♪ host: the results showed that

democrats are looking for their members to push back more on the trump agenda. we will go through some of those charts this first half-hour and ask you what is your message to congress? what is your level of competence in your -- confidence in their ability? here are the numbers, (202)-748-8001, republicans. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independent, (202)-748-8002. you can send us a text at (202)-748-8003, send your first name, city and state, and we are on social media, facebook.com/c-span, and x at --@cspanwj. welcome to today's "washington journal." we start with charts from the cbs news poll and it says -- this is what they asked democrats, congressional

democrats approach to trump should be to -- oppose trump as much as possible, in january, 40 6% and that went up to 65 percent. then the question of -- try to find common ground with trump, 54% responded with that in january, now only 35% say that democrats should try to find common ground with trump. this is another question aimed at democrats' confidence that congressional democrats can oppose trump effectively. those that said "a lot" state about the same. "some" was at 44% in january and dropped to 36%, and those that said that their confidence level was "not much or none" was at 40% in january and 48% now. the question for republicans

said, among republicans, should congressional republicans' approach to trump b -- support one agree, push back when disagree, 60% agreed. 40% said that congressional republicans should support whatever trump wants. i wonder what you think of that and where you would be if you are asked those polling questions, what do you think of that? here's is an article from abc news about elon musk. it said he was drilled about doge transparency, and he was in the office with president trump. here's a portion of that. [video clip] >> is it normally this quiet? >> you are detractors. >> i don't believe it. >> say you are orchestrating a

hostile takeover of government and doing it in a nontransparent way. what is your response to that? >> first of all, you could not ask for a stronger mandate from the public. the public voted -- a majority of the public voted for president trump won the house, the senate. the people voted for major government reform. there should be no doubt about that. that was on the campaign, the president spoke about that at every rally. people voted for major government reform, and that is what they're going to get, with they voted for. and a lot of times, they don't get what they voted for, but in his presidency, they are getting what they voted for and that is what democracy is about. [end video clip] host: i will show you this article from the hill and then take your calls, gop senators terrified of crossing trump, facing musk funded challengers.

the white house signaled that republicans who thwart trump's agenda by voting against his controversial nominees or opposing efforts by elon musk to freeze government funding and cut federal agencies such as u.s. eid will pay a political price, and they say that as a threat that carries a lot more weight when musk, the world's richest person, could port tens of millions of dollars into a senate republican primary. it says musk warned republican lawmakers in december that he was compiling a "naughty list" of members who buck trump's agenda and pledged shortly after election day that his political action committee would "play significant role in the primaries" next year. we will go to the phones and start with mary, democrat, iowa. good morning. caller: good morning. the supreme court has the ability to reverse decisions. it is time for them to step

forward. we have old people dying in the streets. host: what do you think about what congress can do? caller: the supreme court holds the key to the whole thing, as far as that community to do anything he wanted to do, it is time for them to reverse that decision and they need to do it now. host: did you mean by old people dying in the streets, what are you worried about? caller: with taking away medicare and social security, i mean, what are people going to do, diana streets? don't have money for food or anything else. supreme court, do something. host: here is william, republican, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i think mr. trump should be allowed to do whatever he would like to do but i have a question , who is the top law person in

this country now? everything happened so fast i cannot keep up. who is the sheriff, the top law person, the doj? host: you're talking about the attorney general? pam bondi. caller: ok, i don't think she's worth spit if you don't bring charges against schumer for going after two supreme court justices. host: you would like her to bring charges against senator schumer for what exactly? caller: he threatened two supreme court justices, how is he still walking around? host: richard, democrat, delaware. caller: hi, i'm a retired federal worker and i was a retired federal worker.

i worked as a consultant, also. and i was also in a hospital bed for the last year -- i guess i cannot hear you. host: i was not talking, richard. go ahead and talking to the phone, don't look at the tv. caller: thanks. what i was trying to say is i'm surviving the medicare and social security, and i'm someone who is worried about from the standpoint of environmental progress that has been made over the last 50 years that we will return to it, but we will lose some of that progress if the epa is not there and strong, and i

would like to add that as far as civil service goes, i worked in the government for 11 years, and i'm proud to have done that work because the civil servants are the backbone of the government. they are the people who get hired to do the work to have the government do freda people. host: let me ask about waste fraud and abuse that elon musk is saying that is what he's going after. do you think in the apa, since that is where you worked, there's wasteful spending, there are people abusing the funds that are supposed to be allocated for something else? caller: not on a grand scale like they are alleging and making the american public believe.

i think you can always find the ways to improve the efficiency of organizations, including the private sector and public sector , but it is not a whole scale thrown out with the bathwater and the baby situation. host: republican, california, good morning. go ahead, dave. caller: i would like to say a commonsense approach, there's nothing wrong with that. if they are trying to do that, why interfere? people would like to interfere just because they would like to interfere, and it seems like they're pushing socialism over democracy, and machen add to dirty opposite is what i'm seeing. host: the previous caller said

they were throwing the baby out with the bathwater. do you think there may be a better way to go about finding efficiencies? caller: they are doing the best they can right now and they should appreciate that. the effort being made is 100% input, so why stop it? there's nothing wrong with that? but there's something wrong with socialism where anything goes. that's how america works, anything goes. it doesn't make sense. host: all right, let's look at senate democratic leader chuck schumer yesterday talking about the threat of a possible government shutdown and several legal cases against the trump administration. [video clip] >> the trend is clear, donald trump cannot bulldoze his way

through the rule of law. that is what the courts in america are saying. donald trump is not allowed to break the law, to achieve those goals. that is not how america works, and my republican colleagues should not sit idly by while he does it in five weeks, funding for the federal government will run out. let's remember that when there is talk about a republican shut down, president trump and republicans are already shutting down large chunks of the government. democrats do not want to shut the government down, but the republicans are in charge, and they should fund the government. since the inauguration, president trump and republicans have been actively working to shut down the government entirely on their own. see research institutions,

protections for americans, no one is working hard right now to shut down the government then donald trump and congressional republicans. [end video clip] host: that was senator schumer yesterday and we are taking your calls, what is the message to congress on the trump agenda for the next 15 minutes. we got some comments from fabook. chael says, yes, we democrats need to let the american people know that the legislative, executive and judicial branches exist to holea other to account and ensure checks and balances. suzette said trumps ing the peoples work and doing exactly what he was votedn to do. promises made, promises cut, the democrats don't have a better plan to attack the problem of the nation's debt. in fact, they have no planet at all other than to add to it. keeley says and here's dolores,

democrat, tennessee. caller: morning, can you understand me? i had surgery and i'm speech impaired, so please give me a few minutes. host: go ahead. caller: what trump is doing to our country is like my brother in law said, how south africa did over there, the apartheid. it is slowly happening here in our country. people left from over there and came here from freedom and you see this happening all over. trump and the republicans have bought and paid republicans. we can see it. he said he did not know about 2025, and he knew it all. guess what, the american people

are the ones suffering. he would like to take away medicaid, women's rights, voting rights, they would like everything in america just like apartheid. another thing real quick, they are killing people every day. they're not saying anything about that, marsha blackburn and other republicans, please put that out there. wake up, america. he is not doing anything for the average person. they put him in there, and there making foo out of them. ls host: steve, florida, independent. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: just like elon musk said yesterday, are we a bureaucracy or democracy? that's what i'm looking at.

also, your quoting that survey on abc, i've been doing the survey over two years, and yesterday when i did that, it was the most biased survey i'd ever done. all the answers to the questions were pigeonholed -- host: explain that, steve. caller: each time, it was negative about president trump. like i said, i've done this two years, not one time have you ever done a survey with negative stuff about biden and everything else, and every answer, it was a pigeonholed and i could not answer what i really wanted to answer. host: let's talk about this. i pulled it back up, this is the cbs news ugov poll. caller: that's the one i've been doing for two years, and on your news you said abc -- host: no, it is cbs.

congressional democrats' approach to trump should be to -- caller: work against him, not work with him. host: so the question is, should congressional democrats opposed trump as much as possible or try to find common ground? that's not pigeonholed when you are asking only democrats. caller: it is pigeonholed. host: this is the one asking republicans, approach to trump should be support when agree, push back when disagree, or support whatever he would like? caller: that is not how it was in the survey, ma'am. you are not listening, once again. i've done the survey. host: are you sure you are doing the right one because you said it was abc. caller: now you are insulting me. host: will you said it was abc

and this is cbs. sorry to insult you. republican, connecticut. caller: how are you doing? host: i'm doing ok. caller: instead of basking hypothetical questions, why don't you post a list as to where that money was going? why don't you post that because most of these people who called you are cnn viewers and msnbc viewers who do not know anything , so why don't you post a list? caller: how do you know all of our viewers are cnn and msnbc? you are not and you are a viewer. host: you are not and you are a viewer. caller: no because i know it is going on. host: well, we will find that for you, we will try to find a break down. caller: mimi -- host: yes, julian. caller: why don't you post a

list of where the money is going -- host: i'm telling you, we will try to find information. you got anything else for me? caller: yeah., you . host: clay, democrat, georgia. caller: good morning. the democrats have to not let up. don't let up, stop -- start talking about the price of eggs. that's all he talked about, grocers, so you cannot let up. that is how you win. let the american people know all the lies dismantled when he was running for president. real quickly, what's his name,

elon musk? this man is from south africa. the united states destroyed his country. don't you know, he's trying to do the same for the united states? he was 18 years old when we destroyed apartheid, so he's trying to do the same thing for the united states, so, please, wake-up. it does not make any sense and ty silva very much. host: julian wanted to see a breakdown of usaid spending. here's a news article that says what does usaid spend money on? here is a list of potential cuts. i will not read all of them but here are the top ones, 16.8

billion for governance, 10.5 billion for humanitarian assistance, 7 billion for health. if you would like a further breakdown of those, we will try to find more information, but i believe it is usaspending.gov. we will continue to look at that and provide information as we get it. john, independent, california. caller: i would like the republican senate to start doing their job. they have laid down like leaves and they are letting trump jump all over them and they are totally afraid. it is the republican party who says if you don't do what king trump would like, we will use muska's money to get you out of office. that would never occur to democrats. republicans don't understand

with three equal branches of government. the big deal going on in the gaza strip, not a single peep from the republicans. it is sickening. it is nothing but a stamp pad for donald trump. host: dennis, indiana. republican. caller: hello. congress needs to get on board, the democrats need to get on board or resign or get out of the way. why is chuck schumer not imprison for the crime he committed of trying to -- chuck schumer is a felony and should be prosecuted. and how do we know that these democrats all listen to nbc -- msnbc and cnn?

because they all dribbled the same talking points, the same exact talking points you here on cnn and msnbc. they need to wise up, stop listening to idiot democrats who are trying to control a mentor in this country into a socialist country. the reason democrats would like to spend all money is to get people dependent on the government because when they do, they can tell them what they have to do. host: this is jim, indiana, democrat. good morning. you have got to turn down your tv. are you there? caller: yes, i'm here. host: go ahead. caller: i wanted to make the comment of i believe democrats should be working with republicans, and as a lifelong democrat that is starting to lean republic, i'm tired of the rhetoric from jeffries and schumer saying this is the

republicans government and to finance the government shutting down as they sit back and do nothing, which i opened my eyes to see that they would just like to sit back and blame the republicans on everything, but they don't want to offer anything up. to hear schumer, who has been in his position for so long, no, make these kind of comments but he sits back and does not do anything except try to block what we need to do, we are the american taxpayers, and we need transparency to know where our money is going because we are the ones who fund the government. the government takes a bar money for their own agendas, and we need to know where our money is going. the one last comment i would like to make about eggs, everyone so focused on eggs, but with the bird flu going around, these manufacturers have to kill the chickens and destroy the eggs, so it is basic supply and

demand issue at this time which is primarily why the prices have gone up so much, but nobody would like to talk about the real impact for white fake prices are so high, they would just active laypeople but not look down to the root cause. that is all i have to say. host: you mentioned transparency. one of the criticisms that the doge activities are getting as they are not being transparent, saying we are finding fraud and abuse, but not showing evidence. what do you think of their transparency, do you agree with the criticism or disagree? caller: i'm going to disagree with it. i guess i'm 50/50 because we are only a few weeks into the investigations and may be before they make their announcements about what they have found, they should maybe get a little more detailed intimate and as i

listened to the clip this morning that you guys played, elon came out and told reporters that, yes, there will be mistakes made because they are moving quickly, and they have no issues coming back and retracting those statements or comments or issues made, so maybe i guess in that aspect, they should slow down a little bit and get the information out right the first time. in this world we live in, everybody would like the news right now. unfortunately, they break off the forwards a person might say, a small comment, and that blows up into whatever it may be, but maybe they should slow down a little bit to get the information out there to the people. host: let's hear another portion of elon musk in the oval office yesterday, where he talks about potential conflicts of interest. here it is. [video clip]

>> the white house as you identify and excuse yourself from any conflict of interest you may have, does that mean you are in effect policing yourself? what are the checks and balances in place to ensure accountability and transparency? >> we are trying to be as transparent as possible, we post our actions to the doge handle on and the website, so all of our actions are massively transparent. i don't know of a case where the conversation has been more transparent than the doge conversation. the kind of things we are doing i think are very simple and basic. for example, when i mentioned the treasury, making sure that tax money that goes out is categorized currently and the payment is explained, and that organizations which are on the do not pay list, it takes a lot

to get there, that they currently are paid, these are not individual judgment decisions, it is about having sensible checks and balances in the system itself to make sure taxpayer money is spent well, so it doesn't have a contract with the company of mine at all. >> if there is a conflict of interest, for example, you have received billions when it comes to the pentagon for contracts, which the president has directed you to look into, are you policing yourself? is there an accountability of checks and balances in place that would provide transparency? >> all of our actions are fully public, so if you see anything, wait a second, that seems like maybe there is a conflict, it is not my people will be shy about saying that, they will say it immediately. but transparency is what builds trust, not simply somebody asserting trust or saying they are trustworthy.

but transparency so you see what is going on. you can see, am i doing something that benefits one of my companies or not? it is obvious. pres. trump: if we thought that, we would not let him look in that segment, if we got there was a lack of transparency or collect of interest. we watch that, also. he's a big, successful businessmen and that is why we would like in doing this. we do not want an unsuccessful guy doing this. [end video clip] host: john, florida, independent. caller: good morning. my message to congress would be to stay out of the way and let these guys audit the federal government. they found almost $4 billion, i'm happy with what is going on. this is what we voted for, we are sick of the games and

democracy. some of these judges put holds on programs we looked into. their daughters and sons worked for the usaid. the corruption is deep in washington, d.c., and we need to look at it. i like the fact elon musk is in charge. he is probably one of the smartest in the world. let him have a look. they are following money around, it is transparent. it's crazy to me is why would anybody be against an audit of the federal government that is all about tax dollars? it leads me to believe that people are guilty of hiding money or wasting money or stealing money. if i went to my wife and she was at the kitchen table and i said, what are you doing and she said i'm doing the bills and i said, can i look at them, i have a waita save money and she screams in my face, you are a threat to democracy -- we know it is going on. host: but you are her husband and you have a right to see that.

i think the criticism is we don't know who the doge team -- have they been vetted, who are they, are they government employees? that kind of thing. what do you think of that? do you think there should be more transparency on who the people are on the doge team and what their credentials might be? caller: right, if it makes you sleep better at night, but i'm not bothered because i have president trump and elon musk, and i don't think they are looking to rip anybody off. i think they are trying to balance this $26 trillion deficit before my grandkids and great grandkids don't have a country to be involved in. i don't understand why people are up in arms, what you think these guys should be doing? what would they be stealing? they are trying to save money for taxpayers. when you look at it and see usaid and there is a mailing

here for condos in uganda, and 50,000 for sex changes in cambodia, when you look at the usaid breakup or whatever you were reading, that does not entail the waste and fraud, and i recommend that anybody who would really like to know what is going on, follow a guy on twitter who has the breakdown of everything going on, were all the taxpayer dollars go. doge has to transparency there, you can break it down and read it, as well. host: john, got it. since john mentioned the orders and the courts, there's an article herein the washington post, tracking trump's court wins and losses over executive orders and actions.

this is the washington post, so they are tracking all the different court cases and where they stand, and they have a breakdown of the details on each one and if you are interested in that, that is in the washington post. next, congressional reporter for the hill.com, mychael schnell, she will discuss the latest on the blueprint to advance president trump's agenda, and later, mike flood of nebraska, a member of the financial services committee, will talk about issues from budget plans, immigration, and doge efforts. we will be back after the break. >> democracy is not just an idea, it is a process she by leaders, elected to the highest

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>> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, find it anytime online at c-span.org, videos of key hearings, debates and other events beecher markers that guide due to newsworthy highlights. the points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play unselect deals. the timeline tool makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided and washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> nonfiction book lovers, c-span has a number of podcasts for you, listen to best selling nonfiction authors and influential interviewers on the afterwards podcast and on cue and day wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen and notes plus episodes with weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books on a wide variety of topics.

find your podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app or wherever you get podcasts, and on c-span.org/podcasts. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back, we are joined by mychael schnell, congressional reporter for the hill.com. welcome back. guest: hi, good morning. host: let's talk about house republicans trying to advance the blueprint to support president trump's agenda, what are the big priority, the policy priorities for the budget? guest: very sprawling piece of registration that house republicans are trying to get this done in the one, big beautiful bill we've heard about , this would advance a lot of president trump's thomistic policy agenda, including the extension of tax cuts first implemented by trump in 2017, in

addition to funding for the situation at the southern border, in addition to energy policy and other promises trump has made on the campaign trail. for example, no tax on tips or, so all those priorities and more they are trying to cram into this bill. host: speaker johnson spoke to reporters yesterday about where negotiation stand, where do they stand right now? guest: the plan is to have a markup of the legislation on thursday, but there are a couple of problems. a, no legislation has been released yet. house republicans have been engaged in the negotiations for weeks for a budget resolution, and the budget resolution is the piece of legislation that if passed by the house and the senate, would unlock the budget reconciliation process, which allows republicans on capitol hill to circumvent democratic opposition in the senate. host: explain that a little bit more, the reconciliation process

and how that is able to circumvent the democratic decision. guest: this can be used in washington when one party has a trifecta i controls all power. we have publicans with control of the white house, the senate, and the house, so if they would like to pass a bill for low priorities that they know they will not get any support from the other side of the aisle, for example, democrats will not want to support tax extensions, border funding or energy policy, republicans can use budget reconciliation, and arduous process where if you can get everybody on board, allows you to circumvent the democratic alabaster, so for most pieces of legislation, 60 votes are needed in the senate, republicans only control 53 seats, and to get any of these big-ticket items done in a normal world, they would have to get at least seven republicans on board. if you use the budget reconciliation process, which can be used for various pending matters, you can circumvent that opposition.

right now we are seeing republicans trying to get going on the budget reconciliation process, the first step of which is passing a budget resolution, which the answer to a chest of art diluted house republicans. host: if you would like to join the conversation and ask a question about president trump's legislative agenda or plans for the budget, call us, republicans, (202)-748-8001. democrats, (202)-748-8000. independent, (202)-748-80. you -- independent, (202)-748-8002. house freedom caucus defies speaker johnson and release his own budget resolution from the washington examiner. what's going on with that? guest: one of the biggest debates about the budget reconciliation process has been to advance trump's agenda in one sprawling bill, a single package, or split into two priorities, the first of which, including border security money

and energy policy, try to get them on the board quickly for president trump and the second deals with tax cuts because that issue will take longer to negotiate. senate republicans have said we would like to do one bill, and speaker johnson and top republicans in the house of said, -- sorry, senate republicans said they would like to do two different bills on they are moving on that plan, first, border and energy, second, tax cuts. house republicans said the best way to do this for our conference is to get it into one, big, beautiful bill. host: why not two? guest: good question. the idea that the way johnston sees this, he is working with very little room for defectors in the conference, and he feels that when you are working with a lot of priorities, some of which some republicans are going to hate, some other republicans are going to hate, either they turn conservatives off with some things, if you cram them

altogether, there are sweeteners for the folks to support. for example, you are a hard buying conservative, you may not love how much the package costs. it goes off when you talk about tax cuts and other provisions, but they are up in arms about the conversation about the southern border, and they would not want to be caught voted against additional funding for immigration, so that is johnston stopped, if we put these together, we are daring republicans to vote against the bill. they may not like one part but they love the other parts. republicans in the house think that's the best way to do it. senate republicans say that tax cut part will take more time to negotiate and we are already seeing that dynamic play, so they would like to give president trump a quick win, move border and energy policy, something that republicans are united on, get that out of the way and take more time for tax cuts. host: speaking of senate republicans, let's take a look at the budget committee chair lindsey graham.

spoke to reporters yesterday. i will have you respond. [video clip] >> i would still like one, big, beautiful bill, but i cannot after hearing what i did today, not act. i talked to president trump over the weekend. he would like to get results. after that briefing, if the republican party cannot provide the money to the trump administration to do all the things they need to do to make us safe, we have nobody to blame but ourselves because we had the ability through reconciliation to do this, and i would like to do it sooner rather than later. >> your plan is a nonstarter, so how are you going to pass this? >> i'm going to do what i think is best with my colleagues to make america safe. if you listen to what i heard today and you are hesitant to act, that would be a problem.

i heard tom homan, tough guy, begging us for money. i beg you to give me more resources. i heard the omb guys say, ice is out of money. all i can tell my house colleagues, whatever you need to do to get the one beautiful bill, do it, do it now, you have my blessing in support, but if we cannot do it quickly, we need to go to plan b. [end video clip] host: reaction. guest: this has been lindsey graham's feeling all along, saint johnson and i are united with the president and we know priorities need to get done. we are aware of trump's agenda, but what we differ on a strategy and it is because republicans feel an urgency to get the president more money and they feel an urgency to deal a lot of energy policies, so they would like to get that done quickly and that could probably get done in a quicker fashion because

those are noncontroversial aspects. the more controversial aspect our tax cuts. how do you deal with the tax on tips and how do pait for provisions that can be expensive and add to the deficit? host: what are ideas to pay for this? guest: there are various tax cuts across the board, and the latest proposal put forward by house republicans, it would be a $1.5 trillion floor for tax cuts with a target of 2 trillion. folks have not really gone into the details of what the areas of tax cuts would look like. there has been chatter of potential cuts to medicaid but that would turn off more moderate republicans but each committee has been tasked with looking where they can cut the funds needed to offset the build but it depends on how much it costs and they all have to be decided and discussed during the budget reconciliation process and that is why we are seeing hangups now in the house. you are talking about different, controversial thorny issues, so

lindsey graham is saying let's continue to discuss tax cuts but let's get done what we can with border and energy, speaker johnson feels the best way to do this is to put it altogether because he thinks it will be easier to get tax cuts over the finish line. host: what's the timeline in the senate? guest: today, senate budget committee will be working of the budget resolution that lindsey graham unveiled and will include 175 billion dollars for the situation at the border, hundred 50 billion for defense, the energy and water package, later, tax cuts will be dealt with, so the budget committee will advance this. at some point, the senate will consider it on the floor and then it moves to the house. johnston has called this a nonstarter. he told me it was a nonstarter and he is plowing ahead with this one, big, beautiful bill idea, but johnson has plowed through a number of self-imposed deadlines that the house budget committee was supposed to mark up as budget resolution last week but that did not happen and

there was supposed to be a mark up yesterday but that did not have. the new plan right now is a mark up on thursday but there's a lot of skepticism. lawmakers don't even have their eyes on the budget resolution. there is still debate about particulars, and another detail i reported yesterday for the ways and means committee would have $4.5 trillion to carve out those tax cuts and figure out what the tax cuts look like, and then as jason smith, the chairman of the ways and means committee, what do you make of 4.5 trillion for this area? he said anything below 4.7 trillion, the congressional budget office i said that to extend trump's 2017 tax cuts. that will cost $4.7 billion. 4.7 trillion, one letter but a difference, anything below that is not nearly enough, and anybody who proposes that is saying that president trump's tax policy is wrong, so we are

seeing tensions flare and frustrations aired because republicans are behind the eight ball, they have been blowing through self-imposed deadlines, and they are trying to reach a strong deadline tomorrow but there is skepticism if it could get done. host: stephen and michigan is asking house trump going to get 60 votes in the senate to pass his agenda unless they change the filibuster? guest: this goes back to budget reconciliation. republicans are trying to use this process to circumvent the 60 will threshold in the senate. the arduous process can be used for matters involving revenues and things like that, spending, so republicans are trying to use it. they essentially will have to have unanimous republican support in the gop conference and senate and the house conference to get this done and then they will circumvent the filibuster. host: let's talk to callers.

we will start, independent, kieron, you are on the air. caller: they are talking about cutting everything but on top of that, the old people are going to suffer. they are going to want to cut medicaid, medicare, we'd, they're going to cuts. trump is not the president, it is elon musk. elon musk is over there with putin. all he can do is weaken the united states for putin. how can a millionaire, billionaire be talking about money and now everybody is all about money? trump, elon musk, all about money. and the people who don't know anything about government, i worked in d.c. and the government, so not everybody is going to feel the wrath of trump, elon musk, putin. host: how much fear is there of

being primary with elon musk's backing? guest: that's a real concern, shifting the conversation to the senate nomination conversation e senate nomination process, the big three we had heard about through the process guest: there were some real concerns behind-the-scenes among

republicans, but a number of republican lawmakers found a way to support her. she advanced on the house floor earlier this week in a party-line vote and likely will be confirmed later today. the same goes for rfk junior to advance to the finance committee, including getting support from senator bill cassidy, the chairman of that committee who raised concerns, so i talk about this because the grip of the trump white house is so strong, and we know there are still detractors within the house and senate, particularly the house, when it comes to support for president trump, mitch mcconnell, thom tillis and others, but we are not seen -- susan collins and lisa murkowski, but we are not seeing them flex their muscles too much because of the wrath from the trump white house. the current nomination process shows elections matter, in order for the small group of republicans to band democrats and tank a trump nominee, it

would take four publicans to oppose, a huge number when you talk about the senate. i talk about why elections matter because they were close senate races the last cycle. for example, pennsylvania, if bob casey beat mccormick, a race determined by .2%, this would be an entirely different ballgame. i think this is showing the grip on the trump white house is strong, but the margins in these two chambers is the ballgame. host: we talked about the fear of being primary to have lawmakers mentioned a fear of physical violence against them or their families? guest: i have not heard that. there's always a concern about violence against lawmakers and we've seen unfortunately a countless number of examples of lawmakers being the victims of these attacks, the main one

being nancy pelosi's husband, so there's always the concern on capitol hill, but i'm not sure that they are leaking it when it has to do with legislation. host: nicole, republican, shaken. -- michigan. caller: good morning. mine is more of a comment or suggestion. we are talking about trump and the gop's budgets, but we have not gotten to the bottom of what we are finding we can get rid of and what is being misused. the disclosure and the audits happening, and then a republican called and recently and said washington journal, do your part and she was with the usaid found. you guys come back with this much for health and aid, and that is very broad. you would be doing good justice

and everyone talking transparency with what is included in the humanitarian aid? what is included when you say health? what exactly is that budget? you will say budget but you don't give us much. let's say i have an itemized grocery, my husband sees it, i have $1000 this month, and when you look at it, i'm spending all my thousands dollars a month at the casino for food while on gambling. is it food? yes. is it grocery money? no. so you tried to save this much for health and humanitarian aid is exactly what the american people are saying. we are onto that and see through that. that tells us nothing. we would like to see exactly the breakdown of health, exactly the breakdown of what is entailed. host: i will mention to you the

website called usaspending.gov, that has good information, as well. guest: when it comes to the budget and were spending cuts come from and where they are looking to cut, we have not gotten fully immersed into the phase of the plan were process yet. republicans are trying to figure out what the base number is in the ceiling for tax cuts, and how are they going to offset all of this customers republicans are dealing with that before they detail what cuts are looking like, but i will note that doge is a big thing being talked about in washington right now, the department of government efficiency, folks trying to correct weasel spending in the government, led by elon musk, that's just not in the white house or executive branch, we are also seeing the doge effort translate to capitol hill with a subcommittee.

we will see them have their first hearing today, talking about fraud in the federal government and the wasteful spending in the federal government, led by marjorie taylor greene. the first hearing will be today, so they will be more discussion about specifics as we get past the numbers and dive into the details. host: darrell, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to say thank you to professional journalists out there. why are they wanting to increase the national deficit another 4 trillion from 17 to $21 trillion if they are saving so much money? guest: good question. republicans do not want to increase the deficit in this package, they would like it to be neutral. we have heard from chip roy, republican from texas, who said that's his redline and will not support a package if it is not deficit neutral and a lot of

republicans would like this to be reducing for the deficit, so how much -- republicans are also saying that because of the tax cuts, there will be growth in the u.s. economy and that will help pay for some tax cuts and other deficit spending. this has to do with dynamic scoring, essentially the way republicans are going to score and judge the package, determine the numbers, the bottom line looks like, but republicans do not want it to add to the federal deficit. that is one of the red lines thrown out. host: carlos, florida, republican. caller: no snow here in miami, but i think there is four inches in washington. host: there is, indeed. caller: some defend $20 million of american taxpayer funds being paid for sesame street in iraq, and this is that they knew.

long-term, nothing will change, and it will happen again and again until there is accountability and the type of transparency we saw in the oval office yesterday, you could see it on c-span for 32 minutes and it is worthwhile watching, but until there are more revelations like this and investigation that include prosecution and punishment for wrongdoing and malfeasance, it is just going to continue. some people see elon musk and his son in the oval office with trump and disparage them, while some of us see an honest, transparent real-world display of elon musk taking a break is a dad with the president of the united states in his office, bringing sunlight to these dark, existential, incompetence, fraud, all seasons, corruption at the u.s. treasury.

host: -- guest: the image of elon musk in the oval office was interesting, especially with his son. that underscores the idea that he is an unelected official but a key part of the u.s. government, a close ally of president trump and a large donor. there seem to be a lot of leeway within the federal government. whether people like him or not, he is a key power player in the current trump administration and it is interesting to see how his impact continues to play out. host: he is doing a financial disclosure been making it public, so how does that work? guest: that will be an interesting dynamic. it could change the pressure. we will have to see. we saw this conversation about the tax returns with trump during his first administration, so it will be curious to see how that plays out, especially because he talked about potential compex of interest, so

it will be a fascinating dynamic to follow. host: judy, oregon, democrat. caller: let's see. i have a few questions. i was not very convinced listening to elon musk talk about how he will seclude himself from his own interest. they fired all who would watch out for that and why do the republicans have to get their tax cuts for the very well-off, for the corporations, the millionaires and billionaires? why not get a tax cut to those making under 400,000 and then wait until things start now? i'm sure there's a lot of waste fraud and abuse. any huge amount of money spent like that, there's going to be,

but they are only talking about the things that they don't want. i'm sure it cost a lot of money from alani after to go from new york -- for melania to go from new york to washington and they spend a lot of frivolous money but they won't pick that apart as they pick apart usaid, and then they are making up a lot of stories, like the condos in gaza, which was not true, and they are making upthey are maki. people get on social media and they spread these rumors and lies. why not just give tax breaks to the people making under $400,000 for now and then come back to the big huge tax cuts they want to give to their donors? guest: i cannot speak to the motivation over why republicans

are choosing one specific tax cut that i can speak to why they're such an urgency to extend the 2017 tax cuts. a number of the provisions in there expire at the end of 2025. that is why republicans feel they are facing the clock and racing the clock and this is why johnson has laid out such an ambitious timeline. if republicans cannot unite and extend the trump tax cuts by the end of the year a number of those provisions will lapse and there'll be an impact on the american people across the country. this is the reason we have seen such an urgency to get started on this process quickly and to try to work out the kinks early so they can get something by the end of the year. host: you mentioned the hearing happening today. we will have that on the c-span networks at 10:00 a.m.. you will be there. guest: i will be in the capital. there are a lot of stories to cover. i'm not sure i will be in that room.

we will see this doge initiative make its way onto capitol hill and i'm curious to see how congresswoman marjorie taylor greene handles herself. just about four years ago she was stripped of her committee assignments because she was such a controversial figure. four years later her close ally donald trump is in the white house and she is wielding a subcommittee gavel. it is a drastic turn of events. interested to see how she conducts herself. on the other set of the aisle there a lot of colorful lawmakers. congressman garcia, congresswoman jasmine crockett. these are people who are not afraid of confronting congresswoman green and becoming combative and loud in these hearings if they hear something they do not like. it will be a fascinating display.

host: let's talk to christina in iowa, republican. caller: good morning. just said it will be an interesting display. i have a couple questions and something to say. this administration plans on upholding the constitution, right? host: is that your question? go ahead. caller: in the constitution it does not say nothing about a democracy. we are a republic. when i grew up we pledged allegiance every day to our republic. i hear you talk about the budget. it is amazing we can have a government that can regulate every individual spending and where they go and what they are

doing all this other stuff but we have elected officials that are supposed to be there to protect and defend the people. you guys cannot even act like grown adults. you act like a bunch of children that are debating and yelling and screaming. why asked the first question is because democracy means the small group of people dictate and make the decisions for the mass amounts. that is what we have going on right now. we need individual transparency and we do have action now. we can spend billions of dollars on ukraine and on immigrants but we cannot bring that money back to the people. what i care about is my children's church and what is going on right now. host: and i ask you a quick question. when you say democracy is a small group of people making decisions for everybody else,

can you explain that? some people consider democracy people vote and whoever gets the highest number of votes they get to represent the rest of the people. explain that to me. caller: you have to think about it this way. i have been studying law. the declaration of independence tells us that we are all created equal. it does not matter if you're are in a government position or whatever. we are all created equal. when government becomes destructive to where it is harming the well-being of its people it is time to alter it or abolish it and that is the people's choice. host: isn't that the democracy? caller: we are trying to get our concerns out and nobody is listening. you are playing this ping-pong

game and dividing us. then you can continue -- not you personally -- they can continue to keep up this ruse and this team. it is very easy. if you're going to clean up a place you will have individual accountability. you will have transparency. if the government is doing their job we should have no problem for the people to figure out where we want our money to go. the government's job is to protect and defend us. our job as the people is to work together to create prosperity and futures for our children. host: all right. guest: i would say the president takes an oath of office to uphold the constitution so that is the intention of the president.

i don't know where else to go from there. host: i want to show you house democratic caucus chair pete aguilar talking about the state of funding negotiations on the possibility of a shutdown. [video clip] >> republicans control the house senate and white house. if they want to keep government open they should keep government open. we are working with them. the chairwoman will lead our efforts to negotiate and work through issues just like we have for many years through multiple congresses. that is our plan, that has always been our plan. if republicans need votes they can come to us and we are happy to negotiate. there is -- and i said this last week. there is very little appetite to help republicans when we do not trust that donald trump is going to spend the resources we have allocated for education, for health care, even for our

defense. with elon musk and his unelected friends running through and combing through the federal system, we do not have those assurances. these are not advisory bills, this is not advisory spending. this is the full weight of law as described by the constitution. we are standing up for the constitution and our article one responsibilities. host: the representative saying there is very little appetite to help republicans when we do not trust donald trump will spend the resources we have allocated. what you make of that? guest: government funding will have to be bipartisan because there is a 60 vote threshold in the senate. for something like government funding you cannot use budget reconciliation. democrats and republicans will have to vote on something together to keep the government funded.

that deadline is just around the corner, it is march 14. pete aguilar is flirting with the idea there could be a shutdown next month because if he is saying democrats do not have appetite to help republicans with anything, they will need to help republicans with government funding because by definition some of that will require a bipartisan vote. we are hearing a lot of frustrations from democrats about the types of things doge is doing. dismantling usaid, dismantling cfpb. there is real concerns and anger. the appetite among democrats to provide the votes for a standard bill like government funding is low. i think when push comes to shove i am not sure i can see democrats forcing a shutdown. it is not in their nature to do that. shutdowns also have impacts across the country. i don't know if i see that happening but the fact that democrats are taking the stance

in expressing how they feel underscores and displays the true anger and frustration they have with how things are going. host: one more call and then we will let you go. mike in california. independent. caller: good morning. kudos to both of you. i have a bias towards journalism. i think you're doing a great job. the other day a journalist got in some kind of trouble with the white house for not using the gulf of america. that is one question i had. i cannot help but think about when mike johnson made his first speech when he became the speaker and he says how the constitution says all men are created eat will -- are created equal and he turns to left and right and says we are not made equal.

what you mean? why are you trying to be biased like that. what is this new proud boys group that just popped up? that is against the american constitution that i think is completely wrong the way donald trump was saying for the south africans to come over here because they're being treated bad. just the other day the white south africans mocked him. they do not want to come over here. elon musk come all he has to do is say i found $100 million over here without showing any proof. i want the journalists to sit there and let us eat where is the proof of what they are talking about. from now on, don't let them say stuff. i want to see. show me the proof.

that is all i want to say. thank you. host: last comment? guest: i agree. it would be great if politicians and lawmakers would backup their claims of what they are saying with evidence. i would love to see the proof as a reporter. i endorse that idea. i believe the story he was referring to is the white house had shut down access free and associated press reporter because the associated press had not abided by the new gulf of american name rather than the golf of mexico. we are in favor of press access. i think journalists should be able to do their duties. the fallout from that will be a story to keep an eye on. host: congressional reporter for the hill. see her work at thehill.com. thanks for getting through the snow and coming in this morning.

later we will speak to republican mike flood of nebraska on issues related to the budget plans, immigration and doge efforts, but first it is open forum. start calling in now. republicans (202) 748-8001. democrats (202) 748-8000. independents (202) 748-8002. we will be right back. >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is easy. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily at 7:00 eastern. important public affairs events throughout the day and weekdays catch washington today. listen to c-span any time. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. c-span. created by cable. >> c-spanshop.org is c-span's

online store. browse through our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, and accessories. there is something for every c-span fan. every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. on thursday president trump's nominee to serve as education secretara mcmahon stifies at her confirmation hearing before thte health labor and pensions committee. she led tncy that deals with small businesses during the fi t administration as it is a cofounder of world wrestltertainment. watch the hearing live at 10:00 eastern on c-span three, on an now, and online at c-span.org. >> c-span has a number of podcasts for you.

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three mobile video app, orour online at c-span.org. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage, you can find it anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting highlights. these markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. this timeline makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. democracy. it is not just an idea. it is a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few to guard its basic principles. it is where debates unfold and

the nations courses charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government work. this is c-span, giving you your democracy unfiltered. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are in open forum and we will be taking your call shortly. tulsi gabbard will face of final vote in the senate for her confirmation at 11:00 for the position of director of national intelligence. that will be on c-span2 this morning at 11:00. there's also the first meeting of the house doge subcommittee led by representative marjorie taylor greene. you can follow the c-span networks for that. a couple of other things. i want to tell you about the release of american mark vogel

-- mark fogel. this is the front page of the wall street journal and this is his picture on the airplane on his flight home. he has arrived in the united states. it says "russians free american left out of the prisoner swap." he was a high school history teacher and he spent 1200 77 days in russian custody and flew back with president trump's special envoy steve wycoff stop here is the white house statement. "by tonight mark fogel will be on american soil and reunited with his family and loved ones thanks to president trump's leadership. fogel's became a fraud test of washington's efforts to determine which americans overseas were worthy of rescue. it said he was 63 years old and work at the elite anglo-american school in moscow."

this is gwen in portland, oregon. independent line. you are on open forum. caller: it is glen, not gwen. host: sorry. caller: that is ok. i want to talk about the tax situation everyone is so concerned with. let's start with the income tax is a regressive tax and should not exist at all. if we go back to when the income tax was initiated in 1915, the minimum income at that time for taxes was $100,000 per year. if we project that forward, that would mean taxes for individuals would not start until you are making $4.2 million a year.

that is not going to happen. as i say the income tax is a regressive tax and should not exist. if we change the tax code and initiate a net worth tax on everybody, businesses and individuals, we would generate enough income that in five years we would completely film and eight the national debt, the entire $17 trillion. we would be in the black from then on. host: watch of the percentage be of that tax you are recommending on network? caller: we would start at 1% and go up to 10%. host: all right.

elaine in akron, ohio. democrat. good morning. caller: i am a first time caller and the reason for the call, i wish you could reference air clifton, he is a new york -- eric lipton. is a new york times journalist. he had an article yesterday listing all of the investigation of elon musk's businesses and his elimination of those government entities so far. it is quite extensive and which show the american people a lot of what mr. mosk -- a lot of what mr. musk is about. that is the reason for my call. host: this is mark in ohio. republican. caller: thanks for the call. that last caller must've forgotten the four years biden was in office and all of the things he did. my main reason for calling is about the doge elon musk.

elon musk must have more iq than the whole democrats together. there's someone who is 150 years old getting social security. who is getting the deposits? they ought to be prosecuted. it seems like they're getting close to uncovering so much the democrats are in panic mode. president trump, look at what he is done in the first three weeks. it is unreal. i am 69 years old and i've never seen anyone move so quickly and he is 78 and gets three hours of sleep a night. he is better than the energizer bunny. look what he has done. the gentleman free from russia just last night. when elon musk had this press conference with president trump in the oval office, he had his child with him. i think that was a good move. it was funny, the press did not

ask a question until he asked him to. they are afraid of elon musk, they are afraid of what he might say because he might just embarrass them. i feel sorry for the democrats. host: the caller just before you, as you mentioned, mentioned the new york times articles about, so i pulled one up. it says elon musk business empire scores benefits under trump shakeup. it's as government investigations into elon musk's companies are stalling amid president trump's firings and biden administration resignations? what you make of that? caller: how come the cia never investigated biden for taking millions from china and russia? from the mayor of moscow. how come that was never investigated? the two attempts on president trump, you do not hear nothing about it. host: is your response that we

should not look into -- the government should not investigate elon musk's companies? there should be dropped? they are invalid? caller: i can accuse anyone of anything. i don't mind investigations. i can accuse anybody of anything. it is not proof until the point is proven. it is because someone writes an article does not make elon musk guilty. where does this gentleman do his research? is he politically motivated? i bet he is. anybody can accuse anybody of anything. host: this is alexander in white plains, maryland. independent line. caller: hello. i am calling. this is my first time call. i am just willing to state some of the things we are dealing

with with president trump and elon musk. one of the main things i'm concerned about his he continually disavows himself or separates himself from project 2025 which has obviously been a lie. he has appointed the same guy he said he had nothing to do with to the office of management and budget. i think it is crazy people can still accept anything this person says. he has been known to be a pathological liar. why anyone want to get rid of fact checking if he does not live as much as people believe he does and has been exposed. you are not really thinking up we are in dire straits with

people who will accept anything this person says. he has been proven time and again not to be truthful. these republicans, they do not understand the gravity of the situation because we are heading into a dictatorship if we are not already there. where you have control of the house and the senate, the supreme court, and everything that has any power they control it now. they have been threatened to say they don't vote with him on every single thing he wants to do regardless of who he hurts and regardless of how much money he takes out of the budget, they spoke about a $4.7 trillion tax cut for billionaires and millionaires. we are not going to see any of that. i am a so-called middle-class person and i live in maryland

and my prices are going up. they talk about to concern yourself with the price of eggs. that is what they talk about prior to this election. that was all you could hear republicans talk about. they are not -- they do not want to hear facts. they have been duped by this guy and i don't understand why these people won't wake up. we are heading into a dictatorship. host: let's talk to lewis, a republican in ohio. good morning. caller: this is my first time calling. i want to reply to the gentle men before me. the -- the egg prices are due to the agricultural secretary under joe biden. she ordered massive killings of chicken because they say the have the avian flu, all that we see no evidence. the same thing with the previous caller, they want the evidence.

the doge that everybody is concerned with. that was started under president biden, it was under a different name. he had people working there that were not elected officials. you can go back and read it. to the gentleman that called in or the woman that said there was an article in the new york times, you know the new york times is so trustworthy on their print. there are been lots of stories there. the media, we cannot believe anything they tell us because they tell us nothing but lies just like when trump was in his debate and he brought out about the springfield situation with the haitians killing and eating animals. it is a fact because i know people that live there. they say they saw. host: they saw them eating peoples cats and dogs?

caller: i don't live in springfield but i know people that do. people that live in haiti. that is their way of eating. that is their survival. they eat what they kill. host: a lot of us eat what we kill as far as chickens -- caller: cats and dogs are a delicacy, i am sorry to tell you. cats and dogs are delicacy and some country. host: the question was was it happening in springfield, ohio and was it haitian immigrants? that is a question. caller: i am accurate. i know people who live there. it is the same thing. the media, if they would get back to telling the news and stop with all of their opinions

-- back to the news like the days of john chancellor and david brinkley. we would be better off. as far as prices, we have a lot to consider there. prices were already going up when joe biden was in office. who was our president for last four years? was it joe biden? was it not? it came out he was mentally incompetent so he cannot stand trial the democrat party would not let him run for president again but then they put kamala harris in. she was not elected to have note primary. let's get things straight. doge was started under obama in 2014. donald trump change the name, went in and changed some things around in their but it actually started under obama. look it up. host: sounds good. here is bbc news reporting

hegseth the secretary of defense visits nato as allies await u.s. ukraine planes and says the u.s. defense secretary pete hegseth is on the first trip to nato by a member of the new trump administration. if he comes to the podium or speaks we will show that to you, he is there right now. we are watching that and we will bring you anything that's newsworthy on that front. here is don in albuquerque, new mexico. caller: good morning. just a reply to the previous caller. i have family that lives in springfield, ohio and they did see asians taking dog from the park. that's what they told me. i was calling because i don't understand why the republicans are not wanting to -- why they want to decrease the deficit i get it but it's money for our

border and for tax cuts. so it's like we have all this waste fraud and abuse they are finding with money being spent on things that do not help the american people. so i don't understand why they can't get together and vote for increasing that money and giving it to the border. also i don't understand the concern with elon musk doing an audit. i don't know why anyone would not want their tax dollars accounted for. it is crazy to me. elon musk is the richest man in the world and trump is a businessman so who else would you want to do an audit or try to figure out waste, fraud and abuse is coming from. as far as elon musk i heard you say his investigations that they are doing i think those investigations were started under joe biden and they were started after he acquired twitter, now x and he was

targeted. so i don't know, i don't think 80 serious because i feel like he's been targeted just like mark zuckerberg and everybody else has come out beaking about the biden administration targeted for censorship and everything else. that is it. >> this is scary in sterling, virginia. >> thank you. a famous american once said waste not want not. that's the way i feel about that plastic cap on a milk or juice carton. you need to call the number and tell them to get rid of that. that's a waste of good high-quality plastic. it's an impediment and obstacle to get to the product. we need to do something about this. this is plastic that we don't need. it's easy to pull it up by

folding the ears. host: you've called it about this before. you've told me it made you matter than a wet hen. but here is my question for you gary. if this is really the biggest problem that you are having, then maybe life is pretty good. it is just a little bit of plastic on the milk carton. >> the biggest problem i've got is people not leaving and logic, reason and common sense. you know what logic is, natural gas is half the price of diesel fuel and gasoline. and all of these amazon, fedex, ups, it's half the price. they could lower the price if they switch to natural gas. well why are they flagellating

around like this. they need to do something for it. everybody's cost of gasoline. 40% of the fuel for commercial use and yet they produce 70% of the pollution in transportation. host: secretary hegseth is in brussels right now, this is a live look at nato headquarters. he will be meeting, it's his first trip to nato so he has meetings there, he is going to have talks with the u.k. defense secretary john healy and he will meet the ukraine defense contact group at nato headquarters in brussels. over 50 countries collectively provide ukraine more than 120 $6 billion in weapons and military

assistance. here is james in norfolk, virginia. guest: -- caller: what i want to know, this doge guy could be stealing our money. they've got these guys on computers. nobody can touch those computers unless you are vetted. there is no way for musk to touch it i don't care if he has a hundred billion dollars. so many crooks messing with our computers. they can lie to us and say they need this and that. they're freezing people's money and starving. it doesn't make sense.

this country has billions of dollars and their people starving and money was appropriated by congress, not by trump. by congress. with a whole lot of money. they got the people's money and froze it. you look at the constitution. they are wrong. he thinks -- and losing those, he will see what happens. what goes around comes around. it don't make no sense people loving him and those crooks taking advantage of our money. we don't know what they are doing there. >> here is larry and southport north carolina.

>> i just want to -- i'm calling on the budget last year when the budget came up said that the pediatric cancer research would be on the republicans if they shut down. if schumer had that deal in his possession since march of 24. and at any given time. caller: you said pediatric research. is this nih funding. your talk, pediatric research. >> yes ma'am. the bill was sitting on

schumer's desk. and then he puts it in the budget at the right minute and 400 some pages ending up about 15 and both sides had a look and it. democrats want to accuse the republicans of shutting down the government and hurting children and that is how this evening the democrats are, i hate to say it. and now they are panicking and hit the streets. we are going to -- if it was trump or another republican they would be crucified and the news media,

people listen to news media and instead of doing any research for themselves. this ausa millions of dollars go to yemen which is a terrorist group. the who fees firing rockets at our cargo ships. over one million going forward to transgender uh opera. 100 million when hamas -- the house gaining 100 million a year to give it to them without any audit or without anything.

building their military up with. >> this has just come out from axios, of consumer price index shows inflation heated up in january, this article says that inflation moved higher in january, while a measure that strips out energy and food rose .4% according to the labor department that's just come out today. it's a warning to the white house and fed about inflation's potential staying power across the economy, the cpi rose 3% in the year through january compared to 2.9% increase in december. it says inflation progress has been bumpy in recent years. we will cut away just for a few moments to take a look at secretary hegseth. >> honored to join all of you today. and i appreciate the opportunity to share president trump's

approach to the war in ukraine. we are at as you say mr. secretary the critical moment. as the war approaches its third anniversary, our message is clear. the bloodshed must stop and this war must end. president trump has been clear with the american people and with many of your leaders. that stopping the fighting and reaching an enduring peace is a top priority. he intends to end this war by diplomacy and bringing both russia and ukraine to the table. and the u.s. department of defense will help achieve this goal. we will only end this devastating war and established a durable peace by a company allied strength with a realistic assessment of the battlefield. we want, like you, a sovereign

and prosperous ukraine. but we must start by recognizing that returning to ukraine's borders is an unrealistic objective. chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering. a durable peace for ukraine must include robust security guarantees to ensure the war will not begin again. this must not be afghanistan 3.0. that said the united states does not believe that nato membership for ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement. instead, any security guarantee must be backed by both european and non-european troops. if these troops are deployed as peacekeepers to ukraine at any point they should be deployed as

part of a non-nato mission and they should not be covered under article five. there also must be robust international oversight of the line of contact. to be clear as part of any security guarantee there will not be u.s. troops deployed to ukraine. to further enable effective diplomacy and drive down energy prices that fund the russian war machine. president trump is unleashing american energy production and encouraging other nations to do the same. lower energy prices coupled with more effective enforcement of energy sanctions will help bring russia to the table. safeguarding european security must be an imperative for european members of nato. as part of this, europe must provide the overwhelming share of future lethal and nonlethal aid to ukraine. host: that is secretary hegseth

in brussels happening live right now at nato headquarters. we will have his full remarks on our website and on our app. you go to c-span.org and we will continue with your calls. beverly and bellwood, illinois. democrat braden >> my name is beverly. i'm calling regarding the doggy show yesterday. at the white house. this man was not elected and they made big issue over kamala harris running for president because she did not primary. this man was not elected as a co-president or vice president. very concerning we should be subjected to him giving a press conference in the office of the president while the president sits there writing. like elon is in control of everything. do we have a copresident in the

shadow of elon. so if their republicans have a problem with her running as a candidate for president i don't see how they don't have a problem with this copresident two did not run for anything. and could not be president other than a copresident at trump's side because he is not even a citizen here. i just feel like he might be a d.e.i. higher because he's been diagnosed depressed, self diagnosed asperger syndrome. maybe he is a d.e.i. higher of our president. that's my comment for today. >> monte in phoenix, arizona. good morning. >> good morning. i was listening to a little bit of the speech at nato and it

reminded me of mcnamara little bit during the vietnam conflict. host: how did it remind you. caller: we are not going to send any troops, you know. so anyway. >> he did say european and non-european troops. so what you make of that. caller: i heard what he said. as far as i'm concerned that's fine. nato should, of the european nations should pick up a little bit more of the responsibility, that's for sure. about this thing, some lady called about democracy. back when i was in school, the teacher explained that a republic is a constitutional democratic republic.

we have a constitution that is the framework. the democracy part is we vote on our representatives that are sent to represent us. but they are not sent to just represent certain groups. washington warned against this in his farewell. about factions. what we are seeing now is the fulfillment of his warning, don't do it. but we have gone ahead and done it, so now both parties are starting to adopt kind of an authoritarian view on how they get around the country if they have the majority and that is not my view of how it was

supposed to be. because the constitution is a framework which allows us to self govern. it does not spell out all the laws that we should have. doing what's right for everybody concerned. as far as than with immigration and stuff like that, i agree with that. i'm really pleased for that to happen. but a little bit of concerned when here they want to raise the debt ceiling. one of the big conversations and what he asks was how much debt we are in right now and now they're talking about raising the debt ceiling. >> what you think is the best way to handle that. it is either going to be more taxes are less spending paid where do you fall. caller: they are going to have to do less spending ok.

they will have to probably leave taxes where they are and they will have to start doing less spending to start talking about doing taxes and that kind of thing. and the other thing was that in the tax cuts i recall and correct me if i'm wrong, that it seems a corporation tax cuts would be permanent while other tax cuts up until the end of 2025. host: yes. let's talk to pamela in south china maine. democrat. caller: yes. my honest opinion of the whole situation is quite simple. i voted democrat, ivo is been independent. this past election i did vote democrat. what i will say to the people of america itself.

both democrats and republicans need to stop all of the rhetoric. they need to work together because in the end they hide the american public and are supposed to be representing us. at this point is much as i didn't vote democrat, i personally feel the democrats and the republicans are equally at fault for what's going on because they are so busy going along these agendas, they are not meeting in the middle and coming to a common agreement as to what needs to be done. as far as being a democrat, we need to cut a lot of waste in the government. there is no question about that. but i also truly strongly feel that i get why so many democrats are upset right now is the way in which the republicans are going about it. i think they are trying to usurp

the congress. i think they are trying to usurp anybody who's got any say in what is about to take place and i think what the democrats are also upset about is they would like to have some accountability from these people for what they are actually doing. i think if we had that i think people would be less upset and less nervous about what is currently going on. but i really believe the bottom line is we have to stop all the political crap and start working together to make this country work as well as we can make it work, without all of these hidden agendas, you've got the extreme left pushing their agenda, the extreme right pushing their agenda. and there is no medium ground here. i think that will ultimately be

the biggest negative and what's going on right now. i will say among supplemental souls -- so security income and i'm a little concerned about what's going on. there's a lot of us folks in maine who are very elderly, there's a large elderly population in the state of maine and you know there's a lot of people doing that. i just wish everybody in congress would stop this foolishness and figure out a common answer to everything instead of all this inviting. it's so counterproductive. >> let's go to the republican line to texas. good morning. >> how are you this morning. yes, i agree with everything the president trump is doing. he is fighting for the soul of america.

he is fighting for the soul of america. biden was sending it straight to hell with all of his policies. talking but the money and everything, sending all our taxpayers over to foreign nations for d.e.i., for homosexuals and all of that. i am against that. anytime the democratic party they want to say their public and party wants to destroy democracy they are the ones who are destroying democracy. anytime you have an abortion outside of the convention for when they were there and a sex change, that is a strike on democracy. god created two genders, not 96. supporting anyone who says it's ok for a man to go into a woman's bathroom and plan a sports team, there's something wrong with them. there is something wrong with them to do that.

i am happy and i'm praying for trump and i hope and i know god will let him succeed. >> here is ron in st. petersburg, florida, independent. >> my first problem is with elon musk. he is receiving $20 billion in government contracts and trump has put him in charge of doing an audit. i think he should be vetted before he can even be put in that position. so is he going to audit himself? i don't think so. and trump when you talking about people keeping the government and taxes isn't that the reason we have the 32 convictions felonies. and my last thing is trump

talking about going in and owning gaza. this is the president who was against immigrants coming into america. and he is going to take gaza from the people who actually live there and make them immigrants. that's pretty much all i have to say thank you. >> ron you did mention the president's remarks about gaza, king abdullah of jordan was in the white house yesterday talking about that and the leaders held a press conference, let me show you a portion of that right now. [video clip] >> we have to keep in mind there is a plan from egypt and the arab countries to discussions in riyadh. i think the point is how do we make this work in a way that is good for everybody. obviously we have to look at the

best interests of the united states, the people in the region. we are going to have some interesting discussions today. one of the things we can do right away is take 2000 children that are either cancer children or in very ill state to jordan as quickly as possible. and then wait for i think the egyptians present a path on how they want the president to work on those challenges. >> excuse me wait please. i did not know what you just said, 2000 children with cancer or other problems. that is really a beautiful gesture. it is really good and we appreciate it and we will be working on the rest with egypt i think you will see some great progress and with jordan you'll see some great progress. we'll have some others helping and some others at a high level

helping. it's not a complex thing to do. and with the united states being in control of that piece of land a fairly large piece of land you will have stability in the middle east for the first time. and the palestinians for the people who live now in gaza will be living beautifully in another location, they are not going to be killed, murdered and having to leave every 10 years because i've been watching this for so many years. it's been nothing but trouble. everybody's being killed, they are being robbed. it's like living in hell. they will be having a great home, great families that don't have to get mugged and killed and beaten up and harassed by hamas and everybody else read and i know we will be able to work something and what you just said about the 2000 is fantastic. it is so beautiful. but we are going to be able to work something out.

also with i believe not 100%, but 99% we can work out something with egypt. >> that was in the oval office yesterday and this is the front page of the wall street journal. today jordan's king dodges trump on gaza plans says -- sidestepping whether you accept palestinians and studies the first arab leader to come to the white house and president trump called for taking control of gaza and relocating its two million residents dodged a public confrontation but avoided endorsing trump's plan. jordan's king abdullah next him in the oval office trump vowed once again to "take gaza. prompting abdullah to shift uncomfortably in his chair and empathize arab governments would counter with their own plan for postwar gaza saying i have to look into the best interest of my country, let's wait until the

egyptians present their ideas. that is king abdullah. let's talk to bubba in mom for memphis, tennessee. caller: i've just got a couple of things. you have democrats calling in and they are talking like he's going to take social security away, medicare, you never correct them. it's not true. when republicans call in a lot of times there's challenging them but democrats kind of get away with anything. just have a lady calling and calling muska being a d.e.i. higher. >> i think that is an opinion. she saying that he got his job because he self-described as asp burgers, so we really can't

fact-check opinions and we can't fact-check the future. when somebody says they are going to cut social security, we can say that's not true. >> these republicans on their opinions. but anyway, i've been noticing that. the democrats have had a couple of rallies or whatever you want to call them making speeches and throwing out the f bomb several times. i haven't seen you all show any of that on your program. republicans shouldn't be acting like that but republicans are never seen act like that. they act like they are spoiled kids, they should be more grown-up. but i do wonder if you would show that maybe some of democrats probably haven't seen it. that's all of got to say. have a great day.

roseann in wisconsin. democrat. >> thank you for taking my call. i am just waiting in on when the inauguration took place and you had all the deep tech people there who donated like a million dollars for the ceremonies or whatever. they are looking forward to having him signed into law again a big tax break for the corporations. linda comes to the voters and having voted for probably the biggest thing they were worried about was inflation. you can't do anything about inflation. no law or edge legislation is ever been passed to stop big business or owners of businesses to not doubt the public. it's up to the consumer to not buy the product at this point, otherwise they are still going to do what they do.

unless the consumer starts to buy it. then they might say maybe we are charging too much. as far as having him as a president, six bankruptcies, come on. how can that be good. how can they sit there and say he's a great american businessman. the rest of the people the average american can get away with doing anything like that. thank you for taking my call. host: roseann mentioned big tech donating to president trump's inauguration. this is a group called common cause, that list whose donated and how much amazon, one million. mehta, these are all one million. google, microsoft, toyota, ripple which is a cryptocurrency. the uber ceo, meta ceo mark zuckerberg.

apple ceo 1 million and openai ceo sam altman million dollars. you can see that a common cause.org if you'd like to see those details. this is carla in missouri. thank you -- high carla. caller: i am 92 years old and i was a former librarian. so we like to deal in facts. i'm listening to all this argument. every president has executive powers. every single president has used them. secondly, at least three in my lifetime have done these audits of the federal government. the first one i remember was ronald reagan 1982, it was called the grace commission. i looked it up on c-span.

and that went on the shelf with nothing done about it. the next one was obama that at a big long title to look like a word salad. there was a derived -- and that was in 2011. and it went on the shelf. so now president trump is trying. he's appointed this ad hoc committee to lead this. so watch. i think all the republicans, democrats, confused whatever category you fall under they should all -- these are facts. so i think people just better quit arguing about it and get on with it. that's all really i have to say. you are doing a good job, hang in there. >> this is brent in hurricane, utah. republican.

>> good morning, thank you so much for taking my call. host: before you start, you guys don't get hurricanes in utah do you? caller: we get a lot of wind in a certain area. that's why they call it hurricane. but it's a beautiful country. we have a lot of things out here but we do get some wind. host: go ahead with your comment. caller: i'm having a problem with common sense this country. republicans and democrats spend us into oblivion and i know the department of education has been getting billions of dollars over years. and just a simple math question when the government takes in

$4.5 trillion in their coffers and yet they spend 6 trillion, it seems to me like common sense will have to say what are we supposed to do about that deficit. i think the republicans are trying to do something, but i haven't heard any democrats comment on any of the waste and fraud that has been found so far. this is madness, it has to stop. i just think common sense has gone completely out the window. host: this is bradley in north richland hills texas. independent. caller: good morning. i would like to talk on the issue with the press conference that pete hegseth was holding with nato and what he touched on was russia was going to be allowed to hold onto the territory that they captured back in 2014.

host: this is what he said so everybody's on the same page. he said for ukraine, pre-2014 borders are unrealistic. so ukraine would not go back. he said it is not realistic for ukraine to have the same borders it had for 2014. >> correct. on that, when he said it, zelinski made it quite clear they are not going to allow russia to keep any of it. and president trump said he would offer security provided we get minerals from ukraine. so it sounds like they will allow russia to stay there. but ukraine a don't think we'll accept that. >> what do you think is the solution bradley? >> it sounds like a deal in question is when president trump

says we will offer security the question is in what form. >> ok. here is bronx, new york. caller: i just want to talk concerning pete hegseth not necessarily about the press conference it's going on right now but the executive order trump laid out about two weeks ago built on the iron dome for america. that he wanted to build on. being properly publicized. this allowed fear mongering to campaign on any palooka program being built on that for no apparent reason. you are not saying why you want these things done, not a clear idea understanding building these bombs in the first place. they are very expensive.

they are about a million plus and nobody wants to properly publicized that. republican's are democrats. nobody is talking about that and i want to understand why. who are these bombs for. i just want to understand what the deal is with that. >> iron dome is a defensive weapon system. i did find this in usa today, it's an article from yesterday it says will trumps iron dome missile fence make america safer, it is complicated. it says although the u.s. has developed little defenses -- limited defenses designed to stop a small missile attack from the likes of north korea, the january 27 order directs the pentagon to plan a next-generation missile defense shield to guard against any

threat from any foe. it invokes ronald reagan strategic defense initiative. you can read more about that on usa today talking about the iron dome for america. eddie and millbury massachusetts, republican. >> jordan should take them back. egypt, jordan, syria and lebanon that attacked israel a number of times. forcing the refugees to scatter to gaza. but as far as -- host: warrant the palestinians already in gaza? you are talking historically eddie? caller: historically gaza had a population in the 40's about 500,000. after the wars with israel it went up to 2 million. that's the problem.

that's why they should be taken back. but then my calls about ukraine. gorbachev gave it back and then stalin -- after stalin stole it. they are not talking about the deficit at all. why are we killing babies we should turn those into clinics and get rid of obama care. the taxes are enormous to ensure somebody with pre-and 16 -- with pre-existing conditions. host: here is bill in safety harbor, florida. good morning. >> thanks for taking my call paid i think basically the problem with our government is the union and we will never conquer it, it is too big. i have seen it over the past 40 years start with young kids that

would get summer jobs at little towns and they would put a man with them whose full-time and he would give them two or three hour breaks and that's how they were broken in into the workforce. the union does not give you productivity. they are destroying us. host: ok. philip in springfield, massachusetts, democrat. caller: this is my second time calling and i watch you every day. there is a lot of fear being experienced. i just hope president trump can do the right thing and maybe we can all get the check from the savings for the people from doge and i would like to know why i

get so many letters in the mail with people asking for donations from same chewed to the everybody and i can help anybody. i'm on social security so i do the best i can. but it seems there shouldn't be happening with all these billionaires out there and maybe they can share the wealth to people and figure out a system, the only thing i can think of is the stimulus that we got years ago that helped me out because i'm on a fixed income and i just want to say you are doing a good job, and thank you for your time. >> this is speaker johnson from yesterday. he was pushing back against allegations the administrations doge efforts are illegal. [video clip] >> they don't have a clear

vision, they seem rudderless. in hopes of finding themselves they've latched onto this new shiny object. we would like to welcome them to the concept and it would be admirable if they have spent the last four years with their heads buried in the sand well biden literally trampled over the rule of law with no objection paid many democrats cheered that like when the biden administration unconstitutionally force the middle class to pay the student loans of doctors and lawyers. they legally mandated private companies single men faxing requirements when they radically rewrote title ix to undermine women's rights. those things were actually illegal in the democratic party cheered it. president trump by contrast is taking legitimate executive action to root out waste, fraud and abuse in these program. that's what the american people demand and deserve. it's what they voted for.

they voted for real change in the way the federal government works and the only people who take issue with it are these same congressional democrats who never before had any issues with unelected staffer bureaucrats running the white house for the last four years. that's not is what s that's not what's happening here. the cabinet secretaries and the effort and all of these branches divisions in the exec branch of government. to find where the abuses have taken place preyed every time something new is unearthed and we share it with the people, they want us to keep going and that's what's can happen. host: we are an open forum for about 15 more minutes. we will hear from stephen in illinois, independent. >> several days after his inauguration, excuse me, donald trump pardoned a man by the name

of ross albrecht who was serving a life sentence for operating the silk road which was an illegal drug operation that used the dark web as its marketing place and cryptocurrency as its method of payment or finance. he was the darling of the cryptocurrency crowd who poured $175 million into the 2024 election cycle. he was also admired for some crazy reason by a large number of the members of the libertarian party. whose votes trump pursued several weeks before the election.

he was also a darling of elon musk, who i don't have to describe. he also had targeted for murder five of his competitors in the cocaine fentanyl and heroin trade. now trump campaigned for stopping the smuggling of fentanyl into the united states, which i agree with 100% with the attempts to stop the smuggling. it's the most dangerous drug there is. why in the world would he pardon the largest fentanyl drug dealer in the u.s. history. i am a former prosecutor and i think this sees just a disgrace and has not been on the radar of the news media, surprise surprise. host: here is some information

for you on that from cnn. cnn.com, trump says he pardoned founder of civil road marketplace, that happened on january 21, so the day after he took office. he says albrecht who was accused of crating the shadowy e-commerce site the justice department has described as the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet today. he had been serving a life sentence on charges related to the operation. this is from truth social from president trump, "i just called the mother of ross william albrecht to let her know in honor of her and the libertarian movement which supported me so strongly it was my pleasure to have just signed a full and unconditional pardon of her son ross. he called the sentence ridiculous claiming it was disproportionate to the crime. he went on to express

frustration with the legal figures involved in his conviction referring to them as scum and accusing them of being among the same individuals responsible for the "weaponization of government" against him at his time in office. if you'd like to find out more about that it is on cnn.com. that article that silk road marketplace was shut down by the fbi in october of 2013. and this is andres. republican, good morning. so where do i even start on today's program. let's start with this. we just heard on your program the president of the united states arguing for ethnic

cleansing. and arguing for the force reduction -- repatriation, actually arguing for expelling the palestinians from palestine. what does that sound like to you. is that a really democratic person, or is it some deranged individual that thinks he's god and he can move 3 million people out of that area. it is a large area of neighboring to israel. is that really a person that

cares for democratic values, someone advocating on that asis with the biggest bullhorn in the universe, which there should be that there should be ethnic cleansing in palestine. host: did you vote for president trump? caller: of course not. you've cut me off before when i dared mentioned national socialism. this guy, but he's got empower today, are running like mad men to be able to take over this government and make trumpism a reality. that's where i'm coming from. because i've seen it since the day he walked down that escalator. this guy is a national

socialist. bent on becoming a dictator. mind my words. we will see what happens in the next residential election. in the meantime, the only thing we have to worry about is the next election. to take the congress either all of it or at least half of it away from him. we have 18 months or over many months it is. to stop this clown from taking us down where he is already showing us and telling us he is going. he is going down to become, to try to become a dictator. and i don't say that lightly.

under a military dictator, three military dictatorships and party dictatorship. i come from one of those banana republics. i know what a dictator feels like and talks like. ok, and this guy that is what he is doing. like i said i just pointed out to you he is your president. advocating for displacement of the palestinians and ethnic cleansing of palestine. host: we've got the point. and we will be joined after the break by republican mike flood of nebraska. a member of the financial services committee will talk about issues related to the budget, immigration. we also just want to let you know we did have a democratic

lawmaker who was scheduled to appear on today's program but he had to reschedule. so we will be back after the break with congressman mike flood. ♪ >> democracy, it isn't just an idea. it's a process. a process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few regarding its basic principles. it's where debates unfold, decisions are made in the nation's course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is seen in. giving you your democracy unfiltered. >> on thursday, the senate diciaryttee meets to vote on whether to send cash patel's nomination for fbi director to the full senate for considatn. this comes after an initial vote

delayed by one week at the requ democrats on the commit who continue to call for a second confirmation arg with mr. patel. you watch the committee vote live at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span three, c-span now, our free mobile video app or online at c-span.org. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage you can find it any time at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights. these appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. the timeline makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in washington. scroll through and spend aew minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> nonfiction book lovers,

c-span has a number of four cap -- podcast for you. wasn't influential interviewers on the afterwards podcast and on cue and day, hear wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction authors and others who are making things happen and book notes plus episodes in the weekly hour-long conversations that regularly feature fascinating authors of nonfiction books a variety of topics. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app or wherever you get your podcasts. and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back we are joined by representative mike flood. a republican of nebraska and member of the financial services committee. congressman welcome to the program. guest: thank you very much and good morning to you pray a lot of snow in washington, d.c.. >> you serve in the financial services committee and it has oversight of the treasury

department. you recently met with the treasury secretary about elon musk's role in the federal payments system. can you tell us what you discussed with him? guest: basically two things paid i asked the treasury secretary what access does elon musk have in the federal payments system because it is a question i'm getting quite often from people who live in the first district of nebraska and he assured me mr. muska has read only access looking at payments that have already occurred in the federal payments system and then only to employees at the treasury system. one of whom he personally interviewed, manage that system going forward. i shared that with my constituents which hasn't become public. i said is a member of the legislative branch i very much respect article one authority and the power of the purse belongs in congress. at the end of the day we have to work with the executive branch to deliver tax cuts to the american people and spending cuts to the american people.

i feel it we are on the right path to do that. host: can you tell us about the individuals mr. mosk has employed to review that data from the various regions. guest: i do not know many of them personally per there is one from my district. an extremely smart young man who has been earning news coverage for some of his other feats, he has an extremely bright mind. i think he successfully decoded ancient scrolls using artificial intelligence. at the end of the day as somebody who represent lincoln, nebraska i am extremely proud of him. i think elon musk has demonstrated through his career that he can find innovative ways to solve difficult problems and there is good in that. it's good to be looking at spending and root out waste, fraud and abuse. it's good to make sure the american taxpayers are getting their value for the dollar.

at the end of the day i'm somewhat frustrated there's been such a pushback on looking at our federal spending. this is the number one question i get when i go to the vfw club in columbus, nebraska. how are you going to rein in this crazy spending. now you see a president willing to slay this dragon. >> there's an article here that came out yesterday with the headline judge adjusts ruling blocking musk and doge from treasury systems. sing the federal judge clarified the ruling preventing elon musk's doge fromare you comforte access the people around musk has and the oversight of those individuals that they would not download personal information or

make any adjustments? guest: we expect people's personal information to be safeguarded and protected. that is an absolute and i think on the same line you have to give the treasury secretary the ability to run the department of treasury. in this case we have elon musk, who technically works for the white house, working to look at the payments that have already occurred. how is that any different than a state that has a state auditor? in nebraska we have a state auditor who is aggressive and working 24 hours a day to root out fraud and abuse. it makes our system better. i think this is good for the american people. i think this review is positive, and quite frankly, as we are trying to extend the 2017 tax cuts we need to identify programs we can eliminate to find the pay force -- pay-fors to make tax cuts work. host: i want to show you the

republican senate leader, john thune yesterday was asked about legal actions against the trump administration and whether it should comply with future rulings. take a look. >> can i get your reaction to jd vance's comment that judges are not allowed to control the power of the executive? do you agree with that and you think the administration should comply with court rulings? >> what you are seeing right now is the give-and-take between branches of the government. we have three branches, as you all know, and the courts have a way of meeting or offering some of the disputes between article one and article two branches of the government. this is a process that will continue to play out. dubai -- do i believe the courts have a valid role and need to be listened to and heard in the process? the answer is yes. host: just to clarify the question of the reporter, it

followed vice president jd vance's comments on social media, saying, judges are not allowed to control the executive's legitimate power. your response? guest: there is a natural tension between the three branches of government, and i know this firsthand. i was the speaker of the nebraska legislature. article one gives clearly -- clearly gives congress the power of the purse. the executive branch has clearly enumerated authority that extends into running the government on a day-to-day basis. here is one of the things i think that is important to talk about. as president trump comes in to office his administration will not be more vulnerable in this first two months because he is getting his leadership in place. the green new deal, the inflation reduction act. there are folks trying to pull money out of the treasury for grant programs and running basically on a system to get that money out of here. i think president trump was right to pump the brakes.

the american people elected donald trump to impose his platform, which clearly is not in sync with some of the grant programs that the federal agencies were doing. you cannot let the courts micromanage the executive branch, but i agree with leader thune. the courts rulings are to be respected. we also have to remember you may have a district judge in washington, d.c. that rolls one way, he might have a district judge in colorado that rolls a different way. -- rules a different way. they ultimately land on the supreme court's desk and i'm confident the three branches of government will maintain their at tana me, the courts will interpret the constitution, and president trump is going to do what he needs to do as the chief executive to cut federal spending, to work with congress, to deliver reconciliation with us and provide an extension to his 2017 tax cuts. host: congressman mike flood,

republican of nebraska, will be with us until the end of the program. you can start calling now if you would like to talk with him. republicans are on (202) 748-8001. democrats are on (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . since you mentioned the inflation reduction act i wanted to ask you about a bill you introduced called ending green giveaways act. this would roll back funding for targeting so-called environmental and climate justice challenges. can you tell us more about that ill? guest: the epa's inspector general said this was littered with poor language and it did not make any sense and we had people drawing down money for purposes that were not meeting the intent of congress. this is an opportunity for the congress, and this is part of our job with oversight, to put the brakes on some of the things

happening under the biden administration. this ending green giveaways act resonated with people across the united states. even folks that care about renewable energy were like, what is environmental justice? what are we trying to accomplish? at the end of the day what matters to americans is, we have energy independence? can we afford to heat our home or cool our home? do we experience brownouts? the idea of environmental justice is part of, in my opinion, the biden agenda that fits in with dei and everything else the american people have clearly rejected. host: let's talk to callers, congressman. this is kenneth in deplane, illinois. republican. caller: good morning, congressman. i hope you are well. i want to say, do not give these people -- [no audio] host: kenneth, you have to watch that language, please.

he was saying, don't give them a break. i'm assuming he means don't negotiate or cooperate with democrats. guest: obviously this reconciliation process will be a republican-driven legislation and it is going to entail the border wall, spending cuts, tax cut extension, and energy independence. let's not forget, we have the expiration of government funding on march 14. that will need to be bipartisan. i'm on the house financial services committee. we are looking at how to increase housing supply. at the end of the day reconciliation is going to go a different track, but everything else, given the fact we only have 53 republicans in the senate will require bipartisan solutions. moving forward i'm confident we can really put our fingerprint on this 119th congress with donald trump's big win and a majority in the house, there will be issues that require

senate democrats adam venit to accomplish the mission and run our government. host: where are you on the budget process? are you in favor of speaker johnson's plan to put everything in one bill, or do you lean more toward the senate ill and breaking it up into two pieces? guest: i very much agree with speaker johnson. this should be one bill. there is a lot of complicated legislation that will be in this. everybody needs to be in the same boat. it has been difficult in the past to unify our conference and the only way to get across the finish line is to put everything in one bill, let the senate have it, and then get this done by easter. that would be the best scenario. host: he was chuck in charleston, west virginia. hi, chuck. chuck, are you there? caller: yes, i am. host: go ahead. caller: i regret to say i think democracy is disappearing right

before our very eyes. we had chip roy and elon musk both saying that trump should just ignore the courts. our vice president, jd vance, he said judges are not even allowed to rule against the president. i'm quoting him directly. he said, when the courts stop you, stand before the country like andrew jackson did and say, the chief justice has made his ruling. now let him enforce it. now there doesn't seem to be any enforcement. there doesn't seem to be any accountability. and trump can just ignore the supreme court if he wants and not a single republican like yourself will object for fear of being primary. he said he would be a dictator on day one, and a one has stretched out into three weeks. so to you and all of the maga people out there listening, if you are content to have trump be our dictator, at least have the

guts to say so. host: congressman, what do you think? guest: i think that is not an accurate description of what is happening here. yes, the president has a federal district court judge that has stopped parts of his agenda and the president, i believe, said yesterday they will appeal and go through the process. this is the beginning of the trump administration, and i understand how difficult some of this change can be for members of the other party. and some of the hyperbole you are hearing our people winding themselves up about things that have gone much further than the truth. in this situation we have a president who has a mandate from the american people to cut spending. he has hired elon musk and the treasury secretary to look at the prior federal payments. that are exposing a spending regimen that is out of sync with what americans want, and quite frankly, for a country that has

36 trillion dollars in debt, we cannot afford it. people simply notes all the time, my social security. the me tell you something, if we don't get this under control we will have a crisis much bigger than social security. we will have a debt crisis. we are going to a very bad place if we do not get control of federal spending. so, i have complete confidence that the executive branch, the judicial branch, and the legislative branch will each exercise their constitutional authority. there will be friction. there will be conflict, and our system will work. i want to add one more thing. when president biden took office he had in his mind -- and i think clearly the support of a lot of people -- he wanted to forgive everyone's student loans. clearly unconstitutional. clearly. that went to the supreme court. the supreme court said, you don't have the power to do it. and what did he spend the rest

of his time in the white house doing? undercutting and doing everything in his power to forgive student loans. to the tune of about $5 billion per month we were racking up that debt, on top of a $36 trillion deficit. i remember being extremely frustrated that the president seemed to not pay attention nor respect the supreme court there. you will find that this president, donald trump, is going to put his best foot forward. he is going to push the limits and test the courts, and i'm confident the courts will apply the law and the constitution, and our three-tier system of government will prevail and we will be fine. i know that change is hard, but we will get through this and it will ultimately make us a stronger, more financially stable country. host: you mentioned increasing housing supply. what is your plan for reducing the cost of housing for americans?

guest: i'm the brand-new chairman for the subcommittee on housing and insurance and i'm working with chairman franchot. i think at the end of the day we have to encourage localities to include affordable workforce housing in all parts of the community and not that then get sidetracked onto a certain part of town where they don't have access to good schools or amenities. we have to look at these housing and urban development programs and make sure we are prioritizing housing supply. we have to look at this home insurance crisis we have right now. some people are paying more in their premium with their property tax than they are on their principal and interest. jd vance said recently at an event in florida that the number one issue he hears about from adults ages 20 to 30 is their inability to get into a home. i think we need to refocus and redirect our federal housing and urban development funds to prioritize housing supply.

give that money to municipalities so that they can get the real estate, put the streets in, put the sidewalks in, put the trees in, and get those lots to be getting homeowners on top of some down payment assistance and increase our supply while also looking at manufactured housing, which is a real option to bring the price down. you cannot even tell they were not traditionally billed. host: in south carolina, independents. . caller: the congress has the power of the purse. simple as that. they make the laws to spread the money to the states and cities, governments. so, the power of the purse, the

president has to sign the law. when the president signs a law a goes into action, right? so how can you go about as a president and reduce the money that was assigned by congress? that is a legal matter. but i want to know one thing about elon musk. he is from south africa. i know he was young when apartheid was going on, but was he for apartheid or against apartheid? and c-span, never take donations. because if you take donations a guy like elon musk gave you $1 billion, you would be just like donald trump. thank you. host: congressman fly? guest: i had a little -- congressman flood? guest: i had a little trouble hearing some of that. we talk about spending authority and the u.s. congress. we appropriate the dollars.

the executive branch deploys those dollars per congress' instructions. it is important to know that under the biden administration the congress -- and i did not vote for this --gave grant authority to the epa and the department of energy to make unprecedented grants and federal spending available to applicants who want the money, and ultimately gave the president -- in this case president biden, and now president trump -- the ability to decide who gets a grand and who doesn't. it is important to remember it is not as simple as congress told you to give the money to a, b, c. congress told you to give the money for these purposes and the executive branch has to make a decision as to who gets the grant. the executive branch has some discretion about how to do that, and it just so happens that donald trump does not agree with environmental justice programs or maybe an over-dependence on wind energy or solar energy, whatnot.

i think that is something we should have foreseen, given the fact he campaigned on that and is now the president. i do believe that congress has to be more prescript of if we want our will carried out. and that is something i have said ever since the chevron decision last year. if congress' will is to be followed we need to be more prescriptive in what we pass and send over to the president for signature, and that burden is on us. i think we are up to the task. the fact that we are working day and night on this reconciliation package underscores the importance of congress' role in our government and how important it is for us to extend the tax cuts, filled the wall, provide more detention space, cut spending, and provide energy independence. all of that is going to come together only with a congress that works together to send it to the president. host: representative flood, we have a question for you on x.

i haven't the republicans on the finance committee's not been doing an audit before muska? -- musk? guest: every single committee of jurisdiction in the house of representatives and senate, we regularly do oversight over all of the federal agencies that are before our jurisdiction. for instance, the fdic, last year there were wall street journal reports about fraud and abuse of public funds, misbehavior. we immediately brought in the chairman of the fdic and brought this to light and unpacked it. each agency has inspector's. what i do appreciate about what president trump has done here, this reminds me of what my state auditor does. getting somebody to look at the entire picture globally, to go through the ends and outs, using data and analysis and artificial intelligence. we have the benefit of somebody that is going to uncover

opportunities for us to save, and as americans we should celebrate that. we should go to bed worried about our debt and wake up in the morning satisfied that somebody is looking at where those dollars are going. and to be quite honest, congress has a responsibility with oversight and this work that doge is doing is going to inform our appropriations process and effort. host: let's talk to grant in lincoln, nebraska. caller: hello. representative flood, you are my representative. the rnc likes to claim it is the party of fiscal responsibility, yet here we are again with another omnibus bill for the budget that is supposed to be passed in, i believe 12 separate bills? i distantly remember rnc members complaining about these bills. how do you square that circle? and does the rnc plan to prioritize years bill, considering you are already late

on this year's bill? i get tired of nothing but finger-pointing when it comes to these types of introspective questions, and that doesn't make you any better than the dnc members you have pointed your finger at two describe cash to distract from the fact that the rnc's practices are not fiscally responsible at all. the rnc is getting ready to brag about cutting spending, that is not going toward bringing down the debt. it is getting offset with tax cuts. the rnc does not care about the debt or deficits, they just use it to campaign. if you don't believe me just look at the debt increases during when republicans controlled congress. thank you. guest: thank you very much for the call from lincoln, nebraska, where they got some snow as well. i don't agree the republican party has stood for addressing our data and appropriating more responsibly. a couple of things to clarify. the only way we are going to get

out of a 36 trillion dollars debt is to pair spending cuts with tax cuts. a tax increase at the end of this year would not help us grow our economy and without growth you cannot bend the arc of our terrible $36 trillion deficit. as it relates to the appropriations process, and i came into congress and the 118th congress started it was our goal to pass 12 appropriations bills. we were able to pass seven last year. the senate passed zero under the senate -- under chuck schumer. they did not take up nor did they pass any. we find ourselves in a situation where we have to scramble to get the government funded by march 14. i want to get to a place where we pass all 12 bills. i know john thune wants to get to a place where we pass all 12 bills. a reminder, this will be bipartisan. so ultimately it is on all of us. there is enough blame to go around, to your point. i can tell you that since i have

been in congress this has been a priority of mine. i voted for those bills. i have advocated for cuts. and ultimately we are going to fund the government on march 14 and our 2025 budget will unfold with both republicans and democrats. but this is not like our home state of nebraska, where our budget does not have any debt in it. we are prohibited under the state constitution from doing that. i have had to cut a billion dollars out of that budget. i know how it works. i know it is frustrating to come to washington and not see it work the same way, because i know the way we do it back home is the best way. host: we have a question from you on text frrto co. eprentative flood support presmp's decision to shutter the federal department of educ university student who is studying thanks to the h faa, and i'm worried i would

not be able to study anymore. would you go against any attempts that threaten our youth's education? guest: i think the best government, especially for our young people, is the closest government and i think there are things the states could do with block funding. i'm very supportive of the student loan system we have in america. i do think it needs reforms, but i also know there is a lot of people that would never get the chance to go to college without a student loan. you talk about scrapping the department of education, there are agencies within that department that i would want to make sure are taking care of and placed in an appropriate place. maybe treasury, because we are dealing with loans, but, you know, it is one thing to say abolish the department of education. i think there is value in sending those dollars to the states so they can do a better job with them. but there is also a number of functions the department has that we have to make sure are handled responsibly and that a student like this gentleman from

puerto rico continues his ability to further his education, because that is in the best interests of this country. host: one more quick call for you. this is a republican in new york. peter, you are next. caller: good morning, congressman. the democrats claimed that tax cuts increase the deficits and increase the debt. you guys rely on the cbo predictions to say how much debt will be accumulated because of tax cuts. cbo came out last week after seven years of the 2017 tax cuts claiming that they were off by 1.9 trillion dollars in revenue that was taken in regarding the tax cuts. in 2017 corporate tax rates were reduced to 21%. in 2017 201 $5 billion were brought into the treasury for

corporate taxes. this year it is over $500 billion. so, the cbo does not use dynamic scoring to anticipate the increase in revenues coming in as a result of tax cuts. could you please address it, congressman? thank you. guest: that is a very astute point and observant american citizen right there. we have a complex and frustrating relationship with the cbo. that is as easy as i can say at. we have been struggling with this in the house, in our internal discussions in terms of what we get credit for and what we don't when we grow the economy. it is absolutely frustrating to try to accomplish this reconciliation process with a cbo we feel a lot of times is out of touch with how it works and are not held to account at the end of the day when they are off by $1 trillion.

we have explored making sure that we are doing our own scoring so that we can combat some of the narratives of the cbo. and we send this to the senate parliamentarian we want this to be as accurate as possible. we are interested in integrity and accuracy and we are not confident we will get that with the congressional budget office. i don't have a quick solution because they are not an agency can go around. we have to go through them, so we have to make our best case and do our best job to sell our plan to the american people. host: congressman mike flood, republican of nebraska, i know you need to get over to your committee hearing, so we will let you go early. guest: thank you very much for having me. host: we have about four minutes until the house gavels in. we will stay with you. i wanted to mention this from punch bowl news. it says in tg repair -- prepares

for fighting in first doge hearing. two years after being stripped of her committee assignments representative marjorie taylor greene, republican of georgia, is spearheading one of the most high-profile subcommittees in congress. georgia republican who chairs the house oversight committee's subcommittee argues that elon musk's idea is the top interest of not only republicans in washington, but everyday americans. "this has become the number one topic across the country. it is the hottest topic and people are so engaged in this." that is set to kick off today at 10:00 a.m., so in about four minutes we will have live coverage of that house oversight subcommittee on delivering on government efficiency. that is on c-span3. that will be getting underway, and you can see live coverage if you miss it. you can of course see that on our website or app.

a couple of other things for your schedule. this is now for tomorrow. at -- thursday at 9:00 a.m. there ng to be the vote in theate judiciary committee to confirm kash patel as fbi director. so, that is a vote to send his nation to the floor of the senate. it comes an initial boat was delaye by one week at t request of democrats on the committee who ue to call for a second confirmation hearing with mr. patel. u can watch that committee vote live at 9:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3. also tomorrow but 00 a.m. is president trump's nominee to rve education secretary linda mcmahon. he tes aher confirmation hearing before the senate health educion, labor, and pensions committee. shserved as the head of the

small business administration theirst trump administration and is a cofounder of world wrestling entertainment. you can watch the confirmation hearing live starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern, also on c-span3. that is also on our website, c-span.org, and on our app, c-span now. this is the front page of usa today. you might have seen this news about the mayor of new york city, mayor eric adams. it says, trump brand of justice landing like a hammer. relationships, alliances, and vendettas have the capitol circling its wagons. this is on the front page of usa today. it says there is a new sheriff in town and he lives in mar-a-lago. the justice department's directive to drop the prosecution of eric adams is one

more example that relationships, allegiances, and vendettas are in some cases determining who gets targeted and who gets reprieved. in the age of donald trump new president has abruptly upended efforts since the watergate scandal for decades -- four decades ago, some more successful than others, to insulate the justice system from the political interference of one president or another. instead, justice is avowedly personal. that is at usa today if you would like to read the rest of that article. also just before the house gavels in, this is the front page of the washington post with the article, the islamic state has regrouped in somalia and it has global ambitions. grinding fight against the group has immense stakes, but little western support. that is on the front page of the washingt