>> ukraine's prosecutor general will discuss suspected war crimes committed by the russian military. watch live at 11 a.m. eastern on c-span. c-span now, our free video app or anytime online at c-span.org. emigration reporter for the washington post washington post will talk about the biden administration's plan to lift title 42 public health restrictions. then we will talk about the impact of inflation and labor shortages. vice president of the independent business. also, we will talk about the organization's new report for

family being in a wildfire over the next 30 years due to climate change. join the discussion with text messages and tweets. washington journal is next. ♪ host: president biden is in japan today,. not a trade deal, although trade is part of it. the president says it includes promoting clean energy and combating corruption to convince americans he and the democrats are best suited to strengthen the u.s. economy. we want your thoughts on that this morning.

which party do you trust with the economy? republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. send us a text with your first name, city, and state at (202) 748-8003. or you can join us on facebook .com/c-span. you can send a tweet as well. we will get to thoughts on the economy. let us know what you think is the president tries to convince republicans and democrats that they should be given the reins in the midterm elections. joining us this morning is nick miroff, immigration reporter with the washington post come out to talk about title 42 and a ruling by a judge friday.

let us first remind our viewers what is title 42. guest: title 42 is the public health authority of the centers for disease control and prevention. the trump administration declared it at the border in march 2020 to beginning of the pandemic, giving u.s. agents the ability to quickly turn back or return border crossers to mexico or countries of origin and to block asylum-seekers who are attempting to come to the u.s. border and enter through official ports of entry, saying there are emergency conditions and a pandemic and normal immigration rules and protections must be suspended. that policy has been used since then about 2 million times by

the u.s. government to return migrants to mexico or send them back to their home countries. host: what was the biden administration attempting to do on title 42? guest: the biden administration wanted to end it and the centers for disease control and prevention ran a study determining it was safe to end the policy and go back to normal immigration rules at the border. they set may 23 as the day it would end. the department of homeland security went through preparations getting ready for what they anticipated will be a bigger surge of migration across the border but two dozen attorneys general sued the biden administration to block this. after getting a temporary restraining order from a judge in louisiana stopping them from

winding it down, they secured a preliminary injunction friday that basically blocks the process of ending it all together and maintains the status quo at the border. host: what happens next? guest: the biden administration will go back to using title 42 in some cases but not others. the thing about the application of the policy is right now it is only being used for about half the people who come across the border. the aclu and soon the biden administration -- on the grounds that they said not -- should not be sent back to somewhere where they could be harmed. starting today, no family groups will be returned using title 42. only about half of those who come across the border are subject to title 42 expulsions at this point, so we will

continue with this kind of mismatch of policies at the border, different treatments for different groups and we are likely to see high border crossing numbers remain because many people who the biden administration expelled in mexico will quickly turn around and attempt another crossing. host: we are talking with the economy -- about the economy this morning with our viewers and which party they trust. there are some policies this administration has kept in place that impact the economy. tell us what they are and if there is any discussion by the white house to reverse them. guest: which are you referring to specifically? host: economic ones. the lack of agriculture visas, that sort of thing, that allows people to come here to work and some return.

guest: one thing we have seen is the inability of our legal temporary worker program to satisfy the demands of u.s. companies in the agricultural arena but really across the economy you hear from companies saying they would like to bring in more short-term temporary workers. those programs struggle to move quickly and you have to look at the extraordinary numbers of people crossing the border in part as a response to the demand for hiring for labor and the shortage of available workers, particularly in some blue-collar industries. host: nick miroff is an immigration reporter. you can follow his work and follow him as well.

thank you. let's pave it to the economy and which party you trust. we are dividing lines by party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. text us. include your first name, city, and state at (202) 748-8003. we want to know which party you trust and why, what it is about the economic policy that you like. take a look at a recent poll put out sunday. pessimism grows as american views on the economy tanked. americans are growing frustrated with the state of the country amid economic uncertainty, inflation at a 40 year high, and steep gas prices, with a poll showing 60% agreed the state of the nation is uneasy. a cbs poll found 69% say the

economy is bad, up from 46% in the spring. nearly all democrats and republicans indicated they wanted candidates to focus on inflation as a top issue as americans continue to sour on the direction of the country. president biden talking about the economy during a news conference this morning with a japanese leader. here is what he had to say about addressing rising gas prices and food shortages that americans are facing. [video clip] >> when it comes to the gas prices, we are going through an incredible transition. god willing when it is over we will be stronger and the world will be stronger unless we are reliant on fossil fuels. you see the importation of russian gas. i will not go through it all. what i have been able to do to

keep it from getting worse -- cutting the price of gas at the pump i told you was a matter of discussion at the kitchen table when i was growing up. it is affecting a lot of families. we have released over 257,000 million barrels of oil. it has helped but it has not been enough. we find yourself in a situation where we have food shortages because of ukraine. there are millions of bushels of oil -- grain being held up in ukraine that would impact the market in terms of bringing down food prices. we are finding ourselves in a position where we are working hard with american farmers and agricultural products.

this will take some time, but in the meantime the best thing i can do in addition to trying to get middle eastern countries including opec to raise production of oil and move along that route is to continue to grow our economy and create jobs. host: president biden during a news conference in japan. you heard him say the administration is working hard and talked about some things they have done so far on the economy. you heard him say they're about releasing more oil, commencing opec to do so. reuters put out this tweet, that the president says he is weighing reducing tariffs on china as a way to bring down prices and asking opec to pump more oil. do you believe the president and trust him on the economy or republicans? in georgia, democratic caller.

we will go to you first. who do you trust? caller: thank you to c-span. i trust the democrats with the economy because republicans are nothing but thieves. they are only for themselves and democrats promote financial security for all americans, not necessarily just democrats but all americans. host: in what way do they do that? caller: the stimulus package that was given last year. it not only helps the democrats but helped republicans, libertarians, anyone who received that stimulus check, whether they were a democrat or whatever their party

affiliation. they received that money and i have not heard how many people returns that money to the federal government, so they used the money, whether they were affiliated with republicans, democrats, or libertarians or whatever. host: bill in midfield, massachusetts, republican, good morning. caller: how are you doing? can i ask a question before i state my thing? when is c-span going to do a video thing about the 2000 mules so we can find out what really happened in the 2020 election? i guess you are not going to do that. you sort of lean democrat. this cannot be a serious topic today. this is the worst economy in the history of the united states.

he stopped drilling two days after he got in office. we have the most oil in the world in america and we have to pay nine dollars a gallon for gas because they will not drill it. that ruined the economy. two days income on the economy was ruined by shutting down the pipeline, stopping drilling on federal land. there is still oil there. they are not allowing them to drill in alaska and stuff where the oil is because we might want to use gasoline powered cars. it is years away from electric cars. it is not weeks or months away. it is a decade or two away. you have to use it. host: if republicans gain back

the house and senate in november, what is priority number one for them? caller: drill, baby, drill. host: democratic caller. caller: that is funny. i think anybody can read, but i have not read anything about people stopping people from drilling. they got so many permits out there they are not using them, so i do not know what the guy is talking about about the pipeline that was not going to stay here. it is just going to screw the economy and everything up. you spill some of that and you are done. host: who do you trust on the economy? caller: the democratic party. all you have to do is look at the history.

how many times has a democratic administration bailed out a republican administration? our taxes are going to increase because the taxes that trump put in expire for the middle class but not for the wealthier. that is what biden said, anybody over 4 -- under 450,000 dollars would not get taxes raised. that is what he is trying to bring up. in 23, those taxes trump had for the middle class go away. these people start talking out of the side of their mouth. maybe they ought to start reading and looking at the history. just google how may times a democratic administration has brought down gas and it was paid for -- it was off the books in 2000 until george w. bush got in there. after that, we had obama and trump put $8 trillion on there.

obama put money there to get the debt down and get everybody back to work and the economy booming. it is a travesty. look at unemployment now. i do not understand where the republicans come from other than talking points and listening to fox news. they have nothing to bring to the table. it is like the baby formula. host: let's listen to rick scott, who leads the senate committee in charge with gaining back the majority in november. here he is with face the nation and what he said he expects the biden administration strategy on the economy to bolster republican chances of gaining the majority. [video clip] >> the president is slow to react, whether it is the border, inflation, gas prices, ukraine.

the expectation is that whoever the president is gets ahead of the problems rather than behind them, so i think the election this fall will be about inflation and it bodes well for republicans. >> why do you think that? our poll shows republicans do not have much of an advantage on that issue. 51% of those polled trust the gop on inflation. how do you advise republicans to change that? >> it is important that we talk about what we are going to do and explain the problem the biden administration pass, that they do not react to record gas prices and open border, things like this, but also tell people what we are going to do to bring down inflation. we are going to balance the budget and start watching the dollar closely. we are going to watch our spending. we are going to expect the federal reserve to reduce their

balance sheet. we have to talk about the things we are going to do to make it better for people. if you look at races around the country, biden's numbers are bad and he is the face of the democratic party. host: rick scott talking about republicans and what they want to do. in miami, a republican. tell us why. caller: i favor the republicans for one reason. they seem to be the only party that still exists in america that believes in american capitalism and the private sector. your caller is talking about deficit spending. both parties have done that. government does not create wealth. people seem to have forgotten that. the fact that the government goes out and starts spending money has -- does nothing to grow the economy. it creates people who become dependent on the government.

it is the private sector that creates wealth in america and jobs. when you have a president who during the campaign trail came out on several occasions and said, i am going to shut down american fossil fuel industries, this is why you have gasoline approaching five dollars a barrel and diesel approaching six dollars a barrel. everything in this country runs on diesel fuel because that is what we used to run -- move merchandise around. people who voted for joe biden got exactly what he promised to them, which was to ruin the economy. that is what we are experiencing today. host: we will go to elbert. which party do you trust? caller: the democrats because, like the previous caller said,

they are always bailing out the republicans. they are like the child that comes in and ruins everything and we are like the adult that cleans up after them. after that they come back and say they are not doing a great job. host: how do they clean it up? what do you like about the policies they put forward? caller: going back to obama and even clinton, they talk about balancing the budget and republicans never balance the budget they just give to the 1%, which does not do anything for anybody else. the other caller was talking about the private sector. who buys the stuff from the private sector? the people do not have money. who is going to buy stuff from the private sector? those loans you get from the

bank do not usually go to the common man, so unless you have some money from previous times or your family or something, it is hard. host: cj and louisiana, independent. what do you say this morning? which party? caller: any sane person would have to look at the situation and go with the republican party. that poor man on tv a while ago at that conference does not know what state or country he is in. i do not know who is pulling the strings. it is probably obama and that bunch. with the republicans, the economy was going and going when trump was in there. people were working. you cannot even find people to work now because they are living off the government.

