Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140208

And year, exposing debit credit card numbers, expiration dates, and the like. Because of that breach and others that have taken place, have you changed your habits coming your habits when it comes to using that it cards that using debit cards. Using that cards. Debit cards. ,025853881. On social media you can find our twitter. You can also participate in a poll. You can also send us email to journal cspan. Org. There was a poll looking at practices bcause because of data breaches. Americans say they fear of theft. G victims of they are apathetic to try to protect their data. 58 say they have deep worries when spending online but only 37 have tried to use cash for purchases rather than pay with plastic in response to the data thats like the one in turn get. Only 41 check their credit reports. Some of the details from that survey that we read you and just to show you once more, 50 eight percent concerned about spending online. 41 say they have checked their credit reports, 30 seven percent attempting to use cash for purchases. 37 attempting to use cash for purchases. Perhaps you want to tell us about your personal practices. Maybe you have suggestions for what congress should do. 2025853880 if you only use debit or credit cards. If you only use cash, 20255 853881. Make comments on facebook this morning. Some have already. Theres is also a poll you can participate in as well. Answer yes or no about the changes in practices. 20 people say because of those data breaches they have not changed their practices. Numbers will stay on the screen. You can call them and make your thoughts known. There are about nine comments on facebook this morning. Probably having a little difficulty holding them up. Athan smith saying noon saying the numbers will be on the screen. The editors of the boston globe looked at this issue. This is part of their editorial. Need toked about the change the types of cards that are used. Most of the concerns you have heard about in that hearing was about the magnetics white magnetic swipe type of card. The globe says this have data breaches change your credit card usage . Only usesm missouri cash. How are you . Caller fantastic. Host you said you only use cash. Is this something you have always done or because of the data breaches . Caller the data breaches arent a problem. The problem is we have grown accustomed to living on credit cards and that is our National Problem. If we dont finish if we dont fix our National Problem we are going to have cash. It is like gold. We based our site on a bunch of shiny rocks. Florida, a from debit and credit card user. Good morning, how are you . Caller wonderful. How are you . Host great. What do you think about it and credit card usage in light of these data breaches . Caller i like using my credit card. Of course i carry enough cash in my pocket at all times. Mycard allows me to check account online, i can monitor my cash flow a lot better by using my debit card. Concern is the whole internet experience is based on an open back door, basically. Velop thee that de operating systems have to the princely left the back door open, otherwise they cannot have an advertising model. That model allows all this the various all this nefarious stuff to go on. An open back have and they will not close that back door for the advertising model. There are two different kinds of protocol. Httop is your standard protocol. Site. Is a secure s, doesnt have the then i would be concerned. Twitter we havent heard an email yet but you can send is that too. About your credit and debit card practices, if you changed your habits because of data breaches the lines, again here is surely here is shirley from victorville. Hostcaller i am a debit user. Logo onhave the visa it. Is it are going to have to continue, you are trying to listen to yourself on the tv. Caller i want to know if it is safer to use one with the im muting you. Host why dont we put you on hold for a second and we will come back to you. Next caller caller how are you . I am a longtime viewer. I worked in the back office, processing checks. I knew this day was going to come because as the checks dried up we lost our jobs. I was watching an article last week about these Quantum Computers that have the ability to break any code. Eventually the whole basis of this online cash processing thing, whether it is credit were thatebit cards new bitcoin or that new bitcoin, it will be for mobile. It will be vulnerable. Just think about it, the vulnerability there that we all face. You are a cash user. How easy is it for you to go daytoday using just cash . I am pretty well as far as managing my funds. I was an accountant, so i have an idea of my responsibilities. I do keep a prepaid turn a card prepaid credit card in my justt with a 200 balance for emergencies. That is the most i will allow to be on any card. Numbers on are the the screen for you. If you want to talk about changing your practices we previously heard from surely. From shirley. Finish your thought. Caller my thought was my debit card does not have the visa logo on it. And i want to know if its safer to use or if they can still pick up the whatever they get when they scan the card. Host is your card through your local bank . Union. Through my credit you thatant tell myself. Have you always been concerned about Security Matters or has it not been a concern up until now . It worried me a little bit. I am not concerned about it. I will go ahead and use it because i do not like to carry too much cash on me. I am an older citizen and they like to target us in that area and then they take your cards. Host what about internet purchases, do you do that . Caller i do, but only through my credit union. Host that is shirley from california. When you call and if you would would muteif you your television we would appreciate it. From twitter our next call is from maryland. A debit and credit card user, hello. I just want to share my opinion with you. There are so much fraud going on. I was reading a newspaper on the and i saw host [indiscernible] is a lotused there of problems using the cards out there. That is risk. Host that is our call from maryland. Off of Facebook First i want to tell you about facebook. C om cspan is how you find us. First i want to show you then i want to show you about the poll you could take as well. Pageyou go to our facebook , most of the people say when it comes to practices using debit card and credit card as opposed to cash has not changed. Compared toying no the eight people who said yes this morning. The hearing took place this weekend on capitol hill. An executive from target, the Vice President John Mulligan. He talked about the need for cooperation for both retailers and congress in order to better secure consumer data. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] from happening again, none of us can go it alone. We need to work together. Updating Payment Card Technology and strengthening protections for American Consumers is a shared responsibility and requires a collective and coordinated response. On behalf of target, i am committing that we will be an active part of the solution. Members of the subcommittee, i once again want to reiterate how sorry we are for the impact this incident has had on your constituents, our guests, and how committed we are to making it right. That was John Mulligan at the hearing that took place on the data breaches. You can find the full hearing on our website, www. Cspan. Org. There is our website. You might have noticed we have and moreew userfriendly. Especially if you use tablets or cell phones, that is the website. We invite you to go check it out for yourself. Off of twitter you probably heard it the boston globe folks themselves. Washington post says in European Countries and other countries they use a smart microchip payment card. Some countries are removing the magnetic stripe. Wisconsin only uses cash. Good morning. Commenti just wanted to to the lady with the credit union. I was with my credit union for 28 years, got a 401 k transferred there, and was scammed. If you cannot trust one person in there, you are done. Host tell us about your experience being scammed. How did you fix it . It hasnt been fixed. I went to the president of the credit union and he refuses to speak to me and my fiance. The Banking Association says there is not enough evidence. They got away with it. It was 44,000. Host you havent recovered any of it yet . Caller no. Its awful. Host jay is up next from boston, massachusetts, he only uses cash. Good morning. Caller i think people are not wise and not wise enough. If you use your debit card, you are giving your entire banking information to hackers. If you are going to use debit card, which are a click comes out of your bank account, why dont you which comes directly out of your bank account, why dont you just use cash . If you dont sign it it doesnt belong to you. Debit cards are so foolish. I dont understand why people even use them at cards. That is your cash from the bank. Forget all this trouble. What is using cash daytoday like for you . How do you manage it . Absolutely. If you go to the bank and take the cash, what ever you want, you can use it for the week. Large,urchases that are at least control it. If you didnt sign it, that means obviously you didnt use it. You sign when you use your credit cards. Let the Credit Card Company deal with it. But debit card directly comes from your bank. Whats the point he echo just use your cash. Whats the point he echo whats the point . Just use your cash. Host if you want to send us a thought on twitter, its c spanwj. This is from the politics and nations section of the washington post. Saying on the topic of data breaches and if they have changed habits we have divided the lines for those of you who only use debit and credit cards and for those of you who only use cash. Twitter is available to you as well. A viewer says those thoughts and others being made this morning. Talkingroit free press about this this morning. It includes a meeting with detroits mayor, saying lori, calling on our line for those who use cash from sierra vista. We have always used cash or credit, we just never wanted accountsdize our bank by hooking up to a debit card and using a pin number. Thankful we have always gone that route and never used a debit card. I feel really bad for other people that have become victims of this hacking breach. Host do you do any purchases online . No, thats another thing, we never do anything online that includes our finances. We listen to the wall street journal report we listened to the wall street journal report is a go and i am glad we heeded their woarning. Host what is the reaction when you tell people you only use cash . Area, we live in a rural i dont think it makes a difference. Host mike from butler, and credita, a debit card user. Caller good morning. I use a credit card for most purchases but it is set up to its own account where i control the amount of money in it. Its in a separate bank than my normal banking. I use that as a cutout to protect myself. Am not comfortable with caring piles of cash around. Host the way you came up with your plan, how did you come up with its . With it . Previous life i had some interaction with security. If i am breached, there will be minimum damage. The other aspect of it is that communication within a Banking Institution also can and been breached. By setting this up with a seperate bank, i feel i give myself more protection. Host this is dan from ohio, a cash user. Morn and ii cash usern. G, pedro. Good morning. I am a cash user. It just gives too much power to people, it increases the power and is very dangerous. Joann from indiana, a debit and credit card user, hello. The reason i started using my debit card is because there are bills that i have to use one to pay it. They wont accept cash or checks. At the only reason i got one feed that is the only reason i got one. They today isions mostly cash. That is just for my own convenience. Ofi were in a bigger part the world, lecture condo, they would have to have a credit card. I think the chip would be better, as far as security. It is security that keeps you from using it on a widespread basis . Caller yes, more than anything. Paying my bills is just convenient. And like i said that is what they accept. You a target shopper at all yucca would you change practices . Caller yes i would, if i was. Im not. Host heres kathy from sultan, california. I knew i had 900 left i looked atcard and my statement, i had 43. Andlled immediately somebody charged something to apple. Then i called my bank. Days aftero 15 calling my bank i had my money back. Host what did you do with them what did you do between the tenant 15 days he what did you do between the 10 and 15 days . Caller i also have cash. I just use a debit. They were so good about it. I called apple and my bank. I didnt even have to cancel my pin number. Senatore democratic montana, max baucus, is the that is theors to ambassador to china. John