deadlines. then henry cuellar joins us to discuss immigration policy and border security. later, julie rovner talks about health care costs and the state of medicare and social security. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, september 20 8, 2022. the house returned at noon today. the senate convenes at 10:00 a.m. we begin discussing medicare and social security. yesterday, president biden vowed to save the social safety net programs even as republicans accused democrats of adding to financial strain. we want to know which party you trust when it comes to medicare and social security here and we want to hear your thoughts on phone lines based on your age. if you are under 40 years old,

the number is (202) 748-8000. if you are between 40 and 55 years old, (202) 748-8001. if you are older than 65, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text of this morning. that number, (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. on facebook, it is facebook.com/cspan. you can start calling and now as we show you some of president biden's remarks from the rose garden yesterday at the white house. [video clip] >> 158 house republicans have already signed the republican budget that will cut medicare and social security. i know you think i am probably exaggerating that, but there is a pamphlet, a 12 point plan to rescue america by senator scott of florida. i will not read through all of

it, but it says all federal legislation sunsets in five years. if it is worth keeping, congress can pass it again. translated, if you do not vote to keep it, you do not get it. the house budget committee started talking about house of medic -- cost medicare and social security and why we cannot afford it. folks, the senator in charge of reelecting the united states senators, senator scott, has proposed a plan for social security, medicare, and every five years it is on the chopping block. that means every five years you either cut it, reduce it, or eliminate it, social security and medicare. you have been paying into the social security system.

then there is senator ron johnson of wisconsin. he thinks waiting every five mac\\\ -- every five years is too long to wait. he wants to put social security and medicare on the chopping block every year in every budget. if congress does not vote to keep it, goodbye. host: president biden from the white house yesterday, those are marks the rose garden were supposed to take place at an event in florida at the retirement haven of the state of florida, but that event was moved to the white house with hurricane ian bearing down on the sunshine state. the president mentioned a couple republican senators, senator ron johnson of wisconsin replied on twitter to some statements, saying, democrats may have broken the record for the number of lies they told about me in one day. i want to save social security and medicare and veterans benefits. the greatest threat to these programs is out of control deficit spending enacted by

biden and democrats in congress. that is senator johnson yesterday. the president also mentioned senator rick scott of florida. it was rick scott over the summer talking about the plan that president biden was criticizing. here is how he explained his plan. [video clip] >> i proposed that congress regularly review these programs. some people testifying today have decided to lie about what i have been proposing, so let's be clear. i am never going to support cuts to social security and medicaid. i do not know many folks in washington who want to see these programs be cut or go away. some may not know that congress regularly reviews essential programs as a function of the federal government and should regularly review functions of the federal government. we do not even vote on social security and medicare, which makes no sense. for 61 years, congress has successfully passed the national

defense authorization act. it is a critical series of must pass national security and defense budget laws that congress has never failed to approve once. so security quit medicare, and medicaid are no different. if we want these programs to survive and to avoid cuts to benefits, we need to act today. host: we are asking you this morning on the washington journal what party you trust more when it comes to social safety net programs. we have split our phone lines by age this morning. here are the numbers on those programs. because the government is paying more in monthly social security benefits than it is covering in taxes, the social security program is projected to run out of reserves to fully fund benefits in 2035. at that point, it will have enough money to cover 80% of its benefits. the medicare trust fund will

only be able to pay 90% of scheduled benefits after 2028. those are some of the latest numbers. the story from usa today yesterday, biden vows to save social security and medicare in the face of the shortfall but offers few details. that story on usa today. mark, new hampshire, that line for those older than 65. good morning to you. caller: good morning. just another smokescreen is what i am hearing. i heard on the news this morning that billions of dollars of childcare credits were spent in the wrong direction. people fraudulently collected money. people who were supposed to get it like my daughter-in-law did not get it, but billions of dollars are going overseas again to other countries before we take care of our own.

i will be 71 in december. i have been hearing this smokescreen about medicare and social security running out of money my entire adult life. just another smokescreen for power grab and nobody's being held accountable for all the missing money that we pay in as taxes ever. no one is ever held accountable. but we go after soft targets like ex-president trump. and anybody who disagrees with the democratic status quo. it is deplorable. this government treats us deplorably. before i get angry, that is all i really have to say. host: you talk about money going overseas. the latest number from the spending bill that has worked its way through congress, congress having to pass that spending bill before i go shut

take place friday, that resolution contains some $12 billion in additional aid for ukraine, headlined there from the washington journal. we will talk more about the funding bill, but you also brought up the child tax credit payments and the report that came out yesterday on those payments and errors made. the internal revenue service spent 1.1 billion dollars in advance child tax credit payments in 2021 to people who should not have gotten them and failed to send $3.7 billion to eligible households, according to a new inspector general audit released yesterday. 1.5 million taxpayers received the payment and the irs did not send the payment for 4.1 million -- million felt will households. story there from the wall street journal. kathy in michigan, lines but --

line for those between 40 and 60 years old. social security and medicare, who do you trust? caller: i would trust the democratic party more than the republican. i do not understand how people could bring this into their head. there are so many people that their main source of income upon retirement. and the situation you spoke of with the childcare tax credit, for years -- what we were raising our children we paid a lot for childcare, over $100,000 for three children over the years. it was never enough. we were just under the threshold by $1000 a year. i am looking forward to collecting my social security. i have an appointment in october and to get rid of that is

egregious. we should have national health care. let's just start from scratch and do it right. host: this is edward in hendersonville on the line for those older than 65. good morning to you and north carolina. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing all right. caller: i am disappointed in the way the generation is headed right now and the billions of dollars given out of those stimulus packages and everything and all the fraud. how could anybody get that far behind without knowing anything? and the democrats, the far left agenda is so outrageous that people cannot even understand it.

what is he doing? what is this president doing? i get my social security. i am over 65. the amount of money i get each month is not even a third -- not even two thirds of what i really need to have to live a decent life, but the democrats and everybody else are talking about all these wars going on over here. there were no wars going on when trump was president. everything was fine. the economic situation was fine. we had independent gas. but now we are paying a high price for a president. host: this is ed in arizona and phoenix. go ahead. caller: the senator and florida

has been saying he will cut social security and medicare. it is time for america to open your eyes. i was a republican for more than 40 years and i am an independent now. i would never vote republican again because they tried to kill everything, social security, medicare. i am in my 60's. it is not fair. open your eyes, america. that political party is a threat to america. host: some of these republicans say they want to review these programs on a five year or one year basis, as one proposal had it. but you think these programs should be fully reviewed every five years or so? do you think that would be a good thing? i think we lost the caller.

caller: good morning. the question was which party i trust. as far social security, i do not trust neither party because it has undergone directional disbursements and reductions during both administrations, so i think what the politicians need to actually tell the american people's who actually gets social security, why, and once we know those numbers and which direction the money flows than we can determine why we are losing funds. i think that is where we should start. host: what is directional disbursement? caller: inning there are certain plans added to us as far as immigration that comes over here. i know because i have friends that were immigrants. when they come over here, their children get social security and

things like that, but it was my understanding -- i am 62 and i have been paying since i was 17 years old. i know my benefits have been reduced from the time 10 years ago from what i would have gotten. my income has gone up, but it has been reduced now, so i have to keep working. but there are people who have not paid into the system that are able to work that just for whatever reason -- we need to find out where the money actually goes and how much instead of potshots at each other and talking about reduction. we need to know who is spending the money, who is making these decisions on which way the money goes. host: would it be a bad thing to have a full review of the social safety net programs every five years to look at them and see if they need to be adjusted, if retirement ages need to be adjusted or disbursement levels? would that be a bad thing?

caller: i think that would be a good thing. i think that information should be known publicly. i think that would be a good thing. not for the intent of actually reducing it but for making sure there is integrity and the money is not just being spent where it should not be spent. host: this is stanley in florida, line for those older than 65. good morning to you. caller: i am 77. scott was arrested when he had a company for medicare fraud. he had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars back to medicare. he came from nothing. you want -- he went to work in a company that stole millions of dollars but still was elected twice to the senate and now check it out. you can google it. i trust the democrats and biden

said he is going to lower the medicare payments each month. instead of paying $140, oh hundred $50, he said he will lower that down. i got the biggest race i ever got. i got $130 back from social security and i pay more taxes now with trump's tax cut than i ever paid before. i paid 10 grand back to the government. so i trust the democrats. host: you talk about the hospital chain he was involved in and they find that was given. i do not remember an arrest. you said he was arrested? caller: he was not arrested. he went to court and took the fifth 75 times you can check it out. host: being in florida, whereabouts and florida are you?

caller: we are going to get hit with a category five hurricane here. it is building up, almost 158 miles. host: where in florida? caller: below orlando near ocala. host: how are you preparing and what you told by officials? caller: we do not have to prepare much here. we are going to get 15 inches of rain. florida will be devastated. they will need a ton of money. this thing, if it goes up one more mile it will be a category five. it is right now at 157 miles per hour. we are going to lose power here. this whole place will be out of power. host: are you planning to ride it out in dunellen? caller: it will not be too bad. we will probably get 55

mile-per-hour winds. i am having a good time down here because i worked in a union and made a ton of money and got a great pension. more people went union, this country would not have these problems. you get pensions. you get benefits. that also helps nonunion because they compete to keep people out of the unions and raise their prices. florida, a plumber down here does not even make 14 dollars an hour. a waitress makes more. the minimum wage is the cheapest of the country. and at 13 weeks, no exception, for rape or incest down here. i will be voting for the other guy. i will not be voting for ron desantis. host: that is stanley in florida. when it comes to these natural disasters, the newspaper headlines behind what is

happening on the ground. the storm surge could be the worst case for the coast. the impact has been a concern for florida's west coast for decades, and you mentioned ron desantis just now. the washington times focusing on what could happen after the storm. once the storm clears, the nation's eyes will be under santos's -- on ron desantis's leadership. the headline they are from back to the question about medicare and social security. who do you trust? in new jersey, this is john. that line for those under 40. caller: thanks for having me on. i appreciate it. i guess to make a couple quick points, i think medicare for all is a huge issue. there's overwhelming data even from people against it.

if joe biden really wants to address the issues with medicare, he will be pushing for that and he is not. he is pushing against it along with the majority of his party. when it comes to -- a couple callers were talking about foreign aid. our massively bloated military budget has increased over threefold since 2001, since september 11, and there's barely any accountability. it is more of an issue than us getting money. there are issues in ukraine. we are not pushing for peace talks and they should be, but i think this is a symptom of neoliberalism or capitalism to the extent that i trust democrats more can't answer your question cut with a caveat, but not in the sense that i trust them long-term. i do not trust either party. i think reviewing it, if it was done in a genuine, open manner where it was public and people would be involved -- you can

make things public, but people do not pay attention -- reviewing programs to make sure the money is going in the right place and not being misused, that is appropriate, but making it an up-and-down vote about whether you can get rid of social security or medicaid i am against. i think you need to tax the wealthy citizens, starting with billionaires at a higher rate so you can afford to give people are -- give people higher social security. people are not living like fat cats social security. host: what do you think of the timing of the president talking about this at the white house? i mention this because the washington post fact checker took a look at a recent tweet by democratic senator on the same topic, saying republicans want to end social security and medicare. she writes, when an election campaign enters its final weeks both political parties rely on familiar themes to attack opponents. for republicans, it is crime and

immigration. for democrats, it is social security and medicare, saying this is just the time of the season when democrats talk about republicans wanting to end social security and medicare. caller: i think it is political objects on both sides of the aisle. in the long run -- sorry, i lost my train of thought. i know you are saying. it is an import a question. it is hard to swallow when you look at the history of joe biden. he worked with a lot of republicans and was screaming he wanted to cut everything in the government, including veteran benefits, on the floor the senate. i think he genuinely will keep those programs, but his belief and it -- medicare and medicaid are being privatized without people knowing about it. even if they opt to in without

you knowing. that is a continuation of a trump policy. people are not aware of these things happening. host: we will leave it there because we have another caller from new jersey waiting. mark, that line for those between 40 and 65. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am on social security. i started taking it at 62 because i was not able to work full-time anymore. i depend on it. i paid into it my whole life. it is a program started by democrats and republicans have always wanted to cut it, so i would never trust a republican with social security. medicare is separate from the budget. these things are taken out of our paychecks. if they want to review it, that is probably a good idea, but i

really hope that president biden and the democrats will put a bill through or do something so social security and medicare can never be cut because it is our pension program and we paid for it. thank you. host: cynthia in california, you are next, that line for those older than 65. caller: i think they should have an accountant to make it accurate because i am not getting my survivor benefits. my husband died march 19. he was a teacher at james cameron community college. they said -- i called to 800-number twice. i have come to the office 5, 6 times and everyone keeps saying they miscalculate it since i took it six years ago.

it is an election year. i do not trust any party anymore. using my credit cards, maxing myself out to help because i believe in equality and fairness. you're an ivory tower. you are not fair. host: how much would you estimate you have given to democrats over the years? caller: lots, thousands. also women's governors when it comes to governor funds to help elect women governors. but weird things go on. like stacey abrams. my mother died at 96 years old. and they cut automatically taking more money -- kept

automatically taking more money and charging my credit card and that kind of thing. they are always asking me for more money. i try. i was born in 1964 watching president kennedy being shot over and over again in elementary school in orange county in black-and-white. it was horrible and then bobby kennedy and everybody. host: that is cynthia in california. she does not trust either party in her state. stephen south carolina says he does not trust either party. he says neither party will approve the use of a real cost-of-living increase for social security raises. it includes calculations for the price increase for fuel and food . this seriously impacts social security recipients. our question this morning, asking you which party you trust

when it comes to issues of social security and medicare. (202) 748-8000 is the number for those under 40 years old. (202) 748-8001 for those between 40 and 65. if you're older than 65, (202) 748-8002. here is more of what members on both sides of the aisle are saying recently on the issue of the social safety net program. a republican congressman saying we are committed to a government that is countable. we will rein in government abuse of power and corruption and provide real transparency to save and strengthen social security and medicare. on the floor of the house yesterday, the democratic congressman of ohio. here is some of what he had to say about social security and medicare. >> social security is our government progress -- promised to working men and women that they will be able to retire with

dignity. support among the public cuts it across party lines, geographic lines, racial lines. almost everybody in this country supports social security. americans want to not only protect social security and medicare but make it stronger. almost everybody in the country supports it. as you know, almost everybody, except a lot people that come to the senate and the house of representatives who think their mission is to privatize social security and medicare. so why do they do that? it is their answer to pay for everything. how can we afford handouts to corporations? the way to pay for it is to cut social security and privatize medicare. how do you pay for tax cuts to the wealthy? you cut social security and privatize medicare. that is their answer.

as soon as the election is over, we know the crescendo. we know the law -- loud voices from senator scott, who happens to be on the senate republican campaign committee, the senator from florida who believes we have to renew medicare and social security every five years. we do not want anybody to be able to plan for the future or feel secure in their retirement, so it is always the same plan from the corporate elite think take -- think tank extremists. it is not fair to say it is only republican house members. it is also the corporate elite in many cases and the people at these right wing think tanks funded by billionaires that think this is some way -- they come up with some new scheme to disguise their unpopular agenda. host: the democratic senator there yesterday on the senate floor.

taking your calls come asking you which party you trust more on issues of medicare and social security, also looking for comments on social media. this one sang the people who worked hard are struggling after the promise of secure retirement was blown off by republicans over the decades. either they problem with this mentality when it is imposed. then jim writing this morning, can anyone remember a bill when republicans held the house and senate and white house that ended social security? no? what is this nonsense about republicans wanting to end those programs? just some of the comments taking place. on twitter, you can join the conversation. those folks are two who join in your everyday. there is a crew of followers that tweet everyday about the program come and you're welcome to join that. tom, ohio, that line for those

older than 65. caller: good morning. it is nice to talk to you this morning. i trust democrats. i voted for one republican in my life. host: who was that republican? caller: michael turner whenever he first ran for mayor of dayton. i voted for him. i went to work when i was 12 years old, paid into social security from 14. i worked until i was 77 and i feel i'm entitled to it but these crooks and politicians, all they think about is their back pockets. i do not know -- a lot of people do not remember joe mccarthy, who was a great senator from wisconsin, and now we have a

mccarthy. it is the same old thing. politicians and government are crooks and lobbyists. it is a shame my but what do you do? you cannot fight the government. thank you, john. host: this is carl in new york city. caller: good morning, john, and c-span audience. i would like to say the republicans' game plan is to get all the government money privatized, private industry. the first step is to get rid of social security and medicaid. $6 trillion is in that. once they get that, they will spend between a bunch of companies. every time it comes to an election, they will raise the prices and starve us out.

social security and no bunch of money. if i did not have a little retirement -- i would be in trouble. but that is not the point. the point is try to be fair. they are not going to do it. the big thing is to get all the money out of the system and then do whatever they want to do with it. don't trust them ever. have a nice day. host: gary out of connecticut, that line for those older than 65. which party do you trust when it comes to medicare and social security? caller: i do not have a great deal of faith in either party, but if i were to trust a party it would be the democratic party. what seems to be going on is medicare is slowly dissipating

because there is a cap of the payment. after a certain amount of income, you do not pay into medicare. that should be eliminated immediately. people like elon musk and jeff bezos should be paying taxes. it is unconscionable, but they are doing. they are just squeezing the people. we planned carefully for our retirement. we have an ira which gets no interest now. we had savings in the bank, which was getting no interest now. even though they are charging interest. it is a way to squeeze people who have planned well and saved and are reliant upon social security and pension. host: how have you had to rework your plan? caller: we have had to cut back on spending. we sold our larger house. we live in a smaller condominium

now, which is fine. we are happy here. but we are living from check to check because we cannot take money from the ira without penalty. it is not growing as it should have been. but the most important thing is there should be on payments to social security. everyone should pay according to income. that is just egregious that that is not happening, that the burden falls on the lower classes and middle-class. it is destroying this country. host: again, our phone line split by age. if you are under 40, (202) 748-8000. between 40 and 65, (202) 748-8001. if you are older than 65, (202) 748-8002. keep calling in, having this conversation on the washington journal.

the end of our program is at 10:00 a.m. eastern. here is where you can go for more programming on the c-span networks. the senate foreign relations committee is holding a hearing on russian tension -- about war crimes in ukraine. that hearing is airing on c-span3. that is happening at 10:00 a.m. here and also attend a clock a.m., the senate foreign relations committee is holding a hearing on russian sanctions. that is what we are going to take you to on the network. this afternoon, the senate commerce subcommittee is holding a hearing on reauthorizing the federal aviation administration funding there, on c-span3. also, all these programs on c-span.org and the free c-span video app.

and one more program at 10:00 a.m. eastern, the federal emergency management agency in ministry to holding an update on how the agency is preparing for hurricane ian. they also spoke yesterday on fema preparations. here is some of what she had to say. >> the storm is going to slow down to proximally five miles per hour. what this means is floridians will experience the impacts from the storm for a long time. our biggest concern as we wait for the storm to make landfall is storm surge. storm surge is a leading cause of hurricane-related fatalities. in 2018, when hurricane michael impacted the floor to panhandle, there were five recorded fatalities as a result of storm surge. if people are told to evacuate

by local officials, please listen to them. the decision you make could be the difference between life and death. host: that was at the white house yesterday. more from her today at 10:00 a.m. eastern, and you can watch that on the free spent -- c-span now video app. stay on top of fema warnings there and preparations about the hurricane bearing down on florida. that your phone calls. which party do you trust more on medicare and social security? charles in tennessee is on the line for those older than 65. caller: i trust the democrats more. you can see what the republican plan is between rick scott and ron johnson. they plan to cut it. they have planned on it for years. look at what they have done to

women on the abortion bill. they plan on putting the hammer to the working class people. social security would be gone. there is no doubt about it because of what they said they were going to do. rick scott, i have been to tennessee. that is where he was at. they are going to get into people do not get out and vote. they better be prepared to take care of their mothers and fathers. it is awful, what they are doing. host: out of philly, the line for those older than 65. caller: i do not trust either party. and i have been following the social security legislation act. oblong to a group trying to get rid of the windfall and social

security government pension offset. that has been sitting in the house since january of 2001. we have been trying to get that fast, and it has not gotten past. that will help the american public in getting more money on social security checks. there are several bills. i agree with the gentleman who called. they have to list the cap. there should be. everyone in this country should pay for social security. social security is not an entitlement program. we pay into social security 6.2% of our pay during our lifetime of work. that is not entitlement. that is no different than your 401(k). you might as well call that an entitlement program. at this time, the democrats are pushing to save the program.

there are some republicans that are not. i cannot say all of them. the bipartisan bill has 299 cosponsors and has not been brought officially to the floor for a vote. and that was a republican from illinois that actually sponsored that bill along with the democrat from virginia, so there are bipartisan bills on social security in the house and the senate. however, there are some republicans, normally the rich, corporate republicans, that want to keep the rich people rich and the poor people poor. we are running into a caste system in this country and these issues we have with each other need to stop. this is getting like india, if you ask me. we need to stop that. host: the social security fairness act of 2021 introduced

by congressman rodney davis of illinois, up to 302 cosponsors at this point. here is the quick summary of what the legislation would do. it repeals provisions that reduce social security benefits for individuals who receive other benefits such as pension from state or local governments and eliminates government pension offsets, which reduce social security benefits for spouses and widows who also receive government pension. it eliminates the windfall elimination provision, which in some instances reduces social security benefits for individuals who also receive a pension or disability benefit from an employer that did not withhold social security taxes. hr 82 is that legislation. this is mike in indiana, the line for those between 40 and 65 years old. caller: between the two parties,

i would rather trust the republicans over the democrats. we see how the democrats are spending money now with the recession and everything else, so i assume the republicans are trying to straighten the social security mess out because we know democrats probably get all the illegals social security and medicare. democrats are spending money now. they will bankrupt social security and medicare. we know this. they are doing it now. i would put my trust and republicans to straighten the mess out because we know democrats will not. host: charles in d.c., good morning. caller: what i observe is the republicans trying to get rid of social security for older people and people all around the country and give it to rich people like the other guy who came on said.

it looks like the republicans are always trying to defund stuff, get rid of abortion and take your money away from you and give it to the rich. trickle down economics do not usually work. it seems like what they are against as opposed to what they are for. host: what age do you think you're going to be able to retire? caller: 100. i am joking. i do not know. they are trying to defund social security. maybe 75. hopefully i will be able to do it by 60, 65. host: what line of work are you in? caller: i am a driver. host: what other things you have in place? do you met -- plant -- do you mind talking about it?

caller: hopefully my house will do some appreciation and that would help. i have a few stocks. one is nova tech, a way of generating extra every week. that seems to be working for me right now. host: to david in bloomfield hills, michigan, the line for those older than 65. caller: hello. i am a retired, self-employed contractor. i was in business for over 50 years. in my opinion, social security and medicare need to be reformed. just like we did 40 years ago.

the payroll tax unfortunately needs to be increased and that is the only way that program can be solvent. in the future. the question is who has the political will to do that? that is pretty much where we are at. host: as soon as one party says we are going to raise taxes to make this last longer, do you expect the other party to throw them overboard and use it as a campaign issue? caller: probably, but this is what we had to do before. i remember when social security was about $300 a year for everybody. but we need to increase the payroll taxes to keep it solvent. if we do not, it will go away.

that is where we are at. host: plant city, florida, good morning. caller: i am a retired union ironworker. i am over 70. i worked in the trade for 35 years. if social security goes away, you will see a rebellion in this country with weapons, not that i would do it, but i think people that need social security are on social security and would rebel it went away. host: that its roots in florida and staying in florida, west palm beach. this is charlie, line for those older than 65. caller: good morning.

can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: -- social security -- and then they raise the age year to compensate that and others should raise the cap on income. as far as rick scott is concerned, i would not vote for him for dogcatcher. he is a crook. i cannot find anybody in florida who would admit to voting for him. thank you. have a good day. host: charlie and west palm beach. about 10 minutes in this conversation asking you this morning which party you trust more on medicare and social security hearing phone lines split by age. if you're under 40, (202) 748-8000. 40 to 65, (202) 748-8001.

if you're older than 65, (202) 748-8002. keeping updated on other stories we have been following, this is from the washington post. chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell have endorsed a bipartisan electoral accountability senate, all but cementing its passage and giving the legislation a boost as congress seeks to prevent future efforts to subvert presidential elections. the endorsement followed how -- house passage of a similar bill. the presidential transition improvement act sponsored by senators collins and mention -- joe manchin would reaffirm that the vice president has only and ministerial role at the joint session of congress and raise the threshold for member's of congress to object to state electors. it was yesterday on the senate floor that mitch mcconnell spoke about that bill and endorsed it.

[video clip] >> this bipartisan bill does not replace current law with something untested. it keeps what has worked well and modestly updates what has not. the bill sponsors debate in every provision and found bipartisan consensus. bad ideas were left on the cutting room floor. the resulting product, this bill, has introduced -- as introduced, is the only chance to get an outcome and actually make law. here's what the legislation does. it raises the threshold for objecting to the electoral count , preserving options if something unlikely were to happen, but ensuring those with hardly any support cannot paralyze the process.

it makes the 12 amendment even clearer, that the vice president has never had and will never have discretionary powers over the counting. it protects states but ensures they publicize rules before the election. it rejects unwise challenges like create a new course of action that would leave every election up to the courts. and create uncertainty. it makes modest technical updates to other pertinent laws such as the presidential transition act. the bill does all those modest but important things without capitulating to our democratic colleagues' obsession with a sweeping federal takeover of all of our election law.

so i look forward to supporting the legislation as introduced in committee. host: senator mitch mcconnell yesterday. the senate in today at 10:00 a.m. eastern man we are expected to have the usual press conferences that happen each week later this afternoon. the house in at noon today for legislative business. one event you will not see on the house side today, the january 6 committee hearing scheduled to take place today. hurricane ian delaying that hearing. this was the statement from the cochairs of the select committee. in light of hurricane ian bearing down, we have postponed the proceedings, the statement coming from the co-chair saying we are praying for the safety of all those in the storm's path. the washington post noting it is unclear if the daytime hearing

will be rescheduled. there were eight hearings that took place in june and july this year. we will let you know when that january 6 hearing gets rescheduled for, but one op-ed today of note on the genuine six hearing coming from mick mulvaney, former white house acting chief of staff under president trump. his op-ed on the pages of usa today questioning why the hearing -- why these hearings stopped in june and july if they were so important, if they were exploring such a threat as democrats claim. here's some of what he writes. the hearings after this point have brought new information to light that gives rise to legitimate questions about that day, but if you really believe -- if you really sincerely

believed our democracy almost failed on january 6, why would you take an eight week break and holding hearings to investigate that day? on the contrary, there seems to be inconsistency in taking that vacation through august and september. that again from mick mulvaney if you want to read more. two minutes left to get your phone calls on this question of which party you trust more on medicare and social security. this is donald out of georgia, line for those older than 65. good morning. are you with us? then we will go to tennessee, bill, line for those between 40 and 65. caller: i would like to say i trust the democrats on saving

this social security and medicaid -- medicare. i am 64 right now. i have had to go through bankruptcy over medical bills. it has pushed me on my savings so i'm dependent on this $1100 as far as my social security comes in and i am fixing to be eligible for medicare, so with my situation i would be with medicaid in my state, so it would cover part c, the privatization of medicare. host: this is simone out of north carolina cannot line for those older than 65. go ahead. caller: i wanted to let you know

a little about me. because i do not have medicaid, which is $170 a month -- who can afford that? i do not have a pension. so what do i do? do i just die? the democrats remind me of sheep and republicans, wolves. you guys are just tearing us americans apart. i am 68 years old. what happens to me? that is all i have to say. please consider that. the girl at social security says i have to wait after i had my stroke last month. she said i have to wait until next year to get back on medicaid and it is going to be up another $180 a month.

it is good for you guys who have retirement, but people like me, i do not have retirement. i have to spend what they give me. i appreciate that little bit. thank you. host: this is lloyd in west virginia, line for those older than 65. caller: good morning. i just want to say i trust the republicans because i got more of a raise on my social security when trump was in. biden is just giving everything away. host: you say biden is giving every thing away? caller: he got us $30 trillion in debt. if you're going to do that, how can you help your own people? and he is taking care of all the people coming across the border and giving money to these other

countries and he does student loans. he has money for everything else to help with everything else but he cannot help old people on social security. i am 81 years old, retired custodian from schools. trump wanted everybody to work and pay their own way and you have people out here who don't even want to work just depending on biden to give them everything. that is what is wrong in the country. if people worked and paid their way, everything would be all right, but they do not have to raise taxes if you quit giving money away. that is all i got to say. host: this is jay and the buckeye state on the line for those between 40 and 65. good morning. caller: i am calling to say i would trust the republicans because i think that they would

take care of us more than the democrats. the democrats are constantly giving away money for programs that i feel are not helpful to us. i am old school. i grew up believing you never dependent on social security for retirement. so i worked for a company that paid into retirement for me. it is a small amount, but when i was working i squirreled away every raise i got, which may only have been 10 or $15. but i managed to save money on my own. when president trump came in office, i was going to have to retire at 62 and was worried about it. when i started looking at my ira and what i had saved, it grew.

it felt like i had hit the lottery. now, after going on 65 the money i had put back is definitely needed because of the democratic president. i just, and i feel for the people who didn't come out weren't able to save their money in an ira like the lady who had the stroke. i really feel for her and i think social security should help those people that weren't able to be fortunate as i have been. our last color in the first segment. plenty of more to talk about and two members of congress. we will be joined. later, a democrat from texas.

we will discuss physical dead, border policy, we will discuss all of that. we will be right back. ♪ >> live, sunday on in-depth. author, tv host and ceo dan abrams will be talking about the legal system today. he is the author of several books. and his latest, martin luther occurring -- king junior. join in on the conversation with your phone calls, facebook comments, texas, and tweets. life, sunday at easter on in-depth on book tv on c-span

two. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2. at 8:00 p.m. eastern. live at noon eastern author and tv host dan abrams is against on in-depth to talk and take your calls about u.s. legal history and of the legal system today has books include lincoln's last trial and alabama v. king. she is interviewed by host: senator in chief watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find the full schedule on your program guide or watch any time on book tv.org.

>> not available in the c-span shop the 2022 congressional , directory. go there today to order a copy of the congressional directory. this compact spiral-bound book as your guide to the federal government with contact information for every member of congress. also contact information for state governors and the biden administration cabinet. order your copy today at c-span shop.org or scan the qr code with your smartphone. every c-span shop purchase helps support the nonprofit operations. >> "washington journal" continues. host: two members of congress joining us this morning. natural resources committee on the budget congressman and federal spending take us through the next 72 hours here what is going to happen as we approach the friday night deadline. guest: it is always a rush to get something done, just push it

down the road for a few months. we have seen this for several decades whatever party is in power gets the priorities figured out right before and we have a late night to determine whether we fund the government. right now, as i understand it, still working its way through the senate chambers and the senate is going to have to figure out how to get it passed the 60 foot threshold. if you are saying opposition for some of the things we have talked about early on. the refugee portion of it, we have to be able to figure out how to address the border. dependent offending towards support for our border patrol agents and things like that. it's almost not even about

funding with respect to the border it's what we under the protection program? that doesn't even require the funding, support. why are we not enforcing the policy that has a proven record of reducing cartel activity? that is one thing that republicans will be pushing for with respect to the. host: get to you, do you vote to push this off until mid-december? what do you do if you have to vote on it? guest: if i don't like the bill, if i don't like some of the provisions put in their or not put in their that i won't vote for it. i think there is a strong competition -- opposition to what we have seen so far. i do like the reform taking place, that conversation has been going on. i have been pushing for it plenty but does pretty much my whole time here we have 125

projects that are very green friendly, and venter meyer environmentally conscious. in unintended consequence. we have to be able to address that. host: one joe manchin -- guest: one senator joe manchin as focused on. it is a chance to get folks on board. as of right how, i am in opposition position of it. i have voted for it before. from the minority perch some people just quote no. i was supported of it it is a lot of the same measures, fairly straightforward. we have seen things we just don't like. for another example, instead of

addressing our energy issues, we are just going to provide folks that are struggling with high heating bills this winter and being prepared for that instead of what changes do we need to make to our energy policy so prices don't continue to go up? that is key in understanding why some republicans will be frustrated with some of these provisions. host: let me give the phone numbers for the viewers to turn the conversation. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. guest: we really are divided are we? (202) 748-8002 independents. and we will chat with all of them. you are on the services committee assignment also in this cr $12 billion more for ukraine. is that something that you support? guest: i supported the previous supplemental.

there was opposition towards it. it wasn't a perfect way to go about doing it but it was a $40 billion supplemental approximately 17 of that comes back to replenish our own. and i supported that. there is still some supplemental that we haven't allocated and to do in additional 12 is really tough to support. we have so many other things domestically that we are worried about it's not much but we still have some of that supplemental, we're seeing success in ukraine and you are seeing a really strong bipartisan approach to the strategy there. there has been plenty of good that has gone on a specialty a couple of those regions or ukraine was able to push back but another 12 without it tied to specific metrics or outcomes we want to see, it's going to be

it technique to support. host: referendums being held in these districts in ukraine by the russian government as russia is alluding to using nuclear weapons. are there additional weapons systems that we should be sending to ukraine? guest: some of the long-range, we made a shift in providing them more lethal, more long-range weaponry i don't have the specifics of all the names of these. there was a portfolio of things that we provided them. that's good. we have to be able to identify what success looks like. with the ukrainian and russians are going to be able to figure out with respect to getting finality to this. they can't just go on forever and ever. and become another unless were we are fighting. that is additional funding is

going to have to have a strong sense of here is the goal, here is how the weaponry is going to get us to that point. i need to see two things, ukraine take back a few of those regions and then we are in two different strategic areas. also seeing the pushback they are seeing with russia with putin trying to activate reservists. host: before we get to calls we spent the first am talking about which party viewers trust more on social security and medicare president biden making remarks at the white house what is the republican plan if you take over the house in november? what is the plan on social security and medicare? guest: so, i put together a task force back in my district.

we have an entire recommendation on this. the simple truth is they are set up for failure. in several months we can committed figure out how to figure out some of this stuff. social security, if we are going to take whatever was set up half a century ago and continue to go down that route, without looking at some of the fundamental things that are changing, people are retiring later we have a longer lifespan, life expectancy in some areas in most cases. we have to go through the reform process. there are a couple of things, increase the age of retirement. it's not going to affect those

in retirement now but they need to be supportive. they made the commitment that provokes 50 years and younger we shouldn't expect to have the exact same system. one thing is it's extremely bipartisan and if you go back and look at the phone at is called the secure 2.0 active. when you sell the ways and means committee in a very partisan manner to address how you can allow for people to more easily plan for retirement and one simple example. right now, you come out of college at 25 years old you how to student debt. you probably want to pay off student what -- that before you give money to retirement. we do to change that in people's minds. every year you plan for your

retirement, is exponentially better. this bill allows for companies to contribute on behalf of employees to the 401(k) even if the employee isn't contributing if they are giving money to student loans. so instead of catching as long as you are contributing to the student loan company the employee can match on your behalf. putting us burden on our public system and a social security. things we need to address a medicare. that is why we have the debt and that is why we are an aging population. we have to figure out ways to make our spending much more efficient. host: randy out of the bluegrass state you are the first with congressman moore.

caller: good morning, thank you. talking about social security and medicare, it is a pyramid scheme and in order to keep it from toppling over you have to have a growing population. we have two things going on that is amazing no one is answering two. you have 21% of americans homosexuals, they don't have children. you have abortions, we had 65 million in 50 years since i've been born. you have older people now that can't get assistance or someone will not have children. we have to have these replacements from south of the border coming in here to try to

help us out with our problems that we self-created with not reproducing. what are you going to do in the future to stop these problems like this? host: let's jump in. guest: 10 months ago, my wife and i are doing our part. i also represent a state that has a strong birthrate. definitely a state that focuses on supporting families and a blank a strong workforce, things like that. he's not wrong. we have an issue with the birthrate in our nation. we need to create the strong future but we also have a broken immigration system. because of the pressure and the turmoil going on there right now getting to the point we can come

up with a merit-based system that would encourage productive in migration, productive legal immigration, that is another area that can help alleviate this. there is a lot of good, amazing people that are talented that contribute to our economy with the administration's unwillingness to enforce the migration policy. that was a good, strong, compassionate keeping cartel activity to a minimum and now we incentivize the cartels there are just taking the life savings. venezuela, the northern triangle, other south american countries. it is virtually impossible to do what we all know we need to do. and that is fix the visa programs.

we can get a healthier workforce that wants to come here. we welcome that. host: in florida, barney, micro democrats. outside temple, correct? caller: yes. host: how are you guys doing prepared for the hurricane? caller: we are doing ok. i'll be down here -- i have been done her 60 prop -- 60 years. no problem. caller: they complain about the social security and about immigration. you complain about the $10 trillion tax cut, that was unnecessary. that have to figure out the immigration problem. what i figure, i thought it was

applying for asylum the mexicans are not coming across the border anymore. so what is the problem? and then number two how governor spent totally in dollars to transfer asylum-seekers to martha's vineyard. $12. do you actually think he spent tautly in dollars on one plane? did he put the money in his pocket? did it come from the covid relief funds? are you investigating the tautly in dollars? guest: good luck to you in your community. you mentioned the text at. i highlighted the work i have

done it is a strong. of focus for me i spent some time talking about this the text cut jump tax didn't do as much as i wanted to see on entitlement reform. but we were able to accomplish what we could accomplish in that short amount of time what it did, you can look up any of the data that exists on here. if you keep companies globally competitive and if you make the tax code globally competitive we keep our strong workforce here without losing that to neighboring nations. when you give that type of competitiveness to our workforce you are going to see growth assad in wage growth you so

middle-class wages increase. there is no disputing that we didn't see enormous inflation off of this particular economic problem. it grew wages, without pushing up inflation. inflation is the biggest tax on americans that we have seen in my lifetime. i was born in 1980 and we have not seen this type of inflation since then. basically, that exists, but take away an entire month's salary from people if you prorate it the course of the year. that is an enormous tax on people. so it actually grew wages without doing the negative outcome with respect to inflation. was it debt-financed? yes. did it balance the budget? no.

was it planned to strengthen us over time to grow revenues to help cover that? if you address some of these pending issues we have in our nation it is a good, solid plan. i want to make that something i am involved with to get to that point where we can have the stronger future. the asylum part, the remain in mexico policy, that still takes in asylum-seekers. it requires, it works closely with the mexican government so the asylum-seekers remain in mexico city and there is a good partnership we have two -- to strengthen our relationships. it was a bit of a list for them to get to this point but it was working. what it did was it kept a valid

asylum-seekers going through the process quickly. we were having influence because the cartel is telling everybody you can claim asylum we will get you into the country across the border and you can exist there. that is the humane part of this. they are telling people we will get you there, give us your life savings and when you get there everything is going to be fine. what happens is they have to wait for a court proceeding. they can't figure out how to get themselves in a sustainable situation and that they are left in no person's land. that is the wrong way to go about the policy. host: what about the transfers of them migrates to section very cities. democrats say that is inhumane. it leaves them in the middle of nowhere with no resources. guest: the question was posed to many different people. was it a stunt?

you can say that does it sound from the frustration that the biden administration that they had completely ignored the borders the had been down there to really stress what is going on with over two lien people coming to these border towns. there is, you know there are 50 individuals that went to martha's vineyard. if we are going to continue to allow so much activity on the southern border towns they are overground. i have been down to the del rio area and they are overrun. the businesses are struggling so bad and they're trying their best to figure this all out but there is a lack of support from the biden administration. there is effort to bring attention to this. host: a lot of callers in the mapleton illinois.

caller: good morning, i wish there was a counterpoint to what you were saying about emigration because adoptive or -- respect that shows egner and i am from california was retired state police, and listed i am almost 70 and i want to tell you the central value that produces the green veggies for our country are with the labor that is when we had such an influx. i was against immigration myself but i was against it 60 years ago. you are late to the game. second issue, not only was i state police that shows also the respect and ignorance of what it is like to get older. you may say that people are getting, that they are not well when they are older.

there is a lot of struggle. most people don't do well after 80 years old if they even make it there to extend social security, i have never been in debt. i always have money i retired 20 years ago and never board again. i don't use my situation to several other people should do the same. i'm not in a position to talk about other people's lives. what i do know is you should at least research a little bit more before you start throwing things out like you need to work longer or extend the social security so we don't pay it until they are 70. they are going to be did in seven years so you want people to work forever? guest: i was very clear in my statement and my earlier comments that those who have paid into the system need to be supported and you would fall in line with that. i really like the measures that we are taking to encourage more

responsible retirement savings for individuals and needs to become more self sufficient and become less of a burden on what we need the government to do. it is virtually unanimous about some of the measures we can take to encourage workforce companies, individuals making sure they look out for their retirement early in life. that is at some of the solutions i was looking for. host: to kathy in texas, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. the going to take this the weird --they are going to take that away.

i am sick and tired of it. also, the border has to be controlled. we live in texas when the venezuelans given they held the venezuelan flag on our texas order. our government is pumping out billions of dollars period biden knows what he is doing. they are letting fentanyl kill hundreds of thousands of our kids it is ridiculous with the government is doing right now. i wish people would just stop the insanity. thank you. guest: what we are seeing at the party is not -- border is not humane. human entering trafficking howling on -- going on at record levels. the one thing i would hope folks could cripple with, the remain

in mexico policy was one of the best deterrence to giving that much power to cartels. they sell wise to these individuals and it empowers the cartel to get them across the border suggesting everything is going to be ok when they get across. you will be able to meet up with family and get a job and that's just not the case. the remain in mexico policy, that is the key piece that we should be enforcing because it is the most humane, compassionate way to address this on all sides. you see amazing people like myra flores come in to congress with that message. i think texas is seeing the affects of this.

host: i want to end her we begin this morning talking about the funding deadline. the system itself is you for saying that the system is working right now. if republicans take over the house, is the system and budgeting does it get better? will we not see continuing resolutions under republicans? guest: i have a whole section in my debt deficit recommendations that talks about reforms we need to make. it's going to be hard to take a system that never finishes anything on time. if republicans take majority of the house, you still have biden in the white house. you would ultimately have a split government, if you will.

that can produce good outcomes. when was the last time we balanced our budget? they came together and created a balanced budget. we are a lot further away from that then we were in 1997. but it creates good outcomes when you have that about balance and government. it's not going to be easier and is going to have a lot of specific reforms. it is a drain on resources. that's a waste of money. no business should ever be run like this. to push forward and make more reasonable changes or we will have to see what happens. if we win the majority in early november there are going to be a lot more turmoils.

there will be a lot of work to do. host: we will end at now but mr. moore the republican from utah. thank you so much for your time. of next we will be joined by henry cuellar from texas. we will talk with him about social security, emigration, and of course the fiscal deadline. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> middle and high school students, it is your time to shine. you are invited to participate in the student camera documentary competition. in light of the upcoming midterm election, feature yourself as a newly elected member of congress

and we ask what is your top priorities and why. make a five to six minute video that shows the importance of your issues from opposing and supporting perspectives. do not be afraid to take risks. be bold. among the 100,000 in cash prizes is a $5,000 grand prize. videos must be submitted by january 23, 2023. visit our website at studentcam.org for rules, kits , resources and a step-by-step guide. >> american history tv sunday on c-span two explore the people and events that tell the american story. michael candidates discusses the war in ukraine. from the cold war to the 21st century. at 2:00 p.m. eastern author of

america's. a history talks about landmines use for the first time on a widespread basis. exploring the american story watch american history tv saturday on c-span two. and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch any time on c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: texas democrat henry cuellar. 28th district of texas served on the appropriations committee. what happens today, tomorrow, and friday how worried are you

about a government shutdown? guest: first of all, inc. you so much it is a pleasure to be here with you. we are not going to have a government shutdown. we will probably put in the senate. i sit on the appropriations on the appropriations on defense, on homeland, on ag and i know how important it is to get this done. i will also say the house appropriations committee we pose all of the appropriations bills. half of them passed over to the senate. so we have done our work. i wish we would do this on time every september 30. host: you are saying this process is broken, don't blame the house appropriations committee? guest: i'm saying we did our job, that is all i can say. we post all 12 bills from the committees about a half of them passed from the house to the senate.

we do need to look at this because every year, you know, we get thousands of bills that are final and i would feel that the appropriations bill, those that should take priority and we should pass them. there should be some sort of reform i wish we would just say that every september 30 we would have a continuation at the same level unless the congress votes on it and makes variations like we are doing on this one. as we cause the cr december 16. host: things that are in it an art and it, not a variation there is enough money in their for additional covid response that the white house wanted. there is $12 billion for ukraine to continue to fight russia also billions of dollars for recovery from wildfires, $20 million for

water sanitation issues in jackson, mississippi. what do you support and not support? guest: i'm going to vote in favor of the cr. we need to continue the government. that is what happens, on the senate side it is 50-50 split. you need to have 10 republicans come over to get this done they couldn't get it on some of the issues, including the energy bill budget -- senator joe manchin. keep the environmental protections but streamline the process. again, it is a give-and-take. if you don't have the 60 votes in the senate some things are going to stay and some things are going to be dropped. that is what legislation is all about. host: kevin mccarthy is not going to be supporting this cr this is what he said. if they don't use this funding

bill to address the border crisis immediately i'm going to vote no on this bill and i urge my colleagues to do the same. you and i always talk about border issues. your thoughts on that? guest: first of all, if you look at the homeland security bill that we passed it has more border patrol agents. it as money for men and women in blue. it has money for technology, we are looking at doing a pay raise for homeland security employees. psa -- tsa appointment employees also. childcare for border patrol, health care for border patrol, clothing allowance for border patrol so if you would like the bill and support the homeland there is money there for border security. host: but that bill is not going to be the final version rate? it is continues under the old

funding measures? guest: that is correct. we still have the money for the appropriations we are going to keep it but again i would provide support for the appropriations bill. it will be interesting when he does if we get a bill, it would be interesting and he does is on republican i'm going to vote no on this democrat majority or if he will support the men and women in green. talking about it is one thing. keep in mind doing another thing is very different. you have to do the talk but you have to do the walk and support the men and women. people got out of the border, they spent a few hours and after spending a few hours they think they know the border. with all due respect, i live at the border. i talked to the men and women in green. i live there are talk to the

landowners there. we know there is a problem there. again, it is not theater we are looking at we are looking at practical solutions. we respect to migration. i certainly want to see immigration reform but at the same time we don't want to seek open borders down there. we want to make sure we have lost. however the supposed equipment, they can come in. just like secretary jeh johnson under president obama did. they did it the right way. they counterbalance to border security. some of us, we see administrations go too far to the left or too far to the right we just say at times people don't understand what is at the border. host: 20 minutes left with congressman cuellar. (202) 748-8000 per democrats. (202) 748-8001 free democrats. (202) 748-8002 for

independents. this is chris in michigan. caller: good morning, congressman. being done by the border town i'm sure your constituents are pretty upset over the way your party has treated our border. since biden has been in office there have been over 5 million illegals coming into the country which has created such an issue to the border states the overrun and within the 5 million is over the people that don't know what they are bringing into the country. or kind of issues they have. a lot of the people are coming with no identifications. you don't know who these people

are. you are just going by what they have been told and they're saying that 70% of the women coming through have been raped on the way and there is all kinds of sex trafficking being done to these women that are being brought through. i mean, when trump was in office you would go down to the border many times and asked the border patrol that they wanted and they told him that they need a barrier. to help slow down the situation. when you have this many getaways and supposedly 110,000 young adults between 18 and 45 are dying every year by this fentanyl. something has to be done. host: congressman, you can jump in. guest: first of all, thank you so much and good morning to you. look, i don't believe in open borders.

also i don't believe in separating kids from their mothers the way president trump did. we are getting to extremes. we have to make sure that we understand how people come into the united states. we have to understand smugglers make a lot of money taking drugs or passing people. if they charge an average of $8,000, it could be less or much more dependent on what country they are coming from. they make billions of dollars on his people. at that doesn't include passing drugs. we have to be able to address that. one of the things that we have to look at either we play defense on the one yard line or we play defense on the 20 yard line. making sure that mexico and guatemala and the other countries do their job. we have to address that. make sure border patrol has the

right equipment, personnel. but at the same time if you look at push and pull factors. what happens to those countries, why they are pushed over here, what pulls them over here? we have to be able to address that. fentanyl, i can, we have to stop that but keep in mind most drugs will come in through ports of entry. quicken, content all that comes in through ports of entry if you put a wall it's not going to stop most of the tracks because it comes in through ports of entry. by the way, a few years ago 63 percent of the people here illegally came through leases. the number one violator was canada. so i want to make sure as we address the issue, we know the

facts. and we address them in of correctly. by the way uncle paul, things change over time. before 2012, the border patrol union was against the wall because they felt it was a waste of money they would rather get the money and put it in personnel. the border patrol union how to change in leadership and after 2012 they said the wall is the solution. the wall is a 14th-century solution to a 21st century problem. again, if you want to talk about deportation, who deported most people? it was actually president obama with secretary johnson. he treated the people with respect and dignity but at the end of the day he said we will return you because this is what the laws say. it is the same laws we have right now we just have to enforce the laws we have on the books right now. thank you for your question.

host: to the line for democrats, orlando, florida. mike how are you doing with appropriate -- preparations for ian? caller: doing fine, thank you sir. still have our fingers crossed so far so good, thank you for asking. host: go ahead with your question or your comment for the congressman. caller: i may not be one of your biggest fans. i think it is because you are more conservative than democrat. but when it comes to the immigration issue i think you and i are exactly in the same spot. i completely agree with your viewpoint. i wish more democrats felt like you do about immigration. i think the biggest blunder of

the biden administration, the pullout of mckenna's stand. i still have qualms about that incident. that is not to say that the trump administration solved the issue that we all know the trump administration was fueled by racism. his policy of trying to when his own mother came out here without one. people like ted cruz and the senator here from florida that came from cuba. it is america we don't import senators. we import hard-working people. host: we are running short on

time did you have a question? caller: i just want to say the democratic party should be listening when it comes to emigration. immigration. guest: thank you for your kind words like really appreciate that. number one and number two i hope you stay safe from the hurricane that's about to hit i hope everything works out for the people of florida. but let me say this, we have to understand the border. what is happening there, for example if you think about this right now 60% of the border patrol agents we have in texas are actually at the migrant processing centers. 60% taking care of migrants. 10% of them are actually doing

administrative work that all that only leaves 30% of agents, only 30% so while the numbers are going up you have less border patrol agents at the checkpoints and at the border where they are supposed to be doing their job. with all due respect we could provide other support staff and i want the administration to move faster to be in those processing centers and put border patrol where they belong. that is to secure our borders. the agents out there is also important to note there are more deaths of migrants, they will die out there because there is less border patrol agents not only do they secure our border but sometimes they will go out there in the desert are very difficult terrain to save migrants and they have helped save thousands of migrants. that is why i have the back of

the border patrol agents. like i said i live with them, in my community, i see them at my church has see them at the grocery store. you have to understand border patrol agents have a very difficult job but we have to be able to address the needs of border patrol agent's. again, without the respect to selloff my colleagues, the last point that you mentioned about emigration i believe in emigration reform. a lot of them took a long time to follow this legal process that i support but right now we are seeing people that will get on a bus or a plane and they jumped the line and this is part of the frustration that some outposts feel at the border. host: illinois, connie, republican. good morning. caller: good morning.

esther cuyler -- congressman cuellar, thank you very much. the border is a huge, huge problem. cartel is setting up in america these days. the fat not coming across that border is killing our children. and i want to say one other thing. the cages were built by president obama. and they were built for a good reason. he rescued a couple of little boys and they went to pedophiles. they were going to sue him so he built the cages. host: what do you say there?

guest: greetings to illinois, thank you so much for your question. let me talk about cages. those are not cages. what happened is the border patrol facilities what they're supposed to keep people for 72 hours were set up to handle small numbers and they were male adults coming over to work. all of a sudden when somebody figured out if you bring a child because there is a 1998 all that allows if you arefrom one of those countries you come through a different process into the united states the cartels figure this out. bring a child, bring a family unit and you will only had a small fee but. by the way, right now, you have

people from over 60 countries coming into the united states. so they come into those border patrol facilities where they are supposed to keep people for 72 hours. what happened is instead of having all adults, all of a sudden there were unaccompanied kids. with the border patrol did, they did the wise thing. they separated, like you know, keep the kids at separated from the adults and the used chain-link. that was the only thing. this administration uses apostate. border patrol did it in the right way. they are not cages, they were separated began kids from the adults. there are some people that come in with criminal records including assaulting kids. that is what was set up and unfortunately there will people that we call them cages and yes

there but there under president obama but they per separated for safety reasons. the kids away from the outs because the way border patrol had been set up. we do have migrant processing centers that are very different because things have changed. host: 10 minutes left with you this morning. when you were lost on this program back in january a few weeks after that we saw headlines about a raid on your home and your office can you explain what happened there? guest: are you not the target of an investigation and again we will cooperate and at the end of the day we will see that there was no wrongdoing. host: not the target of the investigation that is according to the fbi? guest: according to my attorneys talking to the department. host: ok. st. peter's missouri. caller: thank you for taking my

call. first i'll look like to say i believe in what ronald reagan said earlier i believe it was him that said the nine words you hear from the government and i'm here to help. i don't believe we have a taxing problem in our country we have a spending problem. you were talking earlier about social security and medicare and things like that. one of the callers said that the illegal aliens coming across the border are receiving the social security benefits as well as several other benefits. that the american tax people are paying for. i just want to know if you can comment on that and please be specific on the exact benefits that these illegal aliens are receiving that i am paying for. it is just unbelievable. i'm having trouble paying for my

own family, for my kids to get school supplies, to get food, insurance, everything is through the roof. and to find out my text dollars are going to support these illegal aliens, -- host: congressman? guest: the losses if you are here illegally you cannot receive those benefits. that is the law. number two, on government spending if you look at tax precedent in the past he would have $1 trillion of spending, deficit spending. you see under president, let's start with bush. and then clinton was the only one that had a surplus in 20, 30 years. if you look at the last couple

presidents, president trump spent almost the same thing that president obama did in eight years. when it comes to deficit spending it involves both democrats and republicans. again, i say that because we have both hands together to address the issue. you have discretionary spending and then you have the stuff on automatic. i would say that the fastest growing area has to be the area dealing with the automatic spending. so we have to do something about that. anytime you talk about social security, medicare, veterans benefits things like that people will say no you can't touch that but you have to look at where the spending is increasing if it is so automatic that we have to look at it. as a democrat i will say this we have to figure out how we

address that otherwise the whole budget will be on this. talking about deficit spending, we have to produce that. we have to reduce that because otherwise we are paying $350 billion in interest with every year. if we don't do something about it it's going to continue. the discretionary funding has increased but not as much as the mandatory and tower -- empowerment spending we have out there. host: in colorado on the line for democrat, good morning. caller: can line, america. i have a few issues beginning with immigration on the disabled vietnam vet born in mexico.

i've been an activist since 1973. you know, there is a word called propaganda. propaganda is misleading you with information that favors a certain party or group. and i'm referring to the border. i bought the farm workers i live like 24 miles from the border. and i have a problem with the number of arrests at the border. nobody talks about the repeat offender the person that crosses the border, gets arrested, gets supported and the next he's at the border again, gets arrested and again deported. nobody talks about that.

host: you have about a minute and half left to talk about it. guest: my parents were migrant workers also they worked on my the field. i am the oldest of eight kids. my parents only knew a few words in english so they did the hard work that you did number one. there are repeats if they are mexicans, they will some them back to mexico so you do have repeats but what we try to do is send people back to their original country what they call i spare. there are some countries like cuba, venezuela, china, other places that don't want to take people back so that becomes a little bit more difficult but there are a lot of people that come in and we are departing people right now under the law. title 42, people will be

returned. i told the administration they have the show images of people being returned because i can ask you when as the bus time you saw a picture or video of someone being returned. what we need to do is show we have a message that you come here the right way, and if you do not follow the law like president obama did, i am sorry we have to deport you. i believe in dreamers and the guestworker plan. at the end of the day we do not -- we want law and order. . host: thank you. coming up, we will turn to the topics of health care with julie rovner. in the next 30 minutes, time for

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you can find about books on c-span now or wherever you get your podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: it is our open forum. any political issue you want to talk about the phone lines are yours. start calling in. on capitol hill the senate is in at 10:00 eastern. the house returns at noon. legislative business at 2:00 today on the house side where we will be taking you after our program ends in just about an hour is on the senate side, the senate foreign relations committee hearing on russia sanctions. that is happening on c-span, c-span.org and the free c-span now app. speaking of russia and senate judiciary committee hearings on war crimes in ukraine also happening today at 10:00 eastern.

that you can watch on c-span three, c-span.org come in the free c-span out app. also at 10:00 we will be streaming live on c-span now the latest federal emergency management agency briefing with the fema administrator. you can watch that on c-span now . a lot going on today. you can stay on the c-span networks and use the app or the website and stay up-to-date. you can also call in during this open forum. phone lines for democrats, republicans, independence to talk about issues. james, you are up first, what is on your mind. caller: i have a question. why doesn't the u.s. do the same thing for central and south

america they do for ukraine or one of the european countries? we put a lot of support towards ensuring their well-being is taken care of, but i figured they would do the same thing for central and south america that would reduce some of the crossings that is going on at the border. we are more a part of the western hemisphere than a part of the european union. i just had a question on that. host: what you think the answer is your question? caller: we should be taking care of americans. i think we should put more interests in the western

hemisphere than the european. if we look at global warming, tearing down the forest in the amazon and all of that that would look at most of those people from central and south america that is crossing our borders and we asked ourselves why are they doing it? i understand we need so many thousands of workers here in america, but maybe they could reduce that if we pour some of our efforts into reducing the crime and the warlords and drugs and stuff going on on our own hemisphere first. host: back to the state of florida. good morning in tallahassee. what is the forecasted tallahassee? how much will ian impact you? caller: it will not impact us at

all. you are my favorite because you do not cut people off and i hope everybody listens to what i have to say. i think congress voted to turn down the investigation of the hunter laptop. the laptop emails, his laptop emails are out there for the public to see. i have seen them. there are photos that will come out about president biden that are very disturbing. also the other thing i wanted to talk about is covid-19, ended 2015 it was sitting -- there was laboratory sitting in north carolina and that was during the obama administration. this was something orchestrated to take down trump whenever he

came into the office. host: where did you read about that that it went from north carolina to china to the world? caller: there was a gentleman that posted something he was following three investigative journalist. of course they ended up dying in china because it was going to come out. i sent that to my nephew a marine to look at. host: this is something you found where? caller: before facebook was censoring everything somebody posted it and i sent it to my nephew who is a marine and i said look at this. host: that is gail in florida. this is dennis in ohio. good morning. caller: i am tired of these people saying walls don't work and all of that. if you look back at history like with the great wall of china, they kept people from invading china for hundreds of years.

the only reason the mongrels from it is because the general opened up a gate and let them in. if you look at israel, they built a wall to keep themselves separated from the palestinians and there were 600 attacks a day against jewish people and that went down dramatically. it seems a shame we had all of this wall going up that we have pieces of the wall on the ground and then they just cancel it for no reason. did not even give it a chance to work. host: that is dennis in ohio. this is tim it rochester, new york. nine for democrats. caller: good morning. there are a few things i want to say. trump reporters always said -- that chris hayes did a segment about those two years ago that they keep forgetting. it was miserable.

nobody wants to go back to two years ago. the only reason gas and everything is up is because everything was shut down. companies want to make their money back. they know this. they just want excuses. why was trump saying in pennsylvania, atlanta milwaukee, black areas. every time you turn around our white people cheating for him. it is what it is. you have a great day. host: omar in san diego, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on the -- with senator rand paul and dr. fauci. because of all of the distractions, and we have a lot going on in this country with immigration, the economy, the

war in ukraine, everything is in turmoil around the globe and here in the u.s.. what i have been contacting my state senators, my congressman, and become an activist, being i am a survivor of sars covid which put me two months in the hospital and almost died. my question were my comment is to the congressman for the people that to date there are approximately 11,202,686 people confirmed cases in the state of california. united states confirmed cases of only -- of over 95,761,000. from the sars covid in the u.s., over one million people have died.

this virus was engineered. my comment is that dr. fauci and another doctor, why they have not been arrested, prosecuted, and placed in prison. this is along the same lines as the nazi physician who went by the name -- host: ok, got your point. caller: charles, good morning. i just had a quick judgment. i making the juxtaposition between the january 6 event and what happened in 2017 and 2016 after trump had defeated 16 other candidates, media attacks on trump seated up. john king said on cnn that the trump win was a mathematical impossibility before the election. after trump stunt hillary

clinton election deniers started screaming, the clinton campaign said vladimir putin had helped trump when in the idea of a total trump resistance became the democratic mantra leading up to january 20 seven cash to the january 20, 2017 inauguration. congressman boycotted trump's inauguration. 70 did not attend. many said trump was illegitimately elected. 17 organized groups protested trump by throwing rocks and bottles at police, damaging vehicles, smashing store windows. many were armed. six police officers were hospitalized. signs claiming trump was an illegitimate president. host: bring us to today. caller: 234 people were

arrested. 214 were indicted for felonies and misdemeanors with each facing 70 years in prison, yet not a single defendant was found guilty by juries in d.c. superior court. 21 did plead guilty. the d.c.'s attorney's office agreed to expunge all of these records. they sued d.c. for making unconstitutional rest and gave the aclu and all of defendants $1 billion. compare that to how we are treating the january 6, this big partisan show and we let off 236 protesters who chased down officials, injured officials, injured police. that was an insurrection. host: that is charles. speaking of january 6 we were expecting the ninth january 6 committee hearing today.

that being postponed in the wake of hurricane in, the statement coming yesterday. a statement saying that they are praying for all of those in the storm's path. eight of those hearings happening in june and july. this would've been the ninth and final hearing. expected to focus on how associates of the former president land to declare victory regardless of the outcome of the election according to people who are familiar with the hearings planning. we will let you know when the next hearing is scheduled. wendy in ohio, independent. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. good show today. i want to say something on some previous callers. i don't know if you can pull it up but i saw this a few days ago

where a video is released, dr. fauci was at some fundraiser. he was on tape not laughing but saying how dumb the american people were to fall for the mask mandate. host: where did you see this? caller: i am thinking it was on news nation, where they showed the video. you can hear dr. fauci on stage talking. i am not a scientist. remember when they said you had to put a mask on to walk into a restaurant to eat. host: did you ever do the mask? caller: yes.

i was wearing masks before covid. [laughter] host: why were you wearing masks? caller: i do not have any transportation for a few years and i had to use public transportation and it seemed like every time i would ride on the bus with other people i would always get sick. host: you find masks useful? caller: not the cloth mask, i wear the blue medical once. it seems like they help. they knew in the beginning that the cloth masks were not going to do anything. common sense to put on a mask to walk three or four feet into a restaurant, then go sit down at the table and take your mask off to eat, like covid is going to say don't go around the table. that is just common sense. fauci was on tape saying he

was surprised people did that. host: do wish people were wearing masks in a better way? i'm try to understand where you are on masks. caller: i can see wearing a mask to go into walmart or your doctor's office or something, but to wear a mask inside a restaurant, then take it off when you sit down to eat and talk, to be that is a no-brainer because covid is going to stop at your table? host: that is wendy. this is joe. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, john. there are so many things to comment on. with regards the last ladies thing about masks, i think you should just pray we can do

something about getting rid of covid. my two issues i would like to comment on are these. social security, i am strongly in favor of preserving social security. the gentleman from michigan said the only way to guarantee that is to raise the taxes on people. what is the caps on income? if you have any information on that about what is the current income cap on paying into the social security fund i would appreciate it. also on the mystery, there are tens of thousands of places to drill for oil there not being used where we do not have to go into the wilderness or our precious national parks, and i wonder why these are not being

opened. host: this is margie in pennsylvania, republican. good morning. are you with us? philip in orlando, florida. independent. how are you doing in orlando? how are you preparing? caller: i try to stay inside in the center of the state where the storm surge will not be as bad. host: a lot of rain expected? caller: a lot of rain. three to five inches today and the same thing tomorrow. not looking forward to going through this but it is a part of life in florida. the climate change issue is huge. there should be an eye-opener. i am not a native floridian. i came from the washington, d.c.

area and when you talk to some floridians they are like it is a hoax, things like that. i just wish a lot of people would wake up to the reality of climate change because we are headed for more weather or even worse whether if we do not get some of the stabilization needed for the fossil fuel industry. the main point i was trying to raise is the issue in jackson, mississippi, where the water is toxic and no one seems to be -- and the state government taking full responsibility for keeping those people locked down without getting a proper system up and running. the people there were trying to raise taxes and were prevented from doing so, and that seems

like a serious issue from racism. host: the federal government has a continuing resolution on a federal funding measure working its way through congress, $20 million has been added to that to address the water crisis in jackson, mississippi. that part of this continuing resolution bill as it is called. caller: that is great, but until you can get a hold of the politics, they can give us money , they give the money away to athletes, people like that to build additional buildings onto schools that are doing well. the problem is why over the years has this particular area and left without the proper system for water? the conclusion is they want to read gentrified jackson. they want to urge the current

residents to leave and then they buy cheap land and take over the place. a lot of attention needs to be played on what is going on in jackson in terms of race relations in this country. host: got your point. this is nancy in the keystone state. line for democrats. caller: there has been a lot of focus on pennsylvania since we are one of the states that make a difference. host: are you talking about the 2022 election or in general? caller: yes. since we were one of the states trump was counting on. we were one of the states he felt everything was not there -- was not fair, and went to his extreme as he does.

i think our votes -- we have to think deep and president biden cannot fix everything so we have to think deep into what is going to start to turn things around for so many issues from small issues, we are focusing on what people say wrong, all of this stuff about -- we need to find people that represent our state and represent the right reasons and make their state better into these positions and offices. for example, this is a small part of it and there are so many issues.

to legalize marijuana, recreational. look at what is going on. a lot of the looting in philadelphia just saw it, they looted and there are probably 40 young people just tearing the place apart and getting what they wanted. host: that is nancy in the keystone state. to the beehive state. this is bradley. republican. caller: good morning. how are you doing? a couple of comments. i heard that as we speak joe biden sent out $1400 checks to the illegal aliens coming over and i think this is to get the illegal vote. right now there are 40 billion

illegals in our country. host: the congressman before us was talking about how the federal benefits are not allow for illegal immigrants. we talked a little bit about that. explain where you heard that so i can try to look it up? caller: it was a congressional hearing yesterday. the texas congressman. they had a debate about it and there was an accusation back and forth. they are definitely sending out checks. $1400. the debate was that in order to get money you have to have a social security number. there were people that came over as a work permit and they state beyond their visa time and they are getting, they have a social security number issued to them because they have to get a paycheck. to get money from the government you have to have a social security number. they are sending out $1400

checks. this is another ploy to get more of the democrats -- these illegals to vote for the democrats. host: what i have for you is from the associated press. there fact check on this from last year when this issue came up about immigrants receiving the $1400 stimulus checks through the covid-19 relief bill. noting the vast majority of immigrants without lawful status do not have social security numbers and cannot receive $1400 checks. a small number of people who entered the u.s. on a temporary work visa and were issued social security numbers may have been able to receive a payment even if they overstayed their visas. the assessment on that. you could take a look at that from march of last year. this is dale in the bieber state. good morning. caller: good morning.

i will change the subject just a little bit. it is a controversial subject, gun control. org on -- oregon has a new law that has been in progress for two years. all guns being bought or sold must be registered in the state of oregon and there are background checks and the gun is registered to the person or the buyer and taken from the person who originally purchased the gun. the problem we have in oregon and the problem i see in the future is this program in oregon is handled by the oregon state police. the oregon state police is so far behind. as an example, they are running does go to three weeks behind on

a gun purchase so you buy one and take it to a licensed gun dealer to have it registered and you may not see that gun again for does go to three weeks. i know that is the case. anyhow, enough on that. i want people to be aware that in passing gun laws, and i fully approve of god laws, there is also the consequence of what the state or the city or the county must do. thank you, i really appreciate it. thanks for listening to me this morning. this is the first time i've ever been on. thank you. host: you can call again once every 30 days. that is the rule we go by. to the cowboy state, clarence in casper, independent. caller: how are you this morning? host: doing well.

caller: three things i want to say. about the fence for the border, that law has been in effect i don't know how long and we are supposed to appropriate money to build and they never do. that is why that is not being built, which is wrong. gun control is hitting what you a map. when i was younger -- what you aim at. when i was younger we went to go to school and have a rifle hanging on the back. host: that is clarence in wyoming. still 30 minutes before the end of our program. in that time will be joined by julie rovner to discuss health care costs and the fiscal health of medicare and social security. stick around for that. we will be right back.

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talking about u.s. legal history. he is the offer -- he is the author of several books, his latest "alabama versus king: martin luther king, junior, and the criminals. -- the criminal trial that launched the civil rights movement." join us with your text and tweets for dan abrams live sunday at noon eastern. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we welcome julie rovner back to the washington journal. she is the chief correspondent for kaiser health news. i want to get your reaction to president biden's comments yesterday about lowering the cost of social security and medicare and strengthening those programs. what were your reactions to that? how did the president say he would achieve those efforts? guest: this is a victory lap for

the president. there were a lot of provisions in the inflation reduction act that congress passed in august that will bring costs down for people on medicare, particulate prescription drugs. there is a new cap in insulin and an overall cap on how much seniors on medicare can spend for their prescription drugs. yesterday the governor announced medicare out of proper -- out-of-pocket premium and deductibles and they are going down for the first time in more than a decade. that is for complicated reasons that has nothing to do with anything the administration did or did not do, at least not directly. that was also good news. the president decided to take a swipe at republicans who have proposed taking a more stringent budget look at medicare and social security if they win control of one or more houses of congress. host: those comments and that

news gives us a chance to look at the state of medicare and social security. how would you describe those programs? guest: they are a little bit different shape. medicare has problems because of the cost of health care, the continued increase in the cost of health care. the last couple of years have been bumpy because of the pandemic and hospital finances, because of people using less care and then more care. we are not sure what the trend is, although it seems to be going up. social security is a straight demographic problem, whether there will be enough younger workers to support all of the older baby boomers as they retire. host: in terms of demographics, that is how we are splitting up our calls. how we split them up in the first hour when we were talking about social security. if you're under 40, the number (202) 748-8000. if you are 40 to 65 it is (202) 748-8001.

if you're over 65 it is (202) 748-8002. this conversation with julie rovner until the end of our program at 10:00 eastern. the president taking a swipe at republicans in those remarks yesterday. what have republicans proposed when it comes to strengthening these programs? guest: senator rick scott has notoriously selected aperiodic subset of medicare and social security that would have to be renewed by congress if they were to continue. i should put out these programs are examined by congress every year. congress makes changes large and small. the programs continue unless congress decides to do something else. that would be a pretty dramatic change. there republicans in the house

that have suggested going even further. neither of these programs can continue indefinitely under their current financing and that is one of the big issues that over arches almost everything washington talks about when it talks about the budget. right now the medicare part a trust fund has about six years worth of solvency, at which point it does not go broke but it would start to pay out more than it is taking in. the social security trust fund is softened beyond that but i cover medicare more than social security. host: this idea of a five-year year sunset unless there is a renewal. are there other programs that happens with? what is that like compared to these yearly efforts to tweak these programs or monitor them? guest: most funding has to be renewed every year.

every five years are the user fees for the food and drug administration. congress is on the edge of letting them lapse and having to send out pink slips to thousands of prescription drug reviewers that everybody agrees should keep their jobs. they have come to a deal to renew this in the spending bill going through this week. it is at the very last minute. congress likes to think at the very last minute. host: can we go back to the inflation reduction act and what that legislation did when it came to medicare specifically and prescription drugs as you just mentioned? guest: it reformed part d, the prescription drug portion of medicare that was passed with republican votes in 2003. at the time there were limits of how much you would have to pay, but when you got to what was

called the out-of-pocket catastrophic caps you had to pay 5% of your drug costs indefinitely. at the time there were not that many drugs, 5% of which was going to cause people a huge problem. that is not true. now there drugs that cost 10 and 20 or tens of thousands a month. one of the things the inflation reduction act did is it capped at $2000 the amount seniors will have to pay for drugs in a single year. they cap insulin costs at $35 a month. democrats have wanted to cap insulin costs. that was blocked by the republicans and they're able to do that for complicated budget rule reasons. one of the biggest issues the president glossed over is that government will be able to negotiate drug prices.

some of the most expensive drugs. also drugmakers will be charged penalties if they increase the price of their drugs more than inflation. it is the beginnings of doing something about drug prices. host: kaiser health news, great website to go to to keep track of all of these issues. khn.org. can you briefly remind viewers what kaiser health news is in its relationship to the kaiser family foundation? guest: we are in editorially independent project of the kaiser health foundation. neither health news for the kaiser foundation are familiar with the kaiser permanente, we just shared a relative a long time ago. we are not a branch and we cannot help you with your hmo problems.

we do analysis and journalism about health policy. host: always helpful to do that. from the kaiser family foundation, their analysis of the inflation reduction act, one sends from a very long report. they say the cbo estimates the inflation reduction act medicare inflation-related rebates will increase medicaid spending by $15.7 billion over a 10 year period. explain what that means and put that in context? guest: medicare or medicaid? host: i apologize. guest: you will have to read it again. host: the cbo estimates the inflation reduction act medicare rebate will increase medicaid spending $15.7 billion over the next 10 years. guest: that has to do with the rebate rule. it is complicated. you probably do not want to know.

it has to do with congress getting budget credit for canceling something everybody agreed needed to be canceled. it was a trump administration proposal and it was basically who gets to achieve the savings from doing it. host: kaiser health news is khn.org. our phone calls we will put on screen. bonnie in new jersey is on the line for those over 65. good morning. caller: good morning. i was wondering, i thought social security and medicare was paid into from people who work, they take it out of their paychecks. isn't it illegal to give that money to people who do not pay into it? host: julie rovner? guest: you have to be eligible

to get social security and medicare. you can bind to medicare. there are still a number of people who do not pay social security taxes while they were working, there were number of state and local employees who did not pay federal social security. you can pay for medicare part a, which is the part you are eligible for if you have paid in for the requisite period of time. social security, there are many ways to become eligible for payments from social security. generally people who are working -- it goes to pay people collecting social security and medicare. part b, that is why their premiums paid for out of the general revenues and the premium part d, there is a subsidy but people pay their own premiums for that coverage.

host: down to the lone star state, chris, the line for those under 40 years old. caller: good morning to you. the question about demographics. it is interesting you segmented today's audience by demographics. as a millennial my first question is what should i expect from social security and health care being that millenials will soon be larger in population then baby boomers? how might that affect the system ? even though millenials will surpass baby boomers population wise they might not vote -- it is much different expecting them all to vote in those same

numbers. do you have any thoughts on the demographic split between the largest generation ever in the second largest generation and compare and contrast? host: let's take the question. guest: this is something demographers study pretty closely. i would point out baby boomers are not just large in terms of numbers but large in terms of span of years. i'm one of the younger baby boomers. i have not retired yet. there are baby boomers in their 80's. eventually we will all die off of old age and then the millenials will worry about who will work and support them. the demographics are a matter of making sure there are enough working people to support the people who are retired. there are a lot of millenials

worried whether medicare and social security will be there when they reach the age of eligibility. that is something official washington will have to cope with. there will be changes in how both programs are financed, particulate on the health care side but also on the social security side. it is going to be a continuing political issue forever, as long as these programs are around. host: i think you and i first met when we had kaiser health news on a weekly basis during the passage and implementation of the affordable care act. a lot of segments back then. the question on the aca from a viewer on twitter asking what is the status of the aca since the joe biden administration? guest: the status of the aca is it is as strong as it has ever been. something else in the inflation reduction act were to continue extra subsidies put in place in 2021 and the american rescue plan.

the first thing congress passed when biden became president that increased help for many people to buy their own insurance. those subsidies will continue through 2024. people at all ends of the spectrum, much bigger subsidies from people with lower incomes and some subsidies for people who were getting little help. the affordable been strengthened. it is something biden was proud of when he was vice president when it passed and summing his administration has worked hard to make it as best as he can. host: he called it a big deal, correct? guest: he did. those were not his exact words. host: jerry on the line for those between 40 and 65.

caller: do you have an update on what is going on with the vce's? last i have heard, i watched a good video on it on youtube. there is a deep dive on these dces? host: what is a dce? caller: direct contract entity. it is the privatization of traditional medicare. julie knows what it is because she was on here talking about it. host: julie knows everything. we will let her jump in. guest: i do not know with the latest is on this direct contracting. this was something on the quality side of medicare and also the value side of medicare. it was one of these experimental efforts to try to figure out if there are better ways to

incentivize and pay providers to provide better care but not provide too much care and not provide not enough. there have been a lot of complaints, particularly on the liberal side on these. we have yet to find the exact programs that work. one of the things the affordable care act is created the center for medicare and medicaid innovation in the department of health and human services to test out better ways to basically pay for, deliver, organize care. there are been a lot of experiments, many of which have not worked well. i see many people wringing their hands and that is what this was for. it was to try different models of providing health care and try to find the ones that work the best in terms of getting people to care they need when they needed with the best value for the taxpayers who are paying for it and the patient's who are

consuming it. we are not there yet but people are still looking. there is a lively academic community trying to figure out how to do this. host: ohio, art on the line for those over 65. caller: i would like to know what is so desirable -- i will be 85 makes year. private medicare [indiscernible] now i get advertising three times a week in the mail. open enrollment did not start. how much money on the insurance companies making? where does the set up premium that taxpayers pay insurance companies? what happens? guest: you are talking about medicare -- host: you are

talking about medicare advantage? caller: what is so desirable about it? guest: the shorty ensure is the insurance companies the short answer is -- short answer is insurance companies are making a lot off of medicare. medicare was begun because insurers do not want to cover seniors because they were too expensive. the 1980's congress allowed on an experimental basis private insurance companies to offer managed-care, hmos, and those types of plans within medicare. what this plan said is we can do this more cheaply so we can make a profit if we only take 95% of what you would have paid. that was basically the law for a while and it got a little bit more popular and there were some extra benefits, and basically the insurance company said if you pay us a little bit more we could give extra benefits to

some of these medicare beneficiaries. most medicare beneficiaries, if they are not in a medicare advantage plan end up buying private supplemental insurance that helps them pay their premiums -- their deductibles and out-of-pocket copayments they are required. obviously part d, the drug is a separate portion of this. in 2003 when the republican congress passed the medicare drug bill, it included big increases in how much the medicare advantage plans were being paid. the democrats scale that back a little bit in the affordable care act, but the insurance companies can still make a lot of money. it is attractive to beneficiaries they put they get extra benefits medicare does not cover, particularly things like dental coverage and eyeglasses and hearing aids. things that can be very expensive are very much needed by an older population and are not covered by traditional medicare. the catch is if you go into

medicare advantage, you cannot see any doctor or go to any hospital. you have to stay within your insurance network. that is the trade-off people are making. now almost half of medicare beneficiaries are making that trade-off and going into these medicare advantage plans and we are still trying to see how that plays out. that explains why there is so much advertising. we are about to get to -- medicare is open enrollment starts october 15 and runs through december 7. that is standard dates. that is when if you're in a private plan you can join one or change one. host: a scenario from alan in west virginia. why do someone who is no longer working have to sign up for and pay premiums for medicare at age 65 or face financial penalties later when they do sign up even

if they have insurance available to them through a former employer? guest: the rules there are very complicated. this is only part b. part a comes automatically based on what you paid in when you are working. that is the part you paid for. that covers hospital and some nursing home care. part b is not paid for by the trust fund, it is paid for by general revenues and your premiums. what they worry about is people wait until they are 70 or 75. there will not be enough money to support the program. when you are first eligible for part b is when you need to buy in. when you are not retired, my retirement age is not 65. i am in the first group of people who have to wait to become eligible. i will not retire until later than 65. if i'm still working and still getting employer insurance i did

not have to sign up for part b. my mother retired at age 67. when she turned 65 she signed up for part a but she did not sign up for part b until she formally retired and then she joined. there are a lot of complicated rules. you have to be careful because as the callers suggests, there is a penalty and if you pay it it is an additional premium that you pay for the entire time you remain in medicare part b. there is the same penalty for part d. host: just about five minutes left in our program for viewers. stick around on c-span. we will be taking you to the senate for a foreign relations committee russian sanctions. just about five minutes until then. we will continue with your phone calls. bedford, texas, line for those between 40 and 65. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question about the

mississippi water crisis. i was born and raised in mississippi that i was born in 1954. they said they are going to give money to mississippi for the water crisis. is it going to fall into the same hands? if that happens -- host: what i can tell you is $20 million has been added to address the water crisis in mississippi. that is what the senate will have to vote on as part of a larger package that will push the government funding deadline until mid-december. the house will also have to pass that as well.

that is what is working its way through congress. anything to add on this topic? guest: that is as much as i know that there is $20 million. he is the governor, one presumes he will have some say on how the money gets spent but there'll be some federal oversight to ensure it is spent for its intended purpose since we have had some problems in mississippi along those lines. host: grand junction, colorado, the line for those over 65. caller: i am on medicare and it is a wonderful plan but i think the seniors get quite a break on it. it costs to be less than $300 a month and my deductible is outrageously low. my question is i know taxpayers pick up 75% of the cost of part b. is that always going to be available in this part a the one that is going bankrupt?

would it save something if you increase the deductible on part b from $226 to may $500? i apologize to my college students when i went on medicare because i know they were going to be picking up the mast -- the vast majority of what is getting paid for it. thank you for your time. guest: congress and whoever is president will have to decide what the shares will be. the caller has stated correctly that three quarters of the cost of part b is picked up by taxpayers, the other comes in premiums. premiums are going down for the first time in many years. we never did get to that because congress -- the food and drug administration had tentatively approved drugs, what was hoped to be a blockbuster drug for alzheimer's disease and medicare was worried it would get such widespread use and it was so

expensive that they preemptively raise the premiums. it turned out that drug probably does not work as well as hoped and would not be as widely available. the drugmaker cut the price in half. there was an excess of premiums that came in last year and that is the main reason premiums are going down next year. host: i think we have time for one more call. everett of grand junction, colorado. line for those over 65. caller: i will try to make this quick. social security used to send out a document that gave your estimated retirement under social security. it also says it is very important to remember that social security was never intended to of income when you retire. social security can't do it all. vestments, pensions, they list this on the document.

i am not sure, we haven't got this type of document in years. i haven't received one in years. so what do you think about that? they are supposed to send it out every year. i have gotten mine every year but that is a requirement. something congress put in i think in the 1980's or 1990's to make sure people know private companies are moving away from their pension plans to 401k to do retirement. it was a way to remind people that don't plan to live on just so social security because it is probably not going to be enough. you are supposed to get one of those every year.

that is going to do it for us on "washington journal" this morning. getting ready to get underway stick around here on c-span. we will see you back on the "washington journal" tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4 a.m. specific.

>> state department officials are sent to testify. officials appearing before the senate foreign relations committee. live coverage here on c-span.