and at 3:00 the senate returns to continue work on legislation to repeal the 1991 and 2002 authorizations f use of military force against iraq. a vote to officially begin debate is set for 50. these debates also streamed live on the c-span now app or online at c-span.org. this morning on "washington journal," your calls and comments, then virginia gentles of the independence forum talks about the parents bill of rights act being considered by the house this week. also the robert wood johnson foundation policy vice president avenel joseph talks about the end of the pandemic era coverage requirement for medicaid participants. "washington journal" is next.

host: it is tuesday, march 20 first, 2023. today donald trump said he expects to be arrested over the new york city investigation into hush money payments made to a born start. we wait to see if indictments and arrest happened today. we will begin by hearing from you about what such a move by the manhattan district attorney would mean for the former president, if it would help or hurt donald trump in his bid to retake the white house in 2024. food lines are open. democrats, call (202) 748-8000. blicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also send as a text. (202) 748-8003. please include your name on where you are from. catch up with those on social media. good tuesday morning to you.

you can start calling you now. we will begin with two opinion pieces from the conservative opinion pages of the washington times. they appear two pages apart. the first, he says alvin braggs, the manhattan district attorney, is committed apparently to getting mr. trump back into the white house. today mr. trump's biggest challenge to reclaiming his outsider status as a destructive broader even though he technically served four years in the white house is a way to make sure trump resumes the mantle of outsider charging the gate would be to arrest him on blatantly partisan charges. charlie hurts saying if mr. trump is arrested, voters will protest at the ballot box next year. godspeed, he writes, thank you for your service. that is charles hurts in today's washington times. two pages await is cal thomas,

his headline, trump should follow lyndon johnson's example. if that means donald trump is indicted for repeatedly paying hush money to stormy daniels, and if it seems likely mr. trump is indicted by a georgia grand jury fort tried to force election officials were trying to overturn that state boathouse , mr. trump should follow the example of lyndon johnson. in 1968 he announced he would not seek the presidency again. cap thomas announces that if trump withdraws it would open up the field for candidates with less personal baggage and help voters focus on more important issues than mr. trump's caustic personality. a trump with drop would reduce the bitterness and attitude of revenge mr. trump has fomented and former -- and poisoned the political waters in ways not seen since vietnam and the assassination of martin luther king and robert kennedy.

for the good of the country cal thomas writes mr. trump should quit the race. those two pieces from the washington times. if there is indictment, what do you think it would mean for donald trump in his bid to retake the white house in 2024. that discussion playing out over the weekend. it was saturday mr. trump predicted he would be arrested. it was on cnn state of the union that one prominent republican talked about what this might mean for donald trump. chris sununu was on cnn state of the union. this is what he had to say. [video clip] >> i think it is building a lot of sympathy for the former president. i was with coffee, none of them were trump supporters but it looked like he was being attacked. it is likely a misdemeanor on issue seven years ago. this has nothing to do with

january 6. i think not just the media but a lot of the democrats have misplayed this in terms of building sympathy for the former president. it does drastically change the paradigm as we go into the 2024 election. >> the former president has called for protests and is urging supporters to take our country back. every american has constitutional rights to peaceful protest. do you think former president trump has special responsibility to make sure his supporters protest peacefully after what happened on january 6? >> sure. if someone is calling for protests you always want to make sure they are peaceful. we know this is going to happen. folks are always protesting what they see as an unjustified arrest or an unjustified indictment, but you want to make sure it is peaceful. we do not want history to repeat itself. that is going to happen. you cannot put on the former president.

it is our responsibility and society to make sure if we have something to say we are doing it in the right way and making sure we are having a positive effect. host: chris sununu on cnn state of the union on sunday. it was that same saturday posed by donald trump that, on supporters to protest. headlines from today's washington times. officials brace for unrest with possible trump indictment. the story showing some of the preparations and some of the possible demonstrations that could be happening. the demonstrators, the story notes, if they were to show up, would show up at the lower manhattan courthouse. signs of preparation visible being unloaded and erected. the story from the washington post today. your phone calls asking you what an indictment and arrest would mean for donald trump, if it would help or hurt the former president.

indian trail north carolina, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i was thinking about it while i was listening to you talk and listening to sununu. i do not have any sympathy for trump and i do not hate trump. that is not the point. we have had so much trouble in this country, in january 6 i watched it -- and january 6, i watched it, i think the country has lost respect for law. if he is not held responsible from just the smallest -- i am trying to think of what he could be held for. if they do not charge him with the smallest thing -- he did it. they have the checks.

the other guy, what did he go to jail for? trump gets away with too much and if he gets away with this -- young people are being taught certain people can get away with anything. host: this is melanie out of lawrenceville, georgia. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call this morning. i wanted to say that we in this country have gone to the point of no one is above the law to find me the man and i will find you the crime. that is awful. i think this will split our country. i hated. the lady that call before asked what michael cohen went to jail for, he went to jail for lying. thanks a lot and have a great day. host: robert in michigan, independent. what you think a potential indictment and arrest, what does

that mean for donald trump as he continues to run for president? caller: am i on? host: yes, sir. caller: ok. this scenario started when trump supposedly started saying he is going to be indicted, it is kind of funny, because the news had a frenzy all over the weekend. they had all of these scenarios they talk about what would happen if this, what would happen if that. they forgot one thing. the scenario of how are they going to pick the jurors? are they going to be asking the jurors if they are republicans or democrats or independents? trump will bring this up if there is a jury trial. also the 2020 election, they

keep failing to bring up the subject that we had an overwhelming number of voters on that 2020 election. more voters than any other election this country ever had. that says a lot. it will happen again. we will have another overwhelming number of voters. let trump go because he is going to lose. he will lose again in 2024. host: kathleen in the windy city. democrat. good morning. caller: don't cut me off until i get my point in. wooded indictment help or hurt former president trump? ask the same question about president obama. he should have been locked up from day one. in this country, do as i say, not as i do. host: anything else you want to add? caller: as the same question

about president obama. in this country, do is i say, not as i do. host: eva in columbia, mississippi, good morning. caller: joe biden keepsake nobody is above the law and the bidens are not either. donald trump is not below the law. joe biden keep saying his honor as a biden, his honor is worth nothing. this guy is just hunting for political reasons. i think everybody who has paid off somebody in washington should be investigated and how many politicians do you think have paid off women in washington? why don't you investigate that. host: on what this investigation has looked into and what the charges might be, just murdoch takes a look at that in today's washington times. washington journal viewers know jeff murdoch. here is how he tried to break it

down in his column. manhattan district attorney is said to be nearing a decision on whether to charge donald trump for alleged wrongdoing involving hush money payments to stormy daniels. if he does pull the trigger on an indictment of the former president will be charged with falsifying business records. the charges a misdemeanor, but other new york state law it could be upgraded to a felony. a felony conviction would carry a prison sentence of four years. although the payment made to stormy daniels is not a crime, it is possible a crime was committed when it was documented in the trump organization box. he goes on to say -- in the trump organization books. he goes onto to say that mr. cohen cemented invoices with a retainer agreement with mr. trump. mr. cohen then received a series of checks signed by mr. trump while he was president. if there was no retainer agreement, it is possible the invoices were forged and

documented as legal expenses to cover up hush payments and if true jeff morlock writes, that could run afoul of new york's law against falsifying business records. jeff morlock's column trying to break down what these charges could be. we do not know if it will happen or when it will happen, but the former president did predict he would be arrested today in that post that received a lot of attention over the weekend. we are asking you, wooded indictment help or hurt former president trump as he runs in 2024. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. this is melissa in tennessee will stop democrat. good morning. caller: as far as how it affects mr. trump, i do not think he actually cares at this point.

he has gone his entire life thinking he is the orange john gotti. i am not sure he is aware there is such a thing as a law and it has infected the legal system. if you or i or anybody else ran for county counsel and we had our lawyer do what his lawyer supposedly did with a porn star, we would be serving our time as we speak. it has taken eight years for a grand jury to decide whether or not he broke any laws. we all can say he is not above the law. yes he is. it has taken this long to get this far. we still have not started seriously looking at whether he was responsible for an attempted coup, and whether or not his

organization, or his crime boss family, did not pay taxes. host: that is melissa. this is cecil out of washington state. independent. you are next. caller: i normally do not vote because i am nearing 60 and i voted republican, i voted for democratic nominees in the past. i got so fed up as i got older with these politicians. they seem to be a bunch of foolish, dishonest, cartoon characters. right now all i know is in new york they are looking for donald duck and it is duck season. thank you. host: donna, burlington, kentucky. line for republicans.

your thoughts on whether indictment would help or hurt donald trump? caller: it doesn't matter. president trump is our salvation. i would like to ask the question, what is the intent to entrap law? to me it seems like they are attacking this man nonstop from the first time he stepped off the plane. it is overwhelming ugly. thank you. host: that is diana in burlington, kentucky. phone lines republicans, (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. another headline on this in our backyard. trumps potential arrest hangs over capitol hill. that is the story from the hill

newspaper. the congressional reporter on that story joining us via zoom this morning. good morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: house republicans demanding the manhattan district attorney provide testimony and documents. they have said they will get involved in an investigation here of the investigation. what are they demanding and what we know about the steps house republicans are taking in reaction to this potential indictment, this potential arrest? guest: that is right. to set the scene, back on saturday just hours after former president trump said he would be arrested on tuesday speaker kevin mccarthy put out a tweet saying he was directing committees to look at whether federal funds were being used by the district attorney's this investigation. fast-forward to yesterday. three committee chairman came out with a letter inviting alvin

bragg, the district attorney to testify about the investigation into trump and also requesting documents and communications related to that probe. this letter came from the house judiciary chairman jim jordan and house oversight committee chairman james comer. essentially what this letter is doing as it says they want to look into whether any federal funds were being used in manhattan and they also want to look into communications between the department of justice and the manhattan district attorney's office in terms of discussing this hush money investigation. another factor of this letter is it tries to paint the investigation as saying it is politically motivated. the chairman has said this indictment of trump would be a politically motivated indictment. they also try to cast doubt on the investigation star witness, michael cohen, who is former president trump's ex-fixer and

was a key witness in this hush money probe, reminding folks he served jail time for lying to congress and arguing he is not a credible witness. this letter had a lot of information but at the crux, house republicans are requesting testimony from alvin bragg and various documents and communication. host: that letter available on the judicial committee website. we will show viewers the link. you noted they are inviting the district attorney to testify. when does invitation become compelled? is that possible? guest: the letter said they want alvin bragg to testify as soon as possible. that shows that house republicans are eager to hear from him for this interview. it is unclear if they will take any methods to compel this testimony, but the letter says they would like to hear from bragg as soon as possible.

host: house republicans at that retreat, we spent a good time yesterday talking about the policy retreat they are on in florida. how much do you get a sense from your reporters that this investigation, this new cycle on this potential indictment and arrest, how much is it hanging over what is happening down there? guest: it may be a policy retreat but former president trump has overshadowed this entire retreat in orlando, the home state of former president trump. at press conferences about policy, about different policy matters, lawmakers have been asked about former president trump, particulate the matter of his indictment today. there asked that at every turn and it is forcing republicans to defend trump on the merits of the investigation to take a position of whether or not they agree with trumps call for his supporters to protest in

reaction to a potential indictment. republicans are down in florida trying to talk about policy and they're trying to stay on their agenda. they came to the policy retreat in orlando with the hopes of talking about their accomplishments and highlighting their accomplishments from their first two in the house majority, but also trying to strategize for the weeks to come, most notably over the summer we are expecting the debt ceiling deadline to come upon us and that is when we will have to come to a head with these investigations about whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, how to raise the debt ceiling. that is a standoff between republicans and democrats. republicans had hoped to talk about these things in orlando. no doubt former president trump is overshadowing the plans and has been overtaken as the main focus of this retreat. host: finally, in the last minute, notable democratic reaction and what you are hearing on capitol hill? guest: jamie raskin, who is the

top democrat on the oversight committee, one of the panels that sent this letter to aplidin bragg, he called the letter from the chairman in abuse of power. a lot of democrats are saying this is just republicans trying to defend donald trump. they are voicing concerns about political violence without call for protests and the order to take our nation back. democrats are attacking republicans for how they are handling this, zeroing in on former president trump himself. nothing surprising from the democratic reaction but they are being outspoken and reacting to this. guest: you can see her and her colleagues worked at thehill.com. appreciate you darting us via zoom this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: the topic of this headline from the new york times this morning. political maelstrom looms for

prosecutors in the trump case. we are talking about the political ramifications of a potential indictment of former president donald trump. he predicted it would happen today. we do not know if it will happen, we do not know when it will happen. we are asking you what would an arrest mean for donald trump as he seeks to retake the white house in 2024? surely in orangeburg, south carolina, democrat. what do you think? caller: i think donald trump should not only be put in jail. i think you should be put under the jail. host: what does under the jail mean? i want to make sure we are not talking about any sort of violence or anything like that. are you still there. what you mean by under the jail? caller: i mean if they put him in jail, when he walks in that room, there is a space that has

a trapdoor and let him down in there. host: ok. we will go to robert. independent. good morning. caller: i think an indictment would definitely hurt donald trump's chances of reelection. i want to say this. the last time donald trump did not get his way, we had january 6. i am saying this time there is another dog whistle. imagine a black district attorney get donald trump arrested and he calls for protest. he is calling for violence. black people, be aware and prepared, because we could have blood in the streets. we could have rivers flowing with blood. black people need to be prepared. host: brady in ohio. republican.

what do you think it would mean for former president trump. would it help or hurt his chances in 2024? caller: an indictment would not matter. we the people know that donald trump is going to be our president in 2024. alvin bragg, he needs to resign. the political campaign he is trying to fully against donald trump is nothing but a bunch of bs. if they were to go back into the insurrection and they would do polygraphs on nancy pelosi, chuck schumer, adam schiff, they would prove they had something to do with that that happened at the capitol. donald trump had nothing to do with that. host: this is jerry come in jacksonville, florida. democrat. caller: how funny that kevin mccarthy in jim jordan one testimony from the da when their

testimonies on the january 6 insurrection -- how funny. it has to be somebody indictments. there has to be so many indictments against him that mitch mcconnell and other members of the republican party will go to donald trump, foursome to step down and tell him it will be for the good of the nation. host: let me run through what legal cases the former president is facing. usa today with wrap up about that. trump facing a federal investigation by special counsel jack smith about his role in the capital attack and the classified documents found at his mar-a-lago estate in florida and a georgia grand jury in fulton county is investigating his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in that state. of course there is this potential case, potential indictment from the manhattan

district attorney, the usa today noting president trump has said he will continue to run for president if he is indicted. his first rally of 2024 scheduled to take place on march 25 in waco, texas. this is tony in beaver falls, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i do not think it matters. donald trump was the osama bin laden of january 6. he was the mastermind, just like osama bin laden was. host: sonja in worcester, massachusetts. republican. good morning. caller: i am calling in regards to whether i think this will make trump stronger. i think it will help him because they have been trying to go after him and nothing happens. i think he will be like a phoenix. he will rise from the ashes and

this will help him. i do not think they should be blaming him for the attacks and all of that because god gave us free will and people should be responsible and have brains enough to know what is wrong or right. all the protests now, something happens. it should not be trump's fault. people should know right from wrong. that is all. host: do you think protesting is right or wrong? is there right or wrong way to protest? caller: peaceful, just like trump said when this first happened on january 6, to go and protest peacefully. host: that is sonja, a republican. this is the headline from today's wall street journal focusing on the former president chief rival for the gop nomination, although not officially in the race. ron desantis. "ron desantis jabs at the former

president." making notes of ron desantis's comments at a press conference yesterday stop here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> i have seen rumors, i've not seen any facts. i do know that the manhattan district attorney is a george soros funded prosecutor. he, like other george soros funded prosecutor's, they weaponize their office to impose a political agenda on society at the expense of the rule of law and public safety. he has downgraded over 50% of the felonies to misdemeanors. he said he does not even want to have jail time for the vast majority of crimes. what we have seen in manhattan as we have seen the crime rate go up and we have seen citizens become less safe. you're talking about this situation. do not know what goes into paying hush money to a porn star

just a purer silence over an alleged affair. i cannot speak to that. what i can speak to is if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payment, that is an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office. i think that is funny mentally wrong. host: ron desantis, yesterday from florida. more from florida today. in about 45 minutes we'll hear more from speaker kevin mccarthy at that policy retreat in orlando. at 8:15 eastern this morning the speaker will be holding a press conference and we will be carrying that live on c-span2

and c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. if you want to pop over there and come back here to the washington journal, 45 minutes from now. just after 7:30 on the east coast, asking you your thoughts on the potential for the potential arrest of former president trump, do you think it would help or hurt his chances in 2024. hyattsville, maryland. emme pratt. what do you think -- democrat. what do you think? caller: i have heard all of these charges, but i've not heard the main charge, that was treason, when he asked vladimir putin for a weber. i would like -- for a favor. i would like to put that comment up and put the lie in the constitution up at the same time saying you're not supposed to ask a foreign country for a weber because when you do that is called treason.

host: will, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. trump getting indicted, i think it does nothing to him in his face. a couple years ago trump said he could shoot someone in broad daylight in manhattan and would not lose one voter one supporter. i think that is exactly what would happen here. at the same time, if trump continuously says we stand on christian principles and we are the party of law and order, but then you're number one guy is out here paying off prostitutes, having unprotected sex with prostitutes and taking donations from his followers to pay his prostitutes off, what is christian about that? i appreciate the call. thank you. host: las vegas, republican. what do you think? caller: you have people watching

your program that are just not informed. donald trump is the greatest president we ever had. he came after the commie community idiot. there is nothing wrong with him paying off stormy daniels. people do it all the time. that is not a crime. i am sure he did not use campaign funds and i'm sure in court, if he is indicted, that will be figured out. he has not committed any crimes. it just goes to show you how scared the democrats are of our great leader. this country needs to get behind him and show. i would like to see a lot of people go down there and protest. you know what i mean? black lives matter can protest and burn and destroy cities. donald trump is the greatest. he has not committed any crime.

this is all i conspiracy by the media, and i hate to say it. i do enjoy you. you are part of it. the whole thing this country needs to start focusing on is what an american is? what the constitution is. what the bill of rights is. what we need to do is support this man to the end, to the end. hopefully we can do it through the process, which is so corrupt now. corrupt in wisconsin, corrupt in michigan, corrupt in pennsylvania, corrupt in arizona. host: got your point. that is nate in las vegas. plenty of stories about this topic. this is from the new york times. new york city officials devise security plans for a likely trump arrest. on sunday more than a dozen senior police department officials and two of the mayor's

top public safety aids held virtual meetings to discuss security staffing and contingency plans in the event of any protest, according to one person with knowledge of that. the story also tries to play out what might happen if former president donald trump is indicted and if he is arrested. going through a few different aspects of the arrest, the indictment roz s. just read you a cup -- the indictment process. "if mr. trump is indicted and arraigned it will be one of the most unusual and closely watched court proceedings in new york history. accommodations may be made for the former president. while it is standard for defendants arrested on felony charges to be handcuffed, it is unclear if they would make an exception for president trump because of his status. some white-collar defendants have their hands secured in front of them. after an arraignment mr. trump would likely be released on his own recognizance because an

indictment would contain only nonviolent felony charges. under new york law prosecutors do not request bail in most cases. mr. trump will almost certainly be accompanied in every stop in the process from the moment he would be taken into custody by armed agents of the united states secret service who are required by law to protect him at all times. security in the courthouse is provided by new york state court officers, an agency with which the secret service has worked in the past. the chief spokesman for the secret service had said he cannot comment on any security arrangements for the former president. the story notes it may take several days for the former president to appear at the courthouse. once he has been indicted prosecutors are expected to contact the former president to negotiate his surrender, a common practice in white-collar investigations where prosecutors have been in touch with defense attorneys. the former president has made it clear he plans to use the charges as part of his campaign

strategy to rile up his base. the story notes some lawyers working with mr. trump, who is running for a third time, said he would surrender to face the charges that he would fly from his florida estate to new york to face the arraignment." that is a look at how this could play out if it does happen. we do not know if it will happen or when it will happen. we are asking you would in arrest hurt donald trump's chances in 2024? what you think. eddie, atlanta, georgia, democrat. good morning. caller: how are you doing, c-span? it better hurt him. we do not need a lot -- we do not need donald trump back in this office. i do not know what is wrong with america. donald trump was the worst president we ever had. i don't understand that people talking about donald trump was

the best president? come on. donald trump did nothing for nobody but him and his family. what man with all of this stuff on him going to court every day, every month, has to have thousands of lawyers to get himself out of trouble? people do not see that. all of these republicans, donald trump, they can invite him to their house and take a dump in the middle of the bed and they would not blame him. host: ashton, west virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. as an independent i get the fence straddling from everybody. what donald trump did come and

i'm a supporter of donald trump. do i support everything he does, no. do i support everything he says? no. however, just like every other politician, they all lie. they all promise you the moon and you are never going to get it. as an independent thinker, do i think it will help them? probably. i also think the media and everybody is wanting a ride because -- wanting a riot, because all of the newspapers, all of the news stations, we have to get security up, we are expecting a riot. is everybody going to be held accountable for inciting? please don't cut me off. i will make it short.

they protest, i don't care what your protesting, as long it remains peaceful, it is fine. there are those in protests that are there for the protest, who support the protest. then there are those bank in these protest that are there to support the fringe that is protesting. there is a small percentage in every protest, i watch the black lives matter protest. most of the people there were peaceful. there were those in those protests that were also insiders. just like there was in january the sixth. host: that is carol in west virginia. a few of your comments from social media. real news on twitter saying this will only prove to the voters how corrupt the establishment really is and validate exactly

what president trump has been saying all along. jersey girl saying i am in disbelief we live in a world where it is even thought and indictment might help a candidates electoral prospects. what does that say about us as a nation? dale saying it will help them and make him the undoubted front runner. nothing will come out of it. he will probably not be convicted of anything but it will be the topic into the election, instead of ron desantis record as governor or any real issue. one more saint help or hurt, it does not matter. donald trump has one or more indictments coming. you can continue the conversation @cspanwj on twitter. on facebook it is facebook.com/c-span or you can call in like patricia, republican from minneapolis. caller: good morning.

god bless you, president trump. the greatest president america has ever had. it is a witchhunt. the media, c-span, you sound so excited about this. a distraction from the awful leadership of biden. energy crisis skyhigh. food shortages. high gas prices. our cities are going downhill. it is a nightmare. the election was stolen. you know when they went for the classified documents. they had cnn there. they rated it in the middle of the night with a bunch of guns and everything. this is a shame. this is like the soviet union. host: that is patricia in minnesota. this is paulette in texas. democrat. good morning. caller: everybody take a step

back. donald trump is 76 years old. nobody told him to commit these crimes. nobody told him to take the documents, nobody told him to cheat on his wife. nobody told him to incite a riot at the capital. he did it on his own. republicans, you need to look at it. he is eating his own. he is tearing up the people that know how to run the government that are republicans. look what he is doing to ron desantis. donald trump is no good. host: speaking of the former president, he has been posting frequently on his truth social account in response to various aspects of this potential indictment, saying there was no misdemeanor, there was no

felony, there was no bookkeeping error. those were a few of his tweets from the past 24 hours or so. he also says we are many years beyond the statute of limitations, which in this instance is two years, and saying more important late there was no crime. a look at some of his truth social accounts. coming back to statute of limitations. it is jonathan turley who is a contributor for usa today. he appeared as a witness testifying before congress in one of the two impeachments of donald trump's. he wrote a column about various aspects of this investigation. this is how he begins his column. "if former president trump is indicted manhattan district attorney alvin bragg would be prosecuting the case that is widely criticized as long on politics and short on the law.

the courts would have to address a controversial case in which a prosecutor attempts to prove a federal crime long ago declined by the department of justice and deal with the charge brought seven years after the alleged offense despite it two year statute of limitations for the underlying misdemeanor or a five year statute of limitations for a felony. bragg would have it even more unpalatable prospect in putting two key witnesses on the stand, embodying on a case that borders on the legally indecent, a former foreign star and a disbarred lawyer -- a former porn star and a disbarred lawyer." sunnyvale, california. good morning. caller: i do not think the law for trump at all -- the other three trials, they are the ones that are going to hurt him the worst.

40% of the population believes trump is really good? he is the only president who has raised the national debt by 25%. he did it all in four years. he raised it 8.7%. he is stealing money. ok. he thought taking money -- host: this is misty in tallahassee, florida. good morning. caller: i think is all rubbish. they spent $40 million trying to burn him with russia and this and that. none of it was true. it was all a lie. i was an independent and i'm just reregistered as a republican because it is forcing us to make a choice between

marxism and america. i am a native american and i choose america. there is a book out there called how the democrats were going to steal the election in 2024. i suggest people read that book. it is very interesting. mr. turley is a lifelong democrat. if he says it, and he is a respectable man, then i believe what he says. host: this is vivian in tennessee. democrat, good morning. caller: i've been listening to the program this morning and hearing those republicans saying this man was a great man. he was a great man for himself. donald trump does not care about anyone but donald trump. if you put that man back in that office will be worse off than

what we were before. he agreed with vladimir putin. we see what putin is doing in ukraine. he set up here and went with a person who had a woman while he was married. if he was such a good man he wouldn't have done that. wasn't his wife enough? that is telling america his wife was not enough. host: from the phone lines to the white house briefing room. yesterday the white house press secretary was asked about this potential indictment. here is what she had to say. [video clip] >> what does the white house make on former president trump calling on supporters to protest his potential indictment? >> is an ongoing investigation. we do not comment on ongoing investigations from here. we have been consistent on that. we will not break our protocol here. i will not comment.

>> i am asking about the former president calling on supporters to protest. >> understood. the president has been very clear when it comes to americans who want to protest. they should do it peacefully and that is something that is incredibly important that the president had always continued to say but i do not want to get into hypotheticals. i will leave it there. >> one other thing related to this that is not hypothetical. house republicans are requesting to speak with the manhattan district attorney alvin bragg about this ongoing investigation . is that a proper use of federal taxpayer dollars to try to find out what a local prosecutor? >> i am not going to speak to that. that is an underlying connection to the investigation. not going to comment from here. the president will continue to

focus on what the american people need. we will continue focusing on lowering costs. we'll continue focus on the president fighting for medicare and social security. that is what the president will do. if republicans, the president said this over and over again, if republicans want to work with us in a bipartisan way to deliver the american people and build on the successes we have seen in the last two years when it comes to the economic policy, building an economy from the bottom up, he is willing to have that conversation. host: that from the white house briefing room yesterday. about 10 minutes left in this first hour of the washington journal. in about 25 minutes you will hear from the speaker of the house live, speaker kevin mccarthy holding a press briefing with reporters during the policy retreat taking place in orlando. you can watch on c-span2 and also on c-span.org and the free

c-span now video app. hope you come back if you do go over there. back to your phone calls as we ask you would an indictment help or hurt former president trump in 2024? arizona, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, john, how are you? host: doing well. caller: it is hard to tell with trump. i am an independent. yesterday you had so many democrats and a couple independents. the victory all they spewed and the bad language and the filth that came out of their mouth. he has not been convicted. they are complaining about the economy. trump did not do anything. he did 122 things. look it up.

after covid we had 6% gdp and 1.4% -- on the economy. i lost my train of thought. we went to 9.1% hunter biden. -- we went to nine point -- we went to 9.1% under biden. look at biden. no one is talking about what he did but look how they jump on this poor guy. host: heather in bel air, maryland. good morning. caller: i definitely think all of this is going to help donald trump. i agree with what ron desantis said. this is part of a political agenda. what a coincidence leading up to the 2024 election it is coming out of the woodwork. i agree with him 100%.

also i do not know what person after all he has been through, being beat down time and time again, still stands and is still fighting. he is not all about himself as a previous caller said. he stands for america and he will fight for us. i totally support him. host: james in las vegas. democrat. you are next. caller: i really do think this would help his prospects of becoming president again. it is funny listening to some of the rhetoric of some of the people on the other site of the spectrum. it is disheartening because as a democrat you want the base to be

much more savvy. you realize fox news is not going to show some of the bad moments of donald trump. you just hear the base keep read rating certain percentages and certain facts that do not stand inside of today's current economy. it of one of those things where it will -- it is one of those things will be the same thing reiterated over and over again. host: about five minutes left. time for a few more calls and i want to show a few more tweets as this conversation has been happening on social media. this is paul from florida who said it would easy is -- it would easily help trump. anyone can see this as a smokescreen to divert us from bidens corruption. another says this is a waste of time, trump will not get arrested and few of anyone will

protest to stop it. it is another trump that is doomed to fail. another saint i don't care. he never had the majority of votes in any election. he has lost supporters since then. it is math, not politics, when it comes to counting votes. tony in halifax, virginia, independent. caller: prout independent but sad for today. i guarantee you all of those callers saying donald trump should be indicted could not explain or even articulate what crime he is going to be indicted for. nobody knows that they based summative these cases against him, and some of them have seemed to not be true. secondly all the stuff we heard about george bush committing war crimes, he should be arrested, ronald reagan bringing crack cocaine into the black community, he should be arrested. now while we are standing on

indicting donald trump as a proud moment for america. this is shameful. i do not agree with it and it is going to help his presidency. i was not going to vote for him again but i think i will this time because of this. host: robert, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. two quick things. i do not understand why you keep referring to newspaper clips. art most newspapers left wing liberal, as donald trump calls them fake news media? you keep referring to news clips. here is the big part. alvin bragg. does anybody know alvin bragg, they arrested a rapist in manhattan and alvin bragg set the guy free, let him go, and you know what the guy did question mark as soon as he got out he murdered a woman. that is alvin bragg for you.

i just do not understand chasing donald trump. it is ok for biden to tell the prosecutor in ukraine you better fire this guy to cover up for his corrupt son. that is all i have to say. donald trump was the greatest thing never happened to america. host: where did you read the story about the person who murdered the woman? what is your new servers that you trust -- what is your new source you trust? caller: locally in the tri-state area, it was all over the radio. now you will make me say it. it was fox news. it was tucker carlsen. let's check the facts. this guy was a rapist, and alvin bragg lets him go and immediately out of jail he murders a woman. that is this prosecutor. by the way, indict does not mean convicted. let's wait and see for the courts to spell this thing out. host: that is robert in

charlotte, north carolina. -- good morning. i am not a republican. can i still speak. i am a democrat. let's stick with the phone lines we identify with. jim in missouri, independent. caller: i am an independent. i usually i vote for somebody vote for them because they represent the country, especially the presidency, not because they are democrat or a republican or anything. if he committed crimes and person committed crimes they should have to atone for that. i don't care what he did, i don't care what happens. if the legal system is going to go after him, that should happen. would that affect how people feel about him? sure. he deserves it just like we do,

just like i do, like anybody does. we need to get over there democrat, republican side and say how would we feel as citizens of this country if we committed a crime or committed to the crime against us, how would we feel against that? that is all i had to say. host: this is kevin, good morning, democrat. caller: thank you. i think donald trump is the greatest gift to the democrats. he has been the absolute opposite of ronald reagan. he has almost single-handedly destroyed the credibility of not only the republicans, but a great deal of evangelical christians in america. if you look at just the basic, he is a very corrupt, morally

obscene person. it does not take a genius to figure that out. we have gone through a tremendous up people in this country because of extremism. -- a tremendous up people -- a tremendous upheavel in this country because of extremism. america is a great country. for all of the people afraid of the rhetoric someone like trump serves, stay cool, stay calm. for republicans that are moderate, your day is coming. as far as racism, the emperor claudius said shortly before he died that that went all the poison bubble and the destruction that someone like trump serves, stay cool,

stay calm. for republicans that are moderate, your day is coming. as far as racism, the -- shortly before he died that let all of the poison bubble out. it all just comes to the surface. i do not mean that in violent way, it is rhetorical. this country is great and will continue to get greater. we do stand for the defenseless and the helpless. the ukrainian people are the example of the future of the world. if people do not stand up against put 10, the world -- put in, the world is going to

be at war. caller: until get back to honesty and character, we might as locate back to losing. -- might as well get back to losing. you have to realize you're losing before you can start to win again. what we do get back to if we are ever going to win again, otherwise we keep jumping on the same losing horse. that is my message. related to the ukraine war, we need to sanction the second largest export from russia is precious metals come quit funding their crimes. 40% of the palladium we buy in the united states comes from russia. why are we not sanctioning palladium? host: our last caller.

more topics to talk about this morning, including we will talk about the parents bill of rights legislation that is had to come the house for this week. we will be joined by virginia gentles. later, pandemic air changes to medicaid are coming. they're coming in just a few weeks. we will talk about what it means for enrollees avenel joseph feared the cast of ted lasso visited the white house to highlight -- joseph. the cast of ted lasso visited white house -- of the white house to highlight the importance of mental health. >> i want to say it is an honor to visit the white house and have the opportunity to speak to the president and first lady

about the importance of mental health. no matter who you are, where you live, who you voted for, we all -- we all know someone -- or been there somewhere ourselves that have struggled, isolated, has felt alone. it is one of the many things that we all have in common as human beings. it is something that we can all and should talk about with one another when we are feeling that way. we encourage everyone. the big thing is to check in with their neighbor, coworker, friends, family and ask how they are doing. you also listen for living. will my preaching to, the choir that is. while it is easier said than done, we also have to know we can to be afraid to ask for help ourselves.

that does take a lot, especially when it has a negative stigma to it. you can ask from the help from the loved one. sometimes you need to let the pressure release. the president is working on his own team. although his team israel and our team is make-believe -- his team is real and our team is make-believe. we are mceachin the option is available to many americans. -- we are making sure that option is available to many americans. i believe we should all do our best to help take care of each other. that is my own personal belief. that is the think we talk about in the writers room and everything in between. i just want to accumulate these

make-believe folks we all played and the way we take care of everyone. that is the wish fulfillment from the show. that is a big part of the show. i can't help to take this opportunity to take at least one question. yeah. yes sir, familiar face. >> fake journalist. . howdy phil about kansas city being one of the main hosting cities for the 2026 world cup? -- how do you feel about kansas city being one of the main hosting cities for 2026 world cup? >> i love these teams appeared s.

you have a lot of folks. thank you for having us and putting up with the spiri now us. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us to talk about the effort, the director of the education freedom center at the independent women's forum. first on the independent women's forum, how long have you been around and what is your mission? guest: we celebrate our 30th anniversary last year. it is a conservative leaning organization that addresses all policy issues, all issues are women's issues, including taxes, the economy, energy, a wide array of issues. host: what is education freedom

mean? guest: we generally are referring to policies that empower parents, that are student focused that ensure that one possible, funding follows the child to the school that best meets their needs. host: republicans are introducing this parents bill of rights, what will he do? guest: hr five is a big signature piece of legislation for the republicans in the house of representatives. that -- was --pixelation was focused on parental rights. they think pam should have access to budget in violent incidents. of the bill has expanded since it went through the committee.

we can talk about that. host: why is it needed? guest: there has been a awakening among parents and community members. schools aren't as good as they thought and aren't meeting the needs of parents. students aren't responsive to appearance expressions of concern. i believe the legislators here in congress, state houses around the country are responding to the reckoning and realization that something is happening with our school systems. they are not doing our job and what works with parents. that needed to be addressed. host: when did this change happen? guest: our schools, there has always been concerns in our school.

i'm sure you have many guests representing the 1983 report. many decades ago our country was acknowledging that we were not ing a good job educating. educating our students. there is a consent that everythi was hitting a mediocre point in our nations education system. we have a gap -- -- also on the nation's report card. we have a number of issues with school districts not wanting to be responsive. host: here are some of the provisions for our viewers. school districts to have to publicly post correctly information. states must provide the coupling

-- public a copy of any revisions. parents have a say when schools develop or update student privacy policies. parents must consent before any medical exam, mental health or substance abuse screening. some of the reaction on capitol hill to republicans introducing this bill. this is jeffries commenting on the parents bill of rights. >> we want to make sure that our children can learn reading, writing, arithmetic, science, technology, engineering, mathematics, in education in the arts and music. have a richard is to play sports and to develop into well-rounded children who can then become well-rounded adults.

as our position. we believe that position is consistent with what the parent of america want. not right wing propaganda and culture wars forced down the throats of the american people because of an extreme magner republican agenda. host: right wing propaganda and culture. guest: i am not sure why he chose to use the language. i spoke before the committee and was referred as an extremist. i expressed concern about the crisis. i expressed concerns about parents voices not being heard for more funding, but refusing to provide the transparency, such as access to curriculum. information about students records. i view them as not -- positions.

host: we're talking about the parents wrightsville. if you want to join the conversation, the education freedom director you can do so on the phone lines as usual split by political party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000 . independents, (202) 748-8002. guest: a normal hearing held at the start of the congress. i was brought onto address k-12

education issues. there are other issues to talk about community college in the workforce and university higher education issues. there was also a witness invited by the democrats who is amazing and i could talk about all of the issues. host: do you think it has gotten better or worse? guest: the right has expanded and the provisions increased. a huge concern that parents have right now is the professional development materials that are used. let's understand why these teachers are choosing these particular books and lesson plans. a lot of it is because it is the

way they have been trained up through the education programs and certification process. it is in the professional development. access to that information was added. the requirement that parents should be notified if children are not leading up to a proficient level by the end of third grade. it addresses that a lot of young children were shut out of schools through the pandemic and therefore did not learn how to read it. if they do not know how to read by third grade, they are in trouble. i think there is a good provision and a excellent condition. there were two provisions that had to do with gender transition . one of them was the requirement that parents be notified if school district staff have changed their child's name, pronouns or what they referred

to as gender markers. host: calls for you this morning. let's get to that. independent. caller: morning. i think the whole gender pronoun thing is frankly whichever way people feel about that issue, it is a massive waste of the public airwaves. regards to committee colleges and other universities, this country is being conquered and enslaved in student loan debt. if you look at some of the red states. i would like to see our nations politics and focus on what is important rather than this nonsense spectacle that we see

talking about the social issues. meanwhile, the citizens are being --. guest: i address k-12 issues in the work that i do. i have to be very clear and frank that this is absolutely a crisis in our k-12 schools. over 70 different gender identities. they are encouraged through lesson plans, novels, what is called a gsa clubs to pick their identity and to change their name and pronouns and in many cases change the restrooms and

locker rooms and overnight accommodations that they have received. we have examples of this that could be found on our website. we have a identity crisis workshop that features the appearance telling the story -- parents telling the story. telling the story of how their child was brought into this world within their school environment and pressured down this path, that it is the dangerous path because it does not just to name changes in accommodations, it leads to medical transitions which has high risks and long-term consequences for young people. the director of the education freedom center there. this is kim in california. good morning. . caller: one of the things you are talking about is bigotry to

me. i live in a conservative town in california. times have changed. we do not need to have it taught. the kids are talking about it. i am proud of them that they understand that this is the time , especially as women should be able to call ourselves whatever we want and use whatever pronouns all kinds. absolutely. he won also for all of these bills to be able to talk about, not able to be erased. you are such a big it. host: do you want a chance to respond?

host: it is very important to listen to the voices in the stories. guest: young people who have then being pushed down this path to hide their identity from their parents. the pairs are told over and over various propaganda. if you do not affirm your child's new gender identity, the child will kill themselves. a lot of this around the suicide met. the parents are told -- kids are told your parents will kick you out. it drives a dangerous wedge between emotionally vulnerable children and the parents. we know these emotionally vulnerable teacher named so lid loving relationships with their parents. they do not know the child's

whole story. they are not responsible for the upbringing and care of the child. we do not meet the school staff members driving a wedge between parents and children, hiding information, important information from parents and putting the children in danger. host: on c-span two, the press conference that speaker mccarthy is holding in orlando florida -- orlando, florida just got underway. he will be taking questions from reporters. if you want to watch that from a hop over to c-span2. fax or phone calls. this is david in massachusetts. good morning. caller: i am a gay person.

when it comes to selecting what sex you are and gender, that had been selected when you were born. i do nothing, especially this should even be discussed. it should be discussed at home. it should be parents right to have the children talk by the, not by the school. the school should be teaching reading, writing, arithmetic. we are too busy doing all of this stuff out there and they are too young to handle it. kudos to this woman here for sticking up for parents. it should be parents rights, not the federal governments, not the schools. caller: i think the caller made a important point. the schools need to teach reading. a lot of this is a distraction from the fact that they aren't doing their jobs.

when the nation's report card -- the latest escorts came out in 2022. there was a alarming drop. the largest drop. games have been made over decades completely erased. when you look at math scores for eighth graders, a quarter of them are proficient at not. the schools need to be doing their jobs. rather than that, some of these young activists teachers are hyper focused on these issues. we need to take them out of the issues, classrooms and make sure they are focused on teaching the course subjects. host: who is and who is not doing their jobs? this is a tweet from a viewer. parents already have a slew of rights, they choose not to

exercise them and push for the state to do their jobs for them. that is all this bill is. host: parents do have rights that are codified in state law. guest: delay maybe about 11 or so states we have transparency bills, -- in maybe 11 or so states we have transparency bills. we have a education rights or private rights. the school districts, school staff are misrepresenting. i can't tell you the information about your child's student record appeared something that is important -- yes, there's this bill on the floor up with our existing federal laws and

parental rights provisions and we need to make sure parents are aware of those. host: the states that have state laws and parental bills come but they generally do better on test scores than states that do not perform them? guest: florida is one of those that has a parent's bill of rights and education bill that passed and goes by another name, that passed last year. florida is faring well compared to other states when you look at those new scores. host: on the state efforts, does it go back a year? what was one of the first days? guest: i am actually a school choice advocate historically. i like many parents in the

last few years, i would recommend people go to a organization that has a map and a list of the parental right permissions in place as well as information about bills. host: what will you say is the state of the school choice right now? guest: we have over 30 states with school choice programs that provide options like scholarships and education savings accounts to students. arizona expanded their education savings account program so that all 1.1 million students can participate. this year already utah, iowa, arkansas have passed near universal education savings account programs. great momentum happening.

great foundation already billed. -- built. host: rich in hickory hill's. republican. caller: i am a grandfather. my concerns about my grandsons education. it seems like the disconnect between the education that they should be getting into the social political agenda, that is overshadowing what their core knowledge skills should be the priority. it seems to me that you know, some kind of a distraction from that. is that what is happening? guest: you are not alone in the

assessment. the majority of people in the country agree with you that a lot of these issues focused on gender and race. cultural issues are a distraction from what should be happening at school, which is academic obstruction. you are not alone. there should be a privatization of academics. children should be in school and learning from teachers who are committed to addressing their needs. if they are not addressing the needs, i -- parents should have the option to send them elsewhere. host: you said something about florida. let me tell you about florida. it is so pitiful. they cannot get qualified

teachers. they're having to take ex military to teach the kids. that is ridiculous. you guys have run all of the teachers off. guest: i grew up in public schools k-12, orange county public schools and my friends and family still live there. i am committed to ensuring that public schools as well as school choice options are thriving in the state. the collar brought up teachers and in the classroom, that is an important topic that we really need to be honest about when teachers, when you sit down with teachers, when teachers are surveyed, they will tell you they are leaving because of discipline issues in the classroom. the classrooms are out of control. if you look at national center for education statistics data, there is a huge spike in the

percentage of teachers reporting that they have been verbally harassed or threatened with violence by students. there is a huge spike and increase in the number of violent incidents happening in the schools. teachers no longer have tools in their toolbelt to address the discipline issues. they are not allowed to punish the students, there's no consequence for misbehavior. there -- that is a horrible disservice we are doing to teachers. this is the description. guest: the law was passed in 1974. that is long before we even have u.s. department of education in place. there wasn't that much happening at the federal level when it came to education.

let's be clear, even now, less than 10% education funding is coming from the federal government. it is still happening at the state and local level. back in the 70's there was a awareness that a appropriate federal role would be ensuring that these rights were protected. if they are the rights of parents. they are not the rights of the school districts to hide the rights from parents. they are a shield for parents to protect their child's information. parents can go in and let districts know you are violating my rights if they are sharing information. that is something that hr five strengthens when there is a provision indicating student information should not be sold for financial gain and pair and should be notified when outside parties have -- to student

information. that was likely inspired by these intrusive and inappropriate surveys that are being offered at schools. companies with school districts are contracting and providing access to students. host: you have concerns about her creeping federal government increasing control and impact over education, something that should be happening over a local level? is that fair? guest: i work in capitol hill in the 1990's. there is a awareness that federal government should not be in charge on what is happening in the classroom.

so, as we go back to the early days of my career, there was this thought, let's keep the federal government out of classrooms. host: what do you say to folks who look at this piece of education? concerned that this could be used by a federal government to have more control over the local level school, curriculums being created and organized on a local level? host: specific protections around ensuring that the federal government is not going to have to stay on the curriculum. that would be eight inappropriate role. they should not tell the teacher in home county what to teach. this bill is focusing on gnawing with the teacher will -- knowing

what the teacher will teach. a list of resources in the library. that is something ideally that all states should we going. i think there are about 11 transparency bills in the state. i would like to see that happening at the state level. pam should be asking their state legislators to pass the bills. they are going to have a more of a -- to them. in arizona and florida, their enforcement mechanisms and consequences for school districts who are keeping information. a parent can actually sue. you do not want the federal government and forcing these things from d.c. we do not want to increase monitoring or reporting requirements that are already extremely -- pure when

we have a concern that teachers salaries are not going up -- when we have a concern that teacher salaries are not going up, we do not want to be creating more administrative burdens for the federal government and hiring more. host: about 10 minutes left with the independent women's forum. this is louise in springfield, virginia. caller: it is elise. i am a parent and a grandparent. caller: my youngest is 31 years old. we have always had as part of our children and grandchild, a list of curriculum, outline of

courses, we have always had parent teacher meetings. i am listening to this. it seems like my grandchild, when he was in kindergarten did not have these kinds of materials push down his throat. he did not have the experiences like what you are experiencing. in my children never did. -- i know my children never did it. as far as children not being up to speed when it comes to raining, you are the parents, you need to start reading to your baby when they are infants and continue all the way through.

your child will not lose ground as far as learning to read. caller: i love the last point that parents are different educators -- are the first educators to the students. i talked to my children to read using a resource -- taught my children to read using resources appeared so many school districts have been following fads. if there was a huge marketing push for a couple of companies that were widely successful. unfortunately, reading involved a lot of guessing. it is called balanced literacy, it has been exposed in recent years.

there was a podcast series that i highly recommend everyone listen to. it is not the reading instruction that maybe parents experienced when their kids were going to school. it has been a popular saddened trend in the last decade or even more. parents duly take responsibility for ensuring that they are on top of their children's reading. the parents have the right and information to know what literacy instruction is being purchased. these are very expensive contracts the budget used. \ allow parents to have access to that information. caller: good morning, janine. the issue with the local dollars

in school, we have got the expense of 90% of school expenses personnel. not like elon musk where he has gotten more done with far fewer people with twitter, we need to figure that same capacity in our schools with personnel becoming such a issue. we cannot find a hundred mentors for 600 children. personally, toy five years ago after a personal injury, i build out a 50 foot label -- 50 foot -- appeared at the only way to get kids who are chronically absent and are unmotivated is too energized that education environment. with the 50 foot trailer i had, i traveled the state of virginia

and worked. many university hospitals, many school divisions and other organizations that connect the dots between learning and health . we have got to create better spaces that are far more assessable. again, you cannot find that many people nowadays for the children that need to help. host: what do you call your program with the taylor -- trailer? caller: virginians with education. we teach them about resting an accelerated heart rate. i tell them to put their hand over their heart like the pledge of allegiance appeared after the

second song, we stopped and put our hand out of our hearts -- hand on our heart. second and third grade we talk about resistance training and interval training. the whole time we are doing this we are working with a different vocabulary. as above grade level. the kids learn as they go. guest: randy is concerned about the education of the kids in his community. that seems like an appropriate response. we should not leave this up to teachers who are burnt out and facing these discipline issues, who are facing chronic absentee. when schools closed and it was communicated that school was optional, you do not have to come, you can login or not. we should not be surprised when schools open again, there was a cute drop in enrollment.

many -- huge drop in enrollment. we cannot just leave it to the teachers to address this. we should not be hiring more administrators. community members getting involved and supporting. host: when in fort meade, -- quinn in fort meade, maryland. caller: the issue you should be identifying is that there is a lack of teachers, the administration is overbearing because of all of these concerns . anyone who has worked in a school system will tell you that the problem most teachers are having is disciplinary. the parents themselves are not disciplining their kids. not a lack of funding or

materials. you have teachers buying their own materials for the classroom. turning that and pretending this is a problem with a political agenda in schools, i think it is just horrid. her guest: parents need to know what is happening in the . if their children are misbehaving, if they are a part of discipline problems in the school, they should be brought in and informed appeared there should be consequence for a disciplinary issue. i think i'm it is unfortunate that there are not -- unfortunate that there is not consequences. they are pushing every limit. there is chaos in public schools that my daughters would have gone to. the school administration had to close off the boys bathroom because things were so out of control last year.

the police were called 22 times. this is a local public school nearby lake arlington, virginia. do parents know that that happened? do they know that the police were called? if there is this culture of creating a wall between the school and the parent. there needs to be a partnership. teachers deserve to be in partnership and they deserve the support of parents when it comes to the behavior of the children in the classroom. host: time for one more call. caller: i moved down here in reno. i am appalled at the teachers in the school system down here. they are not financed enough.

i listened -- this lady or another lady -- this woman brought up, which really appalled me. i am from bellevue, washington. of they are, anyway, what she brought up was kemal of this crazy stuff about children being taught sexual things beginning in kindergarten and first grade. i called my niece. i have great grandchildren that are in school. they were appalled when i told them that this woman was repeating this republican woman was repeating. host: you are saying they told him it was not happening? caller: yeah.

got your points. host: let me give you a chance to respond. guest: they have a indoctrination map. across the country there are reports that have important in reports. they have documentation and examples from school districts and around the country where sexually explicit information is being presented to young children. inappropriate books are being -- two young children. if you are looking for evidence, reports and documentations of this, i recommend going to defending education.org and going to take a look at our identity crisis story and watching the parents tell the story of what is going on in the

schools and how they try to protect their children. host: the director of education freedom center appeared appreciate your time this morning. we will be joined by joseph of the johnson foundation to talk about medicaid and the end of the covid public health emergency. i conversation in about 30 minutes. it is time for you to lead in the conversation this morning. it is our open form. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. go ahead and start calling now

and we'll get to your calls after the break. >> on thursday, ted talks ceo testifies before the house energy and commerce committee on data security practices. and its relationship with the chinese communist party. watch of the hearing live on c-span3 or online at c-span.org. on march 19 19 79, americans for the first time were able to watch live coverage of the u.s. house of representatives on c-span. shop our c-span 44th anniversary sale going on at c-spanshop.org. use the promo code c-span 44 and save on our c-span products, including home to court and books. there something -- home decor

books. now, after thursday at c-spanshop.org. >> this year's grand prize winners in studentcam documentary contest, eighth graders at dr. martin luther king moral school -- middle school from the documentary, where is my data. watching the grand prize and winning documents online. >> friday at 8 p.m. eastern, c-span brings you afterwards from book tv, a program where nonfiction authors are interviewed by a joualist, legislators and more.

she is interviewed by author and media center director. watch afterwards every friday at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: 850 time on the east coast -- 8:50 on the east coast appeared in the senate is in today at 3 p.m. eastern. you can watch on c-span two when that happens. a busy day at the white house today, including president biden said to deliver remarks at the white house conservation summit. it plenty for you to catch at 10:00 a.m. -- plenty for you to catch at 10:00 a.m., we will be taking you over to the discussion of army readiness,

general jamesl be lding the discussion, especially in relation to the war in ukraine. c-span.org and c-span radio app is where you cannot see it. in 10 minutes from now on c-span two and on c-span.org, a look at efforts to address health care, and equities with energy stakeholders and secretary of services will be leading the discussion. it is c-span.org, c-span alba dop. video app. time for you to join the conversation, to lead the discussion. let us know what policy and political issues on your mind .

independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i have watched c-span2 and three. it is the only thing i watch. what we need is to take care of the most important thing all in our country. the safety of americans. that is not happening. the first thing the president is supposed to do is to protect the people. he is not doing that. if he does not do it or the vice president does not do it, i think we ought to wipe them all out and put the speaker of the house in charge. host: help me with wipe them all out. are you talking about teaching them -- impeaching them? caller: i am talking about this country needs to be protected.

the first thing that the president is supposed to do. host: gotcha. i was wondering what you meant by that. wipe them all out. caller: if they need to be impeached, they need to be impeached. host: steve. republican. caller: i am calling to congratulate you guys on your weekend programming, which was actually really good. kind of building on -- opinion of c-span. book tv afterwards and a couple of other programs i watched this weekend were far superior than all of the stuff you see on the networks. my only fear, they might get jealous of c-span and try to cut your funding. host: what did you watch on book tv?

caller: i am trying to remember where she went. i cannot pronounce her name correctly. then i washed a few programs on afterwards. sorry, brain is not working today. so you guys can print out a check for good programming. host: book tv, every sunday on c-span two, american history tv every saturday on c-span2. 24 hours of american history programming. you can check our scheduling for both at c-span.org. this is linda. democrats.

good morning. linda, are you with us? we will go with anne. caller: i am wondering when you're going to cover the hunter biden and joe biden scandal. it seems like you have all stories about donald trump. every time his name comes up, you're covering it on their. the revelations came out that the hunter -- joe biden's family had taken over $1 million. his extended family has cap part of the $1 million for the ccp. you may have mentioned it, you have not had any segments about that. i am wondering when you're going to start covering things like that. you never covered anything about joe biden's acuity?

you never had any story on their about his health issues. i am wondering why you are not covering that. if you can answer that for me, i appreciate it. host: i am sure we will find something you are interested in. we cover biden, donald trump, politicians of all stripes. if you are not finding it live on the "washington journal", i am sure you can find something about it on the c-span.org. our video archivist at the top of the page. mary in wisconsin, republican. caller: i wanted to say how shocked my daughter was when she was a junior. they made her read a book about where the caged bird sings. when they started talking about all of this, i mentioned to this

to rebecca. she said, i forgot about this book because i was so disturbed when i read it. i suppressed it out of my head. it shocked me that they made me read something about the stuff. my kids did not grow up with any of the stuff. to be shocked, she is in medical school right now. for her to be shocked that they has that have to read something so drastic and sickening they made her read it. i am like, why would teachers make a child read something like that, unless they chose to read the book. when they put these kids in daycare and they want to subsidize a daycare, their interest to the kids earlier -- they are just getting to the kids earlier. most of these kids have not experienced trauma in their life. they are devastated when they hear about the stuff. when they subsidize daycare, they are not going to be shocked, we're going to indoctrinate them.

i do not want to get political about this. when she told me when she was in third grade, the first day of school is who is your parents voting for? that should not be talked about in school. this was when she was in third grade. host: i know why the caged bird sings written by my angela. this is joe leigh austin, texas. democrat. caller: we have had many people call in. your previous guest had freedom in her little organization. that always scares me. a school system in america where you can send your child to public schools on the taxpayer dollars. we have always had freedom in this country. a person who has no children in

the school system, i will give you the freedom to put your children in whatever school you want, but pay for it on your own dime. then you can control what they are going to read and what they are going to hear. most of the problems start at home. thank you. host: jennifer in new jersey. republican. good morning. caller: i wanted to call and say i was heartbroken to hear the state of the american people, with regard to putting president trump in jail or this arrest that was supposed to be s coming. i do not think it is going to happen today. it would be nice if people could

take a minute to go through the rules of the law. so much crime in new york. wimax not handle the crimes at hand, instead of -- why not to handle the crimes in hand instead of going back to thinking they do not matter. it is further dividing the country. that is really all i have to say. host: for those of you who are trained to understand what this case is about, this is the case that donald trump predicted that he will be arrested today, tuesday of this week. this is jeff

an explainer there from jeff murdoch. he has appeared on this program.

rich in ohio, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to talk to you about the school systems. i am 64 years old and when i went to school, they are talking about classroom sizes and how big they are nowadays with teachers overwhelmed by the amount of students. when i was in school, most elementary schools had 30 kids in the classroom and had one teacher in that classroom but the kids would listen. they were disciplined. if you acted up at school, you were disciplined at school and if they told your parents coming your disciplined when you got home. i think that's what the problem is nowadays that the parents are not disciplining their children, they drop them off like they are dropping them off at daycare. host: when did those days become nowadays? caller: i think starting

probably in the late 1980's. i think the school system started to change. i coached sports in high school ranks. i can see how the kids have changed. we used to call people yes ma'am, no sir, yes coach. we used respect when we talked to somebody. we used respect and we talked to a teacher or a principal. now, kids are not afraid of any kind of corporal punishment so they are running wild in schools. what they have to do is rain these kids back in. there is no reason for kids to be turning down bathrooms and that kind of stuff and teachers are afraid to go into the bathroom to discipline the kids because they are afraid they will get beat up. host: this is taylor in colorado springs, independent.

caller: good morning. i wanted to call in. i'm a proud patriot. i am independent and i was watching some of fox news the other day and they were talking about the open borders, talking about biden and his troubles, talking about crime in the city. then i went over to cnn and watch them a while and they were talking about trump. you know, it's very important what you do. i served 25 years in the army and i'm proud of that. you've got a very important role in the media. the media has to start saying what's going on. they are talking about trump and the indictment. what is going on with the biden family, why don't you all give the other side of the picture? what you do is very important to our country.

it's very important in the media is failing us. i am word about that and i thank you. host: this is arthur in michigan, republican. caller: good morning. i would like to make the comment about the president the other day. in the constitution, it says you have a right to bear arms and no one can infringe on that law. i don't care what they say, terminals are always going to get guns -- criminals are always going to get guns. they will always get guns. i believe in the first and second amendment and the rest of them. they have to start following the law. that's what i had to say on that. host: this is from last week, present biden issued an executive order a week ago today

that aims to increase the number of background checks to promote firearm storage and law enforcement agencies are getting the most out of the bipartisan gun control law that was enacted last summer. the president discussed the latest efforts at curbing gun violence in a speech in california last week. if you want to read more on that, it's available at whitehouse.gov. this is linda in tampa, florida, democrat, good morning. caller: i just want to talk real quick on the trump case. it's really the domino effect because this will be a whole lot of going behind trump. i'm waiting on the domino effect, meaning all the republicans, everyone taking his part, i'm waiting on that domino effect because it will run down the line. education --

my grandson -- i couldn't leave his pump at the school unless i got a doctors permission. all those parents want to get in and change the school system, it's always been open. the teachers need to become teachers. they are cutting it really short. we are in a bad teachers crisis in florida. it's terrible. they need to get it together and become teachers and stop complaining about how the school system is. it's like that man said, i always set them with my kids and that's all you have to do. sit down and teach them but now, they send the children to school like they are babysitting. they are supposed to be teaching, not babysitting. host: this is bill from florida,

independent, good morning. caller: good morning. as far as the school system, i think the problem is the kids are just ranting and raving and it all comes from the parents, the single-parent. i know it's hard to be a single parent but quit having kids. you have five or six kids in the school system of the single-parent and they probably don't work. there aren't government programs. host: mike in dallas, north carolina, republican, good morning. caller: how are you doing? the first thing i would like to say is donald trump with the misdemeanor, it's already past it's time. host: you're talking about the statute of limitations? caller: yeah, john edwards did the same thing and no big deal

was made of this. your callers said he could shoot somebody on main street. ted kennedy did kill somebody and he was not charged and he was the greatest democrat in the world? host: that's mike in north carolina. about 10 minutes left in our open forum. any issue you want to talk about and trying to keep you aware of some of the other stories we've been tracking. jerome powell and his colleagues face one of their toughest calls in years, whether to raise interest rates again by fighting inflation or take a timeout amid the most intense banking crisis since 2008. fed officials have a two day meeting this week that concludes wednesday we should find out then about the latest rate hike. on monday, investors anticipated the fed would likely continue

with a rate hike, indicating a three in four chance of an expected quarter-point increase. that's what's being better on and we will see for sure on wednesday. the story as well, amazon ascetic of the -- to cut another 9000 jobs. monday's announcement of the 9000 jobs built on the 18,000 previous layouts by the e-commerce giant, bring the total to 27,000 in a significant reversal for an industry that some have perceived as recession purpose others say the company grew too big too fast and they need to rein in their spendi that's the news from the latest on amazon job cuts. one more for you, we talked about this yesterday are "washington journal," the summit between vladimir putin and chinese president xi jinping, picture of that meeting that

took place yesterday in russia in moscow. the leaders there had opinion pieces and they portrayed the u.s. west -- u.s. led west as arrogance and the head of a hegemony. antony blinken was talking about this yesterday at the state department briefing. here are some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> the world should not be full but any tactical move by russia supported by china or any other country. such a move would violate the u.n. charter and delay the will of 141 countries who have condemned russia's war in the general assembly. one party to this conflict, ukraine, has put forward a formula. if china is committed to putting an end of the war, they have called for engaging with

president zelenskyy and ukraine and use his influence to tell moscow to pull back his forces. russia's purported annexation of sovereign ukrainian territory including vast areas not controlled and its ongoing due to an attack on civilians and president putin has no interest in such peace. president xi is traveling to russia days after the international court issued an arrest warrant for bladder -- for vladimir putin. instead of condemning them, china would rather provide diplomatic cover for russia to continue to commit those crimes. host: that's secretary of state antony blinken from yesterday. you can find that at www.c-span.org. this is eve, democrat, what's on your mind? caller: good morning, i've got three points i would like to hit

upon in this conversation. host: can you make them quick? caller: the first one is i would like for buddy to look up and read the book by jane elliott in the second thing is, in the schools, to kill a mockingbird is a crime to read in schools? when we were in school or teaching school back in the early 1980's, that is when the school system changed to a certain extent. as for trump, everybody's talking about joe biden and his son and the money. do they know that the son-in-law of trump got big endowments from the saturdays who killed the reporter there? the last one is the fact that i was enjoying the book club on the weekend in the speech there

fits perfectly. i cannot believe the words that came out of his mouth because i was very young when he was in office. it's a reflection of what's happening today. host: do you remember that speech? do you remember him giving that speech? caller: he spoke to the people about what the world would be like and he spoke to the world about what it would be like if he was standing in front of the people. that's when he was signing the civil rights bill and he talks the people and he was telling them that this is what the world would be like. you have to do certain things and he was speaking on the great society. host: part of a series we been running on american history tv, features that -- speeches that defined a presidency showing you the major speeches from president and the modern europe.

you can watch that -- in the modern era and dating back to george washington. you can watch that on american history tv and see all of our offerings there and see that series at www.c-span.org. thank you for giving me the chance to promote it. this is allen in dallas, texas, republican, good morning. caller: how are you doing? the one about president trump and teachers. teachers today are teaching students incorrect things. they are filling children's minds if they are capable of learning. if they can learn what's in the book, it's incorrect and they can graduate to collegiate learning. every single vp in the world if they would have made a president reach the presidency. host: i'm not sure where you're

going with that but we will go to albert in california, independent. caller: good morning, do i turn this lower? host: yes, please. caller: ok. on the border issue, is it open forum? host: yes, it is, what about the border issue? caller: so, i'm totally insulted by some of these things, about going to public schools. i am hispanic american and i went to public school and it was ridiculous for someone to say that. america needs public schools. i am neither democrat or republican and i'm a freedom

fighter and will fight for the united states of america everybody wants to host: ok, oregon, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. from my perspective, republican energy policy has been shortsighted. there is an urgent need to transition to cleaner and more efficient energy sources. the fact that they worked against labor rights, do you think we were stopped calling it? host: you're welcome to call in during our open forum. emily in port angeles, washington, good morning. caller: good morning, i was wondering if congress would consider any legislation soon to address income inequality. while we are at it, c-span should not tolerate the behavior of allen block and should take

swift action to remove him from the board of directors. we are not going away anytime soon. host: that was emily, her last caller in the segment come about 40 ms. left and in that time, we will talk about the latest changes to the medicaid program and we will be joined by our next guest for that conversation. stick around, we will be right back. >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features leading offers talking about the latest nonfiction books.at 9 p.m. eastern, the former university president author of the death of learning offers suggestions how to increase the value of a liberal arts education and bridge the divide between academic and american culture. at 10 p.m. on after words, the

science journalist explores the origins of patriarchy and how it spreads to society around the world with her book, the patriarchs. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find the full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. >> on march 19, 1979, americans for the very first time, were able to watch live coverage of the u.s. house of representatives on c-span. to mark the special occasion, shop our c-span 44th anniversary sale going on now at c-spanshop.org. use the promo code c-span 44 and say 15% on all our c-span products including apparel, accessories, home decor and books. there is something for every c-span fan and every purchase

helps support our nonprofit operations. usthqr code on the right to shop the anniversary sale now through thursday at c-span shop.org. >> c-span's campaign 2024 coverage gives you a front row seat to the presidential election. what's our coverage of the candidates on the campaign trail with announcements, meet and greets, speeches and the rest to make up your own mind. campaign 2024 on the c-span networks, c-span now or anytime online www.c-span.org www.c-span.org at. c-span,. your unfiltered view of politics >> on thursday, tiktok ceo testifies before the house energy and commerce committee on privacy and data security practices and the platforms

impact on kids and its relationship with the chinese coming is party3 watch the hearing live thursday at 10. 3 www.c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: a discussion on the nation's medicaid program with dr.avenal joseph. remind viewers what your foundation is and what is your mission? >> the robert wood johnson foundation is the nation's largest philanthropy dedicated to health. we recognize that help is not the absence of bad health but where you work and play. we address structural barriers to helping putting racism and other forms of discrimination. we fund research, develop data and analysis that helps inform systems and policy change and

cultivate leaders that work individually and across sectors to address issues of health equity. our mission is that everyone in america has a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being no matter where they live, work or play. host: medicaid certainly fits into that mission. today we are talking about potential changes to that system. medicaid enrollment in this country, 48 million adults on medicaid, some 35 million children. tell viewers who qualifies for the medicaid program? guest: medicaid is the nation's largest public health insurance program for low and no income americans. eligibility for who is and rolled varies from state to state. generally, low income children, seniors, pregnant women, people with disabilities do qualify for medicaid. it's very tightly connected to income level and what the

threshold is for low enough income varies from state to state. as you said, the popular program, over 85 million people are enrolled today which is one in five americans. host: the numbers jumped significantly during covid, why? guest: primarily because the federal government passed a law requirement for states to maintain continuous coverage. which means that when the income level of an individual or family fluctuates during the year, doesn't automatically kick a person off of medicaid. people have to remain enrolled in some form of coverage on the federal government gives states money to make it happen. that means about 18 million americans got coverage during the pandemic. we are now at the lowest uninsurance rate of the kind -- in the history of the country. host: continuous coverage, the key provision came to an end, why? guest: because congress passed a

law and the president signed it that decoupled it from the public health emergency. on april 1, continuous coverage requirement ends in the states can begin to disenroll people from their medicaid rosters and they have up to one year to do that so there is no rush. there is lots of support the federal government provides to states to do this in an equitable and thoughtful manner. host: do states want to do that? guest: yeah, they need to figure out who is eligible and remain on medicaid versus who has other insurance options that would be more affordable for them. generally speaking, working adults enrolled in medicaid or people who are working in positions or employers in an affordable option for health care coverage. these people are in medicaid but if they are employed differently, the states have to

determine whether they are eligible or should be on another insurance program. host: who gets flagged for disenrollment and what are the options for someone who gets flagged for that? guest: it varies from state to state based on eligibility but the concern and the baseline is that we want to make sure everyone in america has an affordable comprehensive access to health insurance. when people have access to health insurance, is better for their individual health, better for the community health and the nation's health. having people not covered is -- should not be an option. the states should be providing individuals their options if they are not enrolled in medicaid were no longer eligible, what the other options are for coverage so it doesn't come as a surprise for individuals or families. host: how many states are doing that? is anybody doing that? guest: there are some states doing this thoughtfully. there are other state examples that are rushing to the process. arkansas has said they want to

do this entire process of reenrollment for medicaid and a couple of months. we know when you rush through processes like this which is the largest shift and help insurance since the passage of the affordable care act, people will fall through the cracks and we don't want to see people who are left with no insurance. host: changes to the medicaid program is what we are talking about so here are the phone numbers. the robert wood johnson foundation, what have you found how aware medicaid recipients

are about these changes that are coming up and about this program in general? guest: surveys have shown us that people are not very aware. people currently enrolled in medicaid, less than 25% know the changes are coming and fewer are getting help to figure out what their options are. the redetermination process can be very complicated. it's overly burdensome for some individuals and families. it requires information that may be difficult to find. it takes a long time to receive and some states are requiring that eligibility happens electronically which for many can be convenient and for many who don't trust the internet, they will have access and it will be an additional barrier. host: was this happening before the continuous enrollment, this yearly look rolls?

is the process onerous? guest: that's fair. host: was it an onerous process before covid? guest: absolutely, that's why we know this will be a very late boreas process going forward. states need to take their time. before the continuous requirement coverage requirement, states today determination process and up some states did it more than others and people turn in and out of medicaid frequently which causes disruption in care for people and their families who are enrolled in the program. host: just as i understand it, is it a cost-saving issue to get people off of medicaid? guest: many states will say that, that they want to make sure those who are enrolled in medicaid and the resources put forth are for people who are truly eligible for medicaid. i want to be clear that people who are eligible for medicaid,

more than 30% of them, will fall through the cracks because of the redetermination process, because of the paperwork and bureaucracy it takes to re-enroll a person in medicaid. they are eligible but millions will fall through the cracks. host: let's bring in some calls for you including lucy in new york, republican. caller: i was aware that illegals could get emergency medicaid when they go through the er because they get a lot of that care from the emergency room. i was doing some work for my employer and the medical records indicated they not only get emergency medicaid but they had medicaid for everything, psychological services, prosthetics. it was incredible how much free medicaid they get. guest: what the viewer is

pointing to is a larger issue of our health care cost system. the u.s. currently sends 4.5 -- spends 4.5 trillion dollars in health care costs. everyone who goes the emergency room regardless of immigration status can get care through the emergency room. that's why having health insurance is a cost saver for the states and the nation. when people do not have coverage in they go to the emergency room, the hospitals have to pick that up in the hospitals pass that cost on. host: this is sandy, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, i am a senior, social security and medicaid. i'm in ohio so i was wondering if that's going to change. i was just reviewed recently and i'm still eligible. if it's under $2000 a month, you are still eligible and for ssi

recipients. guest: yes, thanks for calling. i'm glad the processes work for you and you know you are still eligible. for others who don't know whether they are eligible or not or what their options are, i would direct you to the medicaid.gov where you can check with the options are in your state for coverage. host: this is a twitter question -- guest: yes and no. the affordable care act does provide subsidies for people to afford health care on the health-care exchanges in the state that every state is different in terms of what insurance programs are available on the exchanges and where your medicaid at office. there is such a thing called the medicaid coverage gap which are

people who make slightly too much money to be eligible for medicaid. they make too little money to be eligible for subsidies on the insurance exchanges and these are people who are literally left in a coverage gap. it's why medicaid expansion in the remaining 11 states is so fundamental. host: vanessa in virginia, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, glad to finally get through. talking about arkansas which is one of the poorest states in the nation and the fact that they want to kick as many people off of medicaid as possible. i don't think people realize that many of the rural hospitals depend solely on medicaid and medicare to keep their doors open. plus, many people sitting in the nursing home complaining about who's getting medicaid have their elderly parents in nursing homes. i would like to hear the speaker

talk about that. guest: thank you so much for raising this important point. rural hospitals across the country are shutting their doors , creating an access issue for millions of americans. you are right, those are hospitals who primarily rely on insurance coverage through medicaid. seniors at nursing homes are a large recipient of medicare -- medicaid dollars, more than 60% of nursing home costs are covered by this so thin incredibly important program. more than 85 million americans are covered by medicaid which is one in five americans, the largest health insurance program in this country. we want to ensure that everyone in the country has access to affordable health care coverage so they can get their medicines and see their doctors and maintain their healthy selves and families in the health of their community. host: you talk about the 11 states that have not adopted

medicaid expansion. this is from the kaiser foundation. what was the medicaid expansion and why 40 states have adopted it? guest: when the affordable care act was passed, there was a provision in that law that required all states to expand medicaid. that went to the supreme court and the supreme court essentially said states can decide on their own whether they want to expand medicaid or not. what resulted in some states decided that this was an important economic move as well as a moral imperative to cover their residence. they expanded medicaid well some states chose not to do that, they chose to turn down millions of dollars in federal resources and not expand. it left a bit of patchwork

across the country. it's dependent where you live and whether you have access to affordable health care coverage and there are about 2 million people across the orange states who are stuck in what's called the medicaid coverage gap. they make too little money to afford coverage in the affordable care act exchanges and too much money because they are working adults to be eligible for those medicaid programs. host: dallas, texas, one of the states that has not done the medicaid expansion, kelly, republican, good morning. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. i am 65 years old and i lost my job last august. i have been a license escrow officer for 25 years. i have been unemployed for seven months. i am about to run out of my unemployment insurance.

i am a breast cancer survivor as well as diabetic. i have had to give up one of my diabetic drugs because i am on obamacare. however, i just can't afford it. a1c and i've been practically eating a vegan diet i went for may 5 pointa to 6.3. i had a lump ectomy a week before christmas in 2021. i lost my health insurance for my job. i have been trying for five months to be able to get a 3d mammogram. obamacare will pay for the old-fashioned x-ray but it doesn't pay for a 3d mammogram. they found my tumor when it was

9mm. it did not spread or metastasize. i was one of the lucky ones. however, i've been trying to get the 3d mammogram and they said because obamacare only pays for preventive. if you've had breast cancer sorry, you are not covered. host: thanks for sharing your story. guest: kelly, i appreciate you calling in. i work for more than 10 years at the capital staffer and we heard about the importance of medicaid and health insurance coverage from constituents every single day. your story eliminates how critically important it is to have comprehensive and affordable health insurance coverage for the health of you as an individual but also of your entire family. i appreciate you calling in and sharing your personal story.

that's echoed across this country by tens of millions of medicaid recipients. host: carolina, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, you were talking about medicare and medicaid and the food stamps . how can they take the emergency food stamps away from us and the food prices are going up and up. gas prices are going up so how do they expect us to get by with a little bit of money and by food? you have to decide whether you will buy food or pay bills. it's ridiculous. every country except our own, we need to do for ourselves. how are you going to help other people if you can't do it for yourselves? host: he was speaking about the snap program. guest: it illuminates that

health coverage is not the key to healthy this country and that's why the foundation works on things like stamps, paid leave, economic policies that can help support an individual and the family who is trying to make ends meet. often, the lack of health insurance coverage and one illness can be the difference between complete bankruptcy and devastation and health. as a bare minimum, we have to make sure everyone in this country has health insurance coverage. you are right, eligibility for other assistance programs like food or rent or transportation are also desperate. host: bringing it back to the medicaid program in the 85 million americans on medic paid, if someone is listening now and is concerned they may be caught

up by the end of the continuous coverage provision, how can the wind out they will be? is there a place to check and make sure? guest: the best place to go is medicaid.gov. they can look for their state in which they live and there will be information about who to contact in your state what the steps might be to determine your eligibility. every state has a different program so there isn't one place to go where they can find information at medicaid.gov. host: atlanta, independent, go ahead. are you with us? then we will go to chris in illinois, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning and thanks for your work on c-span and for having such a knowledgeable guest who is giving a lot of good information on this topic

area i have two quick questions -- why is there a medicaid gap between medicaid and aca? this is a recent program that was developed and i can understand why they would put such a gap in that to create so many problems. my second question is just -- can she speak about what is being done to inform the people who may not know about these changes that they can be helped earlier? guest: thank you for that question. the gap does not make any sense. it's because it wasn't designed that way. the law was designed to cover every american with health insurance coverage or recognizing is a fundamental, basic acquirement for everybody in this country to have coverage for health insurance to take

care of their needs so they can get health care. unfortunately, because of politics, because of challenges in the legal system, it remained optional about whether states could cover everybody or leave the lowest income people in their state behind. there are some states who chose not to expand medicaid and not to cover the lowest income people in their state. it has repercussions for the states economy. it means those states are less healthy me know medicaid expansion reduces related deaths and increases economic prosperity of the state and increases the economic viability of family. we know it's important and we know this is a basic requirement that everyone should have health insurance coverage but everybody -- but unfortunately, politics got in the way. in terms of how to find out more

information, every state is approaching this differently. there are some basic tenets they should follow like proactive, empathetic and multiple forms of communication. relying on just the mail will not work for people who have moved during the pandemic. frequent and multiple forms of communication are necessary. doing so in multiple languages is necessary, doing so in a way that's easy to understand and makes the process. for with four recipients makes the process straight -- makes the process straightforward for recipients. some states are just not doing it. host: what would be a reason someone would be kicked off this program? you said each state has their

own rules but can you specifically focus on work requirement rules and the difference between some states of what's required? guest: there are only a handful of states that come to mind that have working requirements and place. -- in place. the people who have been kicked off of medicaid typically because of work requirements is not because they are not employed or not meeting the number of minimum hours, is because the form they have to do is too complicated. more than 60% of those who have lost medicaid in arkansas after the work requirements as a result of not understanding the former not being able to fill out the form in a way that kept them on the medicaid rolls. there were some missteps that arkansas has acknowledged.

generally, working adults who are part of the medicaid program, if they are in medicaid, it's because they are working in jobs or for employers who are not offering an affordable coverage option so medicaid is the only way. host: in the history of medicaid, we had a place where there are many states with work with armand's or where there are -- or were there times in the place where there were more work requirements? guest: we are at a time when they have more work requirements that are in place, more nuanced and complicated than in the past. like the way in which they have to categorize their working hours. you have to work a minimum of 80 hours a week in the has to be a certain type of job and you have to be able to document that in electronic form within a certain time.

there are lots of hurdles for a normal person who is too busy and managing many things in the household to make sure all of the steps are done in a way that continues to keep them enrolled. host: is there one that has 80 hours of work in a week? guest: that's in a month. host: michigan, independent, good morning. caller: i think we need a new change of government. i think this one is pretty much broken. i think we need to go to something like the parliament in england were you do of vote confidence and if you can't pass it, you are here cabinet are gone like immediately. this could be the best thing for us and people who get in that office will be more serious about what they are doing. thank you very much.

host: where are you on the idea of universal health care? guest: we very much support it to achieve a culture of a vision of health, you have to be able to get help care. in order to get health care in this country, you need health insurance. it helps protect and promote health and economic well-being. host: do you think we are closer to universal health care in this country today than 10 years ago? guest: we are close because we have the lotus uninsured rate after these proficient -- these provisions then we have ever had in the history of this country area that's since we've had insurance program so we are closer in terms of getting more people covered. in terms of having universal coverage meaning everybody has access to the same type of health insurance coverage in the same type of providers and the same type of drugs, we are a

long way away from that. host: we have about 10 minutes left. if you stick around on c-span, we will take you to the brookings institution. it's a discussion with general james mcconville about the army's modernization efforts and the war in ukraine. you could see that folks are starting to gather in that room. that conversation starts in 10 minutes but in the meantime, dr. joseph is the policy vice president, taking your phone calls as usual. go ahead and keep calling in and we will continue this conversation until the top of the hour. this is pennsylvania, good morning.

caller: hi, the problem i run into is i've been on disability for the last 15 years. i turned 65 this year and i watched all of my insurance go away. all this stuff and i don't qualify for medicaid because they save make too much money. i believe in $1500 per month. that's a little disheartening there. you like to see what programs are out there to help you and there's really nothing there. guest: you have raised one of the fundamental points here. you can make very little money per my attitude not be eligible for medicaid depending on the state in which you live. most would say the $1500 per month can barely make the rent

and the food and other bills that are needed to run a household area that's way health insurance coverage is so critically important because one disease or one diagnosis can really and truly be the difference between life for so many americans. host: this is from twitter -- guest: it's another way of answering -- of asking the same question. you have working adults, people were trying to provide for their family. these are not people who are on the couch all day which is sometimes the image portrayed by medicaid recipients. and yet, they cannot afford traditional health insurance coverage on the market places. medicaid really is the backstop to allow health insurance for families.

host: california, republican, good morning. caller: i would like to say that i don't think most people realize that one of the main causes of bad health is sugar ingredients added to even infant formula. the first thing on the list of ingredients is high fructose corn syrup. i don't think that will help babies grow healthy. that's why we have so much obesity in children nowadays. they are putting sugar and baby food, can you believe it? guest: thanks for the call. one of the things you highlight is a broader issue of the resources to be able to choose the type of food they would like to consume. unfortunately in this country, that's not always a choice.

resources can be so small that it's impossible to make choices like that. the supermarket only carries certain types of food depending on your neighborhood. you might not only have access to one type of grocer. these are samples of structural barriers to health. it is the mission of our work to help identify the structural barriers, illuminate them and address them. host: the caller rings up infant formula and you think of last year's infant formula shortage, only a year ago. would your foundation, were they involved in any legislative efforts after that to ensure that another such shortage doesn't happen? guest: we were not but we were involved in making sure families

had information related to the shortage to make the best choices they could in a devastating time. host: as far as legislation, what some example of how to get involved in a piece of legislation on capitol hill that addresses health care or the health issue? do you do lobbying? guest: no, as a nonprofit, we do not lobby congress. we can publicly advocate for policies like universal health care but we have limitations on getting involved in the legislative process and the way you are thinking. host: what does policy due at the foundation? guest: we help identify what is happening in terms of state and federal policie and of opportunity. we use the voice of ourselves and our partners to change the national conversation about what's possible as it relates to policy change. we help to elevate the research and the data and the system

changes we don't have worked in our best practices can be scaled to larger. time for a few more calls come about five minutes until that event starts at the brookings institute. houston, texas, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. what is the breakdown of my paycheck versus business contribute into medicaid? i live in texas so i know we don't have it but it's important for me to ask that question. where does medicaid get its money? i'm involved in getting more people voting and watching where their money is going. thank you very much for your answer and i will listen on the television. guest: this is a question about

medicaid financing and how it works. medicaid is a partnership between the state and the federal government. the federal government provides anywhere from 50-75% of the cost of covering a medicaid individual. the state takes in the rest. if you are a state that it tasted as, there are laws that have been passed where the federal government kicks and more, sometimes 90%. host: so what they don't have in texas is the expansion? guest: they have medicaid and who is eligible which may be limited and they don't have expansion and because like texas is so large, it's one of the states where there are the largest number of people who fall in that coverage gap so expansion in texas would be a huge boon to the state's economy and the states health. i medicaid who are the people

responsible for leaving the poor people in the dark? guest: it's the governors and the legislators of those states. the elected officials in those states or who is making the decision about medicaid expansion. there are number of statuses since 2024 that have passed medicaid expansion brace on they have put the question of whether to expand medicaid to the people and they have decided and overwhelmingly in the states where ballots were presented for expansion, people decided that yes, we should expand. host: where there states guest: guest: that were against? an example -- he just escaped my head. host: we've got barbara roy --

waiting until has a, florida, good morning. caller: i want to make up point about the state of florida and medicaid. my son was diagnosed in 2020 with cancer. he was a full-time student getting his masters degree. he was turned down for medicaid repeatedly. we kept trying to get obamacare or they call it florida blue in the state of florida. the only way we could get him obamacare was for me, i'm 74, to make him a dependent because in the state of florida, if you make less than 16 as those were year, you cannot get obamacare. that made me an independent. we pay $10 per month on the hospital bills and doctor bills we could pay.

he is -- he has beaten cancer but in the state of florida, you have a republican governor, republican legislature and they continually refused to expand medicare. -- excuse me medicaid. we have a problem here. there is no way to fix it as long as we have what we have here. it's very unfair to the poor people out here. that's my story. if you live in florida, look out. thank you. guest: thanks for calling. florida is similar to texas. as a result, there are millions of people between those two states who fall in the medicaid coverage gap. that's what our caller is illuminating.

in her case, she was mentioning that if you make $16,000 per year, you are not eligible for subsidies on the aca exchanges. because of the lack of medicaid expansion, they also make too much money at $16,000 per year to be eligible for medicaid in florida. the state of -- if the state of florida expanded medicaid, it would be available for many who make salaries such as that. host: just about a minute or so left -- i wanted to give you a chance to talk about some of the other work you do and the key initiatives for the robert wood foundation. guest: we recognize a person doesn't live without health coverage. you need a fair and just opportunity for health and

well-being so we work on things like housing policy in getting people affordable, stable places they can live area on issues like paid leave, person cannot use the health insurance to go see a doctor if they have to choose between a paycheck and seeing a doctor. we work on issues such as ballot initiatives and informing the democratic process so that individuals can choose things like medicaid expansion for their state. there are a couple of examples -- we work on snap, the food of -- the food assistance program. host: let's see if we can fit in another caller from maryland, line for democrats. thanks for waiting. are you i think we lost susan. for those who have been following this conversation throughout, if they are

concerned that they will be one of the people who may be kicked off medicaid, how do they figure out whether they may happen -- that may happen? guest: i instruct you to go to medicaid.gov. this provision ends at the end of this march. we do not want that to come as a surprise to anyone. at -- no time is a good time to lose help and serve -- health insurance but losing it suddenly can be devastating. host: for folks who want to learn more, is there a resource available at the foundation -- if they can remember the robert wood johnson foundation as a resource for these books? est: rwjf.org, and you come

from ruth all work our organization does. -- you can peru's all of our work our organization does. >> i appreciate your time. guest: thanks for having us. host: that would do it for this morning's washington journal and we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern and 4:00 a.m.. -- pacific and we will take our viewers to c-span over to brookings institution. it is army chief of staff general james mcconville, discussing the war in ukraine. that should begin in a minute or two and if you need to run, you can catch it on the free c-span video app. we will catch you tomorrow on washington journal.

>> we are left this morning on c-span, the brookings institution where we are awaiting remarks for -- from army chief of staff general james mcconnell and he will discuss military readiness and expected to touch on the war in ukraine. live coverage as it gets underway here on c-span. host: you can start calling in now and we