school. they will talk about the upcoming advanced talk about the upcoming advanced placement u.s. government exam. join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. washington journal starts now. host: good morning. it is saturday, april 30, 2022. the economy contracted for the first time since 2020. the gdp adjusted for inflation fell 0.4% in the first quarter according to the commerce department. the you is expected to announce an embargo on russian oil next week phased in over some months. we are asking you what is your top concern about the economy? give us a call. the numbers are republicans

(202) 748-8001. , kratz (202) 748-8000 -- democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. give us your first name and city, state. we are on social media, facebook.com/c-span, send us a tweet at c-span w j -- tweet @cspanwj. we are asking you about your top concern about the economy. is it inflation? is a gas prices? give us a call. i am going to show you a couple articles, and we will hear from congressional leaders and the president later. the first is the inflation -- the gallup headline says inflation concerns feeling low economic confidence in the u.s.

it says american's confidence in the economy remains low and economic issues as the most important problem in the u.s. are at their highest point since 2016. inflation, which registered as the top economic problem last month and continues to be was previously at this level in 1984. you can take a look at the numbers here. sorry, this graph shows you how the trends of percentages of americans mentioning economic issues as the most important problem, this is from 2001 over here. you can see it on the rise. this was the great recession in 2008. breaking that down, the question they asked was what do you think

the most important problem facing the country today is? in march 2022, economic problems are at 35%. you can see that at the top of the list, high cost of living, inflation, then the economy in general, then fuel prices. wondering what you think. i want to show you what the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell said about inflation. [video clip] >> runaway inflation is crushing working american families on democrats' watch. the share of americans who say the economy is our most important problem has not been this high since the last time democrats control the white house. this morning, we got a devastating quarterly gdp report. the economy shrank 1.4% over the

last three months. no longer are democrats just presiding over a disappointing recovery, now they have thrown the recovery into reverse. we are going backwards. we have not seen inflation this bad in more than 40 years, month after month skyrocketing prices, exactly what everyone knew would happen if democrats dumped $2 trillion in printed money on an economy that was already ready for a comeback. democrats ran through the far left spending so working americans are paying dearly. host: that was mitch mcconnell on thursday. also on thursday, senate majority leader chuck schumer talking about democrats efforts to address the issue of high gas prices. [video clip] >> democrats are focused on

developing and passing legislation to lower costs and improve americans daily lives. it is our top priority. higher gas prices is the place where americans feel it the most. we are pushing for legislation to lower the cost of putting food on the table, keep insulin affordable, increase competition through antitrust enforcement, all areas where congress can take action to help the american people reduce prices. passing legislation to control higher gas prices at the pump is at the top of our list. the american people did not send us here to point fingers, what our colleagues on the others of the aisle do. they want us to get something done. we are outlining some of the ways democrats coming together

can address the pain families are feeling at the pump. americans know russia's unprovoked, bitter invasion of ukraine has contributed to higher prices at the pump. they know covid related supply issues have caused shortages at a time when demand has skyrocketed. this has put consumers over the barrel and made them vulnerable to market manipulation. big oil companies are using these issues, price gouging, market manipulation, to cash in. as i have mentioned before and as nancy has said, oil companies last year made record profits on these tragedies, almost like vultures. we have the ukraine tragedy, the covid tragedy. do they try to make things better?

no. what are they doing with profits? this is what outrages me. stock buybacks that do not improve a thing, that do not do anything positive. host: that was senator chuck schumer. let's hear from you. tommy is first on the republican line from new york, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. the thing that concerns me the most is this push for socialism we had since the democrats took over. this country is based on free-trade, always was, always will be from the beginning of time. whenever the democrats do socialism, always causes inflation, and the democrats always blame someone. they are blaming russian war. inflation was high before this war happened.

they wanted to close the pipelines, put millions of people out of work, and make the prices go high. that is simple, this push to socialism. we are based on free-trade no matter what race, creed, color. host: what do you suggest? caller: open the pipelines. they stopped the keystone pipeline. that was the first thing they did. host: is it the gas prices that are concerning you most? caller: personally, yes, gas. i understand with the pandemic we had a lot of trouble getting products. a lot of products were stuck out at sea. that is over with now. stop blaming everything on everyone else. host: tommy, thank you. let's go to larry in ohio on the democrats line. caller: hello.

you cannot say the democrats are the only party that care about democracy in this country. it is sad to see. nothing against them personally, but they do not want to give up their jobs for this country, people giving up limbs and die for this country, they don't want to give up their jobs. host: is it jobs that is concerning you? what is your top concern about the economy? caller: there is going to be jobs out there. we have got to help ukraine. we have got to get our democracy in order before anybody else's. democrats are the ones that can help us. host: let's go to mike in california on the independent line. caller: good morning.

host: good morning. caller: i would like to call the viewer's attention to the presidency of dwight eisenhower, who i believe was the most prescient man to be president in my lifetime. to look at his speech about the military-industrial complex, incidentally, before he became president, he led a 2 million man army to end world war ii. anyway, the military-industrial complex is what he warned us about. most americans would be surprised to learn the u.s. spends more than three times the second place, china, in military. the function of that is to police the world, unaware that

people from other countries do not appreciate us. we are the foreign country in their view policing them. host: is defense spending your highest priority, highest concern about the economy? caller: yes, except the term defense spending is misleading because we are policing people from other countries. host: i am just curious, are you against sending aid to ukraine right now? caller: yes. what we ought to do is allow other countries to support them, those who have a much more direct interest, their neighbors and so on. i don't think the military is an

issue. at best, it is a misplacement of the funds. the u.s. is spending far more money abroad on other issues that have nothing to do with the defense of the u.s.a.. host: let's talk to ben in state college, pennsylvania, on the republican line. caller: good morning. my number one concern with the economy is 100% inflation. i am only 26 years old. i have only been paying attention to politics in the last 14 years. in that short amount of time, i have seen two democratic presidents continue to blame the republican predecessors for the economy. i understand barack obama had his hands full with trying to save the economy during the 2008 financial crisis, but it continues for eight years blaming his republican

predecessor or the republican congress. i feel like the biden administration is continuing to blame the previous administration for the economic woes we are facing. i don't think it is fair. i agree with the first caller this morning. it is always the blame game. you can never remember a specific event or problem that the democrats have taken responsibility for. they think we are not paying attention, we are not smart enough to realize the games they are playing. i try to be middle-of-the-road. this is out of control. they need to take responsibility. host: ben's top concern is inflation. here is abc news headline, key inflation gauge jumped 6.6% in march, the most since 1982. the inflation gauge closely

tracked by the federal reserve surged 6.6% compared to a year ago. the highest 12 month jump in four decades and further evidence that -- let's go to decatur, georgia, on the independents line. is it gar? caller: yes. i like to say it student debt is the housing bubble or stock market bubble of today. that is the biggest problem in our economy. you have 41 million americans, ok. people who remember history, hitler, nazi germany was forgiving its debt. look at germany today. it is one of the top economies in the world. the only thing republicans and democrats agree on is military spending.

they fight on everything but that. if joe biden asked for increased military spinning, they gave him more then he asked for. they can forgive american students. host: let's go to michael in clearwater, florida, on the republican line. hi, michael. michael? caller: this is robert from clearwater. host: robert, ok. i will talk to you, robert. as long as you are in clearwater, you are good. caller: they are spending a lot of money. why do they have troops over there when putin -- give up -- they should go over there -- germany, stick together and start bombing the hell out of them. it is the only way we are going

to win this war, not just giving them money when they are outnumbered. host: what do you think is the top concern? what is your top concern for the economy? caller: we are going to go down to nothing. we are going to be in 1929 the way things are going. host: the president spoke yesterday about that unexpected drop in the u.s. gdp in the first quarter. [video clip] >> how concerned are you about a recession given a contraction of one .4% today? >> i am not concerned about a recession. you are always concerned about recession, but the gdp fell 1.4%. here is the deal, last quarter, consumer spending, business investment, residential investment increased at

considerable rates, both for leisure and products. unemployment is at the lowest rate since 1970. 4.5 million businesses were created last year. we are in a situation where we have a very different view than senator scott, a republican, who wants to raise taxes on middle-class families and include half of small business owners in that. i thought what you are seeing is enormous growth in the country that was affected by everything from covid and the covid blockages along the way. you always have to take a look. no one is predicting a recession now. some are predicting may a recession in 2023. i am concerned about it, but i know that if our republican

friends are really interested in doing something about dealing with economic growth, they should help us continue to lower the deficit, which we have done last year over $350 billion. they should work with us to have a tax code that is one that works, and everybody pays their fair share. they should be in a position where they should not be raising taxes on middle-class folks. they should be raising taxes on people who are not paying their fair share. host: that is the president talking about that unexpected drop in gdp. we are asking about your top concern about the economy. let's going to brian from west virginia. what is your top concern? caller: good morning. to me the big elephant in the room is the national debt. we are over $30 trillion in debt. it is climbing.

congress is on a spending spree. both parties are responsible. it is out of control. they will not stop the spending. the only solution to the economic crash that is coming our way is for congress to rein in spending. they will not do that because that will lose votes. a crash is only a matter of time. host: let's talk to tom in illinois on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: just wanted to say that when you look to the economy, the fact that gdp dropped abruptly is concerning. if we have one more quarter in a row, then we are going to have a recession, a reflection on the administration and the president. when you look around the country

and look at states, specifically the states that stayed open, like florida. florida is a model of economic growth, 8.7% wage growth, 2.2% unemployment. the president said our unemployment rate is low. we are still about 1.5 million jobs short of where we were pre-pandemic. president trump's presidency, you had about 3.3% on employment and incredible growth and a strong economy until the pandemic came along. that disrupted everything. it has taken time to get back to this place we are in now. it seems to me the president is out of touch with the reality. when you look at the states that stayed open and kept their

economies thriving, they are booming across the country. you look at the blue states that relied on the bailouts. you are citing some of the statistics on inflation. we are looking at 40 year highs on inflation. the fed says it is going to raise rates nine times. i think if the fed raises rates five times, that is a lot. you have the interest rates get on top of the inflation to push down, to create the subsidization of inflation and zero it out. host: let's take a look at a couple tweets that have come in. the first one is steve1947, he says the rising prices of food

and fuel. he said thank god i chose not to retire. this one from lynn, prices are high, but it is not stopping people from going on vacations. the stores are packed. the hotels are packed. that is from lynn in massachusetts. let's go to tom in illinois on the republican line. did i? caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: i was just saying like earlier, the inflation rate, the only way to counter the inflation rate is by giving higher interest rates. that is going to create more distress. host: got it. i punched the wrong number. sorry. thank you for calling. i got your point. pat is next in kenosha,

wisconsin. independent line. caller: in regards to the inflation rate, has anyone looked at lifting the tariffs to battle inflation? the fed is going to be raising the rates took control out-of-control inflation. what if maybe somebody on capitol hill could take a look at what would be the effect of lifting these tariffs? host: tariffs on what? caller: imports from china, whatever tariffs, the 25% tariffs our stable business genius president before biden put in. host: here is abc news, i read you a little bit before.

