Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20130307

You can see the numbers on the screen political affiliation. Divided by political affiliation. You can contact us on social media, on twitter or facebook. Or email us. The front page of the l. A. Times this morning, the headline and here is the attorney generals letter to senator rand paul. Again, that is the attorney generals letter dated march 4, to senator rand paul. And here is usa today, on the filibuster that occurred last night. We begin with a call from james in wendell, north carolina, democrat. What do you think about the use of domestic drones . Caller the whole situation last night was very disgusting. I have no idea how elected leaders can waste time like that. I know filibuster is part of the process, but there is absolutely no evidence that any president is going to kill an american citizen under any circumstance just for the sake of doing it. So the questions made no sense whatsoever. If youve just dont get the answer you want, that does not mean the question did not get answered. Thank you. Host thanks for calling. The front page of the Washington Times has this story and william is an independent in d. C. , good morning. Caller i agree with senator rand paul. I am completely against a drawn strikes within the u. S. Against u. S. Citizens. It violates the fifth amendment rights of all citizens. I am against a drawn strikes in Foreign Countries too. During the filibuster, he mentioned every hewe may ever time we make kill a suspected terrorists overseas, you just makes and more of them as their family members seek revenge. It does not do any good. The problem is the manufacturers of drones have a big lobby now and are selling them to other countries. Selling them to Law Enforcement agencies within the United States. So it is all about money, really. I think it was a wise political move by senator paul. Thats because he will force other republicans who dont necessarily agree with him to take the floor with him. It ended up being a political win. Host in the New York Times this morning is this picture of the chairman of the judiciary committee, Patrick Leahy, with the attorney general William Holder excuse me, eric holder. The article and attached to the picture says the senators are present eric holder on the use of military force. Heres a little of what is he had to say. This was wednesday. [video clip] i think what youll hear from the president in the short amount of time is we talked about the need for Greater Transparency in what we share, about. Im really confident that if the American People had access to choices and some of this stuff can not be shared, but at least the representatives of the American People, if members of the Intelligence Committee would have seen some of the opinion, there would be a greater degree of comfort that people would have to understand the government does these things reluctantly, but we do it in conformity with international law, with domestic law, and with our values, as with the American People. So i think there will be a greater effort at transparency. A number of steps are going to be taken. I expect youll hear the president speaking about this. Host sandra is on our republican line in empire, alabama. What you think about senator pauls filibuster end the use of domestic drones . Caller i agree with everything the man said. I am so glad he had the guts to stand up. I wish more the senators would do the same, because i am just a retired nurse and a grandmother, but it seems i watched tv all the time and cspan and the other news, and it seems to me that if our country is slowly being taken over. I know this sounds like i dont know what you would say a bookd is, but i redbread in High School Years ago and what has happened the last few years, it seems something has gotten into our government that is trying to take over all of america. It is very scary. I thank him for what he did and hope the rest of them have the guts to stand up with him. Host did you find yourself watching the senator last night . Caller i did. And i watched the other ones that would ask questions. There are scales on everyones eyes that they dont see whats going on. Im just an old woman, but i have seen things on tv. I watched a lot of the little stocks on cspan. The little talks. Its turning into a Godless Society and nobody is going to care. They will end up doing like they do in other countries where they have no value on life. It started when they took a bible reading out of schools, the 10 commandments out of schools, because i know how it was when i went and i know what it has been like for my children and my grandchildren, is like them going into prison or something. It is horrible out there these days. Host thank you. A tweet don inxt caller is son i tallahassee, florida, a democrat. Caller i agree with the first caller. Jesus asked who do you think i am . If you ask the average black man if they are afraid of a drone, they will say im afraid of the police that stop me for not stopping at a stop sign. People get all hypedup because ron paul is going to protect the American People. It all depends on you ask. What a waste of time. If paul tells me anything, i dont believe a word of it. Thanks a lot. Host and this is jon in louisville, your h you are on. Caller i dont care for the use of drones. It is kind of draconian, spying on us. I applaud paul. I voted for him years ago. People may not agree with the filibuster, but people need to wake up to this administrations views and how they are taking away our Civil Liberties everyday. Host have you had a chance to watch local news in kentucky, or c the courierjournal . Caller i woke up about an hour ago. So the morning shows just went over it quickly, saying that it was 13 hours long, the filibuster. They did not go that far into it. It did not involve any monetary value, so i guess most people dont care for it. Host thanks for calling. The front page of the Washington Post chris in greenville, tennessee, on our independent line. Caller yes, sir, peter. How are you . Host good. Caller cspan is a great service. As far as the use of drones goes, i just think we need to be very, very careful with the use of drones. It is a technology, there could be used for that, of course. I think we need to be very careful. Could i please make a quick comment . I would really love to see c span put forth a little more effort in having covered dubbed the tea party in having coverage of the tea party. I would like to see representatives of the tea party covered more. Host are you a member of the tea party . Caller not really, but i think our two party system needs to have some help. A lot of people think that our two party system is broken. There could be other parties which would be good, i would like to see those covered, also. Host that was chris in tennessee. Michelle is a democrat in colorado. Caller good morning. I just wanted to jump in on this as a democrat who has voted for obama twice. I was very proud of rand paul and his efforts to bring attention to something so many people seem to be sleeping on. That and the ndaa. I dont think many of our citizens realize that our first, fifth, and 10th amendment have had a direct hit with the National Defence authorization act and drones. Host a lot of facebook comments. Quite a conversation going on. Those are some of the comments on facebook right now. If you would like to join the conversation. A tweet here is a little bit more from senator rand paul last night during his filibuster. [video clip] i rise today to begin to filibuster John Brennans nomination to the cia. I will speak until i can no longer speak. I will speak as long as it takes, until the alarm is sounded from coast to coast. Our constitution is important. Your rights to a trial by jury our precious. No american should be killed by drones on american soil without first being charged with crime, without first being found to be guilty by a court. Americans could be killed in a cafe in San Francisco or in a restaurant in houston, or at their home in bowling green, kentucky and. It is an abomination. It is something that should not and cannot be tolerated in our country. I dont rise to oppose John Brennans nomination simply for the person. I rise today for the principal, the principal is one that as americans we have fought long and hard for, and to give up on that principle, to give up on the bill of rights, to give up on the fifth amendment protection that says that no person shall be held without a process, that no person shall be held for a capital offense without being indicted. This is a precious american tradition and something we should not give up on easily. Host from roll call this morning senator rand paul ended his old buster at 12 00 hsi filibuster at 12 39. Ended his filibuster. That gives us a sense of when this vote could take place. Chuck in kansas, republican. Caller i completely back rand paul on his statements for what he said. Hes exactly right. Host were you watching a little of him yesterday . Caller no, i did not get to see it. I heard about it. Host why do you support him . Caller because of what he said and what our constitution says. It is plain as day. It is illegal. I have had personal experiences with people who could have went and done damage to people. You can report it, but the law cannot do anything about it. Host kevin is in idaho, independent. Caller hey. I hear a lot of callers supporting rand paul. All due respect, theres Something Big missing. Everybody is citing the constitution, but they are citing the original amendments. Amendments have articles upon those. What is happening that i am seeing, because i am an educator, is you have both sides playing this little pick and choose game. Theyre not telling the American People what is going on. They are misinforming them, dumbing it down. All members of our government have taken an oath to protect and defend our nation from terrorism and attacks both from foreign soil and from domestic sources as well. A drone strikes, what are we going to do . Start hiring marines to attack starbucks to take somebody out who is a domestic terrorist thats working for Foreign Agent . That would send a really good message. It sucks either way. People will get the wrong impression when we have to take out some one that is threatening our livelihood and our lives. But what rand paul did, 12 hours of filibuster and confusing people on what our laws really are is absolutely disgusting. He is setting a precedent that will continue where politicians are going to say i will pick and choose this talkedabout and i am not going to go through the real loss of our constitution, im only going to pick out an excerpt that suits my purpose. The americans are supposed to be united and not divided. We all want the same thing. I think the filibuster has hurt us more than helped us. Host wall street journal droneial, rand pauls rant this headline. Again, the wall street journal, 2nd editorial this morning. Senator lindsey graham, this is from wednesdays hearing with a trade general eric holder. [video clip] we have been talking about this ever since you live at this job. During confirmation. Absolutely. I want to congratulate you and the president. He has fought long and hard about how to send the homeland in very difficult circumstances. I applaud your efforts in the drug program. I think it has really helped us in afghanistan and pakistan. I just believe it is a tactical tool that this president should be using and i think he is using it responsibly. Host george in baton rouge, louisiana, a democrat. The use of domestic drones. Caller this is what i have to say, a trader for is not a citizen traitor. I served in the navy un john keyness father johnwho the skipper of the ship by was on. Whenever you hear filibuster, you can reset the congressional record and you will find the from mississippi including long and others. You can find that in your congressional record for over 100 years. You can rest assured that when you hear of a filibuster, is a southerner. Southerners use filibusters to negroes of their Constitutional Rights for over 100 years. Now i could go on further. But do you have any questions . Host we will leave your comments stand. We appreciate your call. Ed okeefe is with the Washington Post, congressional reporter. What is the status on the john brennan nomination . Guest it is out of the Intelligence Committee and is waiting for votes. The filibuster happened in part because harry reid had not yet filed cloture, which was expected to happen at some point on wednesday and it did not happen before rand paul took to the floor and began his 12th hour filibuster. At some point today we expect harry reid will file cloture and begin the process of moving to a final vote. Although we might have to do a more revised count after last nights spectacle, it appears that he has 60 votes necessary. But when Mitch Mcconnell took the floor after 11 00 last night and said that he did not think republicans should vote for cloture nor for the nomination itself, now one wonders if there will be five republicans voting with those 55 democrats. And even some democrats could conceivably part ways. Ron wyden, of oregon participated in the rand paul filibuster. He was planning to vote for john brennan, though he had concerns. Host can you predict a schedule of events in the senate . Guest we will see cloture filed at some point. Then the question will be whether republicans allow for a vote today or whether they delay until tomorrow morning or just ticket into next week. The senate is expected to leave at some point today is not early tomorrow morning. Its a matter of whether the democrats want to get it done today or whether they will wait. I suspect that republicans, hoping to take advantage of what it went on late into the night, might try to make political hy of this and delay a vote until tuesday at the earliest. Host here is the headlights of an article, reaching across the aisle. Who the have dinner with last night . Guest i started to lose count, because there were so many. John mccain, lindsey graham, kelly ayotte, richard berg, john corpora, tom coburn, johnson of wisconsin. This was a collection of people that may not have ever expected a chance to sit with the president , but they all went to the jefferson hotel, a very nice establishment, just a few blocks from the white house, to have a productive dinner, those were the early reports from the senators. Sobel reports suggest the president has invited the House Budget Committee chairman paul ryan to the white house to continue this out reached to republicans. Apparently, theyre trying to get a grand compromise orchestrated and perhaps approved later this year regarding fiscal matters, regarding entitlement reform, tax reform, maybe changes to sequestration, and making sure theres a real budget that gets passed in the coming months. Host finally, one other congressional issue, the house passed the continuing resolution last night. Or yesterday. Guest they did, by helping martin, which now comes to the senate. Its expected they will mark that up next week. Are significant concerns among Senate Democrats with some things better in the house version of the cr, but it is expected they will get worked out so they leave town on friday, march 22, to begin an easter recess. The current spending resolutions runs out on wednesday, march 27. But theres no reason to believe they would cut into the easter recess. I believe they will be able to work it out. What will be of concern as the Senate Proceeds is whether they begin making significant programmatic and overall changes to what the house passed. If its minor and insignificant, expect it could be sent back to the house. If the democrats make wholesale changes, except ourselves up for a nail biter. Host we appreciate the update on congressional issues, as always. The front page of his paper has this article we will talk about this issue with two members of congress who are coming up on this program in about 15 minutes. Joaquin castro, democrat of texas. , clint sop, republican of california. Tom mcclintock. Diana on the phone from new york, democrat. Caller good morning. I really appreciate it. I applaud senator rand paul for his stand for our constitution. I agree also with a retired nurse from alabama. Well done. If i could probably hit on 15 talking points for the removal of obama. These hypocritical liberals who go crazy over waterboarding, of murdering terrorists, are now just fine with drones against fellow citizens. What is going on in this country is not the country i grew up in. I ask everybody what is next americans can be killed on our own soil . May god bless america. Host joe is in the suburbs in bethesda, maryland. Caller im a democrat and a lifelong committed democrat. In my view, every single democrat senators who criticize president bush for all grades for abu graib should have been rushing to support rand paul. Theres a right to due process in the 14th amendment. It is what provided the foundation for giving African Americans the right to vote, to ensuring that people have access to government. And this administration has such disdain for it. It is shocking. I have to say that this is more than just the issue of drones used domestically. Due process rights throughout our countrys history have followed american citizens wherever they go around the globe. This issue about whether one is an enemy combatants, that is something that should be determined in an adversarial proceeding. The executive branch should not get the right to make a unilateral decision about whether one is an enemy combatants and then acting on the evidence they have gathered and acting along their determination of who is an enemy of the United States, go out and kill that person overseas when that person is a u. S. Citizen. I am surprised that those such as saunders have not given support to rand paul to stop this nomination. And i am appalled with the leadership of my own party being so inconsistent with their views on the importance of the amendment and 14 amendment. Host facebook those are just some of the comments. Quite a conversation going on, on facebook, if you want to join. Welcome to the light it, on twitter about five or six hours into his filibuster last night, senator rand paul talked about the power of the government. [video clip] our Founding Fathers were brilliant in the sense that when they separated the powers and had these coequal powers of government, these branches, there were somewhat pitted against each other. And by having equal power and being able to judge the power of the other branch, no Single Branch could stimulate too much power. In our country it has been going the other way for a long time. It has not been just democrat president s or republican president s. It has been both. For maybe 100 years or so, if power has been gravitating and gravitating and going to the presidency. Not just the presidency. When people talk about the bureaucracy, these are people within the executive branch, millions of them. Host richard is in cold water, michigan, independents. What you think about the use of domestic drones . Caller are you kidding . This should be completely outlawed. Take these weapons out of the hands of these people. They have declared war on america now . We have all wakeup. Theres a constitution and its very easy to read. What they do is legislate around the amendment and then they call that law. This is junk. They worry about people getting upset about this. People should be upset. What is it going to take in this country for people to stand up and say, wuit quit stripping away every right that we have. We get these rights from god. The constitution is supposed to restrict the government from infringing upon any of these rights at any time. It has gone completely the other way. People to think we actually get rights from the constitution. No, they are there to protect our rights and that the job of government. Its time for the country to ask the question, what is the role of government . I am tired of these socialists. Call them what they are. Host we will leave it there. That was richard in michigan. This is nelson, republican in massachusetts. Caller good morning, peter. What i would like to say, theres no party that gets everything right on every issue as far as our government is concerned. One prospective i would like to bring forth to the American People is that the constitution and the bill of rights, to protect the people and to protect people from their government. If they chose to overthrow the government, for the people to be able to do so. This is where people should look at it from that perspective. Us being protected so that we could overthrow our government. Thats all i would like to say. Host on twitter Jim Sam Robert i want to show you this picture in the New York Times. This is part of the funeral recession procession for hugo chavez in caracas, venezuela. And in a related article is this picture of the new leader. Heres the new leader of venezuela, vicepresident of nicolas maduro. And some editorials on the issue of hugo chavez. This is the financial times. This is how they conclude their editorial. The headline again, the financial times. Here is the Washington Times finally, from the New York Times, this is their conclusion on their editorial craig is a democrat in new york city. Caller good morning. I would like to say i hope all the democrats dont start jumping ship just because the president and administration are using illegal forced. The government has been using lethal force at the local, state, and federal level, but are rules for when you can use it. If somebody is facing you with a gun, you are allowed to use deadly force. If they turn their back and are running from you, that is out of the question. But the government waco, they used legal force. The mayor of philadelphia dropped a bomb on these people to move. So it is not like its anything thats new, but there are rules and regulations for when you can use lethal force on people. It just did not come up now. Host thank you. On twitter frontpage of the Arizona Republic newspaper this morning is this picture of former representative Gabrielle Giffords with president mark kelly. She returned to the site yesterday of the shooting for the first time, in 2011 in tucson. Dan in georgetown, massachusetts, independent. Caller thanks for having me on. This is quite bizarre. If we look at what has happened in our country over the last 12 years since 19 hijackers armed with a box cutters apparently took over our country, we are our government has come together. They have come together and seized the rights of american citizens. That is where they have come together. Just the other day, the faa announced that box cutters are allowed on airplanes again. So, we are see a saying its ok to bring the same theon that took our entire country down bring on the same weapons that took our entire country down from 19 hijackers armed with a box cutters. And now the patriot act, the military reauthorization act, american rights are being taken away. And there has been a strong collaboration in washington to do this. That is why we are where we are. It has not been done on the peoples behalf. As an earlier caller in alabama stated, there is Something Else going on. And, yes, people, there is. It is called the foreign banks. The Central Banks of the world. This is coming down. It wants to take away arms. Theyve taken our rights away. The president has the authority to kill americans on american soil. I mean, people, to wake up. Host i did not see the box cutter issue mentioned, but i did see in the papers about a small pocket knives. Again, not making too fine a point about that issue. Two members of congress coming up. Swat team castro, first term representative from san antonio, texas, democrat. After him, a third term representative from northern california, republican Tom Mcclintock. We will have conversations about different congressional issues with them in just a moment. Abigails letters have been in print since 1840 when her grandsons First Published an edition of her letters, which went through four editions in 1840s. It she was a best seller through the 19th century. People knew her. She has always been famous. Our conversation with historians about Abigail Adams is now available on our website, cspan. Org. The United States patent and Trademark Office is one of the few federal agencies that actually is designated to assist in the constitution. Patents and trademarks are a fairly modern invention. The first patents were actually royal grants given to inventors for a monopoly on their intention. They were popular in england and in continental europe. But the constitution takes it one step further. This is for useful inventions and from the beginning novelty was a key aspect of the patent offices role. You will notice every one of the models has a little tag with it. Each of the tags is tied on by a piece of red ribbon. This little piece of red ribbon is one of the supposedly originations of the phrase red states and government red tape. Its hard to tell if it was originally red ribbon. It was not until the tag was tied on and the patent was approved that you would cut through all the red tape. Patent models were originally required to show the operation of an item. So each one of these models works in the way that a full scale version would work. This weekend on American History tv, the National Inventors hall of fame and museum. Sunday at 7 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host we are pleased to welcome firsttimers presented Joaquin Castro, a democrat from texas, serving on the Foreign Affairs and Term Services committee. Representative castro, we started this morning by talking about senator rand pauls filibuster yesterday on the use of domestic drones, holding up John Brennans cia confirmation. What are your thoughts about that filibuster and the use of drones in the u. S. . Guest there was a lot of trauma around this yesterday. We have not seen a filibuster like that in quite awhile. Drama. He went on for quite a long time. When we think about the use of drones, it plays into a larger conversation about the process for american citizens. I think the administration was pretty clear that they have no intention of using drugs against american citizens. So that was very good to hear. I dont think any american citizen wants drones to be used against other americans in our homeland. Host you voted yesterday for the continuing resolution for the budget to be set through september. Was a republican bill. Guest it was. There were really no good choices. What that bill did was give us some flexibility to the department of defense and department of veteran affairs. There are a lot of other departments that will be impacted by the sequester. And so, the first thing is we should have fixed the sequester. That bill does not do that, but the bill gives flexibility to those departments. I represent san antonio which has three military bases. In my district i have a military base that does all the air force basic training. Its one of the Largest Military installations in the country. I did think it was important to give them flexibility, but i also wish the republican bill did what the democratic motion to recommit did, of which is give flexibility to other departments as well. If we know the department of education, health and human services, that they could use the same flexibility. Host why did you vote for that . Guest because it did part of what we need to do, but i also prepares a lot more we need to do. Host besides the military, have you seen any effect in your district of the sequester . Have you seen an effect yet on the military . Guest i took a tour of black and therefore space because i wanted to meet with the folks in charge about the issue Lackland Air Force base. This was about a week or so before the sequester. Civilians being furloughed. I dont think anybody believed that on the first day back all of these cuts were going to take place. That has not happened, certainly. If we are almost one week into it now. We do know if you look at the top line numbers, that over time there will be those cuts. But the money will be cut and jobs will be affected. As i get back wont this weekend, i will listen a little more to the effects of it. Host we are pleased to have Joaquin Castro joining us, a new representative from texas. The numbers are on the screen if you would like to participate in our conversation. Hes a graduate of stanford, undergrad, harvard law school. Served several terms in the texas house of representatives before being elected to congress this year. What are your impressions of washington so far . Guest the pace is very quick. I was in the legislature five terms, years in austin. It feels like the last few weeks of the texas legislative session, which were always very busy. Every day it feels like that here. What is odd is even though there is frenzied activity, congress has always come to agreements to pass about five pieces of legislation. So the output is not much, but the pace is very quick. Host what about working with the of the side of the aisle . Is it different or the same as it was in austin . Guest its a mixed bag. The Texas Legislature is one that even though right now it is dominated by republicans, it used to be all democrats, but theres still vestiges of bipartisanship. Unlike in washington, you still have Committee Chairs who are from the opposite party. Usually there are about 43 committee is still have about a dozen of them chaired by democrats. It was the same way when the democrats were in control. There are some features here that i think are a bit better, for example, in texas if the Republican House speaker gets to make the Committee Assignments for everybody. Here, the republican make the assignments for the speaker, and the republican speaker next assignment for the republicans. The democrats, nancy pelosi makes them for democrats. It is a mixed bag. Host did you ask for Armed Services and Foreign Affairs . Guest i did. I am very interested in both. San antonio is known as military city u. S. A. , so thats a big issue for us. Foreign affairs, because if you can imagine in texas i spent my time on only domestic issues, but mostly domestic. I was also part of the for International Affairs committee for two terms. I wanted to delve into those issues a little more. Host what specific issues are you interested in on the Foreign Affairs committee . Guest mostly issues of terrorism, nonproliferation. I intend to be on top of all the major issues confronting our country in terms of diplomacy. The committee combination for me feels good. I think it makes sense, because you have a defense on one hand with Armed Services and then diplomacy with Foreign Affairs. Host first call for our guest comes from patricia in minneapolis, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning to you both. It is a sad day in america. Representative castro, you said you were relieved that they had no intentions of using it. Please dont cut me off before im done, peter. I want to say a couple kings. You said you were relieved that they did not have any intentions. What if the intention changed . Where is it in the constitution that gives the power to the president on a whim to take out americans . Are you aware that barack obama criticized the Bush Administration . He wanted a warrant to phone taps. Do you think the government needs a warrant to fontana and not a warrant to use a drone to strike americans . Host thats a lot on the table. Lets get an answer from our guest. Guest i dont think any americans support using drones in this way. I dont think the administration supports that. The attorney general made clear yesterday that his administration has never had any intention of doing that. Host is it tough to be a democrat in texas these days . Guest its getting better. The state is the state then has gone along best now since about 1994 without electing a democratic statewide. Last governor. Our democrats are doing a lot for change. You have 19 or 20 media markets in texas. When you are in a hole in a state like that, its difficult to make your way back, but we are getting there. Host what is your relationship with your governor . Guest i served under him for five terms. During those terms, probably met with him three times. I cannot say we are super close, and i do know him. He is the longest serving governor in texas history. He took over when president bush went from governor to president , was elected president in 2000. Hes been there quite a while. I have some deep disagreements with him on policy. But we will see what his future holds. He has talked about running again in 2014. He may run for president again in 2016. Host a question has been sent in from twitter. The you plan to run for the senate do you plan to run for the senate . Guest no. I will stay in Public Service as long as i feel i can be helpful and useful. It is what i still believe. I believe you should do the job in front of you. I think if you do a good job in the world youre in, then there may be opportunities that come your way. That is so far off to think about. I need to concentrate on san antonio. Host representative castro, 27 of hispanics voted for mitt romney. Why do you think there is a deficit for republicans . Guest two things, first the policies. The substantive policies that were pursued, in places like alabama and georgia. The substantive policies and the rhetoric. We heard herman cain make allusions to putting out gators in a boat near the border and electrify fences. All of this language that really this please displease a lot of americans americans. I think it was harsh language. When you combine those two things, i think they did themselves in. Host yesterdays political politico newspaper, are you active in reforming immigration laws at this point . Guest absolutely. As part of the caucus and house of representatives, i try to do something comprehensive on immigration reform. If you think of our society, there are four or five major American Industries that would not exist in the way they do without undocumented labor. Whether it is hospitality, agriculture, construction. We need to come to some kind of agreement that satisfies our need for labor but also does the right thing by immigrants, many of whom are juniors dreamers and have only known the United States as their home. I am still hopeful in 2013 that we can reach a compromise that will work for the country. Host use of drones to protect our borders. What are your thoughts . Guest this president has committed the most resources of any president in American History to securing the border. We know there are less crossing s in decades. He secured the border. They did that for surveillance techniques, including drones. To the extent they use surveillance on the u. S. moscow border, i think that is ok. Host our next caller is from georgia. Caller i just want to say, the bp oil spill it caused more pain in the gulf. You have the agriculture department, these emails where the guy wanted to make it easier through sequestration on the agriculture department. The requirement was to make it harder like the president said. He was sworn in this time on two bibles, to uphold and protect americans. I dont know what is wrong with this man. Executive orders, the murder of all the mexicans. I dont understand why he has to rule like this. Host a couple of different issues on the table. Lets see if the representative wants to respond. Guest where to start . The president is the executive of the entire government. He also had the judiciary and the legislative branch. There are deep policy disagreements that americans will have for the president , of course. We will find this in congress. I do think, to some extent, this president is a lot of blame of things he has no control over or sometimes just did not do. Host is that typical of the office . Guest it can be. Absolutely. The president is the most visible elected leader, as he should be, in the United States. You expect some of that. Sometimes, it is interesting to witness. Host had he had a chance to meet with speaker banner or leader pelosi Speaker John Boehner . Guest i have met with closing. I have i have met speaker pelosi. Host michelle on twitter, could you comment on the threats of north korea . Guest sure. We know that the situation in north korea is a very follicle very volatile one. Of course, our government is watching very closely. This is a nation that we know because of sanctions that have already been imposed, has been quite desperate or if you have a young, 28yearold leader who is following his father. We have to be careful with him, but we have to be firm with him. Host next call is from a democrat, andrew, columbus, ohio. Caller hi. My question is concerning the use of drones, especially with United States citizens, whether they are with domestic or international. Do you feel that the cia should be judge, jury and executioner or do you feel there should be a federal court system in place that goes through the evidence and ways whether or not wei ghs on the issue . Guest the process is in place right now. These are issues that the Armed Services committee are looking into. I know that this is been talked about in the senate mostly through cia confirmation hearings. These are all very fair and legitimate questions. The questions that we have to wrestle with as americans, that our government is wrestling with. I think anytime youre targeting americans, and he time youre talking about doing americans that involves the government coming down on them, there is a do process that needs due process that needs to be followed. I know, for example, the administration has made the point it can be tough to find justice and another country. That has been the reason in the past for the use of this. These are issues we have to confront as a congress. Host what is your relationship and how often to you do you work with other senators . Guest i met john cornyn four or five times. I have run into ted maybe four times. In these first two months, so far, i set aside the first three months as months to get set up. I am settling into my own place on march 20. I am still in the process of doing that. I am looking for to say dont both of them. Host i am looking to sitting down with both of them. Host have you known them in the past . Guest i have met them in passing. Host how often are you called guest when i am back home, people will often calming mayor. Often call me mayor. I have to correct them sometimes. Host who is rosie . Guest that is my mom. She ran the city council in san antonio when she was 23 years old. Host was she successful . Guest no. She placed second out of eight candidates. She came in second, but she lost the race in 1971. Host why did she run . Guest back then, the san antonio government was controlled. Host was it right was it white and republican . Guest that, and others were trying to break into city government. There were challenges. Alternately, around 1977, we got singlemember districts. The city became represented geographically by district. Host what is mom doing these days . Guest she is retiring. She turns 66 on may 7. She is retiring from a community college. Host pennsylvania, thanks for holding. You are on with Joaquin Castro. Caller congratulations on your recent election. My comments, i have three. I would still like to say a couple of words about the passing of hugo chavez. I think it is interesting you were elected as a representative of texas and did not get to serve under ron paul. If you could share words about him as an upholder of liberty and whether he will uphold the constitution in the same manner he has. Finally, my last question is a serious question. You are a harvard lawyer. Do you think there are too many harvard lawyers in government and not enough truck drivers, fathers and regular construction workers . Host what kind of work do you do . I was an engineer. Guest let me take the easy ones first about lawyers and government. I do think that many professions should be represented in government. In texas, it is a real problem. My brother makes 20 a meeting as mayor of san antonio. In a texas legislator legislature, you make 600 a month minus insurance to serve. What you see is that many people in different professions are unable to serve on the city council level, on the state legislature in texas because they cannot afford it. Host your brother does not get his salary . Guest no. He gets 20 or 30 a meeting. He thinks he gets a onetime stipend of 400. Host what constitutes a meeting . Guest they meet once a week. Host back to your point. Guest right. That this allows so many people to serve in the government. I told people for years or i have told people, there are few types of people that serve people who retire who can do it because they have a pension coming in, people who are leaning on their spouse that is my brother. Their spouse agrees to work so they can do politics. People who are lawyers like myself who can arrange your schedule and do it, and finally people who are independently wealthy, Business Owners who can be away from their business for a while. Other than that, there are not too many other people that serve in texas. Host what is the solution . Guest they should increase pay and both of these jobs. In the city council, at least give them minimum wage or pay minimum wage. I think salaries should be increased. Host hugo chavez. Guest of course, i was surprised to hear of his passing. We knew he was sick, but everything coalesced within a few days. He was somebody from the United States that we strongly disagreed with, his politics in latin america. At the same time, when someone passes away, you are respectful. He is someone who had a family. He had people who supported him and venezuela. We acknowledge that and respect him, although we acknowledge we have strong disagreements. Host the legacy of ron paul. Guest ire member driving all over texas and seeing bumper stickers. It was for a revolution, ron paul. He a lot of people, particularly libertarians. He stood up for what he believed in. Wherever you are on the spectrum, one of the best things that can be said is that you stand up for you believe what you believe and you are honest. From that, you earn respect. I disagree with a lot of his positions, but i recognize someone who stands up for what they believe. Host what is the hardest thing about running for congress . Guest i enjoy getting out and meeting with folks. Some of the traditional parts, fundraising, making calls is not the most pleasant thing to do. That is probably the most unpleasant part. Host fort lauderdale, independent line. Caller good morning. As you can tell, accent, i am an immigrant. First generation. As somebody when i came here 35 years ago, every aspect of my life, everything was inspected. I am offended that people just walk across the border and suddenly we have to make every accommodation to suit them. I am not saying you should try to regularize people, but what will we do in 20 more years . If you give this batch of people citizenship and legalize them, there is nothing you can do to stop the next wave of 60 Million People who are going to be overwhelmed and need to make choices about our immigration policy. I am originally from jamaica. It is not one of the preferred nations. I have one more question. Why is it that all immigration policy has to be comprehensive . Why cant we fix things that make common sense and dont require a comprehensive mantra . People dont be able to think outside the box here. Host a response. Guest there is a range of opinion about what we should do on immigration. Some people believe you should have comprehensive immigration reform. Some believe we should offer a path to citizenship. Some state legal residency. Some say offer a guest worker program. A few years ago, people said try to deport millions of people. I support comprehensive reform. I believe it is the right thing to do. In the case of people who are young kids who are brought here, through no fault of their own, who are blameless for the situation. They only know the American Life, have very little connection to the parents were there the place where their parents came from. This is a tough issue that our nation grapples with. The border is more secure now than it has ever been. This president has committed more resources to the border than any in the American History. It is a good starting point to talk about how we integrate undocumented immigrants into our society. It is an issued this congress is going to wrestle with. I hope we come to an agreement and 2013 and pass something in the summer. Host you mentioned governor bush. Here is his new book, immigration wars, forging an american solution. One thing he talks about two points he makes about immigration that he thinks are important. We are not bringing in highly skilled immigrants guest who simply wish to become american citizens . That line seems to indicate for a path to citizenship. Thats what his interviews seem to suggest. First of all, governor bush has been very centrist and modern on this issue. I was surprised to hear he was not for a path to citizenship and only for permanent residency. The next morning, he went on one of the shows to indicate he might be ok with a path to citizenship. At the end of the day, i hope that we can do conference of immigration reform, that we can do it in a way that provides for a path to citizenship. It is going to take the support of people who are inside government who have to vote on a bill, but also on a voice like jeb bush who are outside the government. I do hope he will lend his voice to perform. Host he talks about the immediate family base immigration. He thinks that should be cut back some more immigrants can come into the state. States. Guest my brother was one of the ones that talked about this. A lot of discussion centered around that, about the ability for a sister to bring in her sister someone to bring and her sister or brother from another country. The fact is, american america has always been a pro family country. Family ties are extremely important. Our system still has a place in modern america. Host you called your brother julian. Guest yes, the spanish version. Host do you get tired of talking about immigration because your Mexican American guest no. It is a very important issue. We are a state that trades the most with mexico and probably with latin america. There is a lot at stake for texas. Not only for residents, but also for businesses. I am happy to talk about it, as long as we talk about other issues. Host may in sag harbor, new york. Caller as a hispanic american, i want to thank the representative for representing. Are you there . Guest yes. I am glad to be in congress. Caller what i want to say was, i think it is quite ironic the same people who are complaining about the use of these drones are completely against banning assault weapons or the armor here seeing bullets. Piercing bullets. If you are in Law Enforcement today, you are faced with a dangerous situation if you show up and people are armed heavily than you are. With the way the party wants to keep cutting down on taxes, a lot of Law Enforcement might not be able to afford to get the weaponry they need to go up against a bunch of people who have been filled with fear. What you have to say about that . What do you have to say about that . Guest reform has always been a big situation this congress is dealing with. I hope we will get some deal in 2013. I have said that i support universal background checks. I support limiting highclip magazines. I have supported the assault weapons ban. When you are serving in politics, you have to strike a balance between being optimistic and an advocate for your position and also be realistic about what you may be able to accomplish. There are many in congress, some of whom are against universal background checks. Many are against assault weapons ban and limiting highcapacity clips. My best estimate, we will likely get universal background checks. That would be a great start. Again, i support more. The realist in me says our best shot is universal background checks. Host more being what . Guest the assault weapons ban and highcapacity magazines. Host this is from joseph r miraz guest i am certainly not promoting a career politician. I think that it should be ok and texas and other places to pay people who serve in Public Office a minimum wage. Like i said, and san antonio, they get 20 a meeting. That limits who can serve and government. Working people find it hard to serve in government when that is the case. Host another tweet guest i am not going to give advice on the white house. The president has a lot of knowledge about this. The administration is going to work at their pace. Host georgia, independent line. Caller i want to thank future president castro for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. My question is kind of loaded. Do you really feel that congress can get anything done . Are they going to just raise their hands and say they cannot compromise on anything . Is there any way things can get accomplished here . Host what is one thing you would like to see a accomplished . Caller immigration reform. We got health care through. That was a huge was written with no help from republicans. Anything. Host thank you. Guest the question is a good one. When i was running for congress, i was being asked the same question. I try to answer for myself. As i got here, i realized part of a process that has been set up mix it difficult sometimes for people to come together and actually pass bills. I will give you one example from the house of representatives. The speaker of the house the hastert rule it is a more recent development from contemporary american politics. This is what the rule says. The rule is, no bill will move for a vote on the floor of the house unless it has the support of a majority. In this case, unless a bill has the support of 50 of republicans, even with 100 democrat support, the senate will not move the floor for a vote. What that allows is for the five percent of the caucus four half republicans to block 100 of legislation from coming to the floor. This year has been different and promising. The speaker has dropped that rule, including sandy relief, for example, violence against women act and the debt limit extension. We put the debt limit back to may. These major votes, he has not followed the rule. That is what allowed 40 of the caucus to vote with an overwhelming number of democrats. I think the country is center right or center left. To have a Bipartisan Coalition to get these issues and these bills to the house of representatives. Host that opened the door. A politico article, Joaquin Castro glad to pay play rfk to his brothers jfk. Will you explained will you explain that . Guest we are twins. My brother had a highprofile role. There is an article i had a twominute speech and he had a longer one. Someone asked me who is going to be in the forefront and who is going to be in the background. I said, i am glad to be in the background. I support my brother. I think he is doing a wonderful job as mayor. Neither one of us has any intention of running for president. If someone very early on in their career said they want to be president you can rest assured that person is not going to be president. Neither one of us has had that ambition. We love the nation very much. I love san antonio, texas, a lot. Host is this your brothers first term . Guest no. He was elected in 2009. He can serve for four two year terms. Host does it look like he will be reelected . Guest it does. He did not draw any major opposition. The election is in early may. Host can we expect julian to serve in washington . Guest my brother has been consistent that he wants to serve out his time in san antonio until 2017. As we were growing up, his dream what he thought about Public Service, his dream was to become the mayor of our hometown. That was special to him. After that, if he continues to do a great job, there are other opportunities. We try not to get ahead of ourselves. Host danville, virginia. Caller hello, it is great to talk to you. My question is, with barack obama in the white house, how do you feel supporting the socialist agenda he is putting out . Guest well, my last name is castro. I dont think he has a socialist edging up agenda. The president is a proud american. He is doing what he believes is best for this nation. I believe under his leadership the nation is going to prosper. Host have you had a chance to work with the president . Guest yes. You can imagine, the administration has different liaisons. We reached out to him and i look forward to working with the administration in the coming months. Host a quote from jeb bushs book if the opportunity to guest no. There is a point that the federal government has to work with the state. When we think about undocumented immigration is with Public Services that are provided. People show up at the emergency room, there is a bill to be paid. That happens with anybody who does not have Health Insurance. That is why obama care is so important. The government has to work together. There has to be flexibility to handle situations that the state and local government can deal with. Host last call comes from magnolia springs, alabama. Caller yes. During the democratic invention, everyone was praising you and your brother and focusing on your mother. Nobody said she was one of the founders of arasa. It just seems to me that nobody is being transparent, as the word goes today. I want to know how you feel about your mothers past politics or are you disclaiming that notion about the anti american feelings . Guest i am happy to answer the question about my mom. She was part of a group that was a third party in texas that organized for Mexican Americans civil rights in an era where you still had signs and texas she grew up where you had signs in texas that said no dogs or mexicans allowed. They did something that was fundamentally american that worked through the political system for change. They did not harm anyone or do violent acts. They worked for change. That paves the way. I am very proud of my moms work work and happy for what she has done. There were many people in the African American Civil Rights Movement who sacrificed a lot personally for that movement. My mom did, not only her but others who joined her in that cause. I am very proud of my mom. Host we have been talking about the new representative from texas, Joaquin Castro. I hope you will come back. Guest thank you very much. Host next is the republican from california. That is Tom Mcclintock. We will continue to discuss issues with him after an update from cspan radio. A white house official says president obama has invited paul ryan for lunch at the white house today. This follows the president s dinner last night with a dozen senators. Congressman ryan previewed a longterm plan this week to erase federal deficits without raising taxes. President obama says higher taxes must be a part of any measure. The senate will take the measure next next week to fund the federal government through september. The house passed its plan to prevent a shutdown. It was a measure that would keep the government operating. The bill moves to the senate where majority leader says it will be all turned altered to reflect things he did not identify. The Senate Majority Meeting Committee meets this morning. Lawmakers shape their response to the shooting deaths in newtown, connecticut. You can watch this session on c span or listen on cspan radio live at 10 a. M. Eastern. Those are the latest headlines on cspan radio. Original people, navy seals, our environment. Panels and discussions from this years festival of books, live this weekend on booktv starting saturday at noon eastern. At 4 30, what animals can teach us about health and healing. Saturday, afghanistan. Followed by panels on Social Security. Part of booktv live this weekend on cspan two. Washington journal continues. Host now, we want to introduce you to representative Tom Mcclintock. Republican out of california. How did you vote yesterday on the continued resolution and why . Guest i opposed it for three reasons. I think congress it miss an opportunity the measure they passed requires the sequester to maintain the lower level of funding. That means if the sequester is modified in any way, funding will immediately increase. Congress missed an opportunity to defund obamacare. Because it extends now to funding through september 30, it postpones congressability to control spending. Host when you say defunding obamacare, was there a provision in this continuing resolution that provided funds for continuing development of the new healthcare law . Guest it does not work provide the requested additions. It allows continued finding of the federal funding at the federal government the pre sequester level. Host would you like to see spending cut even more than it has been . Guest if the sequester was one third of budget reductions in the first four months in january, first four weeks, the Congress Approved about 350 billion dollars of of the additional spending above and beyond the burdens that are crashing our economy. The sequester is about 85 billion in reductions in the proposed increase of spending. Host the Budget Committee yesterday came out in a press conference on their new budget proposal. From what you have seen, do you support it . Guest yes. It places our nation back on a path toward fiscal solvency. What we have seen our plans that are never balanced. This plan wouldve the nation back on the road where we have a balanced budget within a decade. It will save medicare from bankruptcy and in 2023 and reduce the burning burdens. We will have the rollout press conference on monday. Host how is medicare treated . Guest medicare is organized as the Advantage Program is now. People have a long list of plans that have been negotiated through the medicare system. They can choose a plan that best meets their needs. Medicare will underwrite the cost of that plan based on how old they are and how poor they are. Host Tom Mcclintock is our guest, member of the Budget Committee. Third term in congress. He served in the California State Senate for eight years and the California Legislature prior to that. He was also chairman of the subcommittee on water and power. Why is that important to you . Guest my district is the sierra nevada. It is much of californias water supply. It is currently undeveloped because of government restrictions. Host first call comes from christian and obama city, democrat line. Caller good morning. If they are saying the younger generation, look at this guy. The reason why this guy is against president obama, he was told he was better than a black lets gets do to the situation, where it started. Your guy was basically had a surplus when bill clinton left. After four years, bush had a five jillion dollar deficit 5 trillion dollars in deficit. President bush would have left present president obama a surplus, it would not have been a situation. Host we will get responses to your question in just a minute. What do you do enough, sitting what do you do in Oklahoma City . We have two issues on the table. Number one, the issue your parents told you, that you are better than the black man. Guest i would not dignified that racist comment with a response. Number two, president bush was left to president obama, the deficit. I do not support bush and his policies, because they were antithetical. He approved the biggest expansion of entitlement spending since the great society. He started the era of stimulus building spending that has run our nation into massive debt. He did exactly the wrong things. My beef with barack obama is not that he changed the policy but that he did not change it. He doubled down on them. I agree that bill clinton, after 1994, did a superb job managing fiscal affairs. He made the announcement that the era of Big Government is over. He made good on that pledge. He reduced federal spending by 4 of gdp. He abolished an open ended welfare system we had at the time. He signed what amounted to the biggest tax cut in American History. Our nation is rewarded with profound prosperity. It was george w. Bush that reversed those policies. It is barack obama who has doubled down on bushs mistakes very mistakes. Host paul ryan having lunch with the president , what do you think . Guest it is a good idea all sides talk. I believe the Congress Needs to do its job independent of the executive. The president is not a member of the legislative branch. He had a Different Branch of government with a different mission. We have broken down the legislative process that evolved over centuries. It is very good at resolving differences between the two houses and differences among opinionated representatives across the country. The problem is, the process is not being used. It is shortcircuited. I dont agree with the president being directly involved in legislative negotiations. Host how would you describe the health of the congress and the house . Guest i think they are united to bring control. I think it is divided on the means of getting there. Host new jersey, independent line. Caller after world war ii, our National Debt to gdp was that when hundred seven percent. By 1981, we cut that down to 32. 5 . During that time, the tax dropped down to 70 by 1981. It took 36 years to cut 85 of our debt to gdp. Now, we are back to 99 debt to gdp. The republicans are dead set against taxes. It does not seem logical. Under eisenhower, we did the international highway system. We had ignited one we had a 91 tax rate. We need to lower spending and raise taxes. What do you think . Guest taxes and deficits are the same thing. Deficit is a future tax. Once the government spent a dollar, it has decided to tax it. The question is whether now or in the future. If you want to know everything there is to know about the federal budget prices, you need to note numbers. 39, 37 and 64. 39 is the increase of inflation and publishing over the past 10 years. 37 is the increase in revenues in the same. Same timeframe frame. That is despite the recession. Before the tax cuts, our revenues were keeping pace with inflation. Our problem is the third number, 60 four percent. That is what is killing our country. That is the increase in spending. It has never been a revenue problem. The Budget Office just reported that federal Tax Collections are at an all time high. Never in our history have we collected more taxes. With respect to eisenhower, it is interesting. Whether the tax rate is high or low, generally about 90 or 20 19 is gdp. They depress Economic Activity and increased tax avoidance activity. When tax rates were brought down during reagan years, we saw an increase in revenues because of the effect they had on the overall economy. Host the number of americans seeking employment, and 40,000 last week host your reaction to this report on unemployment dropping and the Economic Health of your district. Guest the economy overall is stagnated. If we had policies during the reagan or Clinton Administration of lower taxes, reductions in overall spending and reductions in the regulatory the Unemployment Rate in my state is much higher because we have more regulatory burdens on top of those imposed by the federal government. My district is higher because it is dependent on resource the moment and tourism that are badly hampered by federal policies. Host what did you think about senator brand paul rand paul s filibuster . Guest i think he is absolutely right. I think president obamas stance on drones is appalling. It is a blurring of the distinction between war and peace. Up until this current era, war was a very finite activity, concentrated against a hostile government. We have now expanded that definition to an ongoing and on ending battle against bad people. There are always bad people in the world. With it, the sacrifice of all of the liberties that our nation represents. Host a twitter comment guest you have to understand, ours is a nation of immigrants. Unless you are fullblooded native american on both sides, you are either an immigrant or the son or daughter of one. The question is, how do we create one great nation . Assimilation. The process by which people come to our property country with a common appreciation of american principles and legal traditions. Our immigration laws were not written to keep people out. They were written to ensure they as of late into american society. IlLegal Immigration undermines the whole process of Legal Immigration that makes our country possible in the. I believe our current laws need to be enforced before we begin talking about what changes need to be made. Host another twitter comment host what makes you a local hero . Guest i am known statewide. I ran against Arnold Schwarzenegger 10 years ago. It was the closest state election in 2002. Manteca is just outside the district. Host democrats, please go ahead. Caller since we started on medicare, i would like to stick on that. I am on Social Security and medicare. Every month, 100 comes out of my set check, called Medicare Part b. That is 1200 a year. Several months ago because i am on blood centers, my nose started bleeding. It believes i am on blood centers. I did not want to drive in traffic. I was there for about an hour. About three weeks later, i got a statement from the hospital to stick golf up my nose. The bill was 1500. It exceeded what i paid medicare for the entire year. How can this country continue the way it is doing with hospitals, doctors, pharmaceutical companies continuously raising there is no way we can support medicare or anything as long as there is no control. Host thank you very much for coming in and sharing your experience experience. Guest things that are driving the high prices, consumers are taken out of the equation. Why dont we see that kind of behavior at Grocery Stores . You can go to a Grocery Store down the street. There is a different dynamic that keeps quality high and costs low. That is why one of the reasons the ryan budget bill is so important. It goes back to a competitive environment where people can pick and choose among plans and they are able to choose a plan that best meets their own needs at a low price. Host a twitter comment guest no one is promote is proposing a voucher in the sense that people will be given a check. The plan we are proposing is one in which there are pre negotiated plans with the medicare system and people have the Freedom Freedom to choose among those plans with the one that best meets their needs. More medicare goes to those who are sick or old or poor. That is a reorganization of the system that will save it from bankruptcy. We have had warnings that medicare will bankrupt within the next 10 years and collapse an entire generation that has made all Investment Decisions based upon the promises the government made. With respect to Social Security, that will ultimately bankrupt. That is going to require adjustments to ensure that system is maintained and that keeps its promises to a generation. I think we need to look at possibly increasing the entire met retirement age. When Social Security was introduced, the average American Life except the was 62 years of age. Which means your average recipient would be dead for three years. Now, the average like Life Expectancy is 78. A small adjustments in the retirement age is appropriate. It would rapidly bring the system back in balance. Time is not our ally, even though we are talking about the medicare system bankrupting. The fact of the matter is, every day we delay, those adjustments have to become more germanic and more painful. Host new hampshire, republican. Good morning. Caller i want to know, how come we send so much foreign aid to other countries when that poor man went to the emergency room at a cost of 4000 it cost him 1400 . Shouldnt we be concerned with us first . We are trying to figure out john kerry hands this money over to egypt. There are a lot of people here that are hurting. Host lets get a response. Guest i agree. Much of the foreign aid is not only wasted but counterproductive to american interests. You raise a good point. Egypt is becoming rabidly anti american rapidly anti american. We have got to take a second look at what we are shoveling out the door to countries that are actively hostile to american interests. Host i want to get your response to this politico article read article. Guest i agree completely. American people want to hear the truth and are ready to hear the truth and act on it. They understand we cannot continue to spend money that we simply dont have. In the case of medicare, the estimate is a couple reaching age 65 will put in 115,000 into the system and will be withdrawing 350,000 from the system. It is not take a Rocket Scientist to figure out that as it may system that cannot maintain solvency. They understand the danger of allowing the system to collapse. They understand the financial implications and the necessity for change. We have to level with them. When you find a politician who says dont touch medicare, what they are really saying is they are perfectly willing to allow medicare to collapse an entire generation and take what ever cheap shots in the meantime. The American People are sick of that, and they are now listening to sincere attempts to save the system. Host host what is it like to be a republican in california . Guest our job is to produce how much simpler could that be in california . 2. 3 million more people have moved out of california that have moved in. California republicans are still winning the vote. People now voting with their feet. I think were reaching a point where the public is engaging on these issues and we will see big changes in california over the next few years. Host do you see california becoming a purple state . Guest i lived in california almost my whole life. Ive been engaged in the public arena since 1980. You scratch the surface as reagan country. Some bad policies have been imposed that are destroying the economy. A family would flock to california and of those families are fleeing from california. Host what did you think about rick perrys trip to california . Guest he doesnt have to try very hard. Look all the blessings that california has. They are poised on the pacific rim. People are finding a Better Future in the nevada and arizona deserts. Host we will be going live to the Senate Judiciary committees hearing. It is a full markup with lots of different pieces of nominations that date will be considering. They will look at the assault weapons ban sponsored by dianne feinstein. Guest we had an assault weapons ban for 10 years. It had no impact on crime. We have plenty of experience with gun control laws. They are completely ineffective at disarming criminals. We have experience with policies that we know to work identifying gun predators and dangers mentally ill people and separating them from society. We seem to be pushing policies that we know do not work in washington. Host what is your relationship with senators feinstein and boxer . Guest we disagree on a lot. Host tracy in of los angeles. Caller good morning. I vote for him at every election. I appreciate your responses to the prior couple of callers. There was one guy from georgia and the way you addressed the question about illegal aliens. And ilLegal Immigration. Im 47 years old, African American male in long beach, california. Why is there so little outreach to the africanamerican committee . A socially conservative group that is ignored by the Democratic Party who just takes the votes and basically unless youre gay or undocumented worker, you have no voice within the Democratic Party. There needs to be more outreach from the Republican Party to the africanamerican community. That is countrywide. We are teaming and waiting for a sharp republican like yourself who can articulate what it means to be an american. Host lets get a response from representative mcclintock. Guest he is right. Republicans need to take our message. It is time we put freedom back to work. We should take it to every community including a lot of voters that might not think of themselves as republicans. I think republicans have been reluctant to hyphenate americans. There is only one race and that is the american race. Republicans have to reach out to all communities. We have an Important Message to take to them. Caller good morning, mr. Mcclintock. My question pertains to wall street. You want to charge medicare to the poor people. And in some collusion with congress to get rid of glasssteagall and not put this in the situation we are in. Why would anybody charge wall street a surtax on the billions of dollars . My 401 k lost 30 . We have one kind of debacle or another. Why dont you ever charged wall street for the criminal activity that they cause . Guest crony capitalism is a huge problem. This business of bailing out banks is atrocious. It began under bush. I think it is highly destructive. If a bank may bad loan, if a bank made a bad loan, it made the loan. This business of government picking winners and losers is destructive. It diverts capital from investments that would be made on the best use of that money. It makes corporations dependent on the government and not the customers. The point you made are extremely good. As far as adding new taxes, let me give you some insight into a secret about taxation. Businesses do not pay business taxes. They can only be paid by us as consumers through higher prices, by us as employers, or they are paid by us as investors to lower earnings. Those are the three possible ways that business taxes can be paid. It is destructive to our economy. We are watching an exodus of jobs offshore. We need to bring the overall burden lower. We have to stop picking winners and losers. Host we are speaking with representative Tom Mcclintock, republican from california. Sea dog tweets in to you guest we have brought clean obama budgets to the floor and they got no democratic votes. It would not surprise me if an opportunity is afforded for the house to reject an obama budget. We have to get a budget from obama. It has been more than a month overdue. Host a followup guest i have been there and done that. I had my hands full in the house. Caller hi. Good morning. His opinion on the cost between someone that has 5 in the bank and 5 million in the bank in regards to medicare and medicaid. Guest that is part of the ryan house budget plan. The sickert you are, the more it underwrites the that. Provides a more equitable system of financing medicare and saves the system from collapsing upon an entire generation. Host tax reform what do you see on the horizon for any tax reform measure . Guest i would like to see us move closer to a flat rate tax or a percentage is applied to all income and as many tax rolls are removed from distorting the natural flow of capital. You would have deductions for the mortgage interest, because people have made the most important decisions on their lives and that needs to be maintained and match with a similar deduction for rental income. And keep the charitable deduction. Get rid of everything else. Those countries that have moved to a flat tax have been rewarded with explosive economic growth. I think it is inevitable that we move toward that system. The public is gravitating toward that. The fair thing to do is to apply a universal rate on all a come and stop the deductions a universal rate on all income. Creating a huge atmosphere of unfairness in the system. Host we have a tweet host they have been paying in for 65 years. Guest i think the payroll tax is already crushing people. People have noticed it is a huge impediment to economic growth. I would prefer to see the system put back by minor adjustments in the age levels. It makes the most sense to me. Host jack tweets in. Guest no. That is an impediment to economic growth. These businesses do not pay business taxes. They pass them on. Host tom in florida, republican line. Caller hi. Good morning, sir. Everybody is talking about taxes and tax reform. I am retired. Anytime i take money from my retirement funds, i am paying a tax. If there were tax changes, d. C. Anything about lowering the 20 so people would have more spending power . Guest we shouldnt be taxing savings and investments. We should be taxing income as it is being realized. You describe one of the bad effects of cortex system, double taxation of our tax system. Host are you a member of the Republican Study Committee . Will they be coming out with their own budgets . Guest that decision has not been made. Whether or not there is a need for an alternative budget is a matter of some debate. Host that will be released on monday, march 11. Brian honor democrats line. Youre in a representative Tom Mcclintocks district. Caller i have a twopart question about how dollars are divided between the states. Most of the red states take more dollars than they put in. Want, gets 3 for every 1 they put in montana gets 3 for every 1 they put in. Poor people need it at an earlier age and not live as long. That is my question. Guest with respect to your first question, i think you are right. Those projects that benefit local communities are paid for by those of local communities. We have to stop robbing st. Petersburg to pay st. Paul. We have seen a huge encroachment from the federal government. That is why we designed our system the way it is. As more and more money flows to washington and is released back to the states, the less and Less Efficiency with which we can address the pressing local needs and the less resources we have then to address pressing national needs. I forgot the second part of the question. Host medicare and Social Security. Guest those with Health Insurance have it longer life span than those who have not. That is why we need to look at the cost drivers within the healthcare system. I dont think obamacare is an answer. More and more people uninsured because they are losing their employerbased insurance. We have to reintroduce the role of the patient as a consumer and be sure they have the resources to make choices within a competing market. What makes afford a good car . The answer is chevrolet, competition. Host the last call for our guest, patrick in a louisiana. Patrick . Caller hello. I have a question regarding foreign aid. He said every dollar spent equates to a dollar that has to be taxed. A lot of americans are facing difficult times. There is a focus on cutting spending, especially with the sequester. We have always have the highest amount of foreign aid given. How can we control federal aid foreign aid and to reduce spending in reference to egypts recent foreignaid acceptance. Guest we have to insist on it. All the debates are a reflection of a larger debate going on among the American People. I get more questions on the waste of money in foreign aid appropriations that we now have. The American People are awakening to the amount that is being wasted and it is counterproductive to our national interest. I have great confidence the louder we speak about the issue, the clearer it will be heard inside the capital. Host we have been talking with Tom Mcclintock, a member of the Budget Committee. We have about 40 minutes left in this mornings program. We will open up the phones. Weve talked budget, drones, Social Security, the economy, the sequester, etc. ,e tc. Dial in and talk public policy. Open phones. We will go through the phones as well. Well be going to the Senate Judiciary committee at 10 00 a. M. For the full markup on several gun bills as well as some nominations. But first a news update from c span radio. An update at the lunch at the white house. President obama invited paul ryan to talk about deficit reduction. Reports that Chris Van Hollen will also be at that lunch. They will probably talk about the jobless numbers. 340,000 last week. Applications fell by 7000 in the week ending march 7. U. S. Worker productivity shrunk in the final three months of last year. Productivity contracted at a rate of 1. 9 in the october through december quarter. Economic activity barely expanded in the fourth quarter. The u. S. Trade deficit grew in january, reflecting a big jump in oil exports. The deficit rose 44. 4 billion, an increase of 16. 5 from december. Imports rose 1. 8 . Oil imports surged 12. 3 . Economists say they think the deficit will narrow slightly in part because of continued gains in energy exports. U. S. Companies are earning more from overseas sales while consumers are spending less on foreign products. Those are some of the latest headlines on cspan radio. [video clip] i believe the United States has many fantastic qualities. Maybe many people have the possibility of pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. I think every year that is less and less and less probable. The United States is not the great nation. It is an interventionist state and aggressive militarily. We mess with other peoples politics in ways i cannot imagine americans of tolerating. Imagine if some country invaded us the way we did in iraq. Yet somehow we have a myth that people are thrilled when we invade them. Of the time we create more enemies. Washington journal continues. Host 35 minutes left in this mornings washington journal. Mark up on several different gun bills and pending nominations at 10 00 a. M. Live on cspan. Here are the numbers live on the screen. We have a lot of issues on the table. 202 is the area code. 2027370001 for democrats. 2027370002 for republicans. Twitter. Com cspanwj is our twitter handle. Host host this is the article in the hill about last nights dinner. Host they ordered a variety of items. H host the president picked up the tab. Eric holder and senator pauls filibuster. This picture right there of Patrick Leahy and the attorney general. Senators of both parties criticized eric holder for the secrecy surrounding the memorandums justifying drone strikes. Host jimmy in indiana. Good morning t do you. Caller i take my marching orders from jesus. A couple of passages for the tea party and republicans. In regards to the budget deficit can be found in matthew, a story of a rich man who has the least chance in the kingdom of heaven. What you do for the least of. Esus children the coverall passage directed directly toward mr. Ryan. Woe to one it to take the food out of the malice of widows and orphans. Maybe if we called the word christian programs, we would have a better clue of what is going on. Host this is john. Caller im phoning because of the questions about foreign aid. I used to live in egypt. The money goes into educational institutions in the u. S. And into military companies in the u. S. The money is not going to the egyptians. It is going to the americans. Host why did you live in egypt in the late 1970s . Caller i was doing graduate studies. I am very international. I find the americans at home are not open enough to international situations, particularly palestine. Host do you think american aid, foreign aid to Different Countries is an important issue . Caller i think it is a good thing to do. Your guest yesterday said it is a tiny part of the budget. I can remember her name. Host democrat from illinois. Caller she said it is not even one of the budget. The money goes to egypt and comes back to america. Host what kind of work do you do in paris . Caller i work in communications. I was part of the fulbright commissions project of jimmy carter to provide 1000 scholarships for egyptians in america. But the money all went to america. Host how are you watching c span in paris . Caller on cable. Host we appreciate your time. Lewis in missouri. Caller yeah. I want to know how come they did not start in the white house and clean up the budget their first. Cutting within the white house and then a word. Host that is louis. This is from the New York Times this morning by michael schear. Host the next call is tony in south carolina. You are on the air. Caller yes. I used to be a democrat and now i am independent because of the way the parties neither one can get anything across. Are they going to according to the new bylaws they are talking about, socalled assault weapons are they going to grandfather in the current weapons we have out here in the public today, which is not really an assault weapon. It looks like a military version. It doesnt go fully automatic. Are they going to grandfather in what we already own . Host that is a question the Senate Judiciary committee may address. We will be live at 10 00 a. M. With their markets and that begins in about half an hour from now. We talk with a reporter about several congressional issues. What is the status on the john brennan nomination . Guest it is waiting for a vote. Harry reid had not yet filed cloture on the paper. It did not happen before rand paul took to the floor and began his filibuster. At some point we expect harry reid will file cloture. It does appear that he had the 60 votes necessary. Mitch mcconnell took to the floor and said he did not think republicans should vote for cloture nor for the nomination itself. One wonders if there will be five republicans voting with the democrats. There are some democrats that could conceivably part ways. There were concerns. Host can you predict a schedule for us of events in the senate . Guest we will see it cloture filed but some points. Whether they delayed a vote for tomorrow morning or kicking it into next week. It is a matter of whether the democrats want to get a vote done today or they will wait. I suspect there will try to take advantage of what went on into the night and may try to make political hay delay a vote until tuesday. Host here is the headline of one article. Who did he have dinner with last night . Guest i started to lose count. John mccain, lindsey gramm, tom coburn, ron johnson of wisconsin. This was a collection of people that many did not expect to be with the president . This was a few blocks from the white house. Early reports was a progressive dinner. There are some reports suggesting the president has invited paul ryan to the white house as he continues his outreach to republicans. Get some kind of grand compromise and perhaps approved later this year regarding an totten reform, tax reform, maybe some changes to sequestration and making sure the budget gets passed. Host the house passed the continuing resolution last night yesterday. Guest they did it and buy healthy margin. There are significant concerns among Senate Democrats about things in the house version. It is expected they will get worked out so congress can leave town to begin a twoweek easter recess. Theres no reason to believe there would cut into the easter recess. Will be of concern is whether they will make overall cuts to what the house passed. If it is minor, we can expect to get sent back to the house. We could be setting ourselves up a nailbiter. Thei host that was from earlier this morning. Joan in florida. Hi, joan. Caller the Unemployment Rate. Let me tell you. I have worked myself for 40 years. You have low income and tried to catch up with bills, not charge cards because i never had one. I was laid off a job at a later stage in my life. You get a job and they check your credit. You cannot get a job at a quick stop. Invasion of privacy. If you dont have a job, you cannot pay your bills because you do not have the money. To get car insurance, Health Insurance, they check your credit. Your Monthly Payment goes up. It is who you know and not what you know. Host that was joan in florida. Dapper in cincinnati debra in cincinnati. Caller we should discuss cuts from the medicare dollars spent on hospital Residency Training for doctors as well as the money for medicare that goes for graduate Level Education for doctors and assistance. Medicare also buys equipment for hospital. I feel medicare dollars should not be spent there anymore now that we have to have cuts. I do not think that will lead to a doctor shortage. What ot been able to find of medicare dollars is not spent directly for the participants. Does anybody know that . Host we will let that stand and maybe somebody will have a response to that. A lot comments and attention on the Cable Networks on bob woodward and his most recent book. Here it is. This cannot in july of 2012 this came out in july of 2012. This is the beginning of chapter 37 from his book. I thought we would read from his source. Bob woodward writes host this book came out in july, 2012. Around noon on saturday, host that is from the price of politics. John in pennsylvania, what is on your mind this morning . Caller ok. Im tired of one crisis after another. Both parties are doing it. I think we need to get to the meat of the issue and that is tax reform. Our tax system is not creating enough jobs or to maintain a standard of living for the majority of people in the country. Wages have remained stagnant. We had 30 years of consecutive trade deficits. We need to get a tax code that is productive instead of full we have now, just a tax code of extraction. Money is going and staying out of the country. One party says they are the job creators. Party never saw a tax increase they did not like. We need to get some common ground. The young are being indebted more and more at a younger age. There is a way to get out of this mess. Everybody talks about the gross domestic product. That is money. You can look at the jobs and the Unemployment Rate. Host that is john in pennsylvania. Anthony in new york. Caller hi. Businesses have left so they did not have to pay taxes. Their climate they will save us and bring jobs back. Contest the student cam coming up again. A group of High School Students touting the safety of Nuclear Power. It would be wonderful if you could bring them back and see how they feel about it now. I would like more coverage in japan about the fukushima crisis. There were bring fresh water to try to cool their nuclear reactor. It has gone away and we know that is not the case. They have not found a place to deposit the waste. I wish there was greater coverage. If you could bring the winners backed that won first prize. I wonder what they felt now about the power. Host what kind of work did do . Caller i was a carpenter for some years. I take care of it handicapped girl. Host why is Nuclear Power your issue . Caller cspan seems to be the only voice we have for truth and knowledge. The media seems to be controlled by the various interests. Nuclear power has infiltrated every kind of thinking and speech. Cspan is the one opportunity to get the truth that out. It is slowly sinking into the ocean. The water is growing radioactive. They cannot even store the waste. They have no place to put the water. I did a study in high school. The biggest problem if theres a meltdown it would be the end of our environment. This planet is a fragile balance. Radioactivity is so overwhelming to the disk balance. To the disbalance. Host that was anthony from new york. He mentioned a couple of things. Student cam is back in force. You will see an announcement shortly about this years winners. On this program, you will see the announcement. Pretty soon youll see it rollout of the winners, etc. This years student cam, a Record Number of entries. Looking forward to seeing the winners and videos. Anthony mentioned the fukushima accident and earthquakes and Nuclear Power failure that happened with the tsunami. A brand new book out and we discovered the book on book tv. It is about the disaster in japan from 2011. Brand new book on book tv very shortly. This weekend on book tv, live from the tucson book festival. The fifth year at the tucson book festival is being held. Stop by the cspan bus and, by and pick up a book back and say hi. Well have live coverage. All that information is available on our website. Mj in washington, please go ahead with your comment this morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to make some comments because i disagree with a lot of what i hear about the federal workers. I worked as a scientist for 25 years, learning how to treat traumatic injury. We have worked very hard to watch our budget and to make sure were spending on things that we need. The pay structure is set up badly. If you dont spend your budget, you get less next year. There is incentive to try to spend more. If you spend more, you get enough to cover the increasing costs for the things you need to do your job. Many of my colleagues work long hours and sometimes aroundthe clock for no extra pay. People get time off and holidays. Had ithe crash, ive shrinking paycheck and the rising price of health care, which is taken out of my pay. I think it has needed to change for a long time but i did not hear talk about that. They want to take it out of our paychecks. I contributed and pay taxes and i do spend. It seems like a bad time with sequestration. How the government can take might spending power away. Host have you seen any effect at this point . Financially caller caller financially . Im working on my budget. Im not getting much sleep. I know that i will get my letter next week about the furlough and they will probably start in the middle of april. I am a single parent with a child in college. I was raised with the idea that you want to pay taxes and contribute to your society. Largeset with the corporations and people with the money going overseas and not wanting to pay taxes. I wonder what kind of good americans that are. Host elizabeth in texas. Caller hello. I am so in agreement with your previous caller. I and a social scientist and educator. I find it interesting when i hear i was listening to mr. Tom mcclintock. I am a native of california. I understand placerville. I come from an area that benefited from that were the new campus was established. We cannot fill our new hospital with doctors. A lot of this is because when you take something he likened choosing doctors or hospitals like you were choosing from an ice cream store. That is an absolute fallacy. Macroeconomic 101. There are elastic goods at the Grocery Store and then there are in elastic goods like health care, things people have to pay for regardless how high the price goes. The price of fuel. The market can settle whether or not i get an ice cream cone. Nor not the solution running a government like a corporation. You cannot really fire your citizens. Host we appreciate you calling in. Ets. S get to some twe host we are desalt that tw we already saw that tweet. Caller i have a concern. Senator Dianne Feinsteins bill on the assault weapons ban. It is amazing some of the guns she listed are in there for cosmetic reasons. Why is it that in her bill and other bill hr437 states that retired Police Officers have the right to purchase these so called assault weapons for their produce . I am a disabled veteran. Why would not i be placed in there as an exemption . As aust as trustworthy retired police officer. I defended this nation. Why is that . Aboutmaybe well learn in three minutes or so what happens. Were covering the Senate Judiciary Committee Live and they began marking up some of the gun bills including s150, s54, s374, protecting responsible gun sellers at, and senator boxer bill. Their assembly and waiting for the members. Are you still on the line . What did you think about the filibuster yesterday . Caller i am proud to have voted for him. It is not a question of whether or not the president shouldnt have the power at all to authorize any kind of drone strikes against american citizens on american soil. I understand and circumstances they relate it like the 9 11 terrorist attacks and were contemplating shooting down airplanes. That is an extension with the circumstance. That is a massive object looking a killing thousands of people. When you talk about sending one drum to kill one individual, the president without any oversight has declared an enemy of the state. That is