buckeye broadbansupports c-span as a public service, along with these other televion providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> coming up on "washington journal," we will take your calls and comments live. then we will talk with philip wallach, senior fellow at the american enterprise institute, about president trump's joint address to congress tonight, the current balance of power between the executive and legislative branches. and former irs commissioner will daniel werfel talks about layoffs at the internal revenue service and how it could affect tax collection. "washington journal" is. -- "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, march 4. tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern, the president will address a joint session of congress,

expected to talk about what he has done since taking office and his agenda for the next four years. this morning we are getting your thoughts on the speech. are you planning to watch it? if so, what are the topics you will be listening for. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. ,independents, (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text at (202) 748-8003. include your first name, city, state. and you can comment on social media, facebook.com/c-span and on x at @cspanwj. washington times front page, trump says speech will tell it like it is. president trump will double down on his agenda and will make the

case for smaller government, more tariffs, and stricter immigration. he promised the speech would lay it out for the american people. "tomorrow night will be big. i will tell it like it is," mr. trump said monday on social media. he will outline the blueprint that got him elected in november and tie it to the flurry of action he has taken in his first six weeks of office, expected to argue that those actions are key to implementing the drastic changes voters sent them to the white house to enact. and we will have coverage of that speech in its entirety tonight. i would live coverage will start at 8:00 m.astern time, the speech is expected to start at 9:00 p.m. you can watch it here on c-span, also on c-span2, and on our app c-span now and online at c-span.org. let's look at democratic senate leader chuck schumer on the senate floor monday.

he talked about what he says voters care about and how democrats will respond. [video clip] >> you can see frustration boil over in town halls in georgia, kansas, oregon, and everywhere in between. republican leaders are telling their members to cancel town hall meetings. they are running away from the people because they know how badly the people have been hurt by what they are doing. maybe they don't want to do it, but they are forced to. because president trump wants tax breaks for billionaires. you can see the frustration in the polls, too. the majority of americans believe that donald trump has ignored the number one issue they care about, inflation, rising costs. you can see the frustration online here last week i joined a zoom come over 3000 new yorkers got onto zoom ready to mobilize against republican attacks on medicaid. many of my colleagues had

similar meetings with similar strong responses. people are ready, they are energized. we can also see it in the courts. the american people can rest assured that whenever the administration breaks the law, we will take them to court. it will be one of our best tools to protecting our country and putting a stop to the worst abuses of donald trump's agenda. and for the most part, the courts are rejecting much of what donald trump is trying to do. the more donald trump pushes our democracy to the limit, the more americans will push back. organizing is never easy, but it works. it works. that is what we will continue to do. we shall organize here in the congress, organize in the public square, organizing the court to protect the country we all know and love. nothing that donald trump says tomorrow will change that fact. host: and we will go to the phones now and start with and

tone in berkeley, -- start with antone in berkeley, california. caller: i am not going to watch president trump this evening for these reasons. one, everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. two, he has salts women. three, he is a convicted felon on 34 counts, and now he is in bed with russia. as a child, i remember having to go under desks and my grade school because of russia's threat to attack the united states. i remember provisions in the basement because russia threatened to attack the united states. and i remember kneeling down in the hallway, ok, for air raid drills because russia attacked the united states. and every home had a bomb shelter built in it because of this. and now this president is in bed

with mr. putin. so i do not even want to look at this man. i think he is thoroughly disgusting. and anybody who supports this man is just as sick and disgusting as he is. you have a great day. host: here is brian in pot topic -- in pawtucket, rhode island, republican. caller: good morning. the discussion is about donald trump, and a lot of people say they do not like donald trump, but i do not really think there is a problem with him. i have never met mr. trump personally, but i know he had a lot of involvement around here. me and my friend -- sorry, i have a bit of a cold -- we were talking about trump's policies and how a lot of people thought he was a bad guy and just because he is a felon, that indicated he is not capable to run the country. you have to keep in mind, all the protesters were harvesting a

felon in 2013 -- host: kathleen in illinois, line for democrats. caller: good morning. no, i will not be watching trump set up there and make a complete fool out of the american people. first of all, he ran on getting rid of the illegal immigrants in which nobody in this world is illegal because we are all god's children. so he has not accomplished that. but he also ran over getting the price of eggs and milk down. that did not happen. and what did he say when he got in there, that he was going to get rid of americans and their jobs? how in the world can you be america first and you got a man taking the federal workers' jobs ? how could you do that? and you said you were president

of all the people. that is impossible. now you got people around here -- homes. and all the stuff he is doing with elon musk. elon musk was not elected to anything. you said he don't care for immigrants, why do you have an emigrant running this country and you sitting there letting it happen? so what he says tonight will mean nothing to the american people. people are out here hurting because this man came in here and hurt the american people, not the immigrants. host: so, kathleen, you said you are not going to watch it. what do you think democratic lawmakers should do? should they boycott or attend? what do you think democratic lawmakers should do? caller: they should not even show up. because we know what he is going to say, nothing. he is going to stand up there and act like he is going to deal with america, what people wanted him to do.

what america? somebody like you taking americans going out here everyday -- you're supposed to make jobs for people. host: here is democratic senator chris murphy on why he is not attending tonight's speech. [video clip] >> i think that state of the union speech is going to be a farce, i think it is going to be a maga pep rally, not a serious talk to the nation. i think donald trump is going to spew a series of lies about his alignment with russia, about what he is trying to do to allow elon musk to essentially monetize the american government to enrich muska and his billionaire crowd, and i am just not going to be a part of that. the case i am making with democrats is that we have to fight every single day. republicans flood the zone with lies, we flood the zone with truths. we have to stop this takeover of government. we have to stop the destruction

of democracy, which they have to do because what they are attempting to do, get medicaid to feed tax cuts to elon musk and his billionaire friends. it is unpopular. we're going to stop that takeover, only by fighting them every single day. a lot of democrats maybe you should fight every third day, reserve your power and jump out of the bushes at the right moment. i just think we have to be on the offensive 24/7. host: this is bloomberg saying americans want trump to do more for the economy, according to two poles, which signaled that president donald trump risks putting off americans worried about the economy and inflation with a broad flurry of measures during his first weeks in office, while about 80% of adults surveyed said trump should home in on the economy and inflation, they said they believed his top priorities were the u.s.-mexico border, his effort to slim the federal workforce and tariffs.

only 29% said trump was prioritizing inflation a lot, and 36% said the same about the economy. i wonder what you think about that. we will hear from kathy in colorado, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. no, i will not. i agree with the first lady. i agree with kathleen. no, it is just going to be stand up and tell a bunch of lies, just like he always does. so, no, i will not watch either. yes, i do think democrats should boycott it. why sit through that? why put yourself through misery to listen to all this bs from him? and another thing i would like to say, i tried to call, i believe it was friday, when you were asking about how to cut the budget down. one thing that could be done is

trump could keep his butt at the white house and do his job instead of running to his golf courses, mar-a-lago, every few days, the super bowl, the indy car race. give me a break. let's talk about taxpayers' money going to nothing but a bunch of users. and that is exactly what he is doing. that is why he wants to be president. he wants to use people in this country, wants to use the government, just like elon musk, he wants to use the government to keep getting rich, to keep getting power. and i cannot believe that people cannot see through him. host: all right, kathy. jeff since this on facebook, i want to hear the truth no matter how bad it is. it will be refreshing after what i heard from the past administration. revitalizing. hee ire -- here is john in

portland, connecticut, republican. caller: great question today. did we do this four years ago to president biden, the way democrats are rebelling against -- don't cut me off, i am watching your finger -- did we do this to president biden four years ago? host: hold on, you cannot watch me on tv because there is a delay. so don't look at the tv, just talk in the phone. we heard what you said about former president biden. go ahead. caller: did c-span do this to biden four years ago? did the republicans revolt against him the way the democrats want to do tonight to president trump? host: ok. caller: that is my question. host: what else you got? caller: ok, i saw chuck schumer first thing this morning.

it is like you are talking like china just invaded us. we are all in this together with the president. let's try to get this country straight again. every time i listen to your program, you are not unfiltered, first of all, you're more biased than anything, every one of you. host: ok, thanks for the feedback. staying in connecticut, this is democrat josh, you are next. caller: hi, so -- host: and here is mike, norwalk, ohio, independent line. caller: my, my. boy, that last guy, perfect example of what we are dealing with here in america. of course i am going to watch trump. he has woken up my eyes and the last week on us getting ripped

off by the government and bureaucracy, right there behind you, mimi. in perceivable how people cannot understand an open their eyes and see the fact of what is going on. it is theft, trillions of dollars that have been stolen from us, and people are more or less worried about trump. trump did not rip us off. your representatives ripped us off, democrats and republicans, now trump is going to try to fix this because it is such a mess, and it will take more than six weeks to fix the mess biden created in the four years. as far as him being out of office, wasn't biden out of office for 500-something days because they did not want us to see how incompetent he really was? wake up, people. host: mike, what do you want to hear tonight? caller: the exact truth. talk about zelenskyy. he went to see the democrats before the meeting with him, and

they got him all riled up. next thing you know, he is backing out of a deal he already agreed to. come on, people, wake up. the problem is our own government. they are not out for us, they're out for themselves. thank you. host: speaking of ukraine, front page of the wall street journal, u.s. halts arms for ukraine in sharp turn away from ally. says that the u.s. will pause all military aid to kyiv until president trump determines that president zelenskyy of ukraine is making a good-faith effort toward peace negotiations with russia, according to the white house. this is joey in atlanta, republican. caller: yes, i just know that it is amazing how these democrats are so pathetic. it is amazing how they can call and spread their hate and lies. just amazing. i don't understand why they cannot put their hate to the

side and give this president a chance. i mean, it is amazing how they are so angry, they hate this man for everything he has done, everything -- he could do anything that will make this country great and they will not give this guy a chance. they will not even give him a chance to prove himself. they are so full of hate. i just feel so sorry for these democrats. they're such hateful people. host: what are you going to be listening for tonight. i am assuming you will be watching. caller: i am proud of the president. i think he is doing great. host: what are the topics you will be listening for? caller: i tell you, the things alone on immigration, how immigration alone has been turned around. the democrats are saying and yelling that we have had a broken system. if it was so broken, why in less than a month the system has already been proven that it has worked? it is just that the democrats

never wanted to have a secure border. it is just amazing how much waste and abuse has been going on in this country, and these politicians have been putting things under the rug and not addressing the issues. it is amazing how this guy in less than 30 days has done so much, so much you can see it and hear it, everybody is talking about it. he is a good man, not perfect, but he is a good man, and you can tell he loves this country. the democrats just twist everything he does and turn it around to make it look like he is trying to destroy america. how? why would anybody want to destroy -- if he is such an evil person, what would benefit him by destroying america and destroying the economy, destroying all the people? what would be the benefit for someone that they say he is so hateful, what benefit host: does

he get? host:host: ok, joey. tor ron wyden on oregon says on x,or folks asking if i will attend trump's joint across -- address to congress on tuesday, no. instead, i'm choosing to hear directly from oregonians and will be hosting an open to all town hall on facebook live. this is tim in rochester, new york, democrat. caller: good morning. i am going to watch it. he is president, you nope you'd he got voted in. it is called respect. republicans acting like democrats is all this, all that. we are americans first. divided we stand, divided we fall. so i am going to watch him. i have no problem. i have really been paying attention to politics since august -- i have not really been paying attention to politics since august because when they put kamala harris up, it was too much for me.

they could have had two better candidates, republican or democrat. host: did you vote? caller: no, i couldn't, because the democrats did not have a primary and biden should have stepped out two years ago. it was crazy. i probably would have voted for another republican instead of trump. that is how the country is. host: you said you will be watching tonight? caller: yeah, i will watch some. i will watch basketball and go back and forth. i got no problem with trump, he is the president and it is called respect. people need to show up and show that man respect. have a great day. host: larry in gaetz county, north carolina, independent. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. the gentleman that just spoke, thank you. as an independent, i try and look at both sides. and right now, we have democrats

that, unfortunately, are resisting everything that this administration wants to put forth. someone talked earlier about trump traveling here, there, and everywhere, but i can swear that former president biden was at a beach almost every weekend. so this tit-for-tat, i just cannot stand anymore. and i really wish -- well, after tonight's speech, which i will not be watching because i will be sleeping because i have got to work early, is going to be tomorrow's monday morning quarterbacks. all of the republican or conservative stations are going to say what a great speech, it was fantastic, it is so positive for the country. and then every liberal station,

which outnumber the conservative stations at least three or four to one, will be saying it was the worst thing ever, oh my gosh, the end of the world is coming and we will never be able to do anything for the country, ahhhhh. well, the democrats, i wish they would get off the al sharpton scenario. thank you for your time. host: all right, larry. a reminder that our coverage starts at 8:00 p.m. tonight, and you can watch it on our website c-span.org and on our app c-span now. you can go back and watch it later if you're going to be going to bed early and not able to watch the whole thing. jason in ohio, republican. good morning. jason, are you there? nope -- oh, go ahead. caller: do you know what i will

be watching tonight? host: carrie in illinois, democrat. caller: yes, good morning. i am going to watch tonight because i will watch to see how much more he follows up the government because he is halloween the government out. we have a measles outbreak, ebola growing, and we got kennedy in charge of our health. so someone tell me, is he better than fauci who knew how to control aids and keep the country healthy? by the way, joe biden did not let elon musk come in and take everyone's personal information, social security numbers. what this president is doing is destroying this country. you can be red, you can be blue,

but you going to be feeling the blues when you watch trump. and he is giving it to all of us, and it needs to stop. because donald trump is nothing but a crimer. he is grafting this country out of billions of dollars, and people cannot even see it. host: one of the callers was saying, why would he do that, he has nothing to gain. when you say he is a grifter, what does that mean to you? caller: because he is firing people who should not be fired. he is hollowing out the government. all he wants is the money and power. that is all he wants. if anybody believes that, come next month, let's see if everybody gets her social security, medicare, medicaid, because if you put those people out on the street and those people living in those retirement homes, that is where they are going to go. he has been drifting since he got in, has been grifting since

he was born. his father gave him half $1 million, and he blew it. why would you treat your allies like that, and then this guy talks about he is going to take canada? he going to talk to the u.k. about that? that going to be next? the country better start coming together before it gets to an end. the man is a grifter. host: let's show president trump with reporters in the oval office yesterday about what he says it will take to restart talks with president zelenskyy. [video clip] >> i just think he should be more appreciative because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin, given the much more than europe and europe should have given more than us because it is right there, the border. this country really was like the fence of the border. it was very important to europe. i am not knocking europe, i am

saying they were a lot smarter than joe biden because joe biden did not have a clue, gave money hand over fist. they should have been able to equalize with us, so where we gave a dollar, they should have given. were we gave free hundred $50 billion, they probably gave 100. and they get their money back because they do it in the form of a loan, a secured loan. i have known about that for a little while, and i said it is time for us to be smart. same time, it is great for them because they got us in the country taking the rarer, which is going to fuel this big engine, especially the engine that we have, in a very short time, created, and we get something and we are there, we have a presence there. with all of that being said, i want one thing to happen, i want all of those young people to stop being killed. they are being killed by the thousands every single week. last week 2700 were killed.

2700 young, in this case, just about all young boys from ukraine and from russia. and that is not young people from united states, but it is on a human basis. i want to see it stopped. host: that was the president yesterday. he did mention the amount that europe is giving. this is bbc.com showing a chart of a percentage of total government support to ukraine. on this side is europe at 49.5%. the u.s. less at 42.7%. other countries at 7.8%. as is the government support is made up of financial, humanitarian, and military help. ricardo in philadelphia, independent line. host: hi, yes, i hear a lot of the republicans talking about, oh, what does trump want to get

out of this, ohm he, -- oh, he is shrinking the government. he is shrinking the government so he can do tax cuts for the rich. he is going to jump into medicaid and social security to get tax cuts for the rich. that is why donald trump is doing that. by the way, this negotiator, why is the united states now taking the posture of stopping cyber planning and cyber attacks against russia when they just had a cyberattack in arizona hospitals and the russians were behind it? what did the russians give up for the u.s. to stop that? the u.s. is also stopping sanctions against russia. what did russia give up to donald trump for donald trump to

stop sanctions against russia? yet, instead of him attacking putin, no, he goes and attacks our ally and tries to corner him into accepting a deal for peace just so he can pound his chest and say, look, i stop a war. no, imagine if russia decided to come take alaska, do you think we would say, ok, let's give them a little portion of alaska, we don't want any dead bodies. no, we will fight for alaska like ukraine is fighting for their country. this war. when russia le -- this war will stop when russia leaves and let's ukraine be the country they are. once russia leaves, then we can start making concessions to russia. but why do russian concessions insult zelenskyy and our white house in front of the world? the criminal and is now saying

that united states has taken a foreign policy posture that they think is the correct posture. what are the republicans thinking? where are these republicans that come out and say, no, this is a sworn enemy of the united states? they are scared. donald trump has scared the republicans. and this right wing echo system of social media is fooling all these republicans. and they are going to wake up one day, and that gentleman is right, the checks are going to sell but your friends are going to get unemployed and the medicaid is going to stop, and then it will be too late. look at the price of eggs. host: all right, ricardo. this is what he was talking about on cyber. from the washington post, as trump wants to putin, u.s. halts offensive cyber operations

against moscow. defense secretary has ordered u.s. cyber command to pause cyber and information operations against russia as trump seeks to bring putin to the negotiating table to end the war in ukraine. you can read that in the washington post if you would like to learn more about what cyber command does and what they have been ordered to stop doing. here is jose in melbourne, florida, republican. caller: hi, no, i'm not going to watch. i am a republican, but i am not going to watch that. people have forgot, this man met with putin for six hours. but we forgot that. this man is pro-russian. elon musk, outsider, destroying all the offices of our country, central intelligence. that benefit who? benefit the russians.

every move you see is a benefit to the russians. america, you better wake up. you quit idolizing the man and love america again. you love the man and forgot about your country. guess what, you lost your country because now this belongs to the russians. we will see that, and i am not watching that. thank you. host: one of the other topics expected to come up is tariffs. the new york times has this, 25% tariffs set to hit mexicans and canadians, another 10% on china. u.s. industries scramble as trump says fees begin tuesday. that is today. he said this yesterday, that sweeping tariffs on canada and mexico would go into effect on tuesday, stating in remarks at the white house that there was no chance for a last-minute deal to have heard the levees. carol is calling from tucson, arizona, democrat. caller: yeah, i got to first

correct the record here. sil and with a bipartisan group before he met with trump -- zelenskyy met with a bipartisan group before he met with trump. it is so hard to talk with republicans when they constantly repeat the lies told through their little mouthpieces that they call their oan's and fox and all that. as far as this president, he lies so much and someday they are going to wake up. all this reduction of government is going to affect them. and i know there's probably 20% that will still think trump is god, but the others will have woken up. that is all i can count on. thank you. host: vinny in hyannis, massachusetts, republican. good morning. caller: this is vinny from such as its.

i don't have anything to say besides a lot of people hate trump, but he puts our people first. he is not into supporting foreign wars and sending them the money and stuff. [indiscernible] host: continuing the conversation on tariffs that went into effect today, this is also the washington post saying china puts tariffs on u.s. farm goods, blacklists american companies. beijing atelier quickly after trump further based tariffs on chinese goods, major escalation in the trade war between the world's two largest economies. todd in kentucky, democrat. debbie in pennsylvania, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, i will be watching tonight.

and i support president trump. i believe that the last four years we were actually ready heading for recession and depression. and i think president trump is doing what he can. also, i have a question. february 16, one tv station, i had heard that nobody else was showing or saying anything on any local station or worldly news that the democrats were planning on getting rid of the electoral vote, and only 10 new democratic states would be allowed to vote. they showed a map of the united states, and it was 10 states in the upper part of the united states side-by-side, nothing in the middle of the states or the southern states. host: tell me where you saw this so i can look it up. caller: it was in central pennsylvania on one of the tv

stations, not sure if it was pcn or pbs. i am not really sure what tv station it was, but only one station was showing it and nobody else was showing it. in other words, the republicans, independents, or conservatives would not be allowed to vote, only the democrats. host: i do not think that is accurate, debbie. have you looked that up are done fact checking on that? caller: i do not have a computer or cell phone to look it up, but it was on one tv station that showed it and nobody else said anything about it. host: and you have not seen anything since about that? caller: no, and i have been watching because i look at all the different news stations. i just thought it was odd that only one person was saying something about it. host: are you going to be watching tonight's speech on c-span? caller: yes, i am. yes, i support the president and

his members. like i said, the last four years i felt that we were already in a recession and depression. and i think he is only trying to do what he can to cut down -- i have been seeing on tv also the businesses that are having problems, cutting their employees and cutting down there menu. starbucks is cutting down their menus to serve the people. host: let's hear from the president talking about tariffs and defending the use of tariffs. [video clip] >> i told you about apple, they are going to be starting to build massively here, 500 billion. many other companies have already announced. no, it is going to be great. it is looking really strong. i don't think this country has ever seen anything like we are seeing right now.

the tariffs, as you know, started a week earlier than the reciprocal, which will be a couple weeks earlier. reciprocal starts on april 2. and i wanted to make it april 1 but i did not want to go april fools' day. that cost a lot of money, that one day, so we're going april 2. but in portly, tomorrow, tariffs, 25 percent on canada and on mexico. that will start, so they will have to have tariffs. so they will have to build their car plans, frankly, and other things in the united states, in which case they have no tariffs. by building here -- otherwise, if they did them in taiwan to send them here, they will have 25 percent or 30% or 50% or whatever the number may be some day, it will go only up. by doing it here, there's no tariffs, so he is way ahead of the game. i would just say this to people

in canada or mexico, if they are going to build car plans, they are much better off building here. we have the market where they sell the most. host: this is representative john joyce, a republican, posting on x, tomorrow president trump will share his vision during a joint address to congress on how he will continue the successes we have already seen during his second term in office. the golden age of america will continue to open doors for all americans. there also be a democratic response after the speech. we will carry that here on c-span. that will be given by elissa slotkin, a democratic senator. this is from abc news about her. it says slot can made her name during her six years serving in the house of representatives as a moderate, and afraid to at times challenger parties conventions here she has promised a rebuttal to trump's speech focused on economic and

national security. she says this, i am looking forward to speaking directly to the american people next week. the public expects leaders to level with them on what is actually happening in our country. from our economic security to our national security, we have got to chart a way forward that actually improves people's lives in the country we all love, and i am looking forward to laying that out. diane in maryland, republican. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. what he is going to say tonight, all he does is lie. last week the three world leaders had to correct him when he was talking about the money for ukraine, saying all the other countries it is a loan, and they correct him, like, no, it is a gift. and zelenskyy correcting him a couple times, the european union having more money than the united states has, exaggerated

the amount of money that the u.s. has. if we expect ukraine to pay that money, why don't we expect the other countries that give help to give back their money? and they have opened up the restrictions or lifted the restrictions on trade to russia. and i am wondering if he is putting these tariffs on these other countries so that the russians, we can start importing from russia and it will be cheaper than it is from canada like for aluminum. makes me wonder if it is all part of this plan to go more towards russia, as are the other things he has been doing. host: you are calling on the republican line. did you vote for president trump? caller: first time, yes. second and third time, no. host: what made you change your mind between those times? caller: the narcissist that he

is and also doing some more investigating -- as far as him being a businessman, he does stuff with other people's money. he does not use his money for stuff. case in point, go back to atlantic city, there is one lady there that he did everything he good to get her property -- cannot remember her name -- and he harassed her basically for years because she would not sell, one of the only people i know that beat him in the long run. host: all right. this is what diane was talking about from reuters, white house seeks plan for possible russia sanctions relief, according to sources. that is on reuters, if you would like to read that. he says white house has asked state treasury to draft options for easy russia sanctions, unclear what washington can seek

in return for sections relief, and u.s. sanctions may not be eased immediately. here is a democrat in alexandria, aaron. caller: been a while since i called, but i would like to make a couple points based off the calls you have received. yes, i am going to watch because you can even discern the truth from hearing lies. so i am going to watch, and i am going to encourage the democrats and those who hold offices to be present, to stand and be counted, and to show support that you are not gone. we need to see you there so please do not boycott. as far as someone saying democrats are violent, i do not remember us in the gallows at the capitol. as far as people saying republicans never prorated the previous administration, i want to remind you that marjorie taylor greene interrupted biden 's speeches several times, so

democrats can feel free to do the same thing until the truth. when they say donald trump is for the people first, no, he fired the american people first. for those who get letters from opm, opm only has the ability to fire their own employees, remember that. do not fall victim to scare tactics that elon musk, someone who probably does not have a security clearance, that is truly vetted to do business in the united states, is making decisions and standing in the oval office in a t-shirt and hat, when they paraded zelenskyy for not wearing a suit. if you watch "snl," you saw something funny about that. i believe someone called in response to me and said i sound uppity or snarky, no, i'm just well-educated or informed. i am black and pay my own bills. i wish you all have a good day,

but definitely stand in opposition to lies because it happens all the time. if we do not call it out when it does happen, it is a problem. donald trump is only interested in enriching his rich friends and russia. he has always been for russia and will be pro-putin all. the time if you wonder what he has to gain, by gutting the fbi and putting someone in that is anti-fbi as director and deputy director position, google that and see who he picks, who should have a job backing groceries at trader joe's. host: here is a scott in new york, independent. caller: yes, good morning. most of the people who call around here are 30 days and more and we get nervous on the phone and people call and talk and you have a lot of people calling all the time talking bad about you guys. i think you guys monitor the best you can.

i blame the media because what the problem is is donald trump, and everybody says he lies, just the clip you played of donald trump saying we spent 300-some billion dollars and spent more money than europe over in bosnia was three or four lies right up his mouth because you put it on the tv set. what they have to do is they have to quit letting him freely spew lies out of his mouth and not tell the world this guy is lying. we need to stop it. republican callers, they keep spewing the same lies trump tells them. i love all the humans, but listen, trump lies. if you look in the bible, the devil's main tool to take the world away is a lie. we have got to quit with the lies. i would like to address elon musk getting our information. a couple months ago we were

raising heck about tiktok because we were afraid of them getting our information, and that we have a man who has his own company, x, who would pay billions of dollars for our information, and now we are giving it to him for free. we do not know who this guy is. one more question, how many trump and how many musk family members in the history of america have given any blood in battle or to protect this country? trump is not a flipping savior or a battle hungry guy, he is a weak bully who beats up the weak. one other thing, the only thing that and going down is the price of fentanyl right now. there is no fentanyl coming from canada, it does come from down in south america, but it comes from china originally. the fentanyl and trump's first four years was 100 times better than it is now because it used to be made over there in

whatever -- chinese under supervision, now it is made in the jungles on a south america. host: all right. aaron talked about the deputy fbi director. it says, who is dan bongino, a former secret service agent turned podcaster. trump said he will serve as the fbi deputy director, erode traditionally held by career agents -- a role traditionally held by career agents. you can read about that in the washington post. here is sarah in indiana, republican. caller: hello. first of all, i am going to be listening tonight. i want to tell you something, you are always looking up everything about republicans, last week on channel 59 in indianapolis, is said somebody

had been drawing social security adding up to $230,000, somebody said it was a bad person. you can look that up, channel 59 in indianapolis. it is kind of funny that all these people are badmouthing trump and everything -- i can't believe it -- anyway, you always look up whenever a democrat gets on there and you let them go on and on, but you don't look up the stuff on a republican says something. you start listening to see if you can find something -- i kissed -- i just cannot believe it. i have listened to years but i'm getting close to cutting you off not watching anymore. i used to watch cnn and msnbc and all of them, but it was so much hate from the democrats, i cannot watch it anymore. i hope you will do better, mimi, and be fair. host: thanks for your feedback,

sarah. this is speaker mike johnson on x with the picture saying preparationsrenderway to welcome potus for his joint address to congress tomorrow night. it is going to be big! this is mary in vermont, democrat. caller: hi, good to see you this morning. i just have three short things to say. the first is that i am not going to watch tonight. and the second is that i feel very deeply saddened at the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer in our country. the third is i would like everyone to read the book "putin's playbook." host: who is the author of that? caller: rebekah koffler.

russia's secret plan to defeat america. host: what is the major take away from that book? caller: it just tells where putin is coming from, how he was raised, his life. yeah, it is so interesting and wonderful, i think everybody should read this book. make their own decisions on how they truly feel about it and what they see and what they see is happening right now in the world. it seems to be that we are playing right into putin's hands. host: on the independent line in tennessee is pat. hello. caller: hi, i am a very old person. host: how old are you? caller: i am 83. i have lived a lot of years, and i have seen a lot of stuff. you know, americans have just

gotten lazy. yes, i am going to watch the president tonight. americans do not understand, they have got so much freedom, freedom of speech, so much that they have that they don't understand that it is going to be gone. i am old, and when they stop or cut my social security, i will be one of those people pushing the grocery cart down the street. and americans say, oh, no, nothing like that can ever happen. yes, it will happen. and what donald trump is doing -- i voted for donald trump first time. what he is doing, he will take over this country.

he will be your dictator. and he will never, ever have another election that is right. i mean, it will just never happen again. he will be president, and after he is president, lord knows he will put donald jr. or musk or somebody in there. host: how do you think that will play out in four years? caller: in four years -- i do not even think he wants to be president or he wouldn't be letting elon musk do what he is doing. he just want to play golf and own the u.s. and he will do it. i have been around for a lot of years. i have listened to a lot of politicians. i mean, you can't hardly believe any of them anymore. but i am not stupid, i watch tv,

i watch what is going on. and he does not tell the truth. and i have a lot of christian friends, and they honestly think he is the new coming of the lord. and it breaks my heart. but, like i said, americans have just got lazy and used to it, but i want them to be able to look their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren in the eye when they asked them why did you let this country get like this, i want them to look at them and say, well, you know, i just believed what i wanted to and did not really care about yell. that is all i got to say. host: our previous caller, sarah, was talking about a news item she saw in indianapolis.

this is the kansas city star that says this, wife lies about indiana husband's death for years to collect social security. it says she collected more than 230 thousand dollars in social security benefits over 15 years. it was not intended for her, it was for her husband who was dead, according to prosecutors. the woman is ordered to pay back $231,000 and change she illegally received from social security by neglecting to report her husband's death in 2006. she has pleaded guilty to making false statements, according to court documents. here is steve in vermont, republican. good morning. caller: hello. hope everybody is having a great morning. funny story, i actually met donald trump quite a while back. i do not really have much memory of it, but we were talking about

something like -- [indiscernible] i believe they were for an early alert system. it has to do with the country's infrastructure. donald trump is putting his self forward to keep our country safe. this was very apparent, and i do not know how people can hate him so much. those -- he was all over the place, all over rhode island. host: here is frank in savannah, georgia, democrat. caller: good morning. yes, i think the universe for c-span. it is the one essential news network. i do plan to watch the speech tonight because i want to know what he is going to say. a few years ago i said, ok, he

cannot say any more that will shock me because i am numb. but every day it is all most tops himself. he says something and i say, where did that come from, what is he saying? maybe tonight he is going to announce the invasion of canada, i don't know. i turned 70 last year, and he is definitely the most entertaining president in my lifetime. yeah, i don't understand how he got elected twice from what we know about him now. and that woman was right, the christian nationalists, they are putting him over the top. i don't think she has to worry about living out of a shopping cart and losing her social security because things will come to an end long before that. thank gosh, something is going

to happen, i just have a feeling. you can only fake so much. host: frank, are you going to be watching tonight? caller: yes, i just said that, i will be watching, yes. i do believe elon wants to take away our medicare and social security from the poor people and give it to him and his billionaire friends, but i don't think even he can do that. i think we will see his downfall pretty soon, one way or another. i have one last thing i want to say, i have to use metaphors for this, but now that we see potent and trump -- putin and trump have this partnership that exists, i wonder just how far this partnership goes. the question i am asking is, which one of these men is the

pitcher and which one is the catcher? i want to know the answer to that question. host: all right, frank. let's go to ray in georgia, independent line. caller: no, i am not going to watch. just can't take anymore of trump's lies. i am amazed how republicans call and defend his actions. it is like half of our country is brain-dead, like they are members of a cold. he lies, what he spews about ukraine is wrong. the government agencies can give you the exact number any triples it. everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. it is disappointing. and he cut billions from poor people. the poorest of this country are in the red states and they're going to vote for him, and tomorrow they will call and say he did a great job. he is a pathological liar, and we need to get rid of him as soon as possible. even jd vance said trump was americas hitler.

he does not care about poor people, never has. joe biden should have left office a long time ago, but he also talked about prescription drugs and the american people. trump is about himself and his billionaire friends, and america is too stupid to wake up and understand that this man is lying here they need to get out of that silo they are in an freaking pay attention to what is really going on. host: ron in michigan, republican. caller: i am going to watch tonight, and i will also send to the democrat responsibility elizabeth slotkin. i would like to remind everybody that we cannot see our loved ones during covid so they had to die alone but governor gretchen whitmer flew to florida to see her father. we were not allowed to go out on our boats and her husband was. those are facts.

as far as tonight, i went to explain to people out there, trump is not for the russians. is the ones who gave the ukrainians the javelin. people need to remember that. as far as the europeans, they are buying their gas and oil through third parties from the russians. tell me who is really for the russians. the last thing i would like to say is the democratic party covered up bidens mental acuity for four years so that should tell you everything you need to know about the democrats. up next -- host: up next we will take a closer look at the dynamic between trump and the gop congress with philip wallach

, a congressional scholar at aei. and later the former biden irs commissioner daniel werfel discusses the impact of doge and mass government layoffs. what impact that could have on this year's tax season. we will be right back. ♪ >> tonight, watch c-span's live coverage of president's address to congress the first address of his second term. c-span's live coverage begins at 8:00 eastern with a preview of the evening from capitol hill followed by the president speech which begins at 9:00 eastern and watch the democratic response after the president speech. we will also take your calls and get your reaction. on c-span2 you can watch a simulcast of the coverage followed by the reaction from lawmakers.

watch president trump's address to congress live tonight beginning at 8:00 eastern on c-span or simulcast live on c-span2 or on our free mobile app. c-span, bringing you your democracy unfiltered. >> if you ever miss any of c-span's coverage you can find it anytime online at c-span.org. videos of key hearings, debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting highlights. these markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos. this tool makes it easy to get an idea of what was debated and decided. scroll through and spend a few minutes on c-span's points of interest. >> looking to contact your members of congress? c-span is making it easy.

get essential contact information for government officials all in one place. this compact guide contains bio and contact information for every house and senate member of the 119th congress. contact information on congressional committees, the president's cabinet, federal agencies, and state governors. the directory costs $32.95 plus shipping and handling and every purchased help support c-span's non-profit organization. preorder your copy today. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by philip wallach, a senior fellow at the american enterprise institute and the author of the book why congress. welcome to the program. start by telling us about your background and your areas of expertise. guest: i'm a political scientist

who studies american politics, particularly our constitutional system, our policymaking system and the separation of powers. over the last seven or eight years i have mostly focused on studying congress because i am concerned that congress is in some ways the part of our government that is having the most trouble and because congress has troubles we get a lot of problems passing laws that are legitimate that the whole american people -- there is so much stress on a presidential elections and it strains our political system. host: you're a senior fellow at aei. does that mean you have a conservative point of view? guest: i think of myself as a center-right person. i am unusually concerned about process and the way we do things. not just a particular set of priorities. host: let's talk about the

speech tonight the president will be giving. what are you looking for in terms of how president trump defines his role and his powers? guest: i think president trump and this second term has been very clear he thinks he won a huge victory, a mandate from the american people and that gives him pretty much entitles them to do whatever he thinks is right. of course the president takes an oath to take care of that the laws are faithfully executed. sometimes president trump seems to think that when he finds laws inconvenient or bad they do not apply. i wonder if he will say anything on that score to reassure those of us who are worried they are playing fast and loose with the law in this new administration? i expect president trump to revert to form as a showman. he will tout his accomplishments, he will say we

have seen more good things happen in the last six weeks than ever before in american history. host: there was a posting on x, where president trump wrote "he who saves his country does not violate any law." that is attributed to napoleon, who crowned himself emperor. what was your reaction when you saw that? guest: trump is the master troll. he knows how to provoke reactions and he can always say i was just kidding around, i was just trying to get a rise out of my opponents. it is crazy for the president of the united states, a constitutional republic, to be favorably citing napoleon bonaparte, who made himself emperor and ended the republic in france and converted it to an empire and went trying to conquer the whole of europe. that is a crazy thing for a

president of the united states to be favorably quoting on social media. i do consider myself successfully trolled. it did get a rise out of me. that is not the kind of country america is supposed to be. we are a country where the law is king. there is no other king. we do not elect a king. a president is bound to be an officer of the law. host: tell us about unitary executive theory. what does that mean and where does it come from? guest: there is a question about how the executive branch ought to be organized. we have literally millions of people who are employed in the executive branch of our government today. that is quite a contrast from the beginnings of our country where there were just a few hundred in 1789. the question is how much do we need to have it be so the

president as the boss at the top of this pyramid is literally responsible for everything that happens in the executive branch and has the ability to hire and fire as he sees fit? the unitary executive theory says the constitution makes the president's sole head of the executive branch and there is not room for independence within the executive branch. independent agencies, which we have had for many decades are suspicious. we think why are they independent? why don't the answer to the democratically elected president? president trump and his supporters have leaned very hard into the unitary executive theory to justify why the president needs to have direct control over every part of the government. they have taken it even farther in suggesting anything the president says goes. the unitary executive theory

does not necessarily say. host: philip wallach is our guest, author of the book "why congress?" if you would like to join our conversation. start calling you now. democrats (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, (202) 748-8002 and independents (202) 748-8002. where does that theory leave congress? guest: the executive branch is one thing and congress is another thing. congress is the article one branch of government. it does not get its power from the president, it gets its power from the people. congress is meant to be the preeminent branch of our government that makes the big decisions. they are the ones who make the law and the president is supposed to be executing the law. that ought to give congress pride of place. it is clear congress in recent years has marginalized itself.

members of congress, you will see them begging the president to do things. you could just make a law but instead you're going around the lawmaking process and sing the president is the one who is supposed to make all the policies and all of the decisions. as a member of congress the most effective thing i can do is bend to the presidency or. -- is bend the president's ear. that is a dangerous shift for congress that suggests it is subordinate. host: do you think the power of executive had already been expanding in the past, even before the current time? guest: i think it is a long upward trajectory. not always steady. after watergate congress eased back a lot of powers. there have been times in congress has shown it can stand up for itself. in the 21st century especially we have seen very assertive presidents.

you had barack obama say when congress is not doing what i want i have my pen and my phone and i can do a lot of policymaking just by those by ordering people to do things in the executive. trump has fit into this upward trajectory but i think it is fair to say the second trump administration is making the most aggressive claims of any administration we have ever seen. host: you published a commentary with the title "the rule of law has seen better days." plain what you mean by that and if youhink there are laws being broken right now. guest: i think it is clear that there are. some of them are detailed, not likely to be things the ordinary american is experiencing directly. there is a question about the funding of research labs. congress clearly set out a formula that it wanted.

it had a disagreement with the first trump administration so it clearly put this into law. the second trump administration says sorry we are giving less for overhead, it does not matter that the losses otherwise. there are little things like that. that is an important policy but something most people will not notice. then there is the question of the civil service laws and how the federal employment is structured and what kind of procedures you have to go through to shut down an agency. usaid is established by law. the president has made it sound like nevertheless he can just disappear it. host: under unitary executive theory that all branch belongs to him so he could shut down agency if he chose to? guest: the president is charged with taking care that the laws are faithfully executed and those are good laws on the books. the president has to have direct lines of control through the executive branch under unitary executive theory.

traditionally they do not have the power to just disregard the law. another place where this will come up as this question of impoundment. when congress passes spending laws is the president required to spend up to the amount congress has said or does the president have an inherent power to say actually i don't want to spend as much on this, that is just a ceiling for how much i could spend? president nixon made some very aggressive claims about how he could impound funds if he thought the policy was bad. president trump seems to be moving in that direction although he has not formally made any claim of that yet. host: the impoundment control act o19 requires the president to spend appropriated money unless he obtains congressional approval within 45 days not to disburse the funds. has that ever happened?

guest: yes. many presidents since the passage of that act have successfully gotten rescissions. you rescind the spending that was originally in the appropriations laws. it does require going to congress and working with members of congress to pass those bills. certainly easier for the president to just say i can do this on my own. since the big clashes with nixon in the 1970's no president has gone outside of that framework to say i have a strong impoundment power. president trump looks like he may. host: let's start with callers. mary on the republican line in texas. caller: go ahead -- hello. host: go ahead. caller: i am mary smith and i, from a long line of democrats and i voted for obama and biden

but i had a friend who was very politically astute or meet that biden was pro-abortion up to the ninth month and i'm a pro-life person so i made a 180 and became a republican. then i started watching newsmax and fox nation and i became a conservative republican and i will be watching the president tonight. i appreciate your show very much. host: here is carol in illinois. line for democrats. are you there? caller: thank you for taking my call. i am very concerned that all of our relatives died in the past to have our u.s. constitutional rights. congress is not stepping up and doing their job. what can we do to get congress up doing their job? instead of taking away from the people and giving it all to the

oligarchs. it does not hurt them but it hurts the american people. thank you very much. host: what do you think? guest: thanks for the question. there are some complicated reasons why congress is shirking its responsibilities in our time. part of it is the change in the media environment. members of congress can reach a huge crowd of people on social media and get rewards from those kinds of interactions, including funds from all around the country. that incentivizes them the sort of spectacle rather than the hard work of policymaking. i think a lot of our members of congress today need to remember their job is to be a lawmaker and really figure out how they

can get together with all of the other members who come from all around the country, work through the countries difficult problems and figure out compromises we can all live with. if we do that we end up with laws and policies that are acceptable, broadly acceptable and that can endure and will not snap back and forth when the control of the white house changes hands. the way we have it now where so many members of congress are just cheerleading or jeering the president depending on whether their party is in control, we get a kind of whiplash. that is not healthy for our country. host: here is stephanie in south carolina. independent line. good morning. caller: i am a veteran and i'm calling because i'm concerned about the documents seized by the fbi when they raided trump's house, the documents he stole during his first term.

i am reading in the washington post and they are saying those documents were returned to his house. who is keeping an eye on that and wide to those documents need to be at his house? i will be watching his speech tonight because i do not hear anybody reporting on this and i will be watching the speech for clues as to why he needs those documents at his house. the same documents that he stole before. thank you. host: not very related to the topic but you have any comment? guest: i would say i do not know so much about the details of where the documents are today but it does seem that the caller is right that people have moved on from this issue. trump is the president now and he has security clearance for anything and everything. i think it has become a nonissue. host: here is carol, a republican in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning.

speaking to mr. wallach's point the whiplash we need checks and balances in congressional procedures. we have a seesaw effect that occurs when one party is in power. the fact that the other party has no rights to bring things to the floor is unhealthy for our congress. joe manchin has rightly said that 50% of the people are centrist and the way our system has evolved, it is just going whiplash between radical left and radical right. guest: i think carol for that comment. i very much agree that the way we organize the procedures in both the house and the senate today really cuts down on our members ability to work things

out and look for bipartisan compromise where they can find them. we have very leader dominated institutions today relative to most of the history of congress. the top partisan leaders have a very tight control over the agenda and we have a very cramped lawmaking process. we do not often see those to the grindstone work in the committees leading to bipartisan bills that then get brought to the floor where other members have a chance to offer amendments. that has become very uncommon in our time. that process of lawmaking is good for building compromises we can all live with. when we try to do anything to our top partisan leaders they tend to think about how things look for the next elections, which again does not always

motivate them to think about how can we calm things down. host: supreme court justice sonya sotomayor was speaking last month in florida and she was asked about the continued relevance of checks and balances and the power of congress to appropriate funding. i will play portion and then get your response. [video clip] >> our founders believed they had created -- and they have -- created free incredible checks and balances. the woman who asked, who said to we have a monarchy or something else and franklin's response was a republic. our founders were hellbent on ensuring we did not have a monarchy. the first way they thought of that was to give congress the power of the purse.

because that is an incredible power. they gave the presidency the power of the military. that is also -- that means not just armed forces but law enforcement, which is an incredible obligation of a president. they gave the courts the power to interpret. we have to do it by persuasion. we have to make it clear to society, to the president, to the congress, to the people that we are doing things based on law and the constitution as we are interpreting it fairly. our goodwill or our power is the power of reason. most people would consider that

a soft power. is the most powerful of all of them. money can be taken away by congress. they give it and they can take it away. a president has four years and he or she could be removed. those things are ephemeral in that sense of it. court decisions stand, whether one particular person chooses to abide by them or not, it does not change the foundation that it is still a court order that someone will respect at some point. host: what you think? guest: i share the justices love for that benjamin franklin quotation when asked what kind of government have you made coming out of the constitutional convention he said a republic,

if you can keep it. it is always the responsibility of the american people to make sure our government remains responsive to us and does not get out of our control. i think the justice did a good job outlining the different spheres of each of the branches. i will say it is controversial. exactly where the executive power ends in exactly how far court decisions can go. she suggests that supreme court decisions are the most powerful thing because they last until they are overturned. there is a view that has periodically popped up in american history called departmental is that says judges get to decide cases and that is it.

everyone else is bound to follow the decisions they make in particular cases but they do not have to treat everything the court says as having great value. they can keep pushing. you see some signs the current trump administration has a view like that and wants to narrowly limit how it will read the supreme court rulings. host: do you think the supreme court will decide all of these questions as far as the power of doge, their ability to fire federal workers, the power of the presidency? host: there are dozens -- guest: there are dozens of lawsuits playing out and lawsuits take time. we are only a few weeks into this administration. lawsuits play out over course of months and years. i think many of them will end up in the supreme court.

a lot of action plays out while the judicial process is unfolding. host: gym in bakersfield, lifornia is asking that when you think the president disregard or ignores court orders that that by definition is a constitutional crisis? guest: i think crisis depends on how things play out. is disregarding something most people would find unimportant a crisis? i don't know. host: but if it is a court order. guest: the other question is whether they pretend they are complying and then are not doing what is ordered. i think if they openly said we do not have to follow what the court says, that would be maximally aggressive and would lead to a question of whether the president has any limits on what he can do or if he can just

ignore a court of law that says he is not following the law. host: here is doug in florida. independent. caller: i just have a question to ask for general understanding. congress has the budget and they appropriate money to whatever situation might be. the money is then given or passed the executive branch to execute that. congress does not look line by line for every single item in which that department is spending money or allocating the money, however it should be called. what authority does the executive branch have to determine what individual items within that appropriation should be spent in what way? guest: thanks for the question.

it is a really subtle question and you are right that it is kind of complicated. the money gets appropriated by congress and then it is in different accounts that are managed by the department of the treasury, but ultimately tied to different departments within the government. the government moves money around to execute its program responsibilities. congress has intentionally given the executive branch quite a lot of flexibility in how it moves money around between these different accounts because it thinks that is necessary to deal with the realities of a complicated world. i should say does congress

continue to keep track of things line by line? they really do. the gao which was originally created as an accounting office is now called the accountability office is responsible for auditing the books of the executive branch and reporting back to congress. congress does have the capacity to keep track of the way money is moving around in the executive branch. that said, when this new administration starts making things happen really fast it is fair to ask whether congress has a good grasp over what is happening. here is charlene in california a democrat. >> i want to say it's hard for either of the branches to work together because they are attempting to operate out of the spirit of fear. they are afraid. mr. trump has a lot of people that support him that are not -- does not have the country's unity and progress

for all in their best interest between the wrestlers the brow boys, the 1,600 that were let out of prison or jail wherever they were. between all of them most people would be afraid to do their job too. but i hope that we have enough people at the top that know jesus and know the lord and know the creator and know that he is the boss and not trump and not biden and not nobody else, and i hope they do their job for the betterment of the people. >> phil? i think that is a great comment, charlene. i think we need our lawmakers to remember that they take an oath to the constitution and they have a responsibility to their constituent who sent them to

washington and the whole country. there are a lot of people that think the other side is so bad that compromising would some how be suspicious or treasono us and that is a country we can't if we have a country with functioning politics. even if we disagree with each other we have to work with each other and figure out where we can come to agreements and go from there. >> rich is a republican from north carolina. >> thank you. first i guess is a comment. it appears to me there has not been any fact yet of president trump violating a court order or a decision from the supreme court. i recall the activity of mr. biden his predecessor with student loan forriveness and a d

utter disregard. and that prompts two other questions from the commentary this morning. regarding employment oversight on the federal employee workforce. if that is not a function of the executive branch of government then i fail to see whose it would be. those are the ones who are to make sure that the money that is spent on them is appropriately spent and not excessively spent and the people are being productive in their work to serve the american taxpayer. the last thing that relates to a question relates to disruption because there are things that i see in the news that could be disruptions in the president's address to congress tonight, i would welcome your comments. >> -- thanks for those questions they are good ones.

i wrote about biden's student loan policies and i crit critid the way he went around congress. i think that was troubling the way that he stretched legal powers in ways that ultimately the supreme court repiewdated. i don't think you are right to say that he disregarded what the court said. he most certainly shutdown the particular program that the court said was unlawful and then he went ahead and tried to find other ways of doing student loan relief that would be lawful. i don't see that as openly disregarding the court decision. now you talk about federal employees and controlling them, if that is not an executive function, what is? i think that makes a lot of sense, but nevertheless it's a very huge workforce set up in

these different agencies. these agencies are creatures of laws we have developed a civil service system where laws say we have to deal with federal employees. we want a high quality workforce that doesn't merely do what the top brass say they should, but are devoted of doing their jobs right and are going to keep doing them from one administration to the next. we want a non-political civil service. and we have laws in place to ensure that is the case. trump harkens back to andrew jackson and the spoil system that thinks that everyone in the executive branch ought to be answering to the president but that is not the law we have in place. finally you asked about possible

disruptions in the speech tonight to the democrats. i think that would be a huge gift to the president. i think that is what he hopes will happen he is very lucky with his enemies mr. trump, that is one of his great political talents. getting people to make a spectacle is just the kind of thing he can sell to his supporters as a justification of the way he is conducting himself. >> hi phillip, i appreciate the opportunity to speak to you. and i was glad to hear you mention that the law is the final authority in our country. it begs the question if the power is resting with the individuals that delegate that authority to various levels through representation, those representatives in the congress

are responsible for making the laws. and the executive branch is responsible for making these laws and there are local police forces and where does the responsibility lie when the laws are not consistently and uniformly enforced by the represented bodies? >> yeah. so when the law doesn't seem to be making sense in practice, what are we supposed to do about that if the executive branch doesn't seem to be applying the law in a consistent way? it's a great question. i think the judiciary has a role in trying to order consistent conduct this is the right way to interpret this law and it needs to be applied fairly in all situations. i think ultimately, congress has to look after it's own laws. if it finds the executive branch

is not executing the laws that it has passed that ought to be offensive to congress as a institution. and congress has all kinds of tools too look after it's own interest. the most important one being the power of the purse. it can defund the executive branch. it can throw the president out of the white house it is it real--if it really wanted to. it has a lot of power to say the last say. congress has been a little passive and really likely to minimize it's own responsibility in recent years. so when that happens and you have laws that don't seem to be carry the out uniformly, it's a fair question. is there really any recourse? >> this is angela a democrat in lancaster, ohio, good morning angela. angela are you there in

lancaster? here is lynn in charlotte north carolina, a republican good morning. >> good morning. i hope everyone there is doing well this morning. hey i have a couple of comments about i always watch the washington journal every morning. you know what a shame that the democrats can't get on board and recognize that we're $37 trillion in debt. and this goes back to there was clips of clinton saying, oh, we need to audit, we need to get the debt under control and there were clips of obama and there clips of the biden administration and no one addressed it. and now trump is trying to address it. america could literally go

bankrupt and we could be in a lot of trouble. so trump is taking a lot of flack for trying to straighten the united states out. we have a debt here to pay. and no one has the -- you can not keep supporting a never ending war. i feel sorry for the ukrainians you have to have a peace deal there. i understand that, you know, you have got to have the best interest of the american's at heart whether you are a democrat or a republican or an independent. america first, whether you are a trump fan or not, you need to think about this $37 trillion of debt so we can continue to enjoy our freedom, thank you. >> thanks, so much, lynn, for your comments. i'm in full agreement about the

seriousness about our debt problem. $37 quadrillion in debt as you say. what are we doing about it? trump says by getting elon musk slash parts of the government that is going to fix it. i'm sorry the math doesn't end up. that is not where the government spending is going. i believe personnel costs are 8 percent and most of that is military. you can't cut your way to a balanced budget just by throwing out some federal employees or cutting waste and fraud and abuse. much as i wish that was the case. if elon musk manages to do it i would be thrilled. i would be so happy to be wrong. that is not where the federal spending goes it goes on these big programs. mid care and -- e

and medicaid. if you want to shrink the budget deficit and get the debt under control you have to find a way to get those programs under control. i don't know if rums are on thee on the way to do is that. i agree with the rhetoric about the need to get the debt under control, i'm not sure that the current republican party is on the way to doing it not withstanding president trump claiming that he is on the way to balancing the budget. i don't see it. >> valerie in indiana, line for democrats. good morning. >> good morning, i thank you very much to what you just said just now to that lady. it can't be done. not the way he wants to do it. i was just wondering after looking at the two idiots with a gentlemen the other day it was

so embarrassing and it really put our country in a down position. and my question is, is there anyway to get rid of this president through dereliction of duty or unfit? >> well, valerie, there are two ways under the constitution to remove a president one is impeachment which means high crimes and misdemeanors. we saw that didn't happen in trump's first term inspite of two attempts by the democratic house of representatives and

there is the 25th amendment and you get the cabinet together to say that the president is unfit to hold office because of physical or mental disability. that is not happening any time soon and you still need congress to go along with that. the truth is that president trump has a lot of support in his party and strong support from republicans that would have to change dramatically to have a chance of removing him from office. right now it's not in the cards. >> william in burlington, north carolina is asking you on text. would you say identity politics and a 2 party system are more the problem overall. >> we have had a two party system for much of our political history and we find ways for it to work. parties are coalitions, they are not all people that agree on the same ideas. there is always internal

dissension within parties, internal disagreements that have to be worked out. that is true about the republican party today. but in some of his moods president trump makes it seem like disagreeing with him is an unhealthy act. that is not the way the two parties need to function in our system. identity policy can be a real poison for our system if people think that certain people's identity makes them suspect, makes them so we can't work with them. basically, if i see my group as sort of opposed to your group then what are we going to compromise on? if people think of themselves in those terms we're sunk. i don't think most americans do though. even those that feel a strong feeling of identity in different

racial or ethic groups. i think they feel they are americans and can work with other americans in good faith. >> all right, philip thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> up nix the impact of doge and mass government layoffs what that could do with this years' tax season. we'll be right back.

welcome back to washington journal we're joined by dani worfu welcome. it's good to be here.

>> you are part of a group of former irs commissioners who are warning the trump lay-offs of irs employees which is about 7,000, that would be a dangerous thing. what prompted first, the creation of that. as it turns out the former commissioners and the former irs commissioners going back to ronald regan we connect with each other and we have a network. they were supportive of me when i was going through confirmation. and when there is news about the irs and we think we can help or explain what is going on to the members of the public we do so. when we heard about the lay-offs and we understood that the stated purpose of the lay-offs was cost efficiency, we all scratched our head and said how can this be about cost efficiency when the irs is the primary agency responsible for

collecting the revenue and the receipts for the u.s. government. >> they would say it's a bloated agency and you don't need those 7,000 and you are paying them for no reason. >> i would say that you don't understand the history of the irs. the irs has gone through a decade of budget cuts from 2010 to 2022 the irs was cut or held constant by inflation. or essentially was cut. the staff size in 2022 before the inflation reduction act was passed was at it's lowest point since the 1970s. in the meantime the population has grown and the number of filers has grown and the economy has become larger and more global and the tax system has grown. so if you have a growing tax system and a decreasing number of employees to manage putt taxx

system you have the emergence of challenges. including not only, the challenges of answering phones or meeting people in walk in centers to answer their tax questions, you start losing pace on collecting what is owed. these are not new taxes. >> whether the irs staff something high or low does not particular date whether your tax is high or low. congress decides whether your taxes are high or low. right now we run about a 700 billion-dollar deficit each year in terms of what is owed, versus what is paid. and in this way, the way it's set up, in particular, because our understanding is many members of the doge are coming in from the private sector, with

private sector experience. we're asking if they had a mission to cut waste and create efficiency would they take an axe to the receivables department. a ceo that does that would say we sold a lot of goods and services last year but let's deplete the capacity of the part of the organization that collects the proceeds of those sales. we don't think the board of directors would be happy about that or the shareholders would be happy about that. the only people that would be celebrating would be the company's competitors. one more point about this question about bloated agency. one of the things that the former commissioners absolutely support is modernizing and moving to technology solutions over time. we were on a path with the

inflation reduction resources and have had good momentum of getting the organization ready for automation and ai. >> were you not able to modern eyes -- modernize in the four-years of the biden administration. >> there were more ways for taxpayers to file online. the irs had a two-year window to modernize because the inflation reduction act provided funds to the irs. >> modern use costs money. when the inflation reduction act was passed the irs was dough ded of resources. they'd record low customers on the phones and record low of

people in the walk in centers. because of the budget resource strain finally caught up with this organization, around 2021, 2022. there was not the opportunity to modernize because you are plugging holes in the dam. you are really trying to stay afloat. finally you get the funds in the inflation reduction act to modernize and the journey started. and what that is intended to do is to help taxpayers to make it easier. so they can get more solutions on the website and not call into the irs. >> i want to show people the number of employees at the irs going back from 1980 to 2024 and this is the curve. you see a very low dip here in the first trump administration what happened there. >> this is with the ongoing

budget cuts and the growth in the number of people leaving government through retirement and other forms of attrition and if you don't have the funds, you can't higher behind those people. i mean we have been talking about for decades the fact that the baby boom generation is eligible for retirement after 2010. we're in the heart of it right now. and we're in the heart of a lot of baby boomers retiring and that was at the heart for the first trump administration. these people leave and you don't have the budget to higher behind them, you lose people. that doesn't mean the loss of an irs agent knocking on your door to ask you for money. >> that means people to be helping you. to sit in the walk incenters and to get the refund back to you as

soon as possible. >> these people that were laid off, are these the ones processing the returns is this going to have an impact on our tax season. >> we don't have all of the details of exactly who was laid off. what they did they focused on probationary employees which are fairly new employees. my understanding that most of the people that were laid off were in the collections part of irs versus the services side of the irs. the layoff of this size of 7,000 people during the filing season that is hard to imagine it wouldn't be disruptive to the organization. during filing season the last thing you want to do is take increased risk and take on additional operational complexity and you want things steady as she goes and the layoff this size creates a lot

of risk for our tax system and we want to avoid that risk. we don't think that the lay-offs are appropriate especially in the name of cost efficiency. because we think in the name of the american government and fiscal sol svensy we should be collecting the receipts and not leave them on the table. we want a fair tax system. the fact that the irs has a diminished capacity to collect the tax that's are owed. that shifts the tax system for those that don't play by the rules to those that do. and they are carrying more of the load of funding this government. so there is just a fiscal sensibility issue. why not collect what is owed if you are trying to improve the bottom line. you learn in the first business class, day one, what does it mean, what is a company or organizations bottom line?

it's both made up of cost and revenue it's both pieces together. you want to increase or maintain revenue for that bottom line. accounts receivable is a critical part of the government's bottom line. >> if you would like to join our conversation you can do so, our lines are democrats it's 202-7800. >> and i want to may a view he was asked about the tax view for the wealthy. here is the exchange. again what you have seen is we don't have the resources for the wealthy tax cheats.

i want too see someone make the commitment that pool have the pe the resources to go after the wealthy tax cheats that go after this system. i welcome your we'll need resources so will you support that? >> if con if i wered, i will come back to you with a plan for upping collections. >> on wealthy tax cheats? >> well, for -- you seem to believe that the wealthy cheat more, but i think across the entire income spectrum so you're saying that the wealthy have this special cachet and if there is some large mother load there, then to figure out how to crack

that, whether it's through ai or some other means that i will commit to coming back to you. >> what do you think of that? >> when i was at the irs, what i learn second-degree i don't believe the wealthy cheat more than anyone else. not at all. i think there's many wealthy individuals, large corporations, large complex partnerships that play by the rules. i also think these same individuals, most of whom play by the rules, want there to be accountability for those that don't. especially if i'm the cfo or ceo of a major company and i'm not going to go to sleep at night unless i play by the rules, i want to know my competitors are being held accountable to play by the rules otherwise it's not a fair marketplace. here's why senator wieden is saying is so important in my opinion. when you say we don't care about data science or subject matter expertise or staff size, we'll

have a smaller, less impactful, less effective irs, then it's harder for the irs to determine where the tax evasion is occurring. it makes it harder to determine where there's tax evasion in complex situations. look, for the average taxpayer going to work 9-5, your taxes are pretty simple. imagine a company that's operating all around the world, in many tax jurisdictions, subsidiaries on subsidiaries on subsidiaries. has all kinds of organizational complexity and their tax returns are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of pages long. it's very difficult to understand in those situations what the balance due is versus what's being paid. the idea is to invest in an irs that not only has the ability to find the balance due in the sipple taxpayer that's working 9-5 or that small business, but also invest in an irs that can

figure out what the balance due is in the most complicated largest organizations in the world. they can for a very wealthy person. not that the wealthy cheat more. if you don't have an irs with the capacity to find the balance dues, two things happen. there's a risk we audit people playing by the rules, large corporations. i'm ceo or cfo of that large corporation. if you ask me do you want an irs with a capacity to better see where the evasion is to audit them and not you? i'd say yes. do you want an irs with a better capacity to hold your competitors accountability to make sure they're playing by the rules just like you? i say yes. that's what it means to have an irs you're investing in and a healthy tax system. taxes are unpopular, and i get that as a former irs

commissioner. also, all former irs commissioners agree there's absolutely opportunity for more efficiency in both government and in the irs. we applaud efforts to be looking for that efficiency. what we're suggesting is if you're going to do something big, do it after filing season. don't create risk during this critically important moment. if you're going to attack cost efficiency in the irs, recognize the budget trajectory it's been on, which was pretty down to the bone just a few years ago before the new resources came in. second, in the name of cost efficiency, don't discount revenue and receipts. cost efficiency is both. it's not just about cuts costs and it's revenue and receipts as well. not raise or lower taxes. i have no opinion on that as irs commissioner. i'm saying let's collect the taxes that have already been enacted.

>> this is the one that says doge presses to check federal benefits payments against irs tax records. elon musk want tosser much for fraud and privacy law bars the irs from disclosing irs forms to other parts of the government. how safe are irs tax records and does doge already have them? >> it's such a important question and if you allow me, i want to talk a little bit about this question of fraud. what is fraud and what is error and how do you stop it? then i'll address your question about the data. because when the and i've been working on this for virtually my entire career. one thing i learned and i don't have the monopoly or the right answer. not here to say i figure it had all out and know how to solve the problem. i have lessons learned and one of the lessons learned as you're getting ready to make a payment to a grantee, to a contractor, to a individual, 9 times out of

1 -- 1 -- 99 times out of 100, they don't know if it's going to be fraud or error. if they do, they stop the payment. but two things need to happen, you need to gather more information about the recipient. know more about them and know for example where is the as set management and need to know household size because that might also be a criteria for eligibility. all kinds of data helping you determine whether this is the right payment. so you ask for more data. other thing is needing more time. two things happen trying to address error.

one, you increase burden on the american people. the government is collecting more information about them. and you take more time i don't want them knowing what's going on inside hi bank account and household. then there's high risk of fraud or error. i don't want a delay. i don't want you to delay three months that medicare reimbursement you owe we. no, pay me now. that tension plays out and you end up in a situation where you balance burden, speed, with error. now, a great example of that in

the question you asked. the doge going in and saying we've got to stop error and running into the same thing i ran. >> we need more information. let's grab the irs information. now as a taxpayer, do i want irs spreading my information out to all the other government agencies? that sounds very big brotherrish to me. i don't like that. some people don't like that. there's a whole law called section 6103 of the internal revenue code that determines when and if the irs can share information with another federal agency for this very purpose. and over the years congress has been pretty stubborn in changing 6103. it can take years and years and years of lobbying congress. i remember when i first started

in government in the 1990s, we were trying to get the irs -- i was at omb at the time, we were trying to get irs to share taxpayer information with the department of education to validate if the pell grants were improper or not. they got that authority but it was like maybe close to 20 years later that it finally went through and congress finally enacted it. what's going on right now is doge is running into the same thing i ran into when i tried to address this and needing more information. but congress and only congress historically has decided whether the irs can share information with other federal agencies. >> all right, talk to callers. we'll start with leonard in massachusetts, independent line. good morning. >> good morning, everyone. thank you. i'm really excited to hear you talk about section 6103 and didn't know the number of internal revenue code and data privacy is super important and interesting.

my question though is wasn't there a study done by economists saying that the irs and maybe department of education was one of the best returns on investment and every dollar spent on auditing brought back like $45 or department of education every dollar spent generated three times as much in the future based on what you invested in the people? that's my question to you, thank you. >> yeah, it's a great question. i think the first question to me is shouldn't we cut accounts receivable if it's bloated? the reality is that every person in the irs that's doing these collections earns for the american taxpayer close to $6 of revenue for every $1 we spend on their salary. so it's a good deal. we should be -- if you're trying to be efficient, you'd add more. but the point is well taken that you can save money by sharing irs data to other federal

agencies because you cut down on fraud and error if you give the federal agencies more information to detect that fraud and error. yes, from just a quantitative limits. there's the largest error rate and earned income tax credit and program run through the irs and very important program and antipoverty program, it's well researched as having a huge impact on reducing poverty in america. but it has a really high error rate. one of the reasons it has a high error rate is because it's very difficult to determine eligibility including one of the primary eligibility criteria is that you live with a dependent child you're claiming for six months or more. when the irs pays that out, we don't know where the child is living. we don't have realtime

information. we could essentially eliminate all error in the program if we had a national childhood residency data base with realtime information. imagine, and this is completely hypothetical and would never fly but playing it out hypothetically. imagine if every morning a parent had to swipe their child in and swipe them out in the evening. then we would know if they were living there and we would never propose that because it's so invasive and such a violation of l our values in this country. yet if we fall short of that, we will not e nowhere the children live and risk error and that error is worth it versus the other solution. my answer to this caller it's a ball languages point between reducing fraud and error but preserving our values around privacy and nongovernment overreach that i think is so

important. >> nelson in pembroke pines florida, republican. >> good morning. can you hear me okay. >> yep, we sure can. go ahead, nelson. >> okay. with all due respect, sir, i first thank you for your service to the country. but i would like to point out that even the internal revenue service has its own waste and it's own problems with regard to trying to balance its own budgets and trying to ensure that the funds paid to the irs are used appropriately. the trump administration has to start somewhere, and i think it's done a good job up to now trying to deal with the balloon ballooning federal deficit that we v. i do my own taxes, i'm in

my mid 70s. i would never file online because of the problem of identity theft. that's one thing. also, i have made errors in the past and has been corrected in a timely manner by the irs so as best as i can see, they're doing a pretty good job as far as i'm concerned. i would also like to point out that in regards to the people who are trying to have a fair system, 50% of the population does not pay any income tax at all. i think it's just a matter of time before the united states is going to have to look at another method of collecting tax revenue rather than income taxes might

want to consider going to a federal sales tax that would allow everyone to pay their fair share of taxes and not just the wealthy and the middle class whom pay too much taxes as it is. your comments, sir? >> all right, nelson. >> nelson, i appreciate the question. on your first point, i completely agree. there is absolutely inefficiency in the irs that can be cut out. i propose -- and i think what the trump administration wants to do is modernize the irs in the way that it's far more automated and far less reliant on employees. and that's a reasonable am bibs to have. when -- ambition to have. when and how they do that is the question. think about irs as assembly

line. there's a lot coming in and a lot going out. what coming in is tax returns and correspondent upon dents and phone calls and people into the walk in centers. those are all kind of coming in. what's going out are payments, refunds, and credits and audits. so -- what's also coming in is remittances or payments of people's taxes. the idea is can we make that far more automated and have less people managing the assembly line? and the answer is yes. i would offer that in the last two years of biden administration important progress was made that the trump administration can build onto further automate that assembly line and further reduce the need for people to manage. but we're not ready yet and if

you pull them off too quick, it creates messiness and that means you can't get through on the phone or hurts your neighbor if there's an issue they need to see an irs person in a walk in center to go over something and that walk in center has been shuttered or closed. the downsizing idea is reasonable but it's when and how. >> related t that, kstin in portland, id speak about the irs completely modernizing before the american my step dad, he's not the only elderly person, doee cell phone, computer or internet. unfortunately i believe that's why progress needs toow

and roadwaylated to that -- related to that is the question of where we are about not using the price gouging products to file taxes. that's from colin in baltimore. >> great question, colin. first of all, yeah. some jurisdictions around the world required all citizens to file electronically. that's not us. file how you want. filing electronically and selecting direct deposit is the quickest way and if you do it and there's no errors, get refund in under three weeks and we were successful in doing that in the two filing seasons i was there. but not everyone wants to file electronically or has the capacity. there's something called a

digital divide. whether that's people that don't have access to technology or people that don't have access to high speed internet, you want to make sure, again, that the system is fair and that you're meeting taxpayers where they are. taxpayers like you would ask the question: if i'm going to file online, why do i have to work with a software vendor. can't i file for free electronically online with the irs? can't i have that option on the menu? we made that option available

darning my term. it was a head scratcher why it was controversial. we're not denying anyone. don't have to use it. opt in or out. sew i agree. i think the more options for taxpayers the better. >> steven in washington dc, line for democrats. >> hello. i would like to know more about the $7 billion difference between taxes woed and taxes paid. what percentage is corporate versus personal and amongst those two groups, how much of it is coming from large corporations versus small businesses or large income earners versus small or middle class income earners? then third, what are the main reasons that this fraud or error is taking place? is it fraud? is it illegal? is it intentional to not pay their taxes and therefore they can be charged with a crime? or is it error and what errors are being made and how much is

due to the enormous complexity of it, even for us, individual taxpayers, it's very complicated with questions i don't really understand that causes frustrations and errors. thank you. >> yeah, really important question. every year the irs publishes the tax gap. as much detail as we can about what makes up that tax gap. where she people at all level

wspa.com a balance due higher than what they're paying. then within that, there's a complexity of sometimes it's inned a versus frequency taint and sometimes just because of the -- inadvertent and because of the weight of the tax laws, people often make honest mistakes and therefore pay less. there's a lot of money left on the table for balance due versus balance paid for every taxpayer type. the focus that the democrat haves had for example on the

than tajikistan point is the theed irs not getting invested in, we lose the balance due. how quickly the economy is reconstructing itself and digital economy and things like you caner and paypal and all of these activities that are have moved and operating and selling gods and services and these companies are completely virtual sometimes. it's not like there's workers down in france or in the nordics or africa. they might be head quarted in the u.s. and selling goods and

services and interacting in a electronic way. >> it's all new and not sure about the tax gap and balances due and balances tate. >> lance, you're next. >> i'm retired and i take a, i pay for a 1099 and still work, thank donald trump that i can make $56,000 extra, and i'm going to say this and the

weaponization of the irs and -- is one thing and i think really it hurt the -- the irs the thousands of weapons weapons and ammunition stockpiled to go after american people. tax pay ores raiding their houses and it is a it's a shame and i saw you almost cry awhile ago in your first part and what i'm saying is walk a mile in my shoes and you'll know how to cry. >> weaponization of irs and stockpile of weapons and ammunition. >> lance, i'm glad you're asking this and it's important to understand the facts on the

ground. less than 3% of irs operation is armed and that's our criminal division. know what our criminal division is involved in? breaking up organized crime, human trafficking, drug trafficking, counter terrorism. what happens is that law enforcement often work together we're going after someone that's a danger to your neighbors, children, and society because of all the bad things they're doing and the fbi and other law enforcement and sometimes the best way to take down the criminal enterprises is through tax crimes. and it's just how we are playing the chess game against these criminals.

that means they're serving search warrants search warrants and arresting bad people. these are not every day citizens and grandmas and grandpas who may be have paid $10 less than they're supposed to. there's no armed agents knocking on these doors and it's really about these criminal enterprises and the stockpile is under the rules in order to be an armed agent in the government. you need training, a lot of training so virtually all the irs has ammunition is for training on the gun ranges and that's why the stockpiles are so high. the number of times an irs agent's weapon was discharged you could count on one hand. you'd hear a lot more about it in the news of an irs agent discharging their gun in any way shape or form that was inappropriate. it is an absolutely never or

exceedingly rare chance. this small number of less than 3% of irs workers that have a gun need it because they're going into very dangerous schismuations. they're heroes. they're going into situations with work with them. >> the employees being hhe violators and not li annual tax returns and are they losing jobs and penalized like ordinary taxpayers? synergy home this is a really important question.

you're terminated from employment if you don't pay taxes or put on suspension or depending on the circumstances you're given a opportunity to make it right. we give people grace if they make a mistake. if they pay up quickly, maybe they -- they're disciplined and come back to work.

i would hope thinking about the irs employees doing their jobs and not in dc by the way and more than 98% of irs employees work outside of dc and cities and cities cities and supporter bushes that -- superbs and understand that if they get laid off and not demonnize people coming to work ask coming to work every day and chosen unpopular profession but

>> i got my tax and irs gave my number and they booked me for $ $4,000. because of theed stroke. can you help me get these things off of me? i thank you. >> yeah, look, i've heard from tax -- while i was commissioner and even since heard from taxpayers like you who are

struggling and irs installment agreements that can be set up and we always at irs train for empathy and in tax solutions in financial dire straights and tax system is way to complex and leaves people like you in a situation where you can't figure out heads or tales of what you're supposed to do. it's so important to work with congress to make sure that our tax system is fair and not as complex as it is.

the idea is noted harping people like bill, when we hear stories of people like bill, it breaks our hearts. one of your callers said he thought i might cry. i get emotional when i talk to people like bill specifically struggling and i want an irs that's well equipped to help people like bill that are out there. >> danny, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> coming up, more of your phone calls on open forum. start calling in now. numbers are (202)748-8000 for democrats. (202)748-8001 for republicans and (202)748-8002 for independents. we'll be right back.

>> later tonight we'llavthe president's speech to congrs r live coverage at 8:00 a.m. and president lay out his vision and priorities for the

country. live coverage at 8:00 p.m. and speech a 9:00 p.m. and we'll take calls and get reaction on social media. live on c-span and simulcast on c-span2 and on the app and online. after the meeting with >> i was

watching the irs and president biden was looking in this saying pay your fair share and pay your fair share. as a kid never paying taxes on that money and got a millionaire to come in and pay his taxes and i was wondering if he still is on the hook for paying money on the money that that guy gave him? saying elon is going to steal the money and they're going to get richer and i feel like it's opposite. then fani williams that reimbursed her boyfriends for all the trips and only cash and going for them on the side. the first sign of spring going

for the year. have a good day. >> the institute which is a german think tank estimates that number at $11, almost $120 billion and i showed this before percentage of total government support to you crane about half copping from europe and 7.7% from other country asks your question about i hope that

answering your questions and we'll go to that proposal >> britain will play a leading role with if necessary and together with others, boots on the ground and planes in the air. and mr. speaker, it is right that europe do the heavy lifting to support peace on our continent. but to succeed this effort must

also have strong u.s. backing. they've launched cyber attacks on our streets and in this house, we stand by ukraine because it's the right thing to do. but also because it's in our interest to do so. >> that's the uk prime minister

and president donald trump has put out a truth this morning at 7:30 saying this. "always federal funding will stop for any college, school, or university that allows illegal protests. agitators will be imprisoned or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. american students will be permanently expelled or depending on the crime, arrested. no masks! thank you for your attention to this matter". here's charles in jackson, mississippi, democrat. >> hello, miss mimi. my question is for jason before he left. is it legal at any point for a individual to increase or inflate the cost of the propertf his property in order to or tiana a loan and then to -- octane a loan and then -- obtain

loan and then decrease the value of property to avoid paying taxes and mr. frank pointed out those problems and going to ask him to check into mr. donald trump's ability to avoid paying taxes. thank you, bye bye. >> eric in new jersey, republican. good morning. eric, are you there? >> hello. >> hey, eric, go ahead. >> i wish you asked commissioner if he had the intellectual urowhys toy it figure out -- curiosity if joe biden ever earned $180-200,000 a year as senator and how did he accumulate millions in wealth and own multiple homes. i wish i knew how to do that.

thank you very much. >> here's wood row in georgia, independent. >> hey, how you doing this morning? >> good. >> yeah, i was -- this irs thing really plucks my nerve. i live here in georgia, and they taxes us half to death even though i'm retired from the military, but we have to pay for medicaid part b and taking all this money and waste it all over the place. we got two va opposition to movements here in augusta, georgia. they move the hr department and finance department out of the va buildings where they've been for 40 years and in downtown augusta renting and how in haitis is that saving money or being a good stuart of the taxpayer money. i'm hoping president trump and elon musk come to augusta, georgia. we have two va hospitals and see what they're doing with the tax dollars and not spending them on the veteran veterans.

we take care of other countries but not our own. and we are in open forum before we take you over to the house. mexico to impose retaliatory tariffs on the u.s. following china and canada as trade war heats up. we will expect to hear more about that in tonight's speech by the president on tariffs. you can watch that of course here on c-span starting at 3:00 p.m..

>> the taxpayers paying in provide that and has nothing to do with the national deficit. so certainly not understanding why this musk gentleman would be in there >> government is too

big, we have a situation where tariffs do provide support. the supreme court of the united states in 1895 said that income taxes were unconstitutional when when the country was for the

purposed and nobody wanted a tax on income and threw tea into the harbor because of it. we need to be self-sufficient as a society or merit or efforts and energy are re-barded and not taxed. >> deb nist, what would the federal rate be for the across the board sales tax? >> i'vethey've done studies sayn there's a tax, people will have 25% more money in their pocket instead of working six months out of the year just to pay taxes. that's outrageous. i think that if the people will study this issue we'll have a

better system rewarding merit instead of punishing it. >> and here is susan in georgia, republican. >> this is susan in georgia. is that what you're calling? >> yes, go ahead, susan. >> okay, i've been a maga supporter since the beginning, and i was so shocked the way that president trump and jd vance talked to president zelenskyy who fights on the front lines with his own people, i could not believe it and could not stand it and i'm worried about the tariffs. i feel that my vote -- i wish i could take my vote back. i'm shocked and no longer a maga supporter. president trump, look at what you're doing to your people. thank you. >> this is anna in south windsor, connecticut. good morning.

>> good morning and thank you for taking my call. i wanted to have someone explain what happened to the audit on president trump's taxes? this is like a trojan horse and what happened to the taxes he's having an audit on and his medical records that we don't hear anything about. i'd like to know, it there any way we can tell how many people are living in the united states? how many people because people die all the time. thank you. >> tracy in chicago on the independent line. >> hello. i want to talk about that right now we need a reform in our democracy.

it's corrupt on both sides and they've been wasting our money every year. the immigrants have been here all the time. all the issues we put a little bandage on instead of working together, not just my way or the highway. and if you're going to cut federal deficit, okay, federal employees, start from the top. there's wasteful spending from congress and senate. $1 billion or $6 billion a year they give -- they get free fitness clubs. they pay $20 and we pay 75%.

all kinds of perks and highest benefits and salaries. i don't have that much time but i'm just saying cut social security and healthcare but not cut your own. tram every time he uses that airplane, it's $2 billion going to ufc games or golf or whatever. that's waste too . there's people stealing and we need to do this in an organized and professional way and not just lay off everybody.

>> we have bill in ohio on the republican line >> looking at ukraine and the national debt, we can't afford to be shovelling all the money out there. we can't even help our disaster victims in this country due to fema funds being used for illegal immigrants. there's no money for our people here and, you know, it's just a ridiculous to me that all that money is going overseas like this right now. >> all right, and karen in nebraska, democrat. >> hi, mimi. would you read the post again from president trump or tell me again what it said? >> the truth social one about funding? federal funding? >> no, about the college protests. >> okay, i have it here. it says all federal funding will stop for any college, school, or

university that allows illegal protests. agitators will be imprisoned or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. american students will be permanently expelled or depending on the crime arrested. no masks! thank you for your attention to this matter. >> what is -- what does he think an illegal protest is? >> i'm not sure. you're concerned about this? >> i'm worried about freedom of speech and who know what is he considers illegal. i'm terrified this is going further and further and not being able to protest, not being able to speak up and being

targeted because of what we say. i'm terrified. >> chris in vermont. i grew up in the 60s and 70s. >> russia was our biggest enemy. communism was our biggest enemy. and granted the soviet union fell and claim not to be communist but to be real, they still are. russia is not our friend. they're a monarchy and olekowski garmin i can. they should be treated as a mortal enemy and we're cozying up to them. in my opinion, anyone cozying up

to comis is a comi and trader and dealt with. we should put every resource we have into defending ukraine against russia, even if that means putting feet on the ground. it's time to make a stand about democracy and america is the greatest country in the world, well it's time to show it. time to put the money on the table. play our cards and show russia what this is all about. russia, china, iran, and north korea are all cozying up wow. beat america and the free world and europe. we should wake up and put all our resources in that. you get republicans or whomever

is saying we can't spend the money we have hungry people here. then feed them. if they're concerned why cut staff and medicaid and medicare and social security. they care so much about feeding people here, why aren't they? it's just the same old garbage. so i say take our money, put russia in its place, make this place a free world and feed our hungry people. that's about all i have to say. >> david a republican in bloomsburg, pennsylvania. >> good morning. thank god america has donald trump in&his team in the white house. the people elected him to do a job, and he's doing it. first of all coming to ukraine, $269 billion worth of aid. $100 billion not accounted for in equipment and material and

money. it needs to be accounted for. if it's not accounted for. good, he stopped giving money to ukraine. when it cops to social security and medicare, they're not kicking anyone off unless they're an illegal alien. joe biden put on all the illegal 17.5 million plus on is up supplemental money and social security and they don't sensorineural serve it. they've not paid in to deserve it like all the seniors. we're getting rid of the waste. the talk about democracy. that's a democratic code word for socialism. they want their socialism programs back. if you like socialism, donate to that cause. just like usaid. all the people they gave money to are enemies of the unit.

coming to russia, people forget that russia gave the clinton foundation $10 million in 2016, which went towards hillary's campaign. it maybe be russia, russia, russia but it's not for trump, trump, trump. >> and we will have to end it at that point. we will see you again here on washington journal tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. don't forget to watch the -- our live coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight on c-span and c-span2 of the president's joint address to congress. thanks for watching, everybody. we'll take you over to the house. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the