it said there are signs in friday's report from the commerce department inflation might be slowing and perhaps nearing a peak for now. let's go to randal in oklahoma city, oklahoma, on the republican line. caller: hello. my thoughts are illegal immigrants. when i was in the military, i am a disabled veteran, and when i was in the military, we had so many immigrants come into the military. if they want citizenship, let them serve in the military to earn it. host: you are saying undocumented immigrants are your top concern for the economy? caller: it is a lot of it. host: let's hear from jackie in appleton, wisconsin, on the republican line. caller: good morning.

i am going to go along with a caller that said it was government spending. i am middle-aged. i grew up with a million dollars. now the government throws around billions and trillions. it seems to be nothing. it is like having an unlimited credit card. host: what specifically you feel like the government is spending too much money on? caller: last few weeks biden was so happy, touting he spent $800 million worth of supplies to ukraine. i agree with sending some stuff to ukraine. this week is $33 billion. it is like they are throwing random numbers out there, and they keep getting bigger and bigger. we have loans.

we pay them off. maybe lower the interest rates so we are not paying 7%. the government is just throwing money around. we don't have it. we are $30 trillion in debt. they don't understand that. host: take a look at this. another caller talked about the national debt. this is the debt clock. we will pull it up on the screen for you, the national debt, a couple of other pretty big numbers there. energy secretary testified thursday. she was asked why the biden administration is not doing more to unleash american energy. [video clip] >> why are you pushing policies that are making life miserable for people? you have the power to unleash american energy. you have that american lithuanian flag -- i mean

ukrainian, sorry. i have been in contact with people on the ground and the government over there. i spoke to you directly about them asking that you unleash what is probably right now the most powerful weapon in the arsenal of democracy, american energy. >> totally agree with your concern about the price of gas. i think you are right to focus on that. it is hurting people. the administration is concerned. administrations across the world are concerned. the price of oil is traded on a global market. >> i know a lot -- >> russia's actions have taken oil off the market. >> no. >> yes, sir. countries like the u.s. have rightfully said we will not

finance this war. canada said we will not finance this war. >> members of your party held a hearing last october, called the ceo of exxon a liar and demanded they reduce production. we had a hearing a couple of weeks ago and this committee accused them of reducing production so they can increase prices. you cannot have it both ways. i worked in engineering. i have a pretty good understanding of how this works and what it costs to get oil out of the ground and sell it to the public. what this administration is doing is not the things they need to do to open these resources, which would bring down the prices of energy, but would help defeat russia and ukraine. >> with respect, those talking points are not accurate. we have done everything we can to encourage the oil and gas community to increase supply at this moment.

we have issued more permits under this administration. >> demanded they reduce reduction last october. >> this administration is concerned about supply because of the war. the war has caused prices to escalate by pulling oil off the market. i understand that is not what you want to believe. if you ask any oil executive. >> i yield back. host: that was secretary granholm talking about energy races. let's talk to ian. caller: my biggest concern is it is at -- as if no one is following history. people are more worried about the european union, nato, i'm hearing billions of dollars going over there constantly.

nothing is ever aimed at the united states. these are 27 countries in the european union that never got along yet we are funding 50 states that have got along for years. what is the obsession with europe, russia, ukraine, especially, and we have problems here. it is like we are here just to pay for everything. host: coming up at 9:00 a.m. eastern on the "washington journal," we will be joined by two teachers to discuss the upcoming advanced placement government exam and what students can expect on the test. we will take calls from high

school students only on that segment. tonight is the white house correspondents association dinner at c-span is the best place to watch that. you can watch it live, you can watch it on demand and are free video app, c-span now or go to spew send -- go to c-span.org. you can watch the red carpet arrivals. the president is expected to be there and take a look at the video library and you can see past white house dinners at that time. let's talk next to david in texas on the republican line. caller: good morning. you read a couple of lines from an abc article talking about how they were hopeful and that there might be numbers that inflation

might have slowed down and reached a peak. that is crab. they have been talking -- that is crap. they have been talking about this for a year. look at what the stock market is doing. there is a curve to raise rates to get on top of inflation. they top about the negative 1.4% gdp is the lowest since 2020. that is not true. 2020 was not a monetary recession. it was right down by disease and shutting down the country. the last monetary recession we had was 2008 and 2009 with the housing bubble and banking crisis. the last was 2001 which happened after 9/11. host: what brought on this

inflation and the issues with the economy? caller: the economy is slowing down and has been slowing down since trump left. with trump we had real growth. the unemployment rate is the lowest participation rate since 1970. if you take millions of people out of the job force, the rate will be low. but we are up -- at about $2 million below where we were going into the pandemic. you can make percentages out of all kinds of things when you don't use numbers that compare to other numbers. the cpi has been changed drastically since the inflation rate they compared to back in 1978 and 1979, or 1981 and 82 when volker came in.

the interest rates, starting in 1981, it was 14 months. i was just looking at this the other day. 14 months we had a fed rate of 16%. they thought they got on top of it at 19%. and then they had to raise it again. it is the only way to do on the inflation gets so high. that is why they are so concerned about inflation getting out of control. by build back better program, everything it will do was increased inflation. host: let's talk to peter it next in west palm beach florida. caller: good morning. i am 91 years old and have been around this economy for a long time. in 1970, we had an arab boycott of oil. the poise -- price of oil came

up to four dollars a gallon and it is the same situation now appeared we have a shortage because of the war and the price went up. we could produce more. they are worried about the oil line coming from canada, we shifted to the rail lines. the oil companies want to keep the prices high. there is no shortage right now. i can go to any gas station and get gas. there is no story that we have no gas because the gas is high. we have all the gas we want but they are only producing so much and keeping the price high. they are making more than they were when they were producing it at two dollars a gallon. why should they cut the domestic

product? they are keeping product where they want. the oil companies control oil prices, not the president of the united states or the oil companies are the ones to blame. host: it seems that democratic leaders believe -- agree with you. one source from the hill says they are forcing -- focusing on oil companies price gouging in both chambers took aim at the largest oil companies accusing the industry of adopting price gouging tactics that have led directly to the spike in gas races around the country. since oil copies are reporting enormous profits, they could easily afford to pass the gains on to consumers instead of shareholders, particularly amid russia's invasion of ukraine which is only exacerbating the volatility of global fuel markets. i wonder if you agree with that.

let's talk to nick in great barrington, massachusetts on the independent line. what is your top concern? nick, are you there? let's talk to dottie in georgia on the republican line. caller: yes, the economy is terrible. i have lots of animals and i buy canned cat food. it was five dollars for a box of 12 a year and a half to go. yesterday it was $8.40 per this is ridiculous. these democrats and liberals who are blaming the republicans and president trump either have no sense or are outright lying. this is brought on by their spending. they need to go back to school. they know nothing about running

an economy. host: mary grace is in green cove springs, florida on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i am going to answer your question incident having commentary with tribal communication. the top concern is for me, is housing. it has gone up so much. i feel really bad for with families, because it is just me and my family -- husband and we are ok. i feel that for people with families, elderly people, their rents are going up exponentially . i also want to point out that the bill at our dear president biden, also includes not only

funding for ukraine, but funding for the military, funding for assistance, for covid, funding for student loan debt, so people don't understand this all comes in with the package. it is easy for people to criticize and they don't look at the details. they just hear sound bites and it is unfortunate that americans are not critically thinking the way they should. and i president, joe biden, is doing a phenomenal job. i don't care about those pools because they are not true. you can contrive the statistics. host: let's take a text coming in from pennsylvania. she says, does the economy for

anybody making less than 50,000 is going to get more difficult. they can't overwhelm the workforce with cheap labor and not expect a downward spiral in wages. the congress needs to be disbanded here they work against the citizens. walt is next on the democrat line from georgia. caller: i find it amazing. i list to this -- i listen to this 25-year-old color saying the democrats complain every time they get in charge. how did we come up with the revisionary history. when barack obama took over, we had a housing crisis, a financial crisis, and had no republican help. when biden took over, we had a pandemic that was destroying

america. we had 22 million jobs lost here and we had an economy that was completely still, nothing moving, and no help from the republican party. and this guy, 26 years old, is that for. host: let's talk to tiny in brookshire, texas, on the republican line. hello. caller: the economy is a mess because of the democratic party. the president killed the pipeline and opened the pipeline in russia. everyone is saying he is doing a good job. he is not mentally stable to do anything. it's not the gas people's health

because of the prices. he stopped all of the drilling on government land. that is why. host: so is your top concern the gas prices? caller: everything, food, gas, housing, all of it. it is on the democrats' back, because it is something they are doing on purpose, just like the border. it is open on purpose. you are giving all of these illegals more permit to work here, but yet the citizens don't have a job because they have given it all to illegal immigrants. bussing them everywhere, no, it is not the republicans' fault. it is on the democratic party. they are the one who are trying to destroy america.

they are working out of china, russia, and iran's playbooks on the united states people. host: cnn has an article saying that today is a disastrous day for democrats 2022 chances. the article says the news that the u.s. unexpectedly shrank over the economy -- quarter of the year and it is an absolute body blow to the democrats' growing economic concerns ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. let's talk to john in a euclid, ohio, on the republican line. caller: good morning. anybody who thinks that joe biden is doing a good time -- job is delusional. while russia is destroying ukraine, joe biden is destroying america.

