♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, september 20. the senate is in at 10:00 a.m.. we are 11 days from a potential government shutdown.

the password is still unclear after republicans pulled the gap yesterday on a stopgap spending measure because they did not have the votes. some members of congress are now calling a shutdown inevitable. we want to know what you think on phone lines split up by party. (202) 748000 for republicans. (202) 748-8001 for democrats. and (202) 748-8002 for independents. a very good wednesday morning to you. start calling in now. here are some of the headline stemming from yesterday's action in the house. the short-term spending bill hits a new hurdle is the

headline that the new york times went with this morning. "the house punts a key vote. republican senators are increasingly alarmed as chaos over house spending bills." we will take you through all the action on the house floor today. the house is in at 10:00 a.m. eastern. for more on what, we are joined on zoom. guest: thank you for having me. host: explain for us what happened and what it means for finding a path here to avoid a government shutdown come midnight on september 30. guest: congress needs to fund the government by september 30,

and speaker mccarthy's effort to put forward a continuing resolution that would temporarily fund the government was withdrawn yesterday, but then we saw something else. we saw one of the 11 appropriations bills that needs to get past get voted down by 5 members who are just disgruntled about why the speaker has put forth a continuing resolution, which is -- with a spending cap that is higher than they would like. host: it was a motion, a procedural motion to start the debate on this, something that usually passes easily. explain what that means or the signal that was sent. guest: congress did not pass the procedural vote that would have advanced to the defense

appropriations bills. it does not look good for what everyone is calling a looming shutdown. one of the measures that the house freedom caucus was pushing is that they wanted to press for all 12 appropriations bills so they could fund the government. that is not happening because they are voting it down. when i talked to members of the house freedom caucus their issue is that they want a lower spending cap. they want to be around 1.4 that7, -- 1.47 and that is not want speaker mccarthy promised. host: one of the headlines from semaphore this morning, "one way

republicans might stop there spiral into chaos." you are on the byline there. guest: the chair of one of the largest committees or caucuses, the republican study committee has put forth an amendment that would incorporate the border security bill that would have been the original continuing resolution, but bring that spending cap down to that 1.47 one i was talking about. i spoke to two holdouts who said that is probably a measure they could work with, but we will see. we will see if leadership can put forward a new resolution or an amendment on the floor to see if it will pass, but one of the problems is that the goalposts keep changing. we are not sure it will resolve

the issue in the end. host: goalposts are changing. who is moving the goalposts. are you talking about the freedom caucus members? guest: even speaker mccarthy said he is not quite sure what they want. they don't want an omnibus that would include all 12 appropriations bills in one big bill, they don't want to vote on them individually. i think some of them have been consistent about what they want -- they want that lower spending cap. it appears as far as leadership is concerned that the goalpost keeps changing. host: where are you headed today? guest: that is a great question. i guess i am scouring to see where people are.

there is also the problem solvers caucus. there are rumors they are talking to democrats to see if they can independently pass something. i will be talking to individual members to see where they are at and what is the path forward to maintain the government, or make sure that the government does not shutdown, but it does not look good. host: we will all find out together. the house is in at 10:00 a.m.. thanks so much for joining us this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are chatting with our viewers in this first hour of washington journal. we are getting your thoughts as the clock ticks down on a potential government shutdown. house democrats are trying to find a path forward here. we will see what happens. phone numbers, if you want to

join in on the conversation this morning for democrats is (202) 748-8000 republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. the spotlight is on kevin mccarthy. here is some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> how will we be able to get to a place of 218? you watched it when we said let's stand up to d.c.. we made it law when you thought it would not pass the senate. you thought we could not get to 218 when we wanted to -- hr2 to be able to secure our border, hr1 energy independence.

getting there is never easy, that we are willing to listen to all voices. we are willing to build from the bottom up. the one thing we have found his members got together over the weekend, came up with solutions we aired the solutions right here. i thought we had a very good conversation. that is what i believe in constant improvement. we will continue to work forward. america is too great to give up just because you have a tough discussion. host: the focus will be back on speaker mccarthy today for questions about whether he will remain speaker mccarthy until he is challenged by members in his own conference. there was a report of a motion to vacate the speaker's chair being circulated, written by

matt gaetz the republican from florida. we will see what happens with that as this debate plays out overspending, over funding the government. we are looking for your comments via social media. this is janet via facebook. "they should be the first ones who lose their paychecks and perks." this from stephen saying "we need to cut military spending and spend more on environment and education." some of the comments on social media, we especially want to hear from you on the phones. phone lines as usual. this is annie out of sterling, virginia, line for democrats. caller: good morning. once again, this is a perfect example of how the republicans are great at taking control of

the house, but once they get control of the house, they are totally incapable of governing. they pass no meaningful legislation to help the american people. supposedly, when all of these americans say "we have a divided government, we need republicans in office to get things passed," they have not gotten anything passed. all they are interested in is grid locking this government. they want to basically trash the economy so they have a better chance of winning the presidency next time. once again, every american out there, you vote for a republican at any level, you will not get anything done. there will be no governing, there will be no meaningful legislation passed. it will be a total mess. host: that is andy in sterling, virginia.

the impeachment inquiry is set to begin week on september 28. pat fallon, a republican from texas will be joining us later in our program in our 9:00 a.m. eastern our. also henry cuellar is also joining us at 8:00 a.m. you can call in and talk to those members of congress. crab orchard, west virginia, good morning. caller: the last two previous budgets, the democrats were in charge of the house, the senate, and the white house. this year's budget did not get signed until the end of september. have your staffers please do a chart of these last 10 years and to show how late the budgets got

approved and what party was in charge so these people who are calling and blaming the republicans or blaming the democrats can see it is both, and they need to come up with a continued resolution for the whole year so they don't bounce this back and forth. another suggestion -- may be have a one minute segment where you have someone who called in or a politician from the year before and to show it is just a game that they play every year. host: on the blame that you talk about, who takes the blame this time? to think they both get the blame? caller: they should get the blame. one party blames the other. you have president biden and the democrats in charge of two thirds of it, so who should really get the blame? anyway, until they do a continued resolution -- have

your staffers look that up and do a chart. a a lot of times it is six months into the year so they have already done it for half the year. do it for the whole year, then ask everybody to come into work until they negotiate it because it bounces back and forth. host: on the continuing resolution, the agreement that was hashed out over the weekend among the republican conference, it would be just a 31 day stopgap funding measure that would gohrough october 31. it would cut 8.1% from nondefense spending, no additional aid for ukraine or disaster relief in that proposal. it would exclude additional funds for government nutrition

programs, restrict asylum eligibility when it comes to immigration and the border, it would reinstate family detention policies at the border, increase penalties for visa overstays. that is the stopgap funding measure, hashed up by the republican conference. there was an effort to try to move that yesterday. a procedural motion was pulled from the floor for lack of votes and speaker mccarthy has said he plans to move that tomorrow later this week. to essentially send that to the senate and give them, republicans, a starting negotiating position to the senate. democrats control the senate. they would have to pass their own stopgap funding measure and hash that out and send it to the president. all of that would have to happen before september 30 at midnight at 12:01 on october 1 the

government is set to shut down for lack of funding. willie, where is your idea of where we are? caller: every single year, the person in power tries to sneak sneaky things into bills that the other side definitely would not support. they do the same thing. then they try to vilify the person does not want to go along with it. they know they should not support these bills anyway. i remember a long time ago when they had the defense funding bill that they did not want to sign. that is the one where we lost a a lot of our privacy. that bill was the one where -- here we are 15, 20 years later,

there are vaccines out there that if you were injured you could not swim anyway. host: republicans right now in the house are concerned about some of the republicans who would not support that bill, the one that was hashed out over the weekend, the one we just went over with cuts to nondefense spending. this is congressman chip roy from texas talking about his fellow republicans who are not on board with that stopgap funding measure. this is what he had to say yesterday. [video clip] >> i am standing here telling you i do not believe it is an appropriate or sustainable position to say that we will not support legislation that would cut government 8% while securing our border. policy matters. what we are seeing at the border matters. it is an overwhelming issue for people across this country.

that would be my message to them. it is not without at least some point, figuring out what is next. you mentioned my colleague mr. norman. some of my colleagues want to see where will this go? what will have been at the end of 30 days? we have to come together and move forward spending bills that will unite the conference. my belief is that a piece of legislation that will secure the southern border, reduce the size of the government by 8% alongside a department of defense bill that is a strong bill if we were to pass it in the packages we were meant to would meaningfully fund our military. host: that was chip roy yesterday on capitol hill, one

of the leaders of the freedom caucus among conservative house republicans. asking for your thoughts as we are watching the clock ticked down on this potential government shutdown. (202) 748-8000 is the number for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. this is david, french lick, indiana. caller: good morning. there are several very intelligent speaking people regarding the shutdown and i would probably be at the bottom end of that. i think as representative roy spoke there, we have to stop spending money. it is that simple. we need to start someplace and reduce the spending. as far as the government shutdown, i look forward to it

because the government runs more efficiently. we won't notice one difference if the government shuts down. that bloated, democratic system of government up there, they get laid off or furloughed or whatever, we won't see any difference in the operation of government, i guarantee it. host: this is kevin up early in seattle. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i was wondering about my social security. i was wondering whether social security would be shut down at all? host: not under a government shutdown. those aspects or certain aspects, certain funding aspects would continue but a whole lot of federal programs what shutdown, the discretionary spending that is under --

social security is under nondiscretionary spending. we have done a couple of segments on this. i will point you to it. that is always a question we get under these government shutdowns, and likely a conversation we will have with one of the budget professionals in the coming days. a good reminder to do that segment. it is always a good segment to do. this is george in westbury, new york. caller: longtime listener, first time caller. just running out of patience. we live in a society today that is to me upside down. you have two parties who are so locked in their own thought processes -- i am watching a

guy who wants to cut the government by 8%. why doesn't he and everybody else that feels that way, why don't they step aside? why don't they get out of the game? it is a joke. i think everybody should be pretty much independent. not republican, not democrat, and common sense should lead the day, not to be led around with a ring in your nose according to party lines. i could go on and on and on. host: taking your phone calls. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002 is the number to call in. a a lot of discussion on what happens from here.

speaker kevin mccarthy, whether he is able to strike a deal within his conference, whether he might need democrats to move some compromise funding measure and send that to the senate to get that signed and keep the government open, we don't know what will happen but a lot of focus on that idea if he does move this with democratic votes with that would mean for his speakership whether hard-line republicans in his own conference would try to oust him from the speakers chair, and some hints yesterday that that might be in the works. this is the newsweek story on it. they write "a motion to remove speaker kevin mccarthy from his office was found allegedly in a bathroom at the capitol yesterday." "the motion to vacate was found in a bathroom located beneath the house floor on tuesday."

here's a tweet from matt laszlo, longtime congressional reporter, quoting from that house resolution that has been written up to clearing the office of the speaker of the house of representatives to be vacant. it is offered by matt gaetz. that is the piece of paper that was submitted for these resolutions. it has not been submitted yet, but it seems like it is in the works. matt laszlo found that in capitol hill yesterday in the bathroom. this is tim in california. caller: thanks. i appreciate you guys. i think the republicans are fine with shutting down the government. they don't seem to like our government. there are things wrong with it but taking the -- but they take

the american people hostage any time they can. it seems wrong. instead of being a party for the people, it seems like the people have gathered a cult to follow that is dangerous and violent. it seems like every chance they get, they want to tear down the government instead of making it better. there's plenty wrong with it, but the violence and the threats -- it is just too much. i don't know that there is any cure for it. host: this is mario out of pittsburgh, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. this is my first time calling. i am an independent, and i am leaning more and more to the left because of the nonsense

that i hear from the right side. as far as what is going on lately there with mccarthy, your freedom caucus, i don't think mccarthy is the real speaker. i think the real speaker is donald trump. mccarthy is just his lips. whatever donald trump wants, that is what they try to do. that is my opinion. host: mario, there was a color earlier -- caller earlier who said "i hope they shut down, it won't affect me

often. just come up with a plan! there have to be guidelines and everything. the government is big. host: mario, i think we are losing you, but i think you said you were a first time caller. you can call in every 30 days on this program. a caller asked about social security during a shutdown. we get these questions every time there is a potential government shutdown. dan kilby of michigan, a democrat posted this helpful "what a government shutdown means for you," q and a. just to read a little bit of it to you, the question "will i continue to receive my ssi?"

"a shutdown suspends the issuance of social security cards. on a typical day 60,000 americans apply for social security cards, which they may need to open a bank account or conduct other financial transactions. during a shutdown no social security cards are issued." "will my mail still arrive?" "the postal service employee's are exempted." "will i still be able to attend national parks?" "the trump administration has announced during that previous shutdown that it tried to keep national park -- parks open." these are the questions members get so often that they have

posted a u.n. day on their website -- q and a on their website. weaverville, james, good morning. caller: my opinion is that they don't need to cut anything. they need to take back the tax cuts that reagan, bush, and trump gave the richest amongst us. that lack of revenue has caused us to go in debt -- $32 trillion, and we are passing that on to our children and grandchildren. that is my solution to the financials of the government. 2% of the people now own over half of the wealth of the nation. thank you. host: that was gene in north carolina. out to robbinsville, this is

steve. caller: my opinion is i agree with most of the callers that the democrats, there is a lot wrong with them maybe, but so far biden is doing a pretty good job, and the republicans all they want to do is obstruct. it his time to shut them down. i am sick of all of them. we have to go with what we got. republicans are doing nothing for the common people. they are here for themselves. host: this is kevin from delaware via our text messaging service. he is a republican, saying "if it is irresponsible to shutdown the government, it was more irresponsible to accumulate $32 trillion in debt." cecilia in beaumont, texas says

" -- this from ed in connecticut. "stop calling it a shutdown. that is what democrats cal it to scare everyone. this is a great opportunity for republicans to finally get the budget under control for the american citizens." those are some of your comments yet our text messaging service. we are having this conversation in the first hour of washington journal today although we will be talking about these ongoing negotiations with two members of congress will be joining us here over the next 2.5 hours this morning. this is rich in bakersfield, california. caller: hi. i think i am more of an independent now. kevin mccarthy is my congressman.

my advice to kevin would be we should accept the fact that we don't have all the answers. people are talking about answers and plans. we don't have them, so we have to be creative. it will take somebody to bring both sides together. we have to stop the hate to the right to the left and the left to the right. host: what do you think of that motion to vacate, th talk that is bubbling up to remove kevin mccarthy from speaker with some republicans unhappy with how he has handled the negotiations? caller: i am asking kevin to pivot. i think that the presidential

elections will come up and will be an opportunity for smarter people than me to work it out. i think that is the strategy to take. we need somebody to be like a churchill at the start of world war ii. we have to create new solutions. when you don't have answers, you have to create new solutions. we have to figure out how people can work together to be more creative, instead of being destructive. host: that is rich in speaker mccarthy's district, bakersfield, california. one more story on what could turn into another speaker's fight if that motion to vacate were to move forward. republicans who would want to remove this speaker would have

to rely on democrats for their vote to get the majority of votes to remove kevin mccarthy, so therefore democrats could save mccarthy's speakership under a certain area in a vote if this all plays out in a vote if this all plays out. , the potential -- the hill is walking down that path a bit. "hardline republicans threatened to oust speaker mccarthy. they are putting democrats in a position where they could save or and mccarthy's speakership. one house democrats told the hell that while they thought previously democrats could protect mccarthy's -- now that means that is an open question. those impeachment hearings are said to begin on the 28th in the house oversight committee." speaker mccarthy announced that last week in what was seen as an

effort to reach out to some of the conservatives in his conference and to appease some of their concerns about how quickly or slowly he has been moving on impeachment proceedings. these are all potential what-ifs that could happen. what do you know is not a funding bill by midnight on september 30 the government is set to shut down. caller: good morning. i had a couple comments i want to make. you want to get the budget in order? give states more government -- more money from the federal government. most of the red states have been freeloaders since the civil war. as far as migrants --most

people are the children of migrants or the children of slaves. there is one more thing i can't remember right now, but this is an artificial deadline anyway. it is not in the constitution. this is a deadline that congress itself put in so they can change it anytime they want. as far as the republicans go with mccarthy and all that, the whole thing is a circus. i guess it makes good press or whatever. give the states -- this is carol, jonesboro, arkansas. caller: good morning. i have may be 4 things to say. one is ia have sat here,

watched, and listened, and heard all these men and women that we have although did and put in on capitol hill, and it is like watching them all pitch a fit, and then when it comes time to do a budget for the states, for the federal government, they can do it because they have their own little things that they want to put in and then other people start fighting and yelling. they act like children. they all need to grow up! for us out here in the world, if we handled our budgets of their own homes like that, we would be out on the street because we could not pay our own bills like that. that is one. for another, stop giving our

money to other countries. right now we are being overrun with illegal immigrants coming in off of the southern border. we are being taken over. they are taking our benefit money that we need for us and they are giving it to illegal immigrants. we have veterans who are homeless. we have senior citizens who need the assistance. they are giving it to illegal immigrants, but yet he keeps giving all this money to all these other countries. host: one of those countries is, ukraine and funding for ukraine is very much a part of this discussion right now on whether that gets included in any government funding measure or

continuing resolution. it speaker mccarthy was asked about ukraine's funding yesterday when he chatted with reporters. >> you said that there might be a bipartisan meeting with ukrainian president zelenskyy. when you meet with him will you commit to another round of funding for ukraine? >> is the one skis elected to congress? is here president -- is zelenskyy elected congress? what russia has done to invade is wrong. it is an atrocity. no matter what the issue is i want accountability for what the taxpayers spend their money on. i will listen to the american public. i will follow what happens in congress, but i will have questions for president zelenskyy. host: ukrainian president zelenskyy coming to capitol hill tomorrow. there will be a lot more focus

on ukraine and ukraine funding. ukraine is very much in the news today, that meeting at the united nations, president zelenskyy speaking there. president biden speaking before the u.n. about ukraine. "biden urges global unity in sticking up for ukraine. at the u.n. biden targeted war fatigue." here is about 2 minutes of president biden from the u.n. yesterday. [video clip] >> for the second year in a row, this gathering dedicated to peaceful resolutions of conflict is darkened by the shadow of war, and illegal war of conquest brought without provocation against its neighbor ukraine. like every nation in the world, united states of wants this war to end. no nation wants this war to end more than ukraine. we strongly support ukraine in

its efforts to bring about diplomatic resolution and a lasting peace, but russia alone bears responsibility for this war. russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. russia alone stands in the way of peace. russia's price for peace is ukraine's capitulation, ukraine's territory and ukraine's children. russia believes that the world will grow weary and allow it to brutalize ukraine without consequence. i ask you this -- if we abandon the core principles of the united states to appease an aggressor, could any member stay in this body feel confident that they are protected? if we allow ukraine to be, carved off is the independence of any nation secure? the answer is no.

we need to stand up to this aggression today and deter what will be other aggressions tomorrow. that is why the united states along with partners around the world will stand with the people of ukraine as they defend their sovereignty and territorial integrity, and their freedom. [applause] host: president biden there yesterday. we are expecting to hear more from president zelenskyy tomorrow here on capitol hill. this is randall in oklahoma city, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, mr. mcconnell -- good morning. i agree with mr. biden. we need to support ukraine. if we don't and russia takes over ukraine, they have already said they are going into poland, latvia, lithuania, and estonia.

if the speaker cannot get a stopgap bill, than they need to vote to get another speaker. be this one will be democrat, but the way you do cutting budgets, that is what you need to do, you do it through your 12 congressional committees. you do not wait until the last minute. i youf do not fund the government there will not be anymore republicans left, because they are going to prove they cannot govern, they cannot do something as simple. republicans out there, don't come home. stay there, work 12 days left. get a stopgap measure of two months or three months, and then get your work done. being late like this, this is poor. host: since you brought up the idea of a vote on whether or not kevin mccarthy should remain

speaker, it has been brought up -- are democrats better off with a kevin mccarthy speaker or some other republican that the republican conference comes up with? democrats would have to make that decision. do they want to oust mccarthy and not know who the next speaker would be or are they better off keeping mccarthy? what do you think? caller: you are better off with the devil you know then you don't know. they're probably better off keeping mccarthy, but he has failed, so maybe there is another person there. i forget the democratic congress lady, but she said we will have a power-sharing agreement. ok, if that is what you have to do that is fine. i draw social security. if i am late on getting my check or don't get my check, there

will not be anymore republicans in congress because they will all have proved that they cannot govern. they cannot get something as simple as a budget done. host: thanks for the call. your social security check would still go out under a government shutdown. one of those funded programs that does not fall under the discretionary budgeting process, the ones that would be impacted here by a government shutdown. we will have a whole segment on that coming up on washington journal. this is mike in osgood, indiana. go ahead. caller: about some colors ago, kathy called in and she -- calers ago kathy called in and she said some things i agree with. it is the people that we voted

in. whatever the democrats are for the republicans are against. it is divide and conquer. it has been that way for a long time. it doesn't matter. if you look overseas, look at how beautiful their country is. i know there are some countries that are not developed like ours, but i was just watching a piece about saudi arabia. we have a government that is bigger than theirs, and we live like bums. i'm 65. i didn't learn this until me and my friend were talking at work, and he said the government cannot give you something until they take away something from

you in the form of taxes and stuff. one more thing if you make $10,000 a month and you spend $15,000 a month, it is not going to be long before you are in a bad shape. you though broke. host: this is fernando, arizona, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. this garbage that we have brought our country to, are citizens? they need to be taken care of as soon as possible. thank you. host: this is dave in cincinnati, ohio. good morning. caller: first of all, mccarthy sold his soul to become the speaker. he sold his soul to god, weird

people -- to odd, weird people. this is a holocaust. a couple of days ago, i don't know if you recorded it on c-span, but lauren boebert was thrown out of the theater. she was screaming at people. mccarthy put himself in this position. it costs more when the government shuts down, millions, and millions, and millions of dollars more. there are no cost savings involved here. mccarthy has done this to himself.

he. is spineless host: the republicans you mentioned you are particularly critical about are not the 5 republicans who yesterday voted against that defense spending bill, who voted to block that defense spending bill. that was not the continuing resolution but this was one of the appropriations bills that republicans were trying to move. the 5 lawmakers who voted against that bill was andy biggs, and bishop, tim buck, ralph northam, and matt rosendale. their pictures they are today's washington times. you you know much about those 5 members of congress? caller: not a lot. i have heard the names of a couple of them. biggs i have heard of before.

they are not like gomert or some of these others. i don't know why they voted against it. i know in the senate you have the former cincinnati football coach who gave a speech to the military. i don't know much about the ones that voted against it. host: this is richard, louisville, kentucky. caller: good morning. y showedou a picture of zelenskyy sitting there at the u.n. as joe biden spoke. i remember a young fidel castro, and that is who he reminded me of as he sat there in his military pullover, that green fleece jacket. i understand he has had to fire

i don't know how many people in his government because of all the thievery going on. we send the money over there as fast as we can and may turn around and steal it. we have a $33 trillion debt. we spend $7 trillion a year to run the united states of america. on that $33 trillion debt -- it is our credit card -- on that $33 trillion we threw away in payment of $789 billion. it is gone. my question to all americans who want to keep the ball rolling is when is it enough? is 33 trillion dollars enough or do we need to go to $100

trillion? when does the financial system collapse? host: less than 10 minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal, getting your thoughts as we sit here 11 days from a potential government shutdown. this is linda in new jersey, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say the congress, they are is to continue -- their job is to continue paying debts for americans. it is not our $1 trillion that we owe, and i believe that congress under the first amendment should be petitioned. either they start doing their job and do it right and on time so that people are promoted when they are supposed to be promoted, so that people are

paid when they are supposed to be paid, and we support the people that we have made promises to, that support us when we have needed it. i believe that everybody out there, y'all have the right under the first amendment to petition your government. we don't have to wait to get them out. we can vote them out now. as far as i am concerned there is not a republican in congress that deserves to be there. that is all i wanted to say. host: a couple of questions today on what a government shutdown would mean for various programs, various funding. this issue came up at a hearing yesterday at a transportation and infrastructure hearing on the house side. i wast a hearing focusing on

natural disasters recent -- it was a hearing focusing on natural disasters recently. [video clip] >> there is a looming chance that the government could shut down or even have a continuing resolution. in the case of such a drastic act of shutting down the government are having a continued resolution that freezes funding, what does that due to your agency and all of the ongoing natural disasters that you are currently facing? >> should a lapse in appropriations occur, anything that would remain in disaster relief fund carryover balance would be moved forward, that given our current state it would be insufficient to to cover all of our ongoing lifesaving operations. we would have to continue to reduce the scope of what it is we are supporting in our operations. we would be legally able to

incur obligations for activities necessary for the protection of human life, but we would have to further reduce those types of lifesaving operations we are working on based on the amount of funding we have available. host: administrator of fema on capitol hill yesterday. actor your phone calls. -- back to your phone calls. this is wendy. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just wanted to say we need to come together as a country and take care and love each other. we are so busy taking care of everyone else. we need to take care of our our addicts. pay off their debt. -- payoff our debt. that would be $200,000 per person.

i don't know anybody who has $200,000 in the bank. we need a balanced budget. we need to come together as a nation. no one can see i to i. we-- no one can see eye to eye. host: the over $200,000 number is per taxpayer in this country. if you went per citizen, every citizen of the united states it would be just under $100,000 per person. the u.s. national debt is now over $33 trillion. u.s. debt clock.org is where you can go to look at those real-time numbers about the u.s. debt. c-span viewers are very familiar with that website. this is stand in scottsboro,

alabama -- stan in scottsboro, alabama. caller: good morning. i would like to comment on tommy tuberville holding up the nomination. they are doing this on purpose. they think they have the gold. there gold is the united states government. that is simply it. i do not put myself in a position where a hal to rely on the -- i have to rely on the government to support myself. if you depend on the government, you are in trouble. [laughter] when the government shuts down, you shut down. you have all of these commentators on the show all the time. i spent 62 years in politics and

alabama. have me on your show as a commentator sometime. host: you are on right now. what i started politics when i was 12 years old. back in those days in alabama, you would go up the river with a bottle of moonshine whiskey. in 1965 i got caught taking moonshine whiskey to school and i told them it was election whiskey. host: how are we doing today with elections?

caller: could you say that again? host: how are we doing with elections today? there is a lot of concerns about elections. caller: let's start in 2016 with paul manafort interfered with our election. china is coming for us. talk to the military, they will tell you who is coming. china, russia, north korea. no telling. host: we will be speaking more about russia and north korea with victor cha, that is coming up in half an hour. time for one more call in this closing set meant -- segment. caller: thank you so much for

taking my call. i am a 61-year-old veteran as well as a business owner. i got disabled a few years ago. i do receive v.a. benefits as well as social security/disability and i understand that something might happen. i know those two are protected. let's go back a little bit further. a few people called in to talk about the elections. i believe we should have an idea for every person and it has to be authorized as well as made sure that person is who they are. then we would eliminate a lot of the confusion going on through the united states. getting back to the government in terms of our budget. we have to live on a budget if i

don't live on the budget i would have to borrow on credit cards. if you keep borrowing there comes to time that you file for bankruptcy which i don't believe in and you also end up having to pay and all you do is go to work to pay your credit card. if the united states doesn't change some of their policies and really look at the government in general. if there are people or agencies that need to be audited and find out exactly what they are doing then we can get back on track. host: our last caller of this first segment. but stick around we have two members of congress he will join us after the break. we have rep cuellar from texas

and then after that we will have victor cha where we will talk about that meaning between vladimir putin and kim jong-un. we will be right back. >> book tv every sunday on c-span t ftures leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. at 9:00 p.m. dr. ben carson talks about his book created equal where he suggests ways to preserve the american dream. and then on afterwards, meg kissinger talks about her family's struggle with mental illness and her new book. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full schedule on your progm ide or watch online at book tv.org.

a healthy democracy doesn't just look like this, it looks like this where americans can see democracy at work, a republic thrive. get informed straight from the source on c-span unfiltered, unbiased, word for word. from the nation's capital to wherever you are because the opinion that matters the most is your own. this is what democracy looks like. c-span, powered by cable. this year, book tv marks 25 years of shining a spotlight on leaning nonfiction authors and their books with talks from 22,000 authors, 15 1000 events. but tv has provided viewers with

92,000 hours on the latest literary discussions on history, politics and biography. you can watch book tv on c-span2 or online at big tv -- book tv.org. "washington journal," continues. host: we welcome back now rep cuellar. you have been in congress for 10 terms and you've seen the shutdown fights before. do you see a path to avoiding a government shutdown on september 30? guest: i want to make sure we can preserve everything we can. there are options we need to look at. they can either go further right

to meet the freedom caucus demands. and then he will said something to the senate that will pass and we could get close to the deadline. number two, we could work towards a bipartisan cr and get it done. number three, do nothing and then wait for the senate to send that over to us. if something comes over there will be a question of the origination clause or the second bills starting off in the house. in the history, people got pushed to the left or right but the bipartisan approach is the way to go. host: on those three different paths what showed our

viewers look for today to determine which one of those past yield will be taking? guest: we are running out of time. i know he has been trying to go as far right as he can and then we will see if they can try to get the roulette began to get it done. keep in mind, we all understand what is happening. he is trying to appease the right but the problem is if you look at the history, have they supported appropriation bills in the past. they have not supported an appropriations bill the past so why negotiate with people who ultimately will not be voting for the final product. host: that cr that they failed

to move yesterday, mccarthy will try to pass it tomorrow but there is a big focus on border security and restarting the border wall, restricting asylum eligibility and restating family detention. guest: the best approach is the bipartisan approach. my collects their pushing on their version of border security without consulting democrats. there are a lot of things that they want to do that we can support but there are some things that just don't work. they keep saying that border

walls, 14th-century solution to a 21st-century problem. they think that will stop drugs but most of the drugs are coming in through ports of entry. we need to do more to make sure that the good products come in and about they still come in. mexico is one of those neighbors we need to understand better. last year there were 863 billion in trade with mexico. we are almost reaching towards one trillion. they are a trading partner but we have to get them to do more than what they have done. after independence day just a few days ago, who do they have marching there?

they had russian soldiers, chinese soldiers, people from venezuela, cuban soldiers. those kind of messages don't rub us the right way. mexico as a neighbor can be complicated. host: what are two provisions that you think democrats and republicans can support on border security? are any of those in this proposed cr? guest: there are some things that we've been doing an appropriations for 70 years. i am the ranking member on appropriation for homeland security. they want to add more money for border control, port of entry technology and drug technology.

i've always said this, when you play football why do you keep playing defense on the 1 yard line. why don't we extend the perimeter to their 20 yard line where we can play defense before they get to the border? let me give you an example. they want to talk about building a fence, they call it a wall. in the valley of south texas, when you have a river you can't put the fence where the river boundary is. if you put it in the riverbank it will get washed out. they put it out quarter of a mile away. so the people coming in our asylum-seekers.

90% of them will be rejected but they come in, touch the riverbanks and walk half a mile to the fence and wave at the cameras to say here i am. offense does not show them. in the heat maps where they show the most activity have been near fences. we have to think about their strategy. the democrats for the last couple of years with the majority hunter biden, we added 15% more of an increase to homeland. my thing is, let's rethink our strategy. what we doing right now is not working. host: rep cuellar is with us

until the bottom of the hour. to join in the conversation for democrats (202) 748-8000, for republicans (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8002 for independents. you hope mccarthy will take a middle path when it comes to funding the government to find a way to work with democrats. some questions about whether he does that whether there will be motion to vacate the chair and remove him from his speaker position. if that were to happen, you would get a vote on that. would you vote to remove kevin mccarthy if he took the path of reaching out to democrats and doing exactly what you propose? guest: we will answer that question when that comes up. i will tell you this, we cannot

operate with people that hold of every single vote. every time there is a tough vote there is a far right flank with the motion to vacate and he cannot operate in an efficient way with a small group of people. their numbers are thin. we are seeing -- he needs to pull the band-aid. call their bluff and see what happens. to answer your question, we will answer that when we reach the point. host: we have one call for you. this is joe and sheppard, texas, republican. caller: mr. cuellar, i lived in

the valley in your district and i notice that people are putting in the lot of long days of work. i have a solution that will solve the problem of shutdowns. if you don't have your appropriations by the fourth of july you start putting in six days a week, 12 hours a day until it is done. then take your break and if it is not done by labor day, then you work until it gets done. waiting until the last minute to do things is no way to get any kind of a problem solved. guest: i agree with you. i put in a lot of days working

as a member of congress and i agree we need to do that. the problem we are facing there are agreements that we made some months ago. after a while, the far right says, we need to change the plan. i'm a conservative democrat. but this problem has talked -- been talked about by democrats and republicans. president trump had 7.3 billion's four years.

trillions of dollars. trump added 7.4 trillion and obama had over nine. except trump did not in four years. to me, it doesn't matter if it's a democrat or republican we have to make sure that we look at what we need to spend, and be rational and how we do the cutting and spending. it is both the republican and democratic issue we need to address in a bipartisan way. host: this is mary. caller: if there are all of

these people coming into our country, we as citizens may not be able to have the kind of therapeutic drugs that are needed. instead of putting this money into climate change we should be learning how to make drugs here and not those coming from china and other countries. when donald trump was in office, they were starting to manufacture drugs in the usa. it's sad that they can only have a certain amount of drugs for people and they have to scrounge for drugs that week. u.s. citizens are so important and that should be the number one priority. we already had trouble with the baby formula. instead of giving money to ukraine we should start building companies. there are many people that would

work. i would work for 20 hours a day in a company like that. bless you and i hope you could spread the word. guest: i appreciate your comment. america has been adding a strong manufacturing, agricultural training area. we need to do that and make sure our companies are over there in china producing over there. we need them here in the u.s.. or at least go to one of our neighbors in mexico and canada. i think that's what we need to do. i think our pharmaceutical companies have done well. we all remember what happened during the pandemic. usually a vaccine takes 7, 8

years to produce and we did it in one year because we have the smartest civilian and military minds in the public/private sector. our industry is strong and we need to do that. i want to see more production here in the u.s.. host: the caller breaks up ukraine. what do you hope to hear from volodymyr zelenskyy tomorrow? guest: it's basically what you're view is. will we be isolate its say we don't care and what habits in the rest of the world or do we play a limited role to make sure democracy is

strong. it we stop the aggression of what russia is doing? i have been to ukraine before the war. just recently i was in germany with my colleagues who were watching american military training the ukrainian tank commanders there. i understand how much money we spent outside and i would rather have it spent in the u.s.. but once in a while we need to stand up for what is right and spend money. if we don't do something over there someone will fill that vacuum. it will either be russia, iran, china. depending on what part of the world. i think the u.n. working with

nato should take a stand. host: a text message from tony in florida, will he tell us how he voted on the motion to advance the defense spending bill for debate and will he share his rationale for the vote? guest: i voted no on the rules because it goes back to the appropriation. everything we try to work for in a bipartisan way we were left out. i know the chairman, he is a good man. but we made several deals those agreements are coming to roost right now and one of the things he did was he added some of the freedom caucus demands and those appropriations became more of a culture committee then an

appropriations committee. in the past few weeks, you have republicans, democrats and you have appropriators. we are seeing the appropriators taking that away for us. i support the military, i've been on defense appropriations and i've been in the ranking democrat for homeland. when we talk about the military, it should not be a partisan issue. we have the mbaa which is more balanced and democrats and republicans of push that so we can get them into conference committee. that's an example of the way we have done this.

if the republicans wanted to pass that yesterday which is the procedure, their own people voted it down. we are the minorities so republicans who are the majority are the one that voted the roles done yesterday. host: we are speaking with representative cuellar. this is ross in fort hills, new york, and independent. caller: i wanted to bring this up further the c-span viewers. that's why so many migrants coming across the border. we deliver so many guns to mexico and central america and i was wondering whether the congressman thought about this gun story in mexico.

just one only serves up to 38 caliber weapon so how are they awash in sniper rifles, ar 50's, we are allowing our weapons to go straight into mexico and we are reaping what we sow. they don't want to be shot down by the drug gangs. how do you feel about this and how would she bus stop the pipeline from the united states down into central america to stop the flow of migrants who are being shot to death you are trying to escape? how would you best rectify this? guest: a very good point that a lot of people do talk about guns

going south they just talk about the guns coming north. i wanted complement you on the point. we have supply and demand. the demand for drugs in the u.s. is out of hand. i think we need to go back to what nancy reagan used to say and teach our kids just say no. we could either do education to make sure kids stay away from drugs. i'm a big law enforcement individual but we have to do both of those things. so you have the supply and demand. it used to be that columbia used to supply cocaine and then it

became mexico and then one day why do we need the colombians we can do it ourselves? so now you have strong mexican cartels that send drugs appear and then what we see is what goes down is guns in cash from the sale of the drugs. you get either cash or guns back. we not only have personnel on the north boat we need to make sure we do our work to make sure guns don't go south. i have added money and resources but i think we need to do a lot more. when it comes to the different type of rifles and assault rifles, that is what makes the

criminals so dangerous because of the weapons that they have. talking about drugs, a lot of people say build a fence and that should stop the drugs from coming in. and then they put buoys in the rio grande. they were less than a quarter of a mile for an over 1000 mile river. we have to look at how we can address this issue with fentanyl they kill so many people. there are illegal products coming from china sent to mexico and then sent to the u.s.. most of those contain meth and cocaine and 99% of them come

through the port so we need to put more personnel to stop that. and if you look at the commission, 87% of people at the poorest and checkpoints are u.s. citizens. we have to figure out how to keep the drugs from coming in in the cash and guns going south. host: we will go to the house at 10:00 and the attorney general will be before the house judiciary. that will be at 10:00 a.m.. and then we will go to the house when the gavel and. i know you're not a member of the judiciary committee but if you had the chance what would you want to know from the attorney general? guest: the role the department

of justice played in homeland and the department of defense how they would stop drugs and make sure we address the issues at the border. we have to be smarter on how we address the drugs and there are different agencies that play a role. the doj has immigration judges. we need to have more immigration judges and i would have added hundreds of them but we need them so people can decide what goes down. if you have 100 people asking for asylum, a lot of them will be rejected at the end of the day because 89-90%. the asylum law says that has to be persecution by state. if they are looking for a better way of life, whether through

poverty or drought or hurricane. it does not give them a silent. i felt bad for people who come in from places that are criminals and crime in their community but it does not give you all right to get immunity. we need to understand the asylum it has to be persecution by the state. based on religion or beliefs are those values because otherwise they come in at the end of the day, the judge will say no and we end up with one million deportation orders and are laws don't say much at the end of the day. department of justice deals with

immigration courts and we need to make those courts more effective to work with asylum officers to address the issues. do we play offense at the border or played defense on the perimeter? i think all of those can play a role. host: congressman henry cuellar, member of the appropriation committee. we always appreciate your time. guest: thank you to you and your viewers. host: we will be joined by victor cha and discuss that meeting between russia's vladimir putin and kim someone and later, representative pat fallon member of the oversight committee. that's coming up in about half an hour.

we will be right back. >> american history tv saturdays on c-span2 exploring the people and events that tell the american story. at 9:00 p.m. george washington university lecturer talks about american poverty policy and how johnson sought to help poorest americans. the white house historical association and the library of congress hosted the discussion which included movies such as kisses for my president, the man, deep impact and lincoln. exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays onpan2 or find a fullule on your program guide or watch any time on

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"washington journal," continues. host: a focus on the deepening ties between russia and north korea. joining us now is victor cha and kim jong-un met with vladimir putin last week. what did each want from the other from this meeting? guest: i was say at the first level is quite simple. who needs ammunition for the war on ukraine and he is blowing through ammunition like nothing. the north korean leader needs putin's fuel because they are coming out of a covid lockdown and so a simple transaction is food for arms. that is what brought these two together and it's an unholy alliance. host: when was the last time they met and what was the

significance of the timing and the length of this meeting was several days? guest: the last time they met was four years ago and 2019. the timing is related to the fact that kim is coming out of this covid lockdown and north korea is the only country that has not vaccinated its population during covid. they close their borders in january 2020 even close allies like china and russia and is completely shut down with no medicines. this is the urgency in the urgency from russia are weapons.

there is a shortage of ammunition around the world and if there is one place where there is a stockpile of ammunitions is in north korea. host: it's a pretty simple interaction, food and fuels for arms. any concern about sharing the weird technology and the ability to create and deploy nuclear arms or submarines is that concern overblown from this meeting? guest: i think is a concern which is why on the first level it's an exchange of food and fuel but commercial moon would not travel all the way to russia just for food. it does raise the concern based on the places he visited during his trip that there may be more than this. although they will produce a

proclamation for the world to see but every exchange is a violation of the security council's resolution. i think there is concern the fact that kim went to the space agency for russia which suggests putin might help them with satellite technology. north korea has had two unsuccessful satellites over the summer. and at the second level, not publicly seeing what's happening between these two sides to advance north korea's wmds. host: does north korea have enough arms to send to rusted to

tip the balance? guest: in the open source we don't have a lot of accurate information about how large of a stockpile of the ammunitions there are. i thought it was interesting the first time the white house talked about an arms shipment from north korea to russia at the end of last year, i think it was november 2022. the nfc spokesperson john kirby stated it was a shipment of north korean arms to the wachter group -- wagner group. it wasn't enough to tip the balance but they were concerned. i don't think the administration can say that anymore. they are worried that there are shipments to russia but they are

not saying it's not significant enough to tip the balance. the omission of certain lines is also seen a significance. host: victor cha no stranger to c-span. here's the numbers if you want to join the conversation for democrats (202) 748-8000, for republicans (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8002 for independents/ . if you could talk about the potential impacts in the ukraine. what did it mean for south korea ? what did it mean for china? guest: when we talk about countries like south korea, japan, australia they clearly

oppose this. they think it's a very bad thing in terms of aiding russia and the war in europe ended terms of what they give to north korea that makes it more unstable. for china this is much more complicated. it's not one-dimensional, they don't like it when kim and putin get close together. they historically don't like when russia and north korea gets too close. so china try not to alienate north korea and cozy up to north korea. on the other hand, i don't think china wants to be seen as supporting something that will aid and prolong the russian side and prolong the war ukraine.

if china does care about his international reputation it doesn't want to be seen doing that. it is a difficult position for china. any time north korea does some kind of deviant behavior the first people of the international community blames his china because they have so much influence over north korea. it will be interesting at the u.n., if there will be wholesale condemnation of russia and north korea because of this summit. the united states, south korea, eu, everybody has criticized a. it will be interesting to see what russia says, i'm sorry what china says about it because it will reveal some of their cards on how they feel about this arms transaction. host: this is thomas from texas.

caller: china and russia are going broke over this war and i want to ask you, why are we still spending 10 billion a war -- 10 million a month and i right? guest: i never covered iraq when i was in the government and my role outside of government. i can't really say about iraq. in the case of russia, the united states has invested a lot both materially and politically in defending against russia's unprovoked invasion. it costs a lot of money but there's a lot at stake. host: victor cha is our guest

this morning. those phone lines again are for democrats (202) 748-8000, for republicans (202) 748-8001, for independents (202) 748-8002. caller: i remember under reagan, how many presidents have let north korea go? guest: it's not like we did not know north korea was exploring the capability. when it became apparent to the world is in the late 1980's. there was an opinion column in the new york times in which the title was the next renegade

nuclear state and he was talking about north korea. we have known about this program since the 1980's. if we declassified cia imagery there is declassified imagery from the 19 60's that was showing that they were creating a nuclear complex where most of their weapons programs are. we have known about this for a long time and the government has known about it. why we have allowed it to happen? there are probably three reasons. the first is there are not easy military solutions to this problem. no one wants to start a nuclear war to stop a nuclear war.

the second is north korea has the benefit of geography. they are tucked up near russia and china so they position a lot of their stuff near the border with china so if the united states had to take action they'd have to deal with china. in the united states going back to reagan has tried through diplomacy for north korea to give up their nuclear program. i was part of those negotiations and we offered a lot in return and they ventured into these deals but they cheated on them. for these three reasons we have known the program has existed but unsuccessful in stopping about it.

host: how is russia felt about having a nuclear armed north korea on its border? host: the soviet union was the first to help north korea with nuclear capabilities. but even back then the soviets were responsible about it in the sense that they had a requirement for civilian purposes which is that they had to become a part of the nonproliferation treaty and had to follow the atomic energy safeguards. north korea would then reverse engineer that reactor and create a weapon space program which is what they did secretly and outside anyone's knowledge.

today, i think the russians, they don't see the nuclear program as a threat to them but more of a problem to the united states ss china. they are perfectly happy to watch the united states struggle with this problem as long as u.s. relations are in the difficult state they are in now. they take tactical benefit and the fact that it's a problem for the united states and its allies. host: we have bill from michigan, and independent. caller: i would like to ask between russia, china and ukraine and thinking about russia, china and vietnam. it sounds like the same thing to me. do the american people see the

same thing? they all come together just like vietnam. thank you victor. host: do you see parallels to vietnam? guest: there could be some parallels but in the case of vietnam, the u.s. forces were directly involved in we got into a difficult quagmire there. the biden administration has drawn a redline about sending ground troops into ukraine. i think one of the parallels ica is korea and south korea in the sense that it was an unprovoked invasion into one country from another. they were both ostensibly countries in the western bloc that we're in the support of freedom and democracy to some degree when they were invaded in the world has come to the aid of

both of them. in the case of ukraine you see it clearly and in the case of south korea you sought as well. i see parallels there and that is why a lot of interest in asia if your viewers are unaware. there is a lot of interest among asian companies to support ukraine. they provide billions of dollars to support ukraine in this effort. i think the main parallels between what happened in their region during the cold war. host: edward and ohio, and independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. host: what is your question? caller: i think you know why the united nations can set by and not get involved with the north koreans supplying weaponry to russia. russia has been an adversary of the united states for as long as

i can remember. it goes back to the second world war when we help them and they helped us. but lately since putin has taken power, there has not been any work with united states diplomacy to stop this. guest: the united nations general assembly is meeting in new york and this will be a major topic of discussion, the war ukraine in the recent summit between kim and putin. the problem we have now is that there are two permanent u.n. council members, china and russia at prevent the u.n. from acting. in a situation like this, this

transaction between russia and north korea is in violation. russia signed on to it. there are 10 security resolutions that they signed into with regards to north korea and this is in violation with them. all members of the un security council except for russia will support whatever the triggering mechanisms are for sanctions. borussia will oppose that. it's a real dilemma. if something is brought to the un security council russia will oppose it in its interesting to see what china does. i don't know if they want to be in the position of siding with russia and opposing un security

council resolutions, statement that comes out. it will be interesting to see how china response of that. but i think that means is that trying to coordinate whether it sanctions or statements with regards to russia and north korea have to happen with other organizations like the g7 or nato and the at4. any sort of punitive action has to be coordinated outside of groupings like this where russia and north korea cannot -- china cannot veto it. host: just this past june, korea

a history of south and north. why did she think they're deeded to be a new history of korea? guest: the reason my co-author and i wrote this book is that we felt like there is so a lot of interest in korea especially by the younger generation. it is generated by the interested in korean pop culture, music and film. a lot of people have started watching korean dramas during the pandemic and there's a lot of interest in korea and there has not been a general history book in 27 years. my co-author and myself decided we would write this book from an

american/european perspective and the response has been good. people especially like the hot pink cover. for anyone interested in the general history i recommended. host: the history of south and north is the title of the book. thisthis is peter, and independ. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. what is the end and ukraine? can you tell the viewers how many soldiers have been killed so far? how do we justify israel having all of these nukes when you talk about sanctioning all these other countries? if israel is going to haveif iss

isn't korea going to say why can't we have nukes? what about arend? -- what about iran? guest: the collaboration between russia and north korea could expand beyond weapons and fuel. they just rolled weapons and fu. they just rolled out a new diesel submarine that can launch 10 missiles at a time. they want nuclear powered submarines that have the range said that are required. they are actively trying to come backback intercontinental techny ,, that means solid fuel pro

propellants. the concern is the russia will notnot only provide fuel but it will provide these other things to north korea. in this meaning, kim jong-un was there for six days and they reported that putin has been invited to come to north korea in november. in november. there is more than is going to happen with cooperation cooperation between these two sides. there is a conversation that south korea should also go nuclear. we can't discount these things as the threats grow longer -- larger.

there is an arm race which is causing countries to adjust. the united states does not support south korea going nuclear in the statements between the south korean president and president biden, this was the summit that became famous because the south korean president saying his favorite song american pie at the white house. the u.s. agreed to give south korea insight into -- conventional military advice.

but they wanted to dissuade them from getting nuclear weapons because the u.s. could help them. host: how did that go over and south korea? guest: it went over well. a major ramping up of military ramping up of military exercise, i think it has answered the the call but the gl posts always changing. if we get more information of what exactly the russians will provideprovide north koreans thl continue to pose more questions. host: we have time for maybe one or two more questions for pat victor cha.

caller: my father fought in the korean war the chinese had 10,000 troops coming in against my father's forces. when we fought in vietnam they came in 30,000 battalions. the chinese don't want to get involved in these conflicts but yet they send but yet they send troops, they send troops to fight for these people. i am happy that you did the book because i because i think there are two cultures. if they emerged it would probablyif they emerged it would

probably help with the problems and north korea. guest: thank you john for the question. in terms ofin terms of china anh korean tension, in korea they prevented the unification of the korean macarthur did his historic landing and was able to cut off north korea's supply lines, reverse the wave, and push up to the 38th parallel until the north korean people's volunteer army came in human waves, that was their tactic. these human waves to push u.s. forces back. i certainly do not think there is a likelihood of china adding

involved in ukraine in the same way. geographically it is a completely different situation. when president xi and vladimir putin met and they talk about this unending friendship, my senses china is very ambivalent about the war in you reign. they do not want to be on the losing side and they do not know which side is owning. i did not think they want to be cast as an international pariah. plus they have a host of domestic problems, including their economy and the chinese leader is making a lot of mistakes. we see it in the disappearing of key leaders. the defense minister goes missing. it is very difficult for china. while china has been involved militarily in korea and supported in vietnam, the chinese military although it is

growing and large is not very practiced in more. for better or for worse the u.s. military is. we have been involved in a number of wars. in that sense sometimes i think we should certainly worry about the chinese military threat, but the u.s. military is much more practiced in war than any other military, including china. let me say thank you for your father's service in korea. host: victor cha is with the center for strategic and international studies. we appreciate your time on the washington journal. guest: thank you. host: our second member of congress, congressman pat fallon , republican of texas will talk about the looming shut down and also the oversight committee's role in next week's impeachment inquiry.

stick around for that discussion. we will be right back. >> watch c-span's new series books that shaped america. we will feature the federalist, a compilation of essays written in 1787 and 1788 by alexander hamilton, james madison, and john j urging for the ratification of the u.s. constitution. our guests will discuss why those essays are considered one of the most important references for interpreting and understanding the original intent of the constitution. watch books that shaped america featuring the federalist monday live at 9:00 eastern.

also, be sure to scan the qr code to listen to our podcast when you can learn more about the authors of the book featured. >> the c-span book shows podcast feed makes it easy to listen to all of the podcast that feature nonfiction books in one place. each week we are making it convenient for you to listen to multiple episodes with authors discussing history, biography, current events, and culture from their signature programs about book. listen to c-span's bookshelf podcast feed today. you can find live feed and all of our podcast on the free c-span now app or wherever you get your podcast and on our website, c-span.org/podcast. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: republican congressman pat fallon joins us. he is are in the armed and oversight committee. we are 11 days from a potential government shutdown. what is the path to avoiding a shutdown as you see it and can you help our viewers understand what is happening in the republican conference when it comes to finding that path. guest: you have to look at power politics in washington as an onion. there is a lot of layers. we have a very slim majority in the house and it is difficult to get to 218 when you lose four or five members of your conference and the opposition party stays united. that is a challenge itself. let's say we are able to come to an accord and get enough republicans to pass a cr.

it will go to the senate. i talked to senator john cornyn from texas and he was telling us they passed all of their appropriations bills in the senate prior to them leaving for the august recess. chuck schumer just sat on it for a couple of months and he is saying now he is back to regular order and this is the gold standard of governance. the only gold standard is the gold standard of political posturing and showmanship. they easily could have done better on that side. nobody wants a shutdown, particularly the republican conference. we are trying to get our house in order. we just climbed over $33 trillion in debt. that is a colossal figure. we need to get our financial house in order or we will face dire consequences very soon.

host: how do you get the republican conference in order? headlines, house punts on a key vote as rebellion ranges. mccarthy once vote soon but conservatives are chasing. guest: if i knew the answer to that i might be the speaker. it is challenging. when i go home and i explained to people the republican mindset , i say it is like herding cats. we might be big cats, but at the same time everybody thinks for themselves and i think kevin mccarthy has one of the toughest jobs in the country. we are getting close. i would like to see more physical restraint -- more fiscal restraint. i like that the border security bill was attached to that. i would like to see e-verify added. it was taken out.

kevin mccarthy is trying to get 218 votes. there is an ideological spectrum within each party and you have the mainstream caucus, you have the freedom caucus, and if you start to please this side too much then you start losing people on the side. he has a very difficult job in threading needles and he has to spread out and tried to do that right now. guest: -- host: you said if you knew the answer you would be speaker. guest: not that i wanted. host: you think kevin mccarthy will continue to be speaker? guest: i think he is risen to the occasion in tough circumstances. he has already passed expectations and has done a solid job. i do not know anyone that could do a better job right now. i think we will get there. it may take over the weekend. that would be awful because as a

notre dame grad, notre dame is playing ohio state. i would like us to wrap it up on friday. the republic is more important than even notre dame football and that is saying a lot. guest: you played on the team -- host: you played on the team, correct? guest: i believe in full disclosure. i practiced a lot on the team. the coach is a great man. host: on kevin mccarthy, i don't know if you saw the reporting on a motion to vacate a resolution found in a bathroom under the house floor, one of the reporters on capitol hill sending out pictures of this resolution. apparently matt gaetz name is on the resolution. any thoughts on that? guest: not really. because of the house rules it empowers any member to do a call on the chair. i do not think that is constructive at this.

i told people back home that if we do not have strong conservative leadership -- i would do a call in that chair. i think speaker mccarthy knows that is what he promised. i do not see that as anything constructive. i would rather see us work together. i think matt gaetz is a brilliant guy. he is a friend. i think the country would be better served in the conservative movement would be better served if we work together to find a solution to move forward. host: congressman pat fallon with us until 9:30. his first time on the washington journal taking your calls. phone line split as usual. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. we will also look for your text questions. (202) 748-8003. c-span viewers know we talk about the impeachment in very

later this week on thursday you're a member of the oversight committee. what do you want to find out and what questions do you want to ask and who you want to talk to? guest: in a nutshell is joe biden compromised and is he corrupt? is he a national security risk? selfishly, i want joe biden to be on top of the democratic ticket because i think he is the weakest candidate other than kamala harris that they can field. i do not want to see him removed from office. i swore an oath to the constitution. i think you could teach a three cat college course on what we have found over the last eight months while we have had subpoena power. it is uncomfortable. i did not come to washington to go on any revenge tort that every time we have divided government the president gets impeached. it is our duty to at least investigate this.

i believe from what i have seen, and we can discuss this with specificity, i think the preponderance of evidence is more likely than not that hunter biden was joe biden's bag man and they were involved in peddling access and influence. that brings me no joy. are we at reasonable doubt? i think so. we've not found a smoking gun but we are smelling gunpowder. it is incumbent on us to investigate. when we exhaust this investigation if we cannot reach that standard of reasonable doubt i believe we should move on. if we do reach it, i think we should impeach the president. host: you use the term smoking gun. ken buck from colorado using that term in the op-ed in the washington post. a headline, one disgraceful impeachment does not deserve

another. he says what is missing is the smoking gun that connects joe biden to his son's corruption. guest: i would love nothing more than to visit ken buck for an hour or two and ask him questions about what would you do if you found out these things? he does not sit on the oversight committee. let's look at this historically. watergate. the break-in was in june of 1972. nixon did not reside until august of 1974. they did not find a smoking gun until they started looking. then they found the audiotapes. a quick example would be the president son, while he was vice president, work for burisma, energy giant in ukraine. they were paying him $1 million a year. the ceo of that company -- joe

biden was the point man for ukraine in the obama administration. that is unseemly. according to testimony from devon archer, hunter biden's best friend at the time, who is also making $1 million year on the burisma board, there was a conference call and the ceo was there and devon archer stepped away and hunter said dad they need our support. a couple days later the vice president flies to ukraine and tells the ukrainian government he will withhold $1 billion in aid unless they fire the prosecutor investigating the ceo. the ceo -- the american ambassador to ukraine called him out as one of the poster children for corruption. conventional wisdom is he was a prop guy. he goes ahead and seizes two homes in a plot of land. he gets fired a month later.

then they never investigated again. if you compare that with the fbi informant at the 1023 form the public can read for themselves, the informant has been highly reliable. everything he has told them has checked out. they paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars. he says he was told the bidens will make this thing go away, i paid them each $5 million. when you talk about smoking guns , he also claims he has audiotapes with phone calls, 15 with hunter and two with joe biden and he can show the complex way he pay them through shell companies. if he comes forward with that information, there is your smoking gun. host: let's chat with callers. let's talk with martin. line for democrats. caller: i have some comments for you about a tweet you sent out

about president biden's handling of the hostage situation. i would like to remind you that in 1980 william casey, ronald reagan's campaign manager who went on to be the director of the cia, made a deal with the iranians that if they would release the hostages when reagan took office, he would lift the freeze on iranian assets in american banks and he would do nothing to them at all. i was a senior in college. they pass the word over the intercom the hostages had been released. ronald reagan became a national hero. i did not understand why he did not do anything to punish iran for keeping our people after all of that tough talk during the campaign. when he was asked about he said that is over so i'm not going to talk about it. we got the people out. five years later his people sold guns to the iranians. i would like to hear your comments. host: is the tweet $6 billion

for iran in this prisoner exchange is the latest example of biden and antony blinken's failed leadership on the world stage. is that the one you're referring to? guest: i think probably that is what he was talking about. that is a great question and a fair one. i believe that when you pay off the iranian regime you're are putting future americans in danger because there is money in it. if you seize americans and get $6 billion and their assets are frozen, if they are engaging -- if you're that much of a rogue nation and you are a pariah and meddling throughout the world, soleimani was probably possible for the deaths of over 600 americans. global politics is difficult. i ran as a very large nation and you want conflict if you can. i would not pay off, like the

trade with brittney griner for the merchant of death, that was awful. she was unjustly imprisoned. she also brought hash to russia which is a very bad idea. to trade someone like him encourages the prudent regime -- the vladimir putin regime to take americans because you will get something out of it. if you incentivize something you usually get more of it. host: to chicago, this is tony, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to get your thoughts on something. i think it should be a lot easier for the american people to recall our congressional representatives, especially at times like this when the business of congress to represent our interests has completely grind to a halt, and a lot of the time is being spent

figuring out ways to cut programs that feed people, cut programs that feed pregnant women, cut programs like social security for people like me who are in their 30's. you want to change our benefits down the road. he spent a lot of time also trying to investigate the biden crime family and all of these other things in our interests do not align with any of that. our interests are we are trying to get by. we need more money in our pocket so we can get through the day. our wages have not increased at all. i think that our interests are out of alignment. you're representing the interests of big business and the wealthy. your businesses have gotten half $1 million in ppp loans.

i think it should be a lot easier to pull you guys. host: got your point. give the congressman a chance to respond. guest: the problem is money does not fall from the sky. we are deficit spenders today and we have accrued a $33 trillion debt. at the same time if you're expecting the government to be your savior you will be disappointed. there's not enough money to give people what they need. you talk about programs. the debt is so high. in 10 years half of the federal budget will go to interest on the debt. right now we are spending $400 billion a year just on servicing the debt. it is math.

what we are doing is lying to young people. you mentioned you are in your 30's. folks in their 30's and their 20's will not get the same deal as folks who are getting it now. let's be honest with people. i came to washington to try to fix the republic and help us ensure america's best days are yet to be counted. this is a tough job. i am fine with going back to the private sector. i like making my. i think there is an obligation to serve. we have a great nation. we have a spending problem. for every dollar or every $.80 we spent we are getting a dollars worth of services. the program tony mentioned, if we do not address the fiscal issues those programs will get less and less resources given to them because the debt will gobble everything up and that is the reality.

as far as recalling members, people in the house of representatives like us, we are on two year cycles. we are the easiest ones to get rid of. senators are more difficult. you are talking constitutional amendments which will never happen. i am a big proponent of term limits. i think people should come to 12 years. i do not think you should have folks 30 or 40 years. that would have to be a constitutional amendment. i would love to talk more about spending if there are other callers in the next few minutes. thank you for your question. host: i have plenty of calls for you and less than 10 minutes with you. this is homer in north carolina. republican line. good morning. caller: sir, what proof does the house have that the current president committed crimes of high treason.

none of his relatives can be impeached on him. is this a matter of payback politics rather than anything else? we need to move forward from this and try to cut the spending. quit wasting taxpayer money on political endeavors. guest: believe it or not, members of congress been chewed gum and walk at the same time. we can address our cuts in spending and investigate the president if needed. the proof you mentioned is something i talked about earlier. everything we have found, it never contradicts the other information we have discovered. it always cooperates, which is very troubling. you have the burisma situation

but it compounds after a while. you have a girl who was the first lady of moscow. she was married to the mayor of moscow. this was another guy the american ambassador to russia pointed to to say a very corrupt fellow. the wife wires $3.5 million to one of hunter biden's shell companies and a few months later she gets a meeting with hunter biden and joe biden when he was the vice president. when the russians invaded ukraine and the biden administration put forth a list of oligarchs that were sanctioned, magically she was not on that list. there are so many specific examples like that, like hunter biden talking in private emails where he says dad takes half of my salaries and his business associates referring to joe biden as the big guy who gets

10%. there was a what's app message where he is dealing with the chinese businessman saying my dad is sitting right here. we remember. i think they are smart enough not to be that stupid. they do not want direct payments to the principal, who would be joe biden. it goes through his son. you also have to think about joe biden's thought process in 2014. his political career was over. hillary clinton was running for president. that was the conventional wisdom. he was never going to run again. it was not going to run for president in 2024. they were grabbing with both hands. every time we subpoena bank records we find more money going to the biden family. why were people paying them that much? why did joe biden lied to the american people in 2019 and say he had no idea what his son's business dealings were about never met any of his son's business associate.

that is an out light lie. he was on conference calls with them. he was having dinner with them. he was giving tours of the white house. he was meeting with them at the vice president's residency. if you're not doing anything wrong, come forward. if i were him i would volunteer to give you my bank records because we get to choose -- we get accused of things we do not to. instead they are doing everything they can to fight it and lawyer up. host: this is the line for independence. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: good morning -- guest: good morning, how are you. caller: joe biden was elected vice president in 2008. according to these republicans, according to foxnews, the gripping began in 2009 by his

son. they should not be anything new. drifting has been going on since george washington. what i cannot understand is this. biden left office in 2017. then trump became president. he had two attorneys general. one was jeff sessions and one was william barr and they both looked into every note and cranny of this alleged drifting -- this election grifting by hunter biden and whoever else and what did they come up with? a goose egg. they came up with nothing. if this horrible illegal grifting was going on the sessions justice department or the barr justice department

would've found something? host: got your point. guest: i will give you an example to answer your questions. the attorney general's themselves do not do the investigating. they are relying on federal agencies. we can now all read the fd 1023 form which is a form the fbi fills out when an informant comes forward. it might be full of garbage or it might be completely accurate information. there is an fd 1023 form from a highly reliable source. what happened is the fbi never told anyone. they put it in a restricted subfile which meant when it was referred to david weiss in delaware to investigate hunter, only the agents that took the call from their informant even knew about it. when david weiss gets assigned

to investigate hunter, they do not know the fd 1023 exists. the fbi never told us. the only reason we found it out is because we had back channels. then senator grassley from iowa said fbi, to get this 1023 form about hunter biden and burisma and they said, magically they found it. they did not want to give it to us. it was not classified. they wanted us to come to the fbi building. i read it at the time and was heavily redacted. finally chuck grassley released into the public so you can read it. it is damming information and it does corroborate a lot of what we have already known. when you have folks that are not cooperating in doing their jobs it will be very difficult to get to the truth. we thought if we were having this discussion about it months ago before we had subpoena power, i could've told you with

certainty the biden family received $1 million in foreign money. now i can tell you it is closer to $30 million because we have subpoena power. if we never had the majority we would never have discovered those things. host: last call. albert in new jersey. line for republicans. caller: good morning. they let the tax thing on the biden son statue of limitations expired. i wonder if he paid any taxes -- i know you have all of this evidence. all of these $30 million, if you do not pay taxes you get in trouble for that. all the kids got all this money in their accounts. how does that -- everybody in

america should see that. thank you for keeping up the good work. get the word out more and more so the american public sees what is really going on in our country. thank you. host: congressman. guest: thank you for the promotion to the senate. there are two things. is joe biden compromised and corrupt? did he sell influence and access? and also did the doj and other agencies protect his son. we have myriad -- i would love to talk about that -- we have whistleblowers that said that was the case. let's talk about what we know. hunter biden did not pay taxes on $8.5 million. on the statute of limitation, folks drag their feet, the

statute of limitations has lapsed. that does not mean hunter biden cannot pay the taxi a. he can do that. he is choosing not to. if i were president the united states and my son for that i would say get your nickels and pennies together because you are paying the taxes. if you or me or anyone did not pay taxes on $8.5 million, we are going to jail, just like what wesley snipes did. he was in a list celebrity at the time. it is unfortunate this happened. we cannot have a two tier justice system. if we do the country will divide more. if you have the statue of freedom on top of the dome, it says three words, e pluribus unum. if we do not have equal protection under the law we do not have a functional republic. that is what we are after. if we exhaust all resources and

we do not find the smoking gun i will come back on the show and say this investigation is over, we did not find what we needed to prove reasonable doubt and we will move on. if we do, then we have to move forward with impeachment. host: would be happy to have you back on down the road. we can talk about the investigation, we can talk about whether a promotion to the senate is really a promotion. not every member of congress feels that way. pat fallon is a republican from the fourth district of texas. we will let you get to work on capitol hill. guest: thanks. god bless. host: after the break is our open forum. letting you lead the discussion. any public policy or political issue. the phone lines are yours. start calling in. we will get to those calls after the break. ♪

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>> washington journal continues. host: at 10 :00 we will bring you to the house of representatives. they will be in at 10:00 this morning and noon for legislative business. on c-span3 at 10:00, attorney general merrick garland will testify before the oversight committee on capitol hill. he is expected to be asked about indictments against former president trump and expected to talk about hunter biden. you can watch live. that is before the house judiciary committee today at 10:00 on c-span3. c-span now is the free video app and c-span.org. on c-span2 at 10:00 the senate

is in. you can watch gavel-to-gavel coverage. first votes expected at 12:15 today. that is situational awareness on capitol hill. now it is our open forum. any public policy issue, the phone lines are open. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independence -- independents (202) 748-8002. helen is from california. democrats line. caller: i wanted to talk to the congressman because at the start of his interview he was false and lied about the devon archer transcript. there was no conference call of hunter -- i guess he is presuming it was president biden. that is just a lie. the devon archer transcript,

both archer and locker said how when president biden was around his son never talked business. they were emphatic. what the congressman said was false. as far as the money, the devon archer transcript explains all the wire transfers and everything. that money that goes to the children was hunter biden's money. there was not any payoff. that was his money being transferred from one account to another account. that is explained in the transcripts. it is 140 pages long. it is kind of slow. people should read it because it is the truth. what he said was just false. as far as the irs whistleblowers , that was also a joke for everybody to have to watch. all of the complaints happened that went on happened when trump was president under bill barr

and it was all the republican side, the slow walking. they wanted to use it against biden for the election. obviously they waited until the moment to do it which is now. as far as the russian oligarchs wife, that was money she invested in hunter biden's business that they later returned because the deal fell through. that was not any payoff they cap. it was money they would do for her. the deal fell through and they got the money back. everything there accusing the president of is just wrong. it is ridiculously wrong because they are putting a full information. host: that is helen in california. the devon archer interview transcript sitting down with the oversight committee investigators, the transcripts

of those questions that happened back in january released in august by the oversight committee. it is 141 pages. available at oversight. house.gov. this is a bit -- this is jim in newington. good morning. caller: i had a question. just like with president trump -- the apartment of justice can bring rico charges against the bidens and family members because it is an ongoing enterprise? wanted that extend the statute of limitations on the tax charges that have already expired for hunter? host: not an expert on statutes of limitations. certainly a topic we can delve into more in an upcoming segment. caller: this is harry -- host:

this is harry in north carolina. independent. caller: good morning. i have one question for the congressman. tommy tuberville, what is the republican party doing about him? one man holding up everything and making the country unsafe. how can you stand there and be worried about these phony investigations? do you believe the election was rigged? come on. get over bill out -- get tommy tuberville out and do something for the country. host: on his hold on move these military promotions. the argument he will make is the senate can move these one at a time and have individual debates. he is holding up moving them in larger blocks. the caller hung up. this is gary in new hampshire. caller: i was watching earlier and i was listening to the congressman from texas.

i cannot get through. i wanted to question him. i want to know why is republican-controlled house not governing this country like they are supposed to? they are elected by the people of this country to govern this country like it should be and get the issues of this country straightened out. why are they concentrating on all of this petty stuff? trump did wrong. you should pay the consequences just like anybody else in this country. host: what are the issues you wish congress would focus on? caller: first of all, they need to stop there petty baloney and get the spending straightened out so the government does not shut down. what about homelessness in this country? unemployment? food insecurity? this is the stuff they need to concentrate on.

the hell with all of this petty stuff. it is not consequential. host: this is nancy in north carolina. republican. good morning. caller: thank you so much. please stop funding the nih. animals are baking to get out of the cages. the experiments prove nothing. please let the animals go free. stop funding the nih. please help. host: that is nancy in north carolina. any public policy issues you want to bring up it is your time to do so. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. the house said to gavel in in 15 minutes. this is tina out of pennsylvania. independent. good morning.

caller: thanks for taking my call. i am an avid fan. every morning i sit and i listen. i call in sometimes. lately i sit here with tears in my eyes because i am hearing a nation that is broken. the lady earlier, republicans not doing anything in congress. they cannot do anything when they are getting blocked by the democrats in the senate. we need to put all of this stuff behind us. we need to go back before 2020. we need to come together. it is a very sad day in america. we had a former president who got impeached overlies, proven lies. we have a current president who is an inquiry, who knows what will come out? we the people are responsible

when we step into that booth. if it takes you getting on your knees to pray to figure it out, we have to do something. otherwise we will become a socialist nation. everybody talking about homelessness and people not having x, y, and z. the americans are being pushed out by the illegal immigrants. you have new york bursting at the seams. i was in a very rural area of pennsylvania. there is nowhere for them to go here. it needs to stop. we need to stop enabling these other countries. we need to put our foot down and be the strong americans that we are. stop letting one party or one person tell us. we have the constitution for a reason. we need to follow it. that is our need to say.

god bless america. please come together. we are americans. it does not matter your color, your creed, your sexuality, you are an american. host: this is matthew out of north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. to the previous caller, i agree. the former president wants to throughout the constitution just to be reinstated. i am for getting the spending figured out and i do not think all of these little petty things in congress -- matt gaetz,

marjorie taylor greene up there dictating everything. has the speaker held hostage to do their bidding. i think they need to get back the real issues in america. host: that is matthew in north carolina. on the former president and the constitution, two topics you bring up. this story from politico. democrats in california are trying you novel approach to remove former president trump from the ballot. nine california lawmakers wrote a letter to the attorney general arguing the former president is not eligible to be on the ballot because he incited in insurrection on january 6. the move comes as several lawsuits have been filed to trump upstate balance across the country.

the attorney general could use his standing as california's top law-enforcement enforcement officer to expedite a court ruling on the matter. suits like this that have been brought in other states stem from the 14th amendment, section three of the 14th amendment, something we have talked about on "washington journal." a segment from this past week on that if you want to look into that issue. 10 minutes left before the house at 10:00 eastern. on c-span3 it will be the hearing with merrick garland. you can flip over there if you want to watch that. c-span2 the senate at 10:00 a.m.. this is larry in missouri. republican. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: doing well. caller: good. i just want a policy. we keep hearing the word woke.

can somebody in the republican party or anybody tell us what the definition -- the actual definition they are using for woke? in any type of politics or anything, people keep saying the same words over and over and over. then people start to believe it. if you ask those people what does that mean, they cannot tell you. why can't somebody corner these republican congressman and congress ladies and ask them what is the definition of woke? it is confusing to people. i appreciate the call. thank you and have a great day. host: that is larry out of

missouri. this is ronald out of oyster bay, new york. independent. good morning. are you with us? i think we lost the caller. just on that last call, a segment from c-span's book tv he might be interested in watching on the issue of woke. vivek ramaswamy on his book "woke, inc.: inside corporate america's social justice scam." he sat down in august 2021. you can see him before he announced his run for president and watch it on c-span.org. this is karen in beaver, oklahoma. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i am concerned since when the government shutdowns come our

veteran warriors, many of them who have been drafted,, home, and the v.a. works very hard without pay to train families and get them back home. when they are home, as my husband was, he died a year and a half ago after 35 years of carriage, the wife looks after them and takes care of them. when they are dead and gone her money is nonexistent except for half of it. that is quite a rigmarole to go through to get that going. when it is going, such as as for myself, i find many neighbors on social security who do not have enough money to eat. do not have enough money for themselves. many elderly people are taking in their own grandchildren because of money concerns. these are seniors. they need that income to feed themselves. where i lived before in texas, the meals on wheels offered a meal for their little pants.

maybe they have one or two little pets. they feed them their food. these are all different things. to keep them healthy they brought a bit of food. they are very good at keeping up with feeding people. when the government shutdown happens who pays the incomes to keep our income coming? it happens that many federal buildings the claims officers processing claims for veterans and their families work for free. no money. i do not know about any retro pay coming for them when i get back on the job. you are asking our people to work for nothing. remember our social security borrowed from congress many times. this is a terrible fright to them to think the government shutdown and affect their pay.

host: this is a story from military.com looking into veterans health care during the shutdown. v.a. facilities and patient care expected to continue during a shutdown. you can read that at military.com. the author on that story, tiffany theissen and jim asper delving into that issue more. it is a segment we will have in the near future on "washington journal." we always do as we approach these shutdowns and what does and does not stay open. this is wes in jackson, new jersey. republican. your next. caller: thank you for taking my call. instead of everyone complaining

about what is going on politically every time there is an election, less than half of america gets out and vote. everybody is crying about this or about that. don't you think it is time people get out and vote and have something to say about what is going on? second of all, i had an idea. a lot of these people coming through the border, the men and women, can't we give them work as far as cleaning up some of the roadsides like they used to do in chain gangs? shane's forgetting people to work for the alumni. that is all i have to say.

start complaining -- stop complaining and start doing something. host: this was a report from this last july looking at turnout rates from the last elections. the last three word three of the highest of their types in decades. about 66% of the voting eligible population turned out for the 2020 presidential election, the highest rate for any national election since 1900. the 20 1800, 49% turnout, the highest rate for a midterm. even the 2022 election turnout was slightly lower at 46%, exceeded that of all midterm elections since 1970. pew research.org to check out that report. five but it's before the house comes in. we will take you there. lafayette, indiana. terry.

independent. caller: good morning, america. i am very concerned about this country. the great reset talking about how the 2030 we will own nothing and be happy. biden is under his rule and so is the canadian president. some other countries president. a bunch of rich oligarchs planning on making this country communist. we need to stop clouse schwab. host: that is terry in indiana. democrat in texas. good morning. caller: i will try to do two things. back in the 1980's -- the act that was repudiated by the

reagan administration. it was basically level the playing field where both political parties agreed upon facts. our issue is apparently we do not have what is right. all of america going back to the 1980's, the fairness debate that was not signed by ronald reagan. during that time you had the rise of cnn, msnbc, and fox news all rose up in the early 1980's because the fix was in to not renew the fairness doctrine act. that gets us back onto the role of facts. host: this is ezra in illinois. republican. good morning. caller: the problem we are having in illinois is we are the first state to have the cashless

bail and it is making things horrible within the last couple of days. the other problem we have in our state's they are trying to take away all of our firearms. we basically are losing our second amendment in illinois every day. we cannot even have semi automatic guns anymore unless you register them. i am afraid that is the first step to confiscation. we really need help in this state. thank you. host: donald in the tar heel state out of raleigh. independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling in response to the guy who said he wanted somebody to provide a definition for the term woke. woke is an adjective word derived from african-american

vernacular meeting to be alert to racial prejudice and discrimination. it has been in the black community for a long time. it gain more prominence in the 2010s and came to encompass a broader awareness of social inequality such as sexism and lgbt rights and whatnot. the maga americans use it now as a derogatory term. they use it as a derogatory slang to put down people who empathize with racism, sexism, and stuff like that. i want to say this. they are so in tune with what the maga people want to do that i would bet you if i could get

one maga american leader, one of the so-called conservative republican leaders to say the word ookie bookie i bet within five days every third maga american that calls in would say that word. he is trying to ookie bookie re-think. host: donald is our last caller. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00. we now take you to the house floor for live gavel-to-gavel coverage this wednesday morning.