>> we start with a look at headlines and take a few calls. then, scott wong gives an overview of the speaker election process and the impact on each party's legislative agenda. after that, mark zandi goes over the economic outlook for 2023 and concerns about a possible recession. take part in the conversation, call or send us a text message, facebook comment or tweet. washington journal starts now. ♪ host: this is washington journal for january 9, the house meets today to vote on a package that will establish the framework for legislative work in the 118th congress on the house side.

you can watch that vote in debate player on the main channel c-span. when it comes to what americans want to see out of the new congress overall, a new cbs poll shows issues such as inflation and crime were noted as areas congress should focus upon. in our first hour, what is your highest priority for the new 118th congress, particularly on the house side, as they get to work? here is how to call. (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans and (202) 748-8002 for independents. if you want to text us about what you think the highest priority should be, you could do that at (202) 748-8003 or post on social media sites, facebook.com/cspan and @cspanwj on twitter and instagram. the story yesterday coming out of cbs news was poll asking

about highest priorities when it comes to the new congress. here are things they found. when it comes to highest priorities overall, 76% saying lowering inflation. after that, 71% protecting social security and medicare. 63% saying lowering or reducing crime is the highest priority for congress. it breaks down by party, as well. for those who voted republican in 20, the high-priority is lowering inflation. 89%. 85% said securing the border, 77% for increasing energy production and reducing crime. that is for those who voted republican and for those who voted democratic, 78% said

protecting social security and medicare was the top priority. 71% said addressing issues of climate change and 67% with protecting abortion access, and 65% said lowering inflation as a top priority. you may agree with those, you may call one of those your top priority for the new congress. you may have others in mind. you can tell us what you think in this first hour for the highest priority. for democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us your thoughts, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. and, post on social media. the new congress house comes lynn -- comes in later on today. one of the thing they have to do

is the establishment of what is known as a rules package to guide the governance of the 118th congress in the house. one of the things that will be an issue is the possibility to vacate the speakership with one member of congress being able to start that process. here is part of that conversation yesterday from representative tenney comber. [video clip] >> if that is used, i think the overwhelming majority -- when i say overwhelming, 218 plus republicans realize kevin mccarthy needs a chance to govern. we are going to give him a chance. i will not say there will be one person who tries to abuse the motion, but i'm confident mccarthy will be given the green light to govern and leave the conference and do the things we told the american people we were going to do during the midterm elections. >> the last time, you said a

similar thing about kevin mccarthy. give him a chance. many people interpret that as not a robust endorsement of his speakership. it does not always sound like a robust endorsement, is it? >> hit is a robust endorsement. -- it is a robust endorsement. i represent an overwhelmingly republican district that trump won by nearly 50 points in the first election. they constantly seem disappointed republicans are not able to do the things republicans say they are going to do, like vote for term limits. that is overwhelmingly popular among conservative voters. republicans always campaign for congress and say they will pass term limits and the ballot budget amendment. but those two votes are not voted on. so i understand the frustration a lot of new members, new conservatives have. they drew a line in the sand on

some of the bills we always campaign on but never seem to vote on. i am confident kevin has heard that we want to vote on these things and i am confident we will do it. it will be a tough job, that is why nobody else tried to run for speaker. it is a tough job to get to 218. i believe kevin is the right guy and i nominated him on the house floor for speaker. host: that is representative jim comer talking about one of the elements of the rules package that will be voted on today. maybe that is a priority as far as how they get things done. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. call those numbers if you want to tell us what your highest priority for the new congress is. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. some of you putting thoughts on facebook.

to start bringing up bills one at a time to read them and have 72 hours to debate before devote -- before a vote. another saying doing the business of the constituents who elected them, which they never do. another on facebook saying when it comes to the highest priority, working together. also from facebook, exposing two years of democratic party corruption. twitter feed is @cspanwj. paul is in texas, democrats line. highest priority, what do you think? caller: my highest priority is to protect social security and medicare. it seems like the only time they want to take the money is when

-- host: can i ask why you think social security and medicare are going to be concerns now? or has this always been a concern? let us hear from mitchell in new jersey. democrats line, you are next. highest priority for congress. caller: good morning. my highest priority would be to ensure the debt ceiling vote is passed. i do not look at what i want and what the republicans want, whatever. there is no leverage to pass any legislation from the democrats or any legislation from the republicans in this house, it is not going to fly.

the only thing they have is the debt ceiling, they are going to use it to abstract very severe terms on social security and medicare, which i think the other caller may have been alluding to. that is part of the problem with the mccarthy votes this week, the wing of the party that is most extreme has extracted -- abstracted all these promises that are said to come forth during the first term. it could be devastating to our economy. it could crash our economy, actually, if we do not pay our bills. if they do not want to pass legislation on funding, it will shut the government down. it is not good either.

that is really my main concern right now. host: the debt ceiling is his main concern, the previous caller talking about social security and medicare. among democrats who voted, that was the top category as far as highest priority, protecting of social security and medicare. 78% saying that is what they are most concerned about, the highest priority. asking you the same. julian virginia, independent line. caller: good morning. my biggest priority is to regain confidence of the citizens in the electoral process, and the things that i've come to light with the twitter files, terms of silencing people and just

spoiling the spirit of democracy and public debate. those are mine, they are similar. host: are you thinking, as far as investigations, that you will see specific investigations come out from this house? caller: i mean, i am very jaded -- i think we have seen a lot of wrong things. people will complain about them, representatives will complain about them, but ultimately nothing gets addressed or done. i think that is terrible for democracy. it just makes the people lose confidence. lose confidence in the authenticity of our democracy. host: julie in virginia, talking about issues when it comes to regaining confidence is a top priority for her. you can list yours on the phone line on twitter and facebook,

text us at (202) 748-8003. they asked about the issues of bipartisanship in this poll, particularly amongst house republicans. when it comes to all republicans, 48% saying working with president biden and the democrats in the house and senate. then, posing biden and democrats, 50 2% of all republican saying that. for those identified as maga republicans, 30 2% said a top priority should be working with the president and democrats and 38% said opposing. tell us with a top priority is for you when it comes to congress. you can focus on congress as a whole, if you want to focus on the house side since they are meeting to debate the rules

package after the speakership election, you can do that. republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. the top priority for new congress, gas just went down from six dollars to four dollars a gallon. that was a good thing. for me, the main issues are cultural issues and how they relate to lives. making abortion illegal throughout america after a certain number of weeks, same idea as lindsey graham had after 15 weeks, because the baby can feel pain. but 12 weeks, the baby is kicking in the womb. something like that. i would like to see a law making gender denying health care illegal until 21. same age as alcohol and cigarettes. trying to change her gender is a bigger deal than alcohol and cigarettes. and the law repealing the respect for marriage act, because it does not respect

marriage and finds in such a way it could be redefined a hundred different ways. host: david in california listing those priorities, let us hear from erin in florida. caller: want to say i enjoy c-span, you've been doing outstanding work. my biggest priority, i used to be a hard-core republican. over time, i went away from the party because democrats do not offer much for me and republicans are wishy-washy. i went in the middle. as a u.s. veteran, it discourages me to look for results because honestly, i think and believe republicans could be on the verge of losing any future votes. i respect mccarthy and sticking strong with staying in the votes, keeping it going.

my biggest concern, we have immigration and economy in shambles. my only issue i am having is, if they are having a hard time voting for a speaker, what makes me believe they can vote on any resolutions or bills that can keep this country moving forward? thanks for your time, appreciate you. host: aaron on the independent line. when it comes to the rules package, things to watch out for. something called the motion to vacate, a procedure that allows ranking members to ask for a vote to remove this weaker. this story from wall street journal same before democrats change chamber rules and 2019, only party leaders could call for a vote to the speaker. individual lawmakers have that power. mr. mccarthy offered to restore the motion so it would take five lawmakers to call for a speaker's removal. as the week went on, he struggled to ms the votes. he agreed to a change in house

rules allowing any single member to call for such a vote. another when it comes to committee assignments, something you will see play out after the establishment of the rules package, a portion of what was offered by mccarthy was specifically freedom caucus members asked for slots on the house rules committee, which decides which bills get the floor in which amendments are allowed a vote. in the past, it has been under close control of leadership. see that play out on the house side as they come in today for that vote. you can follow along on c-span. if you have to go out or find yourself unable to watch on your tv or computer, download our c-span app, c-span now, to monitor those proceedings. it was the house minority leader on sunday talking about what he expects going forward working with republicans in the house, here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> what we have indicated from

the beginning is we are going to extend the hand of partnership to the other side of the aisle, make sure we can find common ground whenever and wherever possible. we will oppose extremism whenever necessary. there are republicans who are interested in governing. they're going to have to break from the extreme wing of their party at times around important issues, and we will see how that unfolds. >> speaker pelosi did not have a great relationship with kevin mccarthy, what is yours? >> kevin mccarthy and i have had some positive, forward-looking conversations over the last few weeks. i am hopeful we will be able to build upon this conversations to do the right thing for the american people. clearly, we are going to have strong disagreements at times. we can agree to disagree without being disagreeable, that is what i believe the american people would like to see in terms of a

functional house, senate and government. i look forward to building upon the biden agenda, tremendous accomplishments from the american rescue plan to the infrastructure and jobs act for gun safety legislation for the first time in 30 years, chips and science act, reflation -- inflation reduction act. if kevin mccarthy is willing to find common ground, they will find willing partners among house democrats. host: the house minority leader on the sunday show yesterday when it comes to that top priority in congress for the new 118th congress. what would you say that is? independent line in illinois, good morning. caller: i would like the congress to think about how it would be to live on a disability of just over $900 a month. they sit around congress, they do not do nothing.

they buttoned their coat, unbuttoned their coat, get up and down, but they do not get much accomplished. either party. it is ridiculous. i have a solution to the racial problem in the country. if people would stop putting brown and black in front of american, aren't we all american? host: let's go back to the first topic, is this your situation as far as living on disability? caller: it certainly is. it is ridiculous. i worked hard my whole life to take care of other people, and i am not being taken care of. host: is it social security disability were on? caller: yes. host: what solution would you want to see? i suppose more money is part of that, but specifics. caller: i don't know. i expect my government i paid into all my life to take care of those things and study that themselves. host: we will hear from anna,

democrats line. caller: hello. i am a retired person, 83 years old. i'm interested in the protection of social security and medicare, but images it in the protection of everything for the good of americans. the money we pay in taxes should be used for welfare. the idea of not spending to not spend is a ridiculous idea. the government exists to provide for our well-being, that is why we pay into it. i am also very concerned about -- it is a lot of protection. protection of the environment, because we have been seeing the terrific extremes in weather this last year, all of us should be aware by now of how dangerous the situation is.

we need to be protected from the extreme thinking on the part of people in the congress now from the promises that mccarthy has made to some of the extremists who do not care what happens to the people in this country. but they only want to get a few minutes of power for themselves. host: social security is her top category when it comes to those of you posting on facebook, some of you responding saying when it comes to the top priority, root out the insurrectionists. another saying social security can be saved for $80 billion, we gave that much money to support ukraine for a year. the money as they need to use it correctly. hurricane ian cost american $120

billion. i see the house doing nothing as far as investigating hunter biden. another top priority is eliminate kevin mccarthy. another saying conservatism is a priority he would like to see. i guess the house rules package speaker elect from last week, they have to vote on the rules that will govern the 118th congress on the house side. you can see that on our main channel, c-span and follow along on c-span now. if you want to watch in your computer, c-span.org is how you do that. connecticut, republican line. you are next. caller: good morning. my priority my priority would be the chairman does not intend the recommended increase in the national debt.

he should eliminate the deficit by doing two things. first, have an analysis of the 1.7 trillion dollars spending package so everyone understands what is in their. -- there. secondly, you should have each department, when they come forward with a budget, follow to rules. -- two rules. first, salary increases for inflation, there should be a headcount reduction. secondly, authorized spending in the $1.7 trillion package should

not be spent immediately. host: spending is one of those priorities, previous people posting on facebook, somebody mentioned ukraine. that cvs bowl-- cbs poll talked about ukraine and what they wanted people to do. 64% total support the idea of sending a two ukraine, 48% of republicans, 36% of what is described as maga republicans. when it comes to opposing that 80, only 36%. 2% said -- 6% of -- 64% of maga republican saying that.

massachusetts is next, independent line. caller: i guess the biggest concern, they bring these bills forward with 2000 pages in it. they throw all this stuff into it nobody knows about. i think as a congress, it is like a bank or running household. you should be lessening your bills and not making new bills. the other big thing for me in this country in the past year is protect the unborn. myself, you sitting there, every member of congress is here because we were allowed to live. thank you. host: the first part you talked about suarez the bill is concerned, one of the discussions was the idea of earmarks legislators setting aside money for states and districts, you would even illuminate that practice? caller: not totally eliminate,

but it is incredible -- one of the thing that bothers me, i did not get people's understanding of this, is climate change. the planet has been changing climate for a million years. do we really think we as human beings are going to change that? it is the ebb and flow of mother nature. stop putting money toward that and putting it toward people who are here living today who need it. we are not going to change the weather in any way. why do democrats especially keep on pushing this idea that we are going to be destroyed is ridiculous. host: let us hear next from carol in florida, republican line. caller: good morning. my biggest concern is this government has got to get it together and stop badmouthing each other and work together.

i have family deployed in other countries protecting their borders, they should be on our border protecting us. these 1200 page bills has got to end. it's just a bunch of junk in there. they should not be more than 200 pages and they should be read every word. as far as social security, congress spent it. they need to replace it. they need to take money out of their paycheck every month, every week, to replace it and secure it. someone said we pay taxes to run the government, no we do not. when texas started, they were volunteering to provide for the military and they are the last ones to be taken care of. i'd like to see this congress be the congress that puts term limits in congress. thank you.

host: let us hear from jeremy in wisconsin, independent. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine, thanks. what do think a top priority of congress should be? caller: i've got a couple things, bear with me. to the caller before carol, we are having great weather here in madison, it is amazing. but the lack of a stable wave scares the hell out of me, and i do not have to say anything about it. i also think, a guy from california this morning, he inspired me. host: as far as yourself, what is the top priority for congress? caller: hold on, just hold on. host: you've listed a couple things, what is the top priority for you. caller: my top priority is

logic. host: that was jeremy in wisconsin. for the first half hour, we wanted to ask about top preorders that you see or would like to have addressed by the 118th congress. you can let us know what those are, you can call us on the lines. (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans and (202) 748-8002 for independents. if you want to text as those priorities, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. you also have the option of posting on social media, facebook and twitter. one of the people talking about what they would like to see play out in congress is a texas republican, he was one of those who oppose kevin mccarthy as speaker of the house during the debate last week. he brought up when it comes to the debt ceiling and how congress should address that, here is part of that

conversation. http://twitter.com/cspanwj >> -- [video clip] >> the fastest way to guarantee problems is debt. the powerbrokers, -- when he goes in -- >> i will finish you. >> why is that? when you push on the swamp, the swamp is going to push right back. are we going to have this conflict going forward? i hope so. we started this now, it is january. let us do it now, get it out there. both sides of the aisle, everybody within each party. let us figure it how we are going to fix it, the american people are sick of us not doing our job. >> there is a bigger risk for the u.s. defaulting on the debt ceiling then some short-term embarrassment for kevin mccarthy.

it is a bigger deal and could cost billions of dollars. >> understood. remember in 2011 when the balance was put in place, it worked for for five years to constrain spending. defense spending was getting waxed, we do not want to see that. we want to make sure defense is protected. we need to put limits on spending and get to the table. you have to do that at home, i have to do that at home. if we do not stop spending money we do not have, we will never sit at a table. we need to be able to sit at a table and figure out how to fix it for the country. we cannot do that if leaders trimmed through 1.7 trillion dollar omnibus bills where we have no debate on the floor. we have to open up the debate come offer amendments, limit spending within our means and move the country forward. host: call us on the line, you can do that if you have not done

so the last 30 days. some of you texting us. michigan, a top priority anthony wants to see, cut defense spending. in minnesota, i would like to see honesty working for the people of this country, not debate compromise. everything in the bills explosive people know what they are voting for, one item bill so people can read before voting. another viewer texting us saying voting rights being the top priority. without the right to vote, autocracy takes over and the united states -- those in the united states have no say in the priority of matters. those are some things you can list if you see them as priorities for new congress. west virginia, independent line.

we will hear from david. go ahead. caller: yes, good morning. i'm concerned, everyone keeps saying either party is not going to take my social security. i'm on social security. you've got to make changes to social security, only 90% or so is paid for through social security fund right now, and it is getting worse. they've got to make changes. we've got 2.5 million millionaires, we've got 47,000 of them drawing social security. social security was designed as social security for the lower income, the women that never worked. now we have 47 millionaires, president biden is drawing -- he is making $400,000 a year, he is

a millionaire. him and his wife, 50 $5,000 out of social security fund every year we had -- year. you have over 65 congressman, senators, millionaires drawing from that fund. host: the only acceptable changing your mind is i guess a basis on how much a person makes and that determines how much they get in social security? caller: they would have to raise the limit where people pay in, but it is going broke. the democrats keep saying republicans are going to take it, they do that every election cycle. neither party is going to touch the third rail. it is going to go broke. if we go into a recession, that is less people working. instead of 90% coming into pay recipients right now, it will go down and be less. host: let us hear from anna in

florida, republican line. caller: take everybody's wages 10% off, all the budget needs to be 10% off of everything. then, take ssi out of social security and take everything out of social security that is not social security. i think we would be ok. give the congressman about two years off. they do not need any wages for two years. just take them off. host: you said take 10%, are you saying tim percent off of all budgets? caller: 10% off all the budgets. everything in the budget needs 10% off. we do not have any money to send to ukraine or anyplace else.

host: do you think that is a priority? caller: we do not have enough money in the government to pay all these countries what they need. they are going to have to support themselves. host: that is anna and florida on the republican line, let us hear from diana in new jersey, democrats line. you are next. caller: good morning. i see a lot of misinformation or disinformation on c-span this morning concerning social security. they are invested in treasury bills, which everyone right now is investing into have a defensive against inflation. it is bold bs about social security going broke. there are minor fixes like raising the kaplan income we take out. -- cap on income that we take out. the pay bigger percentage of their income toward social security, it is capped at 150, it goes up. not much, but tax on all of

their income. we will have plenty of money if we keep those 87,000 irs agents with the rampant tax fraud that we see, money laundering, bank fraud. for every dollar invested in irs, we get how many back? that is what you have to have, common sense solutions. we need facts first. that is what i see. a lot of people are filled with this information. host: diana in new jersey giving us a call, you can also call if you wish. (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans and (202) 748-8002 for independents. craig off facebook says when it comes to this priority, the highest prairie for congress saying it does not matter with the highest priority is for congress, it is whatever they do to get vetoed will get vetoed the president biden.

roberts's jobs for americans are a concern. to the federal government, we've been stimulating the economy while the federal reserve has been trying to slow it. the result is strong hiring the punishing inflation. time to get fiscal policy to in-line. stephanie saying i personally wish it would address the federal poverty level. not a realistic threshold and many americans would benefit if it were raised. another says its function to serve as an effective body to solve problems faced by real people across the country. the democratic leader and new speakers need to create some sort of working relationship to get things done. legislation originates in the house. i fear the week wounded and new speaker is incapable of doing his job on behalf of the american people, i hope i am wrong. you can give your thoughts, let us hear from cheryl in utah, republican line.

caller: hi. i was really pleased to see the process of electing our new leader in congress and that they did not do it behind closed doors. what i would like to see is more support for more information coming forth about the work they do giving results when they identify politicians who are against the constitution and have done wrong. we are losing faith in our justice system when we do not see penalties applied. for wrongdoing. host: let us hear from sabrina in missouri, democrats line. caller: yes. i would like to see -- there is a lot of carjacking. i think the young people need to be tried as adults.

everybody is getting carjacked, 20 cars a day. it is ridiculous for them to go to juvenile and then get let go. another problem i have, my mother is 75. everybody getting a disability check should be exempt from taxes. they do not make enough money to pay all of that. they should not be forced to go into nursing homes and sell their houses when they want to die living at their house. that is a racketeer and it needs to be stopped. host: giving us for thoughts this morning. a new congress means a new change in approach for president biden. they put it saying president biden is quietly pivoting to the middle as he prepares for the 24 run. his early 23 move, sunday's visit to the u.s. mexico border in his appearance with mitch

mcconnell to promote infrastructure law gave crystal clear contrast within the republicans chaotic speaker fight. voters sent a clear message and the midterms that they value bipartisanship, rejecting extreme candidates. republicans accommodated the far right with disastrous results, adding that president biden began his administration pandering to progresses but ended 22 with his party cutting deals with some republicans on small-scale gun regulation and a big infrastructure package. axios is the place if you want to read more about how changes are afoot for president biden as he approaches the 24 election. it was a house democrat talking about what she expects going forward when it comes to the new congress, particularly efforts of republicans and democrats and if they can support proposals made by republican leadership. there is a portion. [video clip] >> some democrats i talked to

like some of the concessions, they support liberalizing the process for amendments or allowing more people data amendments for the appropriations process. is it possible some of what happened might ultimately be good for the american people? >> what we are seeing here is that when they talk about process, that is a smokescreen. what none of the representatives you just had on would take on his they have already put this out there. this is the written agenda they put forward during the midterms that they are going to use the debt ceiling as leverage to take american seniors hostage. this is their plan. they voted to raise the debt ceiling three times under the trump administration. this is all about forcing us to

make cuts to social security, where the hard earnings of americans reside, and medicare, so they can enact that in the middle of a crisis. that is taking her seniors hostage. we have to be clear about this. all of the talk about process independence, that is cover -- process and amendments, that is cover for what they are trying to do, which is dismantle equities of our economy and make sure their billionaire buddies continue to thrive at the expense of hard-working american families. host: that is from the sunday show yesterday, kathleen in michigan, independent. you are next. caller: in my own? dashcam i on? -- am i on? this year started with the

republicans wanting to start trouble. he would swear that is their money they are giving away to the american people, the way they act. what we need to do is unify the democrats and republicans, but republicans, we can see they do not want to do that. what they should start doing is investigating those secret documents donald trump gave away to putin, and we've got to start getting this country back on track. don't nobody want to talk about that, they want to talk about impeaching president biden. why? he is trying to talk peace to keep china and russia away from us. but they want to go, they said nothing about the trillion dollars donald trump got an office, but they want to toes about the dollars president biden got and say it is taking the country but is it too far.

-- budget too far. they act like it is their money they are giving away. they should be putting money back into the american people so we can spend it back into the economy. that is the first thing they should do. host: president biden in mexico city today to meet with the leaders of canada and mexico to talk about a variety of issues. he was in el paso yesterday and, during his time there, he spent time walking along the border wall. not taking make comments from reporters about immigration policy or related matters, by four our total visit if the paper renderings are correct. we will take our next call, this is rick in indiana, republican line. caller: hello. host: what is the highest priority when it comes to congress? caller: i think what they need

to do is start getting their heads out of their rear end. i think biden has illegally broke the law bringing people over from the border, killing a lot of american people. i think he ought to be tried, him and his administration be tried and found guilty, i think you ought to be going to prison or penalty for death. host: we will leave it there, i'm going to stop you there as far as that is concerned to say statements about that toward the president of the united states, those will not be tolerated. jimmy on the democrats line, good morning. caller: i just want to make a

comment about the 45. he is responsible for a lot of my friends and family members to have succumbed to covid for not telling the american public. he still classified documents. what does it take to have this man tried? host: that is the previous administration. as far as congress, what should their priority be? caller: ukraine. if we do not fund ukraine, we are going to be over there fighting. host: jimmy in north carolina giving us his thoughts, several of you with short statements on our facebook page. from cindy, the top where you're ready, stop spending money.

kristen saying no antics. then jim and, stop acting like children. -- benjamin, stop acting like children. our twitter feed is @cspanwj, follow the show on instagram @cspanwj as well. the caller brought up investigations of joe biden, that was one of the elements from the combination poll. those saying investigating joe biden should be a high priority, 31% of all people responding. that changes to 57% republicans. let us hear from mark in california, good morning. caller: hello, happy new year to everyone. my priority i am concerned about , past the budget thing for so

many trillion dollars for the state of the country. i want them to work on the and investigate all those things they were saying on the news. the next thing, i notice whenever elections, they brought up the stuff about the homeless situation. most of the time they get money for it but did not do anything about it. i think, especially in california, a lot of the people on the streets need a mental institution or summer to help -- somewhere to help. if they work on people intermixing with them and causing the crime, i want

investigations about all that stuff. veterans deserve better treatment and the civilian people in the whole, i think they forces to resign at a certain age. there is a lot of members in the house we are past the retirement age, but they are staying there and that is not fair for us. host: michelle in alabama, democrats line. you are next. caller: good morning, happy new year. i am calling because i watched the week of trying to pick a house speaker, it was a complete debacle on the republican side. i watched twitter feeds saying this is how we should be, no it is not. at some point, americans need to evolve into being compassionate.

the ability to hear each other and speak to each other with respect. within our caucuses and within political affiliate parties. my last statement is, this ukraine money, i hear people saying do not give our money to ukraine. if people were informed, they would know the ukrainian money comes out of our defense budget. it is already earmarked for defense. this money is not coming out of some general that should be given to the american people, it was never earmarked for the american people as far as kitchen table pocket politics. that money was already earmarked for defense. if you want to cut defense spending, that is where you put the money for ukraine. until then, we need to support ukraine.

i remember when ronald reagan was -- this was the cold war, russia was the enemy. it has not changed. putin does not care about the american people, he has already said it. he has explained to them that you might be the same color, but we are different. host: that was michelle in alabama giving her thoughts on the top priority when it comes to congress. some of you texting is, this is kirk from georgia saying my top priority is campaign financing, gerrymandering. in massachusetts, i would like to see congress and the chambers eight hours a day, five days a week. they are never they are all at the same time. another viewer from detroit saying letting c-span cameras continue to show the floor of both chambers, they both belong to the people.

sunlight is the best disinfectant. a lot of you found out typically the cameras are owned by congress, we get the rights to rebroadcast. when there are no rules at the beginning of special events, c-span cameras give you additional footage to see the ins and outs as it played out in the speaker show last week. a lot of coverage for that number we thank you for supporting c-span and c-span's photographers who worked tirelessly during the week to give you those angles and that extra coverage when it comes to the speaker election. the discussion point coming up in the sunday so conversation he had you heard that earlier -- conversation. you heard that earlier. they talked about of c-span cameras should be an ongoing thing. [video clip] >> too often, bills are cooked up with a handful of people,

jammed through, put on the floor and you have to vote yes or no. the american people are tired of that, we should be able to see the stuff we got to see this week. let c-span control the cameras. >> are you in favor of that? i love the c-span cameras. >> if you are going to have cameras there, let us look at the action. >> you are in favor of transparency, c-span gets to control them. >> let me look into the ins and outs of all of that, but what the american people were able to see unfold on the floor was a good thing for our democracy. it was a good thing for people to see the inner workings, this is not just shirts and skins, red and blue. this is history because it has not happened in the last hundred years. understand why that is so. two-party entrenchment made it to where we do not have a good back-and-forth at the table. host: a couple more minutes with the idea of the top priority for

congress, from orlando, florida republican line. caller: hi. host: you are on. caller: thank you. my main issue, i started voting back in 2008. i voted for ron paul and i voted for ron paul back in 2012, as well. i have noticed most of the candidates that are important to the republican party, they do not seem to get the same attention. i am wondering why that might be. host: illinois, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have three things. the first one, but there big boy pants on and stop allowing bad behavior to not be taken care of. democrats have kicked people out of congress for bad behavior. republicans, not so. second, congress should not make themselves the only place where you can allow an application and maintain your job. third, i think is ridiculous the people who make the most money get social security capped around $160,000, so the people who make the most stop paying in social security would take care of the problem. host: the washington times picks up on a story about what is being done as far as george santos, the representative from new york who was sworn in last

week. new york republicans brainstorm potential replacement for santos with the subhead, officials hope the disgraced lawmaker resigns. when it comes to potential replacements, and includes several people, saying the wheels are already spinning. the washington times learning republican officials in washington who oversee house races are communicating with the state party about preparations for a potential special election if mr. santos quits or is forced out. that is something you can see play out as the 118th congress gets to work. let us hear from james in ohio, independent line. thanks for calling, go ahead. caller: i would like to see congress hit out here and start

telling the truth at all costs. i do not care if it comes off of fox or nbc or whatever. immigrants are not killing, they are not creating all these crimes. i do like the idea they said adding important things to the bill, i would like to see a straight bill as opposed to adding all the other stuff to it. i also think all the politicians should be responsible. you tell a live, you should not be able to be elected. if you are caught telling a lie, knowingly telling a lie, you should be convicted of a crime like we are out here as individuals. thank you. host: one more call from virginia, republican line.

go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i feel like what is going on seems to be a lot of rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. a press release from december 20 from the dea, i will read the 20 words in the headline. as 20 to comes to an end, the dea announces the seizure of 50 point 6 million fentanyl waste for prescription pills and more than 10,000 pounds of fentanyl powder this calendar year. the dea laboratory estimates this represents for them 375 million potentially deadly doses of fentanyl. when you get to the border conversation, but a lot of people are not understanding is what is the negative impact on america as a whole? if you look at the numbers on fentanyl -- i am enrolled virginia, we've had our problems with young kids -- in rural

virginia, we've had our numbers -- problems with young kids. a lot of this is manufactured in china. biden going to the border, i think what is going on as they are trying to figure out how to deal with a very clearly discussed relationship between criminal host: we are out of time for this segment. appreciate those who have called and given their thoughts this morning. we will continue on as the house does come intoday to debate the mechanics and congress today. joining us to walk us through that is in bc news congressional reporter scott wong, he will answer his -- your questions. later, we talk issues of the

economy with mark zandi, and the idea of whether a recession is avoidable this year. this conversation coming up on "washington journal." ♪ >> middle and high school students. it is time to get out your phone and start recording for your chance to win $100,000 in total cash prizes by entering c-span's studentcam video documentary contest. 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 five to six minute video showing the importance of your issue from opposing and supporting points of view. be bold with your documentary, do not be afraid to take risks. the deadline for entries

january 20, 20 23. for rules and tips on how to g started visit our website at student cam.org. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through 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. public affairs events throughout the day, weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern. catch washington today for a fast-paced report for stories on the day. listen to c-span anytime. tell your smart speaker play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams and floor proceedings from hearings

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where you have the various factions, the conservative wing, the moderate wing of the party facing off, going head to head. he saw a speaker race on the floor proceedings last week. this now carries into today, where lawmakers will fly back into washington, d.c. and take up their gop rules package on the house floor. we have already heard from a couple of the more moderate, pragmatists in their gop conference. tony gonzalez of texas on the sunday show yesterday reiterating what he told us on the capital last week that he would vote against the gop rules package. nancy mace of south carolina saying moderate voters in her district in south carolina are not happy about some concessions kevin mccarthy gave up. she is on the fence. because we have this tight

margin of four or five vote majority, if mccarthy loses too many on the rules package because democrats are unified together, that could create headaches again for kevin mccarthy. host: what is a rules package, why is it important to management of the house? guest: every new congress, we are now in the 118th congress and 2023, gets to decide its own set of rules. we didn't see the house become a little bit of a wild, wild west as we were -- did get to see the house become a little bit of a wild, wild west. house cameras were allowed to shoot on the house floor, which is generally not the case. use our reporters -- you saw reporters talking to lawmakers on camera in areas we typically do not get to. there are a number of rules focused on things that happen on the house floor. there are things like this big

rule change that would allow a single gop lawmaker, a single lawmaker in general, to bring a motion to vacate against kevin mccarthy, essentially allowing any lawmaker to call a vote to remove the speaker of the house in the middle of the congressional session. there is a number of other really interesting rules. to name a few, more time to read bills before they come to the floor. it would create -- the republicans would create a select committee, a special committee august on the coronavirus pandemic. another special committee looking into the weaponization of the federal government against the american people, specifically they are going to look at things like the raid on mar-a-lago and donald trump and things like that. a number of things that house conservatives and the freedom caucus were able to negotiate

with mccarthy. mccarthy making concessions to those conservatives in order to bring those votes into his column. host: our guest until 8:30, if you want to ask about this rules package and things to expected a as the house comes in. it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. if you want to text us, (202) 748-8003. nancy mace, you mentioned yesterday on the sunday show talking about this rules package. i will play a little bit of what she had to say. [video clip] >> when they did the rules package at the end of the day, there was only one point changed on the motion to vacate. that was the only difference in the package we are voting on tomorrow. that was different from the original package proposed. my question is, today, what backroom deals were cut and did they get those? we should not be operating like

nancy pelosi, this small faction. the other ones saying they were fighting the swamp, but yet went and tried to act like they actually are the swamp trying to do backroom deals. we do not know what they got or didn't get. we do not have any idea what promises were made or what gentlemen's handshakes were made. we do not have any idea at this point. it does give me heartburn because that is not what we ran on. >> i had asked you initially about the rules package, which is published. and would be voted on tomorrow. our you saying you are going to withhold your vote on those published agreements until you know what these backroom deals were? >> i am considering that as an option right now. i like the rules package. it is the most open, fair and fiscally conservative package we have had in 30 years. what i do not support is the small number of people trying to get a deal done or deals done

for themselves in private, in secret, to get a vote or vote present. i do not support that. host: scott wong, that is her assessment. talk about that and how widespread is that assessment shared with others, members of the conference? guest: so far, it is not super widespread. i did talk to don bacon, a swing district moderate republican from nebraska late last week heading into that final boat for mccarthy - vote for mccarthy. he said he would likely be joining with the rest of the republicans in supporting the rules package. if enough republicans stood up and said we cannot know for this rules package, it would once again be pandemonium in the house of representatives because then, it would infuriate conservatives who cut this deal with mccarthy. we would have more gop infighting.

these are just the opening days of the 118th congress. we have not really gotten into the meat of some of these tough issues. one other aspect of this rules package would be, we have to raise the debt ceiling later this summer. we are going to hit that borrowing limit, congress will need to take proactive action to raise that debt ceiling so we do not default on our nations debt. that is something we have never done in the past. it is something that most people in congress do not want to see because it could be catastrophic for not only the nation's economy, but the world economy. conservatives want to tie that debt ceiling increase to some spending cuts. that is something mccarthy has agreed to. that is going to create another major headache down the road for

this gop conference as they try to work out internally how to deal with that problem. democrats are just going to hang back and let republicans fight among themselves on these issues. host: when it comes to those spending cuts, are there specific targets to those in relation to the debt ceiling? guest: not specifically spelled out. very general at this point. talking to a number of republicans, they do not necessarily want to cut so much on the defense side. this would likely target more discretionary, domestic spending. it could also bleed into some mandatory spending, things like entitlement, social security. perhaps medicare, although there is some reservation from republicans about targeting medicare because that obviously would be unpopular. that is where the government

does spend a significant amount of money, with entitlement programs. everything will the on the table. we do not know where specifically they are going to target. host: scott wrong -- wong with us to talk about this rules package they expect later today. let's start with rick in philadelphia, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for allowing me to communicate with you guys this morning. two things i am concerned with. number one, this thing of allowing one member to request a reconsideration of the current speaker. is that just for republicans or every member? guest: every member of the house of representatives. any member can bring a motion to vacate. let's take a step back. this is a rule that was a

long-standing rule in the house of representatives for decades and decades. almost never used except -- pedro, both you and i were here in 2015, when in the summer of that year, a gentleman by the name of mark meadows from north carolina brought a motion to vacate against then speaker john boehner. that vote was never held. boehner was able to push that vote off for a couple of months. what he was hearing from his colleagues, republican colleagues, was that you cannot make me walk the plank and take this vote. this is going to be a difficult vote for me to take. i'm hearing from constituents in my district. what weiner ultimately decided to do was rather than force his colleagues to take that difficult vote about whether to oust him from the house of representatives, he decided to resign instead. those motions have consequences.

nancy pelosi when she took over as speaker raised the threshold for the motion to vacate to a high level. now, what republicans have decided to do is bring that back down to a single member who can bring that motion to vacate. host: was that a house freedom congress -- caucus request to lower the threshold? guest: it was in one of these negotiations with kevin mccarthy. caller: i appreciate him explaining it thoroughly. the other question was, when you use the term discretionary funding, that is basically as i understand it, affects the homeland. more so, those who need it the most. those who need be bp, who do not -- bbp, who do not have the ability to eat properly. those who need fha for housing,

section eight. those who need social security. those who need medicare and medicaid. can you correct me if i am incorrect? guest: the way the caller laid it out was accurate. you have discretionary spending. that does cover a lot of those domestic, federal programs that a lot of americans rely on. at the same time, you have the more mandatory spending entitlements, things like social security, long-standing, built-in programs that do not necessarily have to be renewed every year. they just exist, except when congress once you decide to go after them and take an ax to them. they are reluctant to do that because soma and americans either rely on them more are counting on them for the future of when they hit into retirement or when they need them for health care. host: new jersey, republican

line. you are next. caller: good morning. i am calling today because i am calling on behalf of war veterans. i served in iraq and afghanistan . i was retired due to injury. i want to support hr 1282, age of richard starling. many people do not know what to -- i just came upon it myself. amend title 10, united states code 610. expand eligibility to certain military retirees for concurrent receipt of veterans disability compensation and retired pay, or combat related special compensation and for other purposes. maybe this bill to us veterans with the help with the daily struggles and disabilities as

veterans and families had to endure on a daily basis. war is not something we chose, it is an obligation and a higher calling to protect our country. i ask congress to please reconsider and pass this bill. we did not leave our country behind when called to duty. i ask the nation to please reconsider. host: you are breaking up a little bit. talking about specific military bills, but military overall is a concern when it comes to spending. guest: certainly, because the bulk of our federal budget does go toward spending. that will be part of the discussion. republicans, specifically, who will now be taking control of the house of representatives have said they do not necessarily want to be spending

more money on the war in ukraine. they would rather be bringing that money home and spending that money on americans. the funding for the war in ukraine will be out the center of this spending debate as we look at the spending across the federal government. i would also note that this congress and the 117th congress did come together to address the major issue for veterans that passed the pact act, which provided health care services for people that had served abroad and been exposed to burn pits. veterans always top of mind for the united states congress, they did take action in the last congress. host: because of the deal made with the house freedom caucus, how much does that increase? guest: that is separate from the rules package.

there were some side agreements that were made with kevin mccarthy, specifically three members of the house freedom caucus, the far right members of the gop conference, they are a nebulous group did we do not know exactly how many. some people say we are in the freedom caucus, others do not say publicly. they did secure three spots on the very influential rules committee. just to explain what that is, the rules committee decides how exactly bills come to the floor in what form, when they come to the floor. very important in terms of packaging legislation together. they can package bills altogether as a big omnibus package and moved to the floor, they can break it all apart and try to pass things separately. that is a very important

committee. it is tightly controlled by the speaker of the house. they have secured three spots on that important committee. separately, byron donalds, who was nominated against speaker mccarthy last week -- we saw him rise in notoriety as he was challenging speaker mccarthy and freedom caucus members were rallying around him briefly. he will earn a seat on the steering committee, which is another tightly controlled committee by the speaker of the house. byron donalds, a conservative, african-american will be the speakers designee on that committee. these are a couple of examples of some of the things the freedom caucus was able to extract from kevin mccarthy. host: burning in kentucky, democrats line. hi. caller: good morning. the president and mitch

mcconnell are at the foot of print sprint bridge in kentucky, considered the poster child of the crumbling infrastructure in this part of the country. i was wondering what congress's role, the house of representatives role would be in the funding for that project. a quick comment, you mentioned don bacon and nancy -- they have been on your circle -- your show several times. i was a dim -- i am a democrat, but i would support that ticket if they were to run together in the next presidential election. i want to know what your comments on that. has anyone made any indication they want to run? guest: don bacon and nancy mace for president, i have not heard that ticket before but i suppose there will be a number of combinations we will be exploring in the months to come. in terms of the bridge in kentucky, we did see the split screen moment where the house of

representatives in complete turmoil, unable to agree on a speaker of the house, the house of representatives was shut down last week. there was a number of concerns on whether they could even follow-up on constituent calls and emails. some new members of congress could not even access their email and communicate with constituents because they were not sworn in members of the house, many could not attend classified briefings they normally would attend. there was a national security component. on the others things, we saw president joe biden joining hand in hand with top republicans at this bridge connecting kentucky and ohio. this was with mitch mcconnell, the gop leader in the senate. rob portman, the outgoing senator from ohio. the governor of ohio himself, mike dewine. this was a result of the infrastructure bill signed into

law by president biden in the last congress that now we are starting to see the money go out to specific projects. you are going to see more of these types of press conferences announced by the administration, announced by governors in various states because money went to districts around the country, to every state and territory. this was probably the start of that rollout of the bill they passed in the last congress. host: you menoned members. a viewer off our twitter feed mentioned one of those viewers that got a lot of attention last week, george santos. what is the word on capitol hill as far as his future? guest: he probably doesn't have much of a future. you can see santos -- i was in the house chamber last week for the floor proceedings in addition to watching what kevin mccarthy was doing and what matt gaetz were doing, a lot of reporters were stocking and following to see what george

santos was doing. he was floating on the floor from member to member, calling -- colleague to colleague. he is getting to know these people for the first time. they now know who he is by reputation because he largely fabricated his life story and juan his election -- won his election in new york. it seems he was injecting himself a lot of times into various huddles that were happening on the floor. you could tell there were certain types of members of leadership, key negotiators huddled at certain times. there in the corner, george santos would be listening and sometimes chiming in. i am sure he was -- i do not think santos is going to be a member of the freedom caucus. it was fascinating to watch. i do not think is going to have

much of a future in the house of representatives, given what has transpired these last couple of months with his personal narrative. host: will ethics get involved in investigating him? the ethics committee? guest: very likely. here is the challenge with the ethics committee, they can only investigate sitting members of congress when infractions happened during the course of their service. i think there might be a question of, if he lied in the past about a campaign, is that something you can investigate in the ethics committee? it is an open question, but i am sure democrats and other rivals will try to file ethics complaints against him. that can happen and very likely will happen. host: scott wong is with us about the opening of congress, voting on's rules package. he is within bc news.

lets hear from chris in florida. caller: how are you doing, scott? i think reporters are not doing their job properly. if you agree with me or socrates, ignorance is evil, we've got a lot of people who do not understand how congress work . a gentleman called in earlier about changing the rules to have one person vacate. you said it has been that way for a long time. yeah, andrew james did with nancy palouse he -- palouse. he speaker -- the speaker should be controlling how operations work, not ruling with an iron fist. let me suggest we stop reporting on childish things. take for instance, have you reported on the fact c-span's cameras is why we saw everything?

now, they do not. they do not control the cameras now. what i would ask you to do, sir, when you report, report things that are important to understand about how congress works, not about the petty high school games we see. host: one of the reasons we have the segment, today the rules package will be voted on that largely determines how the house works. do you have a question about that? caller: behind closed doors, it should be in public. i like this process so much i would like to see the rules package be done the same way. as a matter of fact, i would like to see those people in their eight hours a day back and forth. and you controlling the cameras. that's see some work get done. ok. mr. wong, as far as the new congress, you expect your new changes in the past as far as how congress does its job at the work being done and people coming out? guest: a lot of discussions, and

a lot of debates do happen behind closed doors. we only see a glimpse of those fights and debates in public during committee hearings. which are all public and accessible online or televised. the debates on the house floor. finally, when members want to make it a case to the media itself and go public there. i completely agree with the caller. i would love to see c-span cameras, any cameras, be able to broadcast what transpires on the house floor. probably will not be as interesting as we saw transpire last week, i am not sure many americans would tune in. you heard from chip roy over the weekend, he seemed to be in agreement that he liked what he saw when you have this greater transparency on the house of representatives. that is a question we will have

to post to kevin mccarthy about whether he would like to see the house of representatives opened up more in the name of transparency. host: one more call from mark in michigan, independent line. caller: yes, sir. since both democrats and republicans are trying to pay for their past political bills, promises they have made to the public as it were, how -- why cannot they prorate past bills do not have a continuing resolution as they seem to be doing for the past 30 years or whatever? if they had a prorated plan to pay for their past, they might be able to try paying for potential, national deceleration plans that would help support the public's willingness and run into the foul water they are playing with right now. replacing that value since the taxes are not paying for that,

as it were. go figure. thank you much. guest: do not have too much of a reaction to a prorating, but to lay out the steps ahead now when comes to government spending, the congress did come to an agreement with president byman late last year -- president biden late last year on a omnibus spending plan. we are in the middle of this fiscal 2023 omnibus, the government funding will end out at the end of september. while we have this debt limit fight that we expect will come to a head sometime in late summer, we have a government spending fight playing out at the same time. these two things will likely be merged into one big battle overspending that is the top priority of the republicans and

the house item caucus. in the bulk of that gop conference, government spending they went after the trillions and trillions of dollars we saw democrats pass when they had one party rule in the last congress, republicans have said this is the time for us to make a stand. we have control of one of the houses of congress. our focus is going to be on curtailing that federal spending. host: we have talked about the minutia today, who are the ones to wash --watch today? guest: i do not think we have talked enough about kevin mccarthy himself. this is a man that has eyed the speaker's role his entire political career. he has spent 14 years in-house leadership working his way up very methodically, earning political capital.

he is perhaps his party's best fundraiser at the moment. he started as a house staff are for bill thomas. old former ways and means chairman, who helped at seat in bakersfield, california before kevin mccarthy. he is somebody we talked about that fight over john boehner and his speaker's gavel. kevin mccarthy was the guy next in line to become speaker. he is not a stranger to these battles with the house freedom caucus. at that time, the house freedom caucus denied him the votes to be speaker on the day of the speaker election. i was just outside that ways and means committee room. kevin mccarthy walked out, not a happy man because he had just decided to drop out of the speakers race that very day as he was supposed to be nominated by his party to be speaker. he decided that that moment to

fold his cards in order to survive to fight another day. miraculously, that paid off for him. that decision to fold on that day in 2015 paid off when he was elected speaker by the house of representatives just last week. host: he plays the long game. scott wong of nbc news, great to be with you. coming up, matters of the economy. winning us moody analytics chief economist mark zandi, his economic outlook, the idea of whether a recession is available. that conversation coming up on "washington journal." ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information. only at c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network.

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preorder your cy day for early spring delivery. $29.25 plus shipping and handling. >> ♪ be up-to-date in the latest in publishing with book tv's podcast about books with current, nonfiction book releases less bestseller lists 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. --podcasts. ♪ >> "washington journal" continues. host: looking at the u.s. economy with mark zandi, moody analytics chief economist. thanks you for joining us. remind people what moody's is and your role in it. guest: moody's analytics is part

of the moody's corporation which includes the rating agency. moody's analytics does work in providing support for a large number of companies and financial institutions around the world. the economy matters to these institutions. that is where i come in, helping these institutions understand where the economy is headed and the risks they face as part of the economy's performance. host: you put a look into where the economy is going to review developed a new term called slow-cession. can you describe that? guest: in my view, 2023 going into 2024 is going to be tough for the economy. it is not going to be easy. inflation is high. federal reserve is raising interest rates quickly to quell the wage and price pressures. that environment, the economy is going to struggle. i think we have a good chance of getting through the next year or so without a actual recession.

a recession is a broad-based across lots of industries persistent more than a few months, a few quarters, decline in economic activity. i do not think the are going to see that. we have a good chance of not seeing that. it will be slow, the economy is going to be soft. not a recession, a slow-cession. that better describes the path forward for the economy, in my view. host: one of the driving forces behind this idea of slow-cession? guest: the slowdown is clear. that is, ok, we got mailed to the pandemic, the russian invasion which caused oil prices, agricultural prices, food prices, commodity prices to jump. crated this high inflation we are suffering right now -- created this high inflation we are suffering through right now. the federal reserve, high inflation is not consistent with

a well-functioning economy in the longer run. they are raising interest rates to slow things down, cool things off, get job growth to something that will allow the inflationary pressures to abate. that is the slow part of the slow-cession. not recession, recession means you are going back, the economy is contracting and getting smaller. i do not think economy wide in an aggregate sense that is going to happen. a lot of risk here, obviously. a lot of things can go off the rails. i think we have a fighting chance with a little luck that nothing else goes wrong, and with reasonably good policymaking, debt policymaking by the fed, raising rates high enough, fast enough to bring in that inflation but not too high is best to push the economy into recession. that is the backdrop for this. one other thing that we can go to.

the fundamentals of the economy, the things, the balance in the economy that does the economy in during a recession or exacerbates a economic downturn are not evident today. generally speaking, leverage -- over a bill, the banking system is highly capitalized. the government is flush with cash. generally before a recession, you see imbalances. you do not see them at this point in time. it is not a recession, but a slow-cession. host: this is mark zandi joining us, if you want to ask him questions. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. if you want to text us your thoughts, (202) 748-8003. you talked about the fed, its attitude towards rates. we will see rates, maybe not as high this coming year. if that is the case, what does

it reflect as far as the fed's confidence in what it is doing? guest: the fed is going to raise rates more. they increased interest rates aggressively last year. it is hard to believe when you go back to this time last year, the federal funds rate target, the interest rate the federal serve controls, that was close to zero. now, it is sitting somewhere 4.5%. that is a big change in a short period of time. it is sort of signaling strongly that it will continue to raise rates early in 2023. investors in financial markets are expecting the fed to raise rates another half percentage point over the next couple of three months. by spring, the federal funds rate target which was at zero a year ago will be close to 5%. for context, best estimates of the interest rate consistent with not supporting the economy or not straining the economy is

2.5%. the rate we are going to in the next few months is double that rate consistent with the policy that is neutral with respect to the economy. the fed is working hard to bring in that inflation. after that, it is hard to know what has to happen. what has to come in for the fed to stop raising interest rates. i think that is going to happen, the most likely scenario. if i am wrong and inflation continues to remain high and persistent, the fed will have to raise rates more later this year. higher rates are coming. it is a question of how much higher they are going to go in 2023. host: here is part of your analysis. you may have to explain it. coming downturn would he consistent with many indicators leading to recession, most notable is the deepen version of the treasury yield curve. can you explain that? guest: sure.

economists rely on lots of leading indicators to gauge whether we are going to go into a recession in the future. looking at history, identifying indicators, variables that historically have recessions. one of those very and prescient leading indicators is the shape of the -- the difference between the long-term interest rates, the 10-year treasury yield, and short-term interest rates, the federal funds rate. typically, long-term interest rates and the 10 year and short-term interest rates and federal fund rates part, there are points historically when it is so-called -- it so-called inverts. short rates raise above long rates. the federal reserve is raising rates aggressively as they have been the past year. net yield curve inverts, when the federal fund rate rises above the 10 year treasury curve in a consistent way, historically, we have had 12

recessions since world war ii. you can look at what happened in those 12 recessions. you go back and look, typically, the yield curve inverts, short rates rise above long rates above -- about a year before recession hits. that 10 year treasury yield less than federal fund rates target inverted in december. if you were taking the yield curve literally and assuming it is a perfect guide, it would suggest recession by some point late this year. i can give you more technicals. i think there is reasons to be cautious about interpreting the yield curve. the literal interpretation would be, recession dead ahead. that is why a lot of economists, any people in financial markets inc. a recession is likely in 2023. host: you talked a lot about the

federal reserve. if it had reacted sooner with the economy, would results be different? guest: probably. they were slow. last time -- this time lester, interest rate was zero but federal reserve was becoming an issue. unemployment was climbing. i had -- a russian invasion of ukraine was not on the radar screen going back a little over a year ago. russia did not invade ukraine until february. in my view, that was a significant, global economic event. it caused oil prices to skyrocket. remember, go back to the summer of last year, june to be precise. we were paying five dollars nationwide for a gallon of regular unleaded, a all time record high. that directly goes back to the russian invasion, the sanctions we put on the russian oil, the british put on russian oil, the

european union put on russian oil. that caused prices to jump. the fed could not have predicted that or made policy based on that. yeah, if they had been more aggressive earlier on, probably the situation today would be less serious. we still have issues with inflation and recession risks will probably still be high. we probably would not be in as difficult of a spot. hard to be critical of the federal reserve given the uncertainties. i should also say, the pandemic -- hard to remember back, but this time lester, we were dealing with the omicron wave of the virus. that was doing damage to global supply chains, the job market, creating inflationary pressures. difficult to gauge how that would play out. i do not want to be too critical of the fed and their policy. host: first call for mark zandi

is from california. rick on our line for democrats. go ahead. caller: good morning. my question is, the republicons are talking about busting through the debt ceiling, not raising it. how will that affect my retirement, my pension and investments? guest: thank you for the question. it would be a cash profit to your investments, to your wealth. let me step back for a second to make this more clear. the debt limit is the limit on the amount of treasury debt that can be outstanding. we are now bumping up against that limit. if we hit the limit and the treasury runs out of cash it has in its bank accounts, it cannot issue more bonds -- treasury

bonds to finance the government spending and tax policy. someone is not going to get paid. the treasury cannot cut a check to somebody. it could be someone in the military, a social security recipient, bondholders. from you, you may have it in your pension plan to afford investors. middle eastern investors, japanese investors, chinese investors. if someone does not get paid, that is going to send a bomb throughout the global financial system. one of the bedrock principles of a well-functioning, global financial system, is the u.s. pays its debts on time so it is risk-free. if you buy a bond from the u.s. treasury, you are going to get your money back and interest no questions asked. if someone does not get paid because of the debt limit bridge, that blows that out of

the water, that confidence out of the water. investors will say, i am not sure i'm going to get paid. this is not risk-free. pay me more from this treasury to compensate for that risk. that means everything is going to be worth less. stocks will be worth less, bonds will be worth less. housing will be worth less, commercial risk -- commercial real estate, everything will be worth less. that goes to your retirement savings. it would be so catastrophic, it is hard to imagine -- the dysfunction we are observing in washington, that lawmakers would allow that to happen on that path. obviously, we have had a rising risk of content of difficulties we are observing in congress today. host: this is from texas, cameron, independent line. caller: hi, thanks for taking my call.

i am a listener to the podcast. my question is, i have heard some people talking about how, once we get through this initial bout of inflation, we could go back to a more normal relationship with inflation and interest rates because of on shoring and near shoring and labor shortages. i wanted to know what your thoughts are on that. guest: thank you. caller: thank you for listening to my podcast, inside economics is my podcast that we do every weekend. thank you for calling that out. there is a reasonable debate about where inflation is going to settle after this. clearly, the federal reserve is going to win the day, one way or another. they are going to raise interest rates high enough, long enough to get inflation back down. they have a target, they are

calling for consumer price inflation, cpi inflation, the inflation number most people focus on. they -- it is about 2.5%. we are about 7%, we are going to it another cpi number this week and it will probably show inflation continues to moderate. let's say six point 5% year-over-year consumer price inflation, the rate of price increase in goods and services we are purchasing the past year. we need to go from 6.5% to 2.5%. the fed is going to do whatever it takes, potentially pushing us into a recession, to get that done. once it occurs, probably not in 2023, but probably in 2024, there is a lot of crosscurrents, restraining inflation it is unclear where that will settle. my own sense is, cutting through those crosscurrents, the tailwinds, headwinds that are

buffeting inflation going forward, the federal reserve is going to get what it once. they are going to manage monetary policy, interest rates to calibrate the gross rates in the economy so that we get inflation that is close to their target. if it is 2.5%, they get 2.5%. maybe going forward having to battle more to keep inflation down. i think there are longer-term inflationary forces that might be strong tailwinds to inflation the fed will have to battle. one as you mentioned is the near shoring, re-shoring. because of the supply chain issues during the pandemic and the geopolitical issues between china and the u.s. right now, there is an effort by businesses to bring back supply chains closer to home in the u.s. and north america, mexico, canada. that means it is going to be more costly to produce those goods, that may add to inflation in the longer run. federal serve can calibrate monetary policy, interest rates

to get the inflation rate they want. they will have to keep rates higher if this broader inflationary forces are pushing on inflation. host: a lot of people called this program to take a look at inflation through the lens of desolation -- gasoline prices, food prices, the cost of eggs. how do you factor those into a economic picture, particularly those who do not follow economics like you? guest: the one thing most people focus on to gauge where inflation is and how big the cost of a gallon of regular unleaded, that is the litmus test for most people. it is clear why. for most people, you see that every single day. if you are driving to work or going to's cool -- going to school, going shopping. driving by your local gas station, looking at that price. good news there, one reason to be more optimistic that inflation is going to continue

to come in and we can avoid a recession, we are back down close to three dollars for a gallon of on -- of regular unleaded. at june of last year, the all-time high as a result of the russian invasion of ukraine and sanctions, we had five dollars on the nose, a record high. we are down to three dollars. three dollars is good. we were at three before russia began to invade, it became clear that russia would invade ukraine. i think it was perfect and everything well, we would be at $2.50. it continues to move lower. prices are going lower. a lot of crosscurrents here, the sanctions on russian oil are pushing up prices. we are seeing a week chinese economy because china consumes

and commands a lot of oil. that demand is down, weighing against oil prices. at home, we are getting more efficient. just to give you a sense of that, if you go before the pandemic, we as a nation were consuming 21 million barrels of oil a day, about a fifth of oil consumed across the globe. today, we are consuming about 20 million barrels a day. we have reduced our consumption of oil since before the pandemic by one million barrels a day. that is consequential and another reason why we are seeing downward pressure on oil and gasoline prices. that is the key price i think most people focus on. one other quick point, oil prices and tagged on diesel prices is critical to food prices. a big part of the cost of food, those eggs, milk, meat, vegetables, a lot of that is the

cost of getting it from the farm, the ranch to the store -- to the store shelf. if diesel prices are high, food prices are high. if diesel prices are starting to come in, a lot of risk of what is going on with oil prices. they can go back up quickly. for the moment, it feels good. three dollars a gallon feels like a good price. i think people are feeling better about inflation right now as a result. host: you did talk about jobs. december numbers came out last week, three .9% unemployment rate. what did you make of the numbers? guest: i thought they were very good. going back to that context of the fed wants to raise rates high enough to slow things down but not raise right -- raise rates so fast it undermines the economy, that jobs number was consistent with that effort. job growth is slowing definitively. if you go back a year ago, the economy was creating 600,000

jobs a month on average. we are now seeing job growth as about half that, between 200000 and 250,000. if you look into the numbers like i do, you can count that down into the data and see the leading indicators of future job growth indicate that job growth will slow. it sounds weird to people, i am rooting for slow job growth. typically, people want jobs. right now, the economy is low unemployment. 50 year low, three point 5% unemployment rate. labor market is tight, a lot of businesses are having trouble finding qualified workers. that goes to the inflationary pressures. at this point in time where we are today, it is better if we see some slowing in jobs. we do not want to see job losses , significant increases in layoffs, but we want to see a moderation in jobs growth. that was the message and the jobs report, that is what is

happening. we need to see more of it, but i will take it. that is why the stock market, it had a good day last friday because stock investors interpreted the numbers like i did. host: this is brenda in washington state. democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning. two comments, one on inflation, one on interest rates. inflation with covid spending, where would we be if we had not helped people put food on the table and stay in their homes? second on interest rates, historically, i believe they are low. i feel for younger people, they do not know different. old folks know better. i can remember in the 1990's, under 9%. after 9/11 when they were plummeting, they were kept artificially low for long.

that is why i feel for the young folks, they do not know any different. it is hard to get a home. older folks know better. thank you. guest: thank you. i am old, too. my hairline has receded a bit. you are right. the best interest rate to illustrate that is the mortgage rate, the 30 year fixed rate mortgage rate. that is sitting about 6.5%. for anyone who has been in the job market the past 15, 20 years, that feels high. if you go back a year ago when interest rates were at their low, you could get a 30 year straight mortgage loan for probably 2.5%. that was a record low. here we are now. it feels uncomfortable.

it is a problem for potential homebuyers. when rates were very low, they created a lot of demand for homes. that to stop house prices. here is a statistic for you. between -- the month before the pandemic hit to june of last year, which was the peak and house prices, they rose 40%. with that surge in house prices, combined that with the 6.5% mortgage rate, housing is not affordable. you get a mortgage at 6.5%, your mortgage payment is $800 more a month then it was about a year ago. that is for most people, it is not affordable. 6.5% feels uncomfortable, even though it is low by historical standards. you go back to the 1970's and 1980's, we were seeing mortgage rates in the double digits. it is much lower than that, but higher than people are used to.

host: it was the national association of realtors who put out that existing home sales dipped 7.7% in november. is that something to watch, is that cause for concern? guest: 6.5% plus the high house prices, affordability, mortgage payments have jumped, affordability has collapsed. you cannot afford this. sales have fallen, demand has fallen. single-family housing is the weakest part of the economy, which should not be a surprise. the federal reserve is raising interest rates in an effort to slow down, cool off the economy and of the most interest rate sensitive sectors of the economy will feel it the most. nothing is more interest rate sensitive than housing. to buy a home, you have to get a mortgage. those mortgage payments are high.

so, very sensitive to moves in interest rates. housing is in recession, it is contracting. that part of the economy is going backwards, sales are down. wilting is down. house prices are starting to fall in many -- building is down. house prices are starting to fall in many parts of the country. that is something to watch. there is very low probability that we see something that is serious in the housing market like we did in the financial crisis, that will not happen for lots of reasons we could talk about. we do need to watch when house prices start falling. people who got mortgages recently make it into a situation where there house value is less than the mortgage debt they owed on the house, that is not a good place to be, particularly if income is disruptive for unemployment or some change in life circumstance. so, it is something to watch.

host: in florida, republican line. good morning. one more time. we will go to ken in south dakota, independent line. you were on with mark zandi, go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you. you are a good teacher. i am wondering, what is the intuition behind normally lower short-term interest rates versus long-term? thank you. i would have thought it should be the other way around, i am sure there is a good reason. maybe you can explain, thank you. guest: thanks for those kind words. [laughter] i am a pretty impatient teacher if you ask my kids, but i will

take it. the intuition is that if you buy a long-term bond, going back to the 10-year treasury yield -- treasury bond i was talking about earlier, you are extending -- you are buying a bond that returns in 10 years. a lot of things can happen in 10 years. compared to say a three month treasury bill, something that expires or pays off in three months. that 10 year bond, you are considering that relative to the three month treasury bill, you are saying a lot of stuff happens in 10 years. you could be higher, there are a lot of things that can affect the prevailing interest rates that exist 10 years from now. to compensate for certainty, that risk, you demand higher

interest rate. that interest between -- difference between long and short term is significant for a treasury bond, -- the federal funds rate target is the short rates to short rates. that should be somewhere around 2.5%, that is neutral with respect to the economy. neither adding or subtracting. the 10-year treasury yield should be about 4%, 2.5% fund rate, one point five percentage points is typical different -- difference between long and short rates that has prevailed histically. host: there is if viewer off of twitter who asked can you explain why china japan switched to little or no inflation, what are they doing differently? guest: in the case of japan,

there inflation rate is pretty high. it is low by our standards, but they are looking at inflation around 3%. you go back before the pandemic, they were flirting with zero. they were always battling deflation, declines in prices. that is the situation they have been in going back into the early 90's. their economy is more or less, in terms of the working age population, declining. people did not come to japan like to come to the united states. the size of the nation is declining, that puts downward depression -- downward pressure on demand. so 3% is pretty high by japanese standards. they would view that as a

feature, not a bug. they do not want low inflation, they want inflation close to our target in the 2% range. they see this as a positive development, but inflation has picked up. in the case of china, they have been crushed by the covid pandemic. they've been on lockdown since the pandemic hit three years ago , they never recovered. so there demand has been hit hard, they are flirting with recession. they are buying cheap oil from russia, russia's diverting oil from the western economies in europe and that is going into india and china, putting oil prices down in china and keeping inflation low. host: we may see some news today, the lifting of order cuts and applications for passports up in china. we may see some differing trends. guest: exactly right.

they are trying to open up, it will take time. the so-called no covid policy, they are getting sick like we did a year or two ago. that will delay things until the spring or summer. by the spring or summer, when they are on the other cited illnesses, that economy will start to ramp up again and grow more strongly. going back to something i said earlier, that is probably when oil prices will start to not hire because china will be by more oil. host: independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. i get real frustrated listening to these political hags for the democratic party. our economy two years ago, before biden came into office,

was streaming along. it blows me away how you accept for dollar gas prices -- fo dollar gas prices when the situationur make sure you believe, mr. andi is full of crap like his dog walking around with a diaper on. host: no need to insult the guest like that. if you want to respond to the bided administration and his policies, go ahead. caller: sorry about the dog, he is old. he is 17 years old, so sorry about that. cannot control him. in my view, the run-up in oil prices and higher gas prices, they are back down again. they are three dollars a gallon, that is close to where it is

expected to be based on historical norms. higher oil prices goes right back to the russian invasion of ukraine. when it became clear russia was going to invade, there was a lot of discussion back in 2021 when oil prices started to pick up. there's been a lot of concern about policies around energy development, fossil fuels. that might be constraining the ability of u.s. producers, for occurs -- frackers to invest and put in more oil rigs. that is not happening in the data, you can look. if you look, the number of oil and natural gas rigs in place

today is exactly equal to where it was before the pandemic hit. i think 740 rigs in operation. it has come up since the bottom of the pandemic hit. maybe the energy regulation is having some impact on the margin, pretty hard to see. russia produces a lot of oil, they asked for a lot of oil. you put price caps on it, that is appropriate to me in context of the invasion of ukraine, then you see higher prices and higher cost at the pump, that is what we saw. host: you wrote a piece taking a look at the stock market, give your analysis as far as expectations for 2023. guest: i feel a great deal of trepidation. trying to say sending about the stock market, a degree market --

equity market is difficult. you should be invested in the long run. you should be saving and investing in a consistent way every month. if you are in the stock market, you should not need the money anytime in the future. that is something for 5, 10, 25 years down the road. at the end of the day, when you make an investment in the stock market, you are investing in the future of the american economy. that has always been a good bet. we have our problems, things go up and down, we have recessions like every other economy. long run, we do well and stocks do well. in the near term, if you buy into what i am saying, first at the federal reserve will raise rates more -- we are close to the end of the rate hikes, inflation will continue to come in.

second, if you buy into the slow session few of the world, it is going to be a strobel, but we are not going to a blown out economic downturn were session that sure recession, that suggests stocks are not coming going back soon. -- not comingroaring back soon. should be investing for the long run. host: california, republican line. caller: good morning, i appreciate you having me on. what we are hearing here is the left-wing view of economics. there is more conservative view of economics. it would be catastrophic if the government defaulted on its debt

and things like that, i agree. it is also going to be catastrophic if we continue to print this money, there is nothing to back it. you can point to germany in the 1930's and that is the path we are on. republicans will get hammered about holding the line on the debt limit, but i wonder if mr. zandi has an opinion about what happens when you print one $100 bill to many, which is what we are doing. the bills are going to get paid, people who get their social security checks, including myself. the question is, is it going to be worth anything? is the couple thousand dollars you get from the government going to cover your prescriptions cost for a month or something like that? c-span, you need to balance this thing up.

my respects to mr. zandi, i listen to his podcast. you are a staunch left-winger. to attribute the rise in gasoline to the war in ukraine, which is eight democrat talking point -- a democrat talking point, biden raised the price of gas the first day in office by limiting the amount of drilling for the first time we were energy independent in my lifetime. host: we will leave you there because we are running out of time. when it comes to economics, we present a lot of different perspectives on this program. you can look back and see it for yourself. mr. zandi, go ahead. guest: i appreciate the perspective. one area where i think we can agree on, it sounds like we agree on the debt limit, that is

great. that would be catastrophic for everyone. i do think if we implement fiscal policy, that means government spending policy, tax policy, and lawmakers do anything that would increase spending above that already in the budget or cut taxes below anything already in the budget, i think that does need to be paid for. we cannot increase the size of our deficits, we need to bring them in. i agree if we are not more fiscally prudent, that will be a problem. i do not think the issue right now -- we provided a lot of support during the pandemic, that was, in my view, necessary. every country on the planet did roughly the same thing. the government is there for us when we are in crisis, the pandemic was a crisis.

here we are today on the other side of this, we did borrow a lot of money. we do need to be fiscally prudent going forward. if we come up with a new package of increased spending for whatever it is, we have to come up with ways to pay for that. i there with cuts in other spending or increases in texas. -- either with cuts in other spending or increases in taxes. we need to come up with spending cuts or reduction or increases in other taxes to pay for it. i think that was coming through in the caller's remarks and i am 100% behind that. host: mark zandi, you can find the work at economy.com if you want to check out his work, including a look at 2023 and thoughts on a slow session. thanks for your time. we will finish off this program

with open forum. if you want to comment on anything you have seen so far or things in the news, you can do so right now. call us at (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans and independents, (202) 748-8002. text us at (202) 748-8003, we will take those calls when washington journal continues. ♪ >> middle and high school students, time to start recording for your chance to win $100,000 in total cash prizes for the grand prize of 5000 dollars by enting c-span's student video documentary contest. 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 five to six minute video showing the importance of

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one of the things you saw last week as his name was put into nomination for speaker of the house was representative byron donalds of florida. talking about the role he will take going forward in the 118th congress, the story from fox news saying he revealed yesterday he is being placed on the house republican steering committee in exchange for supporting kevin mccarthy for house speaker. it says he followed an epic 15 ballot elect for mr. mccarthy, saying he is happy it is all over with. we got something transformational. one of the things he did talk about on the program is what the future of investigations of the biden administration and other thing will take place in the house. here is part of it from yesterday. [video clip] >> we will have a select committee to investigate china and all the things the ccp is doing to not only influence here

in the united states, but also take jobs away from americans over the years. we are going to get to the bottom of that. i've been talking with jim jordan and james comer, the investigations into the fbi, department of justice, the twitter files in all of that, but also what the fight and family has been doing the last several years. -- biden family has been doing the last several years. we will get to the bottom of that. one of the other things included in the full-spectrum a church committee that will go through the process of investigating the weaponization of the federal government. it was released in these twitter files that one of the white house staffers sent messages to twitter, requesting accounts be taken down. this is the type of stuff that must be investigated, we have to get to the bottom of it. if we are going to have a country by and for the people, the federal government cannot be used as a tool to wield its own agenda against american citizens. >> i think you are spot on in

terms of raising the twitter files, this is a situation where the mainstream radio refuses to report what is taken place. you are talking about a task force of 80 fbi agents solely focused on amplifying lies in suppressing truth. we all would like to see some accountability. if you find there is actual evidence of wrongdoing among will you support impeaching joe biden? >> that is something that will happen. right now, what we want to do is get to the process of going through the investigations. host: that is byron donalds from yesterday, you can mention that during open forum if you wish or other thing is the 118th congress on the house side comes back today to vote on the rules package. you may have heard our guest from the previous segment talk about what to expect. the numbers are on this grade and decomposed on social media.

we start with the democrat line, good morning. -- and post on social media. start with the democrat line. caller: i want to ask you guys to please call the lives of republicans every time they call on your show. just now from the investigation, let me start with a hillary clinton emails. they investigated and investigated and found nothing and you never hear about it. they are going to start that again. i was listening to zandi, a guy from utah called in. you never call out there lies. energy independence. i believe we received energy independence under obama. obama took over an emergency economy in 2009, unemployment rate was 9%. it went down to 4%, that he handed the baton to trump and trump's driving around like it was his economy when he is driving around obama's economy.

everybody is talking like trump did it. economists do not know how long it takes for an economy to build itself up. it is very possible and seems logical the first four years of any administration, the economy is due to the four previous years of the president. trump was running around with obama's economy pretending like it was his, when his first emergency comes up he destroys the country. host: you will hear joe biden talk about the current state of the economy in his administration, are you saying president trump should be getting credit for that? caller: that is correct. we do not know -- it is not the first year, the first two years of an administration that has to do with what is going on with the economy. when republicans come up and say over and over again that trump did this, trump 3% unemployment,

it is ridiculous. it had nothing to do with trump. host: next call, las vegas, republican line. caller: hi, good morning. quick response to the gentleman you just had, go back and look at figures about employment, inflation -- host: are you there? i think your signal gave up, if you want to call back and try again, please do so. let us go to brian in michigan, independent line. caller: can you hear me? host: yes. caller: the deal is, you have been around a little while. go back to 9/11, i remember that morning very well. by the end of the day, everyone is frantic. i spent a lot of time in the middle east.

i am on the independent line. it was the worst thing i've ever seen, they say would a beautiful world, patriot act. have you read the whole thing? i do not know i have read the whole thing, but i caught key elements. i can see where things are going. i am a civilian like everyone else. there are provisions in their that go against our constitution. i wish c-span would start bringing on guests that are the experts in the constitution. we gave up some of our rights. no matter who is in power, the weaponization -- we've used these general terms before. you cannot give up our civil

rights, our constitutional rights in this manner. this is basically a said. -- sin. we need to look into that. we cannot have secret courts. the fbi's weaponized, no doubt about that. it is going to keep going back and forth forever. host: we will go to brenda on the democrats line in new jersey. hello. caller: good morning. i just want to voice my opinion. the president has been in office for over two years, i am very disappointed on president biden on how he always is on vacation leaving the white house. things have to be done. he goes to the border yesterday, i watched it from beginning to end, how they cleaned it up and he did not see anything which was normally a mess and

disorderly with people crossing the border. i really wish things would be different in the white house. president biden needs to stop taking so many vacations and concentrate on running america. thank you for listening. host: what to expected they the 118th congress, axios picks up a story this morning. house republicans plan to launch a new investigative panel this week that will demand copies of white house emails, memos and other communications with tech companies. speaker mccarthy planned a quick read of announcements to award hardliners back through his harrowing fight for the gavel. the new panel, the select subcommittee, is partly a response to revelations from elon musk and the internal documents. house conservatives request the subcommittee and mccarthy granted as he worked to wrangle votes. you can see that play out later

today is the rules package is being voted on. you can follow along if you watch c-span, if you have to be out doing things, consider downloading the app at c-span now and follow along that way. virginia, republican line. caller: hello. i have two points, if you would give me a little space to make them, please. i am an unabashed election denier. that is neither unpatriotic nor illegal to question an election in this country. if you look at the effects of the better, there is no time to -- matter, there is no time to litigate any of the talking points or evidence brought before the judges after the election. 72 days is the time you have between the election and inauguration. there is no time for that. the supreme court had no appetite to question an election, nor litigate one during a pandemic.

now is not going to happen. if you would give me a little time, the insurrectionists, i take exception with that. that was not an insurrection, that was a mob that got out of control, a crowd that became a mob, got out of control. several thousand out of five hundred thousand people converged on the capital. some people related with no impedance from the police -- people were let in with no impedance from the police. others had to engage the police, which was unfortunate. host: let us hear from annette in west virginia, hi. caller: hi. i just want to express my opinion about what they are doing. they are going to fix the economy, but it is a deception.

what they are working on is putting a microchip in our body in order for us to keep our homes, our houses, and buy food and groceries. it does sound too good to be true. many people say i did not have to worry about money anymore, which will be true. host: sorry, apologize for that. we have about a half-hour until we finish off this program, you can call and tell us what you think as far as political news and this open forum. (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans and independents (202) 748-8002 . you can reach out to us on social media and text us. caller: good morning.

it is funny to me, and thank you c-span for the coverage on the speaker, i enjoyed every minute. it is funny to me how people talk about insurrection, look what happened down there in brazil. they stole it, everything is alive, all of this. host: are you there? let us go to mike in las vegas. you are next up. caller: i, just want to call it and say anything the republican house should open up a new january 6 commission. host: what would you like to see come out of it? caller: the truth. host: that is mike in las vegas. if you want to call, it is (202) 748-8000 for democrats,

republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. you can talk to us about things of political note, things you are seeing. let us try jason in north carolina, republican line. caller: thanks for having me. i just wanted to bring up a point that was mentioned on c-span and ignored by the media throughout the whole speaker saga. the transparency we saw over the whole process. it was a stark difference between basically every media outlet versus what you saw on c-span, this is an opportunity to see things we do not normally see. i am curious, from c-span's perspective, it was mentioned you do not normally get the

interaction between our representatives. why don't we normally see that level of detail, and why would that not be good for america? we should be pushing to have more transparency in that way. i would like to get your perspective. host: many people ask this, i do not know the full ins and outs. are people who do, let me try. cameras you see on normal coverage, once the house approves rules and the package, they operate and own the cameras, technically. they are owned by the u.s. government. we get the right to broadcast it, if you will. show people that perspective. with that in mind, because the house of representatives and senate only cameras, they get to call the shots literally and figuratively. and special occasions like the opening of the 118th congress where there is no rules package involved and some special occasions on top of that, we

asked congress, speaker and leadership, to bring in cameras to give other perspectives, which they allow in many cases. that is what you saw going forward as far as what you saw last week, particularly as you saw some angles on the house floor with members talking with other members and people sitting down and what you see during the course of the speaker race. for us to continue on, we would have to gain permission from the leadership of the house and senate to bring our own cameras into providers other perspectives. i probably have missed some things, that is generally how it is understood. ultimately because congress owns the cameras, they get to call the shots. we do appreciate the perspective and people that have been congratulatory of the work of our fine photographers as they brought you those other perspectives during the week. and wednesday night, in el paso, president biden on a short visit to the border, about four hours.

one of those walking alongside offense. -- a fence. here's a portion of that from yesterday. [video clip] >> they need a lot of resources in we are going to get them for them. [indiscernible] >> thank you. >> i have not read it yet. host: during that short visit at the border, that is the interaction the president had with some reporters talking about issues of immigration and border security. during to give us perspective is mr. garcia with the texas tribune. guest: thanks for inviting me.

host: can you tell how much time the president spent at the border and the things he saw? guest: he arrived at about 12:30 mountain time and left at 4:30 mountain time. he visited one of the port of entry is called bridge of the americas, port of entry for tourists and commercials on people who live both in mexico and el paso. from there, he did an expected stop during the border wall with border patrol agents. after that, i believe he had meetings with local officials and, before he took off, he toured a city/county migrant center where border patrol drops off migrants who have been processed and use the center as the medium point before taking off on a bus or flight. host: when it comes to el paso,

why did the president choose this section, and does best reflect what is going on when it comes to migration issues? guest: in september and december , they saw a high number of migrants crossing the rio grande . many are coming from venezuela, haiti, nicaragua. many of them are seeking asylum. el paso has always been a crossing point. it was not as busy -- or it has never been this busy in a long time. for a lot of the city and county residents, even border patrol, a lot of the resources -- they were maxing out on resources. not enough shelter space and processing centers. so a lot of them have to be processed quickly, they were

being dropped off by border patrol on the streets. many were sleeping on the streets in nearly freezing temperatures. the timing was not coincidental. if there was a place to visit along the border right now, it would have been el paso. host: we saw some interaction with the texas governor, greg abbott, upon landing. what was the nature of that conversation? guest: based on what abbott said , he handed him a letter basically telling him to enforce more aggressive immigration laws. he wants title 42 -- the governor wants title 42 applied, he wants to bring back -- the governor wants biden to bring back remain in mexico, a trump era program that has been scrapped by federal words. the issues with those programs is that mexico has to agree to be able to apply these programs.

mexico has to say ok, if you are going to prevent asylum-seekers going to your country, we have to agree to have them here. it is not easy programs to implement, it is a diplomatic issue as well. basically, he wants biden to enforce immigration laws more aggressively in addition to adding those two programs. according to biden come as of yesterday, he says he has not had time to read it. so we do not know what his perspective of the conversation was. host: hang on for a second. we are going to play a little bit of greg abbott talking to reporters, here he is. [video clip] >> the president caused the chaos at the border needed to be here. just so happens he is two years and $40 billion too late. he needs to step up and reimburse us for the money we spent by providing more

resources for the federal government to do its job. [inaudible] host: that is greg abbott from yesterday, apologies for the jet noise. you wrote the biden administration put in new immigration related policies leading up to the trip, can you characterize those? guest: it is a set of new policies, the two big ones currently in effect are the biden administration is going to start accepting up to 30,000 migrants and month from nicaragua, venezuela and haiti. at the same time as mexico has agreed the biden administration is also going to expel 30,000 migrants a month from those

nationalities under title 42. a third one that has not been into effect, but will be proposed as a rule, that rule will basically say anyone who has crossed into another country and did not seek asylum there will be prevented from seeking asylum in the u.s. host: mr. garcia, the president is in mexico city today, talking with leaders of mexico and canada. we'll immigration related issues be part of the discussion do you think? guest: i am sure it will. like i said, mexico has to agree to a lot of the immigration enforcement policies from the biden administration, as it did under the trump administration. i am sure it will and i am sure reporters will bring up on the topic to the mexican president and joe biden. host: because you are on the border reporting on these issues , what is your perspective when

it comes to immigration policy and how it plays out, compared to what we here in washington about what is going on? guest: it is important to keep things in context. is the border busy? yes, it is busy every day. their ports of entry for trade in tourists and people who live lives on both sides of the border. now, we have not seen this number of migrants crossing, asylum-seekers crossing the border. daily life moves on, people are still going out to restaurants, to work, hiking, taking children to school. the city has not fallen apart because of this. as a resident myself, i like living in the city. my quality of life has not been affected by this. to keep things in perspective, border patrol agents are busy right now and there is an issue

happening that needs to be resolved. the question is, how do we want to resolve it? host: this is uriel garcia with the texas tribune, you can find the work he does on their website. talking about the presidential visit to the border into other issues, thanks for your time. guest: thanks for having me on. host: a little more than 15 minutes on open forum, this is las vegas republican line. caller: my line dropped earlier. i was going to mention, when you asked mr. zandi, a lot of viewers called in about the price of gas and groceries and things like that. he really sidestepped the second part of the question when you said groceries, because we have a hard time looking at 9% inflation or 60.1% cpi.

i purchased a dozen eggs it is $7.19. i keep receipts from a year ago, a year ago a dozen eggs was $1.89. where's the 7.9 inflation? when you're looking at coffee, one of the supermarket chains says here's the everyday low price, a 16 ounce can of coffee at $9.99, where's the six-point night inflation? your guest -- 6.9 inflation? not to say he is full of crop like the other person said, but he sidestepped what his people in the pocketbook. it is hard to say we have 3.9% unemployment and inflation when gas is gone down, groceries have not. what congress needs to take a look at is the price of

groceries versus price gouging. i bought a share of stock in the four major grocery companies in the country, their profits during this time are astronomical. astronomical. what i see is infrastructure within the stores -- remodeling the stores, remodeling the registers, moving things out. i do not see any of that astronomical profit going down into the consumers and lowering prices. host: that is mike in las vegas calling us back up her for doing that. elizabeth in illinois, independent. caller: elizabeth owens from illinois, i appreciate michael discussing instead of having investigations, just going back and forth, i would like to see

republicans address a fiscal viewpoint. i am also a civil libertarian and a classical liberal. i'm tired of the polarity between the two parties that are addressing what mike was addressing the previous call. addressing why are these skyhigh corporate profits, i know there is a problem with the chickens, bird flu. we've had that, we have had drought. it is interesting -- i would like republicans to get back to being fiscal conservatives instead of this shock doctrine verbally, constantly. i am real world not ample white paper, policy. instead of the liberals are the enemy or republicans are the

enemy. a whole bunch of us are so tired of the polarity. we want to see a cohesive government. russell let out on the floor. to sit there and point at my fellow citizens and libtards or conservatives are all militia, i am tired of it. host: elizabeth in illinois, let us go to felicia in iowa, democrats line. caller: good morning. i enjoy c-span, the speaker thing was great. i wanted to say i do not think that republicans are going to get much done in the house. i hear a lot of people talking about immigration. when trump first came into office, he had both parties -- he had the house and the senate. they never did anything on immigration. to think they would be able to do something now with just the house is crazy.

but i wanted to speak about all the people talking about hunter biden and the biden family and all these investigations they are going to do. who in america is that going to help? why don't people understand that hunter biden had a drug problem? he was addicted to drugs, his father would have never wanted him to have this boo-boo amount of money -- bookoo amount of money. they talk about the fentanyl issue coming across the border, but here you see a person addicted to drugs, his father leaving him messages saying he is worried, i would like to know what republicans think they are going to find out that changes their life in any way. that is what they want the house to spend their time on. thanks. host: dan in oklahoma,

republican line. caller: good morning. i would just like to say i was pleased to see that joe biden finally visited the southern border after all this time. that being said, there are so much more he could have done and can do to secure the border and get it sealed up. we cannot continue to take in this many immigrants from all nations around the world. we are under a dangerous situation and we need the country under control. the only thing i would like to offer as to why he is reluctant to build a wall is because he can barely make it up a flight of stairs without falling down three times, let alone make it over a wall. host: independent line, zack in mississippi. hello. caller: hello, i am a veteran. i love this country.

but this country, capitalism is a formula based off of capitalizing off the less fortunate. it started with slaves, you enslave them, made trillions of dollars off of them. they gave immigrants loans to get the slaves. then they denied them education. here we are a mere hundred years later, because only ended then, they did not want to give us education. it is all a plan. it goes right back into white americans and immigrants hands. to be fair, the united states should give us leon. it will not do that -- land. it will not do that because the plan is to keep black people in a situation where they can

dominate them and dominate the world. that is the plan. we know about these things, we know about slavery. we do not want to teach it, we do not want to promote it. because all that is a multitrillion dollar -- the u.s. government owed less than $2 trillion only 30 years ago. host: danny in colorado, democrats line. go ahead. caller: i just want to say we have a problem with the american labor force. young kids are getting hired, they do not want to work hard. the call in sick, they do not give the employer the opportunity to give the be good job. we have people at the border, we need an emergency employment program for people at the border. we lost a lot of people in the labor force because of covid, early retirement.

the labor market is short. we need to have something right is a humanitarian crisis going on at the border. i read for the government doing pipeline inspection, i see a construction sites these people work hard. they are building and working. if our american labor force is not want to work hard, we should bring these people and to do this. we need to house these people while they go through the process, there needs to be some kind of emergency for the program for these people to help solve our labor shortage. restaurants, fast food, wherever we need people. that is the quickest way to solve labor problems. host: the hill reporting there will be a busy upcoming session for the supreme court, justice's hear seven cases, though not

involve major biden administration policies. student loan debt relief and title 42 will get their days. the kick off today with a case on whose background is shrouded in mystery. it arose when a law firm declined to produce certain documents demanded by a grand jury subpoena issued during a criminal tax investigation into a firm's unnamed lion. they will consider whether the firm can withhold dual-purpose communications and of those intertwined with legal and nonlegal advice after a lower court split on whether legal advice must be the primary or significant purpose for attorney-client privilege to apply. it also will consider the ohio general department of federal relations labor authority about the national guard. it is organized by individual states, but the federal government can activate it for a particular mission, setting up a

battle when the national guard attempted to end a collective-bargaining agreement with civilian technicians, the union and the complaint with the federal labor relations authority which congress created to oversee labor relations. they allege they did not negotiate in good faith. those are some of the cases you might hear and consider when it comes to the upcoming session on the supreme court. when they release audio, we take them in for some of the cases and put pictures so you can see who is talking. all of that is archived on our website if you want to see major court cases, how they are debated. go to our website at c-span.org. let us hear from james in new jersey, republican line. caller: hi. i started off in 1956, republican, eisenhower.

$1.7 trillion -- [indiscernible] what happened to the rest of the money? host: let us go to glenn in arkansas, independent line. caller: i would like to make a comment on two things. first, joe biden on the border, he was behind the fence where there was no immigrants seen. and about what congress should do, they should report what part of the $1.7 million indirectly

or directly went into nancy pelosi's pocket. she pocketed some money. host: patricia in georgia, democrats line. you are next up. caller: good morning. thanks for being on. i am wanting to say something about the republicans taking control of congress. it is going to come back to by americans in the ass and they need to get off of nancy pelosi. she's done nothing, she was a good speaker. a good server. thank you very much. host: they would hundred 18 congress being sworn in, the senate doing that last week, the house getting that done after they elected a speaker. the rules packages is up for debate today. it sets the tone and rules on how legislatively the 118th will

work on the house side. you can see that play out later on on our main channel, c-span. if you missed that, stay close to the website and you can follow along on the c-span now app. in alabama on the republican line, hello. caller: good morning. first of all, the lady that just called in, i am sorry. you cannot make a statement without putting ugly words behind it, i do not understand that. we all have opinions, we differ from each other. the democratic party has done nothing for us senior citizens. my rent has jumped 20%, it is outrageous. i live in a senior living complex. it keeps going up and up. first of all, i listened the other day and try to get him, i could not. -- in, i could not.

i am not standing in judgment of anyone. but before we get on the air and we call different people liars and the great people, we need to check ourselves before we get on the air belittling someone else, whether it be democrat, republican or independent, or just someone you know. we need to search our soul or self before we get out there calling people names. i appreciate it, i think you should cut them off when they start doing that. thank you and have a blessed day. host: one more call on the independent line, hello. caller: hi, good morning. with mr. maccarthy now elected as the chair in the house, the time for both sides of the aisles to really get down to the business of the nation and move things along is really far more evident than ever. to begin with, one thing i would strongly urge the administration

as well as elected officials the tackle is to put a stop to atrocities inflicted on people by the government that has been atrocious on a daily execution of political prisoners. hundreds in jail, thousands in torture chambers. we have to put a stop to this, that was the only nation that has always reaffirmed their commitment to really loving the american way of life and seeking a secular democracy where women are center that the leadership of such movement, which is unprecedented worldwide. the time for the american side host: that's the last call for this program and i appreciate all you who participated. if you want to see the house later today, c-span is the place

to watch. another addition of "washington journal" comes your way at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, we will see you then. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2023] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> the u.s. house returns at 5 p.m. eastern today for its first floor action since electing kevin mccarthy is house speaker. lawmakers will debate on the rule for the 118th congress and some of the proposed change of the good a motion to vacate the chair which allows one member to force a vote on removing the house speaker and other proposed changes include the elimination of proxy voting and no virtual or hybrid hearings and requirement that all bills be

posted 72 hours before a final vote. also house lawmakers will take up legislation to rescind $80 billion in irs funding that was -- that was approved under the inflation reduction act. you can watch live house coverage beginning at 5 p.m. eastern today. >> preorder your copy of the congressional directory for the 118 congress. interact with the federal government with bio and contact information for every member, important information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. scan the code at the right to py today.your comfort -- your it'$29.95 plus shipping and handling and help support our nonprofit operations. >> steve cornacki you see around

campaign election nights. he recently finished seven part podcast series called the revolution with steve cornacki, the story of 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 kornacki on this addition of looks plus. -- of books plus. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by the television companies and more including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? it's way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 committee centers to create wi-fi enabled