i hear a lot of things about this casting people forget that in the beginning when he took office, the very first thing he did was he shut down our independent energy system. he shut down the oil on the keystone pipeline. he signed executive orders to stop production. that is what caused the inflation. it started there. the war was just another thing that added to it. if you would have left that alone, never touched our energy independence, we would be in good shape today. we would not have this problem. and furthermore, we had enough oil that we could take care of the rest of the countries that are having a problem so we wouldn't have to deal with russia. that is all i got to say. host: foxbusiness has an article

about gas prices, and especially about the cost of gas this summer. it says that the national average price for a gallon of regular gas is $4.14 and it is expected to creep up in the coming months as consumers head off on summer vacations. let's talk next to brian in grand rapids, michigan, on the democrats line. caller: thanks for taking my call. it like a beautiful saturday morning in our nation of hospice capital city. host: what is your top concern for the economy? caller: i read somewhere where 40% of taxpayer money goes to military law enforcement? is this true? host: for defense spending?

or for defense spending and police? caller: yeah, for police and military. host: is that your top concern in the area? caller: i think it is kind of silly. that is the system of a sick society. host: let's talk next to doug in kentucky on the independent s'line. -- independents' line. caller: we have three stories in kentucky. host: doug, i think we have lost you. that's top to joe on dayton -- in dayton, ohio.

caller: you are doing an excellent job. host: i am trying. caller: let me give you some facts. joe biden is a disaster to this country, period. we are in big, big trouble. inflation on january 1, 2021 was 1.8%. is now at 8.1%. joe biden and nancy pelosi and schumer have lied to the american public. they have never created 7.5% or 7 million new jobs. people went back to work because the free money is gone, taxpayer money, by the way we are in big trouble. what am i worried about? gas prices, food prices, illegal immigrants coming across the border and we are giving them cell phones and free medical care.

i am worried about the $50 billion going to ukraine that no one wants to hear but russia is winning. when you see people being slaughtered and buildings being destroyed and towns devastated, ukraine is not winning. however you want to paint it or however the media wants to paint it, that's get the true facts out there, we keep giving them money, money, and weapons. host: another issue is the stock market is actually going down. the wall street journal is reporting the nasdaq has had the worst month is 2008, and you can see here a graph could this red one is the nasdaq down from april 1 13.3%, the doll before .9, and the s&p 8.9%. the nasdaq is a tech heavy stocks and it says nasdaq

dropped 4.2% friday, bringing its losses to more than 13%, its worst showing since tober 2008 the index is down 21% -- since october 2008, the index is down 21%, the worst start to a year on record. let's talk to john in florida on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i agree with the two previous callers from ohio and texas. and furthermore, the democratic party and joe biden in the white house with all of his taxing and spending is going to tax this country right into a great depression, and it is going to be worse than the one in the 1930's. host: let's talk to charles next in alexandria, virginia, on the independents'line.

-- independents' line. caller: one my fellow citizens talk about what they don't like. donald trump, i don't want to make it about donald trump, but you talk about what you don't like this man lies, lies, and lies into still lying. in all of the republican party, everybody wants to just deny that this is a liar. host: what about your top concern about the economy? caller: the economy, how much worse is it now than it was under trump? i would say it is not. jobs are being made available, people can't work. this man came into office giving people assistance. the republican party has done

absolutely nothing but disrupt and lie or that is what i don't understand. this country is not going down because of a biden but because political believed in ally. god does not believe in lies. host: speaker nancy pelosi was asked about the impact of the economy and economic issues and what that will have on the 2022 midterm elections. >> a lot of american people are dealing with the economy and we just got the they test numbers, will this have any effect on the 2022 elections come november? speaker pelosi: there are plenty of other statistics and analysis that have said this is an aberration and other statistics that show that we have growth in our near future. what we are worried about is what it means at the kitchen

table, not to the elections put the kitchen tables. this is a president that has under his leadership eight and who you jobs in one year -- 8 million jobs in one year. that is public, rather, nonprofit, individual initiatives. public policy on the part of democrats and the congress as well as the president, 8 million jobs, cutting unemployment in half, raising wages, and when that happens, inflation goes up when you have unemployment going down. you have supply chain issues, costs go up. host: that was the speaker nancy pelosi. now i want to hear from glenn calling us from new haven, connecticut, on the democrats

line what do you think? caller: -- line. what d think? -- what do you think? caller: i think it goes back a long time. the economy is struggling because a lot of funds are being directed towards corporations and very top earners. if you look at the economics of offering more in social services , making things easier for families and workers, you will get more of that money back into the economy. when you talk about growth, if you want to see growth, you need to invest in workers and families and i don't see either worker -- party doing much about that. i hear a lot of talk but i don't see a lot of action, so i would like to see more. we just need people to work together and make it happen.

host: let's talk next to lonnie in west one, iowa, on our republican -- west des moines, iowa, on our republican line. caller: my top concern about the economy is fuel prices. i am a traveling salesman and i work in north dakota. my fuel used to be 30 bucks for a tank of gas and now it is 60. these truckers when they fuel up, they are filling up from $500 up to a thousand dollars. i learned a long time ago it is about freight and when you start delivering those costs into delivering the product, it will just go into the product and that is what is happening in the war on fuel started when biden got elected there wish we could become energy independent -- elected. i wish we could become energy

independent again. host: let's talk to aubrey. caller: my primary concern is the fact that the american people have no understanding, and with all of the resources, we have no understanding of how the economy and politics work. the trump administration inherited a growing economy from the obama administration. nothing the republicans and trump did it change the growth during an entire administration except when donald trump allowed coronavirus to develop your and the united states. that was the collapse of the economy. some people called about the partition pay -- participation

rate. according to the bureau of labor and statistics the participation rate collapsed during the last recession in 2006, 2007. it did recover a little during the trump administration. and that is based on statistics. all of that -- the other part of what i call the fox news target points. what we are living with in terms of the recession is the fact that the trump administration did nothing to protect the supply chains from the coronavirus epidemic and recession. now what joe biden and his

american rescue plan dated was vaccinated americans, if the economy back on its feet because people could go back to the workplaces. a good bit of oil problem is the fact that the oil companies are exporting over 35% of domestic production. host: i want to get as many callers in as possible. brett is in seminole, florida. caller: good morning. i have been watching the show and i don't think a lot of people realize what is happening with the economy. every time the economy looked like it was going to take a nosedive of the stock market decided to take a nosedive, whoever was in charge of the fed, mr. powell, decides to lower interest rates. lower interest rates and print more money. when you do that, top market goes up and he has been

protecting the crumbleys for years and years. now the american people -- protecting the cronies for years and years. now the american people are finding out and is going to get worse. the american people deserve what they get they keep reelecting the same guys decade after decade. they are in congress for 30 or 40 and 50 or 60 years if they could last that long. the american people should look at electing other people. host: mike is next from fairbanks, alaska, on the independents' line. caller: good morning from what is left of america. printing and borrowing trillions is causing gold to increase in value tremendously. it seems like when the democrats

occupied washington, i make more money. when obama got in and the so-called stimulus last -- past, gold went up. since joe got in, it is up $300. i hope they keep spending and borrowing, because it is good for me. host: we are ending on a positive note for mike. that is it for our first segment, but next, the new york times shira ovide discusses elon musk's plans to buy twitter, what it means for the company and larger issues of free speech and content moderation online. and later, it is time to cram for the exam. teachers will join us to discuss the upcoming advanced placement u.s. government exam and what students can expect on that test . we

next week on the c-span network. the house is not in session but the senate's meeting. they are expected to vote on nominees. transportation secretary pete putin just testifies before the committees about budget request. homeland security alejandra mayorkas will appear between the homeland security community -- committee. watch next week on the c-span network or c-span now. also head over to c-span.org where you can stream video. c-span your unfiltered view of government.

c-span has unfiltered coverage of ukraine. bringing you the latest from the president, the pentagon and the state department as well as congress. we also have international perspectives and statements from foreign leaders. our web resource page where you can watch the latest news on demand. go to c-span.org/ukraine. live sunday on in-depth. foxbusiness host larry kudlow will be our guest to talk about wall street, the economy and taxes. he served as the national economic council under president trump and authored several books

, and most recently "jfk a secret history of american prosperity." . the archivist of the united states, he is retiring after 13 years in office. he oversees the national archives as well as the 15 presidential libraries. on q&a he talks about his accomplishments, challenges at the archives and the work that remains for his successor. >> physical security has always been a problem and the theft of records, those kind of security things have continued to be on

my radar screen. bigger than that, is cybersecurity and the threat to electronic information and ensuring that what we have is protected and cannot be deleted or altered, is backed up. those are the kind of issues that we are worried about. sunday night at 8:00 eastern. you can listen to q&a on all of our podcast and on our c-span now app. c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. from the halls of congress to daily press brief rents -- briefings. scan the qr code and stay up-to-date on everything in washington each day. subscribe today using the qr code or visit c-span.org to

connect anytime. c-span.org shira ovide joins me. she is the columnist for the on tech news later. host: you wrote an article for the new york times, the headline is "why everybody wants to buy twitter." what is the answer to that? caller: it is a can vamping property. it is enormously influential among politicians, among the news media, among corporations. on the other hand, twitter has been an under performer in every possible way. its user base is 1/10 of the users of facebook.

twitter has relatively small revenues, it is smaller than the revenues of bed, bath and beyond. it has struggled its career with questions about the balance of expressions and creating a place where people feel like they can have a say and feel free. host: we will take call from viewers. republicans can call (202) 748-8001, democrats can call (202) 748-8000 and independents (202) 748-8002 can call. what is the timeline for the sale? guest: in theory, three to six months where the lawyers cross all the teas and after those

months, elon musk will be the owner. host: what is the immediate impact he will have on twitter? guest: i will have to be honest in saying that no one really knows. i know that we will talk about it this morning. the reality is that he has said relatively little about how he may change twitter. he has given some brought ideas. what he has said is that he wants there to be room for people to say whatever they want on twitter within the balance of the law. he has talked about things like doing more to stamp out automated accounts that furiously tweet hard-core things that people like profanity.

you will auto -- get these automated replies. he has talked about that. he has talked about open sourcing twitter's algorithm which is what they use to organize the tweets that you see. those are the kinds of things that he has talked about in broad strokes. but again, how that vision meets reality is going to be hard to know. host: let's talk about what he has said about free speech and he of course tweeted about this. let's take a look at is tweet from elon musk it says "by free speech i say that which matches the law. i go against censorship. if they want less free speech they will ask government to make laws to that effect.

going against free speech is contrary to the will of the people." what if free speech contains misinformation, disinformation, where do we think he is going to land on that? guest: we don't really know, he has not yet confronted those questions. everybody thinks free speech is an important concept. the question that anybody can say anything as long it is legal. what do you do about things like profanity and pornography. those are the legal but many social media properties including twitter, trumps social network, they don't allow it. they severely restrict profanity

and prone auger fee. --pornography. most users, they are outside of the united states. what if a government in turkey, these tweets from people who disagree with the government, they are illegal under turkish law but people who believe in freedom of expression, that government is trying to use the law to suppress speech. what does twitter do in those kind of circumstances? that happens every day. just recently and the last day or so there was a columnist from a chinese property that complained it was being censored on twitter.

but twitter says it was state owned media. this person believes that it is a suppression of their rights. it is a complicated question that are not answered that as long it is legal it is insured. has elon musk said anything about lifting the ban on president trump? guest: he has not said that publicly. he would probably be willing or eager to let trump have his account back. many of the people that i have talked to that are not free

speech absolutist, but believe in the free balance of expression, they also believe that social media companies made a mistake by removing president trump permanently after january 6. if elon musk allows trump to have his account back, the people will be supportive of that move as well. host: one last tweet from elon musk, "twitter must be neutral, upsetting the far right and far left equally." we want to know what you think. anthony is up first from new

york on the democrats line. caller: thank you for the opportunity. i have made this request to c-span in the past. there has been a whistle blower named michael klein in 2002. the lawsuit has been in court for several years and then barack obama was to grant immunity to the telecom sector for cooperating with surveillance. it is unconstitutional. they used arbitrary state secrets rights. host: what does this have to do with twitter? caller: twitter has aligned itself with the government to undermine the constitution.

the constitution trumps all of what they are doing now. it is unconstitutional and illegal. edward snowden has been guest on c-span. host: let's get a response. guest: his general question about the relationship between free speech and the government, the reality is there are a handful of american tech companies that have a norman sway over these powerful tools -- enormous sway over these powerful tools. the people that make these decisions in these companies are not accountable to the public. i think those are understandable questions about the constitution and the bill of rights as a restraint on government power. it does not say much about the

power of corporations. there are open questions about what do we do when we are in an environment where big companies have this kind of power that may be akin to government power but not the accountability of government. host: let's talk to troy from georgia on the independent line. caller: i noticed when trump was running for election, and this is what reminded me of elon musk. how twitter has come under the microscopic. he was able to tweet and drown out conventional media.

i think he had 22 million followers and i don't believe any cable venue at that time had that kind of a following. in my mind that put twitter on the radar. and i want to know what you think about that? caller: it is true, trump made twitter -- put much more attention on twitter than it had before. he is not the only reason that twitter is an influential means of communication. the same way that twitter used -- trump has used twitter to bypass media.

in the arab spring protest, people organized against what they saw authoritarian governments they used twitter and facebook and used social media in ways that they could not do in a previous era. it gives people a way to have a voice without getting permission. it is also true that trump put much more of a spotlight on twitter and gave it more relevance in a way that twitter did not like because it brought all these questions about whether twitter is responsible for the things that he says. host: let's talk to mike from pennsylvania next. caller: my issue isn't just with

twitter it is with social media and general. ever since this more liberal leaning government system took office, there has been more censorship on all social media. twitter, facebook, you name it. host: what do you think? guest: i have not seen credible research on this. it is true that there has been an evolution over the past 10 years, over the past five years, a rethinking about what had been a free speech absolutist position. those principles are valuable. as these companies grew more

influential, as they went global, they were confronted with these challenges. what does it mean when people use speech to suppress other speech or to do harm. an example, myanmar used facebook messages to denigrate the minority in that country and those sorts of actions, that use of facebook to propagate genocide against the muslim population in that country. these companies on their own have made these decisions to put more rules around what people can say to ensure they are not

drowned out by spam or chinese state propaganda and also to counteract some real-world harms where speech is used as a tool to suppress other speech. host: press secretary jen psaki was asked about the sale. "the president has long been concerned about large social media platforms. the power they have over every day lives. the platform needs to be held accountable for the harm they cause. there needs to be fundamental reforms, antitrust reforms for more transparency and there is bipartisan support in congress." what do you think, where our

lawmakers on this? agree, disagree, supportive? guest: it is all over the map. the interesting thing i hear from that statement, everybody including people who run social media companies agree they have too much power. where the disagreement lies is what to do about it. it is a very challenging question. on the question of politicians in washington's have reacted to this deal. conservative politicians, republicans who want elon musk and want less moderation on twitter and believe musk will

issue in this new twitter where there will be less moderation. there are other people who are worried about big tech companies having a lot of power. i don't think elon musk changes that. it is just swapping one billionaire owner for another powerful management team at twitter. host: let's talk to susan from virginia on the democrats line. caller: could you speak to the subtle issues aside from the free-speech issue, marjorie taylor greene and the problem

she had. a lot of people depend on twitter for all of their news. their worry is more than elon musk. it is the population of people that believe outright falsehoods. can you talk about that a little bit? guest: i didn't hear the entirety of the question but i got the gist. this is a challenge not only for social media companies but for the world where what do you do in an age where everything, including truths is doubted. i think this is a challenging

time for the united states and people in other countries where there is so much division and disagreement and you don't complicate the matters when you have these tools of influence that have different mechanisms than we have seen before. these are new companies, twitter is 16 years old and we are in this environment where our american ideology is being altered by fall speech. what you do when these software algorithms make viral information that might be untrue but interesting.

we know that lies can spread more quickly than facts and undermines that facts can be the curative's for lies. what can we believe and how do we win this one? -- there is a law that dates from the 90's that people say is the bedrock of the internet and it says that internet companies that operate on mind. it gives them some immunity for

moderating their platforms without being legally responsible for what people say. an example, if i say something on facebook you consume me but not facebook. there are advocates of this law saying that without it, you could delete posts that are obviously inflammatory, spam, obvious harassment, profanity. the people who believe in that law say that it gives it away for the internet to exist. host: let's talk to gary on the internet line.

caller: i am scared about these billionaires owning these companies. they don't seem to realize that they are above the regular guy on the street he was struggling to survive and make ends meet. the disinformation that is putting out there, people are soaking it up like a sponge and spitting it out in the community. that 44 billion dollars could have fed the world. he could have taken that money and given it to food banks were given it to aid societies. there are people starving all over the world. do something more important than sending rockets up in the universe. host: let's get a response. guest: i understand where he is

coming from. there is a question for people with enormous wealth, how are they using it? i don't speak for elon musk, if he were answering that question he would say that the companies that he runs including tesla and spacex, they have done an enormous amount of good for the world even if they are not charitable organizations. electrifying our transportation system will be important to fight climate change and achieve these other goals for the world. space travel has been important for the u.s. and other governments goals in space. i imagine that is how elon musk would answer that question. he serves the world not through charitable donations but through the work that his corporations

do. host: let's talk to willie and california on the republican line. caller: hi. i will talk about a law that you don't want to talk about. it started in 1770 six. the constitution of the united states and the bill of rights. our first amendment has been taken away by twitter. a duly elected president, donald j. trump was in the white house. barack obama, joe biden set up a secondary white house. paul ryan was meeting at that secondary white house. our constitution gives us the freedom of speech and you want to say it gives people too much power to have our first

amendment? host: let's see what are guest thinks. guest: i think one thing, the principles of free speech are important. the thing that matters, the first amendment and the bill of rights, it is about government suppression of speech. it does not speak to the issue of corporations. the way that the law has been interpreted over 200 plus years is that corporations have more leeway than the government and mcdonald's can make rules about who can and cannot go into their restaurants and likewise, facebook and twitter are

constitutionally free to make rules about what people can and cannot do on those properties. it is a real question about whether any corporation including twitter uses their leeway appropriately, and i am glad we are having this discussion. for a very long time the internet companies were given a pass, at least from the public about what does it mean when these companies have enormous power over the ways that we communicate, the information received, the tools of persuasion. i am very glad that because of people donald trump the public is more engaged in these conversations. i am glad for that. the constitution is largely

about government suppression of free speech rather than corporate suppression of free speech. host: kathy is next on the independent line. caller: i had a quick comment and then my question. speaking of money and elon musk, how about the millions of dollars for democrats and the republicans campaign? in the dhs hearing on thursday, alejandra may your cuss said she -- the government is about to tell us what is and is not disinformation. that is standing in the way of our free speech. that is government telling us. thank you. guest: i am not familiar with

that dhs announcement. on government telling companies what is the bounds of expression. we have seen that in other countries besides the united states. the european union just past the sweeping law for twitter to protect people, governments and britain have rules about protecting children that puts -- it is different then free speech absolutist ideas of the internet. people like mark zuckerberg say i don't want facebook to be

responsible for what the appropriate balance of expression, we are also uncomfortable with the government dictating the bounds of expression. it puts us in a pickle when we don't want companies to have this power. we don't want the government to have this power. but many of us don't want to have absolute zones including terrorist recruitment videos and spam on the social networks. there will be a pickle in the united states given our history of discomfort with government telling people what they can and cannot say. host: you mentioned facebook. i wonder if elon musk's influence on twitter will affect others social media networks at all? guest: i had not really thought about it. i guess we will see.

if and when elon musk becomes the owner of twitter and makes changes to how it handles what people can say on the platform, i am sure facebook, reddit and others will watch closely to what happens if things go well or it goes poorly. host: let's go to mary on the democrats line. caller: i guess persuasion is the word you would use. if you can talk a soundbite and repeat and repeat you can persuade people to believe anything. we are losing our ability to clearly think. when you watch what is happening

in russia with control, locking out journalists. we have lost something when we have lost local newspapers and investigating reporting and then we have people going on twitter with lock her up, stop the steal. nobody bothers to look. who is really stealing from us? guest: i understand mary's point. i think many of us feel discouraged about division and the fact that many of us cannot agree on a common set of facts. the idea in russia that many russians because of what state run media has reported, many russian citizens believe that

there is a war happening in ukraine even if their own family members have suffered in that war. the united states is not russia. we do live in a world where the power of persuasion can make people believe things that are untrue, persuade people to believe things aren't true. social media is one element of that. i think the question is really about the challenge of the modern age. can we agree on anything? host: let's talk to ned and idaho on the independent line. caller: i come to this topic

from a point of history. this is kind of a revolutionary. with the advancement of social media kind of similar to the revolution around the french revolution and the ones around that time with the printing press and all of that. the mass dissemination of information. we are in a new dawn where social media is spreading information. talking about the arab spring, that was on social media but for a few countries, it did not and well. when it comes to this country and free speech, the first amendment, it is always under attack.

