host: a new survey from pew

research asks about how the new congress will be with republicans controlling the house and democrats controlling the senate. also many expressed gridlock will be a feature of the new congress. it comes with a divided government next year. we will ask about what expectations you have for the new congress and how productive you think they will be. republicans 202-748-8001. democrats 202-748-8000. independents 202-748-8002 if you wish to text us you can do that at 202-748-8003. you can post on facebook and on twitter and follow the show on instagram. the survey came out december 1 from pew research. you can find it online at their website. public has modest expectations for washington's return to

divided government. they asked participants a question, a percentage of saying who will he successful or unsuccessful in getting programs passed into law over the next two years. only 33% expressing success in getting programs passed versus 65% for 2022. of those republicans only 18% of those say there will be success in getting programs passed over the next two years. 81% expressing unsuccessful attempts in that measure. for those who are democrats or lean democrat, a 48% saying they will be success in getting programs passed. in the incoming year. especially with divided government and the republicans leading the house of representatives. they asked the question about relations between republicans and democrats in washington.

if they thought it would get better. 8% of those saying those relations will get better in the new congress. saying they will stay the same and 38% expressing that those relations will get worse. as divided congress or divided government comes in next year. we will ask you what we think about this idea of divided government and expectations for the new congress. republicans 202-748-8001. democrats 202-748-8000. independents 202-748-8002. if you wish to express your thoughts via text you can do that at 202-748-8003. the wall street journal today, jim comber -- comer set to become chair of the house oversight in reform chair says get ready for republican oversight and highlight some areas they plan to look into in

the next congress. the first one out of the gate is the border and fentanyl crisis. they say we will continue our investigation of the radical immigration agenda which is crated the worst border crisis in u.s. history. the investigation began in february 2021 and congressional digging and media reporting shed light on how mr. biden's policies are not preventing human smuggling. the flow of deadly drugs such as sentinel into american communities. also one of the things they will look at our plant -- war plan to look at is afghanistan and the withdrawal from that country saying the administration botched it and led -- left the afghan military confused and unprepared to defend the country. covid origins also a plan of topic. saying discovering the origin of covid-19 is vital for protecting americans from the future pandemics.

and then one of those topics to be investigated republicans at least according to this op-ed, the biden family business schemes is the title saying the business model built on political career and business connections he's created which has been a fitted portions of the family particularly his son hunter biden. joe biden's family traded on his name for profit throughout the world. kentucky republican set to become the house oversight chairman next year. when it comes to expectations for the new congress what you think those will be. some expressing their thoughts on facebook. mary saying not a thing when it comes to congress next year with republicans controlling the house. another saying business run themselves, cut regulation and taxes, that will never happen because government has to be in every facet of our lives.

america is over. lisa talking about investigations saying it's the same more investigations she's expecting and then butch smith saying i don't have any but i'm hoping people send politicians to d.c. willing to work for the good of the country instead of just being another stamp for their tribe. independent line, texas, this is bob. when it comes to the divided government next year what are your expectations? caller: good morning. it could vary widely depending on what ted cruz brought upon america with the scotus decision considered on january 6. that's brunson v adams case.

i hope you would invite senator cruz on to talk about that. host: as far as expectations for the divided congress how does that contingent on that. caller: it could be 388 legislators and executive people removed from office without any opportunity of ever holding office again. it's a very important case and everybody is surprise the supreme court will look into it. host: let's hear from marlene's in new orleans. what do you think about expectations in congress. caller: i am very upset about our politicians and our government today. the people up there in washington to defend our country and protect our people and what's best for the people and the country and not what's best for these personal people.

we need to start paying attention to who we vote and put in there. host: before you go would you say your expectations are low for congress next year? caller: it's very low. host: why is that. caller: i have no respect for none of them up there in washington because they are in there for the wrong reasons. host: arlene in new orleans calling us. let's hear from doug in ohio. caller: how is it going. i'm independent but i think in the next two years it's going to be terrible. they're not to get nothing done at all because they won't work with each other. the last two years worth fantastic. but the republicans aren't, let him get away with anything. and they are not can help at all. their main goal is to go after the bidens.

trump was so corrupt it's pathetic and they're trying to point the other way. host: are you saying there's no areas of compromise they could work together on? caller: i don't believe their republicans want to work with the president because they never have. we got a few things done but on the major issues they just want to look bad. host: the survey asked about optimism when it comes to their party's future. 65% of those republicans release leading republicans are optimistic about their party's future going forward. going forward only 30 3% expressing pessimism. on the democratic side for those who lean democratic, 72% are optimistic about their party's future. 20% saying they are pessimistic. what that expectation means when

it comes to next year's congress with republicans controlling the house, democrats controlling the senate. hello in florida. caller: good morning everybody out there. the bottom line we all know that we've seen this on and off. the best thing to do is to do the investigations on anybody that seems to me have broken the law. but they need to start coming -- come to consensus. if they can put the people first they need to get out or we need to hold them accountable enough we will do what's right by the people. host: do you think the investigations aspect will overshadow any legislative work republicans might try to do next year? caller: they can walk and chew bubblegum. they've been doing it for years. and everybody needs to be held

accountable. if anybody in this society is not held accountable, more and more things happen. more and more bad things happen. hold every single politician accountable, if not they do what they want and the people get left behind. host: when you say concentrate on the people, what do you mean by that? are there programs? caller: we have a recession that's looming. there is money that's not been spent. host: brian in florida giving his thoughts on the idea of your expectations of congress, especially as the new congress gets ready to come in next year with republicans taking the house. bob in utah. caller: good morning. i like to have something simple

done both sides should be able to agree on. if they just come in and say we are going to put out a one million-dollar reward, people would start turning them in. that would be a very simple way. if they couldn't pass that they couldn't pass anything. host: why should they pass that first do you think? caller: well when you have 40 fees and -- 40,000 people out of power for a week, how much that cost the power company, people who lost their food, that's important. that's an attack on our country right there. they are like a terrorist. host: bob in utah. this is from our facebook page, it does not give a name but a

viewers says when it comes to their expectations it's absolutely nothing adding that it's far better to have no new law as opposed to having laws they don't read and support just based on the titles. you can also text us this morning. joe in kentucky saying democrats will continue to legislate, the more they do the higher joe biden's poles will go and he adds nobody really cares about hunter's laptop. tracy from facebook saying when it comes to her expectations she asked to work together and improve the conditions for average americans and stop the perpetual dance of each party trying to deny credit for legislation. facebook is available at facebook.com/c-span. you can text in at 202-748-8003. our twitter feed is available if

you want to as well. that's @cspanwj. let's hear from texas, independent line. caller: good morning. i love the show. i'm a first time caller, i'm a young american. i've watched congress for about the last three or four years and my expectations of congress. it is tough to think there will be any new real bipartisan legislation. i think there will be gridlock. but i am pretty hopeful, i think the congress can work together on a couple of select issues. usually when congress is divided they don't make many new bills but there's a couple of good things they can get done. i think dealing with the fentanyl crisis, drugs coming in from china or mexico. i think both sides can agree to something about that. i also think the border could be

a nice bipartisan issue that both sides could deal with. hopefully folks will come together or may be certain moderate democrats and moderate republicans can come together to deal with some of those issues. i like for instance the problem solvers caucus. i'm taking a more optimistic look at congress. i really appreciate c-span. i love how everybody gets their voices in and appreciate everything that you all do. also to make one suggestion, i like to go to the website and watch older videos and i love when you used to have cameras out in washington dc and show videos of various monuments and play classical music before the next program came up. it was so relaxing, i love it. host: you have to have shown the dutch followed the show for a while to know that. caller: i love -- have to have

followed the show for a while to know that. caller: i love the show, i try to watch every morning. host: seth from texas, thank you. if you want to watch previous shows we've done on the program, c-span has been around for 40 plus years and a lot of our history is in our video library. you can call in and go to the website their and type in the search bar whatever topic you are searching for. you'll see everything we've taken on that topic whether it's in public hearings or other forums as well. one of the debates in congress is a debate over a funding bill before friday, money for the federal government is expected to run out. something congress has to deal with potentially looking at the partisan nature of these debates. one of the people commenting was

bernie sanders on cnn yesterday talking about concerns of running out of money. [video clip] >> would you support another short-term extension instead of a larger bill to fund the government and how worried are you about the government shutdown? >> short-term extensions are temporary solutions to the ongoing crisis. clearly what i worry about is republican efforts to hold hostage next year to hold hostage the government in order to cut social security, medicare and medicaid and that is what i will oppose. a lot of seniors not making it on social security today. a lot of working people, i don't want to see that. >> you've been in congress a

long time. there certainly have been some notable bipartisan pieces of legislation that have passed and signed into law but arguably funding the government is up there, maybe even the top responsibility of you and your fellow members of congress. why does this keep happening? >> i think it is happening right now because republicans see it as an opportunity to hold us hostage and get demands that under the normal circumstance they would not. they have not been shy about making it clear they want to cut social security, medicare, medicaid paid what they are saying is we are prepared to allow the united states government to default on our payments, bring the entire world into an economic slide unless you give us what you want. -- what we want. host: one thing they will have to deal with in the incoming

congress. you can have that to your list of expectations. again the numbers. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 free democrats -- for democrats. 202-748-8002 for independents. eileen says when it comes to those expectations, learning to create test -- learning to -- caller: in my world and me personally, if my government can restore in me that no one is above the law than i will have faith in that. host: what do you mean by that

when you talk about deception in government? caller: it seems like the government, there is so much deception. i am a citizen. i feel like i've been deceived. host: that is deborah in south bend, indiana. this website takes a look at things that have been done as far as congress legislation. starting january 3 20 21 to the present day, 220 six pieces of enacted legislation. 36 passed resolutions. 15,000 pieces of other legislation elicited. content -- compared to the 116th

congress. 714 resolutions and 14,700 plus pieces of other legislation. if you want to see how congress -- past congresses have done when it comes to passing legislation. they keep a listing if you want to view that. this could be about legislation, financial matters, other things when it comes to those expectations for the new congress. jerry in broadway, virginia. independent line. caller: good morning. i expect this congress to stop wasting my tax money. we do not need more government interference in our lives. we need last. our forefathers fought the revolutionary war to get away from the overpowering government now we are going back to socialism again. we want to be free.

people want the government to do everything for them, let them go to another country where they do that and leave this country alone. host: when it comes to wasting tax dollars what do you mean? caller: spending on things we do not need. if you want the government to do everything for you, pack up and go to a communist government. let us take care of ourselves. host: let's hear from alexandria, virginia. hello, go ahead. ok we are going to have to put you on hold caller. again, callers if you are calling in, mute your television or what you are listening on to make sure you are not delayed when it comes to your time to

speak, that keeps everything flowing nicely during the course of the program. if you called in the last 30 days make sure you hold off from doing so today and give people a chance to come through. todd in michigan. caller: i think the problem is when we send politicians to washington, most of them really want to do a good job. i personally believe that. what happens is after they are there for a while they see what the lobbyists do and they see all these pacs and they become corrupted and it's a culture of washington dc itself. personally i believe there should be term limits on these politicians and i think it would

be a good logistic move to move the capital of the united states from washington, d.c. to the center of the country because it would be strategically a better idea as far as defense and it would also put these politicians more in tune with the rest of the country instead of staying on the eastern seaboard right next to new york and virginia and all of that corrupt garbage over there. host: when you say the individual congressmen or legislators have become corrupt, what example would you give of that? caller: taking money from special interests, bribes. there's no way to put a good twist on this. a bribe is a bribe no matter how you want to call it. and the lobbyists are corrupting

our politicians. through the special interests of the superrich. the top 1%. host: as far as an example would you cite people from the state of michigan. who would that be? caller: my own governor i'll give an example. i retired from ford motor company a couple years ago and they had a runoff election and the governor came to dearborn and waived all the rules against covid just so everybody could vote for these corrupt officials that were indicted and still got back in office again. so it was a corrupt rigged election and the governor was definitely part of that. you are knocking can hear about that on the news. host: we will go to willie in

texas, republican line. caller: my expectations for this congress is gridlock. fine with it. i'm fine with gridlock because quite frankly republicans holding a slim majority there not to get democrats to vote for anything they want and vice versa. but here's the thing. when the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade. i like what jim is doing. i would bump up the biden issue, the biden crime family issue to number one on the list but nonetheless. i would take every investigation he said and then some so they can show exactly what's going on with the democrats and by the way, the never trump republicans , don't let me discount the rin

os. show exactly how they art trying to totally ruin this country. it's -- it's good that all of that gets put front and center. i want to say also use c-span have a great opportunity here now because now with these twitter files out and everybody knowing what social media is doing you now can go and find maranda, peter schweizer and molly hemingway and have them on to talk about their particular book and their work on exactly what's going on in the biden crime family and oh, by the way, the issues of social media and the democrats. host: that is willie in texas, republican line calling in mentioning veranda divine, the

author of the book laptop from hell. we had her as a guest on her book tv network february 24 of this year. you can still find that interview on the website at c-span.org. when it comes to the possibility of gridlock and for some thinking it's a good thing. folks at the cato institute write this about that topic saying in a piecewas published in early december saying t man politicians come up london zrnalists believe passing laws is a good thing passing more laws is a better thing. when congress passes only 296 la ia session they call it the least production -- pructive congress pretty i would geournalists think more carefully about whether passing more laws, mandates, bands, regulations, boondoggles, transfer programs and authorizations for war is a good thing or the mere proliferation

of laws is beneficial for society. that's one take on what you might see next year. you can add yours to the mix. democrats line in palmetto, florida. caller: i am a 90-year-old woman. this new congress. they can always work better together. we used to be the best country in the world, every foreign country always looked up to the united states. now we can tell them nothing. you can tell your children nothing when you're asking worse -- acting worse than a child. we need to get this done for our expectations for the next congress. i expect them to work together.

i just can't believe how you see them fighting with each other. i sit up here and watch cnn and all of these stations but it's just a shame what our united states is doing. host: again, we spent a half hour taking a listen to your expectations of the new congress and we will do the same for the next half hour. 202-748-8000 for republicans. 202-748-8001 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. one of those debates are things that have to come together for

the budget. the deadline for the funding of the federal government on friday. also on the sunday shows was marsha blackburn, where congress is on a budget bill. [video clip] >> you and your colleagues are talking about a year-end spending bill. democrats want to spend more money including inflation elevated, is that going to go through? what are you expecting in terms of the year end spending bill? >> we are beginning to hear this conversation around a longer-term continuing resolution that would include funding for the ndaa and ukraine. we will see what we find out tomorrow. there's also some scuttlebutt out there that senator play he is saying he -- senator leahy will file his own on the spending bill which would be above what president biden had

wanted. we will see where this is going to end up. i have a feeling it could be a longer-term cr. host: in our next segment we will look at where the spending bill is at and other issues on the congress. steve in charleston, south carolina saying i expect some good may come from the divided congress. legislation may be sent back to the house and senate to make sure it gets through but that's where the art of the deal comes into play. it's not necessarily a bad thing. texting us is done by 202-748-8003. from georgia, republican line, go ahead. caller: yes sir.

they talk about every time the democrats get in they talk about republicans want to cut social security. that would be political suicide for if they did. the thing about it is every time they get in that happens. and blaming one party or the other ain't getting the job done. we elect officials to summon for the country not to fight and not do nothing. and every time they turn around and dig up mud on each other. i don't care what's in the other man's closet. we all want out and the thing about it is to tell the truth for the people.

i don't care whoever has something in the closet, tell me what you are going to do for me if you want my vote. host: what things do you think they could work together on for the people as you put it. caller: quitting the bickering and fighting to start with. stuff like that. they do not get nothing done by fighting and going on. none of us did even when we were going to school. host: steve in jesup, georgia giving his thoughts. perry in pennsylvania, democrats line. you are on, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. just listening to all these people going back and forth it seems like everybody has the same conclusion, the term gridlock. it is not gridlock, it is

corruption. you have someone in office for 30 years, he has all of his goings and everything is hunky-dory. they come out of congress millionaires. this congress is not going to get anything accomplished for the people because the thing they will look into which is fair because they did it to donald trump, all of the hearings on all of his corruptions. now you have hunter biden situation, how come all the major news networks are not covering that? they are giving zero time to that. the twitter accounts, they are giving zero time to that. it's not fair because that is censorship and that's why i say this country needs to know you have to go to term limits with congress because the highest office in this land, the president of the united states is limited to two terms for a reason. otherwise you would have like china.

that's what congress does. they are not accountable. they could make the biggest mistakes and yet people keep voting because everything is the way it is. the democrats have the majority of the votes in some cities. host: you are list it as a democrat, is that the case? -- list did -- listed as a democrat, is that the case? caller: i am, i am an unhappy democrat. it is just not working. look at the border. you're going to tell me now they need $3 billion for the border? you cannot continue to live like this. this country will go under in a matter of 10 to 15 years if they don't do something with this border and starting to send people back. host: another perspective on what we might see next year coming from michael cohen, a

columnist for msnbc. his recent column on the topic taking a look at kevin mccarthy saying even if mccarthy is successful in becoming hou speaker, considering the lack of alternatives he will be, he will have to overcome a larger it will continue for as long as mccarthy's speaker. on practical every issue he will have to navigate the same choppy waters. it will be worse for the country because whileccarthy is held hostagbyop extremists it means the house is held hostage which means congress will be held hostage which in turn means we are stuck. his thoughts on speaker mccarthy attempting to become house speaker. you can bring that into the mix

as well during the remaining time we have with your expectations of the new congress. 202-748-8001 four republicans. 202-748-8000 --202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents. -- independents 202-748-8002. caller: i just have one comment really if that is ok. host: what are your expectations for the new congress, let's start with that. caller: i will get straight to the point with that. my main expectation for congress , for one thing like i said is for democrats and republicans, when they want to get something done like get a bill passed may

do more research on mental health. there is so much that we could learn from stuff like that. i just wish they could all agree on something like that. that's all i've got to say. host: why mental health? why do you think that's an important thing for them to focus on? caller: because of everything -- well i mean, it is just important. there are so many people that have mental health problems in america. if they would just stop and listen to the people they would learn a lot. and -- i just wish they would do

more research there to get something done, it would make it a better country and hopefully a better world. host: bradley in tennessee. this is wilhelm, democrats line. caller: i want to give my two cents. i watched that debate in 2020 that hunter biden came from donald trump. republicans need to stop listening to donald john trump. he lies. that is beau biden. republicans need to listen -- stop listening to donald john trump. host: what are your expectations for the new congress? caller: i would like for kevin mccarthy to step back and to let jeffrey from new york, the

democratic takeover of that. host: you mean the democrat to take over as house speaker? caller: yes. and that's my line right there. and also, republicans need to stop listening to donald john trump. host: you made that point. when it comes to his campaign to become house speaker it was on saturday that kevin mccarthy, talked about his current campaign to make that happen. [video clip] >> how any votes do you need and what's the strategy converting them? >> the difference here, i've been leader for four years some of those election cycles we have only won seats. our goal was to stop the biden

agenda, win the majority and fire nancy pelosi. we achieved all of those. if you watch other republicans, in the senate they lost, the governors lost. we are the only line of defense. what we need to do is find a way to come together. we had our primary after the election. i believe the end of the day we will all find a place to get together because this is what happens if we do not. no subpoenas go out, no ability to use the power of the purse. no ability to repeal 87,000 irs agents. no ability to make this economy and make us energy independent. we will find a place to get there and i think we will have these discussions until we do. host: that's kevin mccarthy, current house minority leader with a campaign to become house speaker january. that's one of the things we are watching out for in the weeks remaining in december.

we are asking about the expectations for the new congress, what you think might happen especially with divided government in play. darius in wisconsin. caller: thank you for taking my call. my expectations for the next congress is for them to work together and stop pointing the finger at each other and stop lining their own pockets and telling us working people that i can do anything for you because the other side or this guy is stopping it. host: give me an example of that. what would you focus on to make that happen? caller: like one of the callers said previously, they need to stop listening to people like donald trump and kevin mccarthy who really have not done much for them.

kevin mccarthy knows how to talk about what he wants to fix or change or point fingers at what he thinks is broken but does not have the solutions. it's not a solutions based strategy they have. i would like to see more solutions. their publican base that votes for people like kevin mccarthy and donald trump to simply -- the republican base that votes for people at kevin mccarthy and donald trump, what is going to help you in your life? let the people know that so they can stop talking about things that aren't helping this country at all. host: darius there in wisconsin. let's hear from marilyn, oklahoma, republican line. you are on.

caller: yes. and now we pray to god. -- host: ok, that is marilyn in oklahoma. jean robillard from facebook saying when it comes to those expectations he expects very little. linda from facebook saying i no longer expect anything. it says they have a slight majority there is a chance something will happen. facebook available at facebook.com/c-span.

from inez in jamestown, north carolina. caller: i ran across your show and was listening to some of the comments about handouts and fraud in the government. it mainly came from independents and republicans. would we don't do as voters as if we don't research the record of each person in congress we don't research the deals put up and who voted against or for. for covid relief, trump took off the regulatory oversight and the people who were managing the money to make sure it went to the right person. so that is waste there. my expectation of the new congress as they work together and put the country before themselves which i don't think

they can do. and for the other call in people , the only ones who can clean up congress is the voters. i believe republicans are pushing back on term limits. i served 30 years in the military. so i know moving people around is beneficial for any organization. new blood is good but it has to be the right new blood, somebody who is qualified, not a herschel walker. host: let's go to jason, jason is in illinois. republican line. hello? you are on, go ahead. caller: yes. i would like the republican and democrats would get their head out of their behind's and work together. and why are they always leading

trump down. he was always doing the best job. host: ok. jason in illinois giving us his thoughts. a few more minutes left on this topic. if you want to call in and participate. 202-748-8001 for republicans. democrats 202-748-8000. independents 202-748-8002. one of the topics, senator kyrsten sinema deciding to become an independent was the future of the filibuster on the senate side. part of that conversation with jon tester. [video clip] >> you and her basically share the same position on the filibuster yet she was vilified for it and you were not. why do you think that is? >> i was for going back to the days of the mr. smith goes to

washington filibuster. in the end was a simple majority vote. i think she had a different view. i can't remember exactly what it was on that. >> you are not for just getting rid of the filibuster completely the way many of your colleagues are. >> no. that is absolutely correct. i think the filibuster serves an important purpose and it certainly one of the things that makes the senate different than the house. >> do you think there are even 48 votes for your position in the senate? >> it is hard to say. i think as with any piece of legislation or any policy or rules it's about explaining to folks. i think this has to be done in a bipartisan way and explain to folks about how this will make the senate work better. i've always believed if you are going to obstruct you have to

put some skin in the game and i don't think right now folks who obstruct put any skin in the game. they can object and walk away and go home. i think it's more important that they work at their obstruction. if i want to obstruct a bill i am more than willing to go down and hold the floor and get people with the same opinion to hold the floor with me. that puts leadership in a bind when it comes to the filibuster. i think it keeps minority rights which is what the filibuster is about. host: on facebook, telling us when it comes to his expectations it would be telling president biden no on everything for two years. anthony says double down on republican obstruction in the house blocking any meaningful legislation in the next two years. and blame democrats for it. carol with hopefully the house of representatives can get

control of the excessive spending the administration is doing and help getting america back to solvency. those are some of the facebook comments. you can text us at 202-748-8003. in iowa, good morning. democrats line. caller: good morning. i have a question. i worked almost all my life, i just turned 70. what happened to all of the money we made prior to our retirement? we get social security which has now become like poverty. i'm just curious and it's tough to live on 680 five dollars when you've worked all your life. where did the money go? host: is that something you want the next congress to address? caller: i do because it's tough for people to survive and i've

asked the question when elizabeth warren was running for president here and she told me i wish i had the answer for you but i did not get an answer. i would appreciate that. host: while i have you on the line and you can respond as you wish. what did you think about the decision to move the primary process to south carolina to start off versus iowa? caller: i am concerned because it's always been here. i feel we support this country quite honestly with our agriculture here. i am the one who started to clean up the pollution killing a lot of people in this area from the different chemicals that were coming out of smoke stacks. i have seen a lot of people die here in muscatine from this cancer caused by the pollution

here. pollution to me is a big thing. they say muscatine has a big red scar on the state of -- red star as the highest cancer rating given all the years of live here. host: pam in florida, palm beach county. you are next up. caller: the one thing i want congress to work on is immigration reform. when trump was in the white house the democrats were screaming about his handling of immigration. now we have biden and the republicans are yelling. i believe the only way to fix this is legislation and we need a long-term fix and that's why i want both parties -- what i want both parties in congress to work on. i understand kyrsten sinema and thom tillis are working together. i want them to be supported.

let's get something good done for the country. it would be wonderful for everybody. host: that is pam in florida bringing up the attempts by kyrsten sinema and thom tillis, an independent and republican legislatures -- legislators with a look at immigration. nbc reporting while the details have yet to be finalized, the pair's track record on being able to get deals done sparked optimism. the stars will never be in alignment according to sean kennedy. the legislation is probably not could have a good chance of moving in the next congress and as we get close to a presidential election there is less likelihood of this going forward. the timing is not lost on us all.

work on the budget being the priority with some other legislative efforts being made in these last days of december. robin in texas, republican line. caller: thank you for having me on. i would like to see biden investigated for all of these deals his son made. he took him to china and made billion-dollar deals with china, all of our trade and jobs are going to china. they are selling america out. i would like to see biden impeached. it's terrible the way they are doing us. our economy is down because we are giving it away to other countries. biden's son made money in ukraine, he got money everywhere the family also got money. it's a crime family and it is a shame. it really hurts america really bad. host: texas, democrats line.

caller: good morning. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: thank you. all of this here that we see on television is a myth -- no more problem than that one. they are disrespecting the white house. i served for 22 years in the military. if you got dereliction of duty you got put out of the military. we need to clean this place up. black, white, mexican, puerto rican, whoever. i hate the word democrat and i hate the word republican because it puts a split between it. i do not like it. i do not like what is going on and i think it is disrespectful

to the united states of america. you have a blessed day. host: from john in butler, new jersey. you are next. caller: good morning. i think what happens is listening to the last few people , i think there's a lot of concern with americans and i think one of the first things that needs to happen in american politics. because politics is basically a business. you have people who are in congress or the senate for years and they become billionaires based upon, i don't know, their congressional salaries? come on. the perspective needs to change. the congress, which is the law creating body, the executive branch which is the white house, and the senate are all answerable to the people. the u.s. citizens. i think that perspective has

been lost. i think people, i was reading an article about the young guy from florida. he couldn't rent an apartment but the article said it's ok because he has tapped into something. that whole perspective needs to change. i think there's a lot of people that call in. even this show, the republican line, the democrat line. it should not be like that. it should just be people figuring out how to serve the united states citizens because that is what politicians should be doing. i think there is a little bit of a divisiveness there and it is created by the media as well. the media is an arm of the democratic party. people like donald trump who get involved in politics.

he should just stick to building buildings. host: got the point. let's hear from dave, republican line. caller: thank you. you do an excellent job, thank you very much. i do not refer to myself as a democrat or republican. i try not to. i am an american. i am white and i am tired of being called a racist. i've never been a racist in my life. host: your expectations for the next congress, how would you describe that? caller: very low. without media unbiased coverage we are never going to hear about afghanistan. i want every democrat to stick -- our stance on the open border, i'm proud of that. i watched every democrat stand up and say hunter biden, i'm

proud of him. such a wonderful man. he was dishonorably discharged from the navy. oh my goodness. democrats have such a distorted view because of the media. this is all a symptom of name-calling. i don't hear any democrats calling up with facts. i hear them calling everybody in the world a racist and far right. host: ok, let's hear from jack. democrats line, go ahead. caller: good morning. my question about the upcoming congress and what they're are going to get done, in particular is the judiciary committee. they seem to be keyed up about hunter

biden, why aren't they looking into jared kershner? host: why would you have them do that? caller: i would have them do that because he walked away with $2 billion from saudi arabia and you're telling me they are just giving away money? i'm thinking there were expectations. host: ok, jack in connecticut finishing off this hour. we appreciate you participating. to guess joining us in our next one with just will tells about what to expect in this week ahead in congress especially about the budget. that's punch bowl news. we will be joined by the university of maryland peter marisi will talk about federal spending and other issues.

those conversations are coming up on "washington journal." ♪ >> a couple of weeks ago, the conservative heritage foundation published its 2023 index of u.s. nilla terry strength. the study concluded that the current u.s. military is at significant risk not being able to meet the demands of a single major regional conflict. we discussed the findings with the editor and wanted another point of view on the current u.s. military posture we asked longtime observer and chick of the was military procurement process winslow wheeler to talk with us. he spent 40 plus years working on national security defense budgets and military reform for

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washington anytime, anywhere. >> preorder your copy of the congressional directory from the 118th congress and ensure access to the federal government with bio and contact information for every house and senate member, important information for congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal and state governors and scanned the code at the right to preorder your copy today which is $29.95 plus shipping and handling and it supports our nonprofit operation. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this is max cohen, a congressional reporter with punch bowl news going us to talk about the weekend in congress, thanks for joining us. guest: thanks for having me on. host: a lot of publications cover capitol hill and what sets punch bowl apart? guest: we are focused on leadership and focused on congress with three newsletters

per day and are trying to cater to those on capitol hill. host: where are leaders right now when it comes to establishing a federal budget for next year? guest: government funding runs out friday and they still don't have a deal. there was some progress over the weekend with the senate appropriations committee chair announced there were some progress but they are still about $26 billion apart out of a 1.5 trillion dollar package. we will probably have another week long continuation revolution. host: if it's 1.7 over all, why is the debate over $26 billion? guest: republicans have gone around -- going on the democratic demands to increase defense funding with an increase in domestic social spending but republicans are trying to break that step they don't want that continuing.

they say democrats had enough increases with the inflation reduction act. there is still this disagreement and we expect their not to be a government shutdown but it depends whether there is a year-long continuing resolution or not. it's impactful for the pentagon and other departments. host: what are the differences between having an omnibus and cr. guest: the omnibus would change the funding however much negotiators agreed to. the continuing resolution would keep it steady at fiscal year 2022 numbers and defense secretary lloyd austin has written to congress saying if it's kept steady, we will not be able to come back to the face the threats the american -- the u.s. faces. host: and then a congressional

resolution, what would happen under that? guest: you have to stay constant at the current levels of funding without the increases. host: leaders have said they would introduce their own packages our own version. where is that and what is the concern about having different omnibus packages out there? guest: democrats were going to introduce there is an patrick lahey said they will hold off which is a good sign because when democrats and republicans start releasing their own framework, they are trying to score points. it's really not focus on what they can agree on. the fact that it has not been released as a good sign for negotiations. host: if you want to ask max cohen about congress in these last weeks of december, call us on these lines --

you can text us your thoughts as well. you can always post on her facebook page and twitter feed. we talked about leadership and you said your publication covers leadership. kevin mccarthy is still in an effort to try to get people to decide to become house leader -- house speaker next year. where is that in the process? guest: he is still a couple of votes short of what he needs to be elected house speaker. we reported on the meeting he held last week with members of the house caucus and other far right house members but holding back on support for mccarthy. met gaetz is among them in another pun -- opponent is running for speaker. they are saying it's a hard know for kevin mccarthy. some members oppose mccarthy

just for reasons that he has been leader and he represents the establishment and that will be difficult for him to overcome. there are policy disagreements over rules and how congress works. they want to easier to remove the house speaker at times and a lot of it is sometimes personal distrust and dislike of mccarthy himself and that's hard to change. host: any sense of the concessions he's made to gain support? guest: he will have to make some pretty major concessions. the chair is a mechanism used by the freedom caucus. it lessens the power of leadership and that something the carmi -- mccartney came into this process to have a hard line on. i think he will probably have to move on that committee. host: one of the things that jim

cromer has said in the wall street journal as chair of the oversight committee is that negotiation seem to be one of the things they will focus on in the next congress. what is the plan for republican leadership to focus on investigations but also make legislative efforts as well? guest: when you have divided government, that always takes center stage because there will be little agreement between republicans and democrat in the senate over bills. republicans have to be wary of their members in lose seats like new york and long island and that they have said publicly we want this to be about hunter biden and the border and we want to focus on inflation. it's unlikely you see agreement across the houses on stuff like inflation and other large legislation stop investigations will be front and center weather from swing districts or not.

host: what was your sense as far as the republican conference overall? guest: i've spoken to incoming chairman jim comber and he said the oversight committee is 8% of our conference. he says this is our job. republicans say that we campaigned on this and said voters want to check on the biden administration and look into covid funding and origins of covid in the afghanistan withdrawal. jim comber and jim jordan held a hearing on the biden family. they've been upfront about it that it will be a major focus. host: the website is punch bowl. news. let's hear from frederick in florida, independent line with max cohen of punch bowl news. caller: good morning, i'm a

94-year-old american citizen, both my parents were immigrants who came in through ellis island. at that point, they were both required to have a job before they came to this country. they also needed a sponsor. when did this all change and what are the laws now that pertain to immigration? there doesn't seem to be any particular law, just open borders. we are perplexed as to the situation. would like some answers from someone. thank you. guest: immigration is a big issue for many republican voters.

there is some legislation being proposed currently in deals being made between kyrsten sinema and thom tillis but it's unlikely to pass in this current congress. another major issue has been the treatment of refugees, title 22 and how biden could expel refugees through -- for covid precautions. to democrats have said this approach is inhumane. immigration is a major concern for voters. host: jim comber said it was the first thing he listed. a large focus of the committee is on this. guest: as you mention, the border is a major rallying cry that they saw as one of their top campaign promises, another rallying cry among republicans white -- is why president joe

biden has not visited the border. host: now that hakeem jeffries's house minority leader in the next congress, what does he a sin leader especially amongst his congress? guest: he is following in the footsteps of nancy pelosi who is a vote counter. he will have to try to fill her shoes and command respect of the democratic caucus after she has ruled with an iron fist for decades. he's also going to have to combat republicans who are back in the minority. republicans have a thin majority in its underperforming expectations and the midterms and jeffrey says to combat republicans at every turn while focusing on a campaign strategy to win back those seats and become speaker in 2024. host: one of the differences in styles when it comes to speaker pelosi with the top down approach, what could jeffries

employ to rally democrats? guest: he spoke about generational change in the age difference is obvious. there are many in their 80's and by that measure, there are newer members that are spoken about watching to connect with the freshman classes. they want to be more cognizant of members instead of a top-down approach but the leadership likes to keep power among themselves. host: kyrsten sinema decided to become an independent. how was that received by immigrants overall? guest: it was a surprise but not altogether shocking. you can see her moving away from the democratic party and the democratic line.

the chief issue was the issue of the filibuster. that's an issue for the democratic base and kyrsten sinema said she would not budge on this issue. she broke with democrats there and caused a lot of anger from the base and other democratic members of congress. the big implication here is that she will not have to face a democrat in the primary if she runs for the senate and an independent run me she can go right to the general. how democrats approach that will be interesting to watch. host: one of those criticisms came from bernie sanders. he was asked about this. [video clip] >> you were a very important figure in the campaign trail for progressives ahead of the midterm as you normally are. i'm sure you'll campaign for candidates in 2024 and the outgoing arizona democratic

party official said he of -- he expects democrats will run their own candidate again. would you support a democratic opponent against senator sinema? >> i support aggressive candidates all over this country who have the guts to take on special interest. i don't know what will happen in arizona but it's something i will take a hard look at. >> that she had the guts to take on special interests? >> no, she is a corporate democrat along with senator manchin has sabotaged important legislation. host: would you say that kind of sentiment is shared by many of the democratic already or some? guest: few would say that publicly without angering their colleagues but now that she's left the potty -- the party, morgan may come forward. she's been a thorn in the

democrat side in the last congress. there were some stands sheet took for tax breaks that benefited hedge funds. this does not change the balance of power in the senate. there will be 51 both for democrats and 49 for republicans but it impacts kristin cinemas desire for reelection. caller: how are you doing? i want to talk about the immigration bill in 2013 under obama. 67 senators had voted for immigration and i wonder why we don't talk about that bill because maxine waters said if john boehner had avoided a full

vote in the house of representatives that it would have passed. was it because obama was getting too many wins? i know we are divided we could have got immigration back in 2013, do you agree? guest: what motivates leaders to put certain bills on the floor? there is an understanding that if you are a speaker of the opposite party, you don't want to be seen as giving a democratic part -- president a win. immigration has shifted. the rhetoric has increased before president donald trump made the centerpiece of his campaign and you've seen more pointed attacks on immigration. democrats in congress are scared of anything that is labeled as honest -- as amnesty. republican politicians are

beholden to their base as any politician is and the republican base has no appetite for immigration roof form step may be a few years ago would've been right for compromise. we don't see that as having much legs in the waning days of this congress of immigration reform might have to wait again. host: let's talk about the expectation on legislation last week. guest: there has to be an agreement between democratic and republican leaders to see this through. we reported this will be considered a message bill which means there will be a civil majority vote to get on the bill and a cloture vote which requires 60. i think this will be a relatively easy lift for senators.

there is a lot for everyone in here making it safer congressional republicans and there is a provision for the vaccine met -- mandate for members of the military which is a big win for democrats. host: billions of dollars in discretionary nding and also dealing with pay increases for the military? guest: yes, it's not appropriated yet but that's $45 billion more than the biden white house requested earlier this year, showing that there is the broad pipe dez bipartisan support for increased spending for the military. host: independent line, hi. caller: i've got a simple question for you. on our military spending, you hear money going out all the time step does nato play a role

and we play a role in where is the accountability process of what we get back for some of our stuff? is there any record of how much we burn and there is the army corps of engineers that does work overseas so what kind of return are we getting for our money? do they take that into consideration when they were right these bills? guest: you are talking about funding and audits of that and something we have heard progressives call for. they called for an audit on the pentagon. we spend billions of dollars, hundreds of billion dollars of dispensed spending in the might not be as much oversight on that spending. we seem bipartisan calls among republicans for oversight on domestic covert spending and democratic spending in the inflation reduction act and the

american rescue plan. they want to see where this money goes and how it spent and connect this back to oversight. we will call for republicans call for the paycheck protection program which happened in the early days of the pandemic and there is a lot of fraud there. host: jean in florida, democrats line. caller: happy holidays. i've been watching many years. i have a comment about the kryst -- about kyrsten sinema. i want to read you something i'm going to mail to her. host: a portion if you can. caller: i'm saddened an dis-of pointing that you change from democrat to republican. i had high hopes for these young people.

i would love to see the young people involved in politics and prime minister mall pennsylvania town animating nine years old and went through the russian and dr. -- and fdr -- i went through the depression and fdr. i ended up being a first grandchild to graduate from college. i am proud to be a democrat but washington is not the middle class of the united states. the older americans are out here we want to remember all the historical events and policies of the republican administrations that followed many of the democrats. i went on to become a teacher and raised three children and five and children in the first woman and democrat to get elected to my local school board. i was 40 years old. i survived five elections, two teacher strikes and lots of humiliation.

here's what i want to say to you and the young democrats the got elected, good 4 u, remember your roots. those who had the courage to run for office way before you and without the democrats, we would not have social security or medic here which the older democrats really appreciate. host: thank you so much for sharing that with us. guest: kyrsten sinema has not always been a democrat. she ran for the local city council in arizona as a ring party member that has a green party member. this is someone who's been running for office for around 20 years and has had three different party affiliations. she is not a lifelong democrat.

she looks at which way the wind blows throughout her tenure in office and changes with what she thinks will get her elected which is what most politicians do. host: what do we expect as far as the end of the committee's work? guest: we should get a comprehensive look at president donald trump -- donald trump role in the january 6 attack in the capital and legislative recommendations to protect democracy against further attacks on the capital. i am tracking the efforts in the house and the senate to reform the electoral count act which is the 19th century law that deals with accounting of presidential elector. that's more important than the final report of the january 6 committee. these are dueling bills. i think it has 37 bipartisan sponsors.

can the senate negotiators get the reform act in the omnibus legislation? that's what i am tracking. host: have we heard from any membership from the committee of a conviction coming for the former president? guest: the final committee made a representation to recommend criminal charges against former president trump but it's on clear what they do with that. that sits in the doj recommendation most it doesn't carry much weight. host: let's hear from emmett in texas, independent line. caller: i would like to say thank god for senator cinema. i figure that's not enough. the democrats now with the

opportunity along with vice president kamala harris to pack the supreme court. will keep them from doing that? guest: many democrats have, against the proposal to increase the number of justices on the supreme court so more moderates democrats that it's not a good idea and republicans can do the same thing it was not always an advantage so there's very little chance of democrats forming a supreme court to increase the number of justices. i don't see that happening. host: this is can't in illinois, republican line. caller: good morning. now that the republicans are going to start looking into the bidens and how they ended up with millions of dollars in the chinese and these other countries that are our enemies, the democrats are saying we don't want any investigation, let's get on with the people's

business. who cares about the bidens? who cares about the millions of people crossing the borders illegally? who cares that we left hundreds of billions of dollars and equipment in afghanistan? my goodness, the democrats impeach trump twice, nine out of 10 people couldn't tell you why. that's nancy pelosi and her counterparts who did that. now when republicans are going to start on this stuff, the democrats say there's nothing there so let's get on with the people's business. the millions of people immigrating here are bringing diseases and we are on our second hundred thousand of young kids killed by fentanyl and we say there is no interest in the millions of people rusting the borders illegally. who is asleep? the people out here want to know

if the trumps were getting millions of dollars from the chinese. now they will uncover the bidens and no one wants to talk about it. guest: the point he touched on in terms of democrats not wanting to investigate a republican president, we seen that for decades. when trump was in office, you heard many congressional republicans say settle this at the ballot box. democrats repurpose that line. they say republicans are remote focused on hunter -- are more focused on hunter biden. we will see democrats play defense for the administration

and it's a similar thing when donald trump was king investigated. host: how can elected official change parties? they say you shouldn't be able to change until your term is over. guest: i would stress that kyrsten sinema is now an independent but i think she will be the 51st democratic vote on many issues. she voted for the american rescue plan and the inflation reduction act and ketanji jackson. i think she has a role that's closer to the democratic party than the republican party. she doesn't want to be seen as either. she is still considered a

virtual democrat. host: this is from a viewer saying for your best sources for accurate information? guest: i would say diversify your news source present -- news sources and c-span is an excellent source. we talk to aides and staffers and that's how we get our news on capitol hill stop there are a number of excellent publications covering capitol hill. i would say focus on the outlooks that present you back that a reasonable and try to stay away from outlets that present news as entertainment were sensational. host: this is from the

independent line, michael, good morning. caller: thanks for getting me on the line. i want to quickly make it contribution to the program. one caller was talk about the immigration law and whether it changed. as far as immigrants getting sponsored, i am a legal immigrant and i had to be sponsored by my job. that law is still active. they need to get their job before they get here. we need to recognize that some people are classified as illegal. not all immigrants are illegal. that's an immigration law that's still valid most of guest:

that's correct, there are distinctions of an immigration law that are a complex part of government. there are visa sponsorships for some jobs. it's important to remember some of the immigrants are going to claim refuge. the united states government has protections for those seeking refuge. there are economic reasons and they will be processed in u.s. immigration court. host: republican line, dalton georgia. caller: i'd like to state for things if i can please. joe biden promised us -- [indiscernible] i've been waiting for two years and i would like to see him do it.

immigration, when you live in dalton and they take your jobs and threaten you and you been here 70 years, don't tell me something doesn't have to be done here. joe biden is paying everybody everything they want to get them back home anything nothing to nobody else but the ones who promises stuff. he let people through the border. a gallon of milk is $5.67. bread is four dollars per loaf? we need somebody's going to help the american people and i am a senior citizen. host: let's go back to the topic we started with, timelines for

budgets. what budget are we looking at and is christmas a reasonable expectation? guest: december 16 is when government funding runs out and we expect a weeklong stopgap funding bill that goes until december 23. i think that is the deadline for negotiators to come to an omnibus deal for a continuing resolution. i think they will say congress is coming up and do i want to take a week off or be back in here after christmas? they are way apart on the negotiation but been my experience that is just that if a big holiday comes up, that can pretty dez be pretty motivating for both sides to come to an agreement. they need to get a number on how much this omnibus will cost. were going to have to get big spending bills passed in both

houses of congress and signed by the president. i think the specter of the holiday looming will cause these negotiations to quicken. host: kevin mccarthy said wait until the republicans get the gavel step guest: republicans take over government january 3. democrats want to pass a budget amenable to their agenda before that time. i think democrats will try to get an omnibus deal past even though it doesn't have every single priority because they see that is more beneficial than dealing with the kevin mccarthy dominated republican house.

host: punch bowl. news is the website, thank you for your time. r on, we will be joint -- we will talk about economic issues and the federal reserve meeting this wk and we will have that conversation later on but we will return to the question we started with. what are your expectations of about the new congress. we will take those calls when w continue. . >> middle and high school students, it's time to get out your phones and start recording for your chance to win $100,000

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continues. host: we will ask you about your expectations for the new congress up until 9:15 a.m. and what leadership will look like and how republicans and democrats will work with each other in the house and the senate. you can call in. if you want to text us, you can do that as well. you can make comments on her facebook and twitter feed. we showed you this pupil about what americans are looking at as far as president biden or republican leaders to be successful in congress to get legislation passed in the total amount of people bought when i get to policies of the new congress, 33% say that will be a successful venture versus 65% say unsuccessful and only 18% of

republicans say they will be successful in getting programs passed over the next two years. 81% say they will be unsuccessful in 48% of democrats say they see their programs passed into years and 51% say that will be unsuccessful. as far as relations between the two parties, only 8% of those say republicans and democrats in washington say relations will get better over the course of the coming year and 54% say they will be about the same and 38% say those relations will get hurt -- get worse over time. with that in mind, if you want to let us know that i expect tatian's when it comes to congress and how leadership works together, call on the lines and posts in our social

media sites. richard in wisconsin starts us off on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning, i have some expectations for the present congress. i would like to see congress look into the shadow group that's running the government and make it public. the other thing i have expectations for his social security. they have to check it out and see what it's losing and it will be shot down most of the government has barred dez borrow $2 trillion and they say they are not responsible for the debt but my expectation is for the congress to fix it, thank you very much. host: one of the things to watch out for when it comes to leadership positions next year, the washington times reporting that representative kevin hern of oklahoma's planning to make the republican study committee a

fiscal check on the next congress. his goal is to get the most conservative budget on the house floor for a vote and other members to lead on economic policy to reduce inflation and cut taxes. that's in the washington times. we will hear from henry, expectations on the next congress? democrats line go ahead most of -- go ahead. caller: the economy is one of the things that raises the price of all materials i never hear about it spoken on c-span. it's the price of living price

and cost-of-living as it goes up, they want to raise the prices. [indiscernible] can you explain why they never speak about the price of labor? host: what do you think the next congress has to do about those issues? caller: it's never spoken in congress. they never speak about what causes inflation. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2022] let's go to ron in rockford, illinois, independent line. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] what i expect in the new congress, i will say a couple of things. complete spending frenzy, keep spending more money we don't have and keep stimulating that inflation, expect open borders and you have to pay for those people as well and then the cherry on the top is when we lose the dollar -- brenton woods for this as the currency of the entire planet and many referred to as the true dollar but we are getting rid of petroleum. once that petrodollar is gone, your future is gone. this country is circling the drain and this year is the year we will probably go to war with china. host: that's ron in rockford illinois and the washington post has a story taking a look at the history of divided congresses and what they've managed to do

during their time in session. they take a look at the 72nd congress from 1931-1933. the two parties had very different ideas how to respond to the crisis. congress passed legislation that might've provided some relief and herbert hoover vetoed it. then they take a look at the

107th congress. that's just some of the history of divided congresses over the years. we are asking you what you might expect in the next congress coming up. in milwaukee, wisconsin, independent line, your next. caller: thank you for taking my call. when you look at congress, even when we had the majority on both

sides, what got done? nothing. for all practical purposes, the republicans want to throw a wrench into the machine. now that it's a split congress, my expectations of congress are none. i have no expectations. my expectations have been dashed by the tit for tat that goes on in congress and the american public gets to witness this. it's absolutely a pathetic situation. i wish we could have faith in congress but it seems they are all out for their own needs which is not what it's about. they are supposed to be in office to help america move forward. the last thing we have done since george bush is move forward in any leap or bound and it's a pity. the only people who suffer from this is the american public. i think you have a great show

and i'm glad you took my voice. if somebody's got a better solution, i would love to hear it. i believe there needs to be an independent party. this two-party system doesn't work. i have started the independent national consortium, the inc and i lost a couple of weeks ago but i see no hope in congress anymore. i don't know what to say. host: we got your point, thanks for calling. caller: this is stella in indiana --

you can reach us if you want to text or respond on face book. from kathy in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: i just wanted to say that if you think nothing has been happening in congress for the last 10 or 12 years, you haven't been paying attention. there has been gridlock but lots of good measures and bills have been passed and put forward namely by the democrats. not going one side or the other, while president trump was in office, the biggest bill that passed was the tax cut that benefited 10% of the american

people and let the other 90% in the dust. today, you cannot claim the insurance on your taxes thanks to president trump that the american people would look forward to. you know how many homeowners are in the country that depended on that text right? you cannot do that anymore. like the previous caller said, i suspect not much will it done in this congress. he has a small majority and kevin whoever the speaker of the house is has a small majority. we shall see. when we hear people make blatant and outright lies on national tv be they leaders or citizens like

me, we have a duty to call that out. donald trump was not impeached because he did nothing. he was not impeached because it was political. you cannot call somebody on the phone and say if you don't give me dirt on my political opponent, that i'm not going to give her the money promised to you. host: you major points to let hear from the republican line in florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. i would like to see the new congress coming in impeached biden so that we can get this country moving again. this is very important to me and to my children, my children's children and my great-grandchildren. host: impeach him for what? caller: impeach him for many things he has done. host: such as what?

caller: like leaving our people in afghanistan. caring the people who were dying off the plane. you can disagree with me, i don't care. host: it's not an agreement or disagreement, i just wanted to ask what you would impeach him for? caller: for many things. by stealing people's money and printing money every single day practically and giving it to ukraine. everybody blames trump and that's unbelievable. that's ok, whatever you politicians do, you know what you are doing and that's when i expect from the congress coming in this coming season. host: let's hear from jeanette in portland, oregon democrats line. caller: good morning, i agree to

the last lady who called from pennsylvania. i believe the next congress will be filled with nothing but ridiculous investigations. hunter biden's laptop? joe biden, dr. fauci, give me a break. the reason the democrats investigated trump so often is because he was the first president who committed crimes on a regular basis. he lied thousands of times while in office to the american people. this rings me back to nightmares of 2016, i saw jim jordan on there again. let's talk about the investigations into benghazi that's what it will be. let's blame hillary clinton because some terrorist attacks

some embassy in benghazi and somehow that was all her fault for years. all they will do is investigate ridiculous claims and give tax breaks to the wealthiest people in this country. that's what they do. if you listen, you don't hear one thing they will put forth to do for the american people. joe biden did multiple things for the american people. they will do something for people, rich people who need tax breaks, that's what they will do and that's what they always do. and these bogus investigations. host: speaking of investigations, politico has a story taking a look at what the final report from the january 6 committee might look like when it's released. they are saying that it will have eight chapters that align with the evidence that the panel unveiled during its public hearings.

one looked at former president trump's efforts to interfere with the elections and trying to overturn election results and sending protesters to the capital. it goes on from there as far as multiple topics. a person familiar with the drafting of the report emphasizes the itself may not be limited to an executive summary and is expected to include appendices the capture more aspects of the investigation. that's politico reporting. they were talking about the work of the committee and asked about the possibility of convictions of former president trump. [video clip] >> congressman bennie thompson said the committee will probably

make criminal referrals to the doj. you have called them pointless. but symbolically important stuff if there are criminal referrals, is likely president trump would be included? >> i don't want to get too far ahead. i don't think criminal referrals are pointless. i think the point is that it's clear that doj has decided to take this up. i don't know anything you don't know on that. all you have to do is look at and say they are interested in what happened on january 6. the criminal referrals themselves are not necessarily something that will wake up the doj to something they didn't know before but i think it will be an important symbolic thing the committee can do. it will be clearly congress thinks a crime has been committed and the doj should

investigate. only a few weeks away but we take the job seriously we think the country will be far better offer the work we were able to do. host: your expectations from the new congress-let's hear from ed in maine on the independent line. caller: good morning and thank goodness for c-span. i will go through these quickly. the first one is keeping a close eye on the military audit and hoping we get a nice clean audit in the next five years or so. i think we'll have to come to the point where we look at represent dachshund reparations, hr 40 out of the house. i also think there needs to be long-term manufacturing funding to get manufacturing back into this country what's happening in china is not open our manufacturing base with covid. that would be unders2662.

universe are health and health care is a basic right including substance use disorder, medicare for all four bernie sanders bill. on -- we also need to invest in our kids and have not been doing that and 60% for higher education based on how you qualify to get into whatever institution. that is the pell grant expansion act. last of all, there is a serious problem with the cti and the cola. the fact that people who work for a wage have been getting 2% or less over last 50 years and the costs have jumped to go to college 10 times over that same

time, and we have only increased our pay 2.5 times, that is a serious discrepancy in the way that figure is codified. host: that is ed in maine giving us a call. about 15 minutes into our next guest joins us. this is can virginia, republican line caller:. how are you? host: i am well. caller: i am concerned about your comment is what biden would be impeached for. how about the border? how many illegal immigrants that the homeland security or border patrol has apprehended since joe biden has taken office? can you give me a figure on that? host: i would not know off the top of my head. caller: he would not know but you ora media person. right now it is three .5 billion

people who have come to the country -- right now it is 3.5 million people that have come to the country and the fact that nancy pelosi or joe biden or chuck schumer have done nothing to close the border. this also happened during the tail end of the suppose it pandemic, but not one democrat has come forth to claim that joe biden should have done something to defer people coming into the country. second of all, joe biden and his head of homeland security accused the border patrol guards of whipping africans who had come into the country illegally into the country and no one knew. this was made public. he was also told before his news conference that there was no whipping done, but still it was reported. when will the news media be held

accountable, the arm of the democratic country, be held accountable for their disinformation? host: of the things you listed, what makes them impeachable offenses? caller: impeachable offenses because you have people coming into the country unvented. i cannot find -- i cannot fly from manassas, virginia to california unless i go through security but we can just walk across the border, thousands a day, who are causing crimes freeze, infrastructure issues, rapes, sex trafficking, fentanyl at its highest records ever, not one democrat will stand up and say enough is enough. host: let's hear from bill in palm springs, california. democrats line. caller: i have a question i

would like to ask. i noticed last week flags were at half-staff and i never understood what that was about. as to our congress, i see the republicans as there is going to be a combination of cartoon and science fiction. you'll see a lot of yelling and screaming and it will be a lot of little critters at the zoo throwing waste at each other. nothing will be accomplished in the next two years. i live in southern california. i used to live in pennsylvania. i spent a lot of time in washington, d.c. two there were ford workers, i was watching a construction job -- their work foreign workers, construction job, there was a dog park going in and sidewalks being repaired and all of the

workers were hispanic. things have been subcontracted and subcontracted and they ship these guys up to do work. i used to work in the steel industry and a lot of mexican workers and they came up during world war ii. down here, white people are not picking strawberries and tomatoes. nobody is stealing your job. host: that is built in california to the previous callers point, nbc is reporting that about 3 million crossing, those are the 2022 numbers. the washington post reporting that the department of energy has been able -- that scientists have been able to produce a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain. the aim of fusion research is to replace nuclear reaction with the energy created.

it is the quote holy grail" of carbon free power. it is may be decades away from commercial use in the latest of element is likely to be codified by the biden administration. the washington post has that story. iowa city, independent line, this is paul. caller: hello. i want to say that c-span is a very useful source of information because you get it from the sources, whether they are scientists or authors or politicians come and when you are judging that person's character or how well they are doing, to actually get it from the person, to actually see them speaking the words and seeing what actions they take, whether it is legislation or the books they write.

i find that c-span does a good job of covering a lot of this and i appreciate that a lot. i would make a suggestion that you have a panel of fact checkers, like for the washington journal or any of these: programs, and these will be nonpartisan. have a panel so it is not just one person to analyze what people are saying on the phone. there is so much misinformation out there and i am so disillusioned when i hear what people saying because they are obviously not well educated on democracy or the basic sciences or behavioral sciences. there are a lack of knowledge. host: that said, your expectation for the next congress? caller: probably not much is going to get done. the last two years have been very productive.

in my lifetime, i've not seen this much legislation passed in such a short time. it will probably be at a standstill for the next two years as people position themselves to run for office. it is going to be highly politicized. host: that is paul in iowa city. the wall street journal highlighting a story that the alleged bomb maker in 1988 that destroyed a jet in scotland is in federal custody. one of the longest and most sprawling investigations. that is in the wall street journal. if you go to the new york times, president biden bringing a number of african leaders to washington, d.c. with the topic of trade and commercial interests, and international scramble for military, commercial, interval medic issues in africa, long dominated by china has expanded to include

other powers like russia, turkey, and the united arab emirates. in this competition the u.s. has also like behind, decline the biden administration hopes to reverse with u.s. africa leaders summit that starts on tuesday. let's hear from jonathan in texas, democrat line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i have a quick comment regarding expectations for congress. i do not have any expectations for congress. if you remember when barack obama was elected, the first thing out of mitch mcconnell's mouth is will make him a one time president. that set the tone. what amazes me about a lot of folks, so-called christian folks and folks who believe in doing the right thing is the unwavering support for a madman in the white house, donald trump. the number of laws he did break and was impeached for is too

numerous. what people do not understand about this country -- host: before you go down that road, you brought up mitch mcconnell, how does that relate to the incoming congress? caller: i still think it is the same mentality. mitch mcconnell has not come out, in my view, of trying to work and reach across the aisle. he is still in power, he still has a lot of pull with his constituents. i do not see there will be much change. what a lot of people do not understand, i heard a lady talk about people going over the border. i live in texas. they are not concerned about gun violence, they are not concerned about any quality in terms of opportunity. they are not concerned about education.

he did not get the same place. people who look like me, i wonder if there folks who look like europeans. more people here in texas illegally are not committing crimes, they are here for opportunities. i understand we have to close the border. it should be fair. host: let's hear from mike in kentucky, republican line. caller: i was just wondering, good morning, by the way. they talk about the congress not doing anything in the next two years, except for kangaroo courts like the january 6 the vent. why haven't we heard anything about what is going on with twitter and the democratic party?

you don't hear anything on national news. they were in cahoots, the first amendment, they were in foods with the biden administration and campaign and the fbi. how does that make everything fair when conservatives get stifled and cannot say what they want to say because they do not agree with them? how is that fair? host: you think the next congress should take a look at? caller: sure they should. they ought to investigate just like they have donald trump for the last six or seven or eight years. surely they ought to investigate it. don't you think? host: that is mike in kentucky. it was the orion capsule landing safely. the test flight to the moon. that is the washington times. the capsule returning back to earth.

it was on that that the nasa administration bill nelson talked about the artemis one returned to work -- return to earth. here is a portion from yesterday. >> the significance of this after a half-century we were last on the moon. there we did the impossible, making it possible. now we are doing that again, but for a different purpose. this time, we go back to the moon to learn to live and work, to invent, and create in order to go on out into the cosmos to further explore. the plan is to get ready to go with humans to mars late in the decade of the 20 30's and then even further beyond. we know from what we are finding

from the james webb space telescope that it is a very large universe out there to be understood and explored. this is a great day, not only for america, but it is a great day for all of our international partners. that is the difference from 50 years ago. 50 years ago we went as a country, as a government. today we go with not only international partners, but also commercial partners. it is the beginning of the new beginning, and that is to explore the heavens. host: nasa television providing those pictures of the orion spacecraft coming back to earth you are sitting there. an unmanned flight.

you heard administrator nelson talk about manned missions hopefully in the future taking a look at the return to the moon and beyond. dominic in new york, independent line, four minutes left on this topic of expectations for the new congress. host: i do not have a great expectation. -- caller: i do not have a great expectation. congress is self-serving. they have to consider term limits. you cannot have career politicians for 20, 30, 40 years. some mention reparations. i am against reparations. i do not think throwing money against people is a good way to go. my family comes from italy. i do not think i have anything to do with that. host: that is dominic finishing off this round of calls. thanks for calling in and

participating. our next guest will take a look at the economy and factors there. joining us to talk about issues of the economy, spending at the federal reserve this week. all of those topics coming up when "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington on demand. keep up with the latest events with live streams from the u.s. congress, white house events, the court, and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. stay current with the latest episode of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and

c-span's radio. . c-span now, your front row seat to washington, anytime, anywhere. >> a couple of weeks ago the conservative heritage foundation published its 2023 index of u.s. military strength. the study concluded the current u.s. military is at significant risk of not being able to meet the demand of a single major regional conflict. we discussed the indexes findings with the editor, dakota would, who wanted another point of view on the current u.s. military posture. we asked a long-term observer and critic of the u.s. military procurement process to talk with us. he spent 40 years working on national security defense budgets and military reform for both political parties.

the government accountability office, and the center for defense information. >> winslow wheeler on this episode of book notes plus come available on the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> listening to programs on c-span just got easier. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio app and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 eastern, and other public affairs events throughout the day, and weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern. catch washington today for a fast-paced report on the stories today. just tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio app. c-span. powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this is peter morici of

the university of maryland joining us to talk about matters of the economy. we will see the federal reserve meet this week. what is your expectation? guest: i think they will raise rates half a point and tell us to expect another half a point. this depends on data. one of the things the federal reserve is learning or jay powell is learning but maybe not the other governors is to say less about the future because in order to predict where you are going we have to know where we will be. if they have learned anything over the last two years they are not good at forecasting where we will be. these happen every six weeks. the data is full of surprises. if you look at his most recent speech, it was much more sanguine than the kind of things he was saying a year ago. he has learned a lawyer can make reality whenever he wants it to be.

an economist says things and then the work does what it pleases. host: as far as the hikes themselves, do you think there a good thing? guest: yes. i think we have not been aggressive enough. everyone says we have raised them so fast. paula volker raised them one point a month. we are in a difficult inflationary situation. it is getting embedded in wage negotiations. we are not taking this seriously enough. it will take a great deal of good luck, better luck than bismarck said america has, to get down to 2%. after paul volker's program he got us down to 4%, never down to 2%. host: is 2% a magic number? why not make it higher than that? guest: inflation has terrible effects on innocent people, for example the elderly.

you cannot have all of your money in the stock market when you're older. you have to have at least half of fixed income. if you look at the interest rates on fixed income, you're getting clobbered by inflation. the other thing is inflations decision-making. it would be optimal to have it at zero. because of institutional constraints it has often been viewed that zero is an impossible number to hit. i do not agree with that, but most people do think you have to have some inflation for the system to function. 2% is a rough ballpark figure. it is like in baseball. if you are run behind in the eighth inning you basically pull up your pitcher and put in a pinch-hitter. i am getting dated, they did not

do anymore. if the picture is in and you are run ahead, you keep them in. host: what would you have to see economically? guest: i would have to see things beyond the federal reserve's control. global warming, it is with us, i've been to the glaciers, i'm a conservative, i would like to believe al gore was wrong, it is a real thing, and it is changing the agriculture cycle in all of the major grain producers. as a consequence we are facing escalating food prices no matter what we do. the geopolitical situation in ukraine. with regards to china and taiwan. we now have to recognize any morning we could wake up and taiwan heats up and all the rest of that. that is causing people to decouple. the other thing is president xi

is behaving like a paranoid leader. that is having significant consequences for the chinese supply chain. with that in mind, people are adopting what the europeans call for china only. that is only your producing china for china. otherwise get out. that is what iphone is doing. when you look at where iphone can go, where foxconn can take that production, that will be more expensive, that is inflationary. when jay powell says, his last speech he did not say this, we have all the tools we need, i would like to know how raising interest rates will do something about president putin and president xi, global warming and the agriculture cycle, and the machinations of labor negotiations. i do not buy it. host: our guest with us until 10:00. (202) 748-8001 for republicans.

(202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independents. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. the treasury secretary was on 60 minutes minutes and talked about the possibility of recession related to inflation. >> there are always risks of recession. the economy remains prone to shop. we have a very healthy banking system. we have very healthy business and households. >> he said he did not believe there will be a recession next year. -- you said you do not believe there will be a recession next year. >> there is a risk of recession but it is not something necessary to bring inflation down. guest: you have to remember she is in a political position.

it is her job to support the president of the united states. it is prudent to say there is always a risk of recession. for some people the prospects are much more likely than others. prospects for recession are more likely for america, just like a heart attack is for someone who smokes. for the last several years we have choose the economy with a lot of liquidity. we can get into whether that was prudent, but basically the spending programs to get through the recession were very expensive and we printed money to do it and it is giving us inflation. we do not have to have a recession. they can just quit raising rates when we get down to 4%. if we want to get down to 2%, the risk of a recession is much greater. i do not know janet yellin would say things quite the way she is saying that if she was still chairman of the federal reserve

where she was back in academic life. one has to take with a grain of salt what people say when they are working for the ministration, on either side. host: you talk about inflation. gas prices, gasoline prices, how do you view those topics? guest: give me all of the stuff about expectations. the federal reserve has indexes. all of the index of expectations. the average guy, the average women, they do three things every week, they fill up their car and they go to the grocery store. there is a lot of inflation. at least at the grocery store. gas prices have inched back. there is another important example of things beyond his control. the president has drained well over 40% of the strategic trolling reserve to keep oil prices down and has spent the first year or so of his presidency sending strong signals to oil companies that

after the people who manufacture cigarettes you come next and we want you out of business. no reasonable executive is going to sink cash into new refining capacity. we had three major refineries closed a year before the president came to office. no is interested in replacing those. as a consequence, no matter how much oil we have we can only get so much diesel because we do not have the capacity to refine it. that is well beyond the control of the federal reserve and blame for some of that does lie squarely with this president. if donald trump were in the white house, if you manage to get elected for a second term, i suspect there would be a lot of blame over there too because he was not a model of physical restraint. -- of fiscal restraintt. mr. biden likes to do these entitlement program. by now i am sure larry kudlow

and company would have a new tax cut that would also pay for itself. if you want to see an exercise in dilution and fantasy, he would go to the west wing and listen to the treasury secretary and the chairman of the council of economic advisors tell you how a tax cut was going to pay for itself. i have a perpetual motion machine in my basement just awaiting a patent which will solve the energy crisis. we will put that under the hood of your automobile and you will be able to drive forever on air. host: let's hear from gene in arizona on our line for republicans. this is for peter morici. what is your position? guest: i am in emeritus professor which means i am retired but i carry the title. i have access to all the resources of the university that a professor has but i no longer meet with classes. if a student needs me i met their proposal -- i'm at their disposal. host: republican line, you're on

with our guest. caller: good morning. i'm from arkansas. host: arkansas, sorry about that. guest: go razorbacks. caller: i've been following you since you are wearing a bowtie. everything you say is pretty much true. i have a train of thought that we need an economists such as yourself to be in the white house. there is no way a democrat can be a person of god or an economist. it does not work given their track record of killing innocent babies. up and i get cut off. host: no, you are on. caller: i think it will be awesome if you would run for the presidency and get this country back on fiscal responsibility.

all they are doing is draining the working people of the country with their ignorant economy. guest: we have two problems for economists in the administration, raising a significant issue. one is they have downgraded the profession. we have a lawyer running the federal reserve and it shows. he is listening to other people rather than making his own judgment. inflation is transitory became a line among progressive economist. even now they are in favor of opening the tap. nobel laureates are in favor of opening the tap. it started with bill clinton. grading the national economic council where he put someone who is more of a political person in charge, it downgraded the role of the council of economic advisors. the other thing is presidents like the experts that tell them what they want to hear.

it is not quite the vladimir putin prompt -- it is not quite the vladimir putin problem, but a relationship often emerges between the economists in the west wing and the president because they have to give him what he wants to hear. they come in with bias. one of the most entertaining things for me to do, all those years when i was on fox a lot and cnbc, we would get new senators and they would call me and say i want to talk to you and they would going to broadcast mode. people think political life, what is said of you is about what will fix it. all they want is advice that will support those views. there is a downgrading of economics and the notion that experts should tell me that my biases are true. there are very few jack kennedy's in the world. jack kennedy, he is a liberal, i'm a conservative, he was somebody you could talk to.

lyndon johnson was not someone you could talk to. donald trump was not someone you could talk to. donald trump wanted economists to tell him what he wanted to hear. host: let's go to david. david in michigan. independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. the gentleman, the economist, made a comment about climate change and global warming. he also made a comment regarding taiwan and belligerent towards china. i would like to hear his thoughts on how he squares the military contribution to global warming as it uses so much fuel to maintain this global hegemony. thanks. guest: that is loaded. he has lots of the buzzwords.

if you want to make america secure and its allies secure, you cannot run the u.s. military like the energizer bunny. you cannot have a battery-operated aircraft carrier unless the chinese agreed to have battery-operated aircraft carriers. even then, they are closer to an outlet when it comes to taiwan then we are, which is the basic problem of defending taiwan. it is very far away from any source of supply and very close to them. if we were to go into the ukraine, we would find it a difficult place to operate because of its distance. the only occasional nature of the loyalty of turkey. if you want to have a secure country you'll have to use fossil fuel. i'm curious as to where the biden administration will get the fossil fuel for air force

one and are 15 or so aircraft carriers. if he can implement the energy policy he wants, which is zero. one of the things that is important to say about climate change is let separate two issues. there are a lot of people who are climate change deniers because they do not think exhaling or burning fossil fuels causes it. you can believe that. don't think you can make your own facts up when it comes to rising temperatures. we have objective observations temperatures are rising. when i first came to this discussion, i was skeptical, not about a, it was very reasonable to me about how the science works, but about b. how can one degree make that kind of difference? we have good science now to show us that one or two degrees makes a profound difference and we will have disruptions globally, not just in agriculture but

where people live and so forth that are truly of biblical proportions. will have to find a way to deal with it. it will be very expensive. it will cause inflation, and we will have lower standards of living as a consequence. mitigation is like defense spending. he did not get anything out of it. host: the authorization act being debated in the house includes money to counter china. what does that mean? guest: for a long time we have known that our defense establishment is an adequate when it comes to china in a couple of ways. one of them is strategic vision. we have not had a defense secretary that has shown a grasp of what it will take to win a war in the south pacific in this age. they've got a real rude awakening with regard to ukraine.

think about how fast we are going through weapons we cannot manufacture very quickly. if the chinese don't run out of bullets before we run out of bullets, we lose. even if we had that strategic vision, and the progressives and the administration have seen to it that joe biden does not appoint people at the pentagon who share the notion of threat and who share the notion will have to realign what we do over there to be effective. aside from that, they are increasing funding somewhat. it is nowhere near what is necessary. can we afford it? probably not. america probably has more enemies than it can afford and it has relied on a network of alliances to shore up our capabilities. part of that is that network does not mean a lot anymore. this week the crown prince of saudi arabia is entertaining president xi to celebrate their new relationship.

the other thing is for a long time we have known that free institutions in this country are terribly inefficient. higher education is one of them. paramedical system is profoundly inefficient. the germans have a system that is similar to ours but operates at two thirds of the cost and you're just as likely to get cured of something in germany as you are here, and our defense establishment. we spent more than the next eight or 10 countries combined, yet we do not seem to have the force capabilities that china does three times over. that is the ability to fight in china, the ability to fight in europe and do something about the middle east. part of that is because of the way we run that. that is a whole show by itself. just reforming the structure of pensions, the ages at which people are promoted and retired, the recruitment practices, the up and out policies, there are a

lot of things that can be done. talk about entrenched bureaucracies. the only thing that saves it is tenure among college professors. you can only say that when you're retired. only retired professors can criticize tenure. host: david in texas, hello? caller: i am calling about the president is voted for a job. the job of the president is to protect the people of the united states, yes? guest: ok, yes. caller: joe biden does not seem to be paying attention to that. migrants are coming over with deadly drugs. questioning why the united states has to take care of the problems of the world? ukraine, trillions of dollars to ukraine.

homeless people in the world, they ignore the homeless people. those ignored homeless people, how would they like to trade places with them? host: all right. guest: that is a lot. i think president biden is in a very difficult situation. when i start writing about political and strategic situations, i have a lot of sympathy for him. i have a like list to setting up a chess game and the fate of the united states will be who is setting up this just game, by the way i've taken one of your roots in your queen, other than that this is an even battle. we could probably end the war tomorrow in ukraine and do enough to take out vladimir

putin without having a nuclear war. we might have some tactical nuclear weapons go off. given what vladimir putin is now doing to the ukraine, i do not know what is worse, to end the war it with a those things going off or to put up with what he is doing. the trouble with that is we may start that on monday and finish it on friday and then saturday morning discover the chinese going over the straits of taiwan and all of our ammunition is gone. he did not create that situation. just like donald trump did not create the shortage of masks because the obama people did not restocked. donald has some accountability for this as does barack obama. that is the situation he is in. my brother is an electrical engineer and knows as much about technology and ships. we are talking on the phone for my birthday two days ago and he was telling me how it would take two or three years to manufacture some of the chips that go into these weapons.

90 days of warfare with russia, you can go through it all. who structured the military to be that way, and who is running the military right now and does not call attention to it? who is screaming and yelling about it? it is our defense secretary. he has surrounded himself with people who are overly reliant on diplomacy and it is foreign to antony blinken that the connecticut powers of the united states military should ever come into play in a diplomatic situation. we have a defense secretary that is doing what is expected of him, what the left would like him to do, which is to be quiet about that issue. the fed appropriation tries to fix that. refusing $50 billion will fix a little bit of that. they are spending twice that much. i still not be 32 again and able to play shortstop for the new york yankees. it will take that kind of

transformation. host: you do write a regular column in the washington times. u wrote it is high time for globalization with guardrails. the west needs a security system supported by alliances and free-trade among industrialized company at the more friendly economies that emphasize resilience and efficiency. guest: free-trade is a great thing. it is fantastic stuff, if you practice it with other countries that share your values. having free trade with korea is fine as long as something does not happen to korea via china. what we do not want to do is get involved in trade dependence with operations like saudi arabia, russia, china, and that is exactly what the west has done. we put ourselves in critical vulnerabilities to some of the worst actors in the world. we need to consider further dependence on fossil fuels from the middle east given the kind

of person the crown prince of saudi arabia is. he murders people for the sin of writing in the washington post things he disagrees with. that is just a young vladimir putin coming to flower. look at president xi and the kind of things he does to his own people. the notion we can become involved in a relationship with them, with china where we are dependent on them -- that is all given. the administration now buys that. it took them two years to get there. in order to compete with these bad actors come and to be prosperous and address all of the things we've been talking about in this hour, you need to have lots of economies of scale in the development of technology. that means you have to do two things. you have to have a broad market for the stuff you make well and you have to accept that people like the japanese who are with us when it comes to robotics, you need to depend on them.

the best way to do that is not develop a system of strategic alliances, but to have the economic foundation to support it. that requires free-trade among them. it refuses to negotiate free-trade with the europeans, the japanese, and so forth. by the way, he is not the only person guilty of this folly. the strongest strategic partner on the common is great britain. along with the french and the americans, the only western democracies capable of mounting expeditionary forces. the french are doing everything they can to dismantle the financial sector in britain. they are taking retribution for brexit by locking out the city of london. that is causing the recession in

britain that is going to happen. it is the most deleterious thing inside the western alliance is emmanuel macron's jealousy of the british. the only thing that might exceed that is we will not negotiate free-trade with the british, which also imperils our most important ally because the president reflects frequently on what the british did to the irish and 19th-century. i guess i should pay reparations to israel for the romans action in palestine being italian american. host: this week the president is talking about free-trade. is that a good avenue? other leaders or businesses could discuss this kind of businesses? guest: what are they doing over there. katherine tai is running around the world and saying america is still for free-trade while they violated every possible opportunity, including the

recent deals on semiconductors the inflation reduction act. in reality what she is trying to do is negotiate a range in a particular industry. that is absurd. the global economy and the u.s. economy, even the economy of nigeria is too complex to be dealt with one industry at a time in special negotiations. it is the kind of fallacy and flaw that made central planning impossible inside the soviet union. what you are seeing is an american pastor child of central planning -- an american bastard child of central planning by katherine tai. we have had lawyers as our trade representatives. how can you have a policy oriented towards opening up trade, supporting the wto, creating an alliance of

free-trade, where the people who get up in the morning and are responsible for it fundamentally think it is the devils work? host: our next call is jeff in florida, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. my first question is was inflation or result of covid shutting down the economy and now businesses trying to recoup their losses? my second question is a follow-up on that. how can we get back to a supply chain when it is a global economy as you just pointed out? the last part is i do not understand how you could have stopped inflation globally without a recession and stopping businesses feeling economic pressures globally by reducing interest rates in the united states? thank you very kindly. guest: the first one is did

covid cause the inflation? it was the policy response that did. we way over responded. we doled out more money than we needed to and we came out of covid with people having two point $5 trillion of the 5 trillion allocated still in their checking account. most of it is still around. when the defense tightens interest rates it does slow down the housing market and has effects on banks. overall, people are still spending money and pushing up prices. that will continue until that money is gone. the second question is supply chain. we can have global supply chains, reflecting on my last answer. we cannot be doing business with china, but we can be doing business with vietnam. the figures we have to remember the wto has its origins in the gad and the whole framework of

trade agreements premised on not just economics but creating a securities fear. we can create common prosperity and make war between the friends and the germans full of or between the americans and the japanese bullish. -- foolish. if saudi arabia thinks i'm not correcting a wall around them for what they are doing this week, they are wrong. i want to get the west out of saudi arabia and places like that as fast as possible. that is why i want to get electric cards going as quickly as we can. we simply cannot beat depending on actors like that. the third question is? host: reflation -- inflation and the reduction of income? guest: i don't know what it is about washington these days. why jay powell is clinging to the notion he can raise interest

rates without causing a recession. it is kind of backed away from that and said we may have to endure it. he will have to say this will be some painful medicine. you've been at the ice cream parlor and you have had seven banana splits last night and now you have a tummy eight so you will have to go to bed. that is what a recession is is putting the economy to bed until it calms down. it will be painful. i know it is easy for retired professor tenured professor to say that. jay powell is in his second term, he is not likely to serve a third term. it is high time he said this will be harsh medicine. i think rolling back from three quarters of a point to have a point this week is a mistake. it is an effort to accomplish a soft landing. a soft landing would be akin to one of those single propeller planes landing on a diagonal of a tennis court and a jimmy stewart movie about crop dusting in the 1930's that is possible. for real people in real life

without the benefits of hollywood special effects, it is still possible, but it is as possible as my youth being restored and i'm playing shortstop for the new york yankees. host: he said electric vehicles. is that something you support and you support the administration's investment? guest: i support investing in it but i think the ministration is on steroids when it come to it. i was in favor of signing the bill. if it was this or nothing then it is this. i think it is terribly expensive and i do not think it is the optimal way. i do not want to throw out the good for the lack of the perfect. i do support the electrification of the economy. i support nuclear power. i support the use of batteries and developing all of that. i do recognize that looking at the data as to how long internal combustion engines last, how

long it will take to build up minds and so forth, the regulatory obstacles, so much seems to support, even though they brought the program we had to developing those resources in the united states, we better be using fossil fuels at a declining rate, we better plan for that and make sure we have the refining capacity and drill for oil on domestic land because i would much rather get it out of north dakota than venezuela. think of the fallout from shutting down drilling on federal land and then negotiating with venezuela to get oil. that does not make any sense for me. host: let's hear from warren in maryland. caller: i am a longtime listener and a first-time caller. i wanted to say to you, pedro, and all of the other host, your great, and thank you for what you do. i wanted to say to the professor , even though he is a conservative he is a breath of fresh air.

my question is do you think the cola increase that veteran such as myself and senior citizens, especially security recipients, is helpful to the economy? i will take my answer offline. guest: as a 74-year-old man who is getting a cola -- that is a contract we have with older people. you're retired and you choose your time of retirement on the basis you'll have that benefit and it should not be eroded by inflation. is it good for the economy? is inflationary but so is everybody else. the question is what are the things we will do and not to? i am not that depended on my social security check. i think we should do it because of the people that are. we cannot be cola-ing everything because then we never get rid of

inflation. i guess i am selling my own book on that. host: clint in texas, independent line. caller: hello. question about sound money. guest: what is sound money? caller: gold and silver are sound money? guest: you only want gold and silver. people say sound money and it is backed williams jennings bryan and don't crucify the farm of america on a cross of gold. let's bring this conversation does visitors forward. caller: what does the u.s. have on a gold markdown right now which mark guest: say that again? caller: what value does the u.s. government have our goldmark data? guest: i do not know what they

have marked at, to be honest. caller: is it like $45? host: see your to base a burn economy on gold and silver, that kind of thing? caller: what is wrong with that? guest: that is a question i can deal with. the basic problem there are only so much gold in the world. most of it we have been mining since egyptian times we still have around. very little in egyptian tombs. the thing is the economy has grown much more rapidly than it is possible to take gold out of the ground, which means that if we were still using gold coins we would have deflation, we would have constantly falling prices. the economy has gotten -- is not going to function very well that way. you cannot use of gold standard and a well-functioning economy. the golden age of the bold standard, the 19th century, we had lots of panicked and recession.

we have lived a remarkably stable economic age. when you consider what it took to knock the global economy off its axis last time, it took a global pandemic, it took something like the bubonic plague. even with that, the lights are still on and most of the world. there are some places where they are not, and i'm not talking about you craig because that is inactive for. places lecture lanka and so forth, things have come apart. by and large, the global economy has performed remarkably well. much time do we have left? host: four minutes or so. guest: i have said a lot that is alarming to negative. i want to say as we come through this recession, i see a lot to be optimistic about in the future. i've a column, my end of the year column. if you look at what drives innovation these days, it will not be these people writing

software for facebook. we have run out of social media being a growth. the growth area will be in the writing of software for personal interaction, artificial intelligence, the manufacturing of hardware. this administration sees real value in those things. that is part of the inflation reduction act. it supports those things. we are well-positioned, as our allies like japan in those areas, and the brits in those areas. we have reason to be optimistic because in the end government policy is nice but it cannot make you good. what makes you good is the indigenous capabilities of people to innovate and create the next generation of the economy. america is extraordinary well-positioned, in no small measure to the great work done at our colleges and universities , including the university of maryland. we are in a very good position when it comes to that sort of

thing, position the chinese would do well to try to emulate as opposed to building so many battleships. host: a lot of stories about cryptocurrency. china is experimenting with digital currency. guest: three different things. digital currency is you can have your bank account. that would be a good thing. i wish jay powell would move quicker on that. that is a black mark for him. president xi understands the importance of it. a white mark for him. cybersecurity is a private-sector script coming up with some sort of mechanism to great private sector money. we have always had private currencies. that is different than these crypto exchange is where people would take bitcoin and deposited to get interest and then they would lend it out. totally unregulated banks run by hucksters. people who are immature, he missed -- inexperienced.

it is like at zuckerberg at facebook had been in's -- had been in charge of the federal reserve. we give adolescence a good bit of power. that is what bitcoin has done. that is different than whether bitcoin has a future and whether we have a digital currency, which would put bitcoin out of business. i think a digital currency is a great thing to do. it would make the economy much more efficient and americans would have better access to banking services and so forth. to me it is the kind of revolution that created the federal reserve and having a central bank created and i think we are very full-ish to not pursue it very rapidly. host: can we give you a few more minutes? let's hear from nul in colorado. democrats line -- from manuel in colorado.

democrats line. caller: you have not addressed the impact of the oil breed industry has on our economic prosperity. every year they overcharge for gas. they are making tremendous profits and this is not tenable. i do not understand why economists do not address those issues. guest: the white house is full of people that hate the oil industry. the oil industry has evolved in a high-risk business. very capital-intensive. it does not determine the price of oil. chevron, exxon, the others do not determine the price of oil. it is a global market for oil. it is a commodity. none of them have the kind of power saudi arabia does. the price of oil and the price of gasoline is market

determined. when the price of oil is up, because production costs are constant, oil companies do well. when the price of oil is down they do not do well at all. they're in a high-risk business and they are rewarded for it. i do not see that as a different as making cars. villain icing people host: similar thoughts about big oil about nationalizing the industry. guest: they did that during the 60's and 70's in england and it doesn't work real well. would you like this gang deciding how much gas you have? host: let's hear from david, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span and

thanks for taking my call. mr. marici is spot on including inflation. what does he think about the inflation reduction act which i think is about 80% expenditure on environmental costs. i would like to see what his perspective is on that. plus, i heard something about china, russia, brazil and india going to the gold standard as opposed to the dollar. thank you. guest: i haven't heard anything like that on the second. there is nothing economically that russia will have any influence on the world. cheney in saudi arabia or something else. host: what did you think of the

inflation reduction act? guest: it's not 80% of the vote this of the environment. i don't like getting into the semiconductor industry but we have no choice. whoever leads that business will have a norms and vantage and we cannot afford to be as dependent as we are on semiconductors made in taiwan when it's indicative of a civilization that announced itself to be hospital to our interest and their future. host: the economics professor at the university of maryland. thank you for your time this morning. guest: you are quite welcome. host: we will take you to an event featuring massachusetts democratic congressman and house foreign affairs committee bill keating that looks at issues of foreign policy and the rise of authoritarianism in that event

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