♪ ♪ host: good morning, it's thursday, september 7, 2023. the senate returns and president biden goes to india today. we begin with alabama senator

tommy tuberville to block nominations and promotions for senior u.s. military officers. he said he won't back down until the defense department changes its policy of reimbursing service members who travel to another state to obtain abortions. we want to know what you think of the standoff. the phone lines are split differently. if you support senator tuberville's hold on military nominations, (202) 748-8000, if you oppose, (202) 748-8001, and a special line for current and former members of the military, (202) 748-8002. you can also send us a text at (202) 748-8003. please include your name and where you are from. you can catch up with this on social media. a very good thursday morning to you. you can start calling in now on

the special phone numbers this morning. here is a heaine about this issue from bloomberg this week.

that's some of the background and this is senator tuberville on the senate floor in july talking about his hold. >> i am not alone. our team is building and growing. 60% of the country is opposed to taxpayer funding for abortions. that includes democrats, republicans and independents. 60%. the pentagon's new abortion policies even worse than that. it is a taxpayer-funded abortion that nobody, and i mean nobody, in the house or here voted for. host: that was senator tuberville in july with his hold on military motions and nominations continue to get pushback from democrats on capitol hill but from members of the military. here is the headline from

earlier this week from politico. one of the most gring examples came from the washington post op-ed from earlier this week. this is from the secretaries of the navy, air force and army.

that is some of the criticism from the secretary of the navy, air force and navy in a washington post op-ed this week. we are asking you about senator tuberville's hold on military promotions and nominations, (202) 748-8000 if you support what he's doing on capitol hill, (202) 748-8001 if you oppose and a special line for current and former military members, (202) 748-8002. here is a little more from senator tuberville from yesterday from his x page, formerly, responding to some of the most recent criticism. >> i'm not holding up any

nominations for being approved. they can bring them one at a time to the floor, they have chosen not to do that. i have also talked to some of the nominees that have come through my office. they have already changed jobs. they are already doing the job. it's just they've got interim on their name. there is no threat to readiness, the people we need to be worried about are the colonels and majors and sergeants and privates. they are the people that get ready to fight wars. the people at the pentagon, i don't know what they do every day but they give advice. it's just a surprise to me that these are all joe biden civilian appointees, secretary of the air force and army and it disappoints me, some of the language they use because i am a united states senator. i would never say anything like that about them in the newspaper. they should not be played out in

the newspaper. if you need to visit with me, call me or come see me, they know where i am at and they have not done that. i have not talked to any of them about this. it goes to show you this is all propaganda that's been carried on by the secretary of defense and the president of the united states and you have to start putting pressure on your senator. they don't know what pressure is. host: senator tuberville yesterday posting that on his x page. he notes these nominations and promotions could have this could happen on a case-by-case basis but with some 300 nominations being held up, it could take well over 700 hours of floor time in the senate to move these on a case-by-case basis. right now, there is a standstill on capitol hill when it comes to these nominations to these military promotions. we want to know what you think and a special line for current

and former members of the military, we want to hear from you this morning. we will show you more of the pushback in the back and forth on capitol hill throughout this first hour but most of your phone calls will start right now with formers members of the military. good morning,. caller: good morning and thank you for having me. i am offering my opinion. i want to start with something you just played. the gentleman's -- the senator said he had no knowledge of what these people did at the pentagon. that is the first problem. perhaps he should visit or have one of his associates visit and get more understanding of the responsibility of these people, number one. number two, you have people that never served in the military and

admit they have no knowledge of what they do. that's a problem. also, this is not a football game, this is not a football team. this is the united states military. it protects our country as well as our allies around the world. they need to be ready, they need to be supported, they need leadership. that's not debatable. thank you for your time. host: talking about the former auburn university had football coach and now united states senator from alabama, tummy tuck were bill. he is leading this lock on military nominations and promotions on the senate floor. we are asking for your thoughts this morning. this is frank on the line for current and former members of the military in california, good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with tupper bill. stop killing the babies. host: anything else you want to

add? caller: that's it, stop killing babies. host: this is mary in fort washington, maryland. caller: good morning. what he's doing is he is totally out of line. he is wackadoo and he's doing this to go after women. it's about abortion, it's not about anything else. he is out of line. that's all i had to say. host: this is ed, you are next. caller: yes, good morning. tommy tuberville, a resident of florida. he doesn't even live in the state. this is everything that is wrong with the republican party. they think their views are the only views that people should

abide by. tommy tuberville. he lives in florida and represents alabama. that makes no sense. everybody, have a nice day. host: this is mike in woodbury, minnesota, saying he opposes what the senator is doing. this has been playing out on capitol hill. this is senator jack reed yesterday, the senate armed services committee chairman, criticizing senator tom or bil'' -- senator tuberville's efforts. >> the united states military is one of the finest meritocracy's in the world. our service members swear an oath to the constitution rather than apart -- rather than to a party or leader and they can be

competent with hard work, skill and character, they will be successful in their military career. rising to the top of his meritocracy, the rank of general or admiral demands remarkable talent and leadership and a dedication to the military of service above self. american officers also implore congress to do their job to approve their promotions based on merit in a timely manner. for the senator from alabama to deny these individuals their merit-based promotions for their own political gain is simply disgraceful. after six months, it seems that neither reason nor any other factor is at play. my colleagues, indeed some of my colleagues i believe on the others are offering him compromises but he has rejected each one. the senate armed services

committee even considered legislation to repeal the department policy. it was rejected. -- by the committee. right here on the floor, the senator had the opportunity and the chance to vote on an amendment that would have repealed the policy. he rejected that choice. instead, he continues to change his demands. at this point, one has to wonder if the senator actually wants to achieve his demands or if he just wants to stay in the spotlight. indeed, as he recently admitted to a right-wing pod cast --" i don't care they commode anybody, to be honest with you." host: senator jack reed on the floor of the senate yesterday. we have that special line for current and former members of the military. warrenton, oregon, good morning. caller: good morning.

i am an old air force veteran. i was active duty for six years and went into the reserves. i had an nco ic in an air force shop and he was from alabama. his name was master sergeant kw ha andl i used to asked him wherel, lower alabama. you do not have to look too far to find anybody with more than a high school education in alabama. i am really sorry for any troop that has to put up with tub or bill or whatever his name is but he certainly needs to go. thank you very much. host: former air force, what do you think of general cq brown who has been nominated to be the next joint chiefs of staff chair? you still with us? i think we lost the former air

force vet. rev vic want -- rather ramaswamy has some thoughts, playing off of what tommy tuberville has brought up with the issue not just being abortion but also woke officers as its been described in the military and the pentagon. this is what he had to say. he tweeted out this late last week.

this is william in miami bird, ohio. caller: good morning, this is your dumb 88-year-old hillbilly. i definitely oppose the great tub or bill. he is about as dumb as a box of rocks. i've got a lovely little granddaughter in the navy. she is a nuclear engineer and she is fighting to protect an idiot. i get so disgusted with politicians. i always said crooks and politicians have their own three ring circus. it's a shame we have to operate like that. as i say come until they get big money out of politics, the

working people will not stand a chance. thank you, john. host: this is jim in the show me state, good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: this will be short and sweet. this tub reveal business really smells or perhaps it would be better to say it looks like we've seen this before with a fellow named merrick garland, republican intransigence by failing to approve these people may very well be some sort of plot in the hopes that mr. trump, for instance, would regain the white house. all of these positions would be available for appointment under

his advise and consent posture toward military. tommy here is putting a hold on things in hopes that indeed, mr. trump regains the white house. that's pretty much my take on this. i noticed that throughout the senate, while they have no real pronouncement in the media, for instance attacking mr. tuberville's position, they seem strangely quiet on this. thanks very much. host: before you go, do you think this could go on for another 16 months until january of 2025? caller: i could turn the question on you -- do you think it won't? the answer to your question as far as i'm concerned as i'm certain he will hold his ground. i think mr. tuberville has been given marching orders, as it

were, this is a position he's been assigned, this is a job he's been given to make certain that indeed he throws a monkeywrench in this deal, allowing these 300 plus positions and certainly will be more in the near future to go unfilled in hopes, once again, you heard what i had to say about that. i think they are vying for position to put in their own people. host: these nominations could be brought individually to the floor and voted on and bypass this whole process, the hold is on unanimous consent and whether the entire senate can agree to move forward with these nominations and do them in larger groups. you can do these individually but democratic senators say they don't want to set that president and they are dealing

individually with 300 members -- 300 nominations could take well over 700 or more hours of senate floor time and we are already dealing with the potential government shutdown at the end of this month and a whole lot of other issues congress is trying to deal with that they just don't have 700 hours of time to devote to all of these nominations. what are your thoughts on that? caller: as a matter of philosophy strictly, this is my interpretation -- i believe we should start in the direction of indeed confirming these people. if the process is slowed by the intransigence of this republican fellow tub reveal, then so be it. at least the american public will be able to see that indeed we are trying to accomplish something here. thanks very much. host: like general mark milley stepped down at the end of the month, you say they should move ahead with an individual vote c

onq brown, the air force general who's been nominated to take over position and you should say -- and you say they should move forward? caller: having no other alternative before us to at least begin the process, the answer would be yes. host: thanks for the call. i want to show a little bit of the joint chiefs of staff chair nominee ,cq brown nomination hearing that happened back in july. the votes are not happening because of the hold that here is a little bit of cq brown. >> why didn't you come up with or are you going to come up with the percentage of the overall force? did you come up -- contemplate that of how many black americans should be in the air force? or how many asian american should be in the air force? did you contemplate the total force percentages? >> what we looked at is the

aspect of providing opportunities for anybody who wants to serve. >> listen, if that were what was in this memo, i would not be asking you these questions. we have a memo signed by you that you think right now there are too many white officers. this is a blanket statement. i could go down the line and question which of the 5400 white officers we have today should be fired. that is the actual impact of all of this. i agree with your story about wanting the best pilot in the air force regardless of race, that is what the military is supposed to be. it's a great meritocracy and that's why there's uniforms and haircuts. i have heard so many of my colleagues talk about infusing abortion politics into this. that is exactly what's wrong. this administration has confused abortion politics into our military, covid politics into her military, de i into her

military. it is a cancer on the best military in the history of the world, these men and women deserve better than this. host: that is the air force generalcq brown's nomination hearing. you can watch the entire hearing is available on our website at c-span.org. back to your phone calls this morning and getting your thoughts on senator tupper bill's hold on military promotions and nominations. good morning, your next. caller: hi, how are you? i have a couple of points. number one, if everybody remembers all our military brothers and sisters, we all share this common experience. the first time we step overseas and overseas land, we discover

our americanism, we discover we are all americans together. we are not democrats, republicans, christians or jews. we are americans and that's what we all experience. the military should never depoliticize. when jfk was running for president, there was a fear [indiscernible] that it was going to interfere with his ruling of america being president which he didn't infuse. i might add that tub reveal is a piece of horse manure. host: if we can hold off on the insults, we want to hear your opinion but let's try to hold off on the insults. bob is in cleveland, tennessee, you are next. caller: yes, what somerville is doing is a primary example of what the republican party stands for. nothing. they don't stand for anything.

they have done absolutely nothing to put the party first. all they have done is cater to donald trump. tommy tuberville needs to be impeached by alabama. thank you, alabama for sending us tommy tuberville. i have relatives in the military that are being affected by this. they cannot go to school because kids cannot get their orders to sign up. it's a lot of implications of what tommy taber bill from alabama is doing. it's hurting the military which is basically going to lead to the republican party losing the military vote for the first time in history. they deserve it. vote out republicans. host: that's robin in tennessee. chris murphy, the democratic senator from connecticut tweeting at yesterday what this whole situation tells us about what republicans want here.

the congressman saying that it tells us there is nothing the gop cares about more than controlling women's health care. republicans are clearly willing to do anything including her military readiness in order to ban abortion. this is joel in mountain home, arkansas, good morning, your next. caller: good morning. it's my turn to call. it's been 30 days and i enjoyed listening to c-span each day. i will continue listening for over 50 years. you know the record. to the question that's being asked -- the funds are not just -- don't let me get sidetracked. wait a minute, military is for the defense of this country.

it's defending you sitting in that chair and me in my rocker this morning with my boston terrier in my lap. our tax paying funds and i'm a taxpayer and at the age of 82, i'm still a tax payer. i don't see why we should be paying the transgender operations in the military that can't be deployed for 300 days. this is a drain for the taxpayers because this will be a lifelong thing. we have many military people that were wounded in korea, vietnam and they are sleeping on the streets now. it's more to it than what we are saying this morning. it's not just about abortion,

ok? god created a gift, one of the precious gifts there is, a human being. god gave us life and light and gave his son for us. his blood covers our sins and everything. host: that was a long time c-span viewer. it hasn't quite been 50 years for c-span but we are getting close in 2029. this is david in port st. lucie, florida, you are next. caller: good morning. i want to thank all of the democrats that have called in to oppose this because what they are doing is they are careering their ugly heads. when they run again, we won't vote them in because anyone wants his woke stuff in the military, anybody that wants to

achieve what they want is totally wrong. it's communist. by the way, how do you like those boots? host: that's david in florida, this is an inn kentucky, you are next. are you with us? caller: yes, i am. i am totally against the military funding abortions or transgender surgeries. enough of the woke. our military should be defending americans. close the borders. defend the borders. host: this is david from hartford, connecticut, you are next. caller: good morning, sir, how are you this morning? host: you are calling on the line for current or former military, are you current or former? caller: i'm current. i'm just amazed there is no

pushback. i think we need to be clear here. i don't know how woke or transgender got into the conversation. if there are women who are from states where they have access to the health care they deserve and they want but they are in a state that doesn't provide, the military will pay for them to travel back to their home state to get the health care that they seek. that's really it. i'm just surprised there's no pushback. you have these crazy caller. senator tupper bill is a football coach. he's never been in the military, he is absolutely doing horrible things. he has no business even serving. i've got many men and women from alabama who cannot wait to vote him out. what i will say is, he is a pissy little baby.

have host: host: a beautiful morning. before you go, have you seen the impact of this? caller: absolutely. host: what have you seen specifically? caller: first of all, we cannot have any promotions or raises so the best people are no longer in positions where they can affect us in the best way. he has gummed up the whole thing. as your callers have shown us, most of them don't even know what this is about. this isn't about woke or transgender tax dollars, this is about of a woman is from a state where abortion is allowed, and he is stationed somewhere where it's not, we support her to take time off to go back home and get

the health care she deserves. period, end of story. host: this is senator michael bennett on the floor of the united states senate. this process of hold has gone on for months, senator bennett on the floor talking about that whole process. this is him just about his comments from a month ago. >> for 230 years, nobody in this chamber has done what the senator from alabama is doing, put a hold on the military promotions of people in uniform, the flag officers of our department of defense that ordinarily would come through here in a customary way to get approved by the senate for obvious reasons. we need them there for a national security. they have sacrificed their entire adult lives. they have sacrificed time with her family.

they have sacrificed everything for this country and now they been promoted and the senator -- they been put on the list to be promoted, and the senator from alabama has put a hold on that which is never happened before in the history of the united states. for somebody who has put this senate to a grinding halt month after month, he has picked an odd argument. to defend his position,. he has said time and time again that what he's doing doesn't matter. what he is doing in the face of democratic and republican, not that it matters because the secretary of defense shouldn't think of themselves as democrat or republican but people who have served in democratic or republican administrations have said over and over again that he's compromising our national security which is of course exactly the conclusion that

anyone looking at this with common sense would believe. that our generals and admirals actually make a difference. the head of the joint chiefs of staff actually makes a difference. if that's not the case, we are in worse trouble than i thought. if it is the case, if what he's saying is right, that it doesn't make any difference, then how can he claim to be acting on an incredibly important principle? host: senator michael bennett, democratic senator from colorado in july on the senate floor. this is jc out of mobile, alabama, your thoughts on senator tuberville's hold on military promotions? caller: good morning, john. i rise to defend the great state of alabama, the south, christianity and the lord jesus christ in general. we heard a lot of ad hominem calls this morning, real

ignoramuses from around the country. i found that interesting on their high horses condemning the great state of alabama and condemning and maligning the brilliant and great senator tommy tuberville football coach. i would like to say at the outset, just last night, i was talking to my brother-in-law in birmingham, career prosecutor and retired as a green beret nature from the united states army. he is 100% on board with this. you guys brilliant and is been a prosecutor at the federal level most of his career and at the state level. i have a physics professor friend down the street and he talked for years and went back to school and got his phd in accounting and has a double phd and has a masters degree in mathematics. he fought for his entire career, roman catholic christian, 100% on board with this. i could go on. i have an electrical engineer in

california who is on board. as far as this ad hominem attack on alabama, dead wrong on all accounts. host: this headline from the hill newspaper is playing out down there in alabama. caller: 100%, we are behind him. i contacted his office about three times and we biz support him in droves. who is ever getting this disinformation out there is absently wrong. somerville has vast and deep support. he is well-liked. it's a classic good old boy act for those who don't know. it's a will rogers. it's a colombo, it's an attempt to seem homespun, folksy and not smart and you outwit your book -- your opponent because he is hiding his intelligence and his brilliance and there's a lot of misinformation on c-span.

let's turn it on c-span for a second. they want to turn it into a woke nila terry and 46% caucasian but what's up with c-span? i have asked for years why you all east or west asians in the command seat? i have taught for years in asia and worked for folks over there in addition to teaching. i wondered why you haven't put anybody in the seat there? host: i would say keep watching, i'm sure you will see that at some point and i appreciate you been watching over the years. this is lee in harrisburg, pennsylvania, good morning, you are next. caller: yes, i think this is a collective effort by republicans

with more of their obstructionism which i think that is their game plan. this is a strange one because this hurts a lot of people at large as many of the callers have expressed. i know people in the military and there is tremendous outrage. if you are in alabama like your previous caller, you will probably be in favor of this largely but this is a very regional thing. the country as a whole, i would like to see some polling on it. taber bill is another example of a guy who's an opportunist in a state that would allow him to come into office. . no credentials, no chops, just a football coach and very conservative and he is a boot liquor for trump. host: this is jacqueline in marcus book on the line for

current or former members of the military, go ahead. caller: hi, i mentioned earlier that i'm a former navy journalist married to a former special forces. the military and promotions have always been archaic when it comes to watching out for us. you want to serve for democracy and this man from alabama, like you said has never served in the military. personally, i think the commander-in-chief of the united states of america should be military. he should either serve in the military, be in rotc or naval reserves to give feedback on how to represent their country. we are always the last ones on the bottom to be acknowledged. they want to take our promotions away? the way that we are promoted as far as giving promotions as far as officer raises is minimal to

what exactly the way you have to live in america. this guy who called in about turberville is all this and all that, who cares? who cares what kind of degrees you have or where you come from or the titles? that's what wrong with people now whether you are democrat or republican. i don't care. be patriotic, what happened to that? i wore my military united states navy shirts when i represent. i've got three people for the whole day and eyes outside all day on memorial day and i got three people who acknowledged to thank you for serving our country. out of the three people who acknowledged me, they had family in the military. once again, if you don't know what you're talking about and if you never been in the military and don't understand the format and the protocol, the giving of your life and not even questioning that and you come

back to a country that doesn't even care. they don't care anymore and they have these people who represent you and they have their own hidden agenda. host: do you think they are going to end up with people leaving the military because of these holds on nominations and promotions? caller: of course, we have to live. we have families. we have medical, we have dental, we have emergency circumstances that happen and we cannot acknowledge what happens on our bases. these people are already taken care of financially. they have free medical and dental and are taking care of so why would you want to -- these are the top people that should care about us. when you have people leaving the military and the new military coming in, i personally, i have older sons and i wouldn't want them to serve in the military and i can't believe i'm saying that. i can't believe i would tell my

sons or whatever that i don't want you serving in the military because this military they have now is a joke. host: here is a few more of your comments from social media.

taking your phone calls with about 15 minutes left in this hour of the "washington journal ." if you support was senator is doing, (202) 748-8000 if you oppose, (202) 748-8001 and a line for current and former

members of the military, (202) 748-8002. to that line for military members, huntsville, alabama. your thoughts on your senator? caller: this all started when the military ran a help program and our general should be fired. they injected an experimental gene therapy that was unproven in jackson into her military soldiers. they should be fired. our military has become politicized by a bunch of thieves. that's all. host: staying in alabama, this is jason in montgomery. your thoughts on your senator? caller: good morning. first off, i hate that you called in my senator. i know he is but it's a downright embarrassment that a man born in arkansas, living in florida and only moved to alabama to run for office is a

senator. he's crazy and he would never set foot in alabama if he had not gotten the job. you can have people calling in from alabama all day long and talk about having a degree or whatever, you don't need to be in the military and you don't need to have a degree to know this is dumb. he is pandering to a group of people who don't believe government should exist. all of the contradiction all of this makes complete sense when you know that these folks right here in the great state of alabama, sweet home, alabama, they cannot erase this so they are saying they can support people like tommy tuberville who make it worse. they bring everything to a screeching halt because they are upset because they have some delusional idea that government should not exist but only when it's convenient for them.

the national consensus on abortion that should exist but only right here in this state, ignoramuses in alabama want to control what everybody does because why? because they are unhappy with their life and are unhappy with the government. tommy tuberville will be in office for as long as these ignoramuses vote for him. host: on this issue of where senator tuberville lives, couple of callers have brought that up. to dig into that a little bit, this is the story from al.com out of alabama. they refer to the washington post report.

the story goes on from there,al.com where you can keep reading that story. this is mechanics kirk berg, pennsylvania, you are next. caller: good morning morning, mr. mcardle. typical performance by you. i think you serve up softball questions to the people who call in to support your position on this issue which i think is

clear. you oppose with senator tuberville is doing. host: what is your position, that's what i want to know? caller: i'm just commenting on what i hear. i support him 100%. i'm a west point graduate, united states military academy. airborne ranger, vietnam vet. i still stay in touch with a lot of people so the people who say there is outrage in the military, former and current are wrong. host: anything you want to add? caller: yes, i do want to add more stuff. when you talk about the washington post" them on any issue, it frankly isn't necessary to say what their position is. the washington post opposes or whatever. senator tuberville is doing exactly with the rules allow. you said 700 hours of time to go

through these appointment by appointment. do the math, that means they will have to stay in town for like a month. 24/7 if that's what it takes. they have done filibusters for longer periods of time, not 700 hours at a time but close. why don't they do that? consider what has been the status of the military before this policy. they are losing members. they cannot recruit them in the number so they were doing something stupid before this policy, reverse this policy, make it a campaign issue, get on with the nominations let's focus on the chief of staff says half of the pilots in the air force have to be terminated or fired because they are the wrong color. host: this is mary out of las vegas, good morning. caller: good morning.

some people really need to be deprogrammed and get off of box. tibor bill is a disgrace. this nationalistic threat that's running through the republican party, nationalism is not patriotism. if tempora bill doesn't know what they're doing at the pentagon, maybe he should go through a days training in the military or a days training and see what it's like to become a ranger. it's just despicable and the use abortion as a wedge. to stop these promotions from going through. until he gets a uterus, he should have no say so in it. they just want to nationalize everything and destroy our government. what are they, the party of putin? host: about 10 minutes left in this segment of "washington

journal." taking your phone calls on tommy tempora bills hold on promotions and nominations in the military. it's been going on for months now and it's come to ahead this week as the senate has returned to work after the august recess. also, a lot of focus on the health of another republican, senator mitch mcconnell, the republican leader in the senate after that freeze up he had in front of reporters, the second one and two months. a lot of questions from media yesterday about the state of his health. here is the senator talking to reporters at that weekly press meeting wednesday. [video clip] >> what have doctors said is the precise medical reason for the freeze ups? >> with dr. mann natanz report addressed was concerns people might have of things that have

happened to me, they didn't happened to me. i've nothing to add to that. i think he pretty well covered the subject. >> what do you save those who were calling on you to step down, do you have plans to retire anytime soon? >> i have no announcements to make on that subject. i'm going to finish my term as leader and i'm going to finish my senate term. host: senator mitch mcconnell on capitol hill yesterday with reporters. back to your phone calls about senator tommy tuberville and his hold military nominations and promotions. this is joseph in fayetteville, north carolina on the line for military members. caller: good morning, john. there is civilian control of military. i've been in the military since

the end of the vietnam era since 1983. the promotions happened back in the 80's. they weren't promoting ncos and stuff and that's part of the reason why i had a get of the marine or. all of this woke stuff is ridiculous. we are not of much in a society like portugal or japan. i don't know why it's such a big deal for republicans. you see what all this cultural stuff is when we fought japan in world war ii. officers were killing themselves because they couldn't achieve victory over the united states. i just don't understand why they are using civilian control of the military to mess up our military. maybe they want militias to be the military.

it's all about -- it's not about states rights anymore. that's all i have to say. host: dennis, you next. caller: good morning, i support tarboro bill 1,000,000%. spending money, federal tax money to support abortion in any way is a violation of the height amendment. if chuck schumer was not such a coward, he would bring this to the floor for a full boat. he does not want to risk that for his people that they lose the election the next time around. host: let's hold off on the insults and plenty of calls here and we are running short on time. this is john in louisiana, good morning. caller: i was a major in 1981 and i was promoted to lieutenant colonel but a senator and i

don't remember his name, put a hold on it. it's not that big of a deal. this hold is just on some of the senior officers. the hold that i was on was around promotions at that time. i seem to remember, first of all, they can vote on it one by one. that's one way to take the logjam away. i am pretty sure that when they come to the end of the fiscal year, which i think will be on the first of october, that whole disappears automatically. this is not something that had to happen before. it's not something that's really a big deal. host: i'm not sure about the fiscal year element. when a new congress starts, the process starts over again with new rules implemented but i'm not sure about the fiscal year

part but go ahead. i think we lost the caller. this is diane and daytona beach, florida, go ahead. caller: hi, i used to hear all the time is keep them barefoot and pregnant. i just wanted to remind people of that. i think that's where the senator wants to go. host: you been hearing comments on both sides of what senator tuberville is doing here, showing you how it's playing out in the political media on the left and right with the huffington post --

from the right, the conservative media online from a couple of weeks ago -- that's how it playing out and we are taking your phone calls for a few more minutes, this is from the line for current and former members of the military. caller: good morning. i have got maybe six or seven quick points and i will hang up. host: i don't know we can get to six or seven in two minutes but go ahead. caller: i'm a disabled u.s. air force army vet. i have 100 percent support of

tommy tuberville. he makes a statement that i agree with. we don't need that many generals. we should downsize that. i don't think general brown is a partisan general. i am against abortion 100%. it's god's law and the last point is vote for trump in 2024. host: paul out of illinois, good morning, your next. caller: let's get something straight here -- the military pays for viagra and erectile dysfunction. these women that are signed up for the military did not sign up to be breeders for the fatherland. they are stationed in states

that they would not choose to be but they are stationed there. they are not asking the military to pay for their termination of pregnancy of abortions. it is to cover their travel expenses. they will cover their own because they may have cancer, they may have children and that's usually the case, they may have a physical problem or else that service woman also has physical problems and she cannot have that baby. this is wrong, the information that's going out there. this is not for the military. they will pay for their own if they need one. this is just a cover travel expenses because they are in states that won't allow them to get the health care that they need. i am disgusted with what temper villas doing and republican -- and repugnant at republicans. that's what i want to say.

these women did not sign up to be breeders for the fatherland. host: to arkansas, this is donald, good morning. caller: doing well. go ahead. caller: i'm disgusted with people coming on talking about something they seem to know nothing about. two rebel is correct -- tuber ville is correct. we don't want our taxpayers paying for the travel to get an abortion. that is against the law for military to do that. i am retired army myself. if they want an abortion, it's up to them to pay for their abortion. it is not my job to pay for their abortion. goodbye. host: donna, fayetteville, north

carolina, good morning. your next. caller: after that, i don't even know what to say. i oppose this. do people realize the sacrifice that military people make? they have to leave their families, travel to fight for countries that do not respect them. i live where fort bragg -- well, it is for liberty. it is a shame if you do not respect our military, the sacrifice the families make, the kids make. come on, people. if it was you, wouldn't you want someone to help you? it's a shame. i am ashamed of this. we need to get it together and people need to come together. it's a shame. and at some of these stupid comments. you know

people. they have to leave their families, go to fight for us to have the freedom. come on. host: that's donna. this is patty, atlantic city, new jersey.good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i oppose this very much. i think it's a disgrace. it's all about disrespecting women and women's privacy. what i would like to see is a law that prevents men from making laws against women's bodies, about women's bodies. it's just really, really kind of perverted, actually, but men have no business making laws against women's bodies, and senator tuberville, if you are listening, you are a disgrace to the body of the senate. thank you.

host: patty in new jersey our last caller in this first segment. stick around. more to talk about this morning, including next, we will be joined by economist stephen moore to talk about the role the economy is playing this campaign season, and later, american federation of teachers president randi weingarten will join us to discuss the challenges facing america's public school teachers as the school year kicks off. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest

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our series has provoked thought, won awards, led to societal changes and are still talked about today. hear from renowned experts who will shed light on the impact of these works and journeys to significant locations across the country. among our featured books, common sense, huckleberry finn, their eyes were watching god, and free to choose. watch our 10 part series, books that shaped america, starting september 18 at 9 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. and join us today for a preview of books that shaped america with library of congress paula hammond and a historian live from the library of congress.

she is the 14th library of congress. the historian has edited books on several presidents and other famous americans and other topics. watch our preview of the series today at 7 p.m. eaeron c-span, c-sp now, or online at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: you are no stranger to c-span viewers, author, columnist, presidential advisor, economic advisor to the trump campaign back in 2016. do you have any role in the campaigns this season? guest: i am working with president trump on the 2024 campaign. it's a long way to go. he has to get through this primary and the general, but it

is the honor of my life to work with trump in 2016 and it's exciting, as you know, working on a campaign. we will be fulfilling that same role with a lot of other really top people, larry kudlow, who was his chief economic advisor, arthur laffer, and others. he has a great gang of economic advisors. trump understands the economy very well, having been a very successful businessman, so i always found that he has the sort of street smarts and we have the more academic views of the economy. host: do you think he's talking about the economy enough on the campaign trail now? is there space for him to talk about the economy? guest: the fact that he's facing four or five indictments and 500 years in prison. we put together a lot of documents showing the case for our you better off than you were

four years ago? for the vast majority of americans, the answer is no, not financially with the high inflation, the troubles we've had with the economy. when trump left office, the mortgage interest rate was 2.9%. now it's over 7%. inflation was 1.5% when trump left office, still closer to 4%. if you put side-by-side the biden economic record versus the trump economic record, that his strong point -- that is his strong point. host: president biden was talking about the economy quite a bit. he was talking to the sheet metal workers in pennsylvania. this is about a minute of what he had to say. [video clip] >> 13,000,005 hundred thousand jobs since you got me sworn in -- 13.5 million jobs since you got me sworn in, 800,000 new manufacturing jobs, but you

would not know it from the negative news you hear. we are getting through this, one of the greatest job creation periods in american history. that's a fact. it was not long ago that we were losing jobs in this country. the guy that held this job before me was one of two presidents in history -- there's an important point -- two presidents that left office with fewer jobs than when he got elected. you know who the other one was? herbert hoover. isn't that kind of coincidental? look, we are turning things around because of you. when the last guy was here, we were shipping jobs to china. now we are bringing jobs home from china. when the last guy was here, your pensions were at risk. we helped save millions of pensions with your help.

when the last guy was here, he looked at the world from park avenue. i look at it from scranton, pennsylvania. from claremont, delaware. host: that was president biden on monday. stephen moore, that's a different economic picture that he paints. guest: there's a lot of smoke and mirrors going on. we were proud of what we accomplished during trump's administration with respect to the economy. people forget, on the eve of covid, and covid did change everything, but we had the biggest booming economy ever. we shut down the american economy. that was one of the greatest mistakes in american history both from an economic and civil liberties standpoint. we know lockdowns were a failure and let's pray we never do it again. when we locked down our businesses, i mean, the

government shut down our businesses, so we lost 15 million jobs. i remember that. one day i'm going to work and the next day i am not. if you look at biden's record -- 90% of those jobs that joe biden is talking about that he's created our jobs that opened up when covid was over, so that's a bit of a distortion. i always say, you know, you may not like donald trump, and there are a lot of people who i'm sure don't like donald trump, his antics or sometimes he says offensive things, but you have to love what he did for the country in terms of his economic policies. we have one statistic i know the president likes to use and i showed him this chart a couple weeks ago. under trump, the median family income in the u.s., adjusted for inflation, grew by $6,500 when he was president. that's a big increase. hunter biden, the average -- hunter biden, the average family

has lost income. that is why i would submit to you, when you look at the opinion polls, about 70% of americans think the economy is headed in the wrong direction. host: have talked before on this program this year and written about your deep concerns about a recession during the biden administration. do you still think, looking at the economic picture today, that we are still in for a recession sometime in the next 12 months? guest: there's a famous thing about economists, that we have predicted eight of the last two recessions. economists are always saying one is around the corner. at the end of 2022, a lot of economists, i think the majority, were saying we would have a recession. i was not one who said that a recession was inevitable. we are not in a recession. the economy has picked up a bit. i do not read against the american economy -- not root against the american economy.

there has been a pickup in the economy and that is a good thing. and the job market is strong. right now, we have more job openings that we have people looking for jobs, so that's a good statistic. host: this joe biden get credit for it? guest: the problem for biden is not that there are not enough jobs. there are for now. we need to get americans more skilled so they can fill those. the problem is, when biden came in, he spent and borrowed $6 trillion. that was completely unnecessary and reckless. as a result, what happened -- and people have to understand. we came in, spent $6 trillion on the green energy program, etc., and then what happened was, with all of that, that caused the inflation rate to go from 1.5% to 9%, and as a result of that,

what had to happen was the federal reserve raised interest rates i think 11 times, 10 or 11. that means we have a huge increase in interest rates and high inflation has meant that for 22 of the last 24 months americans incomes are falling behind the rate of inflation. that's what -- in other words, the average american is $4000 a year poorer today than when trump left office. biden will have to explain that. host: stephen moore with us for the next 30, 35 minutes. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. he worked with the trump campaign in 2016, senior economist at freedomworks. remind them what freedomworks is. guest: it is an activist -- citizens activist group with a

conservative free-market orientation. we have 5 million members around the country, so very proud to work with freedomworks. i'm also a senior fellow with the heritage foundation. so i wear many hats. look, we have to get our nation's finances in order right now. i think all americans are concerned with what's happening. did you see the washington post story sunday or monday? our national debt went i buy another $2 trillion. we are supposed to be in an economic recovery and we are borrowing $2 trillion? i have been on c-span scores of times. when i first came to washington and did this show with brian lamb, my hero, the national debt, the entire national debt for the first 220 years of the country, was $2 trillion, and

now we are borrowing $2 trillion a year. come on. i don't care who you are, that's a catastrophe. host: and 2023, now expected to be $2 trillion. you can see the deficits from the past couple years. washingtonpost.com is where that story was. a lot of calls for you already. jay in mississippi, republican line, good morning. caller: how are you doing today, mr. moore? guest: good morning. caller: let me ask you a question. what are you all going to do when donald trump gets back in office? are you all going to try to get this economy kick started again? i mean, things is already -- already, you know, in pretty bad shape. they are getting worse. we are borrowing money. you don't know whether to buy gold or silver or platinum. things is in a mess but i think

god -- call him 45 and 47. host: if he is 47, what's the first thing you do on the economic front after he is sworn in? guest: that is a good question. i think the first thing we would do would be to restore american energy superiority. what is going on now with our energy policy is catastrophic in my opinion. when trump left office for the first time in any of our lifetimes, no matter your age, unless you are over 100, the first time in american history under trump we were energy independent and became the dominant producer of oil and gas in the world, and biden came in. the first thing he did was kill pipelines. he's declared war on american energy. it's a catastrophe. the price on the

international market for oil is nearly $90 a barrel. that means we will soon be paying $4.5 to five dollars a gallon at the gas pump. we should be producing oil everywhere we can. we should be dominant. i don't think russia ever would have gone into ukraine if we had not kneecaps america's energy superiority -- not kneecapped america's energy superiority. no country in the world has more oil, gas and coal than the united states. we should be using it as an economic and national security tool. it puts our national security in jeopardy when we have to get oil from countries like saudi arabia and venezuela and russia, of course, is a major oil producer. opec announced they are cutting production by one million barrels a day, russia cutting by 300,000. that's one reason the price of oil is going up. when trump was president, we

never even talked about opec because the u.s. was producing so much. host: can you go back for a second? how would a different energy policy have kept russia from invading ukraine? guest: that's a good question. russia is a third world country. they don't have an economy much to speak of. the major component of the russian economy is oil, you know? that is how they get their money. so what i'm saying is if we had continued to produce the amount of oil that we were under trump -- by the way, i think it's this week -- in recent days, biden announced he's going to take millions of acres in alaska. it's crazy. we have more oil in alaska than russia has. when we surrendered our oil and gas leadership, guess what happened? guess who filled that void? it was russia. that sent the price of oil up and that is what is funding, in

my opinion, the military machine in ukraine. we all want the freedom fighters in ukraine to win. one of the best ways we can do that is not keep sending them tens of billions of dollars but defined vladimir putin by producing more energy here. host: drilling on millions of acres in alaska, the administration will cancel oil and gas leases in anwr. guest: this policy keeps going back and forth. trump opened up that area. by the way, and more -- the way, anwr is a massive amount of land. they are talking about a tiny amount of it being used for oil drilling. the idea that it will spoil the land there i don't find to be factually true. host: you are on the stephen moore. caller: good morning.

i have a problem with knowing what people are telling the truth and what people are line. i would want the people to come on here from now on to raise their right hand and just swear they are telling the truth. that is all i would like. thank you very much. host: should we swear people and when they sit down on the washington journal? guest: one of the reasons i love doing this show is because you have people from all different perspectives. i'm a fan of the show and i love hearing from people every morning about their opinions about what's going on in the country. i will try to be as factual as possible. host: in los angeles, line for independents, this is david. good morning. you are on with stephen moore. caller: you have been wrong on just about every single issue you have brought up. let me hit you with the one that i am a subject matter expert on. real estate. you said donald trump cap's mortgage interest rates -- -- trump lowered mortgage interest

rates. that's exactly the reason why we are experiencing a bubble right now. he created artificial demand, artificially inflated home prices. this is almost identical to what happened before that caused the housing crisis. that's number one. let me you with the next thing you talked about. oil production and gas prices. during trump's administration, we were experiencing a pandemic. nobody was driving on the freeway. half the country was not driving. of course we are going to have an abundance of gas. it's ridiculous. it's almost childish to think that you don't realize the reason why we have an abundance of gas is because nobody is driving. host: we will let steve more address those things. guest: first, let's do the mortgage rates. the fact that the mortgage interest rate has gone up from less than 3% to over 7% has had a catastrophic effect on the

housing market. for example, let's say you want to buy a median priced home in america today, which is roughly $450,000. it is somewhere in the neighborhood. let's say you want to buy that house. because of those higher mortgage interest rates, you are going to pay over the life of a 30 year mortgage on a 400 $50,000 home over 150 thousand dollars more in interest payments. this is making housing unaffordable to americans. you know, we want americans to be homeowners. i laughed the other day because joe biden said we were restoring the american dream. part of the american dream is being able to own your own home. his policies of higher interest rates and inflation have price people out of that market -- have priced people out of that market. i do worry that we might see a crash, because you are starting to see home values decline. when mortgage interest rates go

up, it hurts both the buyer and the seller. both are hurt by that. on the energy thing, if you look at 2019 before covid, he's right. when covid head, nobody was on the road. on the eve of covid, before it happened, the u.s. for the first time in history was producing more oil and gas than russia, saudi arabia, any other country in the world, and gas prices before covid were much lower than they are today. host: patty in new york, line for republicans, good morning. you are on with steve moore. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. great talking with mr. moore. it's great to hear the positivity of the previous president, president trump, who i did vote for and will again vote for again because we need

him back. he promised us when he was doing the rallies and everything what he was going to do for this country and he did, but everybody tried to reverse him in order to have a president that was doing good for the country and the american people. host: do you have a question for mr. moore? caller: it's not really a question. i agree with everything that mr. moore is saying and, you know, for what president trump -- the day that we saw biden got sworn into office, that was the worst day of our lives, reversing everything trump did. host: that's patty in new york. what do you want to pick up on? guest: one of the things i

admired about trump -- and, by the way, there's a good trump and a bad trump and the good trump is fantastic, talking about -- i don't like when he fumes about the election being stolen and that kind of thing, but when he's talking about putting america first, and i think that is one of the things we are proudest of, we put that first. there was a big discussion about ukraine. i remember talking to trump about this in his position was why don't we make sure all these other countries are providing the support for ukraine? why is it always on america's shoulders? these countries are right next door to ukraine. we are an ocean away from them and yet we are paying 90% of the

cost of helping out ukraine. now, i am for ukraine, but i know what trump would say. the europeans have to help pay for this. one of his successes was forcing europeans to pay their fair share for nato. no president before had made them do that. host: a story from the wall street journal. this has been in all the papers. secretary of state blinken pledges $1 billion in new aid and there's an aid package working its way through congress , that debate happening now and will pick up speed when the house comes back. what do you think about these emergency funding bills that are working their way through congress? host: this is an interesting issue because i have been in this game a long time -- guest: this is an interesting issue because i have been in this game a long time. what they called the reagan coalition was religious conservatives, economic conservatives, and foreign

policy clocks that wanted to take on the soviet union. today, the republicans are much more divided on these issues like ukraine than they were before, partly because, look, here is my position. i'm not a foreign policy expert. number one, the rest of the world has to step up. the idea that america has to pay for everything has to stop. we are running a deficit. number two, why not come to some kind of deal? i think trump's position is he can stop the fighting, stop the deaths and fatalities, and come up with some kind of solution. i would like to see biden doing that but i don't see him doing that. host: provo, utah. this is kenneth, independent. you are on with steve moore. caller: good morning. i don't know if this information is correct or not but under president trump, for years, the

country's debt went up by $8 trillion, $3 trillion of which is attributed to covid, so during his four years, the debt went up by about $5 trillion. if you put that kind of cash in the country, i would not be surprised if everybody's income goes up by about $10,000, so it's not a big deal that the income went up. it is in fact a big deal that in four years debt went up by $5 trillion. of course, we are assuming that, because of covid, we had an addition of $3 trillion in debt. host: got your point. guest: it's a good point. that period in early 2020 when

everyone was trying to figure out how to deal with this pandemic that we had not had in 100 years, i think a lot of bad decisions were made, and this gentleman is correct. we spent trillions and trillions of dollars -- because when we shut down the american economy, which was the worst decision ever made. never again shall be locked and our businesses, schools, churches. it did not save any lives. so we spent way too much money on lockdowns and so the debt went way up and i fault partly donald trump for that, although i will say i was in meetings with donald trump in march and april and may of 2020. there was no one who wanted to get the american economy reopen faster than donald trump. what happened, so people know the story, is trump made a smart decision. he said let's let the states decide what their policy will be. so what happened was, for the most part, the red states like

florida and north carolina and utah and idaho and those kinds of states, texas, opened up their economies, and states like california, new york, new jersey, connecticut kept their economies locked down. so florida, texas, arizona had a much better recovery. there was no difference in the death rates between the states that locked down their economies and did not. the reason i mention that, this is important today, because we have another covid breakout right now, and people are trying to figure out what to do. this is a much milder strain than the original but i'm hearing more talk of -- i live in montgomery county, maryland. they are requiring all the kids to wear masks in school even though the evidence is crystal clear that masks have no effect in reducing the spread of the virus. we cannot lock down. i am in favor of vaccines but we cannot mandate those things and we can never afford to shut down the economy again. host: when you say you

criticized trump for that, talking about the deficit spending -- when you said before that there's a good trump and barron trump, do you tell him one -- and bad trump, do you tell him? guest: the president is in amazing spirits. he's optimistic about the future. he's very appreciative of the people who supported him during this outrageous -- you know, these outrageous indictments against him. never before have we seen the justice department so politicized. but yeah. one thing i respect about trump as you can go into the oval office with him and i could say, mr. president, i think you are wrong on this policy and we have a debate. sometimes he would get angry at me -- he does not like when people disagree with and he cannot actually fire me because i did not work with him, but you cannot be a successful

businessman like he is and not know how to make decisions could -- decisions. he announced the other day of this idea of a big tariff he wants to impose. he knows i don't agree with that but i can disagree with him and he can be agreeable about that. host: what is this tariff he's proposing? what do you think he will do? guest: i think free-trade is good for the country. i believe if you put a tariff on, there's a danger of -- you know, we don't want to trigger a trade war, because free-trade makes everybody better off. one of the things i am working on is how can we -- if we are going to do a tariff, which is basically everything that comes in pays a 10% tax, and i think trump is amenable to this, let's cut the taxes on american producers, manufacturers,

construction, technology, so we can be number one and put american companies at a competitive advantage. host: to kansas, hutchinson, kansas. this is scott. good morning. caller: good morning. i appreciate it and i appreciate the conversation. the gentleman from provo kind of touched on what i was going to mention on the economy. i talked to my congressman at a town hall before covid about the massive task cuts that were going to take place and what that would do to the national debt and he told me pretty clearly that those tax cuts are going to spur growth and it's going to be neutral to the national debt, which i did not think would happen, and i was correct. the debt under the last president was up -- i think 20% of the total debt occurred

during the last administration. i may be a little off on a number, but of course, if i took a credit card out and pumped it up, i have a really good year. the following year, when i had to pay off the credit card, not so much. and i just think it's ironic that we don't talk about the debt when one party is in power but they talk about it all the time when they are not. host: this might help, as steve moore is answering your question here, this from pro-public a for our visual learners here. this shows debt from the obama administration and trump administration, the size of the national debt going from a little over $10 trillion at the beginning of the obama administration, ending around $20 trillion over the course of eight years, and starting at about $20 trillion during the trump administration, $28

million -- $28 trillion over the course of four years. you can see where he signs the tax cuts and jobs act and then the pandemic and the large jump towards the end. steve moore, now that we have the visual, go ahead. guest: let me say, since i have been doing this for 35 years, that the debt is brought up in republican and democratic administrations. it does not seem to matter who is in office, the debt keeps going up. you know the only president in the last 50 years to reduce the debt was bill clinton, a democrat. i think bill clinton, when it came to the economic sphere, did a lot of great things for the country. we had a balanced budget. we actually did cut taxes but we also cut spending. we grew the economy and we need to get back to policies that do two things. number one, we have to restrain government spending.

i think everybody knows that. it's out of control. number two, we have to grow the economy. if we were to get back to 3% economic growth, which has been our post-world war ii average, if we could get back to that, then all those scary forecasts that show the debt going to the moon, actually, our debt to gdp starts going down because we need people pay more taxes by being productive and more businesses. on the trump record, i will simply say this. i helped write the tax bill. this tax bill reduced our corporate tax rate on our businesses so that we could be competitive. before trump came into office, we had the highest business tax rates in the world. that's a head start program for all the countries we are competing with. we brought that down. we also did something that was cool. we had something called the repatriation tax. we told companies if you have money stuck in germany or china

or mexico or the bahamas and you bring it back to the united states, we will charge you a 10% tax, but you have to invest it here. you know how much money we brought back? $1 trillion. that's one of the reasons we had the big jobs boom. finally, if you are concerned about the deficit, which we all are, then by far, there's no comparison historically, joe biden has been the most financially reckless president in history. he came into office at a time when covid was essentially over and spent $6 trillion. usually when you are in a recovery from a national emergency, you start reducing your debt. this is the first time in history we have had a president where our borrowing keeps going up. i think we have to get spending down, get growth up, and have a more rational tax system that's understandable to people. host: less than 10 minutes left. we have stephen moore. the lines still full.

we will go to luis and fredericksburg, virginia. good morning. caller: i disagree with a lot of what stephen moore is saying and i specifically want to disagree with the free-trade argument and the fact that terrorists do not work. they. do work. they brought in trillions of dollars from china. and i want to speak to the man from california -- we have a new development and fredericksburg across the street from us. the houses started at $350,000 in 2018. $350,000. they stayed that way until 2020. now all of a sudden they are 600 $50,000, $750,000, so in three short years, houses have doubled in value across the street.

the interest rates were low under president trump and the housing was low, was cheaper. now all it is sky high and interest rates are high. so the man from california has got it totally wrong and please remember the house of representatives was in the hands of the democrats from 2019 to 2022. host: what do you want to pick up on? guest: there's a lot there. let's talk about the trade issue she mentioned because she's a republican who sounds more in favor of the tariff policy than i am. i believe when it comes to china it is an enemy of the u.s., an adversary, a dangerous country, although they are slipping into recession. that's the first time in a long

time there economy was in trouble. host: there ambassador wrote an op-ed in the washington post that everything's fine. guest: we will see about that. just like russia during the cold war, you cannot believe their statistics, but we know from what's going on in china that there economy has slowed down a lot. i think the biggest issue for america over the next 20, 30, and 40 years is not climate change and stuff like that. it's whether the united states o >> >> -- united states or china will be the world economic leader, so we have to be serious about getting competitive with china and take them seriously because i believe they are a military threat as well. that means a tariff on chinese goods might make some sense, you know? in other words, i'm not in favor of putting tariffs on all the countries, but when you have an enemy like china, may be a tariff on their goods and services might have some validity, especially if you use

that money to cut taxes. host: the caller brought up the house of representatives. what advice would you give to speaker mccarthy headed into this month with a potential government shutdown limiting? what economic advice would you give on this flight? guest: i don't want to see this government shutdown and i don't think anybody does. this is going to be a to mulch it was -- be a tumultuous time. this is my position and something most americans would agree with. they have a debt deal. they had this six months ago. and it sets forward these caps on government spending because government spending is completely out of control. and if i were kevin mccarthy, i would simply say we have a deal and we have to stick to that. we have to stick to these, you know, ceilings on spending and debt.

you mentioned earlier about ukraine funding. let's say we decide we want several billion dollars. if you are going to spend 2 billion more on ukraine, spend $2 billion less on something else. the amount of fraud and waste in our budget right now. i will give you an example. there's a 380 billion-dollar green energy slush fund. instead of adding to the debt, let's cut the green energy slush fund. so we can get control of this government spending and i have to tell people i have been doing this a long time. i have never seen so much waste, so much misspending. there are plenty of things we can cut. host: the slush fund you bring up, where is that?

guest: $380 billion. they are running a hedge fund out of the white house. i find this objectionable because it's all going to the democrats friends. it's a slush fund. it is a corrupt system. host: chester, virginia, jerry, end up in a line, good morning. you are on with steve moore. caller: the last thing he said was you have to get rid of something. what about the billions of dollars of subsidies all the oil companies got? guest: what subsidies? i don't know what subsidies you are talking about. the oil industry does not get subsidies. they pay more taxes than any other industry. the wind and solar industry pay no taxes.

they get massive subsidies from the government. caller: exxon did not pay zero taxes in a lot of years. guest: you should look at exxon's taxes. caller: we have housing and because of the oil industry overcharging people for -- we produce the most oil and gas in the world. why are we paying four dollars for gas? guest: that's a good question. if we stuck with trump's drilling prices, we would be producing 3 million more barrels of oil a day. the price of oil today is $85 a barrel. that means, because of biden war on american energy, the u.s. economy is losing $250 million today, and that's a huge loss to

the american economy. think about how we could pay down our debt and pay for essential services if we were getting that money here in the u.s. how does it make any sense that we are buying oil now from saudi arabia and russia rather than getting it from north dakota and west virginia and alaska and texas? it does not make any sense. it is a put america last policy, not a put america first policy. host: that study you referred to, something with freedomworks or the heritage foundation? guest: that is something we did with heritage that will be available in the days to come. host: stephen moore, senior economist with freedomworks, advising the trump 2024 campaign, appreciate your time. guest: thank you. this is number 141. hopefully many more in the years to come. host: you can check them out over the air. next, we will be joined by american federation of teachers president randi weingarten. we will discuss the challenges facing america's public schools

as the new school year kicks off. stick around for that discussion. we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv, every sunday on c-span two, features leading authors discussing their nonfiction books at 8 p.m. eastern, franklin ford looks back at the first two years of the biden demonstration with his book, the last politician, and at 9 p.m., from the mississippi book festival, former vice president mike pence shares his book so help me god, where he talks about his life, faith and time in the trump administration. at 10 p.m. eastern on after words, tara fitzpatrick looks at the school choice movement, the

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year, we welcome back randi weingarten, president of the 1.7 million member federation of american teachers. what do you see as the biggest challenges facing teachers this school year? guest: the biggest challenges -- first off, it's great to have back-to-school. my home local, new york city, today is the first day of school for those kids, so i am wishing them the best year, even though it's 95 degrees heat, which is always a problem everywhere when you don't have air conditioning, but i think what's happened is the same problems that afflict the nation afflict schools because schools are a melting pot of everything going on in the nation, the salad bowl, whatever you want to say. we deal with everything that's going on. so the division, the hate, the disinformation, is all really hard to overcome when what we

should be doing in schools is having a welcome environment and ensuring every school, every public school, is a place parents want to send their kids, educators want to work and kids thrive. there's a lot of effects of covid as well as position and inequities and climate issues that we have to deal with. loneliness, learning loss. the disconnection that kids still feel. and so it makes it much harder when teachers are underpaid and overworked and have to deal with the noise of all the culture war. host: create a welcoming environment but the students have to show up for that. i'm sure you saw the ap story about absenteeism among students. "across the country, students have been absent at record rates since schools reopened during the pandemic. more than a quarter of students missed at least 10% of the

2021-2022 school year, making them chronically absent. before the pandemic, only 15% of students missed that much school. all told, an estimated 6.5 million additional students became chronically absent," according to the date of the ap found. what's causing that? guest: there are several things. what's interesting is that in 2021-2022, we did $5 million worth of grants for back-to-school and a lot of our members went doorknocking to get kids back to school. and we heard from people who said, and kids who said, i have to work, high school kids. and others who said, well, i really don't want to take tests anymore. and others who were just disconnected. and so one of the things that the washington post, after that story, said, is maybe we should do community schools. wrap services around schools.

make the school the center of community. what we are proposing is this solution for kids and communities campaign, which is not just wrap services around schools. that is important in terms of social-emotional needs and creating the school as a community for kids and families, but something else i am proposing is something that i learned back in teaching at a career tech add school when people were trying to kill those, which is experiential learning, hands-on learning, making school fun and relevant for kids, so if we created all sorts of different pathways for kids, in music, art, afterschool activities, debate, career tech add work -- tech ed work, and not just the traditional ones like welding or carpentry, but culinary, health care, all the

new work, the made in america work. we have a manufacturing renaissance in the country because of joe biden, because of the work in the inflation reduction act and the infrastructure work. what i we create these career paths starting high school -- why don't we create these career paths starting in high school? when kids see there's something there for them, they feel it. 94% of kids who go to qualified ct programs graduate on time and 70% go to college. so let's make school fun and interesting and engaging and lure kids back because those numbers is the same in terms of charters and privates. doug harris did a study that shows the school enrollment issues have not really -- you know, they are fairly small, the decrease in school enrollment, but this issue of ensuring the

kids feel agency in connection, that's the big issue -- agency and connection, that's the big issue. host: randi weingarten, president of the american federation of teachers. phone lines, democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. and as we often do when you join us, a special line for teachers and students to call in to ask your questions, (202) 748-8003. guest: and before you take a question, can i just say, to all those students and parents, we are going to do as great a year as we possibly can because you are number one, and to our members and the teachers and paras and school bus drivers, thank you, because they are -- host: you mentioned taking tests. survey after survey has shown test scores have suffered for students across grades since the

pandemic. how do you fix that? how do you catch kids up and what do you tell teachers when it comes to these tests and scores? guest: what we have seen is there's been a tick up. i don't think that is the issue. i think the issue is what you raised earlier on about kids having agency and wanting to be in school. what these tests are, the math and english tests, they are about memorization, not application, and in this age of ai and chatgpt, we have to be focused on application, critical thinking, on discerning fact from fiction. so i think what will happen is the test scores will go up when kids get a sense of i want to be in school. when you start seeing kids saying i want to be back in school, be connected with my community, you will see test scores go up.

host: do teachers want to be back in the classroom? a question -- a headline from nbc news. from crisis to catastrophe, schools scramble once again to find teachers. talking. about a teacher shortage guest: there's a new website tracking the teacher shortage that i'm starting to use. it's from -- i am now forgetting the name. we will get it. but there is a teacher shortage. people are leaving who do not want to leave because they feel overworked, overburdened and targeted. a guy like pompeo, the former secretary of state -- it's targeting people. that's not good. but at the same time, what's happened is a lot of teachers have said they want to be teachers, they want to make a difference in kids lives, they want to be listened to. they went decent pay and to have

some agency over the work. they want to be able to meet the needs of kids. you are seeing the communities understand that teachers are underpaid. i loved in the last state of the union the president said we should give teachers a raise and there was a standing ovation. teachers feel both really pressed and holding the weight of the world and some are leaving because of -- the worst problem is that we are not getting enough new people to come in and young people can see that the teachers are not treated well, so when parents say, i love my kid's teacher but i do not want them to become a teacher, that is a problem because teachers really make a difference. host: is it teachershortages. com? guest: yes, thank you. i cannot believe you said it!

we have a national data bank, but you have to look state after state, and what they see is that we actually have a higher shortage this year than last year, and it gets covered up a lot, like take houston. completely covered up because they say that there is a warm body in a classroom as opposed to somebody who has certification in the areas in which they are teaching. host: and you can see state-by-state the shortages reported with a heat map of where the shortages are. teachershortages.com. guest: and when you look at the map, what you have on your handy ipad, you also see a lot of it, not all of it, but a lot of it also tracks where teachers are most underpaid and where there is the most kind of culture wars. host: you are talking about -- guest: florida, texas. host: teachershortages.com.

plenty of calls already. the line for teachers and students, leslie, new haven, connecticut, good morning. caller: good morning. this is leslie, president of the new haven federation of teachers. i want to say we are really excited about the real solution campaign in new haven. we are committed to creating joyful and confident readers and bringing hands-on learning experiences for our students during community connections. we know that is good for our students. can you say more about why these real solutions are also going to help with the teacher shortage and how it actually impacts our working conditions when we commit to these improvements? guest: i am going to be in new haven in a couple of weeks to see because they have done a really good job wrapping services around schools because we have to integrate social,

emotional, and academic work. that is how kids come to us, and we have to integrate them. that means we have to have an infrastructure of those services. but what this does -- new haven has done this, and, you, leslie, have done this over the course of the last few years. a wellness project we did with educators rising, what we saw is that we stopped burnout or limited it when teachers had more autonomy over their work, when they were not just told what to do, when they said, i need x or y, and their principal said, yeah, let's try to make sure that happens. when there -- when they could actually get the services that kids needed, they felt better about this. and so i do think that the real

solutions campaign, what tends to happen is that teachers and parents and kids, if you stop looking at the politics in washington, d.c., and look at what happens in the school, anywhere in the country, whether the school is in a republican or democratic area, the alchemy that happens between teachers and kids and families is such that they are really trying to make sure we help kids, and when teachers cannot or do not have the resources, when they do not have small enough classes, when the building is so hot in the summer or fall that you cannot teach and people are fainting, when you cannot open windows in the respiratory illness, you see that teachers feel really eaten down. host: in new jersey, steve, line for republican. good morning. caller: yes. thank you for taking my call.

i am a teacher who i feel like i have been forced to be unemployed, even though i am an experienced teacher with a masters degree and certified in more than one state, and have been unable to get a substitute position, even though i am cpa, also, and a very experienced teacher who gets feedback when they passed the cpa and say what a great experience they have had in my classroom, not only as an instructor but trained as a cpa -- host: why do you think you cannot find employment? caller: i have even tried the local schools. i get a song and dance, oh, well, we will see if we need anybody. guest: steve, why don't you write -- i am all about solutions and trying to solve things. with that kind of credential and the fact that you want to teach,

why don't you write me at our website, write me at the website, we will get to you, you are steve, and let's see if we can help you. because if you would like to teach and you have that cpa credential, let's see what we can do. because there is far too much bureaucracy and paperwork. the number one issue teachers talk to me about all the time, get rid of the paperwork and let us focus on teaching! let's see if we can help. go to aft.org, or dm me on twitter. i cannot, because of all the threats i have gotten in life, i cannot give you my emails anymore. you can understand that. but just get to me on either twitter, dm's, or on aft.org, and let's see if we can help you. host: atwater, ohio, line for

teachers, good morning. caller: good morning. randi, i have a question. guest: sure. caller: i just retired at the end of last year and i have to admit i already miss it. i totally agree with everything you say, and chronic absenteeism among students and teachers went ram. after covid -- rampid after covid. when we introduce common core in the state testing, i feel like teachers were all of a sudden, their pace increased dramatically. my students were struggling to keep up, but it took away the otani and independent -- autonomy and independence. we did amazing things prior to that. that seemed to change. it was like this throw it at the wall, hope they get it, and move on. it took the fun out of teaching.

i saw kids, you know, not enjoying education like they did. do you see that as being a part of the problem or is it just me? guest: no, first off, thank you for teaching, pam. thank you for all the years you taught. i was the president of the teachers union in new york city for a long time, and we ended up , one of the last things i was able to do was help all of those moms, at that point, mom's more than dads, but all of those moms who left for a few years to raise their kids. they came back but did not get the same attention. there was an equity. we actually fixed that. i am so glad you came back to teach after you raised kids, but common core, the problem with common core was it was an attempt to actually really get to deeper curriculum knowledge

across the country. like european countries do, but it became common core testing, not common core teaching. so teachers felt like they were on an assembly line to produce test scores as opposed to meeting the needs of kids. that is what it was thrown out, and that is why there was so much going on about it. but that did limit the agency that teachers like you had to actually address how to teach kids. how to meet their needs. and not always look at it through the pace and calendar that somebody gave you. host: staying on curriculum, how much input -- who should design curriculum? guest: [laughter] host: how much input should parents have? and when and how should that input be given? guest: this is going to shock a lot of people who are calling in.

neither parents nor teachers have enough input on curriculum. neither of them do! but there are places that actually have good, programmatic ways of getting to good curriculum. so, on a state level, curriculum is basically done on a state level, not district level. district's have some latitude, but on a state level. so they are curriculum committees. there are people who sit on the curriculum committees and they report to the state commissioner, this is what should happen. we often say that parents and teachers should be on the curriculum committees and give input so that there is real and put there. but there should be real input from both parents and teachers in terms of curriculum. but that then gets to the question of what you do, like what happened in terms of all of these culture wars? what happens there and banning books? there is also a process in most

places about when a book gets read or put in a library! there are these processes. there are school board meetings and real input that happens, and so when something turns out to be inappropriate, there is a process to actually deal with that. what has happened now, take florida, 60% of the book man's in florida -- book bans in florida are done by 11 people, most do not have kids in school. the person who actually pushed to ban amanda gorman's "the hose we climb," the book i brought with me -- "the hills we climb," the book i brought with me, that is the poet who did the poem during the inauguration. 24 hours after she did that beautiful poem, i did not hear anybody say, oh my god, that was

problematic. it was beautiful and great for elementary school kids! who pushed to ban that? somebody who has not even read it! someone who is a holocaust denier! we have to have a news the processes that create input for both parents and teachers. they both have to have agency in the input of curriculum. host: on. input, i would like to get your thoughts on the group moms for liberty. one of the members was on the program. this is one minute about what she had to say about the founding of moms for liberty. [end video clip] --[video clip] >> we have not put any money in promotion. it has been authentic, facets growth. the media and national news comes out all the time and says this is not happening in and public schools, that is not happening. then a mom opens the backpack of her child and sees the curriculum and the problems.

so she googles, who can she go to for help? it turns out, moms for liberties is the only organization that will stand with parents. parents are starting to see the educational failure in america. let's lay out what happened. the scores came out last year, followed up this year, we have the lowest math scores in the recorded history of the u.s., the lowest reading scores since the 1980's. two thirds of american fourth-graders are not reading on grade level. parents are starting to wake up to this in question who has been in charge of public education and why are my children are learning? [end video clip] host: that entry from july. your thoughts -- that interview from july. your thoughts. guest: there are a lot of fantastic parentage is, starting with the pta's, where people have been volunteering for years. then there is red, white and blue, moms rising, parents get together, with a platform of 5 million parents. parents, thank god, are looking for ways to be engaged in their

kids' schools. the other parents i talked about do not do divide and conquer. and in terms of florida, they do not do it she just said. they are curriculums that are done by the state, and you saw this year, the hullabaloo, and frankly, the noxiousness, that the state tested by changing the curriculum on history -- jested by changing the curriculum on history. frankly, that has been promoted by people like desantis and, you know, -- let me just say people like desantis. ultimately, what we need to do is we need to try to stop these problems, which, by the way, the new research says, according to doug harris and things like that, that these problems actually were caused by the disconnection and by the issues around covid. but when we talk about solving those problems, i talked to anybody, even a group that

private southern and law group is called an extreme's group. even a group that basically one of their chapters [indiscernible] i will talk to anybody about trying to solve the problems our kids have of loneliness, of learning loss, illiteracy, but you have to work with teachers, not try to create division. host: you mentioned desantis. that's good afford, robert, line for independents. caller: good morning. just picking up on what you just said, the absolute importance of parent engagement in the child's experience in school. with that said, can you tell the viewers if you oppose or support parental notification by the school when their student or child is requesting to use different names or perhaps

transition? do you think it is a thing when the teachers contact parents? i personally think it is horrible. let's hear your opinion. thank you. guest: let me just say this in a personal way, i figured out that i was gay when i was in high school. i confided to one of my teachers about it. i loved my parents. i would have hated if my, if that teacher told my parents. i was not ready to tell my parents at that point. i was not. i do not know what i was or what i wanted to do. so this is the question, these are tough issues that teachers have all the time. if somebody confides --if something is done that is harming or hurting the kids, absolutely, we have to talk to parents, absolutely. but what if somebody confides in you and says, i do not know what i am or who i am? what do you do?

what i did as a teacher when that happens is i go to the guidance counselor, i go to the others, and we try to figure out what is going on, and we try to make a decision in the best interest of the kid. host: and you are on the other side of that when you were a teacher? guest: yeah, and so these are really hard. most of the time i leaned to we have to tell the parent. but what if you have a situation like this, particularly with trans kids and they do not know what to do? so we have to try to work this through in a way that is in the best interest of kids. i am not saying we get it right all the time. we do not. but there is not a bright line here. i say this personally as a kid who experienced it, and i did not tell my parents until i had -- until i was a lawyer. until i was ready to actually deal with their reaction to it.

so, you know, it is just a matter of what do we do, how do we wade in? i do not think there is a bright line here in terms of what we do. what is happening is -- and i want to say one more thing. kids, we have to meet the needs of kids, and we have to make sure that families are involved, and we have to create a trusting, collaborative setting. and that requires us to work with parents, regardless of ideology. and that is why it is really important to have parental involvement. host: back to the line for educators, this is mina in west hempstead, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for addressing the curriculum. i, retiree -- i am a retiree. going back to everything that i

have been listening to, and thank you for touching on the moms groups that are not trying to divide parents and teachers because we need parents and teachers together so that we can in what you just explained teach our kids and raise our kids without getting staff burnout and without getting to a teacher shortage. one a to flip the script. i know you have been around the country, school just started. for us in new york city, kids came in today. what programs have you seen while visiting schools or what is on the rise out there so that our kids can engage or perhaps you have seen experimental learning? i know we have career technical education programs and career pathways to help kids. let's get that out there. what are we doing? guest: so, you know, this new

strategy that we have, a lot of it is from places where we have seen things work, like wrapping services around in terms of community schools. like making sure we are helping teachers help kids with literacy. so not only are we getting out lots and lots of books when others are trying to ban them. we have given out 9 million thus far in book fairs and in bringing families together. but we have something called reading universe. we tested our american educator, we did the american educator literacy magazine this year, which is all to parents and teachers about how to help kids learn. host: and everything else we show viewers. guest: exactly, and really be joyful and confident readers. what we are also doing for

teachers is that most of us either did our lesson plans late into the night or early in the morning, or all weekend long. what happens -- i was not a literacy teacher. i was a high school teacher. what happens if one of your kids, you see is having a problem decoding words?you see it and you are not illiteracy teacher or coach -- not a literacy teacher or coach? reinvested in reading universe, a free website that wta has not produced, so that we can actually -- has now produced, so that we can actually help parents and teachers if we see kids having problems with literacy. and get some tools to help just in time. that is the kind of stuff we are doing. last thing i will say is you just hit on what is my, my

school love interest these days, which is career tech ed and experiential learning. the more hands-on learning we do, the more kids feel agency, work in teams, get practical skills they need when they graduate from high school, 60% of kids do not go to college. let's make sure they are prepared for life. these kind of programs, we have 2200 certifications available according to skillsusa. if we start in high school, not community college or technical schools, but start in high school, do things like culinary, health care, cybersecurity, i.t., help train up kids to take these jobs in advanced manufacturing. could you imagine what it would in in terms of changing the country and kids doing better -- feeling better about themselves and families feeling like

schools are really delivering for them? host: about 10 minutes left with randi weingarten of the american federation of teachers. we will look at the first statement from kathy in delaware, line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning. i am concerned about the fact that ms. weingarten is blaming parents for blaming children not going into the teaching profession. i think that is an excuse. guest: i was not blaming parents. i was giving you a poll results from last year that said when parents were asked, they said they loved their kids' teachers but they did not want them to go into teaching. caller: now that you have filibustered on my time, i would like to finish what i was saying. guest: i am sorry. caller: millions of dollars of union dues are going to the democratic party so that that agenda for dei, pushing parents out of decision-making for their

children, low test scores from our nation compared to other nations, demonizing the whites i n the school curriculum, and you are double dipping to hundreds of thousands of dollars of the taxpayer money because you do not even step foot in a classroom to teach. i am wondering why you have the audacity to blame parents as your agenda has done in keeping the parents out of the important decisions in their children's lives. host: let me give randi weingarten her response. guest: i have clearly failed in my teaching of c-span today because i did not say any of that stuff, so i am sorry you feel that way about me. i love parents. you know, i am a grandparent myself. i think we really, really need to work with parents all the time. i think it does not matter in

terms of ideology. we have to unite the country and create connection and community, regardless of ideology. i am sorry there was nothing that i said today that, you know, it made you actually say, maybe she really does care about this stuff. i am sorry i was not effective. host: a headline from "the washington post," --"masking that schools remains divisive." should there be masking in k-12 schools again? guest: what we really need to do is fix the ventilation. we have to fix the ventilation. the most important thing we can do in terms of -- and i will get to masking and a second, the most important thing we can do when we have respiratory illnesses is have really good fresh air that moves the air when you have this kind of respiratory virus and whether it is asthma or covid.

i think because of -- i am not a public health person. i am a teacher, a lawyer, and i have watched and looked at all the work in public health, good fitting masks actually protect people. they protect you, and they protect the people around you, particularly if you are sick. that is what they do. i do not think we will get to a place anymore in this moment of time that requires masks because there is no public health -- the fight about safety for ourselves and others, unfortunately, has been overcome by the disinformation about masks. i say this as somebody who is asthmatic, who really labored intensively every time i had to wear a mask, but i just think we have lost the battle.

so making sure that masks are available, that people who are sick have to wear them, even though we do not have any rules that require that morally, they should because if they do not, they will get others sick. it will be voluntary and stigmatizing for either people who do or do not wear masks, but if we do something about ventilation, it will deal with much of the airborne issues. host: back to florida, fort pierce, felicia, the line for educators. good morning. caller: good morning. first, thank you for your leadership and all of the great education innovators that came before. my grave concern is for democracy itself. teachers, as you know, first responders on the frontline of democracy, we are defending it every day, and as a florida

resident, there is real reason to get alarmed on the attacks on books, teachers, diversity, all the things that make america great, and to keep american democracy functioning. how can we fight back on book bands and these assaults on our profession and on democracy itself? guest: i would say that at this point, if you believe any of these polls, a spate of them have come out the last few weeks, most of america is with you. most people believe the book bans are not good. what they actually do is they limit the freedom of parents who want their kids to read these books. people want to make sure that books are available, appropriate books, age-appropriate books are

available and that libraries have books. i think the question you are asking is a bigger one than that, which is how do you have a democracy or how do you have a country that is governed in a way where the will of the people is respected and where every voice is respected, and where even when we disagree with each other, we can actually get to solutions instead of smears and instead of completely undermining the human dignity of each other? that is the work we have to do in schools and that is the work we have to do a communities. that is the work of democracy. that is what we are trying to do. thank you for wanting to do it. host: time for one or two more phone calls with randi weingarten. a lot of folks from florida. linda is apparent, come alive for republicans. good morning. linda, are you with us? got to stick by your phone. this is judy in brighton,

colorado, line for democrats. caller: hi, randi. thank you for your leadership. i appreciate it. i am a retired teacher, and then i ran for the state legislature and served on the education committee. i am now the chair of an organization called advocates for public education policy in colorado. our organization is fighting against the privatization of corporatization of our public schools. we believe that the high-stakes game required by the federal government needs to change because we are taking away the authenticity of teaching and the professionalism of teachers. could you speak to what is happening in houston? and could you also speak to the corporate and the private money that is coming in? we believe it is destroying our public education.

guest: i think john is going to have to invite me back to do all of those topics. let me just say this about two of what you raised, which is that still today, over the course of decades, between 85% and 90% of parents send their kids to public schools, and that is with lots of different charters and private schools and things like that. this new voucher movement right now about universal vouchers you see in florida that has been actually paying for disney trips and kayaks and things like that, which most people would think is an appropriate, this movement -- is inappropriate, this movement to define public schools is worse because what will end up happening is that the public schools do not get the money they need to serve all the kids, two other kids who will fall

behind and at risk? it is not just the corporatization or the privatization, it is the sense of taking money away from kids who really, really need it, and making sure that we have that for all kids. that is the fight we have to have. the second piece that you said, and i think you heard earlier even in one of the tapes, the weaponization of test scores, what happened in europe is different than what has happened in america. in europe, and several places, schools are priorities, not bars or restaurants, and there was a consistency in terms of what to do, and when covid rates went up, school's got closed again, and schools reopened as much as they could because they were a priority. test scores went down there, as well, but if you look at the place where they have the best test scores, finland, they do things i am talking about in the

real solutions campaign, having teachers much more agency and meeting the needs of kids. we need to learn from other places and actually have ways of assessing where kids are, but having it too high-stakes as opposed to really meeting the needs of kids is wrong. i agree, we should change it. host: you are going to be back up here on capitol hill next week, september 13, alongside a high-profile group of people to the likes of mark zuckerberg, bill gates, what are you going to be talking about? guest: artificial intelligence, chat gtp. i know lots of people look at things for what is wrong, where are the problems? we look at things for how do we use social media and how do we use technology. this is a game changer. we have to make sure that we

protect people's security and deal with disinformation and deepfakes. this can really be helpful, just like the calculator, with the calculator did to math. this chatgtp can really be helpful. it can be helpful in teaching and in other ways, but we have to make sure that the progress and the responsibility on the progress kind of lines up together instead of the progress happening and the responsibility lags behind. so we are meeting with members of congress that day. i was really honored to be invited by senator schumer. i am glad he is taking leadership and trying to bring the public civil society and the tech folk together with the senate to say, what do we do? host: randi weingarten is the president of the american federation of teachers, aft.org.

we will invite you back. 20 minutes left in "washington journal." it is going to be open forum, any political issue you would like to talk about, the phone lines are yours. start calling in on the numbers on your screen and we will get to your calls after the break. ♪ ♪ >> c-span's studentcam documentary competition is back. this time, we are celebrating 20 years with this year's theme, looking forward while considering the past. >> the youth of today are leaders of tomorrow. it is imperative we take care of them and lay the groundwork to help them progress through life. >> we can work together to

prevent fentanyl from becoming the world's next pandemic. >> inflation really matters. we have to understand the ramifications. >> we are asking middle and high school students to create a five-minute to six minute video addressing one of two questions. what is the most imptant change that you would like to see in america in the next 20 years? for over the past 20 years, what is the most important change in america? supporting and improving perspective. we will raise 100,000 dollars in total prizes for the grand prize of $5,000. 20 years, every teacher who has students participating in the competition, have the opportunity to share a portion and win $50,000. thdeadline is friday, january 19, 2024. for more information about this years's contest and rules, visit our website at studentcam.org.

♪ >> it has been 32 months since the attack on the u.s. capitol that disrupted a joint session of the u.s. congress in the process of completing the presidential election results. more than 1100 defendants have been charged in nearly all 50 states, district of columbia. more than 110 individuals have been found guilty. kyle cheney of politico spends a lot of time during these past months covering the trial in u.s. district court of the district of columbia. we asked him to give us an overview of what these court proceedings have looked like up close. >> litter go's -- politico's kyle cheney on book notes+, available on the c-span now free mobile app, or wherever you get your podcasts. >> "washington journal"

continues. host:host: final 25 minutes of our program, it is open forum, where we let you lead the discussion. (202)-748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. you will talk about any public policy issue political issue you would like to talk about. as you are calling in, just to let you know, after our program today ends at 10:00 a.m. eastern, we will take you over to the senate banking committee. a hearing on the property insurance market, testimony on the challenges in property insurance market and how rising costs are making rent and homeownership more expensive. you can watch that here but also on the c-span now free video app and at c-span.org. one note on programming this evening, just thursday e, hope you will join us for a discussion, from the libra

congress, the author and historian previewing the new c-span series "except shaped america," live coverage of that event on the library's college auditorium at 7:00 astern tonight. you can also watch at c-sg and the free c-span now video app. u can also listen on c-span radio this evening. hope you join us for that event. your phone calls, open forum, what is on your mind, we will start in syracuse, new york ,chuck, good morning. caller: good morning. i loved your guest, randi weingarten. i was waiting for her to apologize all the devastation her policies inflicted on american kids. we said it was not good for learning, school closures, she was talking about racial inequality in learning, and unicef, definitely not a right-wing group.

education was nearly insurmountable during school closures. she is basically the bernie made off of american education but great guest. i was just waiting for her to apologize. i cannot believe she is going out in public anymore. she should be ashamed. host: that is chuck in new york. we will head to bill, democrat. good morning. caller: thank you. i disagree with the last caller. i support randi weingarten. i have a comment towards her that i would like to speak about for moms for liberty. a group like moms for liberty needs to be used as bombs for libraries because i think they need to go back to the library and take their kids with them and learn history because those who deny history deny reality in my view, and that is what is happening in our political sphere today. that is my comment. that is what i wanted to talk

about. one quick thing. i -- with congress back in session, i would ask dick durbin hold hearings on the supreme court. he was talking about challenges, they are taking away rights in one guild, and then the next sector, they are taking airplane rides around the world. i am sorry, we need accountability. that is my comment. how is that? host: that is still in florida. you can watch gobble gobble coverage today, 10:00 a.m. eastern. this is jim in mississippi, independent. caller: hello. i am calling because i am on supplemental security income, ssi, and i get the maximum, $914 a month. that is not easy to live on. the reason i am calling is because i emailed my senator, cindy hyde-smith, here in mississippi, and asked her if

there was word on the $300 increase to the ssi program across the board because i pay over $700 in rent, below the national average for rent. i never even received an email -- i was not expecting her to respond directly but usually you get an email from an intern or staffer sanely got your email. i did not get anything. i think congress should consider raising ssi by $300 to bring it back to where it was, relative to everyone else in the early 1990's. host: jim, thank you for the called. for folks who do not know in mississippi, the ssi is administered through social security and provides monthly payment for people with disabilities and older adults with total to no income or resources, that is the ssi.gov website. this is roseann in wisconsin rapids, democrat, good morning.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i wanted to address the issue of health care in this country because president obama had it right when he said that we should have an individual program where you can basically do preventative health care by going to a clinic where you would have your blood, hair and urine tested for where your body would you deficient in vitamins or minerals, or it would also show something that is in your system that should not be there, like lead. i only know of one clinic right now that has that, and that is illinois, the fight for institute. but looking at commercials on tv, my god, you are looking at a broadway musical for somebody singing and dancing to a drug and trying to sell it to the american public when we ourselves are not doctors. i do not understand that.

there is only one other country in the world, new zealand, that allows that to be advertised as commercials for drugs. i just wanted to comment on that and the cost of health care. i talk to people who spent $7,000 a month for two injections for rheumatoid arthritis or somebody getting an eye injection that cost $700. it seems our health care has become corporate and it is all about profit. and not for the people itself. if you want effective working middle class, you want a healthy one, not somebody struggling to pay their bills on their health care. thank you for taking my call. host: that is roseann in wisconsin. we go to virginia, line for republicans. go ahead. caller: good morning. i, retired teacher, and i have

been concerned about the issue of education for a long, long time. i was educated in germany and argentina, so that came with another experience to the classroom. sorry to see that over the years, 35 years of teaching in this country, that we have become at a pushbutton society where we get instant feedback and the children do not even have to know how to spell anything, and calculating the answer for any math problems with the calculator and they do not have to use their heads or thinking skills at all. and seeing that teaching foreign languages, that the students come to the classroom with no knowledge at all about the english language structure.

grammar was taught maybe once in the fourth grade, maybe in the sixth grade, but not every year. and history was not taught but once an geography only once. came from a system where we had that every year. not every single day, but every year we were taught grammar, history, geography, and i was always amazed about the students in my class who had no idea about austria. or they thought it was australia. and that there was a total lack of knowledge. my input was to make the children really learn the multiplication skills, teach them to think with their heads, not only with the computer. thank you for taking my call. that was my input.

host: this is cap in portland, -- cat in portland, oregon. independent. caller: i love your show. my boyfriend turned me onto it and i am a big fan. i am freshly retired teacher like two weeks ago, and i loved your guest. i just wanted to say she made a lot of sense. what we tend to hear as teachers are parents who are so close minded. like that one caller, and she was saying, i am sorry, i guess i did not do my job. yes you did, ok? the main issue i see in education today is actually, as she was alluding to the relationship between parents and teachers, it used to be back in my day, when i went to school, parents completely respected teachers, which meant students respected teachers, and so on down the line. a few years ago, i talked in a foreign country, and the

difference in how the community dealt with the teachers was stunning. it was like a lovefest. here, it is like, how dare you do this to my child? it is the belief that you have gone into teaching to somehow destroy their child. that is not by any teacher goes into teaching. this year, my main goal when i was teaching was to make my students productive members of society, to go out into the world and be good. i had a student this year or last year for the first time ever who told me when i tried to put him in a group to do a small project said, i do not want to work with anybody who does not think exactly like i do. i had never heard that before. that is the kind of thing happening now. host: what grade was it? caller: i teach high school but that was a freshman who said that. that is the main change.

when we were online, teachers, at least in my district, we walked on water. we never got a parent complaint all year. they were so grateful for what we were trying to do. i think it was because they realized finally how difficult it is. as soon as we were back in the classroom, it was the same thing all over again. it was like they forgot that and all of a sudden decided we wanted to attack again. why all these people seem to be thinking that teachers are giving money to the republican party? i don't understand any of that. but it has a lot to do with society and how parents are keeping their kids on leashes. what i remember being bothered by was kids on the phone, but the parents are more addicted and keep their kids on a leash. host: he retired a couple of weeks ago. do you miss it -- you retired a couple of weeks ago, do you miss it yet? caller: no.

i miss my cohorts, my colleagues , the energy. i do not miss how political teaching has become. it is exhausting having to defend yourself constantly when you have not done anything to hurt the kids. i do not miss that at all. i miss what teaching used to be. i started in 1992, but, no, i do not miss it. i play substitute for my friends, but no. host: thank you for the call from oregon. caller: great job. host: richard is in oakdale, california, lifer democrats. -- line for democrats. caller: can you hear me? host: yes or. -- yes sir. caller: in california, they are knocking on your doors like third-party utility companies. what is happening, i am in a wheelchair, totally disabled, i am 80 years old. i am retired from aerospace.

this guy came in and grabbed me y phone off the table and started calling pg&e. i told him, no, put my phone down. he would not give it back to me, and he put me on the third party thing without my permission, and now i called pg&e and they will not take it down, so now the police are doing an investigation. i have a caregiver, and they are going to probably be suing pg&e. and then that guy, they're looking for a warrant for his arrest, and i am just telling the people in california, a careful -- be careful. these pg&e people are traveling out for third parties.

host: thank you for the call from california. as with most states, california does have a program to help combat financial scams when it comes to seniors. it is california senior gateway, financial abuse scams. seniors.insurance.ca.gov. you will be able to find out. thank you for sharing your story. i thought you were done, sorry. this is w.d. in stuart, virginia, independent. good morning. caller: hi, john. i am disgusted this morning with msnbc, c-span and you for not covering the biggest news story yesterday that it was about the

biden illegal gun indictment that is supposed to happen this month. if that would have been trump, you would have covered the news story the rest of the month. i am disappointed. you are stinking up the airwaves. host: sorry to disappoint you. here's the story from "the new york times" on that topic. hunter biden said yesterday -- they said yesterday that they plan to investigate the president's son, and plans were laid out to bring charges related to mr. biden's purchase of a pistol in 2018 when prosecutors say he lied on a federal forum by stating he was not carrying drugs at the time. mr. biden agreed to be in a non-diversion program as part of a plea deal, which unraveled pneumatically at the last minute

over the summer. mr. biden's lawyer signaled in a statement that he would challenge any effort to proceed with a trial, arguing the original agreement reached over the summer remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed. that is where that stands. we will see what happens later this month from special counsel david weiss. this is carolyn, tyler, texas. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. as you said, i live in texas. here in texas, we have something called districts of innovation. districts of innovation have been here in texas since 2015, 2016. a school board approved a school district to become a district of innovation. where i live, -- let me back up.

throughout the state of texas right now, we probably have close to 1000 school districts that are what you call districts of innovation. my school district, tyler isd, became a district of innovation and we call them doi's in tony 14-2015 -- 2014-2015. it allows a school district certain waivers. i voted against it in 2015-2016 because one of the main waivers is to allow a school district to hire uncertified teachers, and fast-forward to 2023, my school district here in tyler has, at last report, around 200

uncertified teachers in classrooms. you nearly have to have a degree to be the main teacher of record in a classroom if you are hired as a district of innovation teacher. you are not required to ever obtain a certification. at the same time, you are making the same salary as a certified teacher. host: appreciate you telling us about it in tyler, texas. just have about five minutes left and a lot of folks waiting to chat. roger in connecticut, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. your previous guest was pretty great. one thing i wanted to say, groups like moms for liberty, which get a lot of funding from

billionaires and the heritage foundation, you know, they are really chaos agents. one thing that i think we all need to think of is we all had a teacher that made an impact on us. you know? for me, that teacher was professor morgan. he said something to me that always stuck with me, which was, as a parent, if your child has something they are dealing with, or a secret, and they feel they need to go to a teacher or guidance counselor or another parent, and they cannot come to you, you need to look in the mirror and really take a look at yourself. what are you not doing where your kid cannot even trust you or come to you with difficult questions or things they are going through? it is easy to get mad at the teacher with the guidance counselor. look in the mirror and say, why does my kid not trust me? that is what i what i to say.

teachers are doing god's work. there is nothing to be hissy about. host: independent in maryland, good morning. caller:caller: good morning, john and america. i have some concerns, especially for our children. since the border has been overrun with people from all over the world, we are hearing that we have diseases we have not heard of in this country. or some of them anyway. malaria is one of them and tb is one of them, leprosy, lice. i hope the parents will take note and check with their doctors. john, i would appreciate it, and

i am sure others would, too, if you would invite someone from the public health to talk about these different diseases that have been brought in by other people from other countries. host: that is alicia in maryland. this is eric in palm beach, ford, democrat. caller: thank you very much. this has been a wonderful program this morning. time is a factor. earlier in the middle of the summer, i was able to call in and you were kind enough to take notes on your pad. i just wanted to ask again if maybe you have been in a follow-up on a program suggestion. host: which one? caller: there are terms that are misused, i think, so i am going to say conservative, liberal and

socialism are thrown around so much, i think we could benefit by having an academic guest or experts to find those terms. to me, conservatives want to keep things status quo. liberals would like change for the better. and one that i think is misconstrued, to me, true socialism is no private ownership at all, government controls production, distribution and pricing. although people are accused of socialism around here, that is by far not at all what exists in the united states, yet, that term gets tossed around so much. i would love it if you could do another follow-up and have a special our dedicated in that way -- hour dedicated in that way. host: you went with your definitions, what about returning as a --

libertarianism? what do you think about that? caller: i do not pay attention to that term. i think libertarian is he would kind of go by the constitution and strict interpretation of the constitution and how it is written, and liberty and rights, the i do not know if i am very accurate in my thinking on that. that can be an additional term that could be along the ones that i suggest. that is a good idea, john. host: i always appreciate your thoughts. we are at 10 a.m. eastern. we are waiting for this hearing to begin. it is a senate hearing before the banking committee today. a hearing of a property insurance discussion on rising costs making life and

homeownership more experience of -- expensive just to get underway in a couple of minutes. we will keep taking your calls here with any political issues you want to talk to. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can go ahead and keep calling in like juanita did in south carolina. go ahead. caller: i would like to clarify one thing for the lady who called earlier. my father came home with a case of malaria. i am sure he was not the only one who did. those in the state of virginia. i did not go to school in

virginia but both my children did. my husband's brother had four children who went to bridge any of schools. i have a great granddaughter attending school in virginia. out of that group, everybody had good education. out of that group we had a masters degree in physics. we had one a college professor with a phd. we have a registered respiratory therapist. we have one graduate from a technical college who is nationally certified in heating and air conditioning. we have graduates from medical college of virginia. host: this hearing is about to get underway.