♪ host: this is "the washington journal," for october 6. $31.1 trillion mark has been reached for the debt. compounded over several administrations, some of it coming from the pandemic. part of the figure is constant inflation and rising interest rates. then we ask you to share your

level of concern that you have about the nation's debt. (202) 748-8001 -- let us know your thoughts this morning, (202) 748-8001 for republicans. democrats, (202) 748-8000. all others, (202) 748-8002. if you want to let us know about -- text us about the compounded debt figure, (202) 748-8003. "the miami herald" breaking down the figure yesterday when it comes to the debt. they write that the national debt surpassed the figure for the first time on october 3 according to newly released treasury department data. the national debt, including the debt held by public and

intergovernmental holdings has been a feature on the ledger of america since the founding of the nation, according to the treasury department and the national debt has increased in recent decades over domestic crises school measures can factor in according to the treasury department. when it comes to taking a look at the figure and how it has grown by administration, it was at the start of the obama administration that the national debt grew $11 trillion. when president trump took office in 2017 the figure took up -- went up 20 trillion dollars and at the start of the biden administration that figure inflated to $28 million.

so that is how it figures when it comes to taking a look at it through the eyes of the administration. going to the treasury department itself, that explains what national debt is and shows you how it has held. it's the amount loaned to govern over the accrued expenses in any time and in a fiscal year we might spend money for roadways or federal income tax, the budget deficit results. selling marketable securities like bonds, bills, notes that purchasing securities. that is from the treasury department giving their own explanation of what national debt is.

$31 trillion is the figure. if you want to respond to that figure or your level of concern about the amount of debt that we have, perhaps you have a figure on how we got to this point, you can call us and let us know. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for, and independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us your thoughts, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. it was on the floor of the house last week over a debate, texas republican ship rourke talking about concerns he and other republicans have over the national debt. [video clip] >> when i started running for office it was $21 trillion. five years later, our national debt is $31 trillion. just think for a minute, we

never know how big that number is. nobody understands. 31 trillion dollars. let me just tell you this. if you set out to count to 31 trillion, set all right, let's go. one mississippi, to mississippi. it would take you almost a million years, do the math, one million years to get to 31 trillion. that is absurd. we are spending money we don't have. this body believes itself to be the united states house of free stuff. we just write blank checks. we dole it out. spending money we don't have. obliterating our future for our children. obliterating the future security

of the united states. for what? so my colleagues on the others of the aisle can walk outside and give a fancy speech about free stuff they are doling out. with all due respect my side can say that i wrote a bunch of checks to fund defense, so i have to vote for another big spending bill. host: that was an -- that was one legislator from last week. some of you responding on our facebook spate -- facebook page this morning, saying that personally for him, no, but that our grandkids and great grandkids better be. james jeffrey says the real question is is there anything we can do about it. the people voted the clowns into office. steve lumbar dough from facebook saying that when the interest is more than what we spend on the

security of the nation, there is a problem. other reactions as well. we will show you that this morning. we will continue to take your calls in a moment. to further elaborate on this $31 trillion debt figure. the chair and ceo of the peter g peterson foundation, thank you for joining us. can you explain the foundation and what to do? >> our mission is to raise awareness and accelerate action on the long-term debt problem. this $31 trillion problem growing year after year is what we have been focused on addressing for 12 years now. host: let's start with that. breakdown the figure, what does it mean for not only the debt but what we have to do to make payments on it and what we can do to possibly reduce the figure. guest: this has been a problem

in the making for a long time. over the last couple of decades we have engaged in a number of policy reforms that have accelerated this trajectory of our debt. , entering the social security situation is a double whammy, they stop working, start paying in, start collecting social security. each person that retires, that's 10,000 every single day right now, starts to accelerate the trajectory of spending. this is something we have known about for a long time and it has been neglected. we didn't reach this mark and that we are ok. it's continuing to accelerate. host: looking at the figures, is

it an easy thing to say that the blame or the concern belongs to one administration over another or can you look back over several administrations to see how we got to this? guest: i think there has been a lot of irresponsibility and neglect on both sides. many rivers have fueled the debt. it's unreasonable to point to any one action. host: as far as recent days, how much did pandemic spending contribute to it? guest: that was a big part of it, a little over $6 trillion. that was obviously a global pandemic, health situation and economic crisis and that's part of the reason you don't want to have so much that. that may happen again and you may enter a time where there is a war, another pandemic or a big economic situation globally where you want resources to help people through that and that is what we did in the pandemic. we supported a lot of that activity because it was a crisis

. but that is another reminder of why we should be prepared and be in good financial shape. host: when it comes to the interest on the debt, can you tell us how that works? guest: a lot of your viewers understand, when you have some debt, there is an interest rate attached to it. credit card debt is usually double digits, pretty high. one of the reasons we are getting more attention on the situation is rising interest rates. all of that debt has interest on it and the government has to pay the interest and there are real outflows. right now it's $1 billion a day and growing. this will soon be our fastest growing government program with interest and it doesn't do anything for the disadvantaged, for our kids, or for the military. for all of the important things we have to do. this is really harming our ability to do other things. host: every time we hear a

debate about raising interests and they make that decision, it directly affects how much debt we hold? guest: yes it's a tough situation. the federal reserve is doing what it needs to do to address rapid inflation, harming people and their ability to pay for things on a daily basis. to have negative effects on lots of things around the country, the federal government being one of the huge borrowers. host: who holds the nation's debt? guest: lots of different organizations around the world. as we try to lead the world in ukraine and in other places in the world that are dangerous, the question is, does that

affect our leadership role? admiral rob -- admiral mullen said national debt is the single greatest threat to national security. that was a military person saying that. it tells you something about how the debt impacts our economy and our ability to save around the world. host: who is top of the list? guest: china is a big force in that. it changes here and there but china has a huge swath of treasuries. it's a complex and important relationship for us and i would like the united sates to be in the strongest possible position when dealing with china or other countries around the world. host: do you see any role for congress or any interest in congress in aggressively track -- tackling this issue? guest: absolutely. we are dealing with a lot of big problems.

pandemics. wars around the world. this one is not hard. we are in charge of this. we control it 100%. our federal government has a congress and white house they could come together and solve this in many different ways. think tanks across the political spectrum, there are many solutions related to how we do it and how we deal with spending. various combinations of that. trajectory right away addresses the problem. not easy from a political standpoint. solutions people don't want to hear about. when they hear about the 31 trillion they should become more cognizant of the dangers of this with a little bit of revenue and spending cuts, that might be the better path for all of us. host: this is michael peterson joining us, serving as the chair and ceo thank you guest: for

your time. thank you very much. host: we will ask you, based on what you heard from him, your level of concern over the $31 trillion debt? republicans, (202) 748-8000 --(202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. starting on the independent line. steve, go ahead. caller: it's very troubling. you can't keep charging uncle sam's credit card. an staff credit card with high interest rates. what mr. peterson failed to mention is that china owns 11 trillion in u.s. treasuries. number two is japan. another 11 trillion. at the united cay, should've said, u.k., the united kingdom. it's a big problem.

$1 billion a day is an egregious dereliction of duty. my concern is there is no one on both sides of the aisle that wants to shut off the spigot on the spending. host: where would you start cutting spending if you had the ability to start -- to talk to legislators about that kind of thing? guest: stop spending money to ukraine. he spent 600 billion this week. we cannot take care of our own and we will be sending it over there and my heart especially goes out to those people in florida, who need a lot of help and aid. host: next we hear from john and homer ville, florida. john, hello. guest: every responsible citizen

-- caller: every responsible citizen who is a taxpayer has to be insanely concerned about the national debt in the interest that we pay on it. avenue -- every revenue raising measure of the constitution must originate in the house of representatives. so how are you going to get the house of representatives to raise the revenue from the taxpayers in this country? to pay for the national debt and the interest we pay thereon. that's a question i have no answer for. but perhaps somebody smarter than me does. host: would you support a tax

increase or raise revenue to pay that? caller: if it could be delineated for that specific person -- purpose. take a social security trust bond. a trust bond is the key word there. we would not have the social security problem that we have today the federal government not the congress not attempt to raise the social security trust fund for general revenue purposes. if i had a trust fund and i used it for purposes that were not delineated for it to be used, i would probably be in jail. host: john in georgia, giving us

his thoughts. horace, arkansas. hello. caller: i want to point out that the bill -- are you hearing me? host: you're on, go ahead. caller: i'm not seeing the words come up. 2017, remember, entirely by the republicans, they gave a free tax cut to the wealthy and the corporations, ok? that amount is what i'm reading about, $400 billion per quarter loss of tax revenue and most of those numbers are over 10 years. think about that over 10 years, that's a couple of trillion right there.

that's a hiring to be spread over 10 years and they have stated, i have read the officials in the irs stated that's about $1 trillion out there they could collect legally . you know? they just don't have the manpower to go through it. and of course, the republicans, i've seen them stand up there and say they are there to cut taxes. well when you are having a pandemic that costs $34 trillion and try to prevent a war and aid people like ukraine, spending god knows how much, there are things you have to do that have to be paid for and republicans never vote for an increase to cover the costs. there you go. host: that was horace in

arkansas the american rescue plan, the inflation reduction act, two of the largest pieces of legislation signed into law under the biden administration and additionally the president signed and agree -- an order canceling federal student loans, something that the cbo estimates will costs $400 billion. factor that in if you wish, talking about the administration and the actions they took as far as the debt reaching $31 trillion plus. the line is on your screen but you can also reach us through texting and social media. stephen saying that in order to fix the debt we have to fix the tax code to taken more than we spend. adding that we cannot keep expecting prosperity. viewers saying i'm concerned about the level of corruption creating the bottomless pit we call national debt and the worst part is how we condone it at the polls and how the ones who

created the debt are rewarded instead of punished. another viewer says it's more on interest and defense than any other category of spending. we are essentially borrowing just to cover interest payments. factor all of that into your comments if you wish. send us social media and texts on this. independent line, derek. caller: yeah what i would like to say is numbers. when jimmy carter was involved it was $490 billion. when reagan left it was 6 trillion. we know that jimmy carter gave us a surplus adding 8 trillion. trump added a trillion. if you added up republicans have put 20 some of that 31 trillion on the debt.

the tax cuts and the drop in spending that you. deficits don't matter. that's what dick cheney said. it only matters when death -- republicans are in office. -- when democrats are in office. it's easy to see who is adding to the debt. host: factoring in programs like the american rescue plan as well? caller: trump did it. host: those were passed under the biden administration. caller: just to trillion dollars. trump added almost 10 trillion in four years, pedro. we had a bank bailout from the bush and from the reagan and under trump. bankrupting this country. host: mark is next, new hampshire, republican line.

caller: looking at history, looking at the numbers, the first 43 presidents from george washington to george w. bush, those men into hundred years of history had $10 trillion in debt. when barack obama became president and joe biden was his vice president, 2009 to 2017 in eight years they doubled it to $20 trillion. you can look it up. those are the numbers. all i can say to the listeners and watchers out there is you've got to be real careful who you vote for. it might not affect us that right away but a few years down the line like right now access and host: does the trump administration share in the blame? caller: they all do. when you think of obama and biden they doubled it. 10 trillion to 20 trillion, it's a big problem considering the

first 43 guys didn't do that in 10 years and they doubled it. watch out who you vote for. it has an effect on all of us and if it's not right away it's down the line. please be careful when you vote this time and in two years. because where we are at right now is not working out for any of us. host: public debt $11 trillion at the start of the obama administration. the crew to $20 trillion when president trump took over and inflated it to 28 trillion. president biden talked about one of the efforts of the administration, deficit reduction during a presentation of the inflation reduction act last week. [video clip] closing the deficit at the same time. we reduced it my first year.

$350 billion. some student loan forgiveness, the costs of these things, still on track to reduce deficit this year by more than one trillion. the inflation reduction act will reduce it another 300 alien over the next decade. possible because medicare will finally be able to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. host: democrats line in south carolina hello. caller: i have the answer everybody's wanting. they say deficit like a credit card for the country. just raise the minimum payment, you're never going to pay it off . people on the right always want to make a greater code rate

again and take it back to the 50's. take the taxes back to the 50's. the top effective tax rate was like 75%. we could pay the deficit off in short order if we would just put the taxes back like they were when the deficit wasn't that big a deal. you know? don't want to pay nothing on the deficit? it's going to get huge. nobody is going to stop spending when you have a minimum payment. just like your credit card, you will never get it paid off. the only ones i think trying to do that are the democrats. that's why i identified the democrat. they are the ones that have logical thinking about -- not this magical thinking that the republicans have. thank you, pedro. host: laura, independent line, good morning. caller: how are you, pedro? host: fine, thank you. caller: i couldn't help but

laughed, this whole duopoly of a two-party system pitting people against each other. how do you know when a politician is lying? lips are moving. both parties are corrupt and they line their own pockets, not doing what's in the best interest of america. they take an oath to uphold the constitution but they don't do that. the reality is all we need to do is hold the federal government has the same standard that we hold the states. you have to have a balanced budget. you cannot spend more than you take in. when you hold these people accountableat's congress. right now who's in office? the administration, biden, we need to stop having money to foreign countries, take care of our own first. and the inflation reduction act? what a joke. that isn't going to reduce inflation. it's a lie. it's a green agenda.

it is for saving the climate, which is so comical because for a decade global warming, global warming. then they realize the planet was getting cooler so what did they do, they changed the narrative. climate change, climate change. listen, the climate has been changing forever. since the earth came into existence and it will continue to change. it's the biggest farce being perpetrated on the american people i have ever seen. how about fair tax? how about implement the bill proposed by 2012 john lender and do fair tax. why pay more if you are more productive and work harder? host: you heard from the peterson foundation variations on the theme of this problem,

$31 trillion figure breaking it down per person, identifying $93,000 is how they break it down. it's gas, $31 trillion. national debt, who's responsible in your opinion and how to fix the figure. you can call in over the next half-hour. republicans, (202) 748-8000 -- (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independence, (202) 748-8002. caller: milton friedman said that the cause of inflation is government printing money. nobel prize-winning economist. i read articles, i think in usa today saying it increased by $7 trillion under trump but you have got to consider who control

the purse strings. the democrats. this was under the pandemic. 80% of the media pushing for shutdowns, which hodgkins says was unnecessary and did more harm than good. all the shutdowns that we were pushing, all of the democratics rending and purse strings being controlled by the democratic party under trump, that's largely responsible for the debt under trump. when obama and biden took office in 2009 i read the debt was 10.5 trillion and went to nearly 19.5 trillion. so the debt increased under obama, biden, close to $9 trillion. considering the democrats controlled the purse strings under trump the last two years, don't you guys remember the simpson bowles commission and the fight for years over just a

measly little cuts, 4%, 5% on student cuts? fighting the democrats over trying to reduce the out-of-control spending? you don't remember that? the canadians debt to gdp reached about 70% 20 years ago. they considered that an emergency and they all came together. this is a left of center country and they all came together to reduce spending by an average of 15% across the board at every agency. host: ok, let caller: i'm a little bit disillusioned by the democrats. they said they were going to have a deficit reduction. biden reduced it? how did it get over 30 $1 trillion? it's got to be a lie. host: if you look at deficit,

i'm no expert, that's the shortfall between how much you take in and how much it is a total accumulation of that. again no expert but as far as the $31 trillion being given back to the debt is not necessarily the deficit. caller: that doesn't make any sense. about the one hundredths of one degree it's been reduced, that's what california does for the next 100 years. when president obama left, he left the pp he deleted, that's why president trump had to replace it. he upped the strategic oil receive that joe cash reserve that joe biden depleted now with low-cost replace that. we should think about that when we talk about the deficit. it's host: all right, smarter

people than me have been on this program to talk about debt and deficit issues and you can find that collective wisdom on our website, c-span.org. you will see everything we have taken in on this topic if you are interested in it. we had of you are talking about the simpson bowles commission taking over. that's available on the website as well. again, all of that is available to you at c-span.org. darrell is in georgia -- sorry, michigan. independent line. good morning, darrell. caller: i would like to put up a little bit. what we have to do is work on this over a hundred years. that's how long it will take. the national debt, could be 310 trillion.

start with that as the first reduction off our revenues. 100 years. then we would pay off the entire debt. until it's gone. otherwise it's a fantasy that the national debt can ever get handled. we have to make the cuts necessary for our great-grandchildren. it's a shame but that is what we have done to ourselves. host: finish your thought caller: we could call it the double jubilee tax or something like that. but we have to start paying off the national that. we can't keep spending more and more and more, we know. unless we do it. it will benefit 1000 ways.

host: one of the things the biden administration is advocating for is the congressional budget office saying it could cause up to $4 billion for taxpayers. the next step of that plan, saying the application will be short and will not work where the borrowers to upload documents or give their federal identification number. adding that it's not clear how the administration will verify eligibility, but the white house said they would release details and a couple of weeks in that the administration had previously said the application would be released in early october but that the timing is up in the air given the block forgiveness plan and in one case federal judges had not decided whether to impose the junction -- the injunctions that were set in that they wouldn't discharge

any debt before october 17 as the judge made the decision. want to read more of that this morning in "the washington post? democratic line on the $31 trillion national debt, hello. caller: i would like somebody to explain to me when they always bring up senior citizens being the ones who have retired and not paid anything into the government for taking in the social security they work for. up how you don't know what you are doing, how you don't know the year i retire and the conditions around taking money out of the social security fund and paying other things. you need to leave it alone because once you become a senior citizen and you have a fixed

income and prices are raised, how are we supposed to live? these are the people who don't pay taxes at all. the rich don't pay taxes at all that then you want to cut social security to pay for what you pay for some part of government? leave the social security alone. host: bridgewater, new jersey, this is john. caller: good morning, pedro. how are you? host: well, thanks. caller: i'm not sure about the deficit. i'm a republican. i'm in my 70's. a lot of the spending has been good. you know, we had covid, we had to deal with people who were almost out of work. we had to deal with certainly the 2008 financial crisis where they bailed out the banks. i think it was a good thing. which is contrary to maybe

republican thinking writ large. but there are times when the government has to spend money and frankly china gets mad at us and once repayment, will sell them the grand canyon, you know? we have a lot of property in america. it's worth a lot of money. it's not on the books. it's a tough question. it's more political, but in reality the government should have the flexibility at the right time with wisdom to spend money when it's important. host: the figure itself, does it can turn you that it keeps growing as it has been over several administrations? caller: i presume it's now over

100. i'm not sure with the gdp is but i guess it's up around 29 or 30. again, it's tough because when you are living, you know, you want to be healthy. we've got hurricanes coming in. we've got the people that need to be bailed out. the good thing is the federal government outsides can actually do this without, without a strong government, people would just, you know, like i go back to the depression. the big thing after that was the fbi see and the deposit insurance. you know, -- fbi c -- fd ic. now we have nuclear insurance. i was in the insurance business for many years. we had the after the 9/11 attacks, we form day, sorry, to

take care of those things in case there was a terrorist attack. host: sure, sure. caller: these are good things. ok? how do you manage it, how do you deal with it? you can quibble about what's important and what isn't. but like i say, until anyone calls it in, why not use it? i'm using my credit cards? my assets. if they look at it versus my net worth, if there's a balance there the american net worth is off the books there. host: that was johnny new jersey . darren. caller: thanks for letting me on. i appreciated him that you take, appreciate what you do there,

you guys are great. i'd like to hear some insight on this. when it comes to debt there's high quality has low quality debt determined by the interest rates. unfortunately, ukraine is an investment. they will be in debt to the u.s. for a long time. the u.k. just paid off their debt from world war ii. they are being shuffled between sovereigns around the world on a regular basis. interesting to note the analysis to understand the trend in which countries have been preyed on by high interest rate debt. so my first real question is, you know, what's the quality of the u.s. debt compared to the rest of the world. also kind of wondering whether there is any analysis -- i know that we owe a lot to china and japan. i'm wondering about the debt that we owe to the imf. i'm not sure that that is

something that we track that much. that's my only question. two quick comments, though, driven by the land tax, that's purely about taxing property owners. the people who own the land. that would get rid of slumlords. it's all just to keep people away from the fact that there is only one non-diminishing asset in the world and that's land. it's the only thing we should be taxing and driving receipts on. one last thing, recommendation for c-span, i was watching intelligence squared where they have votes for and after in the determine whether the people have been swayed by the opinions based on the votes and who has voted. i don't know if c-span could build something like that with access to their consumers are

not, just an idea. host: good idea. it may not perfectly fit in but we do have our call in programs where we let people comment on a lot of different topics and see have they been swayed by certain things in the policies that they have seen in the years they are watching this network and we appreciate those of you watching and anticipating this, especially with other callers calling in. like mike, long island, democratic line. caller: i don't know if i can follow those last two callers, they were very good. we have had two, two major crises in the last several years. the financial crisis and the covid one. so of course it's going to be, you know, increased spending. the guys who are spouting out statistics about obama and biden over eight years, when obama

left, it was going down. that was going out of the crisis itself again for unemployment, i forget what it was. you know, shopping centers being shuttered. trump said that he was going to when he was campaigning he race it in a year. year -- corporations getting away without paying anything. you can decrease spending, the pentagon, you don't know how much you have given to the pentagon, we don't keep a record of it. this, biden's inflation reduction act will reduce inflation over time. it's a 10 year plan, ok?

it's over time. just you know, raise taxes 3% on the filthy rich. start there. host: when it comes to costs and deficit costs, the american rescue plan they estimate, the 2022 office at 25 billion with the bipartisan infrastructure loft set 370 billion. to the point of the caller when it comes to the inflation reduction act, -240 billion is expected there. student debt relief repayment cancellation, you heard the cbo figure, center for responsible federal government capped regardless of costs. the case on the senate floor was elizabeth warren of massachusetts. here are some of her comments on

student debt relief. [video clip] >> with more breaks for the rich and powerful, republicans are on board. we are trying to help out working people. congressional republicans take to their fainting couches and claim to be so worried about the national debt. student loan cancellation is very popular in america. concluding with the majority of people who have no student loan debt. that is because there is scarcely a working person anywhere in america today who does not know someone who is choking on student loan debt. republicans, evidently the republicans in congress, live-in bubbles that prevent them from meeting any of the millions of people out there who busted their tails, who worked multiple jobs, who made their payments and who still watch their get

loads continued to climb. host: perry is next in indianapolis, maryland. -- annapolis, maryland. caller: i've done some research on this and in 1982 the fact is republicans have been cutting taxes for years. after the war, eisenhower had a tax of 91% to pay for the costs of the war. we could do the same thing by raising taxes on the people with money. but anyway in 1988, president reagan cut the top income tax rate for the wealthiest from 70 to 50%. in his second term the top or a was again cut. first to 38.5 then again to 28%. in the three years following the

reagan -- president trump's 217 -- 2017 tax cut, dozens of large corporations paid no tax whatsoever. they paid a negative rate in dollars, so the republicans have no interest at all. their only interest is cutting taxes for the upper-middle-class in the rich. and the billionaires that were just mentioned. and i'm also against the situation with a tax cut for -- for eliminating the student loans, cutting the student loans. because you know that will costs $400 million. so we ought to start dealing with the figures. the tax was for 91% in an emergency down to what, what,

what reagan and trump did. host: we got you there, perry. walter in butler, indiana, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm 66 and looking back at life, seeing the things that people produce the world and its turned comical. happening now, the band members on the titanic are asking the people on the ships the music they want to play. it's done, it's toast. all we can do is slow the complete decline of our country as we know it today. nothing in this world is free. both sides are guilty of it. if you didn't have a balanced budget amendment and you didn't only spend what you could afford , it's done. it's all over.

where it started was the minds -- mindset when we went out the gold standard of telling people that you could get something for free. it's a disease and peoples feel that there is something for free and that they are entitled to it. both sides, they are all best friends anyway, they put on a show and they get together and they say how do we stay in power? well republicans talk to the big rich people and the democrats talk to the poor people and they go back to their beautiful mansions and it's done . so i just sit with a smirk on my face, glad i'm old, my kids are old enough. it's done, it's over, it's all i got. host: well, we will go to derek in hollywood, florida, democratic line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i see what you're talking about, the $31 trillion spent in the united states. here the governor just spent $650,000 transporting migrants

to martha's vineyard. no one is concerned about that money that the governor put out? if the governor can fire people from the school board and police chiefs and so forth, who is entitled to fire the governor? host: back to the $31 trillion figure we are talking about, what do you think of this? caller: that's just ridiculous. it's right now they are helping more other folks then americans. we are looking at this gasoline hike here in the state of florida because of what happened yesterday concerning oil, where they were going to slash the oil reduction. that's crazy. one thing, help out the truck

drivers. then help the farmers. food, coming from overseas. costa rica, guatemala, panama. instead of the american farmer. that's all i have to say about it. it's host: to derek's point there in florida, they made that decision on foil cuts that was reflected in the headlines of "the new york times" this morning particularly on how it will reflect on oil prices. that decision came out yesterday from the opec plus meeting. randy is in illinois, independent line, hello. caller: pedro, everyone is talking on your program, you had that gentleman from the kherson company talking about all these

companies -- countries we owe money too. is there any, any information from c-span where they could get it or anything about, does any countries over the united states money? i'd like to find out if they do. or if any other countries owe us money instead of we owing them money. it's all we talk about is who we owe money too. japan, china. does any countries owe us money? and the one thing i would like to add is the clock that sticking. they ought to unplug that thing, it's a waste of energy. that's all it's doing. it's never going to be zero. host: the national debt lock? caller: it's a waste of energy, pedro. it's never going to reach zero. united airlines claimed bankruptcy and they are back as the number one airline in the world again. why can't the government just

say hey, we claimed bankruptcy? you know? just turn it all the way down to zero. you know? tell all the countries we are bankrupt. host: remi is next in maryland on the republican line. caller: glad to see c-span is up and running on these topics and i will have to piggyback on walter there. we have titanium politicians with $831 trillion national debt that was created in the cheney bush administration and the people that really benefited from it were the paymasters. they were going out into iran, all of these i guess military spending budgets had run up to $31 trillion and are in a point now of being imploding as a nation.

it just comes down to the understudies that are imploding with $31 trillion that keeps getting added every time we are about to run out of money. let's get more money and put it into the national debt. until we take a step back paymasters, there will be a change around the planet and we have to close these down. we have to come home and rebuild this country. if we are going into debt or getting rid of debt, we need to stop spending the money where the debt is coming from. that's my comment and i will just pass it on from there. host: in the debate over the short term extension that the public and congressman jodey arrington talked about last week, there were concerns over it. here are the comments. [video clip]

>> we are in a real, in real, in a real bad spot. it's going to take courage from everybody, regardless of party, to find a way not only to start paying for things to expense our cuts and in the case of democratic colleagues raising revenue. we are way beyond just being able to offset or even grow the economy to get out of this debt hole. we will have to take extraordinary action and it will require extraordinary courage and frankly i haven't seen that on either side. but we have a tremendous opportunity i think in the future as republicans look to take over the house as the majority party and the get to demonstrate to the american people leadership on this issue. we have seen $5 trillion in new spending under this

administration over the last few years. $5 trillion. i hope and pray that my party will, will, will live up to the confidence and trust that the american people will put into us to steward this great nation of ours. leading and taking on the great challenge of the 21st century, this national debt. host: chuck caller: my thoughts on the matter -- host: chuck, appalachia, low. caller: i'm not worried about it. the public debt shall not be questioned according to the constitution.

there is a hint as to the y in the writings of benjamin franklin, when he was in paris other dignitaries would ask him how the united states was able to wage war without money to pay soldiers and it was because during that time the only way you could wage war was if you have money. franklin responded that they simply printed more money and paid the soldiers with it and told the merchants they would honor it. federal funds to the states, grants, those kinds of things are nothing more than the government printing more money and paying people with it with the promise to honor it. the politicians who use the national debt as a platform are in violation of the constitution . you know? that's my two cents. host: richard, boston, massachusetts. last call. hello, you are on. caller: yeah, this is rich, boston, mass.

the republican party on the debt, they are the traitor party now, they are the enemy, most of them are going to go to prison. like trump in jail. traders now. -- trey tore -- traitors now. reagan, hoover, 12% -- 12% interest. trump destroyed america, the debt went up. bush destroyed how many billions in the savings-and-loan? republicans deregulated the bank and finances cost 9 trillion to pay those gms. the republicans of always been about the rich.

look at the clintons, when he balance the budget. he balance the budget, look at biden, 1.5 trillion, give him 3, 6 years it will be below 20. the companies, you make an easy billion a year. host: ok, that was richard in boston, massachusetts finishing the segment off. thank you for all to spinning. coming up we will have a look at how the country is recovering from pandemic job losses. whether those jobs are growing, what sectors they are going in. a conversation with scott greenberger from pew charitable trust. coming up next helena bottemiller evich on food insecurity in the united states and what the white house place to do about it. that conversation coming up on the washington journal. ♪

>> but tv, every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at noon eastern, south carolina republican senator tim scott talks about his book america, a redemption story. on his life, political career in the american future. on afterwards, missouri senator discusses her life in efficacy work. watch but tv every sunday on c-span2. find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at but tv.org. -- but tv.org. >> the u.s. supreme court

returns this week for the full term. the new term begins with the addition of new justice ketanji brown jackson and follows a year of decisions that has significant policy decisions. including oral arguments, at c-span/supreme court. for a look back at some of the most important supreme court rulings, follow the podcast with the people, places involved in some of the most significant supreme court cases in our history. the podcast is available on the free c-span app. american history tv, saturdays on c-span2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. i 12:30, on the presidency, mark halbert, talks about george

washington's involvement with freemasonry and the influence on his life and work from his book, a deserving brother. at 4:45, cast members of the miniseries band of brothers reflect on the historical and cultural significance of the show two decades after it aired. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. "washington journal," continues. host: scott greenberger this is scott greenberger with the pew charitable trust. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you for having me. host: first about the trust itself in the stateline project. guest: the pew charitable trust is a nonprofit with a huge presence in washington and

philadelphia. it deals with pressing issues of the day and a little bit of advocacy. many of your viewers are familiar with the pew recharge center -- pew research center which does public opinion research. host: one of the thing the stateline section has been taking a look at his job loss and at least job recovery due to the pandemic. guest: there was a very dramatic dip in employment at the beginning of the pandemic, a lot of jobs were lost. as things shut down, we have been paying attention to how the economy has been coming back. in fact, in july, the united states as a whole regained the 25 million jobs that were lost during the depths of the pandemic. what we have found what we focus on in the story is that 31 states plus the addition of the

district of columbia have not regained all of the jobs. the recovery has been uneven across the country. host: is there a common denominator with the stay set of or jobs? guest: a lot of the states have been gaining a population. the u.s. population has been shifting south and west. we see a lot of those states in the south and the west doing better in terms of jobs, job recovery. host: a lot of the states, if you go to the website, tell the story of texas. they have gained about half million jobs. tell the story there. guest: texas falls into the category of states that is growing in population very quickly and therefore partly as a result of that, they have recovered very quickly. recover jobs that they lost during the pandemic much more quickly than other states. texas has now had more than 600,000 more jobs than it did

before the pandemic. host: is it because of the economy in texas? is it because of the texas government itself? guest: the texas governor would say with the low tax, low regulation atmosphere. as i said, people are moving to texas and have been moving to texas. it might have to do with the weather. i was in austin last weekend, it's a great place to be. unclear what the direct connection is between policy choices and the recovery of these jobs. texas stands out as a state the recovers quickly. host: how much is it moving from one state to another because of the search for work? guest: i think that is part of it, the last time i was on the show i spoke about remote work. a certain amount of people have been able to move away from where their jobs are and work

virtually and that might be a factor here as well. one of the things we note in our story is that in new york, it stands out as a state that has lost the most jobs or deepest in the hole compared to where it was pre-pandemic. part of that might be the fact that fewer people are commuting to new york city. you have people in connecticut, new jersey, a lot of the jobs in new york city that relied on those commuters have not come back. new york put out a budget report recently which predicted that those jobs may not come back until 2026. new york might not reach pre-pandemic levels until 2026. host: what has been the reaction from the new york legislature, the governor or in the city to try to bring those jobs back? guest: i know mayor adams in new york has been very outspoken and people trying to get people out

to go back to the office. the governor of new york also has talked about ways to incentivize the immigration of jobs. forgetting about new york city, this has been a perennial issue for upstate new york. the jobs leaving that region of the state. various governors have tried to promote job creation in those parts of the state. host: scott greenberger with us about job loss in recovery. different mice today if you live in the eastern and central time zones (202) 748-8000, (202) 748-8001 in the mountain and pacific time zone and if you want to text as you can do that at (202) 748-8003. if you break down areas of the country, you hit on this, is it mainly eastern, south vacco --

south? guest: mainly the south and west, the states that have more jobs then in the pandemic is the south, southeast, texas and utah also stands out. host: florida has been in the news for a lot of reasons. guest: that was second only to texas, with the hurricane i am not sure how that will affect us. host: what is florida's secret as far as job creation? people moving in? guest: it is a fast-growing state and has been for a long time. people like warm weather. weather. it was actually going for for the pandemic continues to grow. host: let's talk about the type of jobs that are returning, is

there a type of job that recovers more quickly? guest: the category that saw the largest gains as transportation and warehousing. it makes sense when you think about during the pandemic, many americans were already shopping online but certainly their propensity to shop online increased during the pandemic and that led to a burst of hiring in transportation and warehousing. companies like amazon or walmart. a lot of jobs have been added in those categories. some of the jobs, the biggest category where jobs have not come back is the leisure and hospitality sector. that makes sense when you think about what happened during the pandemic to restaurants, hotels and travels. some of that is come back. host: there's a story in washington times this morning, the hotels are short of workers to take care of rooms. guest: the most recent

state-by-state numbers which are the august numbers, they are a little bit out of date. we will see what the latest numbers show. host: talk about amazon, transportation, how is retail doing? guest: retail is also not doing as well. a lot of people shopping online, we see many of us in our community seeing retail stores struggling. host: if we have hit the point where we have recovered, what is the possibility that we go further than that and gave even more jobs than what we lost in the pandemic? what factors have to make that happen? guest: as of july, we regain the 25 million jobs that were lost. we are continuing to create jobs . we have created jobs each month since then. we are ahead of where we were. the problem is that some areas of the countries, some states

are not regaining the jobs. a lot of the new job creation is concentrated in these areas that we have talked about, the south and was. host: we are expecting job numbers this week that can contribute job ice? guest: hanging over all of this are the fears of a recession with the fed raising interest rates in order to cool down inflation. there is this concern that might tip us into recession. host: will that affect what we are seeing currently as far as trends and job recovery? guest: a recession typically involves higher unemployment. so far, we have low unemployment historically, under 4%. the variation between the states, but that is a national average. the question is whether if we do head into a recession, what would that do the job situation? host: our guest with us, if you have any jobs about job recovery you can call in the eastern

central time zone is (202) 748-8000, mountain and pacific time zones (202) 748-8001, textus your thoughts at (202) 748-8003 scott greenberger joining us for this conversation. you talked about jobs but let's talk about people. who as far as people are getting these jobs back? is it the college-educated? don college-educated? guest: in transportation and warehousing that is one of the concerns. those tend to be low-paying jobs and also jobs that are relatively insecure. researchers have found those jobs typically pay an average of $27 and hours. those types of jobs are disproportionately held by black

and hispanic people. there are some concern that some of the jobs coming back are not as good as the jobs that were lost. overall, we are ahead of where we were in terms of manufacturing. within that number, is the fact that you have states such as ohio, a typical, historical manufacturing states around the great lakes, many of them have not regained the manufacturing jobs that they have lost. ohio is still down nearly 18,000 manufacturing jobs from where it was before the pandemic. transportation and warehousing jobs are up 37,000. there is some concern about the quality of these jobs in terms of what they pay and job security. host: safe to say college education -- educated people fare better at this point? guest: they were less likely to

have lost their jobs during the pandemic since many of them could work remotely. they did not lose their jobs in the first place. they are ahead of where a lot of blue color people were. host: as far as the workers themselves, do they get an advantage built in because they can search for more attractive salaries or working conditions? what benefits or leverage does the worker have looking forward? guest: when there is low unemployment, the balance of power shifts to workers. however, there are some -- as i mentioned unemployment remains very low, variations between states. there is some indication recently that the job market may be softening. the great resignation may be over, employers are reporting that they have an easier time now finding workers. some of the larger ones have

stopped hiring. we will see what happens in the coming months. there is some indication that this worker friendly economy that we have seen over the past several months maybe changing event. host: scott greenberger as our guest in our first call is from pennsylvania, this is mark. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. there was a comment that you made that we have recovered 25 million jobs pre-pandemic. online they were saying there were 169 million jobs, people working here in the united states. the last time i saw, there is only 120, 100 30 million people working. how is it covered that -- how is it possible that we have covered all of those jobs with people dropping out of the workforce? guest: it is a complicated

picture when you consider people retire, they have dropped out of the workforce as a result of the pandemic. in terms of the overall number, the topline employment numbers, we have regained the 25 million jobs that were lost. in other words, we are back to and have exceeded the employment level that we were at in february 2020, right before the pandemic. host: from emily who is joining us from north carolina, raleigh. caller: hi, i wanted to make the observation that the unemployment number does not reflect people who are underemployed. people who are employed and not earning a living wage. the jobs that we have regained is not necessarily a one-to-one comparison. if a corporate recruiter lost

their job and they now work as a preschool assistant, they have gone from earning a living wage to not a living wage. guest: as i noted in ohio for example, ohio is down 17,000 manufacturing jobs. it has added 37,000 warehousing and transportation jobs. generally speaking, those manufacturing jobs will be higher-paying and more secure jobs. i think the color makes a good point that it is not just the quantity but the quality of jobs we need to consider. host: the president is going to new york and ibm is expected to announce a new to plant there. there was a story in the wall street journal that there is a company who will build electric batteries. will you see these type of things go up. how does the job picture change as the biden administration

pushes people into electric vehicles and the like? guest: the inflation reduction act and the bipartisan act that will help create jobs in specifically in manufacturing section. you mentioned electric vehicles, and our story one of the car companies forward announced it would create 800 jobs in those great lakes states that i mentioned. good manufacturing jobs. the biden administration is doing what it can or trying to incentivize the creation of good paying manufacturing jobs. host: as far as u.s. jobs are concerned, do we find companies that have relocated overseas coming back? guest: it could, there is is another factor here. new york times story noting that we are now ahead in terms of manufacturing jobs than where we were before the pandemic. one of the factors they cited was this idea that the

experience of the pandemic has shown a lot of companies that may be it is not a good idea to have these log supply chains. not to rely so heavily on china. there's a lot of tension between china and the united states. there is the potential that these companies bring these jobs.com. host: let's talk to cindy and waukesha, wisconsin. caller: thank you for having us on. thank you scott. my question is about seniors and the baby boomers retire during the pandemic. one of the challenges now with increased cost is many seniors are trying to get back into milder full-time work but it does not seem like any companies want to use their intellect, skills because they are not artificially talented. with so many jobs going to be lost to ai like accounting jobs

and high pine white-collar jobs, all of these jobs are going to the internet because you can now produce your own will, do your own taxes. what will happen to seniors who want to come back into the work force to make enough money to retire or stay afloat in this type of an economy? is anybody talking about that? thank you. guest: thank you for your call. there is a lot of concern about employers potentially discriminating against older workers. there always has been, there are laws to protect older workers from that type of discrimination. you mentioned white collar jobs i could be outsourced because of technological changes independent of the pandemic that was happening before and will continue to happen. i think the caller is right,

there will be jobs that were once performed by people that might not be performed by people in the future or at least on people in the united states. host: this is jody saying i was forced out of the work place because i was older and her myself and only found jobs for young men. i was making $35 an hour and was offered seven dollars which is minimum wage. guest: i think a lot of people have that concern. host: from tom, in south carolina. hi tom, go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. i was going to ask the gentleman just a couple of questions. first about, how true are these numbers that we get from the federal government? if you take that total number of supposed new jobs created and divided by 50 states, there is no way on earth that that number

is correct because south carolina, you divide that number by 50 states and south carolina is not a big state. neither is new jersey, new hampshire or anywhere like that. i was wondering how you factor those things up and just exactly where does this number come from? is it a manufactured number from the states combined? or is it something that the states report to the federal government that they have all of these jobs that were created and most of them i am looking at are the same jobs. they were there before the pandemic set in. i am wondering on my second question, how cost-effective was it for employers to have people working from home?

we all know that if you work at home you don't get up and go to work like you normally would. a lot of these folks would be working in their pajamas, we call them in the south. they have other things that distract them from doing their work at home. i am just wondering how effective that work at home scheme was? host: tom, thank you, you put a lot out there for our guest. let's talk about the numbers, that $25 million -- guest: typically after the job numbers come out, they come out every month. there are always adjustments a month or so afterwards. typically not huge adjustment, it's difficult to get a handle on an economy as large as ours. these are the best numbers out there so these are the ones we rely on.

in terms of how it divides up between states. as we know, there are significant differences between the job situation in individual states so it does not break down equally. on the second question about work, i guess this is true we call them pajamas in the north as well. i think it is certainly true some people are less productive at home and many people would argue that they are more productive at home. one think many people who have had the opportunity to work remotely during the pandemic and even until now have noted is that they are no longer spending time commuting. time that they were not driving but they were working, people who were working at home caregivers of kids or older

people, it makes life a lot easier and less hectic for them. depending on the job, depending on the person, many people have really enjoyed working remotely and will insist that it makes a more productive. i think some employers would agree with that. host: do you get the idea that employers will keep this idea for working at home or something they will delay? guest: more people are going into the office than they did before. personally, it is hard to imagine it will go to a -- back to a pre-condemning world. people have demonstrated that you can keep things going. you can keep working. and again, as i said, before the pandemic a lot of people who were responsible for caring for other people and other folks who are not response will for caring for other people, felt that

things were very hectic with long hours at work. it was difficult to do the errands to take care of other things in their lives. they have gained additional flexibility from remote work. the technology has gotten to the point that it is possible to do that and many jobs. host: if you're interested in looking at the story online about the pandemic and loss you can go to piu trust.org/state line. you can follow them on twitter at piu trust. scott greenberger is the executive editor. we will go to my and minneapolis. thank you for calling, go ahead, you are on. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a couple of things, there has been a lot of talk about illegal immigration throughout the past many years especially recently.

these illegal immigrants are coming to the united states for an economic opportunity. there are companies that are hiring them, employers hiring them. i have a friend who has a chain of six pizza stores and 80% of its workers are illegal and if it was not for the illegal employees, he would have to shut down because he cannot find any workers even at $18 per hour to work for him. i run some commercial and residential buildings, everybody who cleans by buildings at $200 a day, they are all illegal immigrants. this illegal immigrant working population, if they were taken out of the economy how would it affect the economy? republicans always talk about it. if you recall, amazon wanted to open up a huge center in

brooklyn or somewhere in new york where alexandria alexandria ocasio-cortez was response will for killing that project. they have not had as much job growth in new york as much as texas. how does that affect new york, especially new york city labor economy? think you. guest: i am not sure exactly how that particular decision affected the numbers. i believe that decision was made before the pandemic began and there was concerns about how that would affect the existing community. i can't speak directly to that and its connection to the numbers we are talking about here. in terms of your other question about immigrants, even though as

i mentioned there is some indication that the labor market is softening, there are a lot of employers, particularly in restaurants, who are relying very heavily on immigrants. they are having a difficult time finding workers. i was struck the other day on the front of the new york times there was a story about the controversy about the migrants being sent to migrants vineyard and on the same front page there was a story about how there are not enough people to take care giving jobs. we are in aging population here in the united states and that is a very difficult and low-paying job and not enough people to do it. many old people would prefer to stay at home and there aren't enough caregivers. there is this disconnect on the one hand, immigration is a very

contentious lyrical issue, on the other hand there are certain areas of the economy where we most definitely need those workers. host: from bill, he is joining us from new jersey. hello. bill, you are going to have to turn down your tv sir. ok, we will put bill on hold, we will go to brck in michigan. caller: actually my name is beth. thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to comment, i feel much of the reason people are not going back into the workplace is because of the increase in cost for commuting. until we get the price of our gas down, nothing is going to

change. we are still struggling to find employees and the bottom line is, what i have heard you respond, this all happened as a result of the pandemic that came directly out of china. this is nothing short of a biotechnology assault. although it has affected people all around the world, it is on a fast track to collapsing nations. host: ok beth, thank you. guest: certainly commuting, the price of gas which is been down

on the highs for people who have to commute by car long distances. yesterday, opec+ announced it will cut production which in all likelihood is going to lead to price increases again. i think the cholera's right, for many people the price of gas has made commuting too expensive a proposition. it has influence their employment. host: here is bill, from new jersey. bill or you there? caller: hi, good morning gentlemen. i think the unemployment numbers are deflated and i will tell you why. employee numbers are inflated because to him services, when you fill an application out.

you are hired, you don't even have a job at now you are not unemployed. this you take this into consideration? that is my question. guest: i am sorry the question is whether this is full-time jobs or part-time jobs? caller: once you fill an application out at a temp service, you are hired. you might not have that job but you are on the employment role. do you take all of these into consideration with the figures coming up? guest: we are relying on the bureau of labor statistics. i am not familiar with what you are saying in terms of filling out an application and automatically placed in a job. i guess that would depend on what sort of job you are qualified for or looking for and where you are. i am not really sure about that. host: there was a time when

anybody seeking a job at the time were getting them without filling out applications. they were hiring quickly. guest: i am not sure exactly when you are considered employed as far as the bureau of labor statistics is concerned. the first day on the job or once you are hired and have a job, i am not really sure about that. host: is there a difference between as we go forward, as jobs are recovered, is it goods or services, services over goods? guest: people shifted their spending towards goods during the pandemic, they were ordering sofas online rather than going to restaurants. i think the numbers we are relying on here, these july numbers, transportation and

warehousing, those are because related jobs. leisure and hospitality, those are service jobs. host: david is in florida, david, hello. caller: i believe a lot of these jobs they had the old to meet them of getting the shot or losing their job and i think a lot of them retired from the health care and airline pilot industry. that is my opinion, thank you. guest: i don't know about airline pilots, i know many hospitals and many employers in the health care sector are short of workers. depending on the state, there were different mandates for getting the vaccine but certainly a lot of people, the stress of working in the health

care setting or fear of getting sick. a lot of people did leave those jobs and that sector is having difficulty finding people. host: employers overall, are they mandating covert shots before they returned to work? guest: it is much less common now. when the biden administration rolled out some of that, there were port cases that reverse that. i'm not familiar with the details. even those employers that did require them some of them now are relaxing them -- relaxing those requirements. host: loretta is next from mississippi. caller: i am calling about the coast guard that rescues people in the coast guard, they will be thrown out of the military if they don't get their covid shot and they are close to retirement. we need as many people -- 25%

down. we need people to protect our country. they are shooting over japan. our military is protecting natural gaseous in russia has submarines with nuclear capabilities. host: james is next, james from missouri. caller: good morning. i just want to make a comment. it seems like when the increase in pay went up, that is when everything went up as far as food prices. so now we are back to making seven something dollars an hour. that is just my opinion.

they say it is the pandemic, but also, the increase in everything is because we went up on the minimum wage, we never got an increase. host: for people coming back from the pandemic, what are you finding with the wage situation? guest: because of the labor shortage, wages have been going up but with inflation, many people have seen those wage increases be eaten up by inflation. they are not really feeling that increase. host: linda is in sterling heights, michigan. caller: hi, my name is linda. i just want to know what are all of these people who are not working who used to work before, what are they doing for income? are they still on unemployment?

why are they not coming back to work? guest: you are talking about people who lost their jobs during the pandemic by choice and have not come back? caller: yes, all of us went on unemployment and a lot of us have been working a couple of months after the pandemic started. now, they are hiring people for $500, thousand dollar bonuses. guest: a lot of restaurants are having a hard time finding workers. the caller might be referencing the great resignation. the shot, the trauma of the pandemic pushed them to make a change that they may have already been contemplating. some people, right after the

pandemic, they saved a lot of money and that enabled them to not go back to work. unemployment benefits were bumped up for people. those expires so there is some evidence, more people are going back to work now and that the labor market is softening. host: the federal government offered financial help and that doesn't exist anymore? guest: i am not sure about the specifics but those are not an perpetuity. those have not expired, they certainly will soon. host: washington state, this is zona from washington state. caller: a caller previously called in the guest didn't quite understand his question and it

had to do with day labor. companies like xpress, they will hire you but you don't work for months. maybe one day of that month and unemployment consider that -- considers that a higher. day labor, have you heard of it? guest: yes, i have heard of it. i am not sure how those jobs are counted. those manufacturing and warehousing jobs, generally speaking, less secure and lower paying that some of the jobs that were lost if that's what you mean. i am not sure exactly how or when a higher is considered a job. host: scott greenberger from the pew trust. they are taking a look at the

job loss during the pandemic. scott greenberger thank you for your time. we are going to be talking to helena bottemiller evich from food fix she will talk about food insecurity and what the white house plans to do about it. that conversation coming up next on "washington journal," . ♪ >> c-span campaign 2022 coverage continues and october.

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c-span.org/campaign for a step-by-step guide. "washington journal," continues. host: this is helena bottemiller evich with food fix. here to talk about food insecurity and the efforts by the administration defied back. a little bit about food fix what is it? guest: it's a newsletter about food policy in washington and beyond. it is focused on insiders, those who work on food policy and people interested on this site. food insecurity, nutrition programs that affect tens of millions of people a day. host: when did you figure out there was a need for this information? guest: i have been covering these issues for more than a decade and i have found through my career that we see these issues as niche topics, food and

agriculture are seen as not a real beat. i think that there are broad interest here. if you think about the usda, why would you pay attention to farmers? there are 40 million people on nutrition benefits through the snap program. there is real broad impacts and i found there was a hole in the coverage. host: how would you categorize food insecurity in the states today? guest: about 10% of americans are food insecure and that number has held steady during the pandemic. during the great recession we saw a really big increase in food insecurity. washington doled out so much aid in the form of stimulus, child tax credits, we had stepped up food benefits, so much aid that we blunted any rise in food security nationally.

i think a lot of people don't appreciate that. a lot of those benefits are starting to expire, antihunger advocates are concerned those rates will go up. host: let's define food insecurity. guest: it means that your household struggles to get enough food to eat. to meet the needs of the full household, it is different than hunger which means someone is going without food. a lot of time parents will shield children from hunger. it is about 10% of households that are considered food insecure. host: the biden administration held a conference on this issue, what was the purpose? guest: it was the first white house conference on food and nutrition and more than 50 years, not since the nixon administration. the goal was to try to end hunger by 2030 and increase healthy eating to try to combat

diet-related diseases and raise the profile of these issues which are not a major focus in washington often. host: tom vilsack spoke a little bit about this. as far as the idea of ending hunger, what are the broad strokes of the administration what are they planning to do? guest: they released a 44 page national strategy. this is the first time we have had a national plan targeted at food insecurity and nutrition. it includes things like expanding access to the snap program which many people know as food stamps. reaching people who qualify but don't participate in the program. we also want to expand school meals to be free to all children. there is still a long road and there is currently not the support to do that. there are also things like putting nutrition information on the front of food packages which is something they can do without

congress in the fda is moving forward on that. host: we talk about food insecurity in the united states, if you have questions for her (202) 748-8000 for republicans, (202) 748-8001 for democrats and for independents (202) 748-8002, you can text us at (202) 748-8003 we are joined by food fix founder helena bottemiller evich. here is tom vilsack talking about those efforts. [video clip] >> we will talk to a number of partners identifying those five pillars, pillar one includes making more affordable. ensuring all americans are economically secure including through a child tax credit.

pillar two outlines how we can better integrate nutrition into health care. we are elevating the role of nutrition and food insecurity and health care. for example, the strategy supports piloting medicare coverage of meals that are crafted to prevent or to treat diet-related diseases. pillar three seeks to empower customers to make healthy choices by making those choices more accessible. one proposal supports to expand incentives for healthy food and snacks and boosting global health systems that create jobs and support local economies, especially in rural america. pillar four reminds us of the -- how physical activity contributes to overall health. the national strategy supports

investing efforts to connect people to parks and outdoor spaces. pillar five focuses on bolstering funding for nutrition research so we can advance evidence-based policymaking. host: (202) 748-8000 for the central and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001 for them mountain and central time zones. guest: the nutrition labels on the front of food packages. it should be noted that the fda took six years to come up with an updated definition of the healthy claims on food packages. these things take a long time. i don't think anyone expects a lot of these things to move quickly. the next farm bill cycle where

republicans take the house, there will be a fight over that spending. we doubled what we spent on the snap program during the pandemic through increased benefits. there is a target on that program now because of the cost associated with it. if you have republicans wanting to curb eligibility or spending, seeing how much momentum out of this conference to push back on that will be a big early test. is there still momentum and political organization here or is this more a pr event? host: the white house largely depends on congress to get through? guest: there are lots of things they can do. they can work with the fda. there are a lot of authorities that the fda has for healthy food access, universal free meals is not something they could expand to all children without congress but there are ways that the usda can get more

high poverty schools into a universal free meal set up. some administrative policy they have to work with, but they can't do the big tickets without congress. host: helena bottemiller evich from food fixes joining us. let's get to cindy from florida, you are on go ahead. caller: i'm a first-time caller. with more and more people going towards the more compassionate diet, 60% of the grain that is grown in the united states is used to feed our livestock. also the water usage for livestock is immense. if there was more of a push for more compassionate diet and getting rid of the horrendous factory farms that we have here. the food industry would be greatly improved.

we could feed an entire nation if more people got off the meat wagon and went towards the more compassionate diet. could you tell me your thoughts on that? guest: that is a great question. providing more plant based options as part of this post. making sure that school cafeterias are expanding plant based options. it is not saying that the whole program needs to be plant based. there is organization around that. per capita, meat and dairy conception has gone up. even though there is a lot more excitement for plant based milk alternative products, you have probably seen open milk or almond milk. we still see a lot of dairy and meat consumption. with dairy, we just change how we consume it.

americans have shown they have a lot of demand for. host: the snap program, it remind people how it works. guest: every state has a name for it, but people know it as food stamps. there are income eligibility rules. if you are low enough income you can get an ebt or debit card that will help you buy groceries every month. if you have children, you can get benefits for them. the average benefit for person is about 220 month. there is a lot of focus on trying to get that benefit in the hands of people who might be facing food insecurity to help supplement their budget. especially in the time of food prices being so high, along with

gas prices and housing prices, we see that as a way to help blunt some of those impacts. on october 1, snap benefits went up 12% nationally. it is tacked to the rising costs and i think we will hear more about this as consumers increasingly are alarmed by the prices they are seeing for different products of the grocery store. host: 42.1 million people on snap, that is up from 35.7 at 2019. how much of those were pandemic related? guest: the numbers went up by a few million but what went up is the benefit level. we have what are called emergency allotments during public health emergencies where families were bumped up to the maximum level as a way to get us through this crisis. a lot of states have ended their public health emergency

declaration. they have come back to pre-pandemic levels. when the federal health emergency does end, it will be extended again tonight's year, i don't know what the long term thinking is there. a lot of families are going to see less grocery benefits at a time of high prices. host: here is sylvia from pennsylvania, good morning. caller: i wonder why there are no grocery stores in poor areas and how to promote more grocery stores in poor areas? host: the number of grocery store in poor areas. guest: this is a huge challenge. there is a term for this we often return to it as a food desert. inadequate assess to groceries in your area or inadequate

transportation. folks like vehicles or away to get there, a safe bus route. this is a real challenge. it is not just low income, urban areas but also rural areas. there are a lot of access issues in rural areas where they may have to drive a long way to get groceries. you might need gas, or quite a bit of gas to get there. this is a huge challenge. i don't think we have addressed this in our country. the economics of these retailers are very crucial as they won't go into areas where they do not think they will make much. a lot of policy needs to be talked about there. host: you talked about food prices, if they received that benefits are they told exactly what they can buy? guest: you can buy any grocery

item as long as it is not hot prepared food or toiletries, you can't buy toilet paper or diapers. you can buy any food that said restricted in any way. one thing nutrition advocates were hoping for is that the white house or other advocates and people in this process might endorse tapping the limits on what people can buy. they have asked if we can test the limit of sugar sweet beverages. that has been denied by the political government and that's not not something the white house endorses but it you have new -- some nutrition advocates pushing for and there is some interest among house republicans to look at this and talk about whether or not snap could be leveraged for more of a straight nutrition goal we also have the

wic program and you can only bite certain staples of some conservatives have argued we should make snap more like wic and be more focused on staple foods but there is no political pathway to doing that. host: can they go to grocery stores? guest: wic is approved in many states. in any grocery store in washington, you can see the little wic folks who are on it are good at navigating that system and figuring out what counts. there is no online option for the wic program. if your family had covid or if you were homeless with kids, it

was hard to get to the store. we transitioned the snap program to have a meaningful online option during the pandemic. that happened quickly so now, you can buy groceries online. i think that's being -- been a big help for the elderly and those who have small children. host: alabama is next. caller: good morning, how are you today? why don't you just have one program for all of it instead of all of these other programs to milk the taxpayers? have it so the whole -- have it for the whole family. guest: that's an interesting question. thinking about why you don't have a more simple system, one nutrition program for everyone, the reason we don't is because each of these pieces were built piecemeal and they responded to different challenges.

that's why we have a school meal nutrition program and that targeted women, infants and children so there are different pieces that came from different problems. i think the caller raises an important point. it creates a lot of different bureaucracy. you have to fill out applications for these different programs that wears estate administration in every state has to figure out how to figure out who is eligible and who is not and there is a lot that is involved. when we are looking at the child tax credit, a lot of antihunger advocates said it's simpler. it doesn't require a lot of the paperwork and different systems we've set up to dole out these nutrition benefits. the child tax credit had an endpoint in reducing food insecurity in children. host: is this bipartisan in nature? guest: it's a stretch to call it

bipartisan but there were a few republicans there. there was only one republican who had a speaking role and he never tweeted about his participation so is not something republicans were super excited about being a part of. bill frist was there and he is very involved as a heart and lung surgeon. i can count on less than one hand how many republicans were there. you had key leaders from the house and senate agriculture committee, republicans that were not there even though they were invited may be last-minute. you did see some criticism from key house republicans saying this was partisan and not going to be helpful in building a big tent. the biden administration support the conference and said we have laid out the vision we want which is increasing access to these programs, focusing on

diet-related diseases and whether or not everyone in congress is on board or not. host: you said is the first conference in 50 years, how did richard nixon change food insecurity back then? guest: nixon declared we are going to end hunger. he made a bold statement in 1969 step many people don't remember but leading up to the 1969 conference, you have a lot of national attention on hunger. there is a big series on cbs on hunger in 1968 and it caught the national attention. there was malnutrition and deep hunger in the deep south. it really shocked people. there was a momentum to look at the federal government and deal with this.

you had the bipartisan congressional lead out that and out of that conference, we saw the creation of the wic program after snap and got the dietary guidelines which are the national recommendations on how we should eat. there was some big things that came out of that but it took a while. what i've said about this conference is it will take a while before we will know if it's going to have a historic impact. i have a great research assistant digging through the press clips from that time and there was some political sniping. host: keep going. guest: it was bipartisan but that didn't stop there being some political fighting over this. there was plenty of criticism of nixon, was he doing enough and fulfilling this vision? to be fair, these are hard

issues to tackle. part of the's thinking is trying to use the whole of government approach. the strategy includes the department of transportation and hud and u.s. da and all these different organizations, getting nutrition integrated into the health care system. there are many different levers that can be pulled but it's difficult to move the dial on these challenges. the fact that we still have insecurity at this rate in 2022 tells you something about how difficult it is to tackle it. host: let's hear from matt in texas. caller: good morning. earlier caller reference this when she talked about having access to fresh food in poor areas. from what i've seen, there's been such consolidation in the food industry weather at the grocery level with grocery

stores controlling like 80% of all distribution. you see the same thing on the food production level. thankfully, in texas, we have the largest private held grocery store chain. that will give more access to food here. one of the things i see is vertical farming. whether it's plants using less water and green houses that can produce food in places like wisconsin and things like that. there has also been a shrinkage of farming in this country. i think that has caused a lot of the food insecurity. my question to helena is, are you seeing anything encouraging in food production or innovative ways of using less water so farming can happen in less

traditional, rural areas? once we solve the food production issue, that will help. we still have a distribution problem because there's too much consolidation with rose restores in fact -- with grocery stores and factory farming but what do you see in terms of innovative ways to produce more food at a micro level? guest: great question. we have enough food in this country. it's not a volume problem. we have enough food to feed everyone. it is a problem of people being able to afford food or access the foods they need for their households. it's not that we don't have enough. we waste a lot of food in this country as well. there is a lot of momentum around things like vertical farming or indoor farming. you brought up an interesting point about connecting those two to rural places who need them. there is a lot happening there

and retailers are trying to put greenhouses near their distribution so they are fresh oh. a lot of the greens in this country come from california and arizona so if you live on the east coast, we sometimes get things from lorna, but they are often being shipped across the country. there is a movement to get greens closer to grocery stores and distribution. in coal country, there is a push to grow tomatoes in greenhouses and try to create jobs in those places that have been disrupted. there is a lot happening in that area and i think it's something to watch going forward but it's important to remember we have enough food in this entry. host: off of twitter -- guest: this is something that

comes up a lot. i think there is some interest to at least talk about this but right now there is not a little -- a political path forward to limiting choices in the snap program. a lot of antihunger advocates and others -- it specific -- it's paternalistic to tell people what they can and cannot eat. the point of snap is to supplement a helpful budget for food and that can get complicated. if you talk to people who are focused on reducing diet-related diseases, they would say diabetes and hypertension and obesity and these other growing issues we have, they are regressive. they are disproportionately affecting communities of color and increasing health care costs and reducing the olive life. -- reducing the quality of life.

you have these two opposing forces debating that. i don't think we are anywhere close to seeing any restrictions. we have done some studies to see how the snap households by food and it's not that much different than what the rest of us are buying. it's important to remember it's not like it's only snap recipients that are buying food like this. 60% of the american diet is processed food. host: the biden administration wants to but more information on the front of the package? guest: the philosophy is to make it easier so when you something up, there might be maybe a star system. one star would be the most or least healthy. some countries have done a stoplight. maybe limit that and a yellow light might say moderation and a rain light might say go for it.

-- and a green light might say go for it. it gets complicated weekly where you draw the line around with green and what's yellow. i think there will be a lot of lobbying around what this might look like. we don't know the details yet. we are in the early stages of looking at this. chile has more of a warning label type of system. there are some other countries like canada moving forward with labeling so i think we will see more of it that it will take a while. host: thank you for joining us for this conversation celeste to -- talk to joyce and kansas -- joyce in kansas. can you push the button for me? hello? caller: good morning. i was wondering why the department of agriculture couldn't work with farmers to

save the imperfect food service that couldn't be sold at stores and they are perfectly good to eat and would otherwise you destroyed? -- otherwise be destroyed? guest: there is a lot of movement in philanthropy in the private sector to tackle food waste and basically make sure that those imperfect process items make it to people. there are different ways to access that we also see more of that food going to food banks. they require refrigeration and infrastructure. there is a lot being done on it but we waste a lot of food in this country so it's a very good question in a very good topic and i think there is more work to do. host: in oregon, hello. caller: this is a great topic.

i'm glad to hear about food fix. i'm working with a group called portland gray panthers which is social justice. we work at the interagency food bank in portland. it's really great to focus on this. we have worked with oxfam and second harvest which is now called feeding america. my question is about a specific program in this matrix you described step you may not know about it but we can send you information, it's called otc - over-the-counter. we work with low income tenants so we headed dozen tenants ask us about it. there are very specific kinds of

food and specific stores you can use it for. the question we are getting is, there is a plastic card but it appears to be a federal program and there are two kinds of plastic cards and tenets are to combine the two. otc is from categories of food and some specific stores in its roughly $400 per quarter so $1600 per year so if you don't use it, you lose it. the second card has your name on it and it's even more restrictive. it's just for dental things. how can we get this combined. if you are low income for 10 years with the second card, you lose about $1600 per year every year if you don't use it.

you cannot use the dentist card for food. guest: i'm not familiar with that specific program but i hear a lot of consumers ask questions like why can't these cards be can bind? during the pandemic, a lot of families got grocery benefits that might be missed at school. in some states, there was a lot of duplication. i have heard this concern generally. as more advocates in philanthropy and government agencies look at things like food is medicine or getting more tailored meals or even produce prescriptions or other food programs, as they tried to get more produce on the place of people who are low income, they often set up a different program.

then maybe you are using a voucher. the complexity can build quite easily. i think you raise an important point of making sure things are simple. it is something i definitely hear brought up but i hope you get that worked out. host: food as medicine? guest: it's to try to get nutrition more integrated into health care generally. most doctors do not get much training in nutrition, is not part of their focus but as we see so many of these diseases that are driving the cost of health care, there is more tension to get health care food into the hands of people who needed to reduce those costs. maybe doctors can write prescriptions for produce or maybe it's a low-sodium diet or a taylor giant -- diet that's trying to move that person to better health outcomes.

there is a lot of work in this area. we are trying to get more nutrition integrated into medicare and medicare debts and medicaid step it would make sense the government is looking at this. host: our private companies invested in this as well? guest: the $8 billion in private commitments were revealed by the white house. there is a lot of outside excitement to work on these issues which includes things like no increasing access to counseling for different startups who might be doing tech solutions. maybe adventure capital investment for startups looking at things like nutrition and food insecurity are trying to get more nutrition educating and school.

food core is an america that's focused on who doing taste test and different things in school. part of what they unveiled is $250 million to scale up that program. many states like that have that step host: is that program still in place? guest: she strengthened the nutrition standards of the school meals program. that serves 30 million children per day. during the pandemic, the nutrition standards were waived to make it -- to have maximum flexibility. when you're having supply chain issues and you cannot get that whole-grain meal under that status, the biden administration was trying to move schools back

toward meeting those areas and proposing the next wave of before we see that take effect again stop supply chain issues are affecting schools like they are affecting grocery stores. schools have so little to spend that if you are a food company, you might not's -- not sell to the school before you sell to a private industry. host: this is from mary and west virginia. caller: so nice to hear from you on this subject. i am alive food nutritionist since i was nine years old and now i'm 67. when i was 24, nixon put out the call to end hunger and i saw the way clear. they are putting doctors into prison when they started talking about that stuff guest: i'm not

sure what you referring to. i don't know about putting anyone in prison for talking about healthy food stop people are trying to get more medical -- food nutrition into medical school. host: how can people find food fix. guest: it's food fix.co and there is a free -- weekly newsletter. if you're interested in anything we talked about, i encourage you to sign up. host: she is the founder of food fix, thank you so much. we will go to the open form until the end of the show if you want to participate --

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matters, america is watching on c-span all stop its power by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is ronald hansen who is a national news reporter to talk about the arizona senate debate. thanks for joining us. guest: nice to be with you. host: set the stage as far as tonight's debate and relate it to larger issues in this rate for arizona's senate seat. guest: this is arizona having a senate race and we've been doing it since 2016 stop this is to complete the final -- to start a new term in 2020. he is facing a first-time candidate the republicans in this race has been about masters

trying to make the sick as -- a case against mark kelly not being the independent he claims to be. mark kelly is trying to make the case that he promised to be an independent voice for arizona. host: as far as the race itself, where to the two stand? >> at this point, mark kelly is the favorite. he is wildly popular in arizona and is in good standing with independent voters which is a critical block in arizona. there are quite a few of them. he is in the favorite heading into the debate and lake masters wants a five way republican primary and he is someone who has the horseman of president --

former president donald trump and he says he is in line with arizona's historically conservative values. host: tonight's debate also features a libertarian. >> mark victor is a libertarian and is kind of the wild in this. blake matches his trailing and i'm sure he would like to have time to himself. he would like to see someone draw blood on mark kelly. host: how much republican support is he getting? >> in the primary phase of the race, he has had substantial backing of a multimillionaire. he co-wrote a book with him and had backing through a but short

of that, he has been trailing in fundraising and has not been remarkable on the front. he is trying to boost his fundraising to financially compete. one of the notable allies he did not have is the super pac associated with minority leader mitch mcconnell he left it to others to stand up the campaign. host: why do you think that is? guest: there are differences between the two. masters was somewhat critical of mcconnell during the primary for the republicans. more pragmatically, they see blake masters is someone who is perhaps not the most electable candidate on the menu. he has not had the kind of problems that apply to herschel walker in georgia but he has done some over-the-top writing

in his college days at stanford that have sketched out a world view that is not where will during the erect war. he had comments about the military and referenced people in his writing and online speaking and alluded to some unsavory characters. host: when it comes to mr. masters positions, has he been consistent over time or has he changed in an effort to gain more electability? >> it's been kind of a shifting scene stop notably on the issue of abortion rights, the dobbs ruling in arizona was explosive as you would imagine. blake masters had been something of a hardliner on abortion rights and has spoken of the issue in terms of wanting

protection from the moment of conception. since winning the august primary, masters has tried to readjust his language, recalibrate it and say he is supportive of a law that arizona passed earlier this year that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. it's notable that arizona has had one of the more confusing legal settings for abortion from the dobbs ruling. we recently had a state judge essentially re-allow a civil war abortion law that virtually bans all abortion so this issue has renewed currency in arizona and masters has struggled to make clear to everyone where he stands. host: stay with this, we will show viewers the ads these campaigns are running.

we will show you blake masters adam we will show you the ad for mark kelly and then we will talk about senator kelly. [video clip] >> rising prices mean we all have to take a second look at our shopping list, set priorities so let's look at mark kelly. how about hiring 18 more workers? he voted no. he voted for 87,000 new irs agents. mark kelly kept our border wide open but he sending collectors coming after you. i'm blake masters. ♪ [video clip] i am the mayor of mason and republican. the last few years have been tough in our local businesses and our community needed help. that's when i heard for mark kelly. we may be from different political parties but it doesn't matter for mark. for him, we are on team arizona.

mark secured critical funding to help savor small businesses. he doesn't look for ways to blame democrats or republicans, he looks for a way forward. i'm for mark kelly and i approve this message. host: the ad featuring a republican endorsement, what the kind of message that senator ellie is trying to sense? >> the idea that he is centrist, independent and trying to get to good policy out comes, this is very on brand for him to hold up republicans who have seen value in what he is talking about and trying to accomplish in washington stop it's notable that this seat is the one once held by senator john mccain. this is part of something that has been a storyline that mark kelly has wanted to reinforce. he is someone who is reachable from both sides and not beholden

to just democrats. republicans have of different view of his voting record. they say he is a reliable ally of chuck schumer. host: you know as anybody about president biden's approval rating. how is senator kelly weathering all that? >> he is as well positioned as any democrat can be at the moment stop president biden is underwater and is net unpopular in arizona. this was noticeably the state with the closest election market -- margin in the president here has always been tenuous because of that step the biden administration is not broadly popular in arizona at the moment.

he has the resources to send out the constant message about his centrism and willingness to find good policy outcomes and has been able to project that image to arizona voters. host: ronald hansen writes for the arizona real public and is the host of the gaggle podcast, what is that? >> it is a weekly political podcast. each week, we talk to different people whether it's our own reporters or politicians or people who have been affected by politics. we have had guests from students to former vice president mike pence and everyone in between. host: ronald hansen, thank you for your time. if you are interested in watching this, you can see it live starting at 9:00 a.m. on c-span and follow along on our

app at c-span now. it's open forum and thank you to those who are calling and waiting. let's start with bob from illinois on the republican line. caller: good morning and thanks for having me. i am worried about our legacy mainstream media. i heard stories years ago about hunter biden's lap top stop new weather station had -- no other station has talked about this. i would -- i was wondering if boblinsky. he's lying but we need more exposure to this story. another two years has gone by and there is an election going up and this country's going

backwards, we need help. host: dorothy in virginia's next from the democrats line. caller: i hope everyone is doing fine today. i'm calling in response to the last person talking about the snap program. when she said one persians average net can benefit is one normal one, i don't know where one person is getting $250 per month. i am 76, soon to be 77 degrees living on social already of $12,000 per year. my regular snap payment is to those per month. i don't know where those figures are coming from but apparently, she used to was during the

pandemic and luckily, during the pandemic, i lived in new mexico at the time. we had an excellent governor. we survived the pandemic only because she made sure that we got the highest rates possible. i was getting 200 and $50 per month. -- i was getting $250 per month. if it because back to $50, i won't be able to eat. when an apple cost $.75 each and a tomato is $.55 each, how can you possibly live on a snap payment of $35 per month? host: let's hear from robert in florida on a republican line. caller: one issue that is rarely

discussed with the dimock rats or on c-span is biological males competing with young women in women's sports. it's an issue that's very important to parents and grandparents who have daughters and granddaughters. i wish -- i wanted to ask mick -- mark hansen if he supported those based on the gender -- on the gender they identify with. host: the new york times highlights the fact that the opec plus story -- if you go to the front page of the wall street journal, taking a look at possible ways to get other sources of oil.

some said the biden as men's -- administrations during to scale things down paving the way for the potential reopening of oil markets. in exchange for the sanctions, the government of president maduro of venezuela will resume talks with the country's opposition to discuss conditions to a free and fair presidential election. if people want to read more, it's in the wall street journal. let's hear from alan arkansas, your next, go ahead. caller: good morning. this is my monthly call for the last two or three months. i'm calling to reach president trump, pleading with him to run for speaker of the house after the election said that in

consideration of the likely remove low office from the criminality that was justice gust that talk was talked about by the present dead by the president that he can more clearly restored to office as speaker of the house. that's a serious suggestion. i tried calling to reach the president directly but that's real hard but i hope others will call in support of that is your that he be restored to office just as the previous call mentioned. the corruption of the election, one of my previous calls referenced it was a 30,000 vote difference in three states and how easily corrupted that was

between the three closest states . 30,000 votes. host: that's from arkansas. usa today is looking at the teams coming up from the hearing of the january 6 committee.

we have archived the previous hearings and you can see them at www.c-span.org. here is rex in ohio, democrats line. caller: good morning, i want to say thank you to president biden for all the stimulus checks. so many people needed those checks at the time. republicans complain about the national debt but there are so many people, waitresses and dashers that work the restaurants come up if it wasn't from the stimulus checks, they would have lost their ours in houses and president biden stepped up and help the working class and didn't care about these corporations and rich oil companies.

the lady on social security should call rick scott. how many thousands of people live off social security? i am thankful we have that to live on. people have to think about who to vote for. they want to do new ways of doing social security and the poor people have nothing. host: this is part of the usa florida network talking about the visit of president biden in fort myers. here is a portion of the present comments from yesterday. >> we have a long road ahead of us, rebuilding entire committees from the ground up but i want the people for laura to know you have mike -- from florida to

know that you have my commitment and america's commit that we will not leave. we will see you through this entire process and it will take a hell of a long time, hopefully without any snags. later, after the television cameras have moved on, we will still be here with you and still be moving and doing everything we can lives back together again. some of the families their homes destroyed and where we are standing now used to be a busy strip of restaurants and shops and are now wiped out. sanibel causeway is ripped into, stranding hunched of people on the others. the sum don't want to leave. in lee county, initial reports say 11 schools are significantly damaged and three will have to be rebuilt. today is yom kippur.

they cannot gather on their holiest day today because they are displaced and their homes are gone in their synagogues are not available. long-term major disaster wreck -- declarations has helped rebuild. we have the money to do that in our all if i do get that done stuff we can help rebuild roads and ridges in public water system.we have already elegant funding on the infrastructure and continue to make florida's power grid more resilient than it is now to ensure power comes back on faster and reduces the cost of repair and rebuilding because there will be more storms. host: that's the president from yesterday and the website and at on c-span is where you can see more. the vice president was in a car accident earlier this week was to she struck the curve of a

downtown tunnel part enough that the tired needed to be read placed. the vice president had to be transferred to another vehicle in the motorcade. the routine nature of the travel and high level of training for agents who drive the president and vice president as many of the secret service and the question how such an accident can happen. let's hear from karen in pennsylvania, republican line. caller: thank you, i'm reverting to the previous clip of biden down in florida. it is typical of him to use

expletives, to swear. he swears as much as trump does. the fallacy that biden is this angel and he is a very moral person and that's why we elected him is so phony. his entire family are crooked. the fbi is as crooked as biden at the top of the organization. those are willing to go with this. criminal action william love within cities, dimmitt cities the crime rate is high in its inverse trading -- and it's infiltrating smaller and rural areas. it's a tragedy. as far as social security, the previous caller had mentioned

that scott in florida wanted to do to do away with social security and that's another fallacy. i don't know what these people are listening to. host: let's hear from beverly in wyoming, democrats line. caller: hi, good morning. i just listen to a guy say that trump should bp -- speaker of the house. i think he is a liar and we don't need all the fighting and everything else. it's already a division ♪ caller: host: ok, that's beverly and casper, wyoming. the front page of the washington times --

guest: host: more of that interview on the washington times website. let's hear from broadway, virginia on the independent line. caller: i would like to respond to a call or a few calls back thanking joe biden for the

stimulus? we have to repay the stimulus payments four times over and we will be repaying them for years to come. there is no such thing as free government money. the government doesn't have any money. host: next is kenosha, wisconsin, republican line. i pushed the wrong button, this is claudia. caller: good morning, it's a pleasure to be on c-span stuff i just have a couple of comments. to the woman who is concerned about her snap benefit going down to $30, i worked for the program and that change is not unique to arizona or the governor or senator, is through the department of agriculture. under the trump administration, they and reese did universally

so if it goes back down, unfortunately, that's what the department of agriculture says but not a state governor. the previous person was talking about food insecurity. her idea of treating food late like a prescription most of many years ago, i wrote to the governors at the time. i wrote about some of those issues but not necessarily looking at food as a medical thing but issuing a separate food card from the regular snap benefits. the regular snap benefits can be foods that are not necessarily that nutritious. if they issue a separate card,

they could issue a card, you have one that's restricted to the food festival and good quality protein,. , things like that. because people would have that additional card, and it's part of the snap program, they would still have the regular card to buy what they want but they would have that additional card. unfortunately, the response i got from everyone was they want to make sure the people have the freedom to use their card as they want. don't want to make people feel as though they have to buy certain things. host: this is cynthia in mississippi, democrats line. caller: good morning. good morning, america.

i am calling to find out when people set up fundraisers for the children, my grandchild was killed two years ago they set up a fundraiser. we cannot get anyone to help us with this problem. i want to know who can help us by soon fund is put in jail. host: the awfully story for usa today takes a look at a gun shop.

host: there is more at the usa today website step this is ohio from the democrats line. caller: good morning, america. [inaudible] national rights have been violated by some doctors and nursing homes.

what can be done? i reached out to congress to the right member and they don't have any legal reason not to desmond to avoid [indiscernible] host: have you tried reaching out to your local legislators? caller: yes, i did. even the democratic party.

i was injured in a vehicle in the vehicle was hit on the road. [indiscernible] host: that's betty in ohio. this is from tom in illinois, democrats line. caller: good morning, i'm calling to strongly rebuke the comments for me caller a while ago who was trying to paint joe biden as some criminal, the head of the family criminal enterprise with the fbi helping him. nothing could be further from the truth.

this is the same kind of tactics they used with clinton and others to muddy them up. this is a president who took over after a somewhat corrupt president and took over a pandemic and supply chain problems still and inflation and prudent and you rain. -- and vladimir putin and ukraine. i wanted to comment that the election in november is important because of the other side wins and takes over the house can -- the house again, they will fill the committees with their own people to head up the committees. the judiciary committee would be headed by jim jordan from ohio. this guy is as extreme as it comes and even former speaker of the house john boehner who is from ohio once said jim jordan

was nothing but trouble in the ohio legislature before he came to washington. i'm very concerned about this and i encourage people to get out and vote. vote democrat, please. host: from florida, our independent line. hello? one more time -- viewer in florida, good morning. let's hear from glenn in illinois. this is the democrats line. caller: good morning, we've got to do something with these republicans. jim jordan is not to be in there. he is the one overthrowing the government and got -- and there are three or four more in there that shouldn't be there. it's time to not get rid of

social security and medicare. these republicans are nuts. they want to get rid of everything and women can have an abortion. you better vote democrat, let's vote democrat and get them all out of there. host: glenn in illinois finishing off this open forum and the program as well. "washington journal"washington journal another addition of" comes your way at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, see you then. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> coming up on c-span, a discussion on the russian ukrainian war and the potential impact on the future of warfare live from the international institute for strategic studies at 11 a.m. eastern and at 1 p.m., lisa cook talks about inflation and monetary policy in her first speech since joining the board of governors and at 4:00 p.m., live coverage of the spacex cruz mission --cruise mission. you can watch live on the c-span video app or live at c-span.org. >> c-span is your -- unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more including mediacom. >>