caller: hello, howdy-ho. host: you are on the air. caller: that is wonderful. i am a dairy farmer. we farm, work seven days a week. you know, nobody understands that. they just think they go to the

stores and get a sandwich, but i remember back in the 1980's, i had a mortgage and paid 12% for 10 years. 12% for 10 years, because that is what the interest rate was. and i wanted to refinance, so there was a 3% refinancing charge, which was, say, $300,000, that would be $3000 to recoup 1%, and that would take 20 years. and the caller three or four calls ago made lots of money when the interest rate was up, now they are complaining, but it is what it is. the fertilizer prices are up.

back when the usa american was, not too many years ago, agriculture was in the background. they just put agriculture in the background, like lower-class people. host: how is your farm doing with all this inflation? caller: you know, connect the dots. connect the dots and pull your butt cheeks up and just try to do what you can do and move forward. if you don't move forward, you just move backwards. host: here is what the pennsylvania congressman is saying about the senate action on build back better. he said the largest climate

action investment in history, it is investing and a better future, healthy climate for our children, lower energy bills for families, clean energy jobs for american workers. the republican leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell, has a different view. [video clip] >> another key economic indicator has set an unfortunate record. through the last year, wholesale prices grew at their fastest pace on record. anyone with a shred of sense knows this is the absolute wrong time, wrong time, to unleash a multitrillion dollar spending spree. every single day brings new evidence our democratic colleagues should give the country a break. but the cost of washington democrats upon latest obsession is not the only problem. the context of what they want to pass is actually just as bad. we have known since the start of the covid pandemic that democrats saw it as an

opportunity to transform american society. i have been -- they have been quite candid about that. with the reckless spending spree they are renting behind closed doors -- they are writing behind closed doors, it dictates intimate details of american families. there is a long list of policies inspired by the authors of the green new deal, new programs and mandates and that fitting the entire country's systems for producing energy entered of a california-shaped box. special subsidies for expensive lifestyle choices like electric vehicles and electric bicycles, new red tape on the most reliable and affordable sources for american -- of american energy industries. subsidies in supply chains so america borrows in order to pay

back beijing. do not forget about the so-called civilian comic core, just what we need -- climate core, just what we need at a time of inflation. a program for liberal activists. host: the senate in at 10:00 eastern. they will not be taking up the climate change and social spending measure. ron wyden tweeting, instead of investing in the workers, megacorporations continue to reward their ceo's and wealthiest shareholders. my bill with sherrod brown would close those loopholes. sherrod brown saying, think about this, instead of investing in workers or lowering prices, wall street just spent $254 billion reducing their own -- juicing their own stock prices paired workers should be sharing and the wealth they create. the congressional budget office release thomas the reckless spending -- released just how much the reckless spending bill would cost.

this is a monstrous bill dedicated to achieving far left goals the american people cannot afford. your thoughts on the fed moves on inflation, will it help? (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. all others, (202) 748-8002. this is the "new york times," why jerome powell pivoted on inflation. they write that inflation has been building for months, but it was over 13 days this fall that jerome powell, the federal reserve chair, decided the central bank needed to get more serious about trying to choke it off. the latest powell pivot, he writes, a move towards tighter monetary policy announced wednesday, shows the decision-making approach of the main president biden has nominated for a second term as the nation's top central banker. in short, if they stick to his chosen policy path in the face of public pressure, as long as

evidence does not undermine his assumption that he is willing to change course quickly when data emerges that suggest the world is different. back to calls. to the independent line next, scott in new mexico. caller: no, not new mexico, new hampshire. host: i am sorry about that. go ahead. caller: so anyways, i got a question. inflation, teachers make so much money and it takes 4, 6, 8 years to become a teacher, and we pay them so much money, now with inflation, the hourly check no, they get paid $15, $20 an hour flipping burgers, how can we expect people to want to become a teacher and to go to college and sacrificed so much to become a teacher and pay them so little? that was my question on

inflation because it starts from the bottom. if we have to pay so many people so much money to make fertilizer, and even the truck and goes up with gas prices. inflation is caused by the government itself, by wanting more government and more government and more government. whether it be committees or the state russia thing with democrats for so many years, we have to smarten up a little bit and get some common sense on how to run a country, don't you think? host: a call from ohio is next, don on the republican line. caller: yes, they need to raise interest to stop this inflation. but we sat and listened to congress debate about what they're going to spend, but they never tell us, hey, we're going to give this country however many glands of dollars, and we

have to raise the budget, and we have to do this. they never tell us about that. here is my question, the childcare and kindergarten stuff , how much money can you make and qualify? host: i do not have the specifics in front of me here. caller: about $380,000 or something like that? host: i do not know. you may be right about that. caller: we raised our kids and stuff under $50,000 and took care of our own. half the country don't go to college, half the country do not have to pay for childcare and stuff, yet they are making a fortune up to that amount of money, and we have to pay for their babysitting? take care of your own family. and then the government is going to borrow money to do this. $450,000 still in the budget to go toward the immigrants? host: i cannot tell you that. i can tell you that the senate approved the defense

authorization bill, 768 billion dollars in spending, improving a record-setting defense authorization bill for president biden's expected signature, which contained several historic measures, including provisions to move prosecutions of sexual assault related crimes involving military personnel outside of the chain of command, instructions to establish an independent commission that will scrutinize the legacy of the 20 have in your war in afghanistan. according to the "washington post," a comment on that defense authorization bill here on twitter, why did we just ok spending $770 billion to the military when they can operate at today's capacity for 1/10 of the cost? this is why we cannot have social programs, those get cut to fund this aberration. on the democrats line next, wilmington, north carolina. caller: hey, good morning.

thanks to you guys for showing up every day. i really appreciate it, always enjoy the program. sad to hear all the doom and gloom in this country. i think people need to remember that the united states is coming out of this ongoing pandemic in better shape than any other country in the industrialized world. our economy, our gdp, are outstanding. unemployment, outstanding. so we have a bump in terms of inflation, and it will go away eventually. the fed stated yesterday, jerome powell, who is also doing a fantastic job -- remember, he is the guy who got us out of the initial crisis we had with our economy shutting down in 2019

and 2020, his created policies. anyway, he stated yesterday that the cost will not exceed 1% and will probably be less than 1%, so that will not affect borrowing it all. corporations in this country are making money hand over fist, doing well. the problem we are experiencing right now is strictly related to the supply chain. we are having a manufacturing inflation. people have switched their buying habits, americans, and they are buying manufactured goods, automobiles, furniture, etc. so just like coming out of the manufacturing -- just like coming out of any recession, look in the past, you will see, coming out of recession, there is always, always inflation.

so we should wake up every morning, thank god that we are in the united states of america, everything is going great except for the pandemic. we have to be smarter. start walking on the sunny side, america. it is pretty sad to listen to everyone complaining all the time. host: an update from the u.k. on the omicron variant from "wall street journal," omicron drives record u.k. count, highest daily number of cases on wednesday. senior british health officials warn the fast spreading omicron variant poses the most significant threat since the start of the pandemic. more than 78,600 cases of the virus reported, compared with the previous peak in the u.k. of 68,053 reached in january, when the hospitals were filling up with cases driven by the alpha variant. fed chair jay powell, to don the effect of the rise of omicron in

the united states -- commented on the effect of the resin omicron in the united states and the economy. [video clip] >> there is a lot of uncertainty, which is why we called it out in our press meeting statement as a risk. we follow the same experts, and we have talked privately to the same experts that everyone else does and read the same articles in the same research. -- and the same research. you mentioned the early assessment is highly transmissible, perhaps not as severe, some continuing protection from existing vaccines and also existing immunity from having had the disease. we are a long way from knowing what it will turn out to be. it may welcome to the united states and replace delta as the dominant variant fairly quickly. i think there is another step though, which is what will be the effect on the economy, and that will depend on how much it

suppresses demand as opposed to suppressing supply. it is not clear how big the effects would be on either inflation or growth or hiring. on top of what was already going on, which is quite a strong wave of delta that is hitting large parts of the country, across the northern united states and all the way to the eastern seaboard, are now coming down. we have had quite a wave of delta. so coming in on top of that, it is difficult to say what the economic effects will be. i do think people are learning to live with this and more and more people are getting vaccinated. so people who get the new variant, it affects them much less than it tends to affect in the aggregate people who are not vaccinated. so the more people that get vaccinated, the less the economic effect. delta had an effect of slowing down hiring, and it had an effect on global supply chains. that hurt the process of the

global supply chains getting worked out. so it can have an economic effect, but i think we do not know much at this point. we will know a lot more in three weeks and more than that in six weeks. host: a comment from pennsylvania senator pat toomey on the fence move yesterday, while long overdue, the fed's decision to accelerate the taper of the bond buying program is a modest step in the right direction with inflation reaching nearly a 40-your high, the fed needs to continue taking this threat seriously and moved to normalize interest rates. here is john in ashland, ohio, on the independent line. there you go. caller: good morning. c-span, i love you. you guys are great, the voice of the people. the thing is is the inflation problem is corporately controlled, everything from supplies on down. the corporations are stalling and holding back the supplies so

they can increase the prices and take advantage of the people. the sad thing is, here we have a build back better act, which is a people's act, and they are fighting to stop it in every way they can. it has become political. democrat or republican, it is sad. they work only 93 days out of the entire year. they get paid. they have lifestyles, and they are corporately controlled also. the sad thing is, what we have to tolerate today, they have outsourced our country. it is a terrible world we're are living in, guys here would we need to vote the right way and get the right people in there to take care of business. sad thing is, the democratic progressive party is the only one standing up for the people right now. the rest of them are just all collecting a check. that is all i have to say. host: roscoe in valentine,

nebraska. caller: good morning. yeah, i feel like we had inflation the last 10 months, and we're just waking up here lately? it is crazy. i am a farmer-rancher. last winter, i paid $300 for an area, and today it is $875. farm equipment, it just keeps going up and up. a lot less dependability on the new stuff with all the electronics. they just don't work. and last summer, our air, you could not see for more than two miles because of all the forest fires, and we live hundreds, if not thousands of miles away from where the fires burn.

