coming up on "washington journal," we will take your calls and comments live. then nebraska republican congress don bacon talks about the looming federal spending deadline and the war in ukraine. also, a new york democratic congressman gives his perspective on the deadline to fund the federal government and talks about widespread legalization of sports betting. then, more unexpected announcement from the federal reserve about the first interest rate cut in more than four years. "washington journal" starts now. ♪ host: good morning, wednesday, september 18, 2024. the house will return at 10:00 p.m. eastern today. we are with you until then on

the "washington journal." we begin on campaign 2024, concerns about heated political rhetoric. we are asking if you think the campaign rhetoric in this election has gone too far. phone lines as usual by political party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. you can catch up with us on social media, facebook at facebook.com/cspan or on x at @cspanwj. a very good wednesday morning. in the wake of another attempted assassination of donald trump, charges and counter charges over whose words might be to blame and debate stage controversies that have led to school closures and bomb threats. the rhetoric has been in the news. a few examples from various news

websites today. this from abc news, trump says biden harris rhetoric to blame for florida assassination attempt. washington post opinion section, should democrats tone down the rhetoric on trim? vanity fair, jd vance claims democrats are the ones who need to tone down the rhetoric even though trump regularly provokes political violence. ap headline, harris contempt trumps rhetoric and says voters should make sure he cannot have that microphone again. this from fox news, scandals, failed assassinations, and political rhetoric, both sides go high and low. rhetoric being the key word here. we are asking you, has the political rhetoric gone too far in campaign 2024? phone lines to call in and looking for your comments on facebook and x. a few comments from viewers already this morning saying,

yes, when democrats abuse the media spotlight and openly use rhetoric that an opposing candidate is a threat to the world, the willingness to avoid violence against others is irresponsible and, in my opinion, purposely criminal incitement, and they should be charged and prosecuted. that is darren on facebook. ask the children of springfield, ohio, about tighten security in schools due to despicable racist rhetoric from jd vance and donald trump. political rhetoric has brainwashed 95% of voters who believe the lies, i am voting libertarian for president. a few of your comments already this morning. phone lines are open for you to call in. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001.

independents, (202) 748-8002. we will begin in maryland with patrick, line for independents. what are your thoughts on the political rhetoric this cycle? caller: thank you for taking my call, and i appreciate c-span, longtime listener, first-time caller. i want to say that, if a person -- blaming a person for their political rhetoric being the reason that they keep getting shot at is like blaming a woman in her bikini for the reason that she gets sexually assaulted. the person that has the right and the freedom of speech, he has the right to say what he wants without being violently assaulted, the same way a woman has the right to walk around

with whatever she wants to and not get physically assaulted. i think blaming the rhetoric and victim-blaming is disingenuous, insulting. this guy has children and grandchildren that have to see people publicly try to assassinate her grandfather. and one side of the aisle thinks that sometimes it is ok, and to even come on this particular program to praise that. and i do not think that sentiment would be shared on the others out of the aisle. and i am an independent. and that is what draws me away from the democratic party. host: that is patrick in maryland. eric, democrat, also in maryland, kensington. good morning. caller: good morning.

i just want to say, look, half my friends are republicans, mega trump people, the other half are democratic liberals. i am sitting in between. i agree on both policies. but i will say, sitting in the basement of my buddy's house in 2015 and 2016, donald trump started with the rhetoric. i think if you go back in history and look at mussolini or hitler's speeches and you replace jew with liberal or tranee, they will have a similar flavor. three times in the debate he said, if you vote for kamala harris, it will be world war iii. both sides have said very bad stuff. but i have to say, 2015 is when i heard trump really start this negative, negative, hostile, like, you are all going to die if you do not vote for him, kind of rhetoric. and if jfk can be assassinated,

martin luther king, abraham lincoln, ronald reagan shot at but not killed -- thank you -- certainly donald trump can be shot at, too. host: barbara in knoxville, tennessee, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i think they rhetoric has gone too far. i am a registered republican. our side has really gotten nasty. also, the democrats are starting to do the same. before that, they would kind of keep their mouth shut, but now it is all out. i think it has gone too far. people need to try to go for the policies and find out what they are and shut their mouth and vote for who they want to and just go on about our business. host: barbara, do you think it will only get worse between now and election day? caller: yes, i do. i really do. host: barbara in tennessee.

this is eric in maryland, independent. caller: good morning, pedro. thank you for having me. i am an independent, and i have voted both in the past for republican and democrat. it is really strange to hear the republican complain about the rhetoric when donald trump, when he started in politics, everything about him has been demonizing the other. so it is whatever he has sowed. people make their choices. it is not the fault of the democrat, if the two people who tried to kill trump did it. there are even register republicans, that is what people

are forgetting. so trump blaming the democrats for the political violence, i am like, this is hypocritical. host: that is eric in port tobacco, maryland. this is from today's usa today, headline, trump decries the rhetoric while his own lies terrorize an ohio city. this focuses on what we have figured out so far from the two would-be assassins. the 58-year-old suspect in this case appears to be a net whose politics are all over the place, vocal supporter turned critic of trump who is passionate about defending ukraine and its war with russia. in july, the attempt in pennsylvania, the gunman was a registered republican and his motives remain unclear, under investigation. the writer calls throughout --

says threat to democracy, that label is not hyperbolic. that is from today's usa today. nathan in franklin, indiana, republican. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. you know, facts are facts. people need to know what they are voting for. if you google trump's testimony in the eugene carol case, you'll find that trump, under sworn testimony, said he could assault your wife, your daughter, your granddaughters because of who he is. that is not rhetoric, that is sworn testimony. and just as he assaults ladies, he has assaulted the constitution of the united

states. he has assaulted the republic to which i pledge allegiance to. people need to know that. that is not rhetoric. wendy -- we need to know what we are voting for. host: i assume you are a republican who is not voting for donald trump this cycle? caller: i have been a republican all my life. i voted for donald trump in 2020 . i did not vote for him in 2016, but i have never in my life voted for a democrat. but i cannot vote for someone that assaults the republic. i pledge allegiance to the republic every morning. how can i go back on my word to this republic for someone that wrote his name in, tried to overthrow several states, eliminate their votes, and right in his name on fake ballots?

host: what was it about donald trump in 2020 that made you vote for him? caller: like i said, it was ignorance. i was so disgusted after 20 16th that i went into blackout. i did not listen to any news other than the pandemic news. plus, a lot has happened since 2020. he is a convict. we have had cases that have come to fruition, the eugene carol case, we know these are facts now. if you pay any attention to the news, you know these facts. host: that is nathan in indiana. jd vance was speaking at a victory dinner, freedom coalition event in atlanta, georgia, and talked about the rhetoric this cycle. this is what jd vance had to say. [video clip]

sen. vance: i do think we should take this opportunity to call for the reduction in the ridiculous and inflammatory political rhetoric coming from too many corners of our politics. [applause] look, we can disagree with one another and debate one another, but we cannot tell the american people that one candidate is a fascist and if he is elected, it is going to be the end of american democracy. we cannot, as a person affiliated with kamala harris has said, that we need to eliminate donald j. trump, a new york democratic congressman has said that in the past. if you tell the american people that this person is the end of democracy, if you tell the american people that this person needs to be eliminated, most of them, thank god, are going to ignore you, but some crazy person is going to take matters into their own hands and actually listen to the crazy

rhetoric that you're putting out there. and i know it is popular on a lot of corners and the left to say that we have a both sides problem. i am not going to say we are always perfect, not going to say conservatives always get things exactly right, but you know the big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill kamala harris in the last couple of months, and two people now have tried to kill donald trump in the last couple of months. i would say that is pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. somebody's going to get hurt by it. host: jd vance in atlanta yesterday. the press secretary as to respond to jd vance at the white house press conference yesterday. this is what she had to say. [video clip] >> do you have any reaction to senator vance's comments in which he noted that the difference between republicans and democrats is that no other -- no one has tried to

assassinate vice president harris. >> you know, again, going to be mindful, obviously he is a candidate, but when you are a national leader and you have a community that looks up to your leadership and you have a job where you are supposed to make people's lives better, where you are supposed to do the thing that is right on behalf of not just the american people but on behalf of this country, people interested you to do just that and trust in you to make decisions that will move this country forward to make it the great country that it is. and when you have that type of language out there, it is dangerous. it is dangerous. because people look up to that particular national leader, and

they listen to you when you are a national leader. and when you make comments like that, all it does is create -- opens an opportunity for people to listen to you and potentially take you very seriously. host: the press secretary yesterday from the white house briefing room. taking your phone calls, asking, has the political rhetoric on too far this cycle? democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. nathaniel out of illinois, democrat. you are next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to say i have been watching c-span for over 25, 30 years every morning. i am now retired, but i used to watch it before i left out to go to work everyday.

i just want to say that i am a black man, and i am an american. but i happen to be black. some of us are so sick and tired of this back-and-forth dog and pony show that is being presented, everyday stuffing this stuff down our throats, making us hate each other. we are americans. you go for whatever person that you want to vote for, fine. but running around the country, calling people names, putting people down, talking about they are stupid this or that, i do not know about you people, but i am sick of it. i wish the election was tomorrow so we could get by this stuff and get going. whatever the count is, i am willing to go along with it.

i am not a trump man. i have been a democrat all my life. but back years ago, it was always a check and balance. not all democrats are angels and not all republicans are devils. we need to come together and get this stuff over with. i am so sick of it, everyday trump, harris, trump, harris. every day, all negative. this man running around the country calling people stupid, dumb, this and that. they are scared of them. nobody wants to stand up to this man. and the republicans are definitely back boneless. they know that this man is evil, racist, and all the rest of this stuff. nobody is putting these labels on him, he is telling you what he is and what he want to do. and some people are so stupid.

do you really believe that the groceries are high, everything is high, and just because trump comes in office, they going to lose all of that money? it is greed. got nothing to do with democrat or republican, it is greed, straight up greed. look at everything that you need in your life from the grocery store everyday. it is sky high. stop buying it. stop buying it. that is all you got to do, stop buying it. in the immigration stuff, why aren't they going after the businesses that are hiring these people? why aren't they doing that. all they doing just talking about the people. why aren't they going after the company hiring these people's? because they are going to these countries, telling them to come here, and the people that you think are not telling them to come here are right down there

in the countries telling them to come up here and get these jobs. host: that is nathaniel in illinois. this is doug and the buckeye state, independent peer to we are talking about political rhetoric this cycle. caller: it is ridiculous. donald trump is the biggest idiot ever out there. this beautiful country, 240 eight years, we have had a democracy. now this guy comes along and says he wants to be a dictator and there will be a bloodbath if he loses. his people are going to be the bloodbath. they are going to die if they do not watch what they are doing. they are not called maga for nothing, means more rounds against great american. host: that is doug. this is sony a, republican. good morning. caller: morning. i have been watching the show for a long time. i am 84 years old, and i am so sick and tired of what has been going on in our country verso

many years. they never accepted trump to begin with, and this rhetoric started way back when obama came into be president. it is just ridiculous. the people of america have much more smarts than our news people are giving us credit for. it has got to stop. so sickening everyday, trump, trump, trump. let's get on with it. let's accept to they vote for for president and go on with our lives. but the sad thing is, it hasn't stopped. it hasn't stopped since obama came into office. so thank you for listening to me. and america, let's get back together with love and peace. host: that is sonia. this is paula, upper marlboro, maryland, line for democrats. caller: good morning.

i want to say that, unfortunately, i do not understand how people don't think a former calling for a bloodbath if he does not win is not harmful rhetoric. this man has been harmful from the day he started running for office, from the things he said about women, the way he response to national events that happen, with his lack of care for the american people. i do not understand how people do not see that he has caused his own bed, and now he is lying in it. the people who have attacked him, tried to take him out, have been his own people, registered republicans. they are not democrats. we have to start looking at the truth, that his own people are coming for him. they voted for him. and this is the person trying to take him out, not the democrats. it is his own people, because of his own rhetoric that he has spouted.

he has incited a riot on our capitol that never happened before, on january 6. host: paula, can i come back to your bloodbath comment? that is certainly one -- you are not the first person to bring it up today. going back to when he made that comment, factcheck.org going back to march 16, and they do the full quote of what donald trump said. he said, china is now building a couple of massive plants where they are going to build the cars in mexico, and they think they are going to sell those cars into the united states with no taxes at the border. that me tell you something to china, if you're listening, president xi, and you and i are friends but he understands the way ideal, the big monster car manufacturing plants were building in mexico now, if you think you are going to get that, you're going to not hire

americans and sell cars to us? no, we will put 100% tariffs on cars coming across the line, and you will not be able to sell the cars. if i do not get elected, it will be a bloodbath. atill be the least of it. it will be a bloodbath for the country. that will be the least of it, but they are not going to sell those cars. does that change your view of the bloodbath comment? host: if it is not towards americans, but the way i see it, with bloodbath -- he has said other rhetoric towards what happens if he does not get elected, not just that comment. but i will say this, it means trump is against capitalism, and i do not understand why a man who makes his own products in mexico and overseas and has products made in china and mexico is starting such foolish rhetoric about that. that actually makes no sense. he also employs people in

mexico. that makes it even worse to me. because it is hypocrisy at its finest. this man is a supporter of capitalism, and he wants to stop china from doing it. so when it comes to bloodbath, i will say this, in the context of that, yes, it does change that, but it does not change together rhetoric he has spouted towards americans and does not change the fact that he does not care that schools are getting bombed -- getting bomb calls do to him and the vice president's rhetoric. he does not know anything about that, he just knows about immigrants. so much he said last week -- host: on those ohio schools. this is the story from the new york times, ohio's governor is now sending state troopers to help protect students in springfield, children arriving at school yesterday morning to state troopers deployed by the governor after a wave of bomb

scares rattled the community. governor mike dewine announced on monday he is sitting the state police to reassure that the schools are state and avoid evacuations of threatened schools that have disrupted learning over the country. the threats began last week after donald trump mentioned springfield during the presidential debate, repeating the baseless rumor that haitian immigrants were abducting and eating household pets. from the new york times this morning, that is the picture that goes along with the story. this is martha in indiana, republican. good morning. caller: good morning, john. yes, i think there rhetoric is terrible, but i think it is more than just the politicians. i put my tv on "the view" one day, enjoy -- and joy behar said somebody ought to shoot him. how many people watch that show? and the media, one little thing

he says, they put it out there when they do not hear the whole thing. like that i want to be a dictator, no, he said he did not want to be a dictator, and then sarcastically, he goes, oh, yeah, i want to be a dictator day one because i want to close the border and start drilling. but they take every little thing he says and make it into something that -- i cannot even talk to a democrat, and i am 75 years old. i have six children, eight grand children, and i have never in my life seen anything like this going on in our country. host: that is martha in indiana. staying in the hoosier state, this is margot, line for democrats. caller: good morning. how is everyone this morning? two words. divide and conquer. two other words. donald trump. let's start with donald trump.

everyone knows who donald trump is. the question you have to ask yourself, who are you? i am the type of person that i gravitate towards people who are a mirror within myself. same sort of morals, values, you know, just the basic thing of being patriotic, an american, afro-american. in the divide and conquer part is this man is divided. families, people who work together, republicans. he has divided asians, mexicans, divided every nationality. divide and conquer is a term that came about in history.

that is another place called the library. people would go there, you could research things, categories of history. you do not have to have phd's or any of that. just look at things and see kind of right from wrong. i know a lot of people throughout my life that liked donald trump before donald trump was even donald trump, but i never followed them because the views they had and everything were not in line with me. but they had a right to be an american, to go to school, and all this. i see were democrats allow everyone to have the freedom to engage in the things they want. donald trump, it is like an invitation you cannot go here, cannot go there. my parents grew up in the south,

black and white drinking fountains, separate dining rooms, going in the back door and everything, you know. but i find other racists are much more engaged and i am love with themselves. nobody looks at what color they are, and it seems like people of color ner t color. host: patty is in truth or consequences, new mexico, republican. caller: good morning. well, i do not know -- i have been listening to these conversations. before i start talking, i hope it makes some sense. this is the first time i have ever voted in my life, i am 78 years old. i have been listening to everything, because i am a true american. american. i am not a white american, not a

black american. i am an american that would fight for this country. and if the american people would remember that we are the boss of these people that are up there lying to us and if they will see who is lying to us, look at the media. study the media, find out who owns it. look at murdoch, he owns fox. two terms he was behindmp. now because trump did not buddy up to him, now he is against him. cnn, that is the disney world. put it on cnn, turner. they are against trump. look, jane fonda said on that tape, they are all against us. it is the media. the media is fitting as all those lies. we don't know what to think anymore. but this is all i am asking and praying that you will think, go out and look at what is happening to your country.

look at all the people that are coming across. look with your eyes instead of the lies that are being told by all these people on tv. host: that is patty in truth or consequences. this is cheryl i in lancaster, california. independent. caller: good morning. as far as rhetoric goes, it scares me. i am an independent voter, first of all, so i can go either way. this time i wanted to hear the democratic side. i would have voted that way had she given herself an opportunity to convince me, which the rhetoric is what scared me away because i did not even watch the rest of the thing, i was so scared of my whole country, it just made me so -- i just had to walk away from it. and i did not see it, but i do know, had trump done anything, it would have been all over the -- which, like i said, i am independent and will be fair.

i wish that kamala would have represented herself as far as, instead of wasting time, it makes me feel as if my time is no good, not worth it, and the rhetoric is coming from that. i felt it from her side, and it is sad because i wanted to really hear her position on some things. she has some experience. something that is going for her would be her experience in the big welfare system or she was in charge of it. prosecutorial -- she has been in good positions. if you know anything about her, you know that. host: got your point. this is solomon in silver spring, maryland, independent. caller: yes, good morning, and thank you so much for this program.

i would like to do a disclaimer, i do not vote in this country. i said independent because i come from another country. but i love this country so much. it has educated me. i am an international. yes, i do believe in what all you are saying that rhetoric is extreme on both sides. but this is what i want to say, the body works from the brain. the brain is our leader from both parties. the body of those people that follow those leaders, so when someone say something like go back in your s-h- you know what i am talking about, that is not so good, because people are going to follow that.

they begin to train the people that follow, the people that vote for president in this amazing great country are not owning this country. we should know true, by the time any candidate is vetted, gone to that level where they have to be citizens, so what i am saying as an independent, i call myself outside or inside, i come from countries where people win by bad rhetoric in the wrong data, stuff like that. we love this country. this country is the leader. we do not want this country to go into the chaotic side we have seen in developing countries where i come from. host: solomon is the final call in this first segment of the "washington journal." stick around. more to talk about, including two members of congress coming up. congress back in session today at 10:00 a.m. eastern and both the house and senate. next is don bacon, a republican from nebraska.

later, democrat paul tonko of new york. we will be right back. ♪ >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfettered view of what is cap -- what is happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearings of u.s. congress. white house events with more campaigns and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling information for c-span tv networks and c-span radio and a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. scan c-span.org the qr code c-span.org/to downloaded for free today or visitc-span c-span.org/no c-spannow.

>> "washington journal continues . host: congressman bacon, centrist, joins us. we have asked, has the rhetoric on too far for campaign 2024? how would you answer that question? guest: one side is like if you go for this person, democracy is over. the other side says if you vote for the other person, it is an attack on democracy. both sides are demonizing each other to appoint where they get radicalized. you can see it with the two attempted shootings of president trump. i see evidence on both sides of it. i think we should stick to the issues, talk about what is important to us, why our view is better than the other view. it should not happen to the degree it has been happening. host: what should members of

congress like yourself be doing? is there a vote in these final less than 50 days until the election? guest: first of all, we start with ourselves, so i try to focus on the issues that are important. in my race, i am the better candidate, but i will not demonize my opponent and say it will be the end of the universe at this person is elected. we have had elections since 1789 , and our country will continue, good or bad, regardless of who we elect. let's not exaggerate the consequences of our opponents be elected and focus on why we are the better candidate. if we focus on why we are the better candidate, we get better results. host: what is important to you is support of ukraine. i know you were there. where did you go and who did you speak to? guest: i went to kyiv and kharkiv. i saw president zelenskyy. i heard his views, and i can

tell you he is definitely in charge, i was impressed with his leadership. i saw the speaker of defense, director of intelligence, equivalent to our national security person, like our equivalent of jake sullivan. what i heard loud and clear was, america, stop putting restrictions on russian targets in russia that are attacking ukraine. for example, russian bombers are bombing with glide bombs ukrainian cities, hitting over 280 hospitals thus far. yet, ukrainians are not allowed to attack the airfields of the bombers are coming from. this comes from president biden and jake sullivan. it is wrong. we need to provide better f-16 construct -- instruction to their pilots that have been qualified. we need more quantity and quality of weapons to withstand

the attack that ukraine is getting on the eastern part of the country. i heard that loud and clear. i the senior military leadership. -- i saw the senior military leadership. i was deployed in the middle east, and i saw the weight of the battle on these guys. the losses i have felt in ukraine, you can see it in their eyes. they will fight for their freedom, their independence, their heritage, and their language. and you can see the resolve in them. i also went to the front lines and worked with the junior peo ple there and saw their resolve, but you could also see the weight of the battle. they have all lost friends and family. the intensity and the pain was visible, but i clearly saw their resolve. i talked to a young lady in her 20's who was a sniper that had killed 10 russians.

and i talked to this young lady, and her selflessness, her innocence, yet she was fighting to the death for her family. it was a couple days, and i come home a lot smarter and wiser and understand what is going on there much better. this has been a war of drones. there's a thousand drones flying over the battlefield ever single day. ricotta and since -- reconnaissance drones and drones delivering food and water to the troops. americans need to be attuned to what is going on. host: you mentioned national security advisor jake sullivan, and you mentioned him in a tweet when you got back, saying jake sullivan is the equivalent of vietnamese era robert mcnamara that tied the hands of the u.s. military with rules of engagement that led to a stalemate and begged defeat with loss of life. when you hear from the

administration about rules of engagement when they're asked about it, there is concern about escalation, about tax -- attacks into russia leading to further escalation of the battle, concern about the use of tactical weapons by russia. what is your response to those concerns? guest: jake sullivan has been the architect of our weakness in ukraine, weakness with israel and hamas and hezbollah, and weakness with the afghanistan pullout. it is the catalyst for what has gone wrong the last three and a half years in our national security situation in their country. we are seeing weakness in our country, and other countries are taking advantage of it. putin always threatens to escalate and sabre rattles, talking nuclear attacks on ukraine. bottom line, we are not going to use nuclear weapons, and we are not going to put u.s. troops in ukraine. but we have an obligation to help ukraine withstand this

invasion that russia has done, and invasion of choice, a war of choice, but it is all o russia. if we lose this fight with ukraine, it is going to really hurt our national security interests in america. we will have to spend more money in nato to defend the eastern flank of nato. the administration is being bullied by putin and not doing what needs to happen, and we should call them out for it. that is what i am trying to do. ukraine needs our weapons, they need quality and quantity, and let's stop the bullying. i am a republican, i come from ronald reagan, dwight eisenhower, and believe in peace through strength and believe in standing up to a bully when they invade a neighbor. host: i want to get to calls because we only have you for about 15 minutes. i want to invite viewers.

democrats, republicans, independents, phone lines as usual. yesterday, major attack in lebanon, some nine killed, 2000 more hurt across lebanon. it has not officially been traced back to israel, but every expert interviewed so far seems to think israel is the only one with the technology and ability to do that. what are your thoughts on this attack across lebanon? guest: israel brilliantly attacked 3000 hezbollah terrorists with these pagers. obviously, some brilliant work of intelligence and special forces operations, but they just targeted 3000 hezbollah terrorists. there is sub collateral damage because these folks were carrying the pagers to supermarkets and homes. let's remember, hezbollah is recklessly attacking israeli

cities and endangering schools and hospitals. looks to me like 3000 terrorists just got targeted with pretty pinpoint accuracy. host: first call is earl in seneca falls, new york, republican. you are on with don bacon. caller: morning. thank you for taking my call. i just do not understand, what is the plan to secure the border? because nobody says exactly how. hr1, hr4, you know. host: we will take the question. what is the plan to secure the border? guest: we had the border largely secured under president trump. he put several policies in place, and it is already in law. he made remain in mexico. now he does not have to release

people that are detained at the border to remain at the country. trump had a stay in mexico or another country before you get asylum. what the president can do now, the last couple of months, when president biden was worrying about reelection, they started doing some of these policies that president trump did. it shows they could have done all along. day one of this administration, they had dozens of executive orders, many that weakened border security, and when he ran for president, joe biden at the time, the candidate, said he would welcome millions of people here if they wanted to come, and that is what happened. the onus is on president biden and vice president harris for failing at the border. the next president has the ability to secure the border, and i think congress could do more. the laws are already in place that you may remain in mexico or detain people that you catch, do

not have to release them. so the president has a lot of abilities now. i think we should not say may, we should say shall do these things. host: to a border state, nacogdoches, texas, independent. caller: good morning. i always like to start off by saying thank you to the lord, jesus christ. that is who i follow. but now want to ask, when the candidates are campaigning, how do you stop the rhetoric? if a candidate says something outrageous, the other party cannot respond. example, when trump said, hey, you vote me in and you will never have to vote again. we gonna fix that he did not say

i, he said we gonna fix that. and then he says they criticize him. how is it criticizing him when he said it? he said what he said. i do not care who they are. host: we will take the question. don bacon. guest: i appreciate the man professing his faith. i am a believer in jesus, as well. i appreciate him saying that upfront. i listened to president from recently and have not listened to him in person for about four years, did in 2020 campaign and went to a couple rallies in nebraska, then i listen to him about two months ago ndc i was reminded, he says a lot of things trying to be joke full showing a sense of humor, hyperbole. a lot of things he says are not literal. vote for me, vote for me, he says i will fix a lot of the problems.

but he is not, in my opinion, he is not serious with that, he is just saying i will take care of a lot of these problems upfront. he is trying to make a statement. i wish she was more conscious that when he says these things that the media and others will take it to the extreme. but i listened to him for an hour about two months ago, and i would say about half the things he said were said joke fully, and i realize he's not literal most the time when he is speaking. host: robert in indiana, republican. caller: yes, mr. bacon, i agree with you completely. i have no idea why these people cannot see that that man loves this country. he has been shot at twice. well, wants, but second time they intercepted it. but he deserves to be our president because he is plainspoken. people cannot -- you do not have

to be a scientist or a college graduate to have common sense. common sense is loving your country, helping your country, helping your neighbor, love your neighbor, and love god first. god knows what is going on, and he is going to slip in here. these democrats -- i hate to say it, i used to be a democrat, but i hate to say it, this country will go under if kamala harris gets alien that office. host: don bacon. guest: i think this election should be pretty simple. however, our nominee on the republican side, former president trump, if he was disciplined and focused on his accomplishments when he was president, the economy that was growing faster than inflation and wages were going up in the buying power went up, a much more secure border, we did not

have russia invading, like under president obama we had crimea and after that ukraine, hamas attack on israel, iran out of control, withdrawal of afghanistan. i could go on and on we were energy independent. if the president focused on what he accomplished and also focused on what vice president harris ran on in 2020. when she was a senator, she was rated the most liberal senator. more than bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. that is hard to do. democratic-socialist. they we focused on these issues, this election would be simple. we should stay away from character attacks and name-calling. frankly, in my district people want normalcy, not chaos. i encourage president trump -- i talked to him yesterday, stay on message. that's what our district wants. if he can stay on message, this election will be pretty simple. host: there are calls at the

country will go under if kamala harris is elected. guest: i think she is the most democrat or most liberal person ever elected, and i disagree with her positions. in 2020, she was for non-confiscation, decriminalizing the border totally, very weak on crime. like 10 different things that her staff says she has changed her opinion on. our country is resilient. we have had our constitution since 1789, had our first elections. i believe in resilience. i guess i do not agree it will be the end of our country. it is part of the problem, we kind of demonize the other sides. but this is an important election, every election is. host: i know you have to run to meetings this morning. i want to ask, what happens

here, 12 days away from a potential government shutdown? i know there will be an attempt to move a bill today. explain where we are on government funding. guest: we will try and pass the continuing resolution today with the save act, which is important. about 20 states today cannot verify citizenship. it is not verified. i think it is appropriate to put light on that, that this is going on. but this will not be the last vote we take in the house today on the cr. if we could pass it, it strengthens the hand of the speaker as he negotiates with the senate, and we will get a compromise somewhere in the middle, i believe, between the house version and what the senate wants. we will probably vote on another cr late next week. i am confident, and i know the speakers heart and he does not like shutdowns.

shutdowns are bad governance and bad politics. we will vote on it today and will probably have a vote next week on something a little different. host: this is felix in fayetteville, north carolina, democrat. caller: representative bacon, c-span, america, good morning, how are y'all on this wonderful day? host: what is your question. caller: were you a pilot, by chance? guest: i was a navigator and warfare officer. caller: i was a naval air traffic controller. you know the difference between a naval aviator and all other pilots in the world? guest: probably several differences. by the air force guys are good-looking. caller: well, i think it is the amount of runway, because anything over 90 feet is a waste . my question is this, i am a vietnam era vet. i had to register for the draft before i can vote.

it was not until 1971 of july, and i registered 1970 in december. the republicans keep calling me socialist and communist. i joined when i did not have to, my neighbor was so high that i would not have had to. so while y'all refer to me as communist and socialist, when one of those terms legitimately apply -- especially when jd vance happened to say this morning that the democrats called him fascist, and that is touring the country a. next, you are a christian, correct? guest: yes, sir. caller: can you tell me in the bible where there is political exceptions to violating the ninth amendment of bearing false witness? i am a christian and own guns, and a democrat, live in america. but all these things are going against me as a slur.

thank you, yell keep up the great work. like the lady said, i love everybody. i was in the navy when he was still in prison. host: felix in north carolina. final two minutes, congressman. guest: i appreciate it. i did a tour of an aircraft carrier as an air force guy. i realized i was probably a better air force guy than i was a sailor. i admire our navy, best navy in the world. nobody can deliver munitions worldwide like the navy can. with our carriers and submarines, so i am very proud of our navy. i agree with the caller on this, if we all live by the 10 commandments on the golden rule, what we read out of galatians, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, faithfulness, our country would be much better. the caller, i have been on the

receiving end of being called a socialist die had a primary, and i was being called a commie democrat rino, and now i have a democrat opponent calling me fascist, trumpist. i have received it myself we should stick to the issue, debate the issues. agree on some things, disagree on some things. let the voters vote their conscience after we present what we stand for, our views. and then after the election, we will be americans first. i ran as a christian first, american second, then republican. i am trying to do the right thing for our country. so thank you. host: representative don bacon, i know you have a meeting at 8:00. thank you for stopping by the "washington journal." let's talk again down the road. don bacon, republican, armed services committee member. always a guest willing to chat with callers.

we appreciate that. guest: thank you. host: now it is open for them, taking your phone calls on any public policy and political topic for the next half-hour. we will continue with your phone calls on this wednesday morning. reminder, the house coming in at 10:00 a.m. eastern, senate at 10:00 a.m., as whelp or you can watch them on c-span and c-span2 respectively. phone lines as usual. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. go ahead and call in, as judy did in mississippi, independent. go ahead, it is open forum. caller: as a former republican, i left the republican party because of trump. i want to know why people support him when he lies about covid. if you listened to bob woodward

in his interview with trump, he knew it was going to be bad. yet, still, he got out and held rallies all over the country, exposing more people, letting more people die. and i do not know why they think he loves the country. and i just want someone to tell me that, and i probably nail -- never will go back to the republican party. even without trump, there still there, the ones that defend him, would take a bullet for him, or whatever. i do not think i will ever go back. i have been voting for about 55 years, voting republican. thank you. host: that is judy. this is janet in maryland, democrat. caller: good morning. i would actually like to ask the previous congressman or anyone why they think trump really cares about this country.

when it comes to the bipartisan border bill that senator lankford sent out lists of other democrats and republicans to get more money, resources, more technology for border control, and biden was waiting for congress to do their job. it was a bipartisan bill, and trump called up all his republican cronies and said kill the bill. so obviously he does not really care about the border, and he does not really care about the country, because he is trying to stop this bipartisan border bill, the first in 20 years to happen. and if anyone thinks trump really cares about this country, what about january 6 and inciting a riot to overtake our country? illegally with his fake collectors and trying to get votes from election officials. thank you. host: paul, evansville, indiana,

republican. caller: i was thinking about what everybody said this morning , and i think about how my retirement fund has really took a hit. i had 10,000 in it and it is down to $5,500. i look at the food prices and the democrats say we are going to drop everything down and get it back. trump had our gas at $2.49 in my state. it just seems like everybody is against everybody and we wasted so much money in the government trying to impeach trump from day one and now we are trying to impeach biden and his son.

what is america coming to? it is just like when the people got killed in afghanistan, they probably had in a word for them a week ago. that is sad. we were tall in the military -- taught in the military to not leave anyone behind. they have all of our weapons and trucks and everything that biden it left behind in afghanistan and now they are using them. i also think that god it needs to be number one in our country. family number two, and then country. god, family, country. we need to get back to the basics. host: this is russell, winchester, virginia, independent. caller: i would like to follow up with what this guy said get

back to basics. i would like to address all the people in the red states, illinois, indiana, missouri and so on and so forth. the reason things are like they are is we have had a breakdown in institutions. there is no way that donald trump should be allowed to be on this ballot. the republican senators refused to convict him even though they stood up and testified that they knew he was guilty. all of these people are enablers and should all be voted out. the house members on the republican side all voted against an independent investigation of january 6. which one of them should leave as they violated laws. let's move on to the court. the 14th amendment says if you have aided and abetted in an insurrection, you are unqualified for the office. in the court went ahead and said

he could run. all of these are failures of institutions in this all goes back to the political violence you were talking about in the beginning, the rhetoric, if the institutions fail, where do you believe the people? they are filled with despair. donald trump is to the point now where he is talking about having a secret service guard him on the golf course. i am sorry. he should have a regular secret service detail like any other ex-president or candidate and if he wants to add extra security, this man has money, you can pay it himself. the idea that u.s. dollars are going to secure a golf course of this man can play golf, this is something like clinton and maduro. it is unbelievable we are thinking about this. host: donald trump was in flint,

michigan yesterday at a town hall talking with arkansas governor sarah huckabee sanders it. in one thing he discussed was the assassination attempt and commended the one that gave the tip that eventually led to the suspect being arrested. this is donald trump from yesterday arian -- from yesterday. [video clip] donald trump: a woman, not a amana, women are smarter than men. [cheers and applause] our great christian lady is a happy now. think of this, who would do this ? i asked the sheriff and with a couple of people with the secret service, who would done this? he dropped the gun, but he was gone.

and a woman driving in a car saw a man on a busy street running and she followed him and he got into the car and she stopped because she thought he looked like trouble. she followed him and parked the car behind his car and started taking pictures of his license plates. [laughter] -- [applause] think of it. who would do that. >> the women. donald trump: just you see somebody running, i see people running all the time. she'd saw something in this guy that was bad. she maybe heard the gunshots because there were four gunshots. the shots were from the secret service because he never got a shot off. who would do this?

if you took 1000 incidents, would even one person done it? this woman, i haven't met her and i would like to meet her. she takes pictures of the plate and then she sends the pictures into the sheriff's office and the sheriffs are saying wow, this is amazing, and they were able to get this diet within 10 minutes. there was a high-speed chase down the highway and they got him. [applause] otherwise, we would probably have an ak-47, they have the camera and he had the whole thing. he was sophisticated. he even had the serial number taken off the rifle, the gun. think of this. but i would be wondering where the guy is and we would have a maniac out there. this woman was unbelievable. host: donald trump in flint, michigan yesterday.

vice president harris in philadelphia with the national association of black journalists. she recounted her phone call with donald trump in the wake of the second attempted assassination. this is some of what she said. [video clip] >> president biden spoke to president trump after the attempt on his life this weekend. have you spoken to him? >> yes. >> how did that go? >> i checked on him to see if he was ok, and i told him what i said publicly, there is no place for political violence in our country. i am in this race for many reasons including to fight for our democracy. and in a democracy there is no place for political violence. we can and should have healthy

debates in discussion and disagreements but not resort to violence to resolve those issues . host: taking your phone calls this morning. it is our open forum. this is amin in texas, a democrat. >> i am 73 years old and i love this country. that is why i volunteered for vietnam and the military when i got out of high school at 18. my father went into world war ii when he was 15. i can't understand how trump was supposed to be so patriotic and talks about the military is so

bad. and him or any of his sons have never been in the military and he is talking about that they are going to take our benefits away. i am one hundred percent disabled but i love my country and i love what it stands for. why do we have a criminal convicted of 34 felonies who goes around the country saying stuff that we know isn't true? why are you republicans so enthralled by him? the only good republican was mccain. mccain told it like it was, in trump talked about him like he was a dog. the time has come in this

country to do what it is supposed to do and treat everybody decent and to make sure that we don't have criminals in our government. thank you. host: this is billy in illinois, republican. caller: i was just calling to verify that i am a christian and in the bible it says that any man is supposed to be in charge. not a woman. where are the christians? why don't they stand of and support the mail? that is what our bible says. i am a christian and have nothing against women, but the

only thing i have against women is she is not supposed to pee in government. men, why don't you come up and vote for a man. host: have you ever voted for a moment for any political office? caller: no. host: would you ever? caller: no. host: this is said in maryland, independent. caller: trump and the republicans are a joke. they are going to destroy and tear up our country. trump has affected the whole city and community. the republicans say they want a border bill and that they would support that and then they turn around and block it and don't let it through.

so when they say trump and the republicans and what they say art lies. they don't care about making a statement about a group of people. and how it is going to have a counter effect. he doesn't care about anybody but himself. nt he is a racist. host: on the in vitro fertilization bill that came up in the senate yesterday, the story from the wall street journal noting that senate republicans blocking the bill that would provide legal protections for fertility treatments and mandates that insurance coverage of it despite what the gop presidential nominee donald trump recently pledged to force the government to pay for those treatments. the tuesday vote was 51 in favor and 41 opposed with two republicans joining with democrats.

jd vance, the running mate didn't vote. 60 votes were required to advance. that was the second time they voted to block the legislation. the first time since trump at his proposal about ivf. this was yesterday, the minority whip in the senate talking about that vote. [video clip] >> today we are going to have another showboat in the senate and i would remind everybody here that the outcome of that show vote is not going to be any different than it was when we had the same vote. republicans support ivf no question about that. this is not an attempt to make law or get an outcome or legislate, this is simply an attempt by democrats to create a political issue where there

isn't one. host: republican senator john thune the yesterday. also heading into that vote in speaking to the press, chuck schumer calling out republicans for not supporting the bill. here is chuck schumer from yesterday. [video clip] >> sadly as we learned that access to ivf can no longer be taken advantage of it. hard right made clear they would keep going and in alabama we saw just how vulnerable ivf has become is the next target of the ultraconservatives. since then we have seen republicans tie themselves in knots over support of ivf claiming a support access to ivs and support insurance and support american families and yet they keep voting no. it is not hard. look at the conservative groups in the main groups that led the charge to strike down roe.

they speak clearly it to say ivf is their next target. these are groups republican listens to and who sets the agenda and those who want to put government into ivf decisions and tell a woman and her doctor what she can and cannot do when it comes to ivf. host: back to phone calls and open forum this wednesday morning. on capitol hill, the house in at 10:00 in the senate in at 10:00. you can watch both on c-span and c-span 2. this is brenda in indiana, pennsylvania, at democrats. good morning. . i caller: -- good morning. caller: president biden has taken the hit in afghanistan

when trump had it for years and then surrendered to the taliban in march 2020, donald trump signed a surrender to the taliban. of thousands of taliban rel terrorists, that is a surrender. these are the same taliban and died trying to capture, the same taliban that morally injured are soldiers with -- mortally injured are soldiers with ied's. there was a cease-fire after he signed this deal. why didn't donald trump bring the trump home during the cease-fire? host: this is tom in woodbridge,

virginia, the morning. caller: is tom in virginia. it seems very heavily leaning towards the trump derangement syndrome today. i want to lay out some facts and anything i say, anybody, you can check all the facts. the first thing i want to say is 17 inner-city neighborhoods in the united states are responsible for 90% of the murders that occur in the entire united states. 17 neighborhoods. you can check it and look at the data. a lot of cities are concealing their homicide data because they are democrat cities. the democrats have been lying to the american people for decades. they have destroyed minority families, almost obliterating them.

the vast majority of minority children today are born out of wedlock. they have essentially turned our public schools into state indoctrination camps. these are things you can check that are facts. they are not actually -- they are run by the democrat party because of the school boards are democrats. if you look at what has happened in the country in the last 10 years, what you will find is that the democrats ideology, one guy called in earlier and said it should be god, family, country. what the democrats, if you look at the ideology, it is the state is in charge of you. there is no god, the state is in charge of you and they have destroyed the family. in addition to that, if you

eliminate god from all of the conversation, what you end up with is the immorality that has spread across the united states, in particular the liberal left, and this goes back to the 1960's. what i'm trying to get people to realize is this, if you look at what the democratic party stands for, they don't believe in the constitution. i have vetted every federal candidate in virginia for the last years. virtually every single democrat is not even mentioning the constitution on their political website running for federal office. that should tell you something. when they don't mention god and they don't mention the constitution and the only thing they talk about is lgbtq and abortion, windows only two

ideological things that are sewing throughout our society, every democrat? where their morality is, whether ethics are and ultimately -- host: yesterday was constitution day. did you do anything to mark it? caller: i do it every day. i live it every day. if you look, a great example, the democratic party essentially went with the doj and fbi and they intimidated facebook and twitter into essentially silencing it free speech in the united states. that is the first amendment of the bill of rights, free speech and your government, your democrat party led government silenced free speech.

for second thing is they have to take away the guns. they don't take away the guns than they can never be the tyrant that they actually want to be. host: this is richard in columbia, maryland, independent. caller: i just wanted to call to say i was very disappointed in c-span had on yesterday. i kind of felt like i was watching al jazeera or democracy now. please have someone as a counter to what she said. she said she resigned from the foreign service because she was outraged of the israel and gaza but not the bloodbath in ukraine or the debacle in afghanistan. i asked if there is an equal representation and they c-span reach out to someone who can counter what she had to say.

thank you so much. host: it will not be less than what we have on the war in gaza. this is chris in virginia, republican. caller: i just want to let the democrats know the rhetoric during the 2016, and johnny depp talking about wanting to assassinate the president. i would like the democrats to really think exactly what they are for. i want to make sure they don't forget what they did during that to stir this rhetoric up. host: middleton wisconsin, independent. caller: a quote goes a free

press has the ability to report irresponsibly, freely. that is what is going on right now. even this morning, the ivf vote, it was a scam. they tried to put through a vote earlier and it was shot down on a unanimous consent option. the hunter biden laptop story. that decision to censor necessarily affected the last election. the bomb threat hoax. they are coming from overseas. the assassin from the latest attempt, cnn reported the sky was a trump supporter and everything the last five years shows he was a biting-terrorist supporter. i encourage the american republic -- public to put the media under scrutiny because they are lying. host: a democrat, good morning.

caller: i did 20 years in the military, two tours in vietnam and i look at myself and think about as a military man, destroy the enemy by all means available. i looked at us letting trump shoot -- ruin america. host: you are not advocating violence are you? caller: not violent, defending my country. host: kentucky, independent. good morning. caller: i was thinking about all of the rhetoric and i hope they can finally eventually come up with something to have some kind of long to stop people from

talking all of that talk. i heard one reporter talking about needs to be eliminated. that was just sickening. i can't believe our country has gotten to that level. i hope they would change endoscopic stop people from speaking that way and bring criminal charges to them and as far as reporting goes, instead of having anonymous reports you can't tell it is and if it isn't proven, they shouldn't be able to talk. host: kim in hampton, virginia, democrat. caller: how are you doing. host: doing well. caller: the rhetoric on both sides, the rhetoric is not on both sides, it is only on one

side. the rhetoric comes from the republicans. they need to stop the same rhetoric on both sides. one is speaking the truth and one is speaking rhetoric. we need to understand what is happening. it is called white supremacy. if you don't understand white supremacy and what it is and how it works, then you are going to be confused. let me say that again, if you don't understand white supremacy, how it works and what it is, then it is going to confuse you. i used to be confused. i am no longer confused. host: you mentioned the rhetoric is only coming from one side. there was a caller a few calls go that seem to be advocating for the violence against the republican presidential

candidate. we didn't spend too much time with him because we aren't going to allow that to happen but when you say the rhetoric is only coming from one side, there are concerns about the rhetoric coming from both sides here. caller: what is the rhetoric coming from the left? they are only saying that democracy is under attack. and that is the truth. host: did you have any concerns about what the caller said a few calls back? were you listening? caller: i was trying to get on the line and you know how you have the delay going on and i couldn't hear what he was saying. host: this is mike in racine, wisconsin, democrat. caller: just a quick comment to the gentleman from virginia who claims that the democrats are

the problem for all of the issues. let's talk about gun violence. the number of gun deaths per 100 residents in the united states, by state in 2024, when you look at that, you will look at it and see mississippi, louisiana, montana, missouri, alaska, arkansas, south carolina, tennessee, wyoming, arizona, oklahoma, these are all red states with loose gun laws. if you put a bunch of guns in a concentrated area, you are going to have a lot of gun violence and problems. education is a vital requisite for the survival of a free people. this is why the republicans are destroying the public schools and underfunding them. if i had a magic wand and waved it, every school you go into it would look like every school

everywhere whether in the suburbs or the city. it would be no difference. host: is mike in wisconsin. the last caller in open form, -- for a month. up next, we will be joined by representative paul ton and then laterk the federal reserve expected to announce the first rate cut in more than four years. we will focuso -- we will focus on that with roben farzad. >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span two, exploring the people and advents that sell the american story. watch american history tv's serious presidential elections, exploring what made these

historical and the lasting impact on the nation. this week the election of 1876, despite losing the popular vote, ohio republican of b hayes won and it was contentious and had to be decided by a special committee. and then on elections in history, university of north carolina professor ryan anderson discusses the rise of a bohemian culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that embraced the arts. and then on the presidency, the university of arkansas historian randall woods on president john quincy adams sharing a decade of research and biography as the first chief executive to follow his father into office. exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2 and find a full schedule on the program guide or watch online at

c-span.org/history. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse through our products, apparel, books, home decor, something for every fan. shop now for any time at c-spanshop.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: democratic congressman paul tonko you have been around the government funding sites before, we are 12 days away from a potential shutdown. how do you think this ends? guest: i would hope common sense prevails and that we avoid a government shutdown.

no one wins with that. we have been guided by earlier legislation in the fiscal responsibility act that set it toward a 2024 and 2025. we should move forward accordingly and not put various services at risk and avoid the government shutdown which would be disastrous for everyone. host: save act is what the republicans are trying to attach to the funding bill in the house that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote. is that a bad thing? guest: it is a redundancy. we already know it is illegal to vote if you are not a citizen and punishable up to five years in prison. i think we should just move forward. this is responding to perhaps political needs candidates have. we should avoid that and go back to the agreements where we set the levels for 2024 and 2025.

we know the impact would be severe for a number of agencies if we have a government shutdown or if this activity were to take hold. in response to the freedom caucus, this has been visited over many times and the saga is there is a black shirt caucus in the republican caucus that is the majority. they are supposed to lead but cannot leave because they are broken internally. that makes it difficult for the entire process. host: the continuing resolution, once we had the deadlines, how long do you think this will last ? how long will we be operating on last year's budget? guest: the important thing is to do it within the calendar year so we can establish the framework for the upcoming fiscal year. there are those who want to take it into march and i think that

would be the wrong choice. we need to do this in a short-term version so we come back after the election and in a lame duck and put the whole issue to rest. host: we are taking your phone calls. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. he is at the cannes house rotunda on capitol hill. you will hear some of the folks coming in getting their dates started. i want to switch topics, political rhetoric in this country in the wake of a second attempted assassination on the republican residential candidate . what was your reaction when you heard that news and what are your thoughts about whether political rhetoric has gone too far. guest: when i heard the news it

was tremendously impactful. it is regrettable that kind of activity occurs out there. i think violence of any kind is unacceptable. we need to do our best to avoid it. i am comforted that the former president is fine and no further harm to any of the candidates out there has been realized. we need to make certain we protect the candidates and make certain we tone down the inflammatory rhetoric, but at the time in the midst of a campaign, there is a need to provide the contest of the differences that exists between the two camps. it is a major decision being made by the american public. and they need to know about the plans and policies and how you pay for the efforts and all of that needs to be aired and that cannot be avoided in the course of a campaign appeared but it is the inflammatory rhetoric that needs to be toned down.

the campaign is highlighting the differences between the candidates and that needs to continue to well serve the democracy and enable people to make appropriate choices. host: how do you do that to highlight differences whi also not going too far with the rhetoric? guest: in the case of tax cuts, offering what sort of tax cut the democratic campaign, the vice president harris proposal looks like, highlighting that and talk about how it is paid for. i think that is not inflammatory. that is a plan and the academics of governing. so she places her vision and how it would be compensated. i think the contest is essential. people need to know how to go

forward and to make certain that they do have a plan that covers the cost of their tax cuts. we got into trouble with the 2016 tax cut that president trump issued and got through congress. it was not paid for and that bloated the deficit in that caused a lot of economic upheaval. i think the people need to know if there is not a plan and it is not shared, what is the plan, to ask questions. campaign and keeping it civilized and as unemotional as possible but offering the facts and data that gets candidates to the positions they are advocating. host: let's talk to paul out of indiana, independent. caller: good morning.

representative, a quick question for you. i was reading back on the history of various republics and an idea that came up was the idea of a standing budget, so the cbo would implement the budget by 2% and whatever was in place on september 30 would then become the budget for october 1. it would just happen automatically and you would have a year to adjust it and then the next budget would pop up automatically so you wouldn't have the constants, i work for the federal government for 25 years and can't remember a year were we didn't have some kind of pending catastrophe. that we will shut the government down. people just didn't do their job. guest: if there is a mechanism to help cushion and avoid a shutdown and cushion the process , let's take a look at it.

but basically our responsibility fiscally as individual members of congress is to put the budget plan together. we take the issues in the priorities and bring it to the negotiating table to the pockets and that carries it further to leadership. that is an important concept that needs to be maintained. whatever reforms or reinforcements we offer, there has to be the local input for this to be optimized as an outcome. host: should we have a debt ceiling this country? guest: we do address the debt ceiling routinely but the efforts and politicization of the debt ceiling sometimes can be a negative. i think we need to work in accordance with the fiscal responsibility before us. we know the best way to address

that deficit is to increase activity out there of work and employment. there are ways for us to address that deficit in the context of a budget and putting people to work and making certain, one of the ideas right now is that we need immigration reform and so the many that are authorized to enr work. we need jobs filled that are entry-level and are not being filled because the population just isn't there. so i think the number of these issues can help resolve the deficit including immigration reform. host: this front page story in today's wall street journal, this is just the first three paragraphs. the u.s. isn't siding or war, crisis or recession at the federal government is borrowing as if we were. this year's budget deficit is on track to top $1.9 trillion or

more than 6% of economic output, a threshold reach only around world war ii, the 2008 financial crisis and the covid-19 pandemic. public health federal debt just passed 20 $8 trillion or 100% of gdp. if congress does nothing, the total debt will climb by 20 to trillion dollars through 2034 and costs alone on interest exceed defense spending. guest: right. i think that obviously the deficit is a concern. i think the investments made in job creation and innovation and clean energy and precision economy and workforce development funding that has been approved will get robust involvement of a new quarter and one that makes us globally competitive and what is a very competitive arena. that will help speak to the deficit situation.

but i think there has to be a very strong focus addressing the issue in the upcoming congress. host: new york, alex, a republican. you are on with paul tonko. caller: thank you for everything you do. i just read that wall street journal article and i just want to say that the debt ceiling and the spending is really irrelevant. we out c -- it is like believing in something that doesn't exist. the number, you can say whatever it is for the debt and we can talk fiscal responsibility but

this has been going on for decades and decades. we haven't had a balanced budget i can't remember when. i am also a 20 plus year government worker and the continuing resolutions are a problem. in our agency we would have a year fiscal budget. we have to spend it or lose it. that is not a problem to use it or lose it but i guess my question is, it's not simple but i would like to make it simple. but could you please stop with continuing resolutions and fund the government? it makes more sense. guest: i couldn't agree more and i acknowledge this cr as they are proposing it will challenge the military and impact veteran

benefits and make it more difficult to access social security and authorized programming and also challenge us in terms of disaster aid which we know has been hard hit this past year with so many violent outcomes with mother in nature that there is destruction in all regions of the country. putting that at risk also will be a governments. i understand the complications that comes with a cr and that is why i always advocate for us to sit down and come to the table and get the federal budget done. we also have federal projects required because it does not get added in because it can't be cluttered. there is a lot of damage in consequence that comes. host: let me switch nears to a

bill that you proposed, the safe bet act. explain what it does. guest: let me begin by indicating that i am the chair, co-chair of the addiction treatment and recovery caucus. i have addressed all orders of addiction in that role and in other assignments i have known in the new york state assembly and now in the united states house of representatives. health care and programming for those impacted by various addiction disorders. it is important for us when we see a need to address it and the harm that can come with the addiction to gambling it needs to be addressed. in 2018, the united states supreme court gave the green light to states to authorize mobile sports gambling if they so chose. now some 38 states have allowed

it with no restrictions and guardrails. i believe we are going to see a growth of those who are addicted to gambling. i have set up roundtables and discussions with people and travel to clinics to learn more about the impact. there are vulnerable groups, young adults, college students, people on a list of recovery targeted by the sports book industry. we need to put guidelines together. my bill would require states that want to offer mobile sports gambling to meet basic requirements, standards that are determined by artificial intelligence, by advertising and by affordability. i think it is important for us to have those restrictions so that there isn't going to be the gambling harm authorized. when we look at gambling itself, it is listed categorically in the same area of activity that

is used by clinicians and professionals as cocaine, alcohol, tobacco, heroin. that use of unknown addictive product which gambling is needs to be addressed so that gambling harm isn't increased in our society beyond measure. it is because of lack of restrictions that there is this risk and threat and i have heard it from a number of people. just ask a number of young adult to scroll through their phones and you will see a plethora of ads for gambling. they target by ai which sports you most bet on. when i went to a clinic a young man said he would take his phone into the shower at 5:00 a.m. and bet on a sporting activity somewhere in the world. so 24/7 somewhere there is a sporting event. as you talk about it and i visit

with those in recovery, one person comes to mind, and he said in my prime i had to find the closest casino or track and their cell phone enables and now to engage in that activity around the clock, every day, week, month of the year. host: what are the restrictions that you think would help this addiction? guest: to put restrictions on ai , we make certain we take a closer look at how people are targeted and how they use ai. host: is it just advertising? guest: it is not just advertising but we had an iteration that focused on advertising and i learned that it is more comprehensive than that. the solution needs to be much more abrasive. advertising, we make sure there

are restrictions in certain hours were children would be most vulnerable could we have affordability checks, and that would be used for consumer loans. we limit certain amounts of deposits in a certain period, and with the ai issue, or with the advertising issue, we also make certain they are only advertising the product itself and not encouraging people with different parlay activity and educating and informing them on how to gamble. with alcohol as an example, there are laws across the country and when people are in a responsible role serving alcohol, they are held responsible if someone is

knowingly intoxicated, the same is true here. the ownership should be on the industry. and when there is a chance that a person is in over their head chasing losses, someone needs to step in. host: how much support do you have for this legislation? guest: we are going just hearing from the industry itself and the addiction community and those who provide services to get their take and then we will have the final version in the next session and look for a sponsorship and put the full force forward. host: this is greg in connecticut, democrat. caller: good morning, congressman. guest: good morning. caller: i am a lifelong democrat

and big antiwar guy. it is been recently reported that 100 86,000 palestinians have been killed in palestine. we have talked about violence in our country in the rhetoric in the recent attempts on mr. trump . this is all terrible, but when i see my government basically drop bombs all over the world, i wonder when this is going to end . where will the peace occur after the cold war which allegedly ended in the 1990's. it seems to me that we have done nothing but drop bombs all over the world and spent trillions and trillions of dollars. i am curious, were you in when

benjamin netanyahu came and spoke? did you rise and applaud him? guest: i chose to use that time to visit with the hostages, because i believe that we need to put their efforts first and make certain the hostages are released. there needs to be communication and coming for the table. i called for a cease-fire but it needs to incorporate the arab world and israeli government to make certain that a two state solution or coming to terms with a mutual order of peace of respect is done by having a forward conversation. i think there is ample opportunity for the biden administration now in its removal from the campaign to really continue their work. i think the arab world and the israeli government needs to come to gather -- together and stop

fighting and release the hostages first and i think there is a way for both sides to win and provide a peaceful outcome. host: what do you think about the exploding pager attack in lebanon? guest: i think all of the attacks and unrest, a cease-fire is what we need. we need to stop with the constant on both sides. the hamas situation and the attack on israel was a terroristic attacks. it needs to be condoned -- it needs to be not condoned. bringing the community together and resolve to bring peace through diplomacy. there is a bit of bloodshed and lots of life that has got to be

addressed. host: iris in michigan, independent. caller: there is an old saying that action speaks louder than words. i don't see our government engaging in anything. you never finish anything and leave things wide open so the next term. and then you start from scratch. you got the fencing that was built and never used it when trump laughed and all the citizens are picking up on it. to start back at the beginning, nothing is ever finished. you leave home and your families to go to washington. you don't converse with them and go ahead and every once perhaps, perhaps not. he traveled all around to look at what is traveling in different places and i was out

for help when providing weapons. it is obviously that you don't like the jewish people. host: i think we got the point. guest: her son was interrupted with something from president trump. -- her sound was interrupted was something about president trump. host: i think she was referring to the border wall. guest: there are those of us who think they are better solutions and it is not leaving it behind but moving forward with what is the best outcome for the border situation. obviously we need investment at an appropriate level and also sound immigration reform. we have a plan and it was walked away from by the republicans at the request of candidate for president trump. i do my best to reach out to be

bipartisan. i asked individuals on the commerce committee to meet one on one just to discuss our backgrounds and goals and why we came to congress and what we want to accomplish. i think of that partnership and relationship building is key to resolving and getting things done. host: this is alex in minnesota, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. regarding the wall, if it was such a bad idea, quite sent vice president harris -- why isn't present harris talking about that. guest: again with the sound.

host: i think it was talking about the border with vice president harris. guest: technology can assist at the border with making sure there is intense scrutiny of whatever is being transferred to the border. it is also important for us to have the court situation at the border fully funded and the professionals need the appropriat level of budgeting. but in regard to a wall, people in their determination will get around come over and under a wall. but it is important for us to make a certain that substantial immigration reform which has been looming for decades needs to be done and will serve only the usefulness of the border patrol but the need for us to have workers to take entry level

jobs and of all varieties. there are many immigrants who come in that are ready to take sound technical health-related and professional jobs that are needed to be filled in our society. it will fill a multitude of needs and i think that walking away from the earlier border agreement was a show of not putting country first and we have to do that and make certain as a nation we come together and do a lot of unfinished business that is needed to be done. host: we will end it there. always appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: coming up, we will be joined by public radio roben farzad, the host of the full disclosure program talking about federal reserve and the expected move to announce the first rate

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mother-in-law in the five other people who listen to it. other than that, it's an omnivorous show about culture. we did it this week on the 40th anniversary of miami vice and what it said for television, art imitating life, imitating art in miami with drug dealers. all that jazz. we've had david petraeus, media people, policymakers, investors, it's omnivorous. host: the business that will affect culture today is the fed and its expected rate cut. the first time they will be doing that in several years. what are you expecting? guest: at the very least, quarter-point cut. the chunky half-point, if you gave them that, with what everyone is asking for, even if they are nowhere near crisis, people will wonder if they know something that we don't know. do they need to do 50 verses a quarter? it's kind of dammed if you do,

dammed if you don't. it's the upshot of a micromanaged economy by the federal reserve. it went from zero to 5.25 coming out of the pandemic, which had various shocks when you try to break the back of 9% inflation. tapering that out is a difficult thing as well. host: quarter-point, half-point, how does the average american feel that in the culture, in the weeks and months to come? guest: you will if you live in credit cards, the interest you pay on your balance. the mortgage market, prospective homeowners trying to time the market. investors looking for lower interest rates. clearly, if you are a saver, you can take the savings and cd rates down. the most watch metric in the entire world is the u.s. maine interest rate. everything is so hardwired to it. host: in terms of what this could do, could rate cuts mean

inflation going back up after it dropped back down? guest: yeah, that's the $20 trillion question. the hawks are saying we don't need this, save it for an emergency. how do you put the genie back in the bottle? we were to loose for too long. that extraordinary stimulus out of the pandemic caused inflation the likes of which we haven't seen since the early 80's. we would have to throw the economy into a deep recession to arrest it. we may have gotten away with at this time, but we never fully know until the numbers. it takes a while to digest rate hikes and rate cuts. the argument is that we kept it too high for too long. at the very least, approach normalcy. host: why do we need this right now? guest: well, you took rates from zero to 5.25 to break the back of 9% inflation rate inflation is back to 2.5%.

in the perfect world, jerome powell would have it at 2%. we are still creating jobs. the last number printed was 160,000. this is nowhere near 2009, nowhere near the freefall feeling from march of 2020, when the almond -- unemployment rate shot to 15 and everyone wondered what the pandemic was going to do. there is an argument that you should keep it in case of an emergency, but fed policymaking time and again, they have never gotten it exactly right. it is more of an art than a science. host: unemployment numbers, labor market pooling with unemployment up to 3.7% at the end of last year. monthly payroll growth slowed to 100 15,000, still an average for the three months through august, down from 212,000 in december of 2023. will we see the impact immediately on the first friday

of next month when we look at september? guest: i don't know if it will be immediate. you will see it in asset markets and the talk over what powell said. the commentary coming out of it. where we saw softness. the risk on balance is more about continuing to curb inflation as much as runaway unemployment and joblessness. i will say it for the 20th time, if you want to walk out, go and look at the fed minutes from the beginning of 2007. we are on the eve of of an unbelievable calamity, a financial crisis. there are hints and wisps of weakness in the mortgage housing market, but nobody revealing a kind of understanding of this calamity that was going to come down and take the economy down. the financial crisis that visited us in 2008, 2 thousand nine, they are human like everyone else, dealing with those numbers and they only have so many tools.

host: what's the biggest bubble you are worried about? guest: thinking about housing but also stocks. used to be taboo to think about a trillion dollar player. what are they call it, the magnificent seven? nvidia coming out of nowhere, completely eclipsing what intel, the national champion, was doing . it's routine for apple to hit a $2 trillion market cap. amazon and those other players, you had a very richly valued market and people willing to pay a high premium for u.s. stocks. real estate, look at that limited supply and the run-up in certain markets. i was born abroad. i was raised in miami. i can't believe the asset inflation we have seen in miami. parts of town that you would drive past and never think, never give a second thought to. hedge fund money, private equity money, sluicing in.

they are so frustrated, i don't know if they are going to get any comfort or cold comfort by mortgage rates coming down. host: the business of culture, the culture of business, that should be the dateline for this. (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. roben farzad with us until about 9:40 this morning. go ahead and get your calls and. roy, louisiana, good morning. roy, are you with us? caller: yes. host: go ahead and turn your television to mute and ask your question. what's your question, roy? caller: are you ready? host: yes, sir, i'm ready. caller: why does the government,

why doesn't the government start a new project, for instance, like they wanting to start the battery operated cars, spending multi-billions of dollars when our country is in debt? we need to meditate on getting our country out of debt. put everything we can towards that debt. once the country is out of debt, then the money that the people are sending in for the government, the government can take that money and do regular things for the people. give it back to the people in some kind of way. host: roben farzad? guest: the national debt, sometimes you wonder when you invoke it, you feel like the guy on the washington mall. with the poster. are you paying attention? it's swelling and swelling, administration to administration, pandemic, financial crisis, yet we have to reconcile that between our

competition with china where industrial policy and national champions, essential industries talking semi conductors and artificial intelligence. electric vehicles. there was a great story in the journal a couple of days ago about the u.s. really sending trade representatives to plead and not export inflation. we don't live on an island, economically, anymore. important industries that are hardwired to climate, you want to have bonuses for people because of the externalities of carbon aren't being counted. but i see the argument, there is a lot of spending right now without a lot of fiscal discipline. there is a premium given to that. the market is not punishing bondholders, treasuries. it's still the currency to hold. in another environment, the 70's or the early 80's, that profligacy would be punished and

people on capitol hill would say we have to get it down. host: the u.s. debt clock is on u.s. debt clock.org. do you know how much debt is too much debt? guest: i don't know. it's like we are playing a game of uncle with the market. if it crowds out investors, the treasury has to sweeten the pot, effectively, saying look if you won't buy it at 3%, 4%, we have to make it at 5%, 6%, crowding out other private companies that want to extend debt. the government pays you 12%, you won't open a business or take a flyer on the stock market. we haven't seen that yet. we saw a taste of it when inflation and bond rates went up and you saw a punishing year for asset markets in 2022, but no kind of generational memory of

that in the united states. the people abroad, the u.k., argentine, that's something these countries also have to be mindful of. there is a kind of american exceptionalism. we are lucky that everyone is still willing to buy our debt, globally. host: quincy, michigan, democrat, good morning. caller: yes, good morning. a lot of people are wringing their hands about interest rates and inflation. probably don't remember that during the 80's under ronald reagan, the prime rate never got below, anywhere from 10% to 18%. they would probably be surprised even at how that controls interest rates, inflation, by buying and selling bonds. you might give people a little primer on that.

let me talk about jerome powell. august of 2020, in his elite jackson hole speech, under president trump jerome powell was nominated and put in place under president trump. he's a republican. at jackson hole in 2020, august, he said inflation is too low, persistent low inflation is bad. it was around 2%. he said we need higher inflation. in response to that, he started buying bonds. that is how, surprise, that is how the fed puts money into circulation. right? buys bonds to put money in circulation. sells bonds to take money out of circulation. their main means of controlling much of anything is the -- caller: frank, get me to your

question. caller: ok, so until this last jackson hole speech, there's been no indication that he kept his foot on the gas, increasing the amount of money supply in 2022. the fed kept its foot on the gas, trying to cause inflation, buying bonds until 2022, long after he had achieved what he set out to do, which was higher inflation. but he never gets any credit for blame. host: roben farzad? guest: it's brutal because of that asteroid type extinction event of the pandemic. never in history in the united states did you have unemployment shoot up close to 16% in a week. that feeling of free fall, that feeling of entire industries shutting down. areas of the region, federal reserve governors not knowing

what to do, having to stack together something like loan forgiveness in the absence of a private catastrophe pandemic insurance. so, we kind of made it up as we went along. in hindsight if you had a couple of beers with him, i don't know if you still go to the old emmett near the treasury department, until once upon a time we used to go there for happy hour. he would probably say i waited too long to take interest rates up, you know? we kept them at 0%. in addition to what the caller said, going out there to buy trillions in assets. it's not just moving the dial from 0% to 5% and back and forth and back and forth. they purchase trillions and access -- assets to keep interest rates low, stoke capital formation. i think, you know, putting a cap on that, calling the last call on that, i don't want to call it a punch bowl, that's a brutally

difficult thing to do. especially as the fed keeps increasing its balance sheet crisis after crisis. the national debt, the fiscal balance sheet of the government, it's just scary, but we were giving everybody a pass because we were in this horrific once in a 100 year moment and nobody knew how it would end. nobody knew that we would have second-order effects or variants of these things happening. volatility around the election. on balance, i give him credit, but there are critics who say that we could have avoided the worst of the big inflation if he has started hiking earlier. host: when members of congress leave elected office, we often get tell-all books. do former federal reserve chairs right tell-all books? are we going to hear from him someday about how he actually felt about this and whether he thought it was too late? guest: yeah, you probably will.

bernanke he is doing well on the lecture circuit. alan greenspan was famously gnomic and what he said back in the day. rockstar fed chair. before him, the late -- losing my mind, the cigar chomping tall guy. princeton? you would bump into him in new york. there are great time magazine issues of him chomping on a cigar, talking about inflation, browbeating washington into fiscal austerity. people before him, there were no kinds of fed chair's like that before him. paul volker. they come out and they say things, but i don't think anybody comes out there -- bernanke he was a student of the depression and they might share things. like, i would love to go back and study the defining crisis of my time, 2007 in 2008, what did

they know? hank paulson, geithner, coming in their, the wall street chiefs talking to various journalists. the hope now is they will achieve a soft landing. we haven't had a recession, much less a calamitous recession, coming out of the stimulus of this pandemic, so maybe he can pull it off. host: when does he make the call for a soft landing? a few years? months? guest: there's a term in gymnastics, sticking the landing. right? sorry, i used to be a lot more relevant with these. [laughter] host: bouncing off the olympics. guest: sticking the landing, my daughter talked about it all the time. if you see it is not too hot, not too cold, does 50 basis points, we still see job creation and inflation sticking around. maybe with the benefit of six months or a year, it will be

like wow, he really did it, we didn't have to pay for this. i am of the argument that we did have to pay for the extraordinary stimulus of the pandemic with this inflation, which kind of neutralized it. people are still feeling it as groceries and in terms of pricing power. even though inflation is not 9%, we are still increasing at 2.5% and it's the coldest comfort for anyone who goes to a grocery store and sees a starbucks gallon of cold brew costing 50% more than it did. i don't know if it's correlation causation or whatever it is, but you had these timestamps, gas prices falling for the last several weeks. real estate, housing is inaccessible. insurance prices have spiked. you inveigh against whoever is in the white house. inflation? you have no reference point. we were largely scot-free for the longest time. host: jamie, republican, garden

city, you're on with roben farzad. caller: my son and i had a conversation over the fed. he says that high interest rates can be good. so, i googled who benefits off of high interest rates. it said the banks. basically,'s to stimulate -- basically, to stimulate the economy, the only people who benefit are the banks. that's so confusing to me. eggs are like five dollars a dozen. that's just crazy. very quickly, hr two was years ago. somebody call it out. thank you. please explain how this high interest rate is good for we the people who are struggling to pay our bills with an open border that has a border bill that has passed and is laying in the senate. host: thank you. host:couple of issues, i googled

that, who benefits from high interest rates, banks were highlighted, insurance companies, brokerage firms, money managers. guest: ideally you want to take money from depositors at nothing , then turn around out. we had a little banking crisis in early 2020 three. some banks failed and had to come out and offer people 4%, 5% interest rates. they were whiplash and blindsided by how quickly rates went from zero to 4%, 5%, they didn't manage the yield curve as well as they normally would have. yes, shed a tear for the saver. for the longest time, if you look at how many times it's been taken to the year 2000, savers have been sacrificed on that altar. they want to see a slope on the yield curve where they can get your money for next to nothing and turn around and loaned it out for several points more.

loan sharks, whatever. nobody really loves these high interest rates. in other countries not as creditworthy as us, it's just a fact of life. when rates were in very low levels, you had the most creditworthy companies coming out to issue fifty-year debt, hundred year debt. there was this element of get it while the going is good and it's never going to feel like that again. host: mark, little river, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. one of my questions, i purchased a house in 2023. that's when the rates went high. i ended up with a 7% mortgage. what percentage rate should i wait for? i know you don't have a crystal ball, but should i wait 1%? what's a good measuring length i should consider when it comes to refinancing my house? guest: this is the biggest

conundrum for me, i'm wondering how it's going to affect the housing market. you could argue that with certain privileged buyers, mortgages don't need a rate cut right now, yet there are so many people on the sidelines that cannot afford a 6%, 7% mortgage, which would have been a great mortgage for the 80 and much of the 90's. host: i've got the chart here, 30 year fixed-rate mortgage, early 1980's topping out at, what is that number up there, over 18%. guest: yes. and yet there were still people buying homes in the early 1980's. people still thinking it's a better store of value than government bonds, a t-bill or whatever it is. you could always find a reason. look, 2011 after the housing crisis there were certain areas you couldn't give homes away. 60 minutes, there were expert -- excerpts of tucson where bobcats and coyotes took over these

homes that were recently built. you had green pools, dereliction, people ripping out the copper pipes. toxic assets that we had as recently as 4, 5, six years ago. now nobody talks about housing distress. but i remember that, kids, i remember the subprime distress. it's all cyclical. the question is, suppose that the economy crashes in the fed takes rates to zero. are you going to be in a great position to go out and buy that make mansion in miami that you were holding out for? no, the economy changes. you are a lot of -- a lot of people is -- assuming that the cash flow and monthly will be the same. the mortgage market will come to that and they can refinance. in reality, that's a function of significant privilege and liquidity. host: talking about the lowest 30 year fixed rate, looks like it's right about december of 2020, approaching 2.75%.

guest: yeah, there are people, but you could have sent the same thing about socks or risk assets. if you are waiting to buy a house general relational he, that kind of mortgage -- already you started to see huge price gains in the housing markets. especially with work from home, the white-collar workers who could work in the exurbs and had to be in the office two or three days a week or looking at satellite markets around manhattan as opposed to say areas in westchester or connecticut. go to richmond where i am. a lot of people came over from charlottesville. north carolina, the research triangle, you had enormous unlocks, fortunate for the high property value states, crowding out the local. it's a complaint everywhere across the united states. host: democratic line, spring lake, north carolina. caller: i would like to ask this young man something.

i haven't heard nobody ask this. we are paying interest, $1 trillion in interest, we don't even pay it on the loans. i would like to know how long we can keep this up, john. host: the current interest on the u.s. debt according to the u.s. debt clock, $946 billion. guest: there is an opportunity costs to that. think about the things you can do. universal health health care, bonuses for homeowners. you think about defense spending in the country. what you start heading up is thousands -- trillions in interest on the clock to keep it running. these are not the theoretical numbers from the footnotes. they represent a chunk of the pie of national expenditures. but there is just always a fecklessness on pennsylvania avenue. nobody really wants to take this

on. you don't want to be seen as that person encouraging everybody out there that we have to lose weight and drink our milk and stay in school and say no to drugs. it's a very hard sell. especially in the republican party right now, where are the fiscal hawks. you use to have a school of republicans who believed in capital formation and fiscal austerity. the mantle of leadership, that torch, i don't know who is carrying that right now. host: lupe, california, independent, good morning. caller: what i have to speak about goes back a ways, to when the wells fargo banks and so on were all taking off whatever they owed. they let their debt go. i just found out that half a year ago, wells fargo purchased

$40 million in gold. that's what they have right now. how can they have that much money? are there banks out here in this area -- some of them shutting down, there are very few people working in there and you can never speak to anybody and they want more information on anything. how does that work? that they ended up with $40 million in gold? guest: $40 million is an anything is not much for wells fargo, it's one of the five big too big to fail banks in the u.s. all the major banks in history, like 1980, down to five or six major banks, through a crisis, through thick and thin, savings and loan crises just consolidated the banks. now you have jpmorgan chase, citibank, these too big to fail banks, they have this ability. coming out of 2009, they knew

the government would not let them fail, they wouldn't let another lehman happen again. you sauce -- smaller banks suffer that kind of banking swoon. this only made more of them reconsider whether they could go it alone. the costs of capital, the access to automation, i agree, you walk into one of these too big to fail banks, they don't want to talk to you unless you are a high net worth investor or depositor who can afford a premium tier service. they would rather you go to the automation or one 800 thing. my late father, when he took me to the bank in the early 80's when we first came to this country, they not only gave you a toaster, or food processor, but a 17% cd. it was a penny arcade. you would genuflect to the customer. the odd time i have to go to a bank to get a cashiers check or a notary or some thing else, joke, where is my toaster.

they are like take your dad joke somewhere else. [laughter] host: 17%? guest: i just remember that. my dad took a knee, paul volker was taking rates up. they were in the teens and he would see these advertisements. all of these old people getting in line to get these kinds of toothsome deposit accounts. you just of see that, that customer service level. a lot of these places have been shuttered and consolidated. a lot of people have moved to online banking. it's very jetsons. nine out of 10 times i deposit a check on my phone. how often do you need cash? i have less and less hair and fewer trips to the atm, but it's neither here or there. host: commercial brings -- banks declining since the 1980's, you can see it in the 14,000 numbers

around 1980 and the steep drop, is this what you are referring to? guest: it's got all of these banks eating all the other banks. i will send it to you afterwards, you can put in the show notes or whatever you have. regionally, think about manufacturers, hanover, barnum bank, nations bank. a couple of banks just wildly consolidated. host: from central america? guest: barnum bank, manufacturers, hanover, out west, norwest. a bunch of them were taken out. there were consolidations and failures. there were so many every week. how rare is it to have a bank failure right now? you just don't have as many banks. host: you mentioned the big -- too big to fail banks.

who are the others? guest: jpmorgan chase, bear stearns, providian. everything's consolidated into that over the years. merrill lynch, nationsbank. there's wells fargo. host: it's become a part of the too big to fail window. guest: at some point, yes. annual, quarterly stress tests, whatever it is, but they know that ultimately the dirty secret is that we have the fed and treasury over a barrel. because if we mess up, they are not going to let us fail. there's a great bond manager who said -- one time i was interviewing and he said capitalism without failure is like christianity without help. it's not the most compelling thing in the world. you need to have failure, the fear of failure. but i'm not convinced that these 5, 6, seven banks think that they could be allowed to fail.

that there is an orderly closing and unwinding of the business and by monday someone else owns them. that doesn't happen with a goldman sachs. just the tentacles of these businesses, the way that congress belatedly understands that. you could get in front of that and say break yourselves up, like 1983, ma bell, but i don't see that happening. host: arizona, line for democrats, good morning, you are on with roben farzad. caller: you guys were talking about home interest rates. every time i hear this, i get flabbergasted. i'm 64. when my husband and i bought our first home it was under the carter administration in we paid 19.99% on our first home. 40 years. a second home we bought and are still living in, 30 year mortgage, we paid 9.99%. that was a steel. back then they were sending us

stuff, do you want to refinance the interest rates went down. i don't think it's a problem of the interest rates on these homes. i don't think these people, younger people have an idea on how much we used to pay for homes. in the old days it was 40 and 30 year mortgages. nowadays it's 20 and 10. guest: do you remember what you paid for that home during the carter administration? caller: my goodness. back then? i want to say like $29,000. i live in the ear, pennsylvania. our homes were very affordable back then. they have gone up quite a bit since then. the first home i bought i think was 29,000. that was a long time ago, i'm 64. but i'm just saying, the interest rates that us older people used to pay for homes in the amount of time you used to have to pay to own the home,

it's so drastically different. i don't think they have an idea of how good it is right now. i wouldn't mind buying a home at 6%. guest: i would encourage you to go on instagram, i love these reels from angry millennials. a 90-year-old woman doing the charleston or something in an assisted living facility superimposed on it is celebrating selling their house to a gen x family for 2.5 million dollars that she bought in 1954 a bag of chips in the metro card. the average price of a home in yuri pennsylvania right now is over -- host: the average price of a home in the area, pennsylvania is a hundred and $80,000. guest: and how much of that median income does it take to own a home? it's like a price-earnings ratio for specific markets. overwhelmingly, people are priced out. the nut of home ownership, it swells rental prices and causes

pain and inflation across the board. the long and the short of it is a huge under supply of housing stock. people are holding on to housing. there was a renaissance of building a second wing, reconsider selling because of covid, staying at home in the home office. you wonder how that is going to fall out. you know, you are supposed to move on. generational stock is supposed to pass on to younger families. younger families, my impression now, is that younger families cannot afford the clearing price for homes. host: texas, good morning. caller: i definitely disagree with what was said. because of the market, i'm 60, here in austin nothing is selling, we feel stuck. our goal is to hang onto our property for our older daughter.

why is there no women ever been on the federal reserve, the head person? i'm very layperson about the federal reserve, i haven't done a lot of research. but it also seems like whoever is ahead of the fed has too much power. they say one word, stocks go up, go down, we get inflation. i think it feels corrupt. a lot of the american people want to know more about what's really going on with the federal reserve. why are they there? why do they have so much power? we come of the people, they don't really understand all of it. but this person seems to have way too much power. it feels like corruption. host: i would point you to the history of janet yellen, chair of the board of governors 2014 to 2018. roben farzad, couple of minutes left. guest: a lot of these older families that did avail themselves of these 3% mortgages

don't want to let them go. even if you sold that to downsize right now, you have to take on a mortgage that's double. there are enormous arguments for the federal reserve. it's a reservoir. we are no longer a lake. they intensely manage them level of water going up and down. they micromanage. the creation of the modern fed around a century ago, nobody could've imagined this. yet we are not as volatile as other economies. much less of a chance of these kinds of bank runs or other afflictions that hit even smaller developed economies. host: what's your topic this week on "full disclosure"? guest: we just -- we are having tim miller on, how "miami vice" changed tv. i'm interested in the bulwark, the evolution of the republican

strategist, as someone who is becoming a kamala harris supporter, i'm recording that later today. guest: and if someone who wants to find it? guest: any of the podcasters that you use. host: roben farzad, always appreciate your time. guest: thank you. host: the house comes in and about 20 minutes and we will go there for gavel-to-gavel coverage. until then, open forum, any issue that you want to talk about, the numbers are on your screen. go ahead and start calling now. we'll take your calls after the break. ♪ >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is easy. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to "washington journal" daily. weekdays, catch "washington

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in in just about 20 minutes. we will take you there when they do. until then, your phone calls. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. as you are calling in, the inside the beltway column from "the washington times," a significant event is taking place today at the capital. speaker johnson will present a congressional gold medal to the hidden figures, a group of women crucial to the space race, helping to land the first astronaut on the moon. the metals will be presented to the families of katherine johnson, dorothy ivanka, and mary jackson. a fifth middle will be presented to commemorate all hidden figures who contributed to the nasa success between 1930 in 1970. the ceremony will be held in emancipation hall at the capitol. also on hand will be bill nelson

, several of the congressional leadership will be there as well . margot lee shut early, who wrote the 2016 book hidden figures, the american dream and the untold story of the black women mathematicians who helped to win the space race, the book was made into a movie released by 20th century fox. that's happening today at the capital. we are going to get that event in the coming weeks on american history tv on c-span two. a reminder, american history tv is every saturday on c-span two, so look for that in the coming weeks. right now, phone calls, open forum. this is lee in south carolina. republican, good morning. caller: i was sitting here quietly listening, but then you got into the thing on the housing and the infrastructure stuff. you know, you can't compare a $30,000 house in 1970 two what

we are currently looking at. you've got to multiply that by inflation. you know? ask your guests to factor that in when we are looking at a house in buffalo versus what it is today. that's all i really have to say about that. there's just a missing element of that discussion about interest rates and the housing crisis. i made $10,000 back in 1972 per year, and you know, i have looked it up several times, it's equivalent to about 80,000, maybe $77,000 today. same thing goes with the housing prices, etc. that's all i have to say. a comment on the inflation. in addition to the interest rates, looking at whether people can afford stuff versus how they could afford it back in the old days. that's all i've got to say, thank you. host: on interest rates, the

benchmark, 230 p.m. today, jerome powell is set to give an update on the central bank monetary policy. it is being reported that there will be a rate cut coming. it will be the first interest rate cut in four years. you can watch his address on the issue with reporters at 2:30 p.m. eastern, streaming live on the free c-span now video app, you can also watch it on c-span.org. bernard, dallas, texas, democratic line, good morning. caller: good morning c-span and america. look, it's not the politicians that are the reasons the country is in the shape it's in. it's the people. we allowed them to do what they want. we put people in office that don't suppose to be there. they are there, like tax breaks. tax breaks for rich people? they go on happy and live their

life. if somebody should have the tax break, we fight each other over it. it's not the politicians, it's us. it's always going to be us. we demonize each other for -- they go to washington, d.c., for their own selves, their own life. they don't care about us. we know this but we are in love with our party. i mean, you know? put no man before god. we want to trust people? people are going to do exactly what they are going to do. thank you. host: that's bernard. this is chris, good morning. caller: that gentleman that tried to talk about interest rates and prices of houses in

the 70's, when i bought one, but my top wage in the 70's was three dollars per hour. you can compare that, maybe. maybe houses were just as expensive back then as they are at $350,000. if my dad looked at me, he thought i was nuts for paying $18,000 for my first home. i don't understand it. my dad went through the great depression. i get upset because we go out to dinner, eating a nice steak and people are going -- the world is so bad. the inflation is so bad and we look at each other in go -- i can't imagine what it was like with what my dad went through, the great depression and they couldn't even afford food. the horse used up all the ground. he didn't have tractors or anything. i just think that people like to complain about how bad it is.

that's about it. thank you. host: lee, maryland, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, john. enjoying the show. i think that anyone who is a pro-life voter, a pro-life voter, should vote for kamala harris for president. i have a very, very good reason for that. she is pro-life. she is pro-vaccine. the anti-party, the anti-vaccine party is the republican party. the anti-the sentiment led to needless deaths, two hundred thousand, 300,000 people dying from the covid-19 virus. the pro-life party should be the

democrats. they were pro-vaccine, that's the first thing that biden and harris did when they were in office. they said vaccines, vaccines, vaccines. they put 5.5 million people per day, per day, 5.5 million people getting vaccines, saving countless lives. saving countless lives. host: got your point. fay, democratic line, good morning. caller: good morning, john. please bear with me, i have a couple of points. i've been trying to get through in the line has been busy. first, i want to say that leonard pull tear is a native american that's been in prison for decades. he is seeking clemency, as he did since the bill clinton times

. i would like for c-span to have somebody on, talking about clemency specific to leonard and his seeking clemency. it's very unfair, what happened. the second thing is the person you had on the other day, the quincy, from the quincy institute, was very fair. i seen other callers calling in saying that's not the case. i just want to say it was very fair, but she said, and very, very important. the other thing, john, is -- i can't stress this enough, i really feel that trump is mentally instable and incompetent to be president. i'm not saying that in a mean

way or in hatred or anything. it's just a very serious thing, what's happened to our country, that this gentleman and the people that support him, jd vance and him talking about these lies about what's happening with the cats and the dogs, it's so disgusting and distraught. this can't go on. it's so unacceptable. he has delayed all of the trials. i mean, he should have been convicted by now. host: we will take your points. i just wanted to visit this associated press story to follow up on the first store that you brought up. leonard held -- brought up. leonard peltair, denied parole. with a statement on tuesday they

said this, the decision from july, that he won't be eligible for another hearing until june of 2026. he is serving life in prison for the killing of the agents during a standoff at the pine ridge indian park reservation in south dakota. convicted and 77. his attorney vowed to appeal. he argued that he was wrongly convicted in that his health is failing. that story is from the associated press on that topic. mike in statesboro, georgia, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. in reference to the secret service, if you take their budget and their acting director, 3.1 billion, protected , all at the present time. if you add to that, you come up

with $88 million to protect one person for one year. if you do the math further, they have 8000 employees. 200 22 employees to protect more person -- one person. more money is not what they need. they just need to do their job. host: this is rich, marion, republican, good morning. caller: a lot of good conversations going on. it's important to know the future of wars. after 9/11, we were not going to let everyone come into the country. boy, the people couldn't get their speech out fast enough on it. currently, we don't know who is coming in the country.

we have the illegals. pick a country. north korea, china, russia, open doors to come into the country. boys and girls club, we can't close the damp door. overspending causes the government to tighten up. when we overspend, it's like a drinking binge, suddenly we get into trouble three or four days later. we need to connect the two things. who is doing the overspending? the extra $2 trillion? what's the consequences? and we pay the price, tightening the interest rates. happened with carter, happening again right now from the overspending. i will hang up and listen to your answers. host: thanks, rich. one other program reminder for your today. campaign events are live today

on the c-span networks. noon, eastern, kamala harris speaking at a leadership conference hosted by the congressional hispanic caucus institute. 3 p.m. eastern, jd vance campaigns in raleigh, north carolina. 7 p.m. eastern, donald trump makes a campaign stop in uniondale, new york. all available to watch on the free c-span now video app and online at c-span.org. waiting for the house to come plano, texas. democrat, good morning. caller: yes, this is pj. how many former presidents have been involved, lately, into our government, congress, the supreme court, as much as mr. trump?

second question i want to ask is , when i was a kid living in washington, d.c., president harry truman used to walk around. he was attacked. the secret service was supposed to be protecting him. now, why is it, why is it that a former president should be allowed, plus he's a felon, should be allowed the same protection as a remaining president, biden, and vice president? host: all right. this is rick, georgia, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. host: what's on your mind, rick? caller: i've been watching a -- washing -- watching "washington journal" for a long time.

voted -- been a democratic voter for most of my life, i did vote for reagan and trump. i've been recording washington journal, i come back and enjoy, 3:15 in the morning i'm up, used to be 50:50 democrat republican responses. it's gotten to the point where i blow through these democrat responses, because it's a whole lot of parenting about anti-trump. it is getting to the point where i am getting to the end of "washington journal" quicker and quicker. it's a little depressing. you all are honest and forthright, you represent both sides, but as we get closer to this election i'm not seeing that. another point is that the democrats have had the house for 12 of the last 16 years. it's only by the grace of god that we got trump for four years

to interrupt some of these policies coming to fruition if we are not careful. so, i don't know, i would like to give trump a big hug. i believe in his policies. quit the trumpet bashing, please. that's all i've got to say. host: that is rick and georgia -- georgia. our last call her today. we will be back tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern, 4 a.m. pacific. we take you now live to the floor of the house. the day is about to get underway there. the gavel coming in in just a moment. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024]