rachel parker, and shawn dillard talk about their podcast and midwestern political issues. join the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, text messages, and tweets. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is saturday, june 4, 2022. 390,000 jobs were added in may. the unemployment rate at 3.6% but inflation remains high with food and gas prices taking a toll on consumers. we are asking you, are you confident in president biden's handling of the economy? give us a call if you are republican, (202)-748-8001. democrats can call

(202)-748-8000, independents (202)-748-8002. you can text as your comments at (202)-748-8003 but be sure to include your first name and city/state. we are on social media, facebook.com/c-span and you can send us a tweet @cspanwj. before we get to your calls, i will show you some headlines on the economy and we will hear from the president and republican senator as well. here is cnbc's headline. payrolls rose 390,000 in may, better than expected as companies keep hiring. here are some bullet points. unemployment rate held at 3.6% but the jobless rate edged to

7.1%. the average hourly earnings rose slightly, less than expected, but still up 5.2% from a year ago. leisure and hospitality led the gains in jobs followed by professional and business services and then warehousing and transportation. here the headline from politico, biden's new challenge, putting a spin on a slowing economy. let's look at president biden's comments he made yesterday. pres. biden: there is no denying had prices, especially around gasoline and food, are real problems for people. but there is every reason for the american people to feel confident we will meet these challenges. because of the enormous progress we have made on the economy, americans can tackle inflation from strength. -- a position of strength.

the progress we have made is critical. at the time i took office 16 months ago the economy had stalled and covid was out of control. today, thanks to the economic plan and vaccination plan america has achieved the most robust economy in modern history. two years removed from the worst economic crisis since the great depression, the job market is the strongest it has been since just after world war ii. we got more evidence of that today. the total new jobs to 8.7 million new jobs, an all-time record. more americans entered the labor force in may. working age people have come back into the workforce at a faster rate in this recovery then it any point the last 40 years. that means the unemployment rate is near historic lows and the number of americans on unemployment benefits has got

from record highs to record lows. host: that was the president speaking yesterday about the economy. let's look at republican senator kevin cramer talking about what he is calling the president's missteps when it comes to combating inflation. sen. cramer: first thing he could do is lift regulatory craziness. his first day in office he signed several regulations and executive orders, undid the good orders trump put in place. he also said he inherited a very bad economy, that it was static. he inherited a robust economy built on a strong foundation, lower regulations, lower taxes. the reason we were able to come back so quickly after covid was because of the foundation built by the trump administration and republicans in congress prior to the pandemic. he doubled down on dumb, passed

the american rescue plan, he increased regulations, stopped oil development largely in the united states or stop it where it was, and worse than all of that, all of these plus many more send bad signals to investors in the marketplace. while he talks about wanting to incentivize energy development, he wants to have taxes for clean energy, electric vehicles, all the while the world is calling for more oil and gas and other energy sources. everything he does sends the wrong messages. host: we are talking about how confident you are in president biden's handling of the economy. here is his job approval on the economy. approval at 35.5%, disapproval

60.4%. that is almost a 25% difference. we are going to start with steve in anderson, indiana on the republican line. good morning, steve. caller: good morning. yeah, the economy is really bad. it is not going to get any better until we get these gas prices down. it is going to keep -- the economy is just going to get worse because, you know, everything transported, the diesel fuel, the truckers have to charge more therefore it is going to be more on the shelves.

just cannot understand why we can't just go ahead and bring back trump's policies. host: which policies, steve? caller: energy independent in the united states. to help these places some. host: have you been driving less because of the price of gas? caller: yeah. i have to drive to indianapolis which is about 60 miles one way, about 120 miles a day. it has cost me probably about $80 more a week to drive back

and forth to work. it is just not going to get any better until we can get -- go back to being energy independent in the united states. host: let's talk to anthony next in san antonio, texas on the democrats line. caller: how are you doing? host: good. caller: the prices are ridiculous, but if you look at the rest of the world, we are paying less than everybody else. biden does not control the prices. it is also understood biden allowed the oil companies to open back in the united states. they are not willing to take the loss again. it is not that they are not allowed to, they refused to.

host: all right, anthony. joel next in middletown, wisconsin on the republican line. caller: good morning, ma'am. what a welcome addition you are to "washington journal." host: thank you. caller: i have no confidence in president biden. his handling of our economy has been a kin to his handling of afghanistan. i cannot believe all of this -- nobody could be this inept by accident. secondly, when people talk about fuel prices and he did not control them, talking to my fellow texan who said he did not control gas prices, oil is sold on a commodity market, it is sold on futures.

when they set offshore production leases and more, keystone pipeline, and then the ability to make pipelines to transport this fuel out of those areas, this is the natural consequence to it. it is not by accident. he said he was going to do it and he did it in an attempt to force us into the electric cars and clean energy. now, i have absolutely zero confidence in anything. host: all right, joel. josephine on the independent line from livingston, new jersey. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: talking about economy, you know what amazes me? just like the gentleman before me, the sky is falling, oh, that gas is bad. i work for the department of

labor 42 years. not once in 42 years did the unemployment rate reached 3.6%, not once. republican and democrat, not once. number two, there are so many jobs out there. this is the first time in years an employee has the right to go to an employer and say, i want this for a salary. i heard my beautician say, people don't want to work today. no, they want to be paid a decent wage, they want food on the table. gee, isn't that a bad idea, they want food on the table. host: the josephine, you were about to say the gas prices. people are working but they cannot afford to fill their tank up. caller: let me just say this, i have been there.

i am 78. it did not happen just now. in 1974 when i bought my first car -- they talk about gas prices -- we were all too happy to pay gas prices. do you know what it is like to stand in line for gas for two days? what are you talking about? you do not know what gas is about. we would have paid any price to get gas. you are paying high prices now, you are right, you are paying a high price. but you are not looking at the right person. look at the companies that produce the gas. i said it before months ago. look at the quarterly reports. you people have your ears closed and what do i mean by the quarterly report of the fuel industry? you want to make money right now? buy stock in fuel because they are making hand over foot. they are gouging you and you don't get it, you do not get it. they are stealing from you. wake up.

host: speaking of gas prices, here is from yahoo! finance. gas prices -- troubling sign on the health of consumers. sticker price shock at the gas pump may finally be breaking the back of the u.s. consumer. new data shows current u.s. gas consumption levels are running 3% lower than a year ago and have been declining at a 3% to 5% clip the last seven weeks. people are driving less. let's talk to james in myrtle beach, south carolina on the independent line. caller: yes, ma'am. host: yes, james. caller: the lady who just sat there speaking told nothing but the truth. i sit here all week long and i listen to these people call in. most of them sound like they are

50's up into their 70's, mid 70's, and all they want to do is complain because we have got a little bump in the road. you are going to have to make some sacrifices and we are going to have to pay a little bit more money for the gas and what we buy at the store. this is not the first time this has happened. i remember when jimmy carter, we could only buy gas on certain days. then ronald reagan came in and did the trickle-down tax bill and it worked. we went through hell before it started working but it worked. and that it was so good he got reelected. host: james, do you think this is just something temporary and it is going to go away pretty quickly? because it has been a while. caller: i know it has been a

while, but it is going to take some time. it took time for us to get back on our feet for jimmy carter, i mean, ronald reagan. if you had a job, you had to keep that job. it did not matter what pay you were getting, at least you were getting money. they put a freeze on it. and then we went through the same thing with bush. young bush left office in 2007, 2008, it looked like a ghost town. we stopped working and they quit hiring. it got so bad the mexicans were going back to mexico because there was no work. host: james, i want to show you president biden's from last july. almost a year ago and he was assuring americans inflation and supply chain issues were temporary.

pres. biden: we know as our economy has come roaring back see price increases. some worry this could be a sign of persistent inflation, but that is not our view. our experts believe and the data shows most of the price increases we have seen were expected and expected to be temporary. the reality is you cannot flip the global economic light back on and not expect this not to happen. as demand returns there is going to be global supply chain challenges. we have seen that in semiconductors which are used in automobiles. that global shortage, has slowed vehicle production created a temporary spike in car prices. that is a real challenge. my administration is doing everything we can to address it. but again, these disruptions are temporary. host: that was the president from last july. let's hear now from joe in

arnold, maryland on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: good morning to you. i have got zero confidence in joe biden. he first starts his presidency by declaring war on our energy industry in this country and expects that was going to solve our problems by transitioning to green energy that is not ready to go. they then dumped $2 trillion into our economy we did not need and they expect we would not have inflation the way it is. they declared war on the lower and middle class, making it impossible for them to see their families. we need to vote these democrats and their lousy policies --

[indiscernible] host: sounds like we lost you. it was not a very good connection. we will next go to michigan on the democrats line. caller: correct. this is all part of the cycle. the republicans come in, they wreck the economy, they ignore the pandemic, the democrats come in, they repair it. reagan went in, ran inflation through the roof, debt through the roof and then bush did the same thing. clinton came in, ran the pay issue go system, paid off part of the debt. he lost to another. republican bush came in and crash the economy in 2008. obama comes in, fixes it, and then you acted like there was a huge problem that trump had to repair something.

he didn't. he was riding the obama wave, ignored the pandemic, gave tax breaks to billionaires, ran the economy into the ground. here is joe biden has to come in and repair it. that is part of our political system. host: so chuck -- caller: republicans run into the ground and the democrats fix it. host: you are confident that the president will fix it. do you have an idea of a timeline? how quickly do you think he can fix it? caller: he is doing the best he can with the republican congress that does not want to repair anything. he is doing the best he can. host: let's talk to sheila in oklahoma on the republican line. caller: hello. thank you for allowing me to call today. i enjoy having you as a commentator. you know, ever since president biden has come in our economy

has gone down. at the gas pump he got rid of the keystone pipeline, gas went up. they want to do lisa's and they applied -- leases and they applied for leases but the democrats will not allow them to drill. we were energy independent when president trump was there but we are not now. we are having to buy oil. we got it of jobs from the energy factor by shutting down the leases which causes us to have to buy oil. we were not when president trump was there. everything he tries to do he ruins. host:host: speaking of oil from overseas, opec+ announces a 50% increase in oil output for july and august. that is on "the hill" newspaper.

on thursday the opec+ nations agreed to increase oil output by 50% for the next two months after initially standing by a 400,000 barrel release. that is now going to go up to 648,000 barrels per day. let's talk next to paul in brockton, massachusetts on the independent line. caller: good morning. the whole thing is sickening. corporate america is pretty much running the white house and all of the politics. getting back to the saudi arabia and supply, why wouldn't they? with this huge price increase they are going to make trillions of dollars off american people. the sad thing is someone that makes $50,000 a year in massachusetts is destitute. they cannot afford their housing, now their energy.

try to heat a house with $1200 a month. i was talking to a trucker. he told me it cost $3000 in fuel to go from brockton to california. the democrats are in charge by corporate america. corporate america is fleecing the poor people and they did not realize it. they are owned by special interest and the interests for the american people -- if we had a good man in their, he would do whatever he could to fulfill our energy needs to keep this price down. instead, he is just -- they are in your face. they have other agendas. host: my question to you is, how have you been affected by it? have you made any changes to the way you are living, to what you

are doing, how much you are driving, how much food you are buying? caller: you have to live or you just go deeper in debt. americans are going deeper in debt. people are buying less things, doing less things. it is coming to a head. another year from now people are going to be really broke. you are going to see more homeless people because they are letting corporate america torch and destroy people. now the credit card industry has changed the rate of exchange. now the customer has to pay the rate and the fees. it is a nationwide thing. that is another joke. nobody regulates the credit card industry because their hands so deep in the politicians' pockets. nothing is said about it. it is sad. americans are going to be swallowed alive unless they find

someone who cares about america. host: let's go to jeff in delaware. caller: i was wondering why you did not correct that person that said republicans controlled congress? clearly they do not. did the democrats even know what is going on? he went on and on about how republicans ruined the economy and democrats fix it. that seems to be the consensus among liberals. i wanted to talk about "the washington times" got the pulitzer for lies about hunter biden? it is ridiculous. i want to congratulate johnny depp -- host: it seems that you called on the wrong line. please make sure to call on the right line next time. susan is next on the republican line from massachusetts. caller: hi, how are you today? host: good. caller: i want to talk about joe

biden doing a lousy job. he is not for america. all of these deals for the countries that can have everything the american people cannot. this man is a fake president. he went home early again to delaware. don't the american people understand? he is not up to it. he is not fit enough to do it and you people know it in the media. another thing, harris' people, they are resigning. you have is 21 young staffers leaving because they see biden. he is not doing nothing for any race. he is making it worse and it is a globalist takeover. until the american people understand -- when are we going

to start talking like that? i cannot wait for the republicans to win because we are going to impeach him, the whole crime family, hillary clinton and obama. remember that fog? ? -- thug. host: checking in on the gas. the national averages $4.81. you can see the red being the highest and the west coast california is the highest in the country. the average being $6.29. let's go next to chris on the independent line from westminster, maryland. good morning, chris. caller: thank you for letting me talk. i have no confidence in biden at all. he has done some good but the most important things he has not taken care of.

gas prices right now, oil prices, instead of enacting the self-defense act to bring out more lithium and cobalt, he could have put that self defense act and ordered the companies to drill more and build more refineries but he has not done anything like that. he is just letting the corporations do their own thing and we are being bombarded with higher gas prices which is basically a repetitive tax. host: all right, chris. let's go next to anita in florida on the democrats align. -- line. . anita? let's go to clay in metairie,

louisiana on the republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. several of my comments that i would make have been made by other republicans, so i would skip over that. but i would look at this nice lady on c-span, do you feel like you were better off today than you were two years ago? i certainly don't. the few of my programs i watch are c-span and the business channel. the business channel may sound like old, rich retired guys. no. when i look at the business channel and i look at the ceos that run the corporations, and then i look at president biden who is an old man. i'm sorry, i am older than he is

but he looks like an old man and act like an old man. that is not give a lot of confidence. host: tell me how it is worse for you from two years ago. caller: i will skip over the usual inflation, but generally if you are retired and you have any money invested, which is the only way you can retire, it is 20% down from what it was two years ago anyway you cut it. that certainly has affected me as a retired person. host: all right, clay. let's go to ocean caller: you doa did, abolish the military.

you abolish the a national endowment for the humanities, massive cuts in all federal agencies. every politician resigns and you have a constitutional convention and start the government over again. the other problem is obscene ceo salaries. you send checks to every american in your suggestion, people spend too much money. they have to cut back. host: let's take a look at brian at, the director of the economic council. he spoke earlier this week on how long this inflation will continue. >> what is the expect tatian -- expectation today? how long will inflation be here? >> there is uncertainty and i will leave the predictions to

forecasters. you and others have seen most forecasters out there and their projections. most project we will see moderation and inflation over the year. what i can say and is important with respect to the op-ed the president wrote today, the president has a clear approach and the priorities with respect to tackling inflation. the more progress we can make on that planet, the more we can make in lowering costs and making these more affordable to families right now. the better off we will be, the better positioned we will be to see that moderation happen more quickly. that is our focus. we were thinking about policy, how can we make more progress? there are a lot of connections

out there. host: let's take a look at some member tweets from republicans.

we are asking you, are you confident in the handling of the economy? you can give us a call. let's talk to the independent line. caller: how are you doing? i was born and raised a democrat. i became an independent. i voted for obama and a lot of democrats. i won't for -- won't vote for a democrat. they are crazy. they are out of control. the border is ridiculous, the economy is ridiculous. i rely on my stock portfolio for anything over and above. i lost 30%, that's a lot of money to me. he's doing nothing about it.

this is a joke. host: what do you want the president to do? caller: i want him to retire. that's not going to happen. i think the democrats are delusional. i asked my friends the same question, what has joe biden done it. every time, they go to trump. their hatred for trump is so overwhelming that they don't need a reason. that is there reason. i've offered people $100 for everything joe biden has done right. they couldn't have me one thing. host: what do you want the president to do. if me one concrete policy. caller: i want him to fix the border. host: on the economy. caller: probably the best thing

would be to open up the oil. we were energy independent with trump. that reflects everything. it all relies on fuel. he screwed that up. he got fuel shut down in america. we were energy independent for the first time. how crazy is that? host: mark is in georgia. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to make a comment on the economy. it's both joe biden's fault and trump's fault. since 2008, the interest rates have been at zero. on top of that, every country in

the world cranked out massive amounts of money and gave it to people. what stimulated the economy, we see the results and everything is crashing. china, there economy is in rex. they did not print as much money as we did. everybody printed too much money during the pandemic. what we are experiencing is a global recession. next year it will turn into a depression. host: you are pessimistic that things are going to get worse before they get better? caller: it's going to get worse. that's one of the reasons why people at the world economic forum held their meeting trying to restructure a new economy. this one is wrecked and they know it. host: let's talk to mary on the

democrats line from virginia. caller: i called in on the republican line. i am from virginia. i think that biden has not listened to the people helping handle the economy. he's gone off on his own. we used to have plenty of jobs in our area. we haven't since nafta came into play. i can remember we played -- paid $.25 a gallon for gas. our gas is ridiculous, right around $4.61 per gallon. most people like seniors can't afford to go very far because we

can't afford the gas. i'm looking forward to november to make a change so that we can take our country back and cut off access to the border for all these immigrants that are taking what jobs are available. americans don't want to work for a decent wage. host: let's talk to mike on the republican line. mike? linda is next. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just want to get it out there that they want us to go to electric cars, they are not set up for it yet. the only ones i see are at the

general motors plant which is 20 miles away. what's it going to cost to have your car charged? maybe that's going to exceed the cost of gas. how are we going to get these electric cars when there is a shortage on chips. they just don't plan for things. maybe i would buy an electric car. we have three gas guzzlers that were purchased under trump. they don't even think or plan out things. host: how are you responding to this? are you driving less? what are you doing personally? caller: i am driving less. i do all the mandatory things i

need to do. i don't run across the state of michigan just for the heck of it. host: take a look at this opinion by jennifer rubin in the washington post. that is the treasury secretary. let's go to pittsburgh on the democrats line. caller: i've been calling as a

democrat for four years. i'm disappointed on how you hung up on that other guy is a democrat. he was too smart to be a democrat. i have no confidence in biden. he destroyed everything trump did. i'm on social security. all of a sudden, i got a raise. my energy prices for gas and electric are over $400 a month. gasoline when trump left office, it was $2.67. now it's up to almost five dollars. there is nothing this man did. these people calling in about trump, find out where biden got most of his money. the real problem is he picked

everybody on diversity instead of intelligence. everybody is -- the other ones. for somebody to say things are better now, they've got to being that's. look at the border. he can't get baby formula right. the fda could've worked with them. gas is going to stay like this, even if it goes down. host: let's talk to craig on the democrats alignment. good morning. caller: how are you. i think a few callers before, there was so much money given

out from the republicans and democrats. a lot of people have a lot of money. it opened up the economy. that opened up the floodgates. there was a chicken disease where they had to kill off -- i'm nervous. they had to kill off a lot of chickens. there was a disease in mexico. that caused price increases on chicken and hogs. joe biden is stuck in a trap. the oil companies have admitted that they don't want to uncap the wells because they are afraid they may get stuck if

there is another outbreak. oil was so cheap. they couldn't even wait. they have oil out in tankers. now they are afraid. also, somebody from chevron is trying to recoup their losses from before when they couldn't sell oil. oil companies don't like democrats. they are trying to undermine democrats going into the election. host: are you optimistic? caller: yes. i think it's going to turn around. it causes a bottleneck because people are shipping again. it has caused a bottleneck at the ports.

we've seen a of that, where the ships can't get unloaded fast enough. there is a shortage of truck drivers. at some point, it will straighten out. that was because nobody was driving. the jets are flying again. remember all the jets were parked for a while. people are traveling again. there aren't enough jets to move people around. host: let's go to north carolina next. good morning. caller: hello? my name is willie. good morning. what i'm calling about is i think joe biden is doing a

horrible job at the economy. he came into office with big promises. he had too big of a mandate. his mandate was to huge. there was no possible way his agenda it be fulfilled. the economy is not totally his fault. he could have fixed it. i think he's putting too much money in ukraine, not enough in america. he's not looking at the long-term effects of what he's done to our economy. i'm not a trump us. at the same time, they left the economy in great shape. you cannot blame the pandemic for every part of the economy.

a lot of it is joe biden's policy and his overreach. set goals that are reachable. host: you are saying he overreached and that's why you're not confident. take a look at kevin brady. this is what he said it. he is from texas. he is on the house ways and means committee. he said this.

we are asking you, are you confident in his handling of the economy. we will take your calls until the top of the hour. lewis's next in arkansas. caller: -- host: maybe try and call us back on a better line. let's talk to kevin in arkansas. caller: i hope you can hear me. i'm sorry for lewis. i agree a little bit with willie from north carolina. the mandate was too broad, especially given the bickering we have in congress. what my comments today are about is the constitutional speaking,

the president doesn't have much of a role to play in the economy. it's more congresses role. they need to handle the economy. historically speaking, the last time a president really intervened in the economy, he got cooperation from congress during the depression and world war ii. the outcome was the new deal during the 30's and a lot of republicans and conservatives didn't like that because it was too much government control of the economy. host: you said it's mostly congress, what do you want congress to do? caller: what congress did do during world war ii to fix a consumer-based economy and control it was they created price administration. that put price controls on the set cities and rationed basic goods.

not any american like that. democrats and republicans, they claimed it was common is him. it was an extreme form of socialism. what we are seeing with inflation is how capitalism functions. when supplies go down and demand goes up, prices grow up. there is not much that are constitutional government can do about that aside from flashing desk redirecting money and stimulating the economy that would overheat the economy. that's what's been going on over the past five years. i appreciate you taking my call. host: let's go to pennsylvania. caller: i think that biden doing -- is doing a long-term

strategic good job on the economy. they developed the act that is in congress right now. it would give americans control in leadership over the semi conductor market by bringing back home to america the production of the semi conductor and research and development. there are companies waiting to invest when the act is passed. the companies will not do it on their own. they do need that government regulation. they do need to know what the government is going to be expecting and what the plans are going to be in order to plan their business. a lot of businesses moved overseas. that's the supply chain issue. they went to where the to get the cheapest things to make their products. now, with the pandemic which

affected the economic theory, it doesn't test the high policy -- hypothesis. they have to base it off basic human behavior and how markets have reacted in the past. we really don't have a model for anybody to build any economic -- janet yellen saying i was wrong on that, it's what they had -- what they thought would happen. economies have changed so many times. another thing, we were energy dependent. obama produced more oil. it's a global supply. we have to work globally. we can't just work within the united states.

we would be shut out. we would be in big trouble. we did have the longest growth on record long-term after obama took office. i'm not going to badmouth trump. it doesn't get you anywhere. one of the big things today are think tanks. there are 11,000 throughout the world. there are 2200 of them in the united states. they get professionals together and they talk about things. it is usually two-sided. when you have a think tank that is very partisan and they've been in the act of it for 50 years. host: i'm not sure what you are talking about. which think tank? caller: the heritage foundation.

they rate all the think tanks around the world. the heritage foundation was just rated as number one in driving up the engagement and increasing vital messaging on social media. it's not the truth. it's misinformation and it's based a lot. america has been going through. host: i'm going to move on to nate in florida. caller: good morning. i would like to clear up some of this stuff. the u.s. has not been energy independent since the 1930's. we've always sold more than we produce. somehow we buy into that notion

because the previous president said we are going to make you energy independent. it was not true. number two, we keep saying that the pipeline -- he stopped the pipeline. it's not been built. there -- he didn't stop the pipeline. i'm an economics professor. economic growth rate, the real gdp. we looked at inflation and the unemployment rate. if you look at two of those three, the economy is booming. we sit around here, we listen to fox news and we become pessimistic. people are listening to this. host: you can't deny that the prices at the pump, the prices of food, the shortage of certain

things like infant formula, that is causing a lot of problems. caller: agreed. if you listen to what these people are saying it, many of these people when we were talking about masks, they said the government was taking too much control. now they want the government to take control. most of this is done by private firms. you have a situation where markets are controlled by a very small number of firms. one firm shuts down one plant and the other start cutting back on the supply because they wanted to raise the price. saudi arabia and the soviet union cut the supply of oil in the world market. the person they supported didn't win. they decided to cut the supply of oil.

we are sitting around here fighting each other over something that isn't even our making. host: let's try to get more calls in. kevin is in virginia. caller: i was calling because president biden asks us to have confidence in his people. when we look at the people he has brought in to do the jobs, the other day the people are just seeing completely incompetent. i saw the secretary of energy at a press conference admit to a reporter she did not know how much fuel we use in the united states every day, how much energy we use. she said i can get that figure for you.

when we look at health and human services, the number two person there was the person who was used to wear an bonnet to work. host: what do you think about the economy? caller: there is complete incompetence in -- the people don't know what their job really is. he has taken a lot of state people and put them in federal decisions. they are just not capable of making that move. host: let's talk to jason in ohio. caller: good morning. i totally agree with that last caller. let's go back to nate. he probably doesn't really feel the price of the pump very much. this is hurting people that are

making $50,000 or less. the energy independence, that's what's really killing us. not having enough fuel. it's on purpose. he's been hijacked by the progressive liberals. the green new deal has to be pushed through. that is something he needs to back off of and start getting toward the middle. pete buttigieg should resign immediately, effective today. anybody that has let our ports get the way they are, he should resign. host: you will be our last call for this segment. coming up next, arthur evans is

going to join us. he will talk about the impact of mass shootings on children's mental health. later, our spotlight on podcasts that we do every saturday. the cohosts will discuss their podcast and politics from a midwestern perspective. we will be right back. announcer:announcer: next week on the c-span networks, the u.s. senate returns monday and will work on expanding health care and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic chemicals. the house is back on tuesday to take up gun safety. treasury secretary janet yellen will go before the finance committee on the president's 20 23 budget and state of economy. live on c-span3, the senate

judiciary will look at the threat posed by violent white supremacists and other extremists. on wednesday a 10 neglect a.m. eastern on the c-span now at an c-span.org, janet yellen meets with the house ways and means committee. also, live on c-span3 we hear from parents of victims of the recent mass shooting in uvalde, texas and buffalo, new york. they testified before the house services committee on gun violence in the u.s. thursday 8:00 p.m. eastern live on c-span, the generous sixth committee returns to present material, take testimony, and present its findings. watch next week live on the c-span networks or on c-span now, our mobile video at. head over to c-span.org rescheduling information or to stream video. c-span, your unfiltered view of government.

