internet. . a front row seat to democracy. to suemcourt here's a case about a antidiscrimination law violates free speech because she only designed for heterosexual couples. c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. host: "washington journal" for december the fifth.

don't underestimate president joe biden. what gingrich sees as accomplishments by the president and want republicans to take in him seriously, especially if he decides to run for office. you can call us. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you can always text us. you can find at gingrich

360.com if you want to take a look at it over there. it is titled quit underestimating president biden. he makpart this casem president joe biden, saying the ook an amazinglyarrow vote majority in the u.s. house. biden is carefully and parti waged towards ukraine with no am troops. biden's team executed strategy polarizing americans against donald trump supporters. he has one of the best term elections in u. story. they do not have to pay for thr terrible mismanagement of the economy.

he goes on to say this, we need to look much more at what deeply what works, what does not work in 2022. those are some of the comments by speaker gingrich. tell us what you think about the concept. here is how you can reach out for us. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. it president biden himself touting his own accomplishments in michigan last week. it is president joe biden talking about his administration -- here is president joe biden talking about this administration.

[video clip] >> earlier this month goods and services were also down. here's to good news. gas prices are now back to where they were before russia invaded ukraine. they have dropped from their peak this summer. in michigan they dropped the summer. if you're a michigan family with the two cars, you are saving an average of $170 per month compared to what you are paying in the summer. that is real money appeared across the country, the common price is 2.99 a gallon. it is higher here. the prices continue to go down. we have been on this for months. i remember i got criticized in the face of a putin using energy as a weapon.

180 million barrels of oil. i rallied our international partners come up with their share as well, producing more gasoline. that help stabilize crude oil markets, reduce prices at the pump. i have been calling on energy companies who had the biggest shares they have ever had to pass on the savings to the american people at the pump. while these prices are lower, they are not low enough. i called the producers to invest their record profits for america. we can increase production and lower prices for consumers and businesses in the short term while accelerating our investment in transition to clean energy efficient. [applause] we are going that.

host: that is president biden last week. he writes, there is not much acknowledg you need to rethink from the ground up how we are going to rethink government socialism. this is a much bigger challenge than i would have guessed before the midterm election. on this idea of underestimating the biden administration you can find at the newt gingrich 360 websites. if you want to call, (202) 748-8001 four about begins. (202) 748-8000, for democrats. (202) 748-8002, independents.

caller: do not cut me off. ok? host: your comments about mr. gingrich, what do you have to say? what do you think about it? caller: who cares. if we are going to hype up the biden administration like this every day. host: are you saying that mr. gingrich has a point or not? caller: he does not have a point at all. why are we hyping up this the biden administration? here we go. don't underestimate the biden administration. host: ok, thanks for the call.

democrats line. caller: good morning. they guy before me, i am sure he had a 10th grade education. some people will never understand. people like that never last long in a country that believes in diversity and equal rights for everybody. thank you. host: lydia think about his comments about the biden admin -- what do you think about his comments about the biden administration? caller: he is the right guy at the right time. he is very knowledgeable. i have the utmost confidence in him. that pretty much says it for me. host: do you think it is compelling as far as speaker gingrich making a case for the biden administration as far as not underestimating him? caller: i agree with that part.

host: ok. rick in maryland. jim off of our twitter. biden's wedge has divided parties beyond repair. newt gingrich is correct. he has traction now. even though the house of america -- him today. michelle from brooklyn. republican line. good morning. caller: i agree with newt gingrich in that. if we want to change administrations, we have to figure out what worked and what did not.

what did not work -- so that what did not work is not continue. i do agree with the comment. nobody is all good and all bad. it is the toughest country in job in the world to be president of the united states . any person that gets the job does want the best for us. host: what you think about speaker gingrich's reaction? caller: i agree. the biden administration should not be underestimated. there is a lot of power in politics. the democrats are in power. we should not underestimate anybody who has donated to that office -- has made it to the office. . host: what do you think worked

and did not work this time around when you look at the midterm elections? caller: i was afraid you were going to ask me this. i have not even had my coffee. what did work? what has worked, we got the country talking again. people are talking whether they disagree or agree. people are talking. people are starting to realize that the government can't do everything for us. we have to help the government. we really do. we can't sit back and it just criticize everything that is going on. host: you go back to your coffee. thank you for the call michelle brooklyn. let's hear from sherry in florida, democrats line. your next up. caller: good morning.

i think the republicans can learn a lot about respect for individuals and individual freedom and respect for our democracy. they have a lot of sedition is in their party. it seems like they promote them, which is unfortunate. there is a lot of fastest tendencies in the -- facist tendencies that are being promoted. i think they should continue to be honest and have a lot of respect for women and people's choices in terms of their sexual identity. also, for equality in marriage. they say love is blind. respect people. that is one of the things that the republican party's do not do. they want everybody to follow their lead and do what they want them to do. host: sherry, speaker gingrich

dead describe to the current admin -- did describe to the administration including make government socialism, what do you think of that? caller: i do not think the democratic party or their administration is socialistic. all of these republicans are taking social security, aren't they? that is a socialist administration policy. why did they use the word socialism? this country is still with a lot of facist rhetoric. it concerns me. host: do not underestimate the biden that is the speaker from mint gingrich, a topic on his -- newt gingrich, a topic on his website. you can redefine yourself.

this is from a viewer off of twitter, saying gingrich with a question mark. shown from twitter saying, republicans found their spine thanks to newt. you can reach out to us on twitter at c-span j. he could reach out by phone as well. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. kyle.

independent line. caller: republicans have been allowing social changes to take place without engaging in the policies today. republicans service i just sent on their derriere's. the game they go with the, election after election, show up after election day. it is silly. i applaud the democrats for their game plan. host: what do you think causes this apathy that you speak about? caller: comfortable living. but in the 60's and 70's -- back in the 60's and 70's, we were naive enough to think that we can trust government to take care of issues, not be in our

pockets as they are today. i have given the democrats credit for taken over institutions, unions, a long-term approach for taken over. applaud that. host: let's hear from frank in new york. independent line. caller: newt gingrich has always been a divisive person. he is always digging in the trash. personal secrets and stuff. him saying something about biden -- do not underestimate biden -- it does not seem right. a lot of people did underestimate, even trump. he did figured he could not win.

this fox news thing, they are just trying to make a mouse out of --. host: dr. joe biden. -- back to joe biden. what do you think is the secret as far as maintaining the white house and the senate? caller: biden has got his credit coalition pretty tight. -- has got his democratic coalition pretty tight. host: ok.

here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> you always need to pay attention to the other side. it is a healthy question to say, what are they doing right? what do they have some of the things that are going right for them? frankly, it is thanks to a remarkable party that has a 50-50 senate and previously had a5-0 regarding in the house. they have been sticking together. that is the real lesson to be learned. >> the title of this bed, morning republicans to stop underestimating joe biden. at this age in the game, do you think it is possible to change people's minds, convince people

that he is not incompetent? >> i say one of the lessons of the midterm elections is to pay more attention to independence. clearly, we are willing to cut joe biden a break and fear republicans. that is the group that republicans have to remember to talk to. there just aren't enough people in the base and democrats to win. you need to base plus. this is where i do think biden, as 82-year-old is really bondable to losing more independence if republicans have a -- really -- vulnerable to losing more independence. host: rebecca from twitter, twitching us this morning -- tweeting us this morning.

not to underestimate biden after the primaries. newt gingrich writing to republicans, i guess all three can call in to comment as well. republicans, democrats, independents. pick the line that best represents you. on the republican lined, joey this next. caller: i am stunned to hear some of these people call. i think newt gingrich has a point. the lady from florida is clueless. she does not how understand how corrupted the democratic party has become. she does not understand when god said thou shalt not kill, it was not a suggestion, it was a commandments. the republicans are solving both parties. we all look each other in the

mirror, how many of us are going to say we are a simplest -- of the democratic party has been infiltrated by demons. host: like to -- back to speaker gingrich's comments, what do you think? caller: i think he has a point. i think when he said that, he meant to say that, joe biden might has his faults and weaknesses. he might be a little bit out there, i do not think newt whether to say that his administration is going to be totally a disaster. there's going to be times where he is meant to have good days and bad days. i think he had a point. i think that not every single thing the administration is going to do is going to be

wrong. they are going to do good things for this country. the democratic party has been taken over by radicals. they are trying to destroy this country. people do not understand that. they are so caught up on hating each other and tell trump and hating making america great again. i do not understand how people can hate these kind of things. donald is not perfect. we have to understand that we have to work together. host: let's hear from david in maryland. caller: hello, how are you doing? i want to thank you for your show. thank you for this television discussion so we can hear people from other perspectives and parties. i think of what he said was true. i think biden does have a very strong based. it is not just based on politics and issues.

it is based on morality. unfortunately, the republican party went in a direction where it became immoral. you had people like marjorie taylor greene and the others who made these comments that were just crazy. . . crazy. at least the biden administration is a maureen he have logic and you know when the issues are and you -- is more of logic where you know what the issues are. you are supporting something that has a factual foundation. it is interesting that he brought this up. he was one of the earlier people who started this divisive politics platform. it has grown within the republican party. it has destroyed that party. when liz cheney had to step aside, kind of someways way

assigned with the democrats was not doing on a political basis or issue basis, she was doing it from a moralistic basis. you look at the comments that trump made that went up to his election, the things he said during his presidency that has led to divisiveness in this country. it has really destroyed the republican party. i think we saw it in the last election when he was supporting people and his party started losing on multiple fronts. it was not really based on the issues. i did not think people are fully informed with the issues are to know if they actually are voting for sometimes. host: david. our independent line. this is joseph in clearwater, florida. caller: good morning.

i do not agree with newt gingrich. they did this before. they thought it was because of immigration. they did this big analysis. there is no vague analysis needed. -- big analysis needed. their stance on abortion is ridiculous. they have another thing on the minimum wage. there are two things, very simple. the dobbs this vision and nonwage. they had horrible candidates. the guy in new hampshire was ridiculous. they had horrible candidates. in photo we have 15 -- florida we have 15 weeks. what they do is give democrats talking points on minimum wage.

there's is no deep dive you have to do analysis. it is the stand on abortion. i read the exit polls. host: thank you. let's move on to steve in texas. republican line. caller: hello. which i would like to say, i am not going to ever underestimate joe biden. he could probably mess this thing up worse than what he got it now. i will give you a new fax. cts. when he took office, the inflation was one and a quarter percent. 1.4%.

it has jumped up from 9.1%. it has went down 1.7%. it has jumped up from one and a quarter. gasoline in my area a right here in central texas, it was a dollar 80. it jumped up to five dollars. now it has come down to 320. it was one dollar and 80. now it is 320. the only reason it has come back because he keeps staring at the strategic oil reserve. what if we have a hurricane or anything happens? we will be in that shape. i know you're going to cut me off, pedro. you will let these liberals talk and talk. when it comes to conservatives that knows the facts. host: go ahead and fascia point.

finish your point. caller: you can look me right in the eye. i give it to you, nine out of the 10 anchors that are on c-span are all liberals. now, i will stop you. we do not -- any political positions from this network. let's move on to brenda in texas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. that last caller is a true representation of the republican party. it is all dollar instant for them. it is -- dollar and cent for them. it is never about people helping people.

listen, i called back when the war started with putting. in. people were beating up biden when he started to provide you can with the necessary things they needed. i called in and i said that, i was not worried about his decision. biden, just like the guy before me in maryland said, biden is not a man that sees through his own eyes, he relies on god. he is a true christian. host: back to mr. green gorgeous point about not underestimating -- back to mr. gingrich's point, about not underestimating biden. caller: i agree.

do not underestimate him because of his love for people and god. host: thank you. america should never underestimate the death that formal president trump and the republicans will take of the majority. do not underestimate the media support of president biden and the democrats. those are some of the reactions that newt greig rich is on not underestimating -- newt gingrich , not underestimating joe biden. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. this team executed a strategy of pong americans against donald trump supporters. biden's team has one of the best of term elections history. iflicans are going to essfully work for theext two years in congress and win the presidency in 2024, they need to look much deeply at what worked or what did not work in 20 and 22. more of the available on the website gingrich 360.com if you want to read for yourself. you can comment on what he said and his assessments on it.

in pennsylvania, this is sean. caller: with people have not figured out yet, joe biden is a avatar. he is a conglomerate. his personality is a conglomerate of a whole bunch of people behind the curtain putting together his plan. it is just model list how they succeeded in duping the public and how willing the public is to be duped. it is amazing. it is terribly scary. . the public is so divided. the media has its corrupt. whether they know the truth or not, they just go right along with it.

they seem bothered into the democrats russia thing. about three quarters of the american public does not know that there was a russia-russia hoax played on the american public, and the american public bought it because we are so divided by a corrupt media. host: ok. let's hear from maria in pennsylvania. democrats one. line. caller: thank you for giving me a chance to speak. what is going on is pure terrible. do people realized who newt gingrich is? how he can put anyone down? does anyone realize what this man has done?

first of all, tell me what is the reason mitch mcconnell is in office? why is mccarthy tried to get a better position and they make all of this money? the only republican i know who spoke out correctly is mr. buffet, he says you have to trim the government and make them more harder. how can we be judging all of these people? host: back to the comments about joe biden. what did you think of those? caller: terrible. who is he to judge anyone. joe biden is trying every which way. all they are trying to do is try to stop him. like they did president obama. they kept trying. every time they turned around, no. host: specifically he said do not underestimate joe biden, what do you think of the assessment coming from mr.

gingrich? caller: joe biden is smarter. what did he do good for america? what did any of these republicans do good for america? host: ok. amy is next in florida. republican line. hello? caller: i am a republican. apologize. are you a republican or independent? i am a republican. caller: joe biden has lied ever since he met his first wife. he was in florida he snuck into a elite part of the place he was staying. that is how he met her. then he lied about his first wife. it was not the truck drivers

fault, it was her fault. host: this has nothing to do with newt gingrich's assessment. what do you think about? caller: i think joe biden is a big liar. he does not belong to the president. i think that the election was rigged. i think for pennsylvania to stop counting in the middle of the night for the first time in history. host: to the point of the piece, do not underestimate joe biden, what do you think about joe biden? caller: yes. he is a big liar. the media is all for the democrats. look at the hunter biden thing. you know? it was true. that goes to prove that the media, including you.

host: that is not true at all. in grand rapids, michigan. caller: good morning. those are people who are talking about president biden. president biden is doing what he should do. all of this good economy that trump had to, that was on the heels of barack obama. when trump came in, he gave the millionaires in the billionaires, a tax cut that should have been going to the common people. with all of this talk about what trump did and how this economy was so good, he was just riding on what obama did. caller: newt gingrich should

know, do not underestimate joe biden. he understands how to be bipartisan with people also. at the same time, you cannot find that among the republicans. they all run one way. they do not hear anything with just what they want. they do not do anything for the people when they are in office. the only people who are working for the people are the democrats. anybody can see that. all of this benghazi stuff. now they are talking about hunter biden. trump was saying they got a lot of money. host: the calls will continue for the next 20 minutes.

you can also text us at, (202) 748-8003 if you want to make your thoughts well known. another perspective from the american prospect magazine out of the united kingdom, they write about not underestimating joe biden as well. here's the perspective they take. united and focus on solutions to the economic crisis, may be present trumps extremist knowledge gives dividing republicans. last summer's withdrawal from afghanistan weighed more in the way that was done in the policy itself. imagine president trump handling with putin in ukraine. this election would have been about the president failure.

including highly popular expansion to obamacare. that was prospect magazine. do not underestimate joe biden. you can read in their. let's listen to jason from south carolina. republican line. caller: on the newt gingrich thing, i do not care. since you guys are so fair and unfiltered and unbiased, i would like to know how come anytime somebody stares from your topic you cut them off? then you -- somebody interjects from your topic you cut them off? i am going to hit you with

something that has something to do with the topic. that is barack obama. he said the same thing. never underestimate joe biden's ability. since you are so unfiltered and unbiased. host: we will go back to the topic on why you do not agree with his assessment on joe biden? caller: do you agree with joe biden's assessment ability to never -- things up? caller: i think the real question should not be about what newt gingrich thinks about joe biden. the only reason joe biden has been successful is because of the media. you guys are part of the

problem. it seems the media protect the biden administration at all costs, by not reporting on certain topics or just totally reporting on only topics that they want the american people to hear about. for example, the hunter biden last comment. i was looking at you guys report on that and dig into that. host: do you think newt gingrich is covering up for joe biden or defending joe biden? caller: i did not think he is. the media is. you think about this. this is a problem. this is how i view it. most americans do not have time to dig into the issues. there watching their local news.

then i go to work and they come home, they turn on the local news. abc, nbc. so people watch their shows at night. they go to bed and they fall asleep watching the news in their bedrooms more than ever. the media is the problem. you are a part of the problem. host: you called in assuming unity topic you were going to comment on the, which is newt gingrich's comment about not underestimating joe biden. what do you think about that assessment? as far as what he has to say? caller: it does not bother me what gingrich has to say.

host: why doesn't it bother you? you have already made these comments. ok, go ahead. caller: you sit here. you will not let people talk. when people start to talk about things that are against your narrative, you start asking questions. host: yesterday good deal of this phone call talking about things he wanted to talk about, which is not the topic of the question we are talking about. democrats line. caller: my goodness, these people get on the air and want to talk about everything else. about new gingrich, i read -- newt gingrich, i read the article and was very supportive. everybody who called in know something about newt gingrich. he is totally for the republican party. this is a man who has some truth in what he said.

he said that we do not underestimate biden. he sees something in biden. he even complimented him in the way he is able to get results. some of the bipartisan bills. if he had republicans and democrats working together. people sitting there in talking about this man age and how he is not competent. the problem is, the public. hello? the problem is, people are -- the news keeps saying. people at home making their own decisions based on this craziness going on within the gop that is sitting there and talking about all of these things that does not matter to

the people. mr. biden has gotten things done for the american people. that is why the politicians are in office, not for their self satisfaction, but for the american people. he has done things for the american people. newt gingrich has parted it, he is letting his republicans no, you will continue to support something that is not a part of the american people. host: we have 15 minutes left in the topic. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. caller: that was great.

the question was, what did you think about what newton said. i think he is listening to what is going on in this party. nobody else comes in and it about whatever they want. pedro made a comment, what did you think about what he said? we will call him newt. he has been watching and listening. he made teacher comments. the people do not understand he is trying to help his party. the people in the other party are just like a scrambled egg. this is the class i came into. i think this is great. do not underestimate your opponent. here, apparently, the people are just like -- you might as local back to the time to see when

noah was getting in the ark. host: marcy is next in wyoming. democrats line. caller: i read the article. other than the fact that it is packed full of republican talking points come the one point he made that is important is, do not underestimate what biden is doing. he is doing with the majority of the people want to get done. ok. he has improved the economy substantially. host: martin in wyoming a topic this morning wrote, god forbid president biden again. again, you can always text as, (202) 748-8003 if you want to do

that. tweet us or text us. republican line from arkansas. joel. caller: how are you today? host: i am fine. caller: newt gingrich is just spending. host: expand on that? caller: he was a democrat than a republican. he is just spinning it. you have to look at the poor folks, not the wealthy folks. wealthy people are doing great. if you are a democrat, you are doing great. rich democrats, they do not see this 15% increase in the economy and we are going to get a .7 on

our social security. their credit card purchase over the black friday, billions of dollars were bought on credit card. they can't pay it back. the tech industry has laid off thousands of people. you do not report that. you just say the job numbers were up 6% or something. look how many people have been laid off on the tech jobs. host: let's get back to your first point. can you tell me what you mean by that? caller: i am saying, i am talking about these poor people living on 20 and $30,000. that is what i'm trying to say. i do not hear you. host: i do not cut you off. finisher about.

h your thoughts. caller: the student loans before the midterm elections. this is going to have to be approved in february. the governor out there in california, he is coming up with the idea to refund the black folks 220,000. host: i am going to cut you off because you are steered from the topic. caller: thank you for your job. i would like to say, newt gingrich's comments were a warning to the gop to clean up, lock up the crazies, kick them out. if you do not, your party is

done with. this red wave fantasy, the idea of trump solving the constitution and making the january 6 rioters heroes, he is seeing this and he knows what this means. he has been up around to know, crazy has only attracted a certain amount of people for a certain amount of time. i have never seen as many people as the conservative callers who claim biased in this plan. i would like to congratulate pedro and everyone else. host: the your first point. -- let me go back to your first point. how did you read that into mr. gingrich's comment? caller: it is mostly like you said. this republican talking points. i think mr. gingrich is talking

around the point. he sees what happens and he knows he needs to get their stuff together. he has backing on both sides, whether they want to admit it or not. they have parties that work across aisles and will continue. that is what needs to happen. it is with the majority of the people want. the majority of the people do not want a civil war or believe that joe biden is selling out america to china. host: thank you. just to let you know, the supreme court, when they released audio of their hearing when they are debating various topics, you can hear such an argument today before the court. you can h the case about whetlorado antidiscriminationaw violates a hateh because she only -- heterosexual companies.

it will be he 10:00 on c-span. you can follow alongn our app on c-span now and online at. c-span.org. . let's go to john in california. go ahead. caller: good morning. thanks for doing a great job. my comment would be, it is more demographics than joe biden. i believe the democratic party through inflation and through illegal immigration, is to create a poor people. we are all suffering and struggling. the more poor we get, the more reliance we are going to need on big government. that is the direction we are heading. the people who do not work out number the people who do work.

when that happens, they need the government. here comes the democratic party. in my life, i worked in south central l.a. for over 10 years, well overcome team, watts. i went over downtown alameda every day. what i saw was illegal immigration clobbering the african-americans. what it does, i drive through and i go into these factories, they would all be illegal immigrants taking american jobs. host: if i may? as far as dealing with mr. gingrich's comments about joe biden, what do you think about that? caller: you can elect a fence post. the demographics favor the democratic party. the demographics of more poor people in the country.

if we can keep more people for, like the democrats are doing, they are going to have a big voting based. they're going to vote for democrats because they are social programs. host: let's hear from robert. democrats line. caller: i think the only reason the poor are poor because the rich is keeping them down. as far as gingrich is telling the gop to not underestimate biden, it is because biden is in touch with the workingman. he knows what is needed. it the republicans are to -- the republicans are to called up with keeping the money to themselves and staying in power. yeah. they do not care for the workingman. they just care for themselves,

the corporations and the josh hawley's of the world. the radical right wing racist. that is about all i have to say. host: harlow in north carolina. how are you doing? caller: i just wanted to say in my view, i agree with newt gingrich. joe biden has eroded the first amendment to social media and private industry. also, he wants to keep the young kids dumb. later on they can't defend themselves. they have two depend on the government to be able to be able to survive. that is all i wanted to say. he is good. no, i would not underestimate

joe biden at all because he is good at what he does. host: daisy is up next in oklahoma. republican line. caller: how are you doing? host: five. ne. caller: joe biden is not the one that the people are underestimating, it is his support system. the president is nothing without his support system. his support system has done a great job of keeping him where he is at. newt gingrich has it wrong. it is not joe biden that we do not need to underestimate, it is his supporting network that we need to stop underestimating. host: ok. let's go to darlene. san diego, california.

democrats line. caller: it is interesting, some people call in and cannot stay on topic. i do understand the comment he made about joe biden. i think he was being sarcastic in some ways. i think he has realized the ignorance and chaos from gop party that has gotten way too above and beyond some understanding. i think that newt gingrich should go back in using the same form that he said before in not estimating joe biden and taking estimate on some of the things that they did back when they were in power. let's continue to keep listening. ignorance is bliss. a discussion to at least get some understanding. host: in california finishing

off this hour. we thank all of you for participating this morning. we will talk about all of the things you should be looking out for. we will talk about the committee and senior vice policy director as he discusses the 2020 three 3 budget appeared those conversations and more coming up on "washington journal" ♪ >> congress gets back to work in the wake of the midterm election. watch in the next week as the incoming 118th congress elects leaders, makes committee

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c-span radio." c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: this is zach cohen joining us come up with bloomberg government, he covers congress from bloomberg. extra giving us your time. where -- thanks for giving a short time. where are we when it comes to funding government? guest: we are less than two weeks from the deadline congress set for funding the government, december 15 about the deadline is coming up and there's not even a bill being written between democrats and republicans in the house and senate will fund everything from the military to health programs and everything in between. this is also discretionary spending, but it care, social security is all covered but everything else needs to be worked out. the negotiations are ongoing so we expect in the next couple of days to see a bill that either would be a stopgap measure would

pass the december deadline and avoid a shutdown with democrats fully control of washington, it seems unlikely a shutdown would happen. but senior lawmakers are looking for an omnibus, a full government spending bill that would fund the government through september 30. host: what will this look like as far as spending is concerned? guest: that is the question. don't know how much should go toward defense spending and nondefense spending which is the first critical thing. republicans would like to see more spending on defense in democrats would like to see more spending on nondefense spending. once i get past that they can figure out what goes to what department and that is the first key issue they have to work out. host: as the main package being worked on, is the potential capacitor package and keep current spending levels for the

course of a year or so? guest: that is right, have a resolution that the government is on now. the government has been spending at the current levels on autopilot. that expires december 16 and they could opt to do it again. if they don't have some form of agreement for a full omnibus package, they could opt to create another cr that lasts a week, a month or a year. there are pros and cons for the two parties so obviously if they take it to a week, that could give them enough time to cope with a deal. into january, republicans take over the house and they would like a greater say in that spending package and that is one way to accomplish that. the other operate -- option is a full year, they will not pass a regular spending bill, they would let the government cope in terms of spending decisions and that has riled up republicans because it would meet a cut to defense spending. because inflation is so high it would mean a real cut to defense

spending and that is something republicans want to avoid. host: our guest is with us until 8:30, if you want to ask questions, you can call guest: -- in light -- (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8002 for independence. we have talked about the efforts to become house speaker but as far as chairs for major committees, what should we look out for? guest: most republicans who will chair these committees in the next two years will be the ranking members for the current committee. people like michael mccaul, he's probably going to be chairman of the house foreign affairs committee. there is jockeying for other powerful panels, like the ways and means committee, between congressman adrian smith and others. that should get worked out. there is a set of house republicans that include top leadership as well as rank and

file that basically hear arguments over these coming days from these republicans that would like to share these committees and they will make those decisions and that will be up to a vote of the full congress. while certainly a lot of the work gets done on the floor and in the leadership offices, committees are where a lot of these nitty-gritty details get worked out. we are seeing this in the appropriations process, tate granger is likely to be the chair of the appropriations committee. it will be the first time where all four house appropriators, house, senate, will all be women. these will get worked out. all of them will have a say. host: what is the house judiciary look like? guest: congressman jim jordan likely. i've was talking to the current chair and i asked what he thinks you can get done with jordan. he did not have a great answer,

he has not how those conversations yet and that is partly because organ has been focused on oversight and looking into big tech and the department of justice and its actions over the last two years. the house judiciary committee would become the locus of the oversight proceedings in congress along with the house oversight committee led by congressman james comer. host: i heard it reported that there are 40 or 50 things they are looking into, the strategy to keep investigations going and not overshadow -- will that overshadow slate of efforts? guest: one congress is they know how to walk and chew gum at the same time. we will see. there worked on impeaching former president trump not once but twice, and other committees can focus on other bills, but members of congress can only juggle so much in their heads at one time so we will see publicans, many of whom are to government, most have not been

house majority before, we will see them juggling the oversight and the legislation. host: speaker mccarthy was on the sunday show yesterday and talked about the ndaa. first, explain that. guest: it is the national defense authorization act and it has been going on 60 years. every year congress passes a military possible -- policy bill saying how many ships will be billed, how may planes will be fly? these get worked out every year and the bill gets more dovish democrats and republicans that voted against it. but the majority of both parties vote for this bill. it is being worked out behind closed doors and we could see it drop as soon as today and have key writers in it. mccarthy was on fox news yesterday talking about how it will have a measure that list the requirement that members the military get the covid vaccine, a concession to republicans as they get some sort of deal before they passed the ndaa by

the end of the year, a key priority. >> i laid out clearly what will be the majority and we are working on the national defense bill. we will secure lifting that vaccine mandate on our military because we are finding they are kicking out men and women that have been serving. people are not meeting their recruitment. i had a conversation with the secretary of defense even last night. but next week you will see we have been able to and that is the first victory of having a republican majority. would like to have more of those and we should start moving this now. host: already calling it a victory. guest: exactly and it's not even a majority yet. house republicans have not had as much power in this version of washington because in -- unlike the senate, house republicans don't have the filibuster so they have not been able to do anything other than protest whatever speaker nancy pelosi has brought to the floor. but house and senate republicans have been able to work on this

and say if you don't include this measure on the package, we will be able to stall it and not get it across the floor until the end of the year would republicans will have a greater say in how to do this. it is a victory for republicans and it still has to get through the senate where democrats could also filibuster it. it is one of the key writers to watch and a polarizing issue. host: zach cohen of bloomberg joining us. we start with nelson on the republican line, go ahead. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i really have one question. is there anyone in the government or is there any kind of movement in the government to try to deal with the ever-expanding national debt? i believe our national debt is growing somewhere between one and $2 million a minute and i think the national debt is

perhaps one of the greatest threats that our country is facing. thank you and i will take your answer off the air. guest: the answer is yes cannot republicans especially have been interested in using the upcoming debt limit height to avoid a default and force concessions on the mandatory spending that is not being touched in this package we have been talking about, like social security, medicare, medicaid that could go insolvent in the next couple of years absent some hours -- some action by congress. that will cause some disagreement with congressional democrats democrats and the white house who are worried what cuts to social security and medicare would mean for seniors and people who depend on that money. over the next six months or so, the government will officially run out of the ability to borrow

money. this happens over and over and the dutch they are usually able to extend the date the government is not able to pay their bills, and before that date you can lift or extend the debt limit but talking to republicans will include key concessions, including national programs that contribute to national debt. host: you hear from republicans that democrats want to do things with medicare, social security, otherwise. what is on the table versus what republicans want to do and what they can? guest: i was talking with a number two republican in the senate last week and he said there was -- there are a lot of republicans who would like to do something on this issue. it goes beyond supercommittee or a way to study the issue. like to extract concessions, may be the retirement age or privatizing social security.

depending on who you ask, folks have different ideas on how to do that but the republicans have not quite coalesced around what those would be, coming from budget committees, top republicans, the republican study committee, or senator rick scott has their own ideas. as they work through those particular apps, we will start to see the nitty-gritty details. host: in new jersey, democrat line, this is mitchell. >> good morning. i would like to circle back to the debt also. was my understanding that the debt ceiling might be debt -- dealt with in the name duck by the democrats, as it seems like it is one of the few pieces of legislative leverage the republicans will have and when they take power in the house in

january. i'm wondering where are we out and what this could mean for policy? guest: it seems unlikely democrats would do anything to raise the debt limit by themselves, and requires using the budget reconciliation process which takes weeks of floor time especially in the senate in order to get done and there's not time anymore. congress is in session officially for the next two weeks. they would be a hard deadline to do that because at the end of the year, all of legislation in congress resets and that starts at square one. there is not time to do the reconciliation process that would allow them to lift the debt ceiling. but democrats frankly don't want to do that. they would rather have republican buy-in. they extending issue by policies from both parties and they would like fingerprints from both parties on that package.

because there are a couple of months in 2023 where they could tackle the issue and it is unlikely they do anything in the lame-duck session, they would agree to anything before the majority of the house. host: how much of ukraine spending is putting that bill? guest: i don't know off the top of my head but it is a growing chorus, especially in the republican party, saying we should look at this. and billions have been spent to fight off the invasion by russia but there is bipartisan insurance making sure ukraine has the military assets it needs, in order to repel the invasion. there certainly could be somebody that rides on that larger bill. host: and to relief as well. guest: that could happen, sure. host: this is from janet in

louisiana, go ahead. caller: hello, mr. cohen. i heard that we built a bomber for $80 billion. is that true? who okayed that? war is stupid, it out of ukraine. -- get out of ukraine. respect and care in the usa toward others is a must. don't have children you can take care of. trust and integrity. host: thanks. guest: it is possible the caller is talking about the be 21 that was just unveiled last week, that is probably what had been signed off in a previous ndaa what we talked about. interestingly enough this particular defense bill is actually 45 billion dollars more

than what the biden administration had asked for at the beginning of this year. so congress is interested in making sure that the military has the robust spending that it had in the past if not more so. host: if you were to ask it operational question about congress, twitter saying why democrats go over the last minute to work on the budget? guest: good question. it takes a long time to -- it does not take a long time to write the budget. it is mostly building and dollar signs. the key question is political will. a lot of these appropriators are waiting to see what -- where congress would go and how that would change the balance of power in washington and that seems to be the key hold at this point. they have to work out the power and a member of the house, it was not told what the market would be. republicans -- it might have cut

into it a little bit. host: joining us from bloomberg government, operational things from congress, we heard about the death of virginia congressman don mceachin. what happens now? guest: yes, he passed away after a battle with colorectal cancer. the virginia governor will be able to call a special election that will allow virginia voters in that district which runs from richmond down to the border and that will decide who feels that. it is a democratic seat, but whether it will be constructive and who wins the seat, they can't hold a special election with minutes to spare. we are waiting to see when it is called, the congressman's funeral, --

host: last week on capitol hill, new members had to enter the lottery to pick their office. can you ask but how this works? guest: sure. for most rumors of congress, seniority gets to pick this. you may say i want to be closer to the capital or bigger. if you are a freshman you don't have a say. the 74 members that are living give up their office space, they are jockeying by the incumbents and everything left over goes to freshman. in order to pick this lately better offices from the not so great, they pick discs out of a wooden box and they have done this for decades. that was on friday, something of a bipartisan tradition on capitol hill where members are in a room, you can send someone on behalf but most go themselves

because it is fun. you pick number one as max miller from ohio did, you get to pick your office first. he got a nice office in the building. and if you pick last, you will be's duck in the building that is not the nicest of the three house office buildings. members across the hill are setting up offices now in hopes of getting ready to go before they are sworn in on january 3. host: from the louisiana come out republican line, hello. julian in louisiana, go ahead. -- dropped, let's hear from craig, in texas, independent line. caller: hello. zach, as far as government goes, i believe corruption should be a crime and in every topic and

every issue. as far as defense goes, can you comment on why we can't get an accounting audit, of what the pentagon spends? i heard there may be a trillion dollars missing from the pentagon budget that we don't know where it is going. in terms of going back to ppg scandal of almost billions of dollars, 30 to 50% of that can't be there. there is a lost cause. guest: there's a difference between corruption and mismanagement of money. there are many dollars that

have not been accounted on. the other agency, pending the caucus, and is something democrats are interested in doing. republicans have talked about auditing the federal reserve. the same reason. there are house and senate armed services committees that frequently hold hearings with the top generals and officials of the pentagon are able to ask where the money is spent, how spending on this program goes and that happens in a public setting as well as a classified setting where we have the public don't get to see it because it is classified for national security regions -- reasons. as oversight that does happen. as some would like, and is a different story. host: in minnesota, independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i heard mccarthy say something about they want to get rid of the mandate for the soldiers to

not have to get vaccinated. i am not calling him stupid, i'm talking about some of the stupidity that is going on in our country as far as that. i was in the service and i hope before me my shot record in service. international certificate of vaccination. the war machine it knows that if you go back to war, if construction breaks, water stops running, the rats come back, diseases are going to come back. i have on my shot record, in 1982, i was vaccinated against the plague. they vaccinate against things that have been eradicated. i got vaccinated for cholera, yellow fever, polio. host: what would you like our

guest specifically to address? caller: just what i said, thank you for listening. guest: as retiring republican from illinois sits on the generous six committing, has been vocal taking on some of the far right wings of the party and said i was in the military and also got the list of shots the caller was talking about. i think the difference this time is obviously the covid vaccine was originally authorized as emergency use and did not have quite the full review that would typically be done for these vaccines. that is no longer the case. now there are covid vaccines that do have full fda authorization and are on the same standing as other vaccines. certainly there is reason that the military would be interested in making sure that members of the military stay healthy. a key way to do that -- i've got

my boosters for that reason. there's a part of the country that is skeptical. and that is a distinction. host: hakeem jeffries is talking about the new congress and what they have to say. >> the american middle class and those who aspire to be part of it happened under assault for decades. they have been forces conspiring against them, whether the globalization of the economy, outsourcing of good paying american jobs, rising automation. it has made it difficult for folks to dutch to pursue the american dream. that is not democratic party -- democratic problem for americans. we can build upon they work that has occurred already, the inflation reduction act, infrastructure, investment and jobs, making sure we bring

domestic jobs back to the united states of america, implement historic legislation that has already been put in place and look for other ways to build upon the great work. >> i suppose that this stage it is a thing to say but what is the reality? guest: i had more bipartisan wins than i expected. typically the politics of the midterm cycle make it difficult to reach common ground but there have been bipartisan achievements that the next democratic leader mentioned. can build on this, the u.s., mexico, canada agreement. a bipartisan agreement that re-upped nafta and make changes and one of the last things the senate did before it started the first impeachment trial against president trump, so even in a highly polarized environment they were able to do that. he mentioned the ships and science act, which goes by different names, the u.s. innovation and competitions act,

massive boost in spending for semiconductor manufacturing and on shoring those critical supply chains and they were parties were interested in bolstering the last couple of years. there are certainly possible that you could see legislation passed because the senate, you need 10 republican votes to get anything done. they will have that experience even in the biter and administration of getting stuff done. host: from kurt kamath cocoa beach florida, go ahead. >> good morning and ed thanks for taking my call. your answers are crystal clear, you are a good guest. last week, a guest called in and asked a question about the senate needing 50 republicans, 48 democrats at two independents and how that does not make the senate a majority republican. you do not have the answers, i wonder if you have the answer.

thanks for your time. guest: he is talking about bernie sanders and angus king who are independent but caucus with democrats and that gives democrats the majority. it allows them to rule on procedural questions with vice president kamala harris with the tie-breaking vote. that will affect the georgia senate runoff tomorrow, between rafael warnock and herschel walker. double -- that will determine if democrats are 51 seats which will give the majority on a number of committees and procedural questions, so they can lose a vote, even if joe manchin for instance opposes a bill, they can still get something through this and that is why democrats have a majority even on paper, it looks like more republicans. host: we talked about that

legislation last week about when to expect signage from the president? guest: we see the house pass it tomorrow, as far as i understand and the president can later this week. it ticks a couple of days for them to prepare the bill for ceremonial purposes, there is an enrollment process and after the senate passed the bipartisan change, the house needs to take it up again and said it divided. it is a transformative bill that protects the right to a same-sex marriage. it does not codify the supreme court decision that legalized same-sex marriage but it make sure that people who are in same-sex marriages have the right upheld. host: zach cohen reports from bloomberg government and congress, thanks for your time. coming up we will talk about debt and deficit with the committee for a responsible federal budget policy and senior vice president marc goldwein.

that conversation coming up on washington journal. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information, but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span. powered by cable. ♪ >> high school students, it is

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>> washington journal continues. host: this is marc goldwein, he is with the committee for a responsible federal budget as the senior vice president and policy director. good morning. guest: good morning. host: talk about your organization, what is it and what focus do you have? guest: we are a nonprofit organization in washington focus on budget issues. covers tax policy, health policy, some of the leading issues on the left, right and center and we are there to provide information to congress, the press and the public. host: in recent days, the organization put out -- calling on them not to -- can you tell us the reason? guest: inflation is the highest in 40 years, our debt is approaching record levels and

all we are asking is for the next 3.5 weeks for congress to not make the situation worse, host: what do you mean specifically? guest: we keep passing new tax cuts and spending increases, and lower taxes and higher spending are fine but we are not paying for them, so who is? it is being put on the national credit card. ultimately we need to reduce deficits. we need $7 trillion of -- the first step is let's not make it worse for the last 3.5 weeks of 2022. there is defense -- host: there is consideration for defense spending for ukraine, disaster relief. guest: many of those are worthy of funding. it is good enough to have and to

pay for. they put more with ukraine to raise spending elsewhere. some of the things they're talking about frankly are not a good use of our scarce dollars. host: such as? guest: such as the talks about bringing back the medicaid sequester. -- medicare sequester. we so during the pandemic we will give everyone the 2% raise. even though the pandemic recession is over. host: our guest is here until 9:16, if you want to ask oceans about the debt, particularly the budget. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and independents at (202) 748-8002. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003.

the senate broke down three categories when it comes to debt reduction. you referred to tax extensions for this year's budget, can you give us what this means? guest: there are a few tax cuts every year. but there are talks of canceling the job cuts that raise money. there are talks of canceling a change that would advertise research expenses, companies would have to conduct research expenses over five years except one. there is talk of getting rid of this paid for around productive ability. if we did this all together it would be something like $4 billion of tax cuts for corporations. host: so that is the criticism,

they are to corporations? guest: it is not necessarily a great use of money but the bigger problem is they are not figuring out how to make up the revenue elsewhere. it is a good case that we will continue to form the corporate tax code so you can reject -- conduct more tax breaks -- without paying for fewer tax breaks. but say they have more to afford on the national credit card. it is not working and that is why we have such high inflation and why our debt is approaching record levels. host: there is a debate about the child tax credit. there was an op ed about putting it on the table. the argument is 40% of households were able to pay down debt. some of the participants spend it on credit or food and these are good things, as far as the taxpayer, what would you do?

guest: the problem is not the tax credit. we want to give them the tax credit and make them pay for it in the future as we are adding to the debt. there is this thing that happens in washington recently, one party adds to the deficit and the other party response to ok, so long as we get to add the deficit for our thing. that is what may be happening here. republicans get a tax break for corporations, democrats get an expansion of their child tax credit, same thing. the kids today are not willing to pay back in the future. instead we should be negotiating how do we have a package that is fully paid for, we cut spending, tax breaks or we raise taxes elsewhere. host: it sounds like you are advocating for the raising of the budget or demands for that. guest: right now the deficit is $1.4 trillion. i would settle for let's hold it and work it down towards $1

trillion. we don't need full balance but we can't have is the debt continuing to grow faster than the economy. it is unsustainable. host: marc goldwein is our guest and you can call on the lines. we start with keith in ohio on our independent line. you are on with our guest, good morning. caller: good morning. we have been doing this i think for about three decades. we have been running up the debt. i don't know if there were even a trillion dollars when bush senior was president. so how long can we do this? i understand. pretty soon we won't even be able to pay the interest. when will it be recalculated when interest rates go up and we need to redo however that works? how long can we do this? i guess we are in uncharted territories. can we sustain this for more decades? i think we are going to

collapse. guest: you bring up a great point about interest costs. as they rise and we are paying off more debt, it is eating the rest of the budget alive. next year we will spend more on interested we spent on the larger level. than a decade, interest will eclipse the defense budget. within a quarter-century, it is on course to be the single largest program, larger than medicare, sustainability. that is unsustainable. i don't think we can point to it and say this is when things break what we are on a path that cannot continue and we need to stop it. host: if the path is as you describe, are there ways to avoid or reverse it? guest: there are many. we need to come together, bring in new revenue and support stronger economic growth. you can't do it with any one of those things.

we put out a $7 trillion framework, not perfect but to try to get the conversation started. it takes on income taxes and includes a carbon tax. it is not going to be easy but the alternative is not sustainable. host: one thing you had an analysis of, take a look at discretionary spending. where should these stand as far as your opinion? guest: social security and medicare are towards insolvency. social security in the early 20 30's. if we do nothing, there will be across-the-board cuts. for medicaid there so much we can do to put -- get more value from our dollar and medicaid advantage, better incentives around prescription drugs and everything else. with social security we will make some adjustments. people will pay a little bit more, especially at the high-end. we may want to adjust, i think

we should adjust the retirement age gradually. it is not going to be easy. but i promise it will be better than 22% across-the-board cuts scheduled to occur. host: do you think they should be a proper use of the discussion you brought up? guest: we need to raise the debt ceiling, this is not up for debate. but in the past it has been used as an opportunity to reassess our fiscal situation. so long as nobody is threatening default, i think there is opportunity to raise the debt limit and to start making progress on our unsustainable fiscal situation. host: you advocate against that but for raising the debt ceiling, can you explain? guest: that is like saying i'm against overspending but i should pay my credit card bill. if we don't pay our bill, if we default on the debt, the same costs of debt are going to occur in rapid time because interest rates are going to go, people

are not going to trust us anymore. we can pay the bill and then we have a plan going forward that we are not adding so much to the debt year-over-year. host: from california, independent line, this is greg. caller: good morning, c-span. i have been watching you for many years. my question is concerning the fiscal budget. and the revenue decline with the legislation, the respect for marriage act. my question is twofold. i'm considering adopting a dog. i would like to know, will i be able to marry that dog? host: we will leave it there. let's go to tim in arkansas. >> good morning. i would like to know, once default happens, do we still have to pay the money back? we are taking care of the

world's problems. basically we spent all that money to take care of the world's problems. so i would say just ended. guest: i don't think we are going to default on our debt. our funds are the backbone of the global economy. if we did default on our debt it would cause problems around the world, the global financial system. it might put us into a recession and if we do default, we will immediately regret it and come out and want to pay all that money back. the truth is we are going to want to borrow again. we're not going to be a country as much as some that is running a balanced budget every year. and we will need to do some borrowing for emergencies. if we default we lose our credibility to do that borrowing. host: you're talking about interest payments, on twitter, someone is asking who does the interest on the debt get paid too?

guest: that is a great question. about a third of our debt is owned abroad. china and japan are the largest owners but all sorts of countries on it. some of it is being paid outside the country. some of our growth gains are going out there. the rest is a mixture of the federal reserve who bought bonds to support the economy during covid and ordinary investors of the united states, whether it is mutual funds, pensions or your grandma bought you a savings bond. it is going everywhere and people are collecting interests. the bad news is we have to pay it and we are paying it at the expense of education, defense, lower taxes. it is a real cost and it is a cost for things we already have in the past. host: paul in louisiana, republican mine. >> talking about super thing social security does, by

birthdays in august and when i got my first check i had to make -- wait a month, two months. i did knock it until october. november i get a notice in the mail telling me i'm going to get a raise. i forget what it was, only two digits, i don't know what it was. why do they do stupid things like this? some nitwit democrat is going to cobble in and say i ought to just give the money back but i'm talking about the holy enchilada. host: from twitter as well, samantha makes the case that the rate of social security and inflation, saying it is an automatic increase, adding that inflation is hurting american families. go ahead on the larger question. >> both are true, social security increases for inflation. the method used is inflated so they should probably use a better measure. but either way, seniors and all of us are falling behind because of the very high inflation in the overall economy. we've got two years of extremely

high inflation eating into our cost-of-living and making things more expensive at the grocery store and the gas pump, you name it. high deficits are partially at fault. all the borrowing we did in 2020 and 2021, some necessary and some unnecessary, has made the situation worse. host: from ohio, dennis. good morning. caller: good morning. the previous caller stole my thunder here but i have basically the same question. it seems like every time i turn around, somebody is getting help. people with families are getting help, people with different disabilities are getting help and i understand that. i agree with that. i am a senior, i'm 75 years old, my wife and i are both retired and we are on a fixed income. we are not getting any help. social security is going up but nowhere near covers inflation.

if this keeps going on we are going to be in the hole every year and i don't know why the government is not helping us. that is my question. guest: here is an irony when the government tries to help with inflation. government spending to put more money in the economy makes the inflation situation worse. you hear about a lot of state saying we are giving you rebate checks, checks to pay for inflation. in doing so, they may be treating the symptoms but they are making the disease worse. unfortunately the best thing the government can do to help in this situation is sometimes not help. host: a headline from the washington post, inflation starting to lose its grip. it highlights the federal reserve and the recent analysis about rate hikes. do you think there is a lessening of inflation and what you think about the federal reserve's role? guest: inflation is coming down, toward 5%, we may get down

further than that. but to get all the way where we are supposed to be, the fed targeted 2% will require more pay than we have seen. the federal reserve is raising rates, anyone trying to buy a home right now you know how expensive mortgages are. how expensive loans are as well. inflation is coming down, the question is will it come down enough and how much pain will it require to get back to normal? host: as far as the announcement that the rate cuts may not be as severe as we have seen before, do you buy into that and think that is a possibility? guest: the fed has been raising rates by 75 basis points. next meeting it will probably be half a point. after, maybe a quarter. they're not cutting or stopping, they are slowing the increase of the rate. that makes sense because it takes a while to make its way through the economy. rates are already high enough

that i think they can afford to pause a bit and see what is going to happen with inflation. host: i want to ask of the possibility of the recession. the treasury secretary was on cbs the late show, i want to listen to what she had to say and get your thoughts. >> j.p. morgan, meta, disney, paramount have all done big cuts. with the recession, one does not seem to have shown up yet, who is right? your counterpart in england says they are already in recession and it will be the longest since the great war. >> i believe there is a path to bringing inflation down while maintaining a strong, healthy labor market. >> you think it is possible we are not heading into a recession. >> we have rapid recovery, growth is slow down, i expect the pace of job creation to go down. that is expected when the unemployment rate is the close to the lowest in 50 years.

i think we can take the heat out of the economy and russia is conducted, a brutal war against ukraine. that has caused gas prices to spike. it caused food prices to spike. it is creating hardship all over the world. we are really trying to address those strains, we can know the reason inflation went up and we are trying to hold that down. host: the treasury secretary, what you think? guest: janet yellen is right, there is a path to get inflation the control without closing inflation but it is an arrow gap. if congress and the president want to help, the best thing they can do is start using fiscal policy to help the federal reserve fight inflation. write out the federal reserve is fighting by itself. congress and the president are making it harder.

they are looking at ways to get health care costs down, ways to get deficits down. back and get some spending out of the economy and reduce our likelihood of a recession. but it is a narrow path to get inflation under control and not cause a recession in the process. host: our guest marc goldwein running us from the committee of a responsible federal budget. let's hear from kansas, rob. caller: i want to know, when russia defaulted on their debt, how did it hurt us and why? that is all i want to know. thank you. guest: russia has recently had some sporadic defaults. i don't know if you are referring to that or the review in the -- the event in the 90's. what it is a global market. anything that affects one market will affect others. the united states is large and

rich and russia is small and poor in a financial sense. smaller countries have less but it is not zero. we are seeing this cascading because of a one-time war but if we were to start seeing countries around the world having to repay their debt that could lead to a financial crisis. host: if you are asked the question about the target inflation rate of zero versus 2% but i will ask what is the magic? guest: there is nothing magic about 2%, but it is low enough that inflation could go to zero and 3% might be better in theory because it gives us more room to cover rates during a recession. but the -- right now it seems like the fed can't catch 2%. it is tough to navigate changing your target.

host: from california, roberto joining us there. thanks for calling, go ahead. caller: good morning. in the discussion of deficits, i would like to point out part of the deficit is reduced income and the country is at the culminating decades long arch to cut income taxes on the extremely wealthy and then pursuing handicapping the irs in its quest to collect money from the tax to -- i think there should be some concentration on large potential t reduce the deficit by making an effort to increase income. guest: i totally agree. we have had a series of tax cuts

that make it harder and harder to fund government. the last large one was in 2017 but we have had several since. the good news is we have recently funded the irs, $80 billion to ramp up enforcement. that is something that by the way has historically had bipartisan support. every president from ronald reagan to trump to biden has supported more funding for the irs and more changes to the tax revenue then they were owed. on tops of producing the tax gap and get the money we are owed -- even by -- either the shift soon art. >> is way to know their pain with this should. >> -- it would be tedious and

costly but that does not mean we should not try to reduce it. right now, the -- this was true. because the biden administration is depending on that -- we are running deficits before any new spending. >> and fine, thank you. caller: my question has to do with the statement the former vice president made about as long as your national debt grows slower than your economy you really don't have a problem. the criticism is they never give us a way of measuring national

debt to the size of the american army and i have the impression the national debt when you look at it in terms of our national economy expansion is actually going down and i'm curious what the actual answer is to that. guest: i wish that were true. because if we can get our debt going slower than the economy, that would be fabulous. historically debt has been about half the size of the economy. coming into covid it was about 80%. now it is 97 or 98. within a decade we will probably be back -- at about 115%. in two we may be at 200%. our debt is growing much faster than the economy. we don't need to pay down the debt or balance the budget. but we need to do it slow it enough that it is declining relative to output. host: when using employment numbers and others do they encourage you, show signs of

strength? guest: we are in a weird economic time where strength is weakness and weakness of strength because getting inflation under control requires the economy to grow more slowly. so more jobs are good, we want them. but it also means higher likelihood that inflation is going to persist. the best case scenario economically is that jobs stay safe but wage growth slows. i don't know if we get that. it is a weird economy that we are fighting on the one had very high inflation and on the other had a risk of recession. host: in north carolina, you are next up. caller: good morning, thank you so much for accepting my call. i've got a concern. the government secured that money they never pay back and that is why they're trying to get rid of it is because they don't want to pay it back. giving money back that you have

taken. in the student loans, president biden one for president and that was part of his help for the united states people, was to help the students, the unfortunate and some of the fortunate, that can pay those loans off. that was part of him getting voted into the house. he is not doing anything wrong. he is doing everything correct. i want you to listen here. trump said he wants to run the united states like prudent ones russia. that is exactly what he is trying to do. he is trying to run the united states like russia. it is not right. we need micro see. -- democracy. host: are suspending student

letdowns responsible? guest: i do not think it is responsible at all. the government said they will put a pause on collecting loans because the economy was in a freefall rate it made sense and 2020 in 2021, and right now the unemployment rate in college graduates is 2%. it is adding 20 basis points to inflation. we need to do this fairly and with warning but it is time to restart student debt payments and we should be canceling student debt across the board. instead we should look to get higher education costs under control in the first place and have an income driven repayment system that provides the safety net that nobody gets burned with unpayable amount of student debt.

host: in eastport michigan, you are next up. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about $31 million, paying interest and we never considered paying off the national debt. we should set up a program where hundred years would pay off 1% of the national debt and our great, great, great ran children will be debt free. it can only be done if we stop all deficit spending first and make the top line items, a double jubilee investment and pay off the national debt.

even as i have seen this, it shouldn't be keep his serious. host: thank you. guest: if we are balancing the budget, that would be great. but we need to take incremental steps and the most important is that the debt grows slower than the economy. this would put us on a sustainable path and support stronger economic growth, higher wages, lower interest costs, all of these benefits even without balancing the budget. host: what did you think about the effort of congress on the rail strike issue? guest: it is a little outside of my purview. it avoided another spike in inflation. i think that unionization is

down on the historical trend but i think that workers are exerting power and that is great for wages but in the sense of the macro economic, what will this mean for prices? host: from florida, republican line, this is scott. caller: my question is this, if we didn't have all of the trillions of dollars in debt that we do have that we are having to pay interest on, basically that we had no debt, would that make our economy much stronger or worse or how would it affect our economy? guest: debt itself is a burden on the economy. the main reason it is a burden is people buying u.s. government bonds are doing it instead of investing in the private sector. there would be more investment

in the private sector, or buildings, factories, machines, technologies and stronger growth. with that said, every instance of a borrowing may be good or bad in its own right. it was good we borrowed early in covid to help us through what could have been a very devastating recession and so borrowing feels good in the moment and may be good in the moment and you need to weigh it against long-term costs. host: we have a viewer asking who profits when the minimum wage is raised. talk about where it comes in with the debt and deficit. guest: minimum wage has very little effect directly. higher wages mean more taxes coming in and more benefits for social security and more to the earned income credit but it is not related to the deficit but it is related to how fast the

economy grows and how we want to distribute those gains. there is a healthy, ongoing conversation in not only washington but all 50 states. right now we are at a place where the minimum wage is different everywhere. in some states it is $15 and in some states it may be seven dollars. host: is there a sweet spot when it comes to minimum wage she would advocate for? guest: you don't want to go so high that you are crowding out workers. short of that, it is a national reference thing. there is some trade-off, higher minimum wage means higher wages but mean mean higher unemployment and lower business profits. there is no magic number but i think right now the minimum wage is $7.25 at the national level and has been that at a long

time. i don't think it would do harm to inflation. host: next caller. caller: do you think economic social problems in the weakening of the southern border is reminiscent of the fall of the roman empire? guest: i think we have some things in common with the fall of the roman empire. i used to work for senator tom coburn who pointed to a lot of those. we have an outstretched obligation around the world and our debt is out of control. one of the reasons rome fell is it started debasing its currency and started printing money for what it couldn't do. i don't think we are there but i don't want to get there. host: if you are asks if there is a mechanism to prevent business moving out of the united states to prevent higher taxation? guest: we passed some

legislation to make inverting or other ways to leave the country more difficult. what we have is not perfect so the biden administration has imposed some taxes and we should look at international tax reform. countries should incorporate -- businesses that should be in the countries that make the most sense. host: is the biden administration holding onto the tax cuts under the previous administration? guest: they have not reversed any major tax cuts from the trump administration. they supported most of them because the president said no tax increases on anyone make it below $400,000 a year. most of the tax cuts were for those making below $100,000 a year.

the idea they will have to pay 100% is not going to work. host: how much of the previous tax cuts add to the debt and deficit? guest: they are costing $250 million a year. if we get reversed to half of them, that is a trillion dollars over the next decade. host: park from las vegas, you are up next. caller: -- mark from las vegas, you are up next. caller: the trade with the farmers, is that part of the debt? guest: after imposing a variety of tariffs, president trump also used his authority to increase farm subsidies. at this point, there is a lot of money going to farmers, a lot temporary and making our fiscal situation worse. host: stephanie in tennessee,

let's hear from you. caller: yes sir. i heard him say something about money that we all. this doesn't sit right with me. we are taxed on our income from working, taxed when we buy things from the store, taxed on everything we buy. how is this even possible that we are so far in debt? we need to lessen what we send to other countries and support our own first. guest: maybe 1% or 2% of the budget that we send it to other countries, it doesn't mean there isn't room for cutting. there is room to rethink how we

do foreign aid, but if we are going to get the budget under control, there are either increasing taxes more or cut spending we are paying to ourselves. we can do it through better medicare programs, but there is no easy when that we just cut foreign aid or just give texas, we just grow the economy and not solve this. we are so far beyond easy wins at this point. host: you think any of these efforts will be taken up by the republican majority next year? guest: i hope so. in 2011 when we subdivided, -- when we saw divided, we got the budget and created a commission that unfortunately didn't work. we did have the ballasts --

balanced budget act of 1998. hopefully we can come together and start making progress on fighting inflation and addressing our debt. host: this is tom in illinois. caller: good morning. this is not high math. you can go to any business site and bring up a chart of the federal budget deficit and the trade deficit and overlay them. they go up almost exactly together. last year more than $1 trillion left our economy and trade deficit. the federal budget, they had to replace that money. with borrowing and inserted into the economy. this is not high math, until they bring the jobs, industries and profits back from china,

this is going to continue. you can look this up. host: ok, color. guest: -- ok, caller. guest: they are closely related but it is the budget deficit that is driving the trade deficit. when we borrow $1 trillion from the economy, we take more of it from abroad. 40% of it is directly coming from abroad but the rest is indirectly coming from abroad how it changes the economy. if we want to be less supported on other countries, we need to lower the deficit. host: marc goldwein the sea policy director. thanks for your time. we will do open form until 10:00. (202) 748-8001 republicans,

(202) 748-8000 democrats, (202) 748-8002 independents. ♪ >> middle and high school students it is time to get your recorders out by entering the studentcam video documentary contest. this year's competition, we are asking you to see yourself as a newly elected member of congress and see what your top priority would be and why. make a five to six minute video that shows the important of your issues from opposing and supporting points of view. don't be afraid to take risks with your documentary, be bold.

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tv.org, television for serious readers. >> "washington journal" continues. host: you can call the lines and also post texts at (202) 748-8003. it was on the shows yesterday that kevin mccarthy the house minority leader was talking about campaigning for house speaker and talking about the importance of him getting the speakership. here is a portion. [video clip] >> have you spoken with the freedom caucus? >> i spent hours with the freedom caucus. have a close majority, exactly what the democrats had and we have laid out to the american public and they chose for us to be in the majority and lead. we need to come together as one, otherwise we will not be successful. we had a very successful conference. >> you won 85% of the vote and obviously the majority wants you

as a speaker, but you have to get the 218 vote. >> the difficulty is we have already had the primary and made that decision, 85% of the conference. if people don't come along, that will delay our ability to secure the border, be energy efficient, and repeal 87 irs agents and delay our ability to hold government accountable -- 87,000 irs agents and delay our ability to hold government accountable. i hope everyone comes together and find a way to govern together. this is what the american people want, otherwise we will squander the majority. host: the current head of the republican national committee has a challenger for the chair ship, a committee woman whose firm represents donald trump is representing a bid. she has been talking with fellow rnc members about a perspective

run and a formal launch could come within the next couple of days. after underwhelming support for the gop with leaders congratulating ourselves for outstanding performance, i feel we owed it to the voters and what we must change to actually win in 2024. more reporting if you want to see that's on politico. -- see that on politico. next is it jerry on the independent line. caller: i have a question that no one has been able to answer for me. the always talk about the net worth as being assets and liabilities. we know the u.s. is $31 trillion in debt. my question is what are the assets of the united states? are we a debtor nation, land, boats, ships, buildings, land,

oil reserves, are they counted as assets against our liabilities? are we really a debtor nation or is the united states having more money and its net worth than it looks? we know the federal reserve we owe as part of our debt and 00 social security $3 trillion of the national debt. it is about $25 trillion in debt and only half of that is owed outside of the united states. i was wondering what is the net worth of the united states? host: let's filler from -- let's hear from the republican line. caller: how are you doing? host: i am well, thank you. go ahead. caller: i am a minister of the gospel of jesus christ. i hear a lot of people say they are in debt. there is a reason why people of

the united states, people in general, a reason why they are in debt. number one, they are not budgeting their money. and they are not paying what they need to be paying to jesus. number two, they are not budgeting their money. if you would like my help, you can give me a call. host: i would advise against putting your phone number out there. thank you for the call. kenneth, north carolina, democrat line. hello. caller: i am calling about the immigration in the united states and on average a single person would use approximately 55 gallons of water a day.

with the drought situation we have across the united states, can we afford to have as many people coming in as we have coming in or are we going to run into a problem where we will be in a deficit with the water supply? host: that is kenneth from north carolina. also out of north carolina, reporting the fbi is investigating an attack on a power station, sing more than 33,000 homes and businesses -- saying more than 3000 homes and businesses remain without power after an intentional attack. it left extensive damage to substations in north carolina and the destruction started 7:00 p.m. saturday evening. about 45,000 people were plunged into darkness countywide and a curfew was implemented sunday to protect citizens and businesses.

we will hear next from william in new jersey. independent line. caller: i would like to know how much of inflation is due to stopping the production of petroleum and the flow of natural gas, because this has increased the prices to heat my house, cook, grow crops, fertilizer, transporting goods. it seems everything in my exclamation goes back to the cutback on oil and gas production -- in my estimation goes back to the cutback on oil and gas production. host: let's hear from michael in tennessee, republican line. you are next. caller: hello. there is a question that has been asked by a number of colors over the last few months and it never gets an answer from the

guests for various reasons. the question is this -- when people pay and employers pay into social security, my understanding is that money gets spent and goes into the general fund and who knows what it it spent on. in some sense, an iou is created for the social security system. my question is -- what is the total amount? how many billions or trillions of dollars in ious are there to the social security system, because that money has been spent on other things. host: that is michael in tennessee here you heard from kevin mccarthy about his campaign for house speaker ship and there was a discussion also on the news shows with the house

minority leader in new york about the strategy they might employ if kevin mccarthy does not become speaker of the house. here's part. [video clip] >> do you expect kevin mccarthy will be speaker? >> that is what the republicans will have to work out. he seems to be having a difficult time getting to 218. >> i have seen some republican suggestion -- suggesting putting a moderate to draw democratic votes. any idea if democrats will cooperate? >> we have to organize and hit the ground running on january 3 and they have to organize on their side and we will see what happens. >> so it is a possibility? >> i would say it is a possibility. democrats are preparing to get ourselves ready as we transition temporarily from the majority into the minority, continuing to

work with the biden administration, with democrats in the senate, building upon the great work of speaker pelosi and others that have been done over the last few congresses when we have been in the majority and then we will see what happens on the others of the aisle. host: this is reporting in the washington times this morning that republicans are pushing back against former president trump's call to suspend the constitution and some of the criticism came from a man poised to become the next chairman of the house intelligence committee when the republicans take control, "first of all i vehemently disagree with the statement that trump made," that was mike turner from ohio. he has made thousand statements with which i disagree. a republican in new york said sunday that he does not support such an insertion -- assertion.

he said americans are tired looking backward. let's hear from chris in florida, independent line. caller: good morning. my head is spinning after watching this program this morning. there are so many things i disagree with. i will start with your last guest who made the comment that the trade deficit is not directly related to the national debt. that is ridiculous. whenever you have the kind of trade deficit that we have with china, the reason is because we have it shipped our good paying manufacturing jobs to china and that has resulted in a service economy with lower paying jobs which when you have lower paying jobs, you then have us tax revenue. duh, i can't believe he was

even a guest. we need to get better people. i have a problem with what you did earlier pedro calling -- cutting off the gentleman calling in and the question was about newt gingrich's comment about joe biden about how the republicans should not taken for granted and the gentleman was referring to the media's stranglehold on the dnc is what is the problem. the dnc is running media at this point. a perfect example being that it was revealed unbelievable revelation about twitter's being pressured by the fbi elites to suppress the hunter biden laptop story. no news from either nbc, abc, or cbs on this giant story.

this should be all over the media. if this was watergate, it wouldn't be suppressed, so why is it being suppressed. host: that was on the program yesterday, actually. we will hear from steve on the democrat line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i am only calling because years back, when i first started learning about social security, it was supposed to be putting money in two a savings for retirement and there was so much money in that account that the government started taking money out of the account. my point is, could you look that up and see what is the amount of money that they had to start taking out money and using it for other debts? host: the front page of the wall

street journal, a story by melanie evans and others the king at covid relief money that went to hospitals under the headline of that it went to hospitals that didn't need the money. hospitals were given tens of billions of dollars to cope with covid-19 and so many hospitals didn't need it. according to an analysis of federal disclosure reports, the mismatches stemmed in part from the way the federal government determine how much a hospital should get. a main factor used was a hospital revenue rather than covid caseload or financial distress, the idea that revenue was a good indicator of a hospital size. more if you want to read that from the wall street journal. it is on their front page. we'll go to janice in ohio. hello. caller: why do we have two keep

on putting in -- we have a republican running for nancy pelosi's seat and he is a denier -- he is yet to confess that joe biden is for president. what is wrong? why is he continuing with these people that keep denying and going to put in people because they have control of the house. they want to put in people that deny that joe biden won the president. i think joe biden has done wonderful things for the united states, wonderful things. it is not perfect, nothing is

ever perfect, but he has done a wonderful job and i want to see him our president again. host: scott in california, north hills, good morning. caller: how are you feeling. host: go ahead. caller: wanted to make a comment . i and the kind of person i have set forever the only two things wrong with our country are republicans and democrats, and in this case, kevin mccarthy,

the audience can write this down. he is not going to do anything about the border. kevin mccarthy is not going to accomplish anything about crime and he is not going to accomplish anything about anything because they don't have the power to do it. on top of all that, it is all lip service. if you remember when trump got in and they had everything, the congress, presidency, everything , they accomplished nothing. take a look at it or they made more noise about health care, all kinds of noise about health care. in the end, they couldn't even pass it. i challenge your audience to name one thing they did positively for our country and the people in our country. i know people will mention the tax cuts. i will grant you the tax cuts. they did nothing and i hope everybody understands both

parties really aren't worth a whole lot, and we have to make happiness for ourselves in this life. i really appreciate you guys at c-span. host: julie is up next in rhode island, republican line. caller: wanted to make a couple of comments. because has not done a whole lot for the conservative movement, absolutely not. i am sick and tired of people dumping on trump. he is not in the office right now. they keep going at him and going at him and setting him up and he keeps coming back not guilty of anything. you guys won't give it up, not you particularly, but a lot of people in the country. all it is doing is causing more pain and more division. this country needs to come

together and just work for each other and take care of each other, because that is what god wants us to do. host: this is open forum. we have about half hour into it and if you want to join us for the remaining time left, call on the lines (202) 748-8001 four republicans, (202) 748-8000 four democrats, (202) 748-8002 four independents. we are joined by a reporter appeared thanks for your time today.

we will try that in just a few minutes. let's hear from nate in wisconsin, democrats lined. caller: -- line. caller: i recently came across a piece titled the deranged supreme court case that threatens u.s. micro c explained -- u.s. democracy explained. it goes into the independent legislature theory and points out how basically the prior court cases have ruled against it and argues state legislatures should not be able to basically ignore state constitutions, estate laws and some state --

constitutions, estate laws and state regulations. i live in a state that has a gerrymandered legislation and i know are elections are rigged and it is a bad idea to give state legislature on reelections even more. i look across the lake to the state of michigan, where there state legislature just flipped both chambers in terms of which party controls its and that is because they got rid of their gerrymandering and we didn't. i think that is something we should not look at it as for one political party, but something the voters should have the ability to do in each election, especially where you have a purple state where people should be able to pick which political party is in control. the democrats can lose one of

the chambers next election and that is ok because the elections are honest and the legislature has lost the ability to rig its own elections. the rest of the u.s. should benefit from that rather than be deprived, including not just in my state but i think ohio and florida are both ignoring the wills of their individual citizens in terms of having honest elections. host: mary jo pixel of the arizona republic joining us, a reporter talking about the process of arizona's election. thanks for giving us your time. guest: happy to be here. host: today you report on what will be the statewide canvas. can you explain what it is and how it works? guest: into .5 hours, the arizona secretary of state will sit down with the governor and the chief justice of the supreme court -- in 2.5 hours, the

arizona secretary of state will sit down with the government and the chief justice of the supreme court to go through all of the elections. if they find everything in good shape, they will certify them and that makes the election official and deems who the winners are. host: you report that it is part of the process but what is different this time around? guest: the difference is the outcome of the election. kari lake who was running on the republican ticket lost narrowly and she has not conceded nor has the republican candidate for secretary of state. a lot of their supporters meant making noise that this has happened that only because the elections are fraudulent and need to be fixed. they do point to problems that

happened at the polls on november 8, but those problems were not so great that it deprived people of the vote. perhaps some of the supporters might show up at the capitol to protest but we have had no sign of it yet. host: when it comes to the e -- to the canvas, how transparent is it? can people observe it? guest: people can observe in this year they will only let them be by livestream on zoom and facebook. they are going to allow a report. for example, i won't be able to attend but i will try but i will have to watch it on the livestream. host: certain counties held out from certifying elections. could you tell us about those counties and why they held out? guest: quite a bit of drama last

week in the southeastern part of arizona. county supervisors delayed a vote on last monday's deadline of certifying the results in their election. this that they wanted to get more information about how the machines were properly certified. they received that information over the prior weekend but it wasn't enough for them and they wanted to push a decision off until friday. the same day in the other corner of the state, another county considered a delay but after talking to the attorney and a bit of a recess they came back and reluctantly approved the senses and passed it on -- the census and passed it on. in the other county, they didn't

requite -- certified it and that led to legal maneuvering and a court order that forced the board to do the canvas. that happened on thursday. only two of the three board members showed up to take the boat and the following day the secretary -- the vote and the following day the secretary has a common investigation against the supervisors for holding back and not doing the canvases required by law. host: the board of supervisors, i wanted to clarify that. when it comes to the certification and canvassing today, is it just that they go through the documents one by one and certify them? how does that work? guest: they will get documents that summarize the votes for the statewide offices and they will

look at a breakdown county by county, here is the candidate, how many votes he or she got, here is the total so you can see for yourself who the winner was. if that all looks proper and in good form, they sign them and put the official seal of the state on it and candidates get certificates of election and it is a quick process. i have attended them in the past and they have been 20 minutes. there is nothing much to say because usually the media has already reported the winners of the elections and this is what makes it official. host: as far as lawsuits, are they going to go away? could you give us a sense of that? guest: we had one pre-canvas lawsuit dismissed. the judge said it is too early. we expect that for the very

close attorney general race to be refiled as early as this week after today's action. kari lake has said she will have a lawsuit contesting her election coming out this week. the canvas marks the starting point for the recount process, and we have three races in a state that need to be recounted. that process could take up until christmas. host: because we are at the tail end of all of this, what have you learned from election officials or yourself about the election process? does it tell us how 2024 plays out? guest: oh yeah, we'll see if there are consequences for the supervisors in that county who held out and did not certify in time. there is thinking that if there

is not much accountability for them, then in 2024, every wright county in arizona will delay reporting results of the election if they are unhappy or find some reason to base a delay on. that is one of the big takeaways. host: she writes for the arizona republic. you can find her work online, here to talk about the certification process of arizona's elections. thank you for your time and we appreciate it. guest: thank you very much. host: let's hear from san antonio, texas, republican line, chris. caller: your guest that was talking about the budget deficit , he is 100% positive, just like the inflation reduction act, that people are cheating on their taxes and they will get all of this money to pay down taxes from the teachers. the same ones are 100 percent

convinced that everybody with mail-in ballots were not cheating. one minute everybody is cheating when it is not their weight, but when they needed their way, they are not. -- when it is not their way, but when they need it their way, they are not. one thing i wanted to say about reducing the deficit, you get one house that comes in and straighten out the books and the next group of house of representatives come in and they take everything out. it doesn't matter if it is democrat or republican. if there is money in the kitty, people come and take it. it makes me mad that the gentleman, we need to take away the tax breaks, trump tax breaks and people need to pay more money. why don't you just cut?

it is never both ways. no one can ever be honest that is the problem. host: (202) 748-8001 for republicans, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, and independents (202) 748-8002. you can text at (202) 748-8003. host: this is blake on the independent line. there is a truth that people won't address. americans were built by african slaves. it was designed to profit off of african-americans.

they haven't given black people and inch. -- an inch. think about michael jordan and lebron james, these two gentlemen alone. then people hate on them when they make a life out of themselves and they say the blocks have enough -- blacks have enough. host: let's hear from al in florida on the republican line. caller: we talk about the

elections, but it was joe stein -- jill stein and she was questioning the voting machines just before the 2020 election. the left wing media complex now has to change the talking points. hillary clinton called donald trump an illegitimate president and now the media is questioning elections or the state of florida called the election by 10:00 p.m. they put the mail-in ballots in first. why are we putting the mail in ballots after, weeks later, why, because we can find out who did not vote. there was a former congressman, democratic operative in philadelphia that got convicted by the justice department for tampering with elections, five

elections. why would 1% do that unless thousands of others were doing it? this stinks and something is wrong and stop demonizing those questioning elections. the world is watching, china and russia is watching. host: a story coming out of iran by the washington post saying there are reports of disbandment of the unit responsible for enforcing the mandatory job, that would -- his -- hijab and sing it should be taken with a dose of skepticism. the broadcast reported that iranian officials had not confirmed a move and accuse foreign media outlets as a

retreat in the face of protest. the wall street journal reporting that in china a loosening of covid restrictions that recent days major cities where protests broke out were looking at movements such as by ending mandatory covid test for people who want to use public transport or enter parks and public spaces. a 30's making a fresh push -- authorities making a fresh push to vaccinate elderly and those vulnerable. sally up next in california, independent line. caller: i have a couple short things i want to touch on. as far as the color -- caller

about the obama insurance come what trump did was if you lost your income tax you lost money and you paid a penalty if you did not sign up for health care and trump did remove that and that was the sticking point and the oppressive part of that bill. one of the problems i see is we have an and list -- endless cycle of exporting all of our -- what do you call it -- we export our waste, export our recycling, export our dirty computers. we import and pay for that and so that is money going overseas.

we import shoes, shoe letter -- shoe leather, and that is bad for the environment and all of the things that we don't want to dirty our country and want to look good for climate change and we pay other countries to do that. cobalt coming from the congo, child labor involved, a lot of horrible environmental things going on in other parts of the world, so we import that and we pay for that and it adds to the trade deficit. host: it was on the sunday shows yesterday that iowa republican joni ernst interviewed about the decision by the dnc to move the primary process to south carolina versus iowa near the headline from the washington times says she said the midwest gets a short trip with the primary switch. here is part of the interview. [video clip] >> let's talk about iowa, the

first for the political caucuses. president biden said the primary calendar needs to change to represent voters. the republican party said the dnc and joe biden have kicked off utter chaos. the president said the democrats will get a better candidate more broadly interesting and 70 who will garner votes in the general peer should republicans consider changing from iowa? guest: absolutely not. >> what do you think she is going to say? >> i am disappointed that the democrats chose not to have iowa as the first in the nation caucus. we have seen a number of pushes in the past to change this. i am glad republicans are staying the course. how i feel about this is i feel democrats have given it'll america the middle finger. >> i am independent, they can do

what they want. i don't have a dog in this fight. host: the hill reporting that paul pelosi had the -- attended the kennedy center honors come the first since he was attacked in his home. he was attacked in his residence by a suspect allegedly searching for the lawmaker. he underwent surgery for a skull fracture and injuries to his right arm and hand. it was at the same event where hunter biden was questioned about plans to investigate him and elon musk about the files on twitter. the president had scrutiny which ignited fierce debate over censorship and will likely be a focus of gop investigations. it is reported the sun was seated at the back of the room when the reporters -- the

president's son was at the back of the room when reporters approached him. the new york post documents reports on documents obtained from his personal hard drive. he smiled at them and walked away without responding. this is jim in florida, democrats line, hello. caller: good morning. 200 50 years ago, thomas jefferson said, beware of politicians offering you free gifts -- 250 years ago, thomas jefferson said, beware of politicians offering you free gifts. i hope americans are aware that the federal reserve but $9 trillion worth of debt, $9 trillion off of the books and what they are doing now is selling that. they bought at artificial low

prices and now they are selling into a market of 4.5 treasuries. just to let all of my fellow americans know, they are going to roll off the trillion dollars a year. with that said, when you say -- cell to a higher price -- sell to a higher price, the principal comes down there they are going to lose each year they do that. that is about the size of our armed forces bill. please start talking about the debt, because my fellow americans, the u.s. pays their debt interest only. they can never pay one penny of principal back. host: let's hear from brian in pennsylvania, republican line. caller: good morning.

i just want to touch on the inflation and so forth and how it was in the trump era. a lot of democrats are blinded and they put binders on purposely. other than -- everybody prospered and jobs with through the roof and democrats keep making excuses for biden when this guy has done absolutely nothing and he has perpetrated the gas and energy and the lease for everyone. we don't need to look at other countries. the buck starts here and stops here. this man has failed the united states. if you look at the irs, 87,000 irs agents coming in, the democrats feed off of the working man. they used to be years back that

supported the working man and small businesses. they go off the small businesses back pay for their inflated packages they pass. it is a shame the democrats can't open their eyes. host: let's go to steve in illinois, independent line. caller: i was wondering, two days ago the ex-president put out on truth social that he said , massive fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the constitution. come on, america. wake up.

what does that mean? one man can say i am not getting treated right and everyone is picking on me, goodbye constitution. i know what is best for america. republican voters that haven't been sucked into the maga movement, about what the ex- president is saying, terminate the constitution and rules and articles. what is going on? host: before we end the program, the secretary of state, antony blinken, talking about with the state department is doing in regards to get the u.s. wnba star whitney greiner and former marine paul whelan home. [video clip] >> we did put a significant proposal on the table any months ago, and we have been engaged repeatedly anyway we can to try to advance it.

looking to see if there are different permit is asians -- permit trying to get our people we are engaged in that on a regular basis and it's my determination that we bring our people home. we will not stop before we do that suggests you think there is some reason to believe they are serious now. you said they weren't serious a few weeks ago? >> the proof will be in the pudding. we have to see if the discussions we have had produce results for themselves. we are not resting on the proposals we have been actively engaged over these months. >> the offer was to release convicted arms dealer known as

the merchant of death. you name them right there brittney griner has been in because say for less than a year, the former marine has been in keck to video since 2018. russia wants a one-for-one swap how do you decide which american gets left behind? >> i'm not going to get into details of this it will be counterproductive for me to get into it. my determination is one way or another as long as it takes to get people home my efforts, the efforts of the entire administration are to bring them home. host: just a few minutes until we hear from the supreme court. this is james go ahead. caller: this is about donald trump. donald trump likes to follow the

yellow brick road. at the end of the yellow brick road he will be the wizard, the wizard is going to save your not going to win the next election. host: greg in florida, democrats line. caller: everybody wants to complain about the oil prices. i want to know why it is that saudi arabia has 100% control of the port arthur refinery in texas. the cream of the crop of the refineries, why is that? host: why is it important to you? caller: it's important to me because i -- high gas prices. why does saudi arabia on a company in the united states? and have our prices up? host: ok.

john, washington, d.c., independent line. caller: what a segue from what i wanted to say. first of all, pedro, i would like to apologize on behalf of all of the citizens that call and condemn you for something you're not responsible for. democrats, republicans, and me as an independent speak my voice , i want to give you that. second of all, the color just ahead of me sounded like he is met about some things i wanted to talk about. if i had a money tree in my backyard the last thing i would have to worry about is gas. why is it that america with all of the oil that we possess, why is it that we, we have the

refineries that we had we released some oil from our reserves you can hire a lot of people for oil production in america. saudi arabia, the folks putin is selling to, we can use for our economy. america does not use its own money from its own money tree and that's what i had to say. thank you so much again for the job that you guys do. you have a great day. host: a couple of you texting us this morning and you can do so at this time are any time during the show at (202) 748-8003. james from tennessee texts about why is the government involved in the railway process? that's him asking that. when climate change becomes so

final due to extreme weather events when they will claim it's god's will, be prepared. that is from titter -- twitter. this is from i believe from a previous segment you cannot bring the country together after more than two years. we have the politicians part of january 6 that still have not been held accountable. we have a couple seconds before the supreme court comes in. again the case they are hearing today is a look out of colorado a discrimination law regarding designers violating free speech because she only does isis webpages for heterosexual couples. that is a set of oral arguments that the supreme court provides to us and we provided to you.