>> coming up this morning we discussed president biden's newly released 2024 buet request with bob good member of the budget committee andhen freedom work economist and former trump senior advisor stephen moe shares his thoughts and later we discussed congressional news of the day with california democratic congressman ami bera. "washington journal" starts now. host: good morning on this friday, march 10. this morning your take on president biden $6.9 trillion

budget request to congress. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. the president top line is $6.9 trillion. it aims to reduce the deficit by $2.9 trillion over the next 10 years. here's the president yesterday on reducing the nation's debt. [video clip] pres. biden: my budget is going to give working people a fighting chance. we can pay by these jobs by

reducing the deficit. cutting 160 billion dollars in medicare expenses is one. we also have to ask the wealthiest the -- to pay their fair share. and cutting subsidies were special interest. in my first two years in office, i brought down the deficit record $1.7 trillion, more than any president in american history while doing the rest of the stuff. the budget i am introducing today is going to reduce the deficit by nearly $3 billion -- $3 trillion. host: president biden on reducing the deficit would do so if this plan is followed by congress. congress and the house controlled by republicans.

if they follow the president request , he would reduce the deficit by increasing taxes. washington post this morning, this is what they write, the plan we give these administration authority to negotiate what a price the federal government pays for more drugs than theimed numbers approved referring to medicare, will also increase in taxes on people earning more than $400,000 per year. the administration says is proposal would extend the solvency of this program for at least 25 years. the wall street journal this morning in their reporting they note, biden's budget shows the rising cost of leaving medicare

and social security untouched, which is what the president does in a right, when it comes to medicare it is not enough money. unlike medicare costs, medicare tax revenudo not ris with the population iheth care inflation. even mr. biden's proposal sees a lae d growing gap, even with e omise to cut the deficit by $3 trillion over the coming decade, primarily by raising taxes, the annual deficit rein stuck at arnd% gdp. as aest, federal debt continues to riseeaching 110% of gdp in 2033, up from 97% now. this morning, getting a reaction to the president budget request to congress and the numbers he lays out this morning. $6.9 trillion budget request. take a look at what the wall

street journal put together in their paper today. the base discretionary funding request by department and agency by billions. the largest bubble there $842 billion for the defense department. hhs, health and human services, $145 billion. veteran affairs almost $138 billion dollars. state and international programs , $70 billion. homeland security, $60 billion. energy, $52 billion. justice department, nearly $40 billion. agriculture department, nearly $30 billion. transportation, 28 billion dollars. nasa, $27 billion. the treasury department, 16

billion dollars. the labor department would get $15 billion. once you get your reaction to the president's budget request here. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. here is what the president said about taxing wealthier americans and corporations. [video clip] pres. biden: maga republicans refuse to raise signal taxes on the wealthiest people. raise your hand, anybody who thinks our current federal tax system is fair, raise your hand. i'm not judging. -- i am not joking.

we found in the year 2020. 55 major corporations in fortune 500 companies paid zero in federal income tax on $40 billion in profit. i assisted on a horrible thing to burden on them. i just legislation making sure they had to pay a minimum 18% -- 15%. that is less than any of you pay. guess what? we did those things to grow the economy. to create jobs. just begin to to pay your fair share. when i was elected around 650 billionaires in america, now it is over 1000.

you know the average tax they pay? 3%. no billionaire should be paying lower tax then somebody working as a schoolteacher or a firefighter or any of you in this room. my plan is to make sure corporations get the pay their fair share. used to be 35%. we cut it down to 21%. i think we should be paying 20%. -- i think we should be paying 28%. i made this commitment when i ran and have not broken it yet and i never will. no one making less than $400,000 will see a penny in federal taxes go up. host: from the washington post a breakdown of what the president it was saying about raising

taxes, this is what he will want to do. $1.3 billion raise over a decade by raising the corporate income tax rate. $549 million. $393 million from tax herbaceous for multinational corporations. you can see how it breaks down by raising taxes on the wealthy to spend with the president wants to spend an he claims to reduce the nation's deficit. neil in florida, republican. what do you think? caller: i think this clown, i would not by an insurance policy from him.

there is no reason this man is in power. host: what about the budget? caller: but budget? his proposed budget? host: yes. caller: i think it is a three card monty. host: explain. caller: he is just mumbling. host: andy in peachtree city, georgia. independent. caller: good morning. i am very encouraged by the president comments and especially their approach is taking regarding the side of increasing revenues. i am always confused how people keep saying that identifying

social security and medicare as entitlements. there are not entitlements. i paid into it for 46 years. that is a social contract and should be left as is and look for other ways to reduce the deficit. do not try to dip into areas that do not really say that, money. host: how do you reduce the deficit without taking on the programs that are driving that? social security and medicare? caller: look to people and companies, organizations that pay their fair share. as simple as that. host: it does not do enough though. caller: you can find out easily they need to raise the limit. that will create a lot of income as well. host: race and come on what,

social security? -- raise the income on what, social security? caller: yes. host: the tax cap? caller: yes. host: stay with us because i want to show folks this new york times interactive graphs on their website. what you have to cut if you take off his off the table? if you say do not touch defense, medicare, or social security looking to where the money has to come from. you would have to make a 70% cut on medicaid, obamacare, and each chip program and food assistance, military retirement and antipoverty programs.

all of the spending would take a 70% cut, veterans health, transportation, education, law enforcement, research, and foreign affairs. if you said no defense cuts, we were formed social security and medicare and make cuts of programs. if you did that, you would have a 31% cut in social security. another 31% cut in medicare. medicaid and obamacare, 30%. mandatory spending, 30%. mandatory spending in veteran affairs, education, and transportation. if you make even because across-the-board, look at how the map changes. still about 30% in social security and medicare and all other programs in mandatory spending in our federal government. your reaction? caller: like i said earlier,

there are certain things perhaps that can be looked at. my personal point of view is that i live off of social security. i would not be very happy if i saw cuts in those areas. host: all right. harold in west virginia. hi. caller: hi. we pay quite a bit in medicare out of our wages. let let money go into the medicare rather than play it out -- put it out for every other little think some of these people can come up with. let's make medicaid put a work requirement on these people. i live here in west virginia and they have a terrific coke

problem. food stamps most of it is traded off with 50 cents on the dollar to buy dope with. host: how do you know that? you have to have evidence we make that sort of claim. caller: i do know people who are doing that. host: but that is anecdotal. caller: put a work requirement to it. i'm a veteran. i do not have much confidence in the v.a. system. it is more for the v.a. employees who are bottom of the barrel doctors, bottom of the barrel nurses.

when we give money to other countries, they have to be able to show where it goes rather than afghani president who took off who is now a rich man on our tax dollars. ukraine. same with all these other dictators. let's leave the taxes alone and let everybody go to work. host: alex in d.c., democratic caller. your reaction to the president budget requests. caller: i really appreciate c-span because y'all do cover all of these hearings like where the money is going in ukraine and all of that. i encourage everyone calling in making the claims to go back and do research. as far as the budget, i was very

encouraged to see the things by didn't to compromise on last time in the budget, universal childcare, universal pre-k, things that are going to get bottom line again because the trend is republicans particularly republicans in our congress are shortsighted about what saving money means. i do not think people understand that when you invest in children , and best the youth of the country, and set them up for success they do not end up on welfare, they do not end up on the street. they do not end up needing the government when they are set up for success. i am hoping, praying that these

investments in our youth will make it through in the budget, but i did not see that happening. if i hear one more person talk about joe biden mumbling. the man has a stutter. i'm a licensed speech therapist. i work with people who stutter. stuttering has nothing to do with intelligence, nothing to do with nervousness, nothing to do with what you're talking about. people could stop attacking that man for his daughter is sounding so ignorant when they do so, i would appreciate it. thank you for letting me make that point. host: learn this i can take a was the president budget reflects a few committed to the build back better agenda, the washington post knows the agenda locked in the last congress.

budget includes more than $2 trillion from programs such as childcare, pre-k, community college, medicaid and more. the caller also measured what the public's would do. they control the house. they will set their own budget. usa today noticed some of the cuts republicans would like to make from their budget chair. pulling back hundred million in covid money, reinstating requirements for temporary assistance for needy families and supplemental nutrition assistance program, reducing fraud in tax credit and snap, capping obamacare subsidies and recovering overpayments, cutting nearly 90 billion in funding for the epa included in the inflation reduction act,

ending's president student debt cancellation, and eliminating one point 2 million for lgbtqia plus, and seven hundred 50,000 for transient a care in los angeles and more. some have proposed millions with her because -- of cuts. bill c columbia, maryland. independent. caller: good morning. i want to commend you for holding the one person feet to the fire. what about the entitlement program? social security, medicare? that is what is driving the debt?

we are borrowing more than $100 trillion more than the eye can see. there is no end to it and neither party, it is impossible for these politicians to maintain power if they address it. the only way to address it is a bipartisan manner. it is sad to think where we are headed. we are headed towards bankruptcy. i've heard figures like 10 years out there going to have to cut social security by 20% something is not done. all this business of making the rich pay their fair share, no one is dealing with the reality of the situation. we are in trouble. as far as cutting defense, i do not see how you can do that in light of the way the world is these days, with china and everything else.

i am concerned about where we are headed as a country because my children and grandchildren are going to have a living that is -- a standard of living that is lower than what i have experienced over my lifetime and i do not know where the solution is. i think the solution is systemic change in congress and i'm a big supporter of conviction of states, amending the constitution to put restraints, first of all term limits. the way they stay in power, they offer you all of this stuff but do not pay for it. we have a socialist system but we are not paying for it. in europe, -- to get out of debt you have to raise everybody's taxes to 50% and have a european model. the solution i think is to amend the constitution. host: the solution has to be

bipartisan you mentioned the. how do you get a group of senators and house members to touch these programs when no one want to do so, politically? do you have a commission? caller: all of that sounds good and i think -- we've had commissions in the past as far as restructuring social security and all of that, but what is going to end up happening is we're going get 10 years out. it is going to be a crisis. at that point benefits are going to be cut and we are going to do with they should have done 20 years ago, which is a jazz the cap -- which is adjust the cap. i've been watching this thing since the 80's and all along, if you get past this point it is

the point of no return and that was 15 years ago. where is the point of no return? host: we are 12 years out according to the cbo. look at this, cbo projects an earlier insolvency date. cbo projects insolvency in 2033 for the combined old age trust fund, the trustees project completion by 2035. we are about 10-12 years out depending on who you believe here. caller: and i thank god for c-span because those figures you got, you just presented, i got those figures from listening to c-span. unfortunately, majority of the book is out here they do not have the facts -- the voters out here do not have the facts.

people do not realize there is a big difference between debt and deficit. i heard they raise the ceiling 60 times. they'll be like me and my family running our credit cards up to the top and getting another credit card 60 times in a row. telling ourselves we are leaving in reality. reality is we are bankrupt. the way the system is set up, i think we need to amend the constitution to change it so that these politicians, you have the systemic structural reality, these politicians the key power, they have to lie and say we are going to -- is a big lie. they talk about the big lie, this is the big lie. host: joel in arkansas. republican.

caller: i would like to bring up a couple of things. i have been working since i was 18 years old. i pump gasoline for $.50 an hour and a hour week that was one a $20 bill. fdr set up social security for the widows but now we let everyone in on social security. when fdr set up social security it was 45-one paying into social security but now it is one paying in and attend collecting -- and 10 collecting. it is not an entitlement. we paid into that program. you have people that are smart. i asked a young gentleman the other day, he is younger, he was 65 years old, i am 81 years old.

i said, why did you not work? he said, i did not have to work. my wife was working and i'm drawing on her social security. another thing, the southern border. that is hurting our budget. you have to admit it. people coming across the border are staying in hotels in new york city. i have seen the governor talking about it. he needs a couple of billion dollars to cover the expense there. we talking out to size of our mouth. the republicans and the democrats. this comes up every year. i have been following c-span for the last 30 years. we need to call these people out. they're just lying to the public. host: the president's budget request will boost spending from the pentagon up 3.7%.

a hundred million dollars increase -- $800 million increase. universal preschool and planning to expand free community college and restore expanded child tax credit. bill in lawrenceville, georgia. democratic caller. caller: good morning. let me start out saying our tax system is created by congress by the lawyers and so forth. everyone was sublime -- wants to blame the irs and i am former irs agent. it is the main tool we get money to run our government and united states off of. as far social security and medicare, i think that cap should be taken off. raise it from 145,000 two $1

million so everyone is paying in. as far student loan debt, make it a credit for those students working. they make $50,000 a year, you get a credit for $50,000 towards your student loans. you are contributing. the biggest thing i think as i need to take a hard look at the additional things that are some has ridiculous. they need to take a look at those things. host: do you say you need to take a look at those things because it is spending that should not happen? the seed as a way -- or do you see it as a way to bring down the deficit? caller: both. host: do you agree you have to go after the bigger programs? caller: you have to take a hard

look, yes and to see. resident monday really going? is it being -- where is the money really going? like your own budget, you have to make cuts. yes a look at that. i had to say to but our congressman and congress ladies in their to make their career and i do not think they always have the best interests of their constituents in mind. host: luis in arkansas to, independent. let's hear from you. good morning. caller: yes. i got medicaid and you cannot get help from a doctor with medicaid. i have found for my disability. it found me guilty of making it 190 $7,000 a year and the most ever made was $11,500.

i did not get food stamps. i do not get any kind of help. i'm not going to make it much longer in these conditions. i begged them, i called them. all of y'all programs are not helping. i have called. ain't none of them helping. host: chad in cleveland, ohio. your thoughts on president biden $6.9 trillion budget request. caller: good morning. historically our country has never created a better economy by taxing and spending. it does not work. the super wealthy did not get there being stupid. there are loopholes and they will find every way to work their way around.

any time they tax and spend so much are they do is hurt the middle class. you look historically and that is all that happens. as far as joe biden is concerned, he must be the smartest person in the white house and here is wind. nobody can teach them anything. host: douglas in ann arbor, michigan. democratic caller. hi. are you there? caller: yes, sorry about that. good morning. i'm a libertarian but you did not have a libertarian number to call on. i would a call in and give rand paul's penny plan because he has been visiting here for five years now and it will only take five years for his plan to balanced the budget.

we need to cut everything across the board by six pennies, 6% of the dollar and we can balanced the budget in five years. host: all right. john in illinois, independent. hi. caller: hello. what i want to say is on the chart you show the biggest the biggest expenditure is health and human services. that covers welfare and immigration act of 1967 we started bringing in one million immigrants every year. then in the 1990's we started these lottery programs bring in an additional half a million and we get more immigrants living on welfare that we do american citizens. if you want to cut down the spending, we have to reform our whole immigration system. the whole thing is fraud.

that is not include illegals, refugees, or asylum-seekers. that is our legal immigration. host: the budget for health and human services under the president's request would be $445 billion, far beyond immigration and hss doing a lot more than a small part of the budget for dealing with immigrants coming across the border. the largest expenditure in discretionary funding, member social security and medicare is mandatory spending. congress does not deal with that. only discretionary spending which is 840 $2 billion for the defense department. "politico" has the story about pentagon spending. i china, pentagon is asking congress to boost funds or is pacific forces.

the pentagon is asking congress to significant the increase funding for u.s. military presence in pacific signaling the bite in increasing sense of urgency towards covering china's aggressive behavior in the region. the pentagon will submit a new 15.3 billion dollar plan to find the pacific forces according to an unclassified version of the report obtained by "politico." that is more than twice what the pentagon asked for last year and it is significant boost from what congress authorized which was 11.5 billion. the money will go to buy defense systems, and increasing exercises and training in preparation and responding to they say, china's aggression. mark in florida, republican.

caller: good morning. joe biden is being dishonest with the country. in two years of his administration, the national debt has increased. biden also asserts that by raising taxes on what the people, somehow this is going to balanced things out. i was looking at numbers today. social security liability in this country is $22 trillion plus. medicare is over 35 trillion dollars. you could take every penny from every wealthy person in this country and it is not going to put a dent in anything. the democrats have bankrupt this country because of the new deal, and now obamacare. there been nothing to perform --

to reform these issues. anytime republican mentioned reform these programs, democrats use it to demagogue of the issue and trash the republicans and run it on the next political election. we are in deep trouble. it does not seem to be any answer to it. host: ralph in augusta, georgia. what is your opinion? caller: i have three quick points. on the taxes regardless, rich people do not complain because they are not going to worry about paying them anyway. they have tax lawyers to handle that. my point is i do not itemize, i did not donate enough to different charities and organizations to receive, to optimize so that means i get lower and lower every year. refund back.the other thing

i'm not mistaken president ronald reagan borrowed social security when they could not pay it back, they took that money and put it into the general fund. i am thinking maybe if they put it back into social security, as before it would draw interest. one other quick link on medicare , rick scott make this announcement in texas, his organization, which he was the ceo of, they were found guilty of medicare fraud. he was not discharged so he left -- he was not charged and he left and he said i took responsibility and $3 million and went to florida and ran for governor. host: debbie in

buford, georgia. caller: the first thing i want to comment on in the child education programs, i thought the lottery paid for the preschool, education programs for children because powerball and all that. a great portion of that goes to those programs. why is that in the budget? i want to also focus on the military expansion budget, defense budget. you did not give so much to ukraine then you would not have to put so much into our defense budget. we have stockpiles of all sorts of things. we should focus on protecting our country and not other countries. those are my comments. host: patricia in temple,

georgia, democratic caller. what are your comments? caller: my comment is to make the rich pay their fair share to get rid of these loopholes. another comment, these old people in the senate and house need to retire. there are two old. they need to bring in new leaders. i think biden has done a good job. i feel sorry for the maga people because they're in that rabbit hole so deep they cannot get out of it. god bless america. i love our country. host: more of your calls coming up on the president $6.9 trillion budget request. keep dialing in. right now joining us on the phone is bob good congressman from virginia who sits on the budget committee. public kid and want to get your thoughts this morning congressman -- republican and we want to get your thoughts this

morning congressman on the republic's request. guest: good morning. it is incredible that the president will respond to $32 trillion national debt, highs percent of debt gdp since we have had since world war ii. and the massive inflation he has called us and his administration response by raising interest rates not the combat a strong economy overheating but to combat the inflation he has caused by spending which is causing more inflation on americans trying to buy homes and other things that are finance. the president thinks the proper response is a $6.9 trillion budget, highest proposed budget in the history of the country. about $200 trillion more -- about $2 trillion more. this president is determined to double down on his policies. them on the spending he is

proposing, 6.9 trillion dollars, is more than $20,000 per u.s. citizen. how would the american people full about the president borrowing and spending in their name $20,000 and handing them the i/o you? unbelievable how the president is responding. this proposed budget would never see the light of day in the house of representatives. were going to cut our spending impetus us on a path of fiscal response ability. host: how with republicans cut spending and can you do it without touching social security and medicare? guest: we were only spending four point -- $4.4 trillion pre-covid, just a few years ago and revenue is now 4.9 trillion dollars, highs in history.

but we want to do in the republican side is cut spending to pre-covered levels -- on pre-covid levels. keep defense where it is projected for this year and that allows us to go to 2022 overall that will save us almost $150 billion a year but then also want to cancel, rescind president biden's student loan transfer scheme. there's about $100 billion in unspent unobligated covid funds that we want to resend. then there's tens of billions of more has his phony infrastructure bill as well as the inflation increase bill he passed last year where there's tens of billions if not hundreds

of billions of wasteful climate, environmental deals with the call back. with cutting that, you can get close to a trillion dollars don't make an immediate impact this year and then if you cap do spending at the 2022 level, that is going to save hundred $50 billion a year and we go back to growth policies like under president trump and restate welfare, what the president biden has limited to get americans back to work. with the lowest dissipation rate in -- we have the lowest participation rate in labor. host: what about the mandatory spending in social security and medicare? guest: the president does not want to cut benefits in medicare and the republicans do not

either. future congress and president is going to have to come together to protect social security and medicare for future generations. we have to come together on a bipartisan basis to do that but i do not think we can start their. with all the reckless spending, you cannot come to american seniors and state where going to cut this on your back, but what we're going to do is cut the reckless spending. this hundreds of billions of dollars the american people do not think we should be spending. the billions of dollars we sent to ukraine last year. i do not think that will polled well in most congressional districts. this president has $7 billion in this budget to send to ukraine with no exit strategy, no endgame, no plan for when american involvement in or this

crisis is eventually resolved over there with russia invasion of ukraine. host: politico is reporting the pentagon will ask congress for a new $15.3 billion plan in order to increase its presence in the pacific to respond to aggression from china. do you agree with that spending? guest: i do not because we got almost $900 the -- billion dollar defense budget. we got to get rid of their president's climate and environmental is the defense budget that is weakening our military, vaccine mandate impact on the troops were still suffering from that dennis caused us -- that has cost us to miss our recruiting goals.

you cannot have $900 billion and not have some sort of waste and insufficiencies. has to be insufficiencies and effectiveness. the defense has to be looked at to. it does not mean we are 30 true trillion dollars in national debt and the president trying to run to train dollar deficit you do not have the luxury to not look at defense for ways we can improve and be more efficient with our spending. host: we previewed the fight of raising the debt ceiling, will he be tied to spending and the budget? guest: republicans will not raise the debt ceiling without measuring cuts in spending. they'll be reckless, foolish,

irresponsible. speaker mccarthy and republicans are united in approaching this in a responsible manner. the president irresponsible saying you will not negotiate then he agree to one meeting and he brings out this disastrous $6.9 trillion budget which a be unconscionable to do to the american people. i think you will see americans -- republicans united demanding cuts in spending, that is our number one response ability as the house to protect financial solvency and protect our borrowing capabilities and expanding ability. were going to exercise that responsibly and cut spending. host: congressman bob good, thank you for your subjective this morning -- thank you for your subjective this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: irene in washington, your time to tell washington what you think of the budget requests. caller: i agree with the

president's budget. he is talking about the wealthy paying their fair share. putting a minimum tax on the businesses. i have been in all of the people who call in and they are ok with corporations pain zero in texas. amazon and these billionaires and millionaires, people like president trump who paid zero in taxes and he is hugging the american flag and espousing his love for the veterans and the police and pains their own taxes. i write from work -- i worked for 40 years and i made money and i paid my taxes. you're telling me these millionaires and billionaires cannot pay $6,000 a year like i do? we need early childhood education create we need to

invest in art children. that is what is wrong with the country. we can do these things. yes, there are cuts. we have a revenue problem. if they love this country, they would pay their fair share. thank you for taking my call. host: we are talking this morning about president biden $6.8 trillion budget requests. he was in philadelphia yesterday laying out some of the details in his budget requests to congress and this is what he had to say about the enhanced college education proposal. [video clip] pres. biden: we know many family struggles to afford college for their children. that's why we have these problems. to get a pell grant to go to college and help pay for college.

the last two years we have increase progress by $900. my budget increases by another $820. it if you went to penn state university of delaware, state schools, the state paid a significant amount of tuition. they are not paying anymore. they are paying some, but not much because they cut paying for it. guess what? try paying for college in a state is efficient where you can commute, it is expensive. it matters a lot. the more we educate people the better chance they have. it is a better opportunity. the rod is getting more complicated -- the world is getting more complicated so i'm increasing the budget.

we are paying another $820 to help people from families with low income. let's connect students to careers and opportunity starting in high school. we should provide for two years in community college. in school, sophomore, junior, you should be able to take credits to qualify for college credit in a state university or a community college. people are beginning to do that around the country. some of the best training in america. let's offer every american a path to a good career rather they go to college or not like the path you started here. first program in a nation where students can graduate with an associates degree. host: because education a part of the president $6.9 trillion budget requests. this morning we are give your thoughts on it. in other headlines this morning, this is from the washington post

, the model minority leader mitch mcconnell is being treated for a concussion after he fell at a hotel this week. he was at the hospital for observation. you also have this from the wall street journal this morning, china set to seat is president x i for a third term. in the washington times with the front page, twitter files reporters took lawmakers the threat to freedom is real/ we covered that hearing, if you missed it, you can find it on our website c-span.org. you do not have to watch the entire hearing. at the bottom of the video player you will see gold stars you can follow along with the point of interest that happened during the testimony. there is this from the washington times this morning, the house pisa bills to

declassify intel -- tees up bills to declassify and help that requires the biden administration to declassify intelligence that shares a leak -- shows a leak between a lab in china and the start of the covid-19 pandemic. yesterday a hearing where lawmakers heard testimony about the origins of the covid 19 virus and we covered that as well. you can find it on our website c-span.org. busy hearings on capitol hill. we heard from the directors of fbi, cia, national intelligence division, etc. the top directors twice this week talking about global threats, c-span cameras were there for both of those hearings and you will find those on our website along with two days of testimony from jerome powell,

the federal reserve chair talking about the economy and monetary policy and telling lawmakers he will be increasing federal interest rates as well. all of that on our website. you do not have to watch hours of hearings. you can follow along with the video player and those points of interest. roland in detroit, michigan. morning to you. caller: this country continues to deny the reality of how poverty equates surveillance -- of how poverty equates to violence coupled with racism and all of this other foolishness. biden did not mention reparations at all in this budget. until this country gets

irresponsibility -- until this country gets to is responsibility to the harm they have done to african-americans, this country will always be a territorial turmoil and all that kind of other nefarious activities and that is what i wanted to say. reparations must be put into these budgets and on the table and they need to stop playing around because karma is a real thing. thank you. host: anthony in brooklyn, a republican. caller: good morning. that representative you had on, he sounds like he has a good plan, but on top of that, they should cut the federal government. host: all right.

in virginia, democratic caller. caller: i believe biden's budget. i think the rich should have to pay their fair share. also with the taxes, the penalties they put on anybody who pays taxes should be reduced. an average person who has to pay taxes back and they call and try to get a way to pay it, they still could be charged every day, a percentage, like 9% or something. that is just crazy. if you don't take out the dogs, you will never be able to pay it off my she paid all in one large some yet the rich people do not have to pay anything and you know that did not make any sense. that is why we are in such red

shape. when clinton was here, we are in the black. every time democrats come in, they make we go to the plight. it republicans come in, we go to the red. they talk about the taxes and how biden spending unconditionally crazy. well, why does he have to do that? republicans before him and because a covid that is why he had to do that. that is why the jobs are gone. no one wanted to go to work. i'm from virginia. he did not say anything about that part. all the did was bring in taxes. they may taxes free goods for the rich.

host: this is what the president like tdo in his budget on taxes. mo than $4.5 trillion in tax increases levies a 25% and come on america's hooves wlth exceeds 100 million and hikes the corporate tax rates to 28% up from 21% which would lower under president trump and republican tax plan was put in law under his administration. it would expand medicare taxes on top earners, those make you more than $400,000 without the pay more in medicare taxes to make the program solvent. it would also include higher taxes on u.s. companies foreign income. gina in mississippi, republican. hi. your turn. caller: hi. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to ask you a question. you kind of just did what was going to ask you.

i wanted to ask why when people call in, like when irene called in and she said 90 rich people -- she said none of the rich people pay taxes, well we all know that is not true. the top 1% of people in this country pay the majority of the taxes. the bottom 50%, under $50,000, pay no taxes. i was wondering when someone says something like that like it is a fact, could you or whatever host, could y'all correct them on that? there's a lot of's information being spewed on this channel every day whether it is intentional or uninformed and i was wondering if you thought that was good for the nation.

host: i was a people share their perspectives, their realities every day. caller: should we put out some facts because it is causing a lot of anger. host: to be real-time fact checker on this program would be impossible. there are places you can go to check your facts and there is many websites that you can go to when you have something to check it out. caller: good morning, my concern is the government is turning agencies against the american

public. who are these people? very going to have a bankruptcy in this country because of raising the interest rates in all of these beautiful homes are going to end up losing their. this country is turning socialist for some reason to have a wonderful role government. . this is a crisis going against american public and it has to stop. thank you. host: here is one source that is again you can look at other sources from a newspaper, the guardian, wealthiest americans pay 3.4% of income taxes according to april public investigation. the 25 wealthiest americans collectively earned the pages

3.4% of that in taxes. the investigation is the latest in a series that pro-public a started in june of 2021 to looks at the tax records of the top .01% wealthiest americans. again that is the guardian you can look at other places. we have planned to have on the program this morning jodi ellington to join us to react to the president's budget request but he was unable to join us so we're going to work to reschedule that. of next, stephen moore senior economist at freedom works and former trump economic advisor will join us with his take on the president's budget and later on democratic congressman ami bera joins us to talk about the

budget balances to come in some of the foreign challenges facing the united states as well. we will be right back. ♪ >> the name of america which belongs to you in your national capacity.

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plus best seller list and insider views. on the c-span app or anywhere where you get your podcast. there are a lot of places to get political information but only on c-span do you get it free. no matter where you are from or where you get your issues. c-span now, unfiltered unbiased, if it happens here, or here or anywhere that matters, america is watching on c-span powered by cable. washington journal continues. host: a former task member for

george bush, steve moore let's begin with what the president said in this budget. the white house is claiming that this will reduce the federal debt by 10 trillion over 10 years. by increasing taxes in the medicare program and negotiating better prices but mostly by increasing taxes. guest: i have been in this game a long time. i first arrived in washington since 1984 so i've studied budget since reagan, bush and obama. this is the most financially reckless budget i have seen by a long stretch. this budget would increase our debt and send our spike to $50 trillion over the next 10-12

years. the tax increases in this budget it would leave the united states with the highest corporate rate this is the classic left-wing tax-and-spend budget. in the next year alone this alone this budget was supposed to be a lien conservative budget increases government spotting by .5 billion. this budget is not going go anywhere, these budgets are dead on arrival.

anywhere, these budgets are dead on arrival. it will show you where joe biden wants to take the country. it could cause the 1929 style wall street crash. host: what would you do to relieve the debt? guest: i would cut spending, he's increased spending by 4.5 trillion already. the covid emergency is thankfully over. now that the crisis is over, historically in the united states whether it was the great depression or thedepression or n those were over we started reducing the debt. this is the first time we have a

post crisis president crisis prs to increase the debt. rand paul who has been on the show many times has pointed out that if we were just to go back to the budget we had in 20 before covid, we would have a balanced budget. if we had pre-level covid spending we would be we would by our bills. guest: you might have to cut spending in some areas like social security and medicare. but the overall level of spending. you may ask what are you going to cut? we know .5 trillion was taken from fraud payments and the ppp

program, and medicaid, medicare. we don't need to spend $300 billion that's been authorized by congress but not spent before these green energy programs. we don't have the money for them. we should wait those out. we don't need to spend 50 billion to hire 87,000 irs agents. there are ways to reduce irs agents. there are ways to reduce spending and ways that are feasible for the american people. host: would any of this address the solvency of medicare and social security? guest: both of them -- no amount

of politicians want to admit that but the financial path, the axillary's of the program is probably going to be bankrupt and however many years. the main thing you need to do to get those program solvent is promote the economy faster and get america back to work. if we can get this economic growth rate to 3% you would get revenues in from more people working. businesses would see more money. people would earn more money. host: you have done the math on that? those would cover all the baby boomers currently in the system? guest: this is the point.

everyone watching the show, social security is the worst investment you've ever made in your life. i have been advocating that we should allow people to take 10% of their social security money and put it in 401(k)s. if we have done that 30 years ago, nearly everyone would have one million in their accounts and they would be retiring with better benefits and social security. we have to convert that system into an individually directed account system where you get the power of compound interest. medicare is another story altogether. it's interesting to me because

health care is the one industry that has the fastest rise of inflation over any other industry. a lot of that is because government has not done a good job controlling the cost of the health care system. host: frank is calling from new york. an independent. caller: i would like to ask him -- the means testing of programs. a person who is on ssi and in section eight housing every dollar they made would be $.50 of their ssi. 30% of that is supposed to go to section eight. then they can't save more than $2000. you have a 70% tax rate on the

poorest people in the country. you can't save any money. i would suggest that you could put that money into savings by volunteering to pay social security taxes. they should be able to do things to save more money. they should make rent deductible from ssi. i saw you on the kudlow show talking about work incentives but we have the biggest disincentives to work in these programs. thus the issue that i am raising. if you'd like to say something on that. guest: it's a great point and

i'm not an expert on ssi programs but i know what you are talking about which is every additional dollar you earn, you would pay $.30 of taxes. it's a cliff the people have to get over to get back in the workforce. i am a big believer, we are the richest people in the world we don't want people when they fall on hard times it is important that we have an insurance system, make sure they can feed their family. i think most americans would agree with me on this, there are

government welfare programs you have to be working yourself. you have to be in a training program, a job are looking for a job. both president obama and biden we got rid of all the work requirements under these programs and that's one of the reasons we are having a hard time getting peopletime gettingo the workforce. we have a lot of jobs in this economy right now. there are 10 million job openings but 4 million americans that should be working working,t could be working that aren't working. one of those reasons is that the government is paying people to go back to work. if both parents are working better collecting unemployment, you can earn more than a lot of

working people. that's not fair to the people who were working 40 hours a week. host: jill from iowa. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question would be, can you tell me which gop president has balance the budget in the last couple of decades? guest: i believe we need to get the budget under control and i agree with the premise of this. there has been no financially reckless president the joe biden. the debt has increased to 8

trillion over the next 10 years just because of biden's policies. it is a bipartisan problem. i am not trying to be pro republican or democrat. the one president that has balance the budget was a democrat, bill clinton. and how did he do it? we did welfare reform under bill clinton. we put people off welfare and got them into jobs. we did a capital gains tax cut, and we grew the economy. cut, and we grew the economy. in those things lead to a balanced budget. in the last 50 years we only had a balanced budget under clayton.

i wish that the democratic party believed in the kinds of things bill clinton believed in. well form reform, free trade, strategic ways to make america strong economically. i am not sure that biden believes in those things at all. host: mark in florida, and independent. caller: how are you doing this morning? i just wanted to ask you a question on how long you have been doing this, if you are the longest standing person on the show. i wanted to talk to this man about whether or not george w. bush gave massive tax cuts and went to war and we were told we would get every single penny back and it would pay for itself.

opec is a monopoly in it is killing us. but this open market has done nothing but raise prices and he is talking about a 401(k)? so the people in wall street can pick our money anytime they want so they can get their billion-dollar items and then everyone goes broke because i'm sorry, 401(k)s are dying right now. people have saved all their lives in the country has done nothing about it. you have to turn around and look at enron and what it did to the establishment and where does all this money go? and then the banks, we get 0%

interest in what happens? they charge our students 7% or higher? no person should pay more than 3% for their college funds. i don't think it should've ever been higher than that. they pull all the stuff and they take money from the poor and they give it to the rich. guest: there is a lot there. a lot of good points. i have been watching the washington journal since the mid-1980's. i have been on the show many times which is why i love c-span so much. i want to talk about this idea for helping everyone have a personal account.

taking 10% of your paycheck and having it go to washington, you would put that into a 401(k) account. when i talked about this 35 years ago, the dow jones industrial average was that to or 3000. now it's at 33,000. we went through this massive gain in wealth and unfortunately, a lot of the wealth went to the richest people because we did not allow people in lower incomes to put their savings -- the government is taking your social security money, your pension money and they are spending it on other programs. if private companies did that we

would put them in jail. that is why social security is going bankrupt. the other point i wanted to make , what is the percentage of taxes paid by the rich? there are all sorts of numbers on this. the official numbers from the irs. these are the statistics that the irs and the congressional budget office release. i am not making them up. the top 1%, one out of 100, pay 42% of the income tax. the bottom 50% pay around six, 7%.

we have an extremely progressive tax system. it is not true that the tax are not paying their fair share. some rich people finding their ways around paying taxes and that is why i have been in favor of a flat tax for every body so that every american is paying their fair share. no loopholes, no cut arounds for this or that company. if you did that, everybody would pay their fair share. it would not matter who they hired, everybody would have to pay their fair share and most of the people listening to the show thinks this is sensible. but we don't have that today. host: the pro-public health article says .00 01% of wealthy

americans. guest: people who make over $100 million. i think they are including the wealth of those people. i am just telling you, the irs numbers -- the top 10% of americans pay about 75% of the income tax. it's a pretty progressive system. if there are people out there paying not paying their taxes? i'm sure there are.

the new numbers just came out, it's 42%. host: we will hear from scott in georgia. caller: you made a comment about health care and government and i wanted to put this forth. i would argue that the federal government has helped health care costs get out of line because the government consumes 50% of all health care. they set the number and many times, it is below actual cost. hospitals file those things every year and their margins are very tight. the remaining 50% of the revenue has to come from the commercial side being health insurance and businesses. and that 50% also has to cover

emergency care. hospitals have to make up the margins from the first 50% with the latter 50% because the government does not pay its fair share as far as health care. medicaid pays 70% of what the reimbursements should be in medicare itself barely pays costs. and if you look at the rising cost between health care and college education you will find those things are going up by the same amount since the year 2000 and it doesn't take much to see the similarities from college education and health care. guest: you're absolutely right.

it's so interesting to me that the two industries over the last four years, that have had the highest inflation rate and costs have been education and health care. those are the two industry that the government has the most control of. half of the health care system is run by the government and most of the schools and universities are highly subsidized by the government. i asked my more liberal friends why we have the government play a role in health care and education and they will say to make it more affordable. it's a ripoff how much colleges are charging our families. some universities charge $60,000 for middle-class family. we should basically say, every

single university, we won't pay student loans until you cut your tuition and half on middle-class families. because what they are charging is outrageous. they are ripping off american families and nobody does anything and we expect the government to give them more money and they just raise their tuition even more. host: what about their endowment funds? guest: exactly, why is it that harvard, yale and these universities charge family $75,000 when they have billions and billions of dollars in endowments. why don't they use the endowment money to reduce the tuition for families? i'm 100 percent in agreement, it's a scam. american should be so angry that the universities are ripping off our families.

why don't we have a system like the college of the ozarks. their tuition is zero because the kids work 20 hours a week and they are working for their tuition. what a concept? i think that would be a great system. host: how do you think it changes if at all? guest: how do i think what changes? host: higher education. guest: politicians have to say stop raising your tuition. every college in america should

be cutting their tuition and half. they could do it easily and pay professors and so on. the other thing we should do, the more money that we give out for student loans, the universities will just raise their tuition. it's like a dog chasing its tail. it's one of the biggest ripoffs and americans. i don't understand why they are more angry. host: colleges and universities would have skin in the game. it would mean that they would be able to pay back that loan.

guest: i will give you an example of how gigantic these endowments are. harvard's endowment is so large, it could give every student free tuition and they still would not run out of money. most universities have endowment so large that they should be cutting their tuition but what did they use this money for? they are just gigantic investment firms and they don't do anything for the professors or students with all that money. host: keith moore, thank you so much. wait we have chris up, while keith moore we always appreciate the conversation with you. guest: thank you c-span, take care. host: when we come up

congressman rep. ami bera will be here. we will be right back. >> in partnership with the cable industry, c-span has complete coverage. c-span gives you a front row to government with no commentary, no interruptions and completely unfiltered. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> american history tv saturday on c-span2 exploring the people

and events that tell the american story. the 65th anniversary of the doj's civil rights division. itit focuses on the work of the division over the decade and honors the contribution of leaders, staff and alumni. , staff and alumni. university of california davis history professor on the rise of communism in the united states. turdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or online any time at c-span.org/history. c-span has unfiltered coverage of the u.s.'s response to the russian invasion of ukraine.

to the russian invasion of ukraine. we also have international perspectives from the united nations and statements from foreign leaders. all on the c-span network, the c-span mobile, the c-span mobile app. go to c-span.org/ukraine. host: "washington journal," continues. joining us from capital hill is rep. ami bera a member of the foreign affairs committee. can i get your reaction to the president's budget proposal? guest: he lays out how we are going to start lowering the deficit. he is looking at raising revenue, shoring up medicare and

social security. of course the house will have something to say here. but he has laid out a pretty good budget. host: on the deficit, even with mr. biden's promise to cut deficits by 3 trillion over the coming decade by raising taxes, the annual deficit remain stuck at around 5% of gdp. as a result, federal debt continues to rise reaching a hundred and 10% of gdp. what needs to be done to address debt and the drivers of debt? guest: we have seen interest rates go up and the more they go up the more the interest on the national debt goes up.

i do think we ought to have a bipartisan commission. we should get a commission to address how to lower the dead. host: with social security and medicare be on the table for you? guest: some of the changes that the president is considering in terms of raising the amount that people who earn over 400,000, looking at a social security cap and make sure everyone is paying their fair share. i know negotiations are taking place on the senate side. host: on the pentagon's budget, the pentagon is asking the

congress to boost funds for the pacific forces. they write, alongside joe biden's budget request the pentagon will release a 15.3 billion plan for pacific forces and this comes after a significant boost last year and it will go to buying missile test systems, increased exercises and training. are you on board with an increase after china's aggression? guest: i'm on board with increasing the defense budget and we have always talked about the shift and pivot to asia and the pacific. the budget has to reflect that as well.

on the diplomatic side, what is it that we need to adequately spend and prepare ourselves for what will be the most pivotal area of the world? we will look at the details of the budget but more of our spending needs to focus on the and pacific. host: what is you learn about the origins of the covid-19 virus? guest: i am on the select community for covid-19. i am agnostic here. i think there is some evidence that it could be a lab leak. there is some evidence that it's a pneumatic outbreak. i don't know if we'll ever find in answer unless the chinese communist party is willing to cooperate and let scientists get

to ground zero and find out what's going on there. host: from the washington times, the house is said to vote on a bill to declassify an intelligent that shows the link between the lab in china and the start of the covid-19 pandemic. guest: i would vote yes but i would describe that bill as declassify evidence that looks at the covid origins. whether that is a lab leak or the wet market. i think we need to look for those origins. host: what specifically is your response to the president's requestrequest for foreign affa, foreign relations in this country? guest: being a senior member on the foreign services committee, diplomacy isdiplomacy is the beo avoid war and confrontation. i will always advocate for a bigger budget for our diplomatic

budget. caller: good morning, back in 1968 we had a. of government spending. [indiscernible] if you take a two road 204 lane road, you cut the time it takes to get from point a to point b. host: what is your point? caller: one pays no dividends.

host: i'm going to move onto christian from south carolina. caller: i wanted to ask why republicans are pretending like social security is holding back our budget would we pay for it with every paycheck? guest: thanks for the question. i can't answer why republicans say that. i think it's one of the best programs we've ever passed. you pay into it over your lifetime so you will have social security and retirement. it's a really successful program. we need to make some adjustments . it's a successful program that

has lifted millions of seniors out of poverty and we shouldn't mess around with social security. we can look at ways to make it more secure for the future. host: peggy from washington state, a democrat. caller: i genuinely want an answer to this covid-19 but we still don't have -- we don't know where the ebola virus came from. we don't have any answers to the spanish flu. i am not quite sure if we are ever going to get an answer to that. thank you. guest: i am not sure we will either. i am a doctor by training and had the first hearing on covid back in january 2020. unless we could actually work with the folks in china,

interview folks, i don't think we will have 100% certainty and how this started. that said, we should continue to use every resource to try and understand it so we can use that knowledge to prevent the next pandemic. host: jerry and virginia, a republican. caller: yes, good morning. i have a suggestion for every taxpayer in america. start paying taxes for three start paying taxes for three months -- stop paying taxes for three months they will not be able to pay. all we have to will not be able to pay. all we have to do is fill out a

new w-4 form and give it to our employer. we will report the government and stop the wasteful spending. guest: i think we all citizens need to continue to pay her taxes. i think your point is how your e address the debt and deficit and that's legitimate. we ought to look at how everyone pays their fair share. but we have to make sure that our kids are not saddled with this debt. kids are not saddled with this debt. host: sherman and phoenix, arizona, a republican. caller: here in phoenix we are having an issue with our water supply. i wonder how much is allocated

from president biden's budget? guest: in the infrastructure bill there are a lot of resources to clean up the water. we have water infrastructure that we need to address in arizona and other places and make sure that we have adequate water supplies. while we got a lot of snow in california and we have been living through a drought for a long time. i think it is legitimate that we negotiate how we better manage our water in wet years and dry here so we have adequate water supply. water in wet years and dry

here so we have adequate water supply. host: ginny in north carolina, a republican. caller: good morning. we are talking about taxes and companies raising their taxes and trump has lowered those taxes so we can bring countries back to our country. back to our country. now if wants to raise them and they will end up leaving our country. why is no one talking about the illegals? there are millions of illegals coming. i think it is passing what we pay for ukraine and biden said we would support ukraine for as long as it takes. how much money are we going to give these people? guest: i do want to make sure that corporations pay their fair share. there are profitable corporations that pay very little in taxes.

all of us as individuals pay taxes and we have to make sure companies pay their fair share of taxes. we don't want to disadvantage the american tax base. i know the president put out a proposal to move the corporate tax rate to 28%. but that would even be a cut from what it was previously. that would raise a lot of revenue and start to address the debt. with spending on ukraine, these individuals are sacrificing their lives to protect freedom. i do think we as freedom loving individuals have to come together to continue to support this fight of freedom.

it should not be an unlimited checkbook. we need to stand with other countries a stand for freedom as well. host: jim in akron, ohio, and independent. caller: i am wondering why are we checking in to where covid-19 came from when we know it came from china? if it came from a lab or a wet market we know where it came from. guest: i will answer it is a doctor. if it was a lab leak we need to spend a lot of time making sure the labs around the world have safety standards. if it was from a wet market we need to go and shut down wet markets in order to prevent a virus from going to an animal

from an animal to a human. best is the science side of it. i don't think it's a question of which country it originated from. i think we all agree it came out of wuhan. host: theresa from illinois, a democratic caller. caller: i just wanted to know why are we in ukraine helping them? guest: i think it is a question a lot of americans are asking. for 75 years post-world war ii we had a pretty stable world and we could be proud of that as

americans. we created a stable geopolitical order in the world. this is an unprovoked war, putin chose to invade ukraine. if we don't stop this at this point, there is nothing to suggest that it won't continue. there are other world leaders and i think they are watching. that is why you have seen all of europe come together with the united states. that's why you see other democracies coming together to stop this down because we might have a bigger problem down the road. host: what's your reaction to the news out of china today, the

country is set to seek xi jinping for a third term. guest: i wish china was going in another direction. she's jumping is consolidating power in surrounding himself by folks who support him and it takes china in a different direction than we hoped. i think they are going in a very different direction. host: gail and liberty hills, texas. caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: i would like to ask you, i think it's about time that our government starts taking care of

their responsibilities that they had sworn to ensure her one of the things we need insured's borders. we definitely need secure borders. guest: thank you for the question. i would not disagree with you. i think we need border security. we have to address issues on the southern and the northern border. i don't know if that's building a wall. i think that could be using technology but we will continue having an issue unless we can come together as democrats and republicans and have an honest conversation. to a previous collar, we are a nation of immigrants that we ought to look at immigration.

host: i want to get your reaction to the latest job numbers. job growth stays hot is their headline. february's unemployment rate is 3.6%. guest: our economy is doing reasonably well in terms of unemployment. people are working and folks are out there. i think that's a good thing. we do have to be careful because of inflation but america is on the come back and we need to keep going in the right direction. host: armand in lakeland, florida, and independent. caller: i would like to raise an

issue that have gone offshore for cheap labor. and then we have all the immigrants we have in this country, they should be in the verified program and all these corporations should be paying their fair share into the medicare system. we have too many people here not on the register working. all of these corporations in this country not paying into the system, they are not paying social security taxes on their employees and they're not paying into the medicare system. everybody is talking about all the revenue we are not making. how about the corporations who

are not paying their fair share in the corporations that when offshore and have to have illegal immigrants and us like their hypocrites. please address are forming. -- it is like they are hypocrites. please address this for me. guest: for undocumented folks who are working and not paying into the system, i think we ought to have a conversation. many have been here for decades and contribute to their communities. we have to recognize that they are working and give them a social security number and have them pay into the system.

that is called comprehensive immigration reform. i would like to work on that with my republican colleagues. host: larry, good morning and independent caller. caller: my question is also about ukraine. it looks like this thing is going to go on forever and you could bring china into this war, they ran is in this world. everything is being destabilized and are munitions are being brought to zero so if there is another conflict we have a big problem there. it will undermine our currency and the currency of the world could change. more people will die, we should

be using our proxy to bring people to the table and in this war. guest: my hope is that the war in ukraine ins sooner than later. -- ends sooner than later. it's not going the way of vladimir putin thought it would. he thought he would just march in kiev and it would take a couple of days. i think we ought to continue supporting the ukrainian people. i also think, i don't think i'm in the minority. most of us want to avoid a direct war with china and i think we ought to keep the door open on how we can be competitors.

how do we create a new, stable system in the 21st century? can we do that in the 21st-century where we can all thrive and prosper in relative peace? host: the house is about to gavel in at 9:00 a.m.. we appreciate the conversation with you. guest: thank you greta, you as well. host: the house is coming in early. we will bring you to the chamber right now, live coverage on c-span. the speaker pro tempore: the house will now be in order.

the