free speech is always under attack, it always has been. you remember the movie, "the people versus larry flynt." the other thing i want to bring up -- guest: i don't know much about french history. but throughout american history there has been a lot of struggling with the meaning of the first amendment. during wartime, there was government suppression of speech in order to do what the government believed was protecting the populace from the threat of war and the threat of germans in the united states. our 2022 minds we waited find

that a violation of the constitution. our corporate news media is that much more powerful if that stretched the capacity of the first amendment because we have these corporations that have influenced over american life and belief and that might be an analogous. to where we are now. the first amendment has been a constant struggle and we are seeing that now in a different form. host: thank you so much for joining us. still ahead, the ap government exam is coming up next week and it is time for our annual special, it is called cram for exam special.

we will talk about that upcoming examine what students can expect on that exam. at first, more of your calls on open forum. we will be right back. >> book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. live on new and, foxbusiness host larry kudlow takes your calls on the u.s. economy. he is the author of several books. at 10:00 p.m. eastern. george mason university talks about his book "majority, minority." he has interviewed by the pew

university centers professor. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime a good tv.org. this mother's day, get mom a gift of c-span. save up to 30% on home the core, accessories and apparel. there is something for every c-span fan and it will support our nonprofit organization. c-span mother's day sale going on right now at c-span.org/shot. p. there is a lot of places to get political information but

only on c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here, here or anywhere that moderns, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. washington journal continues. host: it is open forum so whatever you would like to call in and talk about, public affairs, politics, anything we talked about earlier today, the purchase of twitter by elon musk, the economy, the situation in ukraine. the numbers republicans can call (202) 748-8001 (202) 748-8000 (202) 748-8000, democrats can

call and independents (202) 748-8002. you can also texas at -- text us at (202) 748-8003. a note about the correspondence dinner, we will have it live on c-span. you can watch it now live on c-span or on the free mobile video app. you can also go to c-span.org to access all of our coverage of the red carpet arrivals. you can enjoy all of your favorite moments of past white house dinners in our library. it is all in one place and your unfiltered view of washington. i want to show you an article from the wall street journal.

just finishing our conversation about elon musk and his takeover of twitter. the headline shadow crew encouraged elon musk's takeover. as elon musk's crusade to take over twitter, he was tagged on to take over twitter from people with their own beef with twitter. one person had a personal stake, twitter's cofounder jack dorsey who resigned last year under pressure from his board, he was whispering and mr. musk's ear that twitter should be a private company. we want to know what you think on a range of issues. we will hear first from carol in

missouri on the democrats line. caller: i think you do a wonderful job, i love the washington journal. so many people: and they are basing their opinions not on facts, and they have the facts so wrong. i wish there were some way of stopping not. i am an 86-year-old widow and one year my husband and i did not pay taxes. we pay taxes for years, and one year we forgot to report a $26

dividend on the insurance policy and we got a nasty letter from the irs if we did not pay up and get it straightened up we would be prosecuted over $26. but elon musk, he did not pay any income tax. my husband died in december, i had to pay an awful lot of income taxes year. but he doesn't pay any and i had to pay a considerable amount on capital gains. and he doesn't pay any income tax.

and i told everybody that i was going to buy twitter but i had to pay income tax. host: let's talk to rose in illinois. caller: i get a little nervous on the phone so if you just give me a few seconds because i might say the wrong word. i tried to call the other lady because i had a question. politicians have owned newspapers since alexander hamilton and thomas jefferson. the newspaper that alexander hamilton found it is now the new york post. he also founded the federalist. they made a lot of accusations to each other's party through the papers. jefferson started a paper to not hamilton and hamilton started a

paper to not jefferson. and now we have the same owners of these papers tied to the government. if you all know your history you will see this pattern over and over again and it is all a lie. when they do this it is called fascism. the democrats have been doing it longer than anybody. the democrats are taking this country over through the newspapers and the internet. the billionaires are mostly democrats. if you can take any democrat down to make this country just, that is what you should be doing. all of these ideologues that are running this country and turning it into a communist country.

you better know your history because these teachers that are communists are teaching our kids not to know our history. host: let's talk to linda in michigan on the democrats line. caller: i missed calling in with the young lady about twitter. my concern about twitter becoming more free is there is a lot of misinformation on it now. i see it regarding the vaccine. people can get on there and say the vaccine is killing children. my fear is that it will become even worse. just for an example, dr. fauci recently had a serious death

threat where the police stopped a car and it was full of guns and the gentleman said that he was going to kill dr. fauci because he heard about him on the internet and that dr. fauci was poisoning everyone. my fear is that those type of things will become allowed and we will have more problems. dr. fauci gets death threats every day and he has to have a security force with him all the time. host: there is an article from the washington post about russia's tycoons. it says russians tycoons break silence. in the two months since russia invaded ukraine, the silence of the russia elite has started to fray.

new laws out lying criticism against the war, cracks are starting to show. the economic elite, and some of the tycoons have begun tentatively to speak. in one day they have destroyed what was built in many years. it is a catastrophe. i wonder what you think an open forum. we will go to 9:00 a.m.. ron is next in tennessee. caller: i wanted to get on with the twitter thing. twitter and facebook are not the problem. the problem is what the people get from the medium. the media is so corrupt. they run a narrative it is one-sided and they leave out half the story.

you have people saying that hillary clinton would not admit she lost. she went on a book tour saying she lost. you have one guy saying that elon musk should have given his money for food. host: where do you usually get your news? caller: i go on youtube and listen to reporters who have quit journalism and do their own youtube videos. host: you trust them more than the ones -- and of course you watch c-span? caller: i watch c-span every morning. they are not beholden to the corporations in the billionaires. they have their own thing and they can report -- they take a

story and they dissected. they don't run a narrative. host: let's talk to rob in kansas on the democrats line. caller: in russia, oligarchs -- russia is an authoritarian state. i think the oligarchs in america have to be very careful because if they allow fascism to spread, one day it will be their head. i hope he is listening because you have to keep democracy alive and you have to strengthen democracy. he is calling democrats extreme? there was a guy named donald trump who waged a failed insurrection. that is far more extreme than

anything democrats have done. i will leave twitter the minute he let's tromp back on twitter. because they have distorted democracy. i think it is time that america rises up and puts a stop to these lies. host: let's talk to chris and arkansas on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: chris? caller: yes? host: are you there? caller: i am here. host: if you could call back on a better line. that would be better. myrtle is on the mississippi -- from mississippi on the independent line. caller: i want to talk about

something related to abortion. and ohio representative, it is all coming to a head. all of these republican states are foaming at the mouth waiting on the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. all of these states have been putting out these strict antiabortion laws. some of them where you can't have an abortion at all even if you have been raped or it is and says. and then there are vigilante groups that are in control of it. the texas heartbeat law, oklahoma signed one just this past week. what has got me, people are doing this to children. they think it is ok to do this

to children. jean schmidt who is an ohio state representative is the sponsor of a bill that was being debated in their house on thursday. one person asked that gave the scenario, what happens if a 13-year-old gets pregnant by a rapist? is there a provision for a child to get an abortion? jean schmidt said no, this could be an opportunity. an opportunity for a 13-year-old to carry a child to full term. they don't really care what happens to these children once they born. but give it up or keep it for themselves. see this as an opportunity for this child to grow and finds a

solution for cancer. women need to stand up and say enough is enough. men two. i notice men on twitter yesterday saying this is ridiculous and something has to be done with this craziness that mostly white republican governors are doing to women. host: we get your point myrtle. next up is gary in indiana. caller: i just want to say this about immigration. mind you, i am not a racist. immigration is not a bad thing, as long as it is done through the proper channels and kept with the proper constraints and the right perspective.

but there are two major problems . they don't go through the proper channels, they just go willy-nilly. whether it is illegal's, these companies will hire alfredo sanchez to supplant a loyal worker so they can save three dollars on the hour. host: do you think illegal immigration should be increased in this country? caller: that is a good question. as far as i can see, it should not be a problem. as long as it is legal. host: i get that point. barry from connecticut on the

republican line. caller: thank you for taking my phone call. i think it humorous that democrats think republicans are using instagram and twitter. during the riots of 2019 when they were putting black boxes on their account. i put #blm on their accounts because they were using that to coordinate their attacks on the police. why isn't anyone saying the colleges are price gouging? the riots of 2020, why didn't the congress do anything about

nancy pelosi, she was in charge of getting the national guard and there. not donald trump, i don't know why he should be in trouble for that. host: last call will be call wis in oakland, california on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thank god for c-span, one of the few places where american citizens can speak out and up. i served in the u.s. air force the cuban missile crisis. i would like to talk about this war crisis in europe. i have been around the block a few times. i worked on nuclear missiles and nuclear armed b-52s. i have some background in the area. i have a challenge for the investigative journalists of the u.s. and the world. why don't you give us some

historical context of what happened before russia invaded ukraine? we get nothing on the media in the u.s. or europe, any nato countries, they are not giving us historical context. for example, the u.s. pumped billions of dollars into eastern europe, former warsaw pact countries to influence political movements and get governments they wanted to the united states government. billions into ukraine before the russians. they supported a violent coup d'etat in ukraine where they overthrew an elected president of ukraine. he may have been corrupt. he was elected. host: i hate to cut you off but we are out of time on open forum. next up on washington journal, our annual cram for the exam saturday. we will be taking student calls only as we turn our attention to

the advanced placement u.s. government exam with our teachers, shoshana adams and sunshine cavalluzzi. they will discuss the upcoming test and what students can expect. it is students only. get your questions ready. start calling in. the ap u.s. history exam is coming up this week. here is part of the american history tv program on this year s test. >> in what ways did the federal government emerge from the civil war with more power then it possessed before? that sounds to me like it would make a good essay question. >> absolutely. very much the kind of thing colleges want you to demonstrate on the exam. great questions. let's contextualize. civil war, bloodiest war in american history, hundreds of thousands of people killed. at the time, neither side

believed the war would last year's. most believed it would be short and quick. we see the growth of government power. it is not preplanned. it is a growth that happens organically in response to the changing situations within the war. probably the most obvious item students may think of would be the emancipation proclamation and lincoln using his authority as a wartime commander to free the slaves in the confederacy. not the border states, unfortunately. that would have to wait until the 13th amendment. but it is so critical because it changes the purpose of the war from preserving the union to now becoming a war that abolishes slavery. there are many other ways in which federal government power grows. the wars expensive. we see the first income tax as part of the revenue act, 1861 to generate revenue. only 3% back then.

tiny by our standards today. we see an expansion of executive power. lincoln will suspend the writ of habeas corpus, which means thousands of pro-southern sympathizers will be arrested and detained without trial. . there is a increased use of supervised voting. all of that leads to the curtailment of civil liberties during wartime. we do not see the same civil liberties necessarily curtailed in the same way but we have seen other wars, world war i with the sedition act, world war ii with the internment of japanese, war on terror with the patriot act, there have been curtailing of civil liberties during wartime. we see expansion of federal power as the south and democrats are no longer part of congress. republicans are able to implement a nationalist agenda with the homestead act, which greatly encourages continued western settlement with federally funded, beginning the

transcontinental railroad, with national banks. all of that kind of stuff. much bigger spending. the government is spending 10 times as much during the war as it was before the war. also the issue with paper currency. banks were forced to accept greenback. both sides, union and confederacy are also forced to implement the first drafts in american history. the south first because their manpower is shorter. 1863, the north is implementing a draft which has never been done before. we see government expanding power in several ways. announcer: washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. time for cram for the exam, our annual program we do the saturday before the ap government exam coming up monday. we're hearing from students, high school students from around the country, asking them

questions and we will take their questions. i'm joined by two high school teachers, shoshana adams from ball hollow high school and sunshine cavalluzzi from el dorado high school both in california. ladies, welcome. guest: thank you so much. happy to be here. host: couple questions before we start taking student calls. it is the 14th year we're are doing this on c-span. what can students and administrators expect this year? guest: i think there will be changes for students who are used to the way they have tested over the last two years. there have been digital options required or optional in the last two years. this year will be 100% back to paper and pencil. students who have only tested

digitally are going to have adjustment this year. hopefully they had a chance to practice. if not, put your pen to the paper and do not stop writing. guest: one of the features is there are four different types of writing on the one exam. there are four questions for the free response portion. each of them is addressed a different way. there are 55 multiple-choice questions, 80 minutes. host: total amount of time? shoshona: three hours. sunshine: 180 minutes. in the ap gov, you get 4 questions and you write 4 in the 100 minutes. shoshona: another benefit this year.

last year, if students were writing digitally, they had to write one question at a time. they could not skip back and forth. that is a hindrance for students. sometimes you remember something as you are writing. they weren't able to go back and edit. this year they will have the normal situation where they can see all four questions. attack the one you know best first. show off. then work down. you do not have to go in order. if you think of something, draw an arrow and place it where you want in your response. sunshine: the other thing is you also don't have to do the questions in order abc. it is not scrapbooking. you do not have to pay by the page. get your points on the page first. some of our students are feeling apprehensive. i am sure that is true across the country.

i type faster than i write and the last two years i got to type. you do not get extra credit for fancy answers. get the answer on the paper and enjoy the advantage of toggling back and forth between questions. host: our phone lines will be regional. eastern or central time zone, (202)-748-8000. mountain, pacific, (202)-748- 8001. high school students only for this hour, up until the end of the program. last question before we start talking with students. what is your advice for these last two days? what should students be doing now? sunshine: there are number of things. exhale first of all. trust what you have done. you put a whole year into doing this work. it is all there. it is in your brain.

you just need to engage in retrieval practice. sleep, good nutrition, not panicking. you can never go wrong reviewing vocab. this is in many ways a big vocabulary test. make sure you are conversant in the vocab. it is a fantastic approach. being a good test strategist isn't as important as knowing the information. then reviewing the documents. shoshona: in addition, i would suggest if someone wanted to spend time reviewing, this is not the time to learn new info or minutia. this is a time to be categorizing in your brain which concepts in this course, which documents and cases go together. almost making mind maps about federalism, civil rights and so on would be a good use of time. host: an area both of you wanted to talk about was the quantitative analysis questions.

we will put up a sample on the screen. talk about what this is and what you can tell us about these questions. shoshona: the benefit is you are looking at a visual. it is in front of you. the data and info is there for you to grab. you want to check what is on the horizontal access. what is on the vertical access? don't ignore titles. if there is a title or explanation of the top or bottom of the visual, be sure to read it. the other thing you want to check before the questions, are there numbers? is there data in the visual? when you get to the questions you're usually going to see a straightforward identify in part a. that will be a pretty easy statement. sunshine: part a is can you read any infographics? don't over think it.

when you see the word identified, that means list. that is not a time to write an essay. quickly and concisely answer the question, which is not to say shortchange it. write one clear sentence describing in clear language but make sure you give a direct answer to the question. shoshona: partb will ask you to delve further into what you're seeing and analyze it. if your graphic has numbers, part b better have numbers in your answer. you want to use numbers provided to you as an illustration of the concepts or answer you provided in part a. sunshine: make sure you describe those numbers accurately. that is what, where reading the labels on the chart, if there is any kind of table or graph, it of paramount importance. if it is showing percentages, your answer needs to show percentages. if it changes over time, your answer needs to show the percentage increase. not the number increase.

we don't know if the raw number increase from the graphic means a percentage increase. be very precise. when you are asked to apply this, make sure you pick an application option that connects to the data. if the question is about elections, your answer shouldn't talk about lobbying. lobbying is about policymaking, not getting the job. it is about what you do with someone who already has the job. if you asked about triangles and you need to pick an interest group, not a political party, make sure your precisely asking a question, you are pulling down from the prompt to support your answers. people get intimidated about quantitative analysis questions because oh there is math. the nice thing is so much of the answer is on the page. just transfer it to your response so you know how to use it. on this infographics, there is a change over time. you would want to compare apples

to apples. if we are talking about republicans, you want to compare it to republicans in the second group. host: ladies, let's talk to students now. we have challenge questions for you students, if you would like to answer a question. if you answer correctly, the first to that answer will get some c-span merch. we have a c-span water bottle and totebag. the first two students that answer correctly or you can ask a question to the teachers. first up, medicine, mosley, virginia -- madison. caller: hi. host: do you have a question? caller: i would like to do both. shout out my ap government teacher miss mills. host: ok. caller: yea! [indiscernible]

you describe the difference between a mandate and certain types of grants such as a block grant or a project grant? sunshine: those things are not mutually exquisite. a mandate we think about as an order. a requirement that states do something. if the mandate comes of money, it is a funded mandate. if it comes without money from the federal government, it is unfunded. that is why we see reforms to that like the unfunded mandates reform act. if the mandate, which is in order, the best example and easiest to write about is the americans with disabilities act. [no audio] host: looks like we may be having technical trouble. i think they are coming back. let's see if we can get them back. there they are.

ok ladies, go ahead. sunshine: thank you. if the mandate comes with money -- [no audio] host: all right, it looks like we are having trouble. let's see if we can't go to our next caller, which is jackson in parker, colorado. caller: hi. i have a question. host: do you want to do a shout out? caller: yes, miss gable from parker colorado. she teaches our seventh grade ap government class. she is just the greatest. host: ok go ahead. caller: my question is what are the different types of polling you think we should know for the ap government exam? host: different types of polling. did you get that? shoshona: we did. for polling in general, they are

not going to get super specific. i remember, back a million years ago when i took the ap government history test, i memorized different types -- [no audio] host: we are having trouble with that line, as you can see. let's give it a few seconds, try to get it back. [no audio] ok. all right. it is not looking good for that line out of california. let's talk to savanna, high point, north carolina. caller: hi. i would like to shout out miss

t from ap government. can you explain the court case, new york times versus u.s.? host: ladies, do we have you back? are you there? sunshine: we are here. can you hear us? host: i can hear you. sunshine: ok yay! [no audio] host: ok. we will say that question -- save that question and go to our next caller as a control room is working very hard to get our ladies back. we will do our best. let's talk next to caitlin, summerfield, north carolina. hi caitlin. caller: shout out my teacher.

what do you think the argumentative essay is going to be on this year? host: ok, the argumentative essay. what are you prepared for, caitlin? caller: i think i am most prepared for multiple-choice. i think the most confusing thing is the argumentative essay for me. host: are you feeling pretty confident about it, this test? caller: my teacher has gone over a lot of things really well. she has taught us a lot. [indiscernible] -- getting each of the six point. sometimes i will skip over one or two. host: sounds good. do you watch c-span or is this special? caller: i hadn't heard about c-span until this special.

host: caitlin, standby. we will try to get your question answered. ladies, are you there? shoshona: we are here. host: great. ok. caitlin wants to know what you think of the argumentative essay is going to be about? sunshine: we know for sure it will ask you to discuss foundational documents. while we cannot predict exactly what it will be about, the odds are heavier in favor of there being something to do with checks and balances. we would recommend as long as you are familiar with the foundational documents, that gives you an advantage. remember that with the argumentative essay, you need to pick a side and stick to it. your thesis needs to have a "because." whatever evidence you use from your foundational documents, it doesn't have to be what you necessarily believe. shoshona: look at the question with the evidence you are allowed for that first body paragraph. which evidence can you use to

assert either side of the claim and make that argument? remember for your second body paragraph, you can use any evidence you want. you can use historical information, current events, anything you have learned in this course. you can use a different one of the foundational documents offered to you. my last recommendation would be remember to connect the dots. whatever you said for your because in your thesis statement, you want to make sure you take that evidence in body paragraphs one and two and connect it especially. do not write fancy. write it like you are explaining it to an intelligent 11-year-old where you're making the connection explicit to the reader. sunshine: do not assume your reader knows what you know. give a full and clear explanation. take the simplest explanation. i will out you. i know you're not particularly sporty but what would you call

an orange ball you bounce and shoot into a hoop? shoshona: a basketball. sunshine: exactly. you would not call it an orange ball that you shoot it into a circle dissected via vertical line. we can use those shortcuts to call things what they are, as long as you remember the term. shoshona: if you cannot write around it, throw the spaghetti at the wall and see if it will stick. show that you know what it means. oftentimes students get lost in explaining. they forget, i am supposed to show how this furthered free elections. that is what the prompt will be. sunshine: the more important thing is detailing how your evidence connects to that. taken answer, find your lane. you are explaining to an intelligent 11-year-old, why your mom should let you stay out past curfew. it is an argument.

make that argument strongly and in detail. do not let this prompt intimidate you, you will do great. host: were you able to answer the question about the court case? sunshine: the big piece there is a heavy presumption against prior restraint. the idea is can you ban something in advance? generally, the answer has been no. that is a throwback to what was happening under british law when the constitution was written. in this case there was the attempt to stop the publication of something beforehand. it got challenged. the supreme court said anything that proves prior restraint comes to the court with heavy presumption. it presumes invalid. you have to show national security reasons in order to engage in prior restraint. that is the key take away from the case. shoshona: also, the publication of the pentagon papers was embarrassing to the national government and nixon was clearly

opposed, it did pose a national security risk. the issue a prior restraint was a bigger concern to the court then the embarrassment to the government. sunshine: a great thematic look which will cut across so many cases and decisions of balancing. that is the keyword. something an individual wants or wants to do with the good of the whole. if you think of most of the cases in that way, how are we trying to strike a balance between one piece and the other? that will help cut through some of the language that can be confusing. host: i have a tweet for you from olive. what is something that may be used to check the bureaucracy other than passing legislation? sunshine: when you're thinking about checks and balances, you have to think about the branch. the bureaucracy in the executive branch, you then you have to go with congress or the judiciary.

the judiciary checks are easy. judicial review. they can review these actions and find those have out stepped to the constitution. when you're dealing with congress, any of my students from el dorado high school, my beloved second period class is watching, power of the purse. it works in almost any answer that involves congress. those bureaucratic agencies all get their funding from congress. power of the purse, you think oversight. oversight almost always works as well. host: kayla, corona, california. do you want to answer a question or ask a question? caller: can i ask a question? shout out mr. willis sixth period. can you talk about redistricting -- [indiscernible]

shoshona: for apportionment, the issue is to have a fair drawing of districts so you have appropriate representation in congress, especially so -- the districts are upholding the one man one vote principal. it is based on the census every 10 years. it is important once the census measures where people are, district are drawn in a way that does not more heavily weight the people of one area more than another. sunshine: you need apportionment first. props for getting up early. you need to know how many districts to draw. apportionment tells you how many seats you get, districting tells you where they will go. host: next up, maria, ohio. caller: hi.

quick shout out to my ap gove teacher. click shut up to mr. patton -- quick shout out to mr. patton for teaching ap gov. he is great. what would you think -- i know everything in the constitution is important -- what is the main thing we should focus on when looking at the constitution? sunshine: for review, checks and balances. you are absolutely going to need to know how different branches can limit each other. you cannot go wrong with the bill of rights because you know in the comparison question you will be asked about a court case that almost definitely will be routed somewhere in the bill of rights. there are a few that aren't. almost all of them are. the big thing is checks and

balances and concerning which of the powers are formal powers so you can identify which ones are informal. shoshona: familiarize yourself with a couple phrases. necessary and proper. supremacy clause. you want to have a clear example in mind and your back pocket ready to use in writing of a couple of formal powers congress has, a couple of formal powers the president has and then we know what the courts can do. host: connor, mooresville, north carolina. caller: hi. i have a question. shout out ap gov mr. hugh bacher, he is the best. if the president were to disagree with actions taken by an independent agency, what can the president do to limit the effects of these actions? sunshine: really good question.

one of the first things is change the budget request that he or someday she and the omb request, when they are creating a budget request eventually sent to congress and haggled over. the president can reflect his or her agenda by requesting additional funding or there can be a punitive action are requesting far less funding for a specific agency in order to impact the power they have to carry out their agenda which may be in conflict with the president's. host: we have a tweet from carter. shout out to my teacher. altar high school, ohio. which court cases are expected to play the biggest roles in the exam this year?

ladies? [laughter] sunshine: even though we like armchair gaming, we never recommend trying to guess. the college board has their mysterious ways. also we have a few other factors in play. this version of the test is only a couple years old. we are still finding ourwe are y with what they might do and what they might not do. in 2020 there were so many different prompts it is hard to say these were used, so these are the ones that were left over. my students are hoping for first amendment free speech case if for no other reason than they can try to name check or write about frederick. free speech, it could be anything else. know how the cases connect to

each other. try to categorize the cases, which are about state, which are about religion, how do they relate? remember, if you cannot recall offhand the name of the case it is all right to write about what it was about. most of the time you will still get the points. host: livermore, california. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to ask and take a question. i may not be able to hear you very well. host: go ahead and ask your question first. caller: if the supreme court term, stare decisis, is it synonymous with the precedent? guest: it is. they can be used interchangeably. star a decisive scum the idea that you go with what has gone before, the president, to go before. host: i am being told you only

get one or the other. sorry, i won't be able to give you a question. let's talk to maggie and franklinville, north carolina. caller: good morning.i would like to shout out my gov teacher. go trojans. host: do you want to take or ask a question? caller: can i ask a question? when writing the scotus at fark you would a college board compare a well-known case to something like roe v. wade on the issue of privacy, or is it strictly a case that the students likely have not heard of? guest: the pattern that we've seen since the redesign has pretty much exclusively been unfamiliar cases, or cases they would assume are unfamiliar to the majority of the students. i don't think that there will be a gotcha where they ask a question about the case that is relatively familiar and they

expect you to know a bunch of information. it will probably be one that you haven't heard from before or don't know much about. guest: everything you need to write about the new case is on the page. there is not an expectation you are familiar with anything but the 15. host: jacqueline in california. caller: hi. i want to give a quick shout out to my teacher and i have a question regarding political cartoons on the ap exam. what do you believe would be the best way to analyze, the multiple-choice or the writing section? guest: on the multiple-choice section the best way to attack is to read the question first to

know what to discern. when you see that question, skip it on the multiple-choice and do the easy questions first. get the easy points on the page before you do anything else. any question that is long, time-consuming, or both don't do it on your first pass through. one of the best tactics is not to go 1, 2, 3, 4, five. get the easy points first. often come the questions on the backend of the test have the lowest rate of correct answers across the country because students run out of time, but those questions aren't necessarily harder. if you get that question right you are ahead of the game, which is what you are trying to do. this test is not scored on an objective metric. you are scored relative to the rest of the country. you are thinking how to beat other students, with no disrespect to your fellow students taking the exam.

having the best strategy will be your best friend. number one, skip it. number two, when you go back read the question first. often you can find the correct answer without using the info graphic. you should have a sense in your head of what is true and look at the cartoon to confirm with the answer is. when you are looking at the cartoon, any labels, titles, captions, the year that it was published will give you so much starter information. then you can start looking in detail at what has been drawn. guest: i would only add that occasionally you get a question about the message of the political cartoon. at that point it is difficult to answer without really investigating. there are three levels for a political cartoon to look at. your acronym is l.i.e. literally what is there. what is inferred, the insinuation?

and what is the explanation, the conclusion that can be drawn? taking those recommendations together, you will do an amazing job. host: brady is next in north carolina. hi, brady. caller: hi, first i would like to shout out, go trojans. -- host: pacs and super pac's. guest: the short version is that pacs have stricter rules with much lower limits, or limits at all, on the money you can donate because money can be donated directly to candidates and their campaign. the federal government has rules, limitations, on how much an individual or organization can donate in any

election cycle. super pac's, since the donations don't go directly to the candidate, there is not supposed to be collusion or crosstalk with the candidate or their campaign, it is an independent expenditure, independent of the candidate himself or herself. with citizens united, the court said that those donations cannot be limited, because they are a form of free speech. super pac's, big money and more restrictions. pacs can go directly to the candidate, but less money. guest: super pac, super size. and super pac like superheroes. they are flying around doing their own thing and will be bound rules, restrictions, or what the candidate wants them to do. in their mind they are the superhero saving the day. host: sage in california.

caller: hi. can i shout out my gov teacher, who is also on tv right now. host: how do you think your teacher is doing on tv, sage? caller: i think she is doing a really good job. host: do you want to take a question or answer a question? caller: can i take a challenge question? host: we will pull up a question for you. i will start reading it. identify and describe examples of pluralist democracy in u.s. government. caller: for laurel's democracy would be the idea that multiple groups -- pluralist democracy would be the idea multiple groups have influence on our democracy, referring to interest groups. one example of pluralist democracy in action would be with lobbying and groups like

the naacp, the aclu trying to make sure that individuals and people of different backgrounds have their own civil rights and civil liberties. so, they would go to senators and representatives and ask them to pass legislation that would benefit their interest groups specifically. host: did she get it? guest: great job. guest: 10 out of 10, would recommend. great job, sage. host: you get a c-span water bottle. let's go to aiden in chico, california. caller: good morning. host: aiden, you have to mute your tv. are you there? go ahead.

caller: yes, my bad. i would like to answer a challenge question. host: let's pull up a second challenge question. if you get it right you get a c-span totebag. identify and explain away that congress can check the power of the courts. caller: yeah, so one of the ways that congress can check the power of the court is through the power of the purse, which is an extensive power that congress has. they can reduce funding to various facets of the court and i believe they can review the court at state and local levels. host:host: is that good enough? what do you think? guest: i would want to clarify a little bit. i think you are headed in the right direction. we know that congress has power over the jurisdictions of the court. they can establish new courts.

aside from adding to the supreme court, there can only be one. they can create new courts and indicate with their jurisdiction is. congress also has, especially the senate, a great deal of influence over the courts because they are the ones who confirm who is going to be the judges or justices on federal courts. in the constitution, the president appoints. it is with the advice and consent of the senate. this is a huge opportunity for congress to influence the directions of the court by making sure to confirm people who are truly dedicated to the law, knowledgeable, and appropriate people to be adjudicating cases at the federal level. host: aiden, you get a c-span totebag. make sure to take it with you to high school. gavin is next in florida. good morning. caller: good morning.

i went to give a shout out to and wish a happy birthday. my question is how did the 14th amendment increase individual rights? guest: the 14th amendment increased individual rights, you have two ways that you can approach that. one through the protection clause that is used as a basis for decisions to ensure civil-rights and that the law applies equally to all people. and secondly through the due process clause. the due process clause of the 14th amendment is the basis for selective incorporation, which you should know dealing with the court. selective incorporation is using the due process clause of the 14th amendment to apply the bill of rights to the states on ak's bike basis over time -- on a case-by-case basis over time. the 14th amendment due process clause is the reason that the supreme court, or the mechanism the supreme court has used to

require states to respect the rights guarantees. as originally written the bill of rights only pertains to the federal government and that is why that language is "congress shall make no law" etc., until the 14th law that restricts states that congress pulls down the rights and applies them to states. therefore, the citizens within no states are receiving the protections of the bill of rights. host: danielle is next. caller: good morning. i would like shout out the sixth grade ap god class. -- gov class. guest: they are the traffic cop and they control the flow of legislation. that is the traffic cop and it should clarify the rules for debate, because in the senate

there is unlimited debate and in the house there is not. they are managing the flow of legislation and controlled outcome. if your bill cannot get a vote it certainly cannot pass. the guys on the house rules committee are very powerful. host: kate from north carolina. hi, kate. cat, sorry, it is cat. caller: i was going to ask the question, what is the role of the bureaucracy and what are some of its powers and influences? guest: this is such an interesting one, because if we look numerically at where the bulk of our government is, it is in the bureaucracy. it is clear to us. we have the president who executes the laws, the executive branch. we have the congress, who obviously creates the laws and legislates. we have the judicial who

interprets. the bureaucracy helps the president execute the law. we have a big jillion laws -- a billion laws, so one man or woman cannot be responsible for all of that. we have different range is responsible. another term that you want to know is bureaucratic discretion. when congress writes a law, they don't necessarily put all of them i knew should in of how the law will be carried out. it is up to the department of the bureaucracy to interpret and create their own rules within their application of the law, which means that they have a great deal of power. if congress says do x and the bureaucracy has the opportunity to determine when, how, by what vehicle, and so on, then that gives them a great deal of control over the way that the

laws impact us as citizens. host: carson and hendersonville, tennessee. caller: hello. are you still answering questions? host: i can give you a question. would you like one? have you muted your tv? i can hear something in the background. here is your question. explain how selective incorporation expanded civil liberties. caller: yes. selective incorporation was when the court decided to use the 14th amendment and equal protection clause to apply the amendments and the bill of rights to the states to expand civil liberties and civil protections because it applied more broadly. host: is that correct? guest: clarification, it is the due process clause rather than the equal protection clause, but otherwise you are correct.

you could use an example like the second amendment. host: matthew is in corona, california. caller: it is michael. host: sorry. my screen says matthew. [laughter] caller: i would like to shout out my class. my question is, which of the following has a quicker impact on the economy? military or fiscal policy, and why? guest: generally speaking that would depend on which tools are used. this is social science. it depends. there's not a lot of right and wrong answers, just well defended and poorly defended ones.

if you got a question like that then you need to look into what tool is being used. some things like fiscal policy that says that we will pass a stimulus check is going to have a quick effect because the checks will hit your mailbox. monetary policy, like if we send a message to banks and they respond whiter way, that will have a quick effect as well. it is tool dependent. what you want to focus on more in your preparation is what is the distinction between the two and what do each of them look like in practice? host: we have a tweet from oakcrest. the tweet says, what was the overall impact of citizens united versus sec on campaign reform and freedom of speech? guest: well, the impact almost cannot be overstated. citizens united had a massive impact first of all by pushing back and indicating that unions

and corporations for the purpose of the first amendment and it -- first amendment are treated as people so they have freedom of speech, but also that political spending is free speech. by opening the door or the floodgates to this unlimited political spending through super pac's, where the money is not going directly to the candidate -- it is usually going to issues. it could be in support of the candidate but not in cooperation with their campaign. the impact was significant on expansion of first amendment rights for groups and organizations, as well as ballooning political spending. host: thomas in levittown, new york.

caller: good morning. for my question, can you explain the difference between -- and supplied economics? guest: it is the idea of priming the pump. the supply side is more trickle-down. kinsey and spending is like the new deal. we will put people to work. we will hire artists to paint a mural. why? it is nice to have a mural in the post office, but because we can give the artist a paycheck will stop the artist will use that to buy food and then the guy that runs the grocery store will have money to buy shoes for his family that gives the shoe salesman money to pay his cashiers who will go to the movies and spend money at the movies.

you have the multiplier of putting money in someone's pocket and then they are spending it in the economy. that is keynesian, the consumer level. supply-side is like giving a tax cut to a corporation saying if we do that the money will trickle down. the corporation will pay that that they are not using on taxes for bonuses and research and development, marketing, and in that way he will use it to hire more employees and spread the money around. in both cases it is the government investment of money in the economy, just where the money goes in. from the top or the bottom. guest: the stimulus checks that we have gotten over the last couple of years would probably a really good example of keynesian . host: ryan. caller: i would like to give a the best ap gov teacher in the

world. how can i best describe the relationship between the interest groups and bureaucracy in the iron triangle? guest: that tends to be the component that is the most difficult, because it is easy to understand the congressional committee and related agency, and congressional committee and interest group peace. the last prong of the triangle can be more difficult. the bureaucracy is actually implementing the law and carrying it out most of the time. usually to interest groups. especially if you think of corporations as interest groups and an agency like the fec imposing fines on media companies when they feel that there has been some transgression of the rules. if you are the interest groups you have a strong incentive on how the sec interprets the rules and what fines that they impose

, etc.. the interest group can try to lobby the agency directly, but most of the people working in the agency have job security, so that's not necessarily going to be as effective as lobbying the congressman. the interest group can lobby the congressman and congress controls the budget for the agency. often the relationship is indirect, leveraging their relationship with the congressional committee helping members of the congressional committee will put pressure on the agency to do with the interest group wants them to do. host: alexi in corona, california. caller: good morning. i have a question. i want to know, what is the best way -- the essay. guest: which part? caller: the argumentative essay. guest: the whole thing.

for the argumentative essay the first thing that you want to look at is what exactly is the question asking. for students where i have taught ap government in the past, one of the challenges we work on is making sure that in your beautiful response you are not answering a different question than the question on the page. what is that question asking? mark it out. next, look at the three pieces of evidence from which you are going to choose for your first body paragraph. using those three pieces of evidence, which side -- because it is usually an either/or -- which side of the argument can you argue better? even if that's not what you personally think, but with the one that you can argue more successfully.

when you have made your argument , make sure that you have a because. the because to be revisited in your examination of every piece of evidence for the remainder of the essay will step keep the consistent viewpoint and don't flip-flop. keep your because in all of your commentary and connections. remember, for the second body paragraph you can use any piece of evidence that you've learned in your course, current events, or historical events, or a different one of the three documents provided. you have a lot of latitude. guest: remember, ap does not just mean advanced placement or accelerated procrastination. it means answer the prompt. gain clarity on what you are being asked and answered that question. host: let's take a tweet. he says first i would like to shout out my teacher mr.

deiters. are there more stimulus-based multiple-choice questions than regular questions? guest: not more, but there are quite a few. the formula from the recently released exam is you will have the non-stimulus-based ones in the beginning and then non-stimulus-based towards the end. it might be more half-and-half if you count the ones with the tables. you can expect that there will be a passage of some sort to interpret an info graphic and then it will be which pair of answers is correct. it is probably in a gray area but more difficult than a conventional question. they will be on the back wash and. maybe you percent to 40% -- 30% to 40%. guest: for each stimulus you

will have multiple questions, so that gives you an opportunity to look at the questions, and then look at the stimulus.if you are seeing a stimulus that is a long paragraph, do not let them back you into a corner. you will be able to handle it. host: cynthia in dayton, ohio. caller: my question is, what is the difference between the due process clause in the fifth amendment and the due process clause in the 14th amendment. guest: the due process is so nice they guaranteed it twice. host: that will be our last call for today. thank you for joining us, and we are wishing all of the students a great exam on monday and best of luck. guest: you've got this. trust what you've done and attacked the test. don't just take the test, the

test might take you. attacked the test. -- attack the test. host: you can see c-span in the classroom on our website. if you missed any of today's program or would like to watch it again as you review for the exam, you can find the streaming video at c-span.org/classroom and relisten to the audio as part of our c-span in the classroom podcast at c-span.org /podcast, the free c-span now video app, or where you listen to podcasts. you can watch a discussion on the advanced placement u.s. history exam with co-authors of the fabric of the nation, a brief history with skills and sources for the ap history course. they will explain how this year's exam is structured, provide strategies for answering questions, and analyze historical documents.

that airs today at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 2. that is it for today's washington journal. i want to thank everyone who called in. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. in the meantime, have a great saturday. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment and that is my charter invested billions building infrastructure, upgrading technology, empowering opportunity in communities big

and small. charterer is connecting >> us. >>charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> tonight>>, the daily show host trevor noah headlines the first white house correspondents association dinner since 2019. president biden is expected to attend, making this the first time since 2016 that is sitting president has made an appearance. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern we will have sights and sounds from inside the ballroom and highlights from past dinners ahead of the program. coverage on c-span.org and the c-span now video app begins at 6:00 p.m. eastern where you can watch celebrities, journalists, and others walk the red carpet as they arrive for the dinner. the white house correspondents association dinner live tonight on c-span, c-span radio, c-span.org, and the c-span now

video app. ♪ host: good morning. it is saturday, april 30, 2022. the economy contracted for the first time since 2020. the gdp adjusted for inflation fell 0.4% in the first quarter according to the commerce department. the you is expected to announce an embargo on russian oil next week phased in over some months. we are asking you what is your top concern about the economy? give us a call. the numbers are republicans (202) 748-8001. , kratz (202) 748-8000 -- democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003.