announcer: c-span brings you an unfiltered view of government. our newsletter recaps the day for you from the holes of congress to remarks from the president. scan the qr code at the bottom to sign up for the email and stay up-to-date on everything happening in washington each day. subscribe using the qr code or visit c-span.org/connect to subscribe any time. announcer: c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s. response to russia's invasion of ukraine. bringing you the latest from the president and other white house officials, pentagon and state department, as well as congress. we also have international perspective from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders on the c-span networks, for c-span mobile app, and c-span.org/ukraine, our

resource page where you can watch the latest videos on demand and follow tweets from journalists on the ground. go to c-span.org/ukraine. announcer: there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from, or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, what happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. i am joined by arthur evans ceo of the american psychological association and we are talking

this hour on the impacted children's mental health from mass shootings. we will be taking your calls for our guest. parents and students can call on (202)-748-8000. educators (202)-748-8001 and all others (202)-748-8002. welcome. guest: glad to be here. host: tell us a little bit about, overall, it is a difficult subject especially for kids on the subject of mass shootings. give us an idea of the impact on their mental well-being. guest: i think that we have to put it into context. before the pandemic, we had a rising need for children's

mental health services. the pandemic has exacerbated that to the point we have a national emergency regarding children's mental health. we have seen a 30% increase of parents taking their children to emergency departments experiencing mental health crises. we are seeing a doubling of them exhibiting symptoms of depression and anxiety. we are seeing practitioners saying their waiting lists are larger than they ever have been before. i was talking to someone just yesterday and he was saying it would take him 10 months for his child to be seen by a practitioner. we had a crisis and a growing crisis that was exacerbated by the pandemic. i think these recent shootings have only exacerbated that.

studies show in neighborhoods where there is gun violence that in the 42 five block -- four to fvie block radius -- five block radius children are having mental health crises two weeks after. even if children are not directly involved in these situations, they can experience them and be affected from a physiological and psychological standpoint even if they are not directly involved. i think we have to have some concern of the level of violence we are seeing and the impact that is having on our children's mental health. host: the president spoke on thursday about gun violence and he mentioned the impact on youth mental health. [video clip] pres. biden: there is a serious

youth mental health crisis in this country. we have to do something about it. that is why health is the heart of my agenda. we must provide more school counselors, more nurses, more mental health services for students and teachers. more people volunteering to help young people succeed. more privacy protection to keep children safe from the harms of social media. this will not heal the wounded souls but it matters. host: that was president biden from thursday night. your reaction to that. what needs to be done? guest: i agree with pretty much everything the president said. we have to make a greater investment in children's mental health. we have to make sure we have a workforce. one of the biggest challenges right now is we do not have

enough practitioners or people trained to work with children around mental health issues. but i also think we have to really change the paradigm. one of the problems we have is that our approach to mental health is reactive. we have to wait until children have a diagnosis and often are in crisis before we intervene. we could do better than that. we can do what we do for our physical health. we put a lot of emphasis on prevention, early intervention. for example, we talk about putting chlorine in our water. why do we do that? because it is more effective than treating waterborne illnesses. you can take those same concepts and use them within our approach to mental health. if we do not do that, we are never going to get ahead of this issue. we ought to be identifying

children earlier. one of the things that is very problematic is that most children who are accessing mental health services are often doing that once they are in crisis. we know children who are at greater risk of having mental health challenges and we could do better at identifying and intervening before they are in that crisis. finally, i think we need to put more emphasis on prevention, building resilience. one of the things you heard the president say, he talked about strategies that are not about treating illness but helping children that have the ability to bounce back when they have adversity. that is something parents agree on. we can help children develop the right skills to be able to balance back. that is better than treating

illnesses once children are exposed to trauma and other stressors. host: let's talk about developing resiliency. what are your ideas for parents as to how to do that? and teachers as well. guest: one of the things we have to do in our society is have greater mental health services. we know things related to good mental health and as parents and educators and caregivers, all of us need a baseline understanding of that. the same we have for physical health. we know that if children get enough sleep and have a good diet, they are more likely to stay healthy. what are the things we know about psychological health? we know that having social connections is enormously important for all of us. but for children as well. one of the things we can do around helping build resilience

is make sure that our children have those social connections and social support. we know how people look at life is a big predictor of how they will have the emotional experiences they will have. helping children to think about and make decisions in a way that helps maintain their psychological health is another strategy. the point is that we have evidence-based, science-based programs that have been established, implemented. how can we scale those concepts and do them on a larger scale? there is a lot of agreement from parent that if we can get kids those skills, those are the kinds of things they would like to see to protect children's mental health. host: here is a headline from

"time" magazine. school shootings are raising panic in u.s. children. i wonder how anxiety is manifested in children. what does it look like? guest: it is going to come out in different ways. for younger children it may come out as irritability, cleanliness. -- clinginess. those kinds of behaviors that indicate your child is distressed are the kinds of things you want to be aware of, particularly if you see sudden changes in them. host: let's start talking to some of our viewers. mary is up first in wisconsin on

the parents and students line. caller: i have a suggestion. parents need to take computers, game boys and phones away from their children. they are so used to looking at a screen and not conversing with humans. they do not have a voice now. they are not using their voices to protect themselves. computers will never protect them. during this epidemic they did not have a safe place for these kids to go to if they were being sexually or physically abused at home. they had to live with it for two years. i called in and said, they need a safe place to go to to use their voice to say, i need help, and have someone listen. now they are just going to shut down because no one helped them in the past. why should i speak up now? i think a great thing would for

a psychiatrist to come into the school at the beginning of every year and say, are you being taken care of at home? people should not be afraid to ask the child if they are being abused at home. they need to know that. it is not normal. people do not want to talk about it but they need to, that is why we are there forces. we need to protect them. god bless. we need more psychiatrists in the world. there are not enough. host: dr. evans, what do you think? she brought up a couple of points. guest: i think those were good points. one of the things many of us were concerned about during the lockdown was the isolation and caregivers or people working with children not being able to observe what is going on. i think her point is a good one. one of the ways we identify children who are having

problems, who may be abused, is by people who are in their lives at school and so forth. i think that is important. she also mentioned social media. i wanted to talk about that because i know there is a lot of interest in that. we actually took a good look at the research in this area and one of the points the caller made was that social media takes children away from doing other activities. that is one of the biggest impacts. your child is looking at a screen all day that means they are not doing other things that might be important. i think the caller is making a good point about that and it is one of the reasons parents should understand how much social media their children are using. host: let's talk to anthony in new york on the line for all others. hi, anthony.

caller: hi. i want to echo what other people are saying. i am a pediatrician of a small town. i have been seeing the last decade there is a mental health provider shortage. 10 months is about what we are seeing here in terms of the way time -- wait time to get a child to see a therapist which is unfortunate. but i think asking the schools to do even more when they are already overloaded with things they have to try to do is not going to work. i think mental health for a child should begin a newborn and, at least where i am, a lot of it has to do with lack of two parent households. that can destroy a kid when parents split up. what somebody else was saying about social media and screens. we see kids under a year of age

when they are sitting here with their parents -- when i entered the room the parent is holding a phone or tablet in front of the kid's face. they are not interacting with the kid, talking to the kid, playing with the kid. host: anthony, i want to ask you as a pediatrician, what are the trends you are seeing in the mental health of the patient you are seeing? caller: i agree depression and anxiety have definitely been steadily increasing the last 10 years. the surgeon general recently came out with a report about a mental health crisis in children and adolescents the last three or four months. it has been exacerbated by the pandemic. it was sad that the first thing they closed were schools in the

last thing they opened were schools which is not what happened in europe. i believe a guest a few weeks ago said casinos were opened before schools were open in america and that did not happen in europe. host: let's get a response from dr. evans. guest: i think i do agree that we are seeing these increases. i think the schools comply an important role and if you talk to the schools, there is this three tier strategy schools want to employ and we think they should employ. there should be broad-based strategies that affect school climate, help build resilience in children and create an environment where children are less likely to be bullied and so forth. that is really important.

