c- span 2. >> for a snapshot of washington and the 111th congress, the c- span congressional directory, i reference guide to supreme court justices, house members, state justices and more. online pabst c-span.org -- online at c-span.org/store. c-span, bringing you a direct link to politics, history, and nonfiction books, created by america's cable companies. >> "washington journal" continues. host: susan ferrechio, from "the washington examiner," joining us to talk about the washington summer agenda. they do not have a lot of time before they break again for august. what are the top five items on their agenda before they leave again? guest: you are right, they do not have a lot of time. particularly in the house. it is the senate where most of the action takes place. it will take about five weeks. depending on whether or not they want to stick around. the big thing in this work. will be the nomination of elena kagan -- the big thing in this work period will be the nomination of elena kagan and environmental and climate legislation. that will take up a lot of time in this work session. that is really big. they have also got to reconcile a work -- war funding bill, matching them up before it is sent to the president. that will also be a fight because not everyone agrees on how much money should be spent. lots of people do not like spending more money on the war. they also have yet to complete financial regulatory reform. president obama won the this finished before the july 4 recess, but they were not able to get it done. partly because of the death of senator byrd. there were also problems with republicans not liking some of the fees in the bill. they have got to get that out of the way. unemployment benefits, another issue that democrats were hoping to pass weeks ago. partly because of the republicans, partly because of their own caucus. those are some of the things they will start tackling right away. host: we will try to go through as many of those as we can in the next 45 minutes. let's start with the nomination of elena kagan. the senate judiciary committee is meeting tomorrow. will they vote her onto the floor tomorrow? guest: it sounds like that might happen. they may want more time to review her answers from the nomination hearing that took place over a week ago. it may be delayed, but that does not mean that it will not be confirmed. she is pretty much clear to go for floor consideration. most people think that she will easily be confirmed by the entire senate as well. there are some republicans trying to slow the process down, throwing in monkey wrenches, just because some of them do not like her. but i think that everyone pretty much understands that she will be the next supreme court justice. host: in "roll call," this morning, "congressional democrats are facing a final window for legislative accomplishments and little chance that they could get a handful of bills through before election season slams shut." the fact that we are moving to an off-year election in november, is that putting more pressure on the democratically controlled congress to get something done? guest: technically, when elections approach, congress gets less done. it is almost a mathematical equation. on the other hand, democrats know that this election is about getting the base out. one way to do that is to move issues that are important to them. climate and energy could really help to bring out the base. immigration reform alone, trying to move one of those bills would do wonders for giving up the senate vote, although i do not think that they will take it up. it is true, many democrats might want to get some important bills done before they go home and talk to constituents. but that is let -- less likely to happen because others in areas where there are a lot of republican voters, those democrats will not want to take up anything terribly controversial. host: we are talking about the summer agenda of congress with susan ferrechio of "the washington examiner." if you would like to be part of the conversation this morning, give us a call. for democrats, 202-737-0002. for republicans, 202-737-0001. for independents, 202-628-0205. if you have called in within the last 30 days, send us an e-mail or message through twittered. our first call comes from sacramento, california. independent line. dave, go ahead. caller: i hope that voters will not vote democrat or republican. i am not trying to push a particular party or any smaller third party, but i would like to see people actually put people in that do not know how to get things done in the quote regular way. we have had eight years of republicans and democrats and neither of them are getting anything done. that unemployment bill, it got stepped on. harry reid ignored it, pushing that it was all about unemployment. host: dave is concerned about the unemployment bill. where does it stand right now? guest: the unemployment bill is attached to other legislation, other spending was attached to it. democrats realize that that was not going to go over well with a lot of folks in congress who are worried about spending, particularly deficit spending. with just unemployment deficits alone, in the house bill that was passed at the end of june, the senate has not been willing to move this piece of legislation. some of the members want to get paid. the deficit right now is $1.30 trillion. they want to find something in the federal budget to pay for it. there is one democrat and several republicans who said that if that was the case, they would vote for it. if there were one vote short, they would have to wait for the government of west virginia to appoint a replacement for senator byrd, who would likely be a democrat. you would assume that this person would vote for the employment fell. host: portland, oregon. republican line. go ahead. caller: with regards to the energy bill in the senate, what is your sense of the potential for cap and trade making it through? that is very controversial. there are a lot of republicans in the senate and across america people are outraged and concern. this domination of the economy is something that we just cannot have in an economic recovery. guest: i do not see it possible, cap and trade, putting a price on carbon or setting up a system where permits to pollute our traded -- are traded. i do not think that that happen between now and november. there is no appetite in the house or the senate for something like that, particularly the reflections of senators that do not want to take on a bill like that in a reelection. the lame duck session after the election, that bill might still be being worked on. there could be some kind of element that could cap car been added to the bill. the plan that they're talking about now that would be the most popular is capping utilities. not the entire economy, just utilities. that is one item floating around right now that is gaining traction. it is a long shot for this congress to move something like that. host: harry reid and nancy pelosi are not necessarily on the same page regarding this legislation, correct? guest: her previous cap and trade bill was more aggressive than anything the senate could approve. partly because she is from california, much more on the left on these views with proactive climate change brought legislation. harry reid is from nevada, a swing state, a bit more moderate on those issues. he is not exactly beating the drums for climate change legislation. he is up for reelection and is avoiding anything that could raise energy prices. host: matt, you are on [captioning performed by national captioning institute] -- you are on "washington journal." caller: what is going on with it the immigration bill? guest: i lot of people want to know that. nobody really knows the answer. it has been talked about a lot by president obama and harry reid, nancy pelosi. they have even gone and said that they're going to try to do something this year. the problem, first of all, is the time element. there are only a few weeks left before the august recess and after that only a few weeks before the session ends officially. on top of energy and climate reform, it would be unbelievably difficult for either chamber to take up. no one really thinks that that is realistically going that been in this congress. some people talk about next congress, but that would be even more difficult. democrats are likely to have a smaller majority for the republican takeover of the house. there would be much less likely to move immigration reform. -- they would be much less likely to move immigration reform. it is a very dividing, partisan issue. it does not seem to go well when congress tries to take it out. host: is there evidence that some people are dragging their feet on this legislation until the dust settles on the lawsuits going back and forth between washington and arizona? . caller: the biggest item that should be on the agenda [inaudible] and extension of the unemployment benefits. we know republicans can make the pwebig government make promises. but for the democrats no better. i voted for democrats and president obama, but there is money in the stimulus panic they can use to extend unemployment. and you have the power of the executive power and he can do things to make people get money to pay bills. host: george, are you unemployed? caller: i'm unemployed and sitting here with a lot of unemployed people waiting to see if we can get a job this morning or whether they are going to extend the unemployment or stepextend benefits. they have money, unspent money. host: george, will your vote depend on whether or not this unemployment extension is passed or not? caller: i'm standing in the hall and we are all democrats and we are sitting at the hall waiting to get a job. guest: well, supposedly there one job for every five job seekers, so there is a lot of frustration when the unemployment benefit stalled. and they ran out in june. 99 weeks, 26 weeks for state unemployment and 73 or 74 for the federal government. that program ended in june. so, until they pass something that money won't be there. one argument the caller was making there is money in the budget that could be used without adding to the deficit that could help pay for the benefits. that is the money from the $787 billion stimulus. that is one deal offered to democrats in congress by some members. george voinovich from ohio he said why not pay for half the bill with stimulus money and you will have my vote so they could get the 60 votes which is the number to move it. democrats don't want to do that. they say, one, unemployment benefits should be emergency spending and there is no requirement they be paid for. and the stimulus money they believe should remain in the stimulus budget because they think it is helping to create jobs and stimulate the economy so they don't want to shift it from the stimulus package into unemployment benefits even though some say that would be an easy solution. host: next up, california. on the line for republicans. dan kwrarpl. caller: actually i'm a republican. host: ok. caller: i was going to mention the tea party thing they are trying to get their own tea party group something to answer a back but they need to understand that the tea party was merely average americans, sick and tired of spending and big government who decided to take things into their own hands. they did not do it out of rebuttal to anybody but out of frustration. host: thank you for your call. let's move on to greensberg, indiana, on the line for independents, martin. go ahead. caller: yes, i would like to the question on the unemployment benefits is that -- there's no jobs out there for anybody to get. i have been looking for over a year and can't find a job. what do the peel think about that -- what do the people think about that sitting there in government? they get their big checks every week and get their health insurance. why can't we get it? i have worked for 34 years in a plant and then i get ousted out. guest: that is definitely being heard in congress. what you are hear is floor speeches and hallway conversations where the lawmakers are talking about people back home needing these benefits. then, conversely, you have folks on the other side saying, well, that is fine as long as we pay for them. because if we add to the deficit these workers will be paying the price down the road. so, it is either pay now or pay later. so you have the two battling philosophies in congress that have stopped -- everyone is feeling compassion for people that don't have jobs but a different philosophy about how to solve the problem and a fear that adding to the deficit will lead to more joblessness. the republicans also feel one way to add more jobs to the economy, instead of just paying people to be unemployed, would be further tax cuts and ways to help small businesses produce more jobs. so, again you have two different philosophies in congress and the gridlock in the middle as nothing is getting done. we are not seeing the tax breaks for small businesses and not giving unemployment benefits to people that don't have work. host: after about almost 2 1/2 weeks of conference meetings regarding the financial regulatory reform package it is done. what is the next step? can they get in passed in time for the election? guest: i think so. they may try to pass it this week. they came up a vote short right before the recess and that is because there was a bank tax added at the last minute in conference where both chambers try to reconcile it and they added bank fees, about $20 million. that didn't sit well with some moderate republicans who planned on voting for the bill. so, they took it out. the recess time was spent by some republicans deciding if they like the bill. they may be about one vote short. if governor mansion of west virginia appoints a democrat to the seat this week they will come up with the 60 votes to pass the bill and i'm told they could do it this week. host: regarding the point out by governor mansion, what are you hearing in there is a possibility he may appoint himself? guest: that is possibility. he is more likely to appoint a place holder. i think he wants to find out if he can hold a special election in november to fill the rest of the term. that is what he wants to find out but in the interim i can he may appoint somebody and there is a lot of pressure to get a democrat in because they need the vote. host: dallas, texas, on the line for democrats. katherine? you are on the "washington journal" with susan ferrechio. caller: i think that president obama ought to do an executive order as far as the unemployment. i know republicans, democrats alike calling in and keep saying they need money to pay their bills or whatever because there are no jobs. but on the other hand you have conservative he is and what have you talking about the senate. so, they can't have it both ways. if you don't have a job, if you are republican, democrat, independent, whatever it is, you are going to lose homes, you won't be able to pay for utilities and on top of that, even though you do get the unemployment you will be in a tax burden because you have to pay taxes on that and you have no money to pay taxes. so, it is a no-win situation but the way the economy is you have to have something to make people function in their daily lives. that is i think should happen. and congress is not going to pass anything because when they had the majority of democrats, the democrats sat on their behinds. that is why us democrats are very, very skeptical about voting this year. because when they had the majority they want to go along with the republicans and didn't want to go anything. host: you have given us a lot to work with there. guest: it is interesting she was saying toward the end. there is a lot of dissatisfaction in the democratic base because they had a sizable majority in the house, 30-something-odd seats and in the senate they had 60 votes. for a while they had the number of votes needed to move any bill regardless of what the republicans had to say about it. but what you found was that within the democratic caucus they are not all in agreement about anything and you see that in majorities in congress. there are a lot of moderate democrats and quite a few this year because many of the n newcomnew comers came from states where there were previous republicans and they won't always go along with the democratic bails or they will not -- base or they will not be re-elected. so you saw more gridlock than the base was expecting. back to the unemployment and executive order, i think what will happen, they will get that extra vote from west virginia and be able to pass it and that will happen and it will be retroactive and will include the june benefits that people didn't get and will probably run up until the end of november. so, i think those unemployment benefits are coming. they are just slightly delayed. host: another direct action by the president was recess appointment of dr. donald berwick to run the centers for medicare and medicaid services. tell us a little bit about where the confirmation has been stalled and will this have further repercussions as we move toward november? guest: this didn't sit well with the republicans thinking it should have been aired before the public and lawmakers and should have had a chance to debate instead of having him put in place. that further divides the congress. partisanship has been a real problem particularly this year and this doesn't help so the republics say. but the democrats felt it would be dragged out and may turn into a political weapon. berwick is a little controversial because he is going to run medicare but part of what he was saying earlier in his career is he admired the british system and he also was a proponent of rationing. he has made comments like that in the past, so he is not solely supported by everybody. and republicans in particular wanted a chance to try to block him basically and they won't get that and they feel frustrated. host: susan ferrechio is the chief congressional correspondent with the washington examiner. before coming there, she was with cq five years covering house republican and democratic leadership and spent time reporting for the "miami herald" on education issues and 2000 presidential election recount. she was at the "miami herald" from 1999 to 2001. back to the phones, shreveport, louisiana,dale, on our line for republicans. caller: thank you and good bless our military. susan, how about answering this for me. where our debt is headed, and then like cpan, we have c-s n c-span, they did the healthcare bill behind closed doors and we have c-span, and just like they are going to next they are going to get their amnesty for 20 million aliens and i hope they get every damn democrat job, now they have acorn, black panthers involved in everything. i don't know where this country is headed and it is not looking good right now in this country. host: susan? guest: well, the debt is $13 trillion and looks like it will be $14 trillion next year. certainly the government is working on ways to address that. in congress there is a commission the president has assembled and their job is to look at ways to cut spending and reduce the deficit and get the economy going in a more healthy direction -- the federal budget, rather. and one thing they are thinking about doing is potentially making cuts or raises taxes has been this discussion of a value-added tax that sort of rumored at this point but some people have mentioned it as a way to raise revenue
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