walsh will fill the seat of the senator. It is one of the six contested races where democrats are defending senate seat this is lynn, phoenix, arizona, debit and credit card user. Hello. Hello. Up for the past five years, my major plank for the past five years, my major banks credit card data was hacked. One of the credit cards i used was a state card that was hacked. The credit card people, they have issued new cards with the chip in it but it cannot be used. For the debit card thing, one of my friends started using prepaid cards. Her credit card was hacked by a human that was that, she was pretty sure, compromised her numbers. I dont think she has had too many issues because she just loads whatever she wants to use that week on it instead of carrying cash. That is how she solved it. I have had three accounts that had to be canceled in the past five years. I am ready for them to switch over. Thank you very much. Host House Republicans thising a plan becomes a part of the discussion over the debt ceiling. Kristina peterson in the wall street journal pat from maryland, debit and credit card user. We are asking folks if data breaches have changed credit card usage . Caller good morning. Actually not. I have it set up similar to the other gentlemen. Of my debit card is with my my debit card is with my credit union. My money goes into my savings account and a transfer what i need my debit card via i use it what it debit card need to my debit card. Ive cut my money into a separate account that is not tied to my regular money. Amazon and some places will allow you it is not amazon itself will allow you to use them. I will not use my credit card as opposed to using paypal. Compromised, they wont get very much. Host because of this whole process, wasnt difficult at first and became easier . Wasnt always easy to maintain this practice he echo caller this practice . Caller i have done this for the past six or seven years. I have to transfer money because i have to go to the Grocery Store so i know what that limit is. Spend less than 20, i will carry cash. Host some thoughts this morning on debit card practices, perhaps you just use cash. Data breaches is what spurred this question. A hearing taking place on capitol hill this week. To ask you about your practices and if they changed because of data breaches. If you want to weigh in for the next 15 minutes, the numbers james from rochester, new york, a credit card user. Good morning. Echo are you there . Caller yes. I am confused about was some of the people are saying. Absolutely not. All the cards that i have, including my chechinking and savings account through my credit union i have had fraudulent activity. All i do is one call and it s gone. Senator rand paul is our guest on our Newsmaker Program tomorrow. Mornings reporting this that the topic of bill clinton came up during this conversation. Abc puts it this way here is bit from that interview. [video clip] democrats cant say we are the great defenders of woman rights in the workplace and we will defend you from abusive bosses that use the position of authority to take advantage of a young woman when the leading fundraiser in that country is bill clinton, who was a perpetrator of that kind of sexual harassment. They cannot have it both ways. I think anybody who wants to take money from bill clinton or have a fundraiser has a lot of explaining to do. In fact i think they should give the money back. If they want to take a position on womens rights, by all means do. You cannot take it from a guy who used his position of authority to take advantage of a young woman in the workplace. He paid an 800,000 fine for sexual harassment. Host senator rand paul, tomorrow on cspan at 10 00 and again at 6 00. Anthony, you are next from sierra vista, arizona. Caller good morning. Use debit and credit card. I use cash also. I think the most important thing is if everyone is concerned , there is a reason to not want to use debit and credit cards. Companies and their policies the 10 interest rate. I think people have to exercise due diligence. You have to check your account every day. Some companies are very good about their policies where they will text you or email you when you set the threshold for an account. Twofold. Is policy by your organization that you do unnatural responsibility with. Host dont king says off of twitter twittering says off of associatedt that press poll. 58 expressing concerns about overall. 37 , and this is because of breaches, attempting to only use cash for purchases. Angela from louisiana joins us. I used to make purchases with my debit card. I protected with this target situation. I will be paying locally at stores. Host tell us about your target situation. I let them know my account was affected. Situation, nice yourg to worry about identity being affected. So far i havent had any money stolen. It is just very worrisome. The cfo from target was on capitol hill. Did you take advantage of that . Caller yes. Host you said you wont go back to target anymore . I have not been back to target to lately. I may go back but i can guarantee i will be not using cap i will be using cash when i go. Caller what is it like using host what is it like using cash . Caller it is more work because you have to get the money out of the bank but for me it feels better. Host here is paul from pennsylvania. A debit and credit card user. To say basically i want give me that i want to say thank you for giving me this opportunity. I did not stop shopping at target. I am going to be straight with. Ou, i am bankrupt my business went out of business. My credit was destroyed. I joined free credit report. Com and they want me if there was any funny activity going on in my credit background. I also have capital one. When i was bankrupt capital one extended their hand out to me. Suspiciouss any activity i always get an email. I paid my bill every two weeks. A lot of people have had their credit destroyed from this economy. I see all these commercials coming up in my emails. They are tracking is by using these cards. Host a poll on our Facebook Page 13 people say yes theyre practices have changed. 39 people saying no. Can keep the conversation going on our Facebook Page. Oklahoma, a cash user. I use cash only. I dont buy anything over the internet because i dont trust data breaches. Also know of some other instances where credit cards are a problem. If you dont protect yourself with an aluminum sleeve that blocks the radio signal from can card, your information be accessed by somebody walking up within five feet of you. If they have a device they chased over the internets my father got tricked into giving his credit card information away when someone claiming to be from microsoft called him and told him they detected a virus on his computer. Host that is wrong from oklahoma. In. Can weigh schmadeke e sc that is the Chicago Tribune story. If you go to the front page of the chicago times close quote the picture of the three men in question. Topic, loull on this from minneapolis. Good morning. Caller i love your program. I do use debit and credit cards. On debit i only use it for debit for atm withdrawals. For credit, ive monitor that pretty diligently. I never carry a balance. Iflso have companies where there is something suspicious they will send me an email. Ofhink it is a matter following what you are buying. You need to check its regularly. Never had a problem. Also in the case of larger purchases, whether it is finding a car or Airline Tickets or something along those lines, it , especiallycessary if you want to have something you have to have done, a major deal. It is a car repair that will maybe cost to 1000 or if you need to put a roof on your house. How many people have 5,000 in cash to do Something Like that . You can keep the conversation going on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. Our first topic this morning look up the middle class and economic recovery. Nelson schwartz joins us for that discussion. Legeron Donna Leinwand will join us. Them a watch our program on First Lady Laura Bush today on seven p. M. Eastern today at 7 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Monday night, our series continues. It is all an evolutionary process. You go into this row you grow into this role. You are never done area there is never a point in time where you feel like i am now here and i can do this the same way all the time. It is always changing. First Lady Michelle obama, monday night at nine eastern on cspan and cspan three. In many ways we focus so far on the challenge protecting on the challenge of protecting debit cards. But the real exposure we have is that people can actually get into our Bank Accounts or online transactions, where we do more and more Online Banking and other services. Protectionsvery few at this point and almost on limited liability for consumers. In todays interconnected world, personal information is collected from consumers wherever they go, from the forplace to shopping groceries, to our smartphones and browsing the web at home, every action we take involves the collection of information. Many of these data uses have clear benefits. Breaches aret data a strong reminder that they create risks for consumers. It is through proactive investigations where we are sometimes ahead in determining looking at data as it relates to financial industries. His partnership we have in the financial industry sector has sometimes been able to bring us data where we are able to go through and parts that data. Way that the same journalists are able to get a hold of that information. Lawmakers use legislative options to secure personal data. And on booktv, executive power during times of crisis, from washington to bush. And on American History tv, travel back 150 years to see how eral so how soldiers how confederate soldiers spent the winter of 1864. Washington journal continues. Host joining us is Nelson Schwartz, economics reporter from a the New York Times from the New York Times. Welcome. Guest good to be here. Host can you talk about the connections you make between those who find themselves in the middle class and the businesses that cater to them . Guest sure. I wanted to take a look at the inequality debate, which usually a less right battle with a lot of rhetoric out of washington. It in how itk at is playing out in the Business World. They have to make money and grow their businesses. Was particularly in the restaurant sector, changes cater to the middle class and were having a hard time. Places that cater to wealthy people, like state capital grille are doing well. Andtal grille, red lobster, all of garden are all owned by the same company. They are under pressure to spin out the higher End Restaurant Group because that is the part that is doing well. We saw that in many other businesses. It wasnt just people not liking the food. You are seeing this in retail with sears and jcpenney having a hard time. Nordstrom is doing well, as are the Dollar Stores doing well. Casinos, hotels, and so on. Are people leaving those stores for other stores or is there more to it . In the big picture, yes. I think what you are seeing is people who have access like real estate or especially stocks, they have more money because those assets are doing well. Depending one just salaries, especially salaries in the middle tier, are having a harder time. I think the cost of things Like Health Care and education is going up. But wages are not. People are cutting where they can cut back, like restaurants or retail stores. As far as their habits, if they are leaving those kinds of stores, is it just as simple as they are shopping at Dollar Stores or online. Where are they directing their dollars . I think a small portion may be going upscale. The larger portion is going down scale. They are going to the Dollar Stores, they are looking for the best bargains online, or they are not buying. Atare seeing foot traffic red lobster and all of garden fall since 2005. Alternative, chipotle is doing well. You think about the average tab at the olive gordon is about , that is a middle tier. You can get a lot more or a lot less. We already have a viewer weighing in. He asks why any business with cater to the middle class why wouldnt any business cater to the middle class . If you are a business you want to increase your revenues, your bottom lines. Where is the growth occurring . It is going to the top. To some economists at the Federal Reserve. The top 20 is responsible for the overwhelming amount of growth in consumption. Is not growing at all. Host the larger topic is economic recovery. We will look at other factors. Guest want to ask our questions about his reporting, here is how you can do so. We divided the lines by income. Those of you who make 5853880. D other, 202 those of you who make over 100,000, 2025853882. Talk about your spending habits, what it is like to live where you are. About schwartz writes economics in the New York Times. The Pew Research Center put out a pull talking about how people described themselves when it comes to classes. In 2011, 50 described themselves as middleclass. 44 in compared to the 2014. Considering themselves and the lower class was 27 , as opposed to 2014 at 40 . Changes you are seeing when it comes to those in the middle class. What are we seeing and what can you tell us . Guest how people define themselves by class varies. It depends on education and the part of the country. In new york what passes as middle class would be uppermiddleclass elsewhere. At is the Data Collected by the government. The median Family Income in america is 60,000. That is including both a husband and a wife. Whether or not both are working 60,000 is the median. I sort of use that as a rough yardstick of what is middleclass. What is clear is that middle class people are under tremendous economics rests because salaries economic stress because salaries are not going up. Costs are not stagnating. Anybody can apply to college or get health insurance. It is going to cost more though. That is the real stress on the middle class. One source of income says the stock market and dividends is not benefit the middle class in terms of what they own. We were well off until the bottom fell out in 2008 and havent recovered one bit since then. Talk about 2008. Guest a lot of these trends were at work prior to 2008. It is not all brandnew. What happened in the wake of the recession is you had unemployment go way up. Lots of people lost their jobs. You have a lot of Technological Development in terms of the internet and mobile communications. These trends were developing and they really got accelerated by the after effect of the recession. Terms, youin plain have a lot more people looking for work. For all of us who are still employed, it makes it harder to get a raise. I am not going to ask for a raise if i know there are four or five people happy to take my job. Host our guest is Nelson Schwartz from the New York Times. Up first. On dan is i am retired some i income is under 50,000. I am finding that we look for value anywhere we can get it. We are fortunate enough to have a good sized Grocery Store in our small town that has much better prices than walmart. Store that isar going to be replaced by one of the super Dollar Stores. We do a lot of shopping there. Canook for places where we get the best value for our dollar. I think you are seeing that play out in the stock price of Dollar Stores. Story that in my family Dollar Stores and dollar have moree stocks than doubled in the last few years. Whereas stocks like jcpenney and sears are down more than 50 . Is investorsseeing understand more and more people are going to those Dollar Stores , exactly as the caller is talking about, to get the lowest prices. I have a headline talking about walmart, saying it always seems like the place where bluecollar folks shop. Guest walmart is a good thermometer for the economy. The biggest pool of people is going to be in the middle. Of people at the top, 25 are at the bottom, you know, walmart is really going to that middle 50 , but it wheneveryone, and i think you have wages not going up, plus at the beginning of last year, payroll taxes went up, which hurt workingclass people, walmart is going to feel that. Host here is mary in michigan, for those who may between 50,000 and 100,000. Caller hi. I wanted to say i believe there are many factors involved. One is the fact that the president when he came into office instead of concentrating on the economy and job growth, which is what we desperately needed, he instead imposed yet ,ore taxes on the middle class as well as where i come from in michigan, i believe we have some of the highest gasoline taxes and other gas taxes in the country, so it is harder for the middle class to make any headway. My husband has worked his whole life, to jobs two jobs. Job even though he was getting half the money he could have been making in the private sector, he went to work for the state because of the Pension Program that he could go into, because of the 401 k that he could put into, and also because of the Health Care Benefits because we have excellent Health Care Benefits, which we are having to pay extra for now because of obamacare, which takes money out of our pocket. We are also going to be faced with losing that health care because of the employer mandate thing. So all of these things lead a , where, you know, he has been working two jobs to make up for these extra money host ok, caller, thank you. Think, as we were saying, there is tremendous stress on the middle class postop health care costs, education costs, wages stagnating. Dont think you can lady inequality issue or the issue at middle class the feet of either party. I think these are fundamental economic shifts, and even if romney had one and not obama or if mccain had won in 2008, i think we would still be talking about many of the same issues, there will still be things playing out like obama care, and the payroll taxes going up at the end of 2012, beginning of 2013, but i think the debate is right terms. Left, democrats talking about this issue, republicans talking about opportunity, but really it is an economic shift more than a political one. Ift so, Nelson Schwartz, you are asked off twitter do you believe this erosion of the middle class is permanent or part of a normal Economic Cycle . Well, it is exacerbated by Economic Cycles in the sense of as we said, in the recession when you have a lot more unemployed people, wages yet when or drop, the economy is doing well and employers are competing to hire people, wages go up, so there is a cyclical factor, but i think there is something deeper that is structural in the economy in the sense of new technologies, a new shift kind of rewards people with skills. I do not think we are condemned to this, but i think we need to make Public Policy decisions to address it. In particular, we have got to improve education. One thing people do not realize is only one third of American Workers have college degrees, so that means two thirds dont and about one third are high school or less than high school. Those workers in particular are suffering, and we need to give them more education in terms of vocational skills to boost their income because that is where you are really seeing a lot unemployment and wage weakness. Host which goes to the topic of affordability then for education. Guest right. And there are some interesting programs i have written about in South Carolina and other states in terms of apprenticeships and partnerships between private employers and local community colleges. What people need to realize is people say well, we need more plumbers, we need more electricians, we need more skilled bluecollar workers, all of which is true, but those involved some pretty serious skills. You cannot walk off the street and get a job in a factory a couplelike you could generations ago in detroit. It does not work like that. We have got to do a better job of training people. Mike from houston, texas makes over 100,000. Good morning. Caller mr. Swartz, you mentioned that income is a stagnating, and i would agree that the line has shown a stagnation. Thomas doll has written about this a thousand times. , where you follow flesh and blood individuals, you will see that from the time of 24 to the time theyre 45, 50, 60, their income goes up. Timehuman who works full and stays gainfully employed fulltime over their career, more often than not, their income is going to double by the time they are 45 or 50. It is inevitable. It is because of their experience, networking, to moreit leads productivity, talent, and good things happen. This frustration is we keep talking about stagnation, stagnation. I am telling you, if people stay gainfully employed, fulltime as much as they can, their income will go up because they will network. People change jobs, opportunities arise, and i think it is deceptive to tell people that wages are stagnating. If you stay at red lobster and serve food for 10, 12, 14 years, wages are going to stagnate. The other point i want to make collegesd, quickly, and universities, and at ut sa, my colleague told me 40 of the engineering students are from india. 40 . So you can send people to college, and if you are endorsing that the government is paying for college or something, at the rate that the costs are, the costs are skyrocketing. Host thank you, caller. Guest in terms of people salaries going up over the course of their career, that is what we want to see happening. Unfortunately, it just has not been. And the data speaks for themselves. As an economics reporter, i try to rely on the numbers as much as possible. Last year, this number cannot yesterday in the unemployment 12ort wages over the last months went up 1. 9 , which after inflation is about. 4 , which is not very much at all. The same pattern was true in 2012, 2011. Ist rate of increase, 1. 9 , the whole economy, whitecollar, bluecollar, it is about half the rate happening in the 20 years prior to be recession. So again, if he saw everybodys wages going up over the course of their career, it would be reflected in the numbers and it is not. The second part in terms of education is we need to educate more engineers. That is absolutely true. Many of the people in the circle t. E. M. Field are from overseas, which is great for america in terms of training all these people. We need to have more of our own people born here doing that as well. That is true, however, just keep in mind that only about half of High School Graduates Start College and fewer than that finish. My concern is what is happening to all the people that dont even go to college and what kind of training can they get because right now many of them are working in restaurants or at home depot, not that there is anything wrong with that, but salary growth there is very limited and you want to give people the options to get deals, to earn more or to work their way up at those businesses. Host you mentioned the unemployment figures that were released yesterday, Nelson Schwartz, you wrote about it today in the business section of the New York Times. Tell us in your thoughts of what the numbers mean. Basically, employers only added about 113,000 jobs or so to payrolls in january. That was well short of what people had been hoping for, about 180,000 was the expectation. So you are not seeing the hiring that will bring down unemployment and start pushing wages up. That is one thing. To 6. 6 ,fell by. 1 but they are based on separate going intond without it, by and by, this was a lackluster report. Was last on this announced, the rate being affected by the people who stop looking for work and the rates being affected by people looking for work or finding jobs. Which of those two categories rest fits this number . Guest in terms of the drop of the Unemployment Rate by. 1 , that was helped by more people finding work. Weve had this pattern for years , the percentage of the population in the workforce coming down, which has the effect of lowering the Unemployment Rate. January,not at work in but that is a concern that many people are just dropping out of the workforce entirely, and if you are not looking for work, you were not counted as unemployed, and therefore the rate comes down. Yesterday we did not see that, but this is definitely a concern for the long haul. Host another story talks about the Unemployment Rate in certain sectors. 30 in agriculture, 12 in 13 inon, leisure agriculture, 12 in thetruction, talk about percentage when it comes to jobs. Guest we saw a reversal of some of the trends in december. For example, construction went up a lot, which is probably a bounce back from the weather related construction, job losses in december. So construction did well, manufacturing actually did well, about 21,000 jobs. The Manufacturing Sector is actually doing ok. Where you solid job losses were retailers cutting back after a mixed holiday season. Also the Health Care Sector every month for years has barely budge to the last two months. So that drop off in hiring in health care has weakened the overall numbers. Finally, government continues to shed workers at all levels. Host correct me if im wrong, but in previous reports, was one of the industries that saul growth. Guest exactly. People wondered is this obamacare kind of Freezing Health care hiring. I talked to an economist at bank of america, merrill lynch, and he tells me it was not obamacare. If anything, obamacare should the healthing in care field, even if it did cost jobs in other fields because of higher costs for employers. So it is not see my another explanation i heard is a lot of consolidation in the hospital sector, and you are seeing some job losses there as Health Care Employers look for more efficiency. Host Nelson Schwartz from the writes aboutes the economy, talking about the middle class, a new story of his takes a look at retail and where the middleclass shops. You may want to make your thoughts known and asking questions, we have divided the lines differently. If you make under 50,000, 202 5853880, if you make 50,000 and 100,000, 202 5853881, and then 202 5853882 if you make over 100,000. Good morning, go ahead. Caller good morning, pedro, and allowing, cspan, for me to speak. On netflix, there is a movie i saw a little while ago called death by china, directed by peter navarro. I was wondering if your guest here was familiar with that. After watching that, and i have m. Engineer type ever since the 1980s, and i got recruited out to train the navy reactorsow to work the out there selves. I was a sophomore in college when they came to recruit me at my school. I dont see them doing that anymore, and since being in the technology field, i have been outscored due to our immigration policies from job after job. I went from nuclear power, industrial hygiene, when we were cleaning up, and every place i went to, there was more immigrants, a lot the legal brought in to replace us. Host thank you, caller. Guest i am not familiar with that movie. Thinkd add that i do not or loss of engineering jobs competition for those jobs is being affected that much by immigration. For trainedsas engineers, but the truth is there is pretty Strong Demand for engineers in america, for value weighted, skillsbased professions. The on employment rate for College Educated people is only 3. 2 , it speaks to that people with education, with skills are getting hired more. Again, there are jobs that have gone overseas, but i dont think we can blame immigrants or even china for the loss of engineering or s. T. E. M. Related careers. Host seattle, washington, cameron, hi. Morning, pedro. Great program. I watch washington journal every morning while my coffee machine is warming up. I love the opportunity to maybe get some listeners some i willtion that i am 55, be 55 in a month, i have been selfemployed my whole life other than seven years out of high school, i was a cop under i was a carpenter in southern california. Miro messages you need to consider getting off your butt, maybe not spending enough money into the education realm. It seems to take so much from peoples lives, how much it costs for education. I am a selftaught software developer. I went out to the bookstore, bought books, on the internet, i learned this trade myself. I was making about 120,000 a year, until the recession, it not about 30 . Most people when they think about somebody selfemployed making 100,000 a year that your kind of rich because they might be making 20,000, 30,000 a year, but people do not consider how many hours we work. We have to match our own Social Security so my taxes are somewhere around 18,000 a year. I play close to 2000 a year to have my accountant prepare it. For instance, bill gates, paul allen, Thomas Edison and steve jobs all do not have college degrees, but it did not stop them from pursuing what they love, and if you look at the profound effect that these society,ve had on our you know, it has helped produce a lot of wealth in society, and they did not need anybody to light a fire under their rear to do it, dated 92 and they did not need to attack somebody else who made more money. I have a little contention with mr. Schwartzs point about shedding government jobs. As far as ive seen on cspan, government unemployment has not topped more than two point five percent of census government manufactured recession. At average is 58 years old rate of 62,000 a year. Caller. Ank you, guest on bill gates, distributed not have a college degree, but it is also true that he started out at harvard and dropped out of harvard, and his father is a very prominent seattle attorney, so he did have advantages going in. In terms of college i agree that there needs to be more opportunities for people with a High School Degree or an associates degree. All that said, if you show up at the door at google or microsoft and you do not have a college degree, i do not think you will get an interview. I mean, that is why education is so critical. Again, that may not be fair in the sense of in europe there are great apprenticeship programs for factory jobs, which we need more of those here, but right now the Unemployment Rate for college grads, 3. 2 , the Unemployment Rate for people with just a High School Degree is about 6. 5 , so double. Issues, of the other the numbers speak for themselves, and governments are shedding jobs. Bls, are numbers from the so its not like they are political. Host and the bls is guest the bureau of labour statistics. They are part of the Labor Department and they collect the data for unemployment and wages and so on. Host Nelson Schwartz, the last caller referenced it, but we wee a similar selection, have an aging workforce, how does this play into the middle class . You are getting more and more people dropping out of the workforce as baby boomers retire. Of s an issue in terms there is a big, big debate that the former fed chair ben bernanke has talked about in terms of why the proportion of people in the workforce is dropping. Some people say giving up looking for work, others say no, it is retiring baby boomers. So that does tend to slow growth over time, the aging workforce, because people on that fixed income or retired are not spending as much. So that is definitely an issue for growth. On the other hand, people are working longer, some by choice, some not by choice postop host. Ust Nelson Schwartz joining from the New York Times. Income i have a combined with my wife and i, so it may sound large, but it really isnt. I would like mr. Schwartz to comment, i think the Affordable Care act for many middleclass people is going to be devastating, and i just want to give a real world example. My wife we are both in our mid 50s. She is on an individual blue cross plan. Her deductible is 2500, and or monthly premium is 431. The bronze plan is not suitable as it only had 10 doctors countywide, and her primary care physician was not one of them, and the hospital that was on there was not in our town. So you go to the silver at the bottom tier which is an hmo. That takes her deductible from 2500 to 5,000, and her premium 742 a31 a month to month. I know rates differ from state to state, but i am sure there are tens of thousands of people who have a similar situation to us. That is money we would use for discretionary purchases and our retirement. A lot of people when i spoke to the Insurance Broker said they are just not having insurance, they cannot afford under the provisions of the Affordable Care act, so i think one of the consequences is going to be people having less to spend and ultimately there are going to be less people insured than before we started this debacle. Host caller, we will leave it there. Mr. Schwartz. Aret obamacare and the aca hugely complicated. We do not really know how it is going to play out. We are kind of in uncharted territories as the caller suggests. I would say in terms of Insurance Coverage and spending, least in new york, i am not familiar with the florida market, but people were spending a fortune. I am in church or my employer, and it isork times, not cheap, but it is a better deal. I do not know if most people depending on the market will be paying a fortune more because of obamacare. Again, i know there is tremendous controversy about the employer mandate in forcing people to buy health insurance. Dom not sure what you should for millions of people who just dont have any coverage at all or for people with preexisting conditions. I do not want to get too far up ield from the middleclass issue, but if you have millions of people who cannot get coverage or people with preexisting conditions who cannot get coverage, that is an economic issue in terms of spending as well, and i think it should be interesting to watch as this rolls out whether there is a little more security in those groups. This week,chwartz, the head of the Congressional Budget Office appeared before congress to talk about a report taking a look at the Affordable Care act, but a ghost the idea of jobs. Some of those reported by your publication this is reuters actually saying the last fiscal outlook, the nonpartisan cbo said the host did you have any thoughts on that . Guest i mean, you are going to see winners and losers, and some , you know, changes at the margin because of the scope of this legislation. Health care is Something Like 50 , 20 of the economy. This is a big deal. I think you will gain jobs in some sectors even as you lose them in others. For example, i think you may eventually gain jobs and health care because there will be much more demand for health care as ple who are now enjoying uninsured begin to get health care regularly hopefully. On the other hand, you may see some job losses as employers have to pay higher costs, they may shed workers to help cover that. I do not think it will be such a profound change that you will get a huge swing in the Unemployment Rate or just an Overall Economic growth. I think the key is getting the economy to grow faster, getting wages to move up faster. Not is where the action is, obama careful stop the hearing with Doug Elmendorf is not obama care. Host the hearing with Doug Elmendorf is on www. Cspan. Org. The economy and the middleclass our topic for the next 20 minutes with our guest who is joining us from new york, Nelson Schwartz of the New York Times , writes about economics. And i have some charts here. Before, referenced this it charted the stock grove of the stock growth of lower income stores, middle income stores, and high income stores. Lower income, huge growth from 2011 on. Middle income, target, macys, cold, jcpenney, flat. And high income stores, tiffany, nordstroms and showing a bit of growth as well. You talk about the growth, how does the highend differ . Guest the highend chains tend to be doing quite well, and if you go to the parking lots of a lot of highend malls, you will see a lot more cars than at the sears or the jcpenney. The other thing is my impression is that common vision from the internet is not as much of a tor at the very highend the other thing is my impression is that competition from the internet is not as much of a factor at the very highend stores. So i think they are a little more shielded from the amazons. Low end, at the people will not order things that cost a couple of dollars on the internet, so again there somewhat shielded from that. Theuld just add that with stock market, it was up 30 last year, so people that own stock, which is only about a small percent of the population, they are feeling more flush, so they are willing to spend more on the highend. Host you mentioned amazon. Is that a game changer . Guest i think it is in the sense that you are really seeing amazon hurting jcpenney and sears as people shop for their kind of products online. Is theont think that whole story. I think it is a factor, but i think Something Else is going on in terms of the middleclass ability to spend. Attleboro,xt, massachusetts, this is sandra, makes under 50,000. Caller good morning. My problem with everything that is going on in the government is they are going to legalize marijuana, and my grandchildren, two were doing marijuana when they were 17 or 18. Stepson. Marijuana they all committed a small thing under the marijuana and picked up and started carrying it for other people. Once theyn is committed that, after that, they to nowhere to go, nobody take and really straighten them out. The government turned their back on them. They are going to legalize that crap, yet you do not have of how tothe know take care of a human being that hits drugs. Mr. Schwartz, comment on that if you wish, but i will add Something Else from twitter on top about. This is a response from when he talked about stocks when you say only 50 of americans own stock, are you counting 401ks and iras . Yes, yes i am. That was something that struck me in the reporting of that story. Guylked to on economist, a named geiberger at rbs, and he did an analysis, and he can retirement k s, plans, only 50 of the American Population are exposed to the stock market. Again, that is an economist at rbs, it is not at a leftwing think tank in washington. It is a firm. You realize that many people are not benefiting from that runoff in the stock market. Did you do any thinking about the myra Program Announced by the president last week . Guest i have not cover that. Again, the more you can get people to save and put aside money for retirement is a good thing. I do not think anybody could be against that. The challenge is if income and wages are not growing, it is very hard for people to put more money aside. Host joe from ash, north carolina. Caller good morning. Throughoutis this history, manufacturing has been the backbone of any country. Fter the Second World War europe and asia was decimated. States built the world, you cannot blame the companies for going over there and making millions and billions of dollars. If you do not put your Manufacturing Base back in, people are not going to work. Not everybody is going to be a reporter, not everybody is going to go and be a doctor. Theyre going to drive nails, pick up garbage and i hate this middleclass nonsense. It is