they do not talk about that. and then president biden, he is going to reduce emissions on vehicles again. let's worry about these forest fires. let's clean things up. let's do what we need to do there. host: in terms of inflation, what are you thinking about for 2022? how will you change your spending? what crops will you not plant? your approach to your operation next year. caller: well, how should i say it? we probably will not change what we do, we will just change how we do it. for instance, the price of herbicide was run $15 last year, and as of now, we cannot get it, cannot get a price on it. if we are lucky, it will probably be $50 this year, if we are lucky.

everything went crazy, wild for us. i think we could make more with three dollar corn previously than we can with five dollar corn, the way the prices went. host: where does most of your corn windup? caller: we feed some of ourselves. most of it goes to ethanol plants. lately, elevators are paying more than the ethanol plants here where we go. host: appreciate your call this morning. next up is debbie in yorba linda, california, democrats line. caller: yes, good morning. what can i say? this country is in a bind. first of all, my generation, my parents were not getting a bunch of money to raise kids. and my brother and myself. and these people are getting so

much money to raise their children, first of all. second of all, the infrastructure, we need roads and bridges to have people bring supplies to stores. people need their regular day stuff from those stores. republicans, the republican party are losers -- are sore losers, they do not like to lose. they are not for the people, like everybody has been saying. the democratic party is always for the people. i think that people should be compensated highly for what we have been going through. retirement, people worked their whole lives and live on $1500 a month. these people in the political parties get lots of money, and they do not know what it is like to live on $1500 a month. the country is in a bind. and what happened on january 6,

that man should be in prison right now. he committed treason. it makes the country look wearable to other countries. that was an appearance meant -- it makes the country look horrible to other countries. that was an embarrassment. trump needs to be taken care of, because that was disgraceful. it was pourable. host: we had a comment about the child tax credit earlier, which will expire at the end of the year. this headline from nbc, final child tax credit check sent wednesday as advocates plead to extend it. coronavirus relief bill enacted in march expanded the existing child tax credit and increased the scope of the benefit. the house speaker was asked yesterday if the house would consider a stand-alone bill on the child tax credit before the end of the year. [video clip] >> of course, we could pass that in the house, whether we could pass it in the senate remains to

be seen. i do not want to let anybody off the hook on the bbb to say we covered that one thing another pressure is off. i think that is really important leverage in the discussion of bbb, that the children and their families will suffer without that payment. not everybody gets it on a monthly basis, but those who need it the most do. so we're just still optimistic about bbb passing. and perhaps even if it were after the first of the year, which i hope it is not, it could be retroactive. host: back to your calls, to illinois, john on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call, and thanks for c-span, a place where we occasionally hear some truth about what is going on in the united states. there was a guy saying

everything is great in this country. i am glad things are going good for him, but i think most of the public would not agree with that. i will go really fast. we have had a number of people on about the fed the last few weeks. there is never going to be any significant increase in the interest rate. they will go up three quarters of a percent maybe in the year or two to come. the way the government is structured, the government cannot afford for interest rates to go up because it will be very evident how bankrupt this nation is. we cannot even afford to take the interest on our debt, let alone the debt. all this talk about the federal reserve guy, which is really pretty much of a joke. people calling in single use to 5%, 6%, a person, a lot of old people, it helped them in their retirement, but since 2008, 2009

when the economy crashed and was never really fixed, there was a concerted effort to lower the interest rate that everybody gets paid so you are forced to put your money into investments on wall street. it has paid off pretty well recently because the federal reserve keeps pumping more and more money basically into the economy and the terms of buying mortgage-backed debt and different things like that. without the fed pumping these billions of dollars into the economy every month, the economy would be an absolute disaster, the stock market. there is a quote that inflation is a hidden tax that not one man in 1000 understands. the reason we have so much inflation is because the federal reserve, they are one of the main causes of inflation because they pump so much money into the economy. more dollars chasing fewer goods, it is very simple. i wish people would read about the federal reserve, it is actually described more as a quasi-mental agency.

i do not even understand it and i have done a lot of reading on it. individual directors in a lot of states are private. it is not a fully governmental association, so there are a lot of wall street ties. the democrats and republicans are not your friends, they just want you to argue about things and pit you against each other. i do not know where all this will end. host: here is what is ahead on the c-span networks today. the house and senate both in. the senate in a 10:00 eastern with a couple judicial and executive nominations. the house, just a short pro forma session at 11:00 eastern, here on c-span, the senate on c-span2. at 10:00 eastern here on c-span, a hearing and the commerce committee to consider three of president biden's nominees for the transportation department, live at 10:00 here on c-span.

i 12:30, we will cover the house administration committee and their hearing focused on protecting the smithsonian and its assets from the effects of climate change. live coverage here on c-span, and everything available on our new mobile app, c-span now. a few more calls on our opening topic. in california, john is next on the republican line. caller: thank you. good morning, c-span. the last guy had a lot of things right. the cause of inflation is the fed's printing more money. i remember years ago when the money supply used to be a big figure that everybody wanted. i think it came out weekly, how much money was out. the government keeps pumping money into the economy. we pay subsidies to multimillionaire farmers. we pay subsidies to

multimillionaire corporations. i am very much in favor of taking care of people that cannot take care of themselves. i think that is the responsibility of the government. however, government policies, in a lot of cases, create people that cannot take care of themselves. there is going to come a time, and i did disagree with the idea that the interest rates are not going to get a lot higher, i think the interest rates are going to go back to probably 10% plus. we have gasoline prices out here at five dollars plus, and that will probably go nationwide. it will probably be close to $10 plus. and that is all a result of government policy. another caller said we have to pass that build back better plan. well, in that plan is one of the biggest tax cuts for rich people that we have seen in the form of allowing them to deduct their property taxes on their $5

million to $20 million mansions, a tax cut for the rich. my major problem with the way our government functions is, why do we need a 2700-page build to get our roads fixed, to get the child tax care credit, to get whatever we want to do? if you want to provide childcare for every child in america, writes that in a bill, put it before the congress, and let them vote on it. do not makes it in with a 2700- page bill with a major tax cut for multimillionaires. and they do that constantly. and we go right along with it. there are some probably good things in that build back better plan. there is also amnesty for, one

figure, 10 million illegal aliens. i do not know how many people are in favor of that, maybe the majority. but put that in a single bill and put it before congress, let them vote on it. they do not want to do that because i do not want their constituents to know how the vote on certain things. host: a couple comments on social media. on twitter, joe biden, he is doing nothing but ordering more and more vaccines and sending it all over the world. they are not getting vaccinated. is he in cahoots with pfizer? looks like he is. and why keep fauci on the payroll? and this one says, trump epidemic shut down, supply chain disruptions, current supply chain disruptions and the consequential inflation is the pain we have to suffer because of the incompetence of the trump white house.

from of the "washington times" this morning on the president in kentucky yesterday, biden pledges whatever it takes to assist tornado victims. he pledged to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes, to help kentucky and other states after a series of deadly tornadoes that left a trail of unimaginable devastation. a video of the president touring some of that command you can see more of that video and the president's comments on c-span.org and on our mobile app, c-span now. in south carolina, republican line. betty, go ahead. caller: yes, i do not understand why people do not see how -- what he's doing to the american people. just like that man from north carolina, there is no way that

he can say everything looks good, because it don't. it don't. i don't understand why everybody just keeps on, you know, saying everything looks good, and he is doing a good job, and this and that. if he was doing a good job, i would vote for him. i would vote for a democrat. but i don't think he is doing a good job. far as january 6, i don't see why y'all don't say that where he said go peaceful, he did not tell them to go into the capitol, and there was people out there saying for some man to put on a red hat and holler, go in the capitol. host: one more call on this richard on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a factory worker and my wife is a public school teacher.

i am out of work now for about four months because of a surgery i had. i do have some income coming in through disability payment but i am beginning to feel the pinch of inflation. i believe we will be able to weather it through. my point is i think the fed has got a lot to do with what is going on. for years, they have kept the interest rate artificially low, and you would hear the talking heads on tv talk about what is going to happen when something happens, there is nowhere to go. -- go? there's nowhere to go right now except raise interest rates and i think people understand that the five biggest drivers of our national economy is medicare, medicaid, social security, defense spending, and interest on the debt. the interest on the dead will be

tremendous if we keep on adding to it. eventually, we will have to start cutting things out. host: we will let you go there and hope you get well soon. we appreciate the call. next on "washington journal," united states shirt in general warned of a looming mental health crisis facing america's young people. we dig into that advisory with a doctor of the american psychological association. later we get an update on the federal investigation into january 6 with nbc news washington investigative reporter scott mcfarland. ♪ ♪

