Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 06202019 20240714

Of slaves. If you support such acts, 2027488000. If you do not support it and say no, 2027488001. If you are not sure, 2027488002. You can also post on our social media sites. On twitter it is cspanwj and you can post on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. The New York Times highlights a little bit of the legislative efforts being made, which was a topic of this hearing saying the tol titled the Commission Study and develop reparations proposals for african act now sponsored by Sheila Jackson lee, democrat of texas. It would authorize 12 million for a 13 Member Commission to study the effects of slavery and make rep recommendations to congress. It would cost 12 million for the commission. The commission would hold hearings across the country and recommend ample remedies to congress after it is formed and the money supplied for it. When it comes to members of the commission, it would have three members appointed by the president , three by the house, one by the senate, and 6 members from organizations that have championed racial justice. The New York Times talks a little bit more about the efforts saying advocates for reparations say the cause is misunderstood and emphasize it doesnt necessarily mean the government will be writing checks to black people. The government could awful andr interest, loans address the social and economic fallout of slavery and policies that have resulted in a huge wealth gap between white and black people. It was during that hearing the for theho wrote a piece atlantic had a dialogue with a democrat from maryland about what reparations could look like. I dont know that americans quite understand it. At this point, you can get a plurality of white americans that will tell you the civil war was about states rights was with out a conversation about what. Rights to do that is why we need hr 40. That is what we are here to discuss in the first place. I am skeptical of the notion one person should stand up and speak for 40 million African Americans or for all the generations that came before me. I think the proper thing to do for this body is to convene a committee and discussion to study exactly what the damage was and what remedy might be offered and convene conversations around the country. I also would like to say there has been a lot of shade throwing on the notion of cutting checks. In the spirit of openness and this spirit of the spirit of study, i dont think we should rule out cutting checks. There are people who deserve checks. We are not ruling out any solution. Thank you for your emphasis on what hr 40 would do. It would set up a commission to study all the different dimensions and ramifications of reparations and what it means because i think one of the productive aspects of this conversation has been we learned it is not just about cutting checks although it is not to the disclosure exclusion of that, but rethinking our relationship to this history, which has been injurious to so many of our people. Host that full hearing at cspan. Org. We will show you more portions from yesterday. It to the topic of whether you support or not this idea of reparations for slavery. Give us a call. 2027488000 if you say yes. 2027488001 if you say no. If you are not sure, 2027488002. You can also post on the social media sites as well. Is firstjersey, john up saying he opposes this effort. Go ahead. Caller yes. I think the reparations or proposed reservations reparations are a ruse to get money out of the government. That is my feeling on the subject. Host why do you boil it down to that . , the blood, sweat, and tears of the slaves should daytrickle down to modern ancestors of these slaves. If anything, it should go into a fund to preserve the history of the slaves themselves as opposed to being handouts to their ancestors. That is my two cents. Host a caller who is not sure, this is jim in north dakota. Caller hi, pedro. Can you hear me ok . Host you are on. Yes, we can. Thanks. Caller greetings from siberia. It is a difficult one because when you look at the generic majorityte, the vast of white people in America Today probably are the descendents of people who came here through the great wave migration 20 years after the civil war was over. Italian, hungarian, ukrainian, norwegian. By the way, Eastern European whites, that is where we get the term slave. It is derived from the term slav for the slavic people. They were also enslaved by the romans, muslim invasions, mongols. My people came to pennsylvania from germany. The german americans who make up 60 million of the white people from america came all the way across north dakota, founded bismarck, fiercely antislave and their first arrival in the building of the colony of germantown in 1693. German mennonites and quakers of a protest in the streets germantown 15 years before the english quakers. Host appreciate the history, but this idea of reparations, you say you are not sure. Tell us why. Caller it is going to be more difficult because we are changing demographically. What about people who are hispanic or asian or india and came from their own forms of slavery . How are they going to be paying for this . Are we just going to have a small minority of people descended from rich whites in the south that are going to pay this or are we going to take it from everybody . The see how people majority of this country is probably going to be mexican within 50 years. They are not going to pay it. In temple hills, maryland, on the line for supporting this effort. Caller can you hear me . Host you are on. Go ahead. Caller ok. I think the discussion needs to begin. I listened to the hearings yesterday and i think there were some witnesses who talked about this isnt a search for money, but it is a search for a discussion. I hope people understand that. Money probably would be a difficult thing to try and do. Certainly the discussion should begin. Thank you. Host if reparations are ultimately paid, does it resolve the longer issue with americas history with slavery . Do you think it relieve yates this you are getting feedback, i apologize. Someone who opposes this effort from massachusetts, bob, hello. Caller good morning. I would like to say the American Indian there is a lot of people in the world that deserve reparations and some of them like from world war ii. The japanese, they were even more recent interred when that war started. You cannot get reparations for everything somebody did some other period of time ago. Racism in america died amongst white people and since president barack obama, black people are now allowed to be super racist against white people. You can give them anything you want, it will not help anything. Host the New York Times highlights for the first time the government considers 1965, thes, that was result of a special order issued by general william sherman. It lasted less than a year and Abraham Lincoln rescinded shermans order. Gary in atlanta, georgia, on our support line. Tell us why you support this move. Caller good morning. The reason i supported is first of all, restitution does not begin with slavery. Restitution begins with what you just read. After Abraham Lincoln, when he freed the slaves, he said there is no way they can assimilate into Society Without some help. Booth heardlkes that speech, that is when he assassinated Abraham Lincoln. No other president picked up restitution. What restitution is about is the jim crow era, when the government passed laws to hold. Lack men back the number one reason black men success,was become up those that owned businesses competing with white people. They discouraged black people from being successful. Woodrow wilson showed a movie in 1915 in the white house called birth of a nation, in which black people were demonized. These are things we can trace back. Host for all those things you listed, how would reparations resolve that . Caller 2027488002 here is what the thing caller here is what the thing is. When you go back and trace economically the disadvantage black people have suffered over the years compared to the white dollar, what happens is the black man suffers trillions and trillions of dollars of disadvantage meant. Disadvantagement. When you migrate to america, you inherit the history of the country. You had a choice, you did not have to come. A debt has to be paid. As far as slavery is concerned, only god can settle that. Host as far as the debt that has to be paid, what is the price tag or does it work out in other means such as low interest versus just a cash payment . Caller maybe not a cash payment, but may be start by eradicating white supremacy. That is what Abraham Lincoln was going to do. Eliminate the notion of white supremacy. Host we will hear from mike in New Hampshire who opposes this effort. Go ahead, you are on. Caller black people fail to the participation of africans in the african slave trade. They played a substantial role in the african slave trade. The tribes were at war with each other and the victors would turn slaves. Uished into they have to acknowledge that first. Host to the topic of reparations then, what do you think . Caller i am against it. Host why so specifically . Ofler i i am of i am irish and scottish ancestry and there are other ancestors that had more to do with it than mine ever had. Host steny hoyer