it sounds like it is a bolshevik country, not a free country anymore. the bolsheviks have gotten in. joe mccarthy was right. the communists are going to take over this country if we do not watch out. they are doing it. they have done it. host: let's listen to the president at the news conference he held this morning with the japanese leader. he was asked about prospects of a recession and what that might do to the economy. here he is. [video clip] >> is a recession in the united states inevitable? >> no. >> why not? >> you're talking about the significant progress we have made in making sure we do not have supply chain backups come about the 8000 jobs created through georgia, 3000 jobs in texas through samsung, $17

billion investment. 1700 jobs in north carolina on technology. the situation where we have created new jobs where unemployment is down and so on and so forth as if they are a problem. imagine where we would be, had we not made that enormous progress. our gdp is going to grow faster than china's for the first time in years. does that mean we do not have problems? we do. we have problems the rest of the world has but less consequential because of our internal growth and strength. host: president biden would on to say it could be a long haul but the recession is not inevitable. you heard him. do you trust the president and

democrats or republicans? delete on the economy. what is your answer and tell us why? caller: my answer is this. i listen every day to your program and you always divide everybody. i look at things as a realist. all i hear is everything from the democrat side how shut everything down, not build it up. they want to make these conversations global, but when everything breaks down we have a pandemic. it is the global breakdown. i do not trust almost anyone anymore because it is all about hatred, how much money you make in a campaign, whether you are

trashed on media. it is almost to a point where you guys -- even your channel, you guys cannot be fair. you guys have to always go democrat and republican. let's just go the country things. let's just talk about americans. everybody is not good off or pour off. there is a middle and i am tired of it. host: steve, tennessee, democratic caller. caller: i would like to start talking about history here. in 1972, richard nixon froze wages and prices because inflation was running away. jimmy carter did not do a lot to

help. ronald reagan did and then george h w bush got into office and there was a recession. though clinton got and there and gave a surplus. george bush leaves the economy near a depression. obama brought it out. it was undid under trump until the pandemic and that completely changed everything. people do not see that. let's talk about inflation now. i have a conservative friend that lives in salt lake city. he has told me for months they are not pumping oil now. i went to the utah website. there are 6700 oil wells in utah.

you had a man: from texas a couple weeks ago that said he drove through oral country to work. all the wells are shut down. if you want to talk conspiracy, oil companies are raising prices by manipulating the amount of oil they are producing to increase prices to get republicans who are oil friendly to win the election. they will do it and then you will see prices go down because oil will go down. these people need to read bill barr's book. host: stephen tennessee talking about the economy and inflation. let me read this for you from the wall street journal this morning about investors struggling to identify the market bottom as stocks fall.

they talk about it in this piece come about the federal reserve effort here to tame the economy and cool inflation. it says one reason many investors are cautious is soaring inflation. the fed is raising interest rates to rein in inflation, which rose at the fastest pace since 1980. it is aiming to pull off a soft landing and slow the economy but avoid tipping the u.s. into a recession by trying to get people to stop spending. there is the piece in the wall street journal if you're interested. in north carolina, you are an independent. have you voted for democrats and republicans before? caller: yes. host: right now, which party do you trust? caller: absolutely republicans. the lady that called from

georgia said democrats are the ones who gave us the stimulus package when covid hit the country. untrue. that was the republicans that was pushing for that. republicans at one time was considered the most wealthy party. that has turned around. it is now the democrats that are the most wealthy party. they are out for themselves. they are not out for the country . if people would just get on google and do research on their own and not just listen to the main media to what is being said and do research on their own, they are going to find out

things like that. host: which is the last democrat you voted for? caller: obama. host: did you vote once or twice for him? caller: once. host: since then it has been republicans? caller: correct. host: tim in illinois, republican. caller: it cost $350 billion to support these illegal immigrants and taxpayers are paying for it. texas ought to see the wall taxpayers build -- paid for and build it. host: in new york, democratic caller. do you trust democrats? caller: yes. the republicans only care about one thing, power and money.

$30 million went to trump from the nra. all they care about is big business supporting them. mitch mcconnell was asked, what is your agenda? he said, ask me when i get there. they have no agenda. it is all about power. they do not care about the poor man or woman. the problem is that a lot of middle income and lower income people, especially caucasians, are being played by their own party. case in point, west virginia. you have people who do not have their teeth and he cuts medicare expansion. he cuts the unemployment. he only cares about himself and he is into fossil fuel.

he gets $500,000 a year in dividends. if you are a republican and have money and you are getting tax cuts or you're a millionaire, i can understand you being a republican. but a lot of the middle income and poor people who vote republican are voting against their own interest. i do not understand it. host: paul in kentucky, independent. caller: one president trump was in office, inflation was below 2%. asked was below two dollars a gallon. we did not have a disaster on the border. there was baby formula on shelves. i'm not even going to call him president. they knew the baby formula was going to be in trouble five or

six months ago and did nothing about it. the democrat party is the most corrupt and people party on the planet. they are more dangerous to this country than pugin or china. they are the most vile people on the planet. host: when was the last time you voted for a democrat? caller: clinton. i will never vote for a democrat again. host: and you still call yourself an independent. caller: i am not crazy about republicans either. in some ways, all of them are likely democrats. host: the president making other news during his news conference in japan this morning, on his first visit to japan since taking office saying the u.s. would be willing to use force to defend taiwan if it were attacked by china.

back to our calls. which party do you trust on the economy? henry, south carolina, republican. we will go to you. caller: republicans. the country has seen such chaos since joe biden came into office. we have seen -- i have never seen such a turnaround and a go down. i would not vote democrat if i never voted again. the previous callers, one who was speaking as an independent, i want to say this. party labels do not mean much to anybody. i will never vote as anything but republican. donald trump is one of the best presidents we ever had. the economy was on the upswing.

every nationality that loose in this country was doing well. since the democrats controlled the house, the president, the senate, there has been a downturn in every area of this economy. i do not see any increase in any of it, just decrease. host: you may be interested in the piece in the wall street journal this morning. confidence drops to an all-time low. small businesses are flashing warning signs on the u.s. economy as the supply chain snarls and rising interest rates darken the outlook for entrepreneurs. 57% of small business owners expect economic conditions in the u.s. to worsen in the next year, equal to the all-time low recorded in april of 2020. according to a survey of more than 600 small businesses conducted in may for the wall

street journal. later in our program, we will talk with kevin kuhlman, the vice president for government relations with the national federation of independent businesses. we will divide the lines by small business owners, employers, and others. we will get your thoughts on that as well. joe, new york, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i cannot believe i got on. host: which party do you trust? caller: i used to be a republican but now i am a democrat for sure. i trusted democrats. my idea is you have to get money out of politics. that is the only way to do it. i feel companies -- we should

put in commissions to put in -- survey the situation. companies elevating prices should be taken to account. if you are a senior citizen and a republican, be aware these republicans have been against social security from day one just like they were against obamacare. beware. that is all i can say. host: here is lynn on twitter. we know rick scott wants to raise classes -- taxes on the lower class and middle class. how will that help? you have derek saying i trust the republicans to give corporations a tax break. if we have another pandemic, i do not want a republican in office. gus said throwing money at a

problem does not make it go away. i have cosponsored the act that addresses the root cause of the formula shortage and provides practical solutions. there is a headline in usa today about the shortage of baby formula. since february, amanda foster has had a hard time finding formula for her son. a c-17 military plane landed at indianapolis international airport, the first shipment to hit the united states as part of joe biden's initiative. imported formula would typically take two weeks, but the u.s. department of agriculture secretary speaking at the airport as the shipment was

unloaded and a fedex truck delivered it to the distribution plant a few miles away. that is the latest on the shortage. tom in massachusetts, republican. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing well. caller: i was a democrat most of my life. i am 73 years old now. in the past couple years, i changed my filiation to republican. president trump was the best president in my opinion in my lifetime. everything the biden administration has touched has turned into a disaster. i believe they are attempting to destroy our democracy. if they are not, they are doing

a heck of a job doing that. host: we have about 20 minutes left. keep dialing in. the phone lines are divided by party. independents, (202) 748-8002. darrell and illinois, democratic caller. caller: we will start with gas prices. there was an executive from an oil company before congress who said they like high prices because they are making money hand over fist. the prices come down and they start losing money. i saw a show on tv where they said exxon $815 billion last year and profits, so as long as

the oil companies are making profits -- then they go out and buy back their stock. they engage in stock buybacks. they do not care if gas goes to seven dollars a gallon. as far as the economy is concerned, they said people will not work because they are living off the government. unemployment ran out six months ago and unemployment claims have been falling and we have 3.5% unemployment because people will not work for $12 an hour anymore. the big line was told by government when they said we cannot afford $15 an hour. now they are paying and walmart is paying. they have signs in the window begging people to come to work because people will not work for an abusive boss for $12 an hour anymore.

it is not that people are living off welfare. it is just people woke up and said i can work anywhere for $12 an hour. i do not need to work for you. if you do not want to pay people, they are not going to stay and come to work for you. host: if we want higher wages, do we need to pay more for goods and services? caller: people cannot buy anything unless they have wages. people say if you raise the minimum wage you will have to lay everybody off. in the past when the minimum wage was raised there were not mass layoffs because people had money to buy things. it spurs the economy. higher wages do not create inflation. shortages create inflation. host: we will go to mark in

nebraska, republican. caller: i am calling for the republicans. i used to be a democrat but i did not feel trump was great on the economy and i also had a question for biden. he used the defense production act for baby formula. with gas shortages, why didn't they use that for gas and have them produce more gas? i have no idea on this, but maybe you do. how much does it cost to charge an electric car so we can compare that to what it cost to fill a gas car? host: you want to know that because you think it is comparable? caller: i am not sure. you never hear about it.

i'm just thinking once people start going on this electrical stuff the supply and demand will just increase the price of electricity so a lot of us poor people cannot afford that just like we cannot afford gas. host: in new york, democratic caller. caller: the party i really trust at this time is the democratic party, at least they are truthful. they try to get to the bottom of issues that are critical and they are for the people. they are not trying to overthrow the government. they are not the party trying to hide to the insurrection.

host: esther, do you trust the gop? caller: i do not care who gets into office. the way that the money has been printed, if they think they are going to be handed back -- i do not think that is going to happen. i pray people will open their eyes and see what is happening to our nation because it is falling. i do not want to hear about the insurrection. just look at how we kill babies. i do not care what party you are coming from. host: how will you vote in november? caller: probably republican because they have more standards that i go by and that is not killing babies and murdering babies.

host: so the economy is not your top issue. caller: the economy is going to get tanked if we do not do something. we keep printing money. how are we going to pay this back? there is no balanced-budget. this is like a checkbook. guest: josh host: -- host:host: josh, which party? caller: i'm currently supporting the democrats. the money supply more than doubled. we are seeing the effects of that and the increase in gas prices. we are now seeing how valuable the decision was to remain in nato. trump want to be removed.

putin thought that was going to happen. trump was continuing praising putin as being a genius. he wanted a dictatorship and we see the atrocities they are committing now. host: doug, democratic caller. caller: i am an independent, but i am leaning democrat this year. i trust the democrats appear in the republicans are the party of disinformation. they want to balance the budget by eliminating social security and medicare. that is what they mean by balancing the budget. they have had a 20 year strategy of giving tax cuts to the rich so they can undo the new deal by eliminating social security and

medicare. biden has been hit with a lot of crises trying to get out of the pandemic. inflation is a global problem, not caused by the democrats. we were going to go into a double recession if it was not for the first stimulus. we are positioned the best of any economy in the world right now and that is why we have to raise interest rates. that is why unemployment went down to 3.6%. those were all things the democrats did. that is all. thank you. host: in lawton, oklahoma, democratic caller. caller: i'm calling from lawton in oklahoma. the way you divide the calls is pretty good but a lot of times

the lines are busy. at any rate, i would like to make a quick point. everybody is railing about this and that, but trump was the worst president we have ever had if you look at all the people. host: what did he do on the economy that you thought was bad? caller: everything he touched he destroyed. he really did. if you look at it from saudi arabia and china and north korea and russia, he just destroyed everything. he was a disaster. he was the worst president we have ever had in our history. it is a shame these republicans and that unethical man they

follow here and this is the reason they got exactly what they deserved. host: scott is a republican in florida. we will hear from you next. scott, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i am fine. caller: ok, there's a little bit of a delay. i trust the republicans because i came from illinois. we moved down here to florida. it was a huge contrast, coming from a democratic state and coming down to florida and seeing the difference in how things are run, especially with covid and everything and how open everything was down here, just so much better. things are so much better down here. it is just amazing, actually.

host: what economic policies are put in place that make it a better place? caller: for one, we do not pay any state income tax, which really helps. the gas prices were a little lower. things are a lot better down here. things are more free, more open. numbers up in illinois were probably similar to what is going on here in florida, but nothing was shut down down here. we were able to go out and do what we wanted to do not go out to dinner. in illinois, everything was locked down. just economically, things seem better down here. host: in new york, independent.

caller: i am an independent or wise but i am going to be voting republican this year just by looking at what has happened since biden has become president. i just don't trust the democratic party. there has been so much that has gone downhill since he has been president that i do not trust that party any longer. i always voted for who i thought was the best candidate for presidency. we are in such a sad state now. host: what has biden done that contributes to the downfall, as you put it? caller: look at the economy. everything has gone up. he does not do anything to make anything better.

everything he could -- that comes out of his mouth he has to retract. there is no -- i do not think he is the best man for the job. host: what specific economic policies has he put in place that you think contribute? caller: look at all the people crossing the border over the last year. don't we have enough problems of our own? we cannot afford more people coming over here and handing out money to people that we cannot even feed here in america. let's slow down people crossing the border. let them come over legally like my grandparents did. i think there is a lot. the money he was giving out during covid. not everybody needed that money. we did not need it. i wanted to hand it back. host: did you get the earned

income tax credit? caller: no, we did not. the covid relief money, that in we did not need it but could not hand it back. host: eric in california, democratic caller. caller: good morning, america. i consider myself a christian democrat. i have been watching and i would like to say it is these rich young ruler's, the people that can afford it good and have over 100 rounds of bullets in their house. they are calling and complaining about the economy. host: will in florida, republican. your turn. caller: it is good to have a spokesperson to keep us going here. i am happy to state i have been

in the state of florida, probably the greatest state and government in the history of the whole state, but i called about -- to express that i lived through the carter days. i was a democrat. when i got to be 40 years old, i realized with the democrat party was all about. then i changed over to republican and i have been here ever since. jimmy carter never said he was a socialist or communist and we cannot have socialists and we cannot have communists in this country because they do not thrive. just look at the once around the world that we know are communist and socialist and what is happening now with communists, doing stupid things over there from russia. they are communist. i appreciate you taking my call.

i would like to express my opinion that if you're not a democrat, thank god. host: we appreciate you join the conversation. connie in california, independent. caller: i am so glad i got to talk to you. i think the economy is bad. they raised the wages but then everything goes up. what is the use of raising wages is everything goes up and now food shortages and everything. what is biden doing over there? he should be paying attention to our country, to the border. why does and he send someone there? and all of the rioting that went on in all the states. the democrats are so silent on

that. and one more thing. when covid hit, who was the one that said get on the ball and a star whatever you can to stop it? i do not hear anything about it was trump who said go ahead and start to stop this illness or whatever it is. have a great day. thank you. host: eric san diego, democratic caller. caller: good morning from san diego. i believe the democrats handle the economy better. unemployment is down to a record low of 3.8%. more people are working. there is more money in the economy. the top 100 companies in the united states have all posted

record profits, which is price gouging because there is more money in the economy. host: go ahead. finish your thought. caller: gasoline is expensive in california because of greed. shell just posted a $9.1 billion profit and the reason gasoline is so expensive in california now is there are over one million electric cars on the road and that means there are one million people not buying gasoline so they have raised the price to continue their profits, which is price gouging. host: in minnesota, jerry. do you trust the gop? caller: i guess when i go to the gas station and it is five dollars a gallon and i see my stock market and retiring savings dwindling -- there is no baby formula. this question answers itself. who in their right mind can say

they are happy they have held the senate and the president's seat with what has happened? the inflation is running rampant. we cannot even feed our babies and people actually call and say they want the democrats and say it is price gouging. that is the free market. if biden came out and said i am going to destroy the oil business before we have an alternative for it -- you want to put a new battery in electric cars, $11,000. it is complete silliness. the administration is not prepared. we go into afghanistan and pull out. we do not go and support ukraine. then they go inhost: understood.

we are going to leave it there. when we come back, we will talk about how small businesses are doing. we will speak with kevin kuhlman. later, 1st street foundation's matthew eb discusses his group's new report that finds 1 in 5 homes in the u.s. is at risk of being in a wildfire in the next 10 years because of climate change. we will be right back. ♪ >> at least six presidents recorded conversations while in office. here many of those conversations on c-span's new podcast.

>> season one focuses on the presidency of lyndon johnson. you will hear about the gulf of tonkin incident, the march on selma and the war in vietnam. not everyone knew they were being recorded. >> certainly johnson's a secretaries knew because they were tasked with transcribing many of those conversations. they were the ones who made sure the conversations were tape as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and there's. >> you will also hear some blunt talk. >> the numbers assigned to me now and -- if i can't ever go to the bathroom, i won't go. >> presidential recordings. find them on c-span now, our

mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine, bringing the latest from the pentagon and the state department as well as congress. we also have international perspectives and statements from foreign leaders. all that on c-span now and on c-span.org/ukraine where you can watch the latest videos on demand and follow tweets from journalists on the ground. go to c-span.org/ukrain. e >> after months of closed-door investigations the house january 6 committee is said to go public.

starting june 9, 29 as -- tune in. watch our live coverage starting thursday, june 9 on c-span, c-span now, or anytime online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. our newsletter word for word recaps the day for you from the halls of congress to daily press briefings to remarks from the president. skin that qr code at the right bottom to stay up to date on everything happening in washington. visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe anytime. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us this morning is

kevin kuhlman. he is the vice president -- thank you for being here. i want to begin with the front page of the wall street journal about small businesses, which you represent. the headline is " small businesses projected the economy to worsen." " 76% -- why? guest: small businesses are flashing yellow warning lights. half of the -- small businesses are important to the economic recovery. our research shows inflation is really taking its toll on small businesses. it is the top small business problem for one third of small business owners. it has a shot up in their concerns. it is concerning similarly.

expectations for better business conditions in seven months is the lowest it has been in the nearly 50 year survey. host: what is it about inflation that worries them -- concerns them? guest: supplies, inventory, fuel prices, energy prices, and that is just increasing costs forcing owners to increase their prices. most business owners have increased their prices 10%. they are revisiting those prices more often than they used to. biweekly they are looking at prices taking stock of what they need to do to keep up with inflationary pressures. host: what would possibly reducing tariffs do? what small business owners be on

board with that? guest: four impacted industries impacted by tariffs that would be welcomed -- for industries impacted by tariffs that would be welcomed. that is one step that could be taken to bolster business confidence a little bit, focusing on anything that increases prices, whether it is energy prices, fuel prices. reducing tariffs would help a little bit but i would not expect it to be the panacea to resolve everything. host: the federal reserve say they need to call this economy and keep raising interest rates. if that causes retrenchment by u.s. consumers, then what? guest: that would be problematic. we are seeing demand from consumers continue. people are still buying despite price increases. if consumer confidence lowers and people pull back, then we

have a problem. we are close to a recession. we just don't want it to be a long-lasting recession, if we do get there. hopefully it is something that can be quickly recovered. our members have set their expectations for better business conditions 6 months from now are the lowest they have ever been. host: i want to get to that point. let me invite our callers to call in. if you own a small business, (202) 748-8000. if you are a small business employee, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202) 748-8002. before we get to no harm, how would you define a small business? guest: the federal government has many different definitions.

you cannot be publicly traded, but the vast majority of nfib members are on the smaller side. average, $5,000 in gross receipts. we represent the truly small and, although our members could be a sole proprietor, no employees all the way through a manufacturer or distributor with a couple hundred or couple thousand employees. host: when you say " do no harm," to lawmakers, does that mean do nothing? guest: it means take a look at every piece of legislation you are considering, and say " how would this impact the small business economy? how would this impact consumer confidence? are we making things better or are we going to make things potentially worse, get people more in a defensive crouch?

and will it have a real impact? i think the worst thing at this point in time would be to pile on new taxes or regulations to small businesses. we want to build up confidence, and not retrench them more into a defensive crouch where they do not want to invest in their employees. host: what can the president do on immigration and diseases for jobs? guest: -- and visas for jobs? guest: opening up visas for seasonal jobs would help. it may be too late if they enter into their season. some of this may -- needed to be done longer ago. any of those on the visa side for those impacted industries would be welcomed. host: anything that this administration can do in the

short term? guest: taking a look at energy policy and trying to bring down energy prices, both in the production and distribution of gasoline of fuel,, as well as looking at the price. nfib has supported the gas tax holidays. it seems like it has not caught fire. we realize there would be some longer term consequences of suspending the gas tax, but it is something our members would be open to. host: let's get to calls. james in boston. you are calling about small businesses in the country? caller: yes, good morning. i have a question. he said he was looking at small businesses all over. a small business is 8 people or less. what states are you looking at?

you hear that a lot in the news, but you never say specifics. small businesses as a whole -- what is his paycheck compared to someone within the small business communities? i'm just curious. how can you say you are looking out for small businesses when his tax bracket is way different than those in those neighborhoods? host: kevin kuhlman? guest: our members are in all 50 states. we represent members in all 50 states and in every community. it is difficult to represent 50% of the economy. the small business owners of every different size, but we speak to our members every day, so we hear from there anecdotally as well. we advocate for the interest of all small businesses. host: let's go to our lando in

georgia -- orlando in georgia. orlando, what is your business? caller: i am a truck driver. when do you think feel prices will be going back down a dollar or two? guest: i wish i could predicted that. i think the inflation numbers for last month hampered a little bit. fuel prices are back up near record highs. i worry about that eating up. during the summer season when people may be traveling more for business or personal use, the price at the pump is putting a damper on business owners and consumers alike. i do not know when they go down -- they will go down. caller: if they take the gas, do

you think it is a possibility that joe biden will take the gas tax off? guest: it is kind of a global market. i think a temporary suspension of the gas tax would dampen or lower the price. the problem would be if global markets continue to have disruption and the price continues to go up despite that relief. on the sunday shows they were saying maybe they will look at it. it is up to congress. it is a possibility. i do not know if it is a probability at this point in time. the gas tax might be one of those considerations. host: when small business owners talk about the outlook not being good in 6 months, what could be the fallout of that?

layoffs? what will small businesses have to do? host: at a minimum -- guest: at a minimum, they are not going to grow, they are not going to hire new employees. the fear is, if we do get into a longer recession, then comes layoffs, then comes even more problematic issues similar to that. host: the unemployment rate is at 3.6%. you had 428,000 jobs added in april. why is that not good news? guest: there are still -- it is still not enough, unfortunately. half of business owners cannot fill open positions and fewer are planning to create new jobs in the immediate and distant future. there are warning signs out there. it is important they are still creating jobs.

a little further out, that may not be the environment. even then they cannot fill the open positions they do have. some are having to limit their hours, turned on projects, things you do not want to be happening. host: rhonda in freehold, new jersey. caller: good morning. i want to give a quick shout out to c-span. you -- quick shout out to c-span. you are helping us to talk to our brothers and sisters across the country and get a proper perspective on how people feel. my question is, what have they done with the money we have given them with the stimulus package? my son works for the union. they lock you in where he cannot get another job because he works for a union and no one will hire

him because when the union calls you, you have to go back to work. my son builds bridges. he just had twins! they got all this stimulus money from the federal government, but where are the jobs? what did they do with the money? i want to know. host: let's take that point. guest: rhonda, from the business owner perspective, early in the pandemic, congress passed the cares act that created the paycheck protection act. that was administered through banks and it had requirements on it. you had to use at least 75% and then a drop down to 60% of that to pay employees. you could use some of that for overhead costs. that was a lifeline for small business owners. three quarters of small businesses took advantage of the ppp and as a result they were

able to keep their employees. that was important when finding qualified employees is so difficult now. the other program was the e idl program. that was a low interest a long-term loan after people utilized ppp. it shut down in 2021. communication was not great from sba in that regard. we did hear some complaints, but about a third of small businesses took advantage of those long-term low-interest loans. while those programs are in the rearview mirror at this point in time, they were very beneficial

to small business owners. there were a bunch of other stimulus programs for individuals and for unemployment insurance, but the real small business ones worthy paycheck protection program and the eidl loans. host: small businesses now have a situation where they have labor shortages. are they paying more to keep the workers that they do have? guest: small business owners are putting their money where their mouth is. as they express their concerns about their issues, they are increasing compensation at record levels. they are adding new benefits or increasing current benefits to keep current employees and recruit new employees. we are seeing in our research and hearing from our members they are doing everything they can to attract new people. they are just not getting all the applicants they need are the

qualifications they need. host: is it skilled workers they cannot find? guest: it is both skilled and unskilled. in the construction industry, a higher percentage are looking to hire, but they are having a higher percentage of people who are not qualified. 97% of the applicants are not qualified. these business owners have perhaps lowered their qualifications. they accept certifications as opposed to degrees. they are trying to train employees themselves. it has been this pervasive challenge. host: we will go to michelle in new york. caller: hi. i am looking at michelle -- you

quoting the unemployment rate. that is so not a real number. i worked at the hospital for years. i lost my job after 35 years. first responders are not even included in that unemployment rate. you have millions of people who lost their jobs because of that, and the governors would not even allow us to collect unemployment. that number everyone quotes every single day, that is not the real number. add 2 million people to that. host: take her point. guest: we do need to increase workforce participation. that headline unemployment number does not tell all the story. it is important -- and our members are feeling it as well. small business owners ask " how

can we get anyone on the sideline back in the workforce?" the headline unemployment number does not tell all the story. it does not count everybody. you may want to look at the labor participation rate. our members are saying the same thing -- where are the workers? how -- can we get them back? host: keith in florida. what is the small business? caller: i small t-shirts on weekends. i am a one-man small business. with the gas tax and everything, this is the spiral we got. we are talking about taking the gas tax off, but we are putting $1.2 trillion into infrastructure. we are putting money back in.

it is a spiral of government money changing things that aren't supposed to be there. let me ask you on president biden's original package when he came in, he had massive amounts of offsets that he bragged about for people of color businesses getting special loans and stuff. is there any information on the outcome of all that money going in and where it went to because they did a lotto ragging on it, but i have heard no -- lot of bragging on it, but i have heard no bragging. in my area, they did not grow. guest: some of the preferences are helping more disproportionately impacted communities and neighborhoods. there was even in the restaurant program the funding that went to

that there was a lawsuit that kind of turn that upside down and it may have been problematic in implementing that. i do think you want to target the funds if you're going to provide assistance. there are various ways to do that. nfib supported the employee retention credit because you had to show a certain revenue loss that it had a broad base. it was not industry specific. while it had that targeting of those businesses that really needed it, it did not exclude any industries. host: diana strong sends us this tweet -- " is it true that of the 8% inflation rate, 4% of that was due to used-car inflation? used prices rose 3.5%." guest: that is one of the inputs

that goes into the inflation. certainly, the used car market has been problematic and good for sellers, but that for buyers. -- but bad for buyers. other inputs are contributing to it. i do not think you can say it is disproportionately due to used cars. host: supply chains, the challenges because of the pandemic, etc. is there anything this administration or congress can do on the supply chain? guest: it is good they have acknowledged that inflation will be their top domestic issue right now. i would love to see that put into action and more details about their plan.

the president is overseas right now and they are saying he is looking into repairing supply chains. there are not quick fixes but it is good to hear there is the acknowledgment and hope fully the focus on it whereas maybe six months ago this was just a blip, it is just transitory and will go away soon. the focus is on supply chain's, hopefully, that attention turns into action. host: the president is announcing a framework this morning in japan to counter china's strategy and influence in the region that also the white house is saying this packed with these 13 nations would help deal with supply chain issues. how do you respond to that? guest: we will see. i am looking forward to reviewing the outline. hopefully it is good.

i would not expect that near-term, but it is good to see the attention on it. i'm looking forward to reviewing details. host: florida, you are on our line for all others. the other lines are for small business owners and small business employees. go ahead. caller: good morning. i want to piggyback on rhonda's comment earlier where she said thank you guys for giving us a voice to our brothers and sisters out there. my comment is not intended to -- but we have to give the big guys a check. consume what we buy in order to

stop the waste. as the gentleman mentioned, if we continued to buy with the prices skyhigh, they have no incentives to lower prices, which in effect helps a small businesses grow and be able to employ people. we as citizens have to stop the inflation ourselves. host: let's take that argument. she is arguing americans need to stop spending so much in order to help with inflation. guest: i think you see from whether it is the egg -- you are hearing from large retailers that they are starting to see individuals curb some of their spending, especially they are or discretionary costs. i think that is happening,

especially as people have to spend a greater percentage on fuel prices. i think that is happening and will happen. you just hope that it is not long-term repercussions as a result. i think people will start to -- i do think we are starting to see signs of people curbing their spending. you just hope it does not lead to a prolonged recession as a result. host: dave -- dave in michigan. caller: i want to know kevin's perspective. every 1o to 13 years we get a turnaround in the economy. i call it the effect of the demand and supply, how fast it can go before we actually crash, and what is happening is we keep

running through, recycle, recycle. there has to be some relativity that has to be done in order to affect all of this chain of reaction that we have. kevin, i see you nodding your head. i think you understand. i have been in all kinds of different business opportunities, and i see it time and time again. there is supply and demand, all like you said, here and there and someone. -- and so on. there is a relativity on how fast we can produce and react.great topic . guest: whether you call led the hydroplaning affect, some have -- call it the hydroplaning affect, some have called at the

great resignation, people are figuring out what the new economic reality is whether it is on the supply chain side, the economic side, we see these flashing warning lights, saying " be careful. do no harm." the small business economy is resilient. small business owners may be at their wits end because they just came out of a pandemic and they are dealing with strong economic headwinds, but they will do what they can to weather the storm. i want to have a positive message as well. while we do have these yellow warning lights, i think small business owners have made it. they are coming out of a problematic period, and they are ready for the next challenge. they would like to see some resolutions to some of these issues. host: the great resignation -- what do you think is behind it?

what are jobseekers looking for? guest: that is a good question. i think some -- there was more retirements as a result of the pandemic, people either looking at concern about their own personal health. could be just reevaluating their lifestyle and life choices. may be i could retire early and live on that? the stock market was going gangbusters despite the pandemic. those portfolios lesso may be -- as those portfolios lessen, may be people will return. business owners have opened positions they cannot fill. the hope is you can align those

openings with the right skills. there are opportunities at this point in time. . host: cynthia in tennessee. what is your business? caller: i have a grocery store. host: how big is your grocery store? caller: i am a small business. i applied for a loan and they denied me both times. people who didn't even have businesses got it. i want to know why. i couldn't get it and i have a business! host: your business is a grocery store? how many employees? caller: just 1. host: so a pretty small store then? caller: a small business. guest: thank you, cynthia. i do not know about the specific situation, but presumably it is one of these sba loans.

it is unfortunate that people took advantage of some of these programs, and they became targets for fraud whether it was the unemployment insurance program, the paycheck protection program or the eidl program. a departmentwide task force is cracking down on some of those fraudsters, and it does work to the detriment of those who did want or need those loans. we have heard this frustration with the sba. if someone did receive a denial, why? there are certainly improvements the sba could do on the outreach side related to those programs. the last one, stop taking applications close down on may 16 so those economic injury disaster loans are no longer

available. i'm sorry you were denied twice. host: manny in daytona beach, florida, small business owner. what is your business? caller: physical bookstores. people do not understand that going between my 2 bookstores my gas costs have doubled from last year. the point i wanted to make is i go to the grocery store. yesterday eggs cost $6 i. do not know the logic that mr. biden and the democrats are using. if we are still using oil, why don't we use our own oil?

guest: fuel cost, transportation costs are increasing especially for small business owners. we hear that from our members every day, manny. our members would support increased production. generally, it is cleaner when it is done here in the united states. that might take some time to provide some relief, you might as well start now to get towards their. similar to you, we hear from small business owners who support increased processing in the hopes that it would increase the supply and potentially bring down the costs here. host: we have had a couple of calls on this. for viewers who are interested, we covered last week a hearing in the senate about u.s.-canada gas and oil mineral partnerships

and canadian officials testified on relying more on them instead of calling on other countries. picking up on the food cost part, i am curious about what is going to be the impact on businesses, specifically restaurants. when food costs are so high, they will pass them down to the consumers. when you go to look at the menu and things become very expensive, what happens? guest: customers will order less and potentially eating out less as a result, having to revisit menu prices more frequently, so you could see observational consumers like manny saying " i paid this for this meal and now it is 35% more." we are hearing that from our members, and it is unfortunate. because up and down that supply chain, whether it is producing the goods, transporting the

goods, or ingredients and finally prepping it, all the labor costs, the fuel and energy costs are increasing and as a result a business owner has to increase their prices. they are concerned that consumers will stop purchasing, will dial back. we see someone -- the hope is that it is not prolonged and we can figure out this dynamic, but those flashing warning signs are there. host: stephen in texas. caller: yes or. -- yes sir. how do you see the long-term and short-term impact on the market in that so much savings from americans go into their 401(k)'s in the market now instead of savings in local banks, small banks to support -- to grow small capital?

now all of our money seems to go into -- i hate to put it this way, but a crapshoot of a market, instead of being saved locally in our savings accounts. we are captive to the markets because we are offered it as our only long-term savings for retirement. we are not giving any opportunity to say with any value, especially pretax, and a local bank. i am sure that affects small businesses and how you have to deal with banks. guest: yeah. small business owners generally did utilize their smaller community banks more often. they had better relationships with those. they had better experiences with the paycheck protection program with their local community banks.

we heard anecdotally. the number of community banks has been lessening over the last 10, 15 years. those relationships in the community are important. they generally loan to small business owners at higher rates and the relationships are better. it is important that the small bank sector stay strong. the trend has been fewer community banks over the near term. to your point on short-term versus long-term savings, business owners generally have less of a cushion. -- business owners generally have less of a cushion in the long-term. the are more susceptible to not having strong cash reserves on the backendy making sure

small businesses have access to it is important. the relationship with community banks as well. host: what about their profit margins compared to bigger companies? guest: it depends on the industry. not many small business owners have the advantage of scale that many larger businesses do. they do not have the access to large lines of credit, if need be. they are more sensitive to these kinds of price shocks. when our research has shown us on the inflation side is that it is eating into their profit margins even more. they do not want to pass on the full inflationary changes to consumers. they had lower profit margins as a result. is that sustainable? i'm not sure.

we will be sure to follow it closely. host: kevin kuhlman is the head of the federal government -- vice president for the national independent federation of small businesses. the front page of the wall street journal this morning, many of them seeing a negative, darkening outlook for them in the next six months. we have divided the lines by small business owners. you can call in at (202) 748-8000. small business employees, (202) 748-8001, and all others, (202) 748-8002. kevin kuhlman, what are you watching far from this administration next on the economy? guest: do not make things worse. no new tax increases and new mandates on small business owners. we are watching on what is

happening with the build back better act and what is happening or not happening from that aspect. it is my understanding that it is evolving. it could be based on just energy policy. it could be based on health care policy. doing something like that without putting broad base tax increases would be positive. the expansion of the small business or tax, currently only applies to investment income. it would set it to add a threshold of $400,000. more business income would be observed by this tax. we are concerned about one-size-fits-all mandates, potentially a paid family and medical leave program that could exacerbate the workforce shortages. we are concerned about substantial increases to labor

laws and employment law violations. we understand no businesses want to make a mistake, but if they do unintentionally make that mistake, increasing the violations to $10,000 to $20,000 per violation, could wipe out a small business. trying to get some rationality into those penalty structures is important as well. do not put a whole swath of new regulations on small businesses. the expansion of the epa, the army corps of engineers could be a problem. there is a department of treasury new reporting requirement going through the works. the department of labor could expand the overtime definition. if this regular terry --

regulatory agenda gets aggressive, small business owners will get into a defensive crouch, and that could be problematic for the economy. host: eric in buffalo, we will hear from you next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to make a few comments about big business. the oil industry, opec, they are deliberately keeping supply low so price is high. of course that will trickle down into small business. small businesses are more connected to the common people. i was buying things and of course if the price goes up they will have to pay more. it is supply and demand. stock buybacks -- you are mentioning how the pandemic, they made record profits.

a lot of that was in stock buybacks. a lot of things are driving this inflation and the inflation is worldwide. it is not just on biden. it is on everybody. how do we control it? guest: stock buyback is not in the vocabulary of a small business owner, but it is that. my final message is we have these flashing warning signs, whether it is on the front page of the wall street journal, the research they do that says inflation, it is workforce shortages. our research says the same thing.expectations for better business conditions over the next six months is the lowest it has been in our 50 year survey history. we are concerned about the long-term impacts. the message is be careful. do no harm.

every policy should be evaluated on how will this impact small business owner optimism and will this have negative impacts on inflation, workforce shortages, or supply chain disruption? small business optimism is at the lowest point since april 2020, the height of the pandemic. we are seeing these warning signs in the economy. without a strong, robust, small business recovery there will not be a general economic recovery. do no harm and hopefully we have some light at the end of the tunnel. host: thank you very much for talking to our viewers this morning. guest: thank you. host: coming up later on the program, we will talk with 1st street foundation's matthew eby.

he estimates one in five single-family homes in the u.s. is at risk of being in a wildfire over the next 10 years due to climate change. what public policy issue is weighing on your mind? there are the numbers on your screen. start dialing in. we will be right back. ♪ >> be up-to-date on the latest in publishing with the podcast about books. a bestseller lists plus industry news, you can find out about books on c-span now or wherever you got your podcasts. ♪ >> after months of closed-door

investigations the house january 6 committee is set to go public. starting june 9 two in in as people question witnesses about what happened and why. watch our live coverage starting thursday, june 9 on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do 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 or here or here or anywhere that matters,

america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. our newsletter word for word recaps the day for you from the halls of congress to daily press briefings to remarks from the president. skin the qr code at the right bottom to sign up for this email and stay up to date on everything happening in washington each day. visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe anytime. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back this morning in open forum. we want to know what public policy issue is of top. concern for you we will have that conversation for 30 minutes.

troy, you are up first. caller: [indiscernible] host: ok, dave in north carolina, republican. caller: it is getting bad when walmart prices are as insane as the other local food stores around here. i don't know whether it is gas or the economy, but it is bad when walmart has the same prices as the other stores do. host: what are you doing as you see prices increasing? how are you reacting to that? spending less? spending the same? caller: what i am doing, im trying to buy a little bit less out there. the prices are getting

astronomical. i am paying double what i used to do for everything. i would rather go to my local food stores because they are cheaper than walmart. [laughter] host: what do you buy less of, dave? caller: eggs. i go that route. host: auto in washington dc. democratic -- otto in washington dc, democratic color. caller: -- host: otto in washington dc, democratic caller . what is your top policy issue?

caller: i would like then to address the existential threat of climate change. it will only get worse. host: we are talking about your top public policy issue in open forum this morning. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also text at (202) 748-8003 or join us on facebook.com. frank in clarksburg, west virginia. good morning. caller: i know people who watch c-span and bbc. i saw a man yesterday, where former president trump spoke of

a civil war. have you heard anything of that? am i losing my mind? host: where did you see it and what concerned you about it? did you not read the full story? caller: no ma'am, i haven't. i spoke to the person who answered the phone and he told me to google it. host: ok. frank in west virginia. we will try to find the story for you, frank. bill, democratic caller. what is on your mind? caller: the policy issue is just what the gentleman was talking about there -- civil war. are the people calling for this

of our war -- the civil war sure? are we going to put our children out to go through what we went through in the previous civil war in the 1800s? it is totally getting out of hand. the thing about it is with all of the mass shooting going on, we are seeing that they want to start a civil war. when they fail, that is what their options are, to start a civil war. are we going down that road again? people have to look at it again and see, one thing about it, they are not the ones who are going to be fighting the civil war.it will be our children . host: four our previous caller,

here is the story. this one is from the independent. trump under fire for sharing post calling for civil war over u.s. inflation. the former president has shared a post on truth that appeared to propose a civil war in the u.s. triggering an uproar. the post was from an anonymous account. it says, and you can find more if you go to independent.co.uk. brian in tampa florida, democratic caller, we are in open form. go ahead. caller: it was on truth social. they call it "re-truthing" instead of" re-tweeting -- instead of " retweeting."

host: ok. any other public policy thoughts? caller: people are so uninformed. people do not vote their interests. they vote thinking border policies. if you look at the numbers, he has done a great job with that situation. host: the president is in asia on a six-day tour. he is on the second leg of it. he is in japan. earlier this morning he held a news conference with the japanese later. -- japanese leader. he addressed rising gas prices and food shortages. take a lesson.

[video clip] >> you are talking about the significant progress we have made in making sure we do not have supply chain backups, about the 8000 jobs that hyundai will be bringing to georgia, 3000 jobs to texas, and samsung an investment, the situation where -- we have created over 8 million new jobs. inflation is down 3.6%. imagine where we would be had we not made that enormous progress? our gdp will grow faster than china's for the first time in 4

years -- in 4 years. does that mean we do not have problems? no. host: president biden earlier today. if you missed that news conference, you will be able to find it on c-span.org. bill, republican, public policy issue? caller: inflation. don't these people know the higher the prices the more taxes we have to pay? you just had a guy talking about a civil war in this country. how come they do not publicize this on the night of the election when trump -- usaa if she was elected -- he was saying if she was elected " we will be minorities." the country is in bad shape.

on the view they were -- megan mccain asks " do you believe there is going to be a civil war?" it is a sad state. this country is bad. the borders are wide open. i'm afraid to go out at night time. host: speaking of immigration, we talked about this earlier with the immigration reporter. federal judge rules title 42 must continue. a federal judge ruled that pandemic related restrictions on migrants must continue blocking president biden's plan to terminate the title 42 public health order today. the department of justice says it plans to appeal the decision. a district judge sided with 24 states.

he granted the plaintiffs request to stop the rollback of title 42, a provision that allows border authorities to those who could pose a health risk. lou in tampa bay, florida. caller: there is a problem going to go on in europe. problem going to go on in europe. people are going to have a big problem with the food. i went to cornell university many years ago and this guy said that the farmland is the most important primary foundation of an economy. i am concerned about that and

also, bill gates owns the most farmland of anybody in the united states and we are giving the farmland to the subsidies. but we need to be a caring nation and we have to step up to the plate and feed the people in europe like we did many years ago. that is really all i have to say. i thank you very much for c-span. very good. host: all right, lou. we are in open forum this morning. another public policy area is the supreme court. it is a decision day for them in washington. we could hear more from cases that have been argued this term including that abortion case that could be announced by the court. we will be watching that and you can go to constitutioncenter.org. they have significant supreme court cases remaining in this

term if you want to see what the court has yet to decide and what is left for them to announce. walter in charleston, south carolina, independent. hi, walter. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: i wanted to speak briefly about climate and our current economic problems related to the gasoline. i think the climate thing is going to take decades if not a generation. our immediate issue right now is what is happening to the country. we are paying enormous prices, truckers are our lifeline. they are paying enormous prices in gas. we should have an immediate or rapid response and open more gas lines. all of it is lying there unused.

that is what we should use for the immediate problem. i am not saying climate is not an issue, but it is going to take generations to change. we need to take care of what is happening to our country right now. we have the means to do it, i am not sure if the government has the will. thank you for listening to my opinion. host: james in connecticut, republican. caller: thank you, greta. my comment is initially about the idea of how the american people have lost complete confidence in our news media telling us the truth about stories. we have about seven major networks in the united states. i want to go into two recent stories that have proven that. for four years, donald trump battled in the media over the fake russia conspiracy story which was pushed on every major network. now we have, in the trial of hillary clinton's campaign manager and lawyer, that hillary

clinton actually started the entire thing, the entire fake trump-russia story as a way to smear him for the campaign. at the democrat news networks ran with that not just during the campaign but for four years. we also have the fact the hunter biden laptop, which all of us knew was real from the beginning, was another thing our american news media purposely lied about to the american people to ensure swing voters would not vote for trump. we also know that the wuhan lab in china, which actually published in 2015 in a magazine nature.org, that they had created a chimeric virus mixing sars with human lung cells that could spread like wildfire. that came from the lab and they created 11 versions that were

registered with the national institute of health database and the organization of the who. host: what is your source on the last story? caller: which story? host: the last about the wuhan lab. caller: the last one. i want you to go to naturemagazine.org, november 11, 2015. i am trying to get the name -- i could get it in a moment. but the virologist from england, duncan hunter. experimental virus -- sorry. host: it is ok. let me pick up on your first story. "washington times" front page, testimony links trump aide directly to clinton. hillary clinton personally approved sharing with the news

media linking donald trump to russia even though campaign officials were not sure of the accuracy. the manager for the 2016 campaign testified in court. it was revealed during the cross-examination of robby mook. while on the stand and the trial the former clinton -- in the trial of the former clinton campaign manager, i discussed this with hillary clinton as well. the discussion is we have this and we want to share this with reporters. she agreed to do that. testimony provided the direct involvement in promoting the trump-russia conspiracy theory during the 2016 campaign. the involvement of the clinton campaign is the linchpin of the trial against mr. sussman about lying who is his employer was.

you can read more in "the washington times." al in houston, texas, independent. caller: hello. i wanted to call -- i don't think the news is quite right about whatever is going on. basically, maybe not the best person in the world to be president but certainly -- people are not getting the news. everywhere you hear the same thing. like the gentleman that just said everything biden is doing fine. biden is not doing anything. someone else is telling biden what to say. you can tell on the television. you know, i think people should

vote for trump. host: you are breaking up every other word. we will move on to dave in west columbia, south carolina, republican. caller: good morning. host: morning, dave. caller: how are you doing today? host: i am doing well. public policy issue on your mind. caller: well, i want to say one thing about the biden administration and i tell you what, i believe this from my heart. i believe what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. i am a trump man to the marrow. he is the greatest president we ever had. i have never seen a man except ronald reagan do what he said he was going to do. host: and what did he do? what made him the greatest? caller: and everything that he done. he turned this country around and i tell you what, we need him back in their. host: in what way?

caller: ma'am, i have brain cancer. the economy and everything. he stood up to china, he stood up to everybody. what happened in afghanistan with biden would have never happened with trump. host: howard in fort lee, new jersey, independent. caller: good morning. we seem to have a bifurcated system of justice in this country and it is probably elevated by a very dysfunctional press. by "dysfunctional" it seems most of the press seems to take the positions of the government and not asking questions about why those positions are being taken. unless we stop having a bifurcated system of government, meaning, why is it it takes an investigation to route out information and problems?

why is it the department of justice has not had a program to do what they are doing? it takes outside sources or supplement sources to correct things that should be done by government. a classic example is what seems to be going on with justice in this country regarding all of the things going on in 2020 and hundreds of cities in this country that have gotten no real approach by the federal government. but if certain segments of the economy, for instance, what happened in buffalo is an atrocious occasion. rightfully, the government is involved. but a guy in wisconsin mows down people and it hardly gets any controversy or press coverage.

that is what i mean by a bifurcated system government. it has infected the press and infected the people of the country to take sides against one another. it is basically because of abject absence by the federal government to really process effectively a neutral position on issues. that is my concern. host: ok, howard. patty in louisville, kentucky, democratic caller. caller: good morning. this is patty. i am a little bit hoarse, sorry about that. i was listening to the man a couple back talking about the press lying. he brought up hillary and hunter biden but he did not mention the big lie, the election being stolen. he did not mention that at all. that is covered constantly.

fox news, newsmax, politicians, local, state and federal. that is the problem i have. they want to turn their head to that and start on hilary and joe biden's son. those are nerves were the -- those are newsworthy but they have to talk about the real facts about why we are where we are right now. it was not hilary and it was not hunter biden, it was the big lie. thank you. host: patty in kentucky. the ukrainian president, mr. zelinskyy, is urging maximum sanctions on russian in davos as he addressed world leaders,

executives and others that have gathered for that annual conversation. richard in verona, missouri, democratic caller. hi, richard. caller: good morning. i just turned 84 and i hear trump was the greatest president we ever had. i tell you what, every president has had problems. whether it is baby formula -- i don't know how biden can make baby formula quick. they found problems so they shut down the plant. everything from toilet paper to whatever. anyhow, the supreme court --

when kennedy got elected everyone have a problem because he was catholic. now these folks got control of the supreme court. it is a bunch of nonsense to me. grow up. i am sitting here on social security and medicare. [indiscernible] i will get off of here. host: we are going to take a break. when we come back, we turn our attention to climate change. first street foundation's matthew eby will discuss the increase in climate change related wildfire risks. we will be right back. ♪ announcer: c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. our newsletter recaps the day

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in fact, they were the ones who made sure the conversations were taped as johnson would signal to them through an open door between his office and there's. announcer: you will also hear blunt talk. >> yes sir? >> i wanted report of the number of people that signed to kennedy the day he died at the #to me now and i want him right quick. >> yes, sir. >> if i cannot ever go to the bathroom, i will not go. i promise i will not go anywhere. i will stay right behind these black gates. announcer: "presidential recordings," find it on the c-span mobile app or wherever you get podcasts. ♪ announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: joining us as matthew eby, founder and director of 1st street foundation to talk about a new report about wildfires. the headline is "tens of

millions of u.s. properties face wildfire risks." you said one in five single-family homes in the u.s. is at risk of a wildfire -- being in a wildfire the next 30 years. tell us why. guest: the report really looks at a few things. first and foremost, it looks at the state of the fuels across the country like forests or things that can combust. the likelihood of ignition and subsequent wildfires that would spread across the country throughout 2022. what we found when looking at this year's wrist within the approach we used is that there is tens of millions of homes that face some level of risk from wildfires. host: just in 2022? guest: that's right. when you are looking at an annualized risk of probability of something happening what we find is there is about 30 million properties that have

pretty severe risk. if you have that home for a 30 year period, a typical mortgage, you have a 1% chance of wildfire reaching your building. 30 million properties have that level of risk and many more that have more extreme risk. host: how did you go about calculating this? guest: well, we worked with a great group of academics as well as for-profit institutions that have spent decades on the topics. these are experts in fuels, climatology, weather. what we were able to do is use software called elm fire to create 100 million fire simulations. we looked across all the places wildfires could have started. we then look at the potential weather scenarios over a 10 year period so we have an average, and then we simulate and watch where they go.

if they impact a property, we use a monte carlo simulation. looking at all the different times wildfires spread, how many made it to that property, and what were the odds of that of happening today? because we do it so many times over and over and over we get a good picture of the likelihood of homes impacted by wildfires today. but we did not just look at today. we looked at the condition 30 years from today when it will be hotter, drier. we ran another 100 million simulations in that period to understand how wildfire will change over that 30 years from the impacts of climate. host: why? why did you try to -- why did you want to do this study? guest: up until this point there has not been a way to look at specific property risk from wildfire. the forest service does a great job and they have a thing called

wildfire risk communities. what that does is allows you to look at relative risk. my county's wrist relative to another county and it is made for, you know, understanding risks from a high level so you can take action on management. what we were looking at is something completely different which do not exist at all which is, how likely is that specific home to be in a wildfire? further, how likely is that home to combust? knowing the intensity of the flames that make it to the property and what is the consequence of it? looking at two things, the exposure to the likelihood of wildfire and the consequence, the flames causing that home to combust or the embers landing on a home causing it to combust. we did this because it has not existed before. not only did we release the findings on the report but if you go to our website,

riskfactor.com, you can type in your address and see how likely your home is to be impacted by a wildfire and the subsequent consequences. host: what do you think insurance companies do with the information? guest: insurance companies are a little different in the sense they are not like a typical homeowner. an insurance company looks for a 12 month policy. they typically have you for an annual premium that covers risk over one year. they are looking at risk and saying, of all the policies i hold, how likely is it someone will have something happen to their home, the wildfire reaches it, and it burns down and i have to pay out on that policy? they look at a different methodological approach. a homeowner is different in two ways. one, they only care about one home they own or rent or are looking to sell. two, they are looking at an overall period of time longer

than one year time horizon. when you think of probability it is different than an insurance company over 12 months. if you own a home 30 years, as we were talking about earlier, your annual risk adds up over time. it is called cumulative risk. if you have a 1% risk today of being in a wildfire or your home flooding and you own that home for 30 years, over that 30 year period you have a 26% chance of that happening. one in four chance which sounds different than a 1% annual risk. it is 1% each given year over 30 years. when you care about a home or looking at a risk over a cumulative period it is different than a one year policy. different than the insurance company. host: our most of these homes out west? is this the area you focused on? guest: instinctively and intuitively everyone hears about wildfires out west.

logically you would think that is where the vast majority of risk is. there is a ton of risk, don't get me wrong, but there is also risk in texas, florida. when you look at the highest levels of risk, that 1% annual risk, we actually see that the number of properties in florida, texas and california are about the same. but when we look at the changing climate, that 30 year time horizon and what changed over the next 30 years when we look at the state of the fuels and heat and combustion 30 years from now, that is where you see the west coast is about 6x what it is today whereas florida and texas are doubling. astonishing numbers to say, oh, they are only doubling in texas and florida. but there is a 6x multiplier in california with homes with extreme risk. by and large the numbers are what you would expect on the

west coast today but the shocking places are these other loca. these are broad wildfires spreading for days out west but they are more impactful to properties. host: matthew eby is our guest, founder and executive director of the first street foundation. if you live in the eastern central part of the country, dial in with your questions or comments about wildfire risk at (202)-748-8000. if you live in the mountain pacific area, (202)-748-8001. send us a text with your first name, city and state at (202)-748-8003. matthew eby, you touched on it but what are the contributing factors to risk of a wildfire? guest: as i was mentioning, the first and foremost is what can catch on fire? those are typically called

fuels. you look at the fuels across the country and then we look at, well, we know where the trees are, the types of trees, shrubs, all of the different states of the fuels. then we want to know how likely it is for something to then catch fire. that is from things that are human caused, everything from power utility lines that come through or somebody trying to put out a cigarette walking in the forest, or gender reveal parties that we have seen have pyrotechnics start forest fires. human causes along with natural causes like lightning strikes that then start the fuel on fire. once it starts the next most important thing is whether it will keep going from the weather. that matters with humidity and that matters with wind. those two things along with the heat that actually causes the fuel to dry out and combust.

then it really makes the conditions on whether the wildfire begins to spread and where it spreads or whether it is suppressed. suppression is something else we take into account which is the forest service going out for people trying to mitigate the fires, trying to put them out. taking all those into account is really how we create our model using software and it simulates all these things. we can do it over and over and over to then know where it is the wildfires will get to, and once they are there we have partnered with a large engineering company that is a 20,000, 30,000 person firm. they look at how combustible are they? different levels of intensity makes it to that structure and it is made of vinyl siding or brick and it has all these different components.

how likely is it to combust and subsequently burned down? bringing all these elements together we are able to tell you not just the exposure across the country but how many homes would actually potentially combust and have that event happen to them. host: i want to play for you and our viewers the interior department. [video clip] >> climate change continues to drive the intersection of extreme heat, drought and wildland fire danger across the u.s., creating wildfires that move with the speed and intensity previously unseen. climate change created a continuous fire year for our nation and american communities continue to bear the brunt of the resulting cycle of intensifying drugs, wildfires and poor air quality. we want to better

safeguard people, communities and resources. the drought outlook for the u.s. is very concerning. noaa's outlook shows continual drought across all of the west. even in areas that have seen above normal rainfall this past winter we may expect them to experience increased vegetation growth and fast-moving wildfires during a dry, hot summer. host: matthew eb on the drug. this is the headline from the "los angeles times." the former secretary calls for the revamping of the colorado river pack. the state surrounded that share this water and have a sharing agreement. curious what your thoughts are on drought conditions. that is a factor to the wildfire risk. guest: absolutely. i mean, drought is one of the components of a dry vegetation

and that is what causes things to combust. when we are going through a state of drought and don't have the precipitation, which is causing the water in the forest to stay at the levels we wanted to be so it is not likely to combust, that is what we see as the conditions that are concerning on those red flag days. when are we thinking a wildfire is going to happen? lack of humidity and the wind speeds. how quickly can it go? as you heard in that testimony, what we see is that vegetation that grows up during the spring, if it is really dried out, that is what causes wildfires to move quickly and actually get up into the canopies. once you have wildfire in the canopy of a tree you see it move

from tree to tree and those of the intense fires that are difficult to put out. he also touched on the air quality. that is one of the big things from smoke when you have these large wildfires and continuous wildfires burning. there is a lot of smoke that comes off of them and can move in directions that while you may not be at risk of fire, the smoke gets blown into the community and have poor air quality days. you are these impacts from wildfires, not just the direct, but the consequences of poor air quality and smoke impact. host: we are going to get to calls but first, explain your background in weather and also why you created this organization, this foundation. guest: sure. before starting the first street foundation i spent years at the weather channel working with 220

climatologists, meteorologists really understanding what was the issue with climate. with that knowledge and understanding i started the foundation so that we could actually have the experts come together to create physical climate models, be it flood, wildfire, wind, the things that are changing. and from the climate impacting things physically, structures and homes. that is what we wanted to do. we started by looking at floods and brought about 80 world-renowned experts in flooding together to model every type of flooding from hurricanes , storm surge, ravine flooding, and really do that in an open method. everything we do goes through the peer review process and all of our methods are on our website. we are pushing the signs forward and everybody can build off the backs of each other. all of our research is old off

the -- built off the decades and decades of research so we can move that forward. we did the same with wildfire. we partnered with 50 experts in the wildfire domain, climatologists, fuel experts, weather experts, so we can bring this expertise together and create the model at a high enough resolution that we could applied to individual homes and structures and turn it into a website at riskfactor.com for flooding and wildfire. but the data sets are available for the federal government, state government, local governments to use to understand how to mitigate and adapt to these risks from flooding or wildfires. host: we are going to go to ken in golden valley, arizona. go ahead with your question or comment. ken, good morning. golden valley, arizona. caller: good morning.

host: we are listening. please go ahead with your question or comment. caller: i am a retired forest service employee, 36 years firefighting and wildland fire investigation. one of the things is there is a big difference between climate change and global warming. the climate has always been changing in the world since the beginning of time. global warming is basically a theory. what i have seen is that the population has increased, more people are moving into forest and brush lands which causes risk they are moving into areas that cannot be protect the. which, in most cases, means firefighting efforts have to go toward protecting structures instead of putting the fire out. it also means there is more things to burn.

host: let's take that point. guest: if you look at noaa's disaster tracker and all the years up until this last year, we see in the last five years 66% of all damage has happened. i would argue there is a clear sign that wildfires and wildfire damages are going up and there is an exponential impact of wildfires. that does have things like the consequences of people moving out of cities into more of the wildland, urban interface which does have damages. but the severity and size of these fires taking place are unprecedented. i do not believe that is just from folks starting fires and out enough resources. i think there is a clear and proven signal between heat and

combustion and climate change that is causing that. host: ken, are you still there? you had a follow-up. caller: yes, i am. is your speaker familiar with the fires of 1910? huge wildfire that went across the northwestern united states. it was probably just as severe as any fire we have now. the main difference was we did not have the people. i think your speaker is basically pushing the global warming, you know, that is what he is pushing. i don't agree with that. host: matthew eby, is that what you are doing? guest: i think we are talking probability. there is a probability of something happening like a large fire in 1910 and that could happen again and again. the question is, how frequent are those and is the frequency of those events or the size of the fires growing over time?

it is an observed thing. it is not a hypothesis of what happened. these are interactions we are seeing. that has to do with warmer environments and the changing forest because it is hotter out with less humidity. host: larry in florida. good morning. caller: good morning. say, i have a question plus a theory. and i would like to ask him how many big jets do we have the drop the chemical down? every time that i watch these fires as the one jet and maybe 20 helicopters that drop down 1000 gallons. why don't we have more of these jet planes that carry, what, 200,000 gallons? let's snuff out the fire from the start. if we had 10 of those jets flying around, in my theory is

some people do not care if homes burned down because that creates money for them. people have to rebuild and get new furniture, etc. if he could answer that first question about how many jets we have. guest: i am not sure how many of the jets are there for firefighting and protection and suppression. i know that it is different across each day but williams of dollars are spent on it, rightfully so, each year to ensure that we have the right suppression techniques available and are able to do the things like cutting fire breaks. all of these important things so that we can mitigate the fire as much as possible and keep them at bay.

the unfortunate part is as these things grow the forests are getting drier and we end up with these wildfires starting. it is hard to put them out when the fuels are there for the wildfire to keep going and it is difficult to actually suppress them as we are seeing now with wildfires early in the season burning down 160 or so homes about a month ago and what we saw in california with a 15 or 20 homes a couple of weeks ago. host: do your models show how much more potential damage there could be to these areas if we continue on this trajectory? guest: that's right. what we see is there is about 100,000 homes, for example, it california -- we will stick with the west coast -- that have a 1% risk of being in a wildfire today. that grows to 600,000 homes by 2052.

over 30 years the homes that did not have that level of risk increases 6x. across places like florida we see that go from just over 100,000 to just over 200,000. same in texas. we are seeing a doubling of extreme risk from wildfire across the country which is just a boggling fact. in such a short time we are seeing such a change in risk. host: i also want to play bruce westerman on the natural forest committee. here were his thoughts on reducing wildfires. [video clip] >> the truth is even as the budget have continued to climb for land management agencies we are not seeing the paradigm shift we all know needs to happen if we are going to truly tackle this historic crisis.

the primary culprit bogging down responsible management and recovery of our overgrown forests remain regulatory burdens and the continued weaponization of our courts by activist groups that litigate even the smallest management project. i have said many times before and will say it over and over, the forest and nature could care less what we say in this room. they could care less how much the federal government sends to an agency. they just keep growing in the fires keep burning. as long as we are throwing money at it and not addressing the root causes, that is what they are going to do. host: what about his point of overgrowth of the forest? guest: i think what he is mentioning there are the best intentions in areas to do things to actively manage the wildland

urban interface. unfortunately, there are places you have conflicting interests. there is environmental groups that would then be looking at, well, if you are going into this forest trying to treat the forest to make sure it is less combustible and less likely to spread, there are other things that would be on the table. whether mib wildlife that are impacted or migratory -- whether it be wildlife that are impacted or migratory patterns. then we have competing interests of what we are trying to solve for. i am not one side of the other on what is right or wrong but without the proper treatments, we are just going to see this exacerbated and getting worse and worse as we know the temperatures are increasing, the forests are getting drier and more likely to combust. host: david in park ridge, illinois.

david in park ridge, illinois, go ahead. one last call for david. lynn in bishop, california. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: i have to agree with bruce westerman. i live in the international forest and the biggest problem and the biggest threat in california are the environmentalists that stop people from going in and logging and cleaning out these forests. to sit there and claim your 30 year model, even knowing what the drought conditions are going to be like the next 30 years, is more government garbage. this is never going to be solved because every time the forest service -- first of all, they have lost their ability to manage any kind of lands. if they want to go in and open stuff, we have stands of timber

everywhere in our forest and a shortage of lumber. it does not make sense to somebody who has comments and works and lives in the area. as long as we are getting most of our goods from early china and dirty india that had zero environmental laws and have their kids burning plastic while they are taking apart the computers we send back when we are done, it is just a ridiculous statement to think that america is going to be put under these regulations when the whole world is as dirty as possible, yet america cannot go to work. thank you. host: that is lynn in bishop, california. let me add to that from j sanders who sends this question. out of the almost 30 million homes you say are at risk the next 30 years, how many do you estimate will actually burn over that time? guest: our model and analysis

allows us to do that type of risk analysis but we are looking at that and releasing our report in q4 around the consequences. our first report and calculations are around exposure and the likelihood of flames to make it to that property and the subsequent events that could take place. our next report will be around acres burned, property is expected to be impacted on an annual basis and what that would be in 30 years. you are correct. we are looking at how many have the risk of wildfire making it to the home and then there would be a smaller number of actual properties or structures that would burn down or forecasted to be burned down on any given year. that is what we are looking at with our academic partners and our internal staff. host: who uses your data, your information? guest: first and foremost, we

want our data to be used by as many people as possible. we have a great partnership with realtor.com. if you go on to realtor.com and look at any property for sale or not, there is an environmental risk section. if you open that up, our flood data is there that could tell you the likelihood of the home to flood today and over a 30 year period and fire factor, the likelihood of being in a wildfire today and over 30 years. both of those if you want to learn more link back to riskfactor.com to give you the full picture. consumer sites like that, other sites integrate our data but then we have partners whether it is on the local level, state level or federal level that are using our data and publishing reports. epa published a report with our flood data. south carolina is using our data

as well. there is everything from all the different levels of government using that to commercial entities like morningstar, large investment firms looking at what risk looks like with our data as well. host: rich in marion, ohio. good morning. caller: great conversation. good morning. great conversation. the idea that we are not logging enough and avoiding tires by logging more seems like a winning solution. the other thing i would like to know is a tree that is 30 years old versus 100 years old, how much better does it do for the environment? it cleans the air better, healthier lung. it would be curious to see what

difference it could make. the other one is we used to have fire tires in pennsylvania. someone would look over the hill and see where a fire was starting. i am wondering if we could use drones to keep track of these fires and catch them when they are earlier starting rather than later on. the other is between asphalt or metal roofs. what is -- people should look at that before they build houses. the other is how much to the insurance companies not give the right rate of dangers and then people build in flood areas because somebody else is paying the insurance to cover these people on flood zones? i will hang up and listen to the answers. bye. guest: bunch of great questions. one of the things you brought up his older growth trees versus younger trees. the difference obviously is one

can consume a lot more carbon and actually clean the air as you talk about lower emissions. older trees, the more mature trees are more valuable than smaller saplings that need to grow into older trees. definitely a big difference. from a logging perspective or value perspective let your talking about there are different trade-offs. definitely something where we want to keep as many of these old-growth trees around that help us with the issue around co2 and ensuring these issues do not get worse. you then went into things like how combustible is a certain type of roof? like you pointed out there are metal roofs which are great because they do not combust, and then there are cedar shake roofs, all of them have different combustion points. we have seen great homebuilding

standards put in place to ensure that we have hardened homes that are new built. but the hard part are the existing structures. if you already have your home in place and it is made of combustible material, what do you do? one of the best things you can do is what is called remove defensible space. what is defensible space? well, that is anything that can combust within 50 feet of your home. if you have a bunch of trees and shrubs in your backyard touching your home, they look beautiful but that is one of the top reasons why homes start on fire. the fire gets to the property, something else starts on fire beside the home, and then the heat and intensity because the structure to combust. that is one of the things you want to look at the most outside of things like your roof. the other thing that is really important is simple solutions like covering your eaves.

fires are popping out in front of the fire and covering homes with embers. one of the things we want to see all the time is those embers get sucked into the airflow into the attic. when you have an amber go up into a home -- ember go up into a home it will burn it from the inside out. once wildfire is in your house there is no such thing as a little bit of wildfire in your home like water and flooding. once it is in there, our homes have combustible things whether it is pillows, blankets, whatever it may be. that is where you see the biggest risk. but you can cover those eaves with cheap metal mesh. these are the types of solutions you want to think about when looking at your home and how you mitigate against potential risks from wildfires. host: al in watertown,

tennessee. caller: thank you. couple of questions and a comment. first, is first street foundation been approved as a 501 with 990. guest: we are. caller: they are not showing up on the irs website. are you still associated with the company you lobbied for? the reason i'm bringing this up is this guy is talking about root lines and that sort of thing. we need to back up and find out what his intentions are. i have insured a $20 million home from the fires in new mexico and the insurance

companies how to quantify risk. this guys talking about like nobody but him and this group can help you figure out your risk file when insurance companies make a living doing that every day. tell us about your funding and who gives you your money and where does it go? guest: i am not sure why you're having computer problems looking up the 990, but it is there if you want to look for it. we have great donors from grandson foundation, 2040 foundation, high tide foundation. all of that is publicly available information. why they give us the money is we believe in the scientific method, peer-reviewed process at open transparency. they are also in the scientific journals we publish. i am not sure what your problem is with our mythological

approach -- methodological approach. i am not saying insurance companies do not know how to quantify risk. they just look at a portfolio of risk, how likely is a structure to be impacted. if i am ensuring millions of structures, how likely is a bunch to get impacted and i have to pay out? it is catastrophic model, a different one than we created. the reason is because you are looking at balancing risk as an insurance company. if i want an insurer to make sure that i don't have maximum loss, which is what insurance companies do, i am going to say, i don't want to ensure homes riverside each other because of something happens -- right beside each other because of something happens, i have to pay them all out. i have a balanced portfolio and i use that in pricing insurance.

that is different than looking at the risk to my usual home and thinking about risk for just that structure. the insurance view is completely different from what we created. we created a view for the homeowner or homebuyer. host: california, john, good morning. caller: good morning. let me put the tv on hold. i live in a national forest and i can say our federal, state and local management policies have exacerbated this problem. things are definitely changing. we see more prescribed burns, more enforcement of cutting brush around the properties and whatnot. since so much of this has been

proven by climate change, what can your organization do for us to help take this insurance risk and spread it out over a greater population base? right now, our insurance costs are just killing us here. i have a 2000 square-foot home and i am paying over $6,000 a year for it. i have 800 square-foot rental unit and they are over $3000 a year for each one of them. it is killing me and they -- i can remove all vegetation within 100 feet of every structure, i can park a fire truck in my driveway and it makes no difference to the insurance companies. what can we do and what can your organization do to help us lobbied these insurance companies to get our costs down and help address this problem? i will sit back and listen. guest: great question and i am

sorry you have to pay so much for the insurance. that is where we see the risk increasing over time and the premiums increasing with it. the insurance companies know the risk that exists within the portfolio. one of two things has to happen. we either have to lower the risk because there are better treatments or ability to mitigate risk from the state and local governments and the federal government, or we have to figure out better home treatment ratings for insurance and i know there is a group, ibhb, about how to create certification programs to do the things you're talking about so that you actually get a discount within your insurance. i removed defensible space, i have done this checklist of items, i have a certain type of roof so then you can qualify to have a cheaper insurance than somebody not taking the same

steps and not ensuring that you have a woodpile beside your home or those types of things that add to risk. there are groups working on this because it is such a large problem like you are saying where you have these increasing premiums year on year on year and it becomes unaffordable or untenable for the vast majority of us. then you are left in a difficult spot because you have to have wildfire insurance as part of your homeowners insurance if you are going to have a federally backed mortgage. it is a mandated thing you can make. there are groups trying to do the same thing. what we are hoping it will do is inform these discussions. if we know where these pockets of risk are, we can have a conversation and talk about the solutions you are looking for. that is the hope of what we are doing at first street foundation. host: mario, farmington, new mexico. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. caller: what i was calling about

is i was wondering if there are any studies that have been taken on the type of roofs people put on their house, how much that reflects back into the atmosphere that could because in global warming or something like that? i mean, everything is white and white reflects heat. even solar panels reflect heat. i am wondering if that could be causing part of the global warming for even asphalting our roads and gravel your property. you can walk out and feel heat coming off of it. host: let's take those points. matthew eby. guest: i am not sure of studies related to that. most of the heat trapping that is the big concern is around the greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. less of the items on the ground and more of the items in the air. think of it like a pollution

blanket where he is coming in but it is not able to get out. very akin to when you are in your car with the windows up on a hot summer day. it gets very hot because the heat comes in and it can got out -- get out. that is what we are seeing with the greenhouse gas emissions less so from the reflections or the heat. host: matthew eby, thank you for the conversation this morning. we appreciate it. if you can find the organization at firststreet.org. thank you. guest: thank you for having me. host: that does it for today. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. ♪

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