thanks, guys. >> all right, headed out this door right here. aptioning performed by the national captioning institute, whicisesponsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicaprg [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2025] >> president trump is expected to address a joint session of congress next month to lay out his priorities and vision for e country during his second term. we'll have live coverage t president's speech on tuesday, march 4, starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, along with a democratic response and viewer reaction. owrg coverage will also sea live on our video app and at our website, c-span.org. ♪ >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy is worth dying for. >> democracy belongs to us all. >> we are here in the sanctuary of democracy. >> great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and

protected. >> we are still at our core a democracy. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy and for freedom. we like to take a lookt the we can head -- week ahead in washington. we are joined by daniella diaz. starting with the congressional budget, where are we today? guest: lets flashback a week. that's important in the context of where this is. senate republicans move forward with their own version of the budget resolution, that would split up the mast agenda on border security, taxes and legislation into two bills. what we will see today and tomorrow is house republicans, speaker mike johnson talking about having one big, beautiful bill. that is the drama that is taking place on capitol hill and has been taking place on capitol

hill since the republican trifecta took over in office. whether they could enact this agenda which means they would not need democratic votes to pass this legislation, this massive bill that they want to push forward. the drama being trump endorsed the house version for one bill and senate republicans are moving forward with number two as their plan b. speaker mike johnson doesn't have the votes. host: why is it important, two bills versus one? what's the difference? guest: they need all of the votes. there are a lot of personalities in congress. trying to get all of them united , because republicans have such a slim majority, they can only afford to lose one republican vote behind a bill as important as this one to enact the trump agenda. that's why they want to push

forward one bill, in hopes that if there are certain provisions in that legislation that one republican or two republicans don't agree with, they agree with the others. this would extend trump's 2017 tax cuts and would have the lien's of dollars in border security measure. -- billions of dollars in border secured he measures. that is the discussion that is taking place and why we are seeing a lot of political infighting within the republican conference on both sides about how to handle this. host: when it comes to the congressional budget, the ongoing cuts by the permit -- department of government efficiency is playing into that. president trump on saturday at the congressional political action conference spoke about his efforts to streamline the federal government. this is what president trump had to say. host: we are removing all of the

unnecessary, incompetent and corrupt bureaucrats from the federal workforce. that's what we are doing. under the buyouts, we offer federal employees more than 75,000 federal bureaucrats. they have volunteered to surrender their taxpayer funding. we want to make government smaller and more efficient. we want to keep the best people and we will not keep the worst people. we are doing another thing. if they don't report for work, we are firing them. in other words, you have to go to office. right, right? look at them. if you don't report to work -- that's another scam. host: that was president trump on saturday at the conservative political action conference. if you want to watch the conference in its entirety, you can do so on our website at c-span.org. we are talking about the week ahead in washington this morning. we are asking you to join the conversation. phone lines are republicans,

(202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text, that number is that (202) 748-8003 -- is at (202) 748-8003. we will join you throughout this half hour as we are joined by daniella diaz. we talked about the ongoing budget. along with the budget and the reconciliation process, there is also the appropriations process. where are we as far as funding the government for the past 14 days from now? guest: there is no agreement. that means how much they are planning to spend to fund the government this next fiscal year. publicans are blaming democrats saying they have not -- republicans are blaming democrats, saying they have not brought forth any good faith negotiations.

democrats are saying republicans are not negotiating in good faith. lots of back and forth in the last two weeks as they try to figure out how they will fund the government because government funding runs out on march 14 and we are running out of time. host: we have been running under acr, continuing resolution. is there the potential for another one of these to kick the appropriations fight down the road as it were? guest: that is in the conversation but republicans hate continuing resolutions unless it cuts government spending. one of the agencies being the department of defense. then, a lot of republicans and democrats arguing you can't waste funding on the department of defense. you need to make sure that the numbers are appropriate to what they need each year. it could be a national security issue. that is why they don't like using continuing resolutions.

if you remember a flashback to oh my goodness, a year ago, that's how kevin mccarthy lost the speaker's job. he put forward a continuing resolution. lots of questions they are trying to figure out. appropriators would like to see government funding bills that cut spending. republicans specifically. also, aid to states that need disaster funding. those sorts of things are huge priorities as we continue through the year to address. host: can congress this week walk and chew gum on this? do appropriations for 2025 which is what we are in right now, and then also budget for 2026 and all of that reconciliation process that you were talking about? guest: i mean, if we look at how congress has been run the last few years, they are not good at handling things at the same time. these are two major issues they

have to address. there were crowds are not part of the budget by reconciliation debate. that is a republican issue but republicans have the majority in the house and senate and white house. they have a lot on their plate. it's likely that these issues will collide. that's what democrats are saying. that's what republicans are worried about. expect a lot of drama on this. host: when you say democrats are not part of the budget debate, explain why that is and why republicans can do this without democratic votes. guest: i'm not trying to be too in the weeds because it can get very nerdy very quickly. reconciliation is a process the majority party can use in the house and senate to move forward legislation with a simple majority. the bill has passed the house with a simple majority. this is what happens in the senate. instead of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster, republicans or democrats, this is how they passed the inflation reduction act. democrats used this tool when

they have the majority. they can pass legislation with 50 votes. they have the majority in the senate. the only way they can pass these measures is it they are budget measures. if they can prove -- so, that is why they can pass these bills or this massive bill with lots of provisions, without any democratic votes. that's the trick here too, right? they need every single republican in both chambers to get behind this legislation. so, it's going to be really tricky. uniting conferences is difficult in congress. host: it's another busy week on capitol hill. daniella diaz is with us as we take you through the budgeting and appropriation process. phone lines for democrats, republicans and independents. this is kevin out of dunkirk maryland -- dunkirk, maryland,

republican. caller: good morning. i had a comment. i delivered packages washington, d.c. for 15 years. i was in and out of every single federal building. all i would see was, goodness, people playing video games on their computer all of the time. couldn't get anybody to sign for a package. it was very inefficient from what i saw. can't say everybody. but i also knew a few people that worked in the federal government. they would get these things called a clicker on their computer. their mouse would click every so often to make it look like they were busy. host: suffice it to say you agree with the efforts to reduce the federal workforce? caller: absolutely.

i talked to one of my guys in my area that owns an automobile shop. he said he's never seen so many federal employees going on the extravagant vacations in the past three years. he's just never seen it. host: kevin, got your point prayed we talked about in the first half-hour hour of the washington journal, the reaction to the email from the department of government efficiency. the email officially came from hr at the u.s. government. but elon musk, leading this effort. who will you be talking to this week in response to this effort and this deadline tonight for federal employees to respond with bullet points about what they accomplished last week? guest: republicans who, again, have the house and majority -- majority in the house and senate have supported elon musk's efforts to cut down government spending and the steps he's taken to have less government

workers or have them leave their jobs. i think they are the ones that we will be asking questions or i will in a few hours because i will head to capitol hill, asking him do you think he's gone too far? and having federal workers prove as bullet points what they did in the last week. some of these measures or some of these government officials that were asked to do this could be disclosing government secrets. we saw tulsa gabbard tell her office they should not respond to this email because it deals with classified information. we saw kash patel tell his office respond to this email. is this going to be the extent of elon musk's power or cutting government spending in the federal government? we are waiting to see whether republicans say that maybe he has gone too far. host: lisa murkowski over the weekend, her tweet that she put out our public workforce deserves to be treated with

dignity and respect for the unheralded jobs they perform. the absurd weekend email to justify this existence -- their existence -- guest: she is concerned. i spoke to her last week specifically, that the cuts to government funding that musk is putting forward could affect energy projects in alaska and wildlife conservation efforts in her state. she has seen it directly and that's why she's speaking out against this. she's not the only one trait we have seen other republicans come forward, saying they are sensing that back home, some of their government officials are being affected by this and losing jobs when they are essential and need to continue working for the federal government. host: this is victoria out of chester lind, ohio, line for dinner kratz. good morning. caller: i hope everybody -- host: line for democrats, good

morning. caller: i hope everybody is satisfied with the way our government is going. what will it take to drain your account? what will it take? thank you. host: that's victoria in ohio. craig in florida in palm coast, florida, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. 2 million emails. this is a duplication of effort. these guys are being watched over by their supervisors. i can't imagine somebody opening up 2 billion emails -- 2 million emails and doing anything with them. thank you. host: plenty of discussion on this does effort. what's been the most interesting part of this from your perspective on capitol hill? you talk about the dynamic of democrats responding and republicans responding. at what point do you think it will, besides a lisa murkowski

email, what will be a sign to you that this has gone too far? guest: this email over the weekend from elon musk asking federal workers to prove they are working could be the extent of his power and the hold he could have over the federal government, when we are seeing republican leaders like kash patel and tulsi gabbard and others tell there workforce don't respond. up until this point, we have seen the same people praise elon musk for moving forward on this process to try to cut the federal government workforce. this could be the end of what they praise for what he's trying to do. he himself tweeted over the weekend that federal workers will receive this email. we expect them to respond or they will resign. or we will count that as a resignation, correction. what we are seeing is there will be people who will not be

responding who will not lose their jobs. that is one sign of his lack of power considering people were endorsing him. host: paul in louisiana, republican. good morning. caller: we do have a problem in trying to meet our obligations, concerning the needs of people. but, if we don't have control over spending, we will have control over anything. i think this is a good direction for people to take. and stop fussing and let's work together, eliminate heavy debt and make it right for our country. billions,