>> c-span is your unfiltered you government. we are funded by these television companies and more including charter communications. >> broadband is a force for empowerment. that's why charter has invested billions, building infrastructure, upgrading technology, and parent opportunity. charter is connecting us. >> charter communications supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> military times deputy up at her talks about passage of the pact act, extending health care better and -- benefits to veterans.

later, the paragon health institute and the top economic advisor to donald trump joins us to discuss health care and the prescription drug proposals. >> on this vote, the senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the bill as amended is passed. host: that was the vice president breaking the tie in the senate to pass the climate and health bill. democratic leaders describe it as a history making investment in health care and the fight against climate change. republicans say it's another spending bonanza. legislation awaits action in the house.

this morning, we are getting your thoughts on the bill that emerged from the rare sunday session of the senate. give us a call. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text this morning. that number is (202) 748-8003. you can catch up with us on social media. a very good monday morning to you. you can start calling in now as we talk about this piece of legislation. as you are calling in it, this was chuck schumer yesterday on the floor of the senate before the final vote. >> it's been a long and winding

road. at last, we have arrived. i know it's been a long day and a long night. we've gotten it done. today, after more than one year of hard work, the senate is making history. i am confident the inflation reduction act will endure is one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century. our bill reduces inflation, lowers costs, creates good paying jobs, is the boldest climate package in u.s. history. this bill will kickstart the era of affordable clean energy in america. it's a game changer. it is a turning point. it has been a long time coming. two americans who have lost faith that congress can do big things, this bill is for you. to seniors who face the indignity of rationing medications or skipping them

altogether, this bill is for you. to the tens of millions of young americans who have spent years marching, rallying it, demanding that congress act on climate change, this bill is for you. host: that was chuck schumer yesterday on the floor of the senate. it's the inflation reduction act. it will be voted on in the house by the end of the week. that timing it could change. here are some of the provisions in the legislation. it would allow medicare to negotiate prices for the first time. it would extend affordable care act subsidies through 2025, after the 2024 election. it would give 370 billion dollars for climate change investments. that spending is paid for with a 15% corporate tax.

there is new funding to extend irs enforcement. this was the statement put out by the senate minority leader yesterday after that final vote. he said in part: some of the headlines from the political media yesterday, after that final vote from the right side of the out. bright part -- breitbart.com

headline. huffington post with their headline. the inflation reduction act is poised to give president joe biden another victory ahead of novembers term election. that is how it is playing out in the media. we want to hear from you. phone lines are split by political party. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. we are also going to break down a little more about what is in the bill. we will be talking about it for most of the program today. joe is in texas. good morning. caller: good morning.

i just want to say congratulations for paying less on medication. it is time to combat climate change. corporations need to fit -- pay their fair share. trump gave tax breaks to the super rich and super wealthy. congratulations. i hope democrats will keep the house and take the senate back and biden stays in the white house. democrats work for the people, not for the rich. host: do you think this bill helped in that prospect of holding onto congress? is this gone a long way in doing that? caller: absolutely. you know what happened in kansas, that's the beginning of the end for republicans. democrats are going to take the

house. they're going to take back the senate. the roe v. wade -- 75% of americans support roe v. wade. host: that was joe in texas. this is tom in maryland. caller: good morning. i am 75 years old. i am pain over $100 a month for my insulin. i can thank the democrats were putting the cap on insulin. what i can say is all of these people who are not diabetic, thank republicans were not putting a cap on the insulin right now.

thank you very much. host: background on what tom was referring to. a lot of maneuvering over the course of that rare weekend session in the senate. when it comes to the issue of putting a cap on insulin costs, republican lawmakers successfully stripped a $35 price cap on the cost of insulin for many patients from that package. the insulin cap is a long-running ambition for democrats who wanted to apply it to private insurance. republicans left the portion that applies it to the care patients. they stripped it from other patients on private insurance. bipartisan talks faltered earlier this year. that was one of the maneuvers that happened ahead of the final vote yesterday on this larger package.

the one that passed yesterday with the help of the vice president. it now goes to the house. on phone lines for republicans as usual, earl is a republican out of indiana. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me call in. the electric bill went up $200 on the month. they think they are going to get by with passing all of this crab and spending our money for stupidity. god has control of our climate. we can spend all the money in the world and it's not going to clear up climate. the world is going to be destroyed by fire. it's got to be getting warmer over the years and these idiots

who think they're going to get out of this world alive have got to have rocks in their head. i am so sick of these democrats think they are doing good for the country. host: that was earl in indiana. we played you that clip of chuck schumer yesterday. during the debate on some of these provisions that were offered in the u.s. senate, republican senator lindsey graham criticized the democrats in this package for what he believed would be the increase in gas taxes coming at a time of increased inflation. here is a portion of what he had to say. >> if you think america needs a new gas tax, your ship has come in. vote for the democratic bill. these people over there want to raise gas taxes right now. the last time they tried to help

you was the american rescue act. this is what the vice president said. help has arrived. she said that in march. inflation was 2.6%. it is now 9.1%. this bill will increase gas taxes 16.4 cents on every barrel of imported oil and every barrel of crude oil found in america to be refined in america will have it. this is insane. this is stupid. if you like high gas prices, vote for them. host: that was senator lindsey graham yesterday during the amendment process. the final package is coming on a

vote of 51-50. the vice president was the tie-breaking vote. among the provisions, $370 billion for climate change investment. this is a breakdown from usa today. here is what the money will go for. $10 billion in tax credits to build electric vehicles and solar panels. a $7,500 tax credit rebate for those who purchase electric vehicles. loans to promote manufacturing. $9 billion for energy efficient home retrofits. $20 billion to assist farmers. $30 billion for cities and states to transition their utilities. that is just some of the provisions, some of the climate provisions. we can put those on the screen

for you so you can see those. we will talk about the honoring our packed act later. asking you about that tax climate and health bill that passed yesterday, this is kim in iowa. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm glad they did something. i don't like they are getting a tax break. it's a start. it could be more. it's not right that shareholders have made a lot of profit. that's the problem. they are being taxed the least. it's not right. it's a start. it's a big start.

otherwise, the weather is really bad here. we are in a drought. it's getting worse and worse. these farmers and ranchers need this bill. i don't like that big oil is shaking down our government and forcing us to pay money to big oil. we are going into another energy efficient with wins and solar. that's the new innovation. we need to start there. we cannot go back into big oil. it's ridiculous. they've got federal land they are not using. they are not using it. we are subsidizing them. shame on our government for doing this. the republicans work for rich people.

when are voters going to realize they are not working for them? host: on the carveout for private equity firms, according to the reporting, that was due to democratic opposition. caller: i agree. she's the problem. host: more on that from the washington post reporting:

larry is next out of north carolina. what are your thoughts on this bill that emerged from the weekend. caller: i couldn't hear what you just said it. host: what are your thoughts on the legislation? caller: the mental midgets are added again. unfortunately, you can do anything you want with the climate.

when you have major countries, russia, china, india which are not doing anything to help the climate, that means half the world is doing what they wish. unfortunately, when you have that scenario, nothing is going to change for the climate. the only thing it's doing is weakening the united states while china and russia get stronger. that's an unfortunate scenario. in the future when we have a war, china and their diesel tanks are going to run all over our battery-powered tanks. that will be the future. it is a sad scenario. host: this is diane on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. when are we going to -- when the

republicans going to stop fear mongering. china has said if america was willing to give into the climate issues. they are watching. they are showing signs of cooperating. this is a sign that we are good with our word. when you look at that ira tax reduction for inflation, everything on there is good for somebody. everything is good for somebody. democrats give, republicans take from the little man. this is such a good sign. anything that is added to that with amendments that seemed to go against what democrats tried to do is because republicans put that in there. they aren't really democrats.

they say they are democrats. go by what they do. i am very happy. i hope people in the midterms and in the 2020 fort think about two democrats give to me or do republicans give to me? that is your answer. look at the rights being taken away by republicans. it's women, it will go down to the other minorities. if we don't stand firm and vote. host: that was diane in michigan. more on the various provisions in the legislation. taxes and climate change and health the three main pillars of this bill. digging into the health provision, here's a little bit more from the wall street journal. it would allow medicare to the go sheet prices for the first time. it will extend the affordable

care act subsidies for three years, through 2025. past the 2024 election. it would cap out-of-pocket drug costs for medicare beneficiaries at $2000 year. it would offer free vaccines and insulin costs for medicare patients at $35 a month. those are some of the provisions in this legislation. this is some of the reaction from numbers of congress. bernie sanders was pushing democrats to go farther than they actually did. his tweet yesterday: this from kevin mccarthy in the house:

other members of the house will have their chance to vote on this legislation later this week. the democrat in charge of the appropriations committee, she said the passage of the act is a needed step to lowering health care costs and tackling the climate crisis. cnn looking into the caucus in the house and some of those more moderate members of the caucus to see if they would be supporting the bill. he writes yesterday:

that reporting, we are asking you your thoughts on this legislation. we will be talking about a lot this week. we will dig into a lot. we will end at 10:00 a.m. eastern. jim is in north dakota. you are next. caller: how are you? i just wanted to say about the climate crisis. that's my big thing with this bill, it's a waste of money. the climate has always been a crisis. the idea that this idea that the

liberal ego has created that you can bend the earth temperature to your will is insane. people have tried it throughout human history. they have done things like rain dances and sacrificed a virgin and thrown her into a volcano. the aztecs used to sacrifice children. you can't control the weather patterns. i can't believe we got to this point. we have a two degree increase. for that we came out of the little ice age from 1300, 400 years of incredible cooling. there was unbelievable loss of crops and weather pattern changes and rain that caused death and starvation. host: this bill looking to cut greenhouse gas missions by 40% by the end of the decade, a key

part of that is investing in renewable energy. you think it's a good idea to move to renewable energy? caller: there's nothing wrong with wind. we have a big win fill -- windmill factory in north dakota. we are in that right now, it was an incredible warming. host: that is jim and north coda. this is the headline on the new york times. this is todd in california. good morning. caller: good morning. it is nothing but inflation of gas prices, food prices, we have

enough fossil fuels to be energy and dependent. -- independent. i'm tired of hearing about global warming. a lot of people don't realize this, 90% of greenhouse -- [inaudible] host: that was todd in california. robert in cape coral, florida. good morning. caller: i support the bill. the sun gives us 970 trillion kilowatt hours for free every day. 17,400 kilowatt hours of free

electricity every year. i run my house on free sunlight. i run my electric vehicle on free manufactured electricity. i believe the country can accelerate the move to renewable energy with the help of this bill. thank you. host: josephine in new jersey. you are next. caller: good morning. i can remember in 1992 when we had a bill that came up and not one republican voted for it. they said there would be a depression. for 10 years we had the highest rate of growth and moneymaking, if you owned money in the stock market, you made a ton of money. if they say it's going to be bad, take the opposite.

do we need climate control? do you like fires? it's happening around the world. have your children and grandchildren cursed for the rest of their lives. wake up. things have to move along. as far as medicare is concerned, you don't like having $35 for insulin? republicans said screw you. you can pay more than that. when are they going to wake up. they are not for us. they are for their pocketbooks. thank you. host: that was josephine in new jersey. as we are getting your reaction to the senate passing this major legislation. it came yesterday in a rare sunday session. the house is looking to pass it by the end of the week and send

it to the president's desk. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. scott on twitter, he is a congressional correspondent: he went on to say that senator cory booker said:

that is quoting senator cory booker from new jersey. the new york times columnist, the remarkable summer, the president needs to seize this moment and brag about it: also, news analysis saint schumer gets democrats this badly needed victory. he writes:

that is today's new york times, if you want to read more. it is just after 7:30 on the east coast. we are halfway through this first segment. we are hearing from you on the passage of the inflation reduction act, it came yesterday afternoon around 3:30 p.m. eastern time. we continue to digest what's in that legislation. the process is known as -- the

democrats and republicans took their amendments to the senate floor in hours and hours of debate. this bill emerged yesterday. we want to hear what you have to say about it. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. lacey is in tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. inflation is a joke. it's just greed. it's an opportunity for people to line their pocketbooks. they've done everything they could possibly do.

whatever they did it, it's a good thing. people think republicans are helping the people. they are out to help themselves. if the democrats put a vehicle in every driveway, they would find fault to it. they want themselves in office. host: this is larry in the land of 10,000 lakes. good morning. caller: howdy. host: go ahead. caller: did any of you guys see a science channel show about 40 years ago. it would have shown you that the earth's magnetic field is slowing down.

naturally, that opens up the north and south pole. do you understand how the climate is heating? the idea that taking carbon out of the atmosphere is going to speed up the magnetic field, you couldn't find your ass with both hands. host: you don't support this effort to fight climate change? bruce is in oklahoma. go ahead. caller: good morning. i was calling because i wanted to thank senator chuck schumer from new york. all of the other 49 democrats in the senate who voted so that this bill could go forward and president biden will receive it when it goes back to the house.

i wish in the future perhaps it would be a good idea for the white house to have a summit on education with both nea president as well as the aft president and do something regarding the teacher shortage, the low salaries that teachers have endured for 40 years. they also need to have a conference on going ahead to do a complete overhaul of the irs. they need to start all over again with a minimum of 10% of some type of tax regarding income and that would. host: what this bill does, it

includes major new investments to expand the enforcement side of the irs. are you ok with that money? caller: i am in favor of that. yes. if they hired new agents, they will be able to go after these individuals who pay no income tax on their billion-dollar salaries. with all the overseas investments, i would like to see in the future c-span might spend time covering ideas like improving the minimum wage so it becomes a livable wage, something in the neighborhood of $25 per hour so they don't have to revisit it when salaries begin to go up.

i know it is $7.25 and it hasn't been raised. host: we've done plenty of minimum-wage segments on this program. i'm sure we will do them again in the future. i'm sure we will do that. you started by talking about chuck schumer. this was the majority leader moments after the final vote yesterday. showing his excitement after democrats were able to move this legislation. >> we changed the world. in a way that you really get an opportunity to do that. with the inflation reduction act, this majority has achieved what countless others have come to washington promising to do but ultimately failed to deliver. i am confident that the inflation reduction act will endure as one of the defining feats of the 21st century.

we did it without a single vote to spare. to do something with 50 votes is rough. to do small things is rough. to pass such a major piece of legislation with only 50 votes, i give such credit to my caucus. they are amazing. they pulled together. throughout these last few days, every senator, i said don't offer this amendment, don't vote in this because he could pull apart the bill even though you might need it. every single person cooperated. you could see how happy everybody was if you were in the gallery when the bill passed. our bill reduces inflation, it lowers costs, it creates millions in manufacturing jobs,

it enhances our energy security, it's the boldest climate package in history. the senate has passed the most significant bill to fight the climate crisis ever. it's going to make a difference to my grandkids. host: that was chuck schumer yesterday, calling this investment a historic bill. it is smaller than the original package the democrats had tried to move in there build back better agenda. democrats are unable to move that. this legislation emerged from many months of negotiations. nbc news noted what was in the original act of did not make it into the inflation reduction act that passed yesterday, some of

the casualties include universal pre-k, money for child care, money for elder care, expanding the child tax credit, money for community college, he earned income tax credit extension, closing the medicaid dap, immigration, tax rate hikes. other items excluded from what would become what was passed yesterday and what democrats hope will pass the house by the end of the week. getting your reaction to all of this, phone lines are as usual. this is walter in indiana. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i couldn't be -- thank you for taking michael. i couldn't be any more happy with them passing the climate

package. i think it's wonderful that they rented money for the climate. i am trying to help with the climate because i can't afford gas in my car. i can't afford groceries. millions of illegals are pouring across the border. i think it's great they're going to print money for the climate. i hope they keep up the good money. how could we go wrong? when the economy is falling apart, i think that's wonderful to print more money. host: walter in indiana. the final number, investments and climate change. this is bill in virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i just have two things to say. i don't understand these democrats who are pushing

socialism/common is him. a 200 euro philosophy that has not worked anywhere. now they are really outshining themselves to push a evil concept of let's have more tax collectors. we need another 80,000 bureaucrats. you know these people -- they are not going to go after big shots. they are going to come after me. i've worked my whole life. i don't know where these people come from. they are bragging, we have done a wonderful job. you did a wonderful job because you gave the two people who held out what they wanted. i am getting disgusted with these people who really don't know what the world is. i am an old guy. i think we should put an age limit on all of our politicians.

these people are so far away from the real world. host: on your age limit idea, how old is too old to be a member of congress or president? caller: i would stick it at 65. i realize that a lot of people are 70. i am 84. i am fairly coherent. i think 65. it's on both sides. some of them can't carry a sentence anymore. and they are all out of touch. we go back to our constituents. you go back to the people who support you directly. my representative in my district, he's pretty far left.

he didn't do anything for me. they -- i don't write letters much anymore. i've got a busy life. host: who is your congressperson? caller: you see, old age caught up with me. i lost his name. i'm sorry. host: that was bill. susan in newark, good morning. caller: i just have a question about the bill. i'm not sure how this would affect people. is there any statute in the bill for eminent domain? host: not something i have heard about. caller: i have seen how that works in my county. people lost their homes, their farms, everything. if they have to -- as a person have a choice if they don't want

solar panels on their land. it won't be the ritual have them in their backyard. i feel like it will be the poor people of the united states. it's something i was worried about. host: i'm not sure -- i will acknowledge i have not read all 700 pages. there is money to build solar panels and wind turbines and electric vehicles. i don't think there are revisions about where that takes place. caller: usually, it is put somewhere where the people who are the purchased like indian reservations and people who don't have enough money to fight back. i was just worried about that. it's nice to help the climate. are you going to do it on the backs of the poor? host: that is susan in new york.

this is sarah out of new hampshire. good morning. caller: good morning. on the inflation part, if printing money was what got us into this, let's recoup the 75% of the loan money that went to big business instead of small business. take the equivalent and put it in a pile and burn it. on the environmental side, i think taxpayer dollars should go back to the taxpayers. property owners should get subsidies to put wind, solar, weatherization. if we went to a four-day workweek, we would save 20% in

carbon costs. we need to stop deforestation. the last two years, the world destroyed 100,000 square miles of carbon absorbing forests. you can plant all the trees, a little tree does not absorb carbon like an 80-year-old tree does. we are behind the curve there. electric vehicles should produce their own electricity. they shouldn't plug into the grid. we should tax out of existence single use plastics and excessive packaging. we should put plasma burner trash burners in every town so we can burn trash on site cleanly in a closed system. we can produce electricity that way in every municipality.

cattle ranching, methane producing, we've got natural gas venting methane into the atmosphere. as far as industrial wind goes, it has a huge carbon footprint. we have five sites in new hampshire. they produce 2.5% of our electrical. each site destroys about 1700 acres. the problem is it took 10 months to build this site. it took 15 pieces of heavy equipment each day roughly 10 hours a day, each piece of

equipment burning about 150 gallons of diesel fuel. the turbine comes from europe on the biggest diesel engines known to mankind. blasting the top of a mountain off, how environmentally friendly as that. host: that was sarah in new hampshire. we've got just about 10 minutes left in the segment. we are getting your reaction to the inflation reduction act that was passed in the senate yesterday. this was the reaction from the president of the united states, putting out the statement:

the house is looking to pass that bill by the end of the week. the senate passed the just elation with the help of the vice president breaking the tie. punch old news with a little bit of a historic perspective. it was a 26 time she is broken and tie since she became vice president. that's the most in nearly 200 years thanks to the 50-50 split in the senate. there were 31 tie-breaking votes made by former vice president john calhoun 200 years ago. dave is in new jersey. you are up next on this

legislation. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm a registered republican. i am for science. i don't know what happened to my party. they have fallen totally religious. i like that we are trying to fight climate change. we are watching it in front of our eyes. in europe with the highest temperatures ever. there are droughts, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes are happening everywhere. tornadoes never used to happen in the northeast. they are every. fires art in the west 12 months year now. what happened to the republicans that believed in education and science? host: do you still vote republican? caller: not in the general election. i do in the primaries.

i am disgusted with beliefs. science is facts. two plus two is four. host: as a republican votes in the primaries, who would you like to see win the gop presidential primary in 2024? caller: nobody. desantis and trump are nettie. i don't like -- 90. nutty. host: brookfield, wisconsin, good morning. caller: good morning. i can't help feeling like the democrats played the long game on this one.

we got the infrastructure will, that's great. other than that, i haven't heard a lot of progress. this checks all the taxes. it reminds people why we voted for them. it's time for the midterms. i'm pretty happy. host: democrats played the long game. using a special process called budget reconciliation to allow this bill to advance with a simple majority rather than usual 60 votes needed in the senate. this is the wall street journal:

just about five minutes left in this segment. getting a reaction and if you don't get in the segment, we will talk about it as well a little bit later in the program. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. this is jack in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me. what i would like to bring to light is the fact that i paid more than 15% taxes from my

paycheck. i am not a billionaire. i pay more taxes than billionaires do on their profit. if they take 15% off, they still get to keep 85%. i agree with 15%. it should be more like 30%. that's what i pay. i agree with the gentleman that says the republican party is full of loonies. the republican party is sick. they have no idea. host: you are talking -- calling in of line. caller: i am a registered republican. i am not voting republican. i have been a republican my whole life. host: when was the last time you voted republican?

caller: i don't know. i voted for obama. i voted against trump. twice. host: did you vote for george w. bush? caller: yes. host: what did you like about george w. bush? caller: he didn't just call himself a conservative. he was a conservative. there are no conservatives anymore. george w. bush was a conservative. he acted like a conservative. host: what makes somebody a true conservative? caller: listening to the people. and let me tell you, they don't want this goofy shit coming out of the republicans.

people want same-sex marriage. they want the option of abortion. the border isn't as much trouble and trump brought attention to it and caused it to triple. there were not as many people coming across the border until trump brought attention to it. then he tried to shut it down. then it escalated terribly. now, the republicans vote to try to keep biden from having people processing. host: that was jack in pennsylvania. we did want to acknowledge some of the text messages that have come through.

from new york: madison, wisconsin, good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. i would like to thank you for taking my call. i am very frightened about the future of our country. i feel today is the best day of the rest of our lives.

we cannot accept the fact that this is an inflation reduction act. it's embarrassing. so many people have chosen to say this is not going to work at all. i really think they need to listen and get more toward. the dhs says the border is secure. they've never gone to the border. it breaks my heart. we are not vetting people who come into this country. we are actually probably leading many people who may be potential terrorists into the country. it breaks my heart. there is a legal way to get into the country. i respect all of those who have done it in that fashion.

i implore the government to use common sense, which is something that doesn't seem to be popular these days. i bet -- i thank you. i appreciate it. host: one more call in the segment. kathleen out of new york. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning. i'm very happy that it passed. i remember a few months ago with joe manchin and they thought he would go for it and then he didn't. it's coming for you. sure enough, here comes the snow. so me things are going on in

this world. so many things are going on in this country. go wrong in this country that we truly needed that. we truly needed that, with the climate and everything. yeah, i am so happy. and you know what? [laughs] i haven't voted ever in my life, you know, until trump, you know, i voted for hillary. and that i voted for biden. i was so happy he won, and i started feeling saying in my heart, i felt so bad for him and kamala, because with covid and so much chaos, you know. guest: are you going to vote in the midterm elections in november? caller: yeah, i thought about that, you know. [laughs] i thought about that, yeah "new york times -- yeah, you know, i

guess i'm going to start voting, you know? guest: kathleen in new york -- host: kathleen in new york, our last caller on the segment of "washington journal." legislation that was passed in the senate yesterday, we will focus on legislation that president biden is set to sign this week, veterans impacted by toxic substances as they serve. leo shane will join us of "the military times." later, dr. joel zinberg of the paragon health institute will join us to discuss this proposal passed by the democrats yesterday. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the house january 6 committee hearings, investigating the attack on the capital. go to c-span.org/january6, our

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foster, ceo and director of the little blue house, says the lbh has provided whatever services needed by our kids to give them a chance to become self-sufficient adults. >> call foster on this edition of book notes plus. it is available on the seas amount mobile app or were -- c-span now mobile app or were ever get your podcasts. >> 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 american is ray, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: always glad to welcome to

this program leo shane, deputy editor at "the military times," and has been closely following the honoring our p.a.c.t. act, which is set to be signed into law on wednesday. that legislation aimed at helping veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. start by reminding us what burn pits are. guest: yeah, these are massive trash fires used in iraq and afghanistan to get rid of a host of military waste, talking about office waste, vehicle parts, human waste, some toxic chemicals, things that were pretty nasty, and they were used for years in both of those war zones. they were covered in jet and burned to get rid of them. some folks who were near the pits war some protective equipment, but those who were living in myspace is breathed in the toxic smoke on a daily basis. what we have seen if there's a high rate of respiratory illnesses, of rare cancers

coming from these younger veterans, you know, 30, 40-year-olds who all of a sudden are developing brain cancer should not be getting that. so the believe link here is some of the things burned in there caused some of these serious illnesses. it is something "the military times" broke the story on back in 2008. we have been going on this for 14 years, but trying to pin down exactly what was in the fires, who is getting sick in what areas, that has been really difficult for v.a. congress is stepping in and saying, look, we have standards for clear, scientific links for toxins in the military and the benefits. in this case, the science is a little fuzzy, and we can't keep pushing these folks away and saying, "we can't help you." they are going to step in, create some presumptive illnesses, presumptive conditions, at they look, if you are overseas in iraq,

afghanistan, we are going to start helping you out. host: what does that mean? to the tune of more money, more services? guest: it is actually both. folks who served in iraq and afghanistan, right now they get five years of health care automatically through v.a., after they leave the military. that is going to get bumped up to 10 years. that will give a little bit more time for some of these serious illnesses to start to show, you know, if you have serious restaurateur illnesses, it might not be right when you get back from the wars, it may be a few years down the line. the other side's benefits, talking about monthly payouts. these can be $2000, $3000 a month, when you consider how debilitating the disabilities are. this is significant for folks who might have a severe breathing condition, they can no longer work on a regular basis, hold a full-time job because their asthma has gotten so bad, their bronchitis has gotten so bad.

now these folks who could not directly prove that it was the burn pits but it was clear to an independent observer that that was it, now they will be able to apply and get these benefits, you know, get some financial relief for themselves and their families. host: how does a veteran, through the cancer or the issues, the breathing issues that they are dealing with, how do they prove that? and is it just them and their doctor up against the v.a. to do these things? or is that the weight has been up until now? guest: yeah, that is the way it has been. for example, back in vietnam, they use the chemical agent orange very extensively. over the years, there's quite a bit of research that says hey, people exposed to this chemical on a regular basis, they tend to develop these sorts of illnesses, skin problems, things of that sort. over the time, the v.a. said, ok, if you were in vietnam and you show this kind of liver cancer, we are going to say, all

right, that is obviously connected to the chemical exfoliates, because we know what that chemical was and how it works on the body. with the burn pits, as i said before, it is tough to tell what was being burned, in some cases, it might have been paper, old uniforms, things like that. in other areas, it was jet fuel, human waste, motor oil, weird chemicals, aircraft parts, things they could not dispose of in any easy way. in some cases, the smoke from those fires just wafted over where people work sleeping, eating, living most of the time, but there was not the air monitoring, someone to say ok, we know this is a carcinogen, therefore we can easily connect these. all these iraq and afghanistan families, the families from these -- of these veterans have been struggling to say, look, we know this is not natural. we know this is a healthy young man, healthy young woman who

went over there, who would run marathons, who can barely go up a flight of stairs. it has got to be the burn pit, but we cannot directly connect the science. the v.a. says, by law, that is the only way we can do this. now this law, the p.a.c.t. act, is going to broaden that. he will use the way the v.a. does this for future illnesses and will also look directly at the burn pit illnesses and say, hey, there's 23 conditions we know we are seeing a higher incidence in. we believe these are connected to the smoke, even if it is not the same rigid scientific evidence we have seen in the past, and we are going to start giving out benefits. host: leo shane of "military times" joining us via zoom this morning. we will take your questions, your comments on it. we have a special line for active and former military could we will prioritize because on that line. (202) 748-8003 is that number. otherwise, phone lines as usual, republicans, democrats, independents, you can go ahead and call in as well.

leo shane, as folks are calling in, this bill set to be signed into law on wednesday by president biden. it was originally scheduled for today. any reason for that change, besides the travel that we know president biden is that you make today to kentucky? guest: i think it was the travel, the president's bout with covid, i think that shook up their scheduling. there's nothing with the builder that indicates this was any sort of delay. the president has been very forceful and wanting to sign this bill. he mentioned this issue in the state of the union address, really highlighting the entire issue of burn pits again for the country and putting congress on the path to move forward on this. so i know the white house is anxious to get this signed into law. i don't think those two days will matter too much in the end. host: you mentioned already, this bill 14 years in the making. it is coming, this congress, you noted president biden mentioned in the state of the union, coming at the tail end of the

legislative season of the congress. why did it take so long? guest: it has been an eventful few months here. really the final deal in this bill was reached in late spring, early may. senator chester and senator moran on the senate veterans affairs committee -- they negotiated a couple of issues at what happened after that was kind of a legislative mess. it was past 84-14 in the senate. there was a technical issue, just a small change with -- host: ok, we are going to work on leo shane's zoom connection there and try to get him back, just to sure he can answer your questions. plenty more to talk about with him from "military times." give us a second to work on that, and as we are doing that, we are going to hear from some of our viewers.

we have a phone line for active and former military, (202) 748-8003. otherwise, phone lines for republicanss, democrats, and independents, as usual. johnny charleston, south carolina, one of those veterans calling in this morning. johnny, go ahead. caller: i am a vietnam veteran. i was there in 67, 1960 eight, and we did not have indoor toilets. they would burn that crap. if that is not toxic, i don't know what is. i only get 40% disability from v.a. i have been complaining about my stomach for years -- since 1977. deaf ears. i am having teeth problems, because everything i.e. comes up.

the treatment he mentioned, that is dead on, 100%. so that is keeping me down, right there. i am trying to get my benefits. host: thanks for the call. caller: i'm 75 years old. host: thanks for the call from charleston, south carolina. i believe leo shane is back with us via zoom. that caller from the vietnam era, talking about burn pits being used back then. this also has to do with veterans from the vietnam era, does it not? guest: yeah, this is a pretty expansive bill. this is actually a pretty comprehensive military tactic, disclosure measure. conditions from agent orange, explosion and vietnam, -- exposure in vietnam, the big issue there is hypertension, high blood pressure. it is also radiation exposure

from various deployments around the world over the years, really looking holistically, there is also a provision dealing with water contamination at camp lejeune. this was an issue there from the 1950's to the 1980's, and they will be able to bring new lawsuits against the federal government for some of the errors that were made in that case and some of the health effects that were there. and it also looks to the future. this is supposed to ease some of those standards that v.a. uses when they are figuring out how to award benefits for toxic exposure claims. so they are revamping some of the ways they look at that, some of the evidence they use, so it is a little less rigid. so it really wide-ranging, massive, expanding bill. as many as 3.5 million veterans, as many as one in five veterans across the country, could benefit from this. host: erica, from maryland, you are next. you are on with leo shane.

caller: yes, good morning. i am a first time caller, and i am really excited for time really angry, too, because we oftentimes don't hear about this, and these exposures started then with the burn pits and sarin gas levels being wafted over us. i was 34 years old. i had a rare appendicil cancer. i went to the v.a. to prove it. and a lot of my anger is they never talk about us, as gulf war i veterans, and now i was

diagnosed, since i was 19 years old, and now have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which has affected my life, and a lot of that is probably because of that nerve gas. host: is it your expectation that these changes, as a result of the p.a.c.t. act, are going to help you? caller: that's what i wonder, because they never say -- they always say iraqi and afghanistan. they never say gulf war i people, and we are the people, we have been suffering for a while. host: erica, let me bring in leo shane to address some of that. guest: i appreciate erica calling me out, because i did go right by the gulf war i veterans, and they are included in this bill. what will be in here is an expiration date, a certain amount of time people claiming exposure have to get their paperwork in by. it has been taken away in this

bill. it is not limited to any time period. folks like erica can come. and the idea is, with the new standards, the more open, more forgiving standards to toxic exposure -- because we know the gulf war syndrome was a real issue -- again, not conclusive proof what chemicals were in certain areas come about widely known that there was poor air quality, widely believed that there were certain toxic chemicals being used or being burned, being, you know, just being present in the air. the hope is that it will be a lower standard now, that as veterans like erica work with veterans groups and go to v.a., they will be able to get their benefits. host: before we had that pickup a few minutes ago, you were talking about the process of how we got here and jon stewart's involvement in this, when he came up to capitol hill and had very strong words for members of congress. i wanted to let you sort of go back to that for a second. guest: yeah, just real quick, i mean, this bill was all but done

in the beginning of june. it passed out of the senate by an 84-14 vote, quite a bipartisan support. it was a small, technical fix that needed to be made over in the house, so after the july 4 recess, the house passed it. a chemical over to senate. the expectation was that this was going to be over. stewart and a bunch of veterans were on the capital, ready to celebrate, and then the senate bolstered from the bill. senator to me question how it was being accounted for. all those concerns were part of why a senator to me voted for the bill back in june. a lot of confusion over why senate republicans voted against this. and it came right after the chips act vote, so there was some concern that republicans were just making should democrats did not have three big wins in a row here come about for veterans advocates, they did

not care as much about the politics, they just wanted to make sure it was done. they had veterans advocates camped out for days, terrible weather, bad storms overnight, just saying, look what we have waited long enough. we have been advocating for this more than a decade. you've got to get this done. even if there are concerns, you've got to get this done, so we can start helping veterans, and we can work out the details later on. thankfully for them, this went through, in the end come republicans got a couple of amendment votes on this, and the bill passed in pretty much the same form as it did back in june. host: advocating for these changes, as you noted, for more than a decade. i want to take you back to november 3, two thousand eight you mentioned this story earlier. kennedy is a "military times" reporter. "harmless or hazardous?" just to read the lede of that

story. an open air burn pit and iraq may have exposed town thousands of troops and iraqis to thousands of voices such as arsenic, carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste. the central logistic hope for u.s. forces in iraq wafts continuously over living quarters and the base support combat hospital, sources say. even though the military has three clean-burning incinerators, the burn pit was still taking up to 147 tons of waste per day, significantly more than half the daily output of the base, home to military personnel and thousands of contractors. take us back to when that story was published and how much attention it got. guest: yeah, look, kennedy did

an unbelievable job. there were certainly folks who had hints of this, who knew this, but she took -- she put together exactly what was going on and what appears obvious to us now, that if you are burning these toxic substances and breathing in the chemicals, it is going to have terrible health effects. for years, she and other reporters that "military times," myself much later, after she had done all the hard work here, we kept questioning the military for what is being done? what is going on here? the v.a. just saying, look, we just don't have the solid evidence here, unfortunately, the "smoking gun," so to say, to prove that these chemicals and these illnesses -- and that was just frustrating for the families. again, they could see the health effects. they could see the troops, what their health conditions were before they went overseas. they knew there would be other complications, but to see somebody was healthy, who is to pass on these physical fitness

tests, to wrong long distances, come back, and not be able to function, not be able to breathe properly. they knew something was wrong, even if the military in the v.a. just would not officially acknowledge it. host: from that line for veterans and former and active military, edwards is from newport. good morning. caller: greetings from the free state of florida. in reference to the burn pits, my brother-in-law served in iraq in 2005. he had cancer. it took him 17 years to have the v.a. help him out. i was a service officer with the vfw, and i saw the situation with agent orange, with veterans from the dmz in korea, and also the veterans from vietnam with agent orange.

v.a. is known as "deny, away, deny." that is how they operate. it is a sad situation. halliburton is paid billions of dollars for a high-tech incinerator system to go into iraq. they dug holes, and they threw everything in it. so it was assumed what was done by halliburton, what was done by the government, what they did to our kids, exposing them to agent orange and the burn pits. and lastly, the v.a., what they did to our troops with the delay, deny, delay concept, and that is all i have to say about that, just like forest gump. thank you. host: leo shane. guest: yeah, look, i hear this from veterans from all areas, "

delay, deny, and die," that is what happens when they file claims. there are bureaucratic hurdles. this removes some of them. this issue of being able to approve some of the science. there's a lot that happens with the burn pits, because of the rules and regulations were hamstrung to help out in certain ways. veterans to get health care if they are in poor shape and don't have other options, but those benefits, that ability to, you know, to be financially taken care of is something that this has just been a sore sticking point. hopefully we won't see that in the coming years. hopefully we will see corrections, and we won't see thousands, millions of veterans start to get help that they believe they deserve and that most of the public believes they

deserve as well. host: donna out of ohio, republican, good morning. caller: yes, i want to know why that you guys always talk about the veterans. well, my husband was a veteran. he was on a submarine. he could run and do all this stuff before he went in, then when he got out, he had lung problems and everything else. and then when he passed away, they ignored the rebate. do you understand my question? guest: absolutely. that is one of the things here, there are certain benefits for family members, for surviving family members. i'm very sorry for your loss. hopefully you can contact someone with a veterans service organization or contact v.a. and talk to them about what you might be entitled to know that these changes have been made. and some families will be able

to get some benefits, to get some financial help now that they have made these changes. i don't know when the caller's husband served, but if it was the case of burn pits, if it was a case connected to these illnesses, that is a real big point of frustration. a lot of families, they have already lost their loved one. they've already seen them pass away from these illnesses, and now they are left with a melon out in the woods. they are able to get help now, too, and the v.a. is encouraging everyone to reach out to them, start filing claims, because as they go into effect, they will be able to issue checks quicker if your paperwork is already in the system. host: you say "as these going to affect," do these benefits happen as soon as the president signed the legislation? guest: part of the deal with the finance on this, it is quite an extensive bill come about $300 billion over the next 10 years,

if they have staggered implementation for different illnesses, for different conditions. some of the burn pit conditions will go into effect as soon as the president signed into law. the extension of health care from five years after service, 10 years after service, that is supposed to going to affect immediately after the law is signed. veterans will see that. the agent orange provision, hypertension, high blood pressure, that goes into effect for another three years. there are contingencies for folks who are facing severe health concerns or are 80 or older, to get them moved quicker, but some of these illnesses, they won't actually start issuing checks, benefits checks for two, three years down the road. so it is going to be confusing for a lot of veterans. that is why a great thing to do is to reach out to a veterans service organization. they have got folks who can walk you through it. and, in some cases, if you apply early, if v.a. can move quicker, the white house has said they

hope to implement everything as quickly as possible, but it will require getting some staff in place, getting some new regulations in place. but if they do move it up, you know, something that might be scheduled for 2024, maybe that moves up to early 2023, and that will be another year and a half, you know, another year of benefits the veterans could get. host: some of our viewers sharing their frustration about this issue, anger over this issue, via social media. on twitter, this is linlin saying, "i've never served in the military, but this angers me to no end. this is how we continue to treat our veterans," writing "wtf." lindsay writing "who would join something that kills them? we need to treat our veterans with respect, not burn pit duty. " which raises the question, are burn pits still in use? guest: they don't have the

massive presence overseas in these places that is hesitated these kinds of giant pits. i have heard reports, and we are trying to run some of them down, about contractors still using some smaller pits in certain areas, certain overseas locations, but they are not official dod locations anymore. it is a little fuzzy. but, you know, there's a difference between a small, controlled pit that may be far off site, that maybe, you know, properly monitored, and what we saw during the height of the wars, which was just massive half-acre fires that were putting plumes of smoke all over the place, could not be controlled. we are not supposed to see that anymore. it is something we are watching, something we are checking into. host: militarytimes.com is where you can go for leo shane and his colleagues' story. about 15 minutes with him this morning, talking about the p.a.c.t. act, honoring our pact act. president biden will be signing

that into law. a phone line for you to ask questions about it, taking your comments as well, former and active military, (202) 748-8003 is the number. otherwise, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . hopefully i did not throw too many numbers at you, and you will call in on the line that gets you through. this is richard out of boston, mass on that line for veterans. go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. richard cole from boston, mass. also, i was in iraq in 2004 as a contractor, southern iraq. i know i saw multiple burn pits there as well, and also a huge

-- in the middle of the outpost that we were at. i'm just wondering what sort of benefits might be available to contractors that served alongside and carried military i.d.' but were basicallys non-military personnel. what sort of resolution will we have? guest: that is a point of frustration cured i don't have good news for you. this is for folks who work active duty, reserve military who are serving over there. the issue with contractors, you know, as you said, there are plenty of contractors, american workers who were serving alongside, who reads in the same smoke, who won't see benefits from this. hopefully now that this has been passed, now that there is a baseline attached to this, they will be able to come back and address the contractor issue, figure out some way. but, you know, the priority has been right now for the folks who were deployed over there, you know, involuntary in a lot of cases, you were signed by the

military, you were deployed overseas. it was not your choice to go over there, as opposed to contractors who made a choice but did not fully understand the dangers of the burn pits that were going to be there. so the issue of that compensation will have to come later, but this sort of provides the baseline for a lot of these conversations and a lot of the rationale for that. host: staying in the bay state, this is our lean, independent. good morning. caller: yes, hello. i'm calling about the toxic water issue in camp lejeune my husband was in the marine corps reserve and went through basic training at camp lejeune i went back every year for summer camp. however, he was never considered a veteran, because he never saw active duty. will he be entitled to any benefits? because one of the listed items is cirrhosis of the liver, yet he was not an alcoholic and

barely ever drank. so i was wondering, what would be his, our chances of getting any benefits at this late stage? guest: that is very specific. you are going to have to reach out to folks to find out, but i would call and ask about this, because the camp lejeune portion is a little bit different than some of these other ones. these other benefits they are talking about is really, if you served at this area at this time, you have access to this additional health care now," so the camp lejeune portion, that was added into this bill, and that has to do with civil cases brought against the u.s. government and u.s. military for those water contamination issues. so it is not the exact same, if you served in this area, you will get these benefits. it is you now have the opportunity to go into legal action and try and get those benefits. in this case, you know, if it was established, he was there, he had a relationship with the base, you know, i'm not exactly

sure what the specifics of would be, but it sounds like the kind of thing where you should reach out to folks, see what the legal options are, and see if there is some sort of class action settlement or some legal resolution down the line that you and your husband would be included in that. host: before we get too late in the segment, i did want to switch topics for a second and ask you about one of your other stories, also available for viewers to read on militarytimes.com. the defense department's missing january 6 phone records need investigation. the senate majority leader demands. explain what is going on there. guest: senator durbin came out and said, after reports came out that senior dod officials wiped their phones on their way out the door at the end of the trump administration after january 6, said there needs to be some explanation. we have heard a couple different things from dod on this that when senior officials leave, it is standard to clear off their

phones, but at the time there were requests from congress to hang onto them. they returned to piece together what happens on january 6. where there conversations in the white house and dod about deploying troops, about providing extra security? now those are gone. senator durbin has said the defense department inspector general needs to get to the bottom of this, find out if this was a mistake, if this was simply someone, you know, following regular procedures but not looking at the bigger picture, or was this malfeasance? was someone trying to cover up stuff? we still have a lot questions about what happened, in terms of the national guard response, as capitol police work overwhelmed that day. where was the guard? who called the guard? president trump insisted he called, but there does not appear to be any evidence that shows that. we got quite a few reports that

vice president pence and congressional leaders were actually the ones who made the request, and dod acted to respond, but in a delayed fashion, because of the obstruction for president trump. unclear if we will be able to get to the bottom of that without seeing direct communications between president trump, senior white house staff, and senior defense department staff. host: and in terms of who is answering questions at the defense department these days, as "military times" points out, there is a new press secretary, air force brigadier general patrick lighter. who is he? guest: i have to defer to my panic on friends. he was a member of active duty military. there have been concerned over what that look is, whether it is more of a political position that a position that is meant to inform. the fact that he is wearing a uniform, he will be briefing in uniform, at least for the short

term. is he being put in a place where that is politicizing the military, rather than giving on unfiltered, you know, update of what is going on with the defense department operations. we have seen that in the past. that has come up in the past. it is just something to watch and something that, you know, as the military gets concerned about being drawn into political conflicts, the defense department is, you know, fanatical about trying to make sure that they appear nonpartisan -- not bipartisan, by nonpartisan. they are not involved in the back and forth with republicans and democrats. host: we have got a few minutes left with leo shane. i think your zoom connection is back. guest: it is taking me down a little bit here, but i got you for the most part. host: it is the world of zoom television. time for maybe one or two more

phone calls. mark in tallahassee, florida, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for the time. i wanted to make a statement about vietnam vets that had problems all their lives from agent orange and having to be exposed to it for months and months at a time. i had a really good uncle that use to hunt and fish with all the time, always had seizures from the agent orange. it eventually killed him, he was 68 years old, it eventually killed him. these seizures were really that. i've been through many of them with him. they were really terrible. but what i'm getting to is, you know, i think and feel that these vietnam veterans that have passed from the agent orange, 50 years, 16 years later, should be

put on the vietnam memorial, i think. anyways, that is my little statement, and, you know, it's a shame that our government killed off so many vietnam vets. host: mark, thanks for the call. leo shane come anything you want to respond to there? guest: yeah, there has been some conversation -- i, you know, without justifying anything the government did, there were things that were learned over the years, they were not necessarily -- host: leo shane -- guest: -- about the dangers of agent orange a chemical exfoliate, so we do learn. we learned about the burn pits. we learned about agent orange. unfortunately, we also learned to slowly about those issues and those contaminants to members of

the military. host: before we lose your zoom connection, i want to make sure to say thank you, as always, for your time and for taking phone calls. we will, of course, have you back on again in the not-too-distant future. leo shane, deputy editor at "military times." it is militarytimes.com, on twitter, it is @leoshane. and it is about 8:40 on the east coast this morning for as we often try to do at the outset of a busy week in washington, what we want to do is take some time to focus on what is happening on both inns of pennsylvania avenue. and to do that, we are joined via zoom this morning by sophia kai, national politics reporter at politico. sophia kai, good morning to you. guest: good morning. i want to focus first on that

tax, that climate bill. it has to the senate and the house. what is the latest on how much debate is going to take place in the house and when a final vote may take place? guest: it may come back as early as next week, and we know that we expect it to be smooth sailing. a lot of the house moderates have said that they will be supporting the bill, so, you know, very soon this will end up on the president's desk. host: in terms of house members to watch, both on the democratic and republican side of the aisle, who are you keeping an eye on this week, as nancy pelosi tries to take the ball here from chuck schumer and get it to president biden? guest: in particular, we are looking at a lot of the moderates on the democratic side, somebody like josh gottheimer is, you know, a good measure of where moderates are. and then of course, you know, we will be watching who on the

republican side support this bill and, of course, democrats do not need that many republican votes to get this through. host: and they could do it on their own commit their party six together. you mentioned josh gottheimer, putting out a statement yesterday in the wake of the senate passage of the legislation, saying that the bill passes his key test that he pushed forth in day one, tweeting that it does not raise taxes on individuals, families, or small businesses in my district. the inflation reduction act makes no changes to personal income tax rates or those impacting small businesses. how big of news of that -- how big of news was that for nancy pelosi, as she is trying to count these votes here? guest: i mean tomatoes pretty significant. if you remember back in august, september of last year, summer of 2021, on the house side, moderates and democrats were very split about what should be

in this bill. now this is a bill that is still quite active. it includes funding for climate, it includes a 15% corporate tax for certain companies. in many ways, it also includes a rallying medicare to negotiate drug prices. it is a big deal that both the senate and the house, democrats in both chambers, have come together here. in the senate, they needed to get mancin and synema, and in the house, they needed the squad numbers as well as the moderates like josh gottheimer, that we talked about, together, and they have managed to do that. host: from the liberal side of the caucus, the head of the progressive caucus, jayapal, her statement yesterday, after senate democrats passed the legislation with the help of the vice president, in short, she said it is a huge win for

americans, lower it energy cost, to limit carbon emissions, and make large corporations pay taxes. without support from both ends of the democratic caucus, what is, then, the biggest speedbump here that nancy pelosi is trying to watch out for? guest: you know, i think when you think about the progressives, there are some items that they would have loved be in there that just aren't, for instance, the child tax credit. the extension of the child tax credit is not a not bill. if progressives and democrats want to do that, they will have to do that in a separate bill, you know, however, there is such things as a $35 cap on insulin for patients who are on medicare. remember, this does not include the insulin cap, you know, for private insurers, which

republicans, senate republicans scrubbed out of the bill yesterday. but there are a lot of things that make progressives, you know, be able to go back to their district and say, look, this is what we did. host: as we wait for that debate on the house floor this week, let's head to the other end of pennsylvania avenue, as we preview the week ahead. president biden's schedule this week, he is heading to kentucky today. why? guest: so he will be in kentucky, specifically eastern kentucky, where there were some catastrophic floods that killed dozens. so both president biden and the first lady will be in kentucky, doing what the president is really good at, and that is comforting grieving families. host: and he has gotten the all clear when it comes to his covert isolation? guest: yeah, i mean, it is significant that yesterday was the first time he stepped out of the white house. it has been 18 days since, you know, he has been in isolation.

he went yesterday to go see dr. jill biden in rehobeth, delaware, where, you know, he spent some time, you know, before his very busy week ahead this week. host: what else are you watching on the president's schedule this week? we already talked about him signing that veterans legislation, that now targeted for wednesday. what else are you watching? guest:guest: he is really doing a victory lap this week. on tuesday, he will be signing the chipmaking bill, and this will provide a lot of money for the u.s. manufacturing, specifically semiconductors, so he will be signing that. that will be another, you know, big policy win for him. wednesday, as you mentioned, he will be signing the veterans health care bill, which provides expanded coverage for three point 5 million veterans who have been exposed to burn pits. later on this week, he will be going to south carolina.

he will be going where he has been known to vacation, so my understanding is he will be going, you know, for a vacation trip. host: and then anything else on capitol hill that you are following this week on your beat? guest: i think a lot of people are just trying to take a breath. obviously, pelosi is going to want to push that reconciliation bill through quickly. to be honest, i'm not quite sure what the senate is doing. i think a lot of them have left for a recess until september. host: sophia cai, covering national politics for this congress. how long have you been working on capitol hill? guest: for about two years. host: what is your main focus on the beat? what did you do before this? guest: i covered the last year and a half of the trunk

presidency -- trump presidency for bloomberg. now at axios, i cover both, and i covered campaigns. host: and it is axios.com. i believe i said politico earlier. my apologies. thank you for taking time to walk us through the week ahead in washington. appreciate it. guest: for sure. host: that is going to do it for this segment of the "washington journal," but we are going to turn back to the inflation reduction act. after the break, we will be joined by dr. joel zinberg of the paragon health institute we are going to talk specifically about the health provision and that bill, passed by the senate yesterday. stick around for that conversation. we will be right back. ♪ >> listen to c-span radio with

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i'm sure you know. i'll tell you, if only i could have spent a little more time being a politician last year and less time being president, i would have kicked their butts out. i did not know what they were doing. >> find it on the c-span mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our focus now on the health care provisions on the major health, climate, and tax bill passed in the senate yesterday. we are joined by dr. joel zinberg, a former white house advisor on the council of economic advisers in the trump administration, a senior fellow, and director at the paragon health institute. dr. zinberg, pleasure to be with you. let us know what paragon does, what is your mission there? guest: so paragon health

institute is a new think tank devoted to increasing competition for health care consumers, for patients around the country, and to look and create alternatives to government expansion and control of health care. host: so when it comes to the health care provisions in the inflation reduction act, it offering free market solutions when it comes to health care in the country. guest: it is really quite the reverse. it is engineered to increase control of health care by the government, and, in fact, it is a situation where it is really kind of a trojan horse for expansion of government control of health care on a permanent basis. host: a key effort by democrats over the years, not just in this congress, but in congresses past, was this provision to allow medicare negotiation of

prescription drug prices, why is that, in your mind, not a good thing? guest: well, first of all, you know, you have to look and see, was this necessary? i know the administration is very scared about people knowing about inflation, which they see every time they go to the gas pump, and we know that inflation is up over 9% year to year, drug price inflation is actually quite low. it is about 2.5% year to year. in fact, drug prices went down for the first time in a very long time in 2018, and they have been relatively stable since. the growth rate, the price of drugs has been pretty stable for about the last 16 years. it is much lower than the growth in health care spending in general. it is much lower than inflation in general, so you have to question, what was the rush for this? as i said, 2.5% over the last year. the last three months, it has essentially been flat, no growth

in drug prices, so why did we need this? but what is most concerning to me is that this is a bill that is going to have health care provisions that harm americans in order to fund this continued expansion of government health care, that disproportionately benefits the wealthy. so it's -- and it has really got two facets to it. the first one you just asked about is the drug price control. what is concerning to me is that this is going to harm americans. it is going to decrease the amount of pharmaceutical research and development. that leads to a decrease in the number of new, life-saving drugs . there could be hundreds of fewer drugs that are produced. that is going to decrease life expectancy. it is going to decrease the quality of people's lives. so when you have -- the biden administration talks about a cancer moonshot, they ought to be cognizant of the fact that about 50% of the drugs in the pipeline now are cancer drugs. if you cut those back, you are

going to have an awful lot of people needlessly dying of cancer, or at least not having extended lives. secondly, it is going to induce an increase in the launch prices of new drugs, because the manufacturers are now going to be limited in the pricing that they can increase every year. they are limited to the inflation rate. so they are going to want to get their money up front. they are going to have higher drug prices for some of the new drugs. and for some of the old drugs that are particularly valuable, you are going to end up inducing shortages, because they can't respond to market demand, because the price is going to be limited. so there will end up being supply shortages. so that is the problem with drug price control. host: on that, when it comes to decreasing research and development, you are saying they simply won't be making enough money to fund that research and develop it? guest: right. there is a big academic

literature that shows decreases in the revenue for the pharmaceutical makers leads to decrease in r&d. this is really indisputable, so -- there are multiple reviews of this. so, yes, that is what is going to happen. there is some quibbling about how many, but i can tell you, the council of economic advisers, we looked at the first iteration of these price controls, which was back in hr three, back in 2018, 2019, and we predicted that there would be 100 fewer drugs over the following decade. then when the next iteration was the build back better bill. professor phillipson from the university of chicago indicated that it would be somewhere between 160 and 300 fewer drugs. so we are pretty sure that this is going to happen, so, you know, why should we do this?

and it is very clear that, you know, they are not going to invest in research and development for new drugs, which is a lengthy, a 10-year process. it is an expensive process. it is roughly about 2.5 billion dollars for each new, approved drug. they are not going to invest if they are not going to guarantee that they will have profits at the other end. and also, this is an industry that relies heavily on its profits to fund research and development, so you are really cutting off what is one of the crown jewels of american intellectual and academic life. that we have the best drug developing in the world. we get our drugs sooner than people around the world. and those drugs eventually turn into generic drugs, which are quite inexpensive. nine out of 10 prescriptions in this country are for generic drugs, and generic drugs in the united states are about 16%

cheaper than in developed countries around the world. so when you hear people complaining about drug prices, why don't you ask them to go to generic? they are focused on the list prices of a few new specialty drugs, which are quite high, but those are not the prices anyone pays. there's a whole series of rebates and discounts, which means the price is substantially lower. and the best way of effectively lowering the price of health is to have these new drugs, because they end up curing diseases that were just incurable before, things like hiv, where you could not buy a cure for any price, suddenly became a chronic disease. things like hepatitis c, where it was being treated with expensive drugs that were not terribly effective. venue substituted some new, expensive drugs, but it was a cure. those are situations where you

see the value, and those drugs eventually became generic, so they are much cheaper. if you cut off the research and development, you are sacrificing drugs in the near term, and you are also changing life-saving drugs from becoming generic drugs and the long-term. host: we are talking with dr. joel zinberg of the paragon health institute, also ceo of the public health and american well-being initiative. independence, (202) 748-8002. dr. zinberg, as they are calling income i want to play the debate from the floor in the senate over the weekend. democrat chris van hollen make the case for allowing medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. this is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] >> american taxpayers spend over $40 billion every year to

support cutting edge medical research happening at the national institutes of health at my state of maryland, and that is a great investment for our country. it helps discover, it helps develop, andlife-changing medict are available to american families today. and to people around the world. it is not right for american taxpayers to invest $40 billion a year in developing drugs that are then sold by american pharmaceutical companies in the united states for two or three or four times as much as they are sold overseas. people throughout the world benefit from the great research done it places like nih and they pay lower costs on the medicines developed from that research than the americans who fund the research in the first place. host: on that point?

guest: the senator is right. the reason is we have free riding by governments around the world which have price controls and they limit the importation of american drugs. those foreign citizens pay a price for that. they do not get access to all of the drugs. they get access later than americans get access. to the senator's first point about who is funding this research and development, the nih and federal government do fund a lot of basic research, but the process of developing the drugs, doing the clinical testing, they are three phases, very expensive and time-consuming, that is done by the pharmaceutical industry. the federal government is not set up to do it. it can be a partnership. you can utilize some of those

basic research breakthroughs, but the pharmaceutical companies are doing their own research and most importantly they are the ones responsible for the development and bringing the drug to market in a way the fda will approve as being safe and effective. that is not something the federal government does. host: some of the other aspects on this legislation, the health care aspects. tapping out-of-pocket drug costs for medicare beneficiaries to the tune of $2000 a year, tapping influence cost for medicare patients at $35 a month , your thoughts on those provisions? guest: when you cap one thing the costs do not go away. if i cap your out-of-pocket costs, it means someone has to pay for the drugs in some other way. that ins up being an increase in premiums. that is why this bill can be

quite inflationary, both on the drug price control side and on the expansion of aca subsidies. these are subsidies that we will have increased federal spending that displaces more efficient private spending, and that alone is inflationary. in addition, it is being done in a way that economists would call regressive. it benefits the wealthy more than it benefits low in middle income people. what happens in the subsidy realm is two things, they expanded the subsidies available for people already getting the affordable care act subsidies on the exchanges and they removed the upper income cap, which was 400% of the federal poverty level. for your viewers to realize,

that is about 111,000 dollars for a family of four. you will have a situation where now the government, about 40% of the new people getting these benefits are people with incomes in excess of 400% of fpl and i'm not sure why we need a situation, you have situations where a family with 800% of fpl, well over $200,000, will be getting substantial subsidies. that is unnecessary. host: let's chat with a few callers. dan, line for democrats, you are up first. caller: thank you very much. two comments. we have given pharmaceutical companies chances over and over again to lower prices and help us and they have not done anything.

second comment. with the price of drugs, i wonder is it really sensible for us americans to take our private money and invest in pharmaceuticals. it is not doing us any favors. thank you very much. guest: the facts are that the inflation rate in pharmaceuticals has been quite low. it has been well below general inflation as i referred to earlier. it has been flat for the last three months. relatively unchanged since 2018. in a large part that is due to changes we undertook during the trump administration to improve the fda processes of drug approval so that you would have a faster and more plentiful of drug approvals -- nine out of 10

prescriptions are for generics. that is what most americans use for their daily needs. he read about a fancy new treatment for cancer or a rare disease, but most americans are taking drugs for hypertension or high cholesterol. those by and large are generic drugs. those are only possible if you approve the process and get the drugs out to market quickly. you may pay a higher price for the first few years, but then they become generic drugs that are much cheaper. that is why we do not have the drug inflation that everyone seemed so concerned about. people do not really look at the statistics. look at the bureau of labor statistics on drug price inflation and you will see it is

quite low. host: to anthony in princeton, new jersey. you are next. caller: thanks for taking my call. he said your mission is to make profits off of sick people. their people i know -- i am in my 70's. people get necessary drugs from canada. the republican congressman who pushed and loaded into law the government could not negotiate the drug prices left congress and made a million dollars working for big pharma. pharmaceutical companies make profits. look it up. they're making quite a bit of money already. one of the ways they spend their money is on advertising.

they are selling and making profits. all you are about is making profits on people being ill. that is what you do. i do not know how you sleep at night. host: let me give the doctor a chance to respond. guest: i am not about making profits at all. i would point out every company in this country make profits. food companies make profits. airline producers make profits. that is why they are in business to make profit and it is that profit motivation that keeps them doing research, doing development, making innovative new products that benefit all of us. that is precisely why we are a leader in so many technological areas, particularly in the pharmaceutical area. throwing this canarad that they make profits is silly and a

grant. host: gabriel in north carolina. good morning. caller: thank you so much. and dr. zinberg, let me say this. i have to say that profits in terms of getting rich off of sick people is very different from profits based on airlines and other aspects. i want to make that distinction. secondly -- that is a big difference. as a physician you should know that. i am an md jd candidate. let me say this. if you're talking about generics and generics being cost-effective, i think that is a false argument and i think you know that is true. insulin has been on generics

since 1920 and yet there different types of generic that have been approved. to sit here and state the generics are doing very well this is a very important point -- this is a very important point. where'd we get our pharmaceutical ingredients? the active parts of our medicine , we get them from china and india. for the brand-name drugs we get them from europe. why is that important? that means as we enter issues of national security concerns with china they could stop the supply of those medicines and could deeply harm us because we have let the profit industry race to the bottom to hurt more people and put them in the bottom of the earth. please, sir, do not dance around

this. host: we got your questions. generics in the supply chain for pharmaceutical. guest: i am glad to see your caller is going to be an md jd. i am an md jd. i can tell you that insulin, which is much talked about, has not actually seen the price rises people are worried about. here people have to distinguish between the list prices, what the manufacturer publishes, sort of like the sticker price on the car, and the prices that are actually being paid after various discounts. the prices of insulin have not exploded nearly as much as the list prices. the list prices are not what is being paid. the reason we have had any kind of issue with insulin as there has been a change in the types

of insulin used. he started with insulin harvested from pork and beef pancreas is. that is what was used for decades. then you had synthetic insulin take their place, then you had insulin analogs, and those type of drugs called bio similars that are produced in living systems which is one of the reasons they are much harder to make and more expensive, but the generic equivalents are what are called bio similars for those biologic drugs. we had already the approval of two bio similars for insulin. there are several more on the launching pad for the next year or two. you should start to see some abating of the price problems in insulin from bio similars entering the market. your caller is correct that this is a big problem where we get our drugs from.

this is something i've written about. most of the active pharmaceutical ingredients we use in our drugs are manufactured in china. even the generics we buy from india have their active pharmaceutical ingredients created in china. this is a real national security concern that has to be addressed. it has to -- we have to be concerned with figuring out which of the critical drugs we need to have on hand and be able to produce ourselves without being dependent on our chief geopolitical rival in the world. host: janice out of colorado, line for democrats. good morning. caller: i am also talking about insulin. it has been around so many years. why do you keep rolling around. it is a drug that has been around, it has been certified --

i cannot think of the word i want to say. it was used and then all of a sudden they turn around and raise the price on insulin. another one is about bee stings. the tubes were $200 for two tubes in case you got a bee sting and it would protect you from dying. these drugs have been around and were patented, why do you keep going around and around and supposedly improving when they were patent. there's been such thing as needing improvement. that is my question. caller: in the case of -- guest: in the case of insulin, there were new generations of insulin that had certain advantages. they created a more regular type

of blood levels so you do not have the highs and lows in your glucose level in the blood. they are easier to use. it is somewhat questionable whether some of these benefits are true. that is on the medical profession. they have been prescribing a lot of the newer drugs. they could go reverting to cheaper forms of insulin and that is something physicians ought to be considering. that is why the idea that insulin, which has been around for a very long time is the same drug, it is not true. we have to be more cognizant of using cheaper alternatives and we have to have bio similar competitors for the biological

version of insulin. that will drive down prices. everyone expects that will be the case. when you look at small molecule drugs where you have generics, by the time you get two generics on the market, you already lower prices by about 15% and it gets better from thereon every time you add new versions. that is something we ought to be looking forward to vis-a-vis the insulin. host: about 15 minutes left with dr. joel zinberg. talking about the health care provisions in the inflation reduction -- inflation reduction act, the bill that was passed in the senate that democrats hope to pass in the house this week. phone lines as usual. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. as viewers call in, i want to

come back to your concern about allowing medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, what that will do to r&d and getting new drugs to market. your concern it could decrease r&d and decrease by a significant amount the number of new drugs that could come to market in the coming years. a story from endpoint news on the congressional budget office projection saying the cbo predicts the drug pricing bill would cut the development by just 10 drugs over 30 years. what is the number you expect it to be? guest: the cbo estimate is widely divergent from multiple other estimates. cea had estimated with an earlier version of the bill it would be about 100 drugs over the succeeding 10 years. professor phillipson is

estimated it could be somewhere between 160 to 350 drugs over 20 years. it is a range, but it sure isn't 10 drugs. host: why are these numbers so different? guest: the cbo has been wrong on multiple issues. if we are talking about the aca subsidies and the initiation of the affordable care act, the cbo estimated it would have large numbers of people joining the exchanges. it is substantially less than that. the cbo is estimating again using a different methodology. if you just look and you say if we decrease revenues by 10% and translate that into 10% decrease in r&d, that is how you get a more realistic measure of what you're going to do for research and development in the

development of new drugs. the cbo has been overly conservative and inaccurate in this area and most commentators think it will be far more substantial effect. host: what about projections of the total number of drugs approved over the next 30 years? they put it at some 1300 drugs they expect to be approved. you think that number is off? guest: over 30 years is a bit of speculation. it is hard to know how accurate that is. i do think 10 drugs out of 1300 drugs is an unrealistically low estimate of what this impact is going to be. host: a few more collars. this is randy out of kentucky, republican. good morning. caller: thank you.

i heard so many collars i would be in opposition to but this thing seems like the computer chip industry where everybody is overseas. it seems like it is the national or government takeover of these industries and they do it by price control and also pouring money into them so they will own them, basically. it is also weird that people do not understand what is going on with all of these companies and their overseas production of our drugs and pharmaceuticals and how people love these cheap prices, but were they going to do about it? are they going to pay higher prices to have the manufacturer here? i hope they do sometime in the future. it would sure be safer. thank you. guest: we may end up having to

pay prices for some drugs if they are critical drugs and it is important we manufacture them here. that is why one of your other callers mentioned it is concerning that so many of the active pharmaceutical ingredients are made overseas. a lot of our antibiotics are just not made here anymore. they are made exclusively overseas. that is something we have to remedy. if there is a bioterror weapon or if there is another pandemic and you need to have those things made here, or at least made in friendly countries, talking about western europe or israel, that they are available and we are not dependent on china, which is our chief geopolitical rival. i think your caller was making reference to this government takeover. i would like to reiterate that i

think the expansion of the aca subsidies you are seeing in this bill or a trojan horse for a permanent expansion of government takeover of health care, and if you -- your listeners have to be aware there was an expansion in these subsidies that happened in the beginning of 2021 that predominantly benefits the wealthy. it was supposed end at the end of 2022. the proposal was to extend for does do years and then the plan was to extend for three years in the bill that was passed yesterday. commentators think this is something that is going to end up being proposed as a permanent expansion. in fact, when the cbo looked at what the cost of that permanent expansion would be, they were

looking at something that was about 150, $160 billion more than the purported cost of this three-year expansion. all you are is creating inflation and you're pushing people into government run plans that are narrow networks, lower quality than the private plans they are trying people away from. what you'll have happen eventually is that private employers see this expansion is either going to be extended indefinitely or perhaps permanently. people will go from having plans that give them a lot of choice -- to being burdened with lots of red tape which have never been particularly popular -- the

cbo wildly underestimated the number of people that would sign up. the numbered page in 2016 at 12.5 million, that was basically flat and declining between 11 million and 12 million come and only increased when we gave these silly subsidies that were not needed in 2021. in 2021 the biden administration justified the expansion of subsidies by saying they had to be concerned because the pandemic was causing unemployment, causing people to lose insurance, people are having trouble paying for their plans. in point of fact the report from the kaiser family foundation says the change in employment was not mirrored in increases in people being uninsured, not mirrored in people losing their employer-provided coverage. you did not have big increases

in the uninsurance rate. it was not needed right from the get-go. it was just a way of expanding the aca coverage, a way of expanding government control in the same way drug price controls our way of expanding government control of the health care industry, and the health care provision in the united states. host: this is michael in wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a few comments for the doctor. you're doing a good job of representing big pharma and trying to scare everyone that the bogeyman is coming. the bogeyman is not coming. you've been raising prices. this information is out there. drug manufacturers. this is the report that came out february 22 that many factors are raising prices over 800

brands, just this past year, and how much have they risen? if you look at the journal of american medical association they said seven point -- 11% you have raised prices on everyday drugs from 2008 to 2021. you're doing nothing but raising prices. who is funding whatever the name of this company as you work for. who is funding you? you say you're here to get the government off your back. you do not want the government to tell you enough with the price gouging. when people can go into canada and get the same drug for pennies on the dollar, the same drug, there is a problem. guest: the fact of the matter is that most of the studies you are talking about are talking about list prices. in other words, what you see on this dipper of the car when you going to the car dealership.

that is not what you pay. there are series of discounts, rebates that lower the prices and it is not me, and i certainly do not represent the pharmaceutical industry, but the bureau of labor statistics which actually looks into and reports inflation says the inflation rate for pharmaceuticals, after you dig into it cap all the discounts and rebates and things i am talking about, has been very low. do not believe the hype that this is a problem. it is just inaccurate. i am not saying there are not a few drugs come up the new drugs, the biologic drugs, which are very difficult to produce, that are quite expensive, even after the discounts. that is a small part of the number of drugs out there.

nine out of 10 prescriptions are generic drugs. generic drugs are cheaper in this country than they are in other countries in the developed world. there are some expensive drugs out there. many of them have fabulous properties. i talked about the ones that turned hiv into a chronic disease, that cured hepatitis c, that hopefully are going to cure certain forms of cancer. we have seen tremendous progress on that front. you will have a diminution of that progress if you interfere with the research and develop in process. it is not going to end, but it will be less than it was in less than it could have been. we should not be misled by high list prices. we should not be misled by the prices of a few drugs. this has not been an issue.

that is what the statistics from the bureau of labor statistics say. host: dr. joel zinberg, we have about a minute or so left. your expectations for the debate this week. what are you watching for as this moves from the senate to the house? a few days likely for discussion on the house floor. who or what will you be watching for? guest: i am hopeful someone in the house of representatives will take stock of the fact this will be a harmful bill. i am hoping someone will actually come out and tell the truth that it is called the inflation reduction act, but this is not an act that is going to reduce inflation. the penn wharton budgetary model , which is the highly respected model from the university of pennsylvania says the infect on inflation is no different than 0%.

in the early years of this bill you'll have some inflationary impact. the cbo was asked this question and they confirmed what the model said, and those investigations were made prior to some measures being stripped out of the bill by the senate parliamentarian, things that were purportedly going to save tens of billions of dollars. the impact on inflation may be even lower than what the model said. you may end up having more inflation than they anticipate in the coming years. i hope someone will say the truth about that. i hope someone will speak about the harm this will create in imposing drug price controls. i hope someone is going to talk about how the subsidies are inflationary, they will probably increase premiums on the

exchanges, and it is subsidizing people who do not need the help. my colleague at paragon, brian blais proposed if you are worried about people losing the expanded benefits, why we just say we will grandfather people in and allow them to stay on this expanded benefit until they leave the exchange, but no new people could come on. the fact of the matter is there is a lot of churn on the exchanges. about half of the people that sign-on will leave it. that alone will decrease the pasta substantially. i am hoping someone in the house of representatives will pick up on that solution that can lower the inflationary impact and lower the cost of this non-inflationary act. host: we can all watch the

debate together on c-span. dr. joel zinberg as a director at the paragon health institute. i appreciate your time this morning. guest: my pleasure. thank you for having me. host: about half an hour left and in that time we will return to the topic we begin with, the topic we have been covered on c-span and c-span2, the senate passing that tax, climate, and health care bill yesterday, now heading off to the house. we want to get your reaction to the senate passage. it came about 3:00 yesterday afternoon. join us this morning on phone lines for republicans, (202) 748-8001, democrats, (202) 748-8000, independents, (202) 748-8002. start calling.

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eastern. important congressional hearings and other public affairs events, and weekdays at 5:00 and 9:00 eastern catch washington today for a fast-paced report on stories of the day. lissa disease been a time. tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. >> "washington journal" continues. host: taking your calls on the inflation reduction act, that is the legislation passed by the senate yesterday. it now heads to the house, expected to be taken up in the house later this week. here is how it played out in political media from the left side of the aisle. huffington post, "senate democrats passed sweeping climate and health care bill. the inflation reduction act is poised to give president biden a major legislative victory ahead of the november midterm elections."

from the right side, breitbart with "republicans warned democrats will pay the price for their spending and anza. democrats cater to the radical lefties based at the expense of middle-class americans." here are some of the main provisions. it allows medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, a key priority for democrats. it extends affordable care act subsidies through the year 2025. notably after the 2024 election. there is $370 billion for climate change investments. a 15% corporate minimum tax and new funding to expand irs enforcement, which democrats expect will raise additional revenue. those are some of the major provisions in this legislation passed on the narrowest of margins yesterday in the senate.

it was a 50-50 tie vote and, harris brought into the senate to break the tie vote. getting your phone calls this morning as usual. lee in rockville, maryland. good morning. host: good morning. caller: good morning. enjoying the show. i would've liked to ask the doctor about this but the medicare provision is long overdue. the proper relationship between a physician and a patient is the patient comes in and asks the physician, dr., my arm hurts, my leg hurts, i'm not eating right, i'm not sleeping right. the proper relationship between a physician and the patient is not, dr., i need this

prescription med, i need that prescription med. that is not the proper relationship between a physician and a doctor. yet the pharmaceutical companies spend billions and billions of dollars each year on advertising prescription meds. i don't get it. they spend billions on stock buybacks, they spend billions on advertising. this is not right. they should not advertise prescription meds and they should not use stock buybacks. they should put all this money into r&d. that is all i have to say. host: we had to teresa in dandridge. republican. good morning. caller: what i don't get about

this discussion, all we have heard for two years straight from the democrats and the progressive socialist is how they had to have universal childcare, universal pre-k. vision and dental for the elderly. child tax credits, and they sold out for climate change. that is all it was ever about. they sold out the party that voted for them. it was all a lie. if the voters that believe in democrats and progressive believe there is going to be another bite of the apple, it is not going to happen. it is up to republicans and democrats to take the house and senate. everybody was lied to. host: sahil kapur of nbc news points out, this legislation was

a much smaller version than the original spending package the democrats had hoped to push through their bill back better agenda. that bill back better agenda to the tune of $7 trillion. is estimated to be $740 billion democrats they will be paid for. the casualties of the agenda that did not make it into the legislation, universal pre-k, money for child care, money for eldercare, money for the child tax credits, the expanded child tax credits. money for housing and community college. the earned income tax expansion. closing the medicaid gap. tax hikes for millionaires, surtax and other items were included from the bill the senate passed yesterday and the house is expected to take up. sahil kapur going on to note

that the simplest way to think about is it was joe manchin that killed most of the safety net items and kristin cinema who killed most of the taxes. all 50 republicans opposed to those provisions. this legislation passed through the budget reconciliation process, allowing democrats to pass it without the usual 60 votes needed. it was a 51-50 vote after the vice president came into the house to cast that vote. it was the 26th time the vice president had to break a tie, that is the most in nearly 200 years. it is only top 531 by the former vice president john calhoun. it was the 26th time the vice president had to come in for that deciding vote. john is next out of minnesota.

democrat. good morning. caller: i was listening to the first half of this program earlier today and i wanted to address four of the falsehoods being spread by republicans. one guy said government was going to print money to put this bill through. in fact, taxes on the corporations will be what covers it. one woman said the government would force you to put solar panels in your backyard. that is totally not true. one guys that the democrats are communist, there been no communists in this country since the berlin wall fell, they were not here, they were over in russia. one woman said immigrants coming into this country are not fitted , but the fact of it is everyone of them is thoroughly vetted. we need those people to fill our

jobs in this country. host: sandy in texas. good morning. caller: the most disturbing thing to me about this bill is the 80,000 irs agents that will be hired. i feel like this is an army of irs agents that will be released by conservative groups and conservative supporters in prague. if anything is going to destroy the conservative movement, it is this, going after their income. also this idea that irs agents be able to make corporations pay more. corporations get out of paying

taxes because there are loopholes in the tax code, those loopholes are put in by the legislation. not by irs agents. they will have to allow any lawful loopholes that exist, the same as before. they will not be able to correct the effect -- the fact that corporations do not pay the amount they should pay. host: you started off by mentioning the expansion of irs agents, the money for irs enforcement in this legislation. it is also an issue that house minority leader kevin mccarthy brought up in his tweet after this bill passed in the senate yesterday. the minority leader saying congress should be focused on the rising price of gas and groceries and everything else, but democrats have no plan to fix the problems they saw.

instead they voted on a spending spree that went higher irs agents and increase inflation. more reaction from other members of congress. this is bernie sanders yesterday. his tweet saying "the inflation reduction act passed the senate on a 51 to 50 boat. in my view this legislation goes nowhere near far enough working families but does begin to address the existential crisis of climate change. it is an important step forward and i was happy to support it." chuck schumer was also happy for that support and the support of every one of his democratic colleagues yesterday. here is the majority leader in the senate just before the final roll call vote yesterday. [video clip] >> it has been a long, tough, and winding road, but at last we have arrived. i know it has been a long day and a long night but we have gotten it done.

today after more than a year of hard work, the senate is making history. i am confident the inflation reduction act will endure as one of the defining legislative beads of our 21st century. our bill reduces inflation, lowers cost, creates billions of well-made jobs -- this bill will kickstart the era of affordable clean energy in america. it is a turning point and it has been a long time in coming. two americans who have lost faith congress can do big things, this bill is for you. to seniors who face the indignity of rationing medications or skipping them altogether, this bill is for you. and to the tens of millions of young americans who spent years

demanding congress act on climate change, this bill is for you. host: chuck schumer yesterday. about 15 minutes left to get your reaction to the inflation reduction act. we will likely be talking about it most of this week ahead of the house debate and vote at the end of this week. will be diving into various provisions throughout the week. some $740 billion in expected spending. democrats say that is paid for through the tax provision in this legislation. we want to get your thoughts. republicans, (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents, (202) 748-8002. republican, you are next. caller: biden's people.

why are they taking so long to impeach this president because he is ruining our country? why this country is getting messed up in china and russia are doing so great? host: lanka in new jersey. this is harold in michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. i found it very interesting watching the bill passed. looking at it, i am i guess what you would call an independent progressive. the bill, instead of calling it in inflation reduction bill, i would call it a dapo spill. while it is very good, at the last demos conference they were talking about how climate was the number one issue. the question of income

inequality came up. people who spoke at dapo's said what income inequality. the answer is all of the opportunity out there. if your upper-middle-class and higher up, this is very good. in the long run it is very good for everybody. the immediate problems people have are to pay for food, housing, health care, and education for their kids. the democrats are not addressing that. tonight is a victory but does not address any of the economic problems that developed over the

last 40 years, starting with reaganism. the other thing i want to say is they keep saying it will pay for itself because we are going to have a minimum corporate tax. this to me, if one believes that, there is a bridge in brooklyn i would like to sell them. it reminds me of the promises of the republicans that were in taxes were reduced. it will pay for itself. they're supposed to be a minimum individual tax. we know there are many people with incomes over a million dollars a year who pay no tax. the notion this memo and tax on corporations will not end up with 70 loopholes and ways to evade seems to be fairly clear. thank you.

that is my comment. i am happy to see it for the environment, but i think the claims for it are overblown. thank you. host: harold in michigan. this is william in tennessee. good morning. caller: i would like to say that on this climate, they talk about doing away with our coal. china is getting coal mines every day or making new coal mines. partly living in the same world? don't they spew out as much as we do? have we called our system up and let china operate? it is above my head to understand that. thank you. caller: lakeland, florida. dave. republican.

the green new deal is -- caller: the green new deal is the biggest scandal ever. the biggest thing is the rarer metals. you will run out of metals, he do not have them come and we do not have them in the united states. there is only one mind. they plan on building a new one bethesda chip manufacturers. if we do not have them, why are we doing this? this is a big farce. people do not understand that the rare earths is very destructive and they will not let us mine in the states. you darn well they are going to mind everywhere else, the congo

and everywhere, where they will be hurting people. this is a shame. i cannot see why we are doing it. host: charles in colorado, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? one of the big things that is going on now that is more important than anything, even with the climate change and the bill the democrats have passed, we must understand and take note that no republican voted for this bill. nothing was in this bill that they could take back to their constituents. everything was always something wrong. one of the more important things into this 2022 election cycle is we must vote on the truth or are we going lie. if we do not support the truth about democracy, then the lie supporters will rule.

the lie supporters make laws they believe is true. all of our other problems will not matter because what is coming that is more important is we must protect our democracy and our democracy -- what you see most of these republicans not even trying to defend or go against the 45 machine that seems to be dominating, but is it really dominating? we have a country -- are we going to live under the truth or be ruled by those who believe in the lie. host: you mentioned the 2022 elections. this is from carl holtz in today's new york times, "schumer gets democrats a badly needed victory." as a learner look at what this

means for democrats with scott long of nbc news with his tweets yesterday. " democrats see the passage as latest in the way and of -- the latest in a streak of big legislative winds including the bipartisan gun package, the computer chips and science package, the pact act aimed at helping veterans exposed to toxic materials, and the vote to admit finland and sweden into nato. cory booker yesterday told that i did not think there's been any congress or president that has been as productive as we have seen in this congress. this president keeps putting up a bills being the urgency of the american public." this is lance out of virginia beach, virginia. independent. good morning. you are with us. then we will go to radcliffe, kentucky.

republican. caller: this is just a comment on the irs. i have had two calls this week saying they are with the irs and that i owed taxes and they have not even passed it, they do not even have it all the way past. host: are those scam calls? caller: i have had two this week and i'm 74 years old. i know they may be targeting the elderly. they was trying to get me to pay my past taxes and i've never had bad taxes. i've always paid my taxes. i wanted to make the comment watch you calls you and i told the guy that called me, both of them, i will not talk to them until they send me a certified letter. then i hung up. i wanted to let people know there are scams already out there trying to get you to pay taxes you do not know.

thank you. host: this is larry out of l.a., democrat, good morning. caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: i was listening a little earlier and the doctor on earlier was asked a question about his company, the paragon medical institute. i just looked up the paragon health institute and the first thing that came up said former trump advisor launches health institute. they launch the paragon health institute which will focus on free-market policy solutions that give patients more control over their health care. i did not know if you are aware of that were not. host: we mentioned his work as general counsel and senior

economist at the council of economic advisors in the trump administration. he talked about what paragon did. i tell you what -- you are a little muffled so i cannot hear you. you can go back and watch the segment in its entirety. if you want to do that on our website, to c-span.org. we are running short on time. let me try to get in at least one more call. thomas in missouri, independent. caller: good morning. are you doing? the person that said this latest bill is a big ripoff -- the stimulus was the biggest ripoff in history. i do not know what the total tally is but we all got our piece of that action. as far as the person saying china and russia are doing well does not follow china at all.

anything the democrats can do is a well-received option as opposed to the republicans. anybody that is a democrat -- i used to be a democrat but i am an independent now. i do not vote straight ticket anymore. i got off track. the republicans say no to they lost their center. they have gone off the rails and that's why they can't produce anything is because they have gone off the rails. non-stable people take over and that's all i have to say. you very much. host: thomas in missouri, our

last caller. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern that is 4:00 a.m. pacific time. in the meantime, hope you have a great monday. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government provided by these television companies and more including comcast. >> that's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with community centers to have wi-fi availability for families to be ready for anything. a public service along with

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