>> congress is back today for legislative work. considering a bill for local schools to use pre-pandemic data to calculate funding needs. you can follow that live on c-span1 members come in at noon eastern. the senate also returning at 12 to vote on a voting rights package to restore revisions of the 1965 voting act and create new federal mandates for early voting. ballot drop boxes and vote by mail. senate democrats are expected to consider a change for filibuster rules. >> coming up this morning, nina alston, executive director of the center for taxpayer rights

talks about challenges this tax filing season. then, advocates for highway and auto safety president cathy chase on state and federal laws needed to reduce traffic debts nationwide. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, january 18. the house and senate will convene at noon eastern today. press secretary jen psaki and mitch lender will hold a quarry with members of the press. we begin with question for democrats only this morning. as efforts on the bill back better act to dispelled in congress and with less than 300 days until the mid-toward -- midterm elections, we are asking our democratic viewers whether you are satisfied with the

direction of the party. if you are, here is the number to call. if you are not, here is the number. you can also send us a text message. if you do, please include your name and where you are from otherwise, catch up with us on social media, on facebook. a very good tuesday morning to you. you can go ahead and start calling in now. democrats only in this first segment. we will have a question for republicans only in our last hour. for this first hour, democrats only, are you satisfied with the direction of your party? a few charts to start you off with. this is one you may have seen, president joe biden's job approval rating. right now, 52 percent of americans disapproving of the job the president is doing.

that is about reverse from where the president started 363 days ago. when he took over the reins of the white house. now, the president is mired in the disapproval rating and questions now about the direction of the party. a few headlines from just today's paper from op-ed pages and the news sections. one opinion piece provided and his democrats. a crucial month lies ahead. the near times this morning, gail collins and bret stephens in their conversation piece. welcome to the well now what stage of the story saying it has been a very long year for biden in that column. to the washington post this morning, the left dreamed of making america and now it stares into the abyss. biden's plans way there. from that story by jeff stein in

the washington post, here is what he writes during the trump administration, party progressives dreamed of enacting generational policy change, national health care, more than doubling the minimum wage. cancellation of student death -- debt, major new social and education programs. these aspirations already optimistic have been battered repeatedly in the years since the primary bedpost -- but most severely over the past several month as much of the failure of the economic agenda becomes quite likely. democrats weigh their campaign message and 2022 midterm elections leading democratic campaign officials have called for the party to revamp its message to avoid a wipeout forcing the party to grapple with whether it will jettison the far-reaching ideas that helped define it now that republicans appear in the ascendant the. that from the washington post this morning.

that is what we want to talk about with democrats only. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? laurie up first out of modesto, california. that line for those who are satisfied. caller: thank you for taking my call. the republicans need to get out-of-the-way so we can get things done. i am satisfied. host: there is a couple of democrats in the way of passing the filibuster and you say it is republicans who need to get out-of-the-way echo -- of the way? caller: joe manchin and christine cinema -- kyrsten sinema need to get out-of-the-way. them too. host: this is elijah in

lakeland, florida. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: at the time, i am dissatisfied and the reason being is because hello? host: i'm listening. they are doing what? color -- caller: they are mostly debating instead of doing actions. i can see there are plenty of actions that can be done to benefit the party and it does not have to go through legislation's or any kind of written or debates. kind of nervous of it because it is my first time calling. host: are you talking about executive action from the president? >> yes, even with improving the

economy, we have to wait until 2030 or however long that they stated when we can introduce the new technology within the world today to and human lives or everybody's lifestyle. i'm not getting how the government is running the country with just debating and policies when we need actions. host: as a democrat, what were you thinking -- where were you thinking we would be one year into the biden presidency with democrats controlling the house and senate? did you think we would be here? caller: no, i thought we would have more actions done as stated. to me, it seems like everybody is still trying to run the nation in an old model when we have these upgraded with technology with makes everything advanced even with voting. i don't understand how they are still arguing about voting when the whole process needs to be changed with more faster and

secure elections. to me, it seems like nobody sees it or don't understand it or want to continue to pretend they are doing big jobs instead of whether state governors or whatever can cause actions within their state. the democrats can come up with a model that would improve voting with technology, introduce it to other states. host: we are going to be hearing more about voting rights today. the senate set to take up the john lewis voting rights act, the combination bill the house put together and sent to the senate last week although it is unclear how democrats will pass that. the principal news article this morning, their morning roundup with sort of a play-by-play with what is expected to happen on the senate floor today. so the majority she -- leader

chuck schumer. no will call votes expected, the senate will move forward with a message to proceed. leadership expects that motion will be done under unanimous consent. the earliest vote expected is wednesday but schumer will update senators on timing later in the day. the senate democratic caucus is going to meet today to talk about that. beyond that, it is unclear what schumer is planning. he is promising a vote on the voting rights bill and if that fails, it will be fixed unified republican opposition. what changes specifically are unclear. however, joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have already said they will not vote to get rid of it. it is a fight that schumer cannot win. we will see what happens today

when that debate begins and throughout this week. as chuck schumer puts us on the floor of the senate. robert and western. good morning, you are next. caller: good morning. i'm not really happy with my democratic party to tell you the truth. we have progressive pretending to be democrats. we have key party people down there that continue to be republicans. i come from the 1950's and 60's. i thought my whole life for civil rights and voting rights. for me to see sinema and mansion, you remember when

reverend wright said god would condemn america if he came to see it today. somebody had to give them $10 million not to write that book. reverend wright got it right. god came down. god bless everybody. thank you. host: pamela in covington, georgia. good morning. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? caller: i am satisfied. i think the expectation is unrealistic. why watch the media and how the press reports on the democratic party and so forth. joe biden is just finishing up his first year with a very narrow majority in the senate and in the house and i really

think it is amazing to think he has accomplished the american rescue plan, the child tax credit payment, the on employment rate is falling. pell grant funding has been increased. there has been a lot of positive things he has done that the media does not pay attention to they focus more on the infighting and i think it is unrealistic to think he can pass the george floyd act voting rights. what was everything they upset about? these major pieces of legislation before the end of his first term in office. first year in office. i wish we would look at the positive things that have been done and i hope the democratic party would come together to hold onto the majority in the house and to increase the senate

democrats in 2022 so that sinema and mansion manchin won't even be mentioned. they are sellouts. host: the washington times with a wrap up of biden's first year by the numbers. here are some of the numbers that democrats would prefer to focus on. the 3.9% jobless rate at this point. the 41 federal judges confirmed by president biden. that is more than any of his recent predecessors. the numbers that republicans will focus on is 7% inflation rate. 1.78 million border crossings in the southwest over the year.

the ongoing efforts in the house and senate to stall some of those major pieces of legislation. that is in the washington times today. whit is in maryland. are you satisfied with the direction of the credit party? caller: i am dissatisfied. host: and why? caller: i am dissatisfied because manchin and sinema act more like republicans than they do democrats. even though i agree with some of the statements the previous color made about the -- caller made about the achievements of the biden party, they have not gone far enough. more importantly, minority voters have helped biden get to where he is as president but we have been left behind again. i cannot believe voting rights

are back on the table. i cannot believe abortion laws have been changed and that those rights are slipping away in front of us and that until built that better failed, the democrats got serious about voting rights. but the impact, the lasting impact of losing voting rights will set us back by decades. and the only reason that i feel that they are even tackling voting rights now is because build back better failed. they should have been more aggressive. they need to be more aggressive. they need to start putting in place executive orders to put this country back on track for the rights that we fought for for centuries and decades. so that we don't lose the advantages that we gained. host: should voting rights have

been the first thing the biden administration should have come out of the gates with? a lot of the concern about voting rights is in reaction to state laws that have been passed over the past year, things that have not happened yet as of january 20 of 2021. when should they have turned to this issue? caller: they should have done it at the beginning because there were talks about the gerrymandering that was taking place in the states during all of the fallout from the election. maybe between 17 and 20 states had already started changing their laws because of -- i hate to call it the big lie because i think that shuts down people from having a different type of perspective. they should have tackled it first. if you shut down the voices of your voters, whether you are a

democrat or whether you are a progressive, a republican, if you silence a part of your people, that is when we have an issue with elections becoming fraudulent. host: on the issue of voting rights, vice president kamala harris yesterday speaking at a martin luther king jr. day event here in washington, d.c. on that topic. this is what she had to say. >> last week, the president and i visited atlanta to deliver a message. it is time for the united states senate to do its job. a landmark bill, as we all know, sits before the united states senate. the freedom to vote john r lewis act. this bill represents the first real opportunity to secure the freedom to vote since the united states supreme court created the

voting rights act. the senate must pass this bill now. with more -- it was more than 55 years ago that men, women and children marched from selma to montgomery to demand the ballot. when they arrived at the state capital in alabama, dr. king decried what he called normalcy. the normalcy, the complacency that was denying people the freedom to vote. as dr. king said, the only normalcy he would accept is the normalcy that recognizes the dignity and worth -- work of a all god's children. today, we must not be complacent or complicit. we must not give up. and we must not give in.

to truly honor the legacy of the man we celebrate today, we must continue to fight for the freedom to vote, for freedom for all. host: the vice president yesterday here in washington, d.c. asking our democratic viewers only this morning, are you satisfied with the direction of the party? we will talk to republicans only in the last hour of our program today. on the same topic. for this hour, democrats only. if you are satisfied with the direction of the party. if you are dissatisfied, another number. caller: good morning. the way i see it, politics is a game of chance. there is only so much that you can do when you are in the first two years because two years from

now, people will be voting again. as it turns out, the republicans were busy trying to secure their pathway to victory by turning things upside down on kamala harris. i like kamala harris and i agree with her because she is talking about returning to normalcy. right now, this is not normal what we are in. normalcy is everyone looking out for the good of the people in the united states. if this was a foreign country and they were republicans or the conservative party was doing a lot of these shenanigans, the american news would be talking about how the danger of losing

democracy and that is what it should be focused on. all the news channels and media is focusing on politics. what are the democrats going to do? what are the republicans going to do. we should be focusing on his democracy at state. host: i guess some other reason there is so much urgency especially on the front side these past two years is because this is a time when democrats control not only the white house but the house and and it and if the projections about what is going to happen in 2022 come to fruition, the democrats are in for a rough night on election day 2022 and therefore, are likely to lose one or both. caller: i understand that, but like barack obama, first, you have to get something done for the people. barack obama tried to be medicare.

joe biden and kamala harris are trying to do this plan for the american people and infrastructure. these things that have been needed for so long. they could not put them on the back burner because they knew they were going to have to tackle all of the things the republicans are doing. but two of the people in the democratic party decided they were not going to play along. that is the hang up there. i think we should be focused on democracy. and it is not just democrats fighting for it. it should be republicans, everyone. everyone that believes in democracy should be fighting for it. host: one other story on this topic from recent days. this from the guardian newspaper, one of their interviews with a prominent

voice in the democratic party, bernie sanders. the senator saying the party has turned its back on the working class. it is a quote from their exclusive interview with him. here is more from that story. the senator saying it is no great secret the republican party is winning more and more support from working people saying it is not because the republican party has anything to say to them. it is because into many ways, the democratic party has turned its back on the working people. that story from last week. this is rita in jacksonville, alabama. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: yes, i sure am. i want people to give me the definition of satisfied. we need to get together and solve this problem. god is not the author of confusion.

i'm going to tell you what happened to me in 1990. i went to the polls to vote and i have already registered. we don't have to have identification where i live. the women told me said you cannot vote today, you did not vote in the time before. how can they do anybody this way? she tarried me out of the voting privilege where i was outside the ports of the building. i have my identification card at home. i did not have it with me that i was registered to vote. tell me who do you believe this day and time? there is a right and a wrong way of handling everything. host: you said the beginning you

would like to know the definition of satisfied. what is your definition of satisfied when it comes to your expectations for democrats and the biden administration? caller: what is my expectation? there is nothing for the future to look forward to. everybody cannot tell you the truth. they will look you right in the eye and tell you a lie. as for those for the republican party, the democrat party and who started all of this, donald j. trump. he turned this world upside down. and they go on about obama. who put obama in there two different times? the american people. host: that is rita and alabama. this is newman out of texas.

good morning. caller: i'm dissatisfied really with the voters mostly because they sit there and listen to all of this rhetoric the media pushes out there about all we talk about is biden. he is not doing this here and that. i keep telling all of my relatives and everyone i talked to, this man is trying hard. you just made a statement that the democrats control the senate. no they don't. we have two senators sitting there blocking this man on everything that he is trying to do. they are working with the republican party. the voters need to stop this talking about the midterms. right now, i'm not caring anything about the midterms because i already can see the democrats have a weak backbone. the republican party is going to take over the senate and the

house and show you how to run this country and it is not going to be in a very nice way. host: you say you don't care about the midterms. what should democrats do over the next 294 days to make democrats care about the midterms enough to come out? caller: get a backbone and start pushing back. really getting in front of the camera. we have a democratic party where everybody keeps going on tv with the same rhetoric. you should be able to fight these people on all different fronts. that is what the republican party is doing. and they don't back down and they get in front of the camera and look at front of the camera and flat out lie. host: that is newman in texas. president biden set to go in front of the cameras again tomorrow, set the hold a news conference. it will be his 10th official press conference of his time in

office. six solo press conferences, three joint press conferences in his first year. 22 other media interviews during his first year as well. james is next out of port angeles washington. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: i am satisfied because joe has done as much as he can as possible. if we are going to blame anything on being dissatisfied, it is go all the way back to reagan when we should have been in the midterms going into the voting offices and voting every midterm. everybody wants to vote just in the presidential election. please, democrats, vote every time. not just when the president is

up for president. this is what we need. he had covid, he had to clean out what trump did. just think about if trump would have won. where would we be? the pandemic would be 10 times as worse. we would be out 5 million or 6 million people dead already. just think about it and get to the balance and vote every single time. thank you. host: one other pole that has some democrats concerned, this gallup poll on party identification and how it shifted over the course of 2021, a fairly dramatic nine percentage points shifted from an advantage in the first quarter of 2021 to a five-point republican edge in the fourth quarter. therefore, a more than 10 points

shift. you can see among those who identified themselves as democrats, some 49% of the country saying they lean democratic to 40% saying they are republican or lean republican back in the first quarter of last year ending the year with republicans at 47% and democrats at 42%. u.s. party identifications and leanings according to the gallup organization. this is ella out of maryland. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: yes, the reason i called today is because i became upset when i heard you refer to the democratic party as the democratic party. republicans do that all the time

. the republicans do it all the timehost: are you still there? caller: the republicans refer to the democratic party as the democrat party and they do that i think as a slur, and insult. our party is the democratic party. even when you lay the quote from bernie sanders, you read the democratic party when it was clearly written as the democratic party. i wanted to say that because that has been bothering me. i really hate it when people to were -- people referred to our party as a democrat party. that is not what we are. host: where asking if you're satisfied are not satisfied with the democratic party. this is fairfax, south dakota. good morning. caller: good morning.

from the rushmore stay. i'm not happy at biden. he has gone way too far toward the progressive end. i thought he would be in the middle but he is a burning man. i could never understand trump but both of these guys, trump and biden, they say how great the country is doing and so forth but can you really say the country is doing so great when there are -- when it is $30 trillion in debt? i want the interest rate to go up but if they raise the interest rate like they're supposed to some, they get up to 1%, you do the math on 30 chilean dollars one time, that is $300 billion a year. they borrow a lot of the money from the social security. they have to pay it on that. but he is going way too far to the left and will have the country doing a yo-yo way too far this way and way too far the other way the way trump was. host: with the infrastructure bill -- was the infrastructure

bill too far? caller: we can use a, but we are 30 chilean dollars in debt. -- use it, but we are $30 trillion in debt. they keep saying social security. my parents died when i was 15 or 16. they gave you my dad's a social security so i had a chance to go to school for a couple years. so i think they did help me. then i went working and i started with a union. i was in the union for a while but now they have this way up so far. we cannot compete with other countries. we are a global nation now. so i don't know. host: one of the first thing president biden pushed and congress passed was covert relief and that package was back in march. did you think -- that was a fair-minded money in that package -- did you think that was needed? caller: no i did not. i had to turn around and give it back to the state. not the state but the central

government for taxes. i gave them all my money back for taxes. anyway, i think he has gone way too far the other way. he needs to go way too far -- he needs to go back. with the speeches he gave, he went the wrong way. and people don't like to get told what to do. i got a harley and i know it is smarter to wear a helmet, but the state does not requirement. for some reason, i'm stupid and i do not wear a helmet. so i don't know. people do something stupid sometimes. maybe we should be like john lennon, and the song imagine, it said imagine there is no countries, nothing to kill or die for and no religion to imagine, no need for greed or hunger and sharing all of the world and the world would all live as one.

have a good day. host: in the mount rushmore stay . this is janet in the empire state. you are next. caller: hi. so i agree with the previous three colors, newman, and the lady who said the republicans are calling it the democrat party, it is a slur. and i think what we have to really do as democrats, because i am in a lot of ways happy with the agenda because i have been worried about climate change since al gore was in office. i tried to become president and that would've been the solution but we went the wrong way. i think part of what the party does, it leans too far to what the extreme left is asking for. what we have to do is we had to get things passed. climate change, i believe in all

of the things to help parents have subsidized daycare. i believe in that. i believe in helping people with aging parents. i am one of those. all of those things are great but you might have to do it slowly. and you might have to make it bite sized. then you will get republicans on board which is what we need. if we lose the midterms, what good have we done ourselves? i think everybody should listen quickly, because i know how i -- i know i have been on, a nigerian writer ran this on social media and she is definitely a feminist and everything else. but nobody wants to be pontificated to and biden comes off like he is this big saint. it is like don't pontificate at us. tell us what it is. tell us what we need to do. don't pontificate at us. it makes people feel like that guy, makes people feel repulsed i the democratic -- repulsed by

the democratic party. that is what we need to do. we need to get everybody on board is because our ways are the winning ways. we have to persuade people of that. host: we will hear more from the president tomorrow. you might be interested in this story, the lead story on the washington post today, the headline liberals are floating a new spending bill tactic, a push to break of the build back better act, writing in the piece some democratic members believe it is entirely possible to strip out the prescription drug and child tax credit provisions and pass them as standalone bills. some senate republicans have previously expressed some support for those reforms. instead of that larger package passing this in smaller chunks. i believe that is what you are talking about in your comments. bernie, you are next. caller: good morning.

first the question, yes, i am satisfied with the democrats. but i don't think that is the right question. the question as far as i'm concerned is whether this country once a democracy. -- wants a democracy. there is an alternative that has been presented by donald trump, a king or dictator. some people feel that one smart person could run a country much better than the general consensus of everyone. which is a democracy. so what do we want? do we want a democracy, or do we want an autocracy? host: michael in texas. good morning. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: i am very dissatisfied with the democratic party. i think the democratic party has

a what problem. not a watch problem but a howell problem. the what is good. everybody likes what they're trying to do, everybody likes roads and bridges, everybody likes bringing our troops home from afghanistan, but it is how they do things. the afghanistan thing [indiscernible] they start fighting with each other. so it is how they do things is the problem that they have. they need to figure out how to do things better, not what they are doing, how they are doing it. i think the president's's senior advisors is doing him a disservice. i think they are getting a pass, but he needs to shake things up in his administration if he

wants to save his administration. part of the reason is it seems his advisors are choked. host: who specifically would you like to see go? caller: i think his senior advisors certainly need to go. cedric, i don't know his last name. host: the representative from louisiana? caller: yeah. the president likes him around because he is a friend, but he is doing a terrible job. president biden says he's doing a terrific job. not what the poll numbers are saying. i think he is doing a terrible job. if biden don't see his cabinet up and get people to get his poll numbers around, he's done. earlier, it was floated that hillary clinton may be considering getting back into

the race. i think that's a great idea. let me tell you about the clintons. the clintons were very feared by the republican party. one of the reasons they were feared, not only do the clintons know how to play republican games, they knew how to be the republicans at their game. if she don't run for president, biden needs to reach out and get her in some kind away because my fellow texans, they need to get it going and swing back. host: you don't necessarily disagree with what they're doing but how they're doing it. on the issue of voting rights, we have talked about the freedom to vote. -- freedom to vote john lewis act. one of the house of how they are trying to do it is perhaps change the filibuster you rule in the senate -- filibuster rule in the senate and pass it through that process. is that a how you would agree

with? caller: i would agree with that. now that you bring that up, that it's another thing, the other how i was intending to bring up. of course the biden administration once voting rights, but it should not take them a year to become aggressive with it. really? a year? we kept saying for a whole year, where is the biden administration on voting rights, we got a few tidbits here and there and that was it. now you want to join the party? it should have been important from day one. that is what i mean with the how. host: michael in texas. this is another michael in oklahoma city. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? caller: yes, i'm satisfied. however, i am dissatisfied with the media. i kind of want to pick up on

what newman said earlier. i repeat it all of the time. the democrats control the white house and the house and the senate. well they don't. the senate's obstruction, that is all they are. we knew it from the beginning of his administration, does not matter when he tried to do voting rights, they are not going to fastening. we knew it took -- they had to go through the reconciliation process to get anything done. everything is getting dumped into joe biden's lap like one man can do this. we have had a global pandemic, economic crisis, we've got real climate crisis going on. it is january in oklahoma and 60 degrees. there is a lot of changes. that government. we need a party that governs, not one that is just looking to get elected, but a party that

governs. host: that's michael in oklahoma city. here are a few of your text messages as we have been having the conversation this morning. joe in florida, i am very satisfied with the direction of the president is going. i'm disappointed in the two republicans posing as democrats in the senate, blocking everything he has tried to do. history will not look kindly on these two. tim in ohio, they keep trying to jam multiple laws down our throat in one package. let's try one lida time. i'm close to changing to independent. kentucky, dissatisfied with this is the second presidential election we have gotten flawed candidates. i'm ready for another party in this two-party system. the only way the nature of the democracy will survive is this. talking with the first hour of the washington journal and we will have a republicans only in

our session. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? democrats, if you are (202) 748-8000. (202) 748-8001 if you are not. it tom i -- tom in ohio, you are next. caller: good morning. host: i'm listening. go ahead and speak through your phone and turned on your television. caller: yeah, i am very satisfied with this democratic party. i am 86 years old and vote for one republican and my life and would never vote for one again. all they are are works and obstructionists. we should do away with all of them because all they do is depend on the lobbyists to line their pockets. it does not matter which party it is. the crooks and lobbyists run the country. i am 86 years old, paid into

social security since i was 14, and you can say that's an entitlement. you dam well right i feel like i'm entitled to it. it is a shame we let it get as far as what it has got with this party stuff. as far as trump, don't want to get me started there. i used to live in west palm beach and my wife lived there from 1953 to 1988. here sister -- her sister went to school with them, three days he went to palm beach county schools. but they sure were big backers of him. i so sorry -- i feel so sorry for my nine great grandkids. it is a shame and disgusting. we could have a good country, but no, when you have crooks and politicians running it, we would be better off to do away with all of them. it's just a waste of taxpayers money to pay the crooks. host: who is the one republican

you voted for in your lifetime. -- lifetime? caller: you asked me that question the last time i talked to a few months back area host: i apologize. caller: i voted for michael turner, the first time he ran for mayor, and i would never vote for another republican. host: how did michael turner turn out in your mind? caller: michael turner is a congressman. host: how did he turn out in your mind? caller: terrible. he takes the lobbyist money. he ended up remarrying a lobbyist. host: why did you vote for him for mayor? caller: i thought maybe things would change, but they did not. i don't know. i'm so disgusted. i don't even know if i will vote anymore. i am 86 years old and i don't know if i will waste my time to go out to vote for any of the

crooks. it is a shame. host: what could democrats do in the next 200 94 -- 294 days to make you go out to the polls in november of this year? caller: they can do anything they want to. when you have the republican party obstructionists, you can't get nothing done. we've got one representative from ohio, he's got to be on every hearing and everything. he thinks he is the arresting officer, the judge, the jury, and executioner. i think anybody that knows anything about politics knows who i'm talking about. i would not mention his name, but it is jim jordan. [laughter] he is so against the foreigners, why don't you check his region he covers, all of the big farms

and everything, that's all he got is illegals. host: that's tom in ohio. this is debbie out of philly. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: very satisfied. host: why is that? caller: because the democrats are fighting for medicare expansion, lower prescription drugs, expanded senior care, they help with the stimulus package. what are the republican policies? i'm just saying, when we talk about policy issues, the democratic party is the only party offering policy issues for everyone. i have heard people call in here when they were talking about that stimulus package. folks wondering where their check was that was coming from

the democrats. i heard somebody talk about well they need to be bipartisan. mcconnell said as soon as president biden was sworn in that they would not do anything to work with biden. nothing. and another thing, the republicans grabbed their pearls when joe biden was speaking in georgia. talking about the issues of voting rights. and what side did you support but not a word when trump was at that rally, talking about white folks are now the back of the line. not a word. the problem is the hypocrisy. i agree with the person that said the media is the culprit here. they play on words, and they use

these polls, but what was the question in the polls? what was really ask? thank you. host: debbie in fella dorothea. -- in philadelphia. caller: i am very dissatisfied. i have been a democrat my whole life. in my opinion, the leadership of the democratic party is not emphasizing jobs enough in business. democrats have always supported business but it seems like we are being represented like people like aoc, talking about very woke issues that do not resonate at all among the rural parts of our country. gerrymandering means we are being concentrated just on the coast when our issues, good jobs for people, good pension benefits, should accrue to everybody in the united states. on the virus, we cannot get back to work until people get

vaccinated. we need to have simple illustrations such as when you breathe, how you are spewing out the virus. i think the messaging is terrible coming from our leadership. we are patriotic, good people and we are being defamed by the republican. it seems nobody in washington and the democrat party understands what people in rural areas are thinking. host: did you support joe biden in the primary? caller: i did support him because i felt he could bring the party together with the republicans. but again, we need to talk about this gerrymandering. two days ago, they talked about in ohio that 55% is all of the votes in the state office is going to the republican that they gerrymandered so 80% of the congressional seats would go to

republicans. we are not up on these things while the republicans are going in and carving up these congressional districts with a fine tooth saw. our national office is not smart compared to republicans. that is my opinion. host: that was an in york. -- anne in york. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with the last caller. i am dissatisfied and dissatisfied with the messaging. when you have your voters in florida who voted for people who are incarcerated to now being able to vote, and then you had the republican message leader come out saying you still can't vote. they should have came back and helps those voters, remove those

people from office. if that was a democratic legislator, trust me, they would have put posters up to say we have to remove him from office because they did not let what the voters wanted stand. you also have the messaging, especially near florida, when they gave out the stimulus, and they would fight against the stimulus when, at the same time, unemployment was only $125 per week and you had to fight for weeks just to get that $125. you have now voters for the voting rights and also the messaging around covid. why are we still fighting about masks and this? we need to fight against the unvaccinated. look at all the other countries, they are fighting to keep the healthy healthy. if they are putting in -- you don't want us to wear masks? point out the states then and

say don't vote for the state because they are not trying to keep you healthy. right now, if you look and see we cannot even afford our bread. all of this is happening, economy is coming down because no one ones to follow the law. the republicans are just making things go to riots. this is what they do. our messaging should be we are not following them. host: that is jan is in brooklyn. this is burke in texas in shirts, texas. are you satisfied with the direction of the democratic party? caller: i am very dissatisfied. you know, the democrats are too slow. the republicans are on top of everything. the voting rights, they have screwed it up. when biden walked in there, he should have been on top of it. i don't know what's going on with our vice president. she was active in the senate and now she is really floating around. i hope she gets more involved in

the things going on within the united states. and gardner, he must think he is back in the state court somewhere. he said 10 people -- he probably indicted 10 people. give me 10 more because the republican thing would stop until they destroy this country. it is bad, bad, bad. host: jim in l.a.. satisfied with the direction of the democratic party. why is that? caller: i'm totally satisfied with what they are trying to do but the people have to get out because they have no idea that republicans are actively trying to turn this country into a fascist state where your vote doesn't count. texas has already done and georgia has already done it. senator mike lee says -- she

would not necessarily call it a fascist state but it is when your vote does not count. republicans are for the rich, democrats have always been for the people, and these two senators that are whole in both things up -- are holding both things up, and joe manchin is doing it to protect his coal and fossil fuel money, and christian cinema has just come into this money. republicans are giving her millions and millions of dollars. that was the most lame specie ever gave, the disease of divisiveness? that is what mitch mcconnell has been causing since he got in. host: so you are talking about kyrsten sinema on the senate floor thursday talking about propositions on changing senate rules on the filibuster? here's a little of that speech. [video clip] >> consider this, in recent

years, nearly every partyline response to the problems we face in this body, every partisan action taken to protect a cherished value, has led us to more division, not less. the impact is clear for all to see, the steady escalation of tit for tat in which each new majority weakens the guardrails of the senate and excludes input from the other party, furthering resentment and anger amongst this body and our constituents at home. democrats increased use of requiring -- for traditional nominees. george w. bush, similar tactics led by republicans under barack obama. the 2000 13 senate decision to eliminate the 60 vote threshold for most presidential nominations led to a response in 2017 by senate republicans who

eliminated the threshold for supreme court nominees. these shortsighted actions by both parties have led to our current american judiciary and supreme court, which as i stand here today is considering questions regarding fundamental rights americans have enjoyed for decades. eliminating the 60 vote threshold on a party line with the thinnest possible majority to pass these bills i support will not guarantee that we prevent demagogues from winning office. indeed saw who undermined their principles of democracy have already been elected. rather eliminating the 60 vote threshold will guarantee we lose that critical tool that we need to safeguard our democracy from threats in the years to come. it is clear the two party

strategies are not working, not for either side. and especially not for the country. host: that's christian cinema on the senate floor of thursday last week. if you want to watch her remarks in their entirety, you can do so on our website at c-span.org. we have been talking to democrats about whether you are satisfied with the direction of the party. maybe just one more call. sam has been waiting in georgia. good morning. caller: hey, you got it right. haley, thanks. you got it right. i'm wholly dissatisfied. i guess i have up with what senator cinema was saying. i live in a town where there are democrats and republicans and a lively dialogue between us. their old-school democrats, republicans, there is no in immense between us but there are bundle of things, if you are 30 and not a liberal, you will have a heart and if you are 40 and not conservative, you don't have

a brain. that is a fun quip but outlines some of the the two. my republican friends, everyone is wholly dissatisfied but the message of the democrat party seems to be all republicans are racist and donald trump and if you don't vote democrat, every day is going to be january 6. there was a new york times article entitled, every day is now january 6. the message is deliberately obfuscated. i don't like the tactics at all. host: what should be the message in our last 30 seconds? caller: i suppose the message should be we have laws and we need to stick to them. as much as i want to join my party and saying only republicans want to be totalitarian. if you watched tom cotton, he

read a wonderful pro filibuster speech. let's start calling the -- let's stop calling the other party people and let's admit we can't get things done. we have an unpopular agenda and we can't get it across because it is too broad. i like the idea of breaking the bill down and passing things like child credits. pulley tactical retreat, admit where we have wronged. we tried to come in on the whole trump's evil platform and it turns out that isn't working. host: we will have to end it there but we will have another conversation with republicans only in our final hour of this program today, asking the same question about whether you're satisfied with the progression of your party. stick around for that at around 9:15 eastern. coming up, we will talk with the national -- with the former

national taxpayer advocate about the 2022 tax filing season. after that, cathy chase with advocates for highway and auto safety. we will discuss what it takes to curb rising traffic deaths. we will be right back. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government, provided by these television companies and more, including cox. >> cox is emitted to providing eligible families connection to the internet. bridging the digital divide one connection at a time. cox, bringing us closer. >> cox supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> american history tv,

saturdays on c-span2, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 10:00, watch an event marking the anniversary of justice thomas's confirmation to the supreme court. justice thomas is joined by mitch mcconnell, rove liked in on his time on the court. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, a look at the herbert hoover presidential library and museum. the great-grandson of the president talks about how the presidential library will evolve in the coming years. watch american history tv, saturdays on c-span2. watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> sunday, february sixth on in-depth, georgetown university law professor cheryl caching will be our live guest to talk

about race relations and inequality in america. her many books include the failures of integration, place, not race and her latest, white space, black hood. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments and -- at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. >> washington, unfiltered. c-span, in your pocket. download c-span now today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: always happy to welcome back nina olson to the program. she is the current executive director of the center for taxpayer rights and the former irs national taxpayer advocate. it was the current advocate who painted a dire picture of the state of the irs. some numbers from a report to

congress, eight .6 million unprocessed individual returns. 2.8 million unprocessed business returns. 5 million pieces of unanswered mail waiting at the irs. what does that all mean for the average american on april 15? guest: it means the irs like last year is entering the filing season very far behind, and it means that there are not enough employees this year that were able to get through that work and certainly not enough employees this coming year to get through this work, and so if taxpayer returns are perfect, they will go through the submission filing pipeline swimmingly. if there is a problem, and there are many problems -- many places we can talk over the next few minutes where a return will get stopped and it requires manual review, and there has to be a human being looking at it before that return can get back in the

filing season -- filing system. that means there could be a chokepoint and a taxpayer's return will be stuck and refunds will not be issued. 75% of tax returns result in a refund. in this pandemic economy, it is important to be able to get your refund timely. it means a lot to taxpayers. host: you mentioned chatting over the course of the next 45 minutes. it is the best part when we have you on, getting the chance to tact -- getting the chance to chat with taxpayers. (202)-748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones and (202)-748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. i mentioned your position as executive director at the center for taxpayer rights. explain what that is. guest: the day after i retired from the irs in 2019, i founded

a nonprofit called the center for taxpayer rights. the mission is to promote awareness and access to taxpayer rights both in the united states and internationally. we do that through holding conferences, workshops, educating taxpayers, filing litigation in the courts related to taxpayer rights and right now for the filing season, we are working on creating a website just to give taxpayer some information. the webpage will be no daschle be called -- webpage will be called knowyourrights. you can find out where you might be able to go for help and assistance. you could go to a low income taxpayer clinic if your income meets certain eligibility guidelines. host: on educating taxpayers, anything notably different this year, after another year of

pandemic? guest: the irs has been saying this but it is true. last year, the irs issued 13 million era notices where there was something the irs was seeing as wrong with the return and they could automatically adjust the return without giving the taxpayer basically an opportunity first to respond. they send out a letter saying we adjusted your return and if you disagree, call us. the percentage of calls being answered are about 9% to 19% at any given time during the year. in the 2020 filing season, there were only about 700,000 era notices issued and in 2021, 13 million, of which 11 million were attributable to the reconciliation of the economic impact payment and recovery rebate credit.

in 2020, there were two economic impact payments paid out. people may got confused about whether they received one or did not receive one but irs records show they received the payment. when they filed their return saying they got this much in economic impact payment, the irs is looking at the system saying you are wrong and we are shuffling your return over to error resolution and it can sit there up to 120 days before somebody gets around to look at it, and then you still have to communicate with error resolution to get the problem resolved. this filing season, we have one economic impact payment that was issued in 2021, but we also have the advanced child tax credit that was paid out during the second half of the year. those are payments, paid in

advance you will have to report on your return and if you don't report them correctly or at least correctly according to the irs, that is going to mean your return will be moved to error resolution and could be delayed for significant amounts of time. host: when you go from 700,000 of those kinds of adjustments to 13 million in one year, there is clearly a communication issue. is the irs doing anything to try and head that off this time around? guest: congress mandated that for the economic impact payment, they irs had to send a letter out for the end of january saying this is the amount of economic impact payment you received. for the advanced child tax credit, the irs was required to send out a form that report of the amount of advance tile -- child tax credit and the number of children for which you received that tax credit.

if they get something from the irs that says important tax information inside, they need to open it and not throw it away and they should save it to give to their return preparer. that is not going to help the people where the irs says you got this much in payment when in fact you didn't receive it for one reason or another. you are going to have to file your return saying what you think you received and then claim the rest of the credit, but just know that it may get held up and you need to be prepared with documentation to show you didn't get that payment , when the irs finally contacted you. host: for the irs to do all of this, the build back better act that president biden has proposed has a lot of new money in it for the irs. would any of that money go toward resolving these problems we are talking about? guest: not a lot, that is what

is disturbing to me. the irs has had major declines in enforcement personnel, auditors and collection employees. they need to be restored, but the taxpayer service employees have also declined significantly, and the volume of work on the taxpayer service side like we just talked has increased significantly. the number of phone calls to be made has increased, the number of pieces of mail to be processed has increased and staffing has decreased. there is not the same level of attention in build back better to taxpayer service as there is to enforcement. part of the reason is the way that taxpayer service is scored in the budget, sequenced, when you bring on enforcement personnel, the irs can say that enforcement personnel can bring

in four dollars to $10 depending on what employee you are looking at, what type of employee. if you expend money on enforcement -- enforcement personnel, theoretically you are bringing in revenue. it is hard to track that for taxpayer service but as we have seen, if you eliminate taxpayer service, then the taxpayers who are trying to comply with the law, the ones voluntarily trying are basically screwed and they aren't able to get the assistance they need to comply with the law and noncompliance increases on that end. we really need to get the appropriation for taxpayer service increased significantly. host: a chart we will show on irs enforcement employees, according to a congressional budget office report. the can see it was some 50,004 hundred employees back in 2010.

that number is down to 34,790, emphasizing what nina olson just said, with us this morning. we want to let her talk to you, our viewers and answer your taxpayer questions. (202)-748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones. (202)-748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. we usually wait three months before booking guests again on this program to try and offer a variety of opinions, so having her today -- first up this morning, john in florida. you were on with nina olson. caller: i have two questions or one is a comment. still waiting for the virus income tax return. use the cloud, make the irs a bank. everybody has an account and as you make more money, they take

more money out using algorithms and at the end of the year, they ou or -- they owe you or you have to file for them, a money order or whatever. the second thing is a couple years ago i made a mistake on my income tax return and i said what do i do and i couldn't go back will stop i had to file a 1040x, which was ridiculous. why couldn't i go back and cancel that tax return and say i made a mistake? i had to pay interest. they owed me money and didn't pay any interest on the money. host: thank you. guest: you raised a bunch of issues. the first one is why do we even have to file instead of simplifying it and in fact, many

countries and most developed countries around the world have some form of pre-populating returns with information, income information that they have on hand. other countries have a system called pay as you earn, it is kind of like our withholding system but the rates are set so that based on your income each week or whatever your employer is paying you, you have the exact amount of tax that needs to be taken out, so at the end of the year, many people don't have to file a tax return if all of their income is just simply wage income. maybe they have a little interest or dividends, but i might be below a taxable threshold so there is no filing whatsoever. other countries basically say to you, here is a return, here is the information we have from employers and banks and stocks and bonds, and if this is correct, here is what we think your taxes are.

push this button to file. in our system, we are more complicated. many of those systems that do that, they tax individuals as individuals. they don't take into consideration family structure. in the united states, we include children, married filing jointly. the government does not know how any children you have. they don't know if that child lived with you for more than half the year. you have to tell them that. it is not as easy as other countries to just create a return and say here is what you owe. as i have advocated since 2002, the government uses the information it has and make it available to taxpayers so they can download it into a government provided 1040, your preparer's 1040, it doesn't matter. but download it and if you have

a simple return, you should be able to push a button and it's done and on its way. that eliminates keystroke problems, people switching numbers and things like that which causes chokepoints down the line. you mentioned the 1040x. this goes to the way the irs processes information and it has to wait until -- if you file a 1040 or electronic return, then you cannot file a second one. so you couldn't go in before the end of filing season and say wait, i want to pull back that return and submit a new one. you have to do it on paper. that is -- the irs is saying we cannot process the paper we have. why are you setting up systems that force people to use paper? the irs greeted the 1040x finally, this past year that you

could e-file but every 1040x has to be looked at by a human being. they don't have systems in place to use artificial intelligence to scan the 1040x and see if there is anything outrageous, and otherwise send it happily on its way. you see the struggles that the irs has with its technology. some of the technology is dated back to the 1960's. it is constantly having to struggle to keep up. host: you mentioned your work and advocacy over the years. this might be a good time to explain what the national taxpayer advocate job does. guest: they have the national taxpayer advocate service, appointed by the treasury -- the secretary of treasury and their mission is to help taxpayers solve their problems with the irs and make administrative and legislative mentation's to

mitigate those problems. for the past year or so, the taxpayer advocacy service has refused to take cases related to processing returns. all of these things we were just talking about, these returns that have been held up over the past year and a half, the taxpayer advocate service is not accepting them because they have been so swamped by other cases, but also because they say there is no way the irs -- because the irs can't fix that. i personally disagree with that, but i think that there is a lot of reason for taking those cases and then issuing taxpayer systems orders if only to quantify the size and damage and harm that is happening to taxpayers in the united states, because the irs systems are not working and are overloaded. host: the current national taxpayer advocate after you held the job for how many years?

guest: 18 years. host: michelle is up next, out of l.a. caller: we received for our 2019 taxes, an increase based on stock options that we received and they are saying we need to pay for them even though we added them to ordinary income. we sent in the information and they returned it saying we still need to pay the amount for the stock options even though we did already pay that tax. i am at a loss as to the best way to illustrate to them that we already added it to ordinary income. guest: here is the issue with that. we were talking earlier about the levels of correspondence that the irs is getting, that it hasn't processed and i think -- it is not clear exactly whether your notice was a math error notice or what was the result of

a correspondence exam, but you sent in the information. that information may very well be sitting someplace and it has not yet been controlled, meaning it has not been assigned or associated with your case, namely your liability, and so from the irs systems point of view, they don't know that you have provided that information to show that it is already paid, and therefore they are saying you still owe that and they are sending you collection notices. what i would suggest you do, and i hesitate -- one is take something like a book to read and try to sit on the phone to get through to the irs. it is overloaded and swamped. you may get a courtesy disconnect if you sit too long. but try to reach out to the irs with your information, and see

if they can locate it. maybe it has been associated. the other thing to do if there was a phone number on the notice and it looks like a collection notice, call them and ask for a hold on collection, for 60 days. what you don't want is while you are trying to resolve this liability, you don't want the irs thinking that you are ignoring them and then move forward with a levy on your bank account, etc. the third thing i would suggest doing is try to call the local taxpayer advocate in your community. there is at least one office in each state. this is not a return processing issue, this is a dispute with the liability and the fact of the irs is not giving you credit the fact that you actually paid the tax on the return. they are swamped but that is a way people get into task. they will gather your information and send it over to

the irs again and they will send it to the unit that needs to make that decision. the fourth thing i would suggest you do is if none of this works is call your congressional office. they have constituent liaisons, and they will get involved to get the case opened and addressed. i wish i had better news, but you just have to keep trying to get through. the reason is the information you have sent has not gotten hooked up with your case. host: do they seriously call it a courtesy disconnect? guest: yes. sometimes it is not even courteous. sometimes the system disconnects and you don't even get a message. sometimes you get a "hello, we are disconnecting, goodbye." and that is the dis-ash that is

the courtesy message. like if you call the airline, they say the wait time is 30 minutes and if you want you can keep your place in line and hang up and we will call you back at the number on which you called us. the problem -- and the irs is expanding that to 30 lines this year. the problem is that the only -- they can only schedule a call back if they have enough employees available to answer the calls coming in and are eligible for call back so if you have so many calls coming in and they are already handling calls, it may be the call back feature will not be triggered because you don't want to say we will call you back in 20 minutes and there is nobody there to make that phone call. this is all down to a math equation. you have x number of calls and the irs has had over 200 million this past year, which it has never had before.

you have a fewer number of employees with exponentially more calls, it is just a math equation. you have to get more bodies to meet the needs of taxpayers. host: i've never heard courtesy disconnect before. deborah is next out of maryland. caller: good morning. i have an issue about what we should do about one of these refunds. we filed our 2020 return in april 2021 and we are owed about $60,000, the state of maryland processed our return, no problem and we got that refund. i have done everything. i have sat on hold, we contacted or tried to contact the taxpayer advocate and they have a message on their website that says don't bother trying to contact us. we have contacted our

congressman and senator. they tried to get involved and they said they can't get any answers out of the irs. going thing left to do at this point, i assume is to file suit in federal district court but it is a refund situation so what else can we do? i am asking because i used to be a tax lawyer and it has been totally frustrating trying to do this. we tried to file electronically and they would not take the electronic filing for some reason, so we had to file by paper. i would have preferred to do the electronic. host: hang on the line. nina olson? guest: the irs on its website announced that it has processed all individual returns that were filed before april and did not have any problems. you said you filed in april, so they just may beginning around to your paper filed return.

according to the national taxpayer advocate, as of december 18, 2021, there were still 6.2 million unprocessed 1040s. most of them were paper. yours might be in there. even though the i.s. knows they received your return, they don't know anything about it, and it's not on the systems for anybody on the phone, to be able to see where it is and what state along the way it is in. because you filed in april, the law says, and you requested a refund, that is a refund claim that you made on a return and if the irs has not processed your return by six months after you file with the refund claim, you can go to federal district court.

i know that incurs expense, but that may be something -- for that amount of money, you may want to consider that, filing a refund claim in federal district court. that will get a u.s. attorney assigned to that case and they will find out where that return is and what that refund is due. the other thing you can do is you can wait a little longer, to see whether they finally get to your return and the last thing i would do is try to use the fax number to the baltimore, maryland taxpayer advocate service. don't call the main number, call the baltimore number or fax to the baltimore number and explain your situation and the amount of the refund and begged them to take the case.

and say you will file in federal district court and that will cause you additional economic harm. this is exactly the kind of situation that people are facing because the irs cannot process these things timely and efficiently. we are sympathetic because everybody suffered through the pandemic but at some point, you have 150 million taxpayers and you have to put the interest of the 150 million taxpayers first if you want to maintain compliance with the tax system. host: working on finding that number so i can give it to the caller. next up, bill in new jersey. caller: good morning. i tuned in late but i'm watching and listening to the callers. it brings credence to what i'm about to say. i don't know why we still have

the tax system we have. i think we should do away with income tax and institute a national sales tax. the people watching are always saying they want the rest to pay their fair share. if you institute a national sales tax, the rich people would pay the most money because they spend the most money. if you want to help the poor people, you say there is no sales tax on your merchandise. so if you buy a used car, you don't pay sales tax but if rich people buy a new one, they will. it might stimulate some business in the country by people refurbishing washers and dryers and other types of things that people would buy used to save. they're talking about hiring another 87,000 irs agents. where is the money going to come from to pay for that?

then you have to give them retirement and hire new people. we just keep building the government bigger and bigger and it doesn't make any sense. host: before we get too far away from deborah, the number for the baltimore local taxpayer advocate office, the fax number 855-821-0238. hopefully deborah is still watching. nina olson, any comments on that last call? guest: most developed countries actually do what the caller was saying. the national sales tax or what they would call the goods and services tax because they also tax services. or a value added tax which is a form of sales tax that gets added in each stage of production. that is the major source of

federal revenue for most countries and that the individual income tax and the corporate income tax are much smaller parts of that pie where is in the united states you have individual income tax really being a major part of the federal revenue with corporate income tax behind it and then payroll taxes which are taxes on individuals, if you will. we did a study when i was the national taxpayer advocate to look at what it would take for the united states, the pragmatic aspect. what would you need to do, what are some of the challenges of implementing a national sales tax, and we did come up with recommendations on how you could do that. you have to recognize that a national sales tax is not self enforcing. you will need to have an irs of some sort to collect it. you will need to have agents to make sure that people are

reporting the correct amount of sales and not hiding sales. the countries that have national sales tax, there is a fair amount of fraud, cash economy is going on. the other thing is as the caller noted, it could result in the rich paying more, it is also a regressive tax as it applies to states like -- things like food and basic health -- basic household goods because the poor tend to spend their money on basic goods, basic needs, so you are basically paying a sales tax on basic needs were at least the income tax is excluding $12,000 worth of income per person. i think for the united states, most scholars have said you will still need to raise the kind of revenue that we need today, based on what congress has enacted. even if you do a national sales tax, you will still need some kind of income tax and some kind

of corporate income tax, to raise that kind of revenue. you could certainly do a national sales tax. it would require some transition in thinking about how to make it less regressive. host: two the peach state, this is robert in augustine. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you are on with nina olson. caller: i am robert, i'm from augustine, georgia and i have 47 years of experience in the area and even before that, the irs -- might have been a plant. the continuation of the tax industry includes the machines and equipment that allows it to be much more manipulated and

processed. in the old days it used to be the doomsday book. but processing through the agency, according to the needs of the prospects and collection agency. host: i guess the question is about the growth in the tax industry in the united states. guest: the united states is an outlier and the rest of the world. our tax industry includes private and government players. the irs early on in my career when i joined in two thousand one, the irs was supposed to create its own e-filing system like every other developed country in the world and most developing countries and instead, it felt that it could not program that system given what it also had to do. it was ironically working on the phones at that time and trying to upgrade computer systems, which it still has not completed doing. it decided it would work with

the private sector and software companies to make available for some taxpayers, free electronic filing. we are the only country in the world that relies on software, private software companies for taxpayers to have the privilege, they get to pay for the privilege of filing their taxes with the federal government. some taxpayers are able to do it for free. at the same time, economic transactions have gotten more complicated. you have bitcoin, people parking money overseas, you have all sorts of stuff. you have internet sales and all of that has created the agencies, the tax agencies around the world needing to respond to that, and use artificial intelligence and other techniques, and that has privacy concerns. are they going to look at your

facebook posts to determine what you are doing? all of that raises significant 21st-century issues that i believe what the caller calls the tax machinery are the tax industry has not yet addressed and they raise significant taxpayer rights concerns. that is something we are working on and looking at right now at the center for taxpayer rights. host: less than 10 minutes left but we will have nina olson again on this program for april 15 of this year. jeff in the cornhusker state, good morning. caller: it is no wonder, the way you describe these irs agencies. to be honest with you, if you want a bad phone call and to hear people in bad moods, all you have to do is call the irs. listening to you, no wonder. the sad part is that the state

irs systems aren't any better. we are hung out to dry. i have filed unemployment and got paid $15,000 and i was told by the state of connecticut to file in connecticut, and they've been after me for years to pay that money back and i was living in new york, working in the state of new york for the state of connecticut and i don't know -- they just won't let it go and i have no idea what to do. host: how about the state system in nebraska? caller: good, there are no problems out here. guest: that is an interesting thing that you raised because one of the things that the center for taxpayer rights is doing right now is we have created a survey and asked tax lawyers who represent taxpayers

in text disputes at the state and local level to fill out and identify what the level of service is for this at state and local agencies and the kinds of taxpayer protections that you might have. do you have the right to appeal in the decision? is there a state taxpayer advocate you could call and say they are not processing, they are telling me i have not paid and i have paid. we will be publishing the results of those surveys and hopefully with the results we will be able to make recommendations to state agencies about how to improve their taxpayer rights protections, based on best practices we are seeing in the state. to your other point about the customer service risk, the pressure these employees are under and also how frustrating it is. i taught at the beginning about how if your return is not perfect, it does not show up on

the system. if it gets stopped somewhere in the submission processing pipeline, and it is stuck waiting for a human being to look at it, that means it is not on the system that all irs employees answering the call are looking at, to answer a call. when you call up, they have to say i know we have received your return but i can't see anything about your return and i'm not sure where it is. that is a terrible message to give to taxpayers from the taxpayer perspective but it is also a demoralizing message for these employees to have to give taxpayers, eight hours a day. host: we will head to the constitution state. this is bill. caller: good morning. i had a problem with my 2019 tax return. i received a letter from the irs stating that they had approved my identity and who i was. that started the ball rolling,

so when i finally did get to talk to an agent, hanging on the phone for hours, i asked if there was another irs refund put in my name and they said no, so i said well if it is the same identity and address i have in my refund, how come the -- how can it be identity fraud if it is going to the same household address? finally i got nowhere with that and i got letters from austin, texas, utah, massachusetts, it was a nightmare that i finally got another agent and i asked for a transcript of my 2019 return. when i finally got that, i looked at the first line, the second line and there it was. the irs had moved a decimal

point over on my interest earned for that year, one digit, and it blew my interest up tenfold. now i have to get another agent on the line. i finally did. she pulled it up in a side-by-side with mine and i said there is the mistake, it is the irs mistake and could you please correct it and send my refund? she said that is not the irs policy. i had to write a letter to the irs, telling them where they made their mistake. i went through that, a lot of expenses. long story short, i did get my refund a year and a half later and i just got my 2020 refund that was held up this past july. they can help themselves, the irs if they have an intelligent

agent seeing the problem that the irs created and saying we don't need a letter from you, i see the mistake and we will get that processed as soon as possible, or something. give the person something to know. that was my experience and i thought it was a stall tactic because if you have identity theft, if somebody is stealing my identity, they are not going to send it to my home address if they are trying to get my refund. they will send it to a different address. host: let me give nina olson a chance to answer. guest: that is excruciating, that you had to go through this. not be able to get the right information and having to make three phone calls for what should have been one phone call that would've eliminated the numbered -- eliminated the other two. i don't know why they wouldn't

accept your information. they are trying to increase the ability to accept all information and i will say that identity theft is a really serious problem. we'll -- with all the information that has been out there through other agencies whether it is banks or amazon or credit cards or hospitals, there is so much information out on the dark web about people's identities that identity thieves are very sophisticated now and it is difficult to tell a legitimate return from an illegitimate return. it sounds to me like what it was was not identity theft refund -- refund fraud, namely that the decimal point was incorrect, that triggered the irs freezing that return and then saying you have to come in and prove that you were entitled to it.

i don't know why they have the 1099, i don't know why they couldn't verify that and see what your return would actually had been but this is the sort of thing that you think would be nice to have an online account or the taxpayer could quickly look up a visual picture of their return or their transcript , and see exactly what the error is, but those don't get posted until much later after the filing season for you to be able to see them. host: we should have you on for all three hours of our show with these calls for you. the center for taxpayer rights, for folks who might have missed it at the beginning, explain what they can find in terms of resources this tax season. guest: the center for taxpayer rights is trying to educate taxpayers about their rights

before -- we are creating a page that will be up probably next week where we will have information about what to expect this filing season, where we think there are chokepoints. we hope it will help people recognize where the problems are, and what might be happening to them. if you are a low income taxpayer, we will have information about where you can receive help from a low taxpayer clinic so you free representation in dealing with the irs. host: taxpayer-rights.org is the website. nina olson, thank you for your time. up next, we will turn to the issue of rising traffic deaths in the united states. we'll be joined by cathy chase , president of the advocates for highway and auto safety. later, more of your phone calls. stick around, we will be right back. ♪

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>> get c-span on the go. watch the day's biggest political events live anytime and anywhere on our new video app, c-span now. axis highlights and discover new podcasts, offer free. download c-span now today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: a conversation now on road safety in the u.s. with cathy chase. she served as president of advocates for highway and auto safety and today, they will be releasing their 2022 roadmap of state and highway safety laws. before we dive into that report, let's remind viewers what ahas's mission is and how you are funded. guest: thank you for having me.

for those who do not know about this organization [inaudible] our mission is to make our roads, road systems and -- safer for all. host: this report coming out today, what is going to be in it and what are you recommending? guest: it is kind of a report card for how the roads are doing. it covers five basic areas. [indiscernible] host: we will try to get your mic fixed a little bit. as we do that, let me give the phone lines for viewers to call in during this segment if you want to talk about the issue of

rising traffic deaths in this country, highway safety laws and what is happening in your part of the country. (202)-748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central united states. (202)-748-8001 if you're in the mountain or pacific regions. start calling in now as we talk with cathy chase, president of the advocates for highway and auto safety. we talked about rising traffic deaths and i think we have your mic fixed. explain what we know about the numbers from the previous year. guest: unfortunately, the numbers have been skyrocketing. that is why this report is so timely. it provides information on how to improve our roads. in 2021, the number of people being killed in our roads went up 20%, more than 20,000 people

were killed. this is just unacceptable to be quite frank about it. in terms of highway safety laws, -- host: what can and should states be doing? guest: they should be enacting laws that cover -- [indiscernible] unfortunately that phenomenon -- even though the roads have been -- but we need is -- what we need is our state legislators to step up, look at our report and see

what gaps are in their laws. there are very few laws that legislators can pass and make a difference in terms of life and death. the laws we are recommending do just that. host: the advocates for highway and auto safety, the website is saferoads.org. is the report available at this point? guest: it is. you can download it on our website, savero -- saferoads.org. we encourage all of your listeners to check it out and contact your state and federal elected officials and say you want more to be done. in conjunction with the release of the report, we are also releasing a report that shows people are concerned about what is happening on the roadways and think that more needs to be done. host: some numbers from that

survey. 75% of those polled were not aware of the increase in crash deaths and traffic deaths in the united states in 2021. two thirds responded saying that enough is being done to reduce dangerous driving behaviors. 84% concerned about cell phone use and texting while driving. 80% concerned about alcohol and drug impairment while driving. 65% concerned with the lack of the use of seatbelts or child safety seats. all of this contained in the new report come out today from the advocates for highway and auto safety. if you want to talk about safety in your state, full lines are split regionally this morning. cathy chase, viewers from around the country who wants this program, are there some states doing it better than others when it comes to reducing tele-teas on the road? guest: there are. we have graded -- how we safety

laws. the best state right now is new york. they have passed 13 laws. states with the fewest number of laws is missouri -- the state with the fewest number of laws is missouri. in the middle there are 31 states in the yellow zone. every state can take action to make the roads safer. host: cathy chase is the president of advocates for highway and auto safety. still having some trouble with the sound for you. we will try to have you back on down the road so you can actually talk to our viewers. we want them to be able to hear your responses. that report is out from saferoads.org. what is the name of the report again?

guest: it is the roadmap of state highway safety. host: saferoads.org. cathy chase, thanks for your time and thanks for trying to work with us on the technical difficulties. we have about an hour left in our program and this is what we will do. in our first hour we had a question for democrats only about the direction of your party, if you were satisfied with it or not. in our final hour of the program we will ask the same question for republicans only. are you satisfied with the direction of the publican party? -- of the republican party? (202)-748-8000 if you are satisfied. if you are not satisfied, (202)-748-8001 is that number. start calling in on those phone lines right now as we take a look at one of the articles today, about the republican

party, the direction of the party and where the primaries are taking the republican party right now. the headline from the washington times today, gop primary candidates are wrestling for trump's mental. the first round of the ad wars, the battle for the former president's brand. that is the story from the washington times. they write that from of -- from alabama to ohio, republican candidates have already shelled out at least $2.2 million on trump inspired ads according to a tally from the group advertising analytics, a nonpartisan ad tracker. they write anti-trump ads are rare. viewers are more like you to get a double dose of mr. trump from candidates running for the same office, particularly in red states and red congressional districts are mr. trump's star power is unmatched. alabama governor kate iv recently aired a campaign add featuring an ad of her talking with mr. trump on an airport tarmac in which she said she

stood with the president to ensure no election here could be stolen and not to be outdone, her rival, lindy blanchard introduced herself to voters as a trump like figure describing herself as a businesswoman and outsider. the ad flashes a photograph of her with mr. trump and the former vice president. the narrator says misses blanchard will fight for president trump's border wall and says president trump named her the ambassador to slovenia. the ad closes out by saying driven by faith, trusted by president trump, conservative outsider, a battle for trump's brand within the republican party. you can read more on that from the washington times. as we talk about the direction of the gop, the conversation we are having with you and the phones are open to do it. republicans only. we want to hear whether you are satisfied with the direction of the party. (202)-748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones.

(202)-748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. a lot of discussion around the direction of the republican party, coming in the wake of the election of glenn youngkin, the governor of virginia. glenn youngkin was installed as governor over the weekend. here is a piece from the op-ed pages of the washington times on glenn youngkin. a man of hope and change, writes charles hurt in his column, defeat death, deception and -- focusing on the glenn youngkin campaign and how he may run virginia as governor. glenn youngkin was on fox news this past weekend, and he talked about his path to victory. this is part of what he had to say. [video clip] >> you really walked a shrewd line here. you embrace president trump's

policies, to a degree but at the same time, kept him at arms length enough that you didn't alienate moderate voters and many democrats he needed to win. is this a roadmap for other republicans in the november election? >> what we did in virginia over the last year was give everyone a great big bear hug. we embraced all virginians. i have said before i deeply appreciated president trump's support. we brought together a coalition of folks that had never been in the room together. moderates, democrats. we campaigned places republicans have historically not campaigned. that resulted in record vote levels in all minority communities. this is about bringing people together. there are many things people disagree about but there is so

much more we agree upon. when it comes to getting taxes down, getting schools refocused on excellence and leaving politics out of the school, investing in law enforcement and standing up to fight crime and making sure we have a great economy and protecting rights guaranteed under the constitution, these are not values shared only by a political party. they are shared by virginians. that great big bear hug is the path forward. we can embrace all virginians, because the opportunity is for all. host: glenn youngkin on fox news sunday. it's our final hour of the washington journal. asking a question for republican viewers only. we started the show with a question for democratic viewers. republicans only now. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? (202) 748-8000 if you say you

are. (202) 748-8001 if you are not satisfied with the direction of the republican party. a note on what's happening today on capitol hill. the house is in at noon. descendant is in at noon today. we expect a press briefing at noon from press secretary jen psaki and mitch landrieu talking with the press. that's ahead of president biden's press conference he's holding tomorrow. what will be his 10th news conference of his presidency. also today, later in the afternoon on c-span networks at 3:00 p.m. eastern, governor michelle lujan grisham of new mexico will be giving her state of the state address. that is 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, and watch it

on the free c-span now video app. that's what's going on in washington today. republicans only, are you satisfied or not satisfied with the direction of your party? the phone lines are yours to call in. evan in indiana first up in this segment. are you satisfied? caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: i am a republican has been. i was a republican until 1980. i am still a registered republican but i have not voted for president since gerald ford ran. host: we are trying to talk to current republicans to talk about the current direction of the grand old party and want to hear if you are satisfied or not satisfied.

we will save your phone call for another time down the road. current republicans only. (202) 748-8000 for republicans in the eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 five republicans in the mountain or pacific time zones. charlotte is a republican -- actually she's not on the phone. the washington times had a column focusing on president biden's first year. we talked about this in the first hour. there are numbers that democrats would prefer to focus on and numbers republicans would prefer to focus on. free democrats, things like that 3.9% jobless rate. it is the 41 federal judges president biden has confirmed to the bench in his first year, more than any of his recent predecessors in their first

year. it is the $1 trillion number, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the funding, including $550 billion in new spending. republicans would point to different numbers of the first year. 7% inflation rate. the economy running hot and biden getting burned by inflation reaching a 40-year high. there is the 1.7 8 million, the number of border crossings in the southwest as migrants begin streaming across the border. 1.78 million encounters with border agents in the first 10 full months of the biden administration. some of the numbers each side is focusing on heading into the midterm elections. republicans go into that midterm with expectations of doing well. we want to hear whether you are satisfied or not satisfied with

the state of the party. chris in st. louis says he is satisfied. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am very satisfied with the way things are moving. we are seeing so many changes brought around over the last five to six years. moving in the right direction to protect our freedom and our country. i think, love him or hate him, president trump brought a lot of things to the forefront and made a huge difference to build awareness. we are starting to see things happen. very excited to see expansion of the party to groups like brexit. bringing minorities in. host: what are those changes you were talking about in the past year to protect our liberties? caller: we have seen a lot of

awareness about the things going wrong. we have seen the fact that the border has a huge problem in president trump was not afraid to bring that to the forefront and take action. it woke a lot of people up. we have had great causes, folks trying to defend the border. he took the action necessary and it will help with several things throughout the country as far as making sure we have america first. host: chris in st. louis. president biden held a rally over the weekend and he talked about expectations for the 2022 midterm elections. former president trump holding that rally in arizona. [video] >> now biden is using what i did to try to lower the price of energy, which is not working well. upon taking office, biden caved

to the radical left. we did a job on so many things like the pair was climate accord and canceled the keystone xl pipeline while approving the russian pipeline. every item on the pelosi-biden-schumer agenda is crazier and more delusional than the last. this november we have a chance to do something really spectacular to bring these marxist monstrosities to a screeching halt. a great way of -- red wave will begin in arizona and sweep across the country and will wash democratic-socialist out of office within a topical surge of republican patriots. they will be doing it. you will be heading to the polls. this is maybe the most important

election we have ever had. i do believe that 2024 will be even more important. this is the year we are going to take back the house. we are going to take back the senate. we are going to take back america. this is so important. host: former president trump at that rally in minnesota. a fox news story about kevin mccarthy, the current minority leader of the house. he would perhaps be speaker of the house. outlining recently rarities for his party if they regain control of the house in in the midterms. republican priorities when we regain the majority. hold the biden minnis ration accountable. number two, secure the border. number three, make city safe. number four, right in inflation. number five, stop overreach and mandates. that was ahead of former

president trump's rally. asking republicans only if you're satisfied or dissatisfied with the state of your party, the direction of your party. i hope i got that correct. go ahead. caller: yes, thank you for taking my calls. being a physician, i am dissatisfied with the republican party. mainly on the issue of the pandemic. covid-19. i believe it is a losing battle when you are fighting against vaccinations, mask wearing, and all the other preventative measures. i don't know why there is hesitancy, resistance to doing some of these things.

the vaccine does save lives. wearing masks does save spreading the covid infection. my unhappiness across the board with the republicans is in that i think we should spend the energy on something else. there are other issues that are not going the right direction currently that needs to be taken care of, but in terms of the pandemic i think we should be supporting the administration -- anybody that is strong on the issue of vaccinations. spreading the message that vaccination is good to bring down the omicron or any other variant that may be coming our way.

host: we just played a clip of former president trump, the front runner for the republican nomination. he talked about 2024. would you support president trump in 2020 for -- 2024 or is there another republican you would support? caller: yes, i would probably support another candidate. host: do you have anyone in mind? caller: if there is anybody in mind right now, this and toast -- desantos, the governor of florida or ted cruz. i don't think trump is very articulate. i don't think he comes out with,

you know, rational communications with the people. the policies have been good but i personally believe somebody that needs to be very articulate and be able to cross party lines would be a good candidate. host: this is molly in mulberry, florida. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: i am very satisfied. host: in what way? caller: in the way that the republican party is becoming of movement. standing high on our values and the things that are important to us. even with all the backlash and all the lies. being called a racist because of the way i vote is ridiculous, especially after voting -- the

voting rights thing. i don't see how showing an id to vote is racist but showing a vaccine mandate card or a vaccine card to going to mcdonald's is ok. i feel at the democrat party needs to find out what it is they are looking for. i don't think they know what they want other than power and control. i am satisfied because as soon as we get rid of the liz cheneys and mitch mcconnells, this movement -- is not even about donald trump anymore. it's about the american people and what it is we want. the right to be able to choose what our children learn. how dare anybody feel like it is ok to tell us our children are going to learn to hate our country? they will learn they are bad because they are white or good because the are brown or black. america has come so far.

obviously white people did not agree with the way things were because we changed it. we have evolved. the democrat party and the racism is -- that is the elite time is a race issue, when there is a democrat in office. look at the republicans, the black republicans, hispanic republicans. they are catching on. the democrats need to find a new narrative. they need to stop trying to divide us and make us hate each other based on vaccinations or color. host: this is troy in sebring, florida. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: good morning, john. thank you for taking my call. i am 100% dissatisfied with the direction of the republican party. i'm a lifelong registered republican and a vote in every election. -- i vote in every election.

host: why are you dissatisfied? caller: there are 16 sitting sitters who voted in favor of voting rights in 2006 and not a single one will even open debate to discuss the voting rights bills coming before the senate. voting rights of the foundation stone of our democracy. host: what you think will happen in 2022 and 2024? caller: i expect there to be lies and overwrought people saying statements like the former president's anger are millions of people coming across the southern border. it's an outright lie and fabrication. i expect the republicans to probably take the house. hopefully not the senate. in 2024, they will march behind the pied piper like lemmings to the sea and support donald

trump. i hope he gets thrashed. host: why are you still republican, troy? caller: i am living in the state of florida and florida is so ruby red republican that bow sickly if i do not vote republican in florida i don't have a say. host: troy in sebring. danny in humbolt, texas. caller: i very dissatisfied with the current state of the republican party. host: in what way? caller: we are losing on all fronts. it seems like our politicians are just chasing narratives rather than taking action. we have a few out there like marjorie taylor greene and she is just being thrown under the rug, hidden from all view.

that seems to be the case. the only ones that get exposure are the old-school politicians playing the game, talking the narrative, just speaking to be heard. we are really getting nowhere. election integrity has been washed over. nothing seems to be addressed nationally about that. until we ensure election integrity we don't have an electoral system that works. all the hype about the next election coming up, november will be big, 2024 -- none of that matters. to believe that biden received 85 million votes when barack obama only received 54 million votes is absolutely absurd. host: if republicans take the house and republicans take the senate, who would you like to see as speaker of the house and

as senate majority leader? caller: that's a really hard question. man, that's a hard question. host: any thoughts? anyone you want to put up? caller: paul maybe would be a good one. there are not too many that really walk the walk. everybody is talking talk. we have crenshaw in my neighborhood. we were really excited for him. he's got a military background. he put up a good front. we are going to fight for the people. we are going to do with right, that he just seemed to flip his script. now he is just a politician. that's very disappointing. we see that happening in all areas, all representatives. once they get in, they get so

overwhelmed with the system that they lose their momentum. we see a failing nation. we have a broken government. where is the hope for our party? our party seems to bleed into the democrats. host: this is gary in newport, kentucky. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: i am satisfied, but i think the republicans need to really focus more on the economy . the everyday issues of the american people. i think they will be just fine. the way the democratic party is slid off, they have a week to week agenda. this week it is voting rights. last week, build back better or whatever the other bill they are trying to pass through. sometimes they get on covid

again. put it down on paper, state to it and get it done. host: you want republicans to focus on the economy. what are they focused on now? caller: what the democrats are doing. if they would just start talking about the things americans care about of either party. host: you mentioned the economy. anything else? caller: well, let's see. i guess the price of oil. gasoline. i went to the grocery store the other day and the shelves were empty, half-empty. little things of this and that. this is america. it should not be that way.

host: this is john out of california. that i get that right? caller: close. visalia . my main complaint about the republicans is you do not hear any pushback on this bill that just went down in flames. the bill back better. i heard all the positive things from every democrat that was on the tv. i did not hear many negatives from the republicans. the republicans don't do a very good job of carrying the message. the issues are crime in the streets, high taxes, open borders which i think is a real winner. even the hispanic people don't want ports of people

undocumented, illegal coming across here. couple that with the fact they want to rework the democrats -- the democrats want to rework the way our elections are run. we don't want a lot of people and i don't think many people do want people that really are not here legally anyway voting in the elections. that is what the democrats want. inflation is 100% biden's fault. raise the price of gasoline over a dollar a gallon. in the first few days of his term. you don't hear republicans -- the affordable care act, which is anything but, that's a fee to complete -- fatea com -- fate ac

ompli. it was a disaster for the middle class. it is documented that is a disaster. you don't hear republicans pushing back on that. ok, we will go onto to the next to. i would like to see jim jordan be speaker of the house. i think kevin mccarthy is probably a decent guy. he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer. he does not seem to have the fire in his belly to pushback and fight. host: would you want mccarthy in leadership? caller: well, wherever he needs to be. i don't what had to be speaker. i think jim jordan carries the message much more strongly than most any other republican i have heard, with the exception of all the -- of the guy that was shot when the radical socialist

democrat shot of the baseball field. he would be a good speaker of the house. host: steve scalise, the minority whip? caller: exactly. i'm sorry i cannot think of his name. he is forceful and he tells the conservative side. i am not a white supremacist. i am far from that. the democrats have labeled anyone that is conservative, anyone that wants lower taxes, that once secure borders, anyone that wants a strong military as a white supremacist. the republicans seem to let that hang in the air and go along with it until eventually -- i heard a black fellow on c-span the other day screaming that trump wanted to kill black people. nothing is further from the

truth than that. host: that is john in california. another john in santa paula, california. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am satisfied with the republican party. i think the previous caller outlined a lot of the great issues that we are promoting. i think the republican party represents more hard-working americans than the democrats. i think the republicans are doing the right thing in representing all aspects of america. i think joe biden only represents and works for the democrats. my choice for speaker of the house would be donald trump. i think he should run for the house of representatives and become speaker of the house. i think you should run again in

2024 and become president again. that would be a great thing for all americans. host: you would not even have to run for the house to be elected speaker of the house under the rules. the speaker vote that takes place at the beginning of every new congress, members can dominate whoever they want to be speaker of the house. those outside of congress can have that position. luke in fairfax, virginia. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: i am somebody who is not satisfied. i kinda became disillusioned as soon as trump became front runner for the republican party in 2016. host: where are you today on the republican party? do you still consider yourself a republican? caller: i consider myself a

conservative. as far as looking into the political landscape for heroes, it can be very discouraging. host: is there a hero right now? caller: i was kind of, i guess, swinging a little bit libertarian in the 2016 election. i did vote for biden in the last election and i don't regret either. i was talking with -- it was helpful when i was talking with a couple of friends recently about realizing if we did not have the huge corrosive breakdown in the public discourse from trump, i think

the amount of distrust in the system surrounding specifically coronavirus would be a very different public discourse right now. that is discouraging for me. host: luke in virginia this morning. a look at voters' satisfaction. is the party heading in the right direction? this is from a poll that came out earlier this month. these far right columns over here are looking at republicans, whether they believe that the party, the gop is heading in the right direction. as of december, 65% of republicans said they believe the party was heading in the right direction. that compares to january after the january 6 attack last year. at that point, 51% of republicans said the party was heading in the right direction. comparing again to august of

2020, the end of the trump administration, 69% of republicans saying the party was heading in the right direction. joel in laredo, texas. are you satisfied with the direction of the party? caller: yes, sir. i am a republican by choice. i am latin. to john from california, everything he said was perfectly right. the people that are calling after him, that's an anti-trumper. that's fine. they can voice their opinion. i'm on the border. they are pouring in. nobody wants to say a thing. i am latin. all the lowlifes, the people that are coming that of people -- that of people getting out of jail. wait until the voting comes and you will see the latin vote explode. it is ridiculous what is going on over here. they are not testing anybody.

nobody is being tested out here. they are putting them all over the country. they are flying them in the middle of the night. wait until the boat comes out. we will show you with the latin americans will do for everybody. host: you talk about anti-trumpers calling in earlier. do you think today that somebody can be an anti-trump are antirepublican -- anti-trumper and be a republican? caller: i don't think so. what you see on tv and what it is are two different stories. come to the border. where are the democrats on the border? come down here and see what's going on. see who was getting tested. they are sending them all over the country and complaining about the virus. hell, stop it here for you can stop hundreds of thousands of people. you don't live on the border. we do.

to all that anti-trumpers, you are wrong. daily person who did anything for this country was donald trump. god bless donald trump. host: this is james in new jersey. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: no, i am not. the first point is, every republican -- and dissatisfied with efforts on the border. number one, by law, the united states code allows these asylum-seekers to enter the border. republicans do absolutely nothing to stop it but pass blame. number two, most republicans are using this platform right now this morning simply to call in and bash democrats, which is wrong.

stop passing blame. assume responsibility the way ronald reagan did. assume responsibly for your own actions. if you want to see a change in immigration, change the united states code. thank you. host: a few comments from our text messaging service. "i support republicans for standing for individual freedoms as opposed to reliance upon the federal government. i wish they were stronger in working towards these goals. nothing the federal government controls works well. democrat control would only submit the incompetency." " i will be dissatisfied until republicans have a real republican leader. the media has both republicans and democrats thinking trump is the leader. this must be squashed this year." " not happy here.

the republican party is dead. it is now the trump party. i'm not willing to go to the dictatorship. they have turned into the party of 'no.' " it's about 25 minutes left in the program. we spent the first hour talking to democrats about the direction of the democratic party. we are spending this hour talking to republicans about the direction of the republican party. (202) 748-8000 if you are a republican and you are satisfied with the direction of the party. (202) 748-8001 if you are a republican and not satisfied with the direction of the party. jan in pine, arizona. caller: good morning, kent good morning america. good morning donald trump who will be our president again. i am a real republican. i'm listening to these people.

the guide to new jersey, come to arizona. let me show you what our state looks like. we have all these people pouring over down by the border. for yuma, arizona. they cannot keep them out. they are raping their kids and families. who cares. go let them all vote. they are not american citizens. you let these people come in echo in our country. how ridiculous. number one, check on the gas price today. have you checked on it today? it's at $86 a barrel. thank you, mr. trump. my hundred pays $100 more a week, $150. he has to drive to work. what we do here? oh well, that's another $600 a month out of our pocket. i have a small business with my family members.

it has thrived during donald trump. now we cannot get items in the small business. if you people calling in on the republican name, you cannot even get it right. you are so pathetic. that is what democrats do. they cheat. host: later today, right next door in new mexico, the governor, michelle lujan grisham giving the state of the state address. we will show that on c-span at 3:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch on c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. the rest of the schedule today, the house and senate back at noon eastern. we expect a press briefing at noon today at the white house by jen psaki and mitch landrieu. that's on the c-span networks as well. opal in baxter, kentucky.

caller: good morning. i'm not a democrat. i am a trump-publican. he's a businessman. that's what this country is about, running a business. this country -- i'm proud to be an american but i am ashamed of the administration running washington, d.c. as far as republicans, i am half-and-half. the good ones are matt gaetz. you have mitch mcconnell, who is one of the slowest of the -- lowest of the lowest. he is a liberal in the hidden rhino world. host: how do you feel about ron desantis? caller: i love him. i love him. i love him. he is the best. i want freedom. i don't want someone telling me i can't go somewhere.

i'm an american. nobody tells me what to do. the only man who told me what to do as my father. the only thing i will -- person i will do anything for is my god . host: litter front a sentence runs against donald trump? caller: it will happen. if it did, it would be trump-desantis in my heart. host: opal in kentucky. seven is on that front. that headline from axios. trump dogs this interest that have a matchup -- desantis ahead of a matchup. he has no realistic chance of

beating him. that's according to sources he talked to him about the florida governor. there the muster p -- most popular republicans in the country. he talked about ron desantis's popularity and ruled that running against him in 2024. joan and charlotte, north carolina. your next. -- in charlotte, northglenn. you are next. caller: i am a trump voter and i pray he does run. i wanted to say, and i told my son this while the republicans -- i'm sorry, the democrats were calling. we was going to get a lot of democrats during this call and that is what is coming through. 60% of the time. have a good day. host: same question to you. we had folks who said they are

republican but they don't necessarily support donald trump. is that the people you were talking about? caller: that's right. host: can you be antitrust but a republican? -- anti-trump but a republican? caller: no. not right now. he had us going in the right direction. if he gets on the ballot, he will have us going again. host: joan in north carolina. louisville, terry. good morning. caller: i am thinking of what of the most violent messages in our country. that was an attempt to overthrow the nation. it came from one of the highest officers in the country. people in forward countries hartl this -- heard all this. respect for us went down tremendously.

how can a group of people be afraid of letting their kids know about their heritage. to avoid sin of their ancestors. we we know -- host: are you a republican? what makes you a republican? caller: i am a registered republican. i had agreed on morals the republicans had fostered for years. family values and caring for others. those kinds of issues. big business, yes, but there is nothing wrong with big business as long as you are going to be ethical and moral about it. but we don't display high morals -- when we don't display high morals from the highest position, that's not a good sign for our country.

we are not going to succeed -- host: are you going to vote republican in the midterm elections? caller: you know, i am seeing the platform as being a platform that republicans have always agreed with. if i can find one of those candidates, yes. if i cannot, no. host: cincinnati. this is john. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i am dissatisfied with all parties. that leaves me dissatisfied with the republican friends.

unfortunately it is based on the fact we have a constitution and nobody seems to care about working on mutual sin to make sure we are all presented in the process and procedures of governing. every four -- therefore everyone is using the government as a weapon to be king of the hill and beat the one else into submission and exploiting and extorting us and committing fraud and denying us our due process rights as good faith -- freedom of contact, freedom of conscious. representing jessica pam -- representing us like a pimp represent a good prostitute. someone is making us the legislative slaves. that his wife we will destroyed for lack of knowledge. we understand argue i need to

make it more clear? host: how much longer do you think we have got as a nation? caller: it depends. if we are going to wake up. it seems like every election we use the system to beat each other up in order to make sure one of us gets to be king of the hill. then we have the worst candidates on the face of the planet running for office. unfortunately, if we are stuck in the same situation -- i hate to say it. i'm saying trump has probably been the best president in my lifetime but that doesn't mean you're not scraping scum off the bottle of the barrel to get candidates. we either start respecting the reality of agreement. article one, sections nine and 10 of the constitution say no title of nobility. that reinforces the declaration of independence that we are all

self-governing, free people. article four, section two of the constitution, citizens shall be entitled to all privileges and amenities of citizens of another state. we do not get to use the government as a weapon to beat another person into submission to their obedience. you cannot burden me or make me a second or third class citizen. host: chris in bonita springs, florida. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: generally speaking i'm not satisfied with any of the parties. i would have to say i was happy to see the rnc refused to have debates that are biased. that's a huge step forward.

i think the bias, whether in the media or on social media has become ridiculous to the point that the media has turned into nothing but propaganda. it seems to all be in favor of the democrats. i have been an independent. yet to register in florida so i registered as a republican because attend to be more conservative. -- i tend to be more conservative. the democrats have turned into a mob of people. they talk about january 6. never a peep about how antifa and black lives matter burned down half the city and kill people and robbed and looted. now they are calling everybody that doesn't agree with, racist. -- agree with them a racist. they are not logical, rational people anymore and i cannot support that. host: staying in the sunshine

state, this is teresa from gulf breeze. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span. i am generally satisfied with the direction of the republican party finally. i've been very unhappy with our party since ronald reagan. i was encouraged when bill clinton was in power and decided to work with the people and did the contract with america. i thought that was excellent when newt gingrich was in and things were starting to look better. i am hopeful. i am from d.c. i worked in high echelons of government, and the national park service and heard the historical conflicts and all the border conflicts for years and years. i think people need to

understand that these problems can be solved. it seems like they are playing games with us. i think the inflation will throw the republicans into a majority in the house and the senate. i don't think ron desantis needs to run for president because we need him here as a governor in case we get another pandemic. i would like to be free in america and not living behind the iron curtain. host: if republicans take the house and senate, who would you like to see as speaker and majority leader in 2023? caller: that's a tough one. that speech mcconnell gave after the atlanta, georgia speech biden gave was so horrible and divisive. when he came out and he was eloquent but he's an old-time politician.

i think it is time for some younger people to give in and step up to the plate. i love tom cotton. i love steve scalise. jim jordan is a little hyper for me. ted cruz is a little weird. there is some good people out there. i don't think either the house or senate communicates effectively for us. it is nothing personal. host: you said you work at the parks service for a long time? caller: for a long time. the business about the history of the united states. i have worked through some very intelligent historians. i'm a finance person. i did a budget analyst job since the hippies were throwing pies of the steps of the pentagon, he under constant bomb threats --

and we lived under constant bomb threats in d.c., martin luther king. host: what is your favorite national park? caller: i have to say my very favorite national park is mesa verde. host: teresa in florida. bob in old fort, tennessee. caller: i like how republicans are here in tennessee. i would like to say jim jordan or ted cruz as speaker of the house. i would like to see the guy from -- kennedy from louisiana run committees on the democrats, finding out what they did and what they know and how they know it and like what they are doing to us. get rid of them people. lock them up because they are

corrupt. we are taking right along here in tennessee with the corona. if you wear a mask, where one. if you don't, you don't. for these people to try to lock down, to me the democrats are just trying to make us do what they want us to do instead of what the people around them want to do. host: this is tina in the keystone state. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: i would have to say i'm a little dissatisfied. i have changed to independent. host: we want to talk to current republicans. trying to be fair to the conversation we had earlier in the program where we talked to current democrats only.

dwight and wilson, north carolina. caller: good morning. how are you? host: go ahead. are you satisfied with the direction of the republican party? caller: i have to say i'm not. i am very disappointed in the republican party right now. i voted for trump. i was a democrat at the time and voted for trump the first time. he started out on a row, and then with allies and all the tweeting -- with the lies and all the tweeting. marjorie taylor greene and jordan and cruz are a joke. host: are you still voting republican? caller: i am but we have to do better. we have to get younger people to run the country. get rid of these old kooks that i just played out and don't know what they're doing anymore. host: joel in churchville, new

york. caller: how are you today? i am satisfied with the republican party. i love the fact that republicans are now the party of the working class and we are becoming the party of hispanics. i absolutely love it. they are also close on other issues. they are starting to understand what a big deal the censorship is and hopefully they will address it. i wish they would come up with their own voting proposal that says we have to clean the voter rolls. we have to have national voter id. we have to stop with the mail-in votes like we had the last election. they have to offer an alternative or else the media will just bash the republicans

every day. they have to fight back a little harder but i like the overall direction they are going. host: what do you want republicans to do on the censorship issue? caller: i want them to regulate big tech like a public utility. force them to publish opposing viewpoints. they should not be allowed -- they need to be neutral. they promised to be neutral platform and then they censor opinions they don't agree with or find objectionable. that should not be allowed in america. host: the empire state to the wolverine state, this is david. are you satisfied with the direction of your party? caller: the republican party is despicable. what they have done is unbelievable. donald trump is a grifter, a liar. and the fox network has driven a wedge into the heart of america.

it was rupert murdoch. host: what makes you a republican? caller: i am not a republican. host: jim in st. peter's, missouri. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. overall i am satisfied with the republican party. i would like to throw this out. i am not so sure that in 20 for the republicans should actually run donald trump for president. i am a total trumper but i think the media would destroy him. cnn and, cbc, they would just destroy him. i would like to see -- this would be a great ticket to have. ron desantis run for president with kevin scott as his vice president. once they get in, appoint donald trump as secretary of state.

let him go as a businessman and deal with the other countries around the world like a business. i think if they would do that, they would definitely ensure winning in 2024. host: do you think donald trump would want to serve under a president desantis as a former president? caller: i'm not sure. i would not see why not. he would be helping out the american people and helping out america with the global issues around the world. i think that would just be absolutely fantastic. host: before you go, you are a total trumper. can someone be an anti-trumper and still be republican? caller: i think so.

to a certain extent. i think you have to be careful when you're talking about being a republican, especially when you look at republicans like liz cheney and adam kinzinger and mitt romney. lisa murkowski. even though they say they are republicans, they are rhinos. it depends upon who you are talking about. host: this is joe in florida. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. john in ohio brought up a great point. i am dissatisfied with the republicans. first, republicans have to admit the democrats outsmarted us in

-- host: just turn down your television, joe. how do you think democrats outsmarted republicans? caller: i do believe the democrats outsmarted the republicans in the last election. we have to do like what colin powell said it his -- i can't hear you. host: you just have to keep talking through your phone and turned down your television. it makes it easier for everybody. john and the gem state. caller: good morning, sir. are you satisfied with the direction of the party? caller: i am satisfied with the republican party. i feel that both parties need to come together and if we don't use common sense as united

people that our country is finished. host: what is an issue the parties can come together around? caller: one nation under god first. host: our last caller -- we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific the house comes in at noon today. the senate comes in at noon today. you can watch on the c-span networks. have a great tuesday. ♪ [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. 2022] ♪

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