♪ host: good morning from washington on this friday, january 27. we want to know which party do

you trust on the economy. democrats dial-in at (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, your line this morning is (202) 748-8002. you can also text. include your first name, city and state to (202) 748-8003. or, join us on facebook.com/ c-span. a couple of headlines on the economy. front page of the wall street journal. u.s. economy grows at a slower pace. we saw positive gdp numbers yesterday. the wall street journal reporting that this year high inflation still -- still high inflation and interest rates have weighed on the economy. gdp climbed by 2.1% in 2022.

fears persist as growth tapers and the fed is said to raise interest rates again next week. president biden was in springfield, virginia, touting the latest economic numbers. here is what he had to say. [video] >> i'm not sure the news could have been better. economic growth is up, stronger than experts expected at 2.9%. jobs. jobs are the highest number in american history. wages are up. growing faster than inflation over the past six months. and god willing will continue to do that. manufacturing jobs are stronger than any time in the last 40 years. i don't think it's unfair to say this is all evidence that the biden economic plan is actually working. it is working.

it really is. host: president biden says it is working. which party do you trust on the economy? while we wait for more calls to come in, cnn has president biden's remarks yesterday. warnings of economic chaos from maga republicans. [video] >> i will not let anyone use the full faith and credit of the united states as a bargaining chip. we pay our debts. it took 200 years to accumulate that debt. let me explain this. under my predecessor, the last guy that was president, the deficit went up four years in a row. accounting for 40% of the entire 200 years of debt. do you hear me? no president added more to the debt in four years in my

predecessor. -- i misspoke. 25%. added by the last administration in just four years. on my watch we have taken a different path. as a result the last two years we have cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion, the largest reduction in debt and american history. while doing all the things i just said. we pay for it all. the very notion we would default on the safest, most respected debt in the world is mind-boggling. i will not get into reckless threats and take the economy hostage to force an agenda that will limit american workers and weaken us internationally. host: president biden on the debate happening whether or not you raise the debt ceiling

without negotiating with republicans. they want to see spending cuts included in that. listen to speaker mccarthy earlier this week criticizing president biden over this issue. [video] >> think for one moment. i don't think anyone in america would live this way. they would reach the limit on a credit card and extend the limit and not think about what they are spending. no state can do this. no family can do this. this is not even behavior of past joe biden. when joe biden was vice president, he praised the idea of negotiation together. i don't think anybody and congress believes this as well. -- in congress believes this as well. we have to have a responsible deficit. i'm not saying never no to the debt ceiling. you hit $31 trillion. 120% of gdp.

your party has been in power for four years. you increased discretionary spending by 30%. $400 billion. i want the president to tell me there is not one dollar of wasteful spending and government. -- in government. the government is designed to have compromise. here is the leader of the free world pounding on a table, being irresponsible saying no, no, no, just raise the limit. no. that is not how adults act. that is not how elected officials -- not how the american public believes their elected officials act. what i have asked for is to sit down, find common ground, and let's eliminate the wasteful spending to protect the hard-working taxpayers and protect the future of america. host: republican leader kevin mccarthy saying the president

and democrats should negotiate with them on raising the debt ceiling. senator joe manchin of west virginia says it's a mistake of democrats and the president not to sit down with republicans. the hill reporting he is up for reelection and represents a deep red state. he says it is a mistake for fellow democrats that think they can raise the debt ceiling without sitting down and negotiating with mccarthy. he says he met with speaker mccarthy on wednesday to urge him to negotiate on debt limit and fiscal reform package with biden but warned the speaker not to push plans to cut medicare or social security benefits. let's get to your calls. which party do you trust? guest: -- caller: hello. first of all -- i mean the republicans have to realize the economy worldwide is in shambles. all right?

for them to say that president biden and the democrats are responsible for the drastic situation that we are in with the economy, that is unreasonable and unconscionable what they are saying. goodbye. host: sylvia from alexandria, virginia, also a democratic caller. caller: thank you. good morning. what i wanted to say is, from what mccarthy was saying about sitting down and talking, yes. but you have to understand from the past they are not talking about getting rid of the tax cuts they gave to the wealthy under the past president. all they want to do is say is cut

spending. yes. to look at spending cuts is ok, but when you're dealing with their own budget at home you weigh the pros and cons of your actions. it just seems with the republicans that they just want to go out to hurt. it seems like for all their actions is to hurt the people. to make whatever anybody is trying to do as far as on the democratic side a negative instead of a positive. you don't get the sense we really want to come together and work to make this situation better for the whole country. host: one party likes massive spending, massive regulation, higher taxes, open borders while the other party wants less government, less taxes, less spending, closed border.

i think i will take the second party. success should be rewarded, not penalized. alan from indiana, republican. caller: hi. host: go ahead. tell us which party you trust on the economy. caller: the republicans. host: why? caller: i just don't like the democrats and how they are spending money all the time. they claim they are not spending money. the big criticism about democrats is the open borders. the other item, the immigrants. i have immigrant friends. i really wish they would require them to speak english so i can understand what they are saying. host: philip in south carolina, democratic caller. let's hear from you. caller: yes. first of all the republicans need to begin with the debt

ceiling. it is to pay the bills. the bills have already been made and spent. pay the bills. come together, both sides. sit down and work out a budget. dual plan. -- you a plan -- do a plan. you have to work together to get the job done. until everybody comes together and says we were sent here to get a job done rather than blame the other party. work together. host: cnn conducted a poll about party leadership and the priorities of them. take a look at the numbers. 27% believe house republicans leaders have had the right priorities so far. this is republicans and democrats pulled.

27% of both parties believe house gop leaders have had the right parodies. 73% say republicans have not paid enough attention to the most important problem. these are the views of each party on congressional leadership. 42% of republicans and republican leaning individuals who participated in the poll disapprove of their own congressional leaders, republican leaders. 22% of democrats and democratic-leaning independents disapprove of their party leaders. sherry and hamilton, ohio, republican. good morning to you. caller: how are you? i will tell you right now i back the republicans 100% -- yes, the republicans 100%. when we were under trump, we all did better. i could pay my utilities. i could get as much gasoline in

my car as i wanted. the democrats, for example, want to put in an obama walking trail. you are going to tell me that is more important than me paying my utilities? i don't think so. the open borders biden has? he is doing nothing but killing our young people and they don't care. host: stephen in michigan says the republicans need to realize it is not just a spending problem. tax cuts do not lead to prosperity. jim in austin, texas, independent. caller: yes, ma'am. i trust in the u.s. prosperity party. they are way more confident -- competent than the democrats and republicans. they will take over washington, d.c. usprosperityparty.com or.org.

caller: good morning. i believe in the democratic theory. republicans want to negotiate but that money is already spent. negotiate on the budget afterwards. kevin mccarthy and the republicans are trying to destroy this economy like they always do. the tax cuts. they raised it three times under trump. then they gave the superrich of tax cut without paying for it. that is one reason why the debt is so high. republicans trust the party but they are constantly poor because they believe in what the republicans say.

watch what they do. nothing for the american people. host: politico with this headline this morning. the republican national committee challenger not ready to -- he has the edge but dylan's people are working to sway voters. this is ahead of today's republican national committee gathering in dana int, california. they will elect the rnc chair and other officials. we have coverage of today's meeting at 1: p.m. eastern time on c-span2. you can also watch on our mobile app. it isree. it is called c-span now. you can watch it on the go or demand at c-span.org. mark in wesley chapel, florida, republican. good morning to you. caller: yes ma'am. my fellow americans keep talking

about tax cuts. it is so disturbing. $31.5 trillion national debt. not one penny of the national debt has anything to do with tax cuts. anytime i hear anybody say we can't afford tax cuts, i don't know what these people are thinking. tax cuts have never resulted in one penny of a yearly budget deficit or the overall national debt. every penny of the national debt we are looking at is the result of the government spending money it does not have to spend. tax cuts simply means people are allowed to keep or where the money they work for and you lessen the tax burden on a company or business or corporation. this has nothing to do with the national debt. somebody people in this country believe tax cuts somehow result in debt. it is so absurd. spending money we don't have results in the national debt.

one more thing please. there are two issues as to why we are where we are at economically. joe biden is 100% responsible for both. this nonsense about the global economy. once biden started destroying our energy section, basically destroying our fossil fuel -- shutting down the fossil fuel industry, that along with that ridiculous $1.7 trillion american rescue plan he and the democrats came up with after the covid spending -- we needed to stop spending. the american rescue plan did not rescue us from anything. that was the beginning of this massive inflation, plus the shutting down of the fossil fuel industry. biden is completely responsible for the inflation, the interest rates going up because the federal reserve keeps raising them to prevent us from going into a depression. host: i will jump in.

the washington post says the fed is set to raise interest rates again next week. coming up in a few minutes we will talk with republican lawmaker about energy policy. the debate on the house floor this week. tom in miamisburg, ohio. which party do you trust and why? caller: i don't trust none of them, greta. i think they are all crooks. until you get the big money out of the politics it will stay the same. all they are interested in is money for their pockets. we have a case going on in ohio where our speaker the house got $64 billion to pass an energy bill -- $64 million to pass an energy bill. it was overturned but we are still paying with it with increases in utility bills. it is a shame that all we have is crooks, politicians. it ain't going to change. whether it is republican or

democrat, they are all crooks. thank you, greta. host: we are going to take a short break. when we come back we will be joined by congressman bill johnson, republican of ohio representing the 6th district. we will talk about efforts to expand domestic energy production. that is the debate happening on the house floor this week. later, appropriations committee chair democrat chellie pingree joins us to talk about the state of federal spending and raising the debt limit. we will be right back. ♪ >> there are a lot of places to get political information. but only as c-span do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where you stand on the issues, c-span is america's network. unfiltered, unbiased, word for

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policy. the debate on the floor this week, what is this legislation? guest: this legislation is very simple. it requires the administration, if they are going to take resources out of our strategic petroleum reserve for non-emergency purposes, they have to have a plan to increase domestic production to replace it. it is very simple. that is all it is. we are at an all-time low in the volume of our strategic petroleum reserves. it has been taken out not for emergency purposes. it was designed to be there for national security emergency. not for political purposes or for band-aids for that policies. -- bad policies. we need guardrails around how the reserve is managed. host: let's listen to the energy secretary at the white house press briefing. she spoke about the legislation.

here is what she had to say. [video] >> the spr gives us the means to increase supply when the market needs it most. it gives us the tools to increase it quickly. quickly being the operative word . speed is key. but hr 21 would impose unnecessary, unhelpful restrictions on when the spr can be used to help provide supply. it would require these arbitrary reports regarding energy production on federal lands before waiving any restrictions. it would not offer any tangible benefits to the american people. he would interfere with our -- it would interfere with our responsibility during an international emergency, helping putin's war aims. it would potentially delay allowing oil to be released for

the mystic emergencies following a natural disaster or pipeline outage at home, leaving prices at risk of rising in the wake of a market shock because of emergencies to extreme weather events. host: respond to the energy secretary. guest: i'm not sure she is actuall -- has actually read the legislation. it does not restrict the administration from taking oil out of the strategic petroleum reserve for emergency purposes. it only addresses a plan that has to be in place requiring the secretary to have a plan in place for non-emergency releases of the strategic petroleum reserve. let's keep in mind the strategic petroleum reserve, that oil goes into a global oil economy. it does not go directly from the reserve to u.s. refineries. it goes on a market. that market cells that oil globally. guess who bought a bunch of it

under the biden administration? the chinese did. we are taking action and we have begun to take action. we will be taking more to make sure none of the oil in our strategic petroleum reserve can be sold to china. i'm not sure she has read the registration -- legislation. host: do you have a democrat that can help you get through the chamber? guest: we have a number of people who believe in america's energy future and there are democrats concerned about this. host: is it alicia? good morning to you. go ahead. caller: my concern is with the entire house right now. i would implore everyone to look at the fbi statement of the woman placing the pipe on exactly like -- pipe bomb looking like marjorie taylor greene. she walks like her. she swings her arms like her. please, i implore everyone to

look at the fbi video of that woman. that is marjorie taylor greene. host: i don't know if you have anything to say about that. guest: i'm not going to comment on that. we need integrity. we need integrity from the fbi. there are a lot of things the fbi should be doing and we are going to have oversight of the fbi in make sure they do it. i can't comment on that one. host: kirsten from new jersey. caller: wouldn't electric cars for everybody go a long way towards solving our energy problems? guest: i wish that were true. here's the problem. it takes minerals and components to make electric cars that america is not even allowed to mine right now. i just became chairman of the

environment manufacturing and critical minerals subcommittee on the energy and commerce committee. we are going to be digging into that. we are depended upon china for much of the critical minerals required to make the batteries for our electric cars. our energy grid is not set up to handle everybody driving an electric car. if you look at what happened in california where they have a law that says you cannot buy a combustion engine automobile by i think it is 2035, yet they are telling people today don't charge your electric vehicle on the grid because we don't have enough energy on the grid to handle it. countries in europe are experiencing the same problem. electric vehicles, they sound good on paper. they are very expensive. it requires anywhere from 10 to 20 -- $10,000 to $20,000 if you're able to afford one just to replace the battery when the

battery reaches its lifespan. it is not a panacea with electric vehicles. i am all for a market-driven approach to transportation and electric vehicles are part of that but we are not ready for every automobile in america to be an electric vehicle. host: you have been debating this week on the strategic petroleum reserve. but that comment, the ranking member of the energy and commerce committee has his own ation. "my bill proposes solutions for managing our str petroleum serve by empowering the doe to buy oil when prices are low and sell when they are high. not only with this commonsense measure prorivers from price fluctuations and make money for taxpayers, my bill uses the proceeds from those sales to build out our nation electric vehicle infrastructure."

he says it is a win-win and represents a serious solution americans deserve deceit from congress. guest: there is no question there is a great amount of infrastructure that has to be built out for electric vehicles. no one is denying that. for former chairman palone to give the doe more flex ability with the reserve to manage gas prices for the macon people, that is just not true. if we want to manage gas prices and lower the price of gasoline for the mac and people, let's put american domestic production back and play. the administration canceled the keystone xl pipeline. hundreds and hundreds of jobs. took oil off the market in the united states. as a result we don't have the oil going to refineries. that drives of the cost of gasoline.

the cost of gasoline drives of the cost of transporting goods to the store. get feed inflation. -- it feed inflation. if you want an energy future secure for america we must understand we have to get back to increasing our domestic production here at home. let's not forget, energy security is national security. host: stephen in michigan. what is your view on subsidies for oil companies? do they really need them? guest: i'm not a big subsidy guy. i believe in a free enterprise system. generally speaking i'm against subsidies of all kinds. i think companies -- that is what makes our country great. companies in america where we are the most innovative, highest level of ingenuity in the world. if you look at every modern convenience known to mankind, from the airplane to the lightbulb to natural gas, you name it, america brought it to

the table. i believe american companies can operate on their own. what we have to stop is the federal government building so many barriers to business that hampers a business or industry from being able to operate. host: marian in georgia, democratic caller. caller: thank you for taking my call. this is an overall view of listening to what has been going on in our country for years. i remember in civvies class -- i'm old but i still remember two critical things that made america great. that was, one, the three legged stool. you have social security, pensions and savings. pensions have ready much gone. social security might be cut. hardly anybody has savings. the other thing i remember vividly, and i thought civics

was interesting, was having a strong middle class was the most important check and balance on the abuse of power on the wealthy. when i think of this i am thinking most politicians now, both parties, get their money from the very wealthy, corporations and everything. the middle class is shrinking. we don't have pensions or savings. that -- we are losing -- if you want to make america great, we have to go back to we here we had more taxes on the rich. were you in the trump administration for the three years? did you vote for the debt ceiling? host: for you in the house when president trump was in office and did you raise the debt

ceiling? guest: yes, i did. america is not going to default on its debt. i guess that is where the question is leading to so i will address that now. let me tell you, it sounds like we went to the same school. i took civics also. i agree with much of what you said. let me tell you, the debt limit has been around for 100 years. it has served as a check on our rising national debt. the last eight debt limit raises have only come -- the last eight major reforms in addressing our national debt have come through negotiations over the debt limit. the entire world teeters on america's economy and america's ability to pay its debts. america is not going to default on its debts. if our democratic colleagues

think for one second it is going to happen without the president and democrats to come to the table to negotiate on behalf of the american people and figure out how to bend that spending curve in the opposite direction, they have another thought. even joe manchin said recently it would be irresponsible for the president to think he can just drive a clean debt limit increase without negotiating with speaker mccarthy. that is not going to happen. host: thomas and ventura, california, republican. good morning to you. caller: i want to think c-span for allowing us to call. i appreciate everything you do. i firmly believe the usa -- i want to emphasize the republican party is not attempting to cut medicare and social security

bit -- by not -- apparently the time has come for congress on both sides of the aisle to do something, anything. i do believe joe biden and the democrats should be willing to work with the speaker, kevin mccarthy. coming up with a responsible and bipartisan solution. host: congressman, do you agree? guest: i think he made a lot of good points and i went to put an exclamation point on something he said. no one in the republican party is talking about cutting medicare and social security. that is not on the table. anything we do is going to protect medicare and social security for current seniors, those in the retirement window that cannot roll back the clock and restructure their retirement

years. these programs -- if we wanted to cut social security and medicare, all we have to do is do nothing. by 2026, medicare is going to go insolvent. by 2033, social security is going to go insolvent. why is that? because 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every single day. that is 70,000 this week. that is 3.5 million this year. over the next 20 years we will put 50 million americans on the retirement roles. there is not enough people paying into the system for the amount of money being drawn down for future generations. we want to preserve and strengthen the safety net programs. in order to do that they have to be reformed. that is what republicans want to

do. we want our democratic colleagues to work with us to do that. host: what sort of reforms would you support? guest: it is such a long laundry list. they are very complicated safety net programs. i think it takes a collective body. the president, the white house, the senate, republicans and democrats in the house have to sit down around the table and look at what the alternatives are, look at what the options are, and let's do what is best for the vatican people. we want those safety net programs to be there for future generations. host: david in los angeles, independent. caller: hi, mr. johnson. i wanted to respond to your, the about the keystone xl pipeline. just to inform c-span listeners, the pipeline was a company called tc energy, transcanada.

they are a canadian company who wanted to confiscate american owned land for canada down to the texas coast to refine this tar sands oil for shipment overseas. the benefit was mostly for its investors, not for americans. the construction would only be approximately 30 full-time jobs after the completion of construction. the jobs would be completely eliminated due to pumping station automation. it would be a net job killer. give would eliminate real jobs, trucking jobs and commerce created by the trucking industry. finally, representative, i don't know if you are familiar with eminent domain but is reserved for the government to confiscate people's land for public use. privately owned oil pipeline is not public use.

it is not a school or bridge. it doesn't benefit americans. he would insignificantly affect the oil prices. everything you said about the keystone pipeline is completely false. secondly, and let me finish with this -- host: we have limited time with the congressman. reuters fact-check the keystone xl. they say the pipeline has secured most of its funding when president biden canceled the extension. it was only 8% constructed. guest: would we ever build a building if we only thought about the three or four people it was going to take to keep the inside of a clean once we built it? the construction jobs are part of what makes america great. we put thousands and thousands of people to work building systems, whether it is a pipeline system, a highway system, a building,

manufacturing and automobile. -- an automobile. it takes hundreds to do that but you only have one driver. this notion that you are killing jobs by building a pipeline, i don't even understand the logic is in that. i will say this, even the secretary of energy herself has said pipelines are the safest way and the most expedient way to move oil and gas. why wouldn't we want that oil from a friend in canada rather than what the biden administration is doing going to iran and saudi arabia and venezuela and dictators around the world that don't like us very much? host: adele in springfield, illinois. caller: good morning, miss greta. i don't know where to start. let me start with what you just

got done saying. the pipeline, true, you corrected that. you said the oil produced domestically does not go to america. that is one of the reasons -- guest: that is not what i said. i said oil that comes out of the strategic petroleum reserves is sold in a global market. oil that is produced right here at home, domestic production, that goes from the well through a pipeline to refineries right here in america. those refineries turn that into diesel, and the gasoline that goes into gasoline stations all across america. that is the way that works. caller: it's not a filibuster here. can i please -- he interrupted me. i should have my time back.

25% of all debt is done by this guy you support and worship. 25%, $8 trillion. from $19.9 trillion to $27.7 trillion under four years of trump. let's go back to the issue. your plan is, not going to pass first of all because it is a waste of time. the democrats are not going to do that. you have a better chance of telling the petroleum people don't gouge us. the highest earnings or profits by the petroleum industry this year. at a time when we were hurting they were making the most profit. do what australia did, congressman. you know what australia does? they have a mandate, a quota, that in the northwest territory if you produce oil, it must go to the domestic use.

host: i have to give the congressman a chance to respond. guest: i understand your frustration. what comes out in the media is always a little bit slanted one way or the other. i can tell you that the amount of spending that has occurred under the biden administration is astronomical compared to the spending that was required to get us through covid under the trump administration. ponder the trump administration we had the best economy we had had in 50 years. the highest wage growth, the lowest taxes, the highest dock market growth. americans were thriving. you look at where we are today, we are paying $10 a dozen for eggs for crying out loud. that is the kind of inflation the vita administration has created -- the biden administration has created. it takes energy to reduce raw materials to manufacture

products to grow produce, to produce farm products like eggs and poultry and pork and beef. energy is at the center of everything. the biden administration has used both energy and astronomical spending to drive inflation off the charts. host: congressman bill johnson of ohio, you have to get going. the house gavels and at 9:00 a.m. this morning. carrie think is starting earlier in washington. thank you for talking to our viewers this morning. in a little bit we will talk to a democrat lawmaker. we will talk with chellie pingree of maine about the debate over federal spending and raising the debt limit. stick around for that conversation. we will take a short break. when we come back we will get open forum. any public policy issue, including energy policy is on the table. start dialing in. ♪

>> the state of the union is strong because you the american people are strong. >> president biden delivers the annual state of the union address outlining his priorities to congress on tuesday, february 7. his first speech sent -- state of the union speech since republicans took back control of the house. we will take your phone calls, texts and tweets. watch live coverage beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, philip wallach shares his upcoming book, "why congress." he explains the legislature is a necessary branch and examines how to address the challenges it faces. 10:00 p.m. eastern on

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>> listening on c-span radio just got easier. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 a.m. eastern. important congressional hearings and other public affairs events throughout the day. weekdays at 5:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., catch washington today for a fast-paced report on the stories of the day. listen to c-span anytime. just tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. c-span, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: we are in open forum this morning. any public policy issue on your mind we can discuss this morning. let's start with the commercial appeal and this headline. five fired memphis police officers indicted and booked in connection to tyree nichols' death. from the commercial appeal.

tyree nichols video released after 6:00 p.m. on friday. president biden issued a statement yesterday on the tyree nichols case. as americans grieve, he wrote, the department of justice co its investigation. i join's family calling violence is never acceptable. violence is destruand against the law. it has no place for peaceful protest seeking justice. public trust is the foundation of public safety and the too many places where the bonds of trust are freighter broken -- frayed or broken. we must do sure e sure the criminal justice system does more for equal treatment and dignity for all. the president's statement ahead of the release of the video.

some are concerned the video could insight violence and violent protests around the country. cy in plainview, new york. what is the public policy issue on your mind? caller: energy. i agree with your -- with the congressman that was just on. the policy of the biden administration is a war on oil and fossil fuels, which they say triggers global warming. but if it is truly global, why are we purchasing oil from despots? that leads to global warming because is global phenomena. -- it is a global phenomena. we should be energy independent to bring down the price of oil.

these windmills and solar panels are not going to cut it. if everybody switched to electric cars the grid would go down. you would have no electricity in your house. also, the person that runs the energy department did not even know how much oil we import each day and per year. i don't know what qualifies her to be the energy secretary. thank you. host: willie from el paso, texas, democratic caller. caller: i want to start with the social security problem but they keep talking about doing everything to help the american people and all that good stuff. there are things you can do to solve this. legalize marijuana federally. take a big chunk of the taxes

and put it in social security. every time you buy marijuana you put your social security in. after 30 years of buying marijuana you get more money than average social security person. this whole thing is a pyramid. we have to keep it going. you just keep doing that. the biggest chunk of the taxes to marijuana. don't be trying to give it to all that other stuff. you will not be worried about social security. host: troy from kansas city, missouri, independent. caller: i don't need to talk about the economy. bill johnson says the inflation problem started with joe biden's administration. that is something not true. $5 trillion was pumped into the economy from the covid pandemic. it was donald trump that one of

the put his name on each of the checks like a social overlord. i'm not trying to get into the debate of biden versus trump. i do think a lot of the money that was pumped into the economy was due during the pandemic, which i believe the republicans in the house, the senate, and the executive branch. i'm not sure how they always try to put that onto the democrats. the only thing we can beat inflation with his cryptocurrency. if your people are smart, they need to put the money into deflationary assets like stocks and crypto. thank you. host: news coverage. los angeles democrat adam schiff, a key trump critic is running for dianne feinstein's senate seat. he joined the race along with other house democrats like katie porter. danny in yuma, arizona,

republican. the public policy issue in your mind? caller: good morning, greta. i'm down here in yuma, arizona, a border city. a small city. we are getting overwhelmed, overrun by illegal aliens. greta, i have empathy for these people but what about the people that are trying to do it legally and these people are cutting in line literally? not only that, most of your democratic callers are so misinformed about the border down here. all they have to do is watch fox or newsmax and it is all on tape how many people are coming through. they are all fine reporters.

they are reporting what is going on. the drugs come the fentanyl, the cocaine, the meth and heroin are pouring into our country. it doesn't make any sense. host: as you are talking i want to share what you are seeing on your screen. it is a new york times article featuring president biden when he went to the border recently. the headline in this story, democratic lawmakers urged biden to alter the asylum policy. more than 70 democrats in the house and senate urged president biden on thursday to reconsider his policies that limit access to asylum as a way to manage illegal immigration at the southern border. from the letter, we encourage your administration to stand by your commitment to restore and protect the rights of asylum-seekers and refugees. the lawmakers wrote in a letter echoing statements mr. biden made during his 2020 campaign.

restrictions put in place by the trump administration, including a pandemic public health measure known as title 42 have drastically reduced migrant access to asylum at the southern border. the biden administration announced this month it would expand its use of title 42 to immediately expel migrants from certain countries who had previously been allowed to stay in the u.s. temporarily and apply for asylum. the top democrat in the house and senate did not sign this letter by the other 70 democrats, exposing the divide on immigration within the president's party at a time when republican-let house is also split on how to address the record level of illegal migration at the southern border. let's go down to san antonio, texas. democratic caller. help me your name. caller: i am erica. i am from west africa.

this is what is happening in the impoverished countries of africa. the first world countries destroy the environment, cut down the forests, do mining that is destructive to the environment. they sent all the money to france, america, belgium. they have been doing this for many years. tens of years. they are completely impoverished. when they come to america, you tell them that aliens -- what are they doing in africa? consider their situation. host: harry in greenville, north carolina, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know how matt

gaetz received 482,000 -- $482,000 and ppe loans forgiven when he does not own a business. host: where did you read that, harry? caller: the republican party is completely corrupt. we have to face up to it. we have people that are working against us running on the republican side of our political world. if we don't figure it out, they will eat us up from the inside. we have to worry about our own republican party more than any foreign country that is dangerous to us. i don't understand how all these so-called -- the democrats are

not doing enough. host: here is the austin american statesman. businesses associated with gop politicians have pandemic government loans forgiven. this was written in september of 2022. a viral instagram post claims to show a list of republican members of congress whose ppp loans were forgiven. the ruling calls it true. conservative politicians have condemned president biden's plan to cancel certain student debt. u.s. representative, a republican said it would be unfair to people who did not take on a loan or who already pay theirs off. markwayne mullin said it should not be fitted by farmers, ranchers and teachers. the house gop judiciary said if you take out a loan, you pay it back, period. white house fired back with what they suggested was evidence of republican hypocrisy. screenshots of paycheck protection loan forgiveness that benefited these same congressional members. the list is a screenshot from

twitter made by the center for american progress action, a left-leaning public policy think tank responding to a post from house gop -- judiciary gop's twitter account. in this case the post checks out. comparing the paycheck protection forgiveness is not parallel. the business loans were designed to be forgiven as long as the money went towards pandemic related costs and expenses. ralph norman of south carolina whose businesses has loans forgiven says it takes a special kind of idiocy to equate student loan debt forgiveness to the ppp. instagram post did not name a source. loan, by the nonprofit news organization pro public that tracks is nurses that receive loans from the program. that is the story he was referring to.

harry in greenville, north carolina. an independent. let's hear from you. are you there, harry? let's move on. bob, illinois, republican. bob, go ahead. caller: good morning. my topic is the bias of the mainstream media and big attack. -- attack -- big attack. -- big tech. for years they went against trump and never found an ounce of evidence against them. we are watching the biden family syndicate bringing millions of dollars to their family, and it is like the mainstream media will not talk about it. the mainstream media is like, they are black out and will not let the american people judge for themselves. i say let the media fall by the wayside and all of the government entities colluding with big tech should be revamped

and i can't wait for 2024 to get trump back in there. thanks, greta. host: betsy in new york. good morning. caller: good morning. what i want to speak about his that i am a victim of cancer from camp lejeune. i left camp lejeune and came back to new york to my mother's house, and jehovah, god, showed me how to kill cancer. no doctor helped me. no radiation or anything. but within two years i was free of the cancer and i have that knowledge. now i am finding out that i have to go to college to get two degrees in order to open up a hospital to help everyone. my oldest daughter, she died at 54 years of age. i was smoking marijuana, which made me forget that i had cancer

and i could heal people. i didn't even tell my children, 10 children, my oldest daughter, 54, she died of cancer. and i could have helped her. i could have helped everybody if i had not in smoky marijuana. should never have been made legal, because it feels good, but it makes you lose your memory. host: bessie in new york. ken -- ted in boston, massachusetts. you are an independent. what is the public policy issue? caller: good morning. i would like to send my well wishes out to the previous caller. my topic here is that you have a big problem in this country. and it is conservatives. it is the republican party. just saw that last guest. he had nothing but flimsy arguments that rest upon correlation without causation.

they cannot bring much to the table. you have people on here calling other human beings aliens, talking about immigration as if there is no root cause with employers illegally hiring them. but on a broader level we have an entire conservative faction in this country that is willing to uproot democracy, come to the table with lies, and waste everybody's time because they are not rooted in factual reality. need to band together -- independence, progressives, liberals and sane minded conservatives, and get these people out. this is really getting bad. i'm not sure what else to say, but i have just had it with these republicans, these conservatives. i have been watching politics for 20 years, and the bar has

been brought so low. i know everybody at c-span is aware of that. my favorite two guests -- and i will close with, i forget their names, but it was a couple of right-wing and left-wing political analysis that have been around for decades, maybe 40 years. i remember a few years ago they came on and they were testing -- attesting to this fact that they had never seen anything like this before, in terms of what the republican party is doing to bring down our democracy and factual integrity. host: ted, i'm going to have jd go next, republican. caller: yeah, i was just wondering, when was the last time we had some new oil refineries? i heard that the saudi's control our oil refineries, and they had limited the production of gas and oil being refined. is that true? host: i don't know off the top of my head, but what is your

point? caller: well, if the saudi's are cutting down the amount of refined petroleum, then we are losing the cost of a barrel of oil. host: all right. michael, hampton, virginia. democratic caller. caller: yes ma'am. how are you? my issue is more or less something that is not spoke about in some reporting, some issues like the memphis police officers. in virginia having a six-year-old who shot the teacher. i was curious as to whether or not these memphis police officers are going to be held more accountable because they are black? it is an unusual perspective, because we want to know whether justice is going to be more expedient because these are black officers. usually you hear about white officers going on administrative leave or qualified immunity comes up.

i don't know the laws in memphis, but it is an interesting perspective to take on a situation like that. even though we don't want to see riots happen, because dr. king spoke about that in 1967, you know? riots are the language of the unheard. i was curious about that perspective. and also with the six-year-old that's shot the teacher, i'm curious as to why we haven't heard any more accountability of the parents, especially with guns -- a child being able to shoot at a teacher. the child had to learn it from somewhere. i think it starts at the home, but they have taken down the superintendent, taking down the administration, no culpability for the parents. those are my issues, which have an interesting, i think a racial dynamic that might be at play. i'm not sure. host: ok, michael.

athens, georgia. independent. caller: good morning. how much do i love c-span? i love c-span immensely. happy new year. let's do a couple of housecleaning notes. why am i seeing ads on c-span now, greta? are we paid for by the cable companies? we don't need to have ads on c-span.org. just a question. we are a political show. this is not a social show we need people to be focused on the political aspects, the political issues, the political atmosphere , not the social temperature of the country. we have other platforms across this wonderful american landscape to look at social issues. c-span, "washington journal," this is a political show. all right. i would like the callers or

viewers, when you call in, if you like the way that c-span controls the cameras in the house during the majority speaker election, let c-span no. -- know. we need to have full access to the cameras in the congress so the american people can see what is exactly going on in their house of congress, in their senatorial chamber. american citizen doesn't value education. we cannot have a formed -- an informed citizenry if we do not have critical thinking citizens. greta brawner, thank you. i love you. host: i will just say amen to that. more policy issues coming up, joining us this morning is carolyn vick io, a campaign

reporter with the hill, to talk about the republican national committee holding their elections today. where is this taking place and what will our viewers see? guest: it is nice to be with you this morning. thank you for having me. you are right. there are four elections that will be taking place today with the rnc. you have the chair, co-chair, secretary, and treasurer election. the one we are keeping our eye on is the rnc chair race, which is a dynamic between the current incumbent, ronna mcdaniel, and she is trying to fend off two challenges from mike lindell and an rnc committee member. why this race is so interesting,

that we are watching this and it is critical, is that following the november midterms we started to hear rumblings from republican members who said we need a new face to be leading the party. upon the senate side they were not able to flip the chamber. they were able to foot the house, but it is a slim majority. they did not feel that theory -- that their party had performed as well as they had liked in 2018, 20 20, and 2022, and they think they want a new face to lead the party. that is kind of the dynamic we are seeing right now and we are going to be watching to see whether mcdaniel wins another term. host: how is it looking right now? doesn't she have the votes? guest: at this point we think ronna mcdaniel is expected to win.

there have been a couple of letters circulated over the past couple of weeks and months. in order for someone to win the rnc chair race by secret ballot you need a simple majority of the 168 members that are voting in order to win another term. and letters circulating earlier had suggested she had over 100, at least over 100 rnc members would be back in for another term doing so, well over that majority. but the california-based attorney i was mentioning earlier, she got -- there was does yesterday, because even the republic even though problem in -- prominent republicans haven't been paying -- haven't been weighing in, governor ron desantis in florida made a bit of buzz yesterday.

you know, he had an interview with charlie kirk, saying i think we need new blood. he complemented harmony villain. if you go to her campaign page for rnc chair that video is featured prominently. we will see whether or not there is enough for a last-minute boost for her campaign. just days before that interview had suggested she had 29 and endorsements from state party chairs and rnc committee members. her website says that is a partial list, we will see if that shakes up the dynamic today. host:host: one after this boat takes place then, what happens within the rnc? how did they move forward in this fight? will it have a lasting impact? guest: that is a great question.

in terms of moving forward, i think this is sort of an example of the intra-party divisions we are seeing among republicans. just a few weeks ago we saw 15 votes in the house, to vote on and elect a house speaker and the house speaker, mccarthy, was eventually elected. no, we saw this intraparty division and the kind of concessions that were extracted by a group of holdout republicans, even the thin majority that has given them more power. if ronna mcdaniel wins, she, you know, the party will move on in the sense that they are going to be gearing up for 2024. she has said she will stay neutral in the presidential primary, but she is going to be grappling with these lingering intraparty divisions. you know, the feeling

republicans have had over the last couple of election cycles, where they feel they have not as performed -- they have not performed as well. it will pressure her to, you know, the rnc to work more closely with the party's fundraising apparatus. if on the off chance harmony wins, republicans are going to be looking to her as a new phase within the organization and scrutinizing her ahead of what is going to be a very consequential 2024 election. so, you know, she is making the case that she thinks she has the ability before 2024 to kind of change of the dynamic. she thinks it is time for a new face, given these three past elections republicans have had. but either way i think that the election itself, the secret

ballot vote that is being cast, is going to further underscore what republicans are starting to see as, sort of these challenges coming to the forefront in the public eye of what they say they need to do in order to be successful ahead of the presidential election next year. host: caroline vakil covers for the hill. you will be able to watch that rnc election c-span two. and also on demand at c-sp.org. and with our new mobile video app. it is free. download it on any oyour mobile devices. it is called c-span now. at taking place at 1:00 p.m. stern time overrun c-span2. howard in locust valley, new york, an independent. hi, howard. caller: hi.

thank you. first i want to congratulate the recruiter for the "washington journal" host. every single person, quality. i want to talk about george floyd. 2.5 years ago the young man was killed and his family went to washington. and every single member, democratic member of congress, kneeled on the floor with their hands up, and after that we had a democratic senate, democratic house, and a president whose political life was over before he went to south carolina and became president. now, i want people to understand that the young man who just died , had we implemented the george floyd act, he might be alive today. because there is no formal systemic law protecting people from the people who should be protecting them. and thinking back on george floyd, you really feel bad, because that was a moment -- and this is also a moment -- the

people to come together and solve a problem that is solvable. that is what i would like to say, and i think the problem still can be solved. if it is not past, and we understand at this point who people care for. host: we will go to louisville, kentucky. jean, democratic caller. caller: yes, that debate over the debt ceiling, republicans brought it up because, basically there is an ad on tv that is showing about the heroin going on in this country. they fly planes over iran, they pay iran money to fly planes. and they fly to afghanistan, get the heroin, then fly to iraq, and get refueled and fly back over to the united states. correlation -- corporations like nbc, abc, cbs, johnson & johnson, who manufactured it,

walmart, purdue pharma, there is a couple of corporations distributing and sold heroin in this country. and the new stations kept it quiet because they were selling the heroin during the whole time and they did not want to bring that up, where the addiction was going on in this country. news stations not bring it up. they will not play it on no movies or anything about the heroin addiction in this country, because they were selling the drugs. host: array. i will leave it there. you mentioned the debt ceiling, and that debate is happening here in washington, with president biden saying republicans are being reckless. republicans are saying the president is refusing to negotiate. here is a republican congressman, chair of the ways and means committee, on president's economic record and refusal to talk to republicans. [video clip] >> the problem is you have this fear mongering from the white house to try to distract the

real issue at hand. that is, the president needs to come to the table and talk to speaker mccarthy and help republicans to address the debt crisis approaching. have this crisis because president biden and the house democrats and senate democrats for the last two years have spent more than $10 trillion that has led to the highest spike in prices in 40 years. the fastest rise in interest rates in 40 years. they are trying to distract from that to fear americans that we are going to do something that we are absolutely not going to do. host: jason smith on fox news. senate majority leader chuck schumer on the senate floor yesterday, calling on republicans to show their cards and it comes to spending cuts. >> republicans, where is your plan? you want to get federal spending? social us what that means. show us what that means to the average american family, in

specific detail. it is your responsibility on such an issue to do just that. speaker mccarthy has an obligation -- an obligation -- to explain to the american people what republicans actually plan to do about raising the debt ceiling. until we get a clear answer from house republicans about what their plan is, there is no point in speculating about anything else. because if republicans want to starve the american people of vital services, the american people have a right to know what that will mean for their daily lives. otherwise, the american people will be left with only questions and no answers. republicans say they want trust. the republicans want to cut social security and medicare? do republicans want to cut military funding? do they want to cut aid to veterans? do they want to cut funding to first responders? do they want to cut education, public health, science research?

saber rattling about the debt, radios statements without any specifics -- grandiose statements without any specifics is not going to cut it. they have been doing that for a while. it doesn't work. lay out the plan. show us the plan. host: a republican and democrat on this debt ceiling debate. we are in open forum, where you can talk about that public policy issue or any other. larry in florida, independent. what is on your mind? caller: yeah, i want to talk about social security. the average people pay the entire year because we do not come close to that cut off. number one, why is there a cut off for if you make x amount of money? this is what it should be. i believe that the average people pay about 6% out of our

wages to social security. now, let's just say the cutoff is $175,000. from that point on to, say, $10 million, you pay 4%. and once you reach that $10 million, you pay 3%. whoever makes a wage in the u.s. should have to pay into social security. it is the average people that are paying the most, high percentages-wise. if somebody made $10 billion, the percent they would have to pay, it is nothing but a tax write off for them. i believe that is the way it should be. it should be a tail down. more money you make, the less you pay. and that would help out social security. host: all right.

laura in spokane, washington, republican. hi, lara. caller: hi. good morning. host: good morning. caller: i'm calling because i wanted to respond to the man who is claiming that the cops were not protecting the black people. the george floyd thing. what i would like to say is that, after the persecution and prosecution of our police officers, our american police officers out there get 8500 black males were murdered last year. by other black people, ok? those cops were protecting those kids. and they are not here anymore to speak for themselves, and nobody ever listens to the black community when they are in these political agenda thingies, and it really bothers me. i mean, a whole lot of lives are gone. because of an agenda. and it really upsets me.

host: brina in north carolina. independent. your turn. caller: hi. ok, so the social security stuff, and they are talking about the economy and all of that. we do need transparency inside of our government, to figure out where the money that is, like, unclaimed, we need to know where the money is going. that is the whole point. as far as social security goes, if we stop offering refugee checks, we are going to clear up our border and put on a back in our social security system. i have no idea why they started taking pt checks out of social security, but they do. i think that if we want to fix our borders and we want to fix our social security, and we are going to have to stop the

refugee checks. i'm not saying closing our borders, but we are going to have to stop shelling out so much money for it. we need that for our elderly. second of all, the flow of money in the country needs to be increased. and the loss of the federal income tax returns to the misuse of child support liens has caused a huge hardship on the american people. and it has also created a huge hardship on our economy. it has basically strangled it. if you want to fix it i think we are going to have to lift the liens. i know everybody wants student forgiveness, and i am for that, you are living out a huge percentage of the population that is having to deal with the hardships of these liens. host: sabrina, i want to bring in another article.

an in-depth piece on the investigation into the russia investigation, and ties to former president trump. a long futile search. it became a regular litany of grievances from president donald trump and his supporters. investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to russia was a witch hunt they maintain. that it had been opened without any solid basis, and found no proof of collusion. after almost four years, far longer than the russian investigation itself, mr. durham's work is coming to an end, without uncovering anything like the deeps -- the deep state plot alleged by mr. trump and supported by the former attorney general, mr. barr. the new york times found that the main thrust of the inquiry was marked by some of the very same flaws, including a strained

justification for opening it, and its role in fueling partisan conspiracy theories that would never be charged in court. that trump allies claim characterized at the russia investigation. as i said, this is the front page story in the new york times. it is two pages long, two more pages. a lengthy piece by the new york times this morning, if you care to read about that. harmon in kansas city, missouri. democratic caller. caller: hi. host: good morning. what is the public policy issue you want to talk about? caller: i want to talk about the debt ceiling. ok, i feel that what they need to start doing in congress is start at the top, with the president all the way down, start cutting. i know the president has to travel, but all of that

traveling all of the democrats and republicans are doing, they get those credit cards and can eat as much, have no way of keeping track of what they spending. that's where they need to start, right there in washington with the debt ceiling. start cutting out stuff like this unnecessary investigation on the president and impeaching him. that is a waste of our money. host: all right, carmen. we are going to talk about the debt ceiling and federal spending. up, appropriations committee member chellie pingree will be here. we will be right back. ♪ ♪ >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, philip wallace shares his upcoming book

, "why congress?" he explains that the legislature is a necessary branch of government. then at 10:00 p.m. eastern on afterwards, republican congressman can block says that companies like app and google are censoring speech in his book "crushed." he is interviewed by ryan tracy. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2, and find the full schedule on your program guide, or watch online anytime at booktv.org. ♪ >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 7:00 p.m. eastern, andrew where man discusses his book "the contagion of liberty," which looks at how inoculation became a sought-after medical

procedure in the 18th century, and helped american colonists achieve independence from great britain. on the presidency, author stanley god for talks about his book, chronicling their lives and work together from 1975 to 2020. exploring the american story. watch american history tv, saturdays onpan2and find a full schedule on your program guide, or watch any time at c-span.org/history. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us this morning from capitol hill is democratic congresswoman chellie pingree of maine, a member of the appropriations committee, the committee that is in charge of spending. congresswoman, let's begin with your thoughts on the debt limit and federal spending. should there be negotiations over attaching spending cuts to

raising the debt ceiling? guest: in my opinion, absolutely not. this is something we have done nearly 80 times on the republican and democratic presidents. as people have been hearing over and over, this is money we have already spent. think of it as paying your credit card bill when it is due. we should not be debating this. clearly it is going to be a point of disagreement for a while. eventually we will have to settle on something, but my hope is that we just agree, raise the debt limit, and keep moving forward. host: speaker mccarthy is arguing that there should be negotiations. this is what he had to say earlier this week and we will get your response. [video clip] >> i don't think anybody and america would live this way. that they would reach their limit on their credit card and just extend their limit. stay can do this, no family can do this. -- no state can do this, no

family can do this. when joe biden was vice president, they called them the biden talks. he praised the idea of negotiation together. i don't think anybody and congress believes this as well. look, i think we have to be faithful and responsible. we have to have a responsible debt ceiling. i'm not saying never know to a debt ceiling, i'm just saying you have $31 trillion, and hundred 20% of gdp, your party has been in power for four years, increased discretionary spending by $400 billion. i want to look the president in the eye and tell me, there is not one dollar of wasteful spending in government? the american public doesn't believe that. our whole government is designed to have compromise. but here is the leader of the free world pounding on a table, eating irresponsible, saying, no, no, no, just raise the

limit. no, that is not how adults act. that is not how elected officials, that is not how the american public believes their elected officials act. so what i have asked for is to sit down, let's find common ground, and let's eliminate the wasteful spending to protect the hard-working taxpayers and protect the future of america. host: congresswoman, respond to him saying, is there not even one dollar of wasteful spending? guest: i think the question is, is this the place where we have this argument? the debt ceiling is something we have done nearly 80 times. we know we have to do it. it is money we have already spent. it is the responsible thing to do. this is not the time to upset the markets. have the full faith and credit of the united states question. it is ludicrous to say we never negotiate about every single dollar. i guarantee you we are going to

do that every day for the next several months until we finally get an appropriations bill passed. and who knows when that will be? we also have a budget committee that sets a budget for this country. we do it in the house, the senate, in the republican and democratic parties. we have so many negotiations about every single dollar. that's what the appropriations committee is. by the way, this is before we spend the money. that is what a responsible family does. actually, you sit down and say, what do we think is reasonable to spend? go through that line by line. whether it is sewer and water systems, our national defense, everything that gets expended in this government is decided long before we vote on it. we will have enormous numbers of negotiations, because we have a divided house and senate and white house, so to say there is no other opportunity or this is the appropriate place to hold it

up is ludicrous. i think he is using it as a way to, perhaps, gain leverage, that it never goes well when you're talking about the debt ceiling. an attempt to bash the president, but that doesn't make any sense at this point. donald trump, george bush, they have all raised the debt ceiling. it is what happens every year. host: we will get to calls here. what do you think about senator joe manchin of west virginia, democratic senator, meeting with speaker mccarthy and encouraging him to sit down with president biden, and calling it a mistake for democrats to not want to talk? guest: look, every one of us has a different way of approaching this. senator manchin has a way of looking at the debt ceiling and has every right to look for some sort of compromise or idea. i don't happen to agree with him. if someone comes up with an idea that makes this go smoothly, if someone feels better after a series of conversations, that is

what we do here. we discuss everything, we decide where there is leverage and where there is an. but today that this is something we are going to debate between now and june, when it actually becomes an issue we have to deal with -- and as you know congress will probably wait until the last minute -- to have this be our topic of conversation every day, it is just politics. host: dean in jesup, georgia. republican. good morning to you. caller: morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about the social security. the democrats keep hollering that the republicans want to cut social security. well, if it is running out, it's going to be cut, that's for sure. host: ok, we will take that point. that was a point made by bill johnson, the republican congresswoman -- congressman from ohio we had on. guest: i was unclear about what

he was saying, but on the general topic of social security, let's just say we all know we can't cut social security. we don't want to cut social security. we have constituents who depend on this every single day, who cared deeply about making sure of its availability. when republicans talk about making cuts -- and many of them do talk about cutting social security -- they make our constituents extremely nervous. it is not something we should ever come near touching. when people talk about reforming the system, we have proposals we discuss on the table, frankly, all the time, about making sure we raise the cap so people contribute more that earn higher incomes. there are ways to make sure we keep the system stable, but it is something that should never be touched. when republicans talk about making these deep cuts, that is where they are thinking of going. host: billy in louisiana, independent. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning.

my question is, is there a list of research, like jim jordan mentioned the other day, talking that they had spent $120,000 on a guy in an iron glove? host: billy, i'm not understanding there. i'm not sure the congresswoman is either. what are you saying? a list of what? caller: a list of science and research of programs that the government is checking out. host: i don't understand. congresswoman, did you? guest: i couldn't quite understand what he was discussing about research. host: let's talk about federal spending. outside of this debate over the debt ceiling, where do you see areas of compromise where there can be cuts?

guest: well, as i said, that is what we do in appropriations. we go line by line and look at programs. there are times when people say we are not spending enough in this area. as you know, what we often debate is our defense budget. other areas we have changed, our strategic posture and we don't need to spend as much in one area. that is where a tremendous amount of money gets spent. i think some of the things we are experiencing post-pandemic are changing a little bit. so, some of the money we had to spend during the pandemic has changed. but the fact is, that is not something you can sit back and say, look at this, there is a giant amount of money being wasted every day of the week and we need to do something about it. you know, i'm on the appropriations committee. when i look through a budget i believe it is because we need to spend every money we just agreed on. host: we want to get your reaction to some economic news.

this happening moments ago u.s. households cut spending in december, adding to signs of an economic slowdown, underlying inflation cooled its slowest pace since october 2021. consumer spending fell .2%. your reaction? guest: look, there is a lot of talk about what is happening with this economy. as you know, we review it every month. we can see that gas prices are starting to fall, that wages are staying up, or going up slightly. there are some people who say we will not be facing inflation and we will not be facing a recession, that inflation is slowing. we have come through one of the most complex periods of our economy. we had never faced anything before like the pandemic. like the supply chain shortage we saw. what we have been through in the past few years is unprecedented, and very hard for us to predict what it is going to look like on

the other site. we are seeing a continuing labor shortage. we are seeing people who are not happy with the work they are doing and they are leaving their jobs. we have not fixed everything in the supply chain. we have so many unpredictable's, we have to face them every day, look at them every month, but the president is doing a good job. we have made many of the right decisions over the last two or three years, and we are headed in the right direction. host: tennessee, republican. let's hear from you. caller: hey, girls. ask for taking my call. i think it is $30 trillion too late to be worried about balancing the budget, the deficit. i know it is all good. thanks for talking to you. host: he said we are ready trillion dollars too late. guest: [laughter] well, that is certainly his right to that opinion, but we have a huge economy. we have a growing country.

we have a lot of people, and i disagree. i think we are doing a pretty good job in a difficult time, moving forward. and we have a lot of challenges to face ahead of us. we have huge investments we are going to be forced to make because of the changes related to climate change. we have huge disasters we are being forced to pay for every single year because of adverse weather, because of climate change-related incidents. in maine we are already dealing with sealevel rise and the changes to our coastlines. see it in florida. you see it everywhere else. these are expensive investments we have to make in our communities, and we have to brace ourselves that there is a lot of difficulties ahead of us, and we have to be prepared to invest in them if we want to have a healthy, growing economy in a country that works. host: hunter in new jersey, democratic caller. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. i think mccarthy --i think what

mccarthy is saying is a sham. he is saying we are like the american family credit card that running up, but what the conversation is not about is in 2020 we had 50 million more people in this country. and we only take in as tax revenue only 17%, and we spend about 20%. his analogy is life, he is supporting the employer that says they are making so much money, what they do not want to support getting more taxes to pay for things, or republicans don't want to pay you a higher wage. we have 50 million more people in this country we are doing things for. the republicans do not want to support the funding of the irs, right, to get money from these corporations that pay no taxes? so it is a sham. we need to change the conversation about why we have such a low -- why do republicans refuse to support paying for the

american public? host: congresswoman? guest: thank you. it is a good argument. as you heard, we had a long debate, one of the first pieces of legislation was the republicans' proposal to not fund the irs. as you can imagine we have a tremendous amount of people, particularly the wealthiest, that are not paying their taxes, that we do not have sufficient auditing capacity at the top. those are complex and difficult audits. as you said, everyone should pay their fair share. you can be extremely conservative and still believe that everyone has to pay their fair share. that if you earn the money and you owe the money, you should not be hiding it. and we hear stories everyday about big corporations that virtually pay zero. you are right, we have more people in this country, have more expenses, and we have more things we believe we should be there to support.

whether it is health care, education, or making sure people get a fair wage. this debate over whether to fund the irs seemed ludicrous to me. it did not seem like a conservative's argument. i believe if you are conservative people should pay their fair share, and we should have a reasonable economy. i am glad we have already passed that bill. the inflation reduction act. i'm glad we have passed the funding to make sure we fund the internal revenue service. i can tell you from my perspective in my constituents' calls, we get calls all the time from people saying, i'm trying to sort things out with my taxes, and i cannot get a call through. so, thank you for my comment -- for your comment. host: your thoughts on brian fitzpatrick and josh gottheimer, they are working on a compromise that would eliminate a next debt ceiling, and instead calculate

the limit based on a percentage of the country's economic output. would you support that? guest: i would have to look at that. i'm not sure about that, honestly. host: bob in utica, michigan. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. you know, since i guess it is being said that this is for money already spent, i guess we have to ask about the past year you have been working, and why cuts were not made then, and why you make a budget that is over what we have right now? host: right, bob, i'm going to get a response from the congresswoman. guest: i guess your question was, why didn't i make more cuts last year? that is because you and i have a fundamental disagreement. i don't believe there was something we were supposed to cut last year. i believe we had a tremendous

amount of need, whether it was helping our economy grow, some of the issues that we are dealing with related to climate change, making the investment in renewable energy. i feel great about the investments we made last year, the budget we spent, the appropriations bill we passed. so, i'm not here to say we should have made cuts last year. i think you and i basically disagree on this. host: before we let you go, there is a bipartisan group in the senate working on a proposal to address the trust funds of medicare and social security for the future. what do you think about those talks, and where do you see some common ground? guest: i absolutely believe there is common ground. we all want to make sure that social security, medicare, that these are very solvent, that they are stable for the future. we just have different ways of going about doing them. when people talk about raising the age or cutting the benefits,

there are a variety of things i'm not willing to do. if you ask me about making sure everyone pays their fair share into it, that we raise the cap so that people pay who are higher earners, there are ways to go about doing this. but i don't agree with all of the proposals out there. host: where is your line? is it raising the age? what else? guest: absolutely. i don't think we should raise the age, i don't think we should cut the benefits. if you want to dig deep into medicare, i think we have a lot of issues with how we have created medicare advantage and how that system works, and if we did summer form there, make sure the insurance companies were not the ones making out like a bandit, he probably would have money for more benefits and could cover more of the concerns people have. host: congresswoman chellie pingree represents the first district of maine, and we thank you for talking to our viewers this morning. guest: thanks so much for having me. host: the house is going to gavel in at 9:00 a.m. eastern time to return to their debate

over the strategic reserve -- strategic production reserve, the energy debate they have been having this week. they will continue with that today. to get to 9:00 a.m. when they gavel in we are going to keep taking your phone calls on the debt limit and federal spending, as well as any other public policy issue. keith in denver, colorado. democratic caller. hi, keith. caller: yes, sorry. i will just make my comment anyway. first of all, the republican party not conservatism. the republican party is in the midst of its death throes. we have to accept that. it is a dying party. it is out of step, out of time.

if they want to do cuts, i have a suggested cut. they should do it right away. all of the states, all of those red states, that get more from blue states, because we pay more into the federal budget, and they get money back i'm alike $1.28 back for every dollar they contribute to the federal budget . they have no income tax. why do blue states have to bail them out? they are climate change deniers. florida, louisiana, georgia. let them fend for themselves. host: all right, keith. randy in alabama. a republican. good morning. caller: good morning, ma'am. i'm so glad you took my call.

i wanted to speak with congresswoman pingree. i just wanted to, like yesterday i heard over and over again from the democratic side that gasoline, that when we drill down on the reserves, oil reserves to china, that it has reduced our gasoline by $1.69 a gallon. i have not seen that. maybe all over the rest of the world, rest of the country, i mean, that is $1.69 cheaper. but it is $3.33 here. i have been out of the state some. i was in tennessee last weekend. their gas was up that high also. i just don't know. it was repeated over and over again that president biden

reduced that gasoline price by $1.69 by drawing down reserves and selling them to china and russia and whoever we sold them too. i'm just wondering, have you seen that? have you seen $1.69 less at the pump. host: well, probably not in this area, randy. this is a text from joan who writes, why is congress so hesitant to make everyone pay into social security on all of their income instead of having it cap? currently the middle class pay on all of their income, but the wealthy do not. it is because congress is made up of wealthy people. what is fair for one is fair for the other, and quit letting the government borrow for social security from other programs. happening today in washington, and our coverage outside of washington, the lbj presidential library, there is going to be a discussion about presidential records and the national archives.

that is 11:45 a.m. eastern time on c-span2, on our free mobile app, and on demand at span.org. and as we have been telling you this morning, 1:00 p.m. eastern time also on c-span2, live coverage of the republican tional committee elections. will ronna mcdaniel get a fourth term as chair of the public and national committee? she is being challenged by two others. you can watch it on c-span2. you can watch on your mobile device if you downad our free app, c-span now, or on our website, c-span.org. that is at 1:00 p.m. eastern time. jesse in chicago, democratic caller. what is the public policy issue you want to talk about? caller: [indiscernible]

all that money. [indiscernible] host: right, jessie. i'm going to go to j. a republican. jay? caller: hello. is this -- gay, is that correct? host: yes, north carolina. caller: i just wanted to know why so much free money is given to people that don't work?

and a lot of people around where i am are getting free mobile homes, and they have supposedly been torn up by the storms. we haven't had a bad storm to tear up a mobile home in this area in a good while, so i don't understand all of the free money to people that don't work, aren't willing to work, and we have a lot of drug problems in our area. so, i just don't understand all of the free money, and then people that work hard and pay in social security, they currently deserve to keep it and it not be lowered. so, i just don't know. i don't understand all of the free money to people that will not work. host: all right. he may be interested in this washington times graphic they have put together. america's overdose crisis. the annual tally of deaths

attributed to drug overdoses has nearly doubled since 2015, driven largely by the flood of fennel -- fentanyl entering the united states. take a look at those numbers as we talk to shirley in orangeburg, south carolina. hi, shirley. caller: hi, greta. host: you have to meet that television, ok? caller: ok, i'm going to do that right now. host: and then we will listen to you, ok? caller: ok. host: all right, surely, you've got to mutate. caller: i've got it. host: go ahead. surely, you are still listening to your television. caller: i can go now? host: yes, please. caller: greta, good morning. i would like to say, you know, a few days back a man called in,

and he said that donald trump has done more for african-americans than any other president. well, i just want to say to him, donald trump did nothing for me. because i am in my 80's. i'm older than donald trump. i'm retired from new york telephone company. they are calling it verizon. when donald trump came into office hours already retired and drawing my social security that i worked for. and he did nothing for me. i don't appreciate them kind of calls about african-americans. everyone that works, they get a social security check and pension check if they get that offered to them. another thing i would like to know. where is herschel walker? please, somebody answer that for me. have a nice day. host: "usa today" how tanks from

germany will help ukraine in its war. the u.s. will send 31 m1 abrams tanks and support vehicles to ukraine. bolstering a german agreement earlier in the day to deliver 14 of europe's most sophisticated battle tanks. the tanks are expected to give ukraine's forces a significant data field advantage against russia. germany's announcement allows poland and the other european nations to send a number of tanks to ukraine as well. you can dig into the different tools on the tanks, on these two different tanks if you are interested in "usa today." the house is going to gavel in any minute here. larry in savannah, georgia, republican. let's hear from you real quick. i may have to interrupt you. no. caller: