♪ host: good morning. february 26 -- it is wednesday,

february 26. the vote passed last night 217-215 with all democrats opposed. the budget blueprint includes $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts. this morning, we are getting your thoughts on the house budget proposal and the way forward. here is how to reach us. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. and independents, (202) 748-8002 . you can text us at (202) 748-8003. include your first name and your city, state. we are on social media, facebook.com/c-span and x @cspanwj. welcome to today's "washington journal." we are glad you are with as. we will start with hearing from speaker mike johnson right after the vote. he spoke to reporters. [video clip] >> thank you all for staying on

a long night. we got it done. we had the requisite number of votes to move this process along. now passing the budget resolution in the house, it will go to the senate. this is the first important step in opening up the reconciliation process. we have a lot of hard work ahead of us but will deliver the america first agenda, all of it, not just parts of it. this was the first step. grateful to my colleagues to help us getting here and grateful to the leaders. chairman arrington did a great job in the budget committee and chairman smith of the ways and means and all of our colleagues who worked on this. a lot of radio to be done but we will celebrate tonight and roll up our sleeves and get back at it in the morning. thank you. host: he mentioned getting back at it in the morning. we will go to the house right at 10:00 when they gavel in. here is what is in the house budget budget listen -- the house budget resolution. it includes $4.5 trillion in tax

cuts, $2 trillion in spending cuts, $100 billion in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military. it would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion. and it requires the house energy and commerce committee to find $880 billion in cuts to federal programs, possibly from medicaid. that comes from nbc news. here is roll call. it says gop budget adopted in-house after late arm-twisting. house republicans had only one gop vote to spare. next stop, negotiations with the senate. house republicans ran through their framework for a big, beautiful budget package tuesday night after the initial he could not muster the votes only to pull a last-minute switch and start the rollcall as democrats who already started leaving the capital cried fellow.

it was a major victory for speaker mike johnson who struggled to unite the conservative and centrist factions of his conference to rally around a budget reconciliation process that would deliver much of president donald trump'sgenda without the risk of a senate democratic filibuster. that is on rollcall if you would like to see that. and here is also the washington post. if you are wondering about how every member voted on the budget bill, it says -- the vote again 217 republicans, opposed 215 democrats. you can see here and there was one republican that opposed the bill. that is thomas massie of kentucky. one democrat did not vote, was not able to be at the vote. i can get you his name.

but let's hear from representative thomas massie, republican of kentucky, about why he planned to vote against the bill. this is before the vote. [video clip] >> i am a no. >> is there anything? >> there are numbers. if the republican plan passes under the rosie just assumptions which are not true, we will add 320 in billion dollars to the deficit this year. we will add $295 billion to the deficit the year after that and $242 billion to the deficit after that, under the rosiest assumptions. why would i vote for that? >> you sound like a no. >> yeah. they convinced me. the only way they get to this magic thing where it is not going to kill our country is five years from now they imagine that 2.5% growth accumulates and that right here they say they

will cap discretionary spending. you think we will cap discretionary spending and then spend at the rate of inflation after that? that has never happened. so there assumptions are wrong, but even if you take there assumptions at face value, they told us in there they will increase the deficit in 2025 by $328 billion. i have been here long enough. i have been here 12 years. so i have seen a 10 year plan or to come all the way to 10 years. under boehner, we had these tenure plans. under ryan, we had these 10 year plans. anything past the third year does not happen. host: that was representative massey of kentucky, the only republican to vote no on the budget resolution that passed last night. we are getting your thoughts on that and will go to carl, chicago, democrat. hi, carl. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: now, we get past all the

smokescreen that they were making and try to get to the crux, conditioning the american people it is ok. this has always been about the money. the cbo, i think they reported and said over the next 10 years it will add another $20 trillion to the debt. all of these republicans out there, all they do is scream about the debt, the debt, the debt. they are playing rope note. that is nothing but a smokescreen. they are just telling you stuff. it is always about cutting into medicare, social security, and medicaid. americans need to understand this. so we can have tax cuts for wealthy people. this is what this has all been about, the money. follow the money, people.

don't be distracted by all of this other nonsense that they have been throwing out here to make you feel good. they are going to make you bend over and feel the pain. host: let's talk to ralph in new york, democrat get good morning, ralph. caller: good morning. i am a uaw worker from upstate new york and want to talk about the concept of living in the moment. the 250 democrats that voted against this bill in particular, no tax on social security, no tax on tips, and no tax on overtime. they did the right thing because workers, they live in the moment. who supported this, they don't think about the long-term retirement. this will defund their own retirement, in particular social security. and i thank you for your time. host: let's talk to doug in florida, democrat. hi, doug. caller: hey, yeah. that sounds great.

they will pass a tax cut. anybody making under $100,000, they will they more taxes. that is what i'm doing. have a good day. host: let's hear from brendan boyle on that tax cut feature of the budget plan and who it could affect. [video clip] >> this budget represents a republican betrayal of the middle class, and i am proud to rise and oppose it. here is what is at stake. my friends on the other side of the aisle want to deliver $4.5 trillion of tax cuts, almost all of which go to the richest 1% of americans. how do they pay for it? how do they pay for the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts? first, at least $880 billion from medicaid and the affordable care act. those cuts for medicaid, by the

way, represent the largest cuts to medicaid in american history. 72 million americans get their health care from medicaid. we are mostly talking about seniors, children, and those with disabilities. another 20 million americans get their health care from the aca. so combined, we are talking about 92 million americans whose health care is at risk. and why? all to deliver tax cuts to billionaires. but now we have a math problem because even with those, the largest cuts to medicaid in history, you don't get anywhere close to $4.5 trillion. so how do they finance the rest of it? well, we have more cuts. hundreds of billions more in cuts to education programs like school lunches, headstart, student loan repayment. we also have $230 billion of

cuts to nutrition assistance at a time when grocery prices are at record highs. so all told, that gets you to at least $1.5 trillion. but remember, the size of the tax cuts are $4.5 trillion and they want to add some more spending on top of that. so what do they do to make up the difference? increase the national debt by $4 trillion. host: we are taking your calls on that budget resolution that passed last night. this is what the washington post says. with the passage of the bill, the reconciliation process will start warehouse committees will cut or increase spending while trying to offset the trillions of dollars that tax cuts are predicted to add to the national debt. the process also restricts amendments and avoids a senate

filibuster from democrats. some moderate republicans are particularly wary of cuts to social security, medicare, and medicaid, which trump recently promised would not face any cuts in spending. the party also promised not to cut defense spending, making it nearly impossible to both cut taxes and spending. and here is scott, roseville, california, democrat. good morning, scott. caller: good morning. host: what you think? caller: good to talk to you. i think we are in bad shape. my household, my cousin born in 1962 just returned from the hospital last night with tracheal cancer. he is disabled, as am i. i had a brain aneurysm, massive in 2009. and the landlord that keeps us in the household warehousing is an issue -- where housing is an

issue, we both live in the same house but she had to reverse mortgage just to survive. she is 88. as a result, i am preparing for the worst. i get my disability check, and my cousin is just trying to find his first primary just to survive the tracheal cancer. he has it in his neck right now and can barely talk. my mom can't take him to and from the doctor so the hospital is providing the services for medicaid, medicare, providing the services to get him to and from appointments so he can live one more day. so this household is upset and overturned. host: scott, i am really sorry you are struggling with all of that. are you on medicaid? are you on medicare? caller: i am on medicare. i will not pick up medicaid. i am on this ability.

i am just 54. my cousin is ready to take retirement benefits, but my god, when they go this way with all the cuts, i am going to be homeless. my mother is going to die. i cousin is going to die. and i'm going to be homeless. and i know this is coming. so i would not trust now that this new budget has been passed one red cent because now they are taboo. we are not even going to make pennies anymore. but i would not trust one red penny. even though it is copper covered nickel. to this u.s. government. because they are completely out of hand. god help us all. thank you. host: vincent in gaithersburg, maryland, independent, you are next. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: scott and all the people who are listening and watching

c-span, c-span, cnn, msnbc, abc, etc., fox, they are fear mongers good scott, you do not have to worry. trump said over -- excuse me, president trump said they are not cutting social security. i am a disabled veteran and they are not cutting mine and i am not worried about it. he is not. the only thing they are cutting out is the corruption. anyway, that is the best i can do. c-span will make sure those people get on to spread more fear. people you don't have to worry. one last time, social security, medicaid, medicare food for the children, all of that, they are not going to cut it. host: here is james in myrtle

beach, california, independent. good morning, james. caller: i don't know what tv the guy from maryland has been watching but they passed a bill last night by the skin of their teeth they cut out medicaid. they cut medicaid and medicare. it got through congress. it has to go through the senate for you get to the dictator in the white house. so i am giving all of you red state republicans some advice. it is going to hurt you red states more than it will hurt us democrats. because you all get money from medicare, medicaid and the democrat blue states. so you better start getting in touch. and we need to start getting out there raising cane.

if we do a million man march, get this man's attention. that is what we are going to have to do. and i'm going to tell you another thing right now. this man, he thinks it is high prices now. the man wants to get rid of the treasury because the man is telling the truth is running it now. if he stays on this, inflation will be back up to 9% and 10%. you republicans know what it is, a tax break for. that $4.5 trillion, that is what i saw -- a tax break for donald trump's rich folk, that 4.5 trillion dollars. that is what i saw.

host: let's hear from gregory in minnesota. hi, gregory. caller: good morning. i want to just call in and say thank god president trump has the fortitude to do what he is doing. our country has gotten to the point where all we do is live on borrowed money. i spent my entire working career as a farmer and whenever i worked as a farmer, and if they were borrowing money to buy land or expand their operation, we made them do a budget and they had to do a budget every year. they had to come in with their actual earnings. we always compared to the actual earnings to the budget and made them plan ahead year-by-year.

we had five-year plans, 10 year plans. and during the entire time we did all that, the farmers and anybody else -- i probably borrowed out -- the most i borrowed out to any one person was about $400 million. not one person. totally in my office. and i ran three counties in minnesota under a mortgage lending program. host: so, gregory, i want to ask you because there is a headline in the hill that says 71% of trump voters oppose medicaid cuts. so i want to ask you, a republican, so i am assuming you voted for president trump, are you in favor of cutting medicaid? caller: no. they are not planning to do that. host: so what would you cut? because something -- no, no, no. no, i understand, but i wanted to go back to, what would you cut? you said you are against cutting

medicaid. what in the budget would you cut to balance it? caller: they are passing a budget that they are trying to balance. i heard on the thing all the talking that ended up right now with all the text they have planned, only $300 million of balancing the budget. host: $300 million to balance the budget? there has to be $880 billion in cuts. so -- caller: they said it. somebody speaking after the budget thing past. they said they are close. when ronald reagan was president, i remember when the

total national debt -- i mean, i lived long enough that i can remember it. it is all stored in your mind. we went to $1 trillion. i remember the angst, the anxiety, all this wringing of hands when our country went to $1 trillion in debt. they showed a thing with all the years and all the administrations and presidents how much the total debt for our country -- and during world war ii, our country went way into debt. and we paid that off over time. because we had a balanced budget for many years. there was always a little left over. host: all right. caller: we always plan.

that is why i expected all of my borrowers -- host: gregory, i have to move on. this is randy in michigan, democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to start by thanking you and all of the men and women it takes to bring us this great program. you are doing the nation a great service. i guess from what i have seen so far on this gop budget, it seems to be all the cuts are going towards services to the american people and nothing -- if we are pulling back from everything, why don't you put the pentagon budget on the table or the military budget? and then to say you are saving money and yet the last line that you see is they want to raise the debt limit ceiling for trillion dollars debt ceiling -- ceiling for trillion dollars. being a highschooler i guess i need to go to college to learn

that kind of math because you raise it for trillion dollars annually want to cut $880 million, but it is all from the service program. that is whatever government is, service to the american people. it is not a business. we cannot run it like a business. look at your own household budget. what would you do it every week you got a new individual that was putting there that had a different something that you had to cover but you did not get more money? now, don't break the budget, but you still have to feed those people when you still have to educate them. host: so randy, what do you suggest to do? would you do away with the tax cuts? is there something you would cut? caller: i don't know if i would do away with them, but i would reduce them. you still have to -- this is still a divided country. well we have different opinions on that, so you have to give a little bit everybody. i have no problem with that. i do have a problem with these

budgets where they think the american people's lives do not seem to matter at after take care of them. loaning money like the one guy was talking about a farmer, that has to be pretty darn easy because that is the one business in this country we guarantee them a base rate on all of their products from milk to soybeans. you are going to get so much for each one of them no matter what. so if you live with what farmers live within their budget, you should not have a problem. you cannot live on overtime like they used to tell us in the shop. you have to budget your life on a 40 hour week. if you get over time, that is great and you put a little money away but you still have to base your life on 40 hours because overtime doesn't last forever. i guess i just don't understand how they are coming up with the math. nothing wrong with going after waste. i am sure there is a whole lot of middle-management you could

eliminate that is really unnecessary. i see that in the shop. redundancy on management's side. cut the workforce and add more engineers. i guess i don't understand that. host: well, randy, since you mentioned the defense budget, i want to show mike rogers. he is the house armed services committee chair, talking about supporting the bill for more defense spending. [video clip] >> we have heard about all the ways the house budget resolution will deliver on president's america first agenda. that includes making a generational investment in national defense. the $100 billion in defense spending this resolution unlocks will enable us to begin restoring american deterrence, prioritizing lethality, and ensuring peace through strength. it will help defend the dod's mission at the border because border security is national security. it will help improve the quality

of life of our servicemembers and their families. it will help us start to revitalize our defense industrial base and restore readiness accounts to ensure we can fight tonight. it will also help us start to expand u.s. shipbuilding capacity and enhance our missile deterrence. it will also begin restocking our nation's arsenal of critical munitions. and it will help us position our military to outcompete and out innovate china. achieving the president's goal of peace through strength will ultimately require us to get defense spending back above 4% of gdp. but none of that can happen unless we pass this budget resolution today. host: and that budget resolution did pass. and we are taking your calls on that, your reaction. independent line, hillsboro, new jersey, john. good morning. hi, john. go ahead.

sorry, john. we cannot hear you. try to call back on a better line. here is patrick in california, republican. caller: hello. good morning. host: morning. caller: yeah, i think this is wonderful. the democrats spend a lot of money. i mean, the last administration. as a republican, i am very thankful for mike johnson. mike johnson, he has the temper of job. he has a hard job and is able to pull this through. and i believe that we have to start somewhere. elon musk and everybody else, i say this is a good deal. thank you very much. host: all right. and here is mick in indiana, independent line. caller: hello.

yes. i oppose this bill. it is not that i'm against tax cuts. it is just not the right time. there is no reason to increase our national debt by $4.5 trillion. was it 4.5 trillion dollars or was that the tax cuts they wanted to give? but anyways, it was around $4 trillion they want to increase the national debt, and you have these people calling in and complaining about the national debt, but they are all for this gop bill. i don't understand that. host: so in order to reduce the debt, what would you cut or would you just take away the tax cuts? caller: i would happily continue paying the taxes i pay now. you know, just keep the programs. i don't want to see sick people taken off their health care, hungry schoolkids going without food.

indiana is a pretty poor stick to begin with. host: but mick, hold on. you said you would continue to pay the taxes you are paying right now, but right now we have the 2017 trump tax cuts. so did you see your taxes go down? did you benefit from those tax cuts in 2017? caller: barely. they may have been $12 a month. host: so you would be willing for those to go back up? caller: it would not bother me at all. as long as everybody's went back up. not the working people's go back up and the billionaires come down some more. there is no reason for billionaires to get tax cuts. they can live off what they got forever. host: all right. let's talk to sonia in staten island, new york, democrat. caller: hi. good morning. host: morning. caller: so many issues.

so, you know, i appreciate the callers that are really concerned. but there is too much going on. i will quote two films. one film going on right now which is the film "idiotic receipt -- idiocracy," those are the people calling the shots right now beyond what they are doing is stupid. let's just fire people that are doing the job and we don't have anybody to fulfill it. and then this one other film "dave." when dave means to find $655 million to fund homeless children, he calls his friend

who has a -- host: he is an accountant. yeah, i remember that movie. caller: let's really look where the waste is. right? and they find it. they find the money. yeah, let's cut the waste. let's find where there is stuff going on. but let's do it the right way, the smart way, not the idiocracy way. it is beyond ridiculous. you have the biden administration left us with an amazing budget. we were doing really well. why people decided to go with this guy that said he was going to go be a dictator on day one? he said it. why are people complaining? but biden left the economy in good condition.

and this guy is taking it down. and everybody is wondering, oh, how are we going to go from here? we were in a good place. let's keep going to a good place. you voted for a guy that is going to take it to not good place. it is beyond ridiculous. host: all right, sonja. since you mentioned the cuts, this is news that happened just published from the ap. federal technology staffers resigned rather than help musk and doge. more than 20 civil-service employees resigned from doge, saying they refused to use their technical expertise to "dismantle critical public services." in a letter they wrote, they said this, "we swore to serve the american people and uphold our oath to the constitution across presidential administrations. however, it has become clear that we can no longer honor

those commitments." it says that the employees warned that many of those are listed by musk to help him/the size of the federal government under president trump administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them. it is a temporary setback for musk and the republican president's tech driven purge of the federal workforce and comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop, or unwind. and this is dale, a republican in north carolina. caller: yeah. that last caller, i don't know what she is smoking, but i would like to have some of it. she said he left us a good budget. the only thing the biden administration left us was 20 million illegals running around

here that came over here to break the law. and another thing, is c-span going to apologize to the trump administration when they don't cut medicaid or social security? you push the same narrative as cnn, msnbc. host: dale, we are not pushing narratives. we are reading articles that are out there. i'm sorry you feel that we are pushing narratives. ar int illinois, good morning. caller: good morning. nice to talk to you again. i used to be the manager of a school lunch program for chicago. we fed thousands of children every day, breakfast, lunch, and after school snacks. what they are doing right now is going to affect those kinds of programs. and i want to know, who is going to pick up the flag to help these kids with their meals?

we only meals they probably get in their lives is at school. how do these people have a conscience to consider cutting these types of programs is unbelievable to me. host: so why do you think those programs for school lunches are going to get cut? caller: i see this guy with a giant saw cutting everything. and he has already said that they want to go to medicare and medicaid and even social security. all of these programs that are needed to support people in this country who do not have the wherewithal to support themselves without these services. to me, the idea that they would even consider these things is unbelievably immoral. and i don't know how those people sleep every night. thank you. host: and here is jeff, north

salem, new york, republican. caller: hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call. a couple of thoughts. when people talk about tax cuts, there is understandably a lot of concern when they hear those terms but i think it is a mr. presentation because really we are not cutting taxes. we are extending the tax cut that was already in place. if we were not to do that, it would have represented a tax increase and would have disproportionately hurt a lot of middle-class americans, number one. number two, it is not clear to me have this budget will take into account things that could be very beneficial regarding the deficit, for example. we know that trump wants to claw back some money from ukraine. we know there is half $1 billion being invested by apple in new ventures that should grow the economy. we know there is already $500 billion being invested in the world of artificial intelligence by a consortium of investors. so there is a lot of things you

could argue, not to mention finding money from the doge effort, that will help to reallocate how we spend money. so i don't know that we are cutting programs. maybe we are self funding a smaller but more efficient program because we are getting rid of the waste and are still going to give people what they need without having to take away any benefits. so i just worry that -- i don't know that the fine print is out there yet, but there is a lot of narrative painting this in a very negative way when in fact it is really not hurting the middle class. i think there is a lot going on that is not represented in the budget details that eventually will hopefully grow the economy, which is a benefit to everybody. host: all right. regarding those tax cuts, we will hear from budget committee chair jodey arrington speaking yesterday on the house floor. [video clip] >> the trump tax cuts lower tax

rates for every american household at every income level while increasing the amount of taxes paid by the top 1%. according to the washington post, which by the way gave democrats not one, not to, not three, four pinocchios every time they made these misleading claims, they said three of every four dollars in the trump tax cuts did not go to corporations, but they went to individuals, cutting taxes for the lowest income individuals by 10% while cutting taxes for the top 1% of the income earners by less than one half of 1%. in addition, we saw a record 25 year wage increase for median household incomes. real wages at the bottom 10% rose two times faster than the top 10%. real wealth at the bottom half of households rose three times faster than that of the top half of our country.

a record 6 million people were lifted out of poverty. black, hispanic, and asian american citizens experienced historic high incomes and all-time low unemployment. here is the reality, mr. chairman. our democrat colleagues oppose the american people's tax cuts back in 2017 and they oppose their tax cuts today. and if they were successful in this endeavor, here is what would happen. we would have a 22% tax hike on every american citizen on average. they just suffered through a 21% tax hike from the inflation tax over the last four years and the worst cost crisis in modern history. median income families would lose $1700. 26 million small businesses

would pay at the highest marginal rate, lose the 20% deduction, putting them on a comparable level to the corporate tax rates. child tax credits, families, 40 million families would have the tax credit for their children cut in half. and 91% of the american people that get the standard deduction will have -- would have got cut in half. those are the results of the democrats standing in the way of what would be if they were successful the highest tax hike in american history. host: that was the budget committee chair jodey arrington. and we are taking your thoughts on the budget resolution that passed last night. here is michael, hendersonville, north carolina, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. yeah, you know, i have read unlike a lot of these callers who call in from the gop, republican side, i read the

bill. it states about medicaid in there being cut, that they want all of this money for medicaid and social services. explain to me why the hell these billionaires need this money from the working man the taxes? they don't pay taxes anyway. they already got all of this. why do they need more? they will take it from children, education. the point is trump is raping the country. he is raping it. he is basically selling it to russia. he is a russian asset. we all know that. the misinformation on the republican side is just astonishing. they all call in and say the same thing. unless we get rid of this propaganda, i don't see how we will survive. host: elvis and washington, d.c., republican. good morning. caller: good morning.

i believe the only republican who opposed the budget resolution is thomas massie from kentucky. my family is from kentucky. and so is my business partner. and while i lived there, i gave -- we paid our employees well. one thing people don't know about thomas massie, i gave him a job and he gave me a job. host: this is ray in quincy, massachusetts. good morning. caller: yeah. i mean, what is going on now is truly a disgrace. as a continuation. every time republicans get in office, all they do is focus on tax cuts for the 1%. look at the bush tax cuts. look at the trump tax cuts. we are in this position. i would deficit has blown up because of these tax cuts for the wealthy. and they don't need these tax

cuts. the wealthy billionaires do not need tax cuts. host: ray, the argument is these tax cuts are helping the middle class. do you not see it that way? caller: no, no, no. nope. the trump tax cuts that are supposed to help the middle class, i did not see anything. i did not see the savings. in fact if you look at everything that goes on, when the federal government cuts taxes for the rich, all of that spending gets pushed down to the states. states have to pick up where the federal government falls short. i mean, and if you look at other things, other fees, you know, going up, it is just a sham. it is a total sham. the holy educated maga crowd fall for it. that is what a sad. that is what is sad about this country.

this poorly educated maga crowd that really don't understand how things work. right? this is really going to affect them the most. kids are going to starve. and for what? just so a billionaire can get a tax cut that they don't need? host: all right. all right, ray. this is the appropriations committee ranking member, democrat of new york, talking about those tax cuts and the benefits. [video clip] >> after all the talk about lowering the cost of living, republicans wasted no time in making their real priorities clear for the majority billionaires and the corporations come first. elon musk, president trump are hard at work trying to get medicaid and the affordable care act, which helps nearly one million americans afford health insurance, medications,

lifesaving care. nationwide, medicaid and the children's health insurance program provide medical coverage to nearly four in 10 children. almost 40% of the children in the united states get their health care from medicaid. these programs were designed and proved and expended over decades by both parties to help people deal with the high cost of health care, and they have delivered for so many families. in my district alone, there are 229,000 people on medicaid including 79,000 children, 33,000 seniors. medicaid paid for 3000 births last year, providing comprehensive prenatal, delivery, postpartum care to newborns and mothers. these are programs that help families and children. medicaid works. elon musk is only interested in helping the richest among us. his dream is to fully extend more than $4.5 trillion worth of tax breaks to their billionaires

and the wealthiest corporations in the world. how will they pay for these tax cuts, pay for this massive giveaway? republicans want to pay for this with cuts to medicaid. $880 billion from medicaid and the affordable care act. putting coverage at risk for millions of americans and raising their premiums. host: the phones, to sam, an independent in somerville, massachusetts per get good morning. caller: good morning. i can't really -- ok, let me start here. i have been watching this discussion for 20 years. it is the same thing. it is tax cuts for the rich under the auspice that it is going to help the country. and in 20 years, but i have seen is pretty much every opportunity

for my adult generation dissolve into thin air while corporations make all-time profits. in the pandemic, all of these billionaires, there worth nearly doubled or tripled. so i can't take anymore the argument of tax cuts for the wealthy class benefiting the middle class. it is actually a lie at this point. it is not effective. it does not work. it is so interesting to hear that guy, dale, talk about those 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy which were disproportionately for the wealthy. you know, and then a few years pass two today, and he is on the phone saying we cannot go back because they are effectively an increase. it is interesting people would fall for that. i can't imagine having the wool pulled over my eyes in that way.

i just don't understand how we can get -- i really want to get out of this argument here because this has been going on since reagan. they were telling people, hey, just one more tax cut for the corporations. meanwhile, look at our standard of living and how it is. you have these republicans talking about wages, wage increases. it does not matter, you know, if the minimum wage went up a few bucks when everything surrounding it tripled and we are giving tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy. you know, the writing is on the wall. you don't even need the numbers. you don't need all this argument. you can see it with your own eyes. you can see what is happening. so trust your eyes. host: this is william in tennessee, republican line. hi, william. caller: hi.

how are you? i am a lifelong republican. i am 72 years all. and this is the greatest disgrace that ever happened in our country. to cave in on medicare, which is the safety net which all republicans should support is ridiculous. i know we need $1 trillion to stand up to china, who now has the largest navy in the world and is planning on attacking america. but i also know that we have to support our veterans that are on the street homeless. this is ridiculous. this is not republicans. this is another form of fascism by billionaires. 26, 27 of the candidates for the democratic party were supported by billionaires. we are now controlled by billionaires. we have to have a plunder tax

like do dwight d. eisenhower had on the evil, wicked, maniacal billionaires of his time. we need to tax the richest people of the world higher than the poor. the poor now have nothing. host: so, william, did you call your representative and share those thoughts? caller: trust me, i'm going to write letters and i'm going to file lawsuits. host: lawsuits how? based on what? caller: fascism. fascism is another form that is just the same thing as communism. host: all right, got it, william. here is another republican in california. james comer good morning. caller: yeah, good morning. i don't even know where to begin. the democrats were talking about all the misinformation. the last tax cut under trump,

the top 1% got much less than the bottom 20%. that is factual. you can look that up. one of the big rubicons the country crossed just a few months ago, the interest on the national debt is now the biggest budget item that we have. now, where do these people think the money for medicaid, medicare, social security, which the republicans have not talked about gutting at all, by the way, and never would. if the interest on the debt goes to 50%, 60%, 70%, it is the biggest budget item today. i don't know what the percentage is. i bet you could look it up in two minutes. we cannot tax our way out of this terrific, horrific debt. where i would cut first would be like the $2 billion that went to the group that stacey abrams

formed to get the money from the federal government. the fraud that has been uncovered by elon musk and donald trump and the republicans, which is going to amount hopefully, hopefully to $1 trillion they will be able to cut. every time there has been a tax cut, income tax cut, the revenue to the federal government has increased. you cannot take 40% as they do in california if you come federal tax and state tax -- count federal tax and state tax from the upper 1% and balance the budget. nobody has accounted for the increase in economic activity after these tax cuts. nobody mentions that. the democrats are really good at tax for the rich, a woman's right to choose, the republicans

are the party of the rich. that is all a bunch of propaganda. and i do think c-span has lead to much more to the left since trump has been elected. and i think what you are talking about today are mostly democrat talking points. this cut to medicaid. nobody is going to start. no children are going to starve. nobody is going to die in this country because they don't get medical care. it will not happen. we are still the wealthiest country in the world, but what will happen if we continue to add to this debt in the interest on that debt continues to be as big a percentage or a bigger percentage than it is now, we cannot sustain that. the economy will collapse. host: we got that point, james. this is punch bowl dues saying a turbulent vote brings congress to the tricky part of reconciliation. it says that was a major win for speaker johnson. the house's dramatic passage of republicans's multi trillion

dollar budget resolution tuesday evening marked the biggest victory of johnson's brief leadership career. it was the result of weeks of hard work and intense focus amid the chaos of president donald trump's washington. it was also a victory against a gop run senate that was in direct conflict with him. but make no mistake, johnson could not have done this without trump. and here is stanley, philadelphia, pennsylvania, democrat. good morning, stanley. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: i oppose the tax cut. and i have a question i would like to ask the republicans. name mean five things donald trump as president before and now that he has said good about america. he never says anything good about america. he only says negativity about america. if he thinks the tax cut is going to help the middle class, you are crazy. anybody that had a 401(k) plan,

you better keep your eyes on it. thank you. have a nice day. host: this is alex in new york, good morning. caller: hi. good morning. just a couple quick points before i get to my main point. people were talking about tax cuts, in the previous gentlemen before this talked about the national debt and how interest is accruing on the national debt and how we don't touch medicaid. did anybody understand the concept that cutting taxes is taking away revenue from the treasury, and therefore it is increasing the national debt? does anybody see this except for me? why are we cutting taxes and talking about the national debt in the same sentence? it just does not make any sense at all. host: so, alex, the argument is cutting taxes will stimulate the economy, therefore growing the economy. what do you think of that? caller: yeah.

and that is why people are knee-deep in credit card debt. people are overspending. we have to live within our means. forget about the tax cuts. that is not going to stimulate spending. people are going to spend no matter what. they are not going to spend more. actually, they will spend more. they will get deeper in debt themselves. i get the argument, but that was not my main point. my main point was -- oh, just one other thing. another caller before said c-span is pushing left narratives. and he responded we are not pushing a narrative. you are exactly right. all you are doing is reading them. you are reading narratives. nobody is pushing an agenda. you are just reading headlines. just to your defense. anyway, i am a federal worker and i have only worked for the federal government for 23 years. three months ago, if i called this program come i would have been calling on the republican

line. but i tell you what, this president and his attack on federal workers is pushing me to watch things i never would have watched before, cnn, msnbc. because nobody is talking rationally about what the plight of the federal worker is here. host: what agency or department are you with? can you tell us? caller: yeah. so i am one of those bad guys, those bureaucrats that once for the department of security that keeps people out of the country and he points them, deport illegal aliens. i am one of those bad bureaucrats. the reason i say that obviously is sarcasm. i also received that email saying i am a worthless low productivity record. how terrible is it that every federal worker in the united states, no matter what your level of skill is, received that email that you should resign because you will have a higher

productivity in the private sector? are we being serious here? are you kidding me? i reached out to my congressman, who by the way i will call him out by name in the 23rd district in new york, rick lane worth. there is an r on my voting card so i am on his side. i was on his side until he refused to talk to people like me who are deeply concerned about the plight of the federal workers. one of the things we are talking but in the big beautiful bill, so called, is reducing the benefit package that federal workers receive once they retire, their health care, their pension. i never thought i would say this 23 years ago when i entered the government. it is one of the reasons i took this job, because i saw what was happening at gm and other large industries. they were cutting people's pensions because they were going bankrupt.

and i thought to myself i'm going to be a civil servant, work in law enforcement, and retire on a decent pension. i am not going to play this game of the private sector. and here i am now fearful of what is going to happen of my 20 plus years of service. it will be cut because people want to take an axe? these are things i earned over my career. i earned this pension. i earned this thanksgiving this is like a deferred -- i earned this. this is like a deferred payment. complete disrespect. not a single republican congressman extending up to this guy. and again -- is standing up to this guy, and again -- host: sorry to cut you off but we are coming up next with aaron mehta. he is editor in chief of breaking defense.

he will discuss the leadership at the pentagon and plans for budget shifts at the department forget and later we are joined by representative bonnie watson coleman, a democrat of new jersey and a member of the budget and appropriations committees. we will be right back. ♪ >> contact your members of congress? c-span is making it easy for you with 2025 of the rectory's contact information for government officials all than one race. this compact spiral-bound guide contains bio and contact information for every health and number of the 119th congress. contact information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies and state governors. he brushes rectory cost $32.95 shipping and handling and every purchase helps c-span's nonprofit operations scan the

code on the right or go to c-spanshop.org to preorder your copy today. saturdays watch american history tv's 10 week series first 100 days. we explore the early months of presidential administrations with historians and authors and in the c-span archives. to learn about a, shall of and how events impacted financial terms in the nation soft present day. saturday, the first 100 days of lyndon johnson presidency. he became president on november 22, 1963 after the assassination of john kennedy president lyndon johnson cap kennedy's cabinet based and proceeded to push for legislation on taxes and on civil rights early in his term he also declared a war on poverty in america. watch our first 100 days saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern on

american history tv, on c-span two. democracy. it isn't just an idea, it is process. process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with already basic suppose. it wears face unfolds, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. democracy in real-time. this is your government at work. this is c-span. giving you your democracy, unfiltered. washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we are joined now by the editor-in-chief of breaking defense. welcome. guest: thank you. host: let's start with the firing of chairman brown. explain what chairman of the joint chiefs does and why he was fired. it's just: the chairman of the

joint chiefs is mostly the top for officer in america. his main goal is to be the top military advisor the president. he's not actually in the chain of command, he and order forces to go anywhere. he is basically the uniform guide to say this is our best military advice. she was named air force chief of staff which is fully of the airport under president trump 2020 and been promoted by fighting to be the chairman several years later. the second black man to be nominated at the colin powell to have been jobs. this is a four-year term. he got about a year and a half the seat before he was fired on friday. as to why he was removed, there hadn't really many statements my the president or secretary of defense pete hegseth why they made this move. we know that very early on, there were comments from pete hegseth's house for david interview right before he was nominated for sexier defense fincen civic with her thing you do in the pentagon is fired the chairman of the joint chief because he is to woke.

seems like for a couple of weeks brown might have been safe and ultimately, hegseth seemed to signal that it was to get rid of him and that seems to have happened. host: was he involved in ddi initiatives of the pentagon? guest: certainly as chairman he spoke at events that could be dumped ei, speaking out statements about life this three month or friday and issues. that is kind of roles of chairman, to speak the military, all the military which includes members of those groups. brown had gained some prominence before he was nominated by trump for chief of staff during some of the situations in 2020 with racial divisions in the country. he spoke about his background as a black man, his experiences. perry eloquently and notably anybody unless without. that had not been an issue,

trump nominated him for the air force role after that the amount. so if that is the issue, something changed in the last four years. host: tell us about the individual that is nominated to replace him. guest: dan kane, not general dan kane because he is currently rered. he retired as air force three-star in december. not a very high-profile member of the military. not somebody a lot of people have on their radar, but a very interesting path at one point was the department of agriculture, elana classified programs, his last big stop was as a military representative to the cia. so not somebody with a very public profile. probably the most public thing about him is how president trump has talked about him in the past. his actually appeared in a number of campaign speeches throughout the years going back to when trump met him i believe in 2019 while he was downrange in the middle east. the story trump says is kane

said if you like -- let me take the gloves off i will be phthisis in a week. -- be phthisis in a week. trump has said he also came and put on a maga hat which would be against the rules for military. people have said that last part in happen. john bolton says i was there, that never happened. but he clearly made an impression on trump, enough of one that trump is reaching out to make in his top military advisor. the fact that he is a three-star and is retired creates some logistical things. this going to need to be a waiver. host: you have to be four-star? guest: a four-star who has had certain commands, where combatant command or some of the top leadership role. there are waivers built into that, but there was a process there, and we haven't seen this before were a retired person is brought on to be chairman of the joint chiefs. so this going to be a bit of a process. host: what is the process for

those waivers? guest: the president can bring some buddy back on active duty. the last time this happened most notably was 2003, the bush administration brought back somebody who had been retired to be the army chief of staff. you just have to kind of start the process, this paperwork obviously. people have to divest of any private interest he's built up over the last eight weeks since he retired. they can get done, it will get done, and i imagine that in the confirmation hearings it will probably be fine because the reality is that has happened for everyone from has put forth. but it's going to be a very interesting process to see. host: care is what president trump put on truth social about this. during my first term he was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the isis caliphate. it was done in record-setting time, a matter of weeks. many so-called military geniuses said it would take years to defeat isis.

general kane on the other hand said it could be done quickly and he delivered. what did he actually do, how was he involved? guest: he was a deputy commander during the isis fight. everyone knows the fight was not won in weeks, this was a many years operation against isis that went on. caine, he is not a super well-known figure even in military circles. obviously we've been reaching out and other outlets have as well, and the feedback we've gotten is he is very smart, he's not going to make a big scene of himself. but this is still a very unusual and surprising pick. host: if you'd like to join our conversation about what is going on at the pentagon and the pentagon budget, you can give us a call. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. we do have a line set aside for

current and former military members. you can use that same number to text us if you would like. two other high-ranking members also removed on friday. is that a big deal or is this part of a normal turnover with a new administration? guest: it is a big deal. the two people removed, admiral lisa frank kelly, the chief naval officer, and general james's life, the air force number two officer, the vice chief of staff. two things can be true. the president absolutely has the right to hire and fire general officers as he feels they fit his needs or don't. it's also not something that has historically been done, in part because of fears about politicizing the uniformed officers. the last time i believe a member of the joint chiefs of staff was fired was 2009 when bob gates fired the air force chief of staff and air force secretary,

and the reason then was that a live nuclear weapon was flown over the continental united states by accident. we have not heard if there was anything like that with franchetti, and frankly we haven't got a lot of information from pete hegseth about why he made this move. again, we are drawn back to comments that have made in the run-up to the election as well as after the election about dei hires, and is notable that franchetti was the first woman to be on the joint chiefs of staff. host: i want to play for you -- who talked about the firings at the pentagon as politicizing the military and then i will get your response. >> it's completely unjustified. these men and women were superb professionals, they were committed to their o3 defend the constitution of the united states, and apparently what trump and hegseth are trying to do is to politicize the department of defense.

and it's not surprising. they picked kash patel who is a partisan, who has no respect for the traditions of the fbi, and now they've turned dod and they want everyone in dod to be beholden to the president, not the constitution. they want everyone there to do what they are told regardless of the law. what was also startling over the weekend was firing all the generals of the military. if you're going to break the law the first thing you could do is you get rid of the lawyers. we are looking at a very dangerous undermining of the values of our military and the repercussions are being felt already. people questioning whether they should stay, talented leaders wondering if they should get out. it's the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of military and politicize should

of the military. guest: i think those fears are something we are hearing a lot both inside and outside the building. even from some people who are trump supporters. the military has, by design and by tradition always try to avoid becoming entangled in politics. there's always been a redline you don't cross in that regard. we know that president trump in the past has talked about how he feels the generals should be more loyal to him. we certainly saw his feelings about general mark milley, a former chairman of the joint chiefs of the appointed and then felt betrayed him and they were actually some legal actions launched against him since trunk -- trump took office again. host: pulling his security detail. guest: exactly. so i think there's a lot of people who are very concerned about this. again, the president has the right to remove officers as he sees fit, that is absolutely legal. but traditionally this is not a -- not been done because they are not supposed to be partisan

and political. host: let's talk about the firing of the civilian workforce at the defense department, so probationary employees have been let go at dod. tell us about what exactly is going on and what we are expecting. guest: it's a little unclear if they have been let go yet or if they've just been announced they are going to be let go. the status of that is kind of hard to ascertain. this is what we seen elsewhere in the federal government with the doge groups coming in and the first thing they do is they let go all the probationary employees because those are the easiest ones to go after. they've also said in a note that it was going to sit to fire 5%-a percent of its federal workforce. the gao said there's about 700,000 people, so that equates to something like 36,000, 50,000 people in line to lose their

jobs. that's a significant potential impact in terms of defense operations. yes, i'm sure there's absolutely some bloated bureaucracy, anyone who's been around the pentagon knows this is true. but a lot of these are jobs that have to be done to support the military operations, to support the war fighters to make sure that people in uniform don't have to do some of these other tasks. the pentagon has said it will make sure it's not going to impact actual war fighting operations. host: does this mean that the pentagon has to depend more on contractors to get certain functions done and will that cost more? guest: that's going to have to be seen. we know that elon musk who is back in the doge group and silicon valley in particular goes after this idea that you break everything down and then you rehire for the jobs that you find you need. that seems to be the attitude they are bringing to the federal workforce. i think i've very different when you're talking about building a

widget as opposed to trying to maintain continuity of government military operations. what you don't want to do is find out the guys that we fired are actually vital. we saw at the department of energy the people who do nuclear weapons, 300 of them were let go and they had to scramble to try to bring them back on because they realized we need these people. so i think you are absolutely going to see some of that naturally because there's a lot of people who do a lot of jobs that may not seem important on paper but it turns out they are part of the cause to keep things moving. guest: let's start with jeff in michigan. caller: good morning, thanks for taking my call. could you tell us why you think pete hegseth and trump fired all the jagged officers, the lawyers for the military? guest: it's a great question. unfortunately we've not gotten a lot of information out of the pentagon. frankly, since the turnover of the administration.

there haven't been clear lines of communication, so we haven't gotten a real statement about why he made this particular move. you certainly heard senator reed talking about it, saying he views it as a plea decision and a push to be able to say our laws are the laws, and that is certainly the interpretation for a lot of people who are concerned about this. the flipside here is the president has the right to hire and fire the people that he thinks the best fit for the public for what they are trying to do. host: i just want to play a quick portion of secretary hegseth being asked about general cain's qualifications. >> -- underqualified retired generals to be the joint chief of staff. >> i'm going to choose to reject your unqualified question. >> how did the ones you are replacing prevent roadblocks? >> it's not about roadblocks to

an agenda, it's roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander-in-chief. so ultimately i want the best possible lawyers in each service to provide the best possible recommendations the matter what two lawful orders that are given, and we didn't think those particular positions were well-suited, and so we are looking for the best. we are opening it up to everybody to be able to be the top order of the services. host: what is your reaction to that? guest: i think you heard right there that people are going to be concerned about what that means. these lawyers weren't willing to do what we believed our legal laws. it's important to note the jag set rules for was this action legal, is it legal to use force here or here. soy think anybody was concerned about the liberalization of the military and how this administration might try to push its own ideas through is going to seize on that clip.

host: what about the inspector general of the department of defense, is he still there, see one of the once fired, and who is in that position? guest: a number of inspectors were also let go previous to friday's firing scare. i believe the department of defense was one of them. that is in line for what we are seeing across the federal government. thank you, but we are going to put our own people in. host: robert in alabama, member of the military. caller: retired. i was a combat wounded veteran in vietnam, so i've seen the military screw up many, many, many times. and what gets me is we wanted to have the worst possible withdraw from afghanistan, you would do would biden and his punch did. and after all that disaster, no one was held accountable. no one was fired. all these generals, all they did

was cover their ass. i'm glad to see a lot of them go and probably more of them need to go. what do you think about that? guest: sure, i think anybody could reasonably say the afghanistan withdrawal was handled incredibly poorly. i think some people would point back to the initial concept of setting a deadline that we saw from president trump saying we are going to do this and then president biden sank is going to be on this date. a lot of people who covered the pentagon and were aware of military stuff for pretty quickly this is going to end badly and unfortunately and tragically it did. questions of who should be held accountable for that are certainly fair. if that was the reason for these firings, i'd love to hear a statement in clear lines giving occasion about we looked at this, we feel that brown and franchetti had a clear role in this process, other neither was on the joint chiefs at the time, and that is our reasoning. i think that would be fair if

they could explain that. host: another retired military is sean in virginia. caller: good morning. i just want to ask you a question about the pre-positioning of all the troops that are where we are in europe and what is going to happen with the chain of command with all the combat brigades with people that are supporting them, including civilian workers. thank you. guest: the forces across europe and around the world and what that is going to look like a something we are obviously going to be watching going forward. obviously there have been some comments from this administration, people in this administration about how we need to draw back from being out in the world as much. what that actually looks like, we are waiting to see. there's been no major posture

changes yet, no announcements of that. i would expect nothing really changes at least until we get a sense of what the next budget looks like, and that's going to be at least a couple of months. there is some reporting out there about some people who are now in the pentagon and what they suggested about potential cuts, but until we know more, that is just speculation about what that looks like. host: so the pentagon is looking to shift $50 billion in plan funding, how does that work and where that money be coming from? guest: when it knew it ministration comes in, it's pretty normal for them to say because of the way the budget process works, the next budget which is fiscal 2026, it's largely been built out. that is usually done really by december. when a new it ministration comes in, they take a look at what that is and they make some shift. what hegseth is doing is saying

every agency and organization needs to find 8% of its budget and plan to cut that to reinvest that in other areas that are more priorities for this administration. that's a much bigger step than we usually see. it ultimately is tinkering with the budget. it is taking was built by the biden team and saying we are going to shift tomorrow their priorities, but largely things are going to stay the same. they outlined 17 areas that are priority areas to be protected including things like munitions, nuclear weapons, small drones. to the previous callers question, interesting enough it included the pacific north which is the border, but does not include european command, or south, as areas to be protected, so you might see some force reductions to invest elsewhere. this was kind of a scrambled drill. they said you basically have three weeks to figure this out. we won't see where the what happens with that until the budget rolls out about the army

has decided to try to cancel this program or that program. usually what happens in these cases are the services say this program which had nothing to do with these protected areas is now a key part of these protected areas and try to save it. i expect we will see a lot of that. host: sherrill, new york, republican. caller: so trump fired the four-star general who he hired because he thought he was very good, he just wanted to stigmatize him and say this is a guy doing ddi. trump doesn't care about, all he cares about is loyalty and pete hegseth says he wants the best. he is not even qualified. they don't care about qualifications. trump says he wants total loyalty and to be a dictator and that is exactly what he is doing. none of this is normal. to see cash patel retweet a picture of him taking a -- to

liz cheney and he's going to be in charge of the doj, none of that is normal. host: the fbi. what do you think? guest: certainly what we've seen at the pentagon is unusual. it is rare to see officers fired. it's usually with great because when you get to this level of leadership. and again, there may be because that we are not aware of, but at this point there's been no explanation on the ground that they did something so egregious they need to be removed immediately. host: walter in cleveland, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. my question is with the savings that president trump and mosque when they make the cuts to these departments, what happens to that money, where does it go? this it go back into the government? guest: it's a great question partly because it's been a lot of questions that how much savings have actually been found. for instance, the doge group but

out a list of we've saved xyz and people said those were savings that were already there or they don't actually exist. that list was deleted and updated. where does it go? in theory, it goes back to reinvesting. we've cut x number of overhead, we don't need to spend that money. that means the next budget in theory, the top could be less which in theory means the government can spend less money and that could go toward paying off some of the debt or tax cuts. if you don't need that money, you can bring in less money in theory. we have to see how much these are real, where they actually are. host: charleston, south carolina, independent. caller: good morning. i'm also retired military but this is the line i've always called in on. i just want to speak about the

air force. a lot of people don't for the understand what the military is all about. when i was in the military, i quickly learned that, i am a black guy, and like people were in society and everything, a list of guys in the military. you do not associate with officers in the military. you don't marry officers in the military. and brown being in the air force , he had officers. in officers you got rated and non-rated. he was a rated officer. that is the top. that is the top air force that you can be is a fighter pilot.

you are a fighter pilot in the air force, you are first class. he was a captain. but he's a four-star general and a black guy. do you know how hard you've got to fight to be in a position like that? it is a tough thing. the president can do whatever he wants to do. that is exactly what he did. host: we got that. any comment on that, and also about recruitment numbers, how are they doing for the services? guest: certainly brown was well respected, really somebody who you never heard bad things about. people attacked him early on as somebody with intelligence capabilities. in terms of recruiting, i don't have numbers on hand right now. this been a recruiting member at large. the air force did fall behind

its recruiting goals the last cycle. part of the reason that secretary hegseth has talked about getting rid of ddi initiatives is in his mind recruiting has been hurt by this process, emphasis i'm going toward minority communities or listserv communities instead of more traditional military communities. so the argument for going against ddi has been this will actually help recruiting. the counterargument is well, we are going after other communities because this community is not actually stepping up recruiting the way that we needed to. so we are going to see in the numbers of things change. obviously this will be a process that takes a couple of years, you don't get numbers right away, but it will begin interesting litmus test. host: editor-in-chief of breaking defense, thanks so much for joining us. and coming up, we'll talk about the house budget billing trump agenda with members of congress. first, we will hear from representative bonnie watson

coleman, a democrat of new jersey and a member of the budget and appropriations committees. and later, republican congress in john rutherford of florida, and member of the appropriations committee. we will be right back. >> american history tv, saturdays on c-span 2. exploring the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend at 2:00 p.m. eastern on the civil war, historian kelly hancock talks about the lives of mary todd lincoln and varina davis, the wives of the civil war leaders. and a visit to the college park aviation museum in maryland with collections curator luke perez to explain the history of the world's oldest continually operating airfield and artifacts within its museum. at 70 5 p.m. eastern watch american history tv series first 100 days, as we look at the start of presidential terms. this week we focus on the early months of president lyndon johnson in 1960 three, following

the assassination of president kennedy. johnson addressed congress shortly after kennedy's death and called on members to pass civil rights legislation and that 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, university of southern california sociology professor brittany friedman on the formation and evolution of american prison gangs in the 20th and 21st centuries, explain the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span 2 and find a full schede on your program guide or watch online anytimat c-span.org/history book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here is a look at what is coming uphis weekend. ro doutat and jonathan rauch

examine the decline of religiosity in america. and then, kevin fag with his book "the lost and found: a tr story of homelessness, found family and second chances" report on the underlying issues of homelessness in america, tracing the experiences of two on housed persons in san francisco. he's interviewed by shaun donovan. and at 11:00 p.m. eastern, pagan kennedy with her book "the secret history of the rape kit" recounts the history of a forensic tool known as the rape kit. watch book tv every sunday on c-an2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at book tv.org. on tuesday, march 4, watch c-span's live coverage of president trump's address to congress, the first address of his second term and less than two months since taking office. c-span's live coverage begins at

8:00 p.m. eastern with a preview of the evening from capitol hill followed by the president's speech which begins at 9:00 p.m. eastern and then watch the democratic response after the president's beach. we will also take your calls and get your reaction on social media. you can also watch a simulcast of the evening's coverage followed by reaction from lawmakers live from capitol hill. live, tuesday march four, beginning at any like p.m. eastern on c-span, simulcast live on c-span 2 or on c-span now, the free mobile video app. also online at c-span.org. c-span, bringing you your democracy unfiltered. listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio is easy. tell your smart spent -- smart speaker play c-span radio and listen to washington journal daily, important public affairs events throughout the day, and weekdays, catch washington today. listen to c-span any time. just tell your smart speaker

play c-span radio. c-span, created by cable. c-spanshop.org is c-span's online store. browse our latest collection of c-span products, apparel, books, home decor and accessories. there's something for every c-span fan and every purchase of support our nonprofit operations. shop now or anytime at c-spanshop.org. washington journal continues. host: welcome back. we're joined now by representative bonnie watson coleman, a member of the budget and appropriations committees and a democrat of new jersey. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: this dramatic vote last night, tell us about how it went down and why you voted against it, the resolution. guest: so we thought that when

they moved the lineup of the votes that they weren't going to vote on this, so we thought we had two votes, suspension votes, and then people were clearing out. we were about on our way and got panic calls to come back immediately because republicans, i guess they found the one or two votes that they needed in order to pass this awful budget. it was just one of those unnecessary things, dramatic things that they took us through, but we are back here. the budget bill was carried by two votes. those were too hard votes to get because we spent an hour waiting in between the first and second vote, and an hour trying to get this particular vote which suggests to me that republican colleagues, and a lot of them didn't want to vote for this bill. and the reason they really want to vote for this bill is because

what is contained in it, this bill chooses to create a requirement of over $2 trillion in savings at the same time, which is just spending cuts. at the same time, it's giving instructions to one american that is, ways and means to raise up to $4 trillion in what would be new taxes. so what this is is robbing the poor to pay the rich more than they deserve or need or could spend in 10 lifetimes. so this budget cuts 880 billion dollars out of energy and commerce. that is where you have medicaid, the affordable care act and other kind of supplementals that help people stay healthy, get access to their prescriptions and things of that nature.

at the same time, increasing the probability of additional taxes, tax breaks for the wealthiest corporations. host: republicans are saying that democrats are fear mongering and that the president has promised not to cut social security, not to cut medicare or medicaid. guest: so the one thing we know about donald trump is that he is both a convicted felon and a liar. so you don't have to believe anything that he says, nor do you have to believe the things that republican colleagues in both the house and the senate are saying because they are scared to death of this dictator. so rather than vote for their constituents to ensure that they have medicaid coverage, to ensure that if they are in nursing homes they have coverage, that they have insulin or other prescriptions they can affordably get them, republican

that this stage of the game will say anything donald trump tells them to say. and since donald trump is incapable of saying the truth any time he opens his mouth and breeds, -- breeds, then we shouldn't have any expectation that his minions, which represent the majority in the house and the majority in the senate are going to tell the truth either. because at the end of the day, he will tell them something and he will turn on them if it is to his advantage. host: i want to play with speaker johnson said yesterday about the gop budget and cuts to medicaid. >> yes, let me clarify what we are talking about with medicaid. medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse. we all know it intuitively, no one would disagree. we had a hearing in budget just last week the week before last and they ask the experts, and the estimate is i think $50

billion a year in fraud alone in medicaid. those are precious taxpayer dollars. everybody is committed to preserving medicare benefits for those who desperately need and deserve it and qualify for it. but we are talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste and abuse. it doesn't matter what party you are in, you should be for that because it saves your money serve the program so that is available for the people who desperately need it. that is what we are about and that is what you're going to see happen. we want to make sure that illegal aliens who do not qualify are not on the roles, and we know that they are in many places. we can eliminate all these fraudulent payments and achieve a lot of savings. what you're doing with that as you're shoring up the program, making sure that the people who rely upon it have it and it is a better program. that's all are talking about. we further president and members of the house or public and conference say that, and no one else has said anything else except the democrat to have ads out that are lying about the

intention here. that is the fact. a leader just held up the resolution. do a word search for yourself, it doesn't even mention medicaid in the bill. host: congresswoman, what you make of that, he said there's $50 billion in fraud that could be saved and getting all the illegal aliens off the roles. guest: the one thing i can say about the speaker and the whole republican administration and the republican majority in both the senate and in the house of representatives is that they don't care about accountability. they don't care about facts. they care about creating a perception in the minds of people which is not accurate. so let me talk a bit about medicaid in particular. medicaid covers something like 700,000 new jerseyans alone, and in my district, the 12th district, there's over 125,000 people who are on medicaid, and about 15% of them or so are in

real need for nursing home and other kinds of care. so i haven't seen this $50 billion that they are talking about. i don't know that any democrat has seen this waste, fraud and abuse. the waste, fraud and abuse that we do see is elon musk trying to eliminate all kinds of regulatory oversight of those departments that have given him some problems with regard to the wares that he chooses to sell and the kind of welfare that he's gotten from the federal government to become the richest man in the world. so what i have to say about the speaker is that he simply is a mimic of donald trump and elon musk, and he shows his deference to them in ways that are absolutely sickening as a leader of the house of representatives

elected to take care of the needs of their constituents. and let me say one other thing about constituents. when we were in the budget hearing, he's absolutely right that the instructions to these respective committees does not tell you exactly where to cut the money. but we know based upon their history and based upon the 2025 plan and based upon the things that they say that medicaid is one of the things that they are trying very hard to change. they will try to prioritize and they will try to diminish any kind of support, service, supplementation that goes to the needy in our communities. that is so that they can put more money into their pockets and into their corporations. this is for billionaires, and billionaires simply pay their

fair share, if billionaires and corporations to pay their fair shares, we wouldn't be having a discussion about whether or not we have enough money to pay for education, public education vs. private education. we wouldn't worry about paying medicaid and medicare and social security for those in greatest need, and we wouldn't be worried about making sure their children have healthy food and that food stamps are available and any supplementation to needy and working families, and we wouldn't be worried about people having to live in this richest country in the world with the vicious -- richest men in the world living under a floor that is necessary for their well-being. no one in this country should live beneath a floor that doesn't meet their needs for food, health care, shelter, work

opportunity and public education. government has a responsibility here, and this administration and this doge and this elon musk immigrant white supremacist is doing everything that they can to reduce the services that are so important to the well-being of this country by cutting significant programs and significant departments, eliminating even departments. it is the biggest betrayal that we've experienced from a candidate who lied his way through the campaign and then has command don as quickly as possible, as quickly as possible , several deals that are designed to dismantle, take away

and make more vulnerable people in most need. host: and our phone lines are open. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you like to join our conversation, you can call in now, a democrat of new jersey. and we will get started right away with william in north carolina, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. good morning, madam congresswoman. i agree with everything you are saying but i think that the bigger issue that people are missing is i don't think -- i think trump is an agent of the republican party. i think 2025, we got the quickest budget we've ever written up, of course you did, he just followed the blueprint of 2025, that is what the republicans did. get rid of medicaid, that is one of the first things they want to do. and these maga headzs need to

look at this and realize that the women are also a target in this project 125. the books they want to ban, some of their viewpoints on what women's roles are in the world. i think this whole di thing is silly in a large sense because the constitution itself is di. and they can't stand when they say alien, by the way, i think you are right. my question would be what is it that the democrats don't have as majorities? i understand that and i know that executive orders really are just proclamations. what is it you can do to prevent , it may be tough for the budget to get past, but what can you do to really sure up some kind of strong defense against the guy that has lied constantly? he's given us nothing but

falsehoods from the moment he got elected. he isn't working on the economy at all, and i really do think that the press for all this is take away from all the people who can't afford to fight because they are too worried about everything else. and i think it is a larger part, in my opinion, his plan is larger than just hurting us short-term. i think he really wants to oppress us and become more like a communist nation in the sense of china. host: let's go ahead and get a response for you. guest: thank you. i don't disagree with a thing you said, first of all. we do have a dictator. he said he was going to be a dictator on the first day and he has shown us that that is what he is trying to be. the courts are trying to stop in a little bit and clearly members of congress are trying to stop him as much as we can, but this government is of, by and for the people. so your distain for what is

happening has to be manifested in the things that you do, and you say to other folks. whether or not you do on platforms, on internet platforms or you do it when a demonstration shows up. this is the time when this has to be manifest with people actually doing something. thank god right now that the courts have put a stop or a pause to a lot of the harmful things that he and elon musk have tried to do. you said that donald trump is an agent of the republican party. i say that he is an agent of the right wing heritage foundation and other foundations. the republican party has a good history. there were times when they were doing the right thing. the republican party worked with the democratic party and the democratic party worked with the

republican party on behalf of the people. we don't have that anymore. they may have this moniker over their heads that they are republican, but they are nothing like the republican party that helped to make this country great. host: this is john in johnstown, pennsylvania, democrat. caller: good morning. the other night i listened to, or i watched the budget show, the budget hearing, and there was a lady, a representative from new mexico, i think her name was fernandez, i'm not sure about that. she brought up the fact that musk called the people on medicaid parasites, now let me ask you. our young mothers a parasite? i the disabled a parasite? are the elderly a parasite? our nursing homes parasites? are hospitals parasites, which

by the way are being closed because of the cutbacks, is the snap program a parasite? that was also mentioned in that budget hearing. and also, brendan boiled of pennsylvania product the fact that most of the debt that we have today was created by republican presidents starting with ronald reagan, george w. bush and donald trump. so that was also in that budget hearing. and by the way, the republican party reminds me of the saying of the great gatsby. they break things up and then hide in their money and let other people clean up their mess. that's what i think about the republican party and also the heritage society. as far as i'm concerned, it's a subversive organization and it is really hurting this country. so those are my comments for today. thank you. guest: thank you for sharing your concerns with ask, you have

rightfully inappropriately interpreted the impact of what they are proposing in this budget. and i ask you to share with others what your thoughts are and to stand up for us and to make sure that you are making your feelings and your understanding known to others. host: hears melissa in bloomfield, iowa, independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i guess my concern is you sit there and say they are worried about medicare and medicaid. what they are doing is they are taking illegal immigrants, people who do not belong in this country, off of those programs. so the people that do pay taxes and do belong here can actually receive benefits and services that they need for assistance to help them and their families. number two, don't act like you

can hear me. host: melissa, come on, what do you mean don't act like you can't hear me? caller: she is holding her ear like she couldn't hear me? host: there is a delay so please just listen on your phone, don't look at the screen. caller: number two, you want to call donald trump a liar? i'm sorry but the democrats have been lying for the last six years. you guys sat there and said how biden was this great person and how he was healthy and will he had no clue what was going on. and joe biden was running his cabinet hearings. guest: thank you very much for your call in, and i would be careful of the kool-aid i am drinking if i were you. host: here is hank in south carolina, republican line, go ahead. caller: yes, can i ask the

congress lady a couple of questions. host: short. --sure. caller: my first question, why would you call anyone a white supremacist who is trying to help the country? i'm glad he's helping. guest: is that a standalone question? host: go ahead and answer that one, and hank, stay on the line. guest: i think it's obvious that donald trump is a white supremacist and elon musk is a white supremacist and b have a whole bunch of white supremacist. and that is because of the way that they act, the way that they have no dignity, no respect, no humanity for anybody other than straight white men. so if you are not one of those, you need to be worried. that is why i call them white supremacists, because they are white supremacist. and not only is your present a white supremacist, he is a convicted felon. he should not be in that office. host: go ahead with your second question. caller: [laughter]

hey lady, you need to look in the mirror when you get to calling people racist and white supremacist. i'm glad elon musk is here. he was the one that started paypal, spacex, tesla, all these other companies. he's a smart man. why in the world, he could have gone to any country but he chose the united states. thank you. guest: actually he chose germany as well and tried to interfere in their elections, and elon musk has been so successful because he has successfully gotten to so much of our federal money and support to support all of his projects. and that is what he is trying to protect now, and to get more. why he needs more is beyond me, because neither any of those oligarchs, those billionaires can spend their money in lifetimes, 10 lifetimes.

so i'm going to stand up to him, i'm going to call him what he is, and i'm going to push back on your notion that there's anything that they've done that has been helpful to those whom they should be serving, and that is those who are in need in this country. host: houston texas, democrat, good morning. go ahead. sorry, we cannot hear that. velma is in ashland, kentucky, republican. caller: yes, hello. man, like most democrats, you have this long list of waste, fraud, debt -- host: velma, say it again, please. caller: she like most just long

list, in the moment it is brought up press your dissatisfaction with trump and elon musk. and i don't know if you grab more money than he set out to or not but most people in politics do. so i've yet to hear a single democrat address this long, long list of waste and fact of our money. i think the biggest problem is you all can't stand to think that the republican party would have any success and make any improvement to the contrary, and your kool-aid comment really was uninvited. thank you. host: congresswoman, did you hear? guest: i hurt her, i could not understand her. host: she's asking you about the long list of fraud, what she called fact and abuse of our taxpayer money, and why democrats aren't addressing that. guest: will first of all i think

the one thing we need is the facts. republican have been short on facts. they say they are saving this, saving that. my question really is if you are going to say $50 billion, why are you going to give or trillion dollars more in savings and tax breaks to those who don't need it? i don't know what she's talking about in terms of waste, fraud and abuse, but let me tell you about bureaucracies. bureaucracies have a tendency to have some redundancy. they certainly have a tendency to have a lot of paperwork and a lot of having to prove who you are when you are asking for services. in fact, if anything i think that there should be less bureaucracy when it comes to people who need food stamps, when it comes to people who need their medicare, medicaid. from people who need to be able to purchase their prescriptions,

particularly their insulin for $35 a month. all of those things this administration has attempted to get rid of in executive orders. it is wrong, it is probably illegal, and it is not helpful. and i hope that the woman on the line is in a position that she does not need those services that we tend to need when we get older and perhaps you are not at the highest income. but one thing i think republicans have been very good at, that is fooling people that they care about them when in fact they don't. host: peter is in baltimore, maryland, independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question to your cast is i wanted to know what the democratic party is doing right now, representing themselves to

the american voters and the country as getting a better alternative because most of what i see no from the democrat party is trying to kind of react to what is going on. my assumption is that the way the american voters voted for trump was because of dissatisfaction. so i think that going forward, american citizens should have strong political alternatives. i want to know what the democrat party is doing to renew and reinvigorate themselves for the future. thank you. guest: i think i got part of that. the question is what are

democrats trying to do to reinvigorate the people, those of whom made a decision to vote for trump and particularly are sorry that they have because they understand that those initiatives that are being advanced by the trump administration are harmful to their well-being, i say that we are doing and number of things. we believe that there are three main strategies, to litigate, to legislate and then to mobilize. so we are precluded in many respects from direct litigation because of the interpretation that the only person that can file litigation on behalf of the house of representatives interests is the speaker, and so we know that the speaker is a subsidiary and puppet of donald trump so we are not going to probably be able to do any of that. but what we will do is align ourselves with allies who are filing these litigations against

various efforts that the trump administration and the elon administration are trying to advance. secondly, we do have legislation and resolutions that speak to the actual moment that seeks to stop the kind of cuts that they are talking about, that speak to the protection whether it is at the border, legitimacy of immigration, pushing back on the separation of families as well as stopping the closure of the department of education. if you know 2025's plan you know things that get hit from soup to nuts, they have plans to privatize, reduce or eliminate those services. the other thing we think is very

important is to mobilize. that is the third leg on that stool. we are trying to do that by putting ourselves out there on every platform that will invite us, we are in communities, we are holding town halls, we are participating. i participated in a rally on behalf of the federal workers. we are very much trying to communicate to constituents and to citizens in this country specifically in a way that they understand how these executive orders and these plans to dismantle government and to dismantle democracy, what that really means at the kitchen table, in your bathroom, your bedroom. whether or not you will even have shelter. and so i thank you for asking that question, i ask that you pay attention to every show that

talks about politics, even the shows the talk about politics from the other perspective, so that you know what they are saying to fact-check everything. host: it is black history month i wanted to ask you about the black history matters act that you introduced. guest: black history is part of our history. i am sitting right now on a chair in a building that black slaves built. black contributions to this country and the inventions from ironing boards to plasma, to all kinds of important operations and things of that nature, they have been contributions from black people trade it is important that you protect for our children, our history so that they can understand and see who they are and value who they

are because we as americans value the diversity of this country including black history. so we want to ensure that where schools want to teach it, we want to support it. and where people are trying to shut it down we want to make sure that children, white children, black children, asian children, children from all walks of life understand all of their history and in this particular situation, it is a dire importance for us to ensure that our communities understand black history because i think that unfortunately because we are dealing with white supremacists so much, the first thing that they look at and of the greatest problem with is the blackness of people in our country. host: represented of bonnie

watson coleman a democrat of new jersey and member of the budget appropriations committees also democratic deputy whip for policy thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having the right have a great day. >> later in the progr will be joined by republican congressman john rutherford of florida member of the appropriations committee. but first it is open forum. you can start calling in now, republicans 202-748-8001. democrats 202-748-8000. independents 202-748-8002. >> nonfiction book lovers, c-span has a number of podcasts read was in the best-selling nonfiction offers an influential interviewers on q&a hear wide-ranging conversations with nonfiction offer -- authors and others were making things happen. and book notes plus episodes and hour-long conversations a regular feature authors on a

wide variety of topics. find all of our podcasts by downloading the free c-span now app or every get your podcasts. and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> 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. ♪ >> on tuesday, march 4, watch

c-span's live coverage of president trump's address to congress, first in his second term in less than two months since taking office but c-span live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern with a preview of the event from capitol hill followed by the president's speech. and then watch the democrat response after the president's speech. we will take your calls and get your reaction of social media. you can also watch a simulcast of the evenings coverage followed by reaction from one from lawmakers. watch live tuesday, march 4 beginning at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span bread simulcast live on c-span two or on c-span now. also online at c-span.org. bringing you your democracy unfiltered. 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 markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select video spring the timeline tool 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 point of interest. >> washington journal continues. >> welcome back. a couple of items for you this is the associated press with this article saying a federal judge on tuesday gave the trump administration less than two days to release billions of dollars in u.s. foreign aid saying the administration had given no sign of complying with its nearly two week old court order to ease its funding freeze. it says nonprofit groups and businesses that receive federal money for work say the freeze breaks federal law and has had to shut down funding for even

the most urgent lifesaving programs abroad. the u.s.istrict court judge on february 13 had ordered the administration at least temporarily to get funding flowing again. including to make good on its bills. despite the order, staffers and businesses and nonprofit groups say they know of no payments that have gotten through. and we will go to your calls now to jerry in carrollton, ohio. caller: good morning. i just got out of the hospital. i just want to say i've never in my life heard such untruthful people that can get on the tv and say what they say and i'm not saying c-span, it's some of the people on like this congressman, that lady she is so

racist and it is just a shame that nobody wants to look for this fraud and abuse that's going on and has been going on for i don't know how long. and the biggest thing i find out about the democrat party is when they run for election that's all they want to do is make the 1% pay for everything. the 1% are them. they aren't going to tax themselves. i've never seen them tax the sides like that. and it's just a shame that we can come together and weed out all of this fraud and abuse that's been going on for god only knows how long. i just hope the democrat party is not involved in some of this to tell you the truth. that's all i've got to say. thank you. host: this is stephen tennessee, democrat. caller: good morning.

when i call i usually talk about perception and how your perception can be wrong but today i would like to talk about the tax cuts, particularly pertaining to medicare. other than tennessee, 19% of the population of tennessee receives some kind of medicaid. this was a totally red state. these people are going to find out if medicaid is cut what they've done to themselves. this thing about giving waivers, tax-free tips, there are thousands of waivers in this country at over $500 a day in tips that work in these very exclusive restaurants and make a killing. most of them are in their 50's. so in 2017 trump said and i

heard him say this, that the average family would get $2000 in tax savings. my neighbor a retired doctor has got 10,000 a year in tax cuts and i have received $320 in tax cuts. so the math isn't there. the only way the deficit is going to get under control is to raise taxes and cut spending. if they don't do it by just cutting taxes. finally, in 2025 mr. trump said there will be no cuts to social security, medicare or medicaid so we will find out if that is a true statement or not. thank you so much for taking my call. host: for your schedule later at 10:00 a.m. right after this

program over on c-span3 've oral arguments in ames versus ohio department of services, of the case deals with a heterosexual woman who a her employer discriminated against her on the basis of sexual orientation. live coverage starts on c-span3 and on c-span now and online on sp.org. at 11:00 a.m. our federal judge aederal judge gave the trumpet administrati deadline for u.s. foreign aid following the admintrion's funding freeze and staff cuts at usaid. witnesses testified about foreign aid and spending priorities at a house oversight subcommittee hearing on delivering on government efficiency. that's live 11:00 a.m. eastern on our app c-span now and it is online at c-span.org. here is -- we lost aaron.

here is gina in mississippi. >> good morning. i would like to respond to something the prior guest said. first of all, i am sure that most people listening know personally people who are committing medicaid fraud. i'm ashamed to say there are several members of my family who are committing medicaid fraud. it is really sad, the people -- it is just sad that people don't care about the budget of their own country. another thing about this is yet again i'm reminding everybody that 50% of american people pay

no federal tax. why don't they have to start paying tax? and this earned income credit that most of these young girls, who have all these babies on medicaid we've seen thousands and thousands of dollars a year and i've seen it with my own eyes. so let's just not be stupid. i would also like to say to the nice lady that americans are no longer stupid, we know who the liars are, it's the democratic party in the last 10 years because they hate donald trump. these are just bare facts. and democrats never have facts to back up their lies. i'm sick of it and i thank god a majority of american people smart enough to see through

these lies. and also the lady was 80 years old. and i hope they put age limits are coming. thank you. host: here is sherry in iowa. democrat. >> i was just curious as to our money that we worked hard all of our lives, i'm 70. we paid social security out of our income tax, out of our paychecks, it is taken out your federal and social security is taken out. and now they want to cut those programs? how are the older folks going -- we didn't all become disabled because we chose to and i do not get disability. so sometimes we are in a situation where we don't choose to be. and for him to be cutting all of these programs making it tough

on older folks. i am not going to cut down republican or democrat or liberal, i choose to see what's happening in the world today and it kind of scares me. and that is basically what i have to say. i didn't know where our social security meant -- went. it's not taken out of our paychecks. host: this is the new york times with this article white house moves to pick pool reporters who cover trump and announcing plans to hand select the reporters who can ask the presidents questions -- the president questions but the white house breaking decades of president here is the white house press secretary announcing those changes to the white house press corps. [video clip] >> we want to double down and give greater access to the american people. we want more outlets and new outlets to have a chance to take part in the press pool, to cover

this administration's unprecedented achievements up close front and center. as you all know for decades a group of dc-based journalists, the white house correspondents association has long dictated which journalists get to ask questions of the president of the united states in these most intimate spaces. not anymore. i am proud to announce that we are going to give the power back to the people who read your papers, who watch her television shows and who listen to your radio stations. moving forward, the white house press pool will be determined by the white house press team, legacy outlets who have participated in the press pool for decades will still be allowed to join thier not, but we will also be offering the privilege to well deserving outlets who have never been allowed to share in this awesome responsibility. just like we added a new media seat in his briefing room, legacy media outlets who have been here for years will still participate in the pool.

but new voices are going to be welcomed as well. as part of these changes we will continue the rotation amongst the five major television networks to ensure the president's remarks are heard far and wide around this. we will add additional streaming services which reach different audiences than traditional cable and broadcast. this is the ever-changing landscape of the media in the united states today. we will continue to rotate was the great response ability of transcribing the president's remarks and disseminating that to the rest of the world. and we will add outlets who have long been denied the privilege to partake in this experience and are committed to covering this white house beat. we will continue to rotate a radio cooler and at other radio hosts would been denied access especially local radio host to serve as the heartbeat of our country. and we will add additional outlets and reporters who are well suited to cover the news of the day and ask substantial

questions of the president of the united states depending on the news he is making on that day. this administration is shaking up washington in more ways than one. as i've said since the first day behind this podium it is beyond time the white house press operation reflects the media habits of the media habits of the american people in 2025 not 1925. >> back to the calls in open forum. stan in maryland independent good morning. caller: good morning, can you hear me. host: yes we can, go ahead. caller: i just want to say c-span i like it in most cases. i want to mention your previous guest was wild, racist and really low class and you really need to tell your guests not to insult you know people calling in.

the comment about kool-aid was completely out of place. and it shows you how people like her you know despise and she's stating everything about other people which is about herself. i think she's a racist because of the mentioning of the you know skin color related to the clarification of persons is stupid in my opinion because i'm an immigrant myself and i don't really like when people you know devote so much time to race. i understand the united states has a lot of problems in the past, find me a country on the earth that didn't have it problems in the past. so it just really looks very badly on c-span when you don't even comment on that or correct them or let her ramble about lies when she is lying through

her teeth herself. also i have to admit c-span is kind of complacent because as listeners correctly noted in this bill that was passed yesterday the cuts to medicare or medicaid were not even mentioned. so i think it -- until it becomes fact it's all rumors. in the way she was talking is very insulting. host: we've got that. this is mary in akron, ohio. >> i wanted to talk about some local news real fast. yesterday on the front page it said i believe it was akron city council is no longer purchasing israel bonds so all the jewish people in ohio in akron i hope you hear that. what i am calling about is the

democratic party and the way they spin this immigration story is so ridiculous. ok. they try to make it out like -- the republicans are being mean and we don't want immigrants in our country. i just want to put it out there, you know, joe biden let 20 million immigrants into our country, he did this with mayorkas as the head of homeland security -- what he did was, in 2021, when they had all those people gather underneath that bridge in texas, the conservative democrats went to mayorkas and said we can have this pool of people underneath the bridge like this again because it looks bad on us. so we will go into the midterms. then they just decided to start bussing them all over the country through the night bringing them into all of these communities.

300,000 children came in without parents because you have kids seven and over, they won't let you through. um, they are draining our -- entitlement programs, which i don't really consider them entitlement programs. but i have people in my own family who are living on 800, $900 a month, social security they worked all their lives to take care of their children. and we've got people coming into this country who have never lived here, have no ties to this country getting 25 -- 5000. mayorkas got in front of congress and said i took care of the problem, what he did was start shipping all the people through the night, then he -- fired all the immigration judges and put people in there who only had been -- who only had like a

five week course and they were told you let these people in or else by the government and i just don't know how anybody can believe anything the democrats say or do when they try to make out like we hate immigrants. that is not true. and over -- before joe biden became president, after joe biden became president, 90% of the people coming in were mexican. now it's only 45%. the rest of them are coming from 100 65 countries that we don't even know where they are coming from. you people need to wake up. host: here's janine in frankfort, kentucky. independent. caller: this is my first call in and i do love your program. it is hard to hear both sides of the story because it seems like some people don't really hear you know what the truth is.

but i loved hearing from bonnie coleman, the representative she gave a lot of points. the budget i just feel like it really makes no sense to take from the poor to give to the rich. i'm no genius, but to me that -- it is not right. and the recent firing of the government workers, the way it was done, i myself was a government worker. i retired after 32 years with the v.a.. and most are very dedicated people who love our country and think of their job as serving our country. they are fired with disrespect and no decency. and having to answer to someone who is outside of the civil

service. and even outside of our country, i just grieve for the ones who have to face this. i'm glad i retired when i did in 2019. and also, the associated press article that was talked about how it does not look like trump is complying with the courts orders, of course he is not. he never has. that is the whole problem. he thinks he does not have to do what the regular law-abiding citizens have to do. did i say enough, i could go on about immigration if you want me to. but i think i think i've probably spoken enough. host: i will remind you we have a hearing about usaid and that foreign funding freeze at 11:00 a.m. on our website.

and this is margot in portland, oregon, independent. caller: good morning mimi. i wanted to just add my experience to what is being called waste fraud and abuse. and just tell the american people that when my father died in 2021, april 1, he was 95 years old and taking care of my mom and dad and social security claws back his check that was deposited in the previous month. and i was a little bit like that is harsh maybe they will let him -- let my mom have that money. so just to hear another sounding voice of reason i know there's a lot of talk that 160-year-old people are getting social security checks, i can attest

that that is not the case for my dad. and i just unveiled that there is fraud in our information is not being protected. i kept getting the statements from medicare that somebody was trying to bill from like five years ago. i finally got on the phone and they said they were not paying because there is a two-year stipulation for health care to bill them. so i called my health care provider when they were talking with my dad and they weren't doing it either. so i know i've gotten several data breach notices and my dad has been dead for five years now. so this is just showing waste fraud and abuse yes but we need to look at why this is happening. we need to protect our information and i don't think what's going on with elon musk and these people is going to do that. host: wanted to share this from

the new york post, this is an article that says trump shares ai video of his vision for gaza. featuring giant gold statues and him lounging poolside with netanyahu. we will play that for you, this is from president trump's truth social account and it is ai generated. [video clip] ♪ host: that was on president trump's truth and social account

and ai generated. here is andy in kentucky, republican. caller: good morning. [laughter] propaganda you all spread. host: propaganda we spread? what do you mean by that? caller: in 1995 when clinton was president, federal employees were 1.9 million. as of last year, our population has increased from 278 million at that time in 1995 to now approximately 340 million. now federal employees today remember the 4.5 million --

host: 2.2 million. the number you might have may be including active military. caller: so we have a much greater military. i thought it was less than what it was in 1995. host: the federal workforce is just over 2 million. so from 70 million population increase was that on part of our economy? 24% of our economy. host: i'm afraid i can't do those numbers in my head but that seems on far -- on park. we have representative john rutherford up next. we will be right back.

>> american history tv, saturdays on c-span exploring two, the people and events that tell the american story. this weekend on the civil war, kelly hancock talks about the lives of mary todd lincoln and marina davis -- va davis. and then looking at the oldestrina continuing operating field and artifacts museum. watch the series first 100 days as we look at the start of the presidential terms. this week we focus on the early months club president lyndon johnson's term following the assassination of john f. kennedy in 1963. he called on members to pass

civil rights legislation. at 8:00 p.m. eastern in lectures in history, university of so california sociology professor on the formation and evolution of the prison gangs in the 20th and 21st centuries, exploring the american story, watch american history tv saturdays on c-span two. find a full schedule or watc online anytime at c-span.org/history. >> book tv every sunday on c-span two features leading authors discussing nonfiction books. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the author of believe and the author of cross purposes examine the decline of religiosity in america and what it means for the health of american democracy. and then on aerwards, the book the lost and the phone, a story of homelessness, found family in

second chances looking at homelessness in american tracing the history of to un-housed persons. and at 11:00 p.m. eastern, the secret history of the rape kit and recounts a printed tool to collect evidence and crimes of sexual assault, now known as the rape kit. watch book tv every sunday on c-span two and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online and a time at book tv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by representative john rutherford, a republican of florida in a member of the appropriations committee. welcome back to the program. guest: good to be with you. host: let's start with the gop resolution that passed bridge voted for it. guest: because it really is the first stop in reclaiming the

kind of economic growth that america had back in president trump's first term after we had the tax cuts. we were looking at 3.2 or 3.5 and one we even had .2% gdp growth. it is going to be very important if we are going to get out of this national debt that we are looking at three weird we have to cut art wait to paying it and grow. this stuff last night by a passing this concurrent resolution bill, what it will allow us to do is it gives instructions and sets the parameters for going forward with a reconciliation bill. it is kind of like instructions

from the budget committee, but all of the other committees to go do their work to cut and the floor of the cuts we are looking for is $.5 trillion over 10 years. so all of those committees will now go out and develop their own bill come own budget bills each one visually for their area of authorization, and then they will present those to the budget office or committee in the budget committee will take all of those bills, roll them into one big beautiful bill, as you hear president trump say. host: part of it is requiring the house energy and commerce committee to find $880 billion in cuts. part of that committee is

medicaid. does that mean medicaid is on the table for cuts? guest: no one's benefits are going to be cut. if there is waste, fraud, and abuse, we are going to go after that and we do believe there is some in there. host: the estimate is $50 billion per that is a long way from $880 billion. guest: the commitment has been we are not going to change. no one's benefits are going to be impacted at all. and so every committee, and that is why passing this last night was so important because now we get to do that work can search for the cuts in all 12 committees. host: in addition to medicaid, the children's health insurance program. will that be cut?

will there be any cuts to those benefits? guest: i don't know. we have to wait and see what the committee does. i can't talk about specific cuts because i haven't been any made it yet. so this resolution that we passed last night simply accept those parameters for the cuts that they need to find what the 1.5 trillion dollars. that is not the top line. it is the floor. they can cut more than that if they can find more than that. in addition to that, this bill will also address the border, energy independence, lowering taxes for everyone. there is $4.5 trillion that will become available in ways and means and maintain the tax cuts that we started back in

president trump's first term. host: is a higher priority to maintain tax cuts at a cost of $4.5 trillion or to cut the $2 trillion? if you can only do one of the other to maintain the tax cuts? guest: if you tie my hands and say you can only do one or the other, i would rather do the tax cuts. but we can do both and we should do both. we need to cut and we need to grow. the tax cuts are going to help us grow, just like we saw in trump's first term. the gdp growth numbers, nobody had ever seen numbers like that before. that will also -- the instructions in the resolution last night also provides an additional hundred billion dollars for national defense, which president trump is worried

about and also provides $200 billion to homeland security for securing the border and all of the cost of getting folks out of the country who are here illegally. host: you can join our conversation with representative john rutherford, the publican from florida. republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. some of your colleagues have gone back and gotten negative feedback from constituents about doge and the impact is having on them. what are you hearing from your constituents? guest: i have constituents who have worries as well. part of what is going on is that doge is i want more information

about what's going to happen before it happens they are moving so fast. so people are concerned, but i think when you see what is being cut. and look, we have i think over 2 million federal workers. there is a lot of bloat in the federal government, particularly since the biden administration added people just willy-nilly it seems. so the president, who is the executive of all of these executive branch agencies has the duty and the power in the authority to do, whether it is a reduction in force, cuts to

programs, he has that responsibility. host: regarding the inspector general's he fired at 14 or so, there is a law protecting them saying that the president can fire them but they have to let congress know 30 days in advance and give a reason for their firing. that was not followed. are you as a congressman going to hold the president accountable to those? guest: i'm not sure how we would hold him accountable. i guess we could -- host: say something that we need to know what the reason is for the firings. guest: if i'm going to do a reduction in force firing is one thing. a reduction in force is something different. and so i think if i am going to

make a decision that i am going to lay off a lot of people, then i'm not going to telegraph that. host: but this specifically was asking about the inspector general's. guest: that is a big group of individuals and i'm going to lay off 14 of them, i don't think i'm going to tell any buddy in advance. host: but that is the law. guest: i think if you're going to fire somebody, you have to tell them. it was a reduction in force. host: let's talk to callers. patty and democrat in pennsylvania. -- patty, an democrat in pennsylvania. caller: i am looking up numbers for the number of chip and medicaid recipients in your district. but i know it is fairly high.

i know your district. i would like to know how you are going to justify to those folks are you're not terribly concerned about whether maybe or maybe not those children get health care going forward and i would also like to know because i am still scraping my jaw off of the floor after that crazy ai generated video that trump shared that mimi aired. i want to know how you feel about that. what are we going to do, take our troops, no new wars, clear out gaza and build trump towers in trump statues? are you going to stand up against of this craziness. that is what i want to know. host: let's get a response. guest: i think some of those things you have to take for what they are. i don't think that is his intention. i don't think he is going to

build all of that. i think it is a bit of humor and lord knows we can use to some humors. and also she asked about the medicaid. no benefits are going to be cut. benefits are being protected. no american is going to be thrown off of the medicaid, but there is plenty of waste, fraud, and abuse in that system that we think we can certainly do a much better job than previous administrations have done. host: here is pat in keyport, new jersey, republican. caller: can you please clarify what you mean when you talk about one point $5 trillion over 10 years. it comes out to maybe a hundred 50 billion a year, which is

minimal and when you are running multi trillion dollar deficits, where is that going to go but up? guest: great point, pat. when you look at it year-over-year, it is not as tragic as some people think. $1.5 trillion, that is over 10 years and so, but they are substantial cuts because the projection on the national debt is well above that and it is also why i think that it is not enough that we try to cut our way out of this. we also have to grow, and the growth we saw, this was an interesting number when president trump and his first term, one percentage point of gdp growth, the congressional

budget office scored that tax cut jobs act bill with a one point 9% gdp growth over the next 10 years. and i am no economist, but i know if you allow people to keep $4.5 trillion more of their money, you allow businesses to keep more of their money, giving families, child tax credits, i know they are going to spend that money and invest it in the economy and it is going to grow and it did. we mention that it was growing at 3.2 or three point five or 4.2, i asked the ways in means chairman at the time and what is one extra percentage point of growth worth. instead of 1.9, what if we are

consistent at two point nine. that number was $274 billion. they had a score that bill as a $1.2 trillion deficit over 10 years. but it was not, because they incorrectly projected the gdp growth based on the cuts that we were going to make. a lot of this, it does sound bigger when you talk about 10 years, but that is the way they do it up here. host: here is jim in missouri, democrat. caller: congressman, you have repeated the talking point that tax cuts bring in more money. my question is, if the trump tax cuts brought in more money, how did we increase the debt by $8 trillion from recorded that money go? guest: that money was in the ara

, the ira, a lot of the programs that came after president trump left office. the whole green new deal and those projects. host: this is phil in marion, virginia, a republican. caller: i have a question. do you believe businesses should repay any bailouts that they get ? host: any kind of what? caller: the bailouts for covert or bankruptcy or whatever. host: bailouts for businesses? guest: no. i don't thing any business is too big to fail. i thought that was a mistake in

2008. i wasn't here, but i cannot tell you i would never vote for a bailout like that. host: here is grant in clarksville, tennessee, independent. guest: i haven't trying -- caller: i brian -- i have been trying to get in touch with you to take -- thank you. but now my thing is with trump and elon musk and the video in gaza. he says he wants to do that. i get sick of the republicans bending over backwards. i am an american, period. donald trump and elon musk have gone too far.

how are you an example when you keep breaking the law but keep talking about the law. you have a press secretary, they wanted to decide who comes in so they can determine what questions did they ask in what they are supposed to report. that is not free speech. that is dictatorship. misinformation, the republicans, you don't work for a donald trump, you work for the american people. they put you there, not donald trump. i think the biggest problem is they fear him. they have given him and elon musk too much power. donald trump talks about security. how would secure it when you have individuals going through personal information that has not been cleared? host: i want to ask about what he set about the fear of getting primary.

elon musk is clear that if you go against donald trump, we will primary you and he has the money to do it. are you afraid of that? guest: no, because i don't think he is going to ask me anything that i wouldn't want to do. you have to remember, grant, the american public put president trump into office. and he is now doing exactly what he said he was going to do. in fact, his approval numbers are 53%. and 70% of folks pulled said he is doing exactly, including democrats, what he said he was going to do when he got elected. so i don't know how you get mad at that. the video, grant, take a breath. everybody needs to just relax and enjoy some of the humor around you.

host: since you are a former law enforcement officer. i want to ask you about the fbi. there is an nbc news article about the fbi agents express shock and dismay over it naming of a right wing podcaster to the number two post. that is dan mangino. he was called them irredeemably corrupt and suggested monday that he was prepared to step out of his role as a maga warrior. will you shocked and dismayed? guest: not really because we need those kind of disruptors. i will tell you, i went to the fbi national academy, hundred 70 first session. i was very proud of my affiliation with the fbi. work that we did together not only during my time growing up in the agency in jacksonville but also my time as a sheriff. and i have to tell you, i was on

judiciary my first term appear and i read those emails from peter strzok and lisa page, andy mccabe, my blood ran cold. it was scary. and then i look at some of the violations, tens and tens of thousands of the 702 code violations. host: explained thatexplain that. -- explain that. guest: when you can query for the national -- international.

let's say it all goes to the soleimani inbox. you can't read it also it goes on we will call it an inbox. what i do read, i see a happy birthday mimi from soleimani. and now i'm like soleimani and mimi are talking? now i can go to my inbox and say, i want to see all of the conversations that i have legally collected. i want to see all of those and see what other correspondence you have gotten. and then if i see mimi, the bomb is on the way, then i know i have to go get a warrant to further investigate. host: so you're saying any of of those queries on an american is illegal? guest: that is the legal

process. the illegal is when i have a predicate act, i saw mimi on c-span, i think i am going to run her in the soleimani box and because she is in the soleimani inbox i'm going to run her in the maduro inbox. you can't do that. they did that thousands and thousands of times in violation. i am deeply concerned about what is going on at the fbi, deeply. i have to say that i do believe the men and women at the field level, the ones that i work with her great folks. they love the constitution. but the cabal here, no. host: i want to ask you about the bill you reintroduced called the protect and serve act. tell us what it does and what you expect will happen in the senate. guest: last year police office

were targeted by ambush, just ambushed, 61 times. 79 officers were shot in those 61 ambushes. 50 officers last year were killed by gunfire. so it was given a divorce and that was actually down some which is good news to us. but when i drafted this bill which flew through the house in 2018 because of all the anti-police rhetoric that was out there and the fact that ambushes were up significantly, now i tilt folks, if you want to target the police, i am going to target you and we are going to come after you with a federal violations that is on top of whatever inmate faces in your estate but if you want to target the police and harm a police officer, you are going to get a 10 year minimum mandatory. if you kidnap or kill one, it is life if he dies or is murdered,

the death penalty. host: let's see if we can get a call from patrick, naples, florida, democrat. caller: i come from a long line of southern democrats in spent half of my life being brainwashed and the other half making amends. i am looking at the same thing over and over again. i want to know the difference between hillary's females and trump stealing thousands of our pertinent documents and the difference between the swamp and all of the stuff the republicans complain about being in washington and not letting elon in his little army take over our country. you are a disgrace, sir. i'm sorry. guest: listen, patrick.

have to tell you that elon is not making any of these changes. he reports to the president and the president being the executive of the executive branch running all of these executive agencies, they make the decisions on what to do about what he has found. so you talk about the emails and i guess crossfire hurricane that you are talking about with hillary, that is absolutely no comparison to the president who says that he waived the security clearance on the