tonight, dallas mavericks ceo sid marshall shares her memoir about her life and career as the first black female ceo in the nba. she is interviewed by michael lee of the washington post. watch afterwards every friday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. ♪ >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government funded by these television companies and more, including sparklight. >> the greatest pound on earth is a place you call home. at sparklight, it is our home to. we are facing our greatest challenge, that is why sparklight is staying connected around the clock to make sure u are connected. >> sparklight supports c-span as a public service, as well as these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. ♪ >> cyber monday starts monday at

c-spanshop.org. c-span's online store. shop monday and tuesday and save up to 35% on our latest collection of c-span swtsrts, hoodies, blankets and more. there is something for every c-span fan for the holidays. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. scan the code on the right to shop our cyber monday and tuesday at c-spanshop.org. ♪ ♪ good morning. black friday. on this busiest shopping day of the year, we begin by hearing from you about your spending outlook and how it compares to last year. if you are planning to spend more this year than last, give

us a call at (202) 748-8000. if less, (202) 748-8001. if you are planning to spend about the same, it is (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text. that number (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. catch up with us on social media, on twitter, it is @cspanwj. you can start calling in now about your holiday spending. as you are calling in, the polling and market research firm if so's is a good place to start -- firm ipsos is a good place to start. good morning to you, cliff. there's a headline in the

business section of the new york times. an iffy looking shopping season. the sales outlook is anyone's guess. i wonder what you have been able to piece together. guest: i would say uncertain is the best way to put it. i agree with the headline. we are in a scenario of inflation. inflation israel. consumers are worried about it. that is clouding everything. that is affecting their consumer behavior on the one hand, how they see policy on the other. going into the holidays, that can be a big part of the story. host: on inflation, what have you been able to find out about americans attitudes about it? will it impact their spending? caller: 50% of americans a site inflation as the number one issue.

that conditioned the midterms. that is affecting spending. we see that globally. we see that across the world. we are seeing the same sort of thing. what is going on with spending? what happens when you have strong inflationary pressures? people going to their savings. we have a low rate of savings at this point. we are at 3%. pre-pandemic, we were at 9%. americans have been going into their piggy banks to buy things. they start cutting nonessentials. we are seeing that across the board. they are buying less, buying on discount, buying generic brands, not name brands.

we see it more specifically with thanksgiving. we are coming on thanksgiving. there will be less leftovers. americans spend less. they bought less meat. they spent less on produce. they spent less on alcohol. inflation is affecting the way the american consumer is going about their business. host: do you think there's lessons here for the retail side looking at thanksgiving spending by americans or is it too late to make those adjustments? guest: there's always a way to adjust on the margins. when we are in an environment like today, when americans are worried about making ends meet, it is about making things more affordable, so it is time to discount. it is time to put in promotions.

perhaps have smaller sizes. you don't need the big turkey. americans are looking for those deals and possibilities. they need it to fit into their household budget. that is a way retail can go about adjusting, at least on the margins, what they are offering to meet americans where they are, which is counting nickels and dimes. host: what about holiday travel plans? some people may be listening to this as they are traveling. are they traveling less? guest: we are coming out of covid. covid is not a concern anymore. it has been. it looks based upon the official data and our own polling that americans are traveling more. they are going to their relatives and friends places. a lot more interpersonal interaction than there has been

in the past. that has not been as damp bird as -- as dampered as in the past. it is all about cutting nonessentials. in the american consumer's mind, travel is an essential. but they don't need that big turkey or fourth or fifth accessory or course with the thanksgiving dinner. but definitely travel is important. host: to come back at the end to the headline we started with, that iffy looking holiday shopping season. what will you be watching in the weeks to come? when can we start telling which direction this will go? guest: we track these indicators weekly. we will be looking at expenditures across different

categories and types of goods and services. ultimately, it will be about relative optimism, whether individuals see of the future where -- whether they will have a job. we will be looking at their behavior in more of a tactical way. host: appreciate you getting up to join us. hope you are not missing any deals. do you plan to go shopping? guest: with my mother. host: good luck. thank you. asking our vwers, how much are you planning to spend this holiday season? are you planning to spend mor than last year? (202) 748-8000.

are you planninto spend less this year? (202) 748-8001. if it is about the same, (202) 748-8002 that is the number to cl. we are getting a sense o your holiday spending outlook. as you are calling in, i want to show you president biden from last friday on these questions about the economy, where america is, his sins of the that his sense of the state of the economy. [video clip] >> there's signs of the strength of the american economy. we've had an extraordinary two years of progress from the american rescue plan, the bipartisan infrastructure law, the inflation reduction act and the chips act.

people are starting to see the impact of these achievements. we are just getting started. we passed them this year but now they will kick into effect. it will accelerate in the months ahead. the implementation of these achievements will be one of the key parts of the success of the economy. that is one of the reasons i wanted to bring us together today. i have called together a group of labor and business leaders to discuss progress in building the economy from the bottom up and middle out. they have been partners in creating the jobs of the future and building a workplace to compete to fill those jobs. our approach is working. the economy grew by 2.6% last quarter. inflation started to slow and unemployment stayed low. what did these statistics mean to people?

we have added jobs every single month of my presidency, more than 10 million total. 700,000 of them are manufacturing jobs. inflation is coming down slightly. prices for things like clothes and televisions and appliances are going down into the holidays. we saw the growth in prices to come down as well. gas prices are down. it will take time to get inflation back to normal levels as we keep our job market strong. we could see setbacks along the way. i don't doubt that but we are in good shape. we are focused on that. host: that is president biden from last week on his view of the economy. we want to get your view and what it means to your spending budget. asking if you plan to spend more than last year, less, or about

the same. we will hear from you throughout this first hour. denise of first out of north town, pennsylvania. caller: i am confident in the way things are going. for me personally, i am making more money. i am in health care so a lot of it has to do with initiatives the federal government gave. host: denise, what gives you that confidence? caller: i look at the way people are feeling. people came out in record numbers to vote. they were positive that they wanted to build in a better

direction. at some point, one way or another, we will get it done. host: this is john in louisville, kentucky. good morning. holiday spending outlook? caller: good morning. on the surveys that they do, a lot of people say they don't have money or whatever. the average person says they will spend $1000 on halloween costumes and this on that. they do the survey. they spent billions on halloween . i am like, i paid two months on

my rent. i did not have to pay rent for two months because i took the money biden sent out and paid my rent. a lot of people around here were buying mattresses. then they said, i don't have money to buy food. they are not being honest. that is all i have to say. you already have the survey. they are spending thousands for costumes and candy. people should be more honest about their money. host: thank you for the call. a couple comments via social media. rebecca writing in, my family is already cutting back.

mary saying, basically nothing. we will be talking about that later today. another tweet saying the u.s. economy is dependent on consumer spending. if working-class people flex their power by refusing to buy unneeded stuff, we could force corporations to pay attention to what we want. one more. spend. it is the season to be thankful and fun and festivities. it i not the season to -- it is not the season to spend on cheap stuff from china advertisers say you need. how much are you planning to spend this season? do you have a holiday budget and how does it compare?

richard is planning to spend less. what is different this year, richard? caller: i am. i guess i blame both presidents. i think biden, with his giveaways, caused inflation to go up. i think trump, with his tax cuts, heard us too. but we are good. our inflation is bad, but we are better than the rest of the world, so that is important. there's other countries, inflation is way worse. host: why less this year than last year? what is the difference for you? caller: it will not be a lot different. sometimes, christmas, we spend too much. the last tweet you got or fax

where the lady said they will spend more on the kids in less on the adults, i will probably do the same. host: i can armor the last time we read a -- i cannot remember the last time we read a fax, but we did used to do that. this is john in chantilly, virginia. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. you have a great show. also a great quality of rotating hosts. just wanted to say thanks for your show. it also deserves a lot more recognition. about the prompt, i am planning to spend about the same as last year. i did not spend a lot last year

because -- i mean, as someone who is a young adult and does not have kids, i want to put more emphasis towards saving money, so if i have an unfortunate life event or need a surgery that costs thousands of dollars, i would be less likely to rely on people to get that. i want to do it myself. that is something that should be emphasized, especially with recent high school graduates. host: do you mind if i ask old you are? caller: 23. host: what do you do? caller: i work remotely with gis work. host: in terms of where you were financially last year, where you just starting out? were you in the workforce last year? caller: i was working in retail last year.

i just got my -- this job about six months ago. that is what i have been doing since then. host: what was retail like last year around the holidays? so many stories about people not being able to find things on the shelves and shipping taking forever and retailers saying they solved those problems. what was it like? caller: yeah. at least for me, when it came to my shopping, just like your previous guest said, there was a lot of buying store brands and, since i was a personal shopper, also giving store brands to them since a lot of name brands were not on the shelf.

for dairy products, for example, cream cheese, one of the big examples for that, because there were not -- sometimes, there were not a lot of name brand items, so i would have to substitute the storebrand. i have not been -- i have not worked there in a few months, so i'm not sure what the situation is, but there were also staff shortages on our part because there were some days where i had to work overtime too. host: explain what a personal shopper does. caller: we would take online orders and essentially woodshop for them and deliver them. the customer would come to pick them up or they would get their order delivered through another party. host: appreciate you watching. at 23, how did you come to find

this program? we would love to have more young people watching. caller: a friend of mine watched it. i forget how he first heard of the show, but he recommended it to me. host: thank you for calling in. you can do it once every 30 days. looking forward to hearing from you down the road. this is robert out of yuma, arizona. planning to cut back this year. why is that? caller: the way the economy is today, it is almost impossible for a person like me, a korean war veteran, 90 years old, to put everything together. then we have these immigrants -- border jumpers, you might say -- and we have to protect ourselves in yuma from that.

so i am trying to coagulate the whole kit and caboodle and see if i can give a little bit but not much, definitely not like last year. host: why was last year so much more for you, robert? why did you spend more last year? why did you feel differently last year? caller: because of the gifts the government gave me. i was able to use some of that money for gifts and what have you, you know? for that is all gone now so what can you do? host: talking about the stimulus checks. what do you think you use that the most for? where does the lion's of that money go --the lion's share of that money go? caller: grandchildren,

great-grandchildren. for their college education in yuma. in arizona, i should say. my grandchildren have tremendous bills. i'm trying to give my great grandchildren a chance to go to college and -- with all that extra money that students have to pay for student loans. host: how do you feel about the student debt forgiveness effort the biden administration has been pushing for? caller: i am against that. my two grandchildren went to school.

one has already paid off a $50,000 student loan. the other one, of course, still has a ways to go yet. he's five years younger. and, well, what else can i say, right? it is a merry-go-round, you know? host: thank you for the call. you mentioned the border. you mentioned immigration. this is a story from the op-ed pages of the wall street journal. here is the author of the story. the labor shortage and the border crisis are colliding. she writes, when i visited the border town of del rio, texas, health wanted signs were everywhere. customs officers reported

235,000 immigrant encounters, 71% of which were with single adults, and everyone i talked to wanted to work. this is what a failed immigration policy looks like. the u.s. has admitted more than one million migrants into a system that was designed neither to handle an influx on this scale nor allow those arriving immigrants to thrive. immigrants in the interior say they cannot work legally. most people will not get a work permit until around a year after arriving at the border. she said the system fails migrants and strains of social services while depriving american businesses of the labor they need. that in the wall street journal. this is joan out of toledo, ohio. planning to spend more this year. what makes you more confident? caller: i'm a first time caller.

i'm going to buy joe biden a ticket out of town. thank you. host: where are you going to send him, joan? joan out of ohio. a few comments from our social media page. ramsey in millington, michigan -- randy in millington, michigan, says he will be able to spend more this year thanks to the great pension. some of that will be toward extra gifts and some to those who are less fortunate. in florida, inflation has c ost average families $7,500.

there is no change in the economy. 2% thrives well a shrinking middle class lives on credit. to that last point from netsuite, this is a front-page story in the new york times. as the rich spend, spiraling prices are challenging the poor. many consumers are still flushed with savings and well off financially, bolstering luxury brands. at the same time, the story notes america's poorest are running low on cash buffers, struggling to keep up with prices, and facing climbing borrowing costs. the fed raising interest rates to make borrowing more expensive. it is hoping to cool the economy and bring inflation under control. the adjustment is already a

painful one for many americans, evidence that even if the central bank and pull off a soft landing, it will not feel benign to everyone. the headline is rich spend. rising prices challenging the poor. we are talking about the economic picture iamica now as we enter the holiday season, asking you how much we are -- you are plni to spend. it more than last year? (202) 748-8000. less than last year? 02) 748-8001. if it is about the same, (202) 748-8002. two youngstown, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i already did all my christmas shopping. i spent a lot more because i'm at home more. i wanted to make a comment on the article you read from the washington post about the border

and the people that need work. host: the wall street journal. go ahead. caller: yes. i agree we all need to work but i think that it is a ploy to get these people here to work, take jobs from regular people that need toward as well and -- need to work as well and divide the country. i don't think they should come here and start working. they need workers. but i don't know. i think it is all a ploy and they don't need to just come here and work like that. half of them cannot even speak our language. host: what should we do about these help-wanted signs you are seeing? how do we help businesses solve

this problem? caller: well, it is a capitalistic system. if the owner cannot get help, maybe they should go into another line of business. not everybody is going to make it all the way, you know? host: what are your thoughts on how we solve the border crisis in this country? caller: this should be the way that it is. catch them and send them back. host: that is bortha. you are spending less. what has changed? caller: the tighter budget this year. i'm a business owner. it is a coincidence that you were talking about something two weeks ago that is affecting me, a labor shortage.

it is affecting me because a lot of people became dependent upon the government handouts. they become less motivated and dependent upon government. as far as my spending, that does affect me because i have less revenue. i feel that the money i do spend should probably go towards smaller businesses. i want to spend more with local businesses because they were affected more during covid. the big-box retailers and other chains have profited tremendously over the last three or four years because they were the only ones that could remain open. what little i do spend i will spend on smaller businesses. as far as my business, i have

not taken on new business because of not being able to, you know, hire other employees. host: what kind of business do you run? caller: property maintenance. host: in terms of trying to hire new employees, have you had to raise wages with inflation rates? how has that impacted you paying employees or advertising? caller: i have raised wages to not so much attract employees, because i will be honest with you, i worked very hard since i was young and i believe you are either a worker or not. that's an excuse for people not to work. i do pretty well as far as my annual income. however, if i was not working, i would work for $100 cash a day.

not that that is what i would pay, but i would work until i got a better job or opportunity. that is part of it. a lot of the workforce has lost its work ethic and expect a lot of people -- a lot of people expect things to be handed to them, whereas in the past, more people were motivated to work. i don't like to use the word menial, but starter jobs, and then you work your way up and eventually own your own business and become the ceo of and. host: let me bounce these three paragraphs from this story off you from the front page of the money section of usa today.

what are your thoughts on that? caller: well, yeah. i see that the smaller businesses will find it harder to compete with the economies of scale at the larger companies. however, regardless of what the pricing is, i will still use smaller stores.

i am not trying to be so frugal as i was. the limited amount of money i will spend i will spend at small businesses regardless. host: tom from philadelphia this morning. another tom waiting in west columbia, south carolina. caller: about the same as i did last year. and i would say i have my shopping done for an 81-year-old man. i don't have much of a family. i do have a friend and i by her a nice present every year and that is pretty much it. let me caution people. i know of a fellow who was driving down the street in columbia the other day and his transmission went out in his car. he had a baby in the car with them and his wife. they had to get the car towed

and it will cost him $4500 to get the car fixed plus the fee. so be cautious about what you are going to spend, because we never know what the next phone call will be. we sure don't know that. i would caution people about falling all over themselves on black friday or whatever. i must say, though, i agree with the previous caller that a lot of people have lost their work ethic. i just wish i had a job to have an ethic about it. nobody wants to hire an 81-year-old man. they just don't want to do that. they think i am too fragile for whatever. listen, i can do a lot of things in life if somebody would just give me a chance, but i agree with that man when he said

people have lost their work ethic. that is my comment. i hope everyone has a good holiday season. as i said, my stuff is done and i am happily on down the road. thank you. host: thank you for the call. how much are you planning to spend this holiday season? asking if it is more, less or the same. we talked to the ipsos firm earlier about their reports. here's another one, deloitte's annual holiday retail survey. what they say about 2022. 37% of americans report their financial ouoois worse. 74% say thewi spend more of the same as last year. consumers plan to spend about $1455, similar to last year.

that's the average answer. low income americans planned to spend -- americans plan to spend 25% more. 73% of respondents expect higher prices due to the inflation issue. that is deloitte's 2022 snapshot heading into this season. black friday the busiest shopping day of the year. how much are you planning to spend? this is jack in warren, ohio. host: good morning -- caller: good morning. i will probably have to spend less. i have some financial issues and things going on in my life. i had some car problems. things are so expensive now.

i thought i had coverage but they threw me a curve ball. do your research on car shield before you give them your money. anyhow, i wanted to get back to talk about the border. the border is a big issue, especially in the black community. we really are not working like we should. the reason we have a lot of now hiring signs is because they are not paying enough people to live off in america. we are very independent. we don't like a bunch of people in our house. we just want to have our independence. when we live with a lot of people, a lot of stuff comes up. we tried to -- host: on not paying enough, we

talked before about a $15 an hour minimum wage in this country. do you think that is fair and livable? caller: that is not even livable now. you have people with child support payments, getting out of jail who have to pay fines and late fees for child support, and a lot of times, they suspend your license. we are not able to get these jobs because they put felonies on us and they let these illegal people come here and break laws and there is nothing done to them. while they are leapfrogging us, the black and poor white community are suffering. the minimum wage should be $18.5 an hour. they should still be able to get a job with a felony and help these people. that is one of the biggest problems we are having in this country.

the democrats and republicans don't want to address these problems. that is why these young people are not working. you can get a felony off a little bit of anything. people are still in prison for marijuana and they are selling marijuana out of warehouses now and it is legal. host: this is jack in washington on the line for those who say they are spending about the same as last year. caller: we should concentrate more on the northern border. the real threat to america is canadians. they are coming here to get jokes. they have destroyed our sense of humor and replaced it with theirs. they are funny people, but we have our own comedians who need work and cannot find work because canadians have displaced

them. host: canadian comedians is the problem you are saying, earl. that is your biggest concern. caller: that is my biggest concern. i mean, humor is an american thing. we invented humor. host: phone call from washington. steve in st. louis, missouri, planning to spend more. caller: we are going to spend more. we have a small family, number one. we have a new grandbaby, so there will be more, but really, my wife and i make a list through the year for charity donations. that is where most of our christmas money goes. catholic charities, veterans groups, etc. my family, i have to say, we are pretty well-to-do. there's not a lot of stuff we

need. so we really target charitable contributions during the christmas season and that gives us a lot of satisfaction. host: is this your first grandbaby? caller: that is. host: what are your thoughts about the world that child is inheriting? caller: i am an optimist. this is america. we are going to make it through anything we are going through now. i think being born in this country, that gives my grandson a leg up over the rest of the world. that is just my feeling. but christmas to us is a lot different than it is to a lot of other people. we look at the ones who don't

have anything. my wife and i are diligent on this. we have a big list of donations to charitable places. it gives us a great feeling. host: if people want to do that, donate, where is a good place to start? caller: well, what we do is we go online and we pick local charities in the st. louis area. typically we start with catholic charities. we will donate to housing for abused parents. we will work our way down. we make donations in cash.

hopefully, they choose to help others. host: how much do you end up donating in a christmas season each year? caller: this year, $800. that is up a little bit from last year. but, you know, it is our way -- that is our christmas. host: thank you for talking about it. david out of baltimore, maryland, planning to spend less. why is that? caller: i will be spending more. everything is so much more expensive.

i have not done my christmas shopping yet, but i know groceries are usually $70 more every time i go. i'm lucky i bought a house a couple years ago. the rent i used to pay is $500 more than they used to be. i think this -- these rate hikes they are trying to slow inflation, they are doing it wrong. the rate hikes are just there to bring back down wages that we gained during the pandemic. if they really wanted to control inflation, they would raise taxes on the 1%, and we are already seeing 55% of the inflation we are seeing is due to price gouging. we have had a few collards talking about how no one warrants to work anymore. what those college don't realize

is that when they were coming up, the median income was $60,000 and it is now $35,000. rent, health care, housing, education is always more expensive, so there's no labor shortage. there is a wage shortage. we don't have enough to live on. everyone is struggling. 65% of americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck. the rich get richer every day. what we really need is to go back to what we had. we need a top nominal tax bracket of 90%. we need to raise corporate taxes so that money goes to the workers and communities and not to billionaires' stock portfolios. that is all i have to say. host: what line of work are you

in? caller: i work for city government. i started a new position and thought to try to get a higher wage and they would not do it. the money just was not there. but it is really tough. i know my position was paying the equivalent of $20 an hour 15 years ago and now it is paying $17 an hour. we lost three dollars and earning power. i realize that is inflation-adjusted, but that is where it counts. you have older people saying, when i started working, i worked for $1.5. that is good money in today's money. they have not looked at what the inflation is. host: you mentioned interest rates and you bought a house. what rate did you get for the

house he bought? caller: 3.25%. host: when do you think we will see that again? caller: not for a long time. especially because the fed even said they don't think the rate hikes will bring down housing or food or gas. it is just going to hurt the working man like myself. it is going to drop asset prices and the rich are going to buy them up. host: thank you for the call. trying to get a sense of the latest of the 30 year fixed rate, around 7% in the past week. george is next out of maryland, planning to spend about the same ahead. year. callerll sndcaller: about the sam

back in 2020, wn the pandemic came into play, i g fired for my construction job i h for over 1s beuse i would not agree with my employe work more hours. this idea that people are lazy nowadays and areilling to work is a crock i wor two jobs when i worked in construction for 10 years because i never got paid enough on-the-job to live off of. they don't pay you enough and after you are there for a while they insist you work more hours. they say you signed a contract. if you do not work these hours, they give you the moniker of you are lazy. finally, i got fired and i work for somebody else now and make more money.

i work one job as opposed to two. i am now to the point where i'm almost completely out of debt because i quit the job that made me lazy. i am doing much better. host: are you still in construction? caller: i am and i am doing way better. the corporations need to pay their fair share. they do not. if you are belittling and demonizing workers, you will not get people to work for you. host: you still plan to spend about the same as last year. how do you plan when it comes to seasonal spending like what we are about to go into? caller: the price of things has gone up a little bit, so i can spend more now that i am making more. inflation is temporary.

it will be here for a while but it will stabilize. it may take longer than people anticipate. but people want instant gratification. when things do not go their way, they have to have somebody to blame. host: thank you for the call. we will come here in d.c., mark, that line for those of you who say the you are -- say that you are spending more this year. caller: i feel a bit guilty saying this because some of the other collards have shared their experiences but i am doing fairly well. i work for the federal government so my income has remained the same. additionally, there's been some government intervention to help individuals, whether that's stimulus checks or restructuring student loan forgiveness, so i feel like i am in a good place and feel comfortable spending more.

i think the households that have a higher income, that is probably their experience. i did hear callers talk about immigration. it would be smart for them to check out an article by thomas friedman about how outsourcing and globalization has changed america. we are all experiencing great social, economic and cultural change and that can be uncomfortable. if you are a coalminer and your grandfather was a coal miner, that's probably not a possibility because we are moving towards electronic vehicles and people have to re-skill and that can be uncomfortable, so i think that should be discussed more. i feel like we are -- i feel like i am in a comfortable

place. i will spend more this year because i did not spend much the past couple years. that is my experience. host: thomas friedman in the new york times? caller: that is right. host: thomas friedman has been a guest on the c-span networks or appeared on c-span 60 times over the years. you can check out his appearances on the c-span video archives. this is lester out of the land of 10,000 lakes on the line for those spending less this year. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: the guy who called about the canadian border, there's no problem on the canadian border. i look out my window and i look at canada, ok? host: concerned about can you medians -- about comedians from canada.

not a concern of yours? caller: definitely not. people come here to buy gas and groceries and go back to canada. host: how are you doing in minnesota? caller: my state tax looks like it will near double. the fuel. and my heating, there -- the propane, that's almost doubled. and you know, my social security has not doubled. it is going to get tougher. this winter -- we are just starting. we have snow on the ground. the temperature now is 19 degrees. host: what is your propane bill a month, lester? caller: i pay by the year. i paid $2000. i don't know if that is going to make it.

host: what has it been in the past? caller: usually around $1200. and before, i got a wood backup. i cannot quite go out and cut wood. as a backup for when it is real cold, because we do get real cold here. host: you are right on the border? caller: right. i look out my front room window and i see canada. host: thank you for the call. appreciate it. aj in atlanta, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. i am a long time c-span listener. for black friday, it is very dangerous for -- i recommend you

bring on dr. claude anderson. when blacks were freed in 1865, we made up .05% of the wealth in this nation. and 2022, we still make up .05% of the wealth. the difference is we spent 1.7 trillion dollars outside our communities. most of that is spent today on black friday. so it is perilous for us. i worked two jobs and this is the first time i have been off in five years. we really need to think about things like, for example, president trump spending an enormous amount of money on the one person who don't need it, and the people who contributed to this nation nothing. mitch mcconnell says reparations are not a good idea but we have given them to japanese-americans

and jews and all other groups but no one has built this nation or worked in it more like blacks so it is unfa to -- the income we make and give to them. host: that is ajay out of atlanta. a couple minutes left in this first segment. this is jackie in philadelphia on the line for those who say less. caller: good morning. i have not called for a long time. there's a local dollar general i love to shop at. it went downhill. i was getting nervous. i was going there seeing cards -- i couldn't get down the aisles and cans falling on the floor. i am 86.

i started picking them up and stocking the shelves. i went up to the cashier, i said, are you looking for people to the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order.