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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.

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.

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