but there is also a role that school completed identifying children who are having problems, those kids at greater risk. the caller before was talking about that. we believe that is important. but schools also can be an important referral source for those kids having real difficulty and making sure there are adequate connections between schools and that there are resources within the schools when those kids have problems is very important. host: franklin is up next in goldsboro, north carolina on the line for all others. caller: good morning. i want to make a comment that one of the main problems i see in today's schools dealing with children is the fact that the school system and the government

took god out of the schools. as long as god was in the schools and we had the pledge of allegiance in the morning prayer and everything, you did not see all of these problems that we see now in the schools. there was not all the violence, there were no school shootings, there might be a fight between students every now and then. but since the government has intervened and taken or christianity totally out of the schools, all of a sudden all of these problems enter into the school because there is a vacuum . they are trying to deal with a spiritual problem in a natural way. host: any response, dr. evans? guest: i think there are a lot of things causing the stressors that children are experiencing.

from the time that i was in school our children today are dealing with all kinds of things that i did not have to deal with and people of my generation did not have to deal with 20, 30 years ago. i think there are a lot of social pressures. the thing that i agree with the caller about his we know spirituality actually is a really important protector, something that protects our mental and physical health. that is an individual choice. people have to decide and parents have to decide where they come out on that, but the caller's notion that spirituality is important is supported by research. host: daniel is a student in san bernardino, california. good morning. daniel, are you there? caller: hello? host: go ahead.

caller: i think they misheard me, my name is dennis, but i was not of the classroom but my school in sixth grade went through a shooting. ever since then they did things, like, when you tried to get into the front office -- what is it called? there is a camera and you have to wait for the door to open. one entry and multiple exits would be good. i used to live in the reality -- not a reality, but a mindset -- it could never happen again. but i feel like we are starting to get into an era where you could go through multiple shootings in your lifetime. host: how old are you? caller: 16. host: you are in high school now? caller: yeah. host: what was that shooting in

your elementary school? what was the incident about? caller: it was basically a domestic violence case and the lady who worked at the school, she was going through a lot of domestic violence from her husband. he ended up going into the school and went into the special needs classroom and opened fire on the lady. one kid ended up dying, one kid ended up being injured, and the woman ended up dying. and that guy also took his life. but i feel like each side only tries to focus on one thing rather than all coming together and focusing on multiple things to fix the issue. because i have seen them blame it a lot on my videogames but that has never been because of movies or video games.

i have been bullied before but i never thought of hurting these people or killing these people or opening fire. there is a number of other reasons why stuff like this is happening. host: let's get a response. go ahead, dr. evans. guest: first of all, i'm sorry you experienced that. i think dennis made a lot of good points. one of the things that struck me about his initial comments is sometimes our fixes to problems can exacerbate -- going through that kind of traumatic event, schools can over engineer or over respond and create other problems if children are reminded constantly that they are potentially at risk.

we have to count the cost of those kinds of interventions. but the other point i think is important in terms of what he is bringing up his we know when children are exposed to these kinds of traumatic events there is often -- for example, what happened with people after 9/11 or katrina. it was almost a decade later people were still experiencing posttraumatic stress. i think his story really emphasizes the importance of us not only making important investments now, but sustaining those over time because the youth who have been involved in these kinds of incidents are going to need support long-term. host: dr. evans, there is a headline from the pew research

center. it says, a majority of u.s. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school and most parents share the concern. i wonder what you say to students, to parents, who are saying i am too afraid to go to school now. guest: i think parents have to talk to their children. one of the things parents can do is to reassure, but i think that has to be based on some fact. if you are a parent, you ought to know what steps your school is taking to protect your children. what procedures do they have in place? what kinds of processes and protocols they might have when it is local law enforcement. you can talk intelligently and an informed way about steps that have been taken to keep them

safe. i think it is important to have the dialogue but also important to have information, and also to advocate that schools take those steps to make sure their youth are safe. host: continuing with what you were saying about having a dialogue, can you give parents some ideas as to the best ways to talk about school shootings with their kids? of course, depending on the age, and some do's and don'ts? guest: i think some do's and don'ts, first of all, the point you made about being appropriate is important. the way you are going to talk to a six-year-old is different from talking to a 16-year-old. i found parents are very good at understanding how to frame issues in a way their children at the appropriate age are going to understand. and i think parents should feel comfortable and rely on that. i do think the point i was

making earlier about being informed is very important. i do not think it is wise to make statements or blanket statements like, you will be safe. i think the more you can be specific about the steps that others are taking to help you be safe is going to be important. but i also think it is important to create a sanctuary at home and to talk about how the steps you are taking as a parent to ensure your child is safe, both in school and in the home setting. host: let's talk to rick, calling from alabama on the line for all others. good morning, rick. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to ask the doctor about what he thought about incorporating parenting classes into a curriculum for public

schools. at some point, would that be a possible start to helping those the coming future parents ? thank you. guest: if i understand the question, most of us when we become parents we do not get a manual that comes along with it. we kind of have to learn how the job training. i think i do think parenting classes can be important, particularly for younger parents. i think the notion of helping parents with the skills they need to effectively parent has been shown to be very effective for many people. host: michael is an educator from miami, florida. hi, michael.

caller: hi. i just wanted to say thank you so much for addressing this topic. i'm glad something is finally going to get done. i am in broward where we suffered the shootings and it all. we have children with all of the tests and the ones called an unexpected, the kids are literally going through a war zone on a weekly basis. there are monthly things scheduled and then the unexpected. as a result, there are kids, kids are not wearing the blinking shoes to school anymore because they are afraid they will go off in the classroom. where is the cost? it is not the kids. it is like they are challenging them in an arms race, literally,

and they are playing a game. we are the cause of the game. we need to stop our response. here is the thing. to say it is the wrong response, this is part of a natural response and natural cycle so it is harder for us to acknowledge and face our natural, reactive, mental response is too shortsighted. we need to completely change our perspective. we need to put the onus on teachers. host: michael, are you a teacher? caller: yes. host: what great? -- grade? caller: i taught a seventh grade science class and all grades as a substitute teacher. i can tell you that we are the cause. we are not accepting responsibility and stressing the kids out. it is like if you walk into a room with a tennis ball and all the golden retrievers go running

from you, you are the problem. host: let's get a response from dr. evans. guest: i think the notion that we are all responsible for our children's mental health and well-being is important. i do agree with that notion. it is the reason i think school climate programs are so important. there is research that is one way to reduce things like [indiscernible] i think it is unfortunate we have a tone in the country where it is hard for people to talk with each other. one of the biggest predictors of how our children will do is how we are doing. if we are experiencing a lot of psychological distress, that will have an impact on our children. one of the ways we can help support our children is to make sure we are doing well

ourselves, but we are also modeling the behavior we want our children to exhibit. the context does matter. as parents, caregivers, teachers, educators, we have to be concerned about the kind of environment we are creating. host: do you think it is a good idea to limit the news or take some news breaks to be careful about what the children are hearing in the house as far as what is going on with mass shootings and violence? guest: i do. that is one of the things we highly recommend, that parents limit, particularly in an age-appropriate way, what your children are hearing, seeing, interviews, how much of that they are seeing. i will tell you on a personal level, i try to manage that myself. if i am feeling tired, if i am

feeling stressed, one of the things i am conscious of is not watching the news. i think that can exacerbate those feelings. limiting, in an appropriate way, what the children are exposed to is important. host: we are talking to dr. evans about mass shootings and the mental health of children. we are taking your calls. angela is calling from indianapolis on the line for all others. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. dr. evans, i would like to ask you, can you expand on the subject matter somewhat and help us with the conversation about death in general with our children? natural causes or otherwise.

the mass shootings are taking place in numerous places where families, children and their families, attend, whether it is schools, hospitals, shopping malls, churches, and even neighborhood streets. also, the bigger elephant in the room is covid. masses died, not by gunfire but still, that has an impact on the mental health of everyone. how do we have a positive discussion and conversation with our children? host: ok, angela. we got your point. go ahead, dr. evans. guest: i think this is one of those areas where one's background does matter a lot.

a lot of people have what they believe in where what happens to them when we die is important. that can be part of the conversations. understanding natural reaction to loss is important, understanding people will be in denial initially and go through stages in terms of the reaction, it is important to understand. understand people will react differently based on their own constitution and their beliefs. i think context matters. the background of the person matters in terms of having these conversations. i think all of us react differently. there is no right or wrong way to respond to these.

understanding that is very important when we are having these kinds of conversations. host: otis is calling from los angeles on the line for parents and students. good morning. caller: good morning, you guys. how are you doing this morning? host: good. caller: great. this is what my perspective is. i thought about this one morning. the introduction of the internet hit us all at one time, as well as an adult and children. we had no way to figure -- filter this out where we could say, how do we get ourselves to understand what we are being exposed to, let alone young, developing minds? our kids got hit with a lot that desensitized them. we are starting to see the actions of some of the things the internet is bringing to them. when the pandemic hit us, everybody was at home. kids spend most of the time on the telephone.

i guess the biggest thing i am saying is values have gone out the window, and it has had a profound effect on how kids respond and get into the things they get into. i think the internet has had a devastating effect. even though we embrace it and think it has had some great things, which it probably has, but for the most part, our kids have gotten an overdose of stuff that has desensitized them. this is why it is -- i think it is so easy for them to act out the way they do. host: go ahead, dr. evans. guest: the caller makes a good point. most kids are experiencing the internet through social media. the point i was making earlier about the impact of social media taking kids away from things that are positive is one impact.

when you really look at the impact of social media on children, it is not all good. that is one of the things that we know. there are some good points on social media. but there are some very negative things. what that leads to in terms of children's mental well-being, we have seen some horrific things that have happened because children have been bullied through social media. young, adolescent girls can get into and are very much affected by comparisons of themselves to others. generally, young girls are particularly affected by that. research says the best way to think about social media exposure is not whether it is good or bad but understanding that in certain circumstances

and with certain children, it can be very bad. it is a reason why parents should be monitoring the amount of social media, understanding what impact that social media may be having and controlling that to the extent it is having a negative impact on their children's well-being. host: with go to alexandria, louisiana, to cornelius on the line for all others. caller: god bless y'all all and god bless c-span. dr. evans, can you tell me how old you are? guest: do you really want to hear that? i am past 60. i will put it that way. caller: i am 61 years old. i told the call screener i happen to be african american and we live down in the south. when i was in school, we had guns and gun racks. we were going deer hunting and duck hunting. we were not hunting humans.

it seems like we have lost the value of life and stuff. i am like the north carolina caller. we prayed in school. we did the national anthem and then we did the knee grown national anthem. we had the bible in school and the 10 commandments. when the supreme court took that out and had abortion, and they may take abortion down now, but when they took all of the stuff out of the school system, and both my parents were educators grade my mom taught first graders at pineville high school and my dad was assistant principal at brain junior high school. he believed, just like some of the callers are saying, we lost a lot of spirituality and turned everything over to social media and the internet and all this bullying and stuff. back then, we treated kids right. my dad had a phone number that

was not private or anything so that parents could call him or my mom if they had a problem with a student at school and stuff. i think we have lost a lot of that stuff in america and stuff. host: let's get a response. guest: i grew up in the south. my mother was a teacher. i think the point several callers are making about the social fabric and the tearing of the social fabric is really important. i mentioned when i was a kid growing up in school that there was a whole set of issues that our kids did not have to deal with and we did not have to deal with. we cannot go back 30 or 40 years to the way it was, but there are things we can do to try to create a more civil society and more respectful environment.

that really is up to parents, adults. we have to work out that. unfortunately, i think we have some pretty poor role models right now of how we do treat each other. that ultimately does lower people's -- increase the likelihood people will be not only more disrespectful but be more violent individuals because we do not have that same kind of social connection we might have had in the past. i think the color makes a good point. host: dave is calling on the educators line from michigan. caller: thank you. appreciate your time. i am newer to education. i am astounded how we are looking at the root cause -- overlooking the root cause. i think it all stems in the

home. i think if you look at the data in terms of abuse that goes on in the country in the united states, over 600,000 episodes of abuse. i just think the guns, everyone is looking at the guns. i understand that is a medium to inflict violence. but i think the root cause is stemming from the home. that is my opinion. thank you. host: dr. evans? guest: i think we been talking about these issues are complex. there multiple things that impact paid certainly, the home is one of those things. there are also other factors outside the home. i think when it comes to gun violence, we have to look at access to guns for people who should not have those guns. one thing we have advocated for

at the american psychological association's laws that allow law enforcement to remove guns from people who are a danger to themselves or others. it makes no sense that if we know someone is threatening themselves or other folks and allowing them to maintain a weapon. we have to protect the right to bear arms, but there are ways to do that that also protects society. when those threats are abated, people can have their weapons. if we know that people are a danger to us, a danger to themselves, law enforcement should have the ability to intervene. those kinds of common sense gun laws are important, in addition to the kinds of things the

caller and others are referring to. host: diana is next in jeffersonville, indiana, on the line for all others. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted to say that our nation has lost the meaning of the word respect and it is not taught anymore. we are becoming a nation of familiarity. as an example, on facebook, the question was, do you address people as mr. and mrs.? today in society, not everyone addresses people by their first names. even kids address teachers by their first names. we need to go back to teaching respect. i think that would help somewhat. thank you for taking my question. guest: i don't disagree with that.

