Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 04252020 20240713

Should we wait a while or do a partial reopening . Time tohink it is reopen your state economy and youre ready to go back out in public, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. Toyou think it is too soon reopen your state economies, we want to hear from you as well. Your number is going to be 202 7488001. Keep in mind, you can always text us your opinion at 202 7488003, and we are always reading on social media, on twitter at cspanwj and facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Again, all eyes are on georgia right now as georgia has reopened from its coronavirus restrictions. At what the atlanta constitution journal is talking about after that first reopening. Climbsstates death toll to almost 900 on friday, georgians lined up for haircuts, manicures, at tattoos, and other services deemed nonessential. It was day one of georges attempt to restore economic normalcy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But governor brian kemps ision to use restrictions in ease restrictions on many businesses remained controversial, drawing protesters to the governors mansion. And it was assailed for the furred consecutive day by his political ally, president donald trump. Fake news, trump tweeted. Spas, beauty salons, tattoo parlors, and barbershops should some time, but i told the governor to do what is right for the state of georgia and the usa. Trumps voice has been the loudest in condemning camp for allowing certain businesses to reopen less than a month after he had closed them to fight the coronavirus spread. Those businesses included gyms, bowling alleys, nail salons, barbers, and tattoo parlors. Bars and nightclubs will remain closed. A shelter at home mandate is set to expire on thursday. House, Vice President pence is actually talking to governors around the nation about what they should do and when they should reopen. Pence what Vice President said about those conversations. [video clip] President Trump has called forth a whole of government response to the coronavirus epidemic in america. By that, the president made clear when he ask me to leave the White House Coronavirus task a whole of the federal government, but a full partnership with state and local governors across the country. Latestwed that with our conference call, with governors all across america. We met with them today specifically to speak about the progress that our governors are making, expanding testing across the country, and we were pleased to hear about the extraordinary and rapid progress that governors are making. The call, where we had more than 50 of our nations governors, we had people in her of fema pete report, we have active military deployed in 10 states, and we were also pleased to report that fema, hhs, and the private sector have coordinated the delivery of shipments to states around the country, including nearly 67 million n95 masks, 100 million surgical gowns, shields, gloves, more than 10,000 ventilators and more than 8000 federal field medical station beds. Beyond the report we provided to the governors, we assured this is a one team, with one mission. We made it clear to the governors that we know we are all in this together, and the partnership that we have forged together really begins with mitigation efforts. To making sure our Health Care Workers have the support they need, but testing is that the forefront of all of our minds. We are working to make it possible for every governor to access the existing capacity for our states to be able to reopen responsibly. The status ofis the coronavirus pandemic in the United States right now . Here is a story from todays Washington Post that puts in context what is going on right now. The u. S. Death toll from the coronavirus past 51,000 on more than a quarter of all the virus related deaths reported worldwide and quickly approaching the number of americans, over 58,000, who died during the vietnam war. Virus deaths is expected to climb, with both confirmed cases and debts growing in a number of states even as hotspots such as new york appeared to have plateaued. Experts have said that confirmed cases and deaths are probably underestimated because of limited testing. As of friday evening, there were 898,000 confirmed cases worldwide. President trump says he expects the total number of u. S. Deaths fall below early estimates of 100,000. I think we have done a great job in addressing the crisis he said. Im not looking for credit for myself, but credit for the people in the federal government who have done such a great job and for doctors and nurses and everybody else. In the White House Briefing where he took no questions, trump said friday there has been significant progress in slowing the rate of infection. 18 states show a decline in the s in thef positive test last seven days, he said. Trump noted that half of the states have taken steps or announced plans to reopen sectors of their economy. Its very exciting to see. You think . What do you think ecowas would your message be to your governor about whether it is too soon or time to open your state economy . Tom, calling from waterford, michigan. Good morning. Tom are you there . Morning, jesse. Thank you for taking my call. I appreciate the work you are doing. Host go ahead. I believe my governor in michigan is a little motivated certain lobbyists to a point. She seems to overextend her authority as governor and put restrictions on our state which she, during the protests, which i do or do not agree with, resulted in some relaxed restrictions she has put on us. I have not been able to go to my months,ome for nine some of that was my choosing because of winter, but i think she is on the right track now. This is more than allowing governors to decide what to do. It should be based on a world effort rather than our government giving the power through the 10th amendment to our particular governors. Every state is different, and the rural areas definitely need to get back into business as al, where you are more your more professional areas, michigan,ork and detroit, the Auto Industry you lookingigns are for that would tell you it is time to reopen . Caller um, i would think signs would be a decline in the virus a resolutiont also to the problem. A vaccine. World problem,a not a state or government or single country problem. Dominic,s talk to calling from springfield, ohio, and dominic says its time to reopen. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host time to reopen, dominic . Caller yes it is. The government is nothing but lies anyway. Open it up. Tell the truth. Host open it up and see what happens . Caller yes sir. Host youre ready to go out in public . Yes sir, for sure. 100 . Host how did this coronavirus pandemic effective . Are you still working, did you get laid off . What is going on in your life . Caller it is pretty much all bs, but i wanted to call and let that be known. Host chad is calling from georgia, he thinks it is too soon. Your governor has reopened the state, but you think it is too soon . Was wayour governor off. We need appropriate testing. How can we know this is over if we dont have testing . Host with the state now open, what are you going to do now . Are you going to continue to shoulder at home . Will you be patronizing these businesses that have reopened . How are you going to conduct yourself now that the state has reopened . Caller i will be hunkered down as best as possible, but i will look for signs and dated to tell us, which is the lowering of deaths and the lowering of the spread of the virus in our wonderful country. That is what is going to help me get out. What are you telling your friends and relatives that live around you . Are you telling them to do the same thing, and what about the people who are running out of money, many to be able to go back to work to pay their bills . What about them . Understand that. It is extremely tough, and i know whats going on. It is just tough. I do not have an answer for that. Host lets go to dan, calling from st. Petersburg, florida. Soonlso thinks it is too for his state to reopen. Good morning. Caller good morning. It is too soon. Our governor here blew it big time. None of the efforts are coordinated. We have no leadership. Six weeks would be a good place to start for a shutdown, and i mean a total shutdown. Give people a week to stock up and let the virus run its course, then get into testing and slowly open up. That would be a good start. The New York Times has a map of the United States and what each state is doing here, and i see that the stayathome order in florida is going to expire on april 30. Dan, do you plan to stop hunkering down on april 30, or do you think it is too soon . Caller i got enough food for , and as far months as i can tell we have not practiced actually stayathome. Walmart looks like a petri dish and so does most major areas for food. Host how are you going to handle your job . Caller that is another test the government needs to take on. They can print money, they can mail out checks and key People Finance enough to survive six weeks. That would be a good start. But they havent done it, because everyone is going to the big stores and still passing the virus around. Reopening now is not going to phase it. Host lets talk to karen, from alabaster, alabama, and karens as it is time for alabama to reopen. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host i am well. You say it is time for alabama to reopen . Caller yes. Me and my husband have been lucky in that we have still been able to work, but i think it is time to reopen. If people would just practice social distancing, disinfect your hands when you go out, wear a mask w alabama has roughly 5 Million People and we have only had 270 deaths. You talk about the testing we do not need to wait for that and i do not think our economy can handle that if we need to wait for that. Host alabamas stayathome order will end on april 30. That is the stayathome order. Do you trust your fellow alabamians to social distance and stayathome if they are sick . Caller yes, i do. Have you been doing, karen, during the pandemic . Have you been able to work and been able to continue your life as normal, or have you been staying at home . Caller yes. For me, i was already working from home so it didnt honestly affect me one way or the other. My life continued as normal. My husband, his work is essential, so he still goes in, but our life did not really change very much. Once again, each state is making its own decision on tother to reopen and went reopen. For example in new jersey, new jersey still has a stayathome order and is still restricted. Yesterday, new Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said the state was not ready to start reopening yet, and here is what he said about new jersey. [video clip] i am showing you, largely still good with our new color scheme, it looks a little different than it did yesterday and not in a good way. Several counties have slid backward. Folks, the numbers in each county are the number of days it takes to double the infection in that county. You have seen a bit of backsliding. We cannot let that happen, folks. We cannot let that happen. Our most important weapon, the biggest weapon we have, you and me and all of us, is our ability to social distance, to stayathome, to stay away from each other. By doing that, we not only cracked the rate of people that are infected, but we lower the rate of hospital use, ventilator use, and please god, the fatalities. Everyone has a role to play in slowing the spread of covid19. We have to Work Together to lighten this map. We cannot ease up one bit on our social distancing. I am not in the position yet to begin to only put our state on the road back. We need to see more progress and more slowing before we can begin those considerations. Socialets see what our media followers think about todays question on whether your state should be reopening following the coronavirus pandemic . Post from facebook that says reopen, its time. We have people in awful financial shape. Government cannot print enough money to solve the issue. If youre sick, stay home, continued a social distance, where a mask if you want to, wash your hands, but lets get this country going back strong. Message from texas says, i trust our governor, who is a medical doctor, to work with his team to determine when the time is right. We all need to be smart about this and not lose the progress weve made. And staying a mask away from people as much as possible. A message from the u. S. Virgin islands, we should not reopen totally because our ports are still open, as well as our airports. What we are doing is obviously working, but some nonessential businesses should be allowed to reopen. And one more that says, i think outbreak is the in pennsylvania, we should social distance. I know it is tough, but necessary. Lets go back to we want to hear from you. Lets go back to our phone lines and here from georgia, loretta. You believe it is too soon . Caller i do. I believe in the human race. We need time to get over this epidemic. I trust the human race, and when it comes to our health, the country cannot run on a sick human race. We cannot make progress if we are in dangerr. Nothing cannot be more important than your own soul. Money does not have a heart or soul. But people do. Whats important . Your life or money . Talk to earl, in redding, california. Earle says it is time for california to reopen. Caller good morning. Sure. Thank you for the pedestal for a second. I want to point out in california, we have two californias. We have southern and northern california. Everything north of San Francisco is as big as most of these other states, and we have had three deaths and 40 days and i have been locked up i call last time i went shopping i shopped for two months. I was able to do that thank you lord but i have news for all the governors. It is not even their decision. The Supreme Court has found that the sheriff of every county is the supreme Law Enforcement officer of the land, and he has the final say as to whether you open your county or not. Case, three deaths in 40 days, i have wrote an open letter to our sheriff saying sheriff, it is time to open up for business. A great economy going. Trump is right. He did a great job and we have new businesses opened up all over our north state. Two months afterwards, they are out of business. They are shut down. What is it doing to these Business People and these employees he . Host earl, are you ready to go back out in public . I am. you know, our fish and Game Department in california wanted to ban fishing. We have 350 miles of shoreline can you imagine banning fishing . Host so when you go out in public, are you going to be willing to wear a mask and gloves to make sure you dont get this coronavirus . Caller i will be honest with you, i have not worn any gloves, but i have disinfectant and two different kinds of spray in my car. I wear a mask. If you follow the federal guidelines you cant go wrong, and it is time to let people who want to go to work go back to work. You know, these people dont need to work. They have free stuff coming, great. Or investments dont go out. But the rest of the people, we. Ave people who got to eat we have to pay our bills. Host lets talk to madeline, calling from springfield, massachusetts. Madeline thinks it is too soon. Caller good morning. Host good morning, go ahead. Caller [inaudible] host so madeleine, what would you need to hear for you to agree with the governor that it is time for that state to reopen . What would you need to hear . Guest caller they should wait a little bit longer caller they should wait a little bit longer. The numbers are really high over here, so i think they should wait a little bit longer before [inaudible] the numbers started going real high over here. Host lets talk to tracy, calling from pontiac, michigan. Tracy says it is too soon. Good morning. Caller good morning. It is way too soon. It is way too soon. People are jumping the gun instead of making these make thens decision, this is life and death. This is something that people can die from. You have politicians telling people it is ok to go out. It is time to have the doctors do what they do best. All the scientists know what is going on. They have told people and explained to people what is is listeningnobody to them. They are put aside, just like climate change. Everything may come up with, they are knocking back down, and it is not fair to the American People. You need to stay home. You have to stay home to save your life. Now, even with some states reopening, there are some stories that say they probably wont reopen in those states anyway. A story in todays wall street journal that i want to point you to wear some chains say they are going to sit out the reopening in states. States restart their economies after coronavirus closures, many Big Companies remain hesitant to open their doors. Incorporated, gap incorporated, and tgi fridays incorporated are among the big National Chains saying they will in georgia reopening and South Carolina, citing Health Concerns and uncertain customer demand. Other companies, such as best buy and starbucks, continue in lockdown mode, keeping Stores Closed to shoppers and fulfilling online orders or Curbside Pickup. Chains say they are phased reopening plans will rely on ,tate and local guidelines their own market analysis, and consumer surveys. Many large locations are not profitable if the number of shoppers who can safely enter is restricted to a handful of people. Consultants say. Retailers that have open want to reassure shoppers. Dicks Sporting Goods incorporated open some stores after moving to Curbside Pickup and online orders last month. We want to assure you that we are taking preventative measures to keep our stores clean and safe, said the companys website for those local stores on thursday. Figurepany is working to out the right staffing and operating models as stores open. It has canceled some product orders as well. Once again, states are doing their own Different Things about reopening and apparently, so our stores. You, what know what would be the message to your governor about your state. Lets talk to thomas, calling from grampian, pennsylvania. Thomas says pennsylvania should be reopened. Good morning. Caller good morning. Our state should stay closed testing todo the stop the people that are not sick from spreading the virus. And taking the temperature does nothing. Thomas, i see pennsylvania is closed according to my map here. When do you think pennsylvania should reopen . Should i dont think it until they go and actually clean all the selfserve gas pumps. That is where the virus is being spread. Host you think the virus is being spread through people touching the selfserve gas pumps . Caller yes sir. You beenmas, have sheltering in your house or have you still been going out during this pandemic . Caller ive been sheltered since christmas. Host how are you making a living . How are you getting your bills paid . How are you getting food and groceries . Caller im disabled. I get help from the state. I get food stamps, but i do not go to food banks. I leave those, that for people that desperately need it. Lets talk to rita, calling from jacksonville, alabama. Rita says alabama should be reopened. Rita, good morning. Wellr yes, we might as reopen. There are people on jobs here in alabama that has the coronavirus , and my dad was born in 1903. He raised eight children, and he say, there isould going to be a rainy day someday. People needs to realize that the grocery things in the Grocery Store has almost doubled and you cant find some items that i was raised on a farm. We raised everything we eat, and we didnt go lacking for nothing. , if youad always said work on a job, put in a mans eight hours of work, that is the trouble with the United States of america, that too many people that want to hand out that want a handout. Most of the time, anyone who has plenty of money i have them in my family, who have these plantations, they work these slaves for nothing. Nobody picks no more cotton and code cotton, pulled corn, worked on a form and work will not kill you. It may bring your body down, but it will not kill you. And thanks and have a blessed day and everybody should pray for this world, because its coming to an end. Thanks and may god bless you. Caller lets go to cynthia, calling from chicago, illinois. Since then they are cynthia says it is too early for chicago to reopen. Caller yes, it is too soon to open up. Host cynthia, turn down your Television Little bit. Caller good morning. I think it is too soon to open up. There is a reason why i think it is too soon to open up, because people [inaudible] lets go to bob, calling from the corner of missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning. Know, as of yesterday, kansas had 2777 confirmed cases. Had 6625 confirmed cases. Cases, moreore times the cases and missouri than kansas. The kansas governor shut things down quick and took care of their problem. The majority ,issouri governor drug his feet and now he wants to open back up, risking the precious time to wheree spent to get we are now, fighting this virus. All our supplies are used up now from the first round. When we open up too soon, we are going to be in really bad shape. Host bob, what do you need to hear for you to say it is time to reopen missouri . A lot of people say they are running out of money, they need to go back to work. What do you need from the state to say that it is time to reopen . I need to hear a lower death rate. I need to hear less cases, which we dont have happening. I need to hear medical people say that it is time to open up, not the Republican Party. The Republican Party is going to damn this nation. We try to open up too soon, we have already used up all our supplies on the first round. If we have a vshaped recovery and shoot right back to the top, we will have nothing to fight this virus with and be an bad, bad trouble. To ray, calling from clinton, pennsylvania. Ray says it is time to reopen. Good morning. Good morning, jesse. I have a suggestion you can look it up on youtube, dr. David price. Works at the while cornell lyle Cornell Medical Center in new york and deals with nothing but these cases. He says the mask will not help you. Now, the government is not telling you why you have to wear the mask. The governors in our state, you have to wear a mask. Why. If it is not going to protect you coughing on somebody, it will still get through the mask. Made are decisions being by people, and you have these governors like in michigan and our state closing down things i will give you two examples and i am done. Whitmergan, governor said the bigbox stores, you can buy screws and nails, you cannot buy paint. It does not make sense. She is a queen. You go after trump, calling him king of the nation, but you cant tell me why you cant buy paint, and now is a good time, with a stay at home. And you have that idiot and maryland, he closed all the public off courses, but the private golf courses, the are open. Ubs i guess you cant catch the virus at the private country clubs. You know who goes there the rich, connected, the politicians. These people are making decisions based on some medical play dr. David prices video, and he will tell you you are worrying way too much. Mask will not keep you from getting the virus, but what they do is they keep you from spreading the virus. They will stop some of the particulates from coming out of you heading to other people. The masks will not keep you from breathing in anything, but they will keep you breathing out on people. Do you think congress should make the decision on when the state should reopen . Should there be one policy or should states be able to decide on their own when it is time to reopen their areas . The federal government has said that governors have that power. The federal government is separate from that. They supply the funds and stuff, but it is up to each individual has ther who power. If you misuse the power explain why you cannot buy paint in one aisle but you can buy screws in the next. It does not make common sense. As far as Governor Wolf in our state, the first day it was done, he closed the rest areas the truckerstates, flooded him with phone calls, and he opened it back up two days later. At stake, why do you stand on your decision . No, public pressure. The only place you can buy liquor is in a state store. They closed down those. Why did you not do like walmart and the rest of them were doing, you order your supply, the booze, and somebody hands it to you at the door. Not Governor Wolf. He has up and the state store up that way now, but why did you make that decision in the first place . Lets talk to glenn, calling from madison, illinois. Caller do you think it is too soon to open illinois . We need to get these clowns out of the white house and get the doctors in ere and get the ones that will tell the truth, and they will tell you to stay at home. Say tolenn, what do you the people who are not getting paid or who have been laid off and need to find a job to make their bills over the next couple of months . If you stay, you cannot find a new job. Caller there is money coming, cronies with the big businesses, they are all grabbing it, now they are trying to get it back. Some soda shaq have 10 million they are trying some showed a had 10some soda shack million they are trying to get back. Stay home and get this over with. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on friday started talking about the next Coronavirus Response bill and the need of state and local governments whose budgets have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. Here is what Speaker Pelosi had to say. [video clip] with will be ready soon our next bill, and the sooner we can pass it the better, because our teachers, firefighters, First Responders and the rest need the resources and the funding that state and local will bring. How much do you see is necessary to include in the next package for state and local . Probably an equivalent of what we have done for Small Businesses, but we are asking them for their evaluation of what is the need, what is is the spend andwhat can you the rest a lot of money they are getting his money already spent on the coronavirus, and again, loss of revenue. Identify able to i have an idea about what the governors want, finding the number from this state and the me its a pallet these and the municipalities. We will do what we need. Host i want to take a second to let you know that cspans book the president s will be available in paperback and ebook starting next tuesday. This includes cspans interviews with some of the laois and leading president ial historians, biographers, and and includes our president ial leadership survey. Entso cspan. Org thepresid to order your copy of this great book. Lets go to our social media followers and see what they think about reopening the country. That says, text reopen with voluntary social distancing. The government is caring for those in need, but has no dollars without people working. Every reference to a government Recovery Program should be preceded by the words taxpayerfunded to reinforce to the American People who is ultimately paying. Another text, i give Alabama Governor Kay Ivey n a for listening to Public Health officials and not succumbing to political pressure. Another text, most of my employees are older and my customers seem very concerned. We can wait. Says, ia tweet that have been ready to reopen since day one. I will be at any business the minute they open. Casinos, Tourist Attractions it is time to reopen america now. And one facebook posts that says, you need to open soon and carefully. We cannot be dependent on the take care in order to of ourselves. My business is dying a slow death every day that i am not open. The reason we shut everything down was to not overwhelm the hospitals. Hospitals are in better shape. Give them everything they need and lets get back to work. We want to know what your message would be to your it is toobout whether soon or whether it is time to reopen your state economy. Lets talk to joe, calling from new york, and joe says it is time to reopen. Good morning. Caller hi, how are you doing . Host im fine. Time to reopen new york, joe . I am a Small Business owner in upstate new york, we did the best we could, and we need to work this thing out slowly and just need to do everything cautiously, but we need to get back open. Our economy was doing great and it took a turn and i think we can get back, but we all have to take our time and clear these things out. You are in upstate new york. Places like upstate new york and new york city, should they be treated differently within a state, because he might have a spot in upstate new york you might have a hotspot in one place and nothing in upstate new york. A,ler all the government is all the state workers, but it is definitely a separate entity than the city at self in itself and needs to be treated as such. Lets talk to bruce, calling from iowa. Name, can youown pronounce it for me . Caller dubuque, iowa. Host dubuque. You think it is too soon to open the country . Caller i do. A place near us that shut down due to how many cases there was of it. We need testing, testing, testing, and they need to get the biggest liar in the country out of office. This clown drug his feet and said oh, there is nothing to worry about. We have how many cases he really dropped the ball on this. I mean, this guy is nothing but a liar. You cannot believe one word that comes out of his head. I trust the medical professionals, dr. Fauci, you know . Hes got enough guts to stand up to this fool, but yeah no. You need to hear from the medical officials . That there is a vaccine . That we should test everybody out in public . Hear fromu need to the medical professionals before you feel safe going out in public . Caller i am out in public all the time. Im an essential worker. I need to see people being tested and the testing needs to be ramped up so that, you know, that it is starting to go away. But i highly doubt it will go away. A vaccine would be nice. Bruce, even if someone is tested, they have to make a personal choice to stay at home. Someone can get tested and be positive and still go out and public. How do you get around that . They should basically be incarcerated if they are not going to follow a lot. Law. Llow a callingts talk to cam, from augusta, georgia, and kim says it is too soon. Your states already open but you think it is too soon . Caller let me tell you my take on this whole thing. Im wondering why they have never looked at the number one thing coming to nursing homes, hospitals, chicken farms, pig this to look at where stuff is coming from, and that is your airconditioning. How many times have you changed your airconditioning filters in the last four months . Barber. Son, he is a he and the crew went over to clean the barbershop prior to opening up. I told him, make sure you check those airconditioning filters. Has to find out, the owner no idea where they are located. Dobody has ever change them. When you cough, it goes up in the intake, gets recirculated, and blasted back down through the outlets. Ense iody with sin will tell you now, germany low on the totem pole again, but germany does not use much airconditioning. If you really want to find out, ask yourself, when was the last time i changed my filter . When was the last time i changed my car airconditioning filter . Host you live in a gusto, augusta, a gust of georgia, right on the line of South Carolina and North Carolina. Are you seeing people from neighboring states, can georgia, looking for places that are open . Caller i shop at the army , seri i used to, i dont anymore. ,n fact, i am talking to you sitting here waiting to die. I have lung cancer, which is now an elective surgery, so im waiting to die, i guess, because they cant open up the damn hospitals. When i go to the commissary, yes. There are a huge amount of people from South Carolina coming this direction. I dont go because i cant stand in line for two hours waiting. I dont have the energy anymore. Lets talk to jerry, calling from fond du lac, wisconsin. Jerry, good morning. Caller good morning. Are you ready for wisconsin to reopen . I am. yes, yes i am sitting here, listening tell these people to all these people who are not ready their states or businesses. If you look at our dairy landscape, we are losing a lot money. A lot of these businesses i feel we are not going to reopen again. I feel sorry for the guy who has lung cancer, but he also says the hospitals are not open because why . Because states do not have the money. There is no input into the states. Therefore our states are going broke, and it is not just ours. If we look at it as a whole, the entire world got caught with its pants down. Nobody is old enough to know. Hat actually, to do everybody is shooting from the hip, i guess you could say. What do we do . We have to look to our own officials. People are Bashing Trump all the time. Ok, we are supposed to have all this stuff, the ventilators and all of this stuff in place. The president before and the president before that, why did they build these stocks . Nt they build these stocks . Obama had eight years to do it. Trump did not build them, he had four years, he dropped the ball on that. Host when you go out in public, are you wearing a mask and gloves, or are you going out . And i i am 62 years old have Underlying Health conditions, and i have been bottled up in the house for two months, and the only time i leave is if i have a mask on. I go to the Grocery Store when needed and have a parttime out at the golf course im retired i have a little job out there, i take care of the range, but that is closed. There are things i would like to do, but the virus is stopping us. Host you said you had a parttime job at a golf course is the golf course opened or closed, and are you still going out to do your job there . Caller im not going out there to do it because of the restrictions, but the governor, he laid down the restrictions as far as for no going in the clubhouse, and i understand this. As far as for spreading this disease. Host so the clubhouse is closed but the golf course is open . Caller the clubhouse is closed but the golf course is open, and you have to do everything online, pay online and social distancing and all that good stuff. I feel for everybody in our beloved state of wisconsin, but we need to get this ball back rolling. We have eight meet manufacturing meatlosed meat manufacturing plants closed in the United States. We are running out of food, i do not know how long it will take to produce this food, but people are living from paycheck to paycheck. If we do not have income coming in, how do we sustain . We have to have sustenance. From portis calling crane, new york, and he thinks it is too early to reopen. We had in our county, five deaths in the last two days and they have done very little testing. Thing just whole disgusting, that the democrats and nancy pelosi would drag their feet for weeks trying to get us any relief at all. That 1200 they gave people . ,ost people took that check signed the back of the thing and handed it over to their landlords. Our governor handed all this ivyy to those damn league colleges, and it is just disgusting. Jessie, one more thing, we need to look at the thing that was going on before. Panamaama pair papers, afghanistan papers, paradise papers. Upstate, near buffalo, new york city . Upstate. E are we are just outside of binghamton, new york, which is 10 miles north of the pennsylvania border. You have a lot of infections in new york city. Do you think governor should have different rules for new york city as opposed to the rest of the state . No. Er i think we need to show some consistencies, because i see a lot of people out there not social distancing. My neighbors are out here cutting trees every weekend. They have their relatives and and they are treating it like it is a holiday every day of the week. This is the world we live in. No matter what you say, there is always going to be somebody who goes against common sense. Lets talk to another rob, calling from peoria, illinois. Caller good morning. I think we definitely should reopen. Host illinois is one of the states that has shutdowns and restrictions. What do you need to hear 10 know it is time to reopen, and to keep people safe . Caller wear gloves and a mask, but i cannot even get them no more. I am wearing reusable kitchen gloves that people use to wash dishes in, because those are the only ones i could find. You say it is time for illinois to reopen. If you cannot get masks and gloves, how will you people stay safe . On you could put a your face. Host you could put what on your face . Caller a scarf. Got scarf, that you. Are you worried about going out in public . Im not going to go out and try to get it, but i am not going to sit in the house and worry. I will make myself sick doing that. Host lets talk to a rtiesa, calling from las vegas, nevada. Town and huge tourist we are hearing that a lot of tourist towns are being hardhit because nobody is showing up, say it is too soon to reopen. Vegas yes i do, because has a lot of rideshare drivers. Driveet in their cars and from 5 00 in the morning sometimes until late at night. If you are asymptomatic and have people coming in for conventions, going to work in the hotels, the call centers, and you are in the car with someone who may have coughed or touched something or Something Like that, they are spreading that. On top of that, when they get done with their convention and wherever they have gone to work, they go back to those states. It will make it start all over again. Hink governors is a lack i think the governor thank the governor for keeping us adhered to science and professionals and keeping them locked down. We have a huge Convention Center that covers almost six city blocks. When those people come in from englandd overseas and and london and new york and florida and everywhere to have these conventions, they stay here for weeks and go back to their towns it is going to be horrific. Our map fromng to the New York Times, nevada stayathome order will expire on april 30. Will you be ready to go out and about on april 30 . Caller i really dont want to. I really dont want to because i do not think it is safe. Especially if you has respiratory, ready tot is getting warm up. It is a change in the weather. But if you are outside and you are sweating, you come inside where there are than air conditioner where there is an air conditioner, that is a setup for you to catch a cold or a flu, and you do not know if it is a cold, flu, or coronavirus. We have call centers that are around here, people coughed because they are 70 degrees inside. If you come in and it is 115 degrees, you do not know what is going to happen. To carl,s talk calling from new york city, new york. Carl says it is too early. Too early to reopen new york . Caller yes sir. It is too early because right now, the thing is still raging through the country. They had enough money to give to least 25,000 to everyone who has a legal Social Security card in america, 3 trillion dollars is enough to. Ive everyone 25,000 a family they could sit this thing out until they find something better, get this disease down to where it will not kill everybody as soon as you do, but they want becauseo back to work they mismanaged the money. Donald trumpaway, and Mitch Mcconnell and the Republican Party, they gave it away to everybody but the people who should have it. Host lets talk to nikki, calling from kincaid, illinois, who says it is time to reopen. Time to open back up . Yes sir, i think so. Thank you for having me on. Our population is about 1500 can you hear me . Host go ahead. I think it is ready for us to open up. We have families here that still have not gotten their checks for unemployment, have not gotten the stimulus check. Stamps, couple hundred dollars, that is not going to feed a family of two. [inaudible] , somethingrksdale was butchered and the carcass people areo i think starting to feel it. You either have people starving, starving for the virus, or the virus trying to kill them. What can you do, you know . We would like to thank oligarch colors for participating in this hour. Coming up, we will look at childhood all of our callers ferber dissipating in this hour. Coming up, we will look at childhood hunger with no kid hungrys lucy coady, and then discussitch kokai will how state budgets are being impacted by the coronavirus. The tennessee pledge asks businesses to provide safe working conditions that protect their employees health and the consumers. Employees are asked to commit to protecting themselves, their coworkers and the customers they serve. We encourage every tennessee resident to be on the same team with our businesses, to act responsibly by following guidelines for social distancing, hygiene and wearing protective equipment. We are working together as a community of volunteers and that is how we successfully reboot our economy. And successfully move through this Public Health crisis. Each of our decisions throughout this pandemic have been built on Public Health data that informs just how this virus is moving through our state and affecting our citizens. As we work in conjunction with white house guidance for safely rebooting the economy, we kept a close watch on several benchmarks. We have been looking for a downward trajectory for flulike and covidlike symptoms in Emergency Rooms over tennessee. Bothhe past three weeks, flu and covid symptoms have been on the decrease in almost every hospital in tennessee, so we are meeting that important benchmark. For more than two weeks, we have seen a steady downward trajectory in the growth rate of covid19 cases. We also have stable Hospital Capacity across tennessee. We have the ability to test frontline Health Care Workers without delay. Another key consideration for us is watching how quickly the virus moves across tennessee. There are data points we watch on a daily basis to identify trends that help us monitor the speed with which the virus is moving in tennessee. Outlook, thankfully, continues to show signs of improvement during the fight on covid19, our Economic Outlook is very different. 15 ofeconomic front, tennessees workforce filed unemployment claims as of this week. That is more than 400,000 tennessee residents without a job. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with lucy coady, the director of no kid hungry. We will talk about the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on childhood hunger in the u. S. Good morning. Guest good morning. Thank you for having me. Host tell us exactly what no kid hungry is and where you get your funding from . Guest share our strength is an organization dedicated to ending hunger and poverty around the world. The no kid Hungry Campaign focuses on ending childhood hunger in the u. S. We work with schools, organizations and government to make sure kids have access to the healthy meals they need every day. Organization,ofit so we receive funding from private donors, corporations, foundations, people all over the country who help us do our work every single day. Host lets get into the topic. What impact has the coronavirus pandemic had on childhood hunger in the United States . Guest there is no question that covid19 has had a huge Financial Impact on this country. It has exacerbated the childhood hunger crisis that was already there before it began. Before covid19, one in seven household in a that struggled with hunger. Closed,en, schools have it has taken away a key point of access where kids were getting breakfast, lunch and an afterschool snack. In addition to that, 26 million americans have filed for unemployment. These are people with by and large lowwage jobs who dont have strong safety nets or savings. On top of everything else, they have to figure out how to feed their kids. The good news is there are solutions to this problem. There are programs at the and the state Levels Community levels. No kid hungry is working to make sure those solutions are in place so on top of everything else, parents know the kids have the food they need to keep going. Host exactly how many children in the u. S. Are considered hungry or food challenged . How do you determine that . Guest the last data we have is from last fall, which shows one in seven kids lived in a house that struggles with hunger. Food insecurity means a family does not consistently know they have access to food throughout the month. That might be a family where mom is giving up a meal so her kids can eat. They might have food one week, but their pantries are bare the next week. We dont have specific data on how many kids have gone hungry since the start of the crisis, but we know 26 million americans have filed for unemployment, the fact that schools have closed schools are doing amazing, incredible work to get programs up and running and keep that level of consistency of programs, but we know this will be a crisis that will hit hard now and the aftershocks will be felt for months and potentially years to come as we see the continued economic fallout from covid19. Host that was a question i wanted to ask. I know a lot of schools are doing things, trying to help children get the food they have depended on. My brother works at a school in mississippi that was using school buses to drive meals to churches and Community Centers where kids can pick them up, but someone in the system tested positive for coronavirus and they had to stop. How exactly are schools and other organizations getting food to these children and keeping themselves safe at the same time . Guest thank you to your brother and his community for the work they were doing and are continuing to try to figure out how to do to keep those kids fed. When i think about the work schools are doing, food banks and community organizations, these people are heroes. They are working every single day to make these programs as sustainable as possible. Programs were turned upside down overnight. What they have done is incredible. We are working with schools all over the country that have switched their models instead of kids coming into the cafeteria, they are doing driveby models, where it is like a drivethrough , people put meals in the car, or they do a Curbside Pickup. We have seen incredible programs. There is a great example in tampa. They are doing home delivered meals. It is like a meals on wheels operation for kids. Similar things are happening in houston, texas. In indiana, a School District is serving nearly 10,000 meals a day with Curbside Pickup. Sure those meals are uninterrupted. Communitiesed with in the Navajo Nation in arizona, where the closest Grocery Store might be 50 miles away from where a child lives. They are figuring out with transportation and resources to put meals on school buses and sending them out into the community. They are doing incredible things to make this work happen. I am sure your brother can attest to this, one of the hardest things, it keeps me up at night, is what happens if someone tests positive. We have seen examples. What is incredible is this is seen as a team effort. When we have seen cases where someone tested positive and a program had to shut down, people have gotten to work, they have completely clean, they have changed the point of service, changed their models, so they can continue to pick those programs back up and serve those kids every day. Host lets let our viewers take part in the conversation. If you are in the eastern or central time zone, your telephone number will be 202 7488000. If you are in the mountain and pacific time zones, your telephone number will be 202 7488002. Your telephone number will be 202 7488001. You can always text us at 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media. I am going to read something from vox that says on a regular school day, the National School Lunch Program provides free or lowcost meals to 29. 7 million kids. The School Breakfast Program Reaches 14. 6 Million Students daily. With schools closing, a lot of those children are not getting the food they would normally get. Was there anything in the federal bills, the Pandemic Recovery bills, to address any of this . Guest congress has taken some important steps and the usda has taken a couple of important steps, as well. There have been a couple of things done, already, and a couple of things we need to move in the next package. What happened outside of congress, usda was quick to approve job nutrition programs to have the flexibility to reach kids. The curbside model, the Home Delivery model. What was included in the first package was a couple of really important pieces around a program that provides families grocery benefits so they can purchase food for their kids. Snap has been the underpinning of our antihunger efforts. Included in that first congressional package was an extension of the minimum and maximum snap benefits that would increase for families, which is so critical, giving an extra 100 is such a critical and not of money right now. It included flexibilities within the snap program, reducing red tape. What i think is one of the most important pieces is it went into place, it is called pandemic pebt, a special Program Within snap that allows when schools are closed for more than five days for an unexpected circumstance, exactly like what we arent sprinting now, to provide an additional grocery benefit to families whose kids are eligible for free or reduced meals. Access, we apply to are seeing that happen on a rolling basis. We urge any state that has not applied to do so quickly. What we need moving forward in the next package is a continued expansion of snap. We need pebt expanded throughout the summer, so it can serve kids and families throughout the summer. Separately, we need usda to extend all of their waivers through the summer so there is a consistency of meals and kids dont have to worry about when the regular school year ends. Host you have mentioned the snap program a couple of times. Can you tell us a little bit about the snap program, which used to be known as food stamps, and have any of the requirements of the snap Program Changed because of the pandemic . Guest snap used to be known as the food stamp program. It provides a monthly grocery benefit to low income individuals. It is a critical program. What is really important, especially now, it is a program that feeds communities. Stores withcery economic impact, families are taking their snap cards. Benefits are spent directly in Grocery Stores. They are benefits used quickly and efficiently, they are used to put food on the table. When families have access to this program, it reduces rates of childhood hunger. The flexibilities that have been mentionedthe pebt i that provides additional benefits for families whose children have lost access to free meals. Making thes like application for the program more accessible online. Going in facetoface for interviews is not feasible right now, so making it easier for folks who have lost their jobs. Rug pulled had the out from under them, they are able to access these benefits. Host one thing that appeared in politico earlier this week was a story that states dont allow food stamps to be used online for groceries. Some states are trained to change that. Without being able to shop online, it is forcing people to go out in public in the middle of a pandemic to get food. Would you be behind efforts to allow people to use their snap benefits online for online groceries . Guest we are supportive of the pilots. Statese rolling out in across the country right now. Several states have been approved. We are excited to see what the impact could be. These are the exact kinds of innovations we need to decide or programs to make sure benefits continue to flow to families. Jobying about finding a new , protecting their health, they are not also worried about how they will feed their kids on a daily basis. Host lets let some of our viewers take part in the conversation. We will start with ned from idaho. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. We have a really Good Organization in our county called the hunger coalition. One withnity is a big nonprofits. A lot of them are not going to make it through the coronavirus. It has been really cool to see our local foodrd distribution in times like this. We are getting through it. We dont rely too much on the federal government. You cant rely on them too much. ,hat i wanted to ask you about ,hat is the growing threat the interruption to the Food Supply Chain and the threat of a growing famine that they are starting to talk about in other parts of the world . Guest that is a great question. Newse seen a lot of those stories this week. It goes to the point that we have no idea what is coming. There are so many challenges to this crisis. What we do know, there are some farmers that are able to produce food, and i think most importantly, there are federal nutrition programs in place to do exactly these things in this kind of a crisis. We will work with usda to support policies that continue to make sure food is available for families. What this really comes back to his making sure we have all the tools in our toolbox to use the resources in this country. The Amazing Community organizations you mentioned in idaho, make sure those things continue uninterrupted and with the support they need as we see the layers unfold. Host lets talk to stephen who is calling from mississippi. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. I know a guy who worked at a Public School, they call him a nutritional expert. We call him a lunchroom worker. 600 attendees. Meals. Rved 56 they put them on a bus, they carried them to a central location, and people drive up and get them. Very few africanamericans showed up, very few latinos. A lot of white people in latemodel suvs. In addition, we have a local grocery, if you go to the Grocery Store, there is a cluster of people there that will ask you what you want to buy. They will go in the store, buy the products with their ebt card, then come out and sell it to you at a discount. How does that help anything . Respond, lucy and. Guest in response to the first , and whatur question you saw with the kids receiving the meals, what this crisis has shown us more than anything is there are families in need for the first time. There are families that have been in need for a long time. We dont know the difference between the families and the kids who live in those families. There are people with stable jobs who have seen their income plummet, completely disappear. They are trained to make sure those kids continue to have access to meals. There is another important dynamic that is happening here when you see families picking up these meals for their kids and it is something we effort time and time again from nutritions. The amazing folks who are working in schools. There is such a sense of consistency that these kids are missing in their daily lives. Are able to see the cafeteria staff they saw every day serving them lunch, we have heard so many times from parents, kids and from nutrition through a carwave window, a virtual high five, they love these kids that they serve every day, giving them a quick interaction has been such a critical point in all of this. What is so amazing about what schools and lunch staff have been able to do. With your question around snap for as long as this program has been around, snap has said one of the strongest integrity rates. It is a program feeding families , kids, and works to end hunger in communities. We need to do everything we can to keep this program strong and sustainable to get esther this pandemic. Host i am going to ask guest to get us through this pandemic. Host your organization has developed an online free meals find her, to help families find food resources in their communities. Tell us about this finder. Guest one of the things we are doing right now as part of our strategy is to make sure people know how to access these meals. No kid hungry is developing an online map. You can find local meals near you. An important component to all of this is things are changing so quickly on the ground. There are new programs all the time, new opportunities for families to access meals. If you have kids, call your local School District or check the website of your local School District to find out what programs are operating. Look at your local food bank and find out what resources are available. Food banks are a great place to turn. I encourage folks to take all of the Resources Available. Maps of youre community to make sure you have access to all of the resources you need to fight meals every day. Host lets go back to our phone lines and talk to thomas who is calling from new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller i would like to bring up, for childhood hunger, a lot of these kids during the summertime, they dont receive school lunches. I would like to find a way where we could get a program for these kids so they dont have to go without lunches during the summer. Guest thank you for asking. I have good news. There already is a program. The problem is it does not reach nearly enough kids. There is a program called a Summer Meals Program that does exactly what you are looking for, it picks up when schools close and transition throughout the summer. It is provided by schools, community organizations, food banks, and it does provide meals consistently throughout the summer. Challenges the program has always had is there are requirements that make it tough for kids to access those programs, especially kids who live in rural communities. Usda has provided flexibility to allow the programs to be easier to operate. Meals,g grab and go curbside delivered meals, that any organization can operate when they have been approved to do so. The critical pieces we need usda to extend throughout the summer. If we have to go back july 1 where kids have to come together and eat meals at the same time, that is not feasible, certainly from a Health Perspective and a logistics perspective. We need to make sure those programs are strong and have the flexibility they need to continue throughout the summer months. You can learn more about the Summer Meals Program on the no kid hungry website. As schools transition from the to summer, we will have information promoting and finding out an easy way for families to find out where the meal sites are, as well. It is a great piece of the puzzle. , who ists talk to ed calling from greenbelt, maryland. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. How are you doing . Host go ahead. Country is in a constitutional crisis. I am a scientist retired from nasa. Turn your tv down a little bit, so you dont hear the lag. Caller our country is in a constitutional crisis. Newsould fact check the with people who are authorities on these subjects. We should not be hearing from political people. Is running for reelection. It is about him. It is about this president. Cspan fori was on the last couple of weeks and she warned us and andrew cuomo in new york, he is very knowledgeable. What is happening is our children, the people most vulnerable, are not getting their needs met. What we need to do is support these families who are most vulnerable. Senior citizens, people on the front lines who are most vulnerable. In washington state, 70 of the people dying from this are africanamericans. These people are warning you, you have very good information, the lady who is on your program, too many of our people dont have access to the internet. They lack internet access. It is very difficult to get a hold of these programs if you lack internet access. Host he brings up a good point. A lot of people dont have internet access. How can people find out about these free meal programs . How can people get access if they dont have the internet . Guest that is a great point. What you have uncovered is there is not enough of a spotlight shined on these issues, so thank you for bringing it up. It continues to uncover the inequality in this country. For folks who dont have internet access, i would encourage them to call their School Districts. Messagel likely have a about how you can find meals. Call your local food bank. They will direct you to the resources you need, as well. Host one more caller. Alexandria, virginia. Keith, good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, i am all for programs that help the needy. I think they are great. I am looking at this from an anecdotal point of view. I dont have hard data. Nowadays,o me that the rate of obesity among children is much higher than it was in previous years, yet we are also hearing about the rate of hunger among childrens increasing, as well. I am just trying to i want to know if your guest is able to reconcile that. When i was a child, i am almost 50 now, most of the children i can recall were either overweight or underweight. It was not common to see children overweight. Like there is an increase in Childhood Obesity, how is it that there is also an increase in childhood hunger . Host go ahead and respond. Guest not the first time i have heard that question. I think Childhood Obesity and childhood hunger are two sides of the same coin. Handinhand, because we often know that the cheapest food that families are able to afford when the are going through a crisis and they dont have a huge grocery budget, unfortunately, are those that are less healthy and have less nutrient density in the calories. Families are doing the best they can to give kids the meals they need. We know this is a crisis, it comes back to making sure families have the resources and tools they need to prepare healthy meals on a budget. Providesa program that Nutrition Education to families, budget friendly Resources Available online. This is really about making sure families have the knowledge and are able to empower themselves to purchase healthy food for their kids. We know it is a huge challenge. I can tell you because we see both, it does not mean that one does not exist. Childhood hunger is a huge crisis in this country. We know there is also a Childhood Obesity crisis. We need to do everything we can to try to solve both at the same time and make sure every kid has healthy food every day. Host lets see if we can squeeze in one quick call from israel who is calling from fresno, california. Caller as far as the snap 16 for food per month is not going to help. Thank you. Guest great question. One of the biggest things we are advocating for in the next coronavirus package is an increase in minimum benefits. You are right. 16 is not enough to get you through the month, and no kid hungry is making sure that snap benefits accurately reflect what families need and that is more money on their ebt cards every month. Thank you for calling. For you inources fresno, california. I hope youre able to find some of those resources that we know are available to you in your community. Host we would like to thank lucy coady, director of no kid hungry, for coming on this morning and helping us find resources to make sure children and the United States get the food they need. Thank you so much. Guest thank you so much for having me. Host thank you. Ofing up next, mitch kokai the John Locke Foundation will discuss how state budgets are impacted by the coronavirus. Later, we will be joined by s p global plats richard swann. First, the Virginia Governor announced the blueprint for reopening the commonwealth, possibly by earlier may. [video clip] when we see these metrics i have just outlined, fewer positive cases, more testing and tracing, more ppe and steady use of hospital beds, then we can move to phase one of these restrictions. Phase one will still have heightened restrictions in place. Social distancing, for example, will continue. Be encouragedll and also continue. We will still recommend face coverings in public. For business to resume, both customers and employees must feel safe. To create our forward virginia blueprint for phase one, we have been meeting with stakeholders, local governments and business leaders. We have put together a small work group of representative from businesses, large and small, in every corner of our state. It includes barbershops, theaters, hotels, and campgrounds. We are talking to manufacturers, restaurants, and entertainment venues, like kings dominion. Faith leaders will also be part of our work group. We want them to tell us what is the right way to ease restrictions. What will that look like on the ground. What is practical in real life and what is not. We will use their input, and input from dozens of zoom meetings we have had with local government officials. Business associations, hospitals, Health Associations and other groups to develop two sets of guidance. We will have overarching rules for businesses, and industry specific guidance for sectors like restaurants, and nonessential retail. This will help make sure everyone knows the rules about how they must operate when it is safe to do so. As we go forward, we will fill in the details of the phase one blueprint, and develop plans for phases two and three. I am as eager as anyone to move into the time where we can ease some of these restrictions, but we must do so in a safe manner. The president s, from public affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Biographies of every president , organized by the ranking, by noted historians, from best to worst. Perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership sows. Visit cspan. Org to learn more about each president and historians, and order your copy today. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with mitch kokai, a senior political analyst at the John Locke Foundation. Mitch is here to talk about how state budgets are being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Good morning. Guest good morning. Thank you for having me. Host remind our viewers what the John Locke Foundation is and what is your mission. Guest the John Locke Foundation is named for the 17th century british philosopher who influenced the founders because of his love of life, liberty and property or as Thomas Jefferson change it too, the. We are a think tank based in raleigh, north corona. We focus on North Carolina policy. There are similar groups across the country that deal with statelevel policies. Looking a lot of time at State Government, what State Government does, and how the budget picture is being impacted by this covid19 pandemic. Host your group, and other taxpayer groups and freemarket groups, recently wrote a letter to Congress Regarding relief funding for the states. What was the message . 2st you might remember the trillion cares act had a piece in it that was 150 billion, called the Coronavirus Relief fund. This money goes to the states and larger local governments to help them deal with the impact of the covid19 pandemic. The way the law is written, all of this money is supposed to be for new programs, designed to help deal with the pandemic. The budget crunchers in my office here in raleigh, along with similar workers at the platt institute in nebraska took a look at this deal and said, one of the problems is all of the revenue that is coming into State Governments is taking a huge hit because of the pandemic. We dont have all of our businesses operating full throttle. People are not working, businesses are not making money, tax revenue is falling shorter and shorter of the goals. That means, what a lot of the State Governments are having to deal with his major holes in their budget that cannot deal with the covid19 pandemic, in general. We are talking about funding for education, health and human services. We are falling short. Funde Coronavirus Relief says you can only spend money for new programs, that is going to handcuff even the State Governments who have been doing a very good job about being fiscally conservative. Here in North Carolina, coming into the situation, we had about a 3 billion cushion. 24 a sizable cushion because of rainy day reserves. Mess, we hadis about 3 billion on hand as a cushion to deal with any unexpected emergencies, including a pandemic. Revenue is the tax coming in shorter and shorter of goals, we are seeing that cushion go away. Basically, what the Coronavirus Relief fund is telling our State Government, you can spend this money, each state gets more than 1 billion, you can only use this money for new programs. That is a bad incentive for State Governments because it is in ag go ahead and spend way that might not be sustainable in the future. A letter that 27 groups in 25 states have signed onto says this will lead to state budgetary gluttony. It is telling lawmakers, here is money, spend it on new programs. We would hope that many of them would say we can spend some of this money on new programs, but some of this money you are sending to us, we cant sustain new programs, we are going to send it back. Does anyone expect that to happen . No. As theirers constituents are telling them, do something about this mess, they are going to find ways to spend the money, but some be sustainable. The letter we sent to the leaders of congress is asking, please give the states more flexibility. Some will find ways to spend this Coronavirus Relief fund on a new programs, but some State Governments should be able to use this money to help backfill lost revenue they expected to be coming in between march of this year and december. Others might find they are in a better situation and they might want to give one time tax relief to their constituents. Help boost the economy by putting money back in for the folks were struggling right now because they are not able to work. Mitch, are you getting any good reactions from congress . Is anyone from congress responding . Have you heard anything back . Guest i have not heard anything back yet, but a positive sign is among the negotiations that will be happening, both the president and congress have been talking about ways to help boost struggling State Governments. We are saying, yes, please have those discussions. There is a way to do this without spending additional money. It is just giving flexibility with some of the money you have already given. Fund isonavirus relief 150 billion already designated for state and local governments. If you give more flexibility, you might not have to spend any more money from washington, d. C. Toward them. They might be able to cushion budgets. With state charti am going to show a from the center of budget and policy priorities that shows the upcoming budget shortfall that states are looking at. In comparison to the Great Recession and the 2001 recession. We see in 2021, state budget shortfalls will be at an alltime high. Billion across the nation. That kind of shortfall coming up, a lot of layoffs and spending cuts are already on the horizon due to this pandemic. What should be done . Is there a federal role to keep these layoffs and spending cuts from coming down the pike . Guest that is an important question and i expect there will be a federal role. I am not saying in our letter that the only thing congress should do is give more flexibility to the states, but certainly, if they give more flexibility to the states on this Coronavirus Relief fund, that would reduce the need for even more money from washington, d. C. Coming into State Governments. Ist that relief fund says leasts 150 billion, at 1 billion for every state, but you can only spend it on new programs. States that have been fiscally conservative might say thank you for the 1 billion or more or in the case of North Carolina, 4 billion but it would be better for us to cover lost revenue that should be coming into our state, rather than trying to find a new way to spend money. If we have more flexibility, we can cover our cost and not have to come back to washington for even more money. As you mentioned, with that huge suspected and plan for shortfall across State Governments, there will be some federal role. One thing that will make it easier is if they give the states more flexibility on the money they have already decided to send. Congress,crats in according to our wall street journal story, democrats in congress are looking for additional money for states and localities in the next relief package. Is that a good idea . Guest depending on how it is done. The devil is always in the details. Even folks to who are typically on our side politically that said, congress, dont give a blue state bailout, because we know there are some State Governments that have put themselves in a bad financial hole, especially with their pension symptoms. Pension systems. Some have put themselves in a bad situation. Even the State Governments that have done a good job with her budget and planned for a rainy day, they will have to deal with the declining tax revenue, as well. If you can give the states more flexibility on the money youve already decided to send them, that could help the State Governments that have been prudent tried to backfill some of the lost revenue. Moving forward, if there is more money that has to come from d. C. , at least it wont be as much because you have given flexibility on the money have already decided to send. Dont throw good money after bad, in other words. Host lets open up our phone lines. If you want to take part in this conversation about how state budgets are being impacted by the coronavirus impact, we are going to open up regional lines. If you live in the eastern or central time zones, your phone number will be 202 7488000. If you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, your number will be 202 7488001. You can always text us your opinion at 202 7488003. We are always reading on social media, on twitter, and on facebook. Mitch, as you said, there are definitely different political sides in this conversation. Earlier this week, mitch statesll suggested some might be able to declare bankruptcy. Lets listen to what he said. [video clip] ofi would be in favor allowing states to declare bankruptcy. Reason for itod not to be available. My guest would be for the federal government to borrow money for future generations so they dont have to do that. Do you think that states should be able to declare bankruptcy, especially considering the shortfalls stacy coming down the pike. Guest for some of them, that might be the only option that would be a good one going forward. That is one of the challenges we groups have signed onto this, you have a wide range in the terms of the states and their budgets, some of them are in bad shape, partly because of their yeartoyear budgets, partly because they have done a poor job of funding their pension systems. Carolina,ng at north where we had a multibilliondollar cushion our pension fund is funded in the neighborhood of 85 to 90 , which is in far better shape of other states i am thinking of illinois off the top of my head. Some of these states are in bad shape and bankruptcy might be the way to go. Out,tch mcconnell pointed the problem is some of the State Governments look to the fed as the lender and lefties are, saying, we put ourselves in a pickle, d. C. , bail us out. Some are not too thrilled about that idea of having the feds backstop State Governments, especially since the federal government before this covid19 pandemic was already in its own bad situation, with more than 20 trillion in debt. Now we put 3 trillion of Additional Debt to help pay for our needs today. Perhaps, bankruptcy is something these governments might have to look into. Host it was said congress would have to pass a law before states could declare bankruptcy. Since 1937, the First Federal Bankruptcy Code has never allowed State Governments to declare bankruptcy. Code 1937, the bankruptcy has allowed beneath the polities to declare bankruptcy is, but it does not allow State Governments. It would possibly be unconstitutional because of the contract clause of the u. S. Constitution, which prohibits State Governments from obligation of contracts. Do you think congress is anywhere close to being able to change Bankruptcy Laws that would allow states to declare bankruptcy . Guest i have not follow the discussions closely enough to know how close they are. My suspicion is that would take a lot of debate. It sounds as if the Senate Majority leader is interested in it. As you know, and all of your viewers know, there has been difficulty in recent years to get the senate, the house, and some of the members within both of the chambers to agree on major issues like that. I suspect that as more states come to the federal government and say, look, we can handle this, that there might be more interest in making that change. This goes into the history of federalism, what the federal government is empowered to do, what State Governments are empowered to do. There would be a lot of discussion and a lot of debate before there is a final vote taken. For the State Governments that are in a tough position and seem to have no other option between bankruptcy or getting completely bailed out by d. C. , which has its own problems because of our 20 trillion in debt, bankruptcy might be the way to go and you might see more people on each side of the partisan divide be willing to go forward. Host lets let some of our viewers join the conversation. We are going to start with rick from akron, ohio. Caller good morning. The question i have is, if this subsidized money from the government to offset the lack of employment is being taxed im not sure if it is being taxed but if it is being taxed, should the stateshe deficit are receiving . Property taxes are still being paid. It seems like this bill was pushed out too quickly 880 pages, i read a lot of it. It seems like a lot of it was not clear. Go ahead and respond. Guest certainly. As with anything that happens during an emergency, you always have to worry about a bill being rushed through. The provision we are talking about in our letter comes on page 223 of the cares act. It was as if you had to read a book before you got to the provision we are talking about. Exactlythe caller is right in terms of, a lot of these things are done relatively quickly and then government often has to go back and fix problems they created with original legislation. In terms of the initial part of his question, i am not sure if the taxation on benefits will cover the lost tax revenue. Here in North Carolina, where the legislature has been budgeted frugally over the last decade we came into this mess with a cushion in our budget of about 3 billion on a 24 billion general fund budget, that is pretty good. But as we have seen the tax revenue crater in recent months, another piece of this that will affect our budget moving forward is that like the federal thernment, our state pushed tax filing deadline backed by three months. A lot of the money you wouldve expected to come into State Government in april is not going to come into State Government until july. On the state level, that is a new fiscal year. It will not come in to help recover the remaining bills of this budget, which runs out in june. It will be money that comes in for the next budget year. At that time, we will not have our economy reopened to the extent that the money will be flowing in as normal. There are a lot of challenges, even in a state that has budgeted frugally, let alone in the states that if that bid your problems with their budgets in recent years. Host i am getting a lot of questions online around the same topic. I will read just one tweet. There are several people interested in this answer. This one person has texted in, my concern is the states use this money for pension bailouts. The money that the states are getting from the federal government for the coronavirus pandemic, can that money be used for pension bailouts . Somethinghink that is that is under discussion with the next round of relief dealing with the covid19 pandemic. The Coronavirus Relief fund, what we have been talking about, the way the law is written, and the guidance that the federal government has given to the state, that money can only be used for new programs. It cant be used to deal with other issues. I think the idea of not bailing out the failing pension systems is one of the reasons that was put in there. The folks who wrote this wanted to make sure the money they worsening to the state would go first and foremost to deal with the pandemic. They did not want to shovel money and see it go to work helping the states deal with other problems. Is, if you send all of this money in the states dont need all of it to deal with new programs dealing with covid19, we would all hope that officials and State Government would say, we dont need this money, we are going to give it back to the federal government. Do we expect that to happen . No. Recordates with a good of being financially prudent and fiscally conservative, all of their constituents are telling them to do something about this. They will find some way to spend that money and that might not be sustainable in the long run. In the meantime, their tax revenue has been cratering. They will have to find some way cut some ofer what they are doing, maybe have reversions of maybe 5 of the budget moving forward, and make some cuts where you can. Also, there will be the danger of some states looking at taxing their residents more, and that would be one of the worst things you could do in the course of what looks to be a substantial economic recession, is tax people more. One of the reasons you are having me on is the letter we wrote, and the letter says lets give the states more flexibility, because some of the states that have budgeted well, they will be in a position where they can take this Coronavirus Relief fund, and put it toward prisons, education, health and human services, to cover tax revenue. States there in a poor situation, if you give them flexibility, maybe they will use it to bail out there pension systems, but you should not penalize the fiscally prudent states. Host lets talk to this caller from oklahoma city, oklahoma. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to ask the question, what can i do . I dont the government is slow. I know the government is slow. It is compounded by the coronavirus. I dont understand why we are not using our people locally to be creative, how to open up what they want to see when they walk into a restaurant for safety. We need safety, safety, safety. They want to know they will be protected and we will not spread this. Weyou know, we opened up have started phase one. For example, it makes sense if you are in a restaurant, or say a Grocery Store, and someone sneezes or coughs, if it gets on your hands, if it gets on your face, it will get on your cell phone. People have their cell phone in their hands i dont care if you washed your hands 1000 times a day they pick up their phone every time a turnaround. It makes sense to me, either dont bring your cell phone or dont have it with you if you walk into a restaurant. To groton, go georgia. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think we should listen to him with a skeptical mind. There is an article in the atlantic saying why Mitch Mcconnell wants states to go bankrupt. People,he american republicans, democrats can hear this. Act canult sovereign decide for itself which of any debts can be paid in full. Contrast, it, by is a Legal Process which the judge decides the debts will be paid in which order in which amount. Bankruptcy is a power entirely reserved to the federal government. American bankruptcy is overseen and a federal court, overseen by a federal judge according to federal law. You guys want to put it all on the federal government whether i go ahead and respond to that, mitch. Guest i am not calling for changes in bankruptcy states tocalling on have more power to decide how to fund. E Coronavirus Relief i think the caller brings up a very valid point about all of the intricacies involved in Bankruptcy Law. I think there might be some totes that are going to ask have that permission to be able to claire bankruptcy, and if so, the exact issues that your caller brought up are ones that would have to be discussed. Whats that going to mean . Lets look at the potential unintended consequences. Laws ofhe basic economics is that youve got to look at the impact of policy beyond who is going to be immediately affected and beyond the shortterm. What are the unintended consequences . Be some major unintended consequences a Bankruptcy Law that would have to be discussed. My only point in discussing this earlier is that if the only options are a bailout from the feds or declaration of bankruptcy, you might see more in congress who would be interested in allowing the states to declare bankruptcy. Host lets take one more caller and see if we can get a quick question from bill, calling from palm springs, california. Can you get a quick question in here for us . Caller so lets step back to george bush, when he took office and they gave all the extra money to the people. It seems to me at this point in time our country is bankrupt. We are borrowing like drunken soldiers and theres less money theng in from the people there is from the borrowing, and it seems a lot of people do not understand, every penny in the treasury that his taxes, that came out of our pockets. But isnt our country basically bankrupt . Thank you. Host go ahead and respond there, mitch. Guest i do not know if we are bankrupt. We are certainly in a bad situation. The caller makes an excellent point, at one point we were going to have to get a better balance between the amount of money we spend on federal government and all of its forms and the money that comes in. There has been too much of an imbalance. We have to go back to the clinton era, when there was for a brief time a match in the amount of money we were spending and the amount of money that was coming in, was about the same. Ever since then, we have been putting ourselves into a deeper and deeper hole in federal government, and that is one of the reasons why as the feds toide to spend more money the states, it would certainly make more sense for the State Governments, especially the ones that have been dealing with their budgets prudently, to have some flexibility, rather than having the feds say look, we are going to borrow more money and put the federal government deeper and deeper in debt so you can start new programs that wont be sustainable so that the State Government will have future problems and create debt, and not only will the federal government be in a bad position, but even the State Governments that have been prudent and fiscally conservative will be in a bad situation, and then we will all be up the creek. Host we would like to thank , a senior political analyst at the John Locke Foundation, for being on with us and talking about how state budgets are being impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Thank you so much. Guest thank you so much for having me and have a great weekend. Coming up, we will take a look at oil prices and the u. S. N ofomy with richard swan s ps global platts. But first, an announcement on work to advance vaccines for coronavirus. [video clip] even when tools are not available, they have been, not been equally available to all. We cannot allow that to happen. Today, who is proud to be uniting with many partners to announce the access to acts accelerator. [inaudible] and therapeutics for covid19. On the fourth of may, we will launch a global pledging effort. On that day, we will announce the next milestones of a global campaign. This campaign is to kick off an ongoing rolling replenishment. A 7. 5 billion euros to ramp up words on prevention, diagnostics, and treatment, and this is a first step only, but more will be needed in the future. Beating coronavirus will require sustained actions on many fronts. E need to develop a vaccine we need to produce it and deploy it in every single corner of the world, and make it available at affordable prices. This vaccine will be our universal common good. The moment we are living through right now is a reminder that we are all part of the same global community. Treatmentsnostics, and vaccines become available, getave a responsibility to them out equitably, with the understanding that all lives have equal value. Andd19 knows no borders, defeating it will require action and investment across sectors. Nd countries the collaboration we are seeing today, along with the commitments we make with the upcoming Global Response summit will help the world rise up to meet this big challenge. Journal prime time, especially evening edition of washington journal. Our guest, director at the Winstar Institute at philadelphia. He talks about ongoing efforts to develop a vaccine that protects against the coronavirus. And the president and ceo of the National Grocers association on how the nations Food Retailers are coping with the huge surge in demand, and increasingly strict social distancing regulation. Join the conversation monday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with richard swan, who is S P Global Platts director, and he is here to talk about the drop in oil prices and the impact on the u. S. Economy. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host lets start out by setting the conversation. Explain to us what happened with oil prices earlier this week going into negative territory, and where our oil prices where are oil prices right now . Guest on april 20, we had an unprecedented event for major oil pricing. Wti contract, the futures contract that everybody watches, it went into egg negative territory. At 37. Ed monday logically this is a strange place, not an unheard of place, but in a commodity market, the seller has to pay money to take the product. Essentially, you have to remember that the futures contract is based in a very specific location, called cushing, oklahoma, and its got millions and millions and millions of barrels of capacity to store oil. But there is a limit to how much of that is actually available. The storage is getting pretty full. As the contract got near the end some folks were left trying to cover positions and essentially were left holding positions on the futures market, that were not able to take physical delivery of the oil. When that happens, you have to sell your position. You have to sell your futures position to someone else. What happened in the market literally when no one wants to buy, because storage is getting full you must sell, so maybe you try to find a buyer at 15, 10, you have to chase the market down until you find it. And what happens in Commodity Markets is that the floor is not zero, there is nothing logically to stop the price from going negative, and that is indeed what happened. You are incurring the cost, a penalty to the person to buy this product, and there is a huge cost right now defining available storage. It has never hit before to major market like that. You get some negative commodity pricing, but it went all the way down to 37. The next day, it has bounced back a bit, but the may contract has expired. The market has moved forward to the next month, june. But there is weakness everywhere. But to what happened to the may contract on monday, you could say for now it was a one off, but it is a sign that there is a huge, wider weakness in the global oil market, and a massive wakeup call as to where the floor could be in this whole market. Host for our viewers who may not know, can you explain to us what the wti is, how it impacts oil prices . The beauty i stands for west texas intermediate, a particular grade oil that has been coming out of western texas since the 1920s. It has been around for around a century now. It has been the benchmark grade. The futures contract itself is as i said,lahoma, but there is a huge junction of pipelines and storage tanks and where the trading activity can happen. It is based around the physical delivery of this crude from texas to that site in oklahoma, and they have a huge amount of companies buying, companies selling, enough liquid activity to form the market. Down in texas,l where i am, or over in california or even all the way up to canada, you will typically trade your oil at a differential, a premium or a discount to the price, to the wti price in cushing, if that makes sense. Say i have some oil down in houston. Oil is very volatile always around the world, but i might trade it to you at two dollars over wti. All pay of premium premium of two dollars on top of that. This is the way pricing works in benchmark commodities. There is a small number of core benchmarks, and the rice is spread out like a spider web from them. The problem comes when the price spiders goes the negative. Because logically there was a problem at cushing this week. We are running out of storage and the marginal price of that barrel when there was no buyers in town was negative. All these other markets depend on cushing, it is weak, but not negative get, but we have not seen that. We have a week oil complex for wer prices,ome lo but they were not negative. They have to be really careful back to their relationship of the price of the core. The price at the heart of the web, that is the one the casual observer of the u. S. Oil market will see. It is the price taking on the Financial News when you click on television during the day and commonly referenced in newspapers as well. That will be that price. His our viewers can join conversation. We will open up regional lines. If you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. If you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, you can call 202 7488001. Keep in mind, you can always text us at 202 7488003 and we are always reading on social media, on twitter at cspanwj and facebook at facebook. Com cspan. We have done a lot of talk about the oil future market. Now how does this affect the price of gas and diesel and the fuel that we actually put in our vehicles in the United States . Guest great question. Those prices are not going negative, i will say that up, but they are very low. The entire oil industry is it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the biggest crisis that has ever faced. What has happened to all of us since coronavirus has swept across most of the world . A state ofe into isolation or lockdown or full on quarantine in some cases. We are basically sitting at home. Here i am, here you are, well and of your listeners viewers certainly are. What happens when we all go home . A lot of Economic Activity stops. We stop using these oil products we use every day. One of these is gasoline, a huge amount of gasoline used by commuters, like me, going to work every day. Im sitting here, i am not burning gasoline. Jet fuel, airplanes. You might have seen some catastrophic statistics around how many passengers are flying these days. Industry is facing real trouble, clearly. But demand has dropped really, really low. It has dropped on a scale we have never seen before. Towards 20be heading Million Barrels a day lower than normal at this particular time, and we are looking at a massive demand contraction by as much as 10 Million Barrels a day. As is nothing we have ever seen before. This is a scale of readjustment in the market that we have never had to cope with. This has happened so quickly and so big, there is no [inaudible] so right now we are in the middle of this readjustment face. Hase. Adjustment p you got refineries pumping barrels out, all over the world, and their margins are starting to fall. You are seeing refineries cut runs, where they are reducing the amount of crude oil they are putting through their refineries, tempering their production down as best they can. You cannot necessarily turn them down to 20 , back to 40 it doesnt work like that. You can trim them down a bit, but we are reaching a point where someone is going to have to make more drastic decisions around shutting down, because no one wants the oil products coming out. How cheap have things got . Cheap seeing some pretty gas prices at the bulk trading level my company watches. Starting out of the refinery gate, how much of these are these products worth . This is where prices were at 52 per gallon a month ago for these kinds of products. These prices are really weak. Gasoline is around . 50 a gallon on the gulf coast, chicago pricing for gasoline is even. Ower, . 20 a gallon at times and that is not the final blended price necessarily, so ethanol gets put in gasoline before you and i buy it. These prices have got very weak. Dont forget the retail price you and i pay, there are supplychain costs that will come in after that price, and those cannot be negative. You cannot pay the delivery taking the gas to the station, you cannot pay him or her a negative wage. Taxes are not negative, so we are not paying negative taxes on these products. There are state taxes on notline always, and it is seeing negative retail pricing for you and me to go fill up with gas. Could you imagine what would happen if there was a negative gas price at a gas station . Thinkingmy mind even about it. Forget social distancing, right . We would be in a mile line around the block because someone wants to pay me to come pick up some gasoline, which is a dangerous product. That is not going to happen. Take lets let our viewers part in this conversation. Don from pittsburg, kansas. Good morning. Caller the Current Situation has made this much more severe. In general, the u. S. Has what we call extreme methods of becauseng fossil fuels, the easy stuff is already all gone. The russians and the saudis, particularly the saudis saw a chance several months ago to push the u. S. Out of business because they need several dollars a barrel to break even, and they can make money at 10 a barrel and the russians are in between. Of course with this coronavirus thing, it made it much more severe. Thank you. Guest an interesting point you are making there. You have some good knowledge of the Cost Reduction in saudi arabia. I think if you wind the clock back to early in the year when coronavirus was spreading and we have not seen the same pandemic status we have seen now and the same incredible impact on our lives, you have this dynamic were saudi arabia is still trying to make sure it keeps russia specifically inside its agreement. There are already trying to balance the market, and by balance the market, these major producing countries mean reduce supply. There is too much supply in the world. The reason there was already too much supplies because of indeed what has been happening here in the u. S. If you look at which country over the past four or five years has been adding production, it is the shale ype of oil youti see in west texas, and there is some kind of fight going on for market share, clearly. S were trying to corral russia into a meeting and that fractured incomplete discord because they were not able to reach an agreement to basically prolong and deep in the cut d hasn the cut, and it laid out an interesting series of events. The saudis reacted saudis reacted to that by saying you want to make an agreement . We have the lowest cost oil, and we are going up to full production from april. This is last month we are going to full production in april, and that oil is now hitting the market this month, just as we all realize quite how. Adly demand has cratered that changes the dynamic again, and since then, not that it reverses that decision, but it has been totally overtaken by the next wave. The next wave is where you have what they call opec plus plus. You have a group of countries outside of opec, like russia, that have been participating with opec, that is opec plus. Opec plus plus our countries talking with these producers and looking at countries cutting in same way. If you look at the comments around the time of the opec plus plus accord this is the one that is going to remove up to 10 Million Barrels a day from the market next month. That is the worlds biggest production cuts. We have never seen one that size. This massive concerted effort by producers to move barrels not enough to counter the demand hold, i would say, but it is really hard to read the battle for market share. How is that playing out . Is that the primary concern or look, get the price back to something we can all live with. Losersre going to be everywhere. I think you are right about the , butof saudi production saudi arabia is not in the oil business globally to cover its costs. Finance itso entire economy. So they need a higher price other guys they cannot run their budget otherwise they cannot run their budget. Texas, youg in west have to cover your costs when you are at five dollars, 10 in midland west texas, you are not covering your costs. You are going to see efforts to cut production. They are going to be different, but they will have the same impact. Saudi, russia and others have pledged output cuts. They have pledged to say they fromreduce production baseline. We will see how quickly they can trim their output, cut their output and get this off the market, this huge surplus sitting on the market every day at the moment. They will formally cut production. Is the plus plus bit, this not a pledge. It is not like the Energy Secretary is going to stand up there and say, the u. S. Is going to lose a Million Barrels a day that has not happened. But that adjustment is already taking place. Youre getting these headlines about Companies Cutting so production has fallen even if it is not being enforced. Host richard, do we expect to see a bailout of u. S. Energy companies . The Washington Post earlier this week wrote a story that says trump plans to order a bailout of u. S. Energy companies. The Energy Secretary seems to be on board with that plan. Do you expect to see that coming up soon . Guest i waiting for some of the details on this to be going through. I saw the initial comments around bailout, and [inaudible] is clearly a problem for a lot of these companies. Cash flow is a problem with this oil price level. Andre getting more detailed suggestions that the administration or the government could take equity stakes in oil dont reallyt we know exactly what has been talked about here. We have not had the details. Host lets go to oliver, calling from falls church, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to say, thank you very much for what cspan does. Its very important that regular street get a chance to speak, and i like to say that president obama and Hillary Clinton warned us ahead of time what would happen if you turned this country over to donald trump. I know this issue with the oil and gas is hurting people in texas and oklahoma. I really feel sorry for them because of what is going on with the energy right now for them, this is a lot of peoples livelihoods in that part of the country. I worked 25 years for the hired corporation before i retired after having a heart attack, and i have never been so scared of the management of this country as i am now. Please, americans, wake up and realize that we need new leadership in this country. Does thehard, how following Oil Prices Affect the rest of the economy . We know it is affecting the direct state economies in texas and other states, but how does it affect the National Economy . Guest let me get to two Different Things to think about. , whenrst one is normally you talk about an enterprise like oil, when you get price movements, we are careful never to associate rising prices as a good thing and falling prices as a bad thing. This is not like a market where we benefit from rising prices. ,or every winter, winner there is a loser. , it addsything is weak real trouble. You see the producers, the Companies Involved in that industry, they are definitely hurting, and they are major employers themselves. If they are the loser, who is the winner . The winner in a low price environment is the consumer, so but we are not, able to take it vantage of that. Sure, gas prices are lower, but we are not driving. It is very hard to see who is winning here when the consumer is not consuming. That is the first point. It is not a normal scenario where low prices are bad for someone and good for someone, and super low prices like this, because of the state we are in, it is hard to see who is winning. You have to think about this oil prices currently are tied in incredibly closely with the general economy. They always do. Or is a good argument to be made that Economic Growth has pulled demand along with it. It is a very close correlation. When the oil economy is in trouble, you see the market down. It is a barometer of how well the country is doing in the economy. That specificg one, they are incredibly low, we are at record low oil prices everywhere. That is not good for anybody. Host President Trump talked about the drop in oil prices earlier this week, and i want to play little bit of what he said. [video clip] based on the record low price of oil you have been seeing at a level that is very interesting to a lot of people, we are filling up our National Petroleum reserves, strategic, you know, the Strategic Reserves , and looking to put as much as 75 Million Barrels into the reserves themselves. That would top it out. That be the first time in a long time it would be topped out. We would get it for the right price. Good idea,at a topping out the Strategic Reserve right now . Keep if youre trying to storage of something and it is available for a price close to zero, that is a good price. It does not matter if you are u. S. With the Strategic Oil reserve or russia or saudi arabia, when you want to fill your tanks up, do it when it is cheap. [inaudible] they have very specific locations. They can only sort very specific grades of crude oil as well, so you cannot say, i will buy that , thatshing wti cushing is the wrong oil at the wrong location. You cannot put it in there or mix it with the other oil. There are some drawbacks to that. The last time we saw this plan tried to get through congress with a bailout plan, we dont really know how this is going to be achieved. There is some logic to it in a basic economic sense. , callings talk to kim from catskill, new york. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Im wondering if recent events have changed the longterm outlook of the oil industry . It seems to become increasingly obvious that oil is a temporary will, at some unknown date, no longer be useful. Mi wistfully thinking this, or is this actually the case . Thats the end of my question. Thats a great question. What we call the energy aansition, we are moving to world where demand for oil traditionally is going to go to other products in lots of sectors are lots of uses of oil could be substituted by other commodities. Is that what is happening now . I do not want to call it another price shock, because it is one like we have never seen before, but this is really what is going on. It is triggered by demand and the general economic collapse. But it is not triggered by a collapse in the movement away from oil at this time. When you think about the impact of what this will do to oil coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, in the coming weeks veryonths, it is getting interesting to start speculating about that. It is speculation, we have never lived through this before, lets be clear. Work from home phenomenon. Think about how much gasoline we all use every day driving to our place of work and back. It is a huge volume. 20 if the demand is 10 , more workforces adopt work from home flexibility, that will impacts demand for oil as well. I know my employees will think about this. We talked about work from home before, but it has a whole new complexion on it now. As to when we are able to start going back to our offices around the world and around this country, it will be different. We will have fewer people driving. Host we would like to thank talking to us about the drop in oil prices and what we can expect for the future. Thank you for your time. Guest thanks a lot. Host coming up next, we will open up our phone lines again, and ask you, what would you tell your governor about reopening your state . If you think it is time to the state, 202 7488000. If you think it is too soon, 202 7488001 we will be right back. Americaneekend on history tv, today at 2 30 p. M. On oral histories 5 00 on dday afternoon, a huge explosion occurred, and at that point i lifted my head out of my foxhole to see what was going on. Noise,y, i heard a huge and saw the shock and realized i had been hit. Then at six ago p. M. On the civil war 6 00 p. M. On the l war, israel rotors have risked their lives and set a new speed record for the fastest route has ever will ever run during the civil war. Not a single one of these ammunition rounds is fired. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern america, the 1945 u. S. Navy film about the battle of open now up. Awa. Attle of okin a struggle between men who want to die and men who fight to live. And at 6 00 p. M. On american artifacts, a look at the restored Muscogee Creek Nation council house. We are glad to have this back in the Muscogee Creek Nation. I think for a lot of muscogee people, it represents more than just the building. This was the foundation of our presentday tribal government. This weekend on American History tv on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host we are going to go back to you, our viewers, and ask you the question of the day. What would be your message to the governor about reopening your state right now . Toyou think it is time reopen your states economy, we want to hear from you at 202 7488000. If you think it is too soon to open your states economy, we want to hear states economy, we want to hear from you as well. 202 7488001. You can always text us at 202 7488003, and we are always reading on social media, on twitter at cspanwj and facebook at facebook. Com cspan. There was a poll done by the Associated Press earlier this and that talked about this, lets look at what this poll said. According to the poll, americans remain in favor of stayathome in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus, even as small pockets of potential revenue protest the demanding the lifting of such restrictions emerge nationwide. Ofy also found the majority americans say it will not be safe to list lift social distancing guidelines anytime soon, running counter to the assurance of plans of governments to ease within days the public efforts that have daily lifelife and roiled the global economy. Only 12 of americans say the measures where they live go too far. About twice as many people, 26 , believe the limits dont go far enough. A majority of americans, 60 1 , feel the steps taken by government officials to prevent infections of covid19 in their area are about right. About eight in 10 americans say they support measures that include requiring americans to stay in their homes and limiting gatherings to 10 people are fewer. , numbersple or fewer that have held steady over the past few weeks. Go back and see what you think about the stayathome restriction, whether it is time for your governor to reopen your state economy. , callingtart with troy from nashville, tennessee, who says it is time to reopen. The morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I was going to say, governor lee should reopen as soon as possible. I do not agree with the lockdown we had, we did not know how deadly this virus was, but now that we know the mortality is 0. 1 to 0. 5 , there is a greater risk to Public Health keeping it closed, because oil prices have couldown, the food supply get disrupted, i think. The Public Health interests dictate that we should we open reopen. Host when they make a decision to reopen tennessee, will you be going out with masks and gloves, or do you think it is time to put all of that behind . Caller i think it is time to put all of that behind. Iybe if i was 75 years old would feel differently, but i think it is time to get on with it, get some herd immunity, and i think they are going to try to scare us about the second wave, but i think it will be nothing. Virginia,s go to calling from tallahassee, florida. Urging you thinks it is too soon to open. Good morning. Virginia thinks it is too soon to open. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host is it too soon to open up . Caller it absolutely is. Prior to may,man i wish him well, all of us, but this disease spreads amongst people. There is not control over that. It is going to run its course and we have to stay closed down. Having people go to beaches in florida, then they run to the beach, drink, have a great time, home, pass someone something onto a loved one that is older or immuno compromised that is how diseases spread. This is something we have not experienced in our lifetime before. We have to handle it properly. In, and bullet, stay the only problem i have with i know it is hard for those in need of money, i just think it is terrible that harvard already got a large chunk of money, but the unemployment is slow for those who truly need it. A priority. O be people have a right, if they are hardworking people, they have a right to eat. Lets go to jason, calling from little elm, texas. Jason says it is too early to open up texas. Good morning. Morning, jesse. I completely agree with the last caller and disagree with the caller before her. The lowest estimate i have ever mortality rate of this disease, which was i think back in february, was. 6 , not. 1 to. 5 . Separately, cbs reported a week , federal experts recommended texas not reopen until june 7. But the governor is allowing most businesses in the state to reopen on may 1. I think it is a really bad idea. Thank you. Lets see what our social media followers think about whether it is time to reopen some of these states or if it is too early. , it is obviously too soon to reopen. This is hard for me to say because the longer the economy is closed, the more likely it is i will lose my job. So be it. We need to protect lives. Another says open rural upstate, closed Greater New York city. States tweet says, as open and people return to their , others are out having fun with no serious repercussions and more will reopen quickly. No, i work atays a hospital and we are not ready. The virus will spread more and many more will die. Another tweet reads, if you think it is too early to open, stay at home. We want to hear from you, what would you tell the governor of your state about whether it is too soon to open or ready to open your economy . Lets talk to mike from rockford, illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning. I think it is too soon. This testing on cspan is only 50 correct. There are a 50 of false positive and 50 falsenegative is what im hearing. In our area, the governor moved the National Guard into three hotels, and our hospitals laid , nurses, anders now they want the military to give us the tests. None of this is stuff makes sense. At the president is mentioning the bankrupting the states and applying Emergency Managers over the top of the governor. The military here, i think the flipflopping of the president is alarming also. One day we have the best military, the next day we have to rebuild it. Have the best hospitals, now we have to rebuild them. I passed something on cspan the dod buildwhere the 250 hospitals. This is part of what is going on. Shut down, the military moves in and were talking about overriding our governors with Emergency Managers from the president , appointing 50 senators that are republican to run the country over top of there is a lot of red flags if we put our hat on here. Our governor is going along with it and our mayor locally is going along with it. Our governor is trying to have these Big Box Stores not sell paint and just electrical and plumbing. None of this stuff makes sense anymore. Talk to philip, calling from calhoun, georgia. Philip says it is too early to reopen georgia. Georgia is already open. Do you think they should close it back down . Caller or at least wait to open georgia, because of everything going on. Wait until they have a better way of testing everybody, and as far as people going back to meansi think this really people should stop worrying about making money and let the government do its job. ,he government passed bills where everyone can receive an equal amount of money to take care of all of their bills for that month. Keep doing that each month until we find a cure. State, keepe everybody out until we find out how to get rid of this. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on friday spoke about her concerns about President Trump and republicans not listening to science and medical experts during this coronavirus fight. Here is what Speaker Pelosi had to say. [video clip] we are seeingly, republicans make comments with zero connection to science and facts. Lets gobehind us and forward in a way that gets the job done for the American People. I have mentioned the president he said we can kill the virus by jetting disinfectants like lysol into the body. This president is not listening to medical experts, and i do not know which one he is listening to, if any. Ago, i saidfew days america must ignore the lies and start to listen to scientists and other respected professionals in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones. Host President Trump did come out on friday and try to clarify his comments about sunlight and disinfectant injections to try to fight the coronavirus. Here is what President Trump said. [video clip] clarifying your comments about injections of disinfectant . Aom by dei was asking question sarcastically to reporters like you to see what would happen. Disinfectant might be on the. Ands, could work i was asking the gentleman yesterday, bill, because when they say people will last three to four hours or six hours, but if the sun is out and these disinfectant, it goes away in less than a minute. Did you hear about this yesterday . A really sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside. It does kill it and would kill it on the hands and make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters. You are asking your medical experts to look into it. Sun andhether or not disinfectant on the hands, but n couldhelp us su help us. This is where they have come in with their final report that sun has a massive impact negatively on this virus. In other words, it does not live well with humidity and does not live well with sunlight, heat. It does not live well with heat and sun and disinfectant. That is what i brought out and i thought i was clear. Lets go back to our phone lines and talked to robert, calling from gilbert, texas. Robert says it is time to open texas. Robert, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning. At a longterm living facility in east texas, and within about a 60 mile radius we have 800 cases. In our county, i believe we are but it is time to open parts of it. Parks. Es and rivers and this shelterinplace is beginning to look a lot like house arrest. Im on shelterinplace because of my underlying conditions with this heart copd,e, seaview emphysema, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure. But im good. Im good. There are people in worse shape than me. Host lets talk to mike, calling from chesapeake, virginia. Mike says it is too soon to open virginia. Good morning. What do you need to hear to know it is time to reopen . Caller well, im so happy that i have a governor who was a doctor, because i think he has done a really good job lately. He understands what is going on and i think the protesters were kind of pushing on him a little bit. They have theh right to protest, but it is too soon to open. I work for a municipality here and when i go out and have to work, i do not know what is out there. I can touch something and i do not know if the virus is there. It is still scary out there. These people need to wake up. The caller this before has asthma and stuff. If i get this, i have asthma, i have a 5050 chance of living. This stuff is bad and i do not know why people dont realize this. I listen to some of the trump stuff, and i am like, what is he talking about . It is like the guy is an idiot. Just like yesterday, with spray lysol in your lungs . Come on now. Kelly,ets go to calling from west virginia. It is time to reopen west virginia. Good morning. As far as west virginia, we have the lowest death rate in the whole country and where i am at, there is no deaths at all. So even if you can open up parts of the economy, i think its better than just everybody just staying cooped up. Thank you. Host lets go to monty, calling from spring, texas. Monty says it is still too early to open texas. Caller good morning. I live adjacent to harris tonty, which is home houston. We had received 57 of the 1000 tests requested from the government. Zero. Y county received this is simply science. America has fallen behind in science and the people who support early reopening of everything simply dont many innd science, like the administration. I am not going to name names and point fingers, but it is Simple Science, people. Look at the numbers. You cannot tell what the rate of fatalities is among this without more accurate testing. We cannot rush to develop things. That is not how science works, but people need to learn what reviewed like peer studies mean. , someone whoting went through the Public School , to see people ignoring science for emotionally charged reasons. You need to hear . Science can take a while, but people still need to go to their jobs and get money to eat, to pay their rent. What do you need to hear to know that it is time to reopen your state and reopen those economies . Caller that we have an accurate we have aace, that consistent method across the board from the president to the town mayors, that we have actual unity. We need americans to look at efforts in world war ii. For fuel anding human food, we had victory gardens, scrap drives, and people now cant be bothered . Texas has one of the largest rainy day funds in existence. It is Simple Science and fact. We obviously cannot shut down completely and have everyone live in their house, but we need to have meetings from the mayors to the president to decide who is first . Get those people tested. Who is essential in this economy to keep us going for two or three months, three or four months to save thousands of lives . It is really that simple. Harley,ts go to calling from new baltimore, michigan. Holly says its time to reopen michigan. Caller we watch every day, my husband and i. We love your show, so thank you for taking my call. I have been taking a tally of how many people want to reopen and closed, and im shocked that so many people want to remain closed. Michigans population is about and soillion in 2019, far we have only had an estimated 3000 deaths. So im baffled by this. Im not communist. I do not want to live in a communist country, and i feel it is totally socialist to keep people locked in and pay everybody unemployment, which i cant get, by the way. This is science versus common sense, ok . Called, i can wear a mask and gloves when i go to the store. My husband can, my children can, but youve got to open up the economy. Otherwise we are going to crash. Lets go to jane, calling from marquette, michigan. Jane says it is too early to open michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Live in the Upper Peninsula of michigan, on lake superior. We are a sparsely populated area, and i support our s extension of the stayathome orders. I do understand our concerns about the economy and people unemployed and all of those issues are vital and important, but i have to balance the life and death issues of covid and how little we still know about how it may sweep forward, so i agree with the gentleman who was talking about the need for better testing. We are just beginning to get some tests in the Upper Peninsula and we are amongst those, it has really hit a couple of our nursing homes. Behind inke we are terms of we were protected, we did not have any cases well into the concerns, and now we are starting to get them. If the orders are lifted, i think people are kind of naively. Hinking of oh, well be ok i would rather balance it out until we know more about the of oure recycling illnesses and better testing and better supplies to be better prepared. We also are in an area where a lot of our folks go south for the winter florida, texas, and we call them snow bunnies, but we are coming they are coming back now. As they are coming back, they are sensitive to the fact that they might have been more lucky to be exposed and could be bringing it back. We like the governors reinforcement governors reinforcement, when you come back from anywhere to michigan, you need to selfisolate for at least two weeks and when testing is available, get tested. Lets talk to james, calling from bakersfield, california, and james says it is time to open california. Caller the numbers have always been good out here. The stanford study and the usc virusare proving that the has been out here and circulating and it is time to reopen california. After that News Conference yesterday, correspondent john roberts reported that the president was conceptually right about these devices to kill the virus inside the body. You had a doctor from minnesota rus ist says the vi vibrant inside the throat area, and they are talking about providing ultraviolet light inside the trachea to host lets go to dolores, calling from buffalo, new york. Caller good morning. Host we can hear you, go ahead, dolores. Caller im so proud of Governor Cuomo. I wish she was our president. Im very happy with what hes is doing. I think he cares about people. I dont think he cares about his career as a politician. I think he is putting the American People first. I wish you would talk to trump, is that he has such a mental disorder. Host what do you need to hear knowGovernor Cuomo to that it is time to reopen new york . Caller i just go day by day, and i think hen, is the professional, the politician. I am not. I think i will just be happy to go along with whatever, because i think he knows what he is doing. I am a lay person. I do not know about what is going on. Trump is not a doctor. I know he thinks he is a stable genius, but everybody dont know everything. Go to james, calling from texarkana, arkansas. James says it is time to reopen arkansas. Caller yes, i think it is time to reopen. People need to get back to work. This has become a political issue now. Out inames, when you go public, are you going to be ready to wear a mask and gloves, or do you think it is a pay out there think it is ok out there . Is not ats ok, there case out here. It is something to hurt the president and the economy, i think. Host i would like to thank all of our callers, viewers, and social media followers for being with us on washington journal. Join us at 7 00 a. M. Tomorrow morning for another show, and i want to urge all of you out there to continue to stay safe and healthy, and have a great saturday, everyone. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] no one is prouder with this birth certificate matter to rest then the donald. That is because we can finally get back to focusing on issues did we eat, like fake the moon landing . [laughter] what really happened . Biggie and tupac . Houses years white Correspondents Dinner is postponed due to the coronavirus. We will beat your past speakers featuring george w. Bush, and barack obama. White house Correspondents Dinner speeches tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan and cspan. Org, or listen on the free cspan radio app. Sunday night on q a, wall street trader turned photojournalist on his book dignity, about the plight of those living on the margins of society in america. It was a sunday morning or saturday and it was empty all were gone and she was in the industrial part of hunts point. Immediately, her intelligence just came right through. We spoke for about half an hour or so, and she told me her life, which was just, you know, a cliche of everything wrong that can happen to somebody. , i asked her what i ask everyone i photograph, which is how do what you want me to describe you . Give me one sentence to describe you. Am, aid, what i prostitute, a mother of six, and a child of god. Sunday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. The Clinton Foundation hosted a response on the coronavirus. Chelsea clinton opened the event and then bill clinton and Governor Cuomo talk about federal initiative and response in new york and lessons learned. Pres. Clinton hello and thanks for joining us for this virtual questionandanswer. Like all of you, i have been looking forward to this weekend and being at the university of edinburgh. I cannot thank them enough for all of their support, and i am delighted to say that we are still going to edinboro, just a year later. Last next year it will be there april 9 through april 12. Though we cannot be in person together today, we are going to do some good things. Cgi has never been about what we cannot do but what we can do, and now, of course, we are being challenged in a new and different way. The last few weeks and months have been hard for everyone. Including college and university students. Campus is shut down, classes are online, anve