saying while this hearing took place on a subcommittee level, he said he had every intention to bringing it to the floor of the house. A proposal providing reparations for descendents of slaves. I expect it to come out of the committee. He said during a press briefing on capitol hill. You can see this on cspan and watch on cspan. Org. Taking a look at this topic of reparations, we are getting your viewpoint on if you support that mover not. The number is that move or not. The number is 2027488000 if you support reparations for slavery. If you say no, 2027488001. If you are not sure, 2027488002. Bruce is up next. Bruce is from denver, colorado. He is not sure. Tell us why. From what i can see, there should probably just to a lot more education about what went on in this country a long time ago. I am black, but i call myself american, not africanamerican. I think there needs to be a lot more education about what happened. Host what makes you think that type of education level of education does not exist. Can go i can tell you i back to the very first tv show hear my was on and to white, fellow students who did not realize that happened and a lot of it had been sugarcoated by their ancestors. Whites that tried telling them slavery was ok and blacks were treated decently. There is a thing making a tour about lynching and stuff like that. You hear white people talk about how violent black people are. Show me pictures of black people laughing around after they lynched white people in this country, then you can tell me how violent they are. There needs to be a lot more education about slavery. Reparations, i dont know. It would be hard to trace who actually was owning slaves and i would not feel like trying to punish in my opinion, i am not speaking for every black. It would be hard for me to go to my neighbor next door who might be white and say you owe me money for something that happened years and years ago when they might not have even been a slave owner. That is why for me it is harder to do that. It is educating people and getting people uptodate on what took place in this country as far as getting money back. Host that is bruce from denver, colorado. This topic leading up to the hearing had some play when Mitch Mcconnell, on tuesday, shared his thoughts on this idea of reparations for slavery. [video clip] i dont think reparations for something that happened 150 years ago for those of us living are not currently responsible is a good idea. We tried to deal with our original sin of slavery by fighting a civil war, passing landmark civil rights legislation. We elected an africanamerican president. I think we are always a work in progress in this country, but no one currently alive was responsible for that. I dont think we should be trying to figure out how to compensate for it. First of all, it would be hard to figure out who to compensate. We have had waves of immigrants who had come to the country and experienced dramatic discrimination of one kind or another. I dont think reparations are a good idea. Host that took place tuesday and it was during that hearing a piece was written for the atlantic called the piece for reparations. He took issue with senator mcconnells characterization of reparations, highlighting the use of his word something. Here is the response. [video clip] a typical black family has 1 10 the wealth of a typical white family. Black women die in childbirth at four times the rate of white women and there is the shame of the land of the free boasting the largest prison population on the planet of which the descendents of the enslaved make up the largest share. The matter of reparations is one of making amends and direct red dress and also a question of citizenship. This body has a chance to make good on its 2009 apology for enslavement and reject fairweather patriotism. To say a nation is both its credits and debits. If Thomas Jefferson matters, sodas sally hemmings. If dday matters, sodas black wall street so does black wall street. The question is not whether we should be tied to the somethings of our past, or whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them. Host a supporter of reparations from maryland, this is alexandria. Caller good morning. What a great topic and what a great opportunity for this country to examine the foundations we have here. There was a caller that called in and was talking about handouts. If you look at what was done systematically for so long, the only people getting handouts were the people able to utilize slaves to build their fortunes on. Payalk about making people today for stuff that was done 150 years ago. We still recognize the wealth and families that built their wealth off the backs of slaves. They are still able to inherit money. That point is moot. How do wereparations, get that done . What does that look like . I believe in it, but if you give a certain amount of money to a certain type of people, it will continue to systematically, unfairly, potentially, that money. Look what is happening today with education. Attempt totantly and hold certain groups of people back. Yes, reparations, but there are serious foundational issues. We cannot even get Mitch Mcconnell to pass legislation that protects our vote. Host i apologize, your signal is breaking up a bit. We will move onto to robert in florida, and opposer of this effort. Caller good morning. I am just calling to let you know we are german and we had come over great great grandparents and learned to speak english and we think the german was phased out. We became americans. We were never germanamericans. This is the whole thing. This reparation thing is ridiculous and they are wasting time talking. Host when you say it is ridiculous, specifically why . Caller it is a waste of time. We know history and we moved on and things are so much different today. They talk about being poor, i grew up in a house and we had three bedrooms and four kids and two parents slept in one bedroom and we was 18 years old rose to be a great family. The opportunities were there for everybody. This thing is a joke and waste of time. I think it is a government scam thing. Int lets hear from jessica california, says she is not sure. Caller i wanted to say i heard a guy that said he felt giventions should not be to africanamericans because , but igot reparations was thinking maybe people think they should get them because the japanese got 20,000 with an apology and also white slave owners got reparations for lost slaves. I am thinking as people start to dig through history and make an argument, people are going to start looking at different sides of this and try to debate something the guy said in the debate with congress, he said when people try to say forget history, he brought up the fact nobody forgets history when they bring up our forefathers. I thought that was a great, salient point. On theince you called not shoreline, what specifically are you not sure about when it comes to this topic . Caller i am not sure which way this will go. I hear people calling in saying this is a trick and then i hear people calling in being very adamant this has to happen. I am not sure which direction it will go because as i looked through history and look at what has been done with the japanese and the facts and evidence people are putting forward, you cannot just go with how people feel. Host that is jessica in california. This topic playing out in the political field when it comes to the 2020 campaign. Democratic president ial front maner joe biden bucked a and apologized for praising segregation lists and calling black men boys. The first jab came from cory oker of new jersey who said you dont joke about calling black men boys. Mr. Biden bristled at the criticism, apologized for what . He told reporters mr. Booker is the one who should apologize. I have not a racist bone in my body. I have been involved in civil rights my whole career. This story adding it the trouble started a day earlier during a speech at a fundraiser in new york where the former Vice President talked about camaraderie with two staunch segregation lists. One of them of mississippi and the other of georgia, both democrats saying their relationship example find a more civil era in u. S. Politics. More of that available at the Washington Times website. Fairfax, virginia, a supporter of the effort. John, go ahead. Caller good morning, everybody. Yes, i am white. I believe a tremendous injustice has been done to black people over 400 years. I have a solution. For 40 years, we should pay students of descendents of slaves, pay them for showing up to school and pay them more for doing well at school. Give them an opportunity account so they can create wealth to go to college or prepare for future life and i think this would change the prospects for those children and do something to make up for what has been done to their ancestors. Host some of the attendees, witnesses of the hearing offered their concerns about such a move toward reparations. One of them was coleman qs. He talked about and gave his perspective during congressional testimony yesterday. [video clip] our worry i worry our desire to fix the past compromises our ability to change the present. We are spending time in an era with no black slaves, but nearly a million black prisoners. A bill that does not mention homicide once at a time when the center for Disease Control reports homicide as the number one cause of death for young black men. I am not saying acknowledging history does not matter, it does. I am saying there is a difference between acknowledging history and allowing history to distract us from the problems we face today. In 2008, the house of representatives apologized for slavery and jim crow. In 2000 nine, the senate did the same. Black people dont need another apology. We need safer neighborhoods and better schools. We need a less punitive criminal justice system. We need Affordable Health care and none of these things can be achieved through reparations for slavery. Me everyone close to nearly everyone close to me told me not to testify today. They told me even though i have only ever democrat voted for democrats, i would be perceived as a republican. Others told me by distancing myself from republicans i would end up angering the other half of the country and the sad truth is they were both right. That is how suspicious we have become of one another. Host lets hear from darrell from michigan who opposes this effort. Caller good morning. Yes, i oppose this effort. I see this as being as divisive as affirmative action has been, bussing children to other schools have been, jim crow. I think it will continue. The point is we have made it reparations. Its called a civil war where we killed half a million americans. More than all the worldwide wars combined. This should be ended. It should not be stirring up the pot again. Thank you very much. Host claude, who is not sure in florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I think we are looking at the issue of reparations in the wrong way. First of all, lets be clear. This is institutional racism and it has been going on for hundreds of years. America should be tried in the war court for crimes against humanity. Think about it. Africanamericans are an endangered species in america. Not only have we endured slavery and jim crow and institutional racism from banks, police officers, fbi agents, the list goes on and on. It comes from the top. Think about what we are living through today. Host when it comes to reparations, what are you not sure of . Caller i dont think anyone should be given a payment. I heard one caller saying i should go to my neighbor and collect money from them, that is not what we are saying. America needs to admit crimes against humanity have taken place. If you look at Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass fourth of july speech he said what to the american slave is fourth of july and a date revealed to him was all other days of the year. To him, your celebrations are a sham. Saying. Out what he was he simply said go wherever you want throughout the world, search out the facts. It is as true today as it was then in Frederick Douglass time. Host for the past half hour, we have been getting your thoughts on the hearings taking place yesterday, taking a look on forming a commission that would study the idea of reparations for slavery and we are getting your opinion on whether you support that effort are not. If you support it, 2027488000. If you dont support it, 2027488001. If you are not sure, 2027488002. You can post on social media, too. News cameday, that out of iran a shooting of a u. S. Military drone. John of the Associated Press joins us. Good morning to you. John good morning. How are you . Host fine, thank you. Can you update us on the situation and reaction from iran and the u. S. . Guest u. S. Central command acknowledged the type of john drone shot down. It is a really big drone and the wingspan is about the size of a boeing 737. The iranians are saying around 4 00 a. M. Local time, they shot down this drone as it flew over iranian territory. The u. S. Military has disputed that. They are saying the drone was over international airspace. That is a narrow mouth of the persian gulf through which a fifth of the worlds Global Oil Supplies moves through on a daily basis. Host has the u. S. Government provided definitive true proof the drone was not in a iranian airspace . Guest no, right now it is the iranians saying one thing and the u. S. Saying another. The iranian side changed what they were saying. Originally they said it was overland in iran and now they make it sound like it was overwater, but we dont have a clear idea of where this drone was shot down. Host did we see any reaction from irans leadership specifically . Even quotes this morning using the term war. Give some context to what has been said. Iraniane have the revolutionary guard commander coming out strongly. That is a Paramilitary Organization that is answerable only to irans Supreme Leader and the commander basically came out and said any sort of territorial incursion into iranian airspace would be a redline for iran. They would respond and annihilate anyone who did this. He did caution and say iran was not looking for war, but was ready for war if someone host nothing politically, nothing from the Trump Administration on this . Guest we have not heard from the white house nor anyone else. So far it is just central command, which is the u. S. Military out foot in charge in this region. Host we have seen stories about tensions between the two countries, particularly the recent announcement of the uranium. Is there a way to connect the dots . How would you put that into context . Guest there is sort of a longrunning dispute, tensions between the u. S. And iran go back to the Islamic Revolution and even in the 1950s when the u. S. Helped overthrow irans prime minister. Most recently, what we have seen these tensions take root in his President Donald Trump decision to withdraw the u. S. From the iran nuclear deal. In the time since, the u. S. Has ratcheted up sanctions on iran, including targeting really crucial oil supplies and oil experts exports as well as other methods targeting organizations related to the iranian government and revolutionary guard. It seems that pressure has started to get to iran. Collapse ine value. They have seen savings disappear, food, medicine, spare tires, basically anything you can imagine is much more expensive. We have seen a strong reaction from the iranian public. They are upset and government has been blamed for these recent mine attacks on oil tankers and the golf. F im on i was on a u. S. Naval base in the United Arab Emirates yesterday where a Navy Official showed debris and pieces from what they said was one of the mines that did not go off and they say it bears a striking resemblance to mines used in iran. Tensions are very high right now. Host back to the drone for a second, was it normal to find that type of drone in that space or area, is that a normal thing that takes place . I have actually seen these drones before. Joe biden was in the uae and visited an airbase close to abu dhabi. While we were there, we did see some of these on the tarmac. U. S. Central command sometimes puts out photographs showing these drones landing at the airbase, taking off from the airbase and what they do is sort of long range surveillance. They can get as high as 10 miles and look out over a vast territory, track ships, take photographs, listen to communications and do those things. They were used as surveillance platforms in the war and now it seems as though they are flying after theseait recent attacks. U. S. Command has not explained what this one was doing. Over to just be flying track maritime traffic amid heightened tensions. Gambrell, is jon talking about that missile that shot down the u. S. Military drone. Thanks for your time today. Guest thank you. Back to our topic, taking a look at the idea of reparations for slavery. Going to our social media sites, one viewer says democrats should have to pay reparations, they even fought a civil war to protect their institution. Charles saying it should be at least discussed. If not monetary pay, definitely a service to help with upward socioeconomic activity. John off twitter says america is the only country where ever can africans live in large numbers. Ce and prosperity reparations for what . Twittermake thoughts on at cspanwj and our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. This is john in michigan who supports this effort. Thanks for waiting, go ahead. Somer i do support it in form, like maybe the g. I. Bill was instituted or the homestead act, something along those lines. Host why do you make those comparisons to the g. I. Bill and the things you listed . Caller those are programs instituted who help to help guys who fought in wars or people looking for land. Host on our oppose line, this is ruth in north carolina. Hello. Caller hi. I am against reparations being if, if the families still live in their ancestors that owned slaves, these are people who should pay to their former relatives were slaves. The only reason they are doing this right now, reparations, is the democrat election is coming up and they needed another subject to get trump on. They are starting this, we have all these problems in the country and the world and all democrats study is how to get trump. They should they could care less about the country, they are just out to get someone. Host that is ruth in north carolina. We will go to maine, a viewer who says they are not sure. Go ahead. Caller how are you doing . Host fine, thank you. Caller i feel the Africanamerican Community has definitely dealt been dealt a crap handpy. They did receive a crappy han d. They did receive reparations in the 1800s to only have it taken away. We are only talking a few generations ago. We are talking grandfathers of grandfathers. Host illinois is next. Supporter of this effort. Go ahead. Caller why are we still in war in this country over race . Slavery lasted 200 years and was a systematized state sanctioned economically driven system of execution and from humanlabor bodies over 200 years. You have to develop a psychology on the part of white people enormouss involved in acts of denial for the system to. Ontinue when it comes to reparations themselves, how do they resolve those issues . I agreeelieve with what jones said, it should be in different areas educationally. Physiologically like health care. Also educational. Also a monetary piece, environmentally. Land and home ownership. It should be in all of those areas. There was a wonderful article by the evergrowing gap. It was called the evergrowing gap and they talked about how the gap between the wealth of white americans and the wealth of black americans and the latino. F year in which it is projected people of color will make up the majority of the u. S. Population, the wealth divided will have doubled on average from about 500,000 in 2013 to over 1 million. If you support it, if you oppose it, if you are not sure, give us a call in the minutes we have. About 15 plus minutes. We will show you one more bit of testimony. This is burgess islands giving his view on reparations. [video clip] i learned a long time ago slavery is not a gene. It is our actions, our attitude, our beliefs. Reparations points to a certain race, certain color and points them as people and points the other race, my race, as one that no longer becomes racist, but also beggars. I do believe in restitution. Lets point to the party that took part in slavery, kkk, jim crow. California restitution. How about the Democratic Party pays for all the misery brought to my race and after we learn our history and decide to stay there, they are complicit. Everyone in america who feels guilty because of your white skin, you need to pony up also. This country has given us greatness. Look at this panel. It does not matter our color. We have become successful because of this great opportunity to live the American Dream. If you missed the hearing, we invite you to go to our website at cspan. Org. You can find a link where you can watch it and if you want to consider the other topics of reparations, go to the box at the top of the site and type in the word reparations, slavery, you will find everything this station has taken in on the topic. All of that available at cspan. Org. Illinois is next on our opposed line, hello. The reason i am opposed is they already receive preferential treatment in jobs, housing, education. They set quotas so we hire the correct proportion of people. If they eliminate those agencies, sure. Host kenny says he is not sure. Hello. Caller hello. Instead of giving a check to every black person in america over the age of 18, maybe the avernment ought to do onetime endowment and make Scholarships Available to the future children. Host why that approach versus a strict monetary approach . David, are you there . This is david in los angeles, california. On our support line. Caller good morning. I think this is really a nobrainer. The arguments against it beckons of the a heartless time type of mentality and spirit that could actually enslave and totalize and beat a woman the flesh being with off her skin with whips. That type of mentality is still in the spirit of some of these people who cannot see the humanity of black people and the whitesty of making wrong. Cant nobody outdo his definition of that. Host you say it is a nobrainer, how would that work in your mind . What is the best approach . Haser the best approach been suggested, lets do the study. That is what we want to do first. When you do the study, inherent knowledge and understanding come solution. Until such time as we have that study, what we can put to rest is the fools who call in saying there should not be or they give come some kind of voodoo possessed explanation as to how this has been satisfied. This ignorance has to be put to rest. Host is this a strict cash payment you are talking about or is it better done by other means . Caller what i am saying to you, my friend, is the solution is in the study. To remedy the institutional situation that has kept black people at a disadvantage all these many years, this has been done by federal, state, and local Government Systems that have perpetuated this. Host lets hear from axel in arizona on our opposed line. Go ahead. Caller hi, pedro. The way i feel about it is all we have an obligation to do is make sure we do not return to that horrible time again in any official policy of our government. Ado not think there is systemic racism in our government policies. We have made necessary changes, but we cannot help it if there are individuals out there who are racist today. The gentleman from california, he is upset, but there is racism in individual people. There may be racism in companies, things like that. As far as nationally, it is apparent the fact that we have had a black president there are thousands of or millions of minority millionaires in this country and how can anyone say we have not made full reparations because a black man or woman can be found in the highest echelons of politics, businesses, sports, et cetera . Something wes not need to make any reparations for, we just have an obligation to make sure we do not go back to anything like that again. Host the caller that set other people groups have been given reparations, japaneseamericans that were interred why not give extend that to the descendents of slaves versus payments previously made out like i mentioned . Caller for one thing, like a lot of people have said, how are we going to make the decision as to who needs to pay . There are people who come to this country or their ancestors, within the past century. They were here and they came back after debt after any of that had taken place. White people who had come afterwards, are they required to pay . Their ancestors had nothing to do with it. How do we figure this out . The gentleman said lets do a study. Yeah, if you want to do a study about it. It makes sense to me at this point in time, we have reached a like in time i feel people like al sharpton or forle battling constantly racial equality, we recently had a black president and it seems look,ow they need to say we have to keep the narrative going because we have to find a continue. E the war al sharpton is not going to wake up and say everything is ok. We have battled everything, racial equality is here. He is going to continue to look for a way to continue to make his point. Axel in phoenix, arizona, who opposes this effort tells us why. If you support, oppose, not sure, pick the line that represents you and you can give us a call. A couple stories about media coverage, one of those stories dealing with cspan. Michael grimm brahm writing it takes a lot for cspan to get mad. By the network from putting on a live contest at the convention executives at the Public Affairs network fuming. The source of friction is a deal struck between the state party and msnbc, granting the channel exclusive rights to show the ondidates speeches saturday. Rival Television Networks will have to wait three hours after the event concludes before broadcasting footage. The Public Television network will be available to offer broadcasts of that event. You can find more of that story. The publisher of the New York Times talks about the president s treatment of the press and his concerns over with talk of treason, trump crosses a line. The charge levied on twitter was a response when article about cyber incursions on the electrical grid, his aides assured had not raised National Security concerns. The oped going on to say there is no more serious charge of commanderinchief can make against an independent News Organization which presents a troubling question, what would it look like for mr. Trump to escalate his attacks on the press further . After already reaching the incendiary language, what is left . There is evidence this is happening. The administration waged an aggressive Legal Campaign against journalists. Government regulatory powers have been misused to retaliate against News Organizations. You want to read more, those thoughts from the publisher of the New York Times. You can follow those in the wall street journal. Lets go to john in washington, d. C. , says he is not sure about this idea. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I do not argue one way or the other, i just want to bring up financialpeoples decisions and how they spend their resources weighs heavily on whether they attain wealth or not. Many people go for name brand items and they are driving cars that might cost more than their homes. They dont really have a sense of frugality. They live for today rather than look toward the future. When you live that lifestyle, you say broke stay broke. Host how does that relate to reparations . Caller they have had the opportunity for many, many years to accumulate wealth, but they squander it at every chance. You can see when they get the tax returns, it is gone in a month. They dont put it in the bank and save for a rainy day, they go on a spending spree. A 1000 pair of shoes and cannot pay the electric bill. Host mike in alabama, a supporter of the effort. Caller am i on . Host you are. Caller as a descendent, my ancestors, i can give you their names from 20 years ago that were born in this country and there are european americans country, these this this german and irish man that called in, actually, they gave my great, great, great southernnts this europeanamerican woman. So i cannot think of her name. Susan watkins, she gave my parents 40 acres. People,they were black they were not told they had to pay property taxes. This southern europeanamerican doctor, dr. Murray paid the property taxes so my family lost 40 acres they learn earned richfree labor from these southern europeanamerican people that live in this country. Host for that example, the idea of reparations you support. Tell us why. Caller i dont know really ofetary because probably 99 the black americans in this country cannot identify their ancestors living 150 years earlier. I think there should be another type of economic opportunity. A black person working in a job here, some of them might have very good jobs, but that is one to 50 white americans who have that same provision. I think there is this other means they could use as far as reparations. Host we will hear from tennessee in massachusetts timothee in massachusetts. Reparations. Ose i am 24 years old. My family got here in the late 1920s, never had a, dont want one. I have never even seen a slave and it would be confusing to me i would be asked to pay into a to give to for people who were slaves. I feel like this is a political context and ignores the where africanamerican unemployment is the lowest it has been. I dont understand why we are talking about reparations when the Africanamerican Community has made strides and they seem to be doing fine making their way forward and i dont get why we would want to drag ourselves into the past and dig up old wounds. Host one more call from kansas, a viewer who is not sure. This is paul. Caller good morning. I find this topic very complicated. First off, how much is paid . Who pays it . We havewhite and is white ancestry that was not even here n immigration until the immigration of the 1900s. Who gets paid . Same issue and how much . Earlierculous statement that we voted a black president so that absolving us of the responsibility of our forefathers dropping the ball and money may not change anything. Peoples attitude, if it is the same, it will not solve the problem. The problem is in the attitudes of americans in regards to black americans. I dont have a solution and i wonder if anybody can come up with one. Host that is paul, last call on this topic from kansas. That hearing available to you if you want to go to our website at cspan. Org. A two hour program for you today, the house comes in at 9 00. Our first guest is myron people and he will discuss the myron ebell and he will discuss the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. Later, we will talk with Brenda Lawrence of michigan about debates taking place on capitol hill over federal those conversations coming up on washington journal. Saturday on book tv at 7 30 at thestern, we are Massachusetts Historical Society in boston to talk to james traud and peter tommy. That is the truth. In the spectrum of the founders, sayeen those who lets they believed what they said that all men were created equal and jefferson, who i dont believe said that, we see him as adamsof democracy believed that and he had an overwhelming fear of the mob. Thats what he came the closest to advocating a monarchy. That is absolutely true. Roger stone offers his account of the Mueller Investigation in the 2016 election. In whichas the year the mainstream media, abc, nbc, and, to a lesser their monopolyst on political discourse in america. Robust alternative on the internet gave donald trump a platform for him to mount his counterattack and donald trump is the greatest counterpunch oer in american political history. Whats book tv on cspan2 watch book tv on cspan2. From this is myron ebell the competitive enterprise fnstitute, the director or the center for energy and environment. A little bit about your organization guest the Competitive Enterprise Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Policy institute that specializes in regulation from a freemarket perspective. We are funded by private entities only. Entities, dorivate they include Energy Companies themselves . Guest they include foundations, individuals and corporations. Was the Clean Power Plan the center of the action how did it differ from what the Obama Administration put in years ago . Guest in 2015, the Obama Administration put out a new rule they called the Clean Power Plan, i called the socalled Clean Power Plan, it had serious problems. President trump said he would get rid of it and replace it. Yesterday, administrator Andrew Wheeler of the epa announced the final rule which repeals the Clean Power Plan and replaces it with the new rule to regulate Greenhouse Gas emissions. Host the new rules allow states to set the standard. The problem with the is that it wasn illegal. They said so in paris when they were negotiating in 2015. She said we have legally bullet proved this plan. 2016, the Supreme Court put a stay on the rule that it could not be implemented until it was fully litigated in court. That was unprecedented for the clean air act. The new rule had serious legal problems. One thing administrator wheeler emphasized yesterday, we are actually following the law here, doing this within what the clean hopect allows, not what we we might stretch the law to allow. We still have problems with that. The new rule has legal problems as well. They have gotten rid of several legal problems, they still have one left. Host the Clean Power Plan would require states to meet those targets for cutting Greenhouse Gas emissions from power plants, reducing emissions 32 below 2005 levels by 2030. Wouldean energy rule eliminate the epa targets that to reduce their Carbon Dioxide emissions. Guest this was an unprecedented entireregulating an states emissions. The state doesnt have to figure out how to change its entire grid, we will regulate the carbon oxide emissions Carbon Dioxide emissions from the two main sources of emissions in the electric sector. Right,er thing they got the Clean Power Plants said we have this Fantasy Technology out there called Carbon Capture and storage and we think it is commercially viable. You can put on this thing that takes this Carbine Dioxide out of the smokestack and puts it underground. But it istechnically, not commercially viable. It has never been demonstrated to be commercially viable. The one problem they didnt get act sayshe clean air if you regulate a powerplant or any stationary source of a 112, you under section cannot regulate it under section 111. They are already regulating these power plants under section 112. It is still not legal because it it doesnt solve that problem. Host you have several states like california saying they will File Lawsuits on this. What does that mean . Will not beule implemented until the litigation is finalized. Im not sure about that i cant predict the future. Plan is stated by the Supreme Court until the litigation is finished. That has been on hold since the Trump Administration said we would get rid of it. Im not sure what the legal issue is. Host if you want to ask our guest questions about the Clean Power Plan, republicans can call 2027488001, democrats can call 2027488000, independents, 2027488002. The House Speaker saying as rising temperatures, surging seas and recordbreaking natural disasters ravage communities everywhere, the trump continues ton ignore signs and put the interests of polluters ahead of the american people. How do you respond to that . Guest it is pretty hard rhetoric. Is theres with that a disconnect between the rhetoric and what this is all about. Plan under the Obama Administration, they actually said that it wont have any costs because these coal fired power plants will be closed down anyway. On the other hand, its not going to have any cost because this will happen anyway because of Market Forces and other decisions made by the utility companies. Rule will have little practical effect on total global emissions or total u. S. Emissions. Our emissions have been going down or have been flat for a while. Thats largely because of , which hasagnation ended for a couple years. Olderies are closing down coalfired power plants and replacing them with natural gas turbines. Solar, some wind and which is a nonemitting source of electricity. There isnt a whole lot of practical difference in terms of if you really care about Global Warming, whether we have the obama rule or trump rule is not going to matter a whole lot. If these rules were you seeted, would that trend Going Forward . Guest i cant predict the future. Morenk in the short term, coalfired power plants are going to close because utilities are already making those decisions. In the longer term, its an open question that the United States has the Worlds Largest reserves of coal. Its an incredibly good fuel for producing electricity. It is inexpensive for the amount of energy it produces. The rest of the world is not giving up on coal. Moreare building sophisticated coalfired power plants in japan, south korea, china and india. The world is not done with using coal. Im not sure the United States is done with using coal. In the short term, coal will flatten out or go down. It could come back. Host this is myron ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute here to talk about the epa. Caroline on our democrats line from maryland. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Regulatingwe know and talking to the polluters is more money based, it costs money for them to reduce some of the omissions and stuff to that nature. Emissions and stuff to that nature. With all you said and rolling back the repeals the law was put in place so that it could be regulated, so they could put people instead of profits first. Do you sincerely believe it is good to repeal these laws that emissionsting the omissio and asking them to consider people instead of pollution . Guest thank you. There is some problem with thinking about utilities because they are a public thing, but most of them are privately owned. There are municipal utilities and rural coops owned by the customers. Whenever we talk about business, we have to understand the people who make the largest profits are generally the most efficient providers of the product. What we see going on in this country as many states have passed laws to require the movement from fossil fuel generated electricity to renewables or something, wind and solar being the most common. What we see there is a real fight over whos going to make the money. Credits solar get tax from the federal taxpayers. When california says we are only going to have wind and solar, they are saying we will enrich the people who have wind and solar farms, not the people who have coal and natural gas plants. Consumers in california are paying a lot more for their electricity then consumers in indiana than consumers in indiana. Utilities in california and indiana are making money. On the other hand, the consumers are paying a lot more for what they are getting in california. They voted for it, so i guess they want that. At the end of the day, the reason manufacturing is coming back into this country is because of cheaper electricity rates. Thatare now confident those rates will be maintained in places like indiana that rely on coal. Manufacturing is coming back to the heartland states that have much more affordable electricity and not going to states like maryland and california that have these renewable goals and are consequently raising the price of electricity. Host kentucky, independent line. Mark, hello. Caller this repeal is terrible for the health of the world and the climate. Utilities have used subsidies from taxpayer money for decades and have lobbied to told onto their power. They take advantage of people, charge them basic fees for services that we paid to build these structures, thats all funded through taxpayer money. It is economically there is no equality there. Most of the people who own these utilities have been in families that have had slaves and they used that money from their generation to take over the economy and control how people rise through economic structures. I think this is very bad on your part because you are not taking climate into consideration here. You are lobbying once again for the call and Gas Companies to make them coal and Gas Companies to make them richer and taking advantage of the american citizen. Is a largeink there area of disagreement here. Getle who use electricity it from regulated monopolies in general. Some of these monopolies are privately owned, some are owned by cities and some are owned by the customers. They all have to provide the product, it has to be reliable. People get really angry when the power starts going off. Im not going to defend regulated monopolies. There are a lot of problems with having a monopoly where people have no choice about where they get their electricity, no choice about what kind of electricity, where it is produced and what it costs. I dont think the problem is they are somehow taking advantage of people just because they are capitalist buccaneers. Theres a close relationship between the regulators and regulated utilities. We have benefited from that in many ways. We have very reliable electricity in this country. It is cheaper than many countries. R collar has a point caller has a point. You have an ability to game the system to take advantage of it and make profits where you shouldnt be allowed to make profits, where you wouldnt make profits in a competitive market. Host you were on the Trump Transition Team when it came to the apa. The epa. The epa. Guest candidate trump made a number of promises about the epa, about the environment and about energy. He promised, i will stop the war on coal and get rid of the socalled Clean Power Plan. When i was working for the president ial transition in the fall of 2016, before the election and after the election, one of the things we were told over and over, your job is to figure out how to implement the promises of the president. Outnfluence was to figure the technical difficulties or governmental process difficulties that could hold up keeping this promise. One of the odd things about President Trump i think it is to wish is him from other elected officials this thing ithes i think distinguishes him from other elected officials hes focused on keeping his promises. Did you have an influence on the end product . Guest it is minimal. One thing i will say about the on, they are moving forward fulfilling the Trump Campaign promises. There have been more delays than necessary on certain issues. The other one would be the big wetlands rule. Definehe fine minimal minimal. Guest my team put together a plan that showed how you could go through that process to get these things done. We didnt write this new rule. Host theres a story from the Huffington Post that talks about this cooler head collision. Have ther to say you ear of the epa on these issues . Guest we talk to the epa and we are on the same side on these issues. We are sometimes critical because they are not moving as quickly as they should be. Coalition is as coalition of nonprofit groups twopport question Global Warming alarmism. Climate deniers do you fall into that camp . Guest someone who doesnt believe Global Warming is a lifethreatening crisis, then yes. I would call myself a climate realist. The opponents, the Global Warming alarmists, the left in general, because they generally cant win the debate on the facts, they continually engage in demonization of their opponents. They can call me names. Host new jersey. Fred is next. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. The epa itself is estimated 140,000 people are going to die prematurely if the areas not imed up thats cleaned up the epa itself has estimated 140,000 people are going to die prematurely if the air is not cleaned up. Companies denied for years that smoking causes lung cancer. They will be responsible for 140,000 premature deaths. Its a tragedy. Organizations who are going to fight it in court will prevail. Guest i couldnt disagree more. What the epa has done for is make unfounded claims about howunk science many lives they will save with their regulations. Some secretone, studies on fine particulate soot. , think of it as theyve claimed that no matter how much you reduce fine particulate matter, it will save lives. Yet, they set a level for what is safe. It will save even more lives if its below that level. Whichhey said that level, they have defended in the scientific immunity and court as being a safe level. Sciencee relied on junk it is hard to know because the studies are secret. The methodology and data have never been shared with the public. Have defended in the Scientific Community and court as being a safe level. Recent studies have not found these correlations. Risks,poses some health but not at the level we find in the air currently. Needs to beresearch what the epa bases its work on, not on this old study that is secret. They should use publicly available studies that are more recent. They have tried to sell this for years and theyve had the megaphone of certain environmental groups like the American Lung association that repeat it. Host california. Aller hey there, myron ebel good job, but it. Good job, buddy. I live in california where the clean air this country is andsed with clean Energy Abundance of energy. The fact that we developed so much energy lately that is cheap wei remember 40 years ago, were running out of natural gas and oil. And we areed more now exporting oil, 13 Million Barrels a day we are producing. That was unheard of, right . 15 years ago, we were only producing five. The whole obama thing with this Clean Power Plan is just a way to get at our pockets and make the u. S. Uncompetitive. Cheap energy is a way to make us competitive in the world. I really believe that. You are doing the lords work, buddy. Thing would add one Expensive Energy has very serious consequences for peoples lives. They are paying four dollars less for gasoline now. The electricity rates are reaching european levels in many states. High Energy Prices produces poverty. People decide to eat less healthy diets. Some people dont have heating or air conditioning. There are Serious Health consequences of raising Energy Prices. California is a good example of that. We see every year in northern theres somes statistical basis to them, they are based on scientific estimates, that show there are people dying of cold in places like england and germany every year because they cant afford to heat their houses. There are Serious Health consequences of high Energy Prices. That should be taken into account. The trump epa does recognize that in a way that previous administrations have not. Host tom in new york on the independent line. I dont believe the government should really get involved in any of this. Scare now any different than the ozone scare in the 1970s . The consumers solved the problem, not the government. If you look at what kyle and this caller said, the energy olution that has occurred we keep hearing about technology, new technology is the wave of the future the government hasnt created new technology. The biggest technological change in the Energy Industry occurred because of small independent oil men led by George Mitchell in texas who tinkered with combining hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling until he figured out how to get oil in , the shale formation everybody knew it was there but didnt know how to get it out. Years of free markets give people incentives to make Technological Innovations to get rich. Host the president s nominee for the United Nations is quoted this morning talking about invite mental issues environmental issues. She was asked about Climate Change. She believes Human Behavior has contributed to the change in climate. Fossil fuels have played a part. N the Climate Change one of the really important things that President Trump did was he kept his Campaign Promise to get us out of the paris climate treaty. He was convinced that was the right thing to do. Whenever he mentions it, he gets wild cheers. Its one of the most popular things on the conservative side of the political spectrum. ,ne of the problems weve faced many of the people he nominated for important positions were on the wrong side of that issue. They didnt agree with his Campaign Promise. It disturbs me that they are still appointing people who may not be on the right side of the issue. Doesng as the president the right thing, enjoying wide public support among his own supporters, i doubt somebody hes chosen for a job will make much difference. There are a lot of people on the team who are not really on the team. Host myron ebell, the Competitive Enterprise Institute department for the of energy thank you for your time today. Coming up, we will talk about the process of federal spending with democratic congresswoman Brenda Lawrence of michigan. First, the congressional womens softball game on capitol hill. We caught up with some of the members before the game. You can find coverage on cspans instagram account. Republicans and democrats playing on the same team against the press for a good cause. I wouldnt have this great relationship with them if not for the game. A lot of fun we are the color commentators. That means i get to keep drilling in that we have grandmothers on the congressional team. Yeare really psyched this to have a number of members who are powerhouses, people who will bring a whole new dimension to the congressional team. Its been a lot of fun. Its a way to bring people together. Its good to have members of congress playing the press, having a lot of fun and raising a lot of money for a great cause. Together,coming democrats and republicans, and reporters, raising awareness for a good cause. Game isite part of the watching when we start the [indiscernible] the complete guide to congress is now available. It has lots of details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. Contact and bio information for. Very representative the 2019 congressional directory is a handy spiralbound guide. Order your copy on the cspan store for 18. 95. Washington journal continues. Host this is representative Brenda Lawrence, the democrat from michigan. She serves the 14th district of that state. Or, talk aboutate the budget process. Guest we are on track. We have completed our task as the Appropriations Committee. We have gone through all the 12 subcommittees and bills we need to pass. Now, it is on the floor. You will see all the debate for amendments. Once we pass it out of committee, it goes to the floor. Amendments. You are seeing long hours of debates and voting because one of our republican colleagues decided to have a vote for everything it is a protest move by some of our republican colleagues. We will be on the floor for hours voting. Host dealing with a wide range of issues guest we call them poison pills. Everything from abortion issues to the question about citizenship that they try to put into this process to get it pill ors a poison to expand the issue and get funding for something they believe in. Ast including changing the passes,wing if the bill this passes along with it. Guest we get into some really deep philosophical differences between the parties. It will be brought up and its not even related to the bill. We are not supposed to appropriate policy. We are supposed to use our responsibility by the constitution to present an appropriation budget so it can be approved by the senate and signed by the president. Host one thing that passed recently, the minibus. Why is this important . Labor lets talk about and health. I sit on transportation and housing. We are votingn and we put it together, we are talking about funding for education, funding for transportation, for housing, for criminal justice. We are talking about health, fighting for the nih. Some of those we put together and we vote on them instead of separate, and expedites the process. In all of the funding that we as the Appropriations Committee present to congress, we vote on it as a package. Host the price tag is 983 billion, most of that going to defense funding. Does that present a debate . Guest it does. Military, weour must fund veterans affairs, cybersecurity, all those things we need. We put so much into our defense and military. Some people are very concerned thet how we cut funding for needs of our country, like educating our children. They are saying we dont have money but we will find money to increase our defense budget. How are we going to provide Social Security for our seniors . How are we going to make sure we are doing the research . Keeps talking about finding a cure for cancer. You cant do that unless you fund the National Center for cancer research. Theres huge debate about National Security. Im very concerned about our National Security because the president s relationships with our allies are very strange right now. Strained right now. Host our guest is Brenda Lawrence, a member of the Appropriations Committee, a democrat from michigan. 2027488001 for republicans. For democrats, 2027488000. For independents, 2027488002. There was a border aid package passed. Doesnt make provisions for Border Security something the president says is important to have . Guest we democrats have never disagreed that we need Border Security. It is sometimes misinterpreted. Weve had a real debate about whether those limited funds should be spent on building a wall instead of making sure that we reinforce the existing staff to thehat we point that we have ice agents and Border Patrol agents and enough facilities, do we have the money for immigration judges. We have funded Border Security, but we have not allocated funds to build additional wall. That is a waste of our taxpayer dollars. That wenever said should have open borders. Have funded the money to increase our Border Security. Host you referenced the president s desire for spending overall. Rillion adding upn the debt to 479 billion. Why do these figures have to be so high . Guest one of the things i want to bring up, when the president did a tax cut all of us have budgets. You bring in money from your job and then you have bills and expenses. You spend that money according to your bills. When you hear tax cut, that means less money is coming into your budget to pay your bills. One,d a tax cut, a major that some people celebrated. At the end of the day, our debt went up as a result of that. Do we need to fund our military . Absolutely. We must educate our children. In things like a transportation like transportation and infrastructure. People dont want to recognize that the fact of safe, clean and affordable Drinking Water in america is elevating to a point where there is high concerns about that. If we dont invest in our sewersructure, pipes, and Water Treatment plants for a basic need like water we have to increase spending in our infrastructure because we have kicked that can down the road. Hear continuing resolution, that means things are kept the same. Every time you see a water main break, thats a failure in our water system. We have not increased that funding. There is an attempt to go to the white house to have that conversation with the president because we will have to invest in our infrastructure. Concern isne prime about our water infrastructure. Host our first call is on our democrats line. Bowie, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning. Cspan viewers that watch washington journal, i implore you to watch the appropriations hearings. Whatslls a lot about going on with the budgets, et cetera. I watched the democratic representative i believe she was from arkansas she was talking about funding for prek and other educational purposes. The representative from got upee, a republican, and said where are we going to get the money . The next thing he said was we need to increase spending for israels security. What sense does that make . We have to be an informed electorate. Republicans are saying that the democrats arent doing anything in the house but investigating. 465 thoseo hr are bills. People need to Pay Attention to whats going on. Stop drinking the koolaid. Representative, i thank you and your caucus for trying to get things done in this conflicted era we are living in now. Watch viewers, please cspan hearings, the senate and house. You can learn a lot. Then you will know what to do when it comes to november 2020. Host thank you for the endorsement. Guest thank you so much. The more empowered our electorate becomes she is olutely right, we much wa must watch whats going on. This is from your tax dollars. One thing i want to bring attention to, when we talk about what do we fund, the president presents a budget to congress, we take it and go through the appropriation process. Programs we put money into is the Seniors Community Employment Program the president s budget eliminated this program. Know areseniors do we working now out of necessity . This Program Assists older Senior Citizens who are not , who needof working to work. The president eliminated it. Caucusocratic majority funded it by 400 million. Those are the things we need to watch. Host on our republican line, paul in seattle, washington. Caller thank you, cspan. Brenda if shes ready for the red wave. Ready forl, im democracy. Im ready for the people of this country to engage and to vote and to use the power of their voice. Im a democrat. I did not support donald trump, but hes the president of the United States. That is notection tampered by a foreign entity, i want an election that is reflective of this country, i want every american to be thised and i believe democracy will work when we all participate and hold our government accountable. President barely winning the state of michigan in 2016. Will those trends stay put . Guest right now, i do not anticipate that. We flipped four seats in in the congressional race. We held onto our senate seat. Theres a lot of energy in michigan. The issues with trade, the issues with the environment we have the great lakes and we are very concerned about protecting our freshwater source. We are crying for investment in infrastructure. Topth care in michigan is a priority. This president has filed lawsuits to take away the Health Care System that protects people for preexisting conditions. I dont see michigan staying red. Host democrats joining the wave, calling for impeachment where do you stand on that . Guest the mueller report, which we all held our breath waiting to hear, theres clear examples of obstruction of justice. Oversight, irnment know that there are violations of the annulment act. Let me tell you whats important about starting and impeachment process. This president has taken his children, given them top security clearance when you this is information with no apparent reason for them to have it. Theyve been able to fly planes, but they have not divested from running their companies. When they travel all over the world, having side meetings for business, that is a violation. Not divested. As hes making money. Every time he goes to maralago, hes taking 6080 staff with them, which i support, but they are paying for rooms in his resort with my taxpayer dollars. That is making him richer. You are not supposed to profit. No nothing, what stops nothing, if we do what stops the next president from saying i want my family here to make money as a company . What will we say when we did nothing when this president violated these rules . This is bigger than donald trump. So many people want to personalize it about donald trump. Its about the checks and balances of our government. I have a responsibility to uphold the laws and the constitution. Its right to begin the articles of impeachment. Thats how you go through the process to hold someone accountable. Host jim from alabama. Republican line. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. Maam, you were complaining about Social Security not having any money in it. If you look back to the late raped theur party Social Security to finance vietnam. Nd put in worthless bonds you look like you are angry that i brought this up. Guest im not angry, sir. Im not, jim. Complaining you are about Social Security not having any money. Guest thank you for bringing that up. Ill tell every american should we learn from the past . Should we not repeat the things weve learned in the past . Social security is extremely important and a high priority of mine. I want to make sure i dont use other tax cuts, building a wall those are things i dont want to do. When i look at comprehensive amount of budgeting and allocating of funds, we have to be very respectful and deliberate in adhering to a budget that will be able to take care of the needs of the people. I believe our Social Security is something that has transformed america from other countries and we should fight to keep it safe. Host charlie in georgia. Democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How you doing . Please allow me a chance to ask blame myself. To explain myself. They are always talking about tax cuts. Retired after 39 years it was paying 8 million in taxes a year. Reversed. Roles are ,hey are paying 800,000 a year theying 700 a year dont understand that somebody has to pay the tax. When you dont allow companies to pay their fair share, that means you have to pay the majority of the taxes. Most people cant afford to pay their light bill on time. Youve got this guy that just got up the phone from alabama. Its embarrassing to hear so many people out of the south talk. Guest thank you so much. Understand, when you hear the words taxcut, that means you have less money coming into pay for all the budget and all the things i have responsibility for an appropriations. In appropriations. To say you will cut the taxes for those who have the most and least,those who have the its a formula that doesnt work. Host max in michigan. Independent line. Caller thanks for taking my call. I just have a quick question and then one comment. Andar as the Border Agents thoughtasylum judges, i that money was already appropriated last year. Is it not being used . That im desperate in 2020, butratic they need to get off the snide and get going here. They are just not with it as far as Foreign Policy goes. Thanks for all that you do. Have a great day. Guest you, too. Every year, we have the responsibility to go through the appropriation process. While funds were appropriated in the previous fiscal year, we have to appropriate for this year. Thats why you are hearing the conversations about what were going to do for the upcoming fiscal year. I would love to hear more from you feel the needs are of this country so that the pointatic party can be on these amazing people who stepped up. This is Brenda Lawrence, a democrat speaking saying we many people know donald trump is not a great president but we cant vote for Hillary Clinton elections have consequences. We have to be sure and deliberate on what we are doing with our vote. Who is going to take care of the issues . Where do they stand . When someone says something, they mean it. This president has been consistent. During the Things Campaign that people laughed at and chuckled about hes been very much on point and elections have consequences. Host we hear joe biden talk about his ability to work across the aisle, even with segregationists is that problematic for his campaign . Guest your words have consequences. Somethingbiden said hes been trying to clarify that. Everyone elected into office must work with people across the aisle. Sender cory booker sender senator cory booker has worked across the aisle. It is the context of the words that we are hearing about the followup from fallout from. Needs to clear that up and explain it. We need to continue to have a dialogue. Host looking at the topic of reparations what do you think . Guest its time. , asof our original sins many people call it the thing that most americans see as the American Dream, economic wealth we were denied it during slavery and with jim crow, not being able to get certain jobs, we were denied education what is the American Dream . You get educated. We were denied education. During jim crow, we were segregated, we were denied the Educational Opportunities of others. Today, disproportionately, in our prisons iowa has 3 African Americans. Prisonthe population in are africanamericans. Demographic, africanamericans and health crisis. Crisis health africanamericans in health crisis. America, weook at had a black president elected. When you look at the overall percentages, there is something wrong. Process ofstart the talking about this. Assemble a commission. We need to acknowledge we did something wrong, not just walk away from it. Host representative Brenda Lawrence represents the state of michigan, the 14th district. Here to talk about spending another issues. And other issues. Thank you for your time today. House about to start its daily activity. We will take you to them now