i think respect is enormously important. one of the things we can do and model is how we disagree with people and still be respectful. that is something we have lost. often when we disagree, we start to attack the person as opposed to the person's ideas. i think we can do a lot better, as the caller suggested, being more respectful and modeling for our youth how we can disagree and yet not be disagreeable. host: let's go to wisconsin to chuck. caller: yes, ma'am. my granny had a saying, "it is a great life if you don't [indiscernible] the grown-ups are teaching the kids everybody is a victim. everybody feels sorry for themselves.

i was raised if you have a problem, you go to work and fix the problem. now, it seems like everybody complains about it but nobody does anything about it. i think that is a big part of what these young kids are learning. host: let's get a response. dr. evans? guest: it was hard to hear what the caller was saying. i think the essence of what he was saying, correct me if i am wrong, something about we are teaching children to feel sorry for themselves, or something like that. host: wright, and not teaching them to depend on themselves to solve their own problems. guest: i talked a lot about building resilience in our youth. one of the ways to do that is to give them the skills to think critically about problems, to have the skills to negotiate.

i do think kids those skills, and we know from research that giving business schools is very important for giving them the ability to bounce back in life. host: ihost: wonder about long-term issues, what they could be and what support there is for children suffering from having witnessed violence or thinking about violence. guest: i mentioned earlier the notion that when we are exposed to trauma that those things can have a very long tail. i think the implication is we not only think about how we deal with the crises children are experiencing but the increase we are seeing and the educators are

recording in the classroom, we not only need to deal with that but we need to have a long-term view of how we provide support and ongoing services for kids. we need to build a stronger primary mental health care system in this country. multiple resources are going into crisis services. if we only had hospitals and did not have primary care physicians , the only option would be to go through the hospital emergency system. that is what we are asking for children who have mental health problems. we know the importance of having a strong primary care network so we can do more preventive work to identify problems early. we need to have the same infrastructure for children's mental health.

we also need to do much of that work building the kinds of skills that will prevent children from having problems to begin with. host: let's talk to henry next on the line for parents and students. caller: thank you for taking my call. be patient with me. when i was 16, i stole a pint of milk because i was hungry and on the street by myself. i grew up, got married, settle down, and wanted to buy a gun. the rule where i come from is i needed to apply for a gun when i was 25 years old, straight across the board. i had to take two weeks of training before i could apply for the gun.

i had to wait three months before they would allow me to get the license itself. the fact that i stole milk when i was 16, and when i applied for the gun at 25, i had to go to court and speak to a judge and ask for a reprieve on the decision about getting into trouble when i was 16. i'm 70 years old and still own guns. host: i understand what you're saying about gun laws and gun control. is there something about the mental health of children you want to talk about? caller: i just think the mental health of a gun owner will be far more mature and available for background checks as far as

mental health issues go if we extend the age limit before you are allowed to apply for a firearm. let me tell you something else. you don't go into a store and walk out with a gun the same day. you wait a few months. host: i think, dr. evans, you have already talked about that and your support for those comments dwight is calling from fairfax, virginia. caller: good morning. i am a big believer in processing. as an adult, i process everything comes into my life. i get rid of the negative and keep the positive. i am also interested in your thoughts about beginning processing for kids at a very young age.

in my mind, it should be taught like math. it should be taught like english every day. it is not something that happens once a month or once a semester. what are your thoughts about processing? if that is the case, at what age is the best age for a child to start, whether it be kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade? i would think at a very early age throughout their years because these kids drag along a lot of baggage. and i am not surprised when they are 18, 16, or 17 that they commit suicide, they shoot up schools. it all blows up. i think if they learned to process at a very early age and we teach them to process at a very early age, we could minimize some of this. host: go ahead, dr. evans.

guest: i think when you say processing, you are talking about being able to talk about what is going on, talk about how you are responding and reacting to that, i absolutely agree with that. i think we can start that early on. one of the things we do, because part of our culture is, with young boys, if you are a young boy and have a fall, you tell them to get up, socket up -- suck it up, and so forth. that can be fine. but what we do not want to do is reinforce the idea that you cannot talk about how you feel. even at an early age, we can start to signal to our children, to our youth, that it is not only ok but it is important to be able to process how we are thinking and feeling.

one of the things we have done more recently is make connections to some of our sports psychologists who work with pro athletes, pro football players for example. these are tough guys. i will never forget, one of the people i was having a conversation with said, you know what i do? i go in and i get mental health checkups. i do it at least once a year. i go in just to talk with someone, tell them what is going on with me, talk about how i am feeling. this was a tough guy. i think we have set up this false dichotomy that if we talk about how we are feeling and what is going on with us, that that is in some way saying that you are weak, that you are not tough. those two things are not at odds. he said he can be a much better player because he has dealt with those kinds of things and those

kinds of issues are not getting in the way of his work as an nfl player. i think the caller is right on the money in terms of understanding the importance of doing that. i think if we did more of that in our society, if we allow for more of that, it does reduce the likelihood people will develop problems. host: let's talk to patrick, a parent in laurel, maryland. good morning, patrick. caller: good morning to you. i've been listening to the program for 10 or 15 minutes and got the gist of what this topic is supposed to be about. i have got to tell you what is very disappointing to me is i don't really feel this is being addressed. america feels a sense of entitlement. that is the problem. it is not mental health.

america feels we can do whatever we want to, carry whatever we want to carry, with no repercussions. you know what? we are entitled to it. if we don't feel that way, we will say it is a constitutional right. no, it is not. it is the responsibility of all of us to make sure we are safe. when that does not occur, all of a sudden, we are blaming mental health. when it comes down to mass shootings, particularly the one in buffalo, i am sure mental health will come up. in all actuality, that was not mental health. people just feel they can do what they want to do when they want to do it. when they get in trouble, excuse me, i'm sorry, then it is mental health. it scares me when i see people are making excuses. i have got a daughter. i have to worry about her getting shot up in school. i talk to sixth-graders and they

tell me we just got through a shooter drill. what does that mean? when there is an active shooter, this is what we need to do. this is the world we have created for ourselves. until we embrace that and say this is the monkey in the room, therefore -- host: we are running low on time. last comments, dr. evans. also, where do parents go if they feel they need help for the kids? what are the resources available? guest: i agree with what the caller is saying. a lot of the shootings we are seeing are not related to mental health. political leaders who talk about this as a mental health issue are not looking at what we know from the research. mental health issues are often

not part of what is happening. there are other issues, as the caller alluded to. it can be people who are angry. they believe they have a right to take some of these actions. labeling these issues as mental health issues is a problem. as we have talked today, we know we have a mental health crisis. we know when these issues happen in communities, it has a profound impact on our children. if parents need help, one of the things we do at the american psychological association is put information up about how you can talk here children at apa.org.