tv Public Affairs Events CSPAN December 17, 2024 12:43am-1:40am EST
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discuss the latest issues and government, politics, and public policy from washington and across the country. tuesday morning, the foundation for defense of democracies talks about the latest on the situation in syria and other conflicts in the middle east. then leanne greenberg discusses how the organization plans to adapt to a second term term. washington journal. join the conversation at 7:00 eastern tuesday morning on c-span, c-span now, or c-span.org. c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including cox. >> when connection is needed most, coxes they are to help, bringing affordable internet to
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families in need, new tech to boys and girls club, and support to veterans whenever and wherever it matters most. we will be there. >> cox supportc-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. brothers brad and dallas#= woodhouse on and it made for a viral moment when the mother called and. you made a documentary, what was it about? guest: it was about when dallas and i squared off in 2009, 2010, over the passage of the affordable care act. he had an activity he where he was running americans for prosperity in north carolina and i was at the dnc helping obama in the white house past the
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affordable care act. right around then we were doing a pretty mediocre segment with steve scully when mom shocked the world and called in to tell us to stop bickering. host: is your family, the country, less or more divided than it was? guest: um, i mean, probably not. there were certainly a lot of things posted on twitter. things posted on twitter after the trump election. election returns were more unified in that we had a republican president when the popular vote, which hasn't happened in a long time. guest: that's no longer true. guest: yeah, because you all just keep counting votes. guest: he won the plurality but
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not the majority. something we can talk about, john. guest: see what that does for you. look, thinking about things that have not changed over the last 10 years, they passed the affordable health care act, brad thinks it was a success. i don't. that hasn't changed. our mother -- guest: the american people -- guest: she's as sharp as ever. doesn't get around quite as good. you know, she is the thing. the other week i was with her, she, brad called her, she asked when brad was coming home for christmas. she's really excited to see him, as i am. it's very different. he lives in d.c. host: are you spending the holidays together? guest: we will be flying out for christmas eve. the funny thing is, when mom
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talks to brad, she lights up, gets so happy, starts calling robert preston and gets those 76 trombones ready. a celeste of choir. the next day, i ran some errands for, brought her some coffee and whatever else. she told me twice that she was going to cut me out of the will. [laughter] guest: that's not true. guest: yes, she did. twice, said she'd cut me out of the will. i said -- mom, you can't stop me from being your pallbearer. she said -- why would you want to do that? a said i'm not going to miss my opportunity to let you down one more time. host: explain what you do now. guest: i work with two sister organizations. american majority and american majority action.
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great grassroots organizations started in north carolina about 18 months ago. i was the first director. brad has got a big national platform and he works on that. i stay home, close to the important swing state of north carolina. i train candidates. i trained a lot of activists this year on the conservative side about the north carolina election integrity, which is pretty good in north carolina, and the importance of early voting and voting by mail, which as you know, republicans, somewhat led by trump had taken a sour look on. that puts us at a's strategic advantage. our activists, our paid staff also, president-elect changing his tune on that, we were able to turn that around and have for the first time in the history of the north carolina have republicans outnumber democrats in early voting. host: brad, explain what you do
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now. guest: first of all, this is exactly how the holidays go. dallas doesn't let anyone else say a word, he constantly interrupts. this is what i'm looking forward to on christmas eve. my primary job right now is one that i'm very dedicated to and it goes back to -- the job doesn't go back, but it goes back to my experience in working on the affordable health care past the affordable care act. i'm the executive director of a group put in place to stop trump from repealing the affordable care act. we were successful in doing that. we moved on to make health care a potent political issue and expand of the affordable care act, get medicare the power to and a good book -- the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices and protect medicaid. we are now in that fight again and have added to that line of work in that we are trying to stop rfk junior from becoming
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secretary of health and human services. for a host of reasons. one, we care deeply about the affordable care act, medicare and medicaid, which is all under the auspices of hhs and cms. but we also, we care about the lives of the american people. rf -- and the rfk junior views on infectious diseases, scientific research, and vaccines, not only will it kill people but it has killed people. we are fighting that nomination tooth and nail. host: i imagine you are in that fight again. if you get into a fight around christmas time, who is the one that usually separates you? do you try to avoid talking politics? guest: there's no chance that we will avoid talking politics. i am always the one that will
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walk away, because i just can't take so much of dallas woodhouse. guest: there is some truth to that, but i think it's a little different. if you are going to be honest about it, we may razz each other a little bit in person, but he has less tolerance for bickering that he did 10 years ago because he gets it from his republican wife. guest: don't bring my wife into this. [laughter] guest: no, but i think that's it. i will say this, we are just as likely to bicker about other things besides politics. you know? and we are able to talk politics. we argue sometimes but let me just say this, i want to say something about my brother, right? i am a lot of what i am, just the good parts, brad, if there are any, because of my brother. he is older, you know? i became a television reporter
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in part because i started in a performance background, show choir, plays. my brother did that first. my taste in music. i still listen to huey lewis and the news. i love springsteen. where did those tastes came -- come from? my brother. i was a journalist for a number of years and when i made the switch in politics, even though i was on the others, my brother was very helpful. so you know, today a lot of times, like during the campaign, there's no point in us talking who is better, trump or, or, or, or whoever they are running. joe biden, kamala, however. but we that she didn't tell me trade secrets, but i can call him up say -- i don't understand why someone did something or why a campaign might do that or we might call out to laugh about it.
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there's always playing up the bickering, but we get along. i still, i still learn a lot from my brother. host: from viewers who would like to learn a lot from the two of you, the phone lines are open for the viewers to call in. phone lines as usual, republicans, independents, numbers on your screen. brad, you said you are more likely to walk away at some point, but a lot of people in america choose to not even engage in the first place with family members they disagree with politically. there was a survey last month, 72% of americans hoped to avoid any political discussions this holiday with family members that they don't agree with. 38% said they plan to avoid family members they disagree with politically this holiday season. why is it better to engage and then walk away rather than not engaging at all? guest: i think it is important
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to engage. it was interesting, i was listening to some of your callers before we came on. you know this, you deal with it, listening, talking and moderating these calls every single day. we have, with respect to people who are active politically or who pay attention to politics, we have people just living with separate sets of facts. there are people who still believe after, after a bunch of people in the government, senators, members of congress, neutral observers have come out to say those are airplanes over new jersey, a bunch of people believe for whatever reason, mostly on the right, people believing they are drones. we are just operating with two separate sets of facts. the results of that survey, i think, were sad. if we could operate with the same set of facts and then disagree on the policy solutions , which is what i think we were doing in the not way recent
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past, the last 15 or 20 years, but now we are not even agreeing on the same set of facts. we are not agreeing on the efficacy of vaccines, even though, even though it's been proven. the pope -- rfk's own allies want to withdraw approval for the polio vaccine, even though that efficacy habit -- has been proven over and over again. that's a new set of not real facts, but people operating with a different set of beliefs, not even a separate set of facts, there's only one set of facts. dallas? so, i think that's one of the reasons people in that survey say they don't want to engage, because how can you have a conversation when people are not operating from the same set of facts? host: dallas? guest: i have a different answer. brad brought up the drones. one thing is when you have an
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administration that has so bald-faced lying. joe biden, his health was great. he's tap dancing. that's a problem. guest: that is -- that is -- host: hold on. what's he have to say? guest: i have to tell you, merry christmas, no one is going to have a merry or christmas than jimmy carter. republicans win against him for 30 years and we will be running against the disgraceful end of the biden administration. now he's not around. we don't even have a functioning president at the moment. other than the president-elect. we make a living at this, right? we have to be able to turn it off. we cannot be consumed by all the time. i love my brother.
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i think he's misguided. i don't think these people. i know he's not. he's a good man, you know? it's a little different here in north carolina. i ran the republican party in north carolina. i tried to defeat a lot of democrats. i have friendly relationships with democrats across the aisle and in the legislature. i don't think they are bad people. you know, i don't think -- brad and i, we are talking about it. ever since george h w bush won in 1988, kind of a third reagan term, otherwise the parties flip back and forth. clinton, bush, obama, trump, biden, trump. it's cyclical, you know? neither one of us -- you know, i don't believe that -- that this -- that this past election was the most important in my lifetime.
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i don't believe 2020 four was, i don't think 2016 was. they are all important, you know? i do believe in the fundamental greatness of the american people. guest: do you ever take a breath? guest: no. you know, i think, i thought biden was a horrific president. host: on that point, let me come back, let me come back, let me come back to brad little bit. [excessive crosstalk] host: i've got plenty of callers waiting to talk to you as well. guest: here's why people don't want to engage in political discussions, it is the crap coming out of his mouth, the what about his him. you cannot believe the airplane -- the information coming out of the government because you think the administration may have lied about something else -- which is not true, by the way -- [excessive crosstalk] host: hold on, now. guest: people had eyes on president biden. everyone can make that
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assessment for themselves. by the way, i hope you try to run against joe biden for years. he has put in place the best economy of any industrialized country in the world. we have the lowest unemployment we have had in 50 years. lowest unemployment of blacks, latinos, we passed an infrastructure bill that was a running joke in the trump administration. here's my prediction, here's my prediction -- two months from now, one month after he is sworn in as president, donald trump will be trying to take credit for the joe biden successes on infrastructure, on the economy, for the chips manufacturing. for low unemployment. by the way, the other thing joe biden did, he ended the pandemic that trump exacerbated through his failure. the biden legacy will be a lot -- host: let me bring you guys some calls here. guest: i want to see one final thing -- [excessive crosstalk]
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guest: we had an election, it's over, he lost, the american voters in the greek with anything he just said. host: honolulu, hawaii, kyle, early this morning, independent, good morning, you are on with the woodhouse brothers. caller: hello, gentlemen. how are you doing? being from hawaii here, i don't think it's a matter of bridging a political divide. if this last election showed us anything is that a topic from the pres eat -- previous segment, the press really went up against trump and he still [excessive crosstalk] -- he still won. if there is a political divide that exists, its working in the sense that the american people are still going to make their own decision with everything.
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they say that trump is not a political party, it's a movement. we are seeing it. he got his second, he got his second term. he doesn't have to take credit for anything. he got validation with this reelection and he's going to do what he wants to end it looks like he has started already. he's putting -- pardoning the j six people. that's big. that's big. it's going to get there. guest: that didn't sound much like the independent line. let's start with that. that would be a travesty for this country and for the rule of law, if he pardons the people who ransacked the capital, who crapped on nancy pelosi's task, injured 100 officers, some of whom died. that would be an absolute travesty for, for the american
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people. so look, donald trump was elected. he gets his shop. this was no mandate. this was no romp. he is now behind in the popular vote to the other candidates in the race. he was the winner in the key battleground states by 1.5 points or less. by less than one point in wisconsin. the democrats won four senate races in the states he won. we ran the candidate off the field in north carolina. we narrowed the majority. but the republicans have it in the house. at some point, when the people that he's nominated, you know, go through the nomination process, they will be down to about a one seat majority in the house for a number of months. you know, he's the president-elect. he will be the president. he will get to run his agenda. but this was no mandate for him.
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as a caller said. what the caller said is exactly one of the problems. donald trump can now do whatever he wants. host: dallas, let me give you johnny on the democratic line from cincinnati. johnny, go ahead. caller: yes. this is john. i'm just trying to understand why, you know, at these dinner tables, people, these smart people you got, you got to smart guys up there now, throughout the campaign, you all have never really looked or tried to connect the dots. the republican party came on the scene and said it's wide open. every republican always said the border was wide open. because joe biden was there.
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and then once they got here, they said joe biden won't let them in here. that's crazy. host: dallas? guest: a couple of things i want to say about the biden administration, the entire reason for the biden candidacy was to put an end to trump and trumpism. he ran the office in this clandestine way. trump is stronger than he's ever been. the biggest force in american politics by far, the biggest force in politics in the world. i agree with my brother that he cannot do whatever he wants. in some ways i feel like biden did that. like the voters didn't sign up for these big spending bills. they didn't sign up to be humiliated in afghanistan. it's interesting but my brother said and i agree with him, sort
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of getting back to policy debates. in a lot of ways we kind of did that, right? the democrats had to replace president biden with miss harris. they already knew the flaws of trump and the things they didn't like about them. what drove the election? immigration, inflation, the economy, and crime. those are important issues. it happens to be that the democratic positions as perceived by the american public were on the losing side of that. host: coming up on 9:30 on the east coast and we are chatting this morning with brad and dallas woodhouse, two brothers on opposite sides of the political divide. guest: one thing i want to add and i think brad would agree with me, this mystery of
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bridging the political divide, that's what a legislative body does. the house in the senate, bridging the divide. it's not that brad and i need to bridge a political divide. it's the ability to have a rational conversation, maybe get animated, disagree, and walk away friends and not think, not think you know that the other person is people, bad, going to hell because we disagree politically. i think bridging the political divide is kind of a misnomer. host: how did you end up on opposite sides of the political divide? guest: well, my brother is older. he was certainly more conservative when he was younger. i grew up through the reagan years. you know, he was my personal hero. brad went to washington. i think he was always, you know,
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i never really thought of them as a liberal. by the way, i think my brother is very good at what he does. he would never say this, but i suspect when they were having these calls around washington, d.c., the biden people, the harris people, if they had listened to him a little more, they would have done a little better. maybe a lot. maybe not enough to win, but he could have helped more if they had listened to him. i'm just a more conservative person, you know? he went to washington and as i said many times when this question comes up, nothing good happens when people go to washington. host: is that fair, brad? guest: you know, i started in politics as a, as a democrat. my mom is a democrat. our parents are democrats. we grew up -- my father changed parties over the years. he was a democrat than he became a helms republican and a ross perot independent. he was like a -- i'm going to
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vote for the best person. kind of what he thought was the best person, he migrated to that political party. i began as a volunteer for david price, now a former member of congress from north carolina. i have been a democrat my entire career. you know, i don't even think about ideology as much. conservative, conservative liberal, progressive. i think that the government is here to do a few things. one, protect and defend and provide for, for security. but i think it is to help the least among us. i mean if government is not helping to level the playing field -- like right now, we have -- dallas, you wanted to defend this position, we have the republican party drafting a budget bill for next year right now which will take medicaid away from poor people so that
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elon musk gets the benefit of the trump tax cuts being extended. to me that is just the wrong priorities for the, for the american people, for the people on medicaid. not with elon musk. that's what makes me a democrat. host: a minute ago you mentioned your mother. it was about this exact time when you appeared on the program last time, 10 years ago, your mother called into this program. joyce woodhouse is her name. this is that moment from 10 years ago. [video clip] >> you are right that i'm from down south. >> oh gosh, it's mom. >> i am your mother. i disagree that all families are like ours. i don't know many families that are fighting at thanksgiving. quick sets are mom. facts i was very glad that this thanksgiving was the year that you two were supposed to go to your in-laws.
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i'm hoping you will have some of this out of your system when you come here for christmas. >> we were not together this thanksgiving funny thing is, whm talks to brad, she lights up, funny dallas woodhouse, you mentioned your mom. how is she doing? guest: still sharp as a tack. doesn't quite get along as good as she did, but neither do brad and i. i have noticed of that on that clip, she said she loves us both. she didn't say she didn't say she loves us both equally. for the record. we know who she loves more. when brad comes to town -- you never -- one thing i want to say about that flick that is interesting, i always remember it -- it did not sound to me at the time like it does when you play the clip.
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in other words, steve scully said we've got a call from raleigh, north carolina, that's all i heard. then he said the name joy -- joy is my sister, my mom is joyce. my sister wasn't living there at the time, but i didn't hear the name. all i heard was raleigh -- i thought someone from down south. that's what surprised me so much. i mean the clip is a big part of me going -- gosh, it's mom. such a shock. host: i promise you that if a joyce from north carolina calls and in the next half-hour, we will bumper to the top. in the meantime let's talk to earl in redding, california, you are on with the woodhouse boys. caller: thank you very much. i find this a very interesting discussion with these two gentlemen. i got motivated to call today --
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i tried to call every 30 days. i'm an agent orange volunteer. guest: thank you for your service. caller: thank you. i live on social security and a veterans agent orange, ok? here are some facts i want to share with brad. he's big on facts. tell me if i'm wrong, please, both of you, i will get off the phone, but i want to give you a couple of facts that i see. i lost 20% of my fixed income in the last four years. that's a fact, ok? that's $2000. 2000 that i donated to homeless and veterans and to help people, you know, deal with wounded, what have you, and i can't do anymore. another fact is -- for two years we listen to adam schiff pushing
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russia, russia, russia. was i on the same planet as you two? is that what happened? it turned out to be alive? and then you want to call this an insurrection? you know, here's a bunch of people that believe in the second amendment and nobody brought any guns to the insurrection? is that what happened? guest: let me just say this caller -- caller: no, no, let me finish. let me finish. i'm almost done. i'm almost done. black lives matter, these other organizations, for two years, locking policeman up in their own police station and setting it on fire? where were those prosecutions, gentlemen? host: brad, he originally addressed you on that. guest: i don't know how we lost $2000 on his fixed income. i will say this, joe biden
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didn't cut social security. donald trump will. joe biden didn't cut medicaid. president trump will, almost certainly. there were weapons, many, many weapons. guest: can't we both say -- guest: no. hold on. [excessive crosstalk] guest: hold on. he addressed all of these questions, but he's not living in facts. many people and black lives matter were prosecuted after that. yes, there were weapons on january 6. this is the whole thing. we are not operating from the same set of facts. i honor him for his service but i think he's wrong to get -- wrong about the insurrection. there were definitely weapons confiscated. by the way, beating the police officer with a flag pole? that's a weapon. host: william, georgia, outline
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for democrats. caller: good morning, fellas. i think that brad hit it early on in the conversation when he said we can't agree on the same set of facts. i think the reason we cannot is because the facts don't line up well for the republican party. you guys just elected a convicted felon who was awaiting sentencing over a prosecutor. that alone is ridiculous. not looking at the sexual assault allegations that he had that he was found liable for. the exit out of afghanistan, you guys bring that up all the time, that was all set up by donald trump's failure in his surrender to the taliban leading to the collapse of the afghan government. so, you guys are very selective on what facts you want to get detailed with.
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usually those are conspiracy theories and not really facts. host: dallas? guest: i will say this, november facts lined up well for us. host: do the two of you have children? guest: yes, i have two boys. i have a son in college, nc state freshman. another thing that unifies me and brad, we are both big wolf packers. i have another son who's home and of driving age. brad can talk you about his wonderful son who i guess we'll be going to college next year. i hope he comes down here and i can see him more. he has a daughter who is tough around the hockey rink. she can knock it over and get the best that hockey rink and i'm excited about that, she's tough as nails and it makes me think she will be a republican. [laughter] host: do they have political
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leanings? do you talk politics with your kids, your nephews and nieces? guest: i don't talk politics with dallas's children and i don't principally talk politics with my children. i've never been the one who feels a need to indoctrinate my kids to be like me or to take my positions. my wife takes a bit of it different view. she's have more conversations about politics and i've had to. my children, and i believe dallas's of children as well, are fiercely independent. they will decide for themselves. they are not going to be swayed. i will say one thing that does really concerned me about our politics in about my children, that is the amount of misinformation, disinformation that is fed online. you know, my kids are online. i know that dallas's kids are online. i know it something that parents struggle with. i know i struggled with it.
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that is a big, big concern of mine. you know? look, i have a son getting ready to graduate high school and go to college. he will be 18 in may. he will be an adult and can make a decision about how online he is and the information he believes and doesn't believe, but that is a real challenge for parents in this, in this modern era. guest: we should get the opinion of the caller about where he should go to college? guest: doesn't know yet. he has applied to a lot of places. institutions in north carolina and across the country. he's been a great student. guest: we would love to have them. brad is a great father and a great brother. guest: you are a terrific father and a good son. guest: he is right about our,
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our kids being fiercely independent. i will tell you, that is an extension for my mother. she is fiercely independent like you have never seen. we talk a lot about our mother and yes, our mother and father raised us to be politically active, to be politically minded, to be civic engaged. civicly engaged. we have an autistic nephew. my sister's child. lives here in north carolina. after the tremendous publicity we got out of c-span and mom calling, we were able to do an event years ago to help raise money for the autism society which was great. but i will tell you something else about my mother that i think is really incredible, she installed something in us.
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we were talking about our kids being fiercely independent. i love brad's wife to death. she's fiercely independent, strong. my wife, christine, she's fiercely independent, strong, hard-nosed, you know? i don't think that guys like us could have been ready to marry, love, and accompany these strong women in our lives if we had not had the, the model and the learning experience from our own mother who is that way. i think of that as one of the great gifts that mom gave both of us. host: joyce, if you are watching out there, we say hello to you and hope you are doing well. we will see if we can keep it civil until 10:00. ted, independent line, minneapolis, good morning. caller: i wanted to talk about
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bridging back the political divide. it's almost impossible. especially when you have all of these propaganda tv stations going on right now. fox news is a commentary. cnbc is a commentary. now you've got problems with these other channels, also. these lawsuits that are going on. it's just gotten to be pretty crazy. what i would really like to speak about is the national debt. i think that if you look at how this country is going in the hole so bad, it's really the white elephant in the group. nobody wants to speak about it. i will never understand how the democrats and the republicans cannot get together and get this thing under control. host: dallas? guest: the simple answer is that
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it requires really hard choices in washington. i agree with the caller concerns. guest: i will say this about the national debt, you can thank trump for a big part of it. $6 trillion in -- $6 trillion from the first trump tax cut, extending it will costs another $4 trillion. host: money we should be spending. -- guest: money we should be spending. guest: we are cutting taxes but we continue to spend the money so it balloons the national debt and it balloons the deficit. if we were going to continue to spend that money, spend that money on national defense, health care and all these other things, we shouldn't be cutting taxes by $4 trillion and cutting medicaid to boot. guest: let me say something about that, i don't want to get
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into a big discussion about health care, but going back many years ago when brad and i started these conversations, 2009, 2010, brad reminded me of something that he was right about. something that he said in the past, that people would like it. i don't know if they like it, but i will say, to me here are the two legacies of the obamacare thing. one, if you really look at it, you hear about all the market exchanges and all of that, a minimal amount of people get their insurance through that. over 20 -- [excessive crosstalk] guest: over 20 million -- guest: right now the federal government, something they won't continue to do is pay more for the expanded part of medicaid where they put 25 and 30-year-old single able-bodied
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men of working age on medicaid, then we pay for sick and pregnant poor people, the creation of medicaid. [excessive crosstalk] guest: you are making -- [excessive crosstalk] guest: they consolidated the health care market. pharmacies, though -- they are merging everywhere and they just wrung out all the competition. remember all the obamacare lies? you can keep your doctor? live. live. you can't disagree with things that obama said that were not true. host: brad, then we will get to more calls. guest: everything he just said is alive. 20 million people get their health care through the marketplace. 25 million have gotten it through expanded medicaid.
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every state in the country where medicaid has been expanded, the economy is stronger and we have seen a reduction in chronic diseases, everything from heart disease to diabetes. and then what he's saying is something not true. yes, we have stronger health care in this country but ending the ability of medicare to negotiate for seniors and repealing the affordable care act is not going to make health care better. enhancing and expanding those programs, bringing more people coverage at lower costs is the way to do it. host: i'm sure we could have a health care discussion for the rest of the segment. jack, hamilton, ohio, republican, good morning. caller: hey, you guys have really made my day. to dallas i would like to say -- dallas, you have been so complementary to your brother and his family. you have been conciliatory.
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your brother is nothing but mad and angry. i'm thinking you are not getting inviting -- invited to christmas dinner. guest: the christmas dinner is at my house. you know? my brother is a fierce advocate. if he gets an hour on national television, he's going to keep fighting for health care. he's going to fight for what he believes and that's fine. i know how much i mean to him. guest: look, first of all, to the caller, i set on this program i think he's an excellent father, he's an excellent son to his mother. he is an excellent brother to me. i love dallas, 11 fiercely. host: you said that it is important to engage and establish that you are spending christmas together. is there a time limit to engaging, though? is it one day? is five days too many? guest: i think five days is a
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lot. i think about this as like moments when you are together were on the phone where you engage for a few minutes. at some point, like dallas here, dominates the discussion, interrupts, drones on, and at some point it's enough. you have to call a timeout. i think it is important to try. it is important to try. if we didn't try to engage one another in political discussion, we would have a hard time having a relationship. fortunately, we have a relationship. guest: politics is not the most important thing in my life. i work in it, i believe in it. but you know, i go to church at 9:30 on sundays to get my salvation. politics is not the be-all and end-all. we used to take long trips together, political differences,
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but we were just fine. brad and i are always busy with our kids, which we love. older into retirement age, i hope we can do that again. then we will move on to shuffleboard, maybe go on a cruise. if i get out of hand, he will throw my ass overboard and it wouldn't be a terrible way to go. it's what the government does to you when you are on government health care, anyway. host: this is raymond, florida, on the line for democrats. raymond, go ahead. caller: guys, how are you? host: doing well. go ahead. caller: political divide, you kind of need it. if you want to be the u.s., there has to be a divide. multiple opinions on the -- on separate sides, if not it would
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be russia or north korea. even being a democrat, the gentleman who called from california who wanted to know where the $2000 went in the fixed income, that's disingenuous saying you don't know where it came from. doing basic math, that guy probably spends $100 per week, 20,000 -- 20% inflation. throw in the gas. i don't want to talk about all the other discretionary things or gentleman has to do -- deal with. don't do that to that guy. he's a veteran out there working hard and you are saying it's not reality and its a lot of the reason you guys lost. guest: brad didn't say it wasn't reality, he just said he didn't -- guest: dallas, dallas, for god sake. i wasn't questioning whether or not he had lost $2000, but i didn't know what he was, what he was referring to and i did say,
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and i do say, that i appreciate his service. host: george, michigan, independent, you are on with the woodhouse boys. caller: you guys are brothers, you look like you don't even know each other, just separate sides of the fence. one word answer. dallas, do you love brad? guest: more than you can imagine. caller: brad, do you love dallas? guest: yes. caller: why are you guys bickering so much, then? this is what's wrong with the country. stop, guys. stop, please. this is my time. stop. stop talking so i can have my time. i don't have much time. host: we are hearing you, but let me let the gentleman respond. go ahead. guest: well i actually [excessive crosstalk] guest: we need these
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discussions. brad, i, you know, brad and i can bicker in disagree and move on. that's the problem. it's not disagreeing. i agree with the caller that said elections are not really necessarily supposed to be unifying, right? they are a way to count which side won. we have a healthy democracy. i don't think that democracy is under threat. democracy is good. host: one of the viewers on twitter wants to know if there are any issues that the two of you agree on. guest: political issues? none that i can think of. one thing that i think that people don't appreciate about congress is there are a lot of high profile, high profile disagreements. there is a lot of disagreement
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on a lot of those issues. but they also get a lot done. it's like dallas said, at one point they have to agree on a funding bill in appropriations. they always agree on reauthorizing our national defense strategy, our national defense authorization. i'm sure that if you went down every issue under the sun, you could probably find more things we agree on then you might, but there have been some real issues in this country, the future of health care being top of mind, top of mind for me, that i don't think you would find much agreement from us on. host: five minutes left. cookie, good morning. caller: hi, jon. thank you for c-span. i've been watching for years. i think that dallas has a big
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problem with a big brother. always trying to override what he says. i'm with you, brad. i think your mission is worthy. hang in there. thank you. guest: thank you, i appreciate it. host: dallas, any response? guest: it is not just my brother i try to override. [laughter] host: do you think that people try to psychoanalyze your relationship too much? guest: people can do what they want. we have had our story told a number of times. i hope that people can, can learn that the people that unites us is love. love for our mother, love for our deceased father, her sister and all the kids in the family. love for speech, love for nc state university, love for the country. we don't have to believe the same path to get us to the same
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place. like i said, i'm fortunate. i will be fortunate to see brad at christmas. no matter what, the disagreement is -- no matter what the disagreement is, we will go out and throw the football with the kids, watch whatever game is on tv and have a nice christmas. we always do. the only reason i would want to go to washington is to see him, not anything else. i think again, there is a way to disagree and not walk away mad. we do it all the time. host: brad woodhouse, why is it so hard for americans to believe what's being described? love of country was one of the things he mentioned. why is it harder for people to seem to be able to do now?
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guest: i think it is partly because people are in particular more engaged in politics and i don't know that it is true that all americans are that divided and cannot appreciate love of country and patriotism. i hope that's not the case. i think that we live in a country where people get their information from a source and that source tells them that the other side is wrong, tells them the other side's people, that the other side is lying. really strong language. people, i don't want to say brainwashed, but people accept it as a fact, you know, that one side of the political divide is terrible and the other side is righteous. i think it can sometimes get hard to get beyond. some of these things mean so much. take mom.
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mom is not politically active. the health care issue was really personal to her. personal for the reason that dallas brought up earlier. we have an autistic nephew who, no telling what he would do if he didn't have access to medicaid. it's something she's very passionate about and i might be hard for her to get over someone who disagrees on something like that to get to the other things. guest: putting 25-year-old men on medicaid threatens my nephew, that's my issue. host: we will let the little brother have the last word for now. we will -- we will see what happens at christmas. guest: why should it be any different, he always gets the last word. host: brad woodhouse, dallas
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