thank you to everyone who called in on washington journal today. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. have a great day. @cspanwj -- ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

n. ♪ >> good morning. it is sunday, november 17, 2024. voters gave republicans control of the white house and both chambers of congress. a congress which will face major deadlines on the debt limit, taxes, and health care soon after taking office in addition to president-elect's -- president-elect trump's political agenda. what do you expect from gop-controlled washington? our number for democrats is (202) 748-8000. our number for republicans, (202) 748-8001. for independents, (202) 748-8002 .

if you like to text us, that number is (202) 748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you are writing in from. if you would like to reach us on social media, we are at facebook.com/cspan and on x at @cspanwj. there has been quite a bit of analysis of what it means to have republican control of washington, including in the guardian, where the headline says how a republican trifecta makes way for trump's right-wing agenda. gop majorities in the house and senate give the president elect the ability to extend tax cuts and rollback biden-era laws. with confirmation that republicans have won a majority in the house of representatives, donald trump and his party will have a governing trifecta in washington, giving the new president a powerful perch to enact his right wing agenda. even without majorities in both chambers of congress, his victory in the presidential race gave him significant control over u.s. foreign policy and the

makeup of the federal government, both of which he is seeking to overhaul. later in the article, it says in addition to advancing trump's platform, republicans we looking to unravel keyortions of biden's legacy. significant response yet the climate crisis and spurred many districts, prompting some reans to suggest that congress should preserve some of the law's provisions while repealing others. that reflects a problem for republicans in full control of congress. what will they do with the affordable care act? on the senate floor, current minority with an incoming minority -- majority leader john summa spoke about the gop agenda for next year. >> the american people handed president trump and the republicans a victory and now the real work begins, delivering on our agenda.

that starts with ending the biden-harris border crisis and deporting illegal immigrants. also at the top of the list is strengthening our economic and physical future. the last four years of democrat inflation have been difficult for working americans. republicans will be focused on doing everything we can to expand economic opportunity and increase growth. that starts with taking action via reconciliation for americans. it is time to check the bureaucratic machine in washington, d.c.. a key element to making america prosperous again is taking a hatchet to the regulatory apparatus choking our economy, starting with the 1000 biden-harris regulations that have cost americans nearly $2 trillion. a major focus of the trump

administration and republican congress will be restoring american strength to promote peace at home and abroad. that includes restoring american energy dominance for the sake of economic growth and our national security. my colleagues shows me to lead republicans in the senate during the 119 congress. i'm honored by the trust they have placed in me and i will work every day in the senate to serve my colleagues and advance president trump's agenda. host: republicans in the house, as reported in the washington examiner, have learned from trump's first term mistakes to be ready on day one. house republican leaders are learning from their mistakes during president-elect donald trump's first term to be ready on day one to implement their aggressive agenda plans filled with policy changes during the first 100 days of trump's presidency. house leaders have been in conversation with trump to discuss policy proposals and

craft an agenda for once they have secure the white house and both chambers of commerce. now republicans are ready to begin making changes and overturning key biden administration policies beginning on january 20 when trump is sworn into office. house speaker mike johnson was questioned on fox news about his work with the senate and the president-elect on passing an agenda. he made these comments last week. [video clip] >> do you believe the house, senate, and president will be on the same page? in my mind, you have between 18 months and 24 months to get a lot of agenda through. >> you are right. the atmosphere on the hill is one of euphoria. the republican party is united and energized look i have never seen it. we had a great time with president trump this morning. he visited with the house republican conference and gave an endorsement of me and our leadership team. it was helpful.

the unity aspect is important because we have to work together. i did call leader thune and congratulate him on his victory. we talked for a short time about the agenda going forward and how we have to do this in a bicameral fashion. we need house and senate republicans in lockstep. he is excited about that. he is committed to the america first agenda. we laughed about how our home cities and counties voted overwhelmingly for president trump in a landslide, so our people and the american people want and deserve this. we are going to deliver. host: now to your calls on what you expect from a gop controlled washington. caller: i expect reform. we finally have a government's under president trump's leadership where the government

acts in the interests of its people, ordinary americans, as well as america as a whole. as opposed to the democratic party, where they are big money donors who have been up allies ownership of mask munication and 90% of washington journal considers themselves democrats or liberals and only 10% consider themselves republicans or conservatives. these billionaires have brainwashed so much of the public to act against their own interests and vote democrat. president trump is a reformer. that is all he is, or government acts in the interest of its people with respect to financial health and freedom from tierney from government oppression and respect to their political power over their politicians that they elect. >> are there reforms in

particular areas you are looking forward to seeing? caller: keeping the border secures we do not have millions of god knows who coming in, which includes a lot of gang members and criminals. there are good people come up with the problem is you do not know who is coming in. things like reducing inflation. inflation was one point 4% under trump. biden got it up to 9%. you do not get rid of that 9% until you have negative inflation. he suppressed our energy ability. we were energy independent under trump and also cut carbon emissions under trump. i do not hear climate change people talking about that. using power with foreign countries and dealing with anything, including trade deals to act in the interest of the american worker, and he would threaten foreign people who wanted to screw us in trade

deals or other things with tariffs. host: you mentioned energy in particular. trump over the weekend announced and will executive at his pick for energy secretary. here's reporting from npr. president-elect donald trump said he picked an oral executive to be the secretary of energy, a role in which he is likely to promote fossil fuel development and reverse many biden-era initiatives. as secretary of energy, he will be a leader in cutting red tape and ushering in a new golden age of american prosperity and global peace, trump said. let's go to doug in ohio on our line for independents. good morning. >> caller: what i expect with the republicans in control is chaos like they did eight years ago when they took over. the first thing they are going to do is try to get rid of obamacare again, which is

horrible because 50 million people depend on it immensely and look who he is nominating for different things. matt gaetz don't even belong in congress. why would he want to be in for attorney general? it is going to be chaos all the time. that is all i have to say about the matter. >> susan, what do you expect from a gop controlled washington? caller: a clown show. donald trump always talked about draining the swamp but he nominated matt gaetz as attorney general. seriously? now there is some reporting that ptech seth -- pete hegseth was involved in paying out a settlement for accusations of sexual assault. for senate majority leader, rick scott is in the running.

he was donald trump's pick. he was convicted of running one of the largest medicare fraud scheme's in his state of florida. he was convicted and had to pay out millions of dollars of restitution so he will be the senate majority leader when you talk about wanting to cut down waste, fraud, and abuse in the medicare system and the senate majority leader could be the man who committed one of the largest medicare fraud scheme's in florida? that is quite a reform. he is really draining the swamp. thank you. host: susan mentioned the nominee that trump is put forward for secretary of defense. here's a story about this in the washington post. he has paid accuser but denies sexual assault, an attorney says , in documents obtained by the post, provide extensive detail

about allegations and response by trump's defense secretary pick, pete hegseth. he paid a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a nondisclosure agreement, though he maintains the encounter was consensual, according to a statement from his lawyers and other document obtained by the washington post. his attorney says he was visibly intoxicated at the time of the incident and maintains the police who were contacted after the encounter by the woman -- the complainant had been the aggressor in the encounter. he agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to the woman because he feared that revelations of the matter would result in his termination from fox, where he worked as a host, the statement said. arthur is in florida on our line for republicans.

caller: there are three things i would like for them to concentrate on. one is defending the second amendment, the right of lawful citizens to own guns. a second one is to limit our involvement overseas. take care of america first, before we get involved with everybody else's problems. a third one is cutting inflation. thank you. host: mary is in pennsylvania on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i expect very little from the gop controlled washington now because they have every apparatus that has been in place since ronald reagan.

i worked for the government and everything that was in place to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse on a government level, which is passed down to developers in this country, and no one wants to eliminate what is going on because when president obama was in office he stated he was going to go line by line with the house, the republican house. no one wanted to do this because of the trillions of dollars that are now in place for the american people to pay back. we had a republican senator,

senator tom koerber and. he used to print publications banking on the poor, how corporate america exploits struggling communities to collect new tax credits. this has been going on for decades. until we make sure that we prosecute these people under our government accountability office , which is in place, that verifies every contractor that actually milked the american taxpayer and never provided the services that they entered into a contract to do, and we have had, for everyone to check, labor and industry under e-verify, which they hire undocumented people to avoid paying taxes.

so that apparatus is in place. no one used it. so until we hold everyone accountable, even these elected officials that make sure they get these contracts, these illegal contracts in their cities and states, like a bridge to nowhere. host: i want to go to a facebook, from keith snyder, who says i expect decency, for a change. close border first day. all the needs to be done is follow immigration laws already on the books. meet with canada and finish the keystone pipeline. open the oil rigs again. that is the first thing. that will bring guest: down the cost of fuel and make transportation of goods -- ring down the cost of fuel and make transportation of goods cheaper. here is what chuck schumer has to say about the incoming republican majority when they take control year. [video clip] >> senate republicans should

continue to prioritize bipartisanship when they enter the majority next year. on my first as majority leader i pledged to make bipartisanship part of how the senate does its business. i said then and many times since , the senate works best when both sides work together. years later, democrats have not only kept our promise but proven that bipartisanship can work in significant ways. the majority was the most productive majority the senate has had in decades. that could not have happened, had we not made the choice to reach across the aisle. it was bipartisanship that cleared the way for the biggest infrastructure bill in a generation, that got the chips and science bill done and now hundreds of thousands of jobs are returning to the united states. it was bipartisanship that held the line against putin, defended

ukraine, and made sure we saw zero government shutdowns under this administration. the list goes on. marriage equality, the first gun safety bill in decades. all these accomplishment were possible because democrats were willing to work with the other side. we still have work to do in this chamber before the year is out and i am proud of the record we built over the last four years, one of -- that we accomplish by reaching across the aisle whenever the chance presented itself. i hope the next few years are as fruitful and collaborative as the last four. i hope bipartisanship continues. that is the only way we will be successful in the senate. that will be up to senate republicans to decide for themselves. >> a comment from facebook from mattwho says less money going

to ukraine, more money staying home, cheaper gas at home, wore people back to work here at home. back to her calls, dave is in new york on our line for republicans. >> i have called in several times over the past year or so as a proponent of president trump having been to his rally in the bronx. it was amazing. i think he did a lot of outreach this time and has garnered the popular vote and has a mandate to rule, so i am hoping this time around that all those folks out there who see him as a freak show or want to make fun of his people will give him a chance. it is starting already with tulsi gabbard being a russian spy and all these accusations. matt gaetz won his district by a

two thirds vote. i want to give him the benefit of the doubt. i want to give the president to the benefit of the doubt and start out his policies, be at the border, inflation, the deficit. these are all important issues that need to be dealt with because the common future of all americans is for this administration and president to succeed. what i most want to see is some kind of legislation around the fairness doctrine were nothing but lies and recriminations were made about this man being a fascist, this man being a hitler on open media. all of that recrimination got him to the presidency, so the media industrial complex out there, all of the big three letter networks need to take note. we are tired of that.

we are tired of being against one another. we are tired of the elitism and making fun of the everyday american who goes to work every day and paste taxes. we are tired of making fun of us. we want change in this country and we want a fair and even playing field. thank you for the opportunity this morning. host: next is greg in illinois on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. what i expect from republicans is chaos and incompetence, incompetence be a good thing because most of what they want to do is bad, so it is good they are bad at doing it. i expect the end of the american empire because america first means america alone. that is not to our benefit.

that is all i got. thank you. host: nbc has an article, how democrats can still flex power in trump's washington, and it says here that republicans have won full control of washington but democrats will retain two key meters of power to shape legislative outcomes. the first is they held republicans to a narrow house majority, which gives the party in charge little room for defections to pass major legislation. that margin is slimming further as trump plucks house members for jobs. the last two years showed how dysfunctional this house can be even when stakes are low. now stakes are high as republicans will own the outcome or face the blame for paralysis. democrats say they intend to stay unified. the second lever for democrats is the legislative filibuster in the senate. many republican senators,

including their newly elected leader, promise to preserve the voter threshold for most legislation even if it hinders trump's agenda. adam is in new jersey on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: i have always thought trump offers chaos for the opposition, cruelty for his base because they want to hurt people -- they do not like certain people in this country. it is very clear whenever he talks about migrants and people he does not like. republicans hate. a significant amount of people in this country, so cruelty for them and corruption for him and his family. they are going to hoover up whatever government resources they want. so that is what it is going to be. everybody who voted for trump

that thought he was going to end inflation, good luck. you have a great thing coming for you. godspeed. host: recently at mar-a-lago, president-elect trump made comments about what he would like to see economically as the result of his incoming administration. caller: i watched -- [video clip] >> a watched -- i watched a liberal commentators say, whether you like it or not, there seems to be a beautiful light shining over our country and even the world. i said, this guy did not say that. we have to defeat inflation. the costs are too high. when i went around, i heard something, the word grocery. it is sort of a strange and simple, nice word. i'm going out for groceries today. they talked about that more than any other item, the groceries are too high. when you think about it, that is

a bad thing. i talked about that a lot in the last couple weeks and it resonated. i told a story about a woman. she got three apples, an old woman. she had three apples and she brought them to the cash register and she looked at the woman and she said, is that the right price? the woman said, yes, i am sorry, it is. she said, could you wait one minute? she took one of the three apples and brought it back to the refrigeration and came back to the cash register and paid for two apples instead of three. that should not be happening in our country. it is not going to happen here. we are going to make it a much different place. host: back to your calls. caller: good morning. i wanted to call and say i am so happy that a party that took

over gets the chance to do with a promise to the american people to do because they voted them into do it. it is only four years, so if we do not like what has been accomplished you can then vote the other way. but this is the way it should be , a two party system really crushes what a party promised people to do, so we do not get anything. so i hope this system that we have now with a more one-party than the other will get some accomplishments. host: are there policies you would like to see republicans tackle first? caller: of course the border because good people come across the border but a lot of bad

people come across the border. what runs through my mind a lot is the homeless on the streets. i see people -- california has cities there totally trashed because people are on the street. why is that? when i was growing up, i never saw people living on the street. that really bothers me because it is heartbreaking to see that. thank you. host: town thehall.com has a piece by a columnist that says trump must make america the 1980's again. the show is the economy. the show is mamerican citizens able to support themselves and their families. if president trump fails to do that, nothing else matters. l the great stuff we are going to see, banning milion, closing the border, making the

military deadly again can all be undone, should democrats take power. if we do not keep the house and senate in 2026, it does not neuter trump but it limits possibilities. chris is in kentucky on our line for independents. caller: this is a prime example of republicans under my kratz arguing about one another. this is the problem with united states. why are we arguing about any of this? we need to stay united. united's -- a united front from the people and for the people to watch out for our country, to watch these politicians and get them out of there. they have gotten so comfortable with being so crooked and taking advantage of all of us and what we do and what we are supposed to stand for in this country that they have ruined and put us in a state of shock basically.

when we woke up the environmental things they put in place. everybody, be smart. look at what they are doing with the environmental. it costs more to use the bathroom than it does to drink a gallon of freshwater. think about that. this is insane. this stuff has to stop. there's things that need to be put in place. there is laws that need to be put in. we have enough laws. this stuff needs to stop. we need to get these people out of our white house come out of our congress. we the people need to unite against what is happening with the people on the phone lines right now. that has to stop. that is all i have. thank you. host: truck is in maryland on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. i do not expect too much.

donald trump has no -- he has a lot of personality but no principles. he ran up the deficit. he gave tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. he is going to wreck the economy because he did it before. he does not make good decisions. the decisions he is going to make with medicare and social security are not going to be for the people at the bottom. his track record already proves who he is. all those people who voted for him that are at the bottom, you will feel the pain. until america feels enough pain that they want change -- fox news or sinclair broadcasting, they do not tell you the truth. they have been lying to you and they have been sued for their lives and a big swath of america

listens to that. they think the other side is doing it. joe biden's build back better program is going to last for at least the next 15 years, building roads and highways, making neighborhoods safe for the children. he put a bunch of stuff in their -- there that donald trump could have never got through. god bless america. we are going to get the government we deserve. host: ed is in kansas on our line for republicans. caller: i do not know. i kind of like donald trump because in 2018 i was doing the same job i have done now and i got back $1800 in income tax. with joe biden last year, i got

$13. i do not know what the difference is. i do not know. the country seems to be better under trump. to the previous caller, i do not think he has a job because under trump the world was better for the working man. i hope it is again. thank you very much. host: a.j. is in ohio on our line for independents. what are you expecting from a gop controlled washington? caller: thank you for taking my call. what i expect is nothing. i remind people the grand promise of infrastructure week. i think it is actually somewhat amusing that they had this agenda that is supposed to take us to the next level and i am somewhat skeptical, as i was of the democrats as well. so let's not put all our eggs in

one basket. this is not going to be -- how would i say the best administration? there is so much more out there that is expected by just the little people. thank you very much. host: barney is in florida on our line for democrats. can you turn down the volume on your tv first? caller: how is that? host: go ahead. caller: one thing i found out about this situation, we are who we vote for. if we vote for a felon, a bigot come antiracist, that is americans. this man was pushing this garbage from the day he left office, about somebody getting somebody's stuff.

it is always the black taking somebody's stuff. >> what are you expecting once the gop takes control of the white house and senate? >> racism, bigotry, and stealing. they are going to steal all the money they can, just like trump stole all the money he could the last four years. i expect a bunch of confusion, a bunch of bigots getting up there talking about somebody taking somebody's stuff. america is a disgrace to the world. host: the new york times has an article saying trump signals a seismic shift, shocking the washington establishment. his early transition moves amount to a generational test of a system as he seeks to rewrite the balance of power and install lieutenants to blow up key parts of government. this is by peter baker.

somehow, disruption does not begin to cover it. up people may be closer. revolution may be. donald j. trump has embarked on a new campaign to shatter the institutions of washington as no incoming president has. he has rolled a grenade into's the middle of the nation's capital -- into the middle of the nation's capital and wash with glee to see who runs away and who throws themselves on it. so far, there have been more of the former than the latter. mr. trump has said that real power is the ability to engender fear and seems to have achieved that. mr. trump's early transition moves amount to a stress test of the system. if republicans bow to his command -- demand to recess the senate so he can install appointees without confirmation, it would rewrite the balance of power. if he gets his way on selections for some of the most important posts in government, he would put in place loyalists intent on

blowing up the very departments they would lead. michael is in virginia on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: thank you. with republicans in the white house and house of representatives and u.s. senate, the current composition of the u.s. supreme court, i expect an end to the humanitarian catastrophe on our southern border, the human trafficking, the border effectively. i expect us to be further away instead of closer to world war iii with the fighting in europe and the hostilities in the middle east that are trending toward escalating. i believe that will end. i expect energy to be more affordable. i expect groceries to be more

affordable. i expect governments to be more accountable instead of having economic crisis. being covered up and being told by corporate media that everything is good and all this stuff, we will have a more realistic view of what is going on in the country because the media is not going to cover up for republicans. they are going to tell it like it is. so i am enthusiastic and looking forward to 2025. there is a lot of work to do. it is not going to be easy. there will be resistance. i was laughing and laughing when you were playing chuck schumer talking about reaching across the aisle and being bipartisan, the same person that was threatening the u.s. supreme court, the same senate leader that was invoking conspiracies

and everything else. he is on his way out. all these old people. they are going to go. and the new wave of leadership is coming in. trump has a strong team, a young team. they are going to do great things. i expect our military to be more effective. these old generals are going to be bypassed and we will start reaching out to colonels and people that are actually effective leaders to get one needs to be done accomplished, so it is going to take work and time but we are going to be on the right track. food is unaffordable. interest rates are insane. so i am optimistic and looking

forward to the future with republican leadership. host: jerry is in oklahoma on our line for independents. caller: i am a former democrat. the party left me with elite socialists like it did kennedy, but all i hear from democrats, especially all the news stations , fox, newsmax, cnn, you do not hear any hatred and vitriol coming out of republicans but you still here that coming out of democrats, who forget the majority of the country -- this was the biggest wave of populism in 50 years. and if you look around the world

everybody is welcoming trump. everybody is reaching out to him. iran just announced they are not going to retaliate against israel. the houthis have said they are going to tone down their attacks and you hear china, ukraine, russia, israel all reaching out to trump and i do think we need to blow up washington figuratively and get the swamp out, get some new people. and just reduce washington. get it back to a federalist state and let the states from themselves, be they democrat or republican. let the states decide and have a smaller washington then we have

had for the last 40, 50 years. i like everything that is going on and i think the only chaos there is going to be is the opposition to change in washington. you got guys like trump and elon musk who know how to run things efficiently. the last thing washington's been in the last 50 years is efficient, so i like what is happening and i think there is going to be chaos but will be chaos of resistance, not chaos of change. host: jasper is in tennessee on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. my thing is i have a couple things. the first one is when you hear these republicans talking, whether they are poor or on the street or rich in a gated community, it is always about

money. and the economy. trump inherited a good economy that was going forward under obama. trump was the one that ran this economy into the ground and put it right back in office again with all the projects 2025 stuff. guess what? in six months, you will be right back where you come from. when it comes down between women -- white women left the black women alone. i hope the black women understand they have no ally in fighting for their health rights or even good pay. and all these black chokers went around and voted for trump. everybody in that represents one thing. back in 1964, we had civil

rights and had one guy come out. if the federal government don't come in and talk to states got you have no civil rights. you are going to suffer. other people are going to suffer for trump being in the white house. trump is nothing but a gold digger and a con man. he ran this country in the ground. we had food lines. we had people dying. biden helps this country get behind that pandemic we had and there is no way that this guy knows what he is doing because he does not. they did not see that four years ago when we have minds of people diane? we are in bad shape. that one guy said people around the world respect trump. i'm a soldier, 20 two years. i got friends all over the world , italy, germany, you name it.

they called me and said, what did you all do? host: we ve a facebook comment from larry wes who predicts a gop-controlled washington th wi rollback abortion rights, dismantl a number of government agencies, and be a rubberstamp for every trump policy. now that the house minority leader spoke last week on how house democrats are moving forward in the next administration. he made these comments friday. [video clip] >> former president donald trump be the next president of the united states of america. house democrats have fallen a few seats short of reclaiming the majority. house democrats in the new congress will work to find bipartisan common ground

whenever and wherever possible, with the incoming administration in a manner consistent with our values, but at the same time always push back whenever necessary against far-right extremism that will hurt the american people. we will continue to exercise common sense. we will always try to find common ground. we will also vigorously defend the common good. we need to focus on the issues that matter, beginning of course with addressing the economic challenges facing everyday americans who for too long in this country but not simply for

years but for decades, have been struggling paycheck-to-paycheck. we look forward to leaning into that work in a narrowly divided congress next year and we extend the hand of bipartisanship in that effort also making clear that we are going to defend social security. we are going to defend medicare. we are going to defend the affordable care act and voting rights. we will continue to defend a woman's freedom to make her own reproductive health care decisions at all times. host: a couple comments from social media. kay says on facebook, great news is that doge,rump's coming

department of government efficiency, will be investigating stock trade transactf members of congress. this will be epic. bryce sayse left the democratic party to join trump specifically to put america first. thmy expectation of what republicans will do with total contro.c., strong border, strong military, ending of wars, strengthening election security accountability for those who have abused their office over the past four years. rob is in minnesota on our line for republicans. >> i would like to remind all the democrats that gas prices were cheapest under donald trump over the last 24 years. under bush, gas prices peaked at four dollars $.29.

and under build back better be peaked -- host: rob, it looks like we have lost you. let's go to -- do we have you back? go ahead. we lost or line for a moment. go ahead. >> we peaked at $4.89 under biden and under trump the highest gas price in minnesota for regular was $2.79, so we are far better off of donald trump and gas prices and food prices than any other politician in the last 24 years, so people that knock trump are not facing reality. they are listening to the news media too much and that is why they come to the conclusion that trump is a hit or a terrible man when really he was actually the best politician we have had in our lifetime. but they cannot see that with the media calling him names.

they cannot see that. all they see is he is a hitler because the media says he is a hitler. he has had two assassination attempt on his life and they call him a hitler? i don't think so. host: catherine is in new hampshire on our line for independents. caller: i would like our government to fund and research and cure autism. why are our children getting autism? how do we prevent children from getting autism? if a child has autism, what is the cure? that is what i would like to see them all busy on. >> are you expecting that the incoming trump administration is going to prioritize that issue?

>> i think robert f. kennedy, jr. might. he might try to find a cure for autism. it is all over the world and something is going on with those children. we adults have to speak up. thank you. have a good day. host: robert f. kennedy, jr. being trump's pick to lead the department of health and human services. cheyenne is on our line for independents. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think we have bigger problems. i do mean bigger problems than donald trump and all this white noise he is creating with cabinet appointments. it is distraction. our bigger problem is we need to keep our eyes on the skies and donald trump needs to have the military explained to him why our radar on our airports and

our military are not picking up starships that are coming in to our skies. i saw one myself. host: let's go to tony in alaska on our line for independents. go ahead. caller: yes. the main thing i see -- as far as other countries have more respect for our country. may not being on the opposite side, like i kind of am iffy on both sides as far as the same but just two different wings. under kamala, i do not see that happening. she seemed kind of unserious with her role of leadership. host: what are you expecting

from gop control of washington come january? caller: better relationships with foreign countries. i am seeing trump start to deal with the issues starting from the top of the ladder. it might take time for the bottom of the letter to feel what i think he has planned and he is cracking down on stuff like the pentagon. that is something that needed to be addressed. we are basically paying people to rob us, so we need to get our finances in line and keep it moving from there. now we have rfk attacking the food industry. he is full on. we are trying to have better food for our kids and everything, so i see that becoming a big change and that is pre-much.

thanks a lot for answering. host: maxwell's in virginia on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: i don't see nothing he has done. the last four years when he was in office, i do not see what he did. we pumped more gas than we ever have before. they keep talking about gas prices. they keep talking crazy stuff about the economy and everything. she was military and he was talking about how everybody across the country is like -- would you do this again? we are in trouble. we are in trouble and people -- like the guy talking about robert f kennedy and him doing something about the food industry? the republicans, that is what

they do. there ain't no way in the world he is doing that with food prices. as far as gas prices, people forget january 6 and the recent gas prices went down is because of covid. this guy is a joke and he is going to get a lot more americans killed. >> chris is in oregon on our line for independents. caller: good morning. host: what are you expecting from gop controlled washington? caller: i am excited after the last four years of dismal performance by president biden and i'm excited about all of the picks that trump is making for his cabinet. i like how he has tulsi gabbard

in there. i know people are worried about him making recess appointments, but i think that might be required to drain the swamp of some of the more corrupt components that we have in washington. i used to be a lifelong democrat. host: you mentioned you think those recess appointment might be necessary to drain the swamp. several commentators have expressed, even members of congress have expressed concerns that that could impact the balance of power. are you concerned about that? >> now. i am excited about impacting the balance of power. the balance of power has been not responsive to the constituents for too long. we have men competing in women's sports. we have all kinds of woke philosophies that have really --

are so far left of what the average american really cares about, so i am extremely excited to see a new administration come in and have a clean sweep of some of the swamp in washington. get it removed. that is all really. >> tommy is in kentucky on our line for democrats. caller: yes. when it comes to choice of having men playing women's sports, what -- i do not believe that is going to happen. having a man that has said he wants to be a dictator, i do not see how you can even compare the two and how he even got elected with all the felonies against

him and all the things he has done. i do not understand. but i say this. on the people start getting their social security checks, the old people, and health care, then you will see a change in things because these younger people that depend on their grandparents and parents to help them, but they draw problems that trump will create by taking care of the rich and not worrying about the people that work and are poor, when they find out all of this they will find out what fear is. i do not fear trump. i do not fear none of his administration. he is a weak man and weak minded. that is true. anybody that don't believe it, just watch his rallies, talking about the sharks. crazy stuff, windmills causing cancer, all of that.

he is just as bad as poor biden was. i am a democrat and i know biden has dementia and trump has some. when the real bad times hit for all the poor people and all the working people where he is taking the taxes and taking everything away to give to the rich and elon musk getting 70 $5 million back through government projects, he is getting paid for getting trump in and people will see. host: we are just about out of time. ellie is in california on our line for republicans. go ahead. >> mining is aaliyah -- caller: my name is leah and i am proud to be in this country. this is the most beautiful

country. and make me happy. our president mr. trump, our elected president, he is going to be helping everybody, especially elders on social security. they have to worry about their rent and groceries and all the things that in all personal needs. i am so proud of working in this country. i was an immigrant who came to this country and i love this country. i hope mr. turnbull be able to help all the forgotten ones which are elderly like me and we always have to worry about our rent and how could we survive? how could we survive? i hope you will help us. i believe in him and i trust

him. host:-- host: we will have to end it there. coming up, we will be joined by oren cass, he will talk about donald trump's economic policy proposals and how he can deliver a pro-worker agenda. tom hartman will join us to discuss donald trump's electoral victory and the future of the democratic party. ♪ >> this week on the c-span networks, the house and senate are in. house democrats will hold their leadership elections for the 119th congress and orientation continues for the newly elected house members. the house will re-vote on legislation that ends the tax-exempt status of organizations which failed last week. the senate will vote on more of president biden's remaining judicial nominations.

on tuesday, dn crucible testified before a subcommittee on disaster readiness and response. then, alejandro mayorkas, christopher wray and brett holmgren, the acting director of the national counterterrorist nter testify on worldwide threats to the u.s.. first on wednesday before the house homeland security committee and then on thursday before the homeland security committee. watch on c-span now, our free mobile video app. head over to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch live or on demand at any time. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> tonight on c-span's q and a, investigative journalist maureen callahan talks about the physical and psychological abuse she says was experienced by women and girls connected to the kennedy family, going back to

joe kennedy senior in her book ask not. >> bobby moved his new girlfriend, cheryl hines, into a home, just a few yards away, maybe a few hundred yards away. they are flaunting their relationship all over the place. he's threatening like he's going to get the -- it became this whole thing and she felt hopeless, like she had nothing to live for. and this culminates in her suicide in may of 2012. she hung herself in their barn, on their property up in westchester. and almost immediately, bobby and carrie talked to the new york times and talked about what a mess mary was. and how amazing it was that bobby survived his marriage to her. this is the mother of his four chilen. >> investor get of journalist maureen callahan with her book, ask not.

tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. you can listen to q and day and all of our podcasts onur free c-span now app. -- q and a and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined by oren cass. welcome to washington journal. caller: thanks -- guest: thanks for having me. host: tell us about your mission at american compass and how your organization is funded. guest: -- what that means in practice is focusing a lot on economic policy, trying to get away from the idea that all growth is equally good and we will make it up to everybody who is left behind. as a result, we are funded by an interesting set of individuals

and corporations and a lot of foundations across the political spectrum. host: speaking of the political spectrum, where would you say your group fits in terms of ideology in politics as well as economics? guest: we are on the right of center. we are identified as a very conservative group. at the same time, it is interesting, we spend most of our time on arguments within the right of center, working on a lot of these fights that are going on among conservatives. like how to move forward, obviously the republican party today is not the same one of john mccain and mitt romney and paul ryan. so, we work with folks like vice president elect jd vance and marco rubio on trying to shape the future direction of the conservative movement. host: you have an op-ed or a guest essay in the new york times. it says trump is about to

face the choice that dooms many a presidency. what is that choice and why did you feel the need to write this now? guest: it's an especially interesting situation for mr. trump. it's been almost 150 years since we had a president who was out of office and then coming back into office. he gets a second chance at doing a first-term. typically, what we have seen when a new president is coming in, they have just spent all of this time campaigning, making commitments to voters, trying to win their support. all of a sudden, now you're the president elect and everything flips. all of those groups and donors, everybody is trying to get your support for their priorities. i think it is a place where right at the beginning, we typically see administrations really struggle. they do a lot of the stuff that the activists really want and the donors really want and the voters look around and say this is not what we were expecting at all.

typically in the next midterm election, you see the president's party get wiped out. and so, the piece that i wrote is to see in mr. trump remember why is that he was elected and what he will have to do to be a successful president or does all of the attention focus to what people are talking about at the mar-a-lago, which isn't the stuff that will get it done. host: when it comes to trump's first administration, how close do you think he got to some of the pro-worker economic policies that you support and in general, what did you think of his economic record? guest: i think his first term was an interesting situation where i like the metaphor of the dog that caught the car. obviously, people were surprised that he won. it was a situation where there was not a lot of work done to develop the kinds of policy

ideas to develop the talent you could bring into an administration that was going to do that kind of work. so, what i think he really saw in his first term was he gets to the white house, paul ryan is the speaker of the house. one of the legislative priorities was a big corporate tax cut. it was trying to repeal obama care. i think those probably were not the right places to focus. on the other hand, in places where thinking had been done in terms of strong immigration enforcement and contracting china -- confronting china, that's where you saw him get more done. especially on trade, ambassador bob lighthizer, the u.s. trade representative who is a candidate for treasury now. he knew exactly what needed to be done and gave him the power and space to go do it. i think we made a tremendous amount of progress on the trade issue with china.

host: you mentioned earlier you are working with vice president elect jd vance. i want to play a portion of his speech accepting the vice presidential nomination in july. >> never in my wildest imagination could i have believed that i would be standing here tonight. i grew up in middletown, ohio. [cheers] >> a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands and loved their god, family, community and country with their whole hearts. but it was also a place that had been cast aside and forgotten by america's ruling class in washington. when i was in the fourth grade, a career politician by the name of joe biden supported nafta, a bad trade deal that sent countless good jobs to mexico. when i was a sophomore in high school, that same career politician named joe biden gave

china a sweetheart trade deal that destroyed even more good, american, middle-class manufacturing jobs. when i was a senior in high school, that same joe biden simply the disastrous invasion of iraq and at each step of the way, in small towns like mine and ohio, or next-door in pennsylvania or michigan, in states all across our country, jobs were sent overseas and our children were sent to war. host: oren cass, what is your assessment thus far of president elect trump's picks for his cabinet as well as what you're hoping to see from vice president elect jd vance when it comes to economic policy? guest: i think it is interesting in that clip from jd vance, he's actually paring together two different issues where the republican has shifted. on free trade and economic

policy, they were overwhelmingly focused on embracing free-trade and ignoring places like ohio that were going to be hurt by it. and on foreign policy, it was a parallel process. we have had both democrats and republicans just kind of when around looking for wars to start -- going around, looking for wars to star and not thinking about who would have to fight those wars. i think what you see with trump and vance and the pix they have started to make, it is a different way of thinking about that. so far, the pix have been more on the foreign policy and military side. senator rubio at the state department has been an excellent pig. he's been at the forefront over the last decade of making the case that we need to rethink all of this. we need to recognize what --

that our main adversary is china. that our economic and foreign policies are entangled. what we do economics is a huge impact on what we do in foreign policy and what it means for national security. i think he will bring much-needed change and leadership to the state department. on the economic side, it's interesting to see those on the pix that have not been made yet. there is still a debate about treasury secretary, who will be somebody that will actually carry forward president trump mission and not just kind of be another wall street banker, which we tend to see, especially in the republican treasury departments. likewise, pix like commerce, labor, these are the issues that are at the heart of our economic policy. as someone like jd vance has spoken about a lot, having a labor policy that is more focused on the interest of workers and having a commerce department in charge of the

chips act, which is the investment that we are doing to bring semi conductor manufacturing into this country. those are the kinds of things i think we still are waiting to see on. but hopefully we get it right because that will determine the direction of our growth. host: we will take your calls and questions for mr. cass. democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. independents at (202) 748-8002. we have talked about what is happening in the white house but republicans have gained control of congress. a big thing on their agenda is going to be taxes with the expiration of the provisions of the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act. you have something about this. the coming tax cuts will not be what you are expecting. what do you think most people are expecting and what should we

expect instead? guest: i wrote about it this week. understanding america, that's what it's about, trying to understand what is going on that a lot of times i think is different from what people are expecting. this tax break is a great example. if you think back to 2017, the republicans pushed very hard on a large tax cut that was not paid for at all. they went straight into a bigger deficit. and the argument was somehow, you heard the phrase it will pay for itself somehow. the reality is it didn't. i don't think there is any dispute at this point that it added significantly to our deficit. as did many of the things on the spending side that the biden administration has since done. now, we have a much worse physical picture. we are looking at deficits of almost $2 trillion a year. even the interest payments on

our debt at this point, we are spending more on interest payments than we are our military. that can't go on. but have been predicting a fiscal crisis for a long time. we are now in the fiscal crisis. i think the interesting thing is a lot of republicans know this. especially in the house of representatives. there are a lot of republicans who have already said if anything, they need to be raising revenue to address our deficit problem. the idea that even with republican control, we are just going to take the tax cuts from 2017 and extend them all, just do it all again and not worry about the costs, i think that is totally unrealistic and does not have the votes that it would need. frankly, that's a very good thing. it means there will be a much more serious look at what can we afford and how do we pay for it? as a result, we will not be able to extend everything. there will have to be a bigger

fight about which parts of these tax cuts really were valuable and we want to keep them. there were some good things in there. a child tax credit that helps a lot of working family. some good incentives to encourage businesses to invest more. there are things that we want to keep. but, there will be a lot more work and a lot more fighting to be done about what this looks like going forward. it's not just going to be a blank check to spend the money and not worry about the deficit. host: president elect trump has suggested tariffs as one way to raise revenue. what do you think of this policy, particularly in terms of maybe 60% tariffs on goods coming from china and 20% across the board? guest: i think it's a very good policy. this is one that we do a lot of work on at american compass. and really focusing on where we started with this question of what does pro-worker policy look like? how do we create good jobs in america for american workers and

it doesn't just promise everybody cheap stuff that somebody else will pay for? in reality, we are putting it on the national credit card. i think that policy is very much needed. especially when it comes to china. the fight that we are now going to have goes all the way back to a fight that we had back in 2000. you heard jd vance mention in the speech at the convention, there was a huge fight over whether we should grant free-trade to china, what is called permanent normal trade relations. and all of the economists said yes, absolutely, this is going to be great. it's going to be great for us and china. and obviously, it has been a disaster for us. what people are now finally starting to think about, it's interesting, it was a bipartisan recommendation of the house of representatives china committee. it's in the republican national platform, saying no, we will not

have normal trade relations with china. we are going to treat them like the adversary and the bad actor in the economic system that they are. china is trying to send a lot of cheap stuff, in some cases, using slave labor with heavy subsidies over the chinese communist party. there will be high tariffs on that. that's not where we want to be buying stuff from. it's certainly not something we want to be dependent on. the good news, to go back to your question a moment ago about taxes, is that tariffs also generate revenue. when we are thinking about how do we pay for the kinds of tax cuts that we want to have that benefit families and encourage economic growth, tariffs can help do that. host: let's go to your calls for oren cass, the founder and chief economist of american compass, starting with richard in augustine, georgia on our line for democrats. good morning -- augusta, georgia

, on our line for. good morning. caller: the nobel prize economists have all said that trump's agenda again will be doom and gloom. i have seen the charts that steve ratner has shown. they have shown how the deficit came down with biden. how can you guys continue to believe that trump is going to provide good cost-of-living wages for american people, support good cost-of-living wages and now you guys want to go back to the doom and gloom of tariffs that stopped the farmers from selling their products to china, which would have helped them make money.

such as the poor prices of soybeans and corn and other agricultural products. and then you want to illuminate the people who pick the fruits and vegetables for this country, that keeps the prices down. whereas they will go up. host: richard, you have made a bunch of things. i will let oren respond. richard is talking about immigration and retaliatory tariffs and lots of things. guest: i would start with a couple of factual points. it is certainly not the case that the deficit went up under trump and down under biden. it went up under both. the problem of too much deficit spending and irresponsible budgeting has been an entirely bipartisan one that we certainly need to address. on the flipside, it is important to say that at this point, the tariffs policy is an entirely bipartisan one. as much as people complained when trump put the tariffs on china into effect, the biden administration cap essentially all of those tariffs.

they have put on even more in some cases. this is a place where nobody wants to admit it but president trump has been proven entirely correct. people are, in general, encouraged by him and supportive of what he did there. on the question of what it means on the immigration front, i think it is a really interesting topic. because, as the questioner put it, we have this sort of mindset in this country that all that matters is cheap labor. that we actually want to be paying workers as little as possible because means -- it means we get cheaper stuff. it's funny that that is becoming a progressive talking point. we have democrats and people on the left saying oh, we need to have these workers earning as little money as possible, when obviously that can't be right at all. that is no way to run an economy. and if we want broad-based prosperity, we need to have a

real commitment to saying that the jobs in america are going to be good jobs that pay well and allow americans to support their families. in an industry like agriculture, that means we need a lot more technology. we need automation and machinery. if you tell farmers we will not just have an endless supply of legal labor, you need to find a way to pick crops with american workers, we have seen this in the past and we will see it again, they will quickly invest in much better equipment that allows workers to do their jobs and support their families. i don't think any of this will happen overnight but i think people on both republican -- on the republican and democratic side need to get over the idea that -- and remember that actually labor

workers, jobs to pay a living wage for people in america are the foundation of our nation. host: this is actually on the front page of the new york times today. how a broken border keeps our shopping carts full. among the statements in here, this year, america's southern border was a flashpoint in the presidential election. president elect donald j. trump pledging to millions of people who he said were poisoning the blood of the country. within days of his reelection, he announced his intention to put hardliners on illegal immigration. this has been an ongoing issue, as you mentioned. i want too to a question we received via text from kathy in detroit, who asks that you

explain how tariffs raise revenue. guest: sure. a tariff at the end of the day is a form of tax. it is something that is charged to a business or even an individual can something is imported into the country. let's say you want to bring a giant shipment of televisions from china. if there is a tariff on those televisions, you have to pay to the united states government some amount of money relative to how much those televisions are worth. and so, in that respect, it generates revenue directly to the government. for most of american history, tariffs were actually the main way we funded our government. the very first law signed by the very first congress bite george washington back in the founding of the country was a tariff bill. that was how we would raise money to fund the government.

i think everybody recognizes that tariffs can be one source of revenue. they are not going to fund the government themselves but one of the problems with the way a lot of economists talk about tariffs today and do their models is they treat the money like it is set on fire. as if we have made things more expensive and the money is gone. that's not true. the money is going into the treasury. we can use that to cut other taxes to offset the cost. we can use that to offset our deficit and make investments in new factories and equipment and infrastructure and things that benefit workers and families here in america. host: peter is in new york on the line for republicans. caller: good morning, mr. cass. in 2017, when they passed the tax and jobs act, the federal government was taking in 3.1 3

trillion dollars. in 2023, the government was taking in $4.8 trillion. the inflation or the american rescue plan which was passed in 2021, larry summers, who was obama's treasury secretary said that it would be inflationary. the inflation reduction act was $1.2 trillion. they are spending now 7 trillion dollars and taking in approximately $5 trillion. we have a spending problem. we don't have a revenue problem. under the 2017 tax policy, the average american family was $6,000 a year wealthier than they were before. now, they are $2000 poorer. host: i want to let mr. cass respond to your idea that it is

a spending issue rather than a revenue issue. go ahead. guest: i have to agree. it is a spending issue. as the caller said, we saw an explosion of spending during the biden administration. some part of that was related to covid. it went up and back down again. the problem is it did not go all back down again. even though the emergency is long over, a lot of the spending is still there. democrats were refusing to bring spending down way a more manageable level. i think they are creating an enormous problem for our budget and so, for our country. on the flipside, on the revenue and the taxes, the caller said is incorrect. it is true that in absolute dollar terms, we are taking it more -- taking in more this year than we did 17 years ago. but you have to remember the

economy has grown and there has been an enormous amount of inflation. the way to understand our tax revenue and to see if taxes have gone up or down is to look at how much we are collecting in taxes relative to the size of the economy. what you see when we look at that is because of the tax cut and jobs act, we are bringing in less revenue relative to the size of the economy. before that past, it was between 17 and 17.5%. now, it is between 16% and 16.5%. obviously, if you are ringing in 16.5% of the economy as tax revenue and then you are spending something like 24% of the economy is government spending, that is a huge gap and it has to be closed. it is going to have to be closed from both sides. there is no way to bring our

spending all the way down to what our tax revenue is today. there is no serious republican budget proposal that would do it. to even get close, we would have to do things like cut medicare in half. nobody is interested in doing that and it would not be good. so, if you look at the sensible budget models that republicans and democrats put out, if you could go back to what paul ryan put out as his proposal for a sensible budget, what you see is at the end of the day, you need to get spending and you need to get revenue around 19-20% of the economy. that is where virtually every model ends up landing. if you think back to the days of bill clinton when we had a balanced budget, that's what we were taking in and spending. from where we are today to get there, yes, we will have to do a lot about bringing down spending. we are also going to have to find a way to raise more revenue.

in the old republican talking point that we will never, ever consider raising revenue, we will only cut taxes, we just have to recognize that is not responsible and has not been getting the job done. at the end of the day, that leads to a bigger and bigger fiscal problem. host: i will point out for folks who want to hear more about the 1920's solution as you call it related to spending and revenue, it's more on understanding america than 1920's solutions. mr. cass, what is your opinion of t cve claiming if you charge too much in taxes, you will get less revenue? will the very rich move out of the country if taxes are too high? guest: the laffer curve is a picture that was drawn on a napkin by a guy named art laffer

, an adviser to ronald reagan. the point he made, which is true , was that if you charge 0% taxes, you will collect zero revenue. if you charge 100% taxes, if you tell people you will take every dollar they earn, you will also collect zero revenue because who would earn anything, who would do any work or try to earn anything if they knew it would all be taken by the government? so, the right tax rate, the one that actually encourages a productive economy and collect money to fund the government has to be in between zero and 100. you can't keep raising taxes forever and think you are going to keep getting more money. that still leaves the question of where are we on that curve? are we at a point where more taxes bring in more revenue or are we at a point where more taxes actually start to scare people away and discourage them

from earning money and therefore leave us worse off? the reality is that literally every economic study that has been done on the question, certainly for individual taxes, shows that we are still on what i would call the short side of the laffer curve. meaning, if you do raise taxes on people, you will collect more tax revenue. the corporate side is a little bit trickier. back in reagan's days, when taxes on investment and corporate profits were like 40% or 50%, for that matter, individual taxes were 70% at the top, i think you could make the case that bringing those down was actually a way to collect more revenue. but given where it is today after 40 years of tax cuts, that's not true anymore. that's not an argument for raising taxes. we should want to have taxes as

low as they can be. we should want people to keep as much of their own money as they can. we should want to be encouraging as much investment in work and growth as we can. and we should want to be limiting the size of government. at the same time, we should want to be paying for the size of our government. we should want to be paying for what we spend and not running up the debt and leaving it to our kids. that's where we have to have some hard conversations about where can we cut spending, where do we want to spend less? we have to remember that at every level of spending that we want to do, we have to pay for taxes to fund it. that's just the reality. host: just is in north carolina -- jess is in north carolina on the line for independents. caller: i have a question

about the to varmint of efficiency, is that what it is called? >> yes. host: let's the proposal. caller: it seems like whenever we have talk about raising money or trying to find more money for the government, it seems like we talk about cutting programs that help some of the most vulnerable people in america. women and children and disabled people. people that are sick and need help. my question, sir, i would like for your guests to comment. looking at salaries of congress, is it necessary for these people to receive pensions? they go to washington and stay forever, i think they should have term limits. i don't think serving in congress and the senate should be a career where you come and

receive a pension. could you just talk about the possibility of the pensions being removed from the government officials that serve in congress? and also, decreasing their salary? how would that work and what would it look like and could it help with the deficit or trying to find more money to operate the government? guest: it's an interesting question. i would say that is probably not the place to look for savings for two reasons. one is it is a very small amount of money. you can see there is a line item for the cost of congress because, of course, it is the budget for the federal government. it's like the cost of one fighter jet.

it is a minuscule amount when you think about 530 something odd people in congress and the senate. they earn for the most part between $100,000 and $200,000 per year. it's an amount in the millions, it's not even in the billions. there is not a lot of savings there at all. even if you told them they all had to volunteer and they weren't going to pay anybody anything. on the flipside, i would look at it the other way and say we have a problem of probably not funding our lawmakers and congress as well as we should. because it is such a small amount of money and because the decisions they make have such enormous consequences, you think about a few of them sitting around in a room debating one sentence in one law will change our spending more than the entire amount that we spend on that.

we are at a point now where somebody graduating from a top law school and going to work in new york city, they will earn more in their first year than the speaker of the house earns. it's very hard to attract smart, dedicated, talented people to work in these important jobs in congress, both as elected officials and as their staff and people who advise them, if we say we are just not going to pay you almost anything, relative to what you could go earn in a different kind of job. my advice would be to say let's really focus on making sure we can hire and keep talented people in congress. i agree with term limits. let's not let them stay forever. but that's not where i would try to cut. i would cut spending to save money. host: diana is in arizona on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: hi, everybody.

i am surrounded by trump supporters. and they all tell me trump is going to do something great like rent control, go after corporations for food prices, gouging. they don't care about trump going after the fbi and those things. they want to see some real relief. but they also tell me there is something deep inside trump about the cruelty and the republican voting. every time they are supposed to help the poor or middle-class, republicans always vote no. but like trump throwing paper towels to the people in puerto rico and releasing 5000 taliban people, is he going to do something for the poor and these food prices? is he going to build something

this time? guest: i think that is a great question that was very well put. it goes back to where we started at the top of the hour. we mentioned a piece that i had recently written, looking at this decision that trump has. i think a lot of the things he ran on during the campaign, i think political figures around him like jd vance and marco rubio are focused on policies that would help workers, families, retireesto make the families much stronger. there is a side of him and some of the advisors around him and some of his supporters who would focus on doing other things that i think would be much less productive. and so, we are, at this moment right now, where that is being determined. who he chooses to lead his

various departments, what kinds of policy they choose to focus on in the first hundred days will determine the shape of his administration. i think realistically, it's not going to be all good. it's not going to be all bad. where it lands in between is going to determine how successful he is and how popular he is. whether his party does well in the next elections. and so, hopefully, the way this is supposed to work is that he and his team think about these things and realize they have to deliver on these promises for their voters. i think we will certainly see some of it. but i hope, and we will have to wait to see if we see a lot of it. host: jim is in winter park, florida on the line from republicans. good morning. caller: good morning, mr. cass. my question is does anybody ever take a look at the bloat of

government? one of the things biden talked about during his administration is he has gotten so many people jobs. hundreds of thousands of those jobs are federal employees. and we just keep adding people and adding people and adding people to work. and their salary is $100,000 a year and there is 200,000 of them. that is a lot of money. and we never stop funding programs that are failures. we spend money over and over again on failing policies that, if we stopped at, we would be a lot better off. we have so many people that aren't going into offices anymore. there is ocean building on top of ocean building on top of ocean building and nobody is working. we are air conditioning, lighting, powering and renting

them. why do we have to keep funding? if people are going to work from home, get rid of the buildings. if people are not going to work from home and get back to work then get back to work. somebody has to look at the amount of money that is wasted in washington, d.c. on policies -- host: i want to make sure we give mr. cass time to respond. guest: it's a great list of the kinds of things that we need the government to look at more carefully. when you think about, the previous caller mentioned this, the department of government efficiency, figuring out as you would in the private sector, what are we not doing anymore, those are great questions. there is a report done within the government that identifies all of the biggest opportunities to find those kinds of savings and then sees how many of them did we actually take advantage

of? you will be unsurprised to know that the government does not take advantage of all of the opportunities it should. the flipside, i think the most important point the caller made is on the programs that don't work. the reality is that we are not adding to the federal workforce. we are not hiring additional federal workers right now. could we save on the buildings? probably a little bit. all of that savings will come in terms of the billions of dollars. the deficits are in the trillions of dollars. what is driving the deficits are these huge programs that spend money, not on workers sitting in buildings but on sending money out to places. paying for health care, providing various benefits. those are things we want to do in the sense that we want to help people who need help. a lot of the ways we try to help

people are wildly inefficient in terms of wasting hundreds of billions of dollars. we don't ever consider getting rid of it, we just add on top of it. when we think about our safety and anti-poverty programs, there is more than 100 of them, spread across virtually every agency, especially if you include health care, spending more than $1 trillion a year. that's where we have to take a hard look and say we are in the programs -- one of the programs that are serving and helping people when they need help? and what are the programs that were made 50 years ago that we keep spending on and we are doing better somewhere else and they are not accomplishing anything. those are the ways that we will get our deficit under control. recognizing we still want to have a strong safety net. we need to have ways to help

people. but we need to do that in a much, much more efficient and cost-effective way and be willing to agree that this program is not working and get rid of it. making that decision doesn't mean we don't care about people. it means we do care about people. and we recognize the only way to help people and have a strong safety net is if we are willing to cut away pieces that are working and aren't doing what they are supposed to. -- aren't working and aren't doing what they are supposed to. host: thank you for sharing your expertise with us. that was oren cass. guest: thank you. host: later on washington journal, tom hartman will join us to discuss president elect donald trump's victory and the future of the democratic party. next, we will have more of your calls and comments in open forum. dial in now. while we wait for your calls, we will show you a bit from yesterday, when president biden

and chinese president xi jinping delivered remarks before holding a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the asian economic cooperation forum in lima, peru. biden met with jicha and paying for two hours where the -- gg president xi jinping for two hours where the president was staying. >> -- and sustainable china-u.s. relationship remains unchanged. our commitment to respect -- remains unchanged. our desire to carry forward the

-- between chinese and american people remains unchanged. our desire to work with the new u.s. administration -- for the benefit of the two people. i look forward to an in-depth exchange of views. thank you. >> thank you very much, mr. president. it's good to see you and see all of you again. one year ago, we met at the woodside summit in san francisco. i am very proud of the progress we made together. multiple leaders are regularly talking to one another on a regular basis. we have brought together our nations experts to discuss risks and safety.

we resume cooperation and i want to note, overdose deaths are coming down for the first time in five years. we have a lot to discuss. let me close with this. for over a decade, you and i have spent many hours together here and in china. and in between. and i think we spent a long time dealing with these issues. let me close with this. i had to count the number of hours you and i spent alone together. both as vice president and as president. we have not always agreed. but our conversation has always been candid and always been frank. we have been level with one

another. this conversation prevents miscalculations and ensures our countries will not veer into conflict. that is our responsibility. to our people and, as you indicated to the people around the world, we are the most important alliance and the most important relationship in the entire world. how we get along together will affect the rest of the world. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back, we are in open forum, ready for your comments. democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. independents at (202) 748-8002. we will start with mike in youngstown, ohio on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. what concerns me so much is the

anger between the two parties which does none of us any good. it causes us more problems and gives these leaders things to divide us more on. what we need to do is unite and help each other. thank you for taking my call. host: ok. michael is in massachusetts on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i -- what i expect from trump is i expect him to do the same job he did the first time, leave the guy alone. let the guy try to do his job. host: naomi is in baltimore, maryland on the line for independents. good morning. caller: i am so distraught.

i have been inconsolable since november 5. from what i heard out of the mouth of your previous guest, what they intend to do is cut obamacare, cut social security, cut medicare, cut all of the programs that are helping people, because they say oh, they are not helping people. yes, they are helping people. this is ridiculous. i can't believe the american citizens have been duped and believe lie after lie after lie. and installed this completely narcissistic man, who only cares for himself, who only ran to keep himself out of prison.

into leading our country, when all he did in his last term was increase the deficit, stoke divisions to the point that we have, since the civil war, never been so divided. and this is who, this felon is who we want to run our country? and all of his people who agree to do whatever he says, no matter what? this is treachery. it is horrific. the american people who have been duped will see within the next two years what a terrible, terrible error they have made. host: let's hear from david in michigan on the line from democrats. caller: good morning.

about trump's wife and their protection of secret service, that has increased or will that increase if his family does not join him in the white house and also about the costs of medical and medicaid and medicare, the facilities that help the people with alzheimer's or dementia, and the hospitals, would there be any cut and payment out to those programs? and the physicians out there, when they have patients, their charges for the cost of their

services throughout this country ? host: i imagine that is something that we will find out when the new administration takes over. let's go to donald on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i am a 67-year-old african-american retired military guy. i am going to lay back and see what happens with trump in round two. i don't understand this enough. i think he is a very dishonest guy. i think he is a pathetic human being. it will all come out in the wash. that's all i have to say. thank you. host: dean is in florida on the line for independents, good morning. caller: hi, how are you doing? host: doing well, thank you. caller: i've been listening to a lot of people talking but they don't seem to understand a lot of things. donald trump went after the

economy. he also went after immigration. if you look back to 2022, desantis, governor abbott and governor ducey started sending migrants to the midwest just to fill in that whole area to make it look like we are being overran. he blamed kamala harris for it. the biden administration. it was the republicans that moved all of those immigrants from the border up there, into the midwest. and now, that's what he used to get elected. telling everyone we are being overran. i wish somebody would protect the manifest and see if the person who killed lake and riley was one of the people on the manifest that they sent up there.

that would make the republicans responsible for lincoln riley's death. these people are dubious. i don't know what is wrong with the republican party, that they do things that i would call illegal. desantis, the only way he was able to take those migrants from florida and send them to massachusetts, that was the haitians. usually, the republicans don't even go into massachusetts to campaign. they know that is a democratic stronghold. yet, they sent all of those haitians up there. then they went to campaign there to see if they could get massachusetts on their side because of the haitians that were sent up there. everywhere that these migrants were sent destabilized all of these areas.

that's how donald trump got to be elected. i think it is a disgrace. and this guy is, he's going to do some more illegal things throughout his presidency and we are going to pay for it. host: blue is in portland, oregon on the line for democrats -- lou is in portland, oregon on the line for democrats. caller: it seems like the tenor is on the national elections. i want to talk briefly about rank-choice voting. it was used in portland on november 5. most of us who are organizers were very happy with the results. this included the election of a mayor, keith wilson, an outsider, not elected in the past. he is going to focus on housing, a gigantic issue in portland.

and then some other people who ran for city council, i know it is locals. the rank-choice voting, they have had five people, mostly from the wealthy westside. hardly any minorities or women. there is a measure that was approved that created rank-choice voting and expanded counsel. folks like hp eight-year-old got elected to city council. and tiffany lane, mitch greene, a progressive. three candidates of the dsa, democratic-socialist's of america, where elect -- were elected. i don't know if you are familiar with rank-choice voting. host: that was on the ballot in washington, d.c. as well.

fair vote.org has more on the results from election day when it comes to rank-choice voting. more than 3 million voters voted for better elections with rank-choice voting on election day 2024. rank first voting has majority support in all five cities where it was on the ballot with an overwhelming win in washington, d.c., 73% to 27%. ballot measures to implement open primaries and rank-choice voting failed in colorado, idaho and nevada. a ballot measure to keep rank-choice voting in alaska was not can at the time and may take several days to call with absentee ballots continuing to arrive for 15 days. tavarez is in georgia. caller: good morning.

i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. how much do i love the united states? we are glad to have donald trump back. that's make freedom, liberty and independence a staple for the american people. kimberly, i want to talk about our beloved former leader, co-founder, brian lamb. he retired. i am urging everyone to support us having a proper farewell ceremony and presentation to our dear leader and founder, brian mr. brian lam has done a wonderful job for the united states of america, the public in general and myself. i could not be so informed and

so glad to be an american without mr. brian lamb and the c-span network. so congratulations to donald trump and thank you guys for doing the wonderful work you do. and we look forward to seeing you next time. >> robert is in michigan on our line for independence. good morning. >> good morning. this is robert calling from the fascist town in michigan. i am now considering america a kingdom. it is a kingdom with a king in charge. he is no longer a president, i consider him a king that can do no wrong. he has tons of lawyers and tons of money, so he cannot be convicted. and the last person that was talking -- the person talking about people -- sending the

people up to the midwest, i watched all of that happen and he is right. i cannot explain myself too much but the guy is right. 100% right. amen to what he was saying. they did all of this on purpose and just to make you know what he was talking about right. i consider this a kingdom now. i really do. we have a king that's in charge, and we are just cannot have to watch what happens and see what happens and thank you, one more question this is open form correct? host: yes it is. caller: thank you very much and you have a marvelous day. host: in missouri on the line for democrats. >> there's a couple of questions that bug me as far as donald trump is concerned. when he left office the first time he had approval rating of

30 something percent. it amazes me you want him back. number two, what did he actually do during the first term other than the famous tax cuts, the only thing i remember is operation where he came up with the vaccine. which any president would do. it's called operation warp speed. which any president would do. but he would not brag on that because republican party and these others are anti-vaccination. so what did he exactly do that is so great and this notion the democrats have lost touch with the working people? all democratic policies are for working people. all the people that have blood sugar problems, need help with medications, all of these things are democratic proposals and

this notion that there are -- they are elite. donald trump went to an ivy league school. most of his cabinet did. most of the people on fox news. so this notion democrats are out of touch and this notion, i think a lot of it is bias, this notion that we put in a black president, obama did not win the white vote. no democrat has since lbj other than bill clinton twice. so let's keep things in a little better perspective and also kamala harris made one minor mistake by saying she would not separate from joe biden's policies. one mistake. and donald trump he just gets a pass to say anything. and you hispanics who voted for him, we will see how you feel about it.

there are still 1000 children that have not been matched up with their parents that were deported and the children were left here. host: i want to follow-up up on the point you mentioned about this narrative democrats are out of touch with the working class. this is something that's been a narrative pushed forward by vermont senator bernie sanders who argued last sunday in an interview with meet the press that that would [video clip] be the >> issue. >>it in the senate in the last two years we have not even brought forth legislation to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. despite the fact that some 20 million people in this country are working for less than $15 an hour. in america today we have not brought in the senate we have not brought to the floor the proactive to make it easier for workers to join unions. we are not talking about the benefit pension plan so that our elderly can retire with security.

we are not talking about lifting the cap on social security so that we can extend the solvency of social security and raise benefits. if you are the average working person out there do you really think the democratic party is going to the mat taking on powerful special interest and fighting for you? i thing the overwhelming answer is no and that's what has to change. host: back to your calls, hank is in south carolina on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: thank you. i've been sitting here listening to all these people, of election is over. get over it. let's get behind president trump. can you do me a favor and show last night at madison square garden that heavyweight fight, show the reaction of the crowd and show the reaction of john jones when he won, what he did. his interaction with president trump. host: i don't think we have that

video ready but do you want to describe what you saw? caller: i saw john jones heavyweight champion, a black man go over there and bow down to president trump and give him the heavyweight belt. and the crowd went crazy. host: ok. i don't think we have that video handy but i'm sure folks can find that online. that's go to james in ohio on our line for independence, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm just looking at your facial expressions every time someone says something that's off-the-wall. we are the most disenfranchised country to be the most organized group of people i ever think as my dad would explain in politics

and through his rain of being a councilman, which is a very big deal in youngstown ohio back in the day. and you know we worked about republicans, we worked with anyone who was in the opportunity that wanted to be on our campaign. we had white people, we had black people. the problem is the guy that you had on said if we made those jobs volunteer jobs from congress and all of that, the money is not as much. if we keep thinking about how we are paying these big-name people and wasting government money, trumped -- trump seemed like a nice guy but he is not and i am not going to go and take the time to say what i feel because

it's about people, it's not about what i think about trump, and the people need to stop bellyaching about what's going on with him. i'm to stand behind trump. as a young child, to grab my friends and i was a teenager -- we went door-to-door, we knocked on people's doors for my father. we did things that brought people together and they would say he's a nice guy, he has kids working for him. we don't have a grassroots. i felt kamala harris failed. she was in youngstown, ohio -- obama was in ohio, at least two or three times knowing that it was a big area to cover, but there was a lot of democrat votes. host: i hope you'll stay tuned

to our next segment because we will be discussing a bit about what grassroots organizing might look like for the democrats moving forward. but now we are still an open forum, good morning. caller: good morning. so i have so much to say. first of all i notice it's mostly men calling in to c-span. and that is problematic for me. i want to address people that think we should just support trump because he is our president. i have no intention of doing that. he does not represent what is good for the country. president trump is a convicted felon of rape. everyone listening right now, -- host: i do not know if the

felonies are related to the sexual assault charges. caller: the civil case was a rape case. in new york city the judge even stated it. ok? he was civilly charged but it was due to defamation of a rape victim. he raped e. jean carroll. he raped her. he -- host: in crawfordsville, indiana on our line for republicans, good morning. >> hello, how are you today. caller: boy i tell you it's a good thing god said on the boat that man is supposed to rule the house. anyway. ever since abraham lincoln got shot and killed, -- along with

the democrats. what gets me is these colored people are away saying trump is so bad. they in their ancestries times when british and stuff was coming over. host: your line is breaking up a bit. it is hard to hear you. caller: can you hear me now? host: a little bit better, go ahead. host: what i don't understand -- caller: what i do not understand is why the colored people don't back the republicans. democrats had them in there for slavery. i don't understand it. the -- if it wasn't for abraham lincoln -- but anyway -- on the weather, all the peoples

and democrats in the south better be -- now because the storm is coming your way. thank you and god bless you all. host: henry on our line for democrats. caller: i appreciate the open forum. i've learned a lot, i shouldn't say have learned a lot. i am now keenly aware that trump represents a significant number of people. he represents a significant number of people who are not critical thinkers. he represents those who are rude by impulse, who are whimsical, gullible. void of structure and discipline. i spent my life as a marine as a police officer. the oldest of 10 children.

and so there is a value system that for those who voted for trump is obvious that they have not tuned in, i appreciate the young lady speaking about his character and as -- at some point in the history of politics , i cannot imagine it happening soon. that politicians would develop some code that comes close to representing one of my favorite republicans, john mccain. i just think many individuals who voted for trump they voted because the values dictate trying to rescue a man who they think they have a sense that he is helpless.

have you ever heard of the concept of transactional analysis? host: i have not, but go ahead. caller: it goes way back, -- host: we are running a little short on time. caller: my final point is the fact that at some point, we as a nation, the majority of us we really truly believe that integrity was appropriate if you were going to be president of the united states. dean honest and open and trump lacked all of those skills. host: let's hear from gary in indiana for our line on independence. >> i will make this quick because i know you're running out of time. i just want to say i know trump may have had his issues, that i know between 17 and 2020 it was

a lot better than the four years thereafter. so i'm looking forward to better things. i voted for him so i took that chance and i think it's cool. i just wanted to say kamala harris would have been worse and the democratic party it's not even democrat anymore it is just extreme progressive and it's nothing like the democrats that i grew up with back in the day jimmy carter, walter mondale and all of them. i would say the 80's would've been a better decade with carter and mondale in my opinion. but they did not allow freaks in here, overzealous influx of immigrants and all that stuff. so declining -- one got talked about values on the previous call. you look at the democratic

party, the values are in stark decline. host: that's all the time we've got for open forum today, thank you to everyone who calls in. we will have progressive talk show host tom hartman joining us to discuss the outcome of the presidential election. and what that means for the future of the democratic party. ♪ >> tonight on c-span skew and day, investigative journalist maureen callahan talks about the physical and psychological abuse she says was experienced by women and girls related to the kennedy family going back to joe kennedy senior in her book ask not. >> bobby moves his new girlfriend, the actress cheryl hines into a home just a few yards away maybe it's 200 yards away. they are flaunting their relationship all over the place. he is threatening like he is going to -- it became this whole

thing and she felt hopeless and had nothing to live for. and this culminates in her suicide in may of 2012. she hung herself in her barn at the property in westchester. and ultimate -- almost immediately bobby and terry talk to the new york times and talk about what a mess mary was. and how amazing it was bobby survived his marriage to her. this is the mother of his four children. >> investigative journalist maureen callahan with her book ask not. on c-span skewing day. you can listen to q and day and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now app. weekends bring you book tv featuring leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction book. here's a look at what's coming up all weekend, book tv takes

you live to the texas book festival in austin with author discussions on abortion, gun violence, infrastructure and more. the association of the u.s. army host and author's forum where members discuss their military leadership and adapting to the battlefield. and then on afterwards, journalist vince shares their book power metal, the look at how the race to mind metals needed in technology and noble energy is impacting geopolitics in the environment. he is interviewed by wall street journal reporter julia steinberg. watch book tv every weekend on c-span two. and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online at book tv.org. >> washington journal continues. host: we are joined by tom hartman, the host of the tom hartman program is a live nationwide daily which airs

monday through friday on serious xm radio. guest: good morning kimberly, a thinker for having me. host: what was your take on the outcome of the election? guest: my concern is we are essentially sliding into oligarchy. seven or eight years ago, president carter pointing to the citizens united when the supreme court basically said bribery of politicians is now legal because money is the same thing as free speech and corporations of the same thing as people. that it would be possible for very wealthy people to by elections and politicians and now we have a billionaire coming in as president we have the richest man in the world coming in and oath of them have spent the last couple of years apparently regularly speaking with vladimir putin and victor or bond.

the kind of semi-dictator of hungary came over to speak at cpac in dallas a couple years ago. and laid out what he had done in hungary within a year of his second election, his reelection. he had basically destroyed the independent media. people post on facebook against him and they go to jail. i am very concerned that that is the direction we are heading now and you can get people like cash patel, a trump surrogate saying we are coming for you in the media. i am very concerned that jimmy carter's essential prophecy is coming true. we will have a government for the very rich. >> republicans and donald trump in particular showed a lot of gains this election including among people across demographic groups seeing gains with latino voters and white women.

how do you explain some of those gains. guest: i used to work in advertising. 40 years ago. i owned an advertising agency in atlanta and a few beat people over the head with a message often enough with enough money and enough saturation, you can largely convince them of anything. kamala harris never once mentioned trans people during the campaign and has never really been a champion of trans people. she had that one interview many years ago where she talked about trans people getting surgery in jail. that is certainly not her position now, she walked that back years ago. but the trump campaign and mostly the very large super pac's that were funded to the tune of over $100 million each by multiple right-wing

billionaires poured so much advertising into in particular in the swing states arguing that that was her entire agenda basically was hey let's elevate trans people. people bought it. which is perfectly understandable. advertising works. it is the reason why most commercial television networks and newspaper still exist. if it didn't work they would not be around. so i think the narrative was taken by this -- i understand there's roughly about 150 billionaire families who through most of the money that was behind trump into this campaign. and of course they are looking for tax cuts and those in business have in a big way especially the industries like

the fossil fuel industry they're looking for deregulation and more subsidies. in subsidizing to the tune of billions of dollars a year. they want more and it certainly looks, putting a fossil fuel lobbyist in charge of the interior department for example which trump just announced it certainly looks like they will get their investment will pay back. my big concern is this department of government efficiency that elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are supposed to run, there is talk that they want to carefully evaluate our entitlements programs which of course his social security and medicare and medicaid. i do not think the average american realizes how bad it could get. i do not know if it will, but there are some probably some practical political limits to what they can do. but i am just very concerned. host: i want to pull up a chart

loing at some of these areas where trump gained voters including 46% of lati voters backed trump up fr sen points in 2020. trumwiing latino men 65% to %,inning among white women 53% %. if we look at these last two, noncollege graduates 56% voted fo cop ashford donald trump and 64% from rural americans supported trump. why do democrats struggle with these groups in partila noncollege graduates in dutch and rural america. host: again to go back -- guest: again to go back to the massive advertising. there was also the social media presence and of course elon musk tweaking his algorithms to promote right-wing messages suggesting that because democrats have traditionally been the party that related to

the -- joe biden was the first president in the history of america -- it was democrats who brought us the five-day workweek work week and 40 hour work week, the weekend, unemployment insurance, social security, medicare and medicaid, all of those things. but also democrats since the 60's have been the party that has defended racial minorities and since really the 80's defended gender minorities that a caricature of democrats and the democratic party i mentioned a minute ago about going after kamala harris has been created that this absolutely massive right-wing ecosphere that has emerged since the 80's you've got three television networks funded right-wing billionaires, one of them a foreign billionaire, fox news. you've got 1500 right-wing radio

stations. we now have 300 right-wing radio stations that broadcast in spanish. this came up in the last four years. you've got 700 or 800 christian stations that have in many cases abandoned talking about jesus and started talking about politics. you have churches where they are ignoring the law and preaching politics from the pulpit. it is this massive cumulative effort and there is nothing like that on the left. we have never developed a strong -- we had air america for about five years and in 2008, there was kind of a broad consensus that america -- air america helped barack obama get elected. host: i don't know if you want to grab a drink of water or

something, but i do want to read something here. i will go back to something you mentioned earlier. since the 1960's the democrats have been the party that supported racial minorities according to your assessment. i want to look at this chart about distribution of white voters in particular. the democrats have not won the vote amongst white americans since 1964, overwhelmingly over the years white voters still voted republican. and democrats have lost support among white voters even since barack obama in 2008. what do you think that means for the future of the party and the parties dynamic? guest: i think what it reflects is the deep racism that is still at stand among white people in america. certainly the trump presidency and even his successful campaign in 2016 which frankly shocked

me. i am a white guy, i grew up with white people and i knew that white racism was out there, i heard the jokes and slurs as a kid and all that kind of thing but i never realized how broad and how deep it is. 1960 four was the year lyndon johnson put forward the civil rights act and actually passed congress. it was the end of apartheid in the united states paid i'm old enough that i remember as a little kid my parents taking me to the jack tar in michigan. that was the fanciest hotel in town and had a really nice restaurant and for their anniversary what i was seven or eight years old they took us to dinner there. i remer the sign on the side of the building pointing to the colored interest. this is the 1950's. that all ended in 1964. that was over the next five

years we saw all these southern democrats, all of these guys flip and become republicans because the republican party who was not in a big way taking a position on this, very goldwater ran for president in 64 actually opposed the civil rights act. his argument was this was the job of the states not the federal government. when ronald reagan ran for president in 1980, the first speech he gave as an official candidate of the party was in philadelphia, mississippi which is the site of the murder of three civil rights workers, a sure, cheney and goodwin. his entire speech to an all-white white audience was about states rights which was code back then for we never should've passed that civil rights act and we should go back to an apartheid united states. it's been pretty much that way ever since.

trump has tripled down on it. i do not have an explanation beyond for this very clear racial divide that exists. beyond just the shocking reality that at least half of white america is just deeply racist. >> we will be taking your calls and questions for our guests, democrats you can call in at 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001 and independents 202-748-8002. now tom we've talked about the areas where democrats have lost votes and i want to talk a bit about what kind of coalition democrats could potentially create moving forward given what they've learned. the cofounder of the democracy policy network wrote in the nation after the election a democrat focus less on really shrill relationships with fellow neighbors and local chapter

leaders and emphasized fundraising and celebrities. i will read a bit more of that. instead of funding itself primarily through memp dues, the democratic party offers fancy events for the wealthy and ceaseless disrespectful texts for the rest of us. para socialelatnships with celebrand famous politicians aremphasized over real relationshipsfell neighbors and local chapter leaders. when you go to democrats.org clicking take acon does not directed to a page with your local democraticommittee's meeting times and location but a call to action button on the party's homepage is donate, not join. what do you see is the future for how democrats can create a new coalition for themselves? guest: i think that is a very legitimate critique and it echoes one that i have made many times over the years. what happened was in 1978, lewis

powell, richard nixon put them on the supreme court in 72. he authored a supreme court decision in first national bank versus baloney in which the supreme court ruled for the first time in a big way that money -- because corporations do not have a model. if they want to speak they have to use money so it's the same thing as free speech and protected by the first amendment. and corporations are persons so they are entitled to rights under the constitution under the first amendment. and that kind of floated ronald reagan into the white house in 1980 on an ocean of oil money by and large. but it also confronted the democratic party with a real crisis. fundraising, how can we win elections if elections going forward are going to be about money. in 92 the clinton campaign largely embraced reagan's neoliberal positions. and started going for wealthy people, wealthy funders.

and embracing the hotshot bankers and things like that. and that continued right up until the election of joe biden. pardon me. joe biden really is the first democrat since 92 to have repudiated neoliberalism, this idea of reducing the size of unions, cutting taxes on wealthy people and free trade, allowing corporations to go anywhere they want to get the cheapest labor. , but both clinton and obama did and the democratic party is still largely neoliberal party. largely embracing that although the progressive caucus in congress about 100 members of all said we will not take corporate money we are not begging rich people for money we will be here just for the people. but i think that's a very legitimate critique of the democratic party and they really

need to get their grassroots act together and they need to become the party of the bottom 90% and stop with the movie stars and the billionaires. i think that probably kamala harris campaign with beyonce and mark cuban and liz cheney a republican. i don't think any of those things helped her frankly. >> let's get to your calls. john is in virginia on our line for independent spread good morning. caller: how are you doing this morning. i want to ask a quick question. if the vote is supposed to be unanimous how do all the polls come up with the percentage of people who voted for who? like 53% of white people voting for donald trump? how do you come up for those of they are supposed to be anonymous? host: what do you mean unanimous. caller: i'm sorry, a secret

ballot. no one spoke to know who you voted for. how do you come up with these numbers like the percentage of people who voted for who. guest: they do what they are called exit polls where you stand outside polling places and as people are coming out you ask them who they voted for. the people who are willing to answer more questions they will ask them how much do you make and where you work and things like that. exit polls are actually surprisingly accurate per they are used all around the world. so that's principally how they came up with those numbers. >> carl is in michigan on our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a fan of your show. and the books that you -- that i've read. as far as the rich people and celebrities i just want to call everyone out. what i want to throw out there for the audience, to talk about

a little bit just a few things i jotted down. freedom will destroy america. freedom of speech, the cesspool known as social media. freedom to bear arms. an average of three guns per adult in this country. freedom of,/freedom from religion inching closer to theocracy, a government establishing religion. congress and the supreme court forcing religion in the public schools, the curriculum and book bands. freedom to assemble, money and speech. manipulating elections and legislation from both sides. freedom of markets. plutocracy a limiting pensions and busting unions. protecting workers and consumers. shipping labor overseas. ceo salaries and profits. freedom of press/media. dividing us, manipulating us and insulting us. host: tom do you have any

response to those ideas that were just laid out? guest: yes. back in 1936 franklin roosevelt famously said necessities men are not free men. you are not free if you are hungry. if you don't have a job, if you do not have a place to live. you are not free if you are capable of getting an education and cannot. and that has been a mantra essentially for the democratic party ever since that opportunity and freedom are interchangeable. republicans on the other hand have been saying you are not free if you do not have a gun. you are not free if you have to pay taxes. particularly if you are very rich. and this word freedom which has a deep almost dna residence for americans has been used by both parties i think in very

different ways. i think your callers points are cogent and important. and kamala harris to her credit like i said she wasn't campaigning on surgeries for trans people she was campaigning on the idea that freedom is as important as freedom from. and freedom to have a decent retirement with a well-funded social security system, freedom to have good health care from a national health care system that provide for everybody. freedom to get a good education, good housing and things like that and sadly that got drowned out by literally billions of dollars. we have never seen so much money spent in a political campaign in the history of america. i think it is a very important point made. host: jess is in cleveland on

our line for republicans. caller: good morning, good day sir. my dad and my mom were fdr jfk democrats. i'm a republican. i'm not racist. one of my daughters is married to someone who is black. when you say those types of things you inflame a lot of americans, so the other things about going into a hotel and seeing a sign, you know perfectly well in 64 that was legal admit -- it's really sad you are complete biased for the left and i see nothing in the conversation that's more centric the can pull us together. please comment. caller: well i'm not sure what i've said that is the left. i think i've been presenting american values that most of us agree with.

i don't think i am inflaming anything when i say there are a lot of white racists out there. i think you would have to agree with me. and when you've got a presidential candidate saying -- talking about s-hole countries and referring to people of color as rapists and murderers, that is pretty inflammatory i will give you that. but please name one position i've taken or one thing i've argued that his radical left. host: he's already let go of that caller. caller: when you look at -- we used to get -- the american people, all of us, democrats and republicans and independents, we used to get what we wanted out of government. between 1933 and the mid-1980's, we got medicare, social

security, unemployment insurance, the right to unionize, housing support, free college functionally up until the mid-1980's. it used to be insurance companies and hospitals were required to be nonprofits. basically the stuff that americans wanted they used to get. since the 1980's, since basically money was interpreted as speech by five corrupt members of the supreme court and money came to dominate our political environment and wealthy people frankly billionaires in large part came to control at least one of our political parties, arguably both. to some extent with the democrats. we are not getting what we want. when you pull americans and say do you think rich people should pay their fair share of taxes your average billionaire in america is paying 3% in income taxes. i am paying more than that. i bet everyone listening is. why aren't those taxes going up.

they could fund a lot of really good stuff because the billionaires basically own things. you have a billionaire who is going to be president. the world's richest man right beside him. the majority funded by billionaires where's the harris campaign was funded majority with $200 contributions from average people. when you look at the things people want, people would like a national health care system where right -- we have millions of people with no health insurance at all. we are the only developed country in the world where that is the case. half a million people a year in all the developed democracies in the world, all of the developed democracies in the world, half a million people year declared bankruptcy because someone in their family got sick. 100% of those are here in the united states, no other country has that. we are the only developed country in the world that has the student debt crisis. $2 trillion of student debt. 70, 80% of people say college should be free.

everybody should have health care and it should be a reasonable cost. these things are not happening because the billionaires do not want to pay their taxes. so what do they do, they throw out this stuff like the mexicans are coming to rape your wife and murder your daughter and let me show you the example of one that happened. and kamala harris wants to do trans surgery and people, kids are going to school and coming home with her genitals chopped off. trump literally said that over and over again. not only are these things not true but they are designed to be distractions from the fact that the gop in large part with the help of a handful of democrats have basically been robbing us blind for the better part of 20 or 30 years. host: i do want to get to a few more callers paid games in atlanta, georgia. good morning. caller: i hope i get to say at least some of what i called to say.

i used to tune into the show needing to hear that political -- i can think of the name of the show, newsmax. don't you agree that three hours every day on c-span are very important opportunity for people in america to hear about important issues. why do we never hear anything about the outrage going on for women in afghanistan and elsewhere in the world. let me tell you my opinion. we don't get to hear about stuff because they prefer we get to hear a buddy say good morning. we don't need to hear about her, we need to hear about people who know something like you to say something about all these other outrages going on. don't you agree people ought to be invited to go ahead please and say -- stop everything in

the world so we can all hear somebody else say good morning back to kimberly. thanking someone for getting up early. host: do you want to make sure we take it manage of your time to get your opinion on this topic or a question for tom. caller: i would like to respond to that if i may. james i've think kimberly does a marvelous job and i'm a huge fan of c-span and have been my whole life for as long c-span has been around. i've been around longer. and i think it's important we hear all of these voices and it's important we hear people calling in and expressing their raw racism on the one hand and people calling in and objecting to that on the other. i believe that's what america is and we need more of this. we need people talking with each other and to each other rather than across each other.

so i have no objections to that. and i think kimberly is doing a marvelous job and c-span host general do a marvelous job of exhibiting good manners. just being decent human beings, that's an important role model stuff for particular young people who are watching the program. >> january is in bellevue on our line for democrats per good morning. >> it's so good to see you. i used to listen to air america all the time. i really missed it and if it's ok with c-span if you could say where we could hear you now on the air i would love that. i called about the electoral college heard i live in washington state and it's obviously not one of the swing states, and sometimes when you

hear by and for the people it's like for the swing states, and it's true we tend to always vote for the democratic party, but i think we should be involved all of the states that are swing states. we all want to be involved in the process to elect our leaders. and i it's a pipe dream to think that will ever be changed, but except for i think in the late 80's or 90's maybe the republican candidate was pat roberts in our state which woke a lot of people up i guess. other than that, everything's been very predictable. i'm 78 and i always vote.

it feels like we are just kind of stuck on the outside. like we don't really matter. >> let's let tom respond first of all would you let people know where they can find your show or programming and then maybe speak about the electoral college. caller: thom.tv, there is a list on serious xm every day from noon to 3:00 eastern time weekdays monday through friday. it's carried simultaneously as television by free speech tv, free speech.org which is carried on dish or direct. it is also on a bunch of other cable systems. we are on may be 200 radio stations around the country, you have to find it on your destiny

>> you also have a podcast. >> we chop the show up and turn into a podcast and that's available. and we've got an app. i have the c-span app on my phone. with regards to the electoral college it's fascinating. you go back and read james madison's notes on the constitutional convention and what was clear back then was it would take four days for news to get from washington dc to southern georgia for example. the -- and it would be very hard for someone in georgia to know who's running for president if the candidates were all up in d.c. or new york was the capital up until around 1800. and so the idea of the electoral college was each state would elect some wise men who would

evaluate the candidates and then go to washington dc and cast their votes for those candidates and alexander hamilton in federalist 68 and 70 and 71 talks about this at some length about how this will present -- prevent a man of low moral character from ever becoming president. and you can argue for the first 50 years of the united states there was some value in that although it largely protected the southern states of dutch but it is an anachronism now. there is an effort to do away with the electoral college. where states sign on and say whoever gets the most national votes we will give all of our electoral college to that person. individual states can decide how electoral votes are cast. most of them right now say whoever wins our state gets all

of our electoral votes. nebraska and maine are the exception. they have two regions where they do that but the same kind of thing. right now, there are i think 200, roughly 220 electoral votes were presented by states that have signed onto this and when they hit 270 votes, then that will be the end of the electoral college. we have however exhausted all the blue states and a few of the purple states that might sign up for this so now what's left are red states and the red states the electoral college is the only reason george bush became president or donald trump became president, they both lost the popular vote. so now the red states the republicans are very hostile to this. in 1971 we came within one vote for ending the electoral college it wasn't a big deal back then because it hadn't decided an election since the 1830's. but it has become politicized

now. so still if you live in a state that has not signed the interstate compact you might want to talk to your state representative or state senators. >> bob is in connecticut for a line of republicans. caller: good morning. earlier i think i heard you say the billionaires pay a 3% tax rate. that's grossly misrepresenting what the billionaires pay. i don't know if you recall but during president biden's state of the union speech he said comparing with the billionaires pay to the firefighters and teachers and set at that time it was 8% that they paid. and that is grossly incorrect. because it was based upon a white house study of the white house budget and management study that included unrealized capital gains for the billionaires including on stocks

, business valuations, on real estate. so there is no credible study that comes up with any numbers like that. i am a cpa, i know this stuff inside and out, upside down. billionaires are included in the top 1% of taxpayers in all the numbers you see on irs.gov and that 1% pays 45% of the taxes. let me put that in perspective. that 1% amount that the top 1% send to the irs exceeds the bottom 90% of all taxpayers. in other words taxpayers in the 11% category to the 100% category. 1% of the taxpayers pay more than 90% of the citizens of this country. you also probably know tom that

nearly 50% of the bottom 50% which is ok, they pay nothing. they pay zero income tax. guest: you are right. and it also kind of highlights what you were saying, of the figures don't lie but the liars can figure. when you say the top 1% you're talking about basically everyone who makes over $400,000 a year. yeah, surgeons, lawyers, professional people who make hundreds of thousands, 700,000 dollars a year they are getting whacked, they are paying in some cases almost half of their income in income taxes. donald trump never paid more than $70 a year in income taxes if my recollection is correct, the new york times tracked this down for decades. many wealthy people, the same thing i believe was done looking at the taxes of jeff bezos i

could be wrong. basically instead of taking a paycheck which is taxable as income what they do is they borrow against their own assets for their living expenses and they borrow 3%, 4% or 5% so they are functionally paying 3% to 5% income tax and that's not even going to the government that's going to the banks that they are borrowing the money from. so in some cases they own the bank and are making a profit. billionaires by and large do not take paychecks and do not need to. and of course they've got if you make your money by investing you've got an entirely different tax category as you mention, capital gains. if you are in the hedge fund business you've got pass-through income that is taxed at a lower rate than capital gains.

instead of talking about the top 1% which is all the people who are doing very well who are really getting taxed whacked, we should be talking about the 100th of 1% or arguably the 1/10 of 1%. people making over $1 million a year because when you get into those categories there's 100 different ways as any cpa can tell you to basically avoid paying taxes or pay very little. host: let's try to get one more call her in. kathleen is in illinois on our line for independence. >> i listen your show almost every day and i recommend it highly to everyone. i just have a quick question. what do you think the impact of elon musk with his support of the republican party, what impact do you think he is going to have on the democrats? and how they govern? guest: well he has already taken

the largest social media site in the world or maybe the second largest, i'm not sure how twitter compares to facebook. it's a different kind of media. he's already taken that and swung it hard to the right and turned it into basically a massive propaganda operation. that cannot help but influence both republicans and democrats. so, i am concerned about it. jimmy carter said we are sliding into oligarchy and i would say as of january we will have officially arrived, the morbidly rich, the extraordinarily rich are running our country now and -- the thing that concerns me the most i wrote a book about this, oligarchy is almost always a transitional political system. when the rich basically run the country. it very rarely lasts.

and typically one of two things happen, either oligarchy slip back into democracies as a result of popular revolt. we saw this in brazil for example with bolsonaro or they flip it to tear any in like we saw in russia. where the rich people basically took over the government, put in at the head of them and then putin just started clamping down and saying that is it, no more political conversations. anybody who speaks up goes to jail. and i'm very concerned that we are at the cusp of making a decision which way we will go because oligarchy will not last. host: we will have to end it there. thank you very much thom hartman. i want to thank everyone who called in today on washington journal. thank you very much tom. >> coming up at 1:30, president

biden will be in brazil today to visit the amazon rain forest. and learn about preservation efforts there. he will deliver remarks to the press and you can watch that live at 1:30 p.m. eastern on c-span. c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. thank you to everyone who called in on washington journal today. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. have a great day. @cspanwj -- ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

c-span's washington journal. monday morning, scott mcfarland will talk about the week ahead in washington. then white house reporter on the latest news on the president-elect's transition, including his picks for cabinet. c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern monday morning on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile app oregon online at c-span organize. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. sponsored by these and more. incompleting sparklight. >> we know connection goes way beyond technology.