Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 02122018 20180212

Give us a call, republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. You can also catch us catch up with us on social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook, it is facebook. Com cspan. A very good monday morning and you can start calling in now as we talk about the president s fiscal 2019 Budget Proposal and what is being reported is the plan does not include the goal of balancing the budget over the next 10 years. Here is the Washington Post on that this morning. President trump slated to announce a new budget plan that will no longer seek to eliminate the deficit over a decade, forfeiting a major republican goal. The plan will call for a range of spending cuts that reduce the growth of the deficit by 3 trillion over 10 years, but it will not attempt to balance the federal budget. It will relinquish the deficit the goal comes after President Trump pushed a 1. 5 trillion tax cut through late last year and signed budget deal last week that lists federal spending limits and suspends the ceiling on the National Debt and is expected to lead the 1 trillion annual budget deficit. The story noting the aim of balancing budgets over 10 years a budget plans has been northstar for Republican Party budget plans for several decades. This morning, we want to get your thoughts and comments. You can give us a call and join us on social media on facebook. The comments already this morning. Including this one from doug who writes i cannot agree with this futureis other peoples we are spending and we havent the right to leave this on them. Below that, edward writes democrats should be behind this . Joe says those fiscal hawks were lying to us all the time . Now they are go, go republicans. Epublicans, 2027488001 democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. We will get right to it. Elvis is in clearwater, florida, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Theyve got to balance the budget more for helping people with disabled abilities and stuff like that and help more people. Host ok. To david in maryland, the line tip for the line for independents. Caller good morning. Thank you for my call. Republicanss the never care about deficits, only when democrats are in office. The only thing they really cared about was the bush era tax cuts under obama and now theyve got happy. They are they dont care about fiscal responsibility and they definitely dont care about the middleclass. Over and shown that over again. Under reagan, what happened when the economy is doing well, we are supposed to pay down the debt. The economy is supposed to work. Its ok to go into debt, but when the economy does well, we are supposed to pay down the debt. The stock market came back, corporate profit, most importantly, came back. Corporate profits are up, the stock market is up, everything is back, why arent wages going up . Up, butdnt go everything is back. If the economy is doing well, why do they need the stimulus . Host walt is a republican, pittsburgh. Good morning. Whyer i am just wondering you people on cspan here, the moderators, never seem to care when you want to increase all kinds of social programs like throw money away, it is ok. Now trump is spending money on defense and its a big deal. He doesnt care about the budget anymore. Host we care about what you think on this topic. Some polling on that from the Washington Post story, the deficit has faded as an issue of public concern. In a january poll from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family 14 dation, 7 of voters of self identified republicans and in comparison, combined 29 of voters in march of 2011 told bloomberg the deficit was their top issue. Reporting this point that President Trumps budget plan, which is set to be sent to capitol hill this morning, will not include that traditional goal of balancing the budget over 10 years. For more reporting on what we will see when that hits capitol hill from politico, President Trump is expected to renew his call for drastic reductions to nondefense programs in rolling out his budget request on monday. Even with hundreds of billions of dollars of new cash in hand. Allowing for an stress 300 billion to be spent over the the trumpears, administration is still urging severe austerity for some arms of the federal government. The budget will lay out an aggressive set of spending. Eforms to reduce the deficit politico noting as Washington Post does that one important note, the budget is not balanced, unlike virtually every other republican plan. Is in bill we, maryland, the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have to laugh. For eight years all they talked about was the budget, the deficit, how we are going into so much debt. However, here we are, its another time. The man from pennsylvania ilking about social programs, know he has got to be honest Social Security and medicare. What does he think he is on . Those are social programs. Ive agree i agree with everything the man from maryland said about the economy being great and everything, why are we going extending our deficit and our debt . Thank you. Host on twitter, fred writes at least President Trump is honest. If congress is not going to cut spending, theres no point balancing the budget. Gary from virginia, line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller there has always been a deficit if you look at the stats over the last 40 years, the amount of money the government added to the debt constantly increases. Nobody complained about the deficit of 1 trillion plus per year under obama and now suddenly you have trump in office and everybody complains. Chris, colorado springs, colorado, independent. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call, cspan. I have called this morning to china xi jinping said of some months ago, he said we want to be americas friend, but we can also be their enemy. We cannot allow our president to direct us into a course of displaying bombs and trades as other countries have done who are trying to westernize. I support Bernie Sanders for president in 2020 and the legalization of cannabis or marijuana. Host we are talking about the budget President Trump is set to send to capitol hill today. One of the key voices you will hear from is mick mulvaney. He will be talking more about the budget. He was on sunday talk shows yesterday previewing what the public would see this week and he was asked this question about rising deficits and debt. Here is that conversation. [video clip] this moneypending now and having deficits projected at more than 1 trillion in a growing nonrecessionary economy a good idea . Its a very dangerous idea, but it is the world we live in. We want money to defend the nation. We believe general mattis has made the case to democrats and republicans in the public, that we need more money to defend the nation against threats like north korea. We were hoping we could sit down with democrats and figure out a way to get additional funds to the military. Publicly, emma kratz said they wanted to democrats said they wanted to help fund, privately, they said they would not give a single dollar for defense unless we gave them social projects. You knew they were going to say that. Publicly they were saying they cared about the fence, but when the rubber meets the road, they held the Defense Department hostage and we had to pay that ransom. Host that was the budget deal that came together last week and the white house submitting its 2019 budget plan to congress today. It will include some 3 trillion in reductions to the deficit over 10 years, but not the traditional republican goal of balancing the budget over 10 years and thats what we are talking about this morning. That expectation from what we will see in that budget release. Scott, annapolis, maryland, line for republicans. Caller you have the government you deserve whether you are a democrat or republican. Each side has pushed the deficit up. We have allowed it to happen. We want our social programs whether you are republican or democrat. Nobody wants to cut the programs. The money has got to come from somewhere and yet, now, we have had 8 years prior where the deficit went up 8 trillion and now its going up another 1 trillion and its like some surprise. The American People, you have the government you deserve. Thank you. Host mark is in louisiana, independent, go ahead. Your title i found misleading, President Trump to drop balanced budget deal, he hasnt totally dropped it. He dropped in this twoyear cycle. Said, the guy you showed earlier, they held republicans hostage over defense. They would not give any rises in our defense to protect the country. They sickly, they had to give in. I guess the question is who is willing basically, they had to give in. I guess the question is who is willing to balance the budget for our security . I found the title misleading because its really the fault of everybody, democrats were not willing to meet up with republicans. Republicans were not willing to meet up with democrats. Ourre so political, even media, so political. I try to listen to everything. I try to listen to npr, washington journal. I very much appreciate washington journal. We need to find a way to be physical who do we turn to . That is the question i wish you would ask, who do americans turned to now . Host who do you think they should turn to . Caller independents. I think this is a time we need an independent party to take over. Obviously republicans and democrats cannot do it. We need an independent party. We need an independent voice, somebody that will actually told the line. Tow we dont have to be so partisan. If you want to know how bad it is, they cannot even investigate congress cannot even investigate without being highly partisan. I dont ever remember it being this bad. Am old. Am young, but i i remember reagan, nixon. Donaldson giving reagan a lot of grief. This is everybody, the media picks sides, democrats and republicans pick sides. I think we need an independent party, we need somebody but who is that going to be . Host that is mark in louisiana. In terms of pushback on increased spending in that twoyear deal that came together last week, fiscal conservatives on capitol hill critical of the spending in that deal, including members of the conservative caucus. Eedom crocus a member of that caucus was also on face the nation over the weekend and here is what face the nation over the weekend and heres what he had to say. [video clip] a lot of spending and declarations that mean the House Freedom caucus is toast. I think we have had a number of articles written about our demise for many years, that we are here fighting on behalf of the americans who feel like washington, d. C. , has forgotten them. I can tell you the real problem with this particular one is our ,eadership caved, the swamp won and the american taxpayer lost. And the Republican Leadership caved. Without a doubt. Our original play was to make sure we funded the military and kept other spending flat. , but whatat we passed we got on the house floor was this unbelievable budget deal that spent american taxpayer dollars. Host that was mark meadows yesterday on face the nation. Despite that criticism, this article this morning from the Washington Post, the muted response of to the deficit from the right. Temper the reaction to the budget busting deal, still talking about the deal from last week. One conservative greeter who was granted anonymity said the republicancontrolled government racked up some goodwill with the passage of sweeping tax overhaul bill and by rolling back obama era regulations. Without those a compliment, the blowback to the budget would have been more severe, that person said in that story about the response from the right. When it comes to that budget deal, 67 House Republicans voted against it. 167 House Republicans voted for it last week. Getting your thoughts this morning on the president s fiscal 2019 budget, which is expected to drop today and expected not to include a provision to balance over the next 10 years. We want to hear from you. Malcolm, waldorf, maryland, line for democrats. Go ahead. Malcolm, go ahead. Caller hello . Host go ahead. Caller i want to respond to what a caller said earlier about everybody complaining about nota increasing complaining about obama increasing the deficit, but complaining about trump. The reason we are complaining is you had a guy campaigning about , he is notficit cost doing that and that is why we are complaining. Host catherine, new hampshire, line for independents. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I have a suggestion on how to balance our budget and pay off our National Debt. Many countries have thermonuclear weapons or nuclear weapons, i am not sure what you call it. If deliberately or by accident, these weapons are used, it will not matter if you are a good country or an evil country, there will be no winners. All people will die from direct attacks, radiation fallout, and starvation due to a global Winter Nuclear winter. The world needs to stop and we would save money here in the u. S. We need to stop this Nuclear Insanity and three suggestions of what to read. Read Time Magazine february felt, the new nuclear poker, and missiles factor, read the doomsday machine by Daniel Ellsberg and watch the dvd the road. World adults need to grow up. Host dave is in ohio, the line for independents. Good morning. Caller top of the morning to you, sir. I wish to be a fiscally responsible republican. Now that basically trump has gone away and done away with the balanced budget, even the idea of it, i can no longer consider myself a republican. Neither one of these parties have any responsibility to the people of this country. We are 21 trillion in debt right now and adding to it at a rate of 1 trillion a year. Sooner or later, that debt is going to come due. If you want to know what it looks like, just look at greece. The people at the top are not going to pay. Its going to be us, the normal people, that are going to have to take austerity measures and they are not pretty. Host and if you want to know what that debt looks like in real time, you can go to u. S. Debt clock. Org, a running tally debt, 20. 6national trillion. The debt per citizen comes out to about 63,000 per citizen. The federal budget deficit at expected5 billion and to go up. Expectations of a trillion dollar deficit in the coming year. We are talking this morning about the president s fiscal 2019 budget request that hit capitol hill today. Is in kentucky. The line for democrats. Good morning. Caller thank you, cspan, for taking my call. Most intelligent people understand you cannot run the government like a business and you cannot balance the budget. Deficit spending has been a reality for many, many years. Ishink president bush showing his colors, little more democrats and people realize. Host are you talking about President Trump . Caller yes. Host david from california, the line for republicans. Go ahead. Caller i think the deficit is really a nonissue and i dont know why a lot of people get upset about it. Everyone that has a job, has a job. Theres an amount of money they make on a monthly basis. Most people have credit cards, that is the deficit. Every year, my credit limit goes up. Every year, americas credit limit goes up. They have a bigger credit limit than we do. I dont really get why people get upset about deficit spending, its just the word. At some point in time, we are going to spend more money than we take in, and its not a problem because its all a specific point in time and theres no need to freak out because we are going to get the money back and pay it off and do it over and over again like we do in our homes. Every month i pay my Credit Card Debt and then i pay my bills just like the American Government does. Its really a nonissue, its just used to divide people and make it feel like theres not a problem where it does not exist. Host wendy you foresee the government paying off when do you first see the government paying off 20 trillion in debt . Caller over time it will get paid. Its not going to sit there and go default because america is too valuable to the world to have its debt go into default. Its not going to happen. Host that is david in california this morning. This is the lead editorial from the financial times, americas balancing act on that grows trickier. The trajectory of the u. S. Debt burden is disquieting. The country is headed by all accounts for deficits of at least 1 trillion a year, which amounts to 5 or more of grossed grossod product domestic product. Now at 80 of gdp will pass 100 before the decade is out of the current policies are sustained. The question is whether the even higher debt will do the country much harm and if so, when . America can cover a lot of carry a lot of debt, but as the burden grows, the margin for error shrinks. If you want to read the Editorial Board of financial times, that is in todays paper. Raymond, michigan, the line for democrats. Go ahead. Caller yes. Said that as far back , the debtncy doesnt go up. Before the president was on theama, he verge of cutting the deficit in half. Now here we go again. What a mess. Chicago. Mike, in for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning, thank you for having me. I have a different take on this. I have filed a federal lawsuit in the District Of Columbia saying that deficit spending, datory spending, and violate the value of my vote. 2000 2016, 90 8 of the budget is was spent. That case is sitting in the court of appeals and it will be heard by a panel of federal judges. Since congress will not do anything, i have written up and filed for the first time in American History that deficit spending violate my voting rights, so we will see what happens. Host what is the name of the case of people want to check it out . Guest the name of the case is michael junior versus the United States of america and the case number is 175243. Host mike, is anybody supporting you in this effort . Are you doing this as a private citizen . Iller i filed it pro se and cited 76 Supreme Court hearings and6 Supreme Court rulings i voted myself, its my third federal case. I have cases in the Second Circuit court of appeals in chicago and those are also powerful. I sued the state of illinois for its pension clause. My basic idea is this, when they keep spending money from yeartoyear, we have an election for Congress Every two years. That means we must have access to 100 of the budget. If they spend money following the votes of people of 20, 30 years ago, that means they have weighted those votes more than mine. A 49 0, when we had deficit, 100 of the budget was spree prespent. Host you think the courts are the best way to pursue this as opposed to the ballot box or running for congress yourself . Yes, becauseler federal courts rule on a lot of things. The constitution is very clear we have an election every two years and no expenditure shall last more than two years. Congress is the only one that can last two years as far as the army. Why do we have to pay for budget appropriations for bills past 20, 30 years ago . That means i have no say. That means the voters from 30 years ago, their vote counted more than mine and the Supreme Court has never ruled one count can vote one vote can count more than another. I am asking the courts to rule that over time, our votes must be counted equally because the more money we spend on deficits and Interest Payments and mandatory programs which do not require an appropriations act of congress, the less our boat is worth and its a very sound argument. Theres nothing they can rule against me and it should be taken very seriously. In a 8 works weeks it went to being filed in the court of appeals. The news media should cover it more and i will email you if you want to contact me, i can send the entire case. It uses all the Supreme Court rulings and there is nothing that contradicts me. Host we will take a look at it. Keep us updated as your court progresses case progresses through the court. 2019ore on the president s fiscal budget planner what will be in it, we have heard the president speak about his Infrastructure Investment and his call to use 200 billion in federal funds to leverage state and private funds for what would eventually be a 1. 5 trillion investment in new roads and bridges and waterways and railways. Under the trump budget, the 200 billion in federal money will be taken from other programs that are cut or eliminated, including to Senior Administration officials. The precise tradeoffs are not designated. We will see what is included in this plan coming out today. When it comes to that 200 billion in federal money, the Washington Times today takes a look at how it would be divvied up to read mostly into five different categories. An Incentive Program would use 100 billion for matching state and local Government Spending on projects dealing with filling in the gaps in funding in those areas. Rural infrastructure would get something in the area of a 50 billion investment in grant money. A 20 billion expansion in loan programs and private activity projects,inance another 20 billion for what the white house calls transformative programs for visionary projects that prepare the u. S. For the future. 10 billion for Capital Financing to fund the federal Governments Office building projects. Thats the breakdown according to the Washington Times. We will see more today when the fiscal 2019 budget plan hits capitol hill. Its not the only action taking place on capitol hill today. The beginning of the immigration debate is set to start in the senate. The senate expected to come in at 3 00 p. M. Today. The wall street journal is reporting on the looming immigration debate. It will begin monday and promises to be the rarest of things in washington, a freewheeling open ended battle over one of the thorniest subjects with the outcome completely unclear. We will be talking more about how thathow that is expected tot on the floor of the senate in our next hour on washington journal. We will be joined by paul of usa. Oday we are talking about the 2019 budget and the expectation it will not balance over 10 years. Deficit reductions, but not the goal of balancing in 10 years. We want to know what you think about it. Jeffrey, line for democrats, go ahead. Caller this is the subject i have wanted to talk about for a long time. 33 million population, divide the National Debt by 20 trillion, you show the debt clock. We need to be frugal with our money. We need to tax more, not less. The current crop of republicans are tax cut and spend republicans. Reagan condemned democrats for tax and spend. We need to take in as much and more taxes than we spend. We need to balance the budget and pay down the debt. Anybody familiar with a 30 year mortgage should i with me, tax down the 20nd trillion over 30 years. Nearly 900 billion a year we have to take in in taxes every year for 30 years to payoff our mortgage. This debt is a mortgage. We need to pay it. We have been delinquent. Republicans who say never raise paul, they ared ruining the country. This is i am fiscally conservative, socially liberal. I believe in paying my bills and dues. Taxes to to raise my do it, everyone should raise their taxes. , equals, for every man, woman, and child, 2000 a year for the next 30 years. When are we going to stop digging ourselves into a hole . Samuelel, line on the line. Caller there is no reason we have to payoff our debt. As long as we maintain a reasonable deficit and it does not grow too quickly, as long as the economy grows, we do not have to pay it off. Republicansught, should never have had the goal of balancing the budget. When they say we are going to pass it to future generations, that is not true. They have control over taxation and how much we are going to tax fiscalnd and all of the policy of our government. It is up to them when it is their time to run the country. Thank you. Host a few tweets have come up. Let this put a nail in the coffin of the trope that republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility. They are not. They never have been. Been we should have been investing in infrastructure. Now, it is that much harder. At least trump is spending on capital goods, not welfare. You are not supposed to increase the debt by borrowing. R taking from another debt you are not supposed to do that. That is not protocol. What should the federal government do . What should they be doing . L, we need to know if there really is a debt. Were in a 127 billion surplus. See if where you start, you are really in debt. I dont understand how you went to 20 trillion in eight or nine years. Host i will get you a chart. It is about 20. 6 trillion now. Hollywood, florida, the line for republicans. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Trump did not start this 21 trillion deficit. We had two wars we spent all that money for nothing. I appreciate what trump is doing. He is creating jobs for everyone. Thesee what happened to to russia. North korea is up there. In rainy ands out there iranians out there. I appreciate what trump is trying to do to save this country. People talk about the republicans hold the house and everything. They dont realize we need 60 votes. Democrats never want to come in and help out. I appreciate what trump is doing, bringing our jobs back here. Going to be ok. It will be paid out when the economy has grown. Host here is the chart on the to 2017,bt from 1990 about 2 trillion back in 1990. Risen to 20ad trillion. Asheville, north carolina, line for independents, go ahead. Caller thanks for cspan. I love this. That is a great chart. 3. 3 trillionout in taxes. To 6 million a minute. Minuted 600 million a to finance our government. That is not enough. We had to add another trillion to that. Add 1. 5e going to trillion dollars, that is we are 2 million adding to the deficit per minute. The people behind you in that building, it is out of control. We are bringing in 30,000 a year, spending 40,000 a year, you would have to do something. It is unsustainable. If we are going to do this infrastructure, what happened to shovelready projects . Isont know where this money going to go. That is scary. It takes 10 years. Trump is saying regulations to build a bridge or road, 10 years to do that. 10 years. Where is this money going to go for 10 years . Have a great day. The 2019 budget plan, expected to drop today, the discussion about debt and deficit part of the conversation last week during the debate over the twoyear budget deal passed and signed by the president , one who expressed his concern was jeff flake. Of theon the floor senate thursday, announcing his opposition to the spending deal. Heres what he said. [video clip] increase spending on top of the spending increases established is beyond comprehension. Is all with the National Debt of 20 trillion a year, running 600cits billion to 700 billion. A billabout to vote on to abandon selfimposed limits on federal spending. Anyone in washington will know once you spend once you raise spending limits, you do not get them down. I love bipartisanship, not when it is bought and paid for with taxpayer dollars. That is what this measure does. You sprinkle enough money around, you can get bipartisan support. Today, the Washington Post and others reporting the budget plan will not have the hallmark of republicans plans, a plan to balance over 10 years. The Washington Post reporting on previouse from republican budgets notes the main explanation for the makeover is the man in the oval office. Trump, who proclaimed i love debt in an interview showed heavy borrowing in his business career. The late 1990s, major new york banks would no longer lend him money. He has shifted between the parties numerous times. If you want to read the story today, the front page of the Washington Post. Matthew, alabama, line for democrats. Good morning. Caller i am not sure why it is i see it asicit, banknotes. Printed banknotes congress agreed to print out. America does not need money. We trade rice to korea to get computers. Orwe owe any government nation money, they can charge us through products or tariffs. There is no excuse for paying billions of our money to a foreign power for what . Usause they said they gave some paper dollars . It makes no sense to me. John, arlington, virginia. Republican. Go ahead. Caller at the end of the clinton administration, they create a balanced budget, plus a little bit. With bush through obama, it went downhill. Were a lot of republicans upset over the fact we had a big debt. Have when we gas reached four dollars, people were upset. Then it went down to two dollars. Instead of taking the opportunity to invest a gas tax into infrastructure, they let it slide. That is what we should do now so we have that money. It will decrease as the gas price goes up as far as the tax goes. As the wall goes, as soon as mexico pays, we put up the wall. Certainways to balance items in the budget. Unless youo that, like the danger of us paying so much of the budget into what we owe to payoff the debt. It is ridiculous now. Areas carolre some old wants to concentrate on. Writes in the only way to balance the budget is to collect more taxes than the money the government spends. Good morning. I want to highlight the hypocrisy of the Republican Party. Pay down theway to debt is to grow the economy. Infrastructure is something both parties agree. Obama brought infrastructure bills and the roads bill in doing his time and our republican friends said hold on, we are going to add to the debt and not allow this to happen. The very republicans now forget about fiscal responsible party policy and are allowing to grow to go on a spending spree. , we had a thing is 1. 2 trillion deficit when obama took control of the country. He brought it down to a 454 to a 454 billion deficit. The tax cut that added to our , it is for the richest americans who dont need a sense more you dont need a who dont need a cent more. This is hypocrisy at the highest level. Why cant people see this . That is my point. Host concern over increased the spending of deal that came together last week. Republicans and democrats asked about that, including paul ryan at his press Conference Last Week as the deal was coming together. He talked about what that agreement would mean for the debt and deficit. [video clip] you get something few you like, you give the other side rings they like. That is what compromise is about. The debt and deficit concerns, most spending is one time spending. It is hurricane relief. Are we not going to rebuild houston, florida, not help puerto rico, or the fires in california . Those are things we have to do because our citizens need assistance. That is the proper role of the federal government. The other domestic spending is something we agree on. We have an opioids crisis. Lets fix it. We can get close on Cancer Research in getting cures. Lets keep that going. To work on infrastructure. We are getting a good down payment. Host Infrastructure Investment expected to be part of the budget the president is releasing today. To be in itexpected is a goal of balancing the budget over 10 years, that hallmark of republican plans. We are asking how you feel about that. Sam, st. Paul, minnesota, independent. Caller we are a sovereign nation. Authority to foreclose on that debt . Pay if theye us to foreclose on the debt . I am wondering whether this is a joke. Not that i agree we should be spending beyond our means. That does not look good for congress. Unless there is some constitutional expert that can show me where we would have to pay on this debt or be forced to by the Supreme Court. I dont think this is an issue , if noannot be forced one can foreclose on us and force us to pay. That does not mean i agree with it. This spending beyond our means. To be so concerned, if no one can force us to pay it off, unless someone can show me where we could be forced to pay it off, that is all the supreme does, based on the constitution. What if no one chooses to lend money to the u. S. Government down the road . Caller we print more money. We dont owe a leslie ask for loans from other places. Would that cause inflation . Yes. We control our money supply. The treasury and the federal banks are the ones who control our money supply. Spigot, theyen the can close the spaghetti this big it the spigot. An expert on economy. We are a sovereign nation. If it is nothing in the constitution, congress can say we are not paying. Host pam, california, a republican. Response to the last caller, if he watched the 60 minutes episode on venezuela, he would see what it looks like. There is no food or medicine, no electricity, no jobs. People are walking out of the country because the government is bankrupt. I really called about, people say tax cuts for the rich, the top 1 of the income , not the top 1 , the top 1 of theearners pay 40 income tax that is collected and they make about 20 of the income. The top 5 of the people paying income tax pay 60 of the income tax collected and they make about 36 of the income itself. Of the people who pay income tax in the United States pay 70 . They earn about 47 of the income. Most of these top income brackets are paying the taxes. The bottom of the wage earners pay less than 3 of the income tax collected. Do you go for your tax data . Theer i got this from queue plunger the tax letter, and they got their information from the irs statistics. This was the tax letter for december 2016. Host bring us to your conclusion. Thatr my conclusion is people need to realize most people are collecting a check from a business that is not only paying taxes on the income they make, but also paying employees so they campaign taxes to the government, pay medicare, Social Security, pay rent and buy groceries and our government can go broke if we do not grow our economy, if we dont try to balance our budget, if we dont educate america to understand we can go the way of venezuela, greece. There is a lot of homelessness do not havepeople jobs and the economy is shrinking. A lot of old people working because the Pension System they had collapsed. For your call. About five minutes left in our first hour today. Up next, we will talk about the week ahead in washington. One thing that is expect did to continue to make headlines one thing that is expected to continue to make headlines, the Democratic House Intelligence Committee memo that has yet to be released. The white house signaled the the light of day soon after changes are made to a dress concerns raised by the Justice Department. Comments came as democrats said they were open to making changes, which aims to rebut the theblican memo that alleges Justice Department relied information pay for by democrats to get a surveillance warrant on a onetime associate of donald trump. They said they would review a addressedcument that those concerns. We will keep an i on that story. On the editorial page of the wall street journal, calling for the release of all the pfizer documents. The fisa remedy is to declassify the documents the House Intelligence Committee members and staff used to compile the memos. This includes the application for a wiretap order from the fisa court. That is the Editorial Board of the wall street journal if you want to read that. Time for a few more calls. Caller good morning. I am not a democrat. I am an independent. Every time i would call on the independent line, they would hang up on me. I am not worried about the deficit. Order that executive will cover everything. The hillary4, clinton foundation, the warehouse was searched. Three vans of. Tuff and 400 million of cash that is what i am more it about. Las vegas, nevada, line for democrats. Good morning. Want to talk about pat, who talked about the taxes for the upper bracket. Anave been registered as accountant for over 20 years. Tables does have tax that state upper incomes have to pay these rates. They never pay those rates. They have lawyers, they itemize. They have tricks. Even if they are in the 1 and their rate is 40 , they never write that check for 40 . When it comes to regular salary who makeeople, people under 60,000 dollars a year, their money comes directly out of their check before they see it. When they are paying for medicare and Social Security, they pay on 100 of the salary they earn that year. Until they hit the sixfigure matchacket around may or may or march, and then it stops because the United States has a cap on income tax for Social Security and medicare on earned income. That is unfair. Making a check, everybody should pay the same. Mount on that there is no reason one person should pay 100 on their salary and someone paying twice as much as not. If someone is going to have a higher tax bracket and make that money, they should get rid of ,he loopholes and escape things so they have the government giving them back money. Host the president tweeting about his infrastructure plan, set to be unveiled today as part of this 2019 budget plan. Big week fora infrastructure after stupidly spending 7 trillion in the middle east, it is time to invest in our country. The someking to spend 200 billion dollars in federal funds and that leverage that into 1. 5 trillion in Infrastructure Investments from state and local authorities and the private sector as well. Jason, eugene, oregon, independent. Go ahead. I want to address what threedependent caller calls prior and the lady who called after that. Thank you for the lady who spoke about effective tax brackets. This is the third time addressing the debt issue. What is the debt based off of . What is true wealth . Our money is created out of nothing out of the federal reserve. Who tradesyourself, it, what currency is traded when it comes to oil and black market commodities . It is usually the u. S. Dollar. Have anally want to issue on debt, we need to ask ourselves, what is true will based on . From what i see it is the energy from the sun on the earth that allows for growing on this planet of all the different lifeforms that maintain a homeostatic balance on this planet, the level, water supply. That is where true wealth comes from. Also from intellectual property, what people create. And what people do with that planet provides. And what is between your years, that is true wealth. Tore is no true metric decide what kind of money we should create based on that. Host jason, al last call in this segment. Up next, we will take a look at the busy week ahead this week in washington, d. C. We will be joined by Ayesha Rascoe, and paul singer. Later in our your money segment, we are joined by David Mitchell, president and founder of patients for Affordable Drugs, to discuss efforts to lower Prescription Drug prices. Tonight on the communicators, from the Consumer Electronics show in las vegas. You can have Artificial Intelligence in something as simple as your music playlist. They are all using technologies with Machine Learning to help figure out what movies you love to watch and what music you like to listen to. Can be in your internet email system, filtering out spam. That Automated System is not a person marking things spam or not but a computer algorithm using technologies like deep learning. On the other end, you could have Artificial Intelligence power and self driving cars. Autonomous driving uses vision and deep learning to navigate the street. Cspan sister receiver is landmark cases returns this month with a look at 12 news Supreme Court cases. Of historians and experts and join us to discuss the issues and stories behind the significant Supreme Court decisions. Beginning monday, live at 9 00 eastern, and to help you follow all 12 cases, we have a companion guide written by tony mauro. Landmark cases, volume two. The volume cause 8. 95 plus shipping and handling. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies. And today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events in washington, d. C. And around the country. Cspan is brought to you by your cable light or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host for a monday round table we are joined by Ayesha Rascoe, reporter for reuters, and usa correspondent paul singer. The stage being set for someone unique debate on immigration. Explain how and when this will again this week. This is one of those things that israel to see in washington, a bill of into the floor that we had no idea what happened. The senate is. T up a conversation about immigration. We have been told by Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell that he has no parameters for this bill, is not bringing a specific set of requirements to the floor. He is basically opening the door to a series of bills being voted on, and let see if any of them get 60 votes and pass. This is our immigration debate. It is fascinating. Host until he is bringing up tonight has nothing to do with immigration, just a vehicle for this. Guest it could be about anything. It could be about french bread pastries. The whole idea is the senate does not know what there is a majority to support. ,he majority leader has said lets bring up all your immigration proposals, we know that there will be one that looks similar to what the president asked for, which will be border wall, rollback of some Legal Immigration, but some sort dreamers. Ship for put that package on the floor, see if it get 60 votes. If it doesnt come up with Democratic Alternative on the floor. If it doesnt come at a bunch of things and see what happens. Host what role will the president play as this plays out on capitol hill . Guest i am sure he will be cheering on the sidelines, going on twitter saying i put together the proposal, sending out surrogates saying that the president has been generous with his willingness to provide a for 1. 8for citizenship Million People who are here, undocumented. I think he will be on the side. I think what they have found when it comes to these types of deals, it is best if he is not super handson, getting into the nittygritty details. If he can stand up to the side ay on twitter, get it done guys, that is probably best. Host if we are looking to hear the president s voice, who will be representing him on the floor . Guest it depends, it changes from day to day. It certainly will not be lindsey graham. They have had their falling out. He goes back and forth on where he thinks. Sometimes he is tough and wants to put that out, that he is not going to that he will be top on the people who are here, that he wants the law, security. And then other times he wants love and heart. It depends on the day. Host what is the path after whatever delegates crafted and gets 60 votes . Guest i have no idea. Part of what is interesting here, the president has had 14 different positions on this immigration proposal over the past couple of years. My colleague documented this for us last week. Host someone who washington journal viewers know well. Guest the issue is the president has said basically i will pass whatever Congress Gives me enough but he has also said i dont want this, i dont want that, and those things are conflicted. Cotton is a senator close to the president on immigration. He ispossible that carrying water for the white house but im not entirely sure rump agree on t everything because it depends on what time you ask him that question. It will be interesting over the next few days where they will get. If they can get to a bill that will pass, then the house may follow that bill. Paul ryan has been much more skeptical about whether he will bring a bill to the floor that the president will support and that his republican colleagues can support. Watching the various proposals coming to the floor this week. What do we know about those proposals, who is likely to have the most support . Guest the two big ones are the president s proposal, the four pillars, the wall, border dacaity, the 1. 8 million recipients would get some sort of path to citizenship. There will be a democratic version of that. Senator durbin will be the leader of the Democratic Alternative, which is much more focused on caring for immigrants, including more immigrants, much less focused on Border Security and the wall. We will see if either of those get 60 votes. That, host we are speaking with paul singer, Ayesha Rascoe. A busy week in washington. We want to hear your comments. Ayesha rascoe, this is happening on the immigration side, President Trump rolling out his fiscal 2019 budget plan. For viewers that watched last week a budget plan come together, explain how this 2019 budget plan fits into that. Guest it is basically a president ial wish list, here are our priorities, this is what we would want. Maybe you can spend less on this, move some of the money you have already appropriated and put it toward some of our priorities. It is really this exercise in messaging, not really a document that you are supposed to look at and think will happen. Look, thisng to say, is what we would like to see happen, this is what we will campaign on, but this is not reality. Host what has the white house been stressing, what would they like us to see on in that . Guest they say infrastructure. They are doing a rollout today, that will be there big thing. They want to hundred billion dollars that they say will translate into 1 trillion in infrastructure spending. They want a focus on that. That is one of the big things they want out of the budget. They want spending on the wall. That is the other big thing. 23 billion for the wall. Those are some of the things that they are focused on. Guest. Host paul singer, do budgets matter . Guest nope. I remember the days where we would go to the government renting office, we would wait in line, and then we would get the book, run through them. They were the size of phone books. Over the years, its become less and less relevant because the process in congress is so broken, they dont write appropriation bills based on a president ial budget request. As aisha pointed out, Congress Just passed its twoyear budget numbers for this year and next, have already approved what it will be, so what the president request, that is a two weeks ago conversation. Host can that be written into what is happening . Sure, every budget is a list of a thousand different budget or every agency and program. In theory, now the president s wish list is in print. Congress can sit down with that, ok, we have room for that, we dont have room for that, that will never happen. The fact is, the ship has sailed largely for this years budget. We will see where we are for next year. Keep in mind, we have an election between this year and next year. Host are we done with shutdowns at this point . Guest not at all. What they passed last week was a march 23 deadline for the real yearlong spending bill, which is supposed to be done in september. We are now in march. The real bill is supposed to pass march 23. If it doesnt, we have another shutdown. And if we are going to get into an argument over what is in this, infrastructure, immigration, cutting whatever they want to cut, there is no reason to believe we are out of the woods. Host these are a few of the topics we are talking about, a busy week on both ends of pennsylvania avenue. We want to hear from you. Helen is up first in maryland, line for democrats. Guest good morning. Caller good morning. Mr. Singer just mentioned the wall. Do not agree with the wall we are moving forward in our country in technologies and science. We dont need a wall. Drones can cover more terrain. Also, the drones being in place will also prevent us from going into the eminent domain, taking properties from people along the borders. Wallresident asked for a but he said that mexico would pay for it. Lets not reverse it and now trying to get our taxpayers to pay for it. Country, the sun comes up in the east and goes down in the west. East,s not come up in the high noon, and go backwards. Lets go forward. We are a country together. We need to concentrate on that to get our education, our science and technology. We have more places to spend our money than trying to build a wall. Host paul singer, i will let you start with the wall, how it plays into the immigration debate in the senate. Guest an excellent point. It is not as simple as taking a bunch of cinderblocks and building a wall acrosstheboard are. This is a very complex piece of terrain. Dontesident has said we need a wall the entire 2200 miles. There are portions protected by mountains, fences are already there that can be repaired, some places will be drawn technology. The democrats want to focus more on growing technology and surveillance to solve this problem, not an actual wall. However, it is one of those things, i dont believe the president , donald trump, can accept anything that is not at least credibly called a wall. He needs to have a picture of a wall that he can say, i said i was going to build it, i built it. Host Ayesha Rascoe, is that your sense . Yes. President Trump gets very defensive when he gets to say that he is not going to build a wall or he is going to make it smaller. He always said, i always said it was not going to be the whole border, but we are going to have a wall. At this point, this is something he cannot back down on. Host Travis Air Force base, angel is an independent. Good morning. I want to quickly respond to the whole drone thing. I have a background in it. It is not as easy as people say, lets just use drones. You have to worry about recruitment and competitive pay for those people flying the drones, and then you have to worry about the maintenance. Host what is your background in drones . I work around drones, lets say that. Host is it in a military capacity . Caller perhaps. As far as immigration, i grew up latino in south florida. Immigration was never really an issue. I dont think a lot of latinos are proamnesty, as many would like to believe. On the republican side, it is a failed opportunity to capitalize on it. I dont know anyone that is latino who is proand dusty in my family. Voting be a key part of the Republican Party, to capitalize on. Host it sounds like you have a military background. What did you think about that spending the other came together in Congress Last week, the increases for the military and nonmilitary spending . Caller from an independent point of view, not the Military Point of view i will give you both. The independent view, i dont think the military increases should come at the cost of scraping the diplomacy side of it. They go hand in hand. You heard general mattis because this plenty of times. The diplomatic tools are just as useful as the military tools. As happy as we are to get the increases, i dont think we would like to receive them on the backs of diplomacy or Even Department of education. They all go handinhand. The country needs to be funded as adequate levels. As much as we would like to get the increase in spending levels, we dont think they should come on the back of all departments that need the funds as much as we do. Host thank you for the call. . Yesha rascoe, guest one thing that sticks out to me is talking about amnesty and what the definition of amnesty is, who can effectively sell this deal as amnesty, this one is not. That will be key to the president and his base. Everyone has a different definition of what amnesty is. Is providing a pathway to citizenship . For some people, what the president has light of his amnesty. Don. Bart him the amnesty being able to define that issue will be key for this immigration debate. Guest the funny thing about the president s proposals on this issue, he has alienated everybody with a proposal he came out a few weeks ago. You would anticipate a republican president , the republicans would embrace his proposal, democrats would reject it, but it was all over the place. My understanding is under president obamas program for protecting people from deportation, these dreamers, president obama was protecting around 800,000. President trumps proposal would be 1. 8 million. People on the conservative side went nuts. They said, this is amnesty. At the same time, the president said i will cut Legal Immigration by 50 on an annual basis. So that the democrats went nuts. So give him a bit of credit here. He threw out a proposal that alienated everybody. Something in there for everybody to hate. Host here is a picture of Susan Collins in todays wall street ofrnal and she is part this group of senators trying to come up with a solution. How much support does not proposal have . Guest i dont know if it has language at. Susan collins has been a key figure in the senate over several debates, including the spending debate, health care debate, now the immigration debate. This is an opportunity to figure out if there is a Critical Mass in the middle that can come up with a proposal that will generate 60 votes and pass. I dont know where they are this morning, if they have legislative text, or how many people would buy onto it. Host us President Trump like dealing with Susan Collins and these other moderates . Guest he says he gets along with everyone great. I think he has had some feelingions in the past like his agenda was being stifled by some of the moderates. The issue is not really the moderates. It is that the Republican Party does not really have one mindset. There are so many different factions, they are trying to get them to come together. President trump is not a detailed guy. This legislation have to be this way. He just want something to pass that makes him look good, that does not upset his base. He is willing to work with people that he is not someone who is setting the agenda. Host paul singer, can you talk about the history of immigration proposals in the senate going nowhere in the house . Guest how long do we have . Sure. The one that will stand out in everyones mind is the socalled gang of eight from 2013, i guess. It is what they called comprehensive Immigration Reform , a broader series of proposals with ilLegal Immigration, the whole list. What was most interesting about it, marco rubio, the florida senator who was gearing up to run for president , was a member of that team negotiating that gang of eight bill. In that he basically joined the house of representatives in to push it, refused forward in the house of representatives, the Senate Passed it, died in the house. That was the end of it. He ended up still getting pummeled by conservatives for being part of the gang of a twostep bill. This time we are told he is not involved in these centrist negotiations to come up with the bill, stepping away this time around because he got burned so badly last time. This gives you some of the taste can be. Oxic this issue at one point, rubio was the leader to come up with a deal that everyone can get to on immigration. Host california. Jane is in mill valley. Caller good morning. I wanted to throw a different thought out there, being a retired person these days, and that is to spend all of this money on the wall and try to balance the budget, which i dont do. But the republicans, what they seem to be doing, their longterm goal will be to reduce Social Security and medicare. I would like to point out, a lot of the debt that this government has is because they borrowed Services Security funds and have never paid them back. They ought to start paying them back and not end up forcing Social Security down to pay for a wall, extra military and everything else. Host Ayesha Rascoe . Guest she brings up a great what thethat republicans, what paul i would say is we have to deal with this entitlement issue. This is what is making our budget out of whack, why we are on the trajectory we are. Time, it is ann Election Year, there is no appetite for dealing with these issues, this third rail. So you have a budget that will not balance in 10 years, you have a deficit going out of control, and you have a Republicancontrolled Congress who, under president obama, this was the main thing, we have to do with the debt, we cannot keep on doing this to the children. Now it is just, we will make it work. We will keep on spending and see what happens. Guest Simpson Bowles was a commission that was put together to figure out the debt. The caller is right, the entitlements are a largest art of the barg part of the budget. Simpson bowles came up with some changes. That went nowhere. Then we have the supercommittee in the u. S. Congress in 2011 that was supposed to come up with a deal for a trillion dollars in deficit reduction, and that collapsed as well. There is no shortage of ideas about how to grapple with the longterm cost. There is just no political will whatsoever to do it. Reform, wastax there an opening for entitlement reform to be the next big agenda item . Was it always going to be, from this white house, Infrastructure Investments . Guest i think it was infrastructure. Some have suggested that he should have tried infrastructure before health care. He has been saying this is what we need to get done, i think they feel this is an issue that appeals to workingclass, his base, creating jobs, jobs, jobs. I dont think President Trump has had much appetite for entitlement reform. Host halfway through our roundtable this morning with paul singer, Ayesha Rascoe. If you want to join the discussion, columbia, maryland is next. Pat is a democrat. Good morning. Guest good morning. I want to talk in regard to the wall and the environment. Caller the fact that mexico was supposed to pay for the wall. This is a total waste of time, our money should be going to the environment. Paulnd it despicable how ryan was saying we have to have money to pay for the people in texas who dealt with hurricanes, puerto rico, florida, and not even talk at all about what caused those, the impact of global warming, climate change, what this president is doing to the epa, what scott pruitt is doing to our environment. Host when you say the money needs to go to the environment, where do you want to see it invested, where would be the best place . Caller it needs to change the epa, put money into the epa, back into science. Environmentying our , destroying the science we have to believe. We need the infrastructure within the science to know what is going on with our climate change. Host Ayesha Rascoe, do you want to talk about scott pruitt and his management at the epa . President trump,uest even though that they are cagey about his position, he has made it clear that he does not take it seriously, they are try to pull out of the paris agreement. One thing this white house has epa,affected that, at the withdrawing rules, they are not doing as much enforcement. They have been ineffective on the environmental side of paring back things that the Obama Administration was doing regarding climate change, lowering emissions. That is something where this administration has had success in rolling back these environmental regulations. Part of that, talking about the wall, infrastructure, that is what President Trump wants to do. He wants to make it easier to build so you dont have all of these permitting issues, they want to ease back on endangered species, all of these things you have to take into account when you are building something, especially a wall along the border. They want to roll those things back to make it easier to build. Guest we get distracted by the tweet of the day, by the headline of the day, controversy of the day. When we are missing, if you take i dont know and if President Trump is all that ofgaged in the details ar legislation, but they have been extraordinarily aggressive in rolling back at the various agencies commemorating back there authorities entirely. , democrats like to keep the horses in the barn, republicans like them out of the barn. Every four years, democrats round of the horses. Then the republicans opens up the borarn doors. This administration is leading the horses out and burning down the barn. That is an intentional philosophical decision they are making, and it is fascinating to watch, but it gets largely overlooked. Go to thes infrastructure plan the president is tweeting about today. Part of this is not just a 200 million investment, there is also efforts to streamline permitting, the diva regulatory side. Guest it is removing government barriers, which somewhat called government control, government protections. It takes a long time to go through the National Environmental policy act to review the impacts of a project. The caller mentioned the environment. I find it hard to imagine that 1000 miles of border wall across the u. S. Mexico border will pass an Environmental Review under nepa. So what do you do . You remove nepa, which was established by congress. The rules they are rolling back have a legal basis. They were passed by congress x, regulategency this. They have to convince a court that they are still complying with the law while undoing the regulations. Guest that is what will be difficult. You talk about building infrastructure, doing this streamlining, there are laws, so unless they can get congress to they are going to tie of these projects for months and years because they can always argue you have not met the requirements, you have not done a sound Environmental Review. You have not reviewed this issue. Is years of litigation, unless you can change the law. Between this morning on infrastructure, the president saying a big week for infrastructure. 7er stupidly spending trillion in the middle east, it is time to invest in our country , the president tweets this morning. Calls on the washington journal. William is in alexandria, virginia. Independent. Dont good morning, i the president is serious with Immigration Reform. Has showsal he clearly, he wants to make sure Immigration Reform does not take place this year. I have really hoping that the democrats will not given. If they do, it will be a political problem in november. They may lose a lot of votes. I am hoping the democrats can fight the president all the way to the end and the American People will see that the american president was never serious about Immigration Reform. Host what would giving in mean to you . Well, giving in means if the democrats allowed the president s proposal to pass through, just because the president is saying that he would allow 1. 8 million daca have that would be to citizenship. I hope they dont give in to that. If they do, it would be like undoing the Legal Immigration that is already in the process. , lot of people have benefited including the president himself, and his family. Paul singer, do you want to talk about the pressure that the democrats are under from their base . Guest the caller is right. This is a political issue first and a policy issue second. , were in an Election Year are already facing republicans trying to figure out whether they are going to face primaries from someone on their right if they pass something that seems like amnesty for some millions of people. Ms. Environment has become toxic, once again, for policy discussion. You saw what happened with democrats over the shutdown, they did not given. They said, we are going to refuse to move ahead with the spending bill unless we undress undress daca. So they stood their ground for approximately 24 hours, and then they caved like a house of cards. They lost that debate because they did not have a second thing to say. After they said we are not going to let this go, they had nowhere to go. Host nancy pelosi stood her house for eight hours. Guest i am not faulting nancy pelosi for doing what she did. She wanted to draw attention to this issue of the dreamers, was not being addressed in this budget deal. She stood on the floor for eight hours to make that point and got nothing out of it. The next night, rand paul it on the floor for the next hour and blocked the passage of the budget deal, spending deal, in time to avoid a shutdown. He got nothing out of that either. Onis becoming political fear the floor of the u. S. Congress. Guest democrats have to figure out what their leverage is, what they are actually able to accomplish. They are in the minority. Are they going to be able to get something done on daca, what type of deal would they be willing to make that would not make them look like they are caving, that they are working with a president who is extremely unpopular with their base . That is the issue that democrats have right now, that outside of symbolism, what concrete thing can they get again done and bring to their base, or will they try to run against this congress and the president and say they did not get daca done, elect us, we will fix it. You get toloser november, the further any democrat wants to be in a photograph with President Trump. For their base, there is no upside to shaking hands with the president and agreeing on something. Host going back to rand paul speaking late into the night last week. This is the last minute or so of rand paul from last week. I want a Strong National defense but you have to ask , whether it a few trillion dollar debt makes us a stronger country or weaker country. It was at rome mill again who said the number one threat currently to our country is our National Threat debt. There is a question of whether an insolvent nation can be a strong nation. As we look through this, i think it would be wise that we would look at the spending bill and say this is not the way we should run our government. We as republicans, if we truly are conservative, should be putting forward something that looks toward balance at the very least, instead of looking the opposite way. I will ask the senate to look at themselves, look in the mirror and say, is this really what we stand for, is this what we have been running on all these years to control government and then be no different from our counterparts across the aisle . Today is a day of reflection but hopefully a day in which there will be some who will say enough is enough, im not doing it anymore. Host from that second government shutdown, that overnight shutdown, any winners or losers in your mind . Guest no, not really. I want to say this about rand paul. Person of true belief. This is not just a stunt for rand paul, this is his fundamental, philosophical belief, and he has a point. If you look at a high chart of the American Government budget, enormous chunks of it are in medicaid, medicare, Social Security, other entitlement programs that are largely untouchable, then there is a somewhat smaller chunk that is defense spending, which is now growing. When that leaves you with is this slice of about 600 billion of everything else, the rest of government. You cannot, cannot balance the budget by eliminating all of that 600 billion worth of discretionary spending. It will not do you any good, it will just eliminate a bunch of Government Agencies and put people out of work. There is an issue here. He is right. Will be at this year trillion dollars, the next year will be over a trillion dollars. Trillion dollar deficits for the next two years and the National Deficit is already 20 trillion. This is not a sustainable path. The question is who has the willingness as a leader, member of congress, president , to say there is a bitter pill america has to swallow. We are overspent and we have to figure out a way out. Host this all coming on the day that the president delivers his fiscal 2019 budget to congress. Guest President Trump is certainly not the person who will tell anyone that they have to swallow a bitter pill when it comes to the budget. He called himself the king of debt, so this is not something that is close to his heart, balancing the budget. The other thing to point out, we are having these trillion dollar deficits, things of this nature, when the economy is doing well, when we are almost at full employment. His is not a recession and you are spending to get yourself out of recession. This is when the economy is going smoothly, you are having all of this debt, so what happens if you allow this to continue . Has the president s budget been delivered, just a few minutes ago on capitol hill. Will show the viewers some of the video of the budget officially making it to capitol hill. Guest we have to get over there host richard in butler, kentucky. Liked to would ask two questions. Illegala immigration cost 130 billion a year . 24 come from the illegal aliens . Host what was the second part . People in 22 of prison come from people here illegally . I dont know about how many prisoners are illegal aliens, i dont know how much i should say, undocumented people cost the economy. It depends on the study, many who aregue that people here undocumented actually add to the economy, help to boost the economy, in that they are paying taxes. I think it depends on the argument youre making. I dont really know about the crime. There are studies that say ilLegal Immigration does not raise crime rates, that they are not more likely to commit crimes. To some degree, the amount ilLegal Immigration cost the u. S. Depends on how much the u. S. Wants to spend on immigration. You can go to zero and say, i dont care. There is no way to put a dollar figure that says this is the cost of every illegal immigrant coming into the United States. A fair question for the caller ,s what policies will make solve the problems of ilLegal Immigration that we want to solve, reducing crime, reducing people coming here, costing tax what policies can we implement that will help to convert ilLegal Immigration into Legal Immigration which is more useful for our economy . Host maybe the stat the caller was referring to is this from the hill newspaper, from may of last year, when the Justice Department released its first set of data on incarceration rates of undocumented immigrants , which was ordered by the trump administration. They say, and effort to build a more forceful case for immigration law. Inmate total in the system. The Justice Department says 3939 were u. S. Citizens. That is of the 45,000. Of course, that does not include state prisons and local prisons as well, but that may have been the stat the caller was referring to. Kurt, democrat line. Go ahead. I have listened to the discussion, when you take things as a black and white issue, you are either going to do it compassionately, or you will do it with sinister goals in mind. I could be wrong, but i tend to believe the sinister goals is what we have in mind for dealing with immigrants. I dont believe that is what the country was founded on. Secondly, if you pass a 1. 5 , i donttax cut understand what rand paul and all of these guys are thinking. The economy was doing great, we didnt need a tax cut. They passed a 1. 5 trillion tax cut for the corporations and people that make over 250,000 a , while the people making less than 250,000 a year are out of luck. Is ally believe it who dos, dastardly don things in the middle of the night. Bills are passed by one side in the middle of the night. The majority of them have not even read the bill. Host paul singer, you are often up in the middle of the night. We often joke about how many hours of sleep we have lost watching floor proceedings on cspan. The whole point of a 1. 5 trillion tax cut, as the caller said, is it is supposed to stimulate the economy to generate more economic growth, which theoretically generate more tax revenue to pay down the debt. But the economy is already in pretty strong position, relatively. A strange imbalance in wage growth, but that is beside the point. Job growth has been strong for the past couple of years. So you ask the question, does that tax cut help to actually drive Economic Activity . Top ofn when you lay on that the 500 billion in extra deficit spending without any attempt to offset most of it, you end up in this position where a republican house, senate, and republican white channeling 2 trillion in debt into the system. Is that going to repay for itself . I dont know the answer. Host about 15 minutes left in this segment. Ayesha rascoe, i know you have spent time last week covering some of the fallout from the staff shakeups on capitol hill. One ugly over this week . The issue with rob porter, who resigned last week, i dont think that is over. In the briefing today, Sarah Sanders will have questions about this. The white house has not given a real timeline of how these events played out. There have been a lot of inconsistencies a story came porter, whohat rob was stabbed secretary not a hope our file job, but worked closely with the president , all , hedocuments that he signs was accused of Domestic Violence by both of his exwives. At the time, the white house was still putting out glowing statements about him. Then the next day after pictures came out one of his exwives with a black eye, they still came out that afternoon, Sarah Sanders, and said he is a man of integrity, we do not ask him to resign, he will stay in transition for a while. Was that night when there an uproar, john kelly comes out and says, Domestic Violence is horrible. I did not know about these new allegations. But it does not really add up, the timeline does not add up. Host do you expect everyone to be on the same page this morning on the timeline . Guest we will see. They were not over the weekend. There were some reports that john kelly was saying he got rid of rob porter after 40 minutes. As i said earlier, that does not thessarily jive with timeline, the weight of the stories came out, the statements they were getting at the time. Host is anyone else the job in jeopardy . Guest there is always speculation about the chief of staff, his handling of this. What place in his favor, being chief of staff for President Trump is not an easy job. Who they would get to replace and would be difficult, so that plays in his favor when it comes to him sticking with his job. San antonio, texas. Independent. Go ahead. The militaryding parade, when i was in the military, nobody wanted ceremonies or parades. Heardst great question i frequent question i heard is who stupid idea is this . We felt we were wasting our time and taxpayer money. Number two, if i was still in the military and overseas defending my country, i would be wondering who is my defending my country back home . Donald trump will not defend us from the russians. Number three. The infrastructure thing, that should have been first on his agenda, before he gave all the money to his rich friends and stopped all the money in his own pockets. He couldve use that money for infrastructure instead. Guest i want to Say Something about the tweet the president sent this morning. He said something about the terrible waste of 7 trillion, we should be building our own infrastructure. The one thing i will say about that is, a bunch of american soldiers went and died overseas in these wars. He said stupidly spending seven showing dollars in the middle east. Guest i dont think i would say stupid about these young men and women who went and died for wars that are arguably bad wars. I am willing to have a conversation about whether we should have gone, got anything out of the whole thing, but i would be careful as the commanderinchief about using that language to talk about sending our soldiers into combat. The other thing i will say about the military parade, the last war,n d. C. After the gulf i was sitting in a diner here behind capitol hill, has long been since gentrified over. Andere having our breakfast a coffee cups were rattling on the table because there were jets flying over the top. They managed to tear up pennsylvania avenue pretty good with the tanks. They would be another Infrastructure Project their. Guest the first point you talk about, spending money in the middle east, we are still spending money. These wars are still ongoing. When you say this is money wasted, this money is being spent under his watch. I think that is the disconnect there, when you talk about the military parade, it is interesting because this has really bubbled up from President Trump. Nobody was talking about a military parade before this. Now some people are saying, it would be nice to celebrate the troops. This is his brainchild, what he loved about the steel day bastille day. He likes tanks, all of that. Host if viewers want to see that parade that paul singer was talking about, you can go to cspan. Org and watching the parade, the planes flying over. It was about 15 minutes worth of a flyover down the national mall. Guest in the middle of my breakfast. Beach,ay is in north florida. Independent. Caller returning to the National Debt, you think it would be time for us to consider a National Sales tax to pay down that debt . I will hang up and hear what you have to say on the other side. Host a value added tax. I dont know if you have opinions on the right tax plan. This goes back to something that aisha was saying earlier, there had been at various times a talk about a , whichtax, btu tax republicans referred to as the which billyou tax, clinton brought up, a theory that you could pay down the deficit and improve the environment. People would reduce their burning of carbon in order to save on taxes. Of course, the house voted on it. Bill clinton never forced the senate to vote on it, and then it died. She then lost her seat in congress, and that was that. There are plenty of options out there, they all have their pros and cons. If nothing else, it is a worthwhile conversation to have. Is the vat tax a good idea . Is the National Sales tax a good idea . It tends to penalize those who are poor or, better than those who are richer. Winding down the last few minutes here, jackie is in mountain home, idaho. Republicans. Go ahead. Caller as far as the military parade, we have one every year, and its been going on for 30 years. Im sorry. Host go ahead, finish your thought. Caller or longer, since i was a kid. He planes fly over, the tanks we have an Army National guard. The city fathers paid for this in appreciation of our military. My father was in world war ii in ,he south pacific, a medic p. O. W. Our pride is just overwhelming for our military. If it cost 10 million or more here in d. C. To do that, do you think it is worth it . Caller yes. I think we should do everything we can to show our military that we care. And that is just all i have to say. The cook,r is in nebraska. Democrat. Caller i have some facts for you here. One of the callers was questioning whether ilLegal Immigration costs the country money. Ahave a study that comes from nonprofit in washington, d. C. Called the federation for american Immigration Reform. They have several facts here. Costs themigration american taxpayer 134 billion annually. They broke it down further. That is locally. Federal expenditures is 46 million. As far as people claiming illegals paid most of that back, according to these figures, only 19 billion is recouped. Host take us to the immigration debate happening this week on what do you think should happen . I dont remember which representatives bill it is, and i dont think it ought to be put ,ogether with the daca issue but if it is, give these people citizenship in 10 to 12 years. I also think they need to put money in there for the laws, they need to end this chain migration, the visa lottery program, that should go. I dont know how it will work out. I hope the republicans stick to their guns, at least the people and want to secure things, do things the way the law is written. Last december,the daniel stein, you can go back and watch that segment at cspan. Org. Paul singer . Guest theres an interesting point here, chain migration, family migration. We had a student working on this, one of our interns. He found out that there are 4 Million People already in backlog to get the green card, family related immigration. It is going to take 10 years to process those people through the system. So without any other changes in immigration law, what the caller calls ending chain migration, even if the president said we are not going to let any more family members into the pipeline, there would still be 10 years worth of current immigration going on to process through that backlog. Times had a story that said that the president could offer that as a thing to democrats. It will take you 10 years to handle the people already in the system. , behindst a reminder all the simple policy pronouncements are these complex implements. Always appreciate the time. Thanks for having me. Our weekly your money segment, joined by david and founder sident of patients for Affordable Drugs. Well be right back. Tonight on the communicators from the consumer electrons Show Technology leaders discuss Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence in something as simple as your play list, those are all using technologies that does Machine Learning, help you figure out movies you love to watch and what music you like to listen to. Can be in your internet filtering out nd spam. That Automated System is not a person, a computer algorithm to do that. Earning on the other end, you have rtificial intelligence power elfdriving car, autonomous driving helps navigate busy streets. Watch communicators tonight 8 00 eastern on cspan 2. Cspans history series landmark cases returns this a look at 12 new Supreme Court cases. Each week experts join us to and personal stories behind significant Supreme Court decisions, february 26th,y, live at 9 p. M. Eastern and to cases, weollow all 12 have a companion guide written y Supreme Court jury roomist tony morrow, landmark cases volume 2. 8. 95 plus shipping and andling, go to cspan. Org landmarkcases. Washington journal continues. Host each week, we look at the money and n of your federal policy and this week were joined by David Mitchell, founder of d patients for Affordable Drugs. Prescription drug prices. What is chell, first, your group . Guest what is your group . Guest patients for Affordable Drugs, we are the only National Patient organization focused exclusively on lower drug prices. Take monfreany organization, profit from development or distribution of Prescription Drugs. Speak for patients, 50, last, always. Ost you are a patient yourself . Guest yeah. About seven years ago, i was incurable ith an multiple er policies to called myelomatis incurable, but it is expensive with very drugs. Retail price 450,000, so this of having a cancer to deal ough, having with expensive drugs brought me challengese with the people confront and nobody was really speaking up on behalf of the patients on drug pricing. Wife, who is a little crazy, too, and also a cancer urvivor, she and i decided we would try to start a group to do this. Host how many patients are a your group and how long have you been around . Guest we launched almost a year last year. Ry 22nd of time e collected in that 12,000 patient stories and 30,000 addresss from people around the country. Host it is an advocacy what is the tax filing, what are you legally allowed to do . 501c3. We are 501c4, political patients rm, called for Affordable Drugs now. What were doing really is stories and t amplifying those to policymakers, elected officials mobilizing patients in our community to speak up for olicies that will lower drug prices. So last week, one of our the nts testified before oregon legislature. On march 1, ill be in colorado o join patients testifying before the colorado legislature. Two weeks ago we had patient washington, around a bill called the creates act, a certain path by Drug Companies. Brought in from i went to a meeting with paul trapp, office and jackie a retired teacher from his district, who pays more than 18,000 a year out of pocket for her trugs. Patients mobilizing online and beginning to mobilize atients directly to be advocates for themselves. C3 and u mention the advocacy arm. How does your group raise money . Guest we get money from foundations. Order to help leverage that money, my wife and i decided hat we would start the group with our own money, frankly we put in 75,tment to three years. R for i work for free. I retired to do this, went to potential funders and said if i work for free and i put in my own money, would you help us . Yes. Foundations said weve raised three years. I work for free. I retired to do this, went monf online who eople come to patientsforaffordabledrugs. Org, few bucks. Iven us a we dont ask for money from to ents, but if they want help, we can use the help. Host David Mitchell, founder of patients for Affordable Drugs. Weeks money segment. Here is what the president had union in his state of the address about Prescription Drug prices. Pres. Trump one of my greatest to reduce the price of Prescription Drugs. [applause] in many other countries, these drugs cost far what we pay in the United States. Unfair. Very, very that is why ive directed my dministration to make fixing the injustice of high drug priorities f my top for the year. [applause] pres. Trump and prices will substantially. Host the president from his state of the union address. Releases his budget plan, hat do we know how how he will put that into action and bring the prices down . Guest first of all, the prices in s right, this country are way too high. Three time what is people pay in other twped countries. Reason is there are governmentgranted monopolys given to pharmaceutical allowed and they are to charge whatever they want. We think the president was right a year ago when he said drug getting away with murder. The ately, in prot po propos far. Osals weve seen so a report released last week pharma from cludes any action, the big drug action to rshgs any lower drug prices. The document says, well change design, which could be good, were going to change design of benefits under medicaid, which also could be good, but the head waters, the root of the problem prices set by the Drug Companies and there is nothing proposals te house weve seen so far that would address that. Now the budget documents are and well see more detail. We are very interested to see hether theyre going to actually do something that would go after the root cause of the companies. E dug host what is the best way to go at the root cause of the problem . Two ways. One is as the president that the last year, federal government should negotiate directly with the drug lower drug prices. Every other country in the world ones hat, were the only that doesnt. We pay more. The other will be to tackle the patent abuse. The Drug Companies get a period a exclusivity when they bring drug to market, it allows them to make a lot of money, governmentgranted monopoly. T the end, were supposed to allow generics to come to market with free market competition. Drug Companies Gain the system and do things called pay for delay. They dont give samples of their product to generic manufacturers samples to develop a generic equivalent. Is aed patent reform there bill in congress the president could support, the creates act, taxpayers 3. 3 billion and speed cheaper could s to market and he stand up for that right now. It is bipartisan in both houses week. Could do it this host talk more about the creates act. Irst part of what you were talking about the bloomberg reports about what is be prog from h. H. S. And what well see in documents, proposals include something President Trump threatend and companys drug biggest fear, negotiating directly, that is what you think would help most. That is patent reform immediately would do the most to this own drug prices in country. Host go ahead. Join o invite viewers to the conversation, we split phone lines up regionally, if you live eastern or central time one, the phone number is 2027488000. If you live in mountain or 2027488001. , we want to hear your stories and uestions for David Mitchell with patients for Affordable Drugs. Patients for Affordable Drugs out on to check them the internet. Guest i want to add one thing, if i can. Please. Guest there are problems all down the Drug Distribution chain report that a fine was issued last november by the sciences, ademies of chairedt people, it was by norm augustine, former c. E. O. Lockheed martin and two cheap recommendations to lower drug country were medicare should be able to negotiate directly for drug we need patent reform. Things from National Academy of sciences, those two things completely missing from the white house proposals. Barry in island heights, new jersey. Good morning. Morning. Ood i wanted to bring attention to he unanimous approval of the 2012 f. D. A. Safety and innovation act giving f. D. A. The right to charge fees for generic manufacturers. Ifse fees are unfair because you make 1000 generic drugs this 248,000. Pay f you make one generic drug, your fee is 248,000. Manufacturers have gone out of business because of the fee structure. Intimately not familiar with the generic fee f. D. A. User fees. I can say this, the way we drive competition to down prices under the Legal Framework we have in this ountry is that we allow generics to come to market after the brand has a time of exclusivity. First generic generally reduces the price to 80 of the and by the nd price time we get four or five, the price can come down to 20 or 15 . Need a healthy generic able to in order to be effectuate the policy we have, rands get a big return for innovation and research for that period of time than generics prices. Own ill look into the issue you raise and familiarize myself with it. Thank you. Has a question, why cant we model after v. A. System . Cost and system low order online and they ship to my house. Interestingly, thank you for that, Veterans Administration is the only entity, federal Government Entity that is allowed to bargain over drug get s and they substantially lower drug prices, we think the experience of v. A. Is something e could build on and allow medicare to use that same negotiating approach on behalf of us so that we can get better prices, like those in other countries. Host to tammy in vienna, virginia. Good morning. Caller hi. Understanding is that many and medical protocols actually have their root necessary federal funding, so ies might support Heir Research and Development Efforts when theyre new. It stands to reason that these companies would be required agreeable to more negotiating prices down the they havecially since benefited from federally funded research. What is your comment on that . I couldnt agree more, tammy, thank you. Roughly 50 to 60 of all the major new breakthrough to market in e this country, come about as a taxpayer investment, investment by the national nstitutes of health, directly from the n. I. H. Or through centers. Medical a drug just came to market, a wonderful drug that i probably its called, it is a cartt drug, first approval and that if you want host please. Reprograms tically your blood to go after the cancer. Tw stands for receptor and tcells to find cancer and kill it. The n. I. H. Invested more than million from 1993 to 2017 to bring this drug to market. Of the n. I. H. Says artt trugs are grounded on National Basic science conducted by the n. I. H. The hen novartis brought first version to market it put a for on of 475,000, just the drug. Then the cost of care associated the drug is ering another half million authorize and im not exaggerating, it is Million Dollar treatment. We cant keep pricing drugs this all pay to develop. We have to have a discussion bout how we price drugs to maximize accessibility and affordability while maintaining r d pipeline and reasonable profit for the company. The creates back to act, this from axios reporting industry was ical able to keep the create tax out that budget agreement came out last week. Thegist of the create tax make to asier for companies obtain samples of brandname products they are trying to an integral step of copying them. The r republican aide says problem with the create tax, it the store ving away to trial lawyers and allow generics to sue for access to product samples. You to respond to that. Guest that senior staffer is confused. Trial lawyers cant sue samples, only bona fide Generic Companies who have fab fabrequest with the to manufacture the drug and protocols have been cleared can request the drug, so only ones who could sue. In other words, a company that drugs could sue, not trial lawyers. And affirmative defense on thatf of the Brand Company refuses to provide samples is to simply provide the samples and goes away. Ole thing specious and wrong scare tactics r on the part of pharmaceutical industry, which is not being about this bill and the from i described to you congressman ryans district who came from wisconsin to meet with staff, jackie trapp, shes on a rems drug. The reason the drug is 18,000 out of pocket for jackie, a retired school teacher, is because of this by the company who makes that drug. It refused to provide samples to to make a hat want cheaper generic. It entered an agreement with a eneric company that doesnt allow generic to come to market of l 2022, five years more exclusivity. It is called labor delay. Host who should viewers watch it comes to the creates act and where it gos from here . Thats a darn good question. The lead sponsor is senator but it has support, strong bipartisan support degrassley, lee of utah, may, ted cruz, rand paul, senator kennedy of louisiana, siebed on last week, republicans. And then it has really strong democratic the side. I would say, watch the house udiciary committee and watch the budget the negotiations the are coming up on funding bill that is due to be we d on in march because intend to make another big push to get that included into the bill. Ng we still have momentum, we were adding cosponsors last week. Think if it gets to the president s desk, he will sign it . Guest i cant speak for the it is consistent with what he says he wants. Yes. Would say, host linda in jacksonville, florida, good morning. Morning. Ood my comment is on the price of drugs. Ption my husband and i live on social retirement. His almost s just about poverty level. That i take are ajority of them are the tier3 drugs that have no generics and you know, this one is without my halfance, almost more than of what i receive in Social Security. My problem is that were in the donut hole in four or five months and having o choose between medicine and ood and bills speci and we dont qualify for food stamps or medicare extra help and we dont for anything else. Host thanks for sharing your story. David mitchell. Guest this is the kind of story that is the reason were doing so mad. Kes me shes just express whatting people are experiencing around the country. The out of pocket for the 12 drugs for people who have Medicare Partd fromage like she has, runs 4400 to about 12,000 a year. Median. Not highest, but the median cost drugs. Ose 12 this is for people who are making a Median Income of about a year. Its just wrong. And medicare should be the price of er these drugs. To cap out oposals of pocket under Medicare Part d. Look e to see what those like because there is a way cucap the prices and it is like it here and itsh comes out there. And if it is going to raise for people sorry, if t is going to raise premiums for people dramatically, it may not be the best solution, put that would be a help. That could be in the budget today, well take a look and see. But again, the root cause of the problem is that were not price of g over the these drugs with the Drug Companies. Host David Mitchell is with Affordable Drugs, youve heard storys from viewers topic. On this note, patients per affordable rugs have a map of the various patients that you work with across the country and their stories. Can click on the dots individually to hear and see the stories from the work with them. PatientsforAffordable Drugs. Org, you want to check it out online. David mitchell with us until 9 40 this morning. Taylor in iowa, good morning. Caller yeah, want to talk about drugs. Ordable you know, i just know i see a here, people around especially this area, where they cant quite afford what they thing that ive cannibis industry will take down the pharmaceutical industry, i hope hat happens, we dont want people to get their pockets full. I saw a video on facebook that, thank you. Host mr. Mitchell. Familiar with the cannibis industry. You well. Say i wish host lynettenclear lake, morning. Ia, good caller good morning. My i think the biggest our em that we have with Prescription Drugs is that the senators and our congressmen are selling their votes to big pharma. Have to vote for that. They dont represent us, they money and go big pharmas way. Got e on 12,000 a year, i a bill from my medicare drug plan, they want 57 from me. Is taking food out of my mouth. Mitchell. Guest that comment, thank you atticat, is really emblem of what we hear from many. Patients tell us all the time, i buying choose between food, i choose between paying i need. Buying drugs patients cut pill necessary half, skip doses. Are type 1 diabetes, have to have insulin to manage heir disease, who try not to use it until their blood sugar spikes, which is really tcan rous for a diabetic put them into insulin shock, because they cant afford the drugs they need. We had a patient who told us two has cancer andhe cantltiple sclerosis, he afford both drugs, he lets multiple sclerosis progress treat his has to cancer or die. This is happening all over absolutelyht now and right, the pharmaceutical the try is one of, if not most powerful industry in this country. They spent billions of dollars 40 years building up Regulatory Framework, a government Regulatory Framework enables them to charge pay oly prices and we all for it. Ost how do you feel about hr . Mr. Azar is nk experienced, worked at human ent of health and services, understands the drug industry quite well as result of he spent as head of lilly, the head pany, he was of the u. S. Operation of lilly, to be seen ns whether mr. Azar will use his knowledge and experience to lower drug prices in ways that are meaning sxfl if what the ng to do National Academy of science suggest, which is we need a from the pproach production of the trugs to the pharmacy counter, we have make, you need to cant leave the Drug Companies out of it, it appears to me mr. Azar is in fact leaving the Drug Companies out. Leesburg, im in virginia, good morning. Caller yeah, morning. Ay back when i was in the military, like the other guy aid, the military is there to blow things up and kill people. My son is combat marine said military was there for hearts minds, shoot them in the head and heart, that is what the ilitary is for, not for delivering pizza. After 9 11, we needed to do omething, we should have went in with bigger footprint and howed the bad guys m those countries where this stuff was able to be put together, we ont want to be target of any attack like 9 11. Prices. Ing us to drug bring us to Prescription Drug prices. Caller Prescription Drug program, when social Program Spending is much bigger than military spending is, there is a problem with both parties, id say definitely the are in ic socialists there and the americans dont wise up, they realize they can a raise these days and leading the world is socialism. E toward host got your point, stick to Prescription Drug prices. David mitchell, president and founder of patients for Affordable Drugs, with us for 10 minutes or so. Get to as many calls as we can. Baltimore, good morning. Caller good morning. Im in my 70s and about 30 years im listening to a talk show, they are interviewing the of a foorm su company and hes explaining why pharmaceuticals have gotten so expensive. Going through the reasons. Its a callin show. A gentleman call necessary and lived on a farm all my life and 30 years ago we raise a was a sheep, and there certain pill that we gave that sheep and im not sure what to but he said that pill recently they say it could help in the treatment cancer. Type of now that pill is 6. He said to the c. E. O. , why . You cant say research, they had investment, the pill is the 30 years ago. Because it will save your life. And he caught himself and realized what he did and that is basically why pharmaceuticals high. Guest thank you, tony. Disease. Incurable the drugs find their way around the disease. I i want to live as long as hope, watch my youngest kid graduate from college, maybe day, woulddchild one be cool, i need them to develop new drugs. In new drugs est and innovation, the fact of the atter is there is no direct correlation between drugs and investment for new drugs. Me, if my kids lying on the gurney and you ask willing to pay your childs life, i would say, whatever it takes, i will sell house, empty my bank account, that is the wrong question n. This country, we have to ask this question. Is the price for drugs, especially new drugs that accessibility and affordability while maintaining pipeline for new drugs we want and need and drug able return for companies that commercialize those drugs. Ight now, the Drug Companies care about one thing and that is maximizing profits, affordability nd is not what they are focused on. Eweight the discussion back to making sure people get drugs they need. Host what is reasonable profit you . Guest a reasonable profit the risk that was taken, the drug i described earlier in the program and there were probably people who didnt hear, brandnew drug brought to market with price tag of their taxpayers actually paid to invent. Drug and look at that actually modeled it with experts former pharmacy eo, and published paper last week in Health Affairs and out if the drug company ova rtis got historic 27 profit and 19 for continuing that, they to have could charge 160,000. Nstead they are charging 475,000 and will make a profit helped n a trug that we invent. We think that we should be fair g more at what is a return and we think 27 , for example, in the case of historic return on current portfolio of profit system more than fair. Host homer, in louisiana, good morning. Aller thank you for taking my call. Im 75 years old, im a veteran, i go to the v. A. You believe that i have blue cross and blue shield on have to pay i still 12, 14 dollars for my medicine at the drug store. Is cheaper to go to the drug store than the v. A. And it dont seem fair and my ife, she was a school teacher, retired school teacher, she has to pay 350 per quarter just to on my insurance. It just insane. We worked all our lives and used better than and im pretty well, if it wasnt for my son, im catching hell. Thank you, thank you for your call. I understand. You to come to patients for Affordable Drugs your g, leave your story, email address and zip code and join our community. We are already mobilizing tens of thousands of patients across the country, you be a part of that to help address the challenges you and now. Wife are having right sorry for those. Host to linda in medina, ohio, good morning. Caller good morning, mr. Mitchell, good luck with your myeloma. You the best. Guest thank you. Caller easy question, last year diagnosed with psoriasis, on a trug called cosyntex, a selfinjecting pen. Nothing forirtually it because my husbands healthcare is paying for it, the drug pick up, company picks up part of the remium that i would normally pay. And the program is only good for what i understand, two years and what my question for ou is what is going to happen when the two years is up . Those ow i take two of 7500. Month, each pen is so two is 15,000, which is half annual income. Is there any what do they do . How does that work . Reflection further Drug Companies setting the price really high, give you discount for copayment, else, you, me, still pay for premiums through our taxes. R or and by doing this, they keep you keep the ontrol and price high. That is why we are focused on the retails to lower price so that you do not have to rely on those programs from the Drug Companies which really are for the Drug Companies to sell more products. City was a really by Financial Analytics organization hat found that for every Million Dollars a drug Company Invests in a program like the you, theyare using for make 21 million back. The reason is they give you a they bit of help, but keep the price big and we all pay the balance of the price premiums, either as employees, employers or taxpayers. Twitter wants n me to ask you about programs Drug Companies have helping afford hat cant medications, how easy is it to get that kind of help . Ofst it depends on a number factors, you know, drug billions on nd those programs, but they are not always there, they are not all worse as i say, they are not really programs to programs to y are market, they to it to sell more price. T a higher host how so . Guest because, lets say for drug e, that you have a and you raise the price to 1000 from 200. And the copay is going to be 100. They cover the copay for 100, but still got that increase from 200 to thousand less 100, im math, they made i put 700 on that deal and that in their pocket. Not only that, but the donation, donation they made to a foundation to give you that deductible, is tax so they get that back, too. These are marketing programs. Is why the drug prices tarts with lowering retail price of the trug. Now we have other issues on the pharmacy benefit managers who control 80 of the run t, they are people who the shshs drug programs, there are other issues, if we dont to drug pricing, we dont get at the problem. Ost another jeffrey in frederi frederick, maryland, good morning. Caller good morning. Doing . Start off by thanking david doing l and cspan for this program it is very needed. I had two questions, my two were, is there going to be a difference between life savingprograms like life drugs like harvoni, during this the hiv were having, epidemic, difference in maintenance drugs or can there a difference . With the uestion was piate epidemic, they are not talking with car fentanyl and rugs being brought into this country. Im a chronic pain patient with ms, suffering more today getting able to n and being live my life because there is an pidemic of this proportion, which i understand and i family and my town, as well, but in the process, you know, all these people that have cancer and ms, and chronic pain, suicide ommitting because they cant get proper help. Host mr. Mitchell. Talk im just going to hepatitis c drugs, he drugs. Access to cant get the drugs because they are too expensive. Hepatitis consider, we could wipe it out. The drug company who own those drugs, principally gilead, has price today out of reach for programs, especially public programs. We have folks that could be ured, who arent being cured because the price is too high. Host what about the access to medication and the impact on the efforts to cut down opioids has had on patients who need it . Rrectly and guest i am not an expert on addiction. We need ieve that steps, better steps to track the are ibution of drugs, how they get intoing peoples hands, escribing patterns, dispensing atterns by pharmacys and people who have addiction need appropriate treatment, that could be treatment at treatment centers, drugs that help wean people off of addictive drugs, we need both things. We need to make sure were cracking down on the supply and who are tryingle addiction. Heir is patients for Affordable Drugs, patient theforaffordabledrugs. Org, David Mitchell is president and founder. Appreciate the time. Washington journal, open phones for our last 20 minutes today. Any Public Policy issue you want about, the phone lines are yours, the numbers are on the is patients for Affordable Drugs, patientscreen. Can start call nothing now, well be right back. Landmark cases returns this month. Experts join us to discuss the constitutional issues and personal stories Supreme Courtcant decisions. Beginning monday, february 26th, and to 9 p. M. Eastern, help you follow all 12 cases we written mpanion guide by Supreme Court journalist tony morrow. Cases, volume 2. To get your copy go to cspan. Org landmark cases. Tonight on communicators from the Consumer Electronics show in leaders discuss Artificial Intelligence. You can have Artificial Intelligence in something as list or your play those are using technology that does Machine Learning, to figure movies you love to watch and what music you like to listen to. In your internet email system and filtering out spam. Automated system is not a person marking things as spam or computer algorithm, using ai to do that. On the other end, you can have Artificial Intelligence powering autonomous cars, uses a vision to help cars navigate busy streets. Watch on cspan 2. Washington journal continues. Host it is open phone necessary our last segment of washington journal today. Any Public Policy issue you want talk about. The phone lines are yours to do it, we will go to the National Portrait for the official unveiling of ormer president obama and former first lady, as well, their portraits happening at 10 00. So until then, the phone lines are yours. 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Well get right to it. Pat is in malibu, line for pat, go ahead. For r i have a question mr. Mitchell, who is the author f the im assuming it was in ryan, who i first congress. Security all his life and now trying to abolish it. Survivor, n, cancer from heavy exposure to agent vietnam war. The bombers and thank good care of me. Anduld like to know bill drugs as cannot afford you are talking about, novarti s gilead, and many of them, raise the price of life saver so tremendously. Just wonder why people like ryan and mcconnell and trump and everyday go on lie about how they are trying to person, when ge nothing more than for the military . Anies and the host got your point, mr. Mitchell, David Mitchell of patients for Affordable Drugs, longer with us in this washington journal. Their website is patients for org. Dable drugs do i believe he said that sponsor plenty ofr leahy, but information about that available on their website. Line for new york, independents, bill, good morning. Caller yes. Mr. Mitchell said that the government pays for the research for new drugs. Is, why doesnt the government therefore own the patent rights to that drug and use that to control the drug prices . Thank you. Host to george in jacksonville, florida, line for republicans, go ahead. About yes, im talking the situation in syria and iran. I see it is that we have thing mostly defeated, we areby the russian and there. Sending troops in so it appears we are looking for the fing is done, should take our troops from there. Syria and iran to the this piece by a, josh rogan in the washington had on a conversation he with the Vice President about the future of relations in the peninsula. Scenes, Real Progress was made toward a new diplomatic result in t could direct tops without preconditions between washington pyongyang. This was born out of new noting between the white house and the of south korea. Vice president mike pence aboard his way home from yeongchang told josh rogan in his two conversations with south jongun, sident moon agreed on terms for further korean nt with north first and with the United States soon thereafter. E says the frame for the diplomatic path forward is this, the United States and allies steep andtop imposing escalating cost on the kim takes stepsme until toward denuclearization. Campaign is ongoing. If you want to read more of josh it is in todays Washington Post. Arkansas, oansboro, line for democrats. Go ahead. A problem with the political system. Two ularity contest every or four years and get the vote n somebody, we have no say in pharmaceutical issues. We cant vote on anything that can rs, this is the most i do, call cspan. Isnt that sad . Hat is extent of the voice i have in this country. My vote doesnt matter tis how you have, the louder your voice is. Its a sad state when the fathers are revered as being so smart and create third disenfranchise o everybody from having a voice in what goes on. How will you fix it . To fix im got two ideas it. One person could run as candidate and pledge to do constituents want, you could do that on facebook. We have technology now, you run for office on what pledge. Would have to we just not vote. Dont vote on these popularity vote on otes, only referendum votes where your vote matters. Voters protestthe popularity contests, they dont even us well, not in our interest. Host to tom in north hills, an ahead. Ndent, go caller morning. Are you there . Host yes, sir, go ahead. Caller i want to talk about the situation ive got going, first go ll, my heart and prayers out to mr. Mitchell who just spoke and i hope everything as hisut with him as far cancer. I have gone through that. Been through a hospital seemed to think they can get away with murdering you. Was taken on ambulance for quite a long time just to put me down because they lost my xrays. Viepilepsy and i have more medication than you can sink a battleship with. Dont know what to do, but you keep talking about prices of the pharmacys. Why dont you move pharmacy, you them overseas e and ke more money for them then take trump and have a tax ill and give everybody a tax break for the rich and do nothing for us, im sick and tired of this. What could be something that would be done for you, tom . The last time they said brain surgery. In north hills, california. Doris, spalding, michigan, ahead. Can, go caller yes, im calling in regard to the me 2 movement. I have worked in business a long i have of course ive y had the area where gone and are you there . Host yes, maam. Caller yeah. Ive been accosted and sexually, anyway, people to prove there has been, since everybody is coming out and accusing somebody of and you are assumed guilty, that is not right, either. Like woman, i know things that happen, you just listen to the rap music and things like mean, the culture is just ridiculous. Is a goodmovement, it thing if you can help it, but you have got to watch how it is good people dont their reputation over an accusation that is not proven. Me too movement, here is what ginsberg had to say. It shouldnt stop with people, people like ou, people in the media and that it should protect this new the man, should protect who works at a hotel. It is spreading so far. Es, there will always be adjustments when there is the whole, but on me that for the first time women are really istened to because Sexual Harassment has often been it up or as, she made thinskinned. A very healthy development. Minutes left in the program. Open phones to end washington journal. Lakeland, florida. Donna, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Wanted to comment about this parade. I think that the parade, if it a parade tshould be when our troop come home, only when our troops come home. Thank you. Host harper, wayne, michigan, line for independents, you are up next. Caller thank you. Im calling about a situation many een dealing with for my parents and brother and failure of the news or federal and state legislators or governors throughout the year to do about it. I was taking care of my brother 96, d the clock before in before he died in the last day of my8, i was taking care parents around the clock. I couldnt get legislators to do as far as out it, providing income, as far as that, not getting any income, wasnt getting money oing to Social Security or retirement, the media was ignoring it and legislators were ignoring the whole situation, returning calls, including the current ones, debbie stabb and gary peters, as far as the senators. Host what you are advocating sort of stipend for caregivers . Yes, reasonable amount. Taking care of them around the ofck, you know, it was a lot work. The media was ignoring it and wouldnt do stories about it. The bad doctors and hospitals or anything else. Debbie stabbs office and Gary Peters Office wont or do anything related to that situation. Host harper, what do you think for reasonable amount somebody who is a fulltime sort of if it is some federal stipend for that person . What would you advocate for . Say a couldnt particular amount as far as, would be nice to get at least it,age Household Income for but i couldnt really begin to exact amount or anything like that. My point is about a reasonable far as preferrably more than that, taking care of people in the case like i did, around the clock job, no time off, no weekends off, no that. On or anything like i even stayed in the bedroom with my brother and slept in in folding chairs for ears taking care and going between taking care of him and my parents. So i couldnt say an exact or anything like that. Host harper, thanks for sharing your story. Mary, maldin, missouri, a republican. Good morning. I am all for having term years only for senators, representatives, the works. This whole stuff of making a have of them, they dont to worry about everything. 428 a month, i have a bee allergy, the medicine, the was ave to have is it. T 286 to buy and i had no care and i have a supplement and i have the drug and yet i still had to pay that. People that l me have to have little kids and ave to have them all the time, how they can afford it . I thank you should be some there s and i think should be a cap on it because i only pay 39 for it. I dont understand why now its 285. Host mary, can i ask you about concern at the start of your comment . Ow do you feel about senator roy blunt . Ow do you feel about your rblunt . An senator caller probably doing a good job, but the same as everybody after eight years he ought to be removed and put somebody else new with new ideas. Host roy blunt has been a member of the house or senate 20 years at this point. Illinois, adickson, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Calling on the democrat line and i was hoping fellow democrats and come out and ould bring your friends out to vote. We need choice here, to elect a democrat in congress, and we have 15 to 20 allegations ade against the president , we can ave hearings and have these women state their voice what the president did. Y fellow republicans and independents, november 2018 is get your t out, friends out, vote and lets hold this president accountable. And have a good day. Morning. Martha good caller hello. How are you doing . Host doing well. Thank david ike to for coming on earlier, i was really interested, i wish he earlier. E spoken he hit on something when he said benefit managers controlled 80 of the cost. Lot of fingers in the pie. Ge agent, ice ark people an advocate for who need part d card. That, i read the blogs. Agency when is they put news out and i get blogs hhs, and cms, i dont think andpublic knows, but h. H. S. Pulls 23 of what used to be reimbursement for pharmacy for no longer ess, they get that anymore. It is pulled off, paid to cms, for the recovery of what the government spends on program. So when people are mad at about chargingrs too much, taking too much you really understood the drug network, you would it is not the pharmacys that are getting rich, our own government has their that excessive cost that everyone is paying. Albany, new york, an independent. Ken just a minute left here. Go ahead. Caller yeah. I just want to say that i think lobbyists in this country rights n away all our lobbyists in ss washington. Rights, tripped of paying too much for medical and we are now stripped of our rights, paying way too much for. Ur medical, for drugs it is important that everyone in this country has access to Proper Health care. If we are not providing health care and continually pumping money into the military, which is necessary, but it is also necessary for us to have healthy citizens in the country. Have totallythey taken away our ability to take care of ourselves. Host we will leave it there. We will be back tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern, 4 00 a. M. Pacific. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] host now the in facial unveiling of former president barack obama and former first Lady Michelle obamas portraits, beginning right now on cspan. [indistinct conversations] ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the director of the smithsonians National Portrait gallery. [applause]