2027488000. Mountain and pacific, 2027488001. You can also send us a text at 2027488003. You can also post to twitter and facebook. With thoseis morning numbers courtesy of Johns Hopkins university. The total number of confirmed cases in this country approaching 1. 7 million. On the right side of the screen, there is that figure, the death 98,929, 98,000 929. Nearly 100 thousand americans have died. A special pullout on the usa today, these are 100 people out of the 100,000 americans who have died from the coronavirus. Different ages, races, and backgrounds they point out. The next 100 days could define a new era, right usa today. It did not take longer than 100 days for the virus to claim the lives of nearly 100,000 americans. Thenimaginable toll, since first person in the u. S. Died from covid19, which is thought to have been february 6 in california. Borne out by the diminished rates of new infections and deaths in may is not enough to keep the u. S. From reaching that grim milestone of 100,000 deaths likely this week. Health officials fear that the loosening of those restrictions will lead to a resurgence of cases and deaths. An assessment of what the new normal may look like in the next 100 days, consensus, writes the paper, is going to be a bumpy ride. Heres what President Trump had to say yesterday talking to reporters, the white house, about the current death toll. Act. Trump if we did not quickly and smartly, we would to 20ad anywhere from 10 and maybe even 25 times the number of deaths. We closed the border to china, many we put on the band, people coming in from china. That was a big moment. As dr. Fauci said, we saved thousands and thousands of lives when we did that. That is true, but i think we would have had anywhere from 10 to 20 or 25 times the number of deaths if we did not act the way did notand also if we act swiftly. Youre proud of our team and our task force. Mike and a great job. Host a statement from democratic leaders, specifically answer pelosi, after six months and 100,000 lives lost, the Trump Administration still does not have a serious plan for testing to stop the spread of the virus. This disappointing report confirms the president s National Testing strategy is to deny the truth and dump the burden onto the states. Kissimmee, florida, near orlando, good morning. Guest good morning. What a topic. It has been the entire span of, what, three months or more . Host three months. Caller yeah, it is something else. I am trying to alert everybody to look at it from the perspective of Mental Health. On the we get a grasp seriousness of it all when it comes to the division in this country and how it is affecting our Mental Health, dont you think . That tell us more about aspect of this tragic story. Caller well, you know, you look at all of the problems that we do have, and basically corona, or covid19, has basically taken over. When you look at the generations of young kids growing up in this , or you look at the folks who are being overwhelmed by the fact that they dont have enough funds or they are trying to get funds to live, and yet it is not always available, there are a lot of Mental Health issues that will be facing us as a nation. We are noting is coming together. Host there was already a lot of talk about Mental Health in general for the virus hit and perhaps not enough being done legislatively. What do you think is going to be needed in that area moving forward . Caller well, first of all, we got issues that we need to take care of like i dont want to bring it up, but you got to bring it up. Our race relations. Virus ishat this affecting people that are poor, and it seems like people dont believe that people are basically equal. They kind of get a thing out of navy you just go ahead and go to work and dont worry about of maybe you just go ahead and go to work and dont worry about it. Weve got to come together. Weve got to care about each other, and i think that is missing and that is adding to the Mental Health issues. Our leadership at the top, they are playing games, political games. With a very serious matter. Philip from kissimmee, florida. Jason, youre in hawaii, correct . In lahaina, i am wh hawaii. Host thank you. What are your thoughts as the u. S. Nears 100,000 deaths. Well, cnn is putting forth a truce. Your hind geske, the chief scientist from the european control whoisease happens to be from sweden all of these folks say that this is nothing more than a severe influenza season and that the lockdown is a big mistake. And i will echo the concerns of the previous caller about the fallout associated with lockdown, such as Mental Health, people with other health. Onditions, going without care sweden has their kids in school. They have determined that kids are not carriers, and they are not very susceptible to this disease. So i would appreciate it if cspan would make a better effort to put these voices forward. They are being censored right now, and when you folks can do a lot to alleviate the hysteria being perpetuated by the media. Host thank you, jason. Lets hear from tom in trenton, new jersey. Good morning to you, tom. Caller i have been watching the coronavirus going on. I have a daughter who is a nurse and i am concerned, but i am really concerned at all this hype that everybody is dying, they show people every day, some sob story if this was during the Second World War, we would have quit after the first month because you dont show that stuff. My main concern is i dont think we will ever come back if chinese,a plot by the it was stupid. They say 20 of the jobs are not going to come back. Most of the people pushing this isolate in place, they have a job. What about these people who do not have a job . Now we are talking about a second wave. When the first wave is just about mitigated, and now it seems to be less powerful than it was in the past, maybe we should not have worried about it. I dont fault anybody for worrying about it because nobody knew. But we went to the extreme case of locking it down. It makes no sense. I feel for my kids, my grandkids, because i dont know if they will have a job when they host host come back. You mentioned your daughter when they come back. Host you mentioned your daughter is a nurse. How is she doing . Caller she is doing well. She works in philadelphia, lives in pennsylvania. It was very hectic there when it was going on. At the beginning of it, they were trying to decide what to do with the cases that looks like it was over and they did not have any room and they were going to combine them and do some risky stuff. The peak only lasted for a while, and she works this last weekend and she said there were no Covid Patients on her floor. Weis mitigated, but, god, are going to start worrying about the second wave . 20 of teachers are not going to go back to work. I dont know how we ever fought the Second World War if that is the kind of attitude. Host what do you make of the performance of your governor, phil murphy, in a densely populated state . How do you think he is doing . Caller i think he is doing terrible. He went to the extreme with every measure that he took. Most of the problem in new york and new jersey was the nursing home deaths. Picked know why nobody that up because it is obvious now, but in retrospect, i did not pick it up and i did not hear anybody else saying anything about it, so i dont give them complete blame. But those people have experts. Of his he violated some rules over the weekend when he went to the beach, but hey, everybody was doing it. I really hope people take a look at it and say our National Debt is going to really go up when the total debt is divided by the gdp, or the reverse of that when it hits over one. If they do another stimulus package, it is going to be over one. I remember, i have to manage my own finances. I have a pension, so i am interested in the stock market and the economy. There are all kinds of bad things going to happen to the economy. Nobody knows. That has always been a number i have heard on tv over the years. If we do an empty stimulus package, is going to be over one, and that is the scary part. Host thank you for calling. Back to usa today, they talk nation separate deaths, nearly 100,000. They report february 9 as the first u. S. Fatality, confirmed that the disease was spreading in california in early february. As you go down this chart, President Trump declares a National Emergency on march 13, and you can see the graph growing day by day through march, into april, well over 2000 a day. The deadliest day, april 29, 2600. 12 deaths in this country. Then we can see the numbers starting to scale back a little bit up to present day, but still that number, 100,000 100,000. Here is the white house secretary White House Press secretary. Like the president says, one death is something to be mourned. The president takes this very seriously, which is why he lowered the flag to halfstaff for three days to remember these men and women. I think dr. Birx said it best when she said in their estimates they had anywhere between 1. 5 million and 2. 2 Million People in the u. S. Succumbing to the virus if we did not shut than the economy. The president made a very hard choice of shutting down the economy so we avoided that extra ordinary number. Many. Ath is too we never want to see a single individual lose their life, but that being said, under significantly that high mark shows the president did everything in his power and helps to make this number as low as humanly possible. They want to just the president on the numbers for this pandemic. What is a numbered that americans should tolerate, and that they can argue that yes, he successfully defeated the pandemic ech . I think youre asking the wrong question. Twice, i dont think it will i will continue to answer. He always listened to the science. When dr. Fauci and dr. Birx said you need to shut down the economy, that was hard for the president. Year, 100,000 people died of suicide and Drug Overdose in a typical year. If you shut down the economy for a period of time, that number gets greater. People do not show up for cancer diagnoses. Closing down the economy for this about of time cap thus far below the 2. 2 million number. Keep in mind the people missing their screening appointments, people who are succumbing to suicide and Drug Overdose because of economic hardship. This president made the right choice. It was a delicate balance and he did it exactly as he should, guided by data, and we are far below 2. 2 million dead americans because of the active President Trump. Standing by in stonington, maine. Good morning, duke. Morning, paul. Thank you for taking my call. This is certainly a mess with the economy the way it is and everything. So many people dying needlessly. But, you know, had donald trump listened to his advisors and his doctors and his scientists and really took it seriously, maybe things might not have had to have been shut down as badly as they have been. People that0,000 have died, maybe that would have been half or maybe even a quarter of that. In my opinion, donald trump has so much blood on his hands, i dont know how the devil that guy cant even sleep at night. When i look at his face and in his eyes, all i see is satan, and that is who is running our country. That is a sad state of affairs. Host moving onto pat and dallas. What do you make of the figure, the milestone, 100,000 deaths in the u. S. You in the u. S. . I am very concerned about it. Im just wondering when the curve is going to when the death start going down and the cases start going down. Wonder what is the of flunce percentagewise in our country, regular flu, as , theed to the virus coronavirus. Have thought about that we dont get numbers on that. And i think there is not a lot of difference, from what i have heard and i have googled it. Host people would argue that testing may not be as widespread as it should be, there is no vaccine, therapeutics pretty much nonexistent. They might point out that is the big difference with the flu. What would you make with that argument . Caller i would agree. And we will get a vaccine as we do with everything else. We will get on top of this. It is awful when people lose their jobs. My daughter is going to find out next week. Airline andr an they are cutting 30 of their staff. Ten help from the federal government, but they still have 70 of their airplanes in storage. They still have to have maintenance is what part she is involved in. It is bad on everybody. I am elderly. It has not affected me, although if i were to get it, because i have multiple sclerosis and extenuating circumstances as far as my health, it would probably kill me. Of what has a lot happened to people i am curious why children do not get it. You would not think that their good. System was that as far as people hating on trump, i think he has done a good job. I hope we get on top of this. I hope we get a vaccine for it. And i think we need to think positive. Host thank you for calling. We will take a step now and look at congress. The house is coming back into session this week. Christina marcos as a reporter for the hill. The house will make some history today. History proxy voting for the first time. How will it work . Essentially allows an absent member to authorize a colleague who was present to cast a vote on their behalf. Over 60e a little members who have publicly announced their intention to vote by proxy today. Is not entirely a new thing. The 1990s andn the house, but it is still done in senate committees. This is the first time that there will be either floor votes in the house or senate in this remote fashion. Members come from states like california where it is a lot more difficult to sparksand Public Health experts warn of the risks of travel because of the pandemic, and members who have Health Conditions like health like cancer, who are at higher risk if they were to contract the virus. Today will be an experiment into how this proxy system will work as well as republican attempts to undermine it today. Work it outey logistically on the floor . We saw many letters being sent into the clerks office. Explain the preparation for this by the clerk and what this might look and a sound like on the floor when it comes time to vote. Any member who wants to vote by proxy the most a person send a letter to the house clerk. Also have to provide specific, written instructions to their proxy for every vote, even procedural ones. It mber who is serving as a proxy cast their own bow and in addition will have to announce from the House Chamber that they are casting a vote by proxy on behalf of soandso. By proxy, their names will be announced during the vote and we be printed and will be printed in the congressional record as well to make it clear who was voting by proxy. Republicans are filing a lawsuit to prevent this, to stop this. Where argument are they making . Argument thathe the constitution says congress should assemble. They take that to mean that you are required to meet in person. There democrats explicitly when they made this rule change this month made it so that anybody voting by proxy can form a quorum and also argue that has established that congress has the flexibility to set its own rules, especially since there is this precedent in committees that has been established. Host tell us about the status of two pieces of legislation. The foreign intelligence act coming back, rate . Right . It is not clear. That was the plan. Kevin mccarthy and attorney general barr were both involved in crafting. Unclearmoment, it is whether it will have the vote to willtoday or if the house need to hold off until things are sorted out with President Trump. The first time that trump has come at the last minute, start encouraging republicans to vote against the government surveillance powers renewal. Republicans made find a way to get trump on board. Host one more item from the pages of the hill. Senator Mitch Mcconnell talking about a fifth coronavirus bill in the next month or so. Where is this goingz . Are you looking for in terms of negotiations . Center republicans are interested in establishing liability reforms to make sure that businesses are not held liable as these shutdowns across states are being lifted. Democrats have expressed opposition to that and have instead called for a regulation establishing a safe east a safety standard. Arecrats and republicans still pretty far apart on the particulars of that. That is something that Senate Republicans have made clear is a priority. Another is the expansion of Unemployment Insurance, presented as one of the Coronavirus Relief bills in march. That is set to expire and democrats want to extend that, republicans dont. That will be part of negotiations. Marcos, reporter for the hill. We appreciate it. Left inabout 35 minutes this first hour of the washington journal. Asking you to give your reaction on the figure of 100,000 coronavirus deaths. We did mention the proxy voting in the house today. Here is an example of a letter that a member of congress sent to the clerk. Comes from a congressman from california. I write to notify you of the designation of a proxy to cast my vote. Attendable to physically proceedings in the House Chamber due to the ongoing Public Health got and i i grant my proxy to the honorable p aguilar pete aguilar. That is the letter that several doesnt democrats have sent to the clerk so far, declaring that they are allowing other members to vote on the floor. Here is a text on our main topic. Theael says, i thought mortality would be 35,000. The virus proved far more dangerous than i dreamt and we are still learning about its capabilities. We are not out of the woods yet. Florida. In here is tom in florida. What isit is sad happening with the debates over the coronavirus. When i hear somebody say that there is blood on Donald Trumps hands, what you see on display and jealousynge, of the Democrat Party in the press toward donald trump. You talk about poor people being affected. Wouldnt it have been nice if there could have been a very cheap drug for coronavirus that could be given people early on and would have prevented a lot of deaths . What you see is, despite that the fact despite the fact that the whole continent of africa has less than 4000 deaths, people say that hydroxychloroquine is not effective. It is obviously effective. They say it is unsafe. Know that hydroxychloroquine is rated safer than tylenol and aspirin . Misinformation and hates a tear goes out when some kind hydroxychloroquine is not effective is nauseating. Its sad it. You want blood on peoples hands . Look at the hates of the Democrat Party. Hydroxychloroquine is very effective. It is really sad. Host from seattle. What do you make of this figure . It is pretty much ridiculous. All that was going on. Do this for aids, swine fluke, mad cow. We did not do this for ebola. We did not shutdown anything for any of those causes, and net now all of and now all of a sudden you are shutting down the whole country for something that you do not have a vaccination for, something that you cannot determine what it is, and then stating that, ok, this is how many people that have been affected it, and this is how many people have recovered. But not considering when all that happens, it was flu season. What is the difference between giving a person a flu shot than anything else, any other vaccination you could consider . When you tell a person they have to quarantine for 14 days, what else are they going to use are those cough medicines . You dont have a vaccination . Country down our entire based on a fear factor. Everyone knows trump has lied. They have either been kicked out or resigned. Isnt that really about caring about our country . You want to impeach me, this is what im going to do. I am going to make you pay and get back in office by disturbing the peace. 1200 and tell you, hey, will come up with a plan. Calling. Da go ahead please. Caller yes, i also want to speak with our congress. We have one person controlling its. The congress should ever criticize the president , at least he did something. He stayed there and we are going on three months. They want to vote for vote by proxy and us to vote by mail. I see my mail carrier go back every day and stop on one side of the street and not stop on the other. Host you are in North Carolina. We are reading the numbers are spiking in that state. Aboutis a debate underway whether to hold a Republican Convention in charlotte this summer. What is your take on that . I supported my governor. I do not think he gave us good information. He tried to make like he was doing everything and they did not test forever and then just last week i heard that they would not go to their state lab to get tests because they did not trust them. That is why we are so far behind in testing. Thank you for calling. Heres a tweet from mark. Whether businesses open or not, the virus will continue to spread because the young people of this country do not give a dam. They do not social distance, or a mask. Times washington from market whether businesses open or not the virus will continue to spread. Contrasting headline in the Washington Post. The World Health Organization warns of a second peak, discouraging a swift return to normalcy. There is a picture of plenty of people on the beach here in england. They are talking about Outdoor Markets and a car show there. Heres the Washington Times opening. On wearing a mask outside. , money and life conflicted, to wear or not to raieigndgment, ridicule is businesses try to reopen. , acknowledgings information posted on this website about the risk of can attracting of contracting says the virus can possibly be spread on objects. Here are the words of Governor Gretchen Whitmer of michigan yesterday on her executive order regarding providers in testing for the coronavirus. I signed an executive order this expands that expands the type of medical personnel that can order a test. This creates a new category of Community Testing sites that offer testing to anyone with reason to be tested without an advance order and without charging outofpocket costs to any michigander. Under this executive order, has symptoms of covid19, even mild symptoms, may receive a test at a Community Testing location without securing a doctors order in advance. Doctor has also announced expanded criteria today. Now michiganders who are eligible for this expanded testing include someone who exhibits any symptom of covid19 , someone who has been exposed to a person diagnosed with covid19 or has symptoms, has not been working outside of days,home for at least 10 or who resides or works in any congregate care facility. If you go to a Community Testing location, ethical personnel will be able to order testing upon arrival. Testedn who wishes to be may call the michigan coronavirus hotline at onea85356136. Or visit michigan. Gov coronavirustest to find a testing location. Host more on the death toll here in the u. S. Good morning. Have a thought is there a cure for the common cold . Is there a cure for the flu . No. Philippines, a new vaccine was used for dengue fever. It turned out to be disastrous. We need to face reality. We may have to live years with the coronavirus. A vaccine may work or not. I think the most important thing we need to do is to continue research to find medicines to stop the coronavirus from becoming lethal. Thank you. Thank you. Rory. Caller everybody better look at one points. We may be having 100,000 deaths. If the democrats were in charge, it would be one million deaths. A lot of countries want their nation to do something about that building in wuhan. They want to destroy its. 10 years ago, they had the stars that came out of their, now this. If something is not done to stop them, we will have another pandemic in years to come. That is about all i have to say. Host frank in fort lauderdale. Go ahead. Out this want to point 100,000 figure, which is butible, sat of course, 100,000 unborn american babies are aborted. The Democratic Party wants taxpayers to pay for it. A bill in the house of representatives and nancy pelosi it will not allow the house to vote on that bill. It would allow declared medical care for those unborn or born american babies who survive abortions, but it would require medical care. Biden and the democrats went free of medical care for Illegal Immigrants. I am for medical care for everyone, but when you are going to give Illegal Immigrants medical care and not american citizens, that does not make sense. That is not the american way to do things. Host onto william in massachusetts. Caller we have one of the highest rates per 100,000 in the state for people with covid. Doing in is the state terms of battling . How are officials and others doing . Caller they ignore Nursing Homes from the beginning and still have no idea how to deal with Nursing Homes that have been poor for decades in this state. And then you have the heroes act. Have you checked out the heroes act . There is plenty of money in er that they want toe to give to cities and towns, but the small towns are getting five cents on the dollar. Gets 1200 per resident to go into fiscal budgets to help with their covid related items. I do not understand why richard neal would want to do that. I got a call from Richard Neals chief of staff who tells me they do not know why it is like that even though they voted for its. I am confused. Host did they say they are going to find out . Caller i know. They know. I have the excel file. Delgado out of new york only wants to give small towns . 25 on the dollar that big towns get even though we had the same tax rate, wages. So how to small towns survive and deal with Nursing Homes if we do not have the money . Host phoenix is calling from missoula, montana. Your reaction to this 100,000 figure . Month i called the last and talked with one of your epidemiologists you had. I pointed out to her how the test is not accurate. She agreed. I have been following this. Ive been following dr. Fauci for about 20 years, ever since they started new forms of isolation for viruses. They do not isolate viruses the way they used to. They use what is called the pcr, which is the same thing they test with. I would ask you to pull up the cdcs provisional death count. I just looked at it. We are at 98 of what we expected the death rate to be based on the last several years. That means we do not have an increased death rate. My question is where are the bodies . A headline americans scramble to leave brazil. They are writing that americans citizenslans to and green card holders are exempt from prohibition. That is in the Washington Post. New york times, millions of children face hunger. 50 of those eligible get replacements for school meals. The Washington Post, a localized twist, Northern Virginia can start to ease northams as governor and colleges weigh options for fall class. Leaders delivery how to reopen. The wall street journal, from the business side it, amtrak is said to cut jobs by up to 20 in the next year. They continue to suffer from a huge decline in ridership due to the coronavirus. Hertz pays senior managers bonuses before they go bankrupt. They paid more than 60 million in senior bonuses to retention managers. The wall street journal there. Bill waiting in palm springs, california. Hey, bill. We lost our mother yesterday to covid. Me and my brother here in brothers intwo philadelphia. I just hear numbers, numbers, numbers. People think where are the bodies. About is talking happen to be hiv positive, and there is no cure for aids. This is been going on since the 1970s. Our mother would knit little hats for babies, she read, she made quilts. When she was a kid, the depression was going on. I know she walked many miles to go to school. She raised four boys, put up with my father. We are all people here. Theorists y please wear your mask. It is not a problem. Put your mask on, protect other people. I was in aghast station yesterday in a gas station yesterday. Three kids came in with no mask on. She is coughing. I am saying, i just walked out of there. It was unreal. Thank you. Host thinking you for sharing your personal situation. Condolences to your family. We have will leave from michigan we have willy from michigan. What is your reaction willie . Caller it is terrible. We have a con man in the white house. Nothinga man that did to try to stop this at the beginning. Peoplenderstand talk on this show about people dying from colds and all that. This is much worse than a cold. This can kill. I see people walking in stores with no masks. I went to the Grocery Store in michigan, and they are letting people come into the squirrel the store with no mask. I stopped going to kroger. Now they are allowing people to wear masks. This is ridiculous. We need a change in the white house period. Jodey writes from twitter, i went to town yesterday. I did notice less people are wearing masks. No wonder why arkansas cases are increasing. The allergy clinic was all masked up. A text from kumar. Leadership and accountability matters in managing this. We need to heed the advice of Health Experts and not politicians. Just under 15 minutes left. Taking your calls on the death toll so far in this country. A couple major race related stories in the news. Minneapolis, police and protesters clashing 24 hours after joy or urge after George Floyds death in custody. A scene that unfolded in a facebook video showing a white officer kneeling on his neck as he pleaded with police saying, i cant breathe. The encounterfter which started after police to hayne him after Police Detained him monday evening. They are now launching an investigation. Out of new york city, that story from central park. Aftere woman fired calling police on a black man in central park. That is the headline. It appears to have begun as one of those brush ups between two new yorkers. A black man asked a white woman to leash her dog in central park and she refused. It took an ugly turn. The woman clutching her thrashing dog, called the police her voice rising. To tell the going police there is an africanamerican Man Threatening my life. This video posted on twitter. Over 30en viewed million over 30 million times now. They write that this woman was identified as ev cooper as cooper. She had given up her dog, publicly apologized, and had been fired from her job. I dont care if they are white or black. Three black guys trying to defend a white woman by herself. This proxy crab. Did crap. They are premeditating excuses so they cannot show up to work. I do not care. If they like the job and miss more than five meanings one year, it should be like everyone else that has a regular job. What do you think of the 100,000 figure . Caller i cannot believe it. You have all these idiots backing up the chinese. Are so twisted its unbelievable. It is because he is white because he is right. He has been taking a beating since he has been in. And i mean come what did obama and biden do for america . Chicago. Nothing for when you give our enemies 20 of our uranium why would you do that . How many kickbacks did they get personally . How in the heck did obama get an 11 million house . Host you made several points. David from flint, michigan. 100 deaths almost. What is your reaction . Caller i am sad about so Many Americans losing their life. I hate that this disease came to our country. Had a we could have smarter president with an education, a better education. I look at it like this. We are in the United States. We have all the top professors in the world. We have so much knowledge. And then we elect someone who was not a bad guy, but he does not have the education or understanding of how to run a country. Everybody wanted a businessman. People. Lost 100,000 a lot of my friends here in flint have passed. They are good people. Bishops, professional people, volunteers to the poor. Everybody is Walking Around like it is nothing. Every time i go out, i put my mask on. I have trouble breathing through my nose, but every time i go to the store, the dollar store, anywhere, i think about the other people. I put the mask on. I see other people Walking Around it being defiant, thinking they are supporting trump and being tough, coughing and laughing in the stores. They dont know that people have lost their friends, their families. They could care less. Host thank you for calling. Fromis another headline the president s backandforth with reporters. Trump gives North Carolina a week to decide on the Republican Convention. The governor says safety will decide the decision. Here is the president. [video clip] he does not want to open up the states. We have until august. We need to know before we spend millions of dollars on an arena to make it magnificent before the convention. The economic consequences are tremendous for the state. We have to know that when people come down, they will have the doors open. If the governor cannot tell us soon, we will have no choice. This has nothing to do with us. This is between the governor and the people of North Carolina, but the people wanted. Now, he is a democrat. A lot of democrats do not want to open up their states for political reasons. I would love to have a North Carolina. At that is why i chose charlotte. But we will see. At the end, we need a fast decision from the governor. Very, very acting slowly and very suspiciously. Are we talking a week, two weeks . Yeah. A short period of time. It is a massive expenditure. I would say that within a week we would certainly have to know. Host meantime, the governor of florida, ron desantis there is a push to have the gop convention. Democrat rory cooper talking about all this. [video clip] we have been in talks with the rnc about the kind of convention that they would need to write an and i kind of that we need on the table. We are talking about something that is going to happen three months from now. We do not know what our situation is going to be regarding covid19 in North Carolina. These are the same kinds of conversations we are having with the calderon a panthers, the charlotte hornets, other large arena owners. Everybody wants to get back into action soon, but i think Everybody Knows we have to take some steps to make sure people are protected because this virus is still going to be with us in august and we will have to take steps to protect people. We have asked the rnc to present to us in writing their proposals. We have had discussions with them about a very limited convention all the way up. We want to see, in writing, what their plans are. We asked nascar to do the same thing. Nascar did a good job this weekend of executing their plan] of face coverings, of social distancing, signage, cleaning. We went to see from the rnc what their plans are, and we have asked them to submit those plans to our Public Health officials. They have someone hired to advise them as well. We look forward to the backandforth on that. We would like to reach a resolution that everybody can be reasonable about, that puts Public Health safety, science, and facts as the number one thing we are trying to do here. So we look forward to those conversations. Host back to your calls. Bob is in louisville, kentucky. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. This coronavirus. These people calling in blaming trump for the virus he did not cause the virus. What the hell . Harder trump is working than any president ive ever seen. I am 80 years old and i have seen a lot of president s, but he is the best i have seen. As far as charlotte to, i would tell charlotte, goodbye, and go to texas were florida. Host all right. Solomon is on the line. From brooklyn, new york. Caller i am a new yorker. I can tell you according to my that i am very disappointed with our governor. They did a good thing in the beginning by closing everything, but i think it is about time to let schools, the kids going crazy at home, to open. Religious places like mosques, synagogues, and churches. I think it is also about time. People are going nuts. It is their religion and a personal thing for a lot of people. I do not think they are doing the right thing by waiting so long. Thank you for calling from brooklyn. Thank you to everyone who has called this hour. We will take a short break and then be joined by congressman tom from oklahoma. A little bit later in the program, we will preview his preview nasasl historic spacex flight launch. You are in his new book, Malcolm Gladwell details why he thinks people make inaccurate judgments of people they dont know. Im going to drag you out of here. Get out of the car. Two days later she hangs herself herself play tragic results. Saw, whichchange we by the way goes on and on. We only saw saw a small snippet of it. Online,irst saw that that was when i realized what i wanted to write about because if you break that exchange down moment by moment, you see multiple failures of empathy, of a million things. Washington journal continues. Host joining is now was congressman tom cole, republican from oklahoma. Subcommitteer on of health and Human Services and education and how schools committee. Good morning grade guest good morning. Host we want to ask you about the big contemporary change in the rules in the house. You say the peoples house can show up, talking about proxy voting in the house. What point are you making . Guest i think its part of the legislative process interacting with one another. Situation where you need to take appropriate , social distancing, masks and you are not speaking. But the United States it is operating, the executive branch is operating. Us have theof bloody to eat and take care of ourselves. Proxy voting particularly is repugnant. Weve never done that. The ideas they are there to represent a specific constituency, thats not something giveaway right now. Putriends on the other side strong restrictions and on the proxy votes, thats a good thing. But just as more thats just a door i would rather not open. This can become precedent for the future and its a precedent we will look at can regret. Host your republican colleague congressman are filing a lawsuit to stop this from happening. What specific argument is the lawsuit making . Theres a constitutional argument the constitution envisions the fact we would assemble as a body and there are several references that suggest they wont see as being able to vote any other way. The counterargument to be fair traditionally the house and the senate have control over their own rules, it was adopted under the process we have. There is a legitimate argument here. Legal scholars are split. Each side introduced information to that effect during the course of the debate on this. More than that i do think publicans feel strongly that the house ought to be in session, its important time to legislate. Oftenoften members dont talk to others with different points of view until they are the house. House. Districts are a bit of a bubble so to speak. Something we should not risk losing, particularly in this case only believe there measures that can be taken that would protect the safety within reason of every member of congress and every staff member. Lets put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen. Ranking member on the House Rules Committee as well as the appropriation subcommittee. Elected back in 2002. Eta, has been on the show multiple times in the past and we thank you for coming. Want to show this headline. Toxic proxy talking proxy voting here. Speaker pelosi blasting out lawsuit calling it a calling it sad. Whats your reaction . Obviously feel strongly about this or would be filing a lawsuit. Frankly someone is going to file a lawsuit. Even if i were in favor of this which im not, i would welcome a lawsuit. You will have to test the legality of this. We could pass Something Like a new cares act or the fifth supplemental and if we do it under these methods and particularly theres enough proxy votes for instance that that constitutes the majority, we are subject to a legal challenge lets find out now so we are on good ground. I think we are but i believe its the courts to make that decision. This was going to be tested legally, the speaker pushed this through with essentially no republican support we offered her a compromise, they werent willing to do that. Lets settle this question up front and if the courts rule in her favor, thats fine, we will proceed. We will be on the floor, showing up for committee, we will be playing under the rules of the majority is written. It might as will be sooner rather than later so we dont risk important legislation being tossed out in some future date rape we know the resolution passed in the house if you weeks ago. This also allows for virtual hearings, how is that going to work and is there Committee Rules supporting virtually . Guest we had a practice run last week. Rules can probably do this , only 13an most members edited process committee for the most part. We dont delve into really complex jurisdictional matters very often. I think it will work well. Most of our members on the republican side will show up and be in the hearing room. I think most of my democratic colleagues will be conducting hearings from their office, that is fine. Thats a hybrid. We offer them Something Like that. I think the problem comes in your marking of complex legislation, let Say Something at the National Defense authorization bill or any of the appropriation bills that fund the government. That is really tricky to do. There are multiple amendments in that. Some of them, the last minute. How you get those distributed, how members react to them it varies quite a bit in the technological skills as well. Its not the preferred method of legislating. To be fair, they dont think it is either. Most of them think if we possibly can, we ought to be in the chamber and on the floor. And i guess the differences we think most members can be in the chamber and on the floor, we recognize that is not true in every case but its true in overwhelming majority and thats the way we want to legislate. Its a lot more visible and transparent and thats how you build relationships. Coalitions. Bipartisan, when you are isolated from one another, i think that makes legislating much more difficult. Even my democratic friends we can see thats the case. They see this as an extraordinary technique just for this time. This role we passed ends with this congress, it would not automatically carry on to the next congress. I take that is a good sign better will bend legislate together and will be legislate in person. Host one more question about legislation before get calls. Your leaderng but is asking the democrats to pull the bill on the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. We expected a debate on the floor today and tomorrow, what is happening with that . I think the president is expressed as opposition and again, this is not an area i work with normally but i have enormous respect obviously for the executive branch. Job of both protecting us and protecting your Civil Liberties simultaneously. The reality is if we dont come to an agreement between the two parties, between the two president ,d with the the president if he chooses to veto certainly will have enough votes to sustain the veto. Given that, i think leader mccarthys turn to pull everyone back and say before we go through with a futile exercise, lets talk this through and see if their tweaks and changes we everybody andhelp if theres considerable doubt on the republican side about our national security, also some skepticism coming out of the department of justice that this might unduly tie the hands. Theres a range of opinion on this in both parties. There is not really a consensus yet. Naturalpriate and if it between people who want to protect individual liberties and protect us against government abuse, i think we saw a lot of that in the fisa courts. And those that want to make sure we have the tools to protect us from another 9 11. Thiswhere the trick is with the trick of the balancing act is. There is always going to be tension there, there still a great deal of tension with this legislation. I think the leader wants to make sure we arrive at a consensus and dont go through pointless exercise where we sent the president something he is not going to sign and if he doesnt sign it will become law because he can sustain that veto. Host calls lining up. From napa, california, democratic line pretty good morning. Explain why the deficit always go up when theres a republican president . George h. W. Bush added more debt than bill clinton in four years in four years than bill clinton did in eight and trump added 3. 6 trillion to the National Debt before covid and by the time he signs the 2021 budget, he will have added over 9 trillion in debt to us. That is more debt than obama did in eight years. Can you explain that . Obama added over 10 billion and i think the president would comment in below president obama absent the covid virus challenge. The real problem here is that both parties dont deal with the real cause the deficit. If you look at what we actually appropriate between 2010 and 2019 is about flat, 1. 34 trillion. Where the spending went up with Social Security, medicare and the big driver behind the debt is actually a good thing. The baby boomer generation is now retiring, 10,000 today turning 65. For the next 19 years. Group soy part of that i dont consider that a bad thing. None of these programs are designed to support the Larger Population for that length of time. We will have to do with Ronald Reagan and tip oneill and howard baker did and sit down and look at the kind of reforms we need in the system. That doesnt necessarily mean cuts. We did slightly raise the tax, we did increase the amount of money that was subject to the tax and frankly we gradually raise the age. Meas 341983, they looked at and said your dad and fullfather, they got a check in 65, it will be 66 for you and 67 for that oneyearold son you have. But they will probably live a lot longer than your father and grandfather did. Those of the kind of changes around the edges. We are not going to cut these things for people that are on them are anywhere close to them, but until you get both parties serious about this pandemic, Neither Party can do it on their 2005, they gotin savaged by leader pelosi and the by leader pelosi and the parade pay the price 42,006. Since then neither one is been able to so i would say lets put them on the table and have a commission that looks at these things, recommends what congress should do. ,e have legislation to do that i used to carry it with john , former member of congress from maryland. Id like to invite my democratic friends here, but the end of the day you have to have president ial leadership on this and frankly, george w. Bush was the last president willing to pick up this and be honest with people about it. T has got to change in one in the form of congressional leadership and the leadership of the white house. Host huntsville, arkansas, thank you for waiting. Republican line for tongue for tom cole. Caller thanks for being here. I encourage you to keep up the good fight to keep this fundamental transformation of america from happening. Our fundamental is our constitution and i would appreciate very much to your , for this Trump Administrations agenda of america first. I appreciate that very much. I would like to make one comment on the entitlements. Itself is sole true, we are entitled to these things because we pay for it in taxes. So what happened to all of our publicim here in the hearing that trillions were taken out and invested poorly. Host actually thats not the case. Your money is still there. With the Social Security trust fund, thats whats paying the difference between the taxes that are coming in and the benefits that are going out. Baby boomers have built up an enormous surplus in Social Security fund and we can argue about investment, but by law the only place that money can be invested is the u. S. Treasury certificates. Weve done a lot better on the s p 500 but we dont want the government playing. That trust fund built up to about 3 trillion. Just the difference between money coming in and money going out. , itt hasnt been misspent hasnt been siphoned off and gone someplace else. But the reality is people are just living a lot longer. 1930sup Social Security , you got your check when you are 65. The average american lived to 63. So most americans theoretically didnt get them and if you got to 65, the average american lived about another five years. Not much longer. Chancehuket 65 your 50 of living to 85 and 25 chance of getting to 93. Im not opposed to that. Morgan have to change the way we advance these. People love to play politics on Social Security, the government has never cut any money anybodys benefit on social arguably the most important Antipoverty Program we have. People over 65 have a lower chance of living in poverty than kids under 18. Its the best taking care of part of our population. So nobody is arguing against that. , bute have paid into it again there were estimates made, those were not to be right. We begin adding life at the end of life something this relatively new in human history. Please to extend your lifespan by cutting down on infant mortality. That last part of life is enormous. That last 18 months in terms of medicare. Im not against those things, for those things. I think we need to be rational. And fund the program at what cost. Otherwise sooner or later he goes bankrupt. I dont think that will ever happen, i dont think politicians will allow people in to have a or 80s Social Security cut or medicare cut, but the reality is we need to do this sooner rather than later. The longer we wait, the more expensive the fix comes. Been disappointed that neither partner has been willing to pick up and really talk about how youre going to change this , letse a lot of people start by just paying for the benefits we are drawing down. Once we do that we could have a discussion about what to do next. Medicaid will bankrupt in the 20 20s. Ever re this is a serious discussion. So far the country hasnt willing to take it up. Host michigan, thank you for calling. Cspan. Thank you for thank you for being here. I have talked to you in the past, there are so me things i could talk about. Words like was uus savage with some things the democrats did. I want to know what you think hist President Trump and tweets and talking about murder. I dont understand the Republican Party. I have voted republican in the democrat. I dont understand republicans whatsoever. I know you say he shouldnt say those things, but thats the end of it. I want to know when you are going to do something about it. Guest first full dont think of ever use the word savage to describe anything or anybody. If i did, i apologize. In terms of the violence against women act you mentioned, i was a pretty key player in passing the 20 extension through the pat through the house and that continued have continued to support it. Im anxious the senate write its own version. Particularly where native american women are concerned. Of tweets and dialogues i can point fingers and every direction. Going thing i could be responsible for myself and what i say. I dont spend a lot of time isuing press statements when disagree with somebody on their language, i focus on the policy of what can and cannot get done. We have gotten a lot of things done together. Bills in ahe first highly charged area and the president signed the mall is a key player in those things. Agreementa budget last year, the president was a key player in that when copper mines between all the parties. We passed the National Defense authorization act, weve done it 59 years in a row. Always a bit parts and compromise. Those of the things you want to focus on. If rhetoric help you get there, fine. People in an age where throw pretty sharp punches. Notice in the media left and right has some pretty harsh language directed the other side. All i can do is try and set an example and move forward with what i think the appropriate rhetoric and policies are. Host lets touch a bit more on covid19. How is covid19 affected your district in oklahoma and speak to the native American Population oklahoma. There is an oped in the Washington Post of your congressional colleagues, native americans need federal help for covid19. Closely on those issues. Statee been lucky as a come we have fewer than 6000 cases in a population of 4 million. Just over 300 deaths. Everyone one of them has been terrible but is not nearly what new york city has gone through or some other parts of the country. The new orleans is at a particular hard time. In terms of the federal response , i would say its been better than it gets credit for an indian country. In the cares act did a couple of things really important. They set aside hundreds of millions of dollars in the hospital. Finally and most importantly we set aside 8 million for tribal governments 8 billion and 150 million package for state and local governments. Thus a large transfer of wealth from the federal government to Indian Tribes in history. Now, is it enough, probably not. Indian country has been hit very countrylook at navajo which is really suffered tremendously, so one set of cyst set of statistics. About a third of the deaths in new mexico native American Population is substantial new mexico. Remote reservations that could health care begin with common multigenerational living has suffered disproportionally, certainly the African AmericanCommunity Stands out. We need to do a better job targeting our efforts, we need to continue to make sure that tribal governments are included in that an appropriate level. That was a bipartisan achievement, it wouldnt have happened if my friend mark meadows had not intervened personally with negotiations. He is to represent the eastern band of cherokee North Carolina and knows a lot about tribal governments and a lot of of Important Role they play in providing health care and services. We made progress here or there is more progress to be made. President does deserve credit for signing a bill for kate native american governments a largest federal payment they have received. Host graham, texas. Go ahead. I have a comment about native americans first. Wouldnt that be beneficial to the tribes if each state would brightestupport their students and send them to medical school so they could set up their hospitals . I think it would be wonderful idea for them. Guest you are exactly right. Some states and some tribes, cherokee nations in oklahoma setting up a medical school on its own. Problems, biggest particularly remote reservations is getting professionals there. Bleak places to live. Its a challenging symbol situation. And the number of Unfilled Positions we have in the Indian Health service of various hospitals throughout the great land base reservation reservation. You are exactly right, the people most likely to stay on the reservation are people who are from there. Who have family there who love recruiting and Training Health care professionals in that is an extraordinarily think extra ordinary thing to do. Honestly to your point we need to do a lot more. Lets touch back on these matters. You voted against the heroes act recently in the house. Why and what would you be looking for in any other updated iteration of the stimulus bill . There were a variety of reasons why. The democrats after four straight bills of working together decided they were going to go their own way on this one. Theres lots of policy issues in their. They are not going to track attract republican support. People to thefor country illegally, thats a problem. And local state tactical actions which really is a huge giveaway to millionaires and billionaires. Thats not to get much republican support. Automaticallyg to release criminals over the age of 50, thats gonna cause some problems. There are policy issues there. I think theres probably too much emphasis on government although i certainly dont have a problem in voting for additional money for state and local governments. Emphasis, you can have to negotiate. The democrats control the house, they dont control the senate and the white house. In the previous bills democrats negotiated and they got some things they wanted. In the follow onto the cares act , republicans originally wanted for the Paycheck Protection Program. Democrats objected to that and added we want money for hospitals and more testing. Money for state and local governments. Frankly we havent we havent spent all the money be appropriated. This unnatural giveandtake. But when either party dress to dictate to the other in a divided government, it never works. It passed the house of the central and over in support is dead on arrival in republican senate. My democratic friends on the other side know that. My guess is they were both run to score political points and lay out initial negotiating position. Fair enough. I think this will probably be another bill, in the second half of june or july. I do think it was wise to wait and see whats working. The economy seems to be coming back a little bit faster than anticipated. There were some things in the democratic bill that were clearly counterproductive. That he have extending extra money Unemployment Benefits to january is going to discourage people from coming back to the workforce. We already have accounts for many businesses about their inability to bring people back because of the unemployed benefits in some cases more generous than the pay. Most people are going to say where can i make the most money this week or this month. So we will have to provide incentive to bring people back to work as opposed to incentive to keep people from going back to work. These are the things that ought to be on the table and negotiated by the parties that Mitch Mcconnell has laid out the idea of liability protection, i think thats a good idea. Thats incurred for businesses to reopen. Us to have a productive negotiation. The heroes act was never meant to be that, simply a political messaging bill from start to finish. Host the independent line. Kevin. Onler with all this going on trying to get a vaccine by this year. Host lets get a call from jessup, georgia now. Go ahead. The first time i spoke with were talking about the republican plan. The American People to policy , when curious about now, do you find that kind of disturbing that you dont have a problem with these. Guest could you repeat the question place. See whats behind firing all these igs. Departmentsthese maybe not going by the rules. Host talking about the recent departure of the Inspector General. Guest first of all, the Inspector General server the pleasure of the president , any president. Ronald reagan fired everyone when he came into office and put in his own. They have a special obligation, its not unusual to see what party move igs from another party. The merits of doing that in any case can be debated. Ill leave it to the white house on what they want to do on a personnel matter. U. S. Attorney server the pleasure the president as well. Serve went into ministration comes in. Anyident obama didnt keep of the u. S. Attorneys from the Bush Administration am aware of. And certainly this administration didnt keep any from the Obama Administration. I see this as part of the giveandtake of partisan when you change hands. The president has Broad Authority to ploy employ who they want in the branch subject in some cases not in the casebycase to advice and consent of the senate. They dont have that kind of power so they dont go through that approval process. The president is well within his right to make these decisions. A text from a viewer. Is it true the rules committee voted to retain their full travel allowance even if voting by proxy and not traveling . We dide did guest that was an amendment i didnt vote for it, it was an amendment that came up that if youre not coming here you should have the same benefits of somebody that is coming here. To be fair that is hard to parse. Some people make a difference where you happen to be from, a for from a hotspot or not from a hotspot. Ifmight make a difference you have an Underlying Health care issue. Some of our members do. It might make a difference given your age. I think we ought to look at it. Members shouldnt be able. Affect thedoesnt personal benefit. It is an office benefit. In other words giving resources than they otherwise might have to give additional money to staff or to hire additional staff. If youre going to make a habit of not coming to work, then we probably ought to have the means to dock your salary, not your salary, but your office allowance. Vote,premature partisan it was a republican amendment. The rules committees always run by the Majority Party. The 13 member committee, but the speaker appoints nine members, the republic minority, depend on whos in charge, points only four. The rules committees going to do with the speaker wants them to do. Its nickname is the Speakers Committee and it decides what goes to the floor, what amendments are allowed. What is relevant in terms of points of order and what have you. That power belongs with the Majority Party and they can use it as they see fit. Take ont me get your your partys convention scheduled in charlotte, North Carolina. The debate this week over whether that convention should be held. The president was an answer from the governor soon. There are Health Concerns about mass gatherings. Should the convention go forward in charlotte in its current form . Guest i hope it does. I dont pretend to know the details of whats happening with covid19 in North Carolina and the push and pull between the havent missed a Republican Convention since kansas city in 1976. I dont want to miss this one either. So i am very hopeful that we arrive at a solution. I dont blame local people for wanting to be careful and make sure everything is healthy and i dont blame the Republican Party either for saying we are about to invest millions of dollars, we have to have some certainty that the event will take place. Thats not an unreasonable request. I think the two sides can sit down and arrive at the appropriate measures to protect people coming into the convention. And protect the community of charlotte as well. We are going to have to do it differently. Again, we cant spend millions of dollars and then show up to keep empty. At some point they have to make a decision and i have a lot of sympathy with governors and with the president because whatever decision they make, somebody second guesses them every day. We have to make decisions with incomplete information on a virus that nobody knew anything about 20 weeks ago. Enough ton severe rock the greatest economy in the world. Fortunately wend are able to work our way out. Havehe best information we , you do owe it to people to be honest. If you cant do it and someplace else can, i dont blame the Republican Party for wanting to move, but they need a reasonable timeframe to do that. I dont think we are asking for anything unreasonable. I think we are willing to sit down and work with the governor and his people and Health Care OfficialsNorth Carolina. Working a know what kind of convention we have. It might be appropriate to do it someplace else. Certainly there offers on the table. Congressman tom cole, republican of oklahoma, thanks for joining us. We appreciate your time is always and enjoy the rest of your day. Host my print guest my privilege to be with you this morning. Host we will take a short break take youre will calls. Morningtouched on this and some we havent. ,emocrats, 2027488000 republicans 2027488001, independents 2027488002. We will be back in a minute. The u. S. House returns today and tomorrow for legislative business and a vote on the isa bill. Zation of thef that will extend Foreign Surveillance authority december of 2023 and has been amended by assent the senate. On thursday the house will take up bills for changes to the Coronavirus Small BusinessRelief Paycheck Protection Program and attempt to override a resolution vetoed by President Trump on student loan forgiveness. Watch live coverage on cspan, watch ondemand anytime at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Open phones now, any topic you would like. Numbers are on the bottom of your screen for your top Public Policy issues of the day. We will start with a couple of headlines. Big launch today, space x Tipping Point test for commercialization for lowearth orbit. The International SpaceStation Mission force as part of the effort to drive down the price of a trip to space. Thats the Financial Times come here is usa today, the opinion of the paper, the new age of entrepreneurial spaceflight. They are saying private enterprise is changing the economics and technology of robotics based and it might it might be able to bring the cost of human space down to a level working go beyond token efforts. Rather than going back to big rockets. Ofs will be the first launch a person from u. S. Soil into space in nearly a decade. In terms of the ,ommercialization part of it Jim Bridenstine, the nasa administrator said this. About a 400 billion with humanwe believe spaceflight, thats with communications, those kinds of capabilities. With human spaceflight it opens up a much broader marketplace and we think its rapidly to be not just a 400 billion market but a 1 trillion market. Im a big believer in the commercialization of space. We needed to be successful. Its how we will get onto mars. If we keep developing using american taxpayer dollars to develop capabilities and lower orbit we will never get to the moon and onto mars. Host the nasa administrator yesterday. Heres our Program Schedule today. The spacecraft want from kennedy atce center in florida today 12 15 p. M. On cspan two, our coverage will begin as they prepare for that launch. The launch is set for 4 33 eastern time. The administrator and other officials will hold a News Conference following the launch of the spacex crew dragon. U. S. Irst manned spaceflight. You can listen live on the free cspan radio app. Tomorrow after taking off from kennedy, the manned mission to launch, the dragon is scheduled to dock at the iss. Live coverage of the docking process tomorrow starting around 11 15 am eastern on cspan two. All these events on cspan two, the house being in session. Watching these online or listen on the radio and. Calls on the phones, your top policy issues. Connecticut, democratic line. Caller hello, pleasures speak with you again. Issue isblic policy the total media blackout going on about the wall street bailouts currently have been underway for the last few weeks. I think forever 1200 dollars individual households and taxpayers have gotten from congress, the Federal Reserve has doled out the equivalent of 60,000 or 70,000 dollars for investors and speculators on wall street. This has not been covered by any of the mainstream media. It is astonishing amount of money and nobody is covering it. Journalist, and that includes you cspan, ive talked to about these bailouts. You guys need to start covering what the Federal Reserve is doing on wall street right now. Did anybody notice the nasdaq had alltime highs with 30 Million People unemployed . Scene and needs to be discussed. Please bring somebody on your program, i would be happy to talk for an hour about it, but please bring somebody on your program who will talk about this to the people. They are getting ripped off lined. Host thank you for the suggestion and participation. Calling from messick in michigan, whats on your mind. Anythingefore i say about whats on my mind about the Republican Party in general and one topic in particular on your last and tom cole in particular under last segment. Why arent you on more often is to mark you and steve are the and hosts on the program im glad you are on and i have the opportunity to talk to you. Host we are glad you are on. What would you like to say . Me that yogiems to said itsfamous and amazing what you can observe just by looking. Coleive noticed, when tom said in 1983 when reagan and tip andill got together reformed Social Security and it didnt involve any cuts in benefits. When you raise the eligibility case, by two years, my Social Security would be about 14,000 to 15,000 year. If im not eligible for another two years, you just took 30,000 away from me out of my pocket, put it into the pockets of corporations and the obscenely rich and what do they do with it . They also made it, they automate their company, eliminating good union jobs. Im a retired union machinist. Get that, theyt just uproot their equipment to china, vietnam, mexico, eliminating good paying union jobs. Thats number one. Number two, as far as these republicans sniffling and whining about lack of cooperation with the Trump Administration and the republicans, how much cooperation did they show in support for barack obama . It seems to me i do recall, i think while obama was being inaugurated, Mitch Mcconnell saying we are going to cooperate fully and work with this new president to the best of our abilities. I hope the democrats, and im not a democrat, i didnt vote for obama, im a nader fan. I voted for Jesse Jackson and bernie. I really dont know. Thank you for weighing in. Is in altoona, pennsylvania. Thank you for waiting period caller thank you. See soling because i much disregard for life and i well believe the saying that are always all in this together, it is not happening on the federal level with President Trump putting the governors in peopleand then we have trying to impeach our pennsylvania governor for doing the safe thing for the people because some of the companies, im going to mention Big Companies that stay open the whole time. You had to wear a mask go in, but you were allowed to take it off and they will not approach you or say anything. This went on from the beginning and this is the kind of thing that helps spread the virus and it was going through very rapidly. Believe they are stifling trumps influence on stifling what is important, saving lives and in this together, he is still dividing the country for ofs reason, it is his way people that are trump followers, thats the way they look at it. Like he is a ruler. I look at it like saving lives is more important than anything. Our numbers are up so high and people are blinded, and people are all about themselves. ,hese frontline people working what happens when there is another, if there is another and could be another because we are by what our rights are, what about the frontline people, what if they get sick . What if they pull out of doing what they are doing . Who is going to take care of you . The enduring selfish people, the people like President Trump that wont wear his mask. That wont that wont do little things. We are working together and he is not. Host thank you for calling. President trump tweeting this morning about what he calls psycho Joe Scarborough talking about the msnbcs ghost host. Saying he is rattled not only by his bad ratings, but the facts coming out on the internet about opening a cold case. He knows what is happening. What he is talking about is highlighted in the Washington Post at the lead story. Persistsseless claim that the credit killed a woman. President trump and the white house on tuesday continued to promote a baseless conspiracy ignoringout a womans up with and putting cash heres what the president had to say about suggestion Joe Scarborough should be investigated for murder. The question was about your tweets about the woman who died and youre suggesting scarborough was responsible. A lot of people suggest that. People willmeday find out. Certainly very suspicious situation and very sad. Very sad and very suspicious. Have you seen the letter that was written by her husband begging twitter to delete your tweets talking about how hard its been for the family and him . Im sure the ultimate want to get to the bottom of it. Its a very serious situation. Joe andaw the clip with i miss where they were having a lot of fun imus where they were having a lot of fun at her expense. Its a very suspicious thing and i hope somebody gets to the bottom of it. It would be a very good thing, theres no statute of limitations. Host here is more from that post story pray twitter issued a public apology to the family, whose death trump is repeatedly weaponize to attack Joe Scarborough. The social media work up rejected a request for to delete trumps conspiracy between. There is also a twitter story in the business section of the New York Times print today trumps post on twitter are labeled false. Their right to refute the inaccuracy of present from suite for the first time after years of pressure over his action on false and threatening post. Social Media Company added links to two of his tweets to which he vote posted about mailin ballots and falsely claimed they would cause the november election to be rigged. They put a letter at the bottom of the post and urged people to get the facts about voting by mail. Clicking on the link led to a story about mr. Trumps claims were unsubstantiated and a list of links that rebutted the inaccuracy. Rodney, south dakota, you are up, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you doing. I turn around and im sitting mediand i gasp at this and the circus thats been going on. I have entrusted government since the 1980s or even the 1970s. Democrats and republicans of sold us out to china for the last 25, 35 years . Now you want to know why since dayis on trump one pretty took on the media, democrats, or struck republicans. He took down the establishment but no one wants to talk about it. Host wilbur calling from culpeper, virginia. Caller good morning. Id like to address joe bidens , i hope they go on the trump had steps where to take peoples preexisting from them from the federal and that the way the American People will see the real trump. ,rumbull have to defend that his lawsuit going in through the federal courthouse taking a preexisting conditions from us. We are in trouble. Make trump defend his lawsuit in the courthouse on the steps. The Joe Biden Campaign whenever you whoever you announce as your Vice President , just go to the federal courthouse steps and let the American People know that this man tried to take our preexisting conditions. Thank you all. Host calling from fayetteville, North Carolina. Caller how are you doing. , war veteran. Child in thea United States america, i never saw this Much Division by people. Soldier, we truly must come together as a people. Regardless of what it needs. World should be angry with this president. Im talking about at leading people. It is no such thing is what we should be ok with whats going on in the country. Not as a citizen. This is a shame when it comes to leadership. We all should understand how dangerous this is. Lets go to marian in grovetown, georgia. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Theres two Different Things i want to say that a sort of unrelated. One is the trump advisor, Economic Advisor said something that really offended me anyway. He said our Human Capital stock wants to get back to work. How dehumanizing that sounds to me, like we are , ourattle and he owns us Human Capital stock wants to get back to work. I just wanted to throw that out there. The other one is my only personal experience, when i went to kroger in late february i had been reading that is very obvious this coronavirus was going to come over and i was getting Hand Sanitizer and those andout six of some toilet paper thinking this is coming here. , this is when trump was saying it was a hoax. But a lady behind me, i said just in case theres a problem i want to make sure i have this on hand and the lady behind me said its just all democratic hoax and i went well if it is then ill have a lot of Hand Sanitizer. And then i went to lowes to trying and tried to stay home. Experiencedhat ive black people wearing masks, but a third of the white people are wearing masks. That was my experience. And idy had a mask on said theres not many people wearing masks. She said i got yelled at for wearing a mask. I want the Republican Party or the trump people to understand that when i wear a mask, i am protecting you, when youre not wearing a mask, droplets from your mouth can get into all different kinds of places and you can actually infect me. I dont have corona, but what if i did . What if i did and im a symptomatically im protecting you. Host larry from anadarko, oklahoma. Out,r just trying to find ive been watching cspan and other things on tv and a lot of the senators do not talk about poor people, reformed Social Security or the stimulus packages. A lot of people are wondering is there going to be another stimulus package for the poor people, you dont know. The democrats put it through the the democrats have put it through the house but republicans arent even talking about it. No one talks about a stimulus package for the poor people or people on disability or anything. Host weve been reading some of the ministration officials are saying they will probably be something coming within a month. Mcconnell acknowledged in the hill yesterday that therell probably be some kind of bill may be in the next month or so. We know they were opposed to what the house put forward. We will see what devolves with any kind of negotiations in the next month. We will take another short break and then we will preview todays withric nasa spacex launch journalist Stephen Clark. And we will talk about the plight of essential and low income workers with heidi shierholz. Left off. Lift off. The first flight of astronauts from american soil. Of the launchage eastern 2 14 p. M. 12 15 p. M. Eastern. Launch briefing with Jim Bridenstine at 6 00. Day live coverage as it spacex crew dragon talks with the International Space station. Between the spacex crew and the iss crew. Watch or listen on the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Host joining us from merritt island, florida is Stephen Clark. He is editor of spaceflight now. Com. Thanks for having me. Host big day in florida today and an important day for the u. S. Space program. Whats going to happen today in florida . We are counting down to launch of two astronauts. This will be the first time american astronauts or any astronauts have launched from u. S. Soil into orbit since the retirement of the Space Shuttle nine years ago. 2011 was the last time it happened. Weather permitting, it will happen again. Host tell us more about the mission itself. The astronauts should be waking up about now. They will have breakfast. They will get a weather briefing and be suited up in their spacesuits around midday and go to the launchpad after 1 00 p. M. Eastern. Checksll have final leak and voice checks with mission control. At 4 33 p. M. Nch eastern. Rendezvousegin a with the International Space station. It takes about 19 hours to chase down the space station in orbit. They are going to do an automated autonomous approach with the station. Docking around 11 40 a. M. Eastern tomorrow. Development of spacex in partnership with nasa. To astronauts will spend one four months there and then come back to earth. Host our live coverage begins at 12 15 p. M. Eastern on cspan two. The launch is just after 4 30 p. M. Eastern time. What else sets this mission apart from others . Points im getting to is the commercialization aspect of this. It is something new and unique. This will be the first privately developed commercial spaceship to carry a crew into orbit ever. This mission is managed by the spacecraft is owned and operated by spacex. The nasa contribution came in the form of funding and expertise and guidance. The astronauts that are going to be flying are both nasa veterans. They are heading back into space. The way they are doing it is very different with a commercial spacecraft. This is the way nasa is looking. O proceed in many ways partnering with private industry in future missions to the space station and eventually the moon. They write, private enterprise is changing the economics and technology of robotic space. It can do rather than going back to big rockets and big government. What did it take after nearly a to get back to this point and get back with spacex . What kind of security and safety concerns that they have to get past . The spacecraft had to go through numerous safety and hazard reviews with nasa over the last few years. With spacexership began in 2011 under the Previous Administration around the time the Space Shuttle retired. Hoped to flysa this test flight with crew 2015 or 2017. Its taken a few extra years to get to this point. Fund thedid not commercial group at the level that nasa and the Obama Administration requested in the early 20 teens. Had severalcrew has setbacks with safety issues, one. Nvolving parachutes one involving the capsule that would be used to push away from the rocket. Nasa says they are comfortable. The astronauts say they are comfortable with the risk going into this test flight. Host eastern and central time zones 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific 202 7488001. About the nasa spacex manned launch. The launch itself just after 4 30. We will watch all of that live. To calls, talk to us about the relationship between this private company that we know is run by elon musk. Talk about the relationship of this company with nasa. How has it developed over the years . Its been interesting to watch from my perspective. Spacex and elon musk has a very different Corporate Culture than nasa has been accustomed to. Comes at this from a Development Approach of iteration. They like to build things and then break them to see how strong they are and improve them with the next version. Nasa uses a lot of analytical paperwork. It has really been a marriage of these engineering cultures and human cultures to get to a finished product thats ready to fly in space. Host if this mission is a success, what happens next . The excitement at nasa in florida over all of this. Yes. The anticipation is very high. I was here for the last Space Shuttle launch in 2011 so its been a long wait for me as well. I see photographers and news crews and we are expecting a big crowd along the coast and the beaches here although there have been warnings from nasa and other officials for people coming to the launch to practice distancing given the coronavirus pandemic. There are only about a hundred news media representatives approved to view the launch here and there were hundreds who applied and hundreds who probably would have gotten in had it not been for the pandemic. We know the president and Vice President are supposed to be on hand for the launch. Where will elon musk be . He will also be at the launch. He will be visiting with Vice President pence and the president himself. Limiting the number overall for this launch. This spacexs capsule different . Tell us more about the whole set up. The crew dragon spacecraft is a capsule. Imagine the apollo capsule. A very different look than the Space Shuttle. It doesnt have the wings of the Space Shuttle or anything like that. It launches on top of a rocket the falcon nine rocket is about 215 feet tall. So the astronauts will be in the capsule on top of the rocket. The crew dragon is very different from the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle obviously landed on a runway with landing gear like an airplane. This will come down at sea under parachutes. The first stage of the falcon nine rocket is reusable so spacex is unique among all launch companies in that they land their rockets after they fly them and then try to turn them around and reuse them. It saves significant costs. Host we have michael on the line from manchester lancaster, pennsylvania. Caller i would like to pray that everything goes very well and that they have a safe takeoff and the voyage goes very well. Thats it. For calling. Ou anything else about safety issues, concerns and what they have done to ensure a safe and successful launch . I mentioned the abort system. The Space Shuttle had no ability for the crew to escape if there was a catastrophic failure or explosion during the launch. Apollo andaft like the russian capsule has an abort system that the astronaut can use to push the capsule away from the rocket if the rocket runs into trouble during launch. They do have an escape route. Host what kind of Additional Technology exists inside the capsule that did not exist inside the Space Shuttle when it last flew . Thats a great question. It has touchscreen controls. Some of the technology has been borrowed from elon musks other company tesla. So the astronauts if they have to take Manual Control of the spacecraft in flight they will be flying almost like a videogame. Flying touchscreen to dock with the space station instead of using the traditional joystick and buttons. Astronauts did have spacex put into the capsule, there is an abort handle instead of relying on a touchscreen. If they have to manually deploy the parachutes there is a push button to do that. The tell us about astronauts. Hurley is a retired marine corps colonel. Hes a former f18 Fighter Pilot and test pilot. He joined nasa in 2000. Hes a native of upstate new york. Two previouson Space Shuttle missions and he was actually the pilot on the final Space Shuttle flight in 2011 and he is spacecraft commander on this mission. Is also a veteran of two Space Shuttle missions. He has a phd from caltech. Hes an air force colonel as well. This will also be his second spaceflight. Host tony. Caller wonderful topic. Great show as always. I wanted to have the guest layout the plan for spacex in particular as well as nasa in partnership with spacex if they look at the next five years of spaceflight. Timetable and what is the plan and how long is it going to take to execute that plan as its laid out currently . Thank you. Thats a great question. Aheads going full speed to try to return astronauts to the moon by 20 24. Thats the ambitious scheduled laid out by the Trump Administration to return astronauts to the moon in the next four years. Spacex is going to have to be a critical part of that. Nasa has a contract they Just Announced a few weeks ago with spacex to build accrued lunar crude lunar lander. Much larger than the vehicle we will see launched today. Its in the early stages of testing. Buildeally has plans to publicprivate partnerships with other companies as well. They have pardoned with blue origin founded by jeff bezos. They have partnered with other Traditional Companies like other companies as well. Outbid boeing for this contract, is that correct . Right. Nasa has two similarly structured contracts for the new program with boeing and spacex to have independent crew capsules. Spacex has received about 3. 