>> this morning, a hearing on the nominations for director of federal housing and director of consumer national protection bureau, chair of the council of economic advisers, and undersecretary of commerce for industry and security in the commerce department. watch the senate banking and housing urban affairs committing at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span, democracy unfiltered, we are funded by these television companies and more, including charter communications. >> charter is proud to be recognized as one of the best internet providers, and we're just getting started, building 100,000 miles of new infrastructure to reach those who need it most.

>> charter communications supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> coming up on "washington journal" this morning, your calls and comments live. then nebraska republican congressman don bacon, house budget and gop strategy to advance president trump's legislative agenda. we will continue the conversation with wisconsin democratic congresswoman gwen moore, and look at the trump administration's recent actions and the role of democrats. "washington journal" starts now. join the conversation. ♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, february 20 seven. yesterday, president trump held

a first cabinet meeting of his second term, joined by elon musk who spoke doge about the ongoing actions of doge -- actions of doge. the majority of americans agree on cutting waste but there are disagreements on how best to do it and how to define wasteful spending. we are asking you this first half-hour, how do you think the government can become more efficient, and how would you define government waste? here is how to reach us. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. we have a line set aside for federal workers or if you have been recently laid off from the federal government, (202) 748-8003. you can use that same line to text us. include first name, city, state, and you can post on facebook and

x. welcome to today's two-our "washington journal." the house will begin at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. we start with a poll, the hill reporting on it, headline, most voters support having agency focused on government efficiency. we will look at some results. a harvard poll found 72% of registered voters support such an agency, including almost nine in 10 republicans, two thirds of independents, and six in 10 democrats. posters found bipartisan support on a few general questions about government expenditures and waste, suggesting a path forward on the issue with support from both parties. two-thirds of respondents at the current level of debt from the federal government is unsustainable. 83% said the government should reduce its expenditures rather

than raise taxes to lower budget deficits. more than three quarters of respondents said a full examination of all government expenditures should be undertaken and not interfering with current contracts and expenditures. this was the front page of the "washington times" this morning, headline, trump backs musk amid government gripes. the caption says elon musk took command of winston's capital meeting, the first of president trump's second term. mr. trump urged his secretaries to "speak up if they had issues with the public safe of the department of government efficiency. let's look at a portion of elon musk talking about the actions of doge. [video clip] >> it is to help address the deficit that we simply cannot

sustain in the country, to trillion dollar deficits. just the interest on the national debt now exceeds the defense department spending. we spend a lot on the defense department, over $1 trillion on interest. if this continues, the country will go bankrupt. it is not optional, it is essential. that is the reason i am here. i am getting a lot of death threats. but if we do not do this, america will go bankrupt. that is why it has to be done. i am confident at this point, knock on wood, on my own head -- a lot of wood there, that we can find $1 trillion in savings. obviously, it can only be done with the support of everyone in

this room. i would like to thank you all who support me very much. so it is a support function for the president and the agencies and departments to help achieve those savings. we can find 15% in the reduction, fraud, and waste, and we are bringing the receipts. we have line item by line item, we specify each item. also, we will make mistakes. we will not be perfect. but when we make a mistake, we will fix it quickly. for example, with usaid, we accidentally canceled ebola, ebola prevention. i think we all want ebola prevention, so we restored ebola prevention. but we do need to move quickly if we are to achieve a $1

trillion deficit reduction in financial year 2026. host: that was elon musk yesterday, you heard him there mention canceling ebola prevention at usaid. the "washington post" has this, musk claims doge restored ebola prevention efforts, officials disagree. assess current and former usaid officials said musk was wrong. the ebola prevention efforts have been largely halted since musk and his doge allies moved less not -- month to get the agency. the teams and contractors that would be deployed to fight and a bullet outbreak have been dismantled. and we are taking your calls this half-hour. we will start with kathleen in bayfield, wisconsin, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i have to think everybody at c-span for offering this. i noticed c-span was able to get

into the cabinet meeting yesterday, and i appreciate that. i wanted to know if, in your collection of articles this morning, if you have one from forbes magazine basically outlining were trump's government layoffs are taking place, and the one that i find most horrifying, seeing as i am 67, is that he would like to cut the social security administration in half. i think as people take a look at this article, it is very neutral, forbes is really a good publication, and it might help kind of define where it is that trump and his people are at this point in his attempt to downsize the government, which i think is reckless and scary and will

affect just about everybody in my community. thanks for your time today. host: all right, and kathleen, we will look for that article and will show it if we find it. here is a federal worker, mike in ohio. good morning. caller: hi, good morning. just wanted to call in and say thanks again for all that you are doing to cover. from my side, i understand the intent of what cutting for government waste, fraud, and abuse, but i think what is usually missing from the narrative that most people -- you know, they have been focused on the federal agencies and the federal workforce, but it all comes from and starts from laws coming from congress. from that end, it really is frustrating because we are executing the missions laid out for congress, and congress keeps

adding and changing unfunded mandates that are continuously created. host: mike, explain unfunded mandates for people who might not know what that means. caller: certainly. unfunded mandates or when congress and x pet projects -- enacts pet projects or laws, such as a five-year pilot, and the federal agency has authorized and appropriated budget for that program. they say you're going to do x, y, and z on top of your current mission, but we will not provide you any additional funding. what happens is, ok, it is not funded, but then there is the demand or the need expressed that, yes, we need to do this, and we're going to require x number of dollars to do this. eventually, over the cycle of a couple of years, additional funding ends up getting

appropriated or authorized for that program. often times, too, what we do not see is this pilot is run and an it gets in stooge -- institutionalized as part of the program, and from that, it ends up becoming a lot of additional costs and expenses. it is to address the needs of customers, but often times that is when we start running into additional duplications. one of the particular demographics we see throughout our field is veterans, veterans services/ congress members always want to do something for veterans, but there's a lot of additional programs and services that are out there to help veterans. what happens is you have a duplication of services because, oh, it is not through the department of veterans affairs, it is other federal agencies -- host: so what do you think is the best solution in this case?

caller: i think definitely gao has been doing inventories of duplications and redundancies in services. i think that is a good place to start. host: so this is the government accountability office that reports to congress. but then if congress doesn't act, nothing happens with those gao reports. caller: exactly, and that becomes the catch 22 of this, you have the will of what the administrations want to do when it comes to executing the mission, but then you also have what congress enacts and what occurs with congress when it comes to the creation of passage of laws. from there, you get those negotiations with the budget cycle between the house, senate, and the administration. often times, it becomes an endless cycle and some things do

get cut a little bit and some things get additional funding added to it. so what i see from doge's they are trying to essentially force a function on congress, and we all agree in the federal workforce that there are things that do need to be modernized, things that do need to be streamlined. but the question comes up of running fl of current laws and/or regulations that are based upon the laws -- running afoul of current laws and/or regulations that are based upon the laws. we have to work around those existing structures. i do agree with how they are looking to force a function and seemingly crash through existing laws, that i think is where we are going to run into an interesting dilemma and it will have to force the hand and function of congress, especially to start reorganizing and reshuffling the agencies.

statute is pretty specific on which secretaries have what responsibilities. host: ok, going to move on to ronald in woodhaven, new york, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. it is interesting that, here it is, the president of the united states hasn't been in office for 37 days and is attempting to cut waste and find the fraud, and every time i listen to either commentators or callers, everybody is -- host: ronald? caller: yes. host: you dropped out. everybody is speculating, go ahead. caller: everybody is speculating about what can happen if elon continues his audit. why not give him a break, allow

him to do his job, and let's say a year from now, let's see what happens? but to just continuously dog this man and say what is going to happen, in my opinion, it is speculation. oh, medicaid will be cut, oh, social security. nobody said that. let the man do his job. you are going to have problems, no different than trying to build a house back up. you have a problem but you deal with it as you get there. give him a break. let him do what he said he was going to do. thank you very much, very much. host: and paul is a federal worker in california, hello. caller: hello, my name is paul, and i am very against this shut down, firing government workers. i worked for the government 32 years.

i am retired, and i don't like the way he is doing the veterans. i am a veteran, served in vietnam, have a purple heart, a bronze star, and i was boots on the ground. i am going to tell you something, you need to visit the veterans. you need to visit the cemeteries. you need to see how they work. government workers are very good workers. we are precise, go by the book. we take care of the families, respect the families. so you don't know about how the government works. you need to visit the government workers, visit the cemeteries. thank you. i hope you get this mentioned, all for the veterans, the national cemeteries, vietnam veterans, boots on the ground. thank you very much. host: paul agent veterans. usa today has this article that

1400 more v.a. employees laid off in trump's latest purge of federal employees. it says, the 1400 workers laid off monday were all bargaining unit probationary employees in non-mission critical roles, including d.e.i.-related positions, the v.a. said in a statement. that is on "usa today." this is surely in stratford, connecticut, democrat -- shirley . caller: good morning. i am so grateful for federal workers. i am not a federal worker, but i know that they do their job. when they do their job, we do not have the problems in this country. the fact that this man came in, so-called genius -- genius are people who are a genius in one

area. he never started with all the funds that he himself has taken from our government for things like his cars or his space program that have nothing to do with the american people or our then official to the american people. we already have cars. he never started with the billions of dollars he had, approved from our federal dollars, to do and help a millionaire. but he's going to start with the american people, the means that we have, and important matters that help american people stay alive and get medical care and medicine. the thing is is that this man is reckless, has always been reckless. none of his companies pan out the way they should. the space program has blown up in his face.

he is coming in and destroying our country, but people think he is doing waste. let me explain the federal workers in ohio, how it works, congress is not doing their job. if anything needs to be downsized, it should be them, not the federal workers doing the job to make this country run smoothly. host: ok, let's talk about what should be downsized. i mentioned the poll, most people agree there is waste and that there needs to be more efficiency. how would you do that? caller: there is always waste in every big corporation. yes, they do find waste. that is why we have the attorney general's for different programs to watch for. host: the inspector general's. caller: i am not sure the position right now, but they oversee these programs. they find waste or find problems because they get a report, and

they have to give an account for what they are doing to the supervisors and feds of these programs. they find the problem and fix the problem. there is always waste in all big corporations. i worked for a big company, my brother works for ge. they have to find with the problems are and they fix the problems. even with cars. you have calls with recalls or food products with three calls, those are problems and they fix those problems before it hurts anybody. when you have a large corporation or hundreds or thousands of people that work in an area, there is to be a problem. i never doubted that there was a problem or something that happened that cost money to be wasted or whatever the case may be. but this is not new. elon musk comes in with this idea to make the american people

think he is doing something to help us, and he is not. all he is doing is making sure that he and the 1% can get more money added to their bottom line. host: i have got to move on, sorry. sarah in edgewater, maryland, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. one of the biggest reports last week was $83 billion in overpayments reaching united health care, to medicare advantage plans, so they have overbilled the government by $83 billion and nothing has been done to get that money back. add 10 years more, and another $100 billion at least in overpayments to medicare advantage plan. congress investigated the fraudulent charges by advantage plan but it does not seem anything has been done. here's one question for the

administration and its attempt to look at inefficiencies. one of the most inefficient and dysfunctional parts of the government is actually congress, because congress is supposed to be part of a three-legged stool that provides a system of checks and balances, and you have one man, the president, and a billionaire single-handedly running the country who says laws do not apply for him, what message does that say to the country? how relevant is congress? i think congress has made itself more and more irrelevant in situations because they do not do what they are supposed to do. and i wonder if elon musk send them an email saying, hey, what productive path did you do for the american people? that is what i would like to know. thank you. host: this is john in holbrook,

new york, republican. are you there? caller: yes, good morning. yes, i am listening to these people talk. i mean, elon musk doesn't need the money, that is for sure. neither does president trump. what they are doing is putting their lives out there for the american people. when you got people collecting social security money at 110 years old, give us a break. their finding billions and billions of dollars of fraud and waste. how could anyone on both sides complain with elon musk? i am a veteran. vietnam era, lucked out, went to germany. but it is really sickening. we have got to really get together and unite. the democrats will not stop

spending, spending, spending, giving, giving, giving. they are paying people all this money, they are not even there at the office. i know firsthand. i went to the social security office with my wife to collect, two people standing there with 30 to 40 empty chairs and tables. these people get paid. enough. give credit where credit is due. i am glad we have got trump and elon. they don't need it, we need it. stop all the complaining. host: all right, john. if you are looking for more information on doge, you can look at doge.gov and you will see a website that looks like this with the information that they are posting. at a doge subcommittee hearing

on foreign aid funding, ranking member melanie stansbury criticized cuts to usaid and its impact on foreign relations. [video clip] >> over the last five years, usaid has funded international aid to 200 12 countries around the world to promote international peace and security, help maintain stability, and ensure that we are making good on america's promises. these investments are a fraction of the cost of weapons and defense, and the u.s., and the process, is able to help promote national security, stop local pandemics, prevent hunger and mass migrations, and make the world and the united states a safer place. so when we hear conservative allies of donald trump repeat wild and unfounded claims about international aid and we see a coordinated attack by conservative media, think tanks like those who are here today,

members of congress, the administration, we have to ask ourselves, what is really going on here, folks? why the hell are they so help meant on dismantling an organization that has been so vital -- why are they so hell b ent on dismantling an organization that has been so vital to western democracy for so long? they have fired thousands of federal employees over the last several days. it really does make you wonder, doesn't it -- by the way, while they have been doing that, china has actually moved in already two places in south asia that had their funding cut and is beginning to replace american diplomacy and aid in those places. host: let's hear from ed in maine, a retired federal worker. caller: good morning. i will try to get this out quickly. if you want an example of how to do this i do it right, go back

to the last administration to have a balanced budget. the lady that john interviewed a few days ago that work for an organization that streamlined the government, if you listen to that interview on c-span from a few days ago, that is how you do it. i was in a shipyard, a machinist. you set up a commission, interview the joint chiefs, find out what they need for their mission, they tell you, they go on visit the sites and determine what you have this or that, how it matches your mission. and every place that you cannot come up with an answer, you lose it. it is as simple as that. i went through 8, 5 rounds of it. i was laid off three times and hired back three times. but that is what you have to go through, as much as i hated it.

host: we do have a clip of that interview that you were talking about. this is a member of brookings institution who led the effort of covered cutting waste during the clinton administration. [video clip] guest: the reagan had a lot of people from the business world coming in, spending, looking at the government, saying do this, do this, do this, and we decided that nothing happened with that commission and we decided that what we really had to do was we really had to get inside the belly of the beast, just like any good consultant does when they come to a company, they get in there to figure out how it works and what is working and what is not working. so we did that, and that is not what elon musk is doing. they are not trying to understand what the mission is. otherwise, they would not have fired people working on avian bird flu just as avian bird flu seems to be peaking. host: we have to have a lot of

pushback for wanting access to the agency systems, of doge staffers going in. you read the news stories of doge staffers arriving at x agency this week. is that part of what they are trying to do, to go into the agencies and learn about them? guest: they are going into the agencies, they are not trying to learn about them. that is not the differences. in the agencies, we're looking for fat, they're actually cutting muscle with this. and that will boomerang and there is already backlash. host: mary in delmar, new york, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, and thank you for everything you're doing. can you hear me? host: yes, go ahead. caller: first of all, i would like to discuss the gentleman that just called about people receiving social security who are 150 years old. that has been debunked.

the social security administration has an old system written in cobal, and when they do not have the date of birth of somebody, they put in a date that defaults to 150 years old and that leads them to go back and research it. it does not mean that somebody is dead. i believe that the people in the social security administration know their system, they know that. unfortunately, elon musk and his people apparently did not know that. it would be nice if they would retract it, because i read about it, you know, and they have not said anything about that. secondly, i worked both in finance and budget in both private and government. and there is waste, fraud, and abuse everywhere. one woman said ge, i worked at ge, as well, but a very small

company. the small committee had the most waste i have ever seen. ge has more. and state government that i worked in had the least. and about state workers, i was not a federal worker, i was a state worker, but the federal workers are getting a bad name, and i do not believe it should be. the state workers i worked with were all very, very bright. we had to take civil service exams to enter the workforce. we had to take tests to advance. and they picked only the top three. they were nonpartisan, we never talked politics. and we just worked all day long. host: all right, mary, thanks for sharing that with us. our first caller was kathleen and she asked about a forbes article, so here it is. it says here is where trumps

government layoffs reportedly are, social security administration, fema, irs, and more. it says the administration is moving towards its largest round of federal government layoffs yet, according to multiple outlets, agencies directed to cement layoffs plans by march 13. that is at forbes, if you would like to look at the rest of that article. we will have more time later in the program for your calls, but next is nebraska republican don bacon who serves on the armed services committee. we will discuss the budget and house gop strategy to advance president trump's legislative agenda. later, wisconsin democrat whitmore, a member of the ways and means committee, discusses recent actions by the trump administration and the role of democrats -- wisconsin democrat gwen moore. we will be right back. ♪

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>> "washington journal" continues. host: we're joined by representative don bacon, republican of nebraska, member of the armed services committee, and the agriculture committee. welcome. guest: always good to be here. host: let's talk about the budget. last week, you set the gop budget resolution appeared to cut too deeply into medicaid, but you voted for it anyway. why are you -- were you given assurances about cuts to medicaid? guest: i was at i was talking to the speaker and the two chairman in the areas of the cuts. the unified story was there are cuts in the house over here, senate over here, and then the middle. host: which means there will because to medicaid. guest: but they will add to the quality. we will add more requirements

for able-bodied adults who do not have children. they will not go after the quality of care. that is the assurance i have. host: i want to ask you about, since you are on the armed services committee and served in the u.s. air force for over 30 years, retired as a one star general. let's start with ukraine, president zelenskyy is said to come to d.c. tomorrow. president trump has called him a dictator, has said ukraine started the war. we know that it was russia that started the war. why do you think this is happening? guest: a couple possibilities. from my perspective, i just have to state the truth. ukraine is our national security interest. if ukraine falls, moldova will be next, may be next, maybe the

baltics, so forth. an independent ukraine aligned with the west is a game changer for the united states and europe, so it is in our interest to ensure that ukraine prevails. that is my perspective. we have got to be clear, russia did the invasion. i do not know why we are having a hard time with this. it is a black and white issue. putin invaded, wants to restore his old borders from the soviet union time. he has said that. he does not see ukraine as individual people, he sees them as little russians and wants to eliminate their language and culture. it is clear what is going on, this is a war of aggression to take over ukraine's territory. that is just a fact. why is president trump saying this? i am not really sure. it is possible he is trying to do it for negotiations. or maybe he has a different worldview than i do.

i have idealism in how i see national security. we have to protect our country. our country has to be an advocate for freedom, democracy, free markets, rule of law. i do not know that he has any of the ideals, i think it is more straight realism and more transactional nature. so i am not too sure why folks in his administration and himself do not see this clearly. i think it is important to have moral clarity on this. host: is it just a moral issue or is it a national security issue, this new alignment with russia as opposed to our european allies and ukraine? what happens in that case? why not let the europeans deal with it and we put america first? guest: i think nato is important.

a lot of them carry their own weight -- do not carry their own weight, and there is some truth to that. we also do not realize that there are a lot of countries that pay more in defense and we are right now, per-share and gdp. so you cannot say all of them are not carrying their weight, some are doing more than we are when you look at their economy. they have done more for ukraine than the united states has, in that story has not gotten out there. frankly, america is the leader of the free world, and of his -- indispensable nation, and without america, russia and china make it a more dangerous world. i see it as a national security perspective and a moral perspective. what we stand for is rape your what putin stands for and what -- what we stand for is right, what putin stands for and what xi stand for our wrong.

host: you can call on the lines by party. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. president trump recently fired the chairman of the joint chiefs , general charles brown. he was about a year and a half into his tenure. what was your reaction when you heard that news and that he was being replaced by a retired four star? guest: concerned. the president has the authority to put in who he wants. there is a level of agency to say why you're are putting in someone. there should be a cause, why was general brown replaced? that was not done. i think there were seven generals fired, no explanation. i knew four of them. host: it is being called a purge. guest: they should be

forthcoming on why some of the generals were fired. we deserve an explanation. i know general brown, served with him. we were colonels and one stars together. we progressed. and i'm not aware of him doing anything wrong. i think it sends a bad message to our military. if you do with the present president wanted in its lawful orders, and that is what the military does, follows lawful orders, then the next president will hold the generals responsible. the military response to the commander-in-chief. we get a new commander-in-chief, you pivoted do with the new commander-in-chief wants. my impression is these generals and admirals are being fired for the behavior being demanded by the previous administration. i do not think it is right. host: do you know the team in

the military right now? guest: i know the chief of staff of the air force, they have great people. we have a resilient military.i am more worried about the level of defeat -- decency here, the voters and citizens deserve to know why the decisions are being made. i do think it is not normal to bring in a three star that has had no major command experience, no combat command experience, no service command experience, so he did not lead any of the services, was never a major commander, never a combatant command or joint command. normally for chairman of joint chiefs, they have one of those three experiences. on paper, i would see he is not as prepared. i do not know him. maybe he will exceed expectations. host: let's take some calls. david in georgia, independent line. caller: good morning, c-span.

how you doing, don? guest: very good, sir. caller: i appreciate all you done. let me point to two things, the highest portions that our tax money go to. one is the health care marketplace, which is an invention of mitch mcconnell. it is based in lexington, kentucky. how much more can you roll in there? it cost us $1.4 trillion in losses, about $4.5 trillion of taxes we are taking in off of people's paychecks. it can almost all be pointed to the health care marketplace. if you want to know, all these robo calls we get, it is government funded. where i am, it is health care marketplace. that is $1.4 trillion, and these are not procedures, they are just done for no good reason.

my ex-wife is 76 years old, i watched it go on with her for about eight years, said i have had enough. the military, those folks, they do their job, but they get punished for doing their job. that is a lot of money that we're putting from our payroll taxes into it, who the wealthiest folks who depend on that military to protect the infrastructure around the world so they can run their multinational countries, but they are not putting in their fair share. you talk about nato not paying their fair share, let's get the wealthiest people in this country to pay their fair share, not the 9.6% they are paying right now. host: all right, david. caller: y'all be good, thank you. guest: a lot to be said in all those comments. first of all, i want to point

out, two thirds of nato was paying more than what we were asking them. there is one third that should be doing more. just want to put that out on the table for clarity. he raises a good point, we do not want to cut the quality of health care and medicaid. the president has said that. the leadership on our team and the two chairman, i got those assurances. i think what david is saying, there are ways we can look at the spending to see how we can reduce the spending without touching the quality of care. i think there is money going around in places that we should study it. so there's some opportunities to reform medicaid, but we have got to protect it. 50% of all the medicaid recipients are children, another 25% are disabled adults, but the area that concerns us is the able-bodied adults. of course, if they are under the

safety net, we should protect them, but we encourage them to get work and training and try and get them back in the workplace and get them off medicaid. host: here is auburn, new york, independent line, david. caller: i wanted to follow-up up on the discussion about how many four star generals we have and how many we had in world war ii. it is kind of astonishing, seven four stars, generals in world war ii. maybe 44 four star generals, and 1.5 million in all the branches together. looks lopsided. every time they try to refocus, which we are trying to focus this military now as a war

fighting machine, what it was intended from the beginning, they keep adding on to it. you keep the old stuff in place like the guy that just got fired , so you need to refocus this thing. another caller mention something earlier about efficiency of government employees. i will just say, i worked 35 years as a government employee in the government corrections -- department of corrections, and i did were two years for uncle sam and a military uniform way back in the 1960's, and that was efficient. that was it. be ready to go and it got done. host: going back to your first question, you want to know why

the military keeps increasing in size as far as the numbers go on the budget? caller: well, the number of administrative -- there's 10,000 lawyers in the department of the dod. host: let's get a response. guest: there's a lot of truth to what david just said about world war ii versus today. we have to remember, world war ii, we actually had like seven five stars. we do not have any five stars today. i think he was using four stars, and we have a lot more four stars in europe and fighting words in the pacific, as well. but the fact is, i think we should assess, do we have too many four stars or too many generals in the military today? one of the reasons is because the 1980's when we put up theater commands for africa, europe, asia, so we had all these theater commands and put four star generals in charge of our admirals in each of them.

in some cases, they had very little forces, like the four star for africa. so say there is a fight between egypt and someone. and the four star hits a lot of forces. we may want to reevaluate those. a lot of those generals do not have forces under the command. but it was written into law in the 1980's. host: alex in brooklyn, new york, democrat. caller: thank you, and good morning. representative, i wanted to go back to what you started with, the necessity to help ukraine and pushing back on putin. your president basically has aligned with russia, made a deal with russia behind ukraine's back, europe's back, the new chancellor of germany wants to literally protect europe and basically push itself out of nato because it sees the united

states as a danger. yesterday, trump posted a video of trump's gaza. he is extorting zelenskyy for a deal for the minerals in ukraine. and you mean to tell me that you are saying that you believe this, yet none of you in congress, none of you in the senate are pushing for there to be a real position for the united states to be the leader of the world? this country is no longer the leader of the world. everywhere that the united states is pulling out of three usaid, china's coming in. china comes in, all over south and central america now, because the united states, under the leadership at the republican party, has turned the world against us. in the way that bush had two literal lying wars that you people were not accountable for, they raised the debt trillions of dollars, i hope people hold

your party accountable for all the disaster that will come because what your party is doing right now is destroying the federal government, making a mockery of the cabinet and the presidency. thank you. guest: well, alex had a lot of feedback. first of all, we do hold people accountable through elections, and that is what happened in november. people were soaked disgruntled at joe biden and kamala harris, and we got president trump. there is accountability, and president biden was pulling the lowest of any president since 1952, so that is how we got here today. for the caller to say i'm not saying anything, i have been one of the more vocal people about ukraine and about the need for nato. host: is there anything you can do through the committee, through your position in congress, getting the other like-minded republican congressmen with you? is there anything you can do the

sides -- we appreciate you coming on c-span and talking about it. guest: he is commander-in-chief, so there is only so much you can do. but we do have the power of the purse. there is talk, secretary of defense, they want to cut 40% in the areas of the defense budget. not going to happen. we have the power of the purse. so we have some control through the budget enter policy and law. the president can always veto it. this checks and balances there. but there is no doubt that the president has a large say here, he is the commander-in-chief and got elected. host: here is johanna in new york, republican. caller: good morning. i have a question, just wondering, he was just speaking about checks and balances. how come the republican congressman and senators nowadays have no backbone to stand up against the things this

president is doing and saying? you all just fall in line to whatever he says, talking about not cutting medicaid, medicare, now saying we are not going to cut the quality of care. you are still going to cut the people. he is talking about president putin is not a dictator, and there is not a peep from the republican side. it happened to the backbone of the republican party? you cannot stand up to this person and think you have no say anymore? he is not the free leader, and the republicans need to realize that and stand up and finally do something. guest: i have been very public. i have been talking about ukraine since the invasion, since president trump got elected. i was very vocal last week at the president's comments, was very discouraged about his vote, our vote in the united nations. i am not the only republican. there's 10 or 20 on ukraine, for

sure, and probably more behind the scenes that feel that way. the issue divides republican party, and we have two strands, isolationist -- isolationist strand and i would say the reagan viewpoint. i focus on the point that america is indispensable nation for freedom. host: would you be willing to vote against president trump's agenda? guest: depends on what it is, yes, and i have. he campaigned on this years ago, for example, the infrastructure bill. my job is to do what is right for the country. i am a christian first, american second, and way down here is where i am a party guy. medicaid, we will have to reform it, but we have to protect the quality of care. it is a huge program and has not

been audited for the people. if we go through it, we will likely find people that should not be on there. host: joe, independent, in maine. caller: oh, my god, good morning, thanks for taking my call. don, you probably do not remember me, but we spoke before october 7, and on that program you are peddling your lies. my question is this, president trump has light repeatedly about the amount of money -- has lied repeatedly about the amount of money the u.s. has given ukraine, given ukraine. please give me a number. is it $360,000, like donnie said yesterday in his big cabinet meeting? is it? guest: no, i think it is $180

billion. we give them weapons and we get to replace them here with newer weapons. so this has actually been good for our military. we are able to send off older weapons and replace them with newer weapons. i would also point out the nations of the european union, if you consolidate them, they have put in more money than we have. so i have not lied at all. i have been pretty honest on this and continue to do so. host: tracy in maryland, democrat. caller: i agree with the last republican caller. i do not understand how you clearly state that russia started the war with ukraine, yet the president says the complete opposite of that. so we are to believe everything this man is telling us. i do not understand why you all do not call out the lies and why you believe that there will be no harm done to medicaid and to the people that rely on that.

why do you trust him so much when he cannot even clearly state the fact and the truth? you will never go against him on anything he says. it even dates back to the whole alternate truth. it is either a lie or truth. so please explain how you will follow this man word for word and do not hold him accountable for anything he says. he is clearly lying to the american public and you all are ok with that. i do not understand. guest: apparently you have not been listening to me. i have been clear, russia did invade ukraine. i pushed back on it so maybe you should talk to another republican because i think i have been honest and very clear. host: regarding elon musk and doge, you said before making cuts, the administration should be studying and staffing to see what the consequences are, measure twice before cutting, they have had to backtrack multiple times. does congress have a role in

stopping what you are calling rash cuts? guest: two types of spinning here, when earmarked and signed into law, the president has to sign it. you spent so much money for project x, and it is signed into law by the president, constitutionally has to do it. there is another money in a pot that goes to, say, usaid, and they determine where it goes. the president does have the right to move that money around. just want to put that on the table. doge is doing two things. first, highlighting where all this money is going, how it is being spent. i welcome that. we should have a full, accurate audit. we will see what is going on. i would say many voters would be concerned about what usaid was spending money on. the second part, now they are going to make cuts.

what i have found as they are them too quickly and are not measuring the consequences to some of these cuts, and it is hurting. so they had to go back and rehire people they fired or realize this money was going to fight aids in africa, a good program, so they put that back on. they fired the administrators that were doing in, so there is still a problem there. host: and ebola prevention. guest: ebola prevention, folks and nuclear weapons, the faa, many people in air traffic control towers. i could go on and on. let's do a full audit, put a spotlight on our spending. but when it comes to cutting, let's make sure we do the analysis and know what we are cutting so we do not hurt our country. i saw a lack of caution in these cuts. we have had numerous times that they rehire people back in.

i think that is smart. host: they sometimes cannot find those people. guest: that is a fact. host: duane, republican, west virginia. caller: i do not agree with your idea about firing all these generals. if you will look, general malloy went behind president trump's back, consulted his people in the chinese army, told them he would let them know if trump was going to do an attack on china. do you think that a man like that should be joint chiefs of staff? and also, for general charlie brown, charlie brown is a poster boy for d.e.i. and something else, you say you are a christian. do you believe that god knows

all, sees all, and here's all? guest: ok, last question, yes, i do believe in almighty god of our bible, that he knows everything. i try to read four chapters a day of the bible and pray. president trump did not fire general milley, he was already out. so we're talking about seven generals and admirals, and i have heard this set about general cq brown, poster board -- back it up. why do you say that? he was doing programs for president biden. he asked the military to do these things. president trump comes in and he gets the chance to tell the military i want to do it differently. let's do a 30 degree change. to fire general brown for doing what president biden asked him

to do, i don't think it's right. this was an unlawful order. host: here is ken, a republican from louisa, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question about the original help that we gave ukraine. was this agreed to as a loan before, prior to this? or was it determined later after trump got into office? and also, as a sidebar to that, all of the help we have been giving israel, has that been considered a loan or has it been ironed out yet? guest: the answer to both of those questions is no. they were not loans. it was aid, to ukraine and israel. they were not premised initially as loans. i will come back to it.

it's in our national security interest for ukraine to win this war. if russia prevails, we will spend a lot more money, whether it be nato or in other ways. you stand up to the bully. if you do not stand up to a bully, they act out even more. i'm reminded of what happened in 1938 when the military met with hitler's, privately and czechoslovakian leaders were not there. a year later, hitler's invaded poland. we call that appeasement. appeasement does not work with these dictators. i believe in being firm with them. i have a different view of how to go about this than our president. i want to point out, i don't think president biden did a great job here, either. he was always late with the best weapons, f-16s, anti-shipping missiles. he gave it to them a year later

than what they should have at a level that was to double a little. and then gave them rules of engagement that made it harmful to fight russia. i was very critical of joe biden too on this. host: that is representative don bacon, republican of nebraska on the armed services in the agricultural committee. thank you for being here. guest: thank you. host: later, in half an hour, we will hear from gwen moore about the recently passed house budget plan and the role of democrats in the 119th congress. but first, it is open forum. the numbers are on your screen. you can start calling now. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independents. ♪ >> c-spanshop.org's c-span's

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interviews and analysis of the day, catch washington today, weekdays at 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. eastern. listen to c-span programs on c-span radio, anytime, anywhere. c-span. democracy unfiltered. >> democracy is always an unfinished creation. >> democracy is worth dying for. >> democracy longs to us all. >> we are here in the sankar should -- sanctuary of democracy. >> american democracy is bigger than any one person. >> freedom and democracy must constantly be guarded and protected. >> we are still, at our core, a democracy. >> this is also a massive victory for democracy and freedom. ♪ >> washington journal continues.

host: welcome back to washington journal. it is open forum for 25 minutes. we will start taking your calls shortly. i want to show you a clip from yesterday's cabinet meeting. it was the first of president trump's second term, talking about the visit of ukrainian president zelenskyy. >> we are doing well with russia -ukraine. president zelenskyy will come on friday. that is confirmed. we will sign an agreement which will be a very big agreement. i want to thank howard and scott for the job you guys did in putting it together. you did an amazing job. it will be on rare earth and other things. as you know, we are in for probably $350 billion and europe is in for $100 billion. that's a big difference. we are in for probably three times as much and yet it's important to everybody but

europe is very close. we have a big ocean separating us. it's important for europe and hopefully they will step up and do may be more than they are doing. the previous administration put us in a bad position but we have been able to make a deal where we will get our money back and get a lot of money in the future. that's appropriate because we have taxpayers who should not be footing the bill. and they should not be footing the bill more than europeans. it's all been worked out. we are happy about it. i think that very importantly, we will be able to make a deal. most importantly, we will make a deal with russia and ukraine to stop killing people. they will stop killing young russian soldiers and young ukrainian soldiers in addition to other people in the towns and cities. we will consider the an important thing and a big

accomplishment. it was going nowhere until this administration came in. we had not spoken to president putin in two years. we will keep you advised. host: getting your calls this morning on open forum, we will start with mary in bonneville, arkansas. independent. good morning. caller: yes. i spent 30 years in the military. and one thing i understand is the constitution gives the congress the power of the purse and gives them the authority to set of these agencies. the implied intent is congress should be conducting the audit and not the executive branch. why is in congress doing their job and diplomacy has to do their job for them? host: david on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, amy and america. i want to talk about jd vance,

our new vice president. he went to the german security conference in munich and warned them of the threats of free speech and christian persecution going on in europe and the usa and how we must have free speech if we are to preserve democracy. it was a gutsy speech that he knew would not be well received. in germany, people are being put in jail for assaulting another person over the internet or in person as the 60 minutes minutes tv show and podcast featured recently. i think free speech is a wonderful thing but it has its limits. filthy talk and pornography should be pushed out from maine society. you should not be pushed out for saying something scandalous -- punished for saying something scandalous unless it is true. i can say i am a christian and i love jesus. don't agree with me, fine. you can say so. i can say abortion is murder or manslaughter. the way i see it, we have free

speech but we have to exercise it. as some people say, use it or lose it. i have gone to the rose bowl in pasadena, california and worn and i love jesus had. nobody picked on me about it. people would say i want a hat like that. i got negative comments barely but not at the rose bowl. no sleep positive overall. we take free speech for granted. the way things are going, it's not a done deal. free speech is essential to every other freedom. thank you. host: donovan in spring lake, michigan. good morning. caller: good morning, amy. how are you this morning? host: good. caller: a couple of things on my mind. one is when you have reporting here and you have your newspapers and stuff like the wall street journal and now i hear that jeff bezos wants his new york post column to only have articles that he agrees

with. host: washington post. caller: yeah, the washington post. he was to have his opinion columnists right things that he agrees with without having anything that might throw a different angle in there. then you have people call in that say this tv news program, msnbc, cnn. then we have fox news that paid 780 billion dollars to not go to court over there lies about dominion. and then another thing going on, just bantering here. a couple of weekends ago, you had terrel norman from south carolina and he was talking about how he was so concerned and the ways and means committee . that is a man who is worth 40

something million dollars did not have a problem taking 300 $30,000 worth of ppp. why doesn't doge look into the congress and senators and pose who took ppp money? and then we will know who really is concerned about the american taxpayer dollars. thank you for your time, mimi. wake up, america. host: donovan mentioned the changes at the washington post. here is jeff bezos announces significant shift coming to the washington post. a key editor is leaving because of it. it says the opinion page was led by david shipley will be leaving . the changes upended precedent and reveled a media company that has been shaken by years of turmoil and leadership turnover. bezos put out in a letter ex

post on wednesday morning after announcing the change that viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. he said he has two editorial pillars. that is anchored in freedom and free markets. i want to make sure i show you those two pillars. and i will find those for you. we will hear from gina in mount vernon, new york. independent line. caller: hello? hi. i just wanted to mention this. it says here that donald trump orders military to stop recruiting black people. host: it says that where? caller: it's on military.com. host: ok. caller: i really want you to hear this.

i got this -- host: gina, you still there? caller: can you hear me? please let me read this. i'm sorry. what it says here that tore my heart apart, i can't believe it -- host: i think i've got what you're talking about. military.com. it says military drops recruiting efforts at prestigious black engineering awards even. caller: you got it. thank you. host: it says the army and service branches are abandoning recruiting efforts at a prestigious black engineering event this week, turning down access to a key pool of highly qualified potential applicants amid donald trump's

verge of diversity -- purge of diversity initiatives. the public had eight long-standing partnership with the black engineer of the year awards, which draws academics and professionals in stem. the event which takes place in baltimore has historically been a key venue for the pentagon to recruit talent, including awarding reserve officers training. this is larry in pennsylvania, democrat. good morning, larry. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. caller: as a veteran, and many family members who are veterans and some who served in wartime, this morning, just recently, about an hour and a half ago on abc news, there was a report that there might be cuts in veterans affairs and they may

not cover cancer treatments. what other cuts could be in health care for veterans? many veterans who served in vietnam many years ago were exposed to chemicals. some of them contacted agent orange. i would say that i don't think president trump and his family members, i don't think any veterans or elon musk. i hope there are not too many cuts that could affect our veterans who need this care the most. mimi, i will let you finish. what i remember about five years ago, 2018, i did an original video supporting president trump and how the economy going. the video is called my neighbor larry. i want to thank you for your

time. host: i want to share the article you talked about from abc news. headline v.a. passes billions -- pauses billions in cuts lauded by musk as lawmakers and veterans decry loss of critical care. the debarment of veterans affairs temporarily suspended billions of dollars in contract cuts after an uproar that critical health services were harmed. those cuts have been temporarily suspended as a result of that uproar. the cancellation would save $2 billion as the trump administration works to slash cuts across the government. it says that the secretary of the v.a. posted on x, no more paying consultants to do things like powerpoint slides and right meeting notes. here is earl in redding, california.

caller: good morning, amy and good morning, america. i'm a volunteer agent orange veteran. i want to say about the v.a., they didn't give the money to me lickety-split. but as i added operations and procedures, my file kept getting bigger and they couldn't deny me. i want to say it's one of the proudest things i have ever done in my life. i don't have any regrets. there are two points i would like to make quickly. one of them, the bringing back of retired raising cain. trump in his own words, i heard him say when he went to iraq, afghanistan, he made a trip. he asked how long it would take

to take care of isis. there were many people who said it would take years. he said not very long and he went in and cleaned house. they are coming back, isis, evidently. i heard him mention isis in the congo where he beheaded over 100 people. my second point is, bear with me, i have had some oxygen problems. it affects my memory a little. what was my second point? oh, on ukraine, the democratic party and the republican party, people that are -- about this money disappearing and fraud and what have you, they need to take a look at ukraine. i noticed every time there were

billions of dollars given to ukraine, there was a man from the democratic party who presented the check and probably came back with a suitcase. according to trump, he got $350 billion. they only got half of it. host: earl, i want to mention, since you brought this up, this is from genocide watch, from open doors international. it is an organization saying that 70 christians were murdered by isis and then isis affiliate in -- an isis affiliate in the democratic republic of congo. it said they took them to a church and killed all 70 of them. so, thank you for bringing that up to our attention. this is linda in howell, michigan. independent line. good morning. host: hi, mimi. i wanted to talk to -- caller: i wanted to talk to the

representative and talk about how i appreciated that, as a republican, he stood up to ukraine. it was refreshing to hear him talk against his own party, what you don't hear anymore. that was all i wanted to say except for the fact that it makes me so sad to hear all of the people denigrating veterans who worked for the federal government, making it sound like there's people out there that aren't even there and they are collecting a check. i mean, that is just sad. veterans are hard workers, just like they were in the military. that's all i have to say. host: here's gregory in belleville, new jersey. democrat. hi, gregory. caller: yes, hello. i would like to say that this country is rotting with sin. and what is going on is greed

has taken over this country. the russians will have to come in here and do anything. america is undermining itself with donald trump in there. first of all the steelers are the politicians. they steal more money and get rich on the taxpayers dime. donald trump is no -- she's not different. he played on racism and misogyny and a whole bunch of stuff. they steal, both parties, from social security. they never paid back the money they were borrowing. host: here's george in conroy,

texas, republican. caller: good morning. i had a quick comment about the ukraine subject that mr. bacon was talking about. and that's that people need to do more reading of history and understand what is going on in that area for years. for example, the reason the russians are so attached to crimea is -- they have held that territory and been in that area, the russian people been in that area since 1783. i'm not a big supporter of russia. i'm talking about the historical facts in the area. the russians slaughtered millions of them in the 1920's and 1930's. you have two sides that there'll

never be peace between. there has to be a negotiating settlement. i will guarantee you today that it will not include ukraine cheating territories out in the south and eastern part of the country. host: do you think the united states should make security guarantees to ukraine? caller: absolutely not. except to the extent that the western portions of ukraine that might be salvaged, there should be an understanding with russia that that is part of the deal, that the sovereignty of the western or central part of whatever they can maintain of a sovereign ukraine shall remain sovereign, just as they would agree to -- host: and you trust russia to abide by those agreements? caller: before you ask that question, let me ask you a

question. they have held that tell trip -- territories in 1783. that's before taxes. this is no different than if russia had come over here and messed around in texas politics to try to get texas to secede. how quickly do you think the united states would let go of texas if russia had done that? i guarantee you there would be planetary warfare. it's the same situation. the public doesn't understand the historical background. host: here's tony in martinsburg, west virginia. good morning. caller: this country was established for the people. we, the people are in a constitutional crisis. there should not be a r in

front of your name or an i in front of your name or a d in front of your name. we as the people are being bamboozled. if we don't stand up together, instead of being -- instead of being divided, we will be in big trouble. people need to realize that -- host: did we lose you, tony? caller: i'm here, i thought i was speaking to you earlier. i just want to say -- host: you're listening to the tv. your confused. did you want to finish your point? caller: yeah, i was just saying that we, the people should be together. we need to stand together. we can't get divided, because we are having --

host: melanie in lewisville, texas. democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. tony kept getting caught up in his thing. but, i want to continue his point. we, the people, do need to band together. i just don't know how we can fight this off when elon and trump are not listening to the courts, they are not listening to congress, they are not listening to anybody. i was listening to independent senator king earlier and he gave this big speech at the senate last week about how power was split up for a reason, so that no one person, no one president could take power away. the thing is they have thrown

away the rulebook and elon musk hasn't been elected. he won't come to any senate discussions, congress, anything. he admitted that he made a mistake and that he took care of it. as we know, that hasn't been taken care of. nobody is looking at he, which is elon musk. i'm afraid we have let the lion in and he is gobbling up anything. and i just don't know how we can get it back. i would love to have an answer, how do we get it back? how do we stop this from happening? nobody elected elon musk. thank you. host: for your schedule later

today at about 2:00 p.m., president trump is welcoming the british prime minister to the white house to discuss the war in ukraine and other shared interests between the u.s. and u.k.. there will also be a joint news conference at 2:00 p.m. eastern. we will have that live on c-span . up next, we have gwen moore about the recently passed house budget plan and the role of democrats in the 119th congress. we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. here's a look at what is coming up at 8:00 p.m. eastern. ross and jonathan examine the decline of religiosity in

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this is c-span. giving you your democracy, unfiltered. ♪ >> 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 will 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 car, a democracy. >> this is a massive victory for democracy and freedom. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back to washington journal. we are joined by representative

gwen moore, a democrat of wisconsin. she is on the ways and means committee and is a member of the progressive caucus. welcome to the program. caller: thanks for -- guest: thanks for having me. host: you sit on the ways and means committee and you sit on the social security subcommittee. they passed their budget resolution. all democrats including yourself were opposed. the question is those $2 trillion in cuts to mandatory federal spending, where do you think that will come from? guest: it's really clear from their reconciliation for their instruction that a great deal will come out of agriculture. 230 billion dollars that also seems to be where snap, formerly

called food stamps comes from. 880 billion out of the energy and commerce committee's which presides over medicaid, and also the inflation reduction act, energy, improvements that were made under the biden administration. that's where a great deal of the money will come from. and people who were concerned are rightfully concerned. host: where should cuts come from in your opinion? most people agree that current deficit spending is not sustainable. the size of the national debt is not sustainable. where would you cut in federal spending? guest: i would cut the wasteful people waste and tax breaks to people who don't need them. to wealthy corporations. there is a huge loophole in what we call a small is in this

initiative. the 199 a provisions that provide a pass-through income to businesses. we have businesses that have closed receipts of $10 million that are, as far as i'm concerned, not worthy of this particular tax break. bonus depreciation, i would cut some of the fat of the tax breaks that we are providing, the $445 trillion that is being proposed for tax cuts. that primarily, not totally but primarily benefit corporations of the wealthiest individuals in the united states. host: politico reports some gop lawmakers are discussing enacting work requirements for medicaid, closing some of the estate loopholes. would you be in favor of that? guest: let me say this.

imposing work requirements has never created more work. people who are able to work are happy to work. when people are not working, there is often some really important reason. their health, they have responsibilities for children, for elderly people. the only purpose for imposing work requirements is to discourage people who would otherwise be eligible from applying. their whole strategy around work requirements is not to increase work. but to deny people who are eligible of those benefits. host: if you would like to join our conversation with representative gwen moore, a democrat of wisconsin, she will be with us until the end of the program at 9:00 eastern when the house is scheduled to gaveling. the numbers are (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. and (202) 748-8002 for

independents. i would like to get your reaction to the doge, the activities of elon musk, what you have seen so far and where you are on this. guest: i can tell you that doge doesn't exist as a statutory department. it doesn't exist, really. there is nobody who is operating within doge that has been confirmed by the senate. that has been appointed by anyone. it's this amorphous group of people headed by, i don't know if it is headed by elon musk. they are now denying that he's the head of doge but he's sort of calling all the shots. i want people to understand that this is not regular order. this is not normal, this is not constitutional. this is a group of people that are, for my opinion, continuing

the insurrection we saw starting on january 6, 2021. they have breached not only the halls of congress, but they are into the treasury. they are into our military facility, data, labor data, fort knox. they have preached our -- breached our government and it is totally inappropriate and it is part of what i regard as continuance of the insurrection. we have an unelected, unconfirmed by the senate, a naturalized citizen, not even a birthright person in charge of our government, elon musk. it is not normal, it's not legal, it's not constitutional. host: when you state is not constitutional, can you elaborate? guest: president trump was elected as our 47th president of

the united states. and he is has completely seeded his power -- ceded his power and control, calling the shots to elon musk. the congress has ceded its role to the president and to the executive branch. i mean, it is not legal for the president to be doing what he's doing, to impound funds. we are article one of the constitution, the members of congress. it's our job to discern whether or not we make cuts or withhold money based on waste, fraud or abuse. it's not elon musk or the president's call. the impounding act of 1974, a reaction to richard nixon impounding duly appropriated funds, it has been affirmed by the united states supreme court,

time and again, that the article one functions, the power of the purse resides with the congress. so everything that they are doing is unconstitutional. host: let's take some calls. this is dorothy in baltimore. good morning. democrat. caller: good morning morning. good morning, congresswoman. i have a problem with my democratic party with messaging. what i want to say to you, i will tell you about two things. one is social security being taxed. do you know that if we make 25 thousand dollars or over $25,000 a year, this includes adding your social security to what you made, i made $12,000. they added my social security money to it so i could be taxed on my social security. that's crazy. also, why don't you get them to take the caps off?

you could run on those two things alone and when election. but you don't put it out to the people and don't mess with it. you should put it out there. the republicans ran on the border and won. if you all run on that, i guarantee you you will win every house and the presidency. you can do more but these things would put you back in the white house. host: all right, dorothy. guest: you are not by yourself in criticizing the democrats for messaging and for not doing more. and you are right. elections have consequences. and so, the democrats, if you say it is our messaging, people do not want to hear us talk about democracy being at stake. they do not want to hear us mourn them about project 2025. one third of that has been put in place with this doge effort. they didn't want to hear it. they said we were not getting through to them. and elections now have consequences.

the robber barons are at the door. they are looking for a $4.5 trillion to give to the wealthiest corporations and individuals. they are, you know, you saw elon musk with a chainsaw, really, i think an apt symbol of what they are doing. you saw, dorothy, they cut employees who were responsible for ensuring that nuclear plants were safe. the faa, where elon musk has a lot of projects, startling projects associated with the faa. we have seen them firing hordes of people. they are firing, i'm sure they are firing people who voted for donald trump who did not believe that maybe they thought we weren't messaging well. veterans and the v.a. is being dismantled, as we speak. in my own district, just yesterday, we had three veterans

dismissed, unilaterally fired. i guess their names were waste, fraud and abuse, according to elon musk. our message now is that the real thing that will save this country is you, dorothy. you. standing up against this insurrection. because as abraham lincoln said, and the speaker of america is fond of quoting abraham lincoln, is that public sentiment is everything! and that without it, everything fails and nothing succeeds. so, dorothy, i would suggest instead of just saying what democrats ought to be doing, you need to be calling up those republicans who, republicans, maybe there aren't any republican senators and marilyn, thank god. but there are republicans all over this country.

you see people with their handmaids and that is what is working. that's the only thing that will get the congress more afraid of their behavior and holding up that chainsaw than they are of donald trump and elon musk. host: congresswoman, she asked about taxing social security. where do you stand on that? guest: the social security, i have a proposal in particular that would address some of what dorothy has talked about. and social security, you know, taxes are things that have to be done, i think. taking the caps off of social security, my proposal does that. there's absolutely no reason that my daughter, who is a schoolteacher, has to pay taxes on her social security wages

throughout the entire year. and by august, i no longer pay social security taxes. that is one thing i would agree with dorothy on, for sure. but that is not where we are right this minute. we are in the middle of trying to prevent the government from being shut down and trying to prevent these robber barons from stealing all of the money, putting youth, elderly, seniors, veterans at risk by taking medical care moneys, by undermining medicare. by withdrawing moneys from hospitals in rural areas and low income areas. that's where we are right this minute. we are in the middle of a crisis. and that debate is not what's on the table at this moment. host: here's jeff in racine, wisconsin. republican. guest: i was born in racine!

caller: how are you doing? guest: i'm great. caller: i'm wondering with the hud scandal in milwaukee. what's going on? are you involved with that, is tammy baldwin involved in that? what do you think about governor -- governor evers with this impregnating women? i thought we were done with this? -- done with this. guest: governor e verse is not impregnating anybody. with regard to be hud scandal in milwaukee, you know hud has been underfunded for decades. and decades. with regard to the repairs and maintenance. and we really do need to lean more into providing decent facilities for those people who

often have worked their entire lives and find themselves in disabled or in retirement without the fancy benefits some of us get. public housing is extremely important toward our housing solution. and i think that hud and hopefully this administration, as was true with the biden administration, they were then working with the local housing authority to try to get things in shape. and really, authorizing outside agencies to do some oversight. thank you for the question. host: let's talk to patrick in seminole, florida. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question for you. since elon musk is doing everything unconstitutionally and has not been vetted by the senate, is there anything you could do to boot him out?

get him off and out? make that doge go away? guest: public sentiment is everything. you're in florida. you are surrounded by republicans. these are the people who you need to be complaining too. the people who are voting to support him like byron donalds comes to mind as a republican down there. these are people who are more concerned about the sentiments of president trump than they are you. in florida. if they knew how pissed off and mad you were, maybe they wouldn't vote to gut medicaid. maybe they wouldn't vote to gut snap. maybe they wouldn't vote to destroy the federal employees. most of the federal employees don't even live in washington, d.c. or maryland or virginia. they are all over the country.

i have 18,000 of them in wisconsin and certainly in florida. with nasa and everything else there, you have a lot more federal employees than i do. you need to complain to republicans. republicans now are scared of donald trump. and they are not scared of you. they need to p scared of you. scared -- be scared of you. scared that you will mobilize and get your nieces, nephews and neighbors to vote against them in two years. that is the thing that will move them. as a single member of congress in the minority, i don't have the power to move them. he would be gone if it were up to me. he is unelected, he's unconfirmed by the senate. this is an unconstitutional -- this is unconstitutional. here's a person who, as a member of congress, i can't earn a

penny more than $30,000 of outside income because it would be unethical and in violation of my oath. here is a man whose got billions of dollars in contracts sitting in on cabinet meetings. the houses on fire. and i want people to understand this. there's nothing normal about this. blaming democrats for not having the right message or whatever, that's not the solution. democrats are working hard. there is not a single crack, anywhere, who will vote for their stuff. we are working with the 70, so far, lawsuits that are out there to try to stop him, filing briefs. but you in seminole, florida, you are the solution to this. host: this is james in crowns well, maryland, republican. good morning.

james, are you there? guest: uh-oh. host: we will go to ron in hunt valley, independent line. caller: i think first, we have to back up and look at this at a broader perspective. how did we end up where we are at today? the democratic party has to take that question seriously. and they are not. when you mislead the country. when you prioritize illegal immigrants over u.s. citizens, that is how we end up where we are at today. i noticed that you are using the same talking points that we can get off of youtube, that we can hear on cnn or msnbc. but there is no substance to what you are saying. half of america is suffering

right now. i am an independent. my son's mom works the dod. she up a pink slip so it's impacting me as well. when i hear that there is nothing we can do, that should be a shock to every single democratic constituent that voted for you. there's a lot you can do. you can start getting out -- for two years from now. it seems that your party has given up on those constituents who have voted for you and this is disappointing. guest: i'm sorry that you think i'm not being substantive in my discussion here today. and i apologize if you don't think it's substantive. and i apologize to you for thinking i'm not representing my constituents. and that the democratic party has failed.

apparently, we have failed. in that we started with our not acknowledging the aging condition of our president biden. and i guess that your suggestion is mr. trump is somehow not compromised in his mental capacity, either. i guess that's the assumption that i would have to make. around that. and that people voted for donald trump because he seemed to be so much more prescient than joe biden, if that were the thing that determined the election. i think that donald trump, and his team, they were very clever. in appealing to people's emotions, having people focus on saying the point 002% of our population that were transgender and convincing people that we were more concerned about transgender than they were about their grandmother who was in the

hospital or who did not want to pay more than $65 a month for her insulin or that we were not concerned about addressing climate change and we only cared about transgender people. and that we wanted undocumented people, illegal aliens, as they called them, that we were spending millions of dollars on them and not taking care of american people. that was the talking point of the republicans that seemed to have pierced america's consciousness, mom than our concern about project 2025, which was about one third of the way through. donald trump's promises that he knew nothing about it. they apparently thought that was a much more compelling thing than our efforts to lower prescription drug costs, to maintain a safety net for people

and to address climate action and to continue our alliances across the ocean with our european colleagues. i do apologize for you -- to you for not appearing to be substantive and sounding like i'm on youtube. host: here is diane in bartow, florida. democrat. caller: hi, i'm a democrat. i don't have a complaint but i would like to know why elon musk has not cut some of the billions of dollars he's getting to the government? guest: last i checked, he gave himself a 38 million dollar contract. i doubt he has any competitors against that. the really interesting thing, the last time at the end of the

beginning of this session, we were at the point where we were preventing the government from being shut down in december. there was a continuing resolution that the democrats and republicans had both agreed upon. and at the last minute, donald trump said i want you to raise the debt limit and there was a lot of confusion and though we were hours away from shutting the government down, and elon musk pulled one provision out of their, where democrats and republicans, both of them being concerned, about the chinese communist party. there was a provision that would prevent -- would have prevented people like elon musk from interfacing with chinese technologies. and that was pulled out. and we know that tesla's, the shanghai, the chinese operations are responsible for maybe about 50% of those productions. so, elon musk is protecting his interests as he runs the government.

host: here is chuck in wisconsin, republican. guest: wisconsin! caller: good morning. you sit there and talk to how it's congress's job to find waste and fraud and all of that. why did it take elon to find out we are paying thousands of people who are over 150 years old on so sick -- social security. what was congress doing? guest: let me get one thing straight about that. i am glad you brought that up. there is nobody who is 150 years old getting a social security check. my daughter was born -- i happen to know this. my daughter was born on january 1, 1970, which began, literally, january 1, 1970 was the new year of computer timing. people who, at one point, the computer timing for social

security was that 150 years. that was a way for them, the social security system to track. and route out the kind of waste fraud and abuse we would be looking for a. that was a fluke that was announced inappropriately and it should be a source of great embarrassment to the titan, elon musk. there is nobody who is 150 years old getting social security. that is a republican talking point. he has not found any waste, far fraud or abuse that we could find. that is our job as article one of the constitution which makes it very clear that it is our job to appropriate moneys, to take moneys back. that is our job. if people don't like it, we are up for election every two years. they can just funny like us, if

they don't feel we are doing that. -- they can just unelected us if they don't feel like we are doing that. host: what is the democratic strategy? guest: beware the ides of march. people don't want to hear it, that the voters -- 85 million people who were eligible to vote did not bother to vote. that being said, very narrowly, the senate, house and presidency went to republicans. and so i am praying that they have the power to keep the government open. they are in the majority. all they have to do is vote to keep the government open. host: representative gwen moore, thanks so much for joining us. guest: thank you. host: we will take you over to the house of representatives, gaveling in right now. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. february 27, 2025.