a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. this morning on washington journal, we start with a look at the week in the house and get your reaction to the house speaker election. abha bhattarai discusses the december jobs report and the state of the economy. after that, sarah isgur talks about her podcast, the dispatch podcast, and the week in politics. take part with your phone calls, text messages, facebook comments and tweets. washington journal starts now. >> the honorable kevin mccarthy of the state of california, having received a majority of the votes cast, is duly elected speaker of the house of representatives. ♪

host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. after the longest floor fight in modern history, kevin mccarthy is the new speaker of the house of representatives. the republicans can now move forward with their agenda in the closely divided house. what does the battle mean for the next two years in the house? will this hamstring gop priorities or will republicans be able to unite enough to serve as a strong opposition to the democratic controlled house, senate, and democratic president joe biden? what do you think now that kevin mccarthy secures speakership on the 15th valid? we are opening up our regular lines. democrats, call (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

you can text us at (202) 748-8003. we are always reading on social media, on facebook at facebook.com/c-span, on twitter, @cspanwj, and you can follow us on instagram, @cspanwj. kevin mccarthy is now the new speaker of the house after winning on his 15th valid in the house of representatives. after winning his speakership, kevin mccarthy came out with his first meeting with the press. he was asked about the battle to become speaker and denied any of it foretold what would happen in congress this year. [video clip] >> what you will see, by having this now, we worked out how to work together. it is a little more difficult, when you go into a majority, and

maybe the margins are not high. if you study american history, this was the closest margin that any first person to win speaker of the last 70 years, but you look at how many people voted against me, that was the smallest margin any modern speaker has had, so it may take a little longer -- and i always like to quote my father. he died 23 years ago. it is not how you start, it is how you finish. so do not judge us on how we start. judge us on how we finish. by having the disruption now, we really build the trust with one another and learn how to work together. we will have to find in our mindset that we have to frontload, that we have to think about and work on the bills, the microcosm of the conference, before we start writing it, and that is what we learn here.

working the rules, there were great ideas. i remember on january 1, on the conference call, when we walk through all the rules, people were excited. people were mad, like, what were you working on? at the end of the day, the product was better. maybe 100 years from now, some masters student will have to write about this, but what most people will feel is how well we will run the floor for the next two years. host: here's what the washington post had to say about the speaker of the house and the election in the house. republican leader kevin mccarthy became the 55th speaker of the house saturday morning, overcoming a fierce challenge to his leadership by a group of far right members that led him to make concessions, mccarthy

told reporters. as a speaker of the house, my responsibility is not to my party he said. our responsibility is to our country. we want to know what you think about kevin mccarthy fally securing his speakership on the 15th ballot. dcr numbers on the screen. democrat, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002, and let's take our first call. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to applaud you on your coverage. it was excellent. host: thank you. caller: over the days, i appreciated the fact that you guys use your own cameras. you gave a very unique

perspective. but i would like to say is i am a republican. i am conservative and i have never voted for kevin mccarthy. he is part of a machine in this area that they tell us who to vote for. it started with bill thomas. i hope -- my fervent hope is that they do have debate on both sides, listening to jeffrey's, who i think is really articulate and smart, but listening also to other people, and not just when idea but several -- one idea but several. host: what do you think mccarthy should be doing first as a speaker? where should he be leading his party members to now that he has the leadership position? caller: where he should be going to is runaway spending.

i do like the fact that individual bills -- in other words, do not put 1800 earmarks into something nobody can read. i do like the fact that everyone will have 72 hours to read the bill. the problem is he violated that rule right from the jump, so when he put the parliamentary rules together, he only gave the house 48-hour's to read it -- 48-hours to read it. so that is what i hope they do. shine a light on it. let's see each bill. let's see each earmark and see where our money goes. don't you think that would be the first priority? host: do you think mccarthy will be able to unite the freedom caucus with the rest of his caucus on major legislation? caller: no.

he will not be there. they are too dug in against him. it just won't happen. host: it sounds like you are predicting there will be nothing major done by the house over the next two years. caller: probably. and whatever is done in the house is not going to pass the senate and the president is not going to sign it, so we are having that typical stalemate. host: ok. let's go to cornell, who is calling from waterford, new jersey on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. my biggest concerns are what did he sacrifice or giveaway to -- i call it negotiating with terrorists. this is why it is the first time

in over 100 years that it went to 15 ballots. and the bigger problem is that the republicans are only conservative when democrats are in office. donald trump spent almost twice as much in four years than most democrats spend in eight. they have amnesia when it comes to governing. that is another problem. a gilded speaker -- a gelded speaker. what did he give to these terrorists, the same people who were on the attack, actually,

two years ago, on january 6? host: do you think mccarthy will be able to work with jeffries on any legislation now that he's speaker? caller: he has a better chance of working with them. it goes both ways. the problem is mccarthy was the one who spoke against donald trump the first night of that insurrection and went to mar-a-lago today. he was a totally different person. that is the problem. i don't want to say spineless, but what he did -- first of all, he made a mistake moving into the office as if to say they broken down by putting them

through this -- broke him down by putting them through this, but i wonder what he gave up. host: let's go to al, calling from fort lauderdale, florida, on the republican line. caller: good morning. what a disaster this was for republicans was the talking point this week and that is not true. the talking point is the train wreck of the economy. the press has to ignore that. these few republicans are actually patriots. they want us to pay our bills. we are $31 trillion in the hole thanks to the liberals in congress and their corruption. the entire world produces $101 trillion in one year. where are the streets paved with gold with these liberal policies the last 60 years? chicago, new york, these cities

are a mess. so these republicans want us to pay our bills. they -- think of our grandchildren, folks. we cannot continue to run the credit card up. let's start using our brain with our finances. host: al, do you think speaker mccarthy will be able to get major legislation passed that will be accepted by the senate and the president, or do you see just a stalemate over the next two years? caller: ronald reagan said it best. washington is the problem. we have thousands of bills. where are the streets paved with gold? this country is a mess. we need to get back to the free market principles and the fact that we have personal responsibility. and look at the stock market. everyone has lost at least 30%.

the left-wing media is not saying that. host: but give us your prediction of how mccarthy will do as a speaker of the house. what do you think he will do? do you think he will be able to change any of that or do you see a simple stalemate until the next election? caller: well, there's going to be -- the minute we try to get our country under control, like we tried before, the left-wing media complex will attack that. that is the problem, the messaging. host: let's go to an independent calling from flushing, new york. caller: good morning to you. [indiscernible] this is a lesson in why each and every vote of each and every congressperson matters. it works.

i don't see anything bad out of this. for me, the two parties should have -- in any case, it would have been much better if the other side jumps to the other side and votes for speaker. i don't see how the united states can move forward with polarization in each of the parties. for me, in the house, the chairman tries to organize his own people. let's vote. i hope the chairman will be successful in the next two years. it is a good process, historical and a learning process for everybody. i like it very much.

host: let's talk to melissa, calling from cleveland, tennessee on the democrats' line. good morning. caller: i want to go back to what the first caller said about your coverage. .it was fantastic . if the television academy of arts and sciences are not considering a special emmy for your coverage, i would be surprised. we got to see how the sausage is made. if congress is actually serious about opening the doors and letting the public see things again and be transparent, they would allow you to come in with your cameras and get whatever angles you want instead of just straightforward things. it was fantastic. now, i personally am disgusted at the dealmaking that went on to get kevin mccarthy the speakership, because, you know,

basically, we have a group, the freedom caucus, and you could say some of them are unindicted co-conspirators in sedition, running the show. the moderate republicans are not running the show. democrats are certainly not running the show. the freedom caucus is. so we will end up with the same kind of stalemate we had the last time the republicans were in charge of the house with newt gingrich, a disaster were nothing was done. personally, i give mccarthy about six months before he messes up and talk to somebody who the freedom caucus does not like. they only need one person to call a vote to get rid of him and they will. we will be back in this mess again within six months. host: all right. let's talk to joseph, calling from joliet, illinois on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello.

how are you today? host: go ahead, joseph. caller: i will keep mine simple. as a republican, i found this journey very interesting. i mean, this is the first time in years that we have had a stalemate so big and so intense as this speaker election. this went on for, what, about eight days? and, really, i don't know how to put it into words but i would not have ever voted for mccarthy. there was a lot of dealmaking going on, which puts a bad rap on the republicans in general that all we do is make deals,

but, like the previous caller said, i am happy that mccarthy is looking into opening up the doors in the congress to the public. you can get your cameras. the american people can have a greater look into what's actually happening in their politics. that is just the main thing that i am happy about. but yeah. host: joseph, who would you have preferred to see as speaker? caller: really, i was not happy with all three of the main candidates. i am not a democrat so i do not necessarily agree with hakeem jeffries. kevin mccarthy, i would say he's ok, but it's better than, in my opinion, nancy pelosi, who has

not lived up to my expectations. i would say -- when i was younger, used to be a democrat, but as i progressed through high school, going into adulthood, i got the true eye of politics and the corruption that happens inside the government and, to me, it is sickening but at the same time, as a younger person, it pushes me forward to create change in the government and i believe this might be a refresher for congress, maybe start over, hopefully work more together with each other in tandem instead of constantly, constantly, constantly, constantly butting heads. maybe there will be more resolve and more professionalism in

congress. host: all right. here is a speaker mccarthy coming out to talk to congress, outlining what he says republicans' priorities will be with control of the house over this session. here is a speaker mccarthy. [video clip] >> i know the night is late, but when we come back, our very first bill will repeal the funding for 87,000 -- [applause] you see, we believe government should be to help you, not laugh at you. we are going to pass bills to fix the nation's challenges, from wide southern borders to america last energy policies to

woke indoctrination in our schools. [applause] we will also address america's long-term challenges, the debt and the rise of the chinese communist party. congress must speak with one voice on both of these issues. this is why we will end wasteful washington spending. for now on, the federal bureaucrats wants to spend it? they will come before us to defend it. [applause] as for the chinese communist party, we will create a bipartisan select committee on

china to investigate how to bring back the hundreds of thousands of jobs that went to china and then we will win this economic competition. [applause] speaking of committees, we will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdraw from afghanistan to the origins of covid to the weaponization of the fbi. [applause] let me be very clear. we will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done.

