campaign2022 for all election coverage on demand. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. >> this morning on "washington journal," after a look at the news of the day and viewer calls, jessica post, president of the democratic legislative campaign committee, discusses efforts to elect more democrats and state legislative levels this november. later, george mason university's mercatus center senior research strategist charles blahous discusses the increase next year's cost-of-living adjustments for social security. join us with your phone calls, text messages, and sweets. "washington journal" is. ♪ host: good morning, everyone, on this monday, october 17. a new cbs poll shows republicans

have gained and midterm edge on the economy with just 21 days to go before election 2022. we want your thoughts on this question, how will the economy impact your vote? republicans, dial in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202)748-8002. you can also answer that question in a text. include your first name, city, and state, at (202) 748-8003. or join us on facebook.com/c-span and on twitter with the handle @cspanwj . from the cbs poll released yesterday, it says the republicans have stalled democrats' momentum heading into election day 2022, and it is because of the economy. take a look at this question that they asked those that they

surveyed. on the inflation, could the biden administration be doing more? 60% said yes. the transportation secretary pete buttigieg was on cbs "face the nation" yesterday and was asked about that pole. [video clip] >> i want to pick up on the polling, because it looks like democrats have a problem. more than two thirds of registered voters, 68%, think the biden could be doing more to combat inflation. this is a top concern for all voters. >> it is also a top concern for the president, one of the reasons why he has made clear that is top economic perjury is fighting inflation. but there is a clear choice between the policies we are advancing on capitol hill and this administration and the policies put forward legislatively by republican friends in congress. our focus has been on reducing the pressure of cost-of-living on families.

for example, take the inflation reduction act. part of what that does at a time when we have pressure on people because of the cost-of-living going too high is to cut the cost on things like prescription drugs. of course, republicans voted against that. they have made clear that there opposing the decision to reverse that, to repeal that. so you have something like letting medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs, something americans have wanted for years. we finally got it done. the president signed it, congress passed it. they're already seeking to reverse that. a difference in approach is here right now on capitol hill and among officeholders. the focus for democrats and for the president is to cut that cost-of-living and to cut the pressure and give people more breathing room at a time where inflation remains a major concern. host: pete buttigieg, transportation secretary, on one of the sunday political shows, one of several biden

administration issues on the shows defending the administration on the economy. steve kelly -- steve's because -- steve scalise on fox news sunday, a republican leader, was also asked about recent polling and what is important to voters. here is what he said. [video clip] >> these are interesting new numbers just out this morning, when we asked people who they preferred as a congressional candidate. there is a three-point candidate there to democrats. when asked about the house republicans' commitment to america, a majority said they were totally unfamiliar with the program. do republicans have a messaging problem in the midterms? >> in fact, we just rolled this out, and i have been to a lot of districts in the last few weeks since we rolled it out in pittsburgh, and people responded positively to it. we have phenomenal candidates, and we're going to win in places you have not ever seen. i have been to the northwest where we will flip seats. i have been up in maine come all

the way down to florida, where we are going to be flipping a lot of seats from democrat to republican. you know what they tell me? they are furious with biden's socialist agenda that has led to increased spending and inflation, just the cost of everything at the grocery store. if you can afford to put gas in a car when you get there. the white house, they are bragging as of gas prices are lower. gas prices are about 60% higher today than when joe biden took office, and he shut off american energy production. that is why it happened. he has allowed opec, foreign countries --biden has big russia, iran, and venezuela to produce oil when we should be producing it in america. we are cleaner than anywhere else, and if we produce more energy in america, we would be lowering energy costs, like two years ago. host: louisiana republican steve scalise on fox news sunday.

this morning, we are asking you, how will the economy impact your vote? about three weeks left before you get to vote in these midterm elections, battle for control of the house and senate on the line. also, governors races. c-span is covering election 2022 with our debates, with debates happening across the country. we are bringing in those key battleground contest debates, and you can find them all on our website, c-span.org. this cbs poll this morning shows -- asks, what is causing these higher prices? 63% of those surveyed said supply and manufacturing issues are causing these higher prices. 58 percent said it was global factors. while 47% said it was democratic policies. how will this impact your vote? republicans we have had the lines on the screen, (202)

748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202)748-8002. remember, you can text, as well. include first name, city, and state, to (202) 748-8003. or you can join us on facebook.com/c-span and on twitter with the handle @cspanwj . they also asked in this cbs poll about democratic policies, drilling down on that a little bit. when they said, democratic policies have harmed the economy, 48% said yes. 29% said they have helped the economy. while 23% said there is no difference are not sure. carl in alabama, democratic caller. how will the economy impact your vote, if at all? caller: good morning. host: carl, mute your television for us, then go ahead and

answer. caller: the economy will not affect my vote. however, you know, inflation, gas prices, groceries, they are high, but there are other things that will factor into my vote. host: like what? caller: like the prospect of removing our democracy, a woman's right to choose, so some of those social issues will affect my vote. host: ok. and who do you plan to vote for? who are you excited to vote for? caller: in the midterms, i am pretty much going to go all in democrats. i do not trust the republicans. they will not do the right thing. host: and why not? caller: i just do not like -- to , they are morally bankrupt.

they claim to be patriots, and i think that is a facade. host: all right, carl, democrat in alabama. what do the rest of you think? start dialing in. on this abortion question, you just heard carl say that is one of the issues more important to him than the economy. cbs also asked about that. votes for congress, abortion is very important, 59 percent in september said it was very important. that is down now to 54%. those that said it was somewhat important is that 21% and was at 21% in september, that kicked up a little bit, to 23%. not at all important, 20 percent in september, now at 23%. carol in northpoint, florida, independent. good morning. caller: good morning, good morning. it is not going to have any

effect on my vote. i am going to vote democrat, for sure. ask anyone, please, what in the world have the republicans ever done for the average american voter? host: carol you called in on the independent line. have you voted for republicans before? caller: yes, unfortunately never again. host: when? caller: i voted for donald trump. host: in 2016? caller: yes, it was a mistake. host: and why do you trust democrats more than republicans? caller: tell me what the republicans have given us, have they given us a stimulus check? would they have helped us during covid? no, no. all they want to do is take away everything. i am a senior, they want to take away social security and medicare. what gives them the authority to take away my livelihood that i

put into for 30 years working? host: ok. carol, how would you answer this question from cbs, do republican policies favor the middle-class or the wealthy? caller: the wealthy and the corporations, because it puts money into their pockets for their campaigns. host: mike in massachusetts, and independent. hi. caller: hey, good morning. the economy definitely will not affect my vote because, really, the state of the economy is a product of the pandemic. i am really tired of these conservatives. i think they are disingenuous. they have no integrity. they are liars. really, they are file people. i do not even -- i do not know what to do about it anymore. host: mike, what issues will be bringing you to the polls to vote? caller: i think the problem with

republicans is that they are turning into the taliban. they are like isis, except over in america. it is a basic issue of human decency and respecting factual integrity of reality. it is so clear that all they can do is just lie about basic facts, not even ideology. it is not opinion, not ideology, they are just liars, and you can tell they have no integrity. host: nick in delray beach, florida, republican. how will the economy be impacting your vote? caller: yes, good morning. good morning. the economy will obviously impact my vote. you know, it is really incredible to listen to that last caller from massachusetts spew the hatred and the anger that just shows what an empty

person he is, that he cannot name one fact. all he says is republicans ie, their -- republicans lie, there like the taliban, that is why i am not voting for them. name one thing that makes the republicans like a terrorist organization. let's think about what the democrats have done to this economy. gas prices are almost double what they were when donald trump was in office. president biden, incredibly, shut down america's economic power, our power to produce energy, and turned it over to the russians so they could then invade ukraine. the democrats -- and what does it say about a political party where their number one issue is abortion, which is the right of a woman to get pregnant and then kill the baby anywhere along the line? see, the problem with democrats

is they could not take yes for an answer. and the last thing i would like to say is, in the state of florida, 90% of black voters in the state of florida in the last governors race -- we have another one coming up in a couple of weeks -- 90% of black voters voted for andrew gillum and voted against ron desantis. the last time andrew gillum was heard from -- this is the guy that black voters wanted to make governor of this state that i live in -- he was found passed out naked on a hotel bathroom floor with a naked male prostitute passed on the bed because he had overdosed on heroin. the problem with democratic voters is, and especially black democratic voters, they never want to improve their place in life. host: so how do you know that, nick? ok, let's move on.

darrell in caldwell, idaho, independent. good morning. caller: good morning, greta. basically, as you know, i have talked to you before and told you i have never voted because man does not know how to govern itself. there is bipartisan, what is a bipartisan? we have a country called ukraine. that is where hunter biden used to work. well, republicans, they love hunter biden and they love joe biden. these people, what you see going on is that nato is a profiteering organization. austin, he used to work with rayon. what do they do? they make missiles. host: why did you call in if you do not plan to vote? caller: scripture says satan has to save the whole world, and you have these people talking about

abortion. they are going to vote for that and that, etc. but bottom line, you do not have charge of this body you have. this body is going to be judged by what you do with it. i just want to let you know that the world is on a chaotic move. host: to iowa, wally, democratic caller. will the economy impact your vote? caller: well, it does paired the thing is, the economy, it is not biden's fault. we got the coronavirus, and it is all across the world, the economy is hard for people. i tell you what, donald trump, if he would not have made such a mockery of masks and making the virus be a hoax, there would not have been a big following of those that want to go anti-masking and anti-faxing -- anti-vaxxing, and they made the coronavirus last about a year more than it ever had to.

if he had just tried to help stop it. as far as the tax breaks they want to give big corporations, you know, like sweet honey deals did not pay taxes and cut the taxes on the top 1%, so i think it is really -- although the economy is not the best, i just think the people are doing themselves a disservice if they think they want to vote for the republicans now. and then trump runs, he will get enough support maybe two get the nomination, just like he split up their support before the last time. and those leaders in the republican party, they just look the other way about the january 6 and try to cover up for him. it is just we need to vote. like the person and said, it is about decency and saving our democracy. host: ok.

in the cbs poll, they asked, if the president is responsible for the economy, and 45% of those they asked said a lot, he is to be blamed a lot for the economy. 26% said some. 20% said a little. and only 8% said not at all. let's hear from mary in south carolina, democratic caller. good morning to you. so will the economy impact your vote? what is your financial situation like? caller: social security. and yes, it will affect my vote, as will crime and borders. host: what party do you plan to vote for, mary? caller: well, i was a democrat, but i am changing republican

because biden did not do anything he promised, and he has just screwed our country up with all his wokenism and what they are wanting to teach children in school. and i am just very, very disappointed in him. host: mary, are you on social security? caller: yes, i am. host: were you happy and do you give the president credit for the bump in social security? caller: what bump? you talking about insulin? host: no, no, the increase in social security. here is from "usa today." social security recipients are scheduled to receive an eight point 7% cost-of-living increase in january am of the biggest increase in four decades.

caller: well, inflation is the biggest in four decades, too. he only did that to try to buy votes. host: ok. caller: just like he asked -- the arabs to please just give us -- don't stop the oil until after the elections. also, that is an impeachable offense. he is trying to sway the elections. and they accused trump of, which was a lie. host: ok, mary. fox news sunday, white house economic advisor jared bernstein was asked about the biden

administration's efforts to bring down inflation. here is what he said the president is doing. [video clip] >> we can possibly say things are better or near where they were two years ago. groceries up 13% last month, eggs more than 30%, milk more than 15%. polling shows 71% of americans say they're having to cut back just to afford necessities, not anything fun or luxurious. they say compared to two years ago, there were soft, and of them. what do you say to them? >> let me speak to them directly, which is all of those facts are facts which we are acutely aware. when president biden came to talk about this inflation, he started by talking about exactly that, the squeeze on family budgets. you have to ask yourself, is this administration doing what we need to do to help ease those pressures? remember, these are global price pressures. those statistics, they're

actually worse in europe and the u.k. inflation is higher there -- >> not necessarily, not in france. >> ok, but in the eu in general, i know inflation is in double digits there and the u.k., as well. the reason is because of energy, and we just went through some of those energy numbers here and what you have to ask yourself and what the people you are talking to have to ask themselves, do we have the policy set, and is the fed doing what it needs to do to ease these price pressures? you know the inflation reduction act passed, a measure that lowers prescription drug costs, lowers the cost of insulin, lowers the cost of medical care. there are 13 million families who will be paying $800 less per year. if you were paying $2000, if you were on medicare and nonprescription drugs, you will pay $8,000 under the ira. republicans have said they want to take these measures away.

so if you were paying hundreds of dollars on insulin for months and now you get to pay $35 starting in january, they want to take that away. that is recipe for more inflation, higher costs, not easing the pressures you just took us through. host: the white house economic advisor on fox news sunday. republicans see an edge when it comes to the economy, and polls are reflecting that. here is a national republican congressional committee at against michigan congressman dan kilby, hitting him on the inflation issue. [video clip] ♪ >> what we're dealing with now is a transitory situation. >> hey, transitory and plus short-term. >> yeah, he is out of touch. >> dan kilby does not get it. >> everything is more expensive. >> inflation is killing us. dan kilby does not get it. >> dan kilby has been in washington for 10 years, and we

are paying the price. >> -- responsible for the content of this advertising. host: the latest ad for that race in michigan. we are getting your thoughts on how the economy is impacting your vote. maybe not at all. or it is the driving factor, driving you to vote for one party or the other. we are dividing lines, republicans, democrats, independents. we will hear from kojo in virginia, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. so the gentleman who called in from florida, talking about what the gentleman from massachusetts said about the republicans being dishonest, the men that spoke -- the man that spoke from florida, listen, america, the economy will affect our voting this very term. but the question i am asking, do

the republicans have any idea or any policy that can make any republican caller call in and say it will reduce inflation? we should all stick with the democrats. i think they will be better off than the republicans. last time, 89% went to the richest of the richest of the country. and then the rest of us will have nothing. so they don't think about us. if i had to choose between the two, i will vote with the democrats. host: let's ask a republican. scott in gilbert bell, massachusetts. caller: hi, inflation is definitely going to affect me and this issue. i am having a problem now with the whole, you know, money issue, the cost.

i bought a new house again in massachusetts and trying to fix it up the way i did with my last one. i was able to do my last one for like $20,000 and able to complete the whole house. i am already $35,000 in and have not even got halfway done with it, and that is because of the cost of all the materials that i am having to buy. in some places don't even have that. people don't realize how much this is going to affect the lower and middle class. the gasoline issues that we are having out there and the money that we're dumping into the economy that is raising up all of our inflation so high. and all of us that don't make a lot of money, it is affecting us more than the rich people. the rich people are living fine. they have absolutely no problem. they don't care how high the

inflation goes because they can still live in have a good time. host: what policies do you think -- by republicans, that you have heard, would bring down cost of goods? caller: i think the biggest thing that they could do is if they brought back where we were able to remove some of the government from -- spending, take some of that away and actually allow the oil companies to start producing more fuel into the country and become a mass exporter again of fuel. that thing did a lot of money for this country. that is going to drop our inflation down if we are able to start making our own price, where we are not doing that now. host: so what about the role of the federal reserve? you have heard from the federal reserve chair in previous weeks saying he is not going to stop until the job is done, and that

is trying to bring down inflation by raising interest rates, which some fear could then put us into a recession. do you agree with that approach? caller: well, he has to raise the interest rates, that is the only way we can actually stop the inflation from getting any worse. if you remember the 1970's, we had massive inflation back then and were in a recession for a while. and biden has gone the same route that jimmy carter did, only he is not calling it -- he did not call it a recession, even though three consecutive quarters is considered recession, so we hit a recession a while ago. and i know that the fed has to increase the interest rates, they have to. otherwise, we are going to have runaway inflation. host: ok, is the fed and what

they can do more powerful on this question of inflation than any democratic or republican policy? caller: yeah, they are. absolutely. host: ok. howard in ridgefield, connecticut, democratic caller. caller: good morning. let me try and clear some things up, having an economics degree. what caused inflation, started out probably the $1.9 trillion bill that was done at the beginning of the biden administration, was too big. that probably kicked off a little bit of inflation, to be fair, maybe 2% or something like that. and then we ran into all the blockages from covid as the economy started to recover, that kicked up inflation a lot more. and then ukraine and the invasion by russia, that was the next kicker that drove up global inflation.

that is why we have the high inflation that we have now, not because of anything the democrats did. it is actually republicans who keep increasing the deficit, which bush did, trump did. obama reduced the deficit, as did clinton, as now done by biden. the deficit has come down, spending has come down under biden. so spending is actually helping to reduce inflation now, if you look at it, because government spending is coming down. you are told that is what is causing it -- no. that is not it. and no, the democrats have not, or biden, did not reduce oil production. the xl pipeline was cut. that is not produce any oil. if it had been accepted, it would not be operational today, would not be operational for another year or two. same with any new oil leases.

those generally take seven to 10 years to become operational. so all this stuff about, oh, biden has cut the oil -- no, biden did not cut oil production in this country. that is not it. oil companies have not wanted to invest because they know we are in the process of transitioning to renewable energy. why are we doing that? because scientists are telling us that if you don't, the entire world will become a difficult place for humans to survive on. that is not controversial in climate science. almost everyone is agreeing with that. and you are being told that it is not really true or controversial -- no, it is not. and if we don't do it, if it comes in at the high end of what scientists are projecting, they are not even sure if humans can survive. all right? so we really, really, really have to do -- make that

transition. there might be bumps in the road with that, but we have to do it. host: ok, those comments are reflected in this question from the cbs poll. what is causing higher prices? 63% of those surveyed say supply and manufacturing issues. global factors said 58%. 47% said it is democratic policies causing these higher prices. we are asking if the economy will impact your vote. if so, how? frank in birmingham, alabama, independent. caller: yeah, good morning. i am pretty much a write-in candidate, not necessarily independent. but i say people will vote according to what their landmass is like they say, all politics are local. for me, these are my issues, and i am kind of frustrated because warnock can make a decision if he would support biden or not your not that i would

necessarily support biden. but my situation is this, crime in birmingham, over 124 homicides in the city of birmingham. we are about to break the record for history on homicides in birmingham. secondly, the black farmers. we talk about what we're losing in the ukraine and farm production, well, we will not do the subsidies for the black farmers, and that is just a tragedy for me. and then what really gets me, too, nobody wants to push the reparation issue. and i think that when the representative with the commission on reparation, biden did not even sent any kind of representative from his office. we are getting close to holistically $1 trillion to go for ukraine. i am heavily considering voting a write-in.

it is in the constitution for us to do. we talk independent, talk democrat, talk republicans, but we forget that we still have options. and i am so frustrated right now with america and for two of the dynamic people i respect in the media, joyce with msnbc news and tiffany, two black females, and they said on the show that crime is the number seven issue and black people, we should not be as worried about crime. i do not see how -- if you in the city like i am in birmingham and you have 124 people murdered in this city and crime is not above number seven for black people? i think not. so i don't know. i am being pushed back from the poll. and with senator warnock, could not even say that he would support biden. i mean, we know biden might not be living in 2024. but if you can't say you would

support the current president and you got all that time and tenure, i'm not buying it. so i am not being pushed forward, i am pushed backwards. host: ok, frank in alabama. here is alfredo in michigan with this text, the economy will not to sign my vote, the right of women to choose and seven democracy is more important. the pandemic and war in ukraine are the cause for inflation all over the world. i will be voting straight democrat. brenda in chicago, republican. why are you voting, and who are you voting for? caller: yeah, i will be voting republican. my entire family. and we used to vote democrat. i have never voted republican before, but the democrats hav really let the country down. host: in what caller: the first thing on my list is crime. i live in chicago. we can't use the subway anymore. we can't go into an atm without

a lot of people around us. you know, they are killing the city. they have actually killed the city. and i honestly think that joe biden wants this to happen. he never addresses it. he never addresses the borders. we got all kind of illegal immigrants that have been bussed into chicago. they are all over, some living on the streets now. so this is biden's plan. he wants to kill america, for some reason. i don't know why. host: ok, i am going to leave it there. bill in missouri says the economy is not the only reason i will be voting republican. that is a text message or you can text, as well (202) , 748-8003. include your first name, city, and state. donald in new jersey, democratic caller. welcome.

caller: boy, you can really hear those fox talking points whenever some of these callers talk. as far as your question, the inflation that is going on right now, it is a worldwide issue. if i were to live in italy, i would be dealing with this. so no, i think that right now our democracy is what is really in danger. i think that, for some reason, because of another network, they like to push false information, it is really bad for what used to be the republican party, which used to work with us to get legislation passed. and right now, it is just -- i think even mitch mcconnell said we just need to stop biden 's agenda, 100%. but biden went in and has written more laws that are good for america that, unfortunately,

a lot of our republican friends do not even know about because fox will not cover it. as far as your question, that is where i am at. host: all right, john in massachusetts, independent. good morning. caller: hi, the thing you got to worry about is that central bank. ever since we had that central bank in 1913, we have had global wars. the only ones making money are big corporations on both sides of the planet two the globalist elites who want to control the planet and put everybody on that pass. if you do not agree with them, you get shut down. it is like in china. all working together. host: john, how will you vote in? caller: i will not vote for neither party, because both parties are connected. you deal with europeans who are ruling people of color and are overthrowing africa, yemen's

getting whipped up by the united states because they are over there stealing oil. globalist elites and corporations -- they are being slayed by the elite in this country. host: sandy in seattle, republican. how will the economy impact your vote? caller: well, the economy, yes, you bet you. and i do agree with some of those callers. but the one thing i would like republicans to do to kind of zero in on the cost of insulin, if they did that, that would be great. but this guy that just called was incredible about this cryptocurrency. avoid that at all costs. they are trying to change the value of your money, take your cash and everything you go out and then give you this cryptocurrency which is not going to be worth anything. then they got control of your money and everything. the thing of biden and the crime is horrible. he led in the illegal aliens and some are coming across with that fit no -- fentany. it isl.

killing our children are the crime, he knows about it. there are so many damned illegals, not even citizens that can vote, but he will get all those votes. that is why he ignores them. they ignore the border problem. i think there's only two hopes for us. first of all, before i say that, the main thing is we have to turn back to jesus christ. this is the world going up in smoke. it is just in bad shape. if we start living the right way that he wants to do to live in, he will forgive us and take care of us. but you don't do that to be taken care of, just turn to him. the other hope, the way i feel, is trump. when he was president, we never had any of these problems. he would be closing up that border. that would take care of 50 million people coming across.

and he would take care of those drug dealers. he said he is going to execute, like they do in other countries, a drug dealer, not a drug addict. a drug addict needs to get help and care. host: we will leave it there. want to show you from cnn's sunday show, cecelia rauch, the chair of the presidents council of economic advisers, asked about this inflation question, as well. here it is. [video clip] >> i want to show you and our viewers some of the other data points that they deal with every single day. price of eggs have gone up more than 30%, gas, chicken, coffee, milk, bread have all gone up significantly. these are real kitchen table issues for americans. >> absolutely, and the price of food is part of our inflation challenge. and again, we are focused on it

to the best of our abilities. part of the challenge for food is actually through energy. so putin's war against ukraine, where he has weaponized natural gas and weaponized energy, shows up in food prices, because energy is a big component of fertilizer. we have been working to help ensure farmers are able to export their products and are not sitting on a lot of inventory. our agriculture department is trying to increase supply and yields through a program. so there is no question that families are feeling the squeeze. it is why the president is focused on trying to bring down costs. the inflation reduction act, while it does not directly speak to food, does go to medical care and goes to energy costs. so we are focused on trying to help families get through this. >> let me point to another data point that excludes food and energy, the so-called core inflation number.

president bided how did that as a stash president biden --president biden touted that as a sign that the economy is improving, but his own logic does not show that the economy is actually -- his logic shows the economy is headed in the wrong direction? you >> month on month, it was actually flat. again, a lot of the reason why core inflation increased is because of housing costs and medical costs. host: yesterday, a republican candidate for arizona governor was questioned, and her opponent was asked about inflation and how it would be addressed if she wins and that the governor's race. [video clip] >> i want to start of the question that everybody says is their top issue, and that is the economy. inflation is still near its highest levels in four decades, and in your capital city of

phoenix, it has the highest inflation in the entire country, 13%. so if you are elected governor, what specifically would you do differently to fix that? >> it is a tough issue because it originates, the problem is out of washington, d.c., but we still have to help our citizens here in arizona. and the people suffering the most is the people nearing retirement or who are retired. i talk to so many of them, and they say, i have saved all my life, did everything right, and my retirement savings have shriveled up by a third, i lost one third of it since joe biden took office. so we're going to help in any way we can that is why i velde a plan last week to put half a billion dollars back into the hard-working arizonans pockets by getting rid of our rental tax and our tax on groceries here in arizona. this is not going to harm the city. the general fund, we will help with the next five years with the general fund, and we are

going to make sure that they have enough to get by. this is growing arizona. people want to move here, and our revenues are going up and we have a surplus. we need to hand some of that back over to the hard-working people, and we will. host: the republican candidate for arizona governor, kari lake. she also made some news in that interview yesterday at here is the "washington times," lake locket firm answer on accepting election -- lake will not give firm answer on accepting election results. she did say if i win, i will accept those results. speaking of campaign 2022, former president barack obama plans to be out on the campaign trail as election day nears. here is from the "washington times," as welcome obama will travel to georgia, was sick -- michigan, and wisconsin, all have races that could tip power in the upper changi for democrats. he will be in atlanta october 28

for that race, the following day in michigan, then wisconsin. that from the "washington times." there is this from the associated press news, gop hopefuls turn to the former vice president to broaden appeal before election day. in donald trump's assessment, mike pence committed political suicide on january 6, 2021, by refusing to go along with the thin presidents unconstitutional push to overturn results -- with the then president's unconstitutional push to overturn results. but the vice president lays the groundwork for his own potential 2020 for white house campaign. the man who was booed last year at a conservative conference is now and in have to man draw for

conservative candidates. elizabeth in hawaii, thanks for hanging on the line, democratic caller. how will the economy impact your vote? caller: the economy itself -- good morning. the economy itself will not affect my vote in a single way. it is mixed in with so many issues. you have had some really great callers earlier. i will be voting democrat, straight democratic ticket. i believe the corporations and the ultra-wealthy have been given significant gifts with not paying taxes and being held accountable for massive profits. and until such time that the corporations, the ultra-wealthy, even the churches -- i believe

churches should pay taxes if they are going to involve themselves in politics, then they are no longer exempt in my opinion from paying their fair share of taxes. so the economy itself is an important issue, for sure, but the pandemic and ukraine, the war in ukraine, have affected prices. it has affected availability of goods. and as so many of your callers have stated, it is not just the united states. this is a global issue. for those of us that are older, i remember, i was a young the voter when jimmy carter was elected. inflation was -- i was hardly earning anything, could barely make ends meet. and inflation is cyclical. and when you throw in worldwide events into the recipe, you come up with where we are now. the republicans have done absolutely -- host: and hawaii is an expensive

place to live before inflation. give our viewers an idea what it is like when you go to the grocery store. how much do things cost? caller: oh, i am a very frugal person. i i just prefer to keep my expenses limited. hawaii has always been expensive. but my husband grew up here and when covid hit, we moved back here. we were living in the upper northeast prior to that. so costs are high in the upper northeast, so it is very similar. but yes, hawaii is very expensive, always has been. in our area, we do not have to pay for heating our homes. electricity is really, really high now. but that is a component of many things. fuel prices is part of that. to give you an idea of prices, gas is high. we are an island, isolated.

everything has to be imported -- not everything, but a lot of things, most things have to be imported. but we are at a different stage in our life here and we do not have young children anymore. so we are able to reduce our cost somewhat so. but yeah, i am conscious of it every month. every month i am aware of needing to focus on our budget. but my point is that some of the callers earlier, iowa, connecticut, massachusetts, they brought up really great points. if you are a democrat and ever take the time, against my will, i will watch fox news to hear what is said, and it is dangerous. that network is dangerous, and the propaganda is dangerous. host: ok, we're going to take some other calls. joe, syracuse, new york, independent. caller: hi, i would say that the

last election, i voted for biden . on the covid issue. i voted for trump the first time. when joe biden said he was going to, you know, defeat the virus, do what he could, i kind of went for it. covid is still here. covid actually got worse under him. but as far as the economy goes, the economy is a huge factor for me. i am going to vote republican across the board this time. this government spending is out of control. we have spent $7 trillion so far this year. just, the government spending is out of control. my college tuition is already paid off. we are paying people back for their college tuition. if you want to reform that -- i mean, the quality of education has not gotten any better. so why don't we just make these

colleges, especially these schools here in new york, since they are state schools, why don't we just lowered the tuition and make it more affordable for people? host: so you trust republicans to spend less money? caller: yeah, yeah. when trump was in office, for a lot of these things that we were doing, this money we give other countries, he was charging people for it. like, hey, you want us to help south korea? we started charging south korea for protecting them, basically, things like that. yeah, we have spent a lot of money under this administration. we talk about the southern border. i remember that being a thing. obama spent more money on the southern border than any other president in history, but when trump wanted to build a wall for $5 billion, we called it racist and said we cannot afford it. democrats spend way more money. host: in 2016, you voted for president trump? caller: i did. host: 2020, voted for joe biden?

in 2024, if it is another matchup between those two, who do you vote for? caller: i am voting for donald trump. host: charlotte in houston, texas, republican. caller: good morning, greta. first of all, the economy is going to be a major factor in this election. for me, it is, and for people that i know, it is. but there's two things i would like to ask of you, greta. during the 2020 covid update, president trump asked powell to stop raising the interest rate. if you could go through your files and find it, people need to know that. this man was ahead. he knew what was going to happen. and nobody brings that up. the other thing is, if you could

correct and give us more information, democrats keep saying how they're taking care of the drugs crisis, that they can negotiate now. and everybody on social security, trust me, wants that. but they neglect to say it is for 10 drugs, not for every drug. it is for 10 drugs. so unless you are taking that drug, it ain't helping you much. host: on prescriptions, there is news this morning in "washington post," you can now purchase hearing it's without a prescription. five years after congress told the fda to act, new rules give consumers greater control over hearing care. the government on monday, today, will begin allowing pharmacies and big-box stores to sell hearing aids without a prescription, and move that is expected to shake up an industry that has long been dominated by

handful of manufacturers in a model of care that critics said raise cost and cycle -- stifled innovation. a call from idaho falls, idaho, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i am glad i called in. i just want to say, yes, i am voting democrat, as usual, because i see great results with what they do. host: with what? what results have you seen? why do you give them credit? caller: well, if there wasn't great results, we would be worse than where we are right now. policies and decisions, you know, sometimes in life, you just got to go through. you know, you going to get hard times. i think people nowadays, people

been so rich in everything they did, even middle-class, now they hit a bump in the road and now are feeling the grind. as far as wages, when they wanted the wage limit to go up, i figured that if you don't raise -- if you are going to raise wages, thing companies are going to raise prices to make up for the wages. and that is what is happening right now, too, besides for people who don't want to worker people who are working, you know, everything is not going to be -- everybody is not going to have steak and chicken. some going to have beans and rice, which we did all our life. so we learned to live on less. i don't spend a lot of money. you don't need to, you have everything. god blessed you with everything.

now why are you just being like you don't have anything? we got more than we need. host: ok. ramal in richmond, virginia, independent. how will the economy affect your vote? caller: good morning to america. listen, i would like to say something about the gentleman called from florida, spewing the venom this morning about black people don't want to change the quality of their lives, they don't vote their interests. first of all, let me tell you every time the black man do try to come up, they put in shenanigans, and we understand worldwide that we are being politically exploited, economically exploited, and it is social segregation. so we don't not need to get on national radio spewing that venom about we don't want to change the quality of our lives. ask the people in west virginia

if they want to change the quality of their life and who they vote for. trump promised to open the coal mines back up. did he do it? no, man, it is just a facade. listen, i don't vote. i don't care who calls in talking about voting, because it don't help for nothing. don't electoral college decide who is the president? yeah, they count up the votes, but it don't count for nothing. thank you. host: john in sacramento, democratic caller. you are next. caller: yeah, hello, greta. the whole thing is nuts, you know, let me tell you. it is racism, ok. we got to a point now to wear the veil has been pulled over these white folks' eyes, and they are sick of taking care of black people. and there voting for anybody that don't want to be taking care of black folks no more. all these benefits we been getting. you know, we needed everything

we fought for. but at the same time, they don't want us to have nothing. so right now, we're at a point to where this whole country is turned against anybody who ain't white, ok? even black people calling in talking about being republicans. how you going to be republican when it gets your behind? next time the country come across something like this and it be a white man in leadership and on the republican side, they don't say nothing. every time a democrat comes in and want to help the blacks and other races, they start touting about the deficit and inflation and all that type of stuff. as soon as them white men get in there and give them white folks them tax breaks, they all for

it. but you know, we don't have a chance to review black folks, you don't have a chance. it is coming around. you going down, ok? host: we will go on to lester, a republican in sandy, oregon, our last for this first hour. caller: hi, greta. i appreciate it. the economy, we are talking about the economy, folks. the economy in that we may be going to seven dollars or eight dollars per gallon here. everything is expensive here in oregon. you would not think it would be, but our governor, the more and

more we are getting taxed in the state of oregon, i don't want to go into politics, but what my concern is, is the economy is really busting in oregon. the farmers are being hurt and the ranches and stuff because when we have to raise prices to ship it, shipping the meat and vegetables and stuff, what's happening is it is busting the economy. it costs more and more money to ship, and people are wondering why and what is causing this. it is insane. host: i have to leave it at that point.

we have to take a break paired when we come back, this november's midterm elections also concern races that concern the congress across the country. jessica post will join us to discuss efforts to return control to democrats. and then we will focus on the physical condition with charles blahaus, who has served as a safety net trustee for both programs. ♪ >> c-span's campaign 2022 coverage of the midterm elections continues, with candidate debates from around the country, including live tonight at 7 p.m. eastern, with the georgia governor facing a political activist. don't miss a single election moment on c-span. and take us with you on the go with c-span now, our free local video app.

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election, feature yourself as a newly elected member of congress. we ask this year's competitors, what is your top priority and why? make a five minute to six minute video that shows the importance of your issue, from opposing and supporting perspectives. don't be afraid to take risks with your documentary. be bold. among $100,000 in cash prizes is a $5,000 grand prize. videos must be submitted by january 20, 2023. visit our website at studentcam.org for competition rules, tips, resources, and a step-by-step guide. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker "play c-span radio" and washing to -- and listen to "washington journal" daily. weekdays at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. eastern, catch "washington today" for a fast-paced report on the stories of the day.

listen to c-span anytime. just tell your smart speaker " play c-span radio." c-span, powered by cable. >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: running as today is jessica post, president of the democratic legislative campaign committee.

you have a total of over 7000 legislators. how is your group trying to change that, change those numbers? guest: certainly, democrats were taken over in 2010. we are still paying for those consequences. the second best time is right now. we are doing everything we can to raise awareness and funds to make sure campaign funds can go down on ballots. part of our job is to protect the existing majorities. in 2010, democratic legislators

took their eye off the ball. host: how so? guest: democrats spent essentially $10 million to the republicans $30 million. it was a good cycle for the republicans and they were every -- they were able to gerrymander themselves and every legislature. host: and that is why you say that. why does it matter? guest: it matters so much. it matters from revo, how you are able to vote, if you need a voter id, if you can access abortion in your state, and now with the supreme court, we know more and more things are going back to the state. if we can win at our level, it means voting rights will get stronger. everything the democratic majority has done to support

choice, increase gun safety, and lgbtq quality -- equality. we have a different country, essentially, where republicans control the government. host: if you want to join in this conversation on the 2022 state legislatures. what issues are important to you? democrats, republicans, and independents, what is dividing the line? guest: as democrats, for a long time, we thought the federal government would come in to save us. that was with the history of civil rights and some any other things. but the reality is that the federal government is not coming in to save us anymore. we need to focus on federalism, or we can build state-based power. that is the only way we can win.

has been a lot of progress under the biden administration with the inflation reduction act and the american rescue plan. we still know that there's just laois and that got locked up in congress. but state legislatures have legislation flying through. i think the challenge is just me going into talk about state legislatures. as you might expect, people are much more interested in speaking to speaker pelosi or leader schumer or anyone who has a bigger name and a bigger profile. i think that is largely our problem. we haven't been able to open as many doors or get as many democrat donors to understand the importance of legislatures. whereas, republicans have access to all those donors. they gave them a greater return on investment in 2010 to still hang on. host: for viewers who have reached out, jessica post on the

o sundial, we are hoping that someone from those groups join us here on "washington journal," so you can ask questions of them as well for state legislatures. you have a strategy of engaging moderate voters. why? guest: in many legislative district across the country, we have to win in traverse city, michigan. we cannot turn out voters in detroit or kalamazoo. we have to win in the suburbs and small towns, often in rural america. we have to pursue moderate voters, but also turnout democrats in places where no one else in the party is turning those democrats out. that is imported, getting those voters. host: what are the issues moderate voters care about you? guest: what we are hearing a lot about is the reversal of roe v. wade. people are saying, i'm afraid that my daughters will have fewer rights than i had,

especially in states where abortion was banned by a law from the 1800s or 1900s, or trigger bands. we also hearing about rising costs. i am hearing that for my immediate family as well. democrats have a really good record to run on in majority states. they provide a lot of relief for voters. republicans, it is all chaos and rhetoric. they have no plan to do anything about it. the third is just democracy. we are hearing from voters, why is it difficult to vote, especially after the junior six hearing? what can be done? with to do a lot of work to tie that to state legislatures. host: let's hear from our viewers on that point. if you have concerns about voting in your state, that is at stake here. jessica post is here to talk about state legislature in campaign 2022. (202) 748-8001 for republicans.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text, you can do so at (202) 748-8003. here are some current democratic majorities. colorado house and senate. the main house and senate. the nevada assembly and senate. michigan house and senate. minnesota senate. how do you plan to keep those majorities? guest: we will be looking to flip the minnesota's. host: those are vulnerable. [cross-talking] guest: so much of our job is to cycle democratic majorities.

with been clear about what a cycle might look like since the beginning. didn't when he 14, our last democratic presidential midterm, we lost chambers in nevada. the stakes could not be higher this year. there's about 700 republicans that signed on to "stop the steal." there's about 100 defending districts trying to control voting in states. now, with the advancement of independent state legislatures doctrine, where republicans are saying they are given a constitutional right to set the time of elections and to certify presidential elections, and we learned so much about that during the january 6 hearing, these republicans are running and they believe the big lie. they don't believe president biden won the election. arizona, nevada, colorado, michigan, pennsylvania, these republicans might not certify an

american residential election. they may intervene in other elections governed by voting laws. that is what is at stake here. host: the republican has strong holds on these houses and senates. the governor in orlando florida -- in orlando, florida, go ahead. caller: i have a question. i heard the other day that the illegals coming across the border -- she probably knows a lot of the stuff -- coming across the border, do they get a social security card? guest: i'm going to jump in. host: that's actually not jessica post expertise. she is here about campaign 2022 and state legislatures. we have heard from viewers today the economy, crime, and the border. guest: i think these are all

concerns. immigration, to your point, is a federal policy area. it is not necessarily my area. we do know some of the democratic majorities during the trump administration said we won't help build the border wall, and many of them really resisted in state. out of my expertise, but my hope is that the folks that are coming to this country find a path to citizenship. host: don in venice, florida, independent. don, good morning to you. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me talk. this is directed at the lady that is on there now. she is wrong about abortion. that is not the most important thing. the economy is.

the border, all these things, they don't reflect what the real problems are. when i go to the grocery store and it costs me double, that gets my attention. it all started because of bidens war on our own oil. look back at 1973. everything is tied to oil. he really stumbled bad. i think he is a stupid president anyway. i think you democrats are in for a rude awakening. abortion is not that important. host: jessica post. guest: i have to agree to disagree here. abortion is important to a lot of voters. we heard that in polling. but i agree with you on the economy. a lot of people are feeling the squeeze at the grocery store and at the pump. i think as democrats, especially in the states, we have a good record to run on, in terms of the inflation reduction act. but in addition to that, i think

we, in many states, the democratic majorities have passed significant relief in the form of tax credits, gas tax holdback. i don't know what the republican solution is to inflation. is it to curb corporate profits? i don't know the answer. but it is all chaos on their side. i'm interested in the solution and i haven't heard one from the republican party. host: mike in north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. everybody knows that biden made the war on american fossil fuels. he and opec and the saudi king -- sorry, prince, shut him down. he does not want to make american corporations get a profit. these big corporations, when they invest money, they hire

people. the abortion thing, everybody is on the democrat side about the abortion thing. everybody, why don't they practice safe sex, birth control? why does the government have to pay for these abortions? if they do that and the abortion is for a mother's life or something like that, rape and incest, i agree with. host: i'm going to jump in. jessica post. guest: to the economy and the fact that the president is a democrat hurting your fundraising chances, as well as chances to have democratic legislatures. i think people look at the economy and the people in charge. they hold them accountable. i think the president has done great things, in terms of making record investments in infrastructure and doing everything we can to get the economy back on track. but again, people are seeing

rising cost. i think a lot of that has taken corporate profits. some of that, i think is tied to people needing to pay a higher wage to their workers to make sure they retain them. what i would like to see is a little more accountability for ceos. they are making more than ever. and again, more accountability on profits. i really think that those are some key issues that will definitely affect the election. but what we need from candidates is to go out and tell your story. if you struggled in this economy, did you go to school, did you need to student loans, etc.? those are the things that will make the change in the election, our candidates being able to talk door-to-door about the issues that they care about and what they will do about it. host: melvin in florida, democratic caller. caller: thank you. i believe what you stated was

wrong about getting people to vote. you are right, it started back in 2010 with obama. when he got an office, black people and a lot of other people thought he was going to be donald trump. once he said something he was going to do, it was done, they were going to get it. what they did not know is that when you have a governor there, whatever the president since back to the state, the governor has an opportunity to deal with it in other ways then they were initially going to be from the president. therefore, they don't know anything about making sure they elect people in their own states, their own city, so they are able to have those people who can influence their state government and do the things the president sets down. when you have a republican governor there handling it, and he is sitting there and not doing it that way, they are not going to get all the things they

thought they voted for. the problem is they have to be educated to know that it starts from the ground level. all the stuff about money all the time is necessary, but it is not the main issue. they have to be educated on how the system works. none of you all are saying that. you don't deal with the issues. host: melvin, let's give jessica post a chance to respond. guest: i give -- i agree with you. i think it is a really good point, and states like texas and florida, for example, haven't been able to exceed -- to get medical expansion, even though it will literally save people's lives. georgia is another place for medicaid expansion has not happened. there are rural hospitals closing all over georgia, as well as urban hospitals. melvin, you make a really good point. one of the challenges we see is to talk about the impact of state government. instead of folks just thinking

things happen at the federal level, there are some any resources transferred down to the state level, and more and more laws. i agree with you and i think as democrats, we need to do a better job communicating that. part of our job is to educate voters and to educate the public about the role of state legislatures and state government. but we are sort of behind in this. i think it is a really important point about educating folks about the center -- the system. host: dolores. caller: i clearly agree with the last color. people do need to be educated down the ballot, from the state level all the way up to the white house. but joe biden is not responsible for everything. it is about these governors. my main problem is this, history really speaks for itself, and i have not seen in the last couple of decades that a republican

president has left america in a good state. i remember when barack obama delivered trump a good economy. this is not on joe biden. he is doing a cleanup job from what donald trump left. just like bill clinton left america in a good place and then we always have to come and clean up. i am an independent voter. i have voted republican as well as democrat. it depends on who has my interest. but i do think the voters need to be educated. the economy is on the plate, but biden is doing a cleanup job because trump was left with a good economy. guest: i agree with that completely. trump left a giant mess in washington in the united states be at he did not handle the pandemic the right way and he

just had chaos at he was obviously more focused at the end on overthrowing the will of american voters. president biden come on the other hand, came in. he is a serious person and is trying to clean things up. the economy has actually been better under democratic presidents historically. hopefully, we will see that under president bynum. but the same thing, president obama had to come in and clean up a mess with the housing market. and eventually, he really turn around the economy. i completely agree with dolores on this. host: are there specific state legislative races you're paying attention to, and if so, which ones and why? guest: we have several races. in a state like michigan, we are looking at a few key races in the state senate. there is a great candidate there. he is a young candidate, a teacher, and he is crossing over to run in the state senate. this is someone who has really

captured the attention of voters across the country. there's also one running up in bay city, michigan for state senate. a great candidate. i think that will be a key race out there. out in colorado, we could not be more proud. another in colorado as well. his son was a victim of the theater shooting in colorado. he has been running on a gun safety agenda. i think there are some state legislative candidates with great story to tell. the candidates who came out to run this year, we could not be more proud of. host: jay, edgewater, florida, republican. caller: good morning. one thing i would like to say to your guest is, you can now buy hearing aids over-the-counter. so if you can say you can't understand what the republicans have as a policy for reducing inflation, you haven't been

listening. the other thing is, you need to really get a grip on history, because when you sit there and say that it has been better underneath the democratic rule, as opposed to republican rule for the economy, you don't look at what the congress was at the time. for example, when bill clinton was in office, you want to claim that it was better under him. except for the fact that the senate and house were under republican control and he had to work with them. it is very misleading the way that you say things. and as far as this whole issue about abortion being the main topic, you can push it and push it and push it, but people voted that people go to the gas station and the grocery store, and they all know why it costs more. you spend $1.8 trillion in the first 1.5 years of your economy -- of your office and you expect the economy to be better?

what is this reduction act that you claim? first of all, it doesn't take place for another year. second, it only applies to a couple of drugs. and not everybody in this country are on those drugs. we are talking about 2% of population that it will help. it is ridiculous. host: we will have jessica post respond. guest: history does show that economies are better under democratic presidents, but i do see your point, similar to the point that dolores and melvin made, where the economic system is much bigger than just the president. i really agree with that. certainly when president obama came in, there was a democratic congress were part of the time he was there as well. i agree that we should dig in more. i don't think i need a hearing aid. i think i have heard loud and clear just absolute silence, in terms of what they're going to do to reduce inflation. we talked at the beginning, republicans controlled the majority of the united states,

including your state majority imported. i think you might be seeing that relief in the state. one thing that they could do is try to provide better benefits for folks. i think that would reduce the cost in the state of florida. host: who do candidates want with them on the campaign trail, with all the political colleagues they have on a national level, whether it be president biden or his wife, the first lady jill biden? guest: do tend to see the first lady, biting, out in the field campaigning for state legislative campaigns. we see secretary buttigieg out, secretary holmes, and so many other folks. we are also really pleased to have seen members of congress like ng craig campaigning with state legislative candidates and other members of congress that really understand that state

legislatures are key in that there is a relationship between winning state legislative races and winning other tickets. host: want to show your response to this. this is the democratic ledge of campaign committee add on whether or not president biden will campaign for those running for state offices. >> we have a great -- none [inaudible] pres. biden: that is a serious question. ♪ pres. biden: with all due respect, that is a bunch of malarkey. host: jessica post? guest: republicans, i think it is hard. i think they are obsessed with

me sometimes. they have lost track of everything. president biden has been on the campaign trail in pennsylvania and a lot of places. i think president obama, as you are discussing this morning, is heading out on the campaign trail. he is a powerful surrogate. when the virginia state legislature was up, it was as if they had built a border between washington dc and virginia to not let president trump in. they had some trouble with their surrogates, and terms of president trump. very unpopular still. essentially, as we've heard from the january 6 committee, he is culpable in the coup against the united states government. i'm not even sure what to say here. i think president biden has a lot of mess to clean up from president trump. we are excited to see him out on

the trail. host: don in florida, democratic color. -- color -- democratic caller. don, are you there? we lost him. check out the lcc. org. jessica post, thank you very much for the conversation this morning. guest: thank you so much, greta, and thank you to all the colors. host: we will take a short break. we will be opening up calls to policy issues. after that, we will have charles blahaus with demarcated center, to talk about social security and medicare. we will be right back. ♪

>> this election day, november 8, the control of power and congress is at stake. will republicans retake the house? can democrats regain control of the senate? from now until election i, follow c-span coverage on key house and senate races with our coverage of debates, rallies, and candidate event. events as they happen on tv and the c-span now app. on demand on our website. and find our data rich page at c-span org. -- c-span.org/campaign2022. >> c-span shop is our online store. there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operation. shop now or anytime at c-span shop.org.

>> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. what (202) 748-8000 -- >> "washington journal" continues. host: any public policy issues that are undermined, you can start dialing in now. that includes campaigns for 2022. this is a headline from "the hill" newspaper. utah emerges as a wildcard in a battle for the senate. the utah senate race between the

conservative republican senator and the independent evan mcmillan has emerged as a potential wildcard in the battle for senate. recent polls show the race is close, with mcmillan trailing by only a few points. republican victories are usually all but guaranteed. lee is a conservative who supported president trump's challenge to the election results in 2020. but his unpopularity among moderates and democrats have driven his approval ratings down to the low 40's. mcmullen, for his part, he said that if he wins the senate seat, he will not caucus with democrats or republicans. he will state and independent. he will press on this issue whether or not one has the majority or another, he said no, he will still maintain his independence. republican groups, creditroup are both behind mcmullen in this

race. they will be debating tonight at 8 p.m. eastern time. we will have coverage tt debate right here on c-span on our website, c-span.org. or you canisn or watch with our free mobile app, c-span now. al, p.m. eastern time, the georgigornor's debate. th is happening right here on c-ans well. live coverage of that between thincumbent brian kemp and stey abrams, the democrat trying to unseat him. this is for the governor c. 7 p.m. eastern right here on c-span, on our website c-span.org, or you can download our free mobile app, c-span now. bob in oregon, democratic color. what is on your mind? we are in open form. caller: i had two points i'm really concerned about. one is, i have never heard anybody be asked by these republicans that are screaming about everything what they would

do to fix it. what is their plan? my second opinion is, i don't believe the republican party is any more concerned about governing, but more in ruling. host: ok. caller: i am sorry to see it go down like that. i used to be a republican. but they have lost all credibility. host: ok. larry and iowa, republican, good morning to you. what is your public policy issue? caller: good morning, greta. i just wanted to comment about the value of my portfolio. it is roughly around 400 thousand dollars starting. but this last quarter, it decreased by $100,000. i just wanted to let you know about that. host: is that what is driving you to the polls in november? caller: well, i knew before then

what i wanted to vote for, and it is not for what's going on right now. host: so, you voted for republican? caller: yes. host: in is a democratic caller. good morning to you. caller: good morning. no one is a firstly is that i think the most important thing to maintain is democracy. i think it is very important that we look at the election deniers. election denying is the first step in a dictatorship. usually in those countries, that is the first thing to happen. they deny elections. i think that we need to clean up all of the election deniers that are running for office. i think also, people don't

really understand that they can look at the countries that now have a third term dictatorship and see what it is like. i think the most important thing is to maintain democracy. thank you. host: robert in virginia, independent. good morning. caller: thank you. greta, you really look nice this morning, as always. there were just on the news about turkey making a new law saying that anybody that gives false information about the things they have been doing over here, they can be charged and go to jail. [indiscernible] there no politicians on either side that would take a chance on because they would all end up in jail. that would be interesting to see how the people would vote if there was a wall like that.

only 30%, they said, of people now would vote for donald trump. i hope that is the truth because i would like to see a decent republican get up there, or a conservative. i hope there's a few. host: the former president making news this morning with his postings on his social media website with the headline quote trump attacks american jews, says they must get their act together on israel before it's too late." there's also this news this morning. kanye west, this is on cnbc, agrees to buy the conservative social media platform "parler," according to the company. in wisconsin, richard, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. nobody is talking about the

weaponization of the federal government to spy on a candidate, which just came out in a trial where hillary clinton's campaign, the fbi paid for it. they used every facet of the government to go after the opposition. but that doesn't seem to be getting much play. host: international news with the headline, as many of you have probably seen this morning, "ukraine attack by, causey drones --, caze -- kamikaze drums -- owns --drones." russia will "never promise to

renounce force." let's hear from michael in texas, republican. good morning, go ahead. caller: good morning, greta. nice talking to you this morning. since world war ii, we have been confronted with maybe two wars, one in taiwan and one in ukraine. i don't see our state department or leaders telling us about what's going on. we may have a nuclear outbreak in ukraine, the we have an additional type of war probably over in taiwan. i am really worried about that and how the young people of america are going to handle it. have had two boys who both served in the military, i served in the military.

i just don't see where our military is going be strong enough to handle that, and that really concerns me. host: michael in texas. benjamin in new york, democratic caller. hi, benjamin. caller: yes, my concern is the war going on between ukraine, and we had three years over there in afghanistan. that's a lot of money we spent over there. what a lot of people don't know if that we were helped back in the wars, back in world war ii and things like that. everybody's try to say biden is doing a good job, and his hands are tied. i am glad he got the people out

of afghanistan, because trump was supposed to get them out and he didn't. there's a lot of things that america did not get, as far as transparency is concerned. the man is doing the best he can as president. we have a war inside our country with militants and so-called patriots, and i am a veteran. the last time we had any americans being americans was 9/11. after that, the country fell apart, especially when trump got in there. he just made this country what it is today. we don't need anybody like him. anybody that votes for him or can see why he is doing this is crazy. but we still have some crazy

people out there. there's a whole bunch of crazies out there. that's all i've got to say. host: al in florida, independent, good morning. caller: good morning t. i just wanted to say, first of all, you are brave for having these conversations the jessica lady that was on earlier, god bless her. i don't think anybody is trying to attack anyone. here is what i think. she talked about the tax cuts and giving us more of a break at the pump and all of that. that is fine. but here's my problem. don't buy my vote. if you really want to help out americans, don't let the tax break just be for a short period of time. honestly, after the election, nobody seems to remember any of us out here trying to make ends meet. then, they say, look what we did

for you, we roll back some tax credits. how about giving me a slice of the pie instead of a crumb. a crime does not do anything for my pocket. if you sense -- a few sense does not do anything i think it is a huge issue right now. i am an independent because, to be honest with you, i get tired of both parties. host: al, who are you going to vote for, val demings or marco rubio? caller: it is still up in the air. i know we are getting down to the wire, but i still have not really decided. only because at this point, there are issues on both sides of the aisle that need to be cleaned up. host: al, 21 days to decide for it here's a headline in "usa today." "millions of seniors struggle to survive." for more and more americans,

dreams of retiring are morphing into a nightmare. the cause of this impending doom is two words, financial insecurity. 40% of older americans are predicted to become poor or near poor in retirement. this new inflation data will be released. we are going to be talking about social security and medicare, coming up after the break. we will be talking with the merc atus center's charles blahaus for both of those. we will write back. -- we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span campaign 2022 coverage of the midterm elections continues, with candidate debates from around the country,

including live tonight at 7 p.m. eastern, we georgia governor brian kemp facing clinical activist stacey abrams. don't miss a single election moment on c-span. and take us with you on the go with c-span now, our free mobile video at. also, be sure to visit c-span.org/campaign2022 for all midterm election coverage on demand. c-span, your unfiltered view of politics. ♪ >> stay up-to-date in publishing with books. you can find about books on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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>> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us this morning is charles blahaus, a senior research strategist at george mason university's makeda center. he is also a former trustee on the social security and trust fund from 2010 to 2015. thank you for being here. appreciate it. let's start with this announcement of a raise, and increase for cost-of-living for social security recipients. 8.7%. that is the biggest increase in four decades. guest: yes, and it ought to remind us of a couple of things. one is how enormously important social security inflation protections are. try to imagine if your retirement income sources were limited and he had a nearly 9% drop in your purchasing power over the course of a sigel year. that will be a very dramatic change in your standard of living.

we also don't know when inflation is going to be ameliorated. there was also social security protections built in since the 1970's. we have been fortunate in last four decades to live in an environment where inflation has not been rampant. that is no longer the case. this is surely a reminder of the importance of the program and protections to beneficiaries. at the same time, it is also a wake-up call that something needs to be done to save those in the program. if that is not done, the social security financing structure will not be able to be maintained. there's a large number of those who could lose these protections. host: that is the question, can the social security trust fund for this increase for recipients? guest: this is actually a really interesting question to people like me, which is that the effects of inflation are often a mixed bag and sometimes counterintuitive ways.

obviously, larger checks going out strains the financial system, there's no question about that. but there also tends to be a correlation with an increase in the amount of wages that are subject to social security tax. we are actually seeing that this year. as part of last week's announcement, the increased the cap automatically on wages that are subject to the social security tax. it went up from 147,000 to 160,000. at the same time the program is going to make bigger benefit payments, it is also collecting more revenue. we are also living in an environment where interest rates are going up. that is actually good for the social security trust fund because it means the treasury securities that it holds and its trust funds should earn a higher rate going forward. there's a lot of "on the one hand, on the other hand." yes, it is strained, and yes, the program needs financial rescue. it is not clear whether things will get to much worse in the short term. host: and when does it need

financial rescue? guest: i would say immediately, if not sooner. yesterday. i think this is such an important issue. there's a lot of misunderstanding about this in the public at large, and certainly impressed coverage. there's often an undue emphasis on the date of trust fund completion, which is -- depletion, which is currently projected to be in the mid-20 20's or 20 30's. a little factoid that i like to sometimes mention is that if you were to wait until the trust funds were on the verge of depletion to try to enact a rescue, you would not be able to keep the program from becoming absorbed, even if you cut off any new claims. that dramatizes that we are getting past the point of no return now. if we do care about this program, if we do care about

maintaining historic financial structure, lawmakers need to overcome the intense political polarization of our time on that topic. host: is it too big to fail? in other words, with every market repercussions? guest: this is one of those questions where if you ask different experts, you will get different as that she will get different answers. i think most agree that we will have a social security program, no matter what. it will not disappear, lawmakers will get rid of it. i don't think people need to worry about that. i think experts generally agree on that. where i think you find it more of a diversity on opinion is the likelihood that the historic financing structure of social security would have to be done away with. that is very important. social security is a unique animal in the federal government. it is financed by a payroll tax, it is financed yet separate trust funds. it is not merged in with the general budget. because of that, people on social security have enjoyed a unique level of security and

liability in their benefits that you don't see in so-called welfare programs. whenever you see a program that is advanced from the general fund, he if the interest of beneficiaries on the one hand and income taxpayers on the other hand. you have frequent relitigation's of eligibility rules, all of that. social security has escaped that, but only because of this idea that workers had earned their benefits via the money they pay into the trust funds. that sort of system requires us to be willing to balance programs and benefit schedules and payroll tax collections. if we are not willing to do that , and of late, lawmakers have not been willing to do that, then we have to have a different financial structure. that will be one where benefits will be much more changeable from year-to-year. programs that are financed from the general fund tend to means tax, constant changes to eligibility rules and the light, and this will be happening to social security. that is where we are heading if

we don't actsing. i don't think there is ample recognition of that right now. host: what are some proposals for changing the way this is funded? could wealthy people pay more into the system? we talked about the cap earlier. what are some ideas? guest: unfortunately, we are in a situation now where neither side of the political aisle can completely get its way, whether you are someone who once to restrain the growth of program spending or someone who thinks the problem can be solved by raising taxes. you cannot get there just by doing one of the other. you have to do it all. you have to moderate the rate of benefit growth, you have to bring more revenue into the system, you have to change eligibility ages. at this point, the numbers are so dramatic and the shortfall is so large that there is really no realistic way of getting there with just one avenue or another. the good news is that forces people to compromise if they are willing to do it. neither side of the ideological

spectrum can take the problem on their own. host: raising the age, what do you think it needs to go to? guest: i think that's a function of what the political traffic can bear. if you were to ask me that from a purely policy perspective, the right policy answer is that eligibility ages should track changes in actual longevity and we should have stability in the ratio of the number of years that you spend collecting benefits and the number of years he's been working. we haven't come anywhere close to that. the eligibility ages would have to rise -- you would have to raise it two or three years over the next 75 years in order to begin to make headway on that. who knows whether politically that would happen. but it is very difficult to do it without some increase in the eligibility age. if lawmakers are able to increase by just one or two years, an important point i like to make about this is that back when social security was first

established, you could not collect benefits until the age of 65 years old. now, you can collect at 52 years old. that is the most common age of claim. that is not going to work when we are living a lot longer. we can raise that earliest eligibility age by as much as three years and still collect social security as early as the generation that fought in the spanish-american war. i am a believer that the eligibility ages over the span of the next century could rise by as much as five years. politically, that is much more difficult. but from a policy perspective, that's really the best approach to take, because it has a number of benefits, including reducing risk of poverty in old age. one of the things that academic researchers have found out is that even a change of a few months, when you choose to retire, can do as much for your retirement income security as saving an extra percentage of

your earnings over your entire career. even if workers can stay in the workforce a little bit longer, a lot fewer are going to retire into poverty or experience poverty when they reaches that ages of 85 years old to 95 years old. host: i want to invite our viewers to join in the conversation. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. ? --independents, (202) 748-8002 . social security recipients, we want to hear what this race could get you. -- raise to get you. (202) 748-8003. with a 9% decrease in purchasing power, they are bumping up benefits to a .7%. now, they will be able to do what with that? guest: i would say catch up, basically. the way this is calculated is based on price inflation we saw in the economy from the third

quarter of last year to the third quarter of this year. this will help out over the coming year. they have been suffering. suffering over the last year. what was paid last year was not as large as the coming year, and it has not kept up with that. at best, they are really catching up about a year late for the inflation that occurred over last year. no one is getting rich off of this. this is a situation where purchasing power has declined, and social security, thank goodness, has inflation protections. but even those inflation protections are about one year delayed from the actual effect as experienced by consumers. host: before we get to calls, let's talk about medicare. what is the state of medicare? guest: i sometimes say that social security faces a larger financial shortfall, but medicare experiences a more immediate one. medicare is projected to be insolvent within this decade.

but that is an incomplete picture by itself because medicare has multiple components. there is a hospital insurance trust fund, and that is projected to be insolvent within this decade. lawmakers are going to need to do something about that. but there is another component of medicare, supplementary medical care trust fund. that is something that can never go insolvent. it will get whatever revenues it needs from premiums and general government subsidies, federal subsidies. but that does not mean it does not have financial strains. it does. it is just expensed in a different way, the rising pressure on the federal budget, rising pressure on taxpayers, rising pressure on premium payers. the good news, if news, if therd news with medicare, because medicare has skated closer to the insolvency line for a longer time, the hole that has to be filled is not as large as it is with social security. social security has not done a

major rescue since 1983 so the hole has gotten bigger and bigger. medicare is always difficult to solve but historically lawmakers have addressed it every few years. they will need to do so again. host: i want to show our viewers this. monthly medicare premiums will be $164.90, down from 170 point $10 and 2022, the annual deductible -- down from 170.10 in 2022. why is it going down? guest: is complicated. there is a system for projecting what medicare premiums have to be. it is based on -- how i say this in a way that is not too technical -- it is based on projections of medicare

actuaries and there is a reserve cushion built into those projections. health care cost inflation is much more variable than other forms of inflation. you do see the premium was too high, it can come down. that does happen. it means premiums were too high last year. there are other things that can cause things to happen. there are strange quirks in the law where if there is no social security than the medicare premium cannot go up even have cost would otherwise warrant that. that is what we are seeing now due to a large social security cola. the short answer is medicare premiums are based on projections of the medicare actuaries and those projections often have to be revised as the cost numbers bounce around on medicare. host: tom in charlottesville, virginia. independent. caller: i think social security

should be means tested. other insurance plans do not pay unless you need it. you cannot do it retroactively, but in the future it should be means tested and if it is means tested it will not cost as much. the deduction from our paychecks will be going down and it will level out. host: that idea? guest: that is a suggestion that is often voiced. i find in talking to people and listening to people about this issue, that people often mean a variety of things when they talk about means testing. there is something called a true means test, where the social security administration would keep track of your assets or your income and basically withhold benefits from you. they do this in medicare. basically withhold benefits from your medicare to charge higher premiums based on your perceived

ability to meet your own expenses. that has the advantage of making the system more progressive and making the system cost less. it has a disadvantage, which is that you are penalizing people for the other retirement savings they do, and there has been a policy ethic in social security over the decades that they did not want social security undermining other forms of retirement savings. however, that would be a set of trade-offs associated with the true means test. there are other things people talk about which are not literally means test but which would achieve a similar purpose without having the disincentive effect upon private retirement. that is to make the benefit formula more progressive. if you have had a higher income over the course of your lifetime , there will be a change made to the benefit formula so you do not accrue benefits at the same

rate. you would not be penalized for the savings you did outside social security and not be penalized for having pension income, but there would be a lower rate of accrual for you if you have more opportunity to save over your lifetime. more people tend to mean that as opposed to a true means test because there is a diversity opinion about whether we should do true means testing, while there does seem to be a wide bipartisan consensus that the benefit structure should be more progressive and high income people should bear the burden of solvency. host: you said that would be enough. guest: it would not be enough at this stage. right now the size of the shortfall is 24% of future benefit claims. that means if you wanted to balance the system entirely by constraining the growth of benefits, you would have to do 24% across-the-board cuts

starting tomorrow and that is not going to happen. anything we do do would be phased in more gradually. otherwise it is not going to be enacted. it would not be 24% tomorrow, it might be 1% in the next year. that would mean it would happen to be more than 24%. if you're having to cut benefit accrual by as much as 40% over time, are we going to cut off 40% of beneficiaries from their benefits to do a 40% across-the-board cut? that seems unlikely. there's not enough money from high income people to balance the system so you have to do a little bit of everything. you have to do some in terms of the rate of growth on the high income side, some in terms of eligibility ages, but some in terms of tax incentives. it becomes apparent it is hard to get there with one measure. host: you said people can retire at age 62.

the ages 65. that is very popular. people do that. do we know why? guest: it is because we are paying them to do it. until the early eligibility age was created, it is created for women in the late 1950's and men in the early 1960's, people used to work longer. then there was a rapid diminution at the age people left the workforce when we created early eligibility. it is not because everybody is physically breaking down at age 62. we are not frailer or in greater medical need within the generation that fought the spanish-american war. it is largely because of the incentives created by the social security system. we offer benefit at age 62, and the benefit structure of social security is designed in such a

way as to punish seniors who keep working via a variety of methods, and people are not stupid. they perceive this and they get to a point there paying dollar payroll taxes and only accruing two cents worth of benefits. they tend to drop out of the workforce at that point. host: we go to billy, maryland. -- we go to bowie, maryland. you are on social security? caller: what a blessing 8.7%, the most we have had in a long time. this means to me about $205 per month increase and i am glad to hear the premium will be going down as well. i am penalized on the part b premium, i pay $187 a month because i did not sign up for it until after the time i had to. what i want to know is

republicans rick scott, ron johnson, others, are talking about letting social security sunset. i want to know what that means? what does that mean and what would happen if social security is privatized? i appreciate you. thank you. guest: this is a political season and there are a lot of accusations that fly around. the washington post just wrote about this question when the fact checker did a column on this. there has been the accusation that one party wants to end social security and medicare. that is really not the case. i think there is certainly a dirty little secret, a bipartisan secret, that social security and medicare's costs are going up faster than we can sustain and something has to be

done to moderate the rate of growth. elected officials who dare to articulate that truth sometimes get accused of wanting to destroy the program. the reality is neither political party has the stomach for dealing with social security and medicare because it is politically difficult to do. i do not see any plausible likelihood that social security will be sunset or eliminated or anything like that even if the program were to go insolvent, they would not let the program disappear. host: is it politically difficult to deal with because it is on the mandatory side of the ledger? guest: very much so. that is the key attribute that makes it difficult to get the cost of these programs under control. host: explained that. -- explain that. guest: in the federal budget you do annual appropriations and the spending for these comes up for

consideration, sometimes they are increased or not. there are other programs for the spending is automatically authorized unless congress does something to change the rate of spending in the program, which means programs like social security and medicare grow automatically. as it happens -- this is history i very fascinated by -- if you look at the longer history of social security, up until the 1970's it grew in an affordable way. if we still have the program fdr left us with we would not be facing the financial challenge we are now. there was a series of adjustments and expansions to the growth of benefits that took place in the 1970's. there was one in 1972 and technical problems with that and they revisited it in 1977. we have never figured out how to afford the level of cost growth that has resulted from those program changes in the 1970's.

what happens is we have a rate of growth in the number of beneficiaries in a rate of growth per capita benefits that is faster than we can sustain. very hard for politicians to deal with that because even though we all know the program cannot pay that level of benefits, it is interpreted for political purposes as a benefit if you moderate that rate of growth. host: if we still had fdr's program, could people live just on social security? guest: no. one reason we have a change in 1970's was precisely that reason. what was happening is the benefit structure was static all those years and the benefit increases that were not automatic did not take place -- it is almost the opposite of the situation now. he did not see the increases unless lawmakers acted. throughout that history of social security, social security was a popular vehicle for

legislation in election years because lawmakers could say we will increase your benefits and they would do this on a nap hot basis. one of the reasons the automatic indexation was enacted in the 1970's is there was a marriage between left and right. the left said we do not want benefit growth to be held hostage to political circumstances, we want automatic benefit growth. he also had people on the right saying we are worried about these ad hoc benefit increases. that says something kickin that is more -- let's have something kick in that is more manageable. what they agreed upon was rate of cost growth we cannot afford. the idea was not to break the bank, the idea was to put an end to this persistent cycle of ad hoc benefit increases in election years. host: james in california. caller: i have a couple of things.

i would like to see that tax exemption on your social security benefits of 15%. i would love to see that eliminated for people earning more than $100,000 a year. people earning that much money are getting infinite return for a finite amount of work. i would also like to crackdown on doctors incomes in some way, because doctors are like being in death valley, but the only people with water in the canteen are the doctors. thanks a lot. guest: this call knows social security quite well because this is an area where not everyone is conversant on. he made a reference to a 15% exemption of income from the benefit taxation's. what i assume he is referring to is that under current law, depending on your income, 85 percent of your social security benefit is subject to income

tax. that has an interesting policy behind it. in the early 1980's when they were in desperate need of revenue in the short term to prevent the last major brush with insolvency, they exposed benefits to taxation for the first time. very controversial. until then benefits were not subject to the income tax. there was concern at that time there would be a perception that people were being double taxed. the employer's side of the social security tax is not taxed on the way in, but the employees is. people would say i already paid taxes on this, why am i getting taxed again? what they did is they had a study done by the scorekeeping agencies and they try to come up with a proxy for the average amount of benefit that had not already been taxed. the number they came up with was 85%.

it was different for different groups but 85% was the extreme end. they said we do not want to tax anymore. that is where it came from. that is why you are taxed on 85% but not 100% of your social security benefits. some people have said that is great, we do not want to doubly tax anyone, but if we are going to need additional revenue for the system and if we want higher income people to shoulder the burden of that additional revenue, maybe there should not be that 85% feeling on the higher income side. there have been calls to expose the entirety of the benefits of higher income people to taxation. another element of this is social security treats people very differently according to what year you were born. the older you are the better your rate of return from the system, and the younger you are

the more you are losing money. that is a very important policy consideration. the reason i'm mentioning it here is as people look at solutions, there is often the risk people come up with a package that asks the generations already getting treated the worst to bear the entire burden. often policymakers will ask what can we do to ensure that generations that have fared better under the system also pay some of the cost? that is tough to do because people do not want to cut benefits for people already in retirement. that is why this idea has attracted some people. if you're looking at the people who gained the most from income inequality over last decade, they tend to be high income social security beneficiaries, may be taxing their benefits is the way to go. tom was on top of that debate. host: jean in missouri.

republican. caller: good morning. i am 75 and i had to retire at 62 because of health problems. i did not get my full social security. i live on a little over $800 a month. this cola will help me so much but i get 600 $53 in social security and $208 in ssi and i was wondering with the cola, will my ssi also go up along with my social security? and i have one other question. i wanted to know what happens to the thousands of people that pass away that never make it to social security and they paid in all of these years. where does that money go that is never paid out? host: thanks. guest: cpi does apply to ssi

benefits as well. the caller is certainly an example of the sort of person who conveys economic risk -- you can face economic risk on ssi, started collecting benefits at 62 for health reasons. people at the greatest risk of poverty are people who have left the workforce early, are getting a smaller annual benefit, and then live a long time, outlive their savings. then they get to be 85, 90, their risk of economic want is much higher. you will sometimes see a provision to give people a boost when they get to 85, 90. that is where the risk of poverty and old age become very acute. the other question she asked.

host: she was asking about -- guest: people who died before. this is a great question. social security is structured as income insurance. it is described as old age insurance, if you read the text of the law it says old age insurance. it is structured to function that way. if you live a long time and collect benefits for longer, you get more out of the system then you put in. on the other hand that mean some people do not collect on their insurance. they die before reaching old age and the money they put into the system is basically going in the pool of money that is benefiting the people who do live. host: it does not go to their spouse? guest: it does not. not if they die before the age

of eligibility or spouse eligibility. this is -- there have been proposals over the years to create an heritability of social security contributions through personal accounts. we have not seen many of those proposal since 15 years ago. a lot of those proposals were animated by this concern of people who pay into the system and die before they are eligible to receive something and that everything they pay is lost. there is a cost to that because of that money comes back to their heirs it disappears from the system and can offer less robust insurance for people who do live to an old age. host: is there a chance the solvency issue gets resolved by younger generations who say i am going to put more money into my 401(k), i will start planning for retirement in my 20's and

30's, the generations not on social security but the generations to come? guest: the likelihood younger generations will foot the bill for this is very high. elected officials are very reluctant to take away things from current beneficiaries. anything that even smacks of a change from beneficiaries is politically controversial. for years lawmakers have been trying to reform the calculation of the consumer price index. economists agree the current method of calculating is wrong but they cannot fix it because political groups will portray it as a benefit cut. there is great reluctance on the part of lawmakers to do anything that asks older americans to pay more than a very small share of the overall cost of solvency, which means it will follow younger generations. my own view is that it is dangerous to do that too much, because if you look at someone who is just entering the workforce today at the age of

21, under current projections they will lose income from social security, even if they get anything they are currently promised, they will lose income through social security equal to 3% of their lifetime earnings, all the earnings from their career will be made 3% poorer by this program. it is hard for a program to work well if it is making them poorer. the average person is losing money under the program. politically it is likely younger generations will foot more than their share of the bill. if lawmakers push that too far, the program is not going to be effective, it is going to be pushing more people into poverty then it is lifting out and that is a fundamental problem. host: let's go to indiana. martha on social security. caller: i am like the lady that just talked. my experiences my husband passed away when he was 61, he never got to retire, he worked his

whole life and i worked my whole life. i got to draw his social security because it was higher. whatever i paid in is just in there. he also had 12 brothers and sisters. most of them did not live long enough to get social security. i have six kids. they all pay in. i do not understand the insolvency -- i know very few people that live to be 85 or 90. guest: explaining where the insolvency comes from, i would say there are three factors that play together. one is demographics. we are living longer and there have been changes in fertility patterns. right now fertility rates around 1.7, 1.8, much lower than historically. most people do not have six children now.

you have fewer people coming through and working and paying taxes into the system relative to the beneficiaries. you also have the fact that you have a historically large baby boom generation retiring, and living longer than any previous generation. you have this combination of factors, longevity and fertility changes, which dramatically reduce the number of workers relatives the number of beneficiaries. the second factor is the aforementioned changes to the benefit structure in the 1970's. they increased benefits by 20% in 1972 and then put automatic indexation of the growth of benefits, which is this risks getting too far into the weeds, but this form of indexation is not the inflation indexation folks talk about. this is the indexation of the benefits you get when you first claim benefits. there are all sorts of inner workings of those formulas

indexed to the to the average wage index, which overtime becomes much more than price inflation. at that time there were consultant panels appointed by congress that said do not do this because we cannot afford that right of benefit growth. it will cause the cost of the system to rise faster than workers earnings. lawmakers did not heed the warnings and enacted it anyway. the third factor is we have a pay-as-you-go system. we have a system where you are not putting money into an account that is being saved for you so that if you put enough in you can finance your own retirement. instead people in retirement now , their benefits are being made -- are being paid by the current generation of workers. as a happens, the first people who retired on social security do not manage their own benefits , they got a lot more out than they got in because their benefits were paid by taxing the following generation.

that system is dependent on changing the worker ratio. if we were all funning our own retirement it would not matter so much. because as the pay of you go system it does matter. it is the demographics, it is the benefits increases in the 1970's, and it is the pay-as-you-go feature of the system that produces the insolvency. host: if you do not make very much money you will not make that much money from social security. guest: i love this question. basically there is a benefit formula. it is a progressive formula. one easy way to understand it is similar to the system of tax brackets people to understand. in the tax system you brackets. you have an area where you're not taxed, and this rate and this rate. the benefit formula is like that but in reverse. your first earnings you are a bigger accrual rate and after

you earn more than that it is a smaller accrual rate. it never gets to be zero. after a certain point you just stop paying and money and you do not accrue benefits on your earnings after that because you're not paying taxes after that point. everyone earns at least some rate of accrual on everything they put in. it is a very progressive formula. the spent point factor on the bottom end is 19% and 15% on the top. it is a steep change. there is a relationship between what you put in and what you get out. your own personal income level determines how generous that accrual rate is. host: if your personal income is lower, it is more generous. lorraine in new york, democratic caller. caller: good morning. i have a couple of questions.

one is about the actual number of social security offices you can walk into. it seems like there is less of those in our area. there used to be many offices you could walk into. another question is the health of the social security workforce. it seems folks are much older and they always seem overburdened with their workloads. i'm wondering about the health of that workforce in the age of that workforce. my third question is about social security disability. i'm a social worker and i am aware of people really struggling. i wonder if you know what percentage of the population have chronic illnesses, chronic mental health illnesses, chronic physical illnesses, and are not able to work with social security disability.

host: on the second question -- guest: on the second question, they're about 66 million beneficiaries and 9 million are disabled. whether that captures everyone who is disabled, but it certainly bears repeating that a fairly substantial number of beneficiaries of social security are not old age seniors. on the other question, these are great questions today. i am delighted by this question. i worked on transition during the 2000 2001 change of presidential administration and there i had the privilege of working on the transition for the social security administration. it was fascinating. social security administration is a unique animal among federal agencies and departments.

i think there has always been an exceptional amount of esprit de corps and believe in the miss some -- in the mission. people in a wide variety of government departments believe in what their departments are doing, but there always seems to be a particular passion about it in the social security administration. like the caller says, the workforce at the social security administration has tended to be older than the workforce and other government departments. there are people who've been there a long time. that was true and even more so now. it is exactly is this caller says where they have an issue where more of their workforce is aging out of being able to work and that creates a workforce strain in the social security administration that is different from the other departments. i cannot speak to what the caller said about the closing of offices. do not know whether there has

been a reduction. i will say there is an annual concern about the administrative budget for social security. while this is a program where mandatory spending determines benefits people get, there still has to be an appropriate administrative budget, and lawmakers have to decide on that each year. it is controversial each year because the appropriated side of the budget is squeezed more each year due to larger financial constraints. host: donna in st. louis, missouri, also on social security. welcome. caller: if i cannot make all of my points can i wait until the open phones. host: negotiating. go ahead. caller: number one, most people getting $50,000 or less per year

could use an increase regardless. most people that i know, they do not retire until they are at least 65 because they need medicare, they cannot live on social security without health insurance. secondly, republicans have fought medicare and social security since they were past and most have been fighting for decades to get rid of it. there are not too many of them i can trust on that issue. lastly, people need to realize you have to vote for the individual, not the party. bill clinton and bush jr. both got trade deals past that sent millions of high paid manufacturing jobs to china and mexico. if that did not occur people would have been earning a lot more these last 30 years or so and you would've had more money in social security and i do not

think they need to raise the age again. let's deal with giving people colas earning over $100,000 a year. let's do these things first before you screw all people. host: i think donna got it all in. go ahead. guest: i might differ from the caller in some respects. i think there is very little appetite for screwing old people or getting rid of medicare and social security. the reality is people do engage in political attacks over social security. no politician wants to be seen as wanting to get rid of the program. one of the problems we have is because of that political defensiveness lawmakers do not do the things they do need to do to keep these things going for fear of being accused of exactly that. i would say i think we have the

opposite dynamic. we have parties afraid to step up and look after the financing of these programs because they're afraid of being accused of wanting to get rid of them. there are a number of points. host: i will end by asking you this. what are you watching for in the coming years that other people should be watching as well? guest: like many americans, i would love to see more evidence of bipartisan compromise and willingness to be serious about these programs. that reminds me of 1.i was going to make in response to the caller. there is not enough there to save these programs in terms of taxing rich people more cutting the benefits of rich people, you have to do it all. it would be nice if we could do

it without changing eligibility ages, but it will have to be done at some point. i look back to 1983. the program came within a few months of insolvency. it was a near miss. back then the shortfall that lawmakers were dealing with was only about half as big as the one we have now. it was very tough to fix it. they had to do a lot of things that were very difficult. ronald reagan and tip o'neill and bob dole and pat moynihan had to could -- had to do things their political bases had heartburn about. in order to save social security today we will have to do about twice as much. republicans have to be willing to raise taxes twice as much as they've have been willing to do in the past and democrats have to be willing to slow the rate of benefit growth half as much as they have been willing to do in the past.

we are not living at an apex of american history with respect to bipartisan cooperation. i guess the thing i would be looking for is will there be any increased seriousness after this midterm election, and a willingness to seriously address problems that will require bipartisan compromise to address. host: you can furrow -- you can follow charles on twitter. he is a senior research strategist and a former trustee of social security and medicare. when we come back, we returned to open forum. any public policy issue on your mind. their other lines on your screen for dialing in. ♪ >> middle and high school students, it is your time to shine.

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headline across many of the newspapers. doj recommending six months jail term for steve and. -- for steve bannon. a six-month bail -- prosecutors said steve bannon from the moment he received the select committee subpoena in september 2021 has pursued a bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt. the jury found steve bannon guilty in july of misdemeanor counts of contempt of congress for refusing to testify and provide documents to the select committee. jeanette in oregon, first call for the forum. go ahead. caller: i have several issues but i will just touch on a couple, what you just said about steve bannon. he is so deplorable in my mind.

six months is not enough for him. he is a trait or, along with donald trump and many other republicans, as proven by republicans. these people have committed treason. a president who overthrows his own country? there were times when people who committed treason would be put in front of a firing squad. i would never be ok with that, but life in prison would satisfy me. i cannot believe they get away with it. just the other issue on social security, over the years, as we have paid into social security, the government has taken funds out of that and borrowed and stolen from our social security fund. if they would not have done that we would have plenty of money, and i think people who pay in

should get everything they deserve, and it is not enough. if you're a single person or a widow trying to survive on social security, you are not going to make it. when we cut off people paying into social security at $160,000 or something, that is ridiculous. people who earn up to billions of dollars should be paying even more in. do you know they still get to receive benefits even though they virtually pay nothing in after their first $160,000? that is daft of the people -- that is theft of the people who paid and a portion of their money their whole lives. it seems to me that these little raises, last year when we got a raise they raised medicare over what they gave us. host: dori is waiting in

spokane, washington. independent. caller: the lady that just spoke has my blessing on everything she said. the other thing is we should not spend one dime on any other country protecting their borders until we protect our own. there is no reason why any of those people that come to our border should be let in. they should reverse it back to their country and they should not get a chance to come back in if they come through illegally. host: audrey in charlottesville, virginia. republican. hi. caller: i have a sore throat so forgive me. my thing is on abortion. for those who have been brainwashed by washington as to what health care is, i would

like to tell them, health care is going to the doctor like you are supposed to for yourself and your child to have a healthy baby. abortion is killing your own baby. i saw lindsey graham was one of the smarter ones in washington. but i do not know how many births he has had. he started off with 23 weeks is when a child could feel. i like to tell him that it child is punching and kicking and carrying on long before that. now i do know he has swapped it back a little bit. i have had a lot to tell these girls. i have had three -- i have three babies.

not a one of them was yanked from my body. it was the will of god above. i would like to tell them also that they may walk out of that office feeling ok, i got rid of this problem. it is going to haunt them down the road. i had a nice that had an abortion and she has taken a xanax and all of this stuff for so long she does not know where she is. host: that is audrey in virginia . abortion is one of those issues that pole show is important to voters ahead of the midterm elections. a new cbs poll this morning showed the economy is rating very high in giving republicans the edge as the party who fights for control of the house in the senate and these midterm elections. on the sunday shows the biden administration putting out there

transportation secretary pete buttigieg on cbs's face the nation and he was asked about the economic news. >> i want to pick up where we just left off on the polling. it looks like democrats have a problem. more than two thirds of registered voters, 68 percent think the biden administration could be doing more to combat inflation. this is a top concern for all voters. >> it is also a top concern for the president. it is one of the reasons he has made clear his top economic priority is fighting inflation. there's a connection between the policies we are advancing on capitol hill and the policies that have been put forward by our republican friends in congress. our focus has been on reducing the pressure of cost of living on families. for example, take the inflation reduction act. part of what that does at a time

when we have pressure on people because the cost of living is too five is to cut the cost of things like prescription drugs. republicans voted against that. they have also made clear they are proposing legislation to repeal that. they have something like letting medicare negotiate the price of prescription drugs, something americans have wanted to happen for years, we finally got it done, the president signed it and congress passed it. they are already seeking to reverse that. it is a difference in approaches on capitol hill and among officeholders where the focus for the democrats and for the president is to cut that cost-of-living and cut the pressure and give people more breathing room at a time inflation remains a major concern. host: transportation secretary on cbs. now on cnn's website, a headline , as democrats try to hold onto in november it is pete buttigieg in demand on the campaign trail. on the republican side, here is

the associated press. gop hopefuls turned to the former vice president to broaden appeal before the election. and the first lady of the united states, jill biden, also popular on the campaign trail. here is the new york times this morning. "democrats in tight raises seek help from the first lady on the campaign trail as well as fundraising for their elections." also from the hill newspaper this morning, another headline. "the senate race in utah is tightening. utah emerges as wildcard in battle for the senate." from their reporting, alexander bolton says the u.s. house senate race between mike lee and evan mcmillan has emerged as a potential wildcard in the battle. recent polls show the race is close with mcmillan trailing

lead by only a few points in a state where republican victories are usually all but guaranteed. if you want toetn idea of the issues in this race, y c tune into c-span tonight. we'll have covera of the debate live at:0p.m. eastern. u n watch it here on this networkere on our website, c-span.org, and you can also doad our free mobile app, c-span now. before that at 7:00 eastern we'll will have coverage of the georgia governors race beee stacey abrams, democratic candidate trying to unseat the incumbent brian kemp, the republican. all of our campaign 2022 coverage can be found on our website, c-span.org. julie in north carolina, democratic caller. hi julie. what is your public policy issue? caller: i am 45 years old and i've been working since i was 15.

i know that is not that long to be working but i want to say everybody does not sit at desks. i work hard. i walk outside. to get to 62 and be able to retire would be a good thing. by the time you get older, if they raise the age, you will not be able to enjoy life because you will be hurting. that is all i wanted to say. host: ok, julie. linda is next. camp hill, pennsylvania. republican. caller: i wanted to say people call into the program and they say about how people could doubt the election, the election that happened between trump and biden. because of the laptop, because of the news outlets do not even report all of the news, so

people have a good sense of what is going on, and how they should vote, i do not know how you can wonder why some people might have questions about was the election fair. if people are going to the polls and voting and they do not know half the information, i can see why that would be a problem. now they are admitting the things on the laptop are real. how many years too late is that? host: linda's thoughts, republican in pennsylvania. here is the wall street journal this morning. "recession now seen as more likely." economists surveyed by the newspaper in october forecast a 63% likelihood the economy will head into recession in 12 months as the federal reserve raises interest rates to battle

inflation. elizabeth in millsboro, delaware, democratic caller. good morning. caller: the reason i am calling is i want to call about medicare. most people do not know republicans and democrats silently have already privatized medicare. it is called medicare advantage. in march i had a hip operation and i had medicare advantage. i came out of that with a $25,000 bill that i have to pay. understand that when you go to the hospital for the first 60 days under medicare advantage, you pay the entire bill. they will not pay for your drugs unless they are intravenous. these private investors do not have providers set up for the hearing and the dental and all of that they are claiming. now they are enticing people with groceries.

it is a fraud. every state in this country, the commissioners have gone to d.c. to talk to the medicare people and are telling them this is bankrupting seniors. please do not go for the lies they are telling about medicare advantage. this is a fraud. now they are tying to push it on state legislators to have state retirees go to medicare advantage. democrats and republicans did this to us, not a word in the media. host: melissa in iowa, independent caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. i tried to call in and speak to the gentleman about the social security. my biggest issue is like they say. people who make over one heard $60,000 a year do not pay in as everyone else full -- who make over $160,000 a year do not pay

in as much as everyone. how is it we have a president who is making six figures and is getting social security, to where anyone else on social security can only make an extra $1200 a year, otherwise they lose their social security. explain to me how that is fair. it is not fair to the american people. it is trying to keep the poor poor. it is ridiculous. host: allen in at uno, florida. -- in altoona, florida. caller: i want to explain a little bit about medicare. i was disabled at age 45. i was lucky, i always believe in paying everything off so i had my home paid off, my cars were paid off. then my savings dwindled because the interest rates were so low on cds that i had to spend my principal.

now that i am 72, i had to refinance my home so i can compensate for my low income on social security. over the years, and i have been on it for a long time. 25 years. the increases barely paid for the increases in medicare. because i'm disabled and have injuries, i have plan f, and plan f costs a lot of money but it does compensate me where i have no deductibles. then because of kids or people using oxycontin, i have to have oxycontin and i have more pain. the costs for the pills are high and you do not see oxycodone prices coming down. then my doctors ordered me to drive a big truck because i cannot afford to get banged up.

fuel is five dollars a gallon. i think we need a 20% increase in medicare just to keep up with the last 20 years of increases, and then may be people earning over half $1 million a year could have a 50 grand bonus tacked onto them to go into medicare funds. thank you. host: jeanette in missouri, democratic caller. caller: hello. public policy -- this thing on social security, i did not get to call in. i do not think the teachers in missouri know that if they have married someone in missouri who is not a teacher, that when that person, their spouse passes away, the state of missouri

takes two thirds of that nonteaching spouses social security. it is called the windfall law. it is so unfair. what about our husbands or our wives that never approach the classrooms? what happens to their social security? the teacher's family does not get it. i have a disabled grandson. i need my husband social security he worked 40 years for. missouri says because i am a teacher from missouri, they get to keep his. there are only 13 states that do this to their teachers. do not teach for missouri, for god sake. find out. it is a federal law. i know that. it is up to each state to decide whether or not to do that to

their teachers. it is a dirty little secret in all of these other states that do it to their teachers. you did not find out until you retire. if you marry another teacher you are fine, but if you marry a carpenter or a doctor or a plumber, when that person dies missouri takes two thirds of all they have earned for all of those years in the teacher's family gets one third. that is wrong. please don't teach for missouri. wake up and find out the truth because it is called the windfall law and it is horrible. how dare they punish missouri teachers for teaching the children? i am a reading specialist and i love what i do. my husband loves what he did. i know if he passes away i would only get one third. not that i have that big of retirement in the teacher fund because i did not get my degree

until i was 41. i had to work hard. host: jeanette in missouri. thanks for calling in. thanks to everybody for calling in and watching. that does it for today's "washington journal." we will be♪ >> c-span as your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more including comcast. of >> you thought it was just a community center? no.

comcast is partnering with a thousand community centers. students from low income families can get the schooling they need to be ready for anything. comcast supports c-span along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> coming up live at 330 eastern time discussing president biden's policy agenda and a debate between jet -- brian kemp and stacey abrams ahead of the governor of election followed by the utah u.s. senate race debate between mike lee and evan mcmullen. next incumbent wisconsin democratic governor tony evers faces republican challenger to michael's in a debate for this year's governor's race. abortion rights and crime rates have been hot topics. this is