tonight, a showdown over the government shutdown. the stalemate over a border wall continues after president trump addressed the nation this week. also, we'll look at governor gavin newsom's plan to tackle big issues from health care to natural dndsasters the challenges he faces. fleeing shanghai, a new book examines the forgottenxos out of china, a story with similarities to what's happening ound the world today. welcome to kq "newsroom." we begin with tensions over border security. as the partial government shutdown stretches on, this week president trump addratsed the on to make his case for a border wall.

>> this barrier is absolutely critical to border secusoty. it's alhat our professionals at the border want and need. this is just common sense. >> the next day he abruptly ended a meeting with house speaker nancy losi and senate minority leader chuck schumer who refused to provide billions n funding for the wall i exchange for ending the government shutdown.um president threatened to declare a national emergency to get the military to build the wall. that would likely spark a legal crisis. meanwhile in calornia, newly sworn-in governor gavin newsom unveiled a budget totaling $209 billion. among the fundingro psals, more than a billion for affordable housing construction, nearly $2 billion for early childhood education and an madditional $105lion to fight and prevent wildfires. joining me to discuss this, kqed senior editor of polt ticks and gove scott schaffer, "san francisco chronicle" political writer joe gary foley and

eopolitical consultant john walsh. great to have you here. >> the new budget pro bowsal, what does it tell you?lu >>y for him a $21.4 billion rplus. so nice to have money to play with. he's putting $13 billion into paying down the debt, rainy day fund. he's certainly spending money, but focusing on the things he alked about during the campaign. child care, early childhood ncucation, family parental leave,asing the earned income tax credit for working families. he's eallycusing on families, kids, students, maybe a second year of community college for free. that kind of thing. >> joe, there are powerful groups that backed him during his campaign, for example, the alifornia nurses union, on issues he campaigned such as universal health care. how are they and other groups he appealed to responeing to this budget? >> they're very supportive. one of the more surprisi

things i foundality the budget lullout, it was hard to find a republicansh him. usually that's the easiest thing. what do you think of the pposing party's plan? oh, that's horrible. there's some sort of baseline respect for it because it socked a lot of money away for a rainy day fund. newsom, it's like he's creating a nation state of california here. the feds won't cover undocumented immigrants? california will. we'll cover furloughed workers, we'll have our own surgeon general. if washington isn't going to get it done, then california will. because it's flush with money. >> that's sort of his response to tru, president trump. >> that's number one. number two, i think people were pleasantly surprised he didn't go all in on a single payer health care system now.

>> i don't think he could. hoy would he for it? >> i don't think long-term if you pay for the stuff he's done, jerry brown when he was going out the door put a little over $4 billion into baseline budget spreding for ied salaries for state workers. a lot of these issues, they wemp gn pledges. it's great when you've got billions of dollars to hit those campaign pledges rly. depending on how you roll these health care issues out, a they on going budgetary issues that can cost. if you spend one-time money o roads, bridges, et cetera, that's one thing. when the economy does eventually flip, if you have on going spending and if you unionize these workers, then you've got very expensive on going costs. >> governs are tempted to do that all the time. pete wilson reduced class size down to 20 or fewer. recession hits and now it's to 25 or 30. it's hard to resist the money when it's sitting therehe and legislature is willing to go for it. >> one of the more controversial

aspects of what he's proposing is he wants to give full access to midical for all undocumented immigrants up to age 26. ready there's criticism on that from republicans on the national front. >> look. so some of the halth care, you want to go back to the mandate in california. the mandate, you've got 70% of the people who will be paying into this mandate helping to subsidize putting thwer people onto thetate mediccal we have the highest poverty rates in the state. they shouldn't beicking up the tab for people comingrom other countries. this is the welcome caravan sign. it sends a very clear signal. granted democrats like it and h thigets good pr loud of it. the long-term financial costs are significant. i >> californ criticized for having very low reimburseme

rates fordoctors. i was talking to a co-chair of the budget committee yesterday. he said i have constituents who get medical because a lot of w docto't take those patients. >> newsom is inheriting the nn delta water s and also high-speed rail. what is he going to do with those, joe?>> n high-speed rail, he said he's reviewing the program, the leadership. he's trying to figure out, what he says, what it is and wt it isn't. i think what it isn't is a full trip from san francisco s. los ange look for him to sort of focus on what he talked about in the campaign, which is valley to valley. central valley where the cheap housing is to silicon valley where thee. jobs it's going to be a heavy lift. there's very ltle support. what, 28%, 30% >> for the whole thing. >> for the whole thing.he > still has to find funding

for it. >> if he does that he's in violation of what it was put on the ballot for and two in violation of what federal matching dollars came. he would have to go back to the public to accept something along those lines. >> the ballot measure called forgetting money from the private sector or government, noneh of wh has materialized, right? >> let me ask you about something else this week, president trump's tweet aout threatening to cut off federal funds for relief for california's wildfires. he'sccusing the sta of poor forest fri practices. how has the governor responded. bl the governor responded the way reans responded, which is to say it was inappropriate. one of.hese 3:00 tweets that fema didn't even know about. the republicans who represent the area in butte county, th congress member and members of the legislature were very l. criti it's not helpful. it wasn't true. fema didn't know anything about

it. the people living there were anxious because they were hearing the disaster bnds would cut off. >> majority of the forest land in califoria is managed by t federal government, not the state. >> exactly. are there things to do with regards to changing policy of management of those lands? usure. s the president of the united states be threatening to cut off funding at a time when peoe are hurting? i think most people would say no. >> is this relationship with the president different from the relaonship with jerry brown and president trump. >> you don't like the president in a political way but you have to deal with him because that's whm.e federal dollars come f i think throughout the first week in office and throughout the campaign, he's gritted his teeth and bared it. >> newsom also has an ex-wife dating the president' son, donald trump jr. so that's a back channel. they do stilltalk. let's talk about the border

wall. you can't talk about president trump without talking about the he visited the border in texas yesterday. he's not considering diverting saster relief to help out in the aftermath of california's wildfires to build the wall. shawn, can he do that without declaring a national emergency? >> he would have to declare a national emergency. it may be a slick way to get out of this budget impasse, to be honest with you. democrats can say he can't really do eo. s files a lawsuit. it gets figured out in the courts. they held the line withtoegards he border fence and they put a budget forward. it could be a slick way out. number one. number two, in california when i was in governor wilson's fice, we spend about $5 billion a year on services for people not t legally here state. i assume 25 years later that's more than double. what the state is putting forward and the federal government in costsassociated th undocumented immigrants have to be in excess of $10 billion. if you spent $5 million to build

a wall, and i don't th can do it that cheaply, if you spent that, you'd get the savings back quickly. from a policy perspective republicans and the president are on a good footing to have this argument. what's right and wrong legally coming here, illegally coming ut here, he tweets and the comments are very difficult for the senate and republicans in the house. >> the politics of this are terrible. he'd beulling federal money from three of the biggest states in the union, california, florida and texas. one of them is a swing state. one is a red state, one a big blue stat it's not good. there's a tweet that captured the bad pitics of this. it said now trump's slogan is we're going to build a wall and make people who lost their homes in anatural disaster pay for it. >> i think there's a make kings for a coromise here. i think the president got into this by calling it a wall. he also said mexico was going to pay for it. i thi lot of democrats including nancy pelosi and chuc

schumer areppy to talk about fencing. we supported that in the past. there's already a lot of fencing as well a if they were both willing to give a little bit, they could get there. the problem is, bo sides -- >> they've kind of both cornered themselves into a wal right? president trump is talking, i'm getting the wall built, no matter what. pelor, andkly for the democrats, there's no downside for them, toeep this - >> he got up and left that meeting because he said will you pay for the wall. -- border securi is what h said. she said no. if they're talking about border ent from it's diff talking about the wall. >> the far left democrats are presl,ng pelosi no wa no wall. remember a year ago, the democrats agreed to the wall, they agreed for $25 billion for the wall. >> if they got relief for the dreamers. >> but now that's off the table.

>> in 2006 we had the secure fence act, supported by pelosi and schumer and obama andl ry clinton. some guy is running around college campuses giving quotes and they think it's trump and they dump onit. i think actually a fix would be to simply say, okay, the secure fence actequired a second fence. you had a barrier ibetween. we've already built a big part of the fence. we'll build a second fence. it's acompromise. you can get it done. >> if he does go ahead, president trump, if he does declare this national emergency from a legal t,standpoint, sc can he do that? no other president has ever done this, to declare a national emergency, to fund a polyo prl to bypass congress. >> there will be challenges that might stop it. i agree with shawn. if hee were to do that,uld tell his base and fox news, i'm fighting for this. it's going to ha to be resolved through the courts. meanwhile, let's move ahead. >> even if he never gets the

border wall built -- >> who is winning in the court of public opinion about this is? > opinion firmly against the wall. i think 58% of americans a opposed to the wall and two-thirds of independent voters oppose it. when it comes down to the wall, that's firmly on the democrats side. >> it's different when you talk about border security general and dreamers, there's much broader support for i think republicans could get a win if they would come to a comprehensive deal. >> this white house does not articulate issues well. they don't not roll them out well. they don't brief hardly ever. so the bottom line is, from messaging perspective, you get the president wets s. a rose by any other name. so they don't lay out what a secure border could look like. they don't look o what israel has done with their double fenci andnated all their

terrorist attacks. there's a way forward, you have to define it differently. >> shawn walsh, joe gary fol and scott schaffer, always good to have you all here. as we just hrd, the governor has bold proposals to tackla host of bignd costly proposals, while the inharns of support, governor newsom needs to fund his priorities such as expanding early childhood education. joining me is assembly phil tinge of san francisco who chairs the assembly budgette comm nice having you here. >> thanks for having me. >> it has to go through your ommittee and the budget committee on the senate side. > what he did was fiscally prudent. we've been working at socking away reserves for aainy day. you've seen him do that as well as pay down pensions. the bulk of the money isused for one-time expenses that are

fiscally re wponsible. whre happy to see is a couple areas we weren't able to reach agreement with governor brown on which was early education, child care, health care, as well as in the social services area. we're glad to see him make investments in thatar a. >> were there other priorities were you hoping to see included ere left out? >> i think the one area which we'll probably be dealing with in may isld around res. there's a little bit of money in wy dfires. rea need to come up with a much larger proposal on how to fix this systemic problem we're dealing with every summer, it feels like. >> theo governor is a proposing a one-time expenditure of more than a billion dollars for proposals for projects that spur affordable housing. you represent san fransco, one of the most expensive housing markets in the country. is there other relief you the legislature can do other than what the governor has middle to help the class buy or rent a home? >> absolutely.

if you lk at many of the legislations that we're doing right now, i have a piece of legislation i reintroduced to streamline the building of accessory dwellingunits, otherwise known as inlaw units, granny units. one of the fastest ways we can get housing ontrhets where people build in their back yard or in san francisco they billed out their fst floor. we have cities, especially suburb cities that are fighting enat kind of develo we need them to stop. i've been working with senator wiener on getting affordable, more housing built near transit stops. makes a lot of sense. we'll see the legislature continue to sh very hard o cities to build more housing. >> i have to interrupt you. there's opposition to the weiner bill you just mentioned, especially those who don't want it legislated, they haveo ve a certain type of project or cities.f units in their even though the democrats have a supermajority in the legislatur they are still

democrats from different types of communities. how much tension is ere on an issue like housing? >> it's absolutely a huge amount of tension. the previous proposa that senator weiner introduced that i co-authored was unanimously opposed by e los angeles city council which is note suburb. l.a. city council opposed it. the more jobs you create, pele ave to live somewhere. we're getting to the point where we don't have nuf housing to match the jobs we'rec ating. >> speaking of tensions not only in housing, but other prioritie as wel you have california lawmakers who have lots of thinli on their t. you introduced a bill this week that would require businesses to give lech tronelectronic receip paper ones, unless the customer requests a printed one. with all those priorities and special projects, lawmakers have introduced bills that would requireor spending than what

the surplus is new legislative session. how much tension do you think there will be between the a govern the lawmakers? >> i think there's a lot of agreement. a democratic simple majority, democratic governor. the top line issues in terms of h flth care, fighti immigrants, education, early edu wtion, you havede agreement. the devil is always in the details. everyan legislator to make their mark. many of the bills are aspirational bills. those are items where we discuss viewa legislative point of in committee and also talk about them in a budgetary point of view t at the end o day, you have a budget and so much money and you have topend within your means. we have bills that are aspirational that aren't just about this year, maybe sometime in the future. but we also have a budget we have to pass by june 15th. > let's talk about governor newsom and his governing style. you hav known him for a long time. when he was the mayor of san francisco, he appointed you 14

years ago to be the city's assessor recorder. what do you think are his greatest strengths? >> h greatest strength is, people don't know, he's acy po work. he's been waiting eight years to unveil his first budget. he was really excited. that's one of the things i quickly learned wn i got to know him. >> such a policy wonk that he can often be aloof is what we've heard. >> absolutely. biat's what i was going to say is theest change. i've noticed over the past couple years, he's gone out of his way to meet with many of my colleagues in the assembly and the senate and build those reatationships. s one of his raps in san francisco, he didn't have as ong relationship with the board of supervisors. in sacramento it's different. he's really worked to build that relationship. we unveiled thel budgetprint and much of it was put into his

proposal in january. you can seee's listening. >> what would you say are his greatest weaknesses? >> that's what i just mentioned. the critique was that he didn't have a great relationship with the board the board of supervisors. >> anything else? >> i think that is the biggest issue. people saivehe didn't the best relationships with folks. i think he's learned over the last eight years and tried to do that much better. >> he's wor.ng on th meantime, you have a lot of work to get to on the budget because there will be hearings and the legislature has until mid june to approve it. phil teen, assemblyman from san francisco, thank you. >> thanks for having me. a forgotten chinese exodus brought to life by helen zia, a long time activist on human ights and lgbt issues, also former executive editor of miss "last boat of shanghai" about the massive migration of

chinese. she joins me now in the studio. good to have you here, helen. thanks for having me here, twee. >> your book is around four compiles, tose who fled the communist revolution. back in 1949, what was the scene like when the people's liberation army marched into isanghai? >> ts a generation that lived through starting world war ii, the occupation byjapan. it had been a very brutal time, the collapsef the old regime. so this was a society in chaos and h beenr a very long time. so when it was very clear that the red amy of chairman mao is going to be i marchito shanghai, really all hell broke loose. it had been blding f some time because it was clear that this society was gng to collapse. >> shanghai was viewed as a

capitalist, a lot of the more elite chinese lived there and they all fearedp secution. >> many did. it was a city like new york city. it was one of the top five cities and population in the whole world. it was china's largest and most cosmopolita >> so at the time the red army was approaching, people were so afraid that they were holding on to the sides of trains and climbing on the roofs, going packed like sardines or on boats that were sey heavy were sinking. panic had broken loose. that's why i called it the last boat out of shanghaise bec everybody who fled thought they were on the very last boat, the very last train or last plane. >> you spent 12 years working ok this did more than 100 interviews. why was it so important for you to tell this story? >> well, fo me it was a story -- i grew up with a

family. my mother had been part of this. all i knew about her life at this time was that she was on the last boat. when i would ask her about that as a child, she would always say that waswartime, it was a bad memory. i don't want to talk about it. it wasn't until i was -- until she was in her 70s that finally i said one day, mom, it's not too bad you don't remember anything. she said, no, i remember feverything. you want to know, i'll tell you. that was when her stocame very clear to me. then i began to realize that every family who left at this ti said that they weren the last boat. friends of mine would say, oh, yeah, my factor was on the last boat. i realized that, like me, nobody had heard this story and it wasn't that long ago that it happened. it's a whole different slice of asian america, of the chinese american experience. >> your book is cong out at a time when we're hearing a lot

about the exodus offu res from different parts of the world. what are the similarities that you see between what you've written about and what we're hearing and seeing today? > oh, the similarities, the parallels and the lessons to learn are and that's the point of telling these stories and learning fromi tory. first of all, one of the things that gets said about refugees oy ime is they're pouring into our borders. it's just -- they've decided on a lark to come here, like the thousands ofhorefugees walked a thousand miles. but, in fact, theefugees out of shanghai, they spent years debating should i leave, should i stay, how wuld we live, but how can we say? what if we diein le what if we die staying? this was a daily debate ins nghai for so many families every day. think that's what these

refugees and migrants today, every one of them, before they decide to get on a rubber raft to leave africa or to march a thousand miles, thas what they decide. >> what happens after they arrive in their new country? you mke the point that the refugees are often the kinds of penple you want a country. >> abs lutely. thane of the big lies that's being said about these migrants and refugees that are trying to get in here. these are people who are risking everything for the possibili of living free, or that their chilen canlive free and survive childhood. so these are the kind of people who were -- many were pillars of their communities, and that's why they are most at risk staying where they are. so these are the kind of people who will be the most contributing people to our society. and we should welcome them. >> also a long-time o activi women's issues, the former ed

executivetor of ms. magazine founded by gloria stein them. i want to ask you about the me too movenent. some saying they're afraid to mentor women or afraid to be in a business meeting alone with them. what do you make of all that? >> right now we're in a society whe people are told to afraid of everything, to be afraid of men, women, immigrants, our neighbors, anybody who is different wed shoe afraid when, in fact, we should be trying to value each other. we shod be talki about decency. we should move the dial to say what can we value i each other that makes us all grow together, like a movement in oakland's chinatown is happening right now f immigrants saying we are one nation, aapi. >>islander. >> instead of demonizing each other, let's see the hanity in

each other and what we can bring together as one nation stronger. >> all right. helen, a pleasure to have you here. your new book,t "last b out of hang high" comes out january 22nd. thank you.tw >> thank yoe. >> that will do it for us. as always, you can find more of our coverage a kqed.org/newsroom. than, for joining us.

robert: president trump holds off on declaring a nl emergency at the border -- for now. i'm robert costa. welcomegt to "washinon week." president trump launches an all-out offensive touild a border wall, calling undocumented immigrants a security and humanitarian cris. president trump: they need a wall. if you don't have it, it's going to be nothing but hard work and grueling problems and by the way, and death. a lot of death. robert: u is prepared to executive authority, starting a legal debate even r on tht. president trump: the legal solution is for me to call a national emergency.o i could d that very quickly. i have the absolute right to do it. but ot going to do it so fast because thi is something congress should do. robert: democrats dig in and urge republicans to re-open the government. >> why are y