[applause] host: let's see what some of our followers on social media are saying about kevin mccarthy securing the speakership on the 15th vote. one tweet says, "mccarthy made it too many concessions to the fringe. the radical fringe is about to take the country on a roller coaster ride filled with tyranny and void of government." a text that says, how can anyone trust mccarthy after the shameful way he failed the united states following the january 6, 2021 attack on our capitol? another that says, if i were mccarthy, i would not want it. having to go 15 rounds to win as if it was a boxing match. who wants someone who

doesn't say enough is enough? republicans will not get much done in the 118th congress. another text that says, "how disgraceful. 15 voting sessions. the holdouts made a mockery of it all. they knew they had no one else but persisted hopelessly, putting their egos first, issuin the -- eschewing the american public." another that says, it looks like he totally surrendered to disruptive minority. we want to know whatou think about kevin mccarthy finally securing t speakership on the 15th ballot. you see the mbers on screen. give us a call and lets know what you think. let's go to john, calling from clifton park, w york. good morng. caller: good morning.

want to thank c-span for their coverage, not only in this situation, but their coverage every single day. i want to wish everyone, do yourself, john mcardle and your whole crew, nothing but the best and the hpyew year. i agree with the very first cal this morning. yeah, yeah, snding, there should be a closer inspection as far as spending bills. the clip you just played with kevin mccarthy about, well, we are ing to control spending, where is that? he was a leader in the republican majority when the republicans held every single branch like democrats recently did.

he was not concerned about spending when he passed the 2018 tax bill, which supposedly was going to bring back jobs from china and various other places because it was going to entice them to come back to america. unfortunately, it did not do that. that was one of the major reasons we had supply chain issues with ppe, having to get everything from china still, and essentially what it amounts to, you asked the first caller what he thinks the first thing kevin mccarthy does. it does not really matter what the first thing kevin mccarthy does because if he opens his mouth and says a wrong word, we will be wasting our time in the next two years taking votes on who will be speaker. host: all right. let's go to don, calling from miami, florida on the democrat line. don, good morning.

caller: good morning. and i wish all the viewers, especially as baby boomers, a happy and healthy -- especially us baby boomers, a happy and healthy new year. the house speakership also brings us a new majority and minority leader. hakeem jeffries, boy, he gave a speech last night. i am glad i woke up to see it. knocked it right out of the park. jeffries' speech was impressive, well-written, superbly executed and inspiring for all the people of both political parties, all the people who live in the usa. thank you. great coverage yesterday. host: don's comments about representative hakim jeffries is a perfect segue into some remarks that the minority leader, hakeem jeffries, made

before he handed the gavel over to the new speaker, mccarthy. he thanked the democrats for their unanimous support in voting for him for speaker, even though he and they knew mccarthy was eventually going to win. here is what minority leader hakeem jeffries had to say. [video clip] >> i recognize that this is a moment of transition. as we transition from one congress to the next, from one majority to the next. [applause] from a year of accomplishments to a year of ambiguity, a moment of transition. the american people understandably, after the events of this week, recognize that congress is at a fork in the road. i am asking the question, what

direction will we choose? on this first day, i do not pretend to answer that question on behalf of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but we do extend our hands of partnership to you and want to make clear that we extend and intend to try to find common ground whenever and wherever possible on behalf of the american people. [applause] not as democrats, not as republicans, not as independents, but as americans. [applause] but i also want to make clear

that we will never compromise our principles. house democrats will always put american values over autocracy, benevolence over bigotry, the constitution over the code, democracy over demagogues, opportunity over extremism, freedom over fascism, governing over gas letting, hopefulness over -- governing over gaslighting, hopefulness over hatred, knowledge over kangaroo courts, liberty over limitation, maturity over mar-a-lago, normalcy over negativity, opportunity over obstruction, people over politics, quality-of-life issues over qanon, reason over racism,

substance over slander, triumph over tyranny, understanding over ugliness, voting rights over voter suppression, working families over the well-connected, yes we can over you cannot do it, zealous representation over zero-sum confrontation. we will always do the right thing by the american people. host: let's go back to our phone lines and start with john, calling from utah on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was very impressed with your coverage and i am sort of sad about all the naysayers and the people who are just -- who just cannot seem to get the idea we

are going to do anything. you see -- worried about kevin mccarthy being kicked out if he says the wrong thing because one person can do that. i think republicans are little better than that. they need to buckle down and work a hell of a lot harder than what they've been doing. i like the fact that the first hearing is going to be down on the border. that really impresses me. and let's do close that damn border so we can get something done. the second thing, i think, would be to close or open up the excel

-- the xl pipeline and get us back to work again. i have never seen so many brand-new railcars running back and forth because they don't have enough pipelines and i'm very, very disappointed in the president. i think, somewhere along the line, he's going to be impeached, because he does not know what day today is. he probably things we are still in friday. i am really impressed with mccarthy and i am looking for great things to come from what he is going to be doing in the next couple of years. i will definitely be writing to him. host: let's talk to john,

calling from western, massachusetts -- from worchester, massachusetts on the independent line. caller: my position on all this is i have been watching c-span for quite a long time. and, you know, i voted for bill clinton. i voted for ronald reagan. every time i watch c-span, i watch the house of representatives. i watch the democrats sit down against the republicans, the republicans sit down against the democrats. we need to decide to come together and work together. whether it is five or six holdouts against mccarthy -- i say to myself, washington is a mess, you know? everybody wants to point the finger, but at the end of the day, it is the american people that suffer whether you make a lot of money or a little money, and i'm a self-employed guy.

i have been in this business of taking care of my family and paying the bills. why is it that the middle class always has to pay for pelosi, for mccarthy? you look at what happens every time in that chamber. it is a division, 50% to 50%. the insurrection, the news coverage, is not c-span. c-span is the most open viewed media i have ever seen. i like c-span because it shows exactly what it is without any interpretation, whether it is democrat or republican. where do i think mccarthy will go? i have no idea. that is up to both sides in the chambers. host: let's go to tracy, calling from bakersfield, california on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning.

how are you? host: just fine. go ahead, tracy. caller: i have from bakersfield -- i am from bakersfield and have lived here all my life. . kevin mccarthy has not led by example in the community.i lost my daughter to a maternal health crisis that we have in bakersfield. how are you going to help american people when you cannot help your own community? we are the highest rated maternal health crisis in california, the central valley. it makes no sense. i keep speaking about quotes, lead by example, or show me what you are going to do and we will believe you.

especially for women of color, we need help in our community and he has not responded back in any form to make any changes for mothers and babies. that is how i feel. host: speaker mccarthy had to give up some concessions to the house freedom caucus to get their votes to become the new speaker of the house. politico has a story that talks a little bit about what some of the concessions that mccarthy gave up to become speaker of the house and i want to bring up a little of that story to you. "perhaps the most high-profile of the concessions to conservatives, explained by representative gary graves to his colleagues on a call friday morning, is for the house gop to present a budget that is balanced over 10 years, capping discretionary spending at fiscal 2022 levels or lower, according to three republicans familiar

with the plan. the deal does not necessarily include pentagon cuts, but any arrangement that does will not sit well with talks on the armed services and appropriations panels, who have touted securing billions of dollars more than biden sought for defense, even while democrats control all of washington. a second vegetarian measure -- second budgetary measure included in the agreement includes an idea from representative thomas massie. in the event of a looming shutdown, the house would pass a stopgap spending bill including 98% of current funding to incentivize congress. another concession is that conservatives will hold three seats on the powerful house rules committee according to three people familiar with the agreement because republicans can only afford to lose two votes on that panel, which

determines which bills come to the floor. stacking it with conservatives would enable them to take up legislation before it comes to a full vote. any bill opposed by three conservatives would likely feel regardless -- likely fail regardless." that from politico. some of the concessions mccarthy gave up to become speaker. we want to know what you think about mccarthy securing the speakership on the 15th ballot vote. let's start with michelle, calling for minnesota on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i really appreciated thi process over the last seven days. our country was established on a two-party system and the decratic party, especially

since the trump era, is the one that desires an autocracy. the party has been trying to destroy the republican party since the trump era. this process is not pointing fingers at each other. it is the true spirit of american debate, that we look back in history. there were many times where the debate process turned violent. i don't think this is the case here. we need to appreciate the spirit of debate. if we look back to 1856, for example, we can all remember when preston brooks of south carolina entered the senate chamber and beat up charles sumner, who was attempting to pass an anti-slavery bill, so this is rolled into the american

history politic. we need to appreciate the two-party system. in my opinion, independents our anti-american. this country was established on a two-party system. there will be disagreement and times of agreement but we have to wait for that process to happen. i think mccarthy is going to bring good things. i am glad what is on the list are time limits because congress needs to be cleaned out on both sides of the aisle. i also appreciate the fact that mccarthy is going to open up all these investigations. pelosi was probably the worst house speaker in american history. she became rich off the backs of us, the taxpayers and the middle class. so i am happy that mccarthy got the gavel. i look forward to what he's going to do as speaker of the

house and i look forward to trump coming back to office because we need to get things cleaned up. we need to get our economy back in order. we need tax relief for the middle class. we need to strengthen our military. we need to secure our border. we wrote -- we need roads and bridges and our infrastructure. the constitution lays out clearly what the government is responsible for. government at the federal level is not supposed to be serving people at the grassroots level. there are specific things that the federal government, based on the constitution, is required to do. and we need to to get back to that standard -- and we need to get back to that standard. host: let's go to judy, calling for mississippi. good morning. judy, can you hear me? caller: yes. i used to vote --

host: go ahead, judy. caller: are you there? host: yes. go ahead, judy. caller: i used to vote republican regardless, but since trump and all the republicans that were trying to make you believe there was no january 6, they have lost all their credibility. i don't see how anybody could want trump to come back like the previous lady just said. mccarthy tells you one thing one day and then he goes down to mar-a-lago and kisses trump's ring. he does not stand up for what is right. i always heard the democrats are so bad, the democrats are so bad . i have always heard the same tune. what you really against, you become -- what you rail against,

you become. i have no respect for any republican at all except cheney and can -- and kinzinger, who are no longer there. host: speaking of former president trump, he had a part he played in kevin mccarthy becoming speaker of the house according to the new york times. i want to bring to you a couple of paragraphs from the story the new york times wrote talking about what former president trump did in the final hours of the vote. "former president donald j. trump made a crucially time to call to representative matt gaetz on friday night after the florida congressman -- mr.

trump's call may have played a role in mr. gates opting to continue with another round of balloting, along with a small group of other members opposing mccarthy's candidacy. mr. trump called mr. gaetz according to people who spoke under the condition of anonymity. cnn reported that mr. trump also called representative andy biggs, who switched from voting against mccarthy to voting present in the 15th round. a photo taken of members on the house floor shows representative marjorie taylor greene, republican from georgia and an ally of mccarthy, holding up her cell phone with donald trump on the othe end, trying to give the phone to representative matt rosendale, who voted for a different candidate on a different ballot. he appeared to brush her off as she tried to hand him the phone." apparently former president donald trump was calling

republicans on the house floor as the final vote neared. now, when speaker mccarthy came out and spoke to republican -- spoke to reporters, he thanked his colleagues for their support and credited former president trump for helping him win the final vote. here is what speaker mccarthy said. [video clip] >> it took a little longer than we thought, but if there is one thing i want the country to learn about me this week, it is i never give up. that means i will never give up for you. we will continue to fight for you to follow through on the commitment to america. there's a lot of members i want to thank, my conference, people who worked hard to put this together. i mean, gary graves, patrick mchenry, westerman, french hill, chip roy, scott perry, and they really worked together to put it all through.

and just all the different members hanging with me through all the different votes. but i do want to especially thank president trump. i don't think anyone should doubt his influence. he was with me from the beginning. he was all in. he would call me and call others. he really was -- i was just talking to him tonight -- helping get those final votes. what he's really saying, really, for the party in the country, we have to come together. we have to focus on the economy, make our borders secure. we have to do so much work. he was a great influence to make all that happen. thank you, president trump. host: let's see what some of our social media followers are saying about speaker kevin mccarthy securing the speakership on the 15th ballot. here is one tweet that says, "i just read most of the concessions mccarthy made have backdoors around them. seems the magas got outfoxed

again." they text that says, it is good mccarthy won. jeffries spoke nicely but did not follow his own words. another text that says, prior to gingrich, most speakers were not big speech makers. rather, they were behind-the-scenes dealmakers. mccarthy sounds opinionated, not conciliatory. therefore he is a poor choice. still, the american people should wish him well. one more text that says, kevin mccarthy is speaker in name only. his caucus controls every part of him. one misstep and he is out of there. i would not wish his job on anyone. we want to know what you think about kevin mccarthy becoming speaker of the housen the 15th ballot. let's go to trish, calling from seattle, washington on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning, everyone.

well, i watched this closely and i found it to be very entertaining. the republicans -- i only shake my head, on january 6, how many of those republicans refused to indict president trump for what happened on january 6, the insurrection. they could not keep that together. then they come and try to get this deal done. embarrassing. i wonder when kevin is going to have to give up one of his kidneys, because he's pretty much given up anything else. and as far as trump goes, really? with all his indictments and everything coming down the road, i don't think he has a chance in h-e-l-l he will ever get back and i pray to god he does not,

and for the republicans that urged on the january 6 insurrection, have you no shame? it is disgusting. the rest of the world is looking at us and this is what they see. really? if i was not laughing i would be crying because it's a sad state of affairs for this country. host: let's go to tony, calling from winter park, florida, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for your show. it is good to see the debates and it is good to see the differences of opinions. it is good to see the direction that we want to go. i am in a community that everybody is not really happy with the same old, same old system. i would not be surprised, in

four years, six years, or two years, the democrats are going to get there majority and they will be in the same situation. why? the people want changes. people want new changes. they are tired of the same old stuff. and it is going to happen again and again, whether it is going to be on the republican side, whether it is going to be on the democrat side. it is all the same. talk is cheap. action speaks for itself. we want a good exercise of stating our opinions and people sugar member that. it is not just going to be on the republicans. the new generation is going to have their opinions on the democratic side as well. host: let's go to henry, calling from south carolina on the independent line. good morning..

caller: good morning, america, and much love. i am constantly and consistently amazed that america's sense of amnesia and how we purposefully and willfully forget things. what we have just witnessed is a case of chickens coming home to roost. the republicans actually created this frankenstein, just like dr. frankenstein created a monster in his laboratory basement and could not control him. the republicans created this monster we see through their hateful vitriol, their gerrymandering of districts, and their divisive politics. the few boats -- the few votes, america, that kevin mccarthy won by, let's see who they were.

george santos. that is one of the votes that put mccarthy over. election deniers who still will not accept joe biden as being the legitimate president elected by the american people. not only those, but even people who participated in the insurrection. i am from south carolina. norman was calling mark meadows, telling him to have trump declare martial law. look at the people who put mccarthy over, if you would. right after january 6, we had mitch mcconnell, my senator, lindsey graham, kevin mccarthy, enough is enough. i am getting off this train. and they are back licking the boots of a man who did not start this because it actually

started with the tea party. we see how it morphed into the freedom caucus and all this other stuff. even marjorie taylor greene last night holding a phone with donald trump on it. have we forgotten this quickly that only a few weeks ago she was at a racist event, standing up saying, if me and steve bannon had been in charge, we would have been armed? these are the people who put kevin mccarthy over. host: let's talk to dennis, calling from fort myers, florida on the democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning, jesse. good morning, c-span. i have waited to call for some time. last night, as i watched the house of representatives finish their 14th ballot and vote for speaker, and of course kevin

mccarthy did not win, and of course, the sacrificial cow that was put forth earlier, brian donald -- wait a minute. p is my congressman -- he is my congressman. but what came to mind when the house sent to put forward the votes to adjourn and not come back until monday, i had to pull this out, and this is something that my mother kept saying to me for years. on the 12 days of christmas is a period between the birth of christ, december 25, and the arrival of three wise men on january 6, known as ethan or the three kings day. now, think about this, america.

had the republicans not all of a sudden rushed to the well of the house of representatives and changed their votes not to adjourn -- and i wish c-span would put that segment up, because i watched that. it is like somebody had turned a switch on and reminded the republicans on the floor of the house what would have been the headline had they adne on the sixth of january. host: let's go to carlene, calling from norway, michigan on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. where to start? ok. in my opinion, mccarthy is not a

good candidate for this position. although i am glad that a republican is getting an opportunity to do this. mr. mccarthy is more or less a rino, someone who does not have what it takes to stand up against the opposition in my opinion. matt gaetz or jordan should have been the speaker, but i will give mccarthy a chance. as far as the insurrection goes, there was not an insurrection. there was no weapons. we were not wanting to take over the white house or anything else. it is a very good thing that

pelosi is out of the speaker position because, hopefully, some of the hatred that has been leading this country is going to be ratcheted down immensely. there's a lot that mccarthy can do with the help of these other people and i just hope that they would encourage him to do host: let's go to christian from indianapolis, indiana on the independent line. caller: i just wanted to say thank you for the illuminating coverage, although there should not have been such a protracted vote. it was interesting to see the up close conversation with lawmakers. i want to say that i am so happy that kevin mccarthy did not get voted in until midnight. the police were working that day

could not even bring themselves to shake mitch mcconnell hand and they are the leaders of the law party. extremist have mccarthy under their thumb. i liked the frankenstein comment because it is absolutely their fault that it took so many votes because they allowed extremist into their ranks. bring on these grievance filled investigations. it did not work with benghazi and it won't work with biden or the biden laptop. i don't believe with biden's words or policy especially his border policies but he does have good faith and his policies including the infrastructure bill and inflation reduction act will not be appreciated until after time as president. that's all i have, thank you. host: we would like to thank all

of our colors are being there for the first segment. we will dig into yesterday jobs numbers. that's with abha bhattarai from the washington post. on our podcast series we will feature the dispatch sarah isgur will talk about the battle of our house speaker, and what the next two years will look like in washington. stick with us, we will be right back. >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only on c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues c-span is america's network.

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lincoln to see ourselves as one nation bound together by the constitution. >> he is most famously connected with one of his great speeches in which he said liberty and union are now and forever one and inseparable and he did not think that the union was free today. he knew that one third of our population was enslaved in his you was that the union was a vehicle for ending slavery. joel richard paul in his book "indivisible." you can listen to q&a on all of our podcast on our free c-span now at. host: we are back in with us this morning is abha bhattarai who is the economics correspondent for the washington

post and she will explain to us exactly what those economic reports from yesterday mean for our economy. good morning. guest: good morning. host: let's start out with the jobs report. what did it show us and what is it tell us about what's going on in the economy? guest: it added 223,000 jobs which was more than people were expecting. the fed has been raising interest rates, trying to slow down the economy and the job market is a huge part of that. this was good news. the number of jobs kept going up even though we have heard about huge layoffs across country. perhaps the best news for the fed is that wage growth is moderating. that's been a big concern for them as they try to fight inflation. they don't want wages to rise to quickly because that could feed into the broader cycle of inflation. that was another welcome sign. host: what happened with the

unemployment rate? guest: it fell to 3.5% which matches a 30 year yield low. we are at a very historic level in terms of the unemployment rate. host: what does this say about the economy right now? is this a good economy, a fair economy, a poor economy? what do all these numbers mean? guest: nobody quite sure. there are all different signals, we are in an odd spot. we have had 2 years of a pandemic that caused all of the shocks. 2020, a million people lost their jobs overnight. businesses struggled and we are seeing all of that play out. things got back on their feet very quickly. the economy grew too fast for a while which is why we had such inflation. everyone noticed it at the supermarket a gas pump. now, we are in the stabilization.

period where the fed is trying to bring it back down to normal. the economy is all over the place and people are wondering if they are flowing, how much are they flowing and the fear at the back of everyone's mind is whether this could turn into a recession if think so too rapidly. host: you tempted to my next question, what are your predictions for a recession right now? guest: they are varied. they are split between people saying we can narrowly avoid a recession. then there is a contingent that thinks that we are headed for a recession early this year. host: explain for our viewers, they already know all of this but for those who do not know. what is a recession? what is the definition of a recession in our economy? guest: technically, when the economy shrinks for six months in a row. there is an official group that calls a recession and they look at a number of factors.

the unemployment rate, what's happening in manufacturing, different parts of the economy that shows that this a recession that things have slowed enough to have a downturn. last year, we had six months of negative economic growth. the economy shrank in the first half of 2022 but it has not been called a recession. the question is whether we are in for a dramatic one this year. host: let's look at the jobs are part little more in depth. we have a breakdown of the job report numbers where we can look at where the sectors were when it came to job growth the retraction. the biggest jump in the december job report was a leisure and hospitality. what is going on there? guest: this sector has struggled to find workers in the last year or two. a lot of the workers at restaurants, bars, casinos, the

airline industry disappeared. they got laid off early in the pen to make and found different jobs. the industry has struggled to get them back. they ended up adding more than 67,000 jobs in december but they are still down nearly one million jobs from pre-pandemic level. host: adding 67,000 jobs could be a good thing but as an industry they are still down? guest: that's important because people are shifting their spending. they buy fewer things at the store and are ready to live their best life now. they spend at restaurants, hotels and so that is where the need of workers is. host: the one that surprised me is health care, adding 65,000 jobs. you would think health care would be fully staffed? guest: they made up their pre-pandemic members. they made up for the sauce and put yes, this is a field where there is a ton of demand. host: let me remind our viewers that they can take part in this conversation. we are going to use our regular

lines that means democrats you can call in at (202) 748-8000, republicans your number is (202) 748-8001, independents you can call (202) 748-8002. you can always reach us on social media at twitter, at http://twitter.com/cspanwj and facebook at facebook.com/cspan. everyone is always talking about the interest rate at this point. this week, the federal reserve said they see higher interest rates for some in the future. what does the federal reserve looking at in order to reduce interest rates? guest: they are looking at the job market. they are also looking at inflation. prices were up about 9% last summer. that figure has come down and prices are about 7% from a year ago. they want to get that down lower. there target is 2% inflation a year.

they are waiting for that number to come down and things to so enough that the price stay stable. host: it's weird to be looking for a slowing economy. what does that actually look like? is that good for average americans or is that just good for corporations? guest: stability is good for the average american so that is what they are hoping for. a more sustainable path for the economy where there are not extreme highs and lows. what that looks like? this is different from historic woes, there's never been a pandemic, a pandemic recession and come back. we could get to a more stable rate of inflation with job losses and a lot of unemployment. we could get there without that and that is a question right now. host: let's let our viewers take part in this. we start with roland he was

speaking from glynn burnie, maryland on the democrat line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. tell me how many jobs we had during the trump era with those tax cuts that would help the economy. how many jobs have been created during the biden era with other things. to justify your economic plans, what were you coming in to do? they talk about wages and everything. guess what? they are predicting that if everyone got a raise, it would bring down the economy these suppliers cannot sustain there. my son can even get people to

flip burgers. that's how bad the economy is. that's how great it is. can you tell me that we have had any jobs that we have created with all of these big tax cuts? they talk about big spending but most of the big spending with all of these hurricanes and all that stuff. they keep proclaiming -- complaining. host: where are our job numbers? guest: i don't have trump administration's numbers in front of me but the december job reports where we saw the economy created 263,000 jobs was the sick straight month of growth. it is difficult to compare the administrations because we had a pandemic. we are comparing apples to oranges. there is no question that the job market has been on fire. job creation has been very strong. host: let's talk to pat he was

calling from decatur, illinois, on the republican line. pat, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i was curious regarding the unemployment rate, the denominator i think. the total workforce participation rate and what is happened there and i was see more people drop out of the workforce and how that has impacted what the consequences of whatever trends there are, if there are any of their the economy. guest: the labor force participation rate which is the number -- percentage of people who could not work you are working kicked up by .1%. we are still down a full percentage point from before the pandemic. a lot of that is because of early retirement, people dropping out for caregiving reasons. maybe they did a childcare or an elderly relative.

this is a big concern for the economy and it's been a real focus of the federal reserve and the other policymakers to get people back into the labor market. host: going back to the federal reserve, we have seen them continually raise the interest rate. what other tools beside raising the interest rates do they have to control inflation? guest: that is his biggest tool and it's interesting because that only affects one side of the equation. it's an important one and it is working its way through the economy. the fed has raised rate seven times and we are starting to see that trickle through most dramatically in the housing market. mortgage rates which were at 2% during the pandemic are a now 7%. it has slowed down home purchases, construction. we are seeing a rapid cool down there. host: is there anything we can look at and say what they are

doing? are they messing with anything else? guest: that is the biggest tool at the moment. host: let's go back to our phone calls and talk to eric who is calling from cedar said, georgia, good morning. caller: yes, what you were talking about it makes no sense. there is no recession. you people keep talking about a recession. the only thing that was going on during this time was trial, supply chains, terrorists, the republican tax because. the trump administration gave away trillions of dollars. what is going on is this. people are on social security they actually got a raise. i just turned 62 and because of what happened with inflation in wages going up, this is why the

fed is raising interest rate because wages are going up and they don't want these wages going up. there is plenty of work for everybody. the supply chains are getting better. there is no inflation. you talk about a recession and you are trying to cause a recession. those trump tax because because it. the republicans always blame the democrats for wrecking the economy. reagan, bush trumped the bailouts. under democratic presidents, the economy is always better and the republicans crash it. thank you. guest: the supply chain issues, worker shortages were part of the inflation problem. that kick started things and made the cost of making interim and transporting goods more expensive. now, that is starting to ease. we are starting to see the

direct impacts of that and see things at the grocery store get less expensive. we see gas prices go down, so that has worked its way through the economy. host: in a recent story in the washington post, you took a look at the economy and charts show where the economy is. we will look at these charts and start with this one. the job market chart where you show the red-hot job market gradually cooling. exploit to our viewers what this chart means? -- explained to our viewers what this chart means? guest: this is job openings. as the economy has ran back up after the pandemic. we saw a huge job openings across the country. there were two openings for every unemployed worker he was looking for a job. those workers don't necessarily match up in terms of location or skills with the jobs available

but it is a good metric in terms of gauging how hot demand is in the economy for workers. we are starting to see the cool down a bit. job openings are easing. they are -- there are more than one million jobs were presented but it is slowing down and that is what the fed wants to see. they want to have plentiful jobs but not quite that plentiful. host: why is it slowing down? guest: we are seeing ships in the economy. we see places like netflix that's saw booming demand early on when everyone was hunker down at home and subscribing to services and that has changed. companies like that are laying off. a lot of companies are worried about the economy. they are waiting to see if there will be a recession, whether things might slow down a bit more. maybe they are not laying people off yet but they are saying let's hold off on hiring someone new. host: is this a shift from the

pandemic back to the regular economy renew before? guest: this is a shift towards the pre-pandemic economy. host: is that good or bad? guest: it's what the fed wants at least. host: let's go back to our phone lines and speak to suzanne from texas on the republican line. suzanne, good morning. caller: good morning, i wanted to bring it down to a concrete level. i was at the burger king locally in the general manager was manning the window which was odd. no employees i guess. here's the economy. she said last year she paid $55 for a case of bacon. this year, yesterday, she ordered a case of bacon for $165. that is concrete, that's in my

backyard. guest: bacon is one of those things that has soared in price in the last two years. we are seeing it across the board in all types of groceries, vegetables, fruits, meats especially. those prices are starting to come down but it takes a while for it to trickle down to businesses and consumers. host: can our viewers expect to see food prices continue to increase or are they ever going back down to what we used to see? guest: they have gone down in the past few recent months. it depends item by item it's for my story. prices on the whole are not rising as quickly as they were. some items like bacon and doughnuts are actually getting cheaper than they were. those prices are falling according to the data. host: and they make great breakfast items.

one of our social media comments says did jerome powell make a mistake by not raising interest rates sooner? guest: that is a widely held view. the fed was too slow to act on inflation. for a long time, the thought was that all of the supply chain issues, worker shortages, transportation issues, these bottlenecks throughout the economy were the main reason we were seeing inflation and that once those were settled, prices would go back to normal. that did not happen. there has been criticism of the fed that they were too slow to act and that may have made things quite a bit worse. host: let's go back to our phone lines and speak with chris from scottsdale, arizona, on the independent line. chris, good morning. caller: good morning. the republicans will ask for custody social security in order to increase the debt ceiling.

i am curious what your thoughts are if they are successful? what would be the impact to the economy? if there are cuts to medicare and social security? guest: i think that would affect a lot of families in a very dramatic way. i am not sure what the overall impact would be because there are so many wildcards. in terms of everyday families on a fixed income, the past two years have been difficult and that would probably add more pain. host: one thing we have not talked about is the effect on politics and the new congress on the economy. is there anything you see congress should be doing or that they can do to help the economy right now? guest: congress is a sideshow compared to the federal reserve but wall street in particular has been watching this week's events with a lot of trepidation and there are a lot of tutors out there. they like to have this balance

between republicans and democrats in congress but for right now, there has been so much chaos that uncertainty is scary. host: one of the things that we have continued to hear talked about when it comes to the economy is wall street and the stock market. whether it is going up or down. how much of a thing does the stock market have on the actual economy that every day american see when they go to the grocery store on gas station? guest: there is not it directly but it affects how people feel about the economy. they see their portfolios go up and down, the retirement has gone down to a low level in the six around. it creates is visceral reaction to what they think may be happening. it may affect their spending. there is not a directly but it definitely affects how people feel about their personal finances. host: another social media follower has a question for you as well that they want you to

address. just the guest agreed that what we need to save the economy most of all is more unemployment? if they do, can you unpack that? guest: no, the hope is that we can get a more stable economy without more unemployment. so far, the federal reserve appears to have been able to maneuver this. we are starting to see inflation come down. we see parts of the economy cool while the job market remains hot and unemployment has fallen. it is anybody's guess how this plays out but there is still a narrow path where we could get where we want without massive unemployment. that is the hope. host: let's go back to our phone lines and speak with steve who was calling from ohio on republican line. steve, good morning. caller: i just got a comment about the jobs numbers and

everyone is touting how great they are. the way government gets its money is through taxes and we brought 3 trillion in taxes but we spent 3.6 trillion. we have a $600 billion deficit. i would ask your guest, how many new jobs would be have to create and get taxes from in order to pay off $600 billion deficit stucco the only way that will happen, it would take millions of new jobs. the only way you pay that down is create new jobs plus a lot of spending cuts which i don't think that will ever happen because the congress doesn't want to talk about deficits. they don't want to talk about the $31 trillion we now owe. guest: i am not sure how many jobs it would take but that is if you right now that congress is in this position where we are not sure how things will get resolved or what will get resolved this year. host: president joe biden came

out on yesterday and had a statement on the december jobs i will read what he said and i want you to react to these hi job and unemployment gains are giving workers more power in american liesore breathing room. real rages are up, gas prices down, we see welcome size and inflation is coming down as well. it is a good time to be a worker in america. we have more work to do and we may face setbacks along the way but it is clear tha economics tragedy from growing the economy from the bottom of the middle out is working. do you agree with that? guest: i will start with workers that have more leverage than they have in the past and that is absolutely true. we have seen that in the past few years as businesses are desperate for workers, many employees find that they can switch jobs and get better benefits, better pay. that is what millions of americans have done. many are finding that they can

ask their employers for raises in years and their employers are willing to give it to them. we see this new level of leverage among workers that we have not seen in a while and we also see that in union organization. we see workers hang onto that power and look for new ways to grab it. i will say though that some of that power may be shifting. we are hearing of major companies like amazon, microsoft, salesforce, laying off thousands of workers and that shifts the balance of power here. host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to mike who was calling from montgomery, alabama on the independent line. good morning. caller: hey, good morning. at present, the inflation rate is very high in the unemployment rate is very low.

there are some experts the state the perfect unemployment rate or a balanced unemployment rate should be around 7%. previously, what i stated is that the inflation rate is high in the employment -- unemployment low. they call it a black swan scenario and they wanted to know if your guest has seen this before and if there is some empirical data that shows a state of our economy. have we been here before? i will listen to your common software, thank you. guest: i don't know if he been in this exact spot before but a lot of historic models, scenarios where we might have been before are no longer valid because of this unique environment we are in. there are a host of new challenges in a number of new

uncertainties that everyone is grappling with. host: let's talk to sarah who was calling from spartanburg, south carolina on the democrat line. sarah, good morning. caller: good morning. hello? can you hear me? host: we can hear you sarah. caller: listen, i have been wondering as far as the gas prices that went out right after the democrats took control of everything. is this still a free enterprise country? guest: the rising gas prices had a lot to do with the war in ukraine and other factors as well. that created these huge shocks around the world not just in the united states that lifted the price of gas. we have seen gas prices come down from the summer's high of

five dollars a gallon and now we are about $3.29 depending on where you are in the country. host: can we expect them to see them go up or down in 2023 or do we even know what they are going to do? guest: we don't know. there are so many unanswered questions not only in the united states but around the world in terms of geopolitics. what is happening in china, the war ukraine, what's happening throughout europe and their economy. we don't know. we do know that gas prices are some of the most immediate forces of inflation for a family. they fill up their car every week, sometimes a couple of times a week and they notice when this gas prices go up. it has a huge impact on how people feel about the economy and how much she's spent on other items. host: in your story in the washington post you had several charts. i will go to another chart you had and it was about home sales. of course, with interest rates rising, we would expect home

sales to go down and they are. can you explain to our viewers about your chart and why this number seems to be dipping so quickly? guest: during the pandemic we saw a huge spike in home sales. people were outbidding each other. we heard about crazy bidding wars, people paying a lot more than asking price and everybody was trying to take advantage of this low interest rate environment. as interest rates have gone up, that's made houses less affordable even you are paying the same dollar price your monthly payment will be a lot more if you are borrowing at a higher rate. that has made many americans rethink their choices. people are renting longer, they are saying they can afford to move yet so i'll wait. host: one of the things that hurt the economy was the housing bubble. the housing bubble popping, do

we have any idea whether that is on the horizon or are we just getting back to a normal equilibrium and when it comes housing? guest: housing prices rose about 40% in the last two years. the general estimates i have seen is that they will come down about 10% this year. that is a best case scenario, they could come down more and that would be a bit more catastrophic. it is a very different situation then we were in the last housing crisis. they are different types of loans, there are new safeties in place. we might see house prices fall dramatically particularly in areas like austin, texas or boise, idaho. the hope is that there will be an all over us like last time. host: let's talk to denise from salem, missouri, on the republican line. denise, good morning. caller: this is denise and i am

wanting to talk to you about wire the gas prices going up? meat is going up. everything else is going out, i don't understand why. this is crazy. i don't understand. guest: a lot of this goes back to early 2020 when the world came to a standstill because of the pandemic. that's when we shut down, transportation lines shut down, ships are stuck in the ocean, airplanes loaded their flies. that created a huge bottleneck. it the economy came back up and people started resuming their lives it was difficult to get things back on track. we had huge material shortages. there were shortages of paper,

wood, metals and it took a while to figure all of that out. that was one of the first reasons for these price increases and now they continue to work their way through the economy. the hope is that they will start falling relatively soon, particularly when it comes to gracias gas. host: was there a boost brought by the holiday season? did begin an economic boost from the holidays? guest: we don't have the exact numbers yet but we do know that it has been a weird holiday shopping season. people started earlier than usual, sales were higher in october and september. sales were lower in november. we don't know what happened in december yet. we don't know if the holiday season was a good one yet.

this is anecdotally from talking to people, they lived last year like i've been cooped up and i will splurge and i will live it up this year. we might see remnants of that in the holiday season. we are now at a point where people savings are getting depleted, they are questioning what their financial standing is and they are pulling back. i'm not sure which of those forces will come back but we see it from freespending to think twice about purchases. host: let's talk to frederick from florida on the independent line. frederick, good morning. caller: can you hear me clearly? host: we can hear you go ahead. caller: i'd rather come up with solution the focus on problems. given the economy and prices are

so high and jobs are scarce, what i wanted to know, would it be better to create new products that create jobs and bring income into pockets and their households. concerning the pandemic, and concerning interest going on let me gather my thoughts, let me gather my thoughts. what i wanted to ask you was, how would i determine the value of products from the top down so it could help save people's lives. i have the patent copyrights.

how can you guys assist me in this? guest: i am not a business expert so i'm not sure. i don't know what kind of product are talking about. innovation is always a good thing. new jobs, forms of manufacturing are always a good thing. those all sound very promising. host: let's talk to paulina who was calling from toledo, ohio on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to ask the girl that is on tv right now. our economy is in dire straits. i watched last night about her new speaker i happened to hear steve scully say one of the things he will do if mccarthy gets voted in that they will investigate our president biden. how was i going to help our

economy? it will only set us back in another war. how can we settle this in a good way with both sides and not keep concentrating on the trump people, trent did this interrupted that. we need to concentrate on the economy itself. stay there and not get steve scalise or mccarthy in their trying to convict joe biden, our president. he is a great president. tell me how we can do that, how does that help the economy by going after joe biden? guest: i wish i knew how to do that. i think that is what everyone is hoping for that the two parties can work together in effect change in a positive way. i am not sure i have the answers unfortunately. host: one of our social media followers has a question for you as well.

with a historically strong economy will the fed be jacking up interest rates? will they continue to bring up interest rates just in time for those holiday credit card bills? guest: the hope is that when things stabilize in the fed feels good about inflation coming down they will stop raising rates. they raised rapidly and dramatically last year was seven rate hikes, that will fall quite a bit this year. the plan is a few rate hikes and pause and wait and see and take action is necessary. the hope is that they will start tapping on the brakes. host: let's talk to justin calling from new york on the republican line. justin, good morning. caller: hey, good morning. i just wanted to call and say that inflation number -- never stops it only slows down. we have to build from here and figure out how to build from a $31 trillion debt and everything

else, the gas prices, we are already in a recession. it's not if we are going to be in recession. i have never seen food prices, gas prices and everything going as high as they have. life is never been so hard in america. at least not since the last great depression. things are spiraling out of control. we need to get control soon. jesus christ is the way. guest: the hope is we will get control on inflation and there are signs that it is coming down. for a long time the fed has thought of 2% inflation is the right amount, the right balance of price increases year over year and now there are questions. they are wondering if we need to adjust that and the number needs to be about higher going forward in this post-pandemic economy. host: let's talk to joe from discord, maine on the

independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i guess my comments are very simple. the republican party with their lobbying and taking money from the oil companies who recorded record profits these past two quarters, the past year. you have never once mentioned the fact that the rest of the world is in the same situation. the united states, i believe, is doing better than everyone else. i have not heard that comment. number two, someone called in about steve scalise and the republican party going after dr. fauci hunter biden. again, they ran on fixing the economy. joe biden is sending us over the cliff with all of this fear mongering.

could you tell me how many recessions have happened. i am 64 years old. in my lifetime, could you tell me how many recessions the united states is been through? i have never heard all of this chicken little stuff, the sky is falling. we have no policy on what we can do about the economy. stop paying these idiot congressmen or pay the military salaries. like what a private gets in the army. not $174,000 a year and everything you can steal. host: go ahead and respond to him. guest: i will respond to your first point. the united states is not the only country experiencing inflation, many countries have it much worse. we see double-digit inflation in many parts of the world.

this is a global phenomenon and it is not singular to the united states in any way. host: let's see if we can get in another call. carol from arkansas on the republican line. carol, good morning. caller: good morning, i would like to say a point if i may. in our area where we live, it is a lot of seniors and the disabled. we have to depend on ourselves. we don't ask for a lot of help. when it comes to groceries, we live on one check. we live on budgets. since biden took office, we have literally seen the groceries grow -- go up excuse me. when i buy eggs, eggs have gone up from a dollars $.17 and now i

am paying for one thing of eggs, five dollars. groceries are not going down. they are not going down. guest: grocery prices are elevated and they will remain that way for a while even if we start to see some items going down. it is interesting that you guys help each other in your community and i think we are seeing that across the economy. people are changing their shopping habits. they may be pulling their groceries with the neighbor or switching to dollar stores and budget warehouses. they are rethinking their meals so that is what is been happening throughout the country. host: we would like to think the washington post's abha bhattarai for being with us this morning and explaining the economic prospects for 2023.

thank you so much for being with us this morning. guest: thank you. host: at 9:15 a.m. this morning we will have the host of the dispatch podcast sarah isgur who will talk to us about the battle over house speaker and what the next two years might look like in washington. but first, more of your phone calls this morning aut kevin mccarthy's victory in securing the house speaker ship role. you see the numbers here on the screen, we are waiting for your call. stick wi us, we will be right back. ♪ >> middle and high school students it is time to get out your phones and start recording for your chance to win $100,000 in coital cash prizes -- total cash prizes. for this year's competition we

are asking students to picture yourself as a newly elected member of congress and tell us what your top priority would be and why. create a 5-6 minute video showing the importance of your issue from opposing and supporting points of view. peopled bold with your documentary and don't be afraid to take risks. there is still time to get started. the deadline is y 20, 2023. for rules tipon how to get started visit our website at studentcam.org. >> preorder your copy of the congressional directory for the 118 congress. it's your access to the federal government with bio and contact information for every house and senate member, important information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and governments. scan the code to preorder you copy for early spring delivery. it is 2995 and every purchase helps support our nonprofit

organization. -- it is $29 90 five cents and every purchase helps support our nonprofit organization. >> steve carnegie is before the big board. he finished a seven part podcast series called the revolution with steve carnegie. it's about how the republicans took over the house of representatives for the first time in 40 years in 1994 and was organized and led by former georgia congressman and speaker of the house, newt gingrich. steve ki on this episode of footnotes. "washington journal," continues. host: we want to know what you

think about speaker mccarthy securing the speakership on the 15th boat. kevin mccarthy is the new speaker of the house but it took 15 boats, one of the longest floor fights in modern history for speaker. what does this mean for the new congress? does this mean anything. we want to know what you think and what you see coming under the new speaker, kevin mccarthy. let's start with crag who is calling from pleasant grove, alabama, on the independent -- democrat line. caller: how you doing? host: i'm doing great. i think we lost crag. we will go to james from connecticut on the republican line. james, good morning. caller: hi, good morning and thank you. when it comes to this i am a very political person in terms of following everything and even

i don't care that it took 15 ballots, it will mean nothing in terms of the actual leadership going forward because the only people to follow this issue with the national media that was trying to turn it against republican. i think it was a positive thing what happened. there were so many major issues about how congress was operating under democrat nancy pelosi ruling with an iron fist. members on both sides of the aisle had no opportunity, on very serious issues, to raise objection. i will mention one for the purpose of the program. the idea that four thousand page spending bills are dropped on the members desk at 8:00 p.m. and they have to vote on them by 9:00 without reading them. now we have some of these conservative republican saying and putting in their

negotiations we want at least 3-4 days notice before a major spending bill so our aides can start to read some of the bill and some of the corrupt things in their and maybe identify them. i hope you hold the national news media that wants to seek an issue, primarily to hurt the republican party. the abc, nbc, cbs and occasionally pbs will identify that these changes made by the republicans who stood against mccarthy initially are actually changes that will make the country better. not just the republican leadership but the country which includes democrats and independents. inc. you for your time. host: let's go to chris who was calling from union, new jersey on the independent line. caller: yes, hi. about speaker mccarthy. here's the issue with our country.

we are $31 trillion in debt. inflation is at a historical high. we are passing this omnibus spending bills thousands of pages long. mccarthy actually voted for the omnibus spending bill in the past. not the most current one but in the past when republicans were in charge and even one when biden was in charge. it does not really matter what party is in charge of things. all of these bills are unconstitutional because most of our spending is unconstitutional which are not authorized by the constitution. he is not suitable to be speaker in republicans should have chosen somebody better. host: let's go to louis who was calling from salisbury, north carolina on the democratic line.

louis, good morning. caller: hi, good morning c-span. so far i have been hearing people talk about how the congress will knuckle down. one gentleman said something about how they dropped documents on them so fast that they can dissect it. when big because going on, they used to lead documents around about the red light hours before they could even see the documents. other republicans, you think that's about democracy? it was holding up our government. there were a lot of things going on under the table while they were playing footsie with each other. they were displaying themselves in front of the camera to make it seem as if they were really into it. i will tell you what it was all about.

it was trying to get your mind off january 6. you guys don't want to think about january 6 the ones who really call themselves patriotic. we are not going to get anything done. you're not going to see a bill. not while the republicans are in office. i think you so much jesse you are doing a wonderful job have a blessed day. host: representative mccarthy got enough votes but it was not smooth in the early hours of the debate yesterday. in fact, there was a confrontation between kevin mccarthy, matt gaetz and other lawmakers on the floor that was captured on film by c-span and it is part of a story that was written by the business insider that i want to read to you. according to them,

representative kevin mccarthy got up from his seat to approach matt gaetz in the two had a tense confrontation that was captured on c-span. thanks to the fact that there were no house rules yet which limits what the network and film. it is unclear what was said between the two but mccarthy appeared almost solemn while the firebrand from florida was more animated, pointing and gesturing with his hands. toward the end of the exchange, which lasted about 1.5 minutes, mike rogers of alabama could be seen confronting gates as mccarthy walked away. cnn reporter annie greer reported that rogers longed to gates in the c-span feed shows rogers being held back by representative richard hudn of north carolina. members of the house could be

heard shouting as mccarthy turned back around towards the sce. shortly after the exchange, the voting for speaker continued and mccarthy finished with the 200 60 votes out of 242. deliberation continued on the house floor or for the final vote count was called. you can see the actual argument going on on the house floor as kevin mccarthy was looking for the final vote to get him over the top. now, what is this mean for kevin mccarthy and his future as speaker of the house? we don't know. what do you think? let's start with ted who is calling from miami, florida, on the republican line. ted, good morning. caller: hi, good morning.

this was the saddest thing i have ever seen in my entire life. i chose the party because i do like it and my choice was because of a person. this was just the saddest thing i have ever seen in this party. and mccarthy, i don't think he has anything planned with the party or anything else. it is just sad. host: let's go to jim who is calling from west jefferson, north carolina and calling on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: we can, go ahead jim. caller: yeah, i got you. [indiscernible] host: can you put the phone

pushed him out because were having a hard time hearing you? caller: can you hear me now? host: that's better thank you. caller: i appreciate having c-span this morning. as far as being an independent, i am proud to be an independent just because i am not either party of vote for who i think is the best. as far as mccarthy goes, that was a bottle that went on in congress to get him into the speakers job. personally i would rather have someone other than mccarthy but i will support him 100%. i believe in all of the deals to get done to get him elected would help this country as a whole. whether a state is divided between democrats and republicans and shuts everything down and attempts to, i hope that he has the fortitude to stand up and close this border down, get things rolling again.

open the pipeline, get gas prices down and get people back to work. the speaker that you had earlier today, abha bhattarai talked about to job openings for every unemployed person. it doesn't say anything about the type of jobs can or the amount of money that they pay. my problem with that is, if you have all these people getting free money from the government that could make money sitting on their bus and not working then why should they? this was done under the democratic party that has to be change. i think mccarthy will bring our country back together. thank you for having me. host: while the voting was going on in the house and there was no speaker, house clerk cheryl johnson was the person providing -- presiding over the chamber for the entire week. here is james clyburn thinking

johnson for her work providing over the chamber during the speaker wrote. [video clip] >> for the first time in over 200 years after 11 rounds of voting, we are unable to organize and begin to work on behalf of those who elected us to serve. democrats are offering a candidate for speaker in hakeem jeffries who is not just prepared to lead but committed to preserving this democracy and enhancing this august body. madame clerk, there is some dispute among historians as to whether who said this but i considered to be true regardless.

america is great because she is good. if america ceases to be good, america will cease to be great. the greatness of america lies in the goodness that exists within the american people. today, the greatness of our nation hangs in the balance. because the goodness of the american people is at stake. we, democrats, are offering the people of america, through this unique body, a good man who has the best interest of the american people at heart and is committed to preserving the fundamental principles that make this country great. madame clerk, i'm honored to

carry out the directives of the house democratic caucus and submit to this body the name of hakeem jeffries to be speaker of the united states house of representatives. [applause] host: let's go back to our phone lines and talk to diane calling from indiana on the democrat line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm still asleep from watching the speeches late last night, so i will try to be brief. i was concerned with what mccarthy gave away in order to get those few people -- oh, i'm listening to myself talk over there so let's get away from that. host: turn your television down and keep going.

caller: i'm concerned on what he had to give away to those people to get him to -- people to get them in line. he was giving way too much power way too soon and i did not think his negotiation tactics were that good if it took him 15 rounds to get himself in. the republican party does not have a middle but they have a middle school element and a very famous middle school scholar said it was teaching like leading the hurt of the absurd through the range of the strange and that is what i think he has negotiate for the next few years -- has to negotiate for the next for years. i'm also concerned with part of the speech that says we can get gas prices down by unleashing all of our american oil. while it is the earth's oil and it ends up in the earth's atmosphere. we need to think more globally and i do not see a lot of global thinking going on with that

group. but it is the house and the house is more responsive to the immediate needs of the people. in jeffrey's speech, he packed a lot into a little bit of time, all almost went into a wrap. i hope the speeches are available somewhere where they can go through them and i wish both parties lock. -- luck. i like watching politics but do not like watching the destruction of a democratic system and push toward an autocracy. host: let's go to lonnie calling from red springs, north carolina on the republican line. lonnie, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i'm glad you have me. i'm 82 years old and i didn't get to go to school much and i don't know a lot about the stuff except i watch a lot of it. i watched this whole thing going on, looked like a big old circus

to me. as for the last six to eight years, they have been fighting against each other and giving each other a hard time to get things passed. when i first started, we had about seven join dollars or $8 trillion in debt and now we are $31 trillion in debt. they were going through it for two years, they were getting good, getting the oil, boiling it's going up and all of a sudden we have a new president and the whole things changed. we went the other way. like the lady said about the eggs, went to the grocery store, me and my wife, we are 82 and we went to the grocery store and got about half a basket full, came to the line, $90. i said oh my god. if things don't change -- but

what was going on in congress was just amazing. i know matt gaetz, i've been watching matt gaetz forever, he was a troublemaker and the others are troublemakers and they could have this all two months before they come to congress. they could have come to congress, elected a speaker, then went on to save people's time. people did not want to hear all this fighting going on there. i guarantee you the first thing that comes before congress this time is going to be the democrats are going to say no, the republicans are going to try to say yes, and that the same old people will be interfering with whatever's going on. we need to get the -- back going , the drilling going.

god made this world, he created this world, he created -- he knew it we were going to do. so we are not going to destroy it. we might pollute it but we are not going to destroy it. all -- host: most of you have been watching c-span during this house fight over the speakership and several of you have i think rightfully complement of the work the c-span cameraman did on showing what was going on in the house. vice news has a story that explains a little bit about why the -- why there was different caramel work during the house speaker fight then you may see later on in the year. i want to read a couple paragraphs of the story for you. for the first time ever, independent media cameras are capturing a contentious unscripted political fight on the house floor. normally these types of moments

would not be captured on film. much less broadcast on tv and hosted to the internet. there are long-standing rules that restrict what can be filmed and broadcast during congressional proceedings. typically restricted to the person speaking and extremely wide angles where people are not easily distinguishable. but during this extraordinary litter goal event, three c-span cameras have been able to film whatever they like from reaction shots of mccarthy losing another vote, the following meandering conversations between unlikely conferees across the floor. "because we have cameras in the chamber, we are able to tell the story of what is happening on the house floor," said ben o'connell, director of editorial operations at c-span in an interview with motherboard. "you are able to see the migrating scrums of congressman on the house floor as they negotiate with each other. you are able to see extraordinary conversations such

as the one between aoc and goes are. and you ar able to see conversations that look somewhat contentious among members and you would never be able to see that with a standard house feed. -- feed." but the house will be going back to their normal house be now that there is a speaker elect, speaker kevin mccarthy changes that in the house rules. if the camera work looks different to you in the house comes back in, it is probably because they are going back to the normal house rules under the speaker. stay tuned to c-span to see what the coverage looks like. let's go back to the phone lines and talk to andrew calling from harrison, arkansas on the independent line. andrew, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thank you for playing the video clip on with the guy was talking about.

i have a much more newfound respect for the clerk and reading clerks and all of the other non-elected officers that serve in the house. after this test period of getting a speaker elected. also there was one personal note that i was touched by, i'm sure there are a lot of other representatives making sacrifices but one representative i heard, he had to fly back from texas leaving his newborn son in the nicu. i'm glad they voted nay on adjourning and i'm glad they persevered through on the 15th vote so him leaving his son in the icu was not a waste of time for him. and on a third and final know, things could be worse. things could be worse.

that is all i have to say. host: let's go to bill calling from indiana on the democrat line. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine, go ahead, bill. caller: i would like to comment on the goings-on in the house. it looked like a total clown show, people who could not agree to something some hours later could agree to it. i'm only assuming that there was something put their for their advantage. it looks like at least 20 want of the -- 21 of the republican house members have future designs and maybe in that executive branch rather than legislative branch. it looked like a bunch of school kids playing. i would think our congress is more important than that. we are going to have to see how kevin 15 does. host: let's go to rose calling from illinois on the independent

line. rose, good morning. caller: morning. good morning. thank you for taking my call. first of all i want to thank c-span for covering. it gave us, as people in america, a good insight on how our process works. and i enjoyed watching the debates and the whole democrat process. i want to make a comment. it felt like at the end jeffries was grandstanding too much, but i am really grateful for kevin mccarthy in there and i think we will see a lot of progress in the future. as far as the direction of where america will be going. i am so glad that it is not like a bunch of lemmings following pelosi and i love the dialogue. though a lot of it is -- a lot of individuals say they didn't like it, i thing it is healthy

for us to voice our opinions and coming to a conclusion and consensus. democracy is sometimes difficult , but that is the way it was with the founding fathers. thank you very much. host: let's talk to annette calling from arizona on the republican line. annette, good morning. caller: this is annette russo from arizona. what i am really flabbergasted at is that it took them 15 rounds of voting to get kevin in , and if they had planned to have kevin in, they should have put him in without making all these people suffer for four days, doing 14 rounds. plenty of our representatives said no for days, and there is reasons why.

kevin does not have a good track record. people do not know this but he met with carl schwab a few years back, and that is not a good thing. carl schwab is responsible for a lot of the destruction in our country. they are trying to get the new world order in, and that is why we have so many illegals, no border, no gas, no energy. kevin did not support trump. that is not a good thing. he did not support the 2020 steal, that joe is a total illegitimate president. he was not voted in, it was international fraud and national fraud and stealing the election in 2020. host: let's talk to our next caller from west palm beach,

florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span, for taking my call. it has been a late night. last night we were watching. if i had a chance today to talk to kevin mccarthy, and i would tell him -- mccarthy, i would tell him there is no glory. i'm a democrat and it's good to see the democrats are organized much better than the republican party. we move forward to see if mccarthy wins the hundred 18th congress. what i'm hoping to see progress made to change lives of many people in america again. and i have to thank c-span for the coverage. we enjoyed it.

hopefully we'll see what changes they bring to the chambers. host: let's talk to dolores calling from washington, d.c. on the republican line. dolores, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing great. go ahead, dolores. caller: i'm a republican, i'm african-american, and i live in the dmz area -- dmv area and i'm a hard donald trump supporter and i was lukewarm about kevin mccarthy. i felt he should have been given a chance, an opportunity to be speaker of the house. first call, second time, third time getting a little weary. i began to get a little upset. the sixth, seventh, eight time i was like ok, there are two sides to this i'll -- isle. one constantly providing him

from getting the speakership and him. at some point my view, he should have stepped down, that a consensus person in the party and he concedes and not be the chairperson of -- for the house. host: we would like to thank all of our callers who called in for our last segment, but after the break, we will talk -- have our weekly spotlight on podcast segment and the host of the dispatched podcast, sarah isgur, talks about the battle over house speaker and what the next two years might look like here in washington. we will be right back. announcer: there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span it -- is america's

network, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. if it happens here or here or here, or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span, powered by cable. >> be up today in the latest in publishing with tv's podcast about books. with current nonfiction book releases, plus bestseller list as well as industry news and trends through insider interviews. you can find about books on c-span now, our free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcast. ♪ announcer: sunday night on q&a, in his book indivisible, university of california law professor joel richard paul talks about 19th-century lawyer state daniel webster and his impact shaping america's national identity prior to the

civil war, his features inspiring many people including abraham lincoln, to see the nation as one nation bound together by the is constitution. >> he is most painlessly connected with one of his great speeches in which he said, liberty and union are now and forever one and inseparable. and he did not think that the union was free today. he thought -- he knew that one third of our population was enslaved and his view was the union was the vehicle for ending slavery. host: joel richard paul and his book, "indivisible," sunday night on c-span's q&a. you can listen to q&a and all of our podcast on the free c-span now app. announcer: listening to programs on c-span for c-span radio got easier. tell your smart speaker "play

c-span radio," and listen to "washington journal" daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern, importing congressional hearings and other public affairs of as there out the day, and weekdays at five a clock p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern. catch washington today for a fast-paced report of the stories of the day. listen to c-span anytime. just tell your smart speaker, "play c-span radio." c-span, powered by -- announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with our podcast segment and this feature we have "the dispatch podcast." the creator of the "the dispatch podcast," sarah isgur. guest: i'm excited to be here. host: before we get into the news of the day, tell us what " the dispatch," is and what you see as its role in the news and ecosystem.

guest: steve hayes, jonah goldberg created a new news media website, and their idea was we want something that is an explainer that can tell you what is going on, why it is going on, but does not necessarily hit you over the head with its own take. we try not to do hot takes, we try not to tell you something that will not matter tomorrow, whatever online controversy there is. we kind of skip those. that is what we try to focus on, stuff that will matter a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, and put it into the context of how we got here, why it might matter, big picture, so we have the dispatch website which has a great morning newsletter called "the morning dispatch," so creative. then we have a few podcasts. "the dispatch podcast" this sort of a sunday roundtable with -- we trade in and out but steve

hayes, jonah goldberg, i host it, david french joins us, so a lot of thoughtful, conservative think leaders and then we have advisory opinions, which is a legal podcast with me and david fresh where we talk about everything supreme court and other fun court cases along the way. we did a little on johnny depp and amber heard, i will admit it. then the remnant, jonah goldberg's thoughts springing from his head which is always fun. host: i heard you say center-right. is that the political point of view of the podcast? guest: i think so. i think it is interesting because all of us have been a bit lost in terms of what it means to be a conservative in 2023. so i worked in the trump administration, steve hayes was the editor in chief of the weekly standard, jonah goldberg came from national review, so you have people from across that

conservative spectrum trying to find out what the future of the conservative movement is as it moves further and further apart from for instance the republican party policies. host: who do you see as the target audience for the podcast? who do you want to listen -- i know you want everyone to listen -- guest: of course, obviously. host: but who do you see as your target audience? guest: i think there are maybe three distinct groups. one of the groups i find interesting that we get a lot of feedback from our centerleft or sort of mainstream, old-school clinton democrats who are curious what the policy or intellectual debate on the right looks like. and we try to do that and explain that to people who have not necessarily come up through the reagan revolution or have read everything william s buckley ever wrote so we try to open it up to that audience. but certainly there is a whole

slew of voters as we learn in the 2022 midterms who are center-right who are trying to figure out where they fit into the current political spectrum when they feel like partisanship has increased, parties have gotten much weaker, and the elected choices move further and further out to the extremes. host: so let's get into the news of not even the day, news of the last few hours. kevin mccarthy becomes speaker of the house on the 15th vote. what does this mean for the republican party and conservatives? guest: let's put this into a broader context first, which this is a really fun d.c. parlor game because it is so rare we do not know what will happen so i think everyone was sort of enjoying the spectacle. but of course nothing that happens this week in particular mattered and i mean that in the

sense that we did not delay anything important, there was not some looming nuclear crisis we needed congress to weigh in on. so this really was a philosophically interesting week for the republican party and i think for the house of representatives. of course kevin mccarthy comes in as probably the weakest speaker in maybe u.s. history. 15 ballots of course, goes back 150 years at this, but don't forget that the speakers going to 130 three ballots, the 1830's were a messy time. so there is that aspect of the republican party grappling with what it means to be a republican, what that caucus will stand for, and the divide between the sort of old-school as they say reagan, three legged stool republicans and the new type of republican that has come up in the last few years and been elected. here's what i'm interested in, some of these concessions mccarthy made in order to get

that momentum around what was that ballot 13 or so in that chip roy caucus, that was not even about policy or principle, that was about process. that you go back in the 1980's, chip o'neill, the house ways and means committee chair was probably more powerful than the speaker of the house. enter newt gingrich and he changes some of the house rules, consolidating power and leadership through dennis hastert and then nancy pelosi wildly consolidates power where really only the speaker controls what comes to the floor, what votes members have to take, and members like that to some extent because it protected them. these guys are up for election every two years and they don't want to take tough votes. the reality has been congress does not really deal with intractable problems anymore because it will be a tough vote. they do not do it because the speaker wants to protect them for reelection for both parties. two, it then changes who runs for congress.

because it is no longer a legislative job of these 435 members only one is doing legislation, the speaker. so what we have seen are fewer and fewer stress myths and more and more -- mr. smith's and more and more matt gaetz, people that want to raise money online, they don't hire legislative staff, they hire could asians staffers to up their name id, to be relevant. my hope is perhaps some of these concessions mccarthy made will make him a week speaker but that actually might be good. we transfer power back to some of these fights, more ame'g to the floor, more legislation that can get voted on and empowering congress and seeing legislative solutions instead of everything having to be done through the executive branch, through the agencies and executive orders that go through the course to get struck down half the time. this could be a much healthier three branches of government. host: know what we saw on the

house floor where the freedom caucus, at least 20 members of the caucus, declare themselves as almost an opposition force to the new speaker. as he moves forward, how much power does this freedom caucus actually have, considering in the end there are 20 of them and there are some any other republicans in the house. how much power will they have in this new congress? guest: this is the problem with only having a four seat majority. kevin mccarthy is going to be weak because of what this week meant for him but also because he civilly does not have the majority that he wanted to going into this congress and his party does not control the white house or senate. so in some sense, every speaker, it is not just the house caucus, the more centrist numbers can hold mccarthy hostage. one of the concessions we know he made was to change the number

it takes to basically call up the speaker for a no-confidence vote. every man is speaker right now. host: i was wondering about that concession, is that concession just for republicans or can democrats call for a vote on a new speaker at any time as well? guest: that is such a good point and i should have brought that up before. a lot of the procedural changes chip roy and his crew wanted actually were the same procedural changes the squad, aoc, the progressive side of the democratic caucus pressured pelosi four. they did not get those concessions from pelosi but absolutely what these changes will do is empower the minorities within both parties, so certainly in house this tightly divided, there's a great argument these concessions, at least temporarily, and the democratic minority more than the republicans at this point in terms of having the people being

able to propose amendments, getting a few republicans to join them on those. this could make for a healthier, more robust house of representatives. host: let me remind our viewers that they can take part in the conversation. we will open up the normal lines meaning democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, your number is (202) 748-8001. independents, you can call (202) 748-8002. we are always reading on twitter, @cspanwj. then on facebook, facebook.com/cspan. do we see any major legislation coming out of speaker mccarthy's house and making it through the democratic-controlled senate and signed by president biden? guest: i'm shaking my head know because when i think major pieces of legislation, i think

the big, sticky tough problems we have been grappling with for 10/20 years. immigration is the first thing that comes to mind and i do not think you will see any major pieces of information legislation moving through the house in the next two years. but it is interesting that we talked a little at the beginning about how the republican party has shifted and morphed in what is the new principle of the republican party. one of the interesting parts will be on trade, on china, so i could actually see something that maybe does not rise to the twitter conversation level, it is not a culture war issue. you could see something like that moving through where these new republicans and old democrats tend to agree on some issues. maybe there is room for bipartisanship there. don't forget we just saw mitch mcconnell and joe biden go to kentucky together, have their big infrastructure plan,

building a bridge -- fixing a bridge/building a bridge down there. so we have certainly seen interest by both the white house and mcconnell towards that. the reason that is interesting is because mitch mcconnell, in my view -- you can hate him, you can disagree with anything that kai has stood for, he is politically brilliant. he is probably the best political strategist in the united states. if he thinks standing with joe biden and nodding toward the bipartisan compromise is politically advantageous, that tells you where he wants to lead the caucus, the republican caucus in the senate for the next couple years into 2024. he thinks those 5%-a percent of republicans that showed up to vote in 2022 but did not vote for republicans, he wants to win them back. so you could see more over the next two years. host: i definitely want to get back to that later but first, i want to get some of our viewers into this conversation. let's start with randy calling

from lakeland, florida on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. how are you doing? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: yes, i have spent a long time waiting for that to happen last night and it seems like the republican party don't really have the strong backbone the democrats had. democrat's have always had a strong backbone and stand together a lot but when jeffries get on there and talks about the good things they have done and talking all this and what was really dishonest was the things jeffrey said in his speech. it was so dishonest of everything and it should have been a happy time. our party is on all of us are now. it's not in the republican party -- it is not the republican party that they should be fighting with. i hope the republicans get a strong backbone because they

should have done that to start with. it took them long to get a house speaker. host: go ahead and respond, sarah. guest: i think it is interesting we did not see this sort of fighting under the pelosi era and i do not think that is because the democratic party is actually nearly as united as they appear. i think there was institutional respect cap to that pelosi frankly brought to that job that -- respect brought to capped -- respect kept that plosive frankly brought to the job. the parties have basically disappeared. all the fights that we had this week, you know who we did not hear anything from? the republican national committee, the republican kerr congressional campaign can -- congressional campaign committee, why? we were hearing from the super pac's, outside groups. i thing that same thing will

likely happen in the democratic party because they have that same weakness with the party itself having changed dramatically since the bipartisan campaign reform act since 2002. mccain bangle gutted the political parties and while, going back to that era, i thing most people were wildly in favor of a bill like that. it turned out as an interesting unintended consequences that -- unintended consequence that hurt not only the parties, and i don't mean the parties themselves but frankly voters, as individual members depend more and more on small dollar donors, the folks that give five to $20 -- five dollars to a $20 to a candidate. they are a small portion but they respond to high emotion in these culture were issues and that has been driving the conversation and unhealthy ways i would argue. host: our next caller is on the

independent line. beverly, good morning. caller: yeah, i just think that i needed to ask you a question. all the fighting the republicans had, are they going to stop that? [laughter] this fighting needs to stop. matt gaetz, man, that was a disgrace what he did. he should have been on board right away. it was a disgrace. he really made -- you know, it is just terrible. they need to get their act together. now that they got a speaker, he needs to clean the house up on the republican side because, if you don't, he will be embarrassed again. that's all. guest: i think it goes without saying kevin mccarthy is going to be embarrassed again. kevin mccarthy has months -- had

months to negotiate these votes. it was may an act of hubris to move into the speaker's office, go into the republican caucus meeting before the vote and say i have earned this when he did not have the votes, so to some extent i think you can place the blame for this past week at kevin mccarthy's feet but i think it is worth making a distinction between the 20 members, the chip roy caucus let's call it that really was looking to weaken the speakership but not to embarrass -- not for the purpose of embarrassing kevin mccarthy. they did not care that would be the result of that, but they were looking to renege congress in a sense and have house members be legislators again. i would argue we will see how it turns out but that is probably a worthy cause. then you have what i will call the nihilist caucus, the matt gaetz, they civilly don't like kevin mccarthy, they don't trust him, they wanted to humiliate him, and i think unfortunately

kevin mccarthy, who came up through the paul ryan era, part of that reform caucus, then donald trump gets elected and becomes much more a trump -focused guy, january 6 happens, down -- denouncing trump, then a couple weeks later he is at mar-a-lago. kevin mccarthy is a bit of the french revolutionary, where are my people going, i must lead them. we said kevin mccarthy will be an incredibly weak speaker certainly but it will also be interesting to see how long he lasts because this is the easiest vote kevin mccarthy will have for the next two years and that is what it looks like. that should tell us something about how these votes will go and maybe how long kevin mccarthy will be speaker four. host: the one question i have not ask you, do you think kevin mccarthy is the right person to be speaker of the house? [laughter] guest: i had actually not given

that a lot of thought. that might sound silly. i'm more interested in the strategy angle p i thought his strategy was so strange, not negotiating with those folks who were clearly concerned about his speakership ear and thought moving into the office was a weird way to antagonize folks who are on the fence. i think kevin mccarthy has made a series of strategic political errors that we saw heading into 2022. he gave this interview where he said the senate had their problems because they were antagonistic toward trump. we have worked with trump to get our candidates and that is why we will win the huge majority in the house. that did not happen. so kevin mccarthy is not to known as an in the weeds policy legislative guy, not like paul ryan and some of our past speakers who relished the legislative process. kevin mccarthy is a relationship

guy, everyone likes kevin mccarthy. so we will see whether that strategy works as speaker of the house in this current era. i do not know that it will. host: you mentioned earlier the january 6 attack. yesterday was the second anniversary of the january 6 attack. i want to bring a little bit from president biden and what he said at the white house yesterday and get you to react to it. pres. biden: -- [video clip] pres. biden: two years ago on january 6, our democracy was attacked, no other way of saying it. the u.s. capitol was breached, which had never happened in the history of the united states of america, even during the civil or. a violent -- war. a violent mob of people attacked law-enforcement, hunted down elected officials, all for the purpose of the attempt to overthrow the will of the people. and usurp the peaceful transfer power.

all of it, all of it was fueled by lies about the 2020 election. one on this day two years ago our democracy held, because we the people, as the constitution refers us, we the people did not flinch. we the people endured, we prevailed. on this day of remembrance, joined by the vice president and second gentleman and all of you, we honor a remarkable group of americans who embodied the best before, during, and after january 6, 2021. for the first time in my presidency, i am bestowing the presidential citizens metal, one of our nation's highest civilian honors. it recognizes "citizens of the united states of america who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens." in a few moments, the full

citation of their exemplary deeds will be read by a military aid but this is who these people , these extraordinary americans, r. heroic law enforcement officers, as congressman bennie thompson said, a man of immense character himself, said about these officers, he said "you held the line that day, and what was on the line was our democracy and history will remember your names." host: what do you think the impact of the january 6 attack and hearings and ongoing investigations have been on congress and the country? guest: i think, politically, it had more of an impact to than a lot of people thought it would. anytime we have an election it's hard to say this is the single cause of why so-and-so lost or a party got fewer seats. but polling shows, for that

5% a percent of republicans in these races, absolutely that was on their mind -- 5% to 8% of republicans in these races, absolutely that was on their minds. it is important to note republicans had high turnout in these races, yet republicans still lost. certainly i -- is it january specifically? is it donald trump denying the election? is it donald trump still focusing on the election two years later? i think it's all of these things wrapping in one package and gave people a sense of unease about republican candidates, the republican party, and we saw the results. in terms of the house of representatives specifically congress, absolutely -- i mean on the one hand two years feels like a long time and two years feels like yesterday. some of these people it was their first day really at their jobs and the text messages people were sending back to

their loved ones, i do not think it will be forgotten anytime soon. host: let's go back to our phone lines and start with gary calling from newport, kentucky on the republican line. gary, good morning. caller: good morning. sarah, i will start listening to your podcast. anyway, first of all, mitch mcconnell went to -- about that bridge because they will try to figure out who is going to pay for that bridge. anyway, i believe it is important to air grievances before they gets too far. they need to get their grievances out and it is healthy like under pelosi/trump, if they had an agreement, they could

close it or reason aside. guest: i think there is something to that. i think there is an outlier voice -- i think i am an outlier voice this week, i thing this was a good thing for the republican party and probably long-term a good thing for the house of representatives as they talked about. with all the handwringing of so-and-so does not have their security clearance, let's be clear, members of congress are not launching attacks on anyone, they do oversight and review, so having your security clearance delayed by four days is probably ok. there was at any major legislation that would be contemplated this week so then the question is, aside from the circus aspect, certainly it was not the foot forward republicans wanted to start out their new majority in the house. nevertheless, like you said, some of the intrafamily food fights could be healthy. you want tectonic plates to shift slowly rather than have large earthquakes. but i think the most important thing will be, if these process

changes could actually empower individual members of congress to once again be invested in the legislative process, i think that will be huge and i think the fact nancy pelosi was able to keep her caucus in line because of her own reputation and gravatar's, good for nancy pelosi. she was probably one of the strongest speakers in u.s. history but it was probably not good for our democracy and good for the health of that branch of government which was legislating less and less as administrative agencies in the executive branch was doing more and more, than the courts were being dragged in as courts struck down an executive action because it needed to be done through the legislative branch. it then caused the courts to be seen through that lens and that dragged their approval down and their trust as an in's pushing down none of which is good, congress just needs to do its job. they need to handle immigration, not the executive branch. host: let's talk to james

calling from jacksonville, florida on the independent line. james comer good morning. caller: good morning. -- james, good morning. caller: good morning. i live in a predominantly hispanic area and i'm friends with very many of them. and every time i hear some congressman or anybody say that they come here to get on welfare, it makes me very angry because i have not met one. i am an early riser and when i go get my coffee, i see many hispanic people waiting to catch the bus and here in jacksonville we have a terrible bus system. i feel sorry for anybody that has to depend on it to get to work. but they spend the time where they ride a bicycle or walk and they are here to make this

country great again and, if any congresswoman which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- if any congressman would get his head out of his butt, this country is in terrible shape. we have some any lazy americans who i don't think one him to come here because then they might have to do some work, and i'm sure there is lots of businesses that want illegal aliens so they can pay them low wages, get good work out of them, and make money for further selves -- make money for themselves. i think business in general in america has lost the capitalist truth and they want to charge high prices, make a lot of money, and give poor service. guest: go ahead and -- host: go ahead and respond to him. guest: you touched on one of the interesting academic debates in

the immigration conversation, does increased immigration lower wages temporarily or permanently by sort of basic economic guns and butter. if you flood the labor market, in theory it should reduce wages. there are those that disagree but politically at this point, i do not think there is a question that there is a crisis at the southern border, a humanitarian crisis, a political crisis, but there is also a crisis in the sense that the biden administration has another this point how to create an orderly system of immigration. you have record numbers of people coming into the country illegally but who have people waiting in line who waited years and years and gone to the legal process who are not getting in. that further incentivizes people to come in illegally. that is why you see the fight over title 42 using the covid-era public health reason to deny people from applying for

asylum. of course the amazing part of that, legally, is you have the biden administration arguing in court that the pandemic is over so they need to get rid of title 42. then you have the biden administration arguing the student loan case at the pandemic is not over which is why they need the power to forgive student loans. then you have 19 republicans and the governors saying we need title 42 in place because the pandemic is not over. you have this switch in politicals which is generally a good indication it is not a sincerely held belief. host: tomorrow, president biden heads to the u.s. mexico border. what actions would you say the administration does need to take on immigration knowing according to you know major immigration bill will make it through congress this year and not just according to you, no major legislation will make it there congress this year. watch of the administration do right now? guest: it is an intractable

problem, one the trump administration could solve, the obama administration -- trump administration cannot saw, obama administration cannot solve, so this idea that there would be some silver bullet the biden administration could do is unlikely. i think the white house was hesitant to engage with this issue before the midterm elections. it is interesting to me that they are doing so much on immigration in the last couple weeks. you saw joe biden announced this week changes to immigration policy, asylum policy, then he is going to the border of course . this is a multifaceted problem and one of the parts i think people do not realize is the immigration problem, from the bush era is different than the one from the obama era and from the biden era for instance. you had, back 20 years ago, the problem was driven largely -- i'm talking about illegal border crossings -- that was being

driven by young men, predominately from mexico, looking for work in the united states. then you had the northern triangle countries, el salvador per dominant lee, where they had so much violence -- predominantly, where they had so much violence where you saw unaccompanied minors and families making the difficult trip to the border to then cross illegally. now the united states flooded the northern triangle with money and trying to lower the violence there so there would be less of an incentive to leave the countries. now it's in plea moves to haiti, venezuela. so the problem with the "why don't we help the countries economically where these immigrant are coming from" is a bit of a game of whack a mole at some point. that's another challenge upon challenge for the biden administration, but it is important to remember this is not just a fight over over the

borders or whether people should come in or how many people. there are people dying in the desert, drowning in the rio grande when they try to cross and we are talking hundreds of people a year dying at doing that. no matter how you come down on this, this is not the way to do it. in the meantime, the people who are winning in all of this are the drug cartels who are learning human smuggling can make them more money than drug smuggling. they are getting $10,000 a pop in some cases, so all the system we have at the border that is not working is a $1 billion business for very dangerous people. host: let's wrap up the telephone calls and we start with martha calling from austin, texas on the democrat line. martha, good morning. martha, are you there? caller: sorry, my finger was not on mute on the phone, i got it now. thank you for taking my call. i'm a very long time viewer,

seldom call. but i have a lot of things i wanted to talk about. i don't know how much time i have, but i'm offended when several of the callers and some of the speakers talk about how wonderful it is to see this mess the republicans brought to the house this week. and to insinuate democrats didn't do a thing to coordinate themselves because nancy pelosi is the hardest working elected official in the government. whether you like her or not, she was forced to use the strategy the moment mitch mcconnell stood up and said his only job was going to be stopping the democrats from trying to get their agenda cross. i think she was put in an untenable situation, as were all of the democrats. that is one issue. then i want to make some

comments about literary. -- literary analogies. but do your thing and they shall know you and this has been a real evident demonstration of who mccarthy is and who those republicans are. and if we do not pay attention, it is on us. the other one is the gift of the magi, whereby giving each other gifts, they ruin what was wonderful about each other in their christmas giving. i think that is what we have watched. we do not know because it was behind closed doors. what exactly the deals were made, what they gave up out of our house of representatives. host: go ahead and respond to her, sarah. guest: i think that is a pretty rosy picture of what was happening in the democratic caucus and i think a lot of the

members of the democratic caucus would disagree. i think they would say it was nancy pelosi again absolutely, powerful speaker, brilliant political strategist, that was nancy pelosi protecting the democratic members of her caucus by not making them ever take difficult vote's on amendments, put forward legislation that might divide her caucus, so yes that was to help the white house and a sense with the idea that it was for the good of the house of representatives, i at least think there is a good argument that no, absolutely it was not at all. nancy pelosi was an incredibly partisan speaker of the house and i think you saw that for instance even after january 6 when she brought up the articles of impeachment on donald trump. she did not work with republicans who are interested in creating an article impeachment that could get more republican support on

dereliction of duty. instead she broadened it so much to basically condemn all of donald trump. that is great for the democratic party but you are not going to get republicans to be able to agree to an article of impeachment that meant if you supported donald trump basically in the august before the 2020 election that you were somehow indicting yourself. so in doing that, she limited it to 10 republicans and did not have republicans as impeachment managers on the senate side. i think that is one indication of nancy pelosi very smart political decision on behalf of the democratic party and democratic caucus and the house but not really for the congress, not really for a healthy branch of government debating legislation that could actually get bipartisan support. there's a thing called the has to rule that both parties subscribe to that you do not bring something to a vote before

your carcass unless it has more than half the support of your caucus. then you are not going to get a lot done that way and i think that is what we have seen for the last 20 years. host: let's talk to pam calling from cincinnati, ohio on the republican line. pam, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i think we need to bridge the gap and come together on both sides of the aisle. what i see is a demonstration of not being able to get along with each other and i guess i kind of agree with sarah that what we do next? how do we bridge the gap as a country and become the united states of america, which will encompass everything for all of us? that's my heart today. thank you. guest: yeah, i me that is just so true. there's a lot more voters out there like you. you should take heart in that. i think we have seen a trend of

our political conversations dominated by those two extremes on the outside that they mentioned, laws driven by small dollar donors. we got large dollar political donations out of the game and while that sounded good in theory, in practice it is about -- it has empowered the extremes of the two parties. once you set up an incentive system, it changes everything, changes not only who wins, it changes who runs in the first place and i certainly think that was on display this week in the house of representatives. i am just as frustrated as you are by a lot of this. there is not an easy fix. at least on the campaign finance side, this is where our 50 laboratories of democracy come in handy. a lot of states have different financing rules for their campaign, pennsylvania, virginia, texas, they all have no limits full disclosure. and i think with the technology

we have no we could safely do instantaneous disclosure. that could be an interesting model that would prevent these social medias asians -- social media-zations that is driving the extreme candidates to run, the extreme conversations they run on, and folks who want to build compromise are kind of stuck because, if you ask americans, they want candidates who will compromise with the other side. almost the same percentage of americans will say they do not there guy -- do not want their guy to compromise on the important things to them. host: real quickly because we will run out of time. i want to come back to mitch mcconnell working with president biden on the bridge in kentucky. does that signal mitch mcconnell will be willing to work with president biden and the gop congress and senate on other legislation? guest: i think it is interesting because, to me, it signals mitch mcconnell this is a -- signals mitch mcconnell think this is a

smart political strategy. yes you some extent. does mitch mcconnell really have a partner in the house to be able to get republican house members on board with whatever he might be able to do in the senate? i do not think we are talking about immigration or culture war issues in the country right now. for some of these other issues, mitch mcconnell thinks it's smart politics and if he thinks it is smart politics, you can bet there are republicans who will believe him. host: we would like to thank sarah isgur, host of "the dispatch podcast" for coming on with us to talk us through the policies of the day. thank you for being here. the politics of the day. thank you so much for being here. i would like to thank all of our guests, viewers and social media followers for another great washington journal. continue to stay safe out there and wash her hands. we hope everyone has a great saturday and will see you again

tomorrow morning for another washington journal. have a great day everyone. announcer: c-span washington journal. everyday we are taking your calls live on air. we discussed policy issues that impact you. sunday morning, we will look at the political and legislative fallout from the house battle over speaker. first, with the editor of the new republic, and later with national review senior writer and podcast host charles cw cook. watch washington journal live at sunday eastern,. join the discussion with your phone