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organization. what is the apa commission? guest: sure. apa is the largest psychological society in the world. our mission is to use psychological science to improve humans lives. host: with the report we are talking about from the surgeon general is called protecting youth, mental health. it just came out last week. you cannot help but reading this, the summary of the report, the sense of urgency the surgeon general seems to have in this report. what are the major takeaways we should understand about the surgeon general's warning, his advice on this? guest: we are in a state of emergency before the pandemic but now we are in a hole that is deep. kids are experiencing really significant concerns. it is starting to overwhelm the systems we have in schools, therapy, and people's

communities. host: the washington post headline, a youth mental health crisis was already brewing. the pandemic made it worse. the surgeon general right that the situation painted across the united states, the surgeon general's 53 page advisory, is dire, compared with 2019 emergency room visits for suicide attempts rose 51% for adolescent girls in early 2021. among boys, there was a four percentage point increase. depression and anxiety doubled during the coronavirus pandemic with a 25% of youth expressing depressive symptoms and others anxiety symptoms. how does an organization like yours do in the face of that kind of data? ? guest: we have psychological science that can help. we are fortunate we have been able to work with the surgeon general's office, the cdc, and a

number of other federal agencies and folks in the house and senate to try to teach people how we can think differently about youth mental health. we have a system now that is focused only on providing care for people who are already experiencing a diagnosis. they are already experiencing significant impairments at work, school, home. we need to change that and to change that and be using our science to start building resilience in kids and families before a stressor occurs. host: in that report, an interesting chart on the mental health of young people. it looks at the co. centric rings of -- co-centric rings of care that young people have, society, environment, community, individual. doctor, for example, in the area of society in general, how do we approach this when we know that

there are a lot of young people affected by the pandemic and in particular after last years's closures of school. what are specific society itself can take? guest: i think the biggest one is a few centuries ago, someone divided the way we think about physical health and mental health. now, all these leers -- years later, this is affecting what we do. we talk openly about physical health and we still have stigma when talking about mental health. we fund about 50 times as much funding into workforce development and investment in a medical physician training kind of programs. we see a tiny fraction of that going into training a workforce for mental health issues. science tells us there is very little difference between mental health systems. those are remarkably interconnected and independent.

-- interdependence. our society needs to decide mental health is worth making the same commitment we make towards physical illnesses. host: dr. mitchell prinstein, our guest. we welcome your comments at (202) 748-8000 for those of you in the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. if you are under the age of 21, the line we like you would -- we would like you to use is (202) 748-8002. in terms of the areas of suicide and a brush in -- and depression, what is it about the pandemic that makes those maladies worse and statistics worse? guest: before the pandemic, suicide has been the second leading cause of death for people between 10 and 24 for about the last 40 years or so. one out of every five young women has a major depressive episode before the age of 25. think about that.

if one out of every five people experienced an inflammatory disease before the age of 25, we would probably be preparing all parents, doing prevention programs, education. this has been a crisis before the pandemic. now we have a stressor that is kind of the worst type of stressor. it affects all aspects of society, schools, homes. it is a stressor that we do not know when the end will come. it has major consequences for hospitalization or death of loved ones and has disrupted all of kids' roles and routines. it is the worse stressor we can imagine, add on to what was already a crisis level of depression and suicidality. host: of those roles and routines, tell us about the factor of uncertainty. those of us older than 21 or older than our youth over time have ways of dealing with stress in our work, our life, changes in the workforce.

kids are facing schools in-person, not in-person, now with the omicron variant, some questions on whether some school systems will close. colleges asking for remote learning. the uncertainty is still a major factor in all of this. guest: it is. absolutely. i think we are all fatigued. we all want this to end and we want to get back to normal lives , if we ever can again. i think for kids it is hard to understand, especially when they hear different things from different adults. they feel like those meant to protect them are just agreeing among themselves. i think that is a concern. i think the other piece important is this pandemic, this crisis has been unique because it has taken away one of the major sources of resilience, social connection. the things we are doing to stay safe from viral infections take

away one of the things, our social support, that usually can help us through a stressor. host: those normal things, i have to point out earlier this fall i went to a high school football game first time in a couple of years and i could not believe -- because i had been going to this -- one of my stepsons is a coach and i had never seen a level of enthusiasm among students as i saw at that high school football game on a friday night recently, like they were just joyous to be back in person together. guest: absolutely. the adults are thinking about the economy, taking about folks who might be ill who might be losing their jobs, but kids are experiencing losses too. not having graduation, the prom, not being able to hang out with their friends, it's might be a different loss from the adult perspective but these are some of the most important kinds of interactions kids have, and having to adapt and not know

when this will end, that is tougher kids. host: we get to your calls and moments. dr. mitchell prinstein's with us. the report is from the surgeon general, protecting youth. get to calls momentarily. (202) 748-8000 for those in the east and central time zones, mountain and pacific (202) 748-8001, and for all of those under 21, the line is (202) 748-8002. let's hear from the surgeon general first and we will get the doctor's reaction from your calls next. here he is. [video clip] >> today, i want to talk about the mental health challenges of covid and how they have especially affected young people. covid dramatically altered kids 'experienced during a crucial period of development. we seen anxiety and depression on young people increase throughout the pandemic. it's important to recognize our children were already struggling before covid-19 arrived.

in 2019, 193 high school students and half of fema house go -- half of female high school student reported persistent feeling of sadness or hopelessness, and overall increase of 40% from 10 years prior. taken together, the impact on young people's mental health and well-being has been devastating. while mental health challenges in children and young adults are real and widespread, the key is that they are treatable and often preventable. that is why this week i issued a surgeon general advisory on protecting youth mental health. the advisories are a resource for kids and families, provides recommendations for young people, parents, schools, technology, and media companies, community organizations, and governments alike. it is a blueprint for building on the blueprint the administration is already making . investments that include 100 monte million dollars -- 190 million dollars for increased

services for youth, $80 million to support the mental care access program and $30 million in project aware. this represents what we can build together, a healthier, more resilient nation. when families struggle to put food on the table and when kids are going to public schools, it is hard to maintain good mental health. to address mental health in america, we have to build a future where all kids can thrive. to do that, we have to address barriers holding them back. all of this will not happen overnight. many of the recommendations we offer and advisory require structure buy-in -- structural buy-in and change. some of the most important steps we can take today as end this pandemic and create a culture that sees mental health as part of health and not something to be ashamed of. it would be a tragedy if we beat that one public health crisis to allow another to grow and inflate. i met a young girl in oregon who

has not seen her grandparents into long but the teenager and social media tells him he is not good-looking or rich enough. or the kid who feels alone in middle school because what he looks like. for all of their peers and them, change cannot come soon enough. that is why we continue to work on improving the health of young people across america. host: dr. mitchell prinstein, as far as you know, the federal money dr. murphy talked about there, how will we see that in states and localities? where will that be most effective? guest: i think we need to figure that out in a way that is most efficacious because it is just really the beginning of what is needed. after world war ii, we noticed a national priority towards thinking about mental health. we developed a national institute of mental health, invested in the training of psychologists, we built psychology departments on most

all campuses in those years after the war. the report to me signals it is time for the national, enormous investment in child mental health. this time, we need to think structurally about how to completely change the way we invest in the pursuit of happiness for all americans. we need to invest in the ways we are doing prevention, education, changing the stigma around mental health, developing a diverse workforce, and really revamping our entire conceptualization of how we ensure americans can be safe and resilient against future stressors. host: dr. mitchell prinstein, our guest with a phd in ms from the university of miami. we are talking about youth mental health in the surgeon general report. let's go to our first caller, frank, good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. i am very familiar with depression and anxiety, 40 plus years of living with it and managing it through medication and therapy and such. a crisis hotline that i call regularly. because people are wonderful and they do not -- i think it is mostly volunteer and they mostly listen. and they validate and it is helpful. i consider it to be part of my therapy. but i am very disturbed to hear you say, doctor, that the stigma still exists. that is very disturbing because i thought maybe we were moving the needle on that. it certainly was there years ago, and i thought we were moving the needle. i think it is still there. my question would be, so much of this i think in some ways is cultural and it is our society, just like you have mentioned and others have said, the need to be

rich, the need to be good-looking, the need to have all of these are compliments. i found in my life that, no matter what i accomplish, i still feel like i have not done enough. i think that is like a western civilization mindset as opposed to this living in the moments, which is more of a new age thing. i don't see our society changing. the other thing that bothers me is this pushback, there will always be pushback from the tussle of donald trump, billionaire class of people who are like "pull up your bootstraps." thanks for taking my call and appreciate your comments. host: dr. prince dean -- prinstein? guest: i think you're right. the needle is moving on mental health stigma that until we all talk about openly our experience is way you are, until we are

able to talk with anyone walking down the street for a referral for good, evidence-based practice that we have scientific data to show it will be likely to show and we are able to be open about conversations for anxiety and depression, it is being related to the changes in the biochemistry and response to stress in a way you should not be a strained of -- be ashamed of. we should address it in the same way if someone was coughing or experiencing a bacterial infection. we need to provide care, support, empathy, and thinking this is not something someone can just shake off but something we have scientifically proven treatments to help them. we should provide them to anyone that needs them. host: let's hear from rick in texas. go ahead. caller: i was just calling because i'm 67 and my daughter is a nurse. i am college-educated.

in our county, we had to shut our schools down. i'm 67 and i never quit doing what i normally did. we still go to sporting events, still do everything, and i think the big difference -- i know you will disagree with me -- we use to use hydroxychloroquine on the front lines. i went to my doctor and got hydroxychloroquine and it knocked down in four days. our doctors have been prescribing it. i still went to sporting events, to the gym, to where i always been. host: doctor, let me combine that with a comment on jim, saying children psychological effects will be higher and blue states. is there a geographical difference on the psychological issues affecting kids in the

united states? guest: no. we have no data to support that now. it does seem like this has been a stressful time for everybody. we see kids raised suicidality and anxiety increased. folks that are losing work as well as parents are experiencing anxiety and concern. this is, unfortunately, an equal upper to end the center. mental illness affects folks from all different backgrounds. we are seeing a higher rate of suicide now among some communities of color in ways we have not seen before. the suicide rate has been increasing among black and african-american youth at a rate much faster than we are seeing among those from native american and white caucasian youth. this is an issue affecting all of us. host: host: let's go to our next

caller in austin texas -- host: let's go to our next caller in austin, texas. caller: i know you haven't on the study on it but i was wondering, half the country are gays and transgender, and then we have parents yelling at the tv, being so angry that the other political party that it has to have some sort of effect, when people are developing their sexual preference or something and we have this criticism. i was wondering, is that a silly question? guest: it is not a silly question at all. i'm glad you raised it. we are seeing that racial, sexual, and gender minorities are seeing more frequent discrimination or public discrimination coming from the voices of leaders, but also more

harsh discrimination on social media as well, and that certainly does have a big effect. there is a lot of anger. i will say one of the things that gets lost in our conversation about partisan divide is at a core, we all care about our children, we all want for our kids to have happy lives, we all are one thing do what is best for our kids. unfortunately, we might talk about it in different ways but we have far more similarities that are -- the similarities at a psychological level. host: what are tips for parents or signs parents could look for for the a real change -- for behavioral change that or signs of mental struggles? guest: this is a pretty atypical situation we are living through. some responses that are different makes sense given we are in an atypical situation. i think when we see kids who are

experiencing the loss of the ability to experience joy at all, the things that were fun are not fun anymore. they change their sleep or eating habits. they seem to talk about not expecting a happy future or a sense of not likely to live long or not interested in hoping for anything. those might be signs of depression that we want to see a treatment that psychologists can help with that. we also see -- might see kids engage in risky behavior. we know many kids are engaging in what we call nonsuicidal self entry, cutting being a frequent example. we also have to think about kids using more substances. all of these are signs we probably want an assessment from a trained professional and get science-based help. host: a line for those under the age of 21 is (202) 748-8002. craig is in oklahoma. good morning. caller: good morning.

i just had an observation in general question. it is kind of about psychology and socialization. kids are learning to socialize as they are growing up when they are young. the pandemic i guess, the mass cutback on communications and now we have gone to more internet communications back in the day -- communications. back in the day, people would write a love letter to the girlfriend and wait on the mail to return it. delayed gratification. now they get instant gratification. i wonder how that is affecting kids' ability to have patients and their communication skills. we were taught cursive writing, but now i hear people do not do that at all. they type. i wonder how the mix of the internet and masks will affect verbal and written communications in the future and

ability to have patience. now there is an increase of irritability to wait two minutes. i'm curious on how this will affect us and the future generations. host: thanks for calling in. guest: dr. prinstein. -- calling in. dr. prinstein. guest: thanks for calling in. the science is accumulating as fast as i can. social media change rapidly -- changes rapidly and we don't have the funding to access the data from social media companies to do the science that is necessary. but we see there are ways social media can be helpful and provide that immediate support and comfort, especially for people who feel isolated or alone in their own environments. we are seeing more signs of harm that come from social media, exposure to discrimination as we talked about before, ways social media interestingly changes how kids brains response to how they

see. they are really influenced on the like buttons and will change their attitudes and values if they think a lot of other kids have liked it. we see them get exposed to dangerous and illegal things on there as well. we are doing a lot of science in this area. there are trade-offs, as you say. right now, i think as we have heard in the news, there is reason for us to really think about how to invest in research and social media. we need funding for that and we need to help kids battle the addiction social media has developed to create among especially young minds at that critical development of rains in that transition. host: some concern raised about social media, with mark tweeting this, i would hate to be a child today with facebook, twitter, instagram, and companies making bullying

shaming and easy. our next caller is from massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning. i think we have a large problem brewing in the works with the mental health in children. the first thing, to me, is to break down the families. and as a breakdown of the family goes, you have several grandparents, several dads, moms, going to grandma's house over here and grandma's house over there. they do not to know where they are going, and then they are told that their dad is a test tube -- they are a test tube baby. how is a child supposed to grow up in this world when they do not have actual parents and a structure to build a foundation on? and you know, grow in a healthy life with healthy friends and

healthy jobs. i think we are headed for a large problem in the future with mental health in children these days. host: ok. mitchell prinstein. guest: i think we are there. i think we are having a huge problem with mental health right now already, and i think the different kinds of conflicts or uncertainty in the family environment, may -- environment may be a piece of that. we also know kids that thrive and are resilient in a different host of families and for so -- and communities. i think what we need to do, and we have the science to do this, is build resilience for everyone. how do we teach kids from an early age through high school a real multi-your commitment to teach them how to handle emotion regulation skills, teach them how to have a healthy social relationship, engage in mindfulness skills and have

scientific and social media literacies so they are not being fooled by this misinformation out there. we have the ability to create a curriculum and teach kids to be psychologically healthy adults, but we currently do not invest as much as we need in providing that curriculum to kids and families experiencing tremendous stress in their own right. to really help people to be psychologically healthy. that is kind of funny in a way. we tell people all of the time they should eat healthy and exercise, they should brush their teeth and floss, we do this for a variety of other areas of health and wellness. we just do not do it right now for psychological health and wellness as much as we should. i think we need to start asking why. host: dr. mitchell prinstein is the chief science officer for the american psychological association. we are talking about the surgeon general's new report, protecting youth in mental health -- and mental health.

we welcome your calls and comments at (202) 748-8000 for the mountains -- for the eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 mountain and pacific. mitchell prinstein, how unusual is it for a surgeon general to provide an advisory for a psychological medical issue? when was the last time that happened, to your knowledge? guest: i think about 20 years ago there was a discussion on tremendous disparity from those suffering from mental illness and the number that found their way into treatment. so this is a real recognition of what psychologists have known for a while, which is there is no major divide between mental health and physical health. we need to talk about people as an entire -- the whole person, about 30% of those that experience mental health conditions simultaneously have a mental health condition. any physician is treating somebody for a cardiac issue or kidney disease probably needs to

be thinking about all of the behavioral health issues that is changing that person's ability to follow medical advice, the ways in which their medical illness might affect their emotional wellness, and we now have just really fascinating data from science that shows us that stress does not just affect how we feel. it affects ourselves, it turns on dormant dna which has an implication for inflammatory disorders and serotonin and changes how we experience things like depression. this distinction between physical health and mental health is just really antiquated at this point. it is not the way science understands how we function as an entire human being. we need to start changing the way we think about how we invest in mental health as being parcel of the way we think about all of human functioning. host: let's hear from irene in

newport florida. irene, go ahead. caller: yes. i have worked with youth for over 50 years, both in child welfare and volunteering at different shelters and group homes and so on. what i've noticed, i mentioned on my husband several years ago that i think with the big problem is is we have people in authority like adults that we fee -- we see on tv and those in government that are really emboldening the bullies that we have out there in schools. i do not know if maybe their parents are bullies but also when they see people in our government that encourage based on your race or your political affiliation that it is ok, that

you should be run out of wherever. also, the disrespect, we have not heard any politicians, even one that served in law enforcement stand up and say you do not treat and disrespect law enforcement like that. i work at a children's shelter for newborns through 17-year-olds, and our staff, male and female, if they heard one of the kids -- and a lot of these kids were runaways or in foster care and had been through troubles past, had trouble past, they would say the kids, you do not talk to some but he liked that. they are there to help you. and back in the mid-90's, we had day treatments facilities where children had mental health problems could go and get mental health services as well as

counseling there instead. if they were behind academically, they could have teachers there and tutors i could help them catch up, but what i've noticed several years ago, this -- they wanted all kids, no matter whether they had behavioral problems, were behind academically, thrown into the public schools where these kids were humiliated because they needed -- they cannot read or would rather than -- rather than have children think they were stupid, they would act out behaviorally. this is not helping kids. another thing, i have a masters in human relations and counseling options that a lot of times, sometimes you have people that get into this field that have as many problems as the kids that they are trying to

help, so i think you really need to screen those people that are working in that field as well. and also, our media, i watched -- turned on some tv shows or movies that i thought would be innocent type movies and i could not believe the violence. when we were growing up, we had, at the movie theaters, kids cannot screen things under certain ages, and now, all of this has opened up with your dvds, that you can rent. host: ok, several points there. appreciate that, and doctor, thoughts? guest: thank you so much for your work with youth overall in years. i agree with you, there are number of influences out there and i think that surgeon general

report does a great job of showing there are multiple spheres of influence on child mental health, as you are saying. it really is about the families and peer environment, and that is nested within someone's community, which is nested within society and the media and everything that we see. it is true that kids who are bullies, what we call proactive aggression, do tend to exhibit more of that behavior when they see others successfully use bullying types of behaviors to denigrate others. it is also the case that we see kids exposed to violence in their communities and that makes them experience difficulties with mental health. i think what we could be thinking about is how to develop resilience based on psychological science. the ways we know we can help kids engage in what psychologists call cognitive restructuring, that we can teach kids and families as well and really help them to whether

those stressors they are exposed to every day. host: let's hear from michael in california, you are next up. caller: thank you for having me. this is a very interesting conversation. what i have not heard mentioned is the use of nutrition on a specific basis. even einstein and linus pauling 12 nobel prizes, a doctor, a rocket scientist, knew that improved and nutrition, high-protein and lower carbohydrates without refined carbohydrates improved neural cognition and improved you could say increased mental awareness and lack of depression. there was a study done between the belgian children and american children, and they gave out a test. the belgian children scored 32% higher than the american children, had a leaner body

mass, and were much in better -- and much better condition as well. the program has a pathologist and neurologist, and biochemists, and they have a great program. host: thanks for the suggestion. any remarks on that? guest: thanks for that comment. there is psychological science on understanding what is called the gun biome or ways that what we eat might be interacting with our physiology in a way that has implications for mood. that can also apply to kids. it is a new area of research, as far as this attention. what we need is much more funding to study mental health. we get just a teeny tiny sliver of funding available to study our behaviors, our feelings, emotions, decisions, as compared to the amount of funding that goes into studying how our physiological systems work outside of the behavioral health arena. that is incredibly unfortunate

because if we have learned anything during the pandemic, we know that even when we are safe and lock indoors and wearing our masks that does not make us happy. we need to be thinking about our psychological and behavioral health at the same time, and that means we need to seriously think about investing more in research on psychological science, so we can really help unlock those connections between the physiological and mental health systems in a far more impactful way. we know we can do that. we have science to show we can do it, we just need more funding to understand the factors that lead to kid mental health difficulties. host: a story on the funding level. one stayed in colorado hear from the coloradan. colorado has $450 million to fix its mental health systems but it will not work without workers pointing out the challenge health care workers phase. the stress they have been under during the pandemic. how has that affected the

treatments of not only youth but all of those seeking rental health treatment during the pandemic? guest: if you talk to guidance counselors, social workers, psychologists, school psychologists in rural areas of america now, as well as other areas, you will hear from many of them that there is literally a line out there door of kids who are experiencing such difficulties, and they have nowhere to turn. they cannot go in their community and go to a local provider because they are not enough providers to help them with mental health difficulties. if there are, they might not be able to afford the treatment. we should not have kids who are suicidal, unable to get help because they cannot afford treatment or cannot find local treatments, or the treatment that is available out there are from providers that might not represent diversity of america. we invest so remarkably little

money in developing the workforce for mental health as compared to what we do for regulating and developing the workforce of physicians. that needs to change. so grateful to the surgeon general's office for highlighting that important need in our country so we can start a serious dialogue about providing mental health care to everyone in this country. host: the surgeon general port is online at hhs.gov, protecting youth mental health. a couple more calls. mary is in massachusetts, welcome. caller: hello. i was just going to mention my granddaughter, for years, who is in her 20's now but starting in high school has had depression problems. what i notice about the kids today, since they are on facebook, they are talking to each other remotely all of the

time. they get into terrific arguments, and then they hang up on each other. they won't speak, and i remember when i was young, i am extremely old, late 80's, we would walk home from school and we might get into a big argument and then we would walk along, forget about that, and talk about something else. by the time we get home, we forgot all about what the argument was even about. sometimes it would be politics, and we would go into the house and forget all about it. but these kids snap their communications off and they will not speak to each other. i noticed they are in high school and this kept happening. again and again. they were cutting off their own

social contacts by getting mad and not getting it resolved. host: how is your granddaughter doing today? guest: she is having a very hard time -- caller: she is having a very hard time because she just started going to school at a very good school in columbia, and then covid came and she was getting along well socially, life had improved, and then covid happened and she is backstock in her house and does not see many kids, only because she has a brother that she has a social life. host: i will let you go there and hear thoughts from the doctor. guest: thank you for sharing that. there is emerging data to suggest social media might be

reducing what we think of as emotional intimacy among kids. you provide a nice example of how the tempo of conversations might change because of social media, but also we find some kids are invested, posting curated or modified images or captions to get likes. so they are not having genuine authentic interactions as much as they might off-line or voice to voice. there is emerging evidence to suggest kids lacking that experience of emotional intimacy ironically feel more lonely. so they have access to their peers 24/7 from all over the globe now, but ironically, they feel more lonely and might vell up separate profile to try to establish emotional intimacy because they do not get that feeling from their regular posts on the platforms they are using to try to get as many likes and go viral. host: let's hear from amy in florida. good morning.

caller: good morning. i worked as a guidance counselor until last year, and when you worked in education, you are pretty much ground zero. you get to see the impacts of i guess a broader policy in the country and how it affects children at the ground level, and i just think that we don't live how we are supposed to live as a species any longer. i think that we need connectedness. the children need their parents, and they need their grandparents. they need and send uncles. we need our larger community around us. we live in such i guess fragmented situations where we are disconnected from the people that we need. i feel like parents are just

thrown -- we are forced to get out and work and there is not that support that, historically, there used to be for children 100 years ago when we were an agrarian society. i would be interested to know what where the per capita rates of mental health problems when we were all living in extended family situations and when mom was not forced to go to work, to put food on the table for the rest of us, like in the 1950's. host: appreciate your call. guest: we have seen some changes and different types of psychological symptoms across the years. we have seen, for kids for about 50 to 60 years now, a real concern about suicidality, so some of these are factors related to the composition of

our socialized and some are not. i would say to the point of the last caller, our species is not developed to have the kind of social relationships we have now . for the first time in the history of our species, we are allowing artificial intelligence to determine who we establish social connections with and what social information we are exposed to or not has been given to -- given up from machine learning. that should scare us. we have never before given up our social choices to computer technology, but that is what teens are doing now. host: one more call on the topic, lewis in florida. caller: hey, dr. prinstein, i wanted to first off, a big fan of your work and everything you are doing. a quick question relating to the stigma around mental health and how it relates to how we look at physical health. what can undergraduate students

do or graduate students do at the university level to help end the stigma? me as an undergraduate looking to go to graduate school one day, i have been doing a lot to try to get people to talk more openly about their mental health, putting on wellness and mental health events, but not everything translates how we want it to. how can undergraduate students do at this level to progress that change so we can talk about mental health more openly? guest: we are definitely seeing young people, including undergraduates and graduates, have a different perspective on so much of this that is really valuable and important. please use your voice and teach your voice and teacher fellow students and peers about clinical psychology as a science. help people understand the way we see psychology depicted in the media often is incorrect and outdated. this is a scientific discipline that has helped us understand how whatever is happening in our

environment is affecting us at a cellular level. our neural connections in a way we should think about mental health without shame. we should talk about our experiences regarding mental health, and we should fight for mental health treatments and prevention in the same way that we have not when it comes to -- we have it's when it comes to physical health. it does not help us much if we are alive. -- alive but feeling miserable because we have science to help us feel better. we just need investment and attention and funding to be able to provide what we know how to do. host: mitch prince dean is the chief officer for the american psychological association. thank you for being with us in helping us understand the surgeon general report today. appreciate it much. guest: thank you very much. host: a head on "washington journal," open form until 9:30 eastern. we open our phones and hear from you on public policy and political news of the day, the

items you follow in the news and things we have talked about today including the rise of inflation, efforts to pass the president's bill back better plan and more. the lines are for, republicans, (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000 independents and others, (202) 748-8002. go ahead and start dialing. later, an update on the federal investigation into january 6, the attacks. we will be joined by nbc washington reporter investigative reporter scott mcfarlane. >> we believe one of the greatest characteristics of being an american is we are to provide cooperative and it for all. >> c-span's video document tree competition 2022, students

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january 20 20 22. for competition rules, tutorials, or how to get started, visit our website at studentcame.org. download c-span's new mobile app and stay up-to-date with live studio coverage of today's events from live streams of the house and senate floor and key congressional hearings. the white house events and supreme court oral arguments, even our live interactive warning program -- morning program, "washington journal," where we hear your program -- your voices every day. download the app for free today. "washington journal" continues. >> it is open form on "washington journal," your chance to weigh in with your thoughts on public policy, political or news item you're following and we will get to your calls momentarily, putting the numbers on your screen, facebook.com/cspan -- and from

republicans --(202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8002 for others. the fate of the bill back better plan still up for debate on capitol hill. biden cannot make -- nail mansion down on democrat's bill. tensions are boiling over as discussions about finishing democrats $1.7 trillion domestic spending bill drag on between president joe biden and senator joe manchin. the legislation looks increasingly like it is stalled over the impending holiday break. prompting biden a slow pace and mansion grew frustrated when questioned about whether he opposes provisions in the bill to expand the child tax credit, deeming those queries as bs, denying he wants to end the $300 million -- $300 monthly check for many families receiving for children. let's get your calls and comments. we go first to raleigh, north

carolina. good morning. caller: i was just calling about the school. as far as the kids, as far as the kids, i think that is a good thing because i went to school for 14 years. it had every teacher try to teach him, and he went to jail and was there six months. and a guy that was a teacher taught him how to read and i think they should try to find teachers that are qualified to kick out children because i'm telling you you go to jail for six months and i have nothing else to say. it is sad. host: to orlando, florida. fellow, welcome. caller: good morning, bill.

yes, just a couple things. number one, climate, it is definitely warming. we are not adhering to what we need to do for our future where generation in terms of not polluting the atmosphere. then if we do not get it right, you can see the devastation of these storms. how long can we go on rebuilding and the same old same old comes along. in the normal world, we would wake up and say not here, we have to do something different. secondly, the point i think came out this week was this controversy over loving the president or not loving the former president has nothing to do with why people are trying to convert the power and take over the government. so facing all of these challenges in the court. he was aware of this and planned

to go out do anything to make sure he controlled the scenario and how things developed so they would not affect them. now that it is, it is obvious that was the reason why he tried to hold onto power and still continues to try to hold on's about -- hold onto power and why supporters don't see that. the election has nothing to do with it. it was all about the chance to avoid the criminal or civil issues he was facing. so i think that was to the point as well as my main points, race relations in this country. i think that we need to come together. we all have red blood and skin and bones. that is a ridiculous reason for keeping people oppressed or some people on top. it is all about what is inside

of a person. mentally, spiritually, and that is my comment. thank you. host: thanks for your comments. we go to roberta in norfork, connecticut, democrats line. caller: hi. i am calling with about three points. first is the build back better program that president biden has, it is the best thing to come along in a very long time. people are complaining about it is not working, it will cost, he campaigned on this and explain how it was going to be paid by people that were in the billionaire category. also, the former president made it miserable for everybody. we have some natural things going on that contributes. i think people should buy into this. secondly, the republicans are doing everything they can to

stop this bill from going forward, simply because he is a democrat and they are still in trump's territory, and i think it is a shame. i used to be a republican, i changed because of how they are now. and the third thing is mansion is holding everything up. i think they need to set mansion down and say ok, here is the bill, cross out what you don't want so we can get it passed before midterms. then we will be able to move on and get the bill passed before midterms. i think that is how we are going to succeed. we are not going to succeed with everybody saying no. that is my three things. i will not hold you up. host: thanks for weighing in on that. steve is you are not holding usp at all. steve, on the democrat line. hello.

caller: i was referring to the previous guest that you had online. so, when it comes to that point, back in 2017, i was looking for it on a daily basis. to give the public a warning about the previous president's behaviors and how that was going to impact the mental health of the country. that was going to be my question for the gentleman. they should have come out back then, as a group, as an association, as a professional association. it is their opinion in terms of what is likely going to happen.

host: we did not touch on that, but you can check the website for more information. we are getting more of your calls here on washington journal, momentarily. in the wall street journal, the fed maps out the 2022 rate increases. the author of that piece is the key correspondent for the wall street journal. nick, good morning to you. the question on jay powell's turn here is what changed the fed chair's mind and the federal reserve's mind on inflation? guest: first, the answer is, the fed was expecting inflation to rise this year, but not nearly as much as it has. they thought we would be past

the worst of it. used car prices, for example, are up 30% this year. it does not seem like a sustainable state of affairs. the other factor is, if you look at the labor market, the unemployment rate right now is at 4.2%. the meeting before the last one they had was a full point higher. that dramatic improvement to the labor market is a sign to the fed that the job market is much tighter than they expected it to be. they are concerned that if wages accelerate, you could have an inflationary cycle take hold that is separate from the bottleneck driven inflation that we have had on the supply side. host: the pieces that came out of that is that the fed will

raise interest rates by .75%. what does that mean for the economy in terms of how much a car loan might cost? what will affect those rates? guest: when the fed raises overnight borrowing costs, it usually does have an effect on longer-term interest rates, 30 year mortgages, credit cards and auto loans could get more expensive next year. one curiosity is that long-term interest rates, even though the fed has been signaling that they would tighten policy next year, you have not seen long-term interest rates go up. does not mean mortgage rates will go up one for one. it will be interesting to see if you get more movement because

that is how the fed slows the economy when they decide it is time to take away the punch bowl. the 10 year treasury, which sets the borrowing cost for a lot of different things in the economy, if it doesn't go up, the fed might actually have to raise rates even more. host: there was an announcement that they were going to ease the monetary stimulus. how long has that been in effect? what effect might that have on the markets and the economy? guest: the fed's monetary stimulus is what they use when they cut interest rates to zero. they did that for the global financial crisis in 2008. once interest rates are zero, but you want to push on the gas pedal, what can you do? they like government bonds. they started doing that in march

of 2020, when the pandemic hit. they cut interest rates to zero. markets were in complete dysfunction. they were doing it because of the treasury market. it was breaking down. they continued to buy securities after that in the summer of 2020, they said we will do this. last year they said they would continue to do it until they made more progress on their goals of stronger employment and stronger inflation. host: what is the concern on the pandemic, particularly the omicron variant, the breakout happening now? guest: the challenge for the fed is initially, when the pandemic -- it was very disruptive to the economy. it was negative for growth and employment, but what we have seen now, the u.s. is not

approaching this the way that countries in asia are. they have a zero covid tolerance. we have not done that. the successive waves of the virus have not had as sharp an impact on growth. the rest of the world, especially china and are trading partners that we have in asia, they are taking more restrictive measures. the net of that is that the virus may be net inflationary. it may not drag on the economy as much, but it might push prices higher. it might keep people from going to work, who might otherwise be working. you put more pressure on wages. that is inflationary. the fed, even though they see this as not being great for the

economy, it does not mean that they will be able to maintain easier policy, the way they did when this first hit. host: does the fed view the supply chain issues as something that they are watching closely -- does the fed chair think that when it eases up that inflation will also ease up? guest: yes. when you follow what the fed is saying, they have been saying that inflation will be transitory, but their projection for interest rates makes them think that it will happen, just not as soon expected. the supply chain bottlenecks will resolve themselves. the fed raising interest rates in march and june of next year is not designed to deal with the inflation that we have right now. it is designed to prevent those inflationary dynamics from higher wages, from really taking

hold and having the kind of wage price spiral that we had in the 1970's and 1960's. host: accelerating stimulus, he is the chief economics correspondent for the washington journal and on twitter. thank you for the update. guest: thank you for having me. host: it is open forum on washington journal. any public policy issue, we talked a lot about inflation this morning. we will go next to malcolm in louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the people of this country have forgotten the way that our government is supposed to work. i have heard a lot of people complaining about the leadership

of the party for the build back better plan for president biden. the way government is supposed to work is, the representatives in the house are supposed to vote the way the people of the district once them to vote. they are supposed to vote the way that the people of their state want them to vote, not political leaders and the party want them to. i have a ton of respect for someone who represented a new england state. she was pushing to get the equal rights amendment passed back in whatever that was coming years ago. host: she was from new york. caller: ok. thank you. when it came time to vote on it, she voted no in the house. when she was questioned about it, she said, i wanted that bill to become law, but the people of

my district were telling me, vote no, so i could not vote the way that i felt i needed to vote. i had to vote the way they told me to vote. from what i understand, the people of west virginia do not want the build back better thing past, so why are people talking such garbage? host: to kenneth in arkansas. caller: yes. i have a comment to make. america has been bamboozled and hoodwinked about this inflation thing. there is no inflation. what is happening -- you have probably heard that america is the number one producer of energy. we are supposed to be number one. all of a sudden, you saw the gas prices and everything start to skyrocket. those kids were getting $300 checks and it is going to end

this month. the last checks are going out this month. what is happening is, the people in power, the portfolios and all of that, investing in stock, they start gouging. once that money started hitting the street for all these kids, these people are buying things for their kids. all of a sudden, the price is jacked up. there is no inflation. watch and see what is going to happen. no one will be spending any money and the prices are going to drop. but president biden and vice president harris need to check these people for price gouging. the american people have been fooled. we are supposed to be the number one producer of energy. host: all right, kenneth here is

a headline. no need for omicron specific booster. dr. fauci said the new strand would not require a variant specific booster. here is what else dr. fauci had to say in the briefing yesterday. >> americans are tired and there is a feeling of exhaustion out there. we are headed into our third year and omicron is right around the corner. i think people are trying to read a conceived -- a confusing set of tea leaves. given all this complex factors, how worried should americans be about omicron, which could be causing a surge around january

or so? dr. fauci: getting back to the theme, if you are unvaccinated, you are vulnerable, not only to the existing delta surge that we are experiencing but also to omicron. when you hear about it being less severe or not, and you hear about those other things, it does not matter. you need to get vaccinated to diminish your vulnerability. it is very difficult to predict, as you say, to read the tea leaves. if you cannot read them accurately, do the things that we have been recommending come all the recommendations from the cdc about wearing masks in indoor places, but also continue to understand the importance for yourselves, your families and

community. those are the tools that we have . if we did not have these tools, i would tell you to be really worried, but we have tools, so get vaccinated and get boosted. we take all of this very seriously. host: dr. fauci at the hearing yesterday. they show omicron stretching u.s. testing supply. the nation could be stretched by the need to conduct around 5 million tests a day by late january or early february. comment on the fed's action yesterday. this is tony saying that the fed was wrong about inflation. they were wrong about the taliban. can the experts get anything right? randy is next. good morning, randy.

caller: joe biden has 36% approval rating, but many of the calls are supporting joe biden. they do not have the cross-section of america -- i love the show. i would like to know, when are you going to bring that lady on? every morning i listen to you guys. all about collusion, all about trump. it was all about innuendo, and she said stuff about trump. i have little respect for the fbi because of james comey and

their interaction with the court. the court did not even do anything about the wholeness -- whole mess. dr. fauci said one-shot is enough. you do not need a mask, and i need a mask, maybe you need to masks. maybe you are not considered vaccinated after all. i appreciate you all letting me on. god bless america. host: will is in atlanta, georgia. go ahead. caller: oklahoma is really shining lately. you hear so much about that state. they are wonderful people. i have to say.

i spent my whole life -- i wanted to cleanse my soul, so i became a carpenter. i so enjoyed it. it made my living for me. americans worked as the promised land -- you can look it up in the bible. i found out that i went out into some issues. i did not want to get rid of my tools. just sitting in my tool trailer, i can tell. i have put in these things that you can get and whatnot, but they are getting rusty. i know that. i am not kidding myself. my levels are not.

i cannot remember the name of them. dr. fauci was talking about how we have to have the jab. he worried, be worried. one of those tools in the toolbox is the bible, and god almighty, the creator came and tells us that worry is sin. god will take care of everything. the god of israel, the god of creation. host: we appreciate your input this morning. we are reporting on a hearing that we covered. praising industry bailout, but they write that scott kirby faced questions from -- about requiring employees to be vaccinated. calling it deeply disturbing and depressing kirby on how many employees had been fired as a result.

he said six had been fired while 80 had been placed on unpaid leave. 200 employees left the company because of the mandate, but we believe it saves lives. that is my number one obligation is safety. we urge people to get vaccinated. i am tired of this pandemic and what we are dealing with. we have a tool that works. the issue of mask requirements on planes, asking when passengers might be able to get rid of them. i think the case is very strong that they do not add much, if anything. it is very safe, very high quality compared to any indoor setting. kelly said one of the other executives, the international president of the association of flight attendants represents nearly 50,000 flight attendants

at 17 airlines and says it should remain in effect. she said she was troubled by the inconsistent messaging on the matter. that is available on our website and you can find it on our mobile app. caller: good morning. you are looking pretty dapper there. i like your outfit. host: thank you. caller: i was listening regarding the mark meadows situation. when they said no more bipartisanship and no leaders anymore, i submit that they are wrong because january 6, we did have bipartisanship because each and every one of our leaders hightailed it out of that house and ran.

they did not one of them stand their ground as leaders, not one of them. now they are going to come out and come out like nothing ever happened. well, there was no insurgency. they were just antifa or black lives matter. these leaders that people are getting behind, i am a veteran. i lost total respect for the members. i lost respect for each and every one of them. there was a guy from ohio. thank you for taking my call. host: to steve, next on the independent line. caller: i was going to call and

ripped the quality of your colors, but the guy from georgia took some air out of my balloon. this show is a cross-section of the country. some of these collars, it is kind of scary to know that they are actually out there walking around in public and maybe voting. that is the really scary part. host: to mount pleasant, south carolina. hello. caller: good morning. it is just amazing how in denial republicans are. they would just lie. they are just juggling until they can get another talking point. you know what god did the other

day when he sent that tornado through -- you think anybody else is going to trust us? we have to go help other people. we are tearing ourselves apart. they are not going to trust us. i hope that we get a grip. host: child credit backers. they write that top democrats are trying to tamp down concerns about finances. the child tax credit expansion is one of the key selling point. the reconciliation package is in danger of being put on ice due to lingering disagreements about

procedural obstacles. they have been receiving monthly payments worth up to $300 per child, since july. without an extension, the next round of payments will not go out as scheduled. here is the net. morning on the independent line. caller: good morning. i would like to stress on to to be other things about our global climate change policy. i do not understand quite why, if we are so for climate change, why do we allow other countries to continue to develop their fossil fuel and their gas lines, and everything like that, yet we get our stuff cut off. it is a hypocrisy because they ignore the pipeline, yet they

cut our keystone pipeline off, causing unemployment and gas shortages. also about the insurrection of the capital, i do not agree with violence and looting, and tearing down buildings, setting on fire and people being violent by any means, but when i was sitting in my condo and the george floyd riots were going on , and the people were looting and burning, and everything else , i'm glad that the top of the top elite sees what we were going through as a country, in america, and they do not do anything to these rioters and looters. host: the story about a new report on what was anticipated

in the polls. they have destabilized the earth's poles. warm ocean water eroding its underbelly. it revealed parallel fissures like scratches from some clod monster. one grew so big so fast that scientists called it the dagger. it was surprising to see things changing that fast. the glaze yellow just had chosen this spot for antarctic field research precisely because of its stability but in research presented this week, they showed it could collapse within the next three to five years, unleashing a river of ice. they document how warmer conditions have allowed beavers to invade the tundra, large

commercial ships are increasingly infiltrating previously frozen areas. this is terry on the democrat's line. caller: i'm glad i am following this. i was very pleased when the guys from georgia were found guilty for the murder of ahmaud arbery. donald trump has never missed an opportunity to give his opinion on everything, so how come the silence has been deafening, regarding the convicted murderers of ahmaud arbery? does he not want to upset a number of his racist base? just saying. host: a call from michael. caller: hello.

i want to talk about what happened. [indiscernible] nobody else is allowed. they are asking all these people. they come on the show. what happens -- they go off somewhere. the woman i am talking to -- they are going around. she is telling me, she cannot remember where she went or how she got it. the violations -- bill johnson

literally lied to c-span the other day. he is looking after the supply for the last 50 years. host: that will wrap it up for open forum on washington journal. up next, we will get an update on the investigation into the attack on the capitol on january 6. scott mcfarlane will join us in just a moment. ♪

>> when roosevelt arrived in the u.s. for the first time, he was 12 years old. he writes that when he landed at jfk airport in new york, he had a head full of lice and a belly full tropical parasites. he admits he was an unlikely candidate, however he eventually earned a phd from columbia university. he went on to run the core curriculum from 2008 to 2018. the subtitles of his life story,

how the great book changed my life and why they matter for a new generation. >> book notes plus is available on the c-span now app or wherever you get your podcast. >> a new mobile video app from c-span. download today. washington journal continues. host: scott mcfarlane is with us. he has focused the last 11 months on the january 6 attacks. welcome back to washington journal. guest: good morning. great to be here. host: what was the significance of the criminal contempt citation against a former white house, mark meadows? guest: i feel like a chapter in

a story that is already pretty long. 700 criminal defendants, but as we go through this, the largest criminal investigation in u.s. history, there is an overarching question going on answered. whose idea was it to storm the capital? did somebody fund this? what skin in the game did any officials have? really trying to answer that larger question going on answered. we see this movement, this growing investigation and mark meadows, reporting for contempt of congress is the most striking step that they have taken so far. host: the citation gets turned over to the justice department. what happens next?

guest: they will take time to consider it. the process typically tape -- typically takes weeks, if not months. it took them a few weeks before announcing criminal charges. if they make a decision to prosecute, it could be a couple weeks before they announced it. i expect them to publicly announce that. it could take a matter of weeks. host: where is the steve bannon case at this point? guest: the courthouse is coincidentally right down the street. that is also where all of the 700 criminal cases for the accused rioters are being held.

not federal courthouse is between 200 and 400 criminal cases each year. right now they have around 700 capital attack cases alone and it is causing a backlog. it is causing sluggishness. they are already suffering backlogs from the cases that piled up during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. it will not be fast justice or fast movement. host: none -- the numbers of those convicted so far. where is that at? guest: a few dozen cases have been closed. the large majority of these cases have not reached a stage where the can -- where the defendant has pleaded guilty. and not yet reached trial.

there have been zero trials so far and they will not be any until spring 2022. because of the backlog, because the justice system tends to move a little more slowly and methodically. those who pleaded guilty are in the low level of cases. those not accused of damage or assault. we have seen prison sentences that are measured in days or weeks, not in months or years. we have not reached that stage yet. host: our reporter for washington, talking about the investigation, the line for republicans is (202) 748-8001. democrats are at (202) 748-8000. independents are at (202) 748-8002.

what do you make of the claims about the treatment of those in jail for attacking the capital? guest: there are about 40 u.s. capitol right defendants that are in jail. they are in jail in washington dc. that jail, for generations, has been the source of complaints. it is an old, shoddy facility with poor systems, bad water systems and a general concern about the food, medical care and sanitary conditions. it is a generational complaint. the january 6 defendants are now in that world. they are in the same jail, issuing their complaints, challenging intentions. almost overwhelmingly, there were attempts to get released, citing the conditions of the jail. there are concerns and they are pressing the jail to upgrade

initiatives, but as far as they are concerned, arguments have not really moved the meter. one was released after expressing concern over medical care. this is a distinctive defendant. he has been released to get better medical care. that said, the marshall did an inspection of the jail based on these complaints, and they found evidence of standing sewage, evidence of water pipes or water systems not working properly. concerns about retaliation against inmates, a general concern that forced them to evacuate hundreds of inmates from the jail. that is not the section where defendants are being held. host: the term insurrection is used so often. how many defendants have been charged with that? guest: zero.

there have been no charges of insurrection or sedition. this is the largest criminal investigation in u.s. history. there is quite a variety of charges. they range from the lowest level of unlawful prorating in the capital to higher level of felonies. that will include conspiracy, assault against police, violent entry. nobody has been charged with sedition, but i would mention that nobody has been charged with higher-level felonies yet. do not know what cards the justice department is holding. host: trump's gatekeeper puts them in peril. a months log investigation has revealed the myriad of ways, serving less as chief of staff

and more of an enabler. scott, you mentioned moments ago that the committee is focused on the question of, whose idea was that? this focus on mark meadows, does it give a better idea of who they think this idea came from? guest: the justice department is prosecuting criminal activities on-site at the capital. the house select committee is looking at the bigger picture. what led up to this horrific moment and how do we prevent it from happening again? it surprised us to see the subpoenas issued to key figures from january 6, to those who were plotting and planning for possible violent activity or disruptive activity. mark meadows is the tip of the spear.

on january 6, he was with donald trump in the white house. this is certainly the highest profile battle the committee has fought so far, trying to get testimony, records, emails from mark meadows. this is not the end of the road for them. i have talked to a number of committee members and they all said they expect or hope to finish their work by spring or summer 2022. they have got more ahead of them. there is a midterm election coming. the balance of power could flip, and that could be the end. they have got a deadline and they will run right up against it. host: we go first to gary on the republican line. morning.

caller: i have two questions. why didn't they do something about january 6, with all the riots across the nation? the second is, has any writer been charged with murder? if not, why -- i have never heard it brought up anywhere. guest: a series of questions there. let me tackle that last one. she was climbing through a window into the house chamber as members were still nearby. there was an internal review of that activity and a review by the u.s. justice department. this was not a criminalized event. in fact, the police officer helped to save lives.

they have disposed of that investigation. the police officer was in the right and a sensitive moment in american history. you asked about the equivalence between 2020 unrest and january 6. that has been a relevant argument in some defenses from january 6. they have cited this, saying they feel like they are being treated differently, unfairly, charged or penalized. disproportionately, compared to those. we have seen prosecutors and judges push past that argument, saying there is asymmetry here. in part because the democracy was at risk that day. the structure of american government was at risk that day, any particularly flagyl state --

fragile state. this day was unprecedented. a unique american moment. there really is no comparison. host: let's hear from the independent-minded. caller: i just thought -- it was exposed by beating out texts to several powerhouses, including laura ingraham. pleading for meadows -- it bothers me the most. the truth will not bring him down, unfortunately. thank you. host: i was going to ask you, is there any chance that those fox news hosts would be asked to

testify for that committee? guest: i had not heard any rumblings, but i do not know what i do not know. investigators had to hold their cards close. she brings up a point that has become relevant in some of these criminal cases. judges have expressed concern about the future danger in this system, where they curate their own information, where people go into echo chambers. she was concerned they were at increased risk. the ongoing political discourse about donald trump coming back into power before 2024. what happens in the media, what is being said, conservative and

liberal, is becoming relevant in some of the cases. it actually is germane. host: let's hear from the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. good morning, america. we are listening to someone who is not qualified, that is trump. he is not qualified for anything. the problem with you folks on the right, you do not owe your life to trump. you owe your life to god and jesus. he gave you life, not trump. you are losing your lives. your grandchildren are going to miss you. you cannot do that because you

are breaking people's hearts. if you think that trumpcare is, you are really lost. guest: there is a lot to unpack and there, but one of the things he mentioned, i will read from a post from the senate. there is a high level defendant. accused of being a coronation of the mob. a request to get released from jail. in his argument, he said whatever transpired, the protesters were entitled to do it as the president directed, saying that if trump says that we can be there, we can be there . we heard that argument from other defendants. he told me in a jailhouse interview that he believes he had the power and the right to be there and that president

trump directed the mob. there will be some number of defendants who point at donald trump and say, he is why i was there. he absolved me of criminal activity and responsibility for being there. let's see how the justice department response to those arguments and what they say when they reach sentencing and ask for latency. host: the justice department itself has a page called the capital breach resource page. the detail and data that they have on their. we will go to scott, calling from gilbert ville, massachusetts. go ahead. caller: i have a couple questions.

why are selective clips being released of the january 6 insurrection? the 14,000 hours of footage captured, the video system that they have there is not being released to the public so that the public can see it. i'm sure up congress is working for us, so why are they not releasing this information? why did it take over 3.5 hours for the chief to get the ok to send the military there, when he should have gotten it immediately? it took three hours and 19 minutes. host: we will hear a response from our guest. guest: some of the criticisms about the release of video.

there has been a call for the release of more videos to show the public. what has been released so far? there have been snippets and clips of police, but it is not being issued in a press release. they are not publicly offering a video voluntarily. they are showing some clips in court cases to argue criminal cases. they are using the clips as part of the prosecution. media members have gone to court to ask for the release so that the public can see them. they are not curating videos. they are using them in specific

prosecutions, and the media is -- do you want to explain why you are seeing the video you are seeing? there are thousands of hours of videos. we have videos from d.c. police officers. come inside the capital system. that is a lot of video to release. if you and i were to sit down to watch that video together, we would not be done watching until 2023 or 2024. there is a lot there. there are also concerns about giving out sensitive information when you give out raw surveillance data. the second question was about the 3.5 hour wait for the military to show up.

that is another question that they are trying to answer. why was there a delay? trying to make it more responsive in the future. the washington dc national guard is not under the power of the governor. d.c. does not have one. it is under the power of the mayor. it is unlike every other national guard where the governor can move them. that is the concern moving forward. it is something that many would like to change. host: republican line, good morning. caller: i think you are being a

little disingenuous. you are not really saying who is in charge of the national guard. nancy pelosi could have played a big part, but that will never be asked. also, if you reverse, you would be talking a different story. inc. you. host: did she have the authority to reach out? guest: she had the authority to lobby and joined the cause, but the power to call up the national guard belonged to the trump administration. it was the administration, the executive branch that had the power, not legislators. host: this committee's report

also addresses the security of whether the capital was prepared enough for the force of people that arrived that day. guest: there have been a number of committees looking into that. we have seen a number of republican members of congress saying, we do an investigation into house speaker and how the capital could have been more secured that day. they have authority over the house, but the majority leader in the senate dente, mitch mcconnell. if you want to be politically fair, if you want accountability about vulnerabilities on january 6, it would be both speaker pelosi and mitch mcconnell. when i hear republican members make that argument, i hear democrats responding committee want to investigate nancy pelosi, you would have to investigate mitch mcconnell as well.

they looked into this. we expect other committees to take up this issue, but they have kind of taken over the domain of exploring what happened that day. host: let's go to karen in alabaster. caller: good morning. i have a few points to make. president trump said he wanted people to peacefully protest. he never said to storm the capital. the prisoners in the district of columbia, they are in solitary confinement. they are not given any bail. we are not seeing any cash bail. most of these people were charged with trespassing on federal property, yet they get no bail? on the day of january 6, there

were a lot of things that happened that we see videos of. before they stormed the capital, they have an fbi informant saying, we are going to storm the capital, let's go storm the capital. why isn't he on trial? the protesters look like they are tourists. they are taking pictures with police officers. also, one other. they have a video of a person laying pipe bombs the night before. where is that person? why aren't we hearing anything from that person? guest: that last question is a great question. we had more than 11 months. simply place pipe bombs on capitol hill.

this point, the fbi has not announced a suspect or an arrest. they reminded americans about their tip line. what a remarkably important issue that is. somebody left active pipe bombs on capitol hill, and we do not know who that is yet. i expect the fbi will speak about the issue again, but there has been no announcement. i'm glad she brought that up. those who are in pretrial detention have been largely accused of assault against police or violent activity that day. they are not among the lower level defendants. host: she said they were in solitary. is that true? guest: they are in some ways

isolated. because of covid, they are keeping inmates outside of communal areas, quite a bit. but there is this concern that they are in a solitary type situation, that they are in this jail for almost a year now, and there is no trial date set in some of these cases. host: next is james in lawrence, massachusetts. caller: good morning. i'm going to agree with somebody about three calls back. i think you are being pretty disingenuous about what you are talking about. i have one question and i would like to continue after your answer. do you agree with what happened august 20, 20 21? guest: what are you referring

to? caller: are you aware of what happened on august 20, 2021? guest: there was a truck bomb threat on august 19 that led to an arrest and the shutdown of the library of congress. that defendant is still in pretrial -- no plea has been reached and no trial date has been set. host: we lost james. let's get one more call for david. bloomsburg, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. the major concern i have is the pretrial detention. they are being denied simple hygiene. they go for months without haircuts and shaves. they want them to look decrepit. the deputy warden has stated many times that any trump

supported needs to be in the worst detainment possible. they meet with their lawyer on a phone, so there is no physical contact. it is one of the safest ways any prisoner could be with their lawyer. host: do you want to expand on that? guest: i will be quick about. what the prosecutors of the jail have responded with is, those are largely defendants that are not vaccinated. if you have a vaccination, you might have better access to things like shaves coming haircuts and other services, but this will be a relevant issue, moving forward.

host: scott mcfarland is a reporter for nbc keeping an eye on the january 6 investigation and capitol hill. thank you for being with us here this morning. guest: my pleasure. post: that will do it for the program. washington journal back tomorrow at 7:00. we hope you are to up. next, we take you live to capitol hill, a hearing about to get underway. we will be live with the senate commerce committee momentarily, having a transportation committee meeting to consider nominees of president biden to the transportation department. that is next. [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]

sen. cantwell: