morning on "washington journal," university of virginia center for politics thereafter larry sabato discusses campaign 2022 and races to watch. then a preview of tonight's pennsylvania senate debate between democratic lieutenant governor john fetterman and republican challenger. later, reporter benjamin storrow talks about household energy costs. be sure to join the conversation with your calls, text messages, and tweets. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. tuesday, october 25, 2022. just two weeks from election day. we continue to focus on the midterms. we will spotlight the issue of education. it was yesterday that a national report showed american student test scores plunged by historic

levels during the pandemic. we want to know this morning which party you trust her and it comes to schools and education. we will have the conversation on phone lines split this way. parents can call in at (202) 748-8000. teachers (202) 748-8001. ,all others (202)748-8002. , you can text us at (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter, it is @cspanwj. facebook.com/c-span. you can start calling in now. here is the front page of the "usa today," test scores plummet in the wake of the pandemic. results from the national assessment of education progress , dramatic and sobering declines, they write, and math and reading scores.

pandemic-related disruptions damaged american students' ability to learn. math scores show the largest decline since testing began in 1990. reading scores declined, as well, since the onset of the pandemic. we will take you to more of those results during the first hour of the "washington journal" today. plenty of reaction yesterday from school officials and elected officials and from school administrators. here is the top administrator when it comes to education in this country, the education secretary, responding to those test results on an interview on cnn yesterday. [video clip] >> if this is not a wake-up call to improve education, even before the pandemic, than i do not know what will. we need to utilize the dollars to help our students in reading and math and go beyond the data that we had in 2019.

>> you are mentioning the american rescue plan. that is like a tourniquet right now with some of these major issues. but we just saw a report where you are seeing this math and science teacher shortage. in the story, there was an arizona science teacher who had 70 kids in her class. i mean, it looks nuts. no way to do this effectively, but this is what they are having to do. so even with those arp dollars, there are not even teachers in the pipeline to pay, so what do you do? >> look, that example is a symptom of decades of underinvestment. if we are going to get our students to where they should be in america, leading the world, we need to take this issue seriously. past the pandemic, we need to think about how we are investing

in our schools and education system, prioritizing education with the same level of urgency that our president is doing. we are proposing a 21% increase in our budget for education. we need highly qualified teachers in every classroom. we have programs for students after school in the summer. we know what we have to do, but we have to have the urgency to get it done. host: that was the education secretary yesterday on cnn. reaction to the national test scores that came out, here are some republicans on capitol hill. steve scalise, republicans warned that this would happen from the start. fauci and teachers unions and democrats and state and local politicians kept schools shut down longer. they did this to your kids. republican from new york in the house, to stores across the country had their steepest fall in more than 50 years -- test

scores across the country had their steepest fall in more than 50 years. those who failed our students with backward policies must be held accountable. just some of the comments on twitter yesterday. we want to know, which party do you trust on the issue of education? phone lines are split this way, (202) 748-8000 if you are a parent. teachers, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202)748-8002. again, having this conversation the first hour of the "washington journal," and having this conversation exactly two weeks from election day, would term elections. education and schools very much a topic. massachusetts governor's debate recently, here is a portion of that debate this month. [video clip] >> i want to be really clear with the voters, he wants to ban books. he wants to require that any

time a child wants to go into a public library, they have to get a permission slip. we are the state that was home to the first public library in the country. that is not the direction we need to go. we need support for our students. we need to support them in the classroom with the abc's, math, science, engineering. also, mental health and wellness, and that is something i will focus on as governor. the person who wants to not fund public education, who wants to take away health care, which is mental health, i find it rich to hear what he says. >> no, it is not about removing books from libraries. this is about allowing parents to have a say as to what is in the schools, whether it is the curriculum are what is in the school libraries. we are seeing parents have a concern to some of the materials kids are being presented with that an early age. some of those parents have had

-- have tried to go to school board meetings to let their voices be heard, and they have been shut down. so parents would have a say in the curriculum, see it online, have a say on what is in the libraries. host: that from massachusetts gubernatorial debate earlier this month. asking you, in the wake of this national report, known as the nation's report card, yesterday showing deep -- steep declines when it comes to test scores in math and reading for fourth and eighth graders in this country. who do you trust when it comes to education? parents, (202) 748-8000. teachers, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202)748-8002. a few comments from social media this morning and from our text messaging service. duane in florida says republicans want parental

consent and involvement, democrats want to label and want to allow teachers to sexualize their children. just one comment so far. looking to your phone calls, julie, south carolina, on that line for teachers. your thoughts on who you trust on the education issue? caller: hi, good morning. in terms of politicians, really neither side. i do not think education should be a political issue. i think that is where we have gotten into trouble, especially the past couple years, by both sides polarizing the idea of education, like both sides want to use it as a weapon against their opponent. i feel like -- or i know that that is extremely detrimental, both to the teachers who work in the schools and to the student'' education as a whole. host: how do we fix this

problem? what was your reaction to those test score results yesterday? caller: test scores are lower. that is true. just seeing how my students have performed versus previously. but i think you have to take into account that -- i mean, these students went through a lot, missed a whole two years of school essentially, and that hurt them develop mentally and emotionally, and it also hurt them in their knowledge base. i think this is kind of hindsight is 20/20, but probably what would have been an official would have been to allow for teachers to make up for that lost time. like, instead of students who left because of the pandemic in lines grade, coming back as 11th graders, and expected to act and know things like 11th graders, allowing some opportunity for teachers to try to make up for that. host: julie, do you mean school

all year round or repeating grades? caller: i have some students who, like, by their age, they should have been in 11th grade but they were still in ninth grade or 10th grade status because they didn't meet all the credit requirements to move up. but i think, like, you can tell by the way students behave compared to the way 11th graders used to behave, because they missed a lot of that keep development time emotionally. host: thanks for calling. greer, south carolina, is where julie is calling from. here is another call, this one from the pelican state. go ahead, lydia. are you with us? caller: yes, i am. good morning. i am a parent and ran parent -- grandparent. i saw the scores and have been

noticing the children are doing really bad. i do not trust the republicans. on tv or getting email talking about the kids have suffered because of the democrats' policies. the republicans, number one, want to cancel school lunches for children, which is very vital for kids. also, louisiana has the worst school system in the nation, and the republicans have not in anything. in fact, they have done everything the opposite. they want to ban books. they do not want to teach history in school, the true history of this country. the parents really realize that teaching is a hard profession. you don't want to raise teachers' pay. you want to could a size their curriculum. you want to oversee everything they do. it is hard for teachers, and

they are not getting paid anything to do what they need to do. so parents had to take care and try to teach their own children, a lot of them are lacking. they were not able to help their own children at home. they want to have the teachers overloaded with kids and deal with covid, getting sick themselves, being at risk. of course, of course everything is going to go south. i mean, there is no choice. teachers do not have a choice. they are trying to do the best they can, and they are fighting against the parents and the politicians who refuse to help. it is a stat -- sad state. it is horrible, a lot of pressure on the parents. but i am willing to get in there and do whatever is required for my child, which a lot of parents are not. they think i sent my child to school to the teachers, that is the teachers job to teach them. they come home, that is the end of that. it is sad, horrible.

i do not see it will change. it will get worse if the republicans get in. thank you for your time. host: michael, baltimore, maryland, good morning. caller: i am a teacher in the maryland, and the test scores are fraudulent due to the fact that you cannot make these kids take a test. they fall asleep or are just nonchalant, so the test scores are not right. second of all, kids from out of the country do not speak english and have to take the test, so they do not do well. that counts towards the test, too, so they don't talk about that part. also, the pronouns and all that stuff, and they maryland, we need like 800, 1200 teachers. it is going to get worse because the violence in the schools, the knives and the guns. do not blame the teachers, blame the politicians and officials.

teachers don't want to teach pronouns and all this other type of stuff. and teachers don't want to take this virus him to their families. so you cannot blame teachers. it is the politicians doing this. host: are you in baltimore city public school? caller: no, another part of maryland. but baltimore city schools have been in the national news, pushing these kids through. you cannot just push these kids through. it is all about numbers, about quantity, not quality. that is the problem in our country. everything is about numbers. our whole teaching, the way we teach these kids, is all going down. you just pass these kids through, they cuss out teachers, hit on teachers. the code of conduct for the students, department of education just allow the kids to do whatever they want. teachers cannot teach in the classroom. the kids say they don't want to do anything, you can't make them do nothing. host: michael out of baltimore,

maryland. baltimore making national news again as an example of one place where covid funding has gone unspent. it is a front page story in today's "washington post." in march 2021, the biden administration release the largest pool of pandemic relief to public schools, $122 billion to campus to build buildings, address mental health needs, and address needs for students who have fallen behind. two thirds of the money was released less than two weeks. despite having access to those dollars, school systems throughout the country reportedly have spent less than 15% of the federal dollars provided. baltimore city public schools is one of those examples as a place where the spending is well below expected levels at this point.

the state data shows baltimore had not spent any of the funding. school officials, washington post at 14% of grants and been spent by october of this year. one of the districts the washington post focused in on in the article. a call from minnesota. good morning. who do you trust when it comes to education? caller: good morning. thank you. when it comes to who i trust, i definitely do not trust the republicans. i would not trust it if they said water was wet. democrats are not doing a great job, but they will do a better job. it all comes down to parental involvement. for instance, most of the time when those kids come home from school and you ask them what have they done today, that is when the parents have to kick in and start wondering what is going on with the kids. i did that when i was raising mine, so that got them on the

right track. i had to go up to the school, even when nothing was wrong, i would go check on them on a regular basis, to the point to where they knew i was going to come up to the school to see what they was up to, so that kept them honest. but parental involvement is the main thing. host: thanks for the call from minnesota. back to maryland, greg, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to talk more about the parental consent thing and bring a slightly different perspective. i feel like, especially in that quote you showed with the date, massachusetts, seems like they are very out of touch with the way things work. this is me going to high school like over 20 years ago, but i just remember that with certain topics, especially things like u.s. history, you are covering over 100 years in nine months of time, so there's hardly enough time to really delve super,

super deep into the topics, especially when it comes to race relations in the country or going to war. there are whole college courses that might go over things like the vietnam war. another point is that they keep going on about this thing about banning books in the libraries, but there is also a thing that exists called the internet, and kids can go on the internet and find information. the other thing to bring up is that this is also the term the streisand effect. your calling attention to a lot of things and kids are curious, now they are going to look into it. so you are making this problem worse if you think it is a problem. to me, i think get the information out there, let people know, and let them explore it. host: we are focusing on the issue of education. there have been plenty of debates so far in this midterm cycle. here is another from last week in georgia, the georgia gubernatorial debate, the topic

of education. [video clip] >> billion-dollar surplus, that is money we have after we have paid every bill, after we put 15% aside for a rainy day fund, money after accounting for increases in population. and i want to invest it in the air children and families, beginning with pre-k. we have four-year-olds on the waiting list. we can solve that problem with the money we have right now. we can also give an $11,000 pay raise to our teachers instead of a $5,000 raise on layaway. we can increase access to the pipeline so teachers are not in the pipeline because they cannot make enough money to carry themselves and their families. that is why under this governor, we have a 67% retention rate. any ceo who lost 30% of their workforce would be fired. and that is why my plan is to use the resources we have today to plan for today and tomorrow. we have the money and have

economists in georgia and national economists who look at my plan and say it works. check my plan out. my website. >> i would just like to let people know that, look, my plan is to use the revenue have because we have been over. if stay feet -- if stacey abrams had been your governor, you will not have that excess revenue because she wanted to stay locked down and couldn't size me when i opened it back up. we have been using this revenue and will do so in the future to do another income tax refund, put the money back in your pocket. host: last week between republican governor brian kemp and democrat stacey abrams, running against kemp. midterms now two weeks away. asking you, what party do you trust in education? having this conversation in the wake of this national report, the nation's report card, that focuses on fourth graders and eighth graders, scores in math and reading, assessing a

historic drop on that report card compared to the pre-pandemic report card in 2019. the drops were across all states, but some states doing slightly better than others. fourth grade math, delaware saw a 14-point loss, district columbia 12, virginia 11, followed by maryland, new mexico, and new york. on the flipside, alabama and illinois scores remained stagnant. iowa, wisconsin, and fourth grade scores at the department of defense schools, that was one category, dropped only by one point. reading scores, virginia saw a 10-point decline, delaware nine. those with the largest clan followed by the district of columbia, idaho, maine, oklahoma, and west virginia -- those with the lowest decline followed.

hawaii improved average one point. florida, illinois, south carolina, and the department of defense schools remained stagnant on those reading scores. again, fourth grade and eighth grade, math and reading, these assessments have been happening each year since back in the early 1990's. taking your phone calls. want to know which party you trust on the issue of education. glenda, south carolina, that line for parents. caller: good morning. i don't trust republicans at all , because they are talking about the books and the teachers. the previous callers all had a valid point. as a parent, i have four kids that graduated. but i have my grandkids going to school now, and they are talking about banning books, talking

about the teachers. the problem is with the parents also. i feel a teacher's job is to teach. there were things i taught my children that guided them as they got older. i think it is up to no politicians to tell them what books they can teach her how they can teach or whatever. because, like stacey just said about the pre-k and all that, the republicans do not care. why didn't they give us universal pre-k? i have a three-year-old granddaughter who could not go to school because she was not four years old before the school started, turned four a couple weeks after. i do not think that is right. another thing, with the teaching , the teachers cannot be a police, teacher, parent or the teachers do not get paid enough money for all that. politicians, all they do is talk

the good talk, like brian kemp a minute ago, talking the talk about money going back to parents. parents have to pay someone to watch the kids when they are not able to go to school at the age of four. how is that helping the parents? i do not trust anything the republicans say. people better start looking at themselves and their children. if their children are not getting in pre-k, i am not sure the -- i'm not surprise the scores are where they are. host: back to georgia, laura, line for parents. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a grandparent that assists my kids' children. without doing the stats or anything, i am looking at my two granddaughters that we have taken out of private school and put them in public schools in one of the better districts here in georgia. my six-year-old, who is in

kindergarten, she can read, count, do everything. so when we ask her, what are you all doing, she said they only count to 50, but she said i can go to 300. so we were astounded. i said, hey, we got to get them out of there. so i am looking at what they are doing. it is not the curriculum -- the curriculum is not conducive to what the students need to learn. one teacher we found was very enthusiastic, and she was an old school teacher who came back because of the short -- teacher shortage. that is the 11-year-old commanders teacher is the bomb. but that pre-k kindergarten teacher, she is not that great. i do not know if it is because the amount of students in school or whatever. previously, i served on a school

board in my district where i live because i was concerned about education. and i think god i am in a position to still help my kids -- i thank god i am still in a position to help my kids, because they will be going to private schools in january. parents need to look at the curriculums and budgets. look at test scores, are they poster pre-pandemic. when the pandemic occurred, remember how many students did not have laptops, electricity, living out of cars. we got to look at all that stuff before we start judging. here in georgia, 20 years ago we adopted to put the technology in schools. some dumb politician of heart -- forgot to pass a bill that we also had to put in paying for the electricity and put in the repair part of it. so do not trust your children's

education to politicians. i am listening to stacy and brian, i like them both. brian has some good points, stacy has some good points, and i have not went to vote yet. same time, what is the use of having a surplus or reserve when our kids are not doing that great? so that is my comment for this morning. thank you. host: laura and george appeared to orlando, florida, this is george. -- laura in georgia. to orlando, florida, this is george. caller: i'm not a parent but have been following election spirit but i agree with the previous caller. these kids' scores, if they are reduced, it is because of covid and everything else. sorry, i am short of breath. but my big problem is a lot of republicans are trying to say, politicians, that these kids are being brainwashed, changed into different, you know, gender, all

kinds of stuff, crazy stuff. i watched the debates us night in florida. there was talk of gender this, gender that. it is insanity. people are smart enough to know. it is not happening. the politicians pay for commercials, the republicans, like del demings, for instance, that she wants to change the sex of children. insanity. all i have to say. host: watching that florida debate last night, the gubernatorial debate, ron desantis there, charlie crist is the democrat. we're going to air that the bait at 8:00 p.m. this evening on the c-span networks -- we are going to air that debate at 8:00 p.m. plenty of debate coverage this year, including the michigan governor debate, new hampshire governor debate. all of that available on our website, c-span.org.

there is the line up your screen. john in jackson heights, new york, that line for teachers. caller: yes, good morning. thank you. first, i would like to send out condolences to the school community at the arts high school in st. louis, because when something like this happens, every teacher in america and to themselves that could be my classroom, those could be my students. i definitely do not trust republicans who come up with crazy ideas like arming teachers. they should ban guns, notebooks. republicans put forth these ideas. this is their education program, and teachers are in their teaching crazy things that aren't happening at all. teaching people to hate each other because of their race. teaching people that their teachers are grooming kids. it is crazy, but people believe

this. they walks fox news and the to talk radio. get out of there, go down and see what is happening in your schools. teachers are performing miracles every single day, working with not enough resources, working with students that have been traumatized. you know, take these things into consideration. the population that we're are dealing with and the situation we are dealing with everyday, and maybe, maybe if you go down and support teachers, maybe things will improve instead of -- improve, instead of demonizing them so that young people do not want to come into the profession anymore. it is crazy what is happening. something has got to change. we're going to need a change because people are not going into the teaching profession. the answer is not to get rid of licensing and certification requirements. the answer is to train teachers so they are better prepared to

go into the classroom and help these students with their needs. host: this was the school shooting story he was referring to at the beginning of his comment. out of st. louis, a 19-year-old former student opened fire at a high school monday morning, killing a teenage girl and adult women before police shot and killed him. witnesses and local media describe a scene of panicked students fleeing from the performing arts high school as a man carried a long gun on campus. the shooter was identified as orlando harris, who graduated last year from that school, with about 400 students, the southwestern corner of the city. according to the washington post, there have been at least 33 school shootings this year. in illinois, joe is a parent. caller: yeah, i am a parent, but my kids have already been through school. and i just want to comment on a few things i heard your callers talking about.

they talk about banned books like it is a bad thing. in general, it is a bad thing. however, the books that these parents are talking about at these school board meetings, they cannot even show them on television. they can't even -- i mean, these things are -- i don't know -- they are per not graffiti, basically -- they are pornography, basically. and those who do not think the school system deserves another chance, they are denying reality. i mean, the schools are failing. the dems have been in charge of the schools for so long that people are, i don't know, they should at least try this republican ideas. mitt romney said the naacp, which i think is a brave thing, and was getting booed and

generally derisive responses, until he said, instead of the talking point of charter schools and private schools getting money, he said the money follows the child. the money that the federal government spends on each child, if that was given to the parents to decide where they want to send their kids to school, you would have so many good schools competing. you talk about these test scores and stuff. the competition would immediately increase the quality of the children's' education because there is really no competition to the federal government's public school system. host: that is joe in illinois. we have played you a couple of the back-and-forth on the issue of education when it comes to debates for midterm elections.

that also playing out in plenty of television commercial ads for candidates. wisconsin gubernatorial contest, governor tony evers trying to win reelection in that contest. here is an example of some of the ads over education in that race. [video clip] >> education begins at home. as a former science teacher, tony eva's nose and getting parents involved in education inscrutable to making sure every kid has the best start -- tony e verse knows getting parents involved in education is crucial. >> he wants to reduce class sizes and expand mental health counseling for kids who need it. >> there is nothing more important than our kids education. >> he is doing the right thing in education. >> schools forced to close, falling at -- academic standards, parents told you do

not have a say, books that shame kids just for being white, that is tony evers record on wisconsin public schools. rex as a mom, i have every right to know what the kids are being taught. our school should teach reading, writing, and math, not liberal ideas. >> tony evers, wrong for our kids, wrong for wisconsin. host: an example of some of the ads and that wisconsin gubernatorial contest. to madison, wisconsin, jeremy is waiting. your thoughts on those ads in this issue of education? caller: hi, thank you for c-span. i liked evers' commercial. might have been one of the first times i heard it. but i think you're asking the wrong question here. what is education? what is it to be educated? let me ask you, gravity is

something along the lines of bodies fall towards each other? i could be wrong, might be wrong, might have the wrong definition. who can tell me what it is? and who can tell me where i went wrong with the definition? so what is it to be educated? during the pandemic, when i had a real-world problem -- i am 50 years old, and i went to an eight-year-old to help figure it out. i said, you got to help me do this. he knew exactly how to help. i think my point here is is that, quickly here, all of us need to learn from all of us, somehow, someway. i really do think -- that is really all i have to say. host: in missouri, this is

jacob. caller: good morning. i was thinking, when i went to school, most of the teachers lived in very nice neighborhoods, drove very nice cars, people with full health, full dental, full optical, an aggregate of four months vacation a year, upper-middle-class. and everybody says to pay them more, but you get less teachers, the kids get less attention. maybe if they did not want to live the lives of rock stars, we could have more teachers, more focus on kids, and they could have a more organic education instead of just getting funneled through this one-size-fits-all pipeline. very uninspiring. often times, they are learning math and have no idea why they are learning math. like, they're just getting explained to kind of arbitrary

things, and maybe they need to approach it from a more artistic point of view. first go back to leonardo da vinci, learn about mathematical composition, the golden ratio. likewise for math-minded kids. maybe they need to read "flatland." learn how math applies to literature and the arts, just art folk -- host: what do you think would be a fair starting salary for a teacher in your area today? caller: a teacher in holt, missouri, today? you know, it is hard for me to say. hard for me to say exactly. [laughs] i don't know. i don't know. but i think -- i just think it is funny. i see these money -- people out there picketing, i know they make a lot of money. they are all very healthy, and i would not want them to be any

less healthy. but i am like, why do you want so much more when you obviously seem to be -- i knew teachers who drove bmw's and lived in very large houses in my hometown. host: got the point. the richmond, virginia, this is ruby, that line for teachers. what grade do you teach? caller: fourth grade. host: what are your thoughts on who you trust for education? caller: i trust the school board and the teachers who are knowledgeable. and i think people arbitrarily badmouth public schools. host: what do you think about the test scores from the nation's's report card? caller: education is not just test scores. some of these kids that do not do well on test scores turn out to be brilliant when they go

into the workforce. so that is it. host: keeping on those test scores, the national assessment of education of progress, called the nation's report card, two beds about it in the major papers -- two op-eds about it in the major papers. pandemic lockdowns were a policy blunder for the ages, economic, social, and health consequences are still playing out, the worse catastrophe on america's children. they say the school closures were a political decision influenced by teachers unions, and the political consequences should be a backlash against the politicians who let the schools because to for so long. anyone interest by the american federation of teachers chief randi weingarten, calling her out by name and a lead editorial today. and then from "washington post,"

republican governor ron desantis of florida and greg abbott of texas made a big show of reopening their states schools in the fall of 2020, with dissent is threatening to withhold funding from school districts who did not comply. gavin newsom of california moved more slowly, conditioning the return to in-person instruction on the level of covid-19 infections in a given county, but, he writes, as the report shows, based on testing this spring, student performance suffered equally despite the different approaches. math scores for fourth graders dropped by four points in california, five points in florida, and five points in texas. eighth graders, six points in california, seven points in florida and texas. scores in reading also moved in lockstep, falling by one point or two. it might have matter to the

governors who would like to be president someday, but it made no difference to the millions of children in the nation's schools. from a student's point of view, there was no right way to blunt the impact of the pandemic. all strategies were equally futile. he ended this column by writing, these are the educational issues that we ought to be grappling with, rather than using schools as a battlefield for culture wars. and neff with outrage about imaginary critical race theory -- enough already about imaginary critical race theory, pronounce that can or cannot be used. students need to learn reading and math, and they are losing ground. that is in today's "washington post." about 20 minutes left in this first hour of the "washington journal" this morning. we are asking you who you trust on the issue of education. robert is a teacher in ketchum, idaho. what grade do you teach? caller: hi, first time caller.

i am a retired professor, also a parent. as a music professor, i dealt a great deal with public school students. this problem cannot be addressed by money. it is a problem of a broken system. and the system has been calcified by the unions and administrators. they have a system set up which is convenient for them, not the students. i have a few suggestions. we need to capitalize on the way kids learn today, which is not how they learned of the 19th century. the education colleges that permeate to all the universities are virtually useless. certification for teaching should possibly be a one semester course after you have completed some legitimate degree. colleges of education are dumping grounds for people who cannot cut it elsewhere, apparently. and textbooks are virtually

obsolete. i have been on several textbook selection committees, it is a joke. kids don't need textbooks, they need workbooks. they can find resources they need on the web. and i would say that there are working revisions that do exist, but we are reluctant to do them because then we challenge the status quo. we need to challenge the status quo. it is not working. host: you mentioned it is not a problem that needs to be addressed by money. i wonder what your thoughts are on the $122 billion that was allocated to reopening schools, a big report today that about 15% of that money has been spent. caller: well, that brings us into another topic here at education is not a federal responsibility. it is a state and local responsibility. and the creation of the college

of education was one of the worst things that happened, because now federal funders are into everything and attempt to control everything. that is a problem. we need to return it back to the local systems. host: do you volunteer for school boards at this point? what do you do now? caller: i am retired now. host: i appreciate the -- go ahead. caller: well, i have not been on a school board. i have conversed with several school board members from time to time, and most of them are very serious. they are hard-working, sincere, and they are ill-equipped to do the job. that i guess that is the best solution we have. host: forever, a first time caller. you can call in once every 30 days on the program. we will head to the hawkeye state, ottumwa, iowa, tim, a

parent. caller: good morning. i agree with that op-ed from "washington post," because it is showing about math and arithmetic, not about personal issues, culture wars, and all that other stuff. i have always been involved with my children, and i have always looked at their curriculum. it is mostly about math. and afterschool programs. it is not about some crt, because i believe that when i went to college and we was taught that. it is not in college -- it is in college, not in high school, some crt. so something that is fake, that is put out there that high schools are teaching crt, that is not true. host: janet, colorado springs,

you are next. you are with us this morning. caller: yes, i am. i am calling in regards to the education. when i was growing up, there was no computers. it was all teachers. reading, writing, and arithmetic was the basic things. we were taught math straight from the -- it was truly the best thing that ever happened, the computers lock up, if they go back to the true reading, writing, arithmetic, science, teaching our children basics, not from a computer. the computer is doing more destruction for education than i could ever believe. god bless america, and i hope and pray to god we go back to

basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, and parents stay more involved in their education. host: at what point would you introduce students to computers? they will come into contact with computers in their adult life. when should they start learning how to operate computers and managing going on the internet? i think we lost janet. herb in orchard park, new york, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. an answer to your question, which party do you trust on education? my answer is neither party. certainly also not the teachers union. with the plummeting test scores that we are all reading about now as a result of the shutdown of this education system during the pandemic, what can we do? well, i think it is pretty obvious that what we should

consider is giving up spring break and consider giving up the summer break. but if this was proposed by any educator or by any politician, you would see a total revolt of the teachers that would not want to give up their spring break or their summer vacation. and you would even see an awful lot of parents who say, gee, i am concerned about my children's education and the plummeting test scores, however, we've got plans for vacation. i want to take my kids along with me. i don't want to spring break or summer vacation to be interrupted. so we have got a monumental problem of convincing people we have to really practice some tough love. will it happen?

my guess, no. host: lydia in the keystone state is next. caller: yeah, good morning. thank you for taking my call. i am a retired teacher, retired three years ago. but one of the things that i seen in education is we are trying to do a one-size-fits-all. and it is obvious from what they callers have said today that people have many different ideas, and there is no one idea that is bad. because people really care about the kids. so i do think that we should touch neither party. control of the schools should not be at the federal level. it should be much more local. and i do think the money should follow the students. because there is a principle in the bible that it is the parent's responsibility for the child's education.

that means the parents need choice, and the parents should be able to assess different school districts and determine where they want to place their children. and i know, as a teacher, the biggest thing that worked for me, and i got many commendations from students and parents, was that i inspired their kids and loved their kids. so the kids were excited to learn. host: you got out of teaching right before covid? caller: yes, yes, just happened to be. host: did you keep in touch with your teacher friends during covid? caller: no, i haven't. but i think the school that i want to predominantly state open. they were only closed for a certain time. i taught in a private school. host: thanks for the call from pennsylvania. just less than 10 minutes left.

we are asking you, which party do you trust on the issue of education? back to maryland, a parent. how old are your kids? caller: i have three kids that are actually all out of high school. my youngest just got out of high school two years ago. and i agree with the last caller, i think parents should be able to have some choices to where they send their kids. what i find ironic is democrats have always opposed that system, and you have to wonder why, it is because of the teachers unions. they do not like competition, because that means the bad ones would essentially have to go. they want a status quo. the public education system was taken over about 80 years ago by the progressives, to have rewritten history, and it is evident when you listen in to

calls on c-span what public education does. you get people calling in talking about democracy all the time, that is what they are teaching kids in school. we are not a democracy, yet they do not teach that. they are trying to turn out generations of kids who are going to go to the left, go democrat. they have succeeded in moving that window over the last 80 years. they drum into these kids heads things about being oppressed and how america has a black eye because of slavery. with a kind of omit out of the education system is it is the democratic party that held slaves, not america. it is the democratic party. these kids learn nothing about 20th century history. the 20th century was the bloodiest century in human times, and these kids have no

idea that over 100 million people died in the name of social justice in the 20th century. so that is why socialism is appealing to them. it is what the public schools are trying to turn out. host: did you send your three kids to public school? caller: i did. i was not in a position to send my kids to private school, unfortunately. and i will say that this has happened very slowly, this segregation over the years. it has gotten worse and worse. i think in the last six or seven years, it has gotten to where it is just overtly political in schools, that they just do not teach reading. it is like they are teaching them what to think, rather than how to think. host: apart from where you think education is going nationally, do you think your three kids got a good education? caller: they did because we actually have some books in the

house. we actually cracked open physical, tangible books. i did not let my kids get their learning from social media and exclusively from school. they actually had to learn something about history. they actually had to do their homework when they got home, and sometimes we give them a little extra homework. host: carol in lebanon, ohio, retired teacher. caller: hello, this is my first time on their -- on-air. i am glad to be on, glad to talk to you. i am a retired teacher, 2006. host: and what are your thoughts on this question? caller: well, i think most teachers try. i think a lot of teachers are not educated themselves enough

to teach. they go to college four years, they start, but they are not given a lot of training in the classroom before they get there. and i think that is a problem with them. then i think, depending upon who the principal is, if the principal wants to watch that new teacher and help them out, he or she will. they will talk to them, help them. but i have seen beginning teachers ruined by other teachers not helping them or the principal not talking with them. and they would have been good teachers, but they are gone in one year. the other thing i wanted to say is reading, writing, and math are your big ones. in the first four grades of school, there should be nothing but reading, writing, and math.

but they are throwing in other courses that they could get later, and that is a big issue because you got your little groups, a, b, and c, and by the time you get through with those little groups, they don't get enough practice. you don't get enough practice. they go to the blackboard -- they need to go to the blackboard. that brings another issue. i saw a principal in high school correct one of his teachers because the teacher is taking yardsticks and rulers out for a great activity, and the students were smiling and learning. they had paper to write down different things. it was a great activity. you know what the principal said? you are making marks on the sidewalk with chalk, that don't look good. host: what was the best advice

you ever gave a first year teacher? caller: i told them to never give up on a student, never give up. no matter what that student takes into the classroom, don't give up. host: thanks for the call. a few minutes left. tim, asheboro, north carolina. which party do you trust on the issue of education right now? caller: i trust the democrats, because democrats believe in science. and from what i have seen from the republicans, they do not. they do not think global warming is real. i would also like to say there is a fine line between education and indoctrination, and i am hearing an awful lot of indoctrination from the republicans and not much about

education. host: to maryland, montgomery village, maryland, hello, sean, a parent. caller: good morning. i agree with the gentleman that was just on, there is a difference between indoctrination and education. and in the united states, we actually need to put more effort into the students. when i say that, i mean we need to break down the number of students. too many students within one classroom. the ratio should be maybe 13 to one, but we do not respect our teachers enough. that is why we have the union, so teachers are advocated for. if we had more respect and provided teachers with the resources and everything that they needed, there would be more people that would want to become teachers to be able to help our students. it really is a community that we

need to come together and really adopt these resources and put more money into this group and the educational system overall. host: last call, cecelia, texas. good morning. caller: we need to really evaluate things differently than politics. i have been a teacher privately. i was not in the public school because i have also been a parent and i am still a parent who has a student in college. it is very different. they have poured a lot of money into their school districts in some other states. some of the states really need to have help putting the money into the education so that it is equal across the united states. i was in missouri and went to the 1960's and all the strikes, and just like this pandemic, you

lose, and you lose for the rest of your life. i had to go through tutoring. my parents moved me to another state smalltime education spends more time in the classroom. there are less click -- less kids in the classroom. if you're in a private college, it's the same but if it's a public college, give them information, bigger schools is the same thing step give them information. if you have the computers, you can help them. this pandemic, the teachers here, i have a lot of friends that are teachers and they were complaining the kids were not getting engaged enough with the computers at home. you need that socialization as well stop the kids help each other believe it or not.

when you are at home, they are not getting the help and parents can help some and some of the parents do real well that do privately or they do -- what do you want to call it's -- the private teacher that i worked for, she had kids with homeschooling. my kids were in a big strong school and my church kids were in a private christian school. they were all struggling. host: that was our last caller in this first segment step stick around, more to talk about including the midterms now two weeks away and up next, we will talk about it. a little later today, we discussed the federal forecast predicting sharp increases in home heating costs this winter.

stick around, we will be right back. . >> election day, november 8 starting at 8 p.m. eastern, watched c-span's light election night coverage to see which party will control congress. see the results as they happen from the house, senate and governor reese's from around the country. see victory and concession speeches on c-span, the c-span out video app and at www.c-span.org/campaign 2022. >> middle and high school students, is your time to shine. you can participate in this year's c-span studentcam documentary competition on the midterm elections. -- elected member of congress. what would be your top priority and why, make a 5-6 minute video from opposing and supporting perspectives. don't be afraid to take risks.

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powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: with two weeks to go before the midterms, let's gaze into the crystal ball. center for politics.org is what you want to bookmark in this discussion. what is it telling you about what debt -- about who controls the house and senate? >> i think the odds heavily favor the republicans to take control. there have been 19 midterm election since world war ii and in 17 of the 19, the party out of power in the white house gains seats in the house. you can argue forever about how many seats it could be but whether it's one or 50, one who assumes the republican party organize the house.

i think it will be a decent number. you can argue whether it's 15 or 20 or 25. whatever. the house is very probable that the republicans will take that. we go back-and-forth every day depending was happening. it's very close and is something happens -- and if something happens them this late that could slant the elections toward the democrats, then it will determine the senate for the next two years were at least until a vacancy or vacancies occur. that is the one to watch. depending how you count, five or six or seven seats that are in play, some are at the next level and potentially could be in play but they don't seem to be at the moment.

that's interesting to me. the most interesting races are the governors races. there are quite a few competitive contests out there from coast to coast. host: with two weeks to go, what will you be watching for? it's your job to cover these races. what most interests you and the final 14 days? guest: i always focus on october surprises. i remember so many of them. one big october surprise changes everything and occasionally that happens. this is the 60th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis which occurred in october of 1962, right before john f. kennedy' only midterm election and it helpeds the democrats. there was virtually no change in congress and they held the house

by a wide margin. the senate as well. i think republicans would have done better had not been for the cuban missile crisis which ended in what appeared to be a victory for the united states. it gave a glow to the kennedy administration that helped the midterm election. there are so many others that people don't remember because they can be small and effect one state or they can affect one demographic. i look for those because they can be significant when you have close races as we do for the senate. host: have we seen some october surprises? guest: the first october surprise is the dobbs decision but it didn't occur in october. we use the term october surprise but it could be earlier or in the first week of november. this is the first tuesday after

the first monday in november and it could be as early as november 2 and this year it's on november 80 step every day matters in the final things matter a lot but they don't matter as much they used to because we have so much early voting. we have election month instead of election day. in some states, it's election six weeks. while you have the vote accumulating, people are determining their votes based on what they know on the day they mark their ballot. over the years, i have talked to more pollsters and people come in and change their mind and they want their ballot back and you can't because they separate your vote from the envelope. they have no idea which one is your vote. you cannot get it back. that is the downside of voting

early. you may miss some of the october or early november surprises. host: how much does the crystal ball focus on mail-in voting numbers, early vote numbers? how do you account for that in recent cycles? guest: we love statistics and everybody in politics does. that's why so many people in politics follow sports. do we determine our races based on that? n becauseo. we are moving from an electorate that only voted on election day to electorate that much prefers to vote by mail or vote early in person, something other than election day. and there is an upside to this. you can cast your ballot before

some major event happens but the upside of doing it is when people wait for election day, life is crazy for most people. your child may get sick or you have to take them to the doctor you could have a flat tire and your boss may call you in early and you have to stay late and you don't have time to go to the polls. when it's all done on one day, it's possible for many people to miss voting. at least with this, you can work it into your schedule over a month's time more or less pending on the state. host: larry sabado's crystal ball, the house and senate and good but -- and gubernatorial races and were talking about all of it. let us know which races you want to discuss.

it's also pole flooding season. we are inundated with different poll numbers. what should we read into the polls now and what should we be reading? what advice would you give to viewers who are getting these numbers? guest: i would be foolish to say we don't ignore these polls. we've learned something important since 2016, which is just as an earlier generation discovered the race of 1948 where the polls miss predicted that election, we learned because of the trump misfire in 2016 where the polls and pundits predicted hillary clinton to win and donald did, that polls are

not as accurate as we thought they were. while they have tried to reform and i salute the organizations that have experimented to improve the process, they have still been inaccurate. they were inaccurate in 2016 and 2020. there is extra reason for reading them and looking at them but not assuming that it's god handing the tablet to moses. it's not. they can be flawed in many different ways and you can see that when you look at individual polls. they are all over the place. you will have a certain number of holes -- a polls showing the partisan candidate ahead and they are trying to flood the polling averages and to keep their volunteers and their party excited and upbeat because they

seize on a good pull and ignore the rest. that's a danger for everybody. we seize on a pole that has the result we like and nor the polls that have results we don't like. what i tell people and i put this on twitter every election season, what polls do is tell you in aggregate if the races is close or not. if it's within a few points, within the margin of error and that's probably too restrictive, three or four points but when you look at all the ways the polls can veer off track, the margin of error is probably larger. if the lead for a candidate is be on the margin of error, you can comfortably say that candidate is leading. if the lead for a candidate is within the margin of error, then you can say this is

indeterminate and suggests that as of today, maybe this candidate is the best but it's close enough that turnout patterns could change and last-minute events could change it, mobilization could change it. yes, you read the polls and nobody will tell you not to but you might not take them as seriously as you used to. host: in new york, is the race for the campaign committee chairman and that race is a tossup against his republican challenger. your thoughts on that race and the larger story up with that pole could mean? guest: i need to know who it is. sometimes the pollsters are right.

they have an agenda. they almost always tend to show their candidate doing better than the polling average. sometimes they can be right but it causes you to be suspicious and there are polling groups on the republican and democratic side the do that step maloney has been somewhat controversial with her -- his democratic campaign. the democratic leadership seems to be leading but his district is not overwhelmingly democratic step it's theoretically possible for for him to be defeated, maybe more than theoretically. you bet a little less on them and redistricting years which is what 2022 is because we had the

redistricting between 2021-2022. new york was a prime case. it's possible that these polls are designed to come out toward the end to unsettled the political map, unsettled the political class and give inspiration and motivation to the party on the side the was expected to lose. there is no definitive answer except the one on november 8. host: let's go to new york ,lee is on the line for republicans. caller: good morning, i want to respond to his comments about the cuban missile crisis. president biden said on several replays that he wants us to give up our lease on guantanamo day

because it's too expensive even though we are spending money like you would not believe. i'm concerned about the danger of who will occupy this territory if we give it up, thank you. host: that's farther afield from the midterms but would you care to jump in? guest: the very next time that you have a foreign policy expert on washington journal, i encourage the lady to call. that's an excellent question. host: lynn in columbia, maryland, good morning. caller: perhaps you are short changed in a historical context to the term october surprise. for your audience, the name of a book that was published by an advisor in the first administration of ronald reagan had to do with the fact that at

the time, 80 americans were being held hostage in iran by the new regime that had taken over. there was concern that president jimmy carter, if his administration had secured release of those hostages, it would have given him just enough edge to win that election of 1980. at the time, his administration in areas of finance but the people running the campaign for ronald reagan which was george herbert walker bush and william casey later became head of the cia negotiated a secret agreement with the new revolutionary regime under the ayatollah ho maney in iran -- host: do you want to bring us up to the midterms of this year? caller: this shows how elections

can be manipulated. guest: i can name october surprises before the term became common. lyndon johnson's bombing hauled to north vietnam announced on national tv without much prior buildup. it was right before the november election which helped get hubert humphrey into a near tie back in 1968 step there are plenty of cases we can talk about. that was not the key event that produced jimmy carter's 10 point loss. he was behind by 2-3 points already and that was more than enough in that particular year given the tilt of the electrical

-- electoral college to elect ronald reagan and even if the collapse of the negotiations with the iranian regime had not occurred in the sunday before the election, let's keep it in context. it, lee helped to bring in a republican senate stop i don't think a reagan margin -- margin would have done that. these things are always layered and they are more complicated than they appear on the surface and certainly more complicated than you can summarize in a few sentences. host: in terms of more complicated, haven't forgotten your question about who conducted that pole, mcglocklin and associates. for people trying to navigate these things, what should they look for when trying to decipher

these holes? guest: you need to look and see whether there is a partisan designation to the pole. most of the sites that cover polling correctly a listn r or a d if they are partisan pollsters. it doesn't mean the pole is wrong but there is an edge further republican. if there are additional polls in that district, i would be surprised that they show there is a dead heat there. host: do the debates still matter? guest: i think they can matter particularly if the candidate makes an error. the former governor terry

mcauliffe did a year ago in october of 2021 when he appeared to dismiss parents as having a role in their school. it gave an issue to his republican opponent glenn youngkin who eventually won a relatively narrow election at 51% stop they can still matter but it's more in the coverage of what is said. unfortunately, people cannot take hours and hours to watch all of the debates. you have a lot of debates on c-span i wish i could wash just watch more than i do. they are important but they are less important in the sense that partisan identification is more important.

i often say the two most powerful letters in english language are d and r because they determine a large majority of the votes. people vote their partisan ids. when you scratch the surface and look at their voting history, you find that they almost always vote republican or the democrat in the partisan identification enables them to interpret all the issues through this partisan screen and that's ok. parties serve many functions. let's not pretend that everybody sitting there objectively analyzing every word that's said in a debate for every event that occurs in the campaign trail. host: will you be watching john federman and men met oz in the

pennsylvania senate seat debate? guest: this is an important one because of the issues that have been raised on john fetterman's stroke and the controversies that have surrounded dr. oz. i think you will see more substance to the debate, meaning campaign issues. i'm not saying they are real issues. there will be substance in there that could affect the vote. i don't know what the audience figures but i suspect there will be a lot of people outside pennsylvania watching that bait. it's how the debate is a poor -- is reported and i hope there are no gaps because they are subversive to the debate process. you stick with them for the duration of the campaign and

they can affect the final vote. host: this is walter, line for democrats. will you be watching tonight? caller: is that on c-span that debate? host: i think we will re-air it but i don't think it will be live. plenty of pennsylvania networks are airing it. caller: i hope they don't do -- edit stuff when it's played later. i noticed everybody is always editing. host: if it's played later on c-span, i promise you there will be no editing. you were talking about caller: october surprises and i just had my octobers of rise. i had 250 gallons of oil with my

oil heat. we've had some terrible winters. the winters appear get terrible. 250 gallons. i will ask both of you guys have much do you think i paid for that? guest: a lot. caller: i want to see if you two guys are in the loop where the rubber meets the road. 250 gallons of heating oil, professor, how much do you think i page? guest: this is not the price is right so i don't have an exact number for you. host: i know you are paying more this year because the price index that came out yesterday shows that the cost of heating homes this winter will be 28% more compared to last winter. caller: that's right.

this is my october surprise. $1100. my wife was here when they brought it. i got home later and she handed me the bill and i had to sit down. i am a lifelong democrat and i can tell you i'm not going to vote democrat this year. to begin with, i don't think fetterman is qualified to be a senator. two br summit -- a senator representing us in washington, d.c., his background is so flimsy come i can't believe my party put him up for that. even you two guys sitting on c-span, even if you didn't have any idea how much it cost to heat my home and i have two granddaughters that come up here and stay with me and i cannot

keep this house at 68 degrees. host: in our 9:00 hour, we will be talking on home heating costs on the report that came out yesterday. you might be interested in that stuff anything you want to pick up on? guest: i want to congratulate you on knowing the 28% increase. i would expect that because you are very knowledgeable and are from the university of virginia. host: larry sabado joining us this morning. it's the crystal ball that you can check out races. about a half an hour left. kelly is a republican out of georgia, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you

for taking my call. professor sabado, i so admire and respect your work. i'm so honored to be able to speak to you and john, you are a wonderful host. you always seem to be straight down the middle and i appreciate that. host: thank you, what's your question? caller: i want to make two remarks -- i believe the democrats very much overplayed the abortion issue. i think that was way too early and they overplayed it. i don't believe it was going to end up being that big of a deal. my second thing was i don't think they considered what was going on in americans pocketbooks. my last thing, being in the state of georgia, me, myself and a lot of family members suffer

from mental health problems. herschel walker we know has suffered from that. a lot of things that go on in the country, they always come back to mental health. i think it would be a wonderful thing to send someone to washington that has ideas, has suffered and overcame or has dealt with it, to have ideas like on gun violence or other things to be able to have ideas and things to help people. they always say mental health -- illness another -- end of the with the other thing i wanted to say is, when you overplay an issue such as the abortion issue, it's not just a woman that's involved. if a woman gets pregnant and --

the man has no say -- if she decides to keep that baby, then the man is obligated to child support, obligated, we say the man needs to be in the child's life and everything. host: you bring up a lot of issues. larry sabado, what do you want to pick up on? guest: i want to pick up on those kind remarks she made about you and me. that was by far the most important thing. i thank her for that and that's a sweet southern lady. i couldn't get into all that if you gave me an hour. good questions and good topics to discuss but i want to offer you my sympathy and here's why. odds are, you will have to put up with another full month of that campaign because of the

georgia rule that says in certain races, you have to have 50% +1 so when you have a third-party candidate on the ballot, there is a libertarian on that senate race ballot in the libertarian will get two or three or 4% and right now, warnock and walker are nearly tied in virtually every survey i've seen from both parties. you will have another run off in early december and unless you work for a tv station because you are making money hand over fist, they are the ones that really benefit from this crazy system of 50% plus one, they should change it and have a cut off that's reasonable. you will have to put up with all of this for another month. as i say, lives are complicated

and there are plenty of things to spend your time on but you will have to spend more time on that race even though you know how you will vote step you will be bombarded with ads and information on it. host: george is one of two senate races listed by the crystal ball as a tossup race and the other one is in nevada, the republican senate candidate in the democratic senator there. take us to this race. guest: it's interesting because of the senate race and the governors contest. both of them are very tight and they both could go republican. there's an, democrat in the -- an incumbent democrat in the senate and incumbent republican. because it was happening with the latino vote in nevada, it's important in a certain percentage are not owing to vote

democratic as they usually do. someone vote -- some won't vote and some will vote republican. nevada is a democratic leaning state. leaning meaning a small percent of the democratic direction because democrats tend to do very well with the hispanic vote step if they do less well, it means in leaning states and districts, races that might once have gone democratic could go republican. a lot of information i see as well as recent polling in nevada suggest these races are very close. the experts we consult in that state and around that state believe the race may be leaning slightly republican. we will see. we've got a ways to go and they vote heavily in advance and by mail.

there is a lot to consider their that's why we have it is a tossup and we have george as a tossup because it's likely could to go to a runoff. we don't have to make a decision until early december. host: we will come back here to washington, d.c. on our line for democrats. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i just had a comment and a question. the comment regards the georgia race. i think it's to raise up a candidate like herschel walker. i am an african-american woman whose middle-aged and i think it's an affront to all african-americans that are in the republican party. or just from a perspective of races and having the ability to

be a senator. that's my first comment. the second is a question for you, professor on thefetterman/ oz race. how do you think it will play out with dr. oz for his constituency, leaning into the fact that fetterman has a disability right now? and they might use that as a means for him not being qualified to take office. i will hang up now. guest: i think we have to rely to a certain extent on the medical expertise.

it's been offered but doctors associated with fetterman. there has been some analysis by doctors who treat stroke victims about fetterman's case and the use of the device to interpret words when there is a leftover auditory pro aft se.most of thee seen is encouraging for a full recovery which i hope every buddy would want him to have regardless of the boat. it's impossible anybody to say what your health will be in a month or ar ox years down the pike. i think you have to base your vote on other things, maybe party label again. i think fetterman will have to perform well in this debate and we will see how he performs. i've seen this before in stroke

victims. it's not that unusual. we will see how he does and i hope that doesn't become the critical issue that determines the election. it's a very close race. it's a race that fetterman has led for a long time but it tightened in the days and weeks before the election. he's still ahead in most of the polls i have seen most of i think this debate will matter and that's why you should wash it on c-span or any other -- you should watch it on c-span or any other outlet will step host: is there a willingness doctors and affectional's to make comments about the health or ability of a political figure

when that person is not in peak condition? has that happened less in the past? guest: yes, at one time you didn't even mention such things. there were cases many years ago, decades ago of candidates who were severely limited by one disease or another or one condition or another who managed to get through a campaign without it being a major issue. there also have been people in office who were struck down by one illness or another and served for years without setting foot on the floor of the senate to cast votes. it wasn't really discussed. people consider that be bad behavior, low class it's not because you are talking about representation of people and the state and everybody has a right to have two functioning step --

senators. the attitudes toward that and just about everything else have evolved, sometimes in good ways and sometimes in bad ways. very little is the same from the time i remember it first in the 1960's through the present. host: on the line for independents, this is mary. caller: recently, i found that some of the polls show that the republicans would better with the economy. isn't it true that joe biden has done everything possible and ukraine is the cause of many problems including inflation and inflation is around the world. inflation is part of the business cycle.

it's so unfair that the republicans keep touting that they will be able to do better but isn't it true that they cannot do a thing to make anything better, it's part of the economy? that is not the reason why anybody should consider voting for a republican. just like the man said, the oil price he paid is not because joe biden is not doing everything possible. host: larry sabado, on the economy. guest: she makes a good point, presidents don't sit in the oval office pushing buttons and running a $20 trillion economy and we are linked with others around the world and we know

that inflation is even worse. much of this has to do with the u.k. which has inflation worse than we do. having said that, she mentioned the word fairness and i have sold students for years that if you are concerned about erin's, that is your northstar -- about fairness, that is your northstar. don't go anywhere near politics. politics has very little to do with fairness. politics and elections are not fair depending on your interview. why do people blame the incumbent president? it's human nature. we will when somebody and who better than the president in office? people assume incorrectly presidents have enormous power to control everything and if something is going wrong, it must be because they did something stupid.

you can say that about the federal reserve board which had more to do with this than anyone else at least rare country. that's not how people think. they will blame the incumbent president and that's what they are doing now and that's what they have done across administrations, democratic and republican, since the beginning of the republic. it may or may not be fair you can make a good argument that isn't fair but it's reality. host: don't presidents often point the finger back and blame the president before them? at what point does the economy become a presidential issue? when did that switchover politically? where was the turning point? guest: it used to be bad form to lane your predecessor after a decent amount of time like six months.

that has gone by the board along with the other rules about form. presidents will do that, governors do it, we had our governing here blaming predecessors for the drop in the education scores. that's what executives do to duck responsibility for something happening now. it affects partisans in their party to join a president or governor in condemning the predecessor of the other party. for people who are less partisan, it seems like a decking of responsibility. it seems cheap. take responsibility for what is happening in your term and we used to say that. we used to say presidents and governors are responsible for everything that happens good and

bad during their term. it makes six cents for people to judge them that way and may not be there but that's how we allocate responsibility. now i think people work harder at ducking responsibility. host: the other state with the key to vittorio and senate race is florida. vincent, line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen and thank you for taking my call step i just have a comment in a quick question. as far as this administration, people are sick and tired of the blame game, not taking responsibility just as you said. when you are in office, it's on you so that was my comment. my question is, do you have any idea why the debates have been cut?

two years ago i believe they had 17 debates and now we are down to seven debates? i'm wondering if you have any thoughts on that and i will hang up and thank you again for taking my call. guest: the gentle man is correct step we do have fewer debates because the candidates can't agree or won't agree on the details of debate for for various reasons. some are justified but most of them are not. here's why they get away with it. they know they can. if voters were unhappy that they were not debating,, who is responsible for the decision not to debate, if voters cast their ballot on the bases, if they nature the candidate is paying the price, then you would see more debates.

going way back, i'm old enough to remember the kennedy-nixon debates of which there were four, which were watched by a total of about 70 million people. almost everybody who voted watched at least one of not more of those debates and they really mattered. it was probably the biggest innovation and presidential campaigns in many years. people said this guy has to be permanent. lyndon johnson looks at his and norma's lead in 1960 oren says i'm not going to marry barry goldwater. richard -- richard nixon in 1968 was having none of it. he had no debates with hubert embry forger wallace and he

didn't do it to johnson and nixon won in landslides. it wasn't until 1976 that we reestablished the tradition of presidential debates because of happenstance. gerald ford was not elected and he felt the knowledge he had, having been in congress for so long and then vice president, would allow him to show people he was better all of five to continue as president than jimmy carter who was the one term governor of georgia. jimmy carter felt he wanted to demonstrate that he was fully capable of standing toe to toe with the incumbent president. they both had a motive for debating and it reestablished the notion that candidates should debate in the just on the debate continued even with incumbent who were heavily favored step they didn't have as many debates but for heard two

of them in 1984. i hope we will not get away from that again. i worry at the presidential level that we may find a candidate or two with excuses for not debating. there are no real excuses but it may be enough to sell to the party. that trickles down to the senate level and other levels. we should maintain this tradition. it's true that not many boats change usually on account of a debate but voters are better informed because of them, not for the people watch the debates but the people who watch a two or three minute summary on the news or hear it on the radio or look at a headline. they learned something about the campaign. we really need to insist that candidates debate. host: the conservative editorial port of the washington times has

this editorial. one of the congressional districts cannot agree on a debate. could you focus on that race? will it be a bellwether to tell us about the size of a republican takeover if it moves in that direction. guest: it could, the two most competitive races in virginia are the second, congresswoman elainelluria running against the state senator and it's very close. it's been tied in the number of holes. it's a district that leans republican but the incumbency factor has enabledluria to compete there.

if you see that one going democratic and democrats have reason to be sheared. if it goes republican, replicable debts republicans will think they will take over the house. the seventh district is not white is competitive as the second but it is competitive. if you see the republican candidate winning that district congresswoman abigail spanberger who served two terms now in a different district because of the crazy redistricting we had, you know that republicans may very well take over the house. if stan berger holds it, then democrats have a decent chance of holding the republican margin to a smaller number of seats than what have in the case otherwise step there are bellwether districts but you don't want to have only one or two. you need to have 10 or 20 or 30

because crazy things can happen in individual districts that are not representative of what's happening in the country as a whole. host: this is dan on the line for democrats, good morning. caller: we just got our ballots the other day for mailing in. i will put mine in today i want people to know how i am voting. at the top of the ticket for president -- the president is not there but ron wyden first and i'm in the new district six, andrea salinas, kotec, locally for the mayor and the only i'm -- i'm against why there was a rally on january 6 after the resident was already selected, thank you. host: he brains of january 6.

guest: yes, he was citing democratic candidates. for first time in a long time, the governor's race is actually very competitive. not to over emphasize the polls, they have the top two candidates in a near tie but the republicans have a slight lead in some of the polls in the last republican elected was in the 1980's so it would be unusual maybe you could argue because of the nature of democracy, people sooner or later one to change. ron wyden will have no trouble winning reelection most is far as january 6, i think it's a very important subject, every

american who cares about democracy should pay a pension debt should pay attention to this. it will affect some voters and is motivating democrats and many cases but is not dominating like inflation were abortion rights are several other issues i could mention. maybe it should be but lots of things that should be are not. host: about five minutes left in this section and the independent mayor, john was first elected in november of 1988 and is running a can out there this year will step we will go to ohio. guest: is he related to you? host: no relation. johnny, republican, good morning. caller: how are you guys today? these are the questions i have step whenever trump was in

office, the price of gas went up a little bit more than three dollars. he said he could put a freeze on the gas prices and then we get the borders open and i've seen a homeless gentleman in fifth avenue in columbus, ohio laying behind a bus stop bench. we are spending trillions of dollars on ukraine but we've got homeless guys. what will the democrats do about that? since they been in office, they have run us back 50 years. we are in a hell of a situation right now. host: gas prices, border security, foreign aid are the issues. guest: those are real issues and

people are voting on that basis. particularly gas prices, they go up and they go down another tracking up in step the gentleman from erie, pennsylvania made that white. just made that point. all of these are real issues and that's why you have a democratic line and republican line and an independent line to give people a chance to make their case for the parties candidate and a lot of your callers have done just that that's how a healthy democracy should work host: host:. maybe one or two more. this is out of massachusetts, line democrats step -- line for democrats. caller: [indiscernible] host: we will work on your

connection a little bit. for folks who are feeling overwhelmed at the end of the midterm elections we talked about the polling and the political ads. what advice would you give two weeks out? guest: i can't answer that in a minute and a half. long story short, as a voter, you have to ask yourself what i really care about. when you have the answer with the issues, then you have a framework in addition to your party id to analyze the races and determine for whom to vote. i think people know a lot of wild charges have been made in the last bullet weeks and even in the last 48 hours.

i had worn people, do not leave much of what you hear and see as campaigns come to an end. the campaigns and the managers know there is none enough time for the other side to refute some spectacular charge. why didn't they make the charge earlier? why didn't they do it months ago if it was so important? try to put those things out of your mind keep to the interstate highway. don't get off on the dirt roads. do not get off on the dirt roads. what issues matter to you? how did the candidates appear to you in terms of their abilities and when you combine all that, you make your decision. host: larry sabato, the founder and chief of sabato's crystal ball. you can find on the webpage of the center for politics. always a pleasure. guest: thank you.

we enjoy you very much and we are proud that you are from the university of virginia. host: up next, our open form of talk about any political issue that you want to talk about. in a half hour, we are going to talk about home heating prices with benjamin storrow of e&e news. start calling in now for open forum. phone lines for republicans, democrats and independents are on your screen. we'll get to your calls right after the break. ♪ >> d.c. c-spanshop holiday sale is going on right now at c-spanshop.org. say 15% on our popular sweatshirt, t-shirt, drink ware and more.

there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operatn. scanned the right to start shoppingow. at c-spanshop.org. >> this election day, november 8, the control of power in congress is at stake. the republicans retake the house? can democrats retake control of the senate? from now until election night, see coverage of debates, rallies and candidate events as they have been on tv and the c-span now app. on our website and find our data election page at c-span.org/campaign 2022. >> 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 issue, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happened here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: just after 9:00 on the east coast in time for our open forum. in this half hour, we let you leave the discussion. any public policy or political issue. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as you are calling in, we will give you a roadmap this morning. after we end at 10:00 a.m. eastern, we are going to go to the american enterprise

institute for a discussion on the topic of elections and how they are administered. that discussion is here on c-span and c-span.org as well and you can watch it on the free c-span video app. at noon, eastern, our coverage will begin again. the new hampshire vittorio debate, governor chris sununu. here at c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. now, open forum. what do you want to talk about? louis from north carolina, your up first. caller: top of the morning to you c-span and america. it seems like every primary, every election year, you hear the republicans talk about crime. they talk about inflation, talk about gas and canned goods.

every election. but after the election, they do not want to pass any kind of gun laws. we have so much crime right now, dealing with trump and all the enablers he had but they did not talk about that crime. they want to talk about the inner-city crime. you know what crime going around in north carolina, maybe someone can help me with this, but a lot of people, and majority of people on the news talk about somebody broke in my car and still there gun, it is a white person. but every time a gun is stolen out of their car, the car is not broken into. no damage to the windows or doors. somebody needs to be held accountable outside once they found that gun and committed some type of crime. i do not know if they are doing what we call a snatch and grab where they say the gun was

stolen and they get insurance on it and get a new gun or money but somebody looks -- needs to look into whatever car the broke into, when they claim a gun was stolen, so they need to have a law against them. host: clay out of pennsylvania, republican. caller: larry sabato said it was not the president whose fault it was. to me it is the president guiding his people, his staff and so on. unlike the other guy, i always said it was a democrat that -- in school. i have seen but democrats have done. just like him, i got -- two or three days ago and mine happened to be 1288.39 and it will take

me to fill four times this year. i have a small house and i am on social security. it is the president. they always enjoy watching larry sabato but he is wrong. he guides the people. the same way with gas and oil wells. i just so happen to have a gas well on my ground and the people that are in charge of putting that there had to wait a year until a brown batch was moved. i do not know whether people are more important or bats but it is the president in my opinion. host: richard, independent. what is on your mind? caller: good morning.

i just want to say it is a beautiful morning out here. it is a little after 8:00 a.m. and the sun is coming out. without c-span, i do not know how i would get through the day. my wife and i exercise every morning and have our c-span on. we watch you and hear people talk on the phone. i didn't know how else we are going to get through life without the truth and c-span has the truth. also, it is my wife's 81st birthday today and i would like to wish her an 81st birthday. after that, nothing more than thank you. host: what is your wife's name? caller: betty. host: happy birthday to betty. thank you for watching. teresa in pennsylvania, line for democrats. caller: the guy that was just on stole my thunder. for us to have oil delivered to my house, they used to come out but now it is a minimum of 100

50 gallons and $745. luckily we put a heat pump in and we use oil only for backup. when the temperature drops below a certain temperature, the oil kicks on. we have not been able to afford getting the oil delivered yet so we have been keeping our thermostat on 67 degrees no matter how -- how cold it gets. host: do you expect that issue to come up in tonight's senate debate in pennsylvania? caller: because it is out of control. because they cannot drive the trucks because the price of gas. they will not deliver for less than 150 gallons. we used to just get 50 here or there but we have to save up our money to get oil delivered. that is all i wanted to say. happy birthday to the lady that just turned 81. host: let me stay in

pennsylvania for a couple minutes. the senate debate happening tonight. here is a headline from penn l ive. john fetterman and mehmet oz set to debate tonight. the question for mr. pros is the set up for tonight's debate. there is some accommodations being made in light of the health issues that john fetterman has faced. can you explain how this is going to go down tonight? caller: the john fetterman campaign asked for closed captioning for their candidate for the lieutenant governor. he has used this in interviews since he got back on the campaign trail in july. obviously following his stroke in mid may. the close captioning will be used in the debate tonight.

that's became sort of a point of contention. the mehmet oz campaign asked for an additional 30 minutes to accommodate for what they said would be a lack possibly in communicating with the closed captions. the john fetterman campaign refused to extend that so the debate is still set for one hour. host: will that be on a screen on a tv in front of him or on his podium? how is that going to work? something a bit unusual for folks who watch a lot of these debates. guest: i am not exactly sure of the logistical set up in the tv studio but that is what he has been using in interviews. the one he did with the penn l ive editorial recently was on our facebook page. he was using that. he spoke generally pretty well, especially compared to when he

first came on the campaign trail at his first dependent -- appearance at a rally in erie. his speech was noticeably stilted and halted. the campaign says the closed captions are to simply accommodate his auditory processing issues he has. it is not a reflection of cognitive ability. his doctors have come out and said he is fully capable of serving in the senate. in performing the job. but a lot of it is optics and how he appears and does this raise any questions in voters minds about his ability to serve? i think that, alongside the issues that obviously will be raised, the optics and how he performs and how voters perceive him is -- tonight.

host: this debate at 8:00 p.m. eastern in pennsylvania. who are the moderators and how are both sides setting expectations for their candidates in these hours before the debate? guest: dennis owens from abc 27 in harrisburg. he will be one of the moderators as well as lisa sylvester, and anchor at wpxi. they are going to be sharing duties. i have not spoke directly about the expectations but i would imagine that based on what they have been saying the entire time, the sissy chance for the mehmet oz campaign to -- this is the chance for the mehmet oz campaign to make points. another point of contention is

mehmet oz has come out and hammered john fetterman for skipping debates. i think oz has committed seven other debates but federman declined. this is mehmet oz's only chance to be out in front of voters on a statewide basis and make his case and get points in this race. again, going back to john fetterman, this is his chance. to show voters that he is more than capable of handling the job. host: you mentioned this being the only debate. there will not be any debates in the closely watched gubernatorial pennsylvania. why is that? guest: they simply have not been able to come to any agreements. doug mastro 90, the far right state senator, republican candidate, has made -- insisted on some changes in debates that

have been offered. he is not happy with the moderators. he offered that he would choose one and the democratic candidate shapiro would choose another one but schapiro did not like that. the tradition is candidates do not get to choose their moderators. the host and to ever extremely debates tuesday moderators. they have not come to any agreement to do a debate. the polls consistently show that shapiro was considerably in the lead with 10 points or more. it is probably not in his interest to such a big league -- to get such a big lead because you give your opponent to name points against you. it is sort of a craven political thing but it is in reality. they have not been able to agree on anything. master nonno -- mastriano has

ignored a lot for his campaign. he has only gone with conservative outlets and used his facebook page. it is just in the same vein of ignoring the traditional media. host: we are exactly two weeks away from election day. what you folks need to know about mail-in voting in pennsylvania and early voting? what are the rules that your state works under? guest: what is going on now has been going on for a couple weeks. another point of contention in the senate debate because the mehmet oz campaign said this debate was coming so late in the game, weeks after mail-in voting began, that a lot of people had already voted. there are -- the big thing that you can say is the quote unquote

naked ballot as they referred to it in pennsylvania. the democrats have made a big push to make sure that people include -- there is an envelope that you put into a free fill it out. then you put the ballot into the envelope that is actually mailed. you have to hand date it. dating it is another issue that has been caught in the courts of whether or not they count it. you have to simply follow the rules. the naked balance, if they come without the secrecy envelope, will not be counted. democrats are pushing this issue because democrats overwhelmingly voted by mail compared to republicans. that is the biggest issue going on now. then, obviously the county of mail-in ballots once they get to the offices because officers

have not had much additional time to do that. the legislature has not acted on that and given counties or time. we are going to be looking at a couple days to get the process like it was in 2020. the process of turning in the mail-in ballots and how long it takes the counties to process this. host: prose is a reporter with debatelive.com. will you be there for the debate? guest: i will be in the tv studio in harrisburg. host: pennlive.com where you can see his reporting. back to open forum. any political issue you want to talk to. janine in fort mitchell. republican, good morning. caller: republican. thank you. janine smith, kentucky.

we are from the beautiful new grass state and we have -- the bluegrass state and we are totally red. we have two constitutional amendments on our vote. i will address amendment two which is to vote yes for the reports of life. this was written by fisher who is also the kentucky supreme court candidates. this is to vote yes on two. it says "kentucky will send a clear message there is no right to an abortion or funding of abortion in kentucky's constitution. passing this amendment will remove the basis of the alcu lawsuits and any further challenges. this does not ban abortions but allows judges to prevent from

legislating from the bench. there is nothing in the state that can -- in the kentucky constitution that says you have a right to an abortion and nothing that says we the people have to pay for it". this is at the bottom of the ballot. we have very long balance at this point. we have all the mayors and more in kentucky. but that is to say yes on two. if i can go on to amendment number one. host: if you can make it fairly quick. caller: a vote on amendment number one is to ensure that we can have -- in freeport -- frankfurt year-round. may i add that we had andy beshear, our governor, shutdown our state. and actually went to the parking lots of people on church on

easter sunday and had state police put papers on their windshields saying they were in violation of their mandate and would be held responsible. please vote yes for one and two. host: mike, independent, good morning. caller: good morning john. shout out to all the foster parents out there. i am having trouble swallowing. our governor is backing bailey in the republican primary with money and advertisements. i feel that is kind of fraud. now he has an easy win with bailey. he is also the same governor that did a form of genocide by inserting sick people into senior citizens homes and not going to jail for it. another thing i have trouble

swallowing is the 60 day grace that the department of justice gave all politicians but not the american people, that they cannot file charges for 60 days around an election. where did this law come from? has the supreme court looked this up? because -- for trump and all the bootleggers should have been locked up a long time ago. for them to give another 30 days seems like another slap in the face of america. host: i do not think that is an actual law. i think that is a practice. caller: do you know where it came from and when it will go away? i think there is a really great area, especially if you do the math. host: that is a good question and maybe it is worth a segment for us to dig into on washington

journal. i'm certain my producer downstairs is writing that down. derek in maryland, democrat. caller: good morning. just listening to everybody talk. very interesting. we have early voting here in maryland on the 27th. wes moore is probably going to win that. i could see him being a future nominee for president. what i want to talk about is the fact that if we do not indict trump for trying to stop the peaceful process of transition of power, we are making a terrible, terrible mistake. cannot let him get by with that. thank you. host: out of georgia, tommy. good morning. caller: good morning.

can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: i have a couple things to say. i am republican and have voted republican but the last two elections, i have not been able to find a reason to vote republican. i discovered they are trying to sunset social security. i am a retired military guy and i just got my first social security check and now i found out my republican party is going to sunset social security and medicare. that is half of my retirement besides my military. then i find out they are planning on introducing legislation to try to stop by military benefits, to reduce by military benefits. i am trying to figure out, a guy like me who is 66 years old and retired, i am trying to find why would i vote republican if they are going to do that? then i look at they are going to

stop supporting ukraine? i am baffled. the sunsetting and -- host: what is keeping you republican? why do you republican? why do you still identify as republican? caller: because i like the value of self -- a person that does not rely on government but a person that -- i would sit and life the republican idea of being self-sufficient and depending on yourself and that you should be relying on yourself. that you should not depend on government to bail you out unless you are in a bad situation. to see them turn around and seemed to pour out all of the benefits that help people to save money for richer people, i guess, because republicans are already talking about less taxes for the wealthiest people in america again.

i am baffled and cannot find a reason why i would vote for my party. host: ralph in richmond, missouri. caller: first, i agree with the last caller. second, if people would really look at big oil companies, they are making huge profit and not adjusting. the other comment and question that i have is where is all of this dark money coming from that they keep talking about? but they do not talk about it very much. that is all i have. host: ray in fremont, california. democrat. caller: good morning. i wanted to talk about prices because we live in a free enterprise system which means the government does not control

corporations or ruts prices they set -- what prices they set. we were in a pandemic for a couple of years where over a million of our fellow americans and friendly neighbors died because of covid. over a million. we had to shut down. people were not going to work and some of them were without protection and they died. things were in a really bad shape. so now that the markets are coming back and people are trying to get back to normal, the companies that were not able to fully function during the pandemic are trying to make their money back. the government does not control the prices. that happens in a communist kind of set up.

companies are setting their own prices apparently. host: do you mind if i ask, what your thoughts on the free enterprise system, do you think the government should be working to bring down gas prices as the biden administration has been trying to do? with this spike in gas prices, do you think the administration should be doing more to bring down home heating prices? we found out yesterday that the cost will be 28% more this winter than last. is that something you are ok with the government getting involved in? caller: it depends. the issue is that the government is not the entity setting the price for the product. or the service. the oil companies are doing that. as a dental bill me just said, oil companies -- as the

gentleman before me just sent, oil companies are making profits they have not seen in ages. we are the ones being ripped off. the president can do very little. he can try to influence companies to have -- give their customers a fair shot. but the profit motive gets in the way of that. companies typically are there to make a profit. government is there to provide services to our population. host: one more call in this open forum. jim in georgetown, texas. republican, good morning. caller: good morning. let us go back to pennsylvania for a minute. host: yes, sir. sure. what do you want to talk about in pennsylvania? caller: i think everybody should

visit gettysburg to start with. i have a comment about the democrat who is running for senate, a gentleman named john fetterman. everybody can tell, just recognize him at a glance. he looks like a homeless guy down here at a quarter in austin, texas. he has no respect for the senate or anything else. he looks like a bum. host: all right. our last call her in this open forum. stick around, 30 minutes left in washington journal and in that time, we will talk with e&e news reporter benjamin storrow to talk about the forecast on home heating costs. we will be right back. ♪

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about home heating and energy costs. a recent forecast shed -- set americans should expect to pay 28% more to heat their homes. why? guest: that figure you cited for natural gas, which is the primary form of heating for just about half of the country. basically what has happened -- or what would happen, maybe from the beginning, what would happen in a normal year is around april, you would see natural gas injected into long-term storage to be saved for the upcoming winter. that would run itself out in october. for the most part, that has not happened this year. the reason that has not happened is because what is fundamentally going on at some level is to be have a collision of a long-term

energy trend with a short-term crises of covid -- maybe i should not say short-term, but the crisis of covid and the war in ukraine. essentially what happened was, this summer, we went on the long-term trend side and instead of injected gas into storage, and a lot of that went to power demand. that is consistent of what we have seen in the last few decades with gas taking market share from coal. this year, we did not see the response on the uptick of coal production on the mining side. what happened was the economy was really hot and there was a lots were electricity demand. you basically saw gas prices --

we basically saw gas demand continued to rise despite the uptick in gas prices. that meant that gas that was going into storage and was set up for winter heating did not start until this month. that is to say we have not see very strong injections in october and that has taken heat at a natural gas pricing right now. suffice it to say, we are looking at a more expensive time then last year. host: what are the other ways people heat their homes? what are the expected prices this winter for the other forms of heating fuel? guest: the other big one is electricity. electricity is actually the most widespread form of heating in the country but most people use

it as a secondary heating system. you might think of the little space in somebody's home. you also have a lots of electricity in the south where it is not as cold. electricity prices are expected to be up about 10%. i am up here in new england which is the last bastion of heating oil. that is supposed to be up 27%. if you are heating with propane, that is looking like it will be up 5%. heating oil and propane are very small in the grand scheme of things. host: is the comparison in increases of fuel and electricity costs compared to how inflation is hitting other sectors of the economy? is this in line with what we are seeing elsewhere? guest: that is a good question. i think on the energy side, essentially what we have seen is

that we really had a collapse in supply. whether we were talking about oil production or gas production, when the pandemic hit. and then, when we started to emerge from locked, we really risk demand. it has taken a well for producers to get back online and start producing at high level again. they had a lot of hurdles to overcome with supply chain bottlenecks. hiring has been difficult. we are now getting back to the point where we are starting to see near record levels of oil production and gas production in this country. there has been some easing there. we can talk more about some of the others on the demand side or what the picture looks like. but there are increases on the

energy side that is demand outpacing supply. host: benjamin storrow from e&e news. he is with us for the next about 25 minutes. if you want to join your -- our conversation, you can do this on regional lines. eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8000. pacific or mountain time zones, (202) 748-8001. you mentioned heating oil. it is the relationship between gasoline and gasoline refinery and capacity and heating oil? are these two things that compete for the same finite amount of refinery capacity in this country? guest: that is a really good question. basically, this process is part of the reason we have seen

higher oil prices, or gas prices i should say. he saw the first global decrease and global refining capacity for the first time in three decades, the international energy agency has put something out about that earlier this year. where we have seen refineries close in this country and where that has come to bite is on diesel fuel and home heating oil. we have seen really low heating oil stocks and really low diesel oil stocks, and on the diesel side, the demand has outstripped what the refining capacity is. on the heating oil side, it is different because we are seeing fewer and fewer people heat with heating oil.

but the fuel stocks are at a multi-density low right now. host: staying on heating oil for a second, when president biden announces a release from the strategic petroleum reserve, does any of that eventually become heating oil or is heating oil cap there? guest: i friendly do not know the answer to that question. host: the president announcing a continued effort for the tea chick reserve releases. we are talking about fuel prices and home heating prices with benjamin storrow. a report from the energy information administration came out this week. what is the eia for folks who do not track it every day? host: it is a tremendous resource and a division of the department of energy. they are basically the number crunchers and they put out all sorts of information.

if somebody has google handy, just type in eia and they usually have a daily brief that is often very helpful. you can get as deep into it as she would like and they will give you everything from oil and gas supply and information to demand information and electricity. it is a valuable resource. it is pretty unique. many other countries do not have a eia. all of us already the media, particularly as analysts in this area, depend on this. host: another valuable resource. eenews on twitter. you can find their updates at eenews.update.

roger is first out of virginia. what a short question or comment? caller: i have been trying to get on c-span for a long time and i finally made it. i comment is about the oil companies that make big profits but nobody seems to bother, especially the republican administration, seems like they do not ever try to do anything to control it. but this gentleman here, i sat and watched this, and i do not see anything that he is explaining. he cannot give you a price on nothing and he acts the key knows something. he ought to be able to tell the american people what these oil companies are charging and what is the cost. of coal and gas. we know that the coal was going

out of business and gas is not. but can he explain why the prices went up so high? that is what i would like to know. by the prices are going up so high with america is supposed to be independent on fuel but they get it from saudi arabia. explain that to me. host: benjamin storrow. guest: it is a really good question. just break it between electricity and then the heating side. on the electricity -- starting with electricity, i was a reporter in wyoming which is the leading coal producing state for a long time one of the top gas producing states also. when i was there, the rule of thumb was when gas prices went north of three dollars, natural gas prices, you would see a lots of utilities switch over to

coal. what happened to this year and what was really actually quite new this year -- natural prices of gas went up to eight dollars and briefly nine dollars. yet, the coal response never came. gas actually kept increasing. this puts more upward pressure on gas prices because there is more demand there than supply. of the heating oil side, -- on the heating oil side, there was a comment about saudi arabia. imports from opec are at multi-decade lows in this country. the issue with oil is it is a

global commodity. the supply and demand balance globally still impacts us even if we are not importing oil from saudi arabia. host: virginia beach, trey. caller: good morning. i have been watching c-span since it came on live this morning. i have been trying to call on other issues and subjects but i will stick to this point since you got me on here for oil. it is funny that you mentioned electricity because i am currently heating my home with my stove. i have it on 500 degrees and i have it propped open letting it escape. i have two things i want to say about oil. the first is the petroleum reserve. it is supposedly at a multi-decade low and that is quite disturbing.

think of it as a savings account. what if it was this country's savings account and we had a big purchase to make but now we do not have a dang ol money. we have a huge navy. my big concern is to you that if you are working that close with the energy department, what are we doing to make sure we are restocking or have a big supply? i heard they are moving hawaii's reserve. there was a reserve for the navy in hawaii. i know we also have things going on with alaska at the pipeline. i want to know what we are doing as a nation to make sure we are putting back as we take out? host: any thoughts? guest: we have about 405 million barrels of oil in the reserve today. that is a 38-year low.

the caller is right in that we are at a multiyear low. some of my colleagues did a story just yesterday and spoke to some analysts about this question of should we move worried -- we be worried about the levels of the spr? the general consensus was no. it is in the 100 million barrel range when you really start to get in trouble. the think with the spr that is sort of interesting is the biden administration, when they started these releases, it was conventional wisdom that the president could not really impact the price of oil much. there is obviously a lots of factors going into the price of oil. all these books later, this new conventional wisdom is forming that says this is actually

impacting oil prices. and that this had been one of the factors so why -- for why we are all paying less in gaston over the summer. the issue is you cannot do this forever. we do have some potential supply disruptions on the horizon. there is an embargo on russian oil that is set to go into effect in december. a lot of us will see a brother round of spr releases potentially coming here -- see another round of spr releases potentially coming here. host: it is -- this is from the department of energy. the highest inventory has 727 million barrels authorized storage capacity back in 2009.

the 726 point 6 million barrels was the highest ever held in the spr. where is it about today? guest: somewhere around 400 million today. host: george from columbus, ohio. good morning freight caller: -- good morning. caller: i do not understand how we could ever get prices of stuff so high. stores here, we are a mess here in columbus. the biden administration does not seem to be helping anything at all. you just keep raising gas and oil. i have four or five well settled there in west virginia and the pipelines are shutdown so we cannot do anything with it. host: pipelines -- let us take the pipelines are shutdown comments.

can you dig into that more? guest: i am personally not aware of any existing pipeline shutdown. but certainly a big issue has been that in that area of west virginia and pennsylvania, that is now the largest gas region in the u.s. the big issue there is that the production capacity essentially exceeds the pipeline capacity and the ability to take that away. i am not sure if that is what the caller was referring to. there has been a lot of efforts in building pipelines but to those have obviously been very controversial and in some cases, they have been stopped or delayed. host: connecticut, doug, good morning. caller: i remember in 2008 with the oil price was up above $120 a barrel.

the price of gas was in california where i lived maybe $4.50. now, the price of their is $7.50 and get the price of oil is down around $80. i am trying to understand the justification for the difference. host: ben storrow. i know we can do a whole three hours on oil prices and how they change but what do you want to focus on? guest: reaction i am having to that is just how different the world -- the energy world and the energy landscape in this country is. in 2008, we were importing a lots of oil. fracking really had not happened. not at the point where we were

not leading and we started trading off with the saudi's as the largest oil producer. sort of the catch with all of this is that u.s. refineries are set up to process heavy crudes from canada, venezuela, mexico. there are not set up in general to set up the crudes being produced in west texas, new mexico, north dakota. and a lot of the oil is of getting exported -- oil ends up getting exported. a lot of this comes back to the refining question and the ability to actually process the oil we are producing. host: you talked about how different we are in the world right now. one of your stories from e&e news is that clean energy is

growing despite tumult. explain? guest: the amount of clean energy coming out of the line right now is quite staggering. the international energy agency had a report last week and found we have added 700 pair what -- 700 terrawatts of energy. that is electrons being generated. to put that number in complex, that is more than all of the electricity produced in canada. it is quite a lot. we are seeing -- we expect to see more of this because on the investment side, investment in

wind and solar this year for the first time ever is set to exceed oil and gas. we have never seen this before. we would expect to see more renewables coming online. i think the issue is we are still sort of in the early phase of this transition. as coal comes off, going back to what we were talking about earlier, renewables or setting records in this country everybody for how much power they are generating but there is only so much they can shoulder. instead of seeing -- i guess what i'm trying to say is that is why we have seen gas response id the way it has two growing demand because there is only so much we can do. host: about five minutes left. at 10:00 a.m. eastern, we are

taking viewers to the american enterprise institute for a discussion on election laws and how they are administered. stick around on c-span for that discussion and head over to c-span.org or the free c-span video app. time for one or two more calls. jb out of missouri. good morning. caller: hello. there was a call her, two colors before you there was a gentleman sitting with his stove turned on heat his house. he has more intelligence than the person trying to answer our questions in my opinion. he should be in office. second, we have ways to produce our own energy and make it clean. this has been a problem for decades and there was not enough money to be made in this.

we can take our own energy and clean it up. why will be purchased energy from russia, which is filthy, bring it over to the u.s., bus it throughout the u.s. and call it eco-friendly? thank you. host: ben storrow on energy imports and russian energy. guest: the u.s. buys almost no energy from russia. when president biden put a ban on russian oil earlier this year, part of the reason that he was able to do that was because we buy so little from them. host: mike at of long beach, california. caller: good morning. let's be tell you how i see it -- let me tell you how i see it. i see these american oil companies which are not american owned completely.

they have leases which allows them to pump oil, pennies on the dollar, out of our land. then they take this oil down to the gulf, pollute that area refining it, then put that refined product out into the global market. americans have absolutely no claim on this oil. this oil or the products. it goes to the highest bidder globally. i think we all should start being honest. reporters, start being honest about exactly how this works. we are sidetracked right now. there is 2.3 million pipelines in this country and to get we are sidetracked talking about a 3500 mile pipeline which is

basically the oil companies getting into politics. and they obviously side with the political party that will support their agenda and improve their profits. host: any thoughts? guest: no. host: we are waiting for this american enterprise institute discussion to begin and i wanted to focus on another one of your stories. and to think you can see this on your zoom screen but it is the picture that went with one of your recent stories about the rise in clean energy and what this means for global emissions. it is a pretty dramatic picture. a wind turbine spinning or a coal processing plant in maryland. you can see the coal there with the wind turbines in the

background. what do you know about this coal processing plant in oakland, maryland in that picture. guest: the truth is i do not know that much. i do not have a lot of input on the pictures that go on my stories. what i can say is that maryland, but a lot of states in the northeast, have been moving to phase out coal. we have seen a number of major coal plants in maryland either close or announce retirement. it is interesting that maryland was a state that had a good amount of holes and that for the most part has now been replaced. host: one more call. minnesota, john, can you make it quick? are you with us?

we lost john but we did not have too much time left for john because is about -- event is about to get underway. i want to thank ben storrow of e&e news. eenews host: that is going to do it for our program today. we will be back tomorrow morning 4 a.m. eastern, 7 a.m. pacific. now we take you to that event on elections administrations. >> good morning. welcome to the enterprise institute today for come arbery

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