1 billion dollars through this program over the last decade and boeing has received approaching 5 billion for the same type of crew capsule work. Host lets go to connie. Caller how are you doing . I grew up in florida with the nasa program. Im pretty excited about this. Why the shuttle landed like a plane but this one cant. Can you explain why its not landing like a plane . Yes. The Space Shuttle landing like an airplane for a couple of reasons. Designed with multiple missions in mind. The Space Shuttle was like a giant truck or bus. People andy a lot of cargo in one mission. The military also looked at it as a spy platform or Spy Satellite deployment platform. One of the requirements was the Space Shuttle could launch, deploy its payload into orbit and come down within a couple of hours. To do that and returned safely to the landing site, the engineers felt the best way to do that was return it like an airplane. That added a lot of complexity. The Space Shuttle was truly complex and fascinating machine. And their commercial partners like spacex are going back to the future and the simplicity of the 1960s and 1970s in terms of the actual function of the spacecraft. The whole idea is to do it a lot cheaper than the Space Shuttle. The Space Shuttle costs hundreds of dollars per flight. Launch theoping to for 200 million to 250 million per flight. Host our guest is Stephen Clark. Now. Com. Spaceflight he has covered more than 100 launches. Between the time of the last shuttle in 2011 and today what have been the most significant u. S. Accomplishments in space and how did they accomplish them . I could take a couple of approaches at that. In theomplishments robotics Space Program of the last nine years have continued to astonish. Nasa landed a rover on mars in 2012 that is still going. It has found evidence that mars was once habitable. They are launching another robotic rover this summer to go to mars and store samples that a future mission can go pick up and bring back to earth for analysis. Also what comes to mind is the encounter with pluto by the new horizons probe in 2015. That was a major milestone to put a capstone on humanitys initial reconnaissance of the solar system. They visited all the other large planets before and now theres this new probe that flew by otherand is flying by dwarf planets beyond pluto. Those missions really come to mind. They have really been conducted in parallel with this new effort era int a new commercial spaceflight. Host rusty is in North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Very exciting day here in america. With all this landing thats going on right now, i was host lets get another call. This is from gary. Dakota wn, north north dakota. Any possibleere commercial activity for a private company in the United States or somewhere in the world to go out to the moon and mars . Or mars . We found water. Big deal. Is there any mining activity that may be they would be better off going to the asteroids. Just for the sake of exploring, i think its just a waste of money unless you can get private Companies Involved for some commercial activity. Is speaking to something weve been talking about and that is companies being involved. Nasas vision for this future of faceplate is to create an economy in space. An ecosystem of companies and government and academia all working together. He touched on something about mining. There are asteroids that Scientists Say have rare earth metals and there also vast resources of water on the moon to mars that can be used develop rocket fuel and breathing air and Drinking Water astronauts for interbase on the moon or mars. If the government or coalition of governments wants to build a base on the moon, one of the activities private industry could contribute is to create technology to mine and refine and produce usable water from host here is a. Weet how will nasa guarantee the public Affordable Access to . Hatever is produced of theairmail system 1920s and 1930s where the government really offered some to companies and entrepreneurs that hold mail to remote parts of the west and some of those companies developed into the first airlines. Thats one thing that nasa is hoping they can replicate with this new commercial program is to foster this new commercial growth and industry in guaranteeing that the funds are used appropriately and transparently, those issues to come up finding out exactly where the money goes. A lot of these designs and safety details of some of these vehicles and technology is proprietary. In many cases its up to nasa to see this information. Nasa engineers can see the proprietary information and say whether they are comfortable with it or not. Analysts for outside and experts to get good insight into whats going on. Rick inve wake in west virginia. Presentwhat is the status of russianamerican cooperation on project artemis and the lunar gateway . The russians recently sent a letter to nasa basically saying they were interested but i havent heard any information about that. What is the present status on those discussions . Specifically regarding the gateway which is a new space station nasa and International Partners want to build as part of the return to the moon program. The caller is about right. There has been for luminary discussion with russia and nasa for a russian airlock on the space station. Everything ive heard is very moreminary and there are detailed and concrete contributions being mapped out with the europeans, canadians and japanese. The a broader perspective, russian contribution to the International Space station has been pivotal and vital to the space station survival because since the Space Shuttle retired, all the crews going up to the space station have only been able to fly on the russian spacecraft for the last nine years. So without the russian contribution to the space station there would have no way for astronauts to get to the space station. Contribution has proven very important. Host and you remind us of the Overall Mission and work at the space station . What has been happening in recent years . The space station typically has a crew of six people on board. They spend their time doing , finding out how the human body responds to extended spaceflight. A couple years ago there was a russian cosmonaut who spent nearly a year on the space station which is a record for a u. S. Astronaut. There was a treasure trove of data to learn about how the human body responds to extended duration spaceflight. There are also private companies who have an investing in research from things as varied as in space manufacturing. Some companies sent of 3d printer to the space station. They say that the microgravity environment on the space station allows them to produce things like optical fibers that are much Higher Quality than can be produced in gravity conditions under the earth. There are plant and Animal Research going on on the space station almost 24 7. Host here is a text from one viewer. Spacex is positioning itself to be a big player in the military space sector. Will the space plane that just went up ever fly on a spacex rocket . Is the military ever going to use their starling satellite system . The x 37 which is a its like avehicle, reusable Space Shuttle. It doesnt carry a crew. It carries an array of experience many of which are classified. It has launched once on a spacex rocket and could again in the future. That partnership has already been initiated between the military and theirs. Regarding the star link network which is the plan to be in Broadband Internet around the world from satellites, their military contracts already in the air force and other branches are looking at the utility of the service to see how and when it can be used for military obligations ranging from troops in the field to navy into airreaming data force planes. Host one last thought from a viewer. What an exciting day for our country and humanity. I hope this ignites our recovery. So excited to watch this event with my children. Put this in the Broad Perspective just in terms of the feelings at nasa. Here in washington and around the country, what does this day mean . I think this is the most significant space news event in at least a decade if not longer. This is the first time in American History a new spacecraft has launched carrying people. This is a major event. Nasa and spacex, their futures are intertwined in the success of this flight and future flights like this. Theres a lot of interest in this mission and i think thats represented by the president and Vice President. We will see how it goes. The weather could be an issue for the launch. We will see how it goes with the weather this afternoon. That is one thing engineers cant control. Host Stephen Clark is editor of spaceflight now. Com. Thank you for having me. Host when we come back, we are going to talk more about the and the plight of essential and low income workers in this country right now plus more of your calls. We will be right back. Having lived through a loss of confidence in our institutions, a wave of cynicism that has left us unable to trust what we are told by anyone who calls themselves an annex. It becomes very difficult for us to rise to a challenge like this. Our first reaction is to say they are lying to us, they are only in it for themselves. A lot of our National Institutions have got to take on the challenge of persuading people again that they exist for us and they are here for the country. Conversation with a scholar. His most recent book is a time to build. Other recent books include the great debate and the fractured republic. Tv, onn depth on book cspan2. Signup today for cspans word for word, providing a daily update from washington straight to your email inbox about the coronavirus pandemic. House on the reopening of the economy and important updates from congress. Sign up today. Its easy. Cspan. Org connect and enter your email address in the word for word sign up box. The President Trump public affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst. And features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. President an. Org the to learn more about each president and order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. On thursday, the u. S. House will take up bills to make changes to the Paycheck Protection Program and they will attempt to override a resolution vetoed by President Trump on student loan forgiveness. Watch live coverage on cspan relisten on the go with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Heidijoining us is shierholz, former chief economist at the u. S. Department of labor earned the Obama Administration from 2013 to 2017. Now with the Economic Policy institute. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thanks for having me. Host wanted to talk about the impact of the pandemic on workers. What do you see . Its pretty grim. Its really bad right now. So as of mid april, the official Unemployment Rate had jumped to 14. 7 . But because of some misclassification and undercounting of people who had lost their jobs as a result of the virus, i think that a more accurate description of where we were in mid april is more like a 23. 5 Unemployment Rate. And weve had another five weeks of deterioration since then so its pretty grim. Really sachs which has a good Economics Research shop, they are forecasting that the Unemployment Rate average 30 in may and june. So its going to get worse before it gets better. Its pretty grim for workers out there right now. Host phone numbers at the bottom of the screen. If you lost your job or were laid off recently, 202 7488000. Essential workers 202 7488001. Everybody else 202 7488002. We are talking with former chief economist at their Labor Department. Or even 30 real Unemployment Rate in this country mean . What does it all mean . There are just a huge number of people out of work because of the virus. Thats the reality we are facing right now. How that plays out on the ground is really a question of how policymakers respond. So if we have a situation where people cant work because of very important social distancing measures, if the federal government steps in and makes sure that their income doesnt drop even if they cant work and if businesses are shattered right now or are working well below capacity because they dont have demand for their services because of important social distancing measures, if the government steps in and mixture they can stay afloat even if they are shattered shuttered. Governments are seeing massive declines in their tax revenue as a result of all of this. If the federal government doesnt step in they will have to do massive cuts that will hamstring the economy. If instead the federal government steps in and shores up their Balance Sheets so they can keep going. If that happens, it means when we are able to reopen safely that will be the kind dense and demand to get a quick ounce back. Bounce back. The pace of the recovery once we are able to reopen safely really is up to how policymakers act right now. Ways. Go one of two i really hope they make the right choice. Talk of anow there is fifth stimulus plan here in washington. What is your take on what theyve done so far for the workers in the country . Bikes theyve done a lot. Its been great. It hasnt been enough. We need to do more. There have been really important things that have been done. Important parts of the stimulus packages that have passed so far have been a big expansion of Unemployment Insurance benefits. In our normal Unemployment Insurance system, there are gaps you can drive a truck through. Lots of people lose their jobs who are not eligible. The federal government stood up a new program called pandemic unemployment assistance. Its based on Disaster Unemployment assistance it gets put into place after a hurricane in a specific area. In this case, we need this pandemic unemployment assistance for the whole country. Have access and are having access to Unemployment Insurance been its wouldnt be eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance. Worke like selfemployed is, gig workers. Forre not eligible Unemployment Insurance but they are also out of work as a result of the virus. People who had to quit their jobs to take care of the child School Closed as a result of the virus. They wouldnt be eligible for regular Unemployment Insurance but they are out of work because of the virus so there eligible for assistance. It has been an important expansion of these benefits. There is also an increase in the amount of benefits people get. Usually Unemployment Insurance benefits are just incredibly stingy. Halfreplace the maximum of of your prior earnings. Most people dont even get half of their prior earnings. If you are not getting half of , for ther earnings vast majority of households that means they are going to have to spend less and that will hurt the broader economy. So those expansions of the amount of benefits people get have also been really important not just for the Living Standards of the people who receive that but also for making sure we are maintaining the strength of the macroeconomy so theres confidence when we are able to reopen. From jackson, missouri. Aller i guess my view of this is more like a military operation. Our president has failed us as commanderinchief. Troops thereve the necessary tools to fight in this war. He has not furnished masks. Given a consistent message. The troops on the ground is us, the people. The ones that are making no money because of income loss. Theres no reinforcements coming from the rear. Whole warl that this campaign as hes called it is an utter failure and its too bad that he hasnt even seen that yet. Host thank you for calling. Heidi shierholz, your take on the Trump Administrations approach to all of this so far. I share that disappointment. Theres been a couple of junctures where we really could have made a difference and avoid this major job loss. We had a real headsup feud we knew this was happening in china and europe before it proliferated here. If we had gotten a really system of testing and contact tracing, then we would be able to just quarantine people who had an exposed instead of having to do these broad social distancing measures and we could have really helped reduce the massive job loss that we are seeing right now. I do think the administration not getting it together to get that done is part of the reason that we are seeing a big problem right now. Again,s this opportunity we are really at this juncture. One of the pieces of good news in the labor market data right now is that two thirds of workers who are out of work as a result of the virus report that they expect to be called back to their jobs. Thats actually great news. It still leaves millions of people who dont expect to be called back to their jobs, but thats a pretty high share. The means policymakers have opportunity to make that happen, to make actually possible for those workers to go back to their jobs. So if they do things to make sure people have the incomes they need even if they havent been working, make sure businesses stay afloat and state in the governments dont have to make massive cuts all by providing the necessary aid, then when we are able to reopen safely, there will be the confidence and demand that we will be able to get a quicker bounce back. I really hope at this point the administration and Congress Step up and do the right thing. On the linee sean from lakeland, florida. We understand you called on the line for those who have and laid off. Tell us your situation. Imer my situation is fitting to get laid off. My company is going to discontinue my job. Host what kind of work . Caller i drive a forklift. I work at a food warehouse. So we were deemed essential workers. Theomment really is forgotten which im about to nonessentials a thats on unemployment that pays Child Support. Stimulust get the package. I got a letter saying that i was going to get one. Then i got another letter saying that it got took for Child Support. Which i pay Child Support every week. Because they take it out of my check. Gaveon top of that, they 500 to the kids. So its like, we dont need anything . It wasnt as big a deal because i was working. Now that im not working and im going to be on unemployment in florida which has like an eight week or nine week backlog . Im going to go months without any kind of income. The people theyre supposed to help me with that income, it got taken. Host thank you for sharing your situation with us. Im very sorry to hear that. Its a terrible situation that we are in right now. Policymakers should be stepping into make sure that people who are just like you are able to have enough money to not have to reduce their spending dramatically. That obviously helps you but also means that we are not seeing this drag on the broader economy that will mean if youre not able to pay your rent, if you are not able to buy the ,hings that you need to get by we have this Ripple Effect where other people would not be getting the income they would otherwise get from your spending. That creates an even worse effect and we get this downward spiral. Its very important that and youkers step in have the kind of relief that you need. You will be, im sorry to have heard, out of a job through no fault of your own because of the virus. To haveutely need policymakers stepping in and making sure that you dont see a big income drop as a result of that. I know florida has been particularly tricky to get Unemployment Insurance benefits. I think you are right to be concerned about the delay that you might face. I would always say when people have been laid off we have as a country not invested in her Unemployment Insurance system for decades and so there are these big delays. I always want to say to people if you are laid off and applying for uninsurance but its, dont give up. Keep applying for them. They are yours. We will be able to get them. Away, dont get it right the benefits that you get will be retroactive. So just keep trying. You will eventually get through and get that money. Theow people dont have luxury of having no money in the meantime. Its going to be very hard to get by. Just keep trying. Host that last caller talked about the fact that he was considered an essential work at one point. Speak to us about essential workers in this country. How many of them are there . How are they faring right now . Theres no clear definition of essential workers. States have defined them differently. When you think about the things that we all need in order to get workers, Grocery Store in my mind are obviously essential work is. First responders clearly essential workers. Who are doing other kinds of administered of things that we absolutely need administrative things that we absolutely need to keep functioning as a society. People like waste management. We absolutely need that to happen. Its a very broad swath of people. When you think about what is an essential worker, about what do you see that you need to actually make it through from day to day. Those are the people that have to keep going to work despite risks they may be facing. One of the things thats true about essential workers, many of them have historic been very low paid work. For example in Grocery Stores. They are providing the services that we all need to make it through this Global Pandemic and are typically very low paid work. Workers. This has really shown a light on what does it mean to be essential and should we think about how those jobs are compensated going. Host stephen, calling on the line for essential workers what kind of work you do and what is your situation . Im a factory worker, laborer. Ive been making plastic pipe for 38 years. Out with the broke pandemic, we received papers in case they got pulled over that we could make it back to work in pennsylvania. In our area of the lehigh valley, its a very Big Industrial center with the cement mills and warehousing that supplies everything on the east coast now to new york city. When our governor took over everything and shipped all the ppe to new york and when they found all that stuff in the warehouse with all the ppe and they kept screaming about new york and northern new jersey got it in on the eastern end of pennsylvania we started getting slammed. We saw a lot of workers who were democrats were changing their tune real quick because they saw what was happening with politics in this. Frome who were laid off their jobs were earning 1200 a week when this all started. So they werent hurting moneywise. Because i make at least that every two weeks for takehome pay. Been livingho have high off the hog, you have to get out there and think for yourself how to survive this with everything you do at home. Luckily my wife and i had always prepared for an eventual problem with the citizenship in the United States in case something would take a turn. Happening wasnt just overnight. They did several exercises on this from 2001 up until now. Just in case something would hit. Now everybody is being told makes messages from everybody, but your Economic Activity starts in the home and your Economic Activity will eventually go all the way to the ends of the earth and the United States. Everybodys American Dream has to be readjusted right now. Host thank you for calling. One of the things the caller brings up, i do think that this really highlights just how important government is. To have a really good wellfunctioning government that when we have a crisis like this, for many people theres nothing they can do. For most people in this country, the way they make it week to week is through the labor market people dont have wages for most people in this country arent high enough that they are able to put a lot of money away for savings for a catastrophe like this. No matter how responsible and scrupulous they have been, wages for decades now have not been highend enough to give people that cushion. It juste like this becomes doubly important that the government really step in and make sure that peoples incomes dont drop even if they arent able to work so that when we are able to safely reopen we have that confidence and demand that we are able to get people back to work and get the economy back on track again. I think this downturn really highlights how incredibly important it is that we have our government operating like a well oiled machine to step in and give people what they need to make it through this horrible pandemic until we can get out the other side. Host air guest has a phd in economics from the university of michigan. S theme has come a couple come up a couple times today. Consumption is 70 of our economic engine. Why is the stock market reproaching record highs . Reapproaching record highs . It highlights how incredibly different real economy is and the stock market. The vast majority of people in this country have little to no holdings in the stock record at all. Stocksen you include held indirectly in retirement and counsel. It is something only a third of least 15,000 at in the stock market even including stocks held indirectly in retirement accounts. Its just a very small amount that holds most of the stock. Its not a reflection of what is actually going on in the economy whatsoever. The charts that we see coming out now that show layoffs spiking, it just under stores this. Im an economist. I almost never look at the stock market in order to get a sense of whats going on. Because it doesnt actually reveal information about how the people of this economy are faring. Host we have joann on the line from washington d. C. We understand you have been laid off. Caller yes. Im furloughed from a system of hospitals. Suchont need to market in a situation. Money is tight at hospitals. In d. C. Andliving working in maryland. After six weeks of applying and applying, no payment is coming out. Manysituation with so other people. We have our own facebook page. My question is in a national where the president can mandate companies to produce whatever is necessary, wouldnt it be good if the federal government could mandate that the state Labor Department offices work extra hours or weekends or bring in a National Guard to sit at desks and answer phones because you cant get through on the phone. You cant get anything online or emails or in the mail. Theres a lot of us who dont have the money to put into the economy even if businesses open. Story, we are hearing that echoed over and over again. Its a terrible situation. I would say keep trying. When you do get your benefits, it will be retroactive. So that will help i know that leads leaves a massive gap. Have this invented this invested in our unemployment programs all over the country for decades. We started to see state Unemployment Insurance agencies put out requests, they needed to hire people who were cobol programmers. That is a programming line which that i learned in the 80s. Its an ancient language. States uihat most agencies still run on cobol just understands underscores how much we havent invested in these programs so that we do not have the worldclass Unemployment Insurance assistance programs that we would need in order to be able to the crisislely and make sure people at the benefits that they need. Disinvestment, its working people who are paying the price for that its people like this caller who are paying the price for that its a terrible price to pay. One of the things ive said is the problem is we go into a big recession with the insurance system we have, not the one we want. To keepcome around trying, you will get the benefits eventually. I know that is small solace now. We have to make sure after this that we learn this lesson. Make sure we are investing in these systems so this doesnt happen to work again. People should be able to get their benefits quickly, keep them and the economy afloat. Host tina from alabama. Always Milton Friedman showed the production of money was tied to liver and the computer price index Consumer Price index tied to labor. And the Consumer Price index is tied to that at the hip. At what point does inflation become a harm to us . We dont have to worry about that right now. Interest rates are extremely low. It is important to mention that we have a ton of fiscal resources right now. Inflation happens when theres a ton of demand that overheats the economy. That is the opposite problem that we have at this point and given that we have on the order of dirty Million People out of work, we are not going to face a until thesehis things will be able to work out. Spendnow every dollar we is an important resource to go towards avoiding a much longer period of elevated unemployment that will do far more persistent lasting damage to the economy. When we are in good times, we dont want to do a whole much of deficit spending necessarily. At a time like this, its different policy prescription given how the economy is. We need to spend to get us out of this. Host thank you for joining us. Thanks to everyone who called in this morning. We will take you to the house now. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. Before lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, 2020. Gton, d. C. , may 27, i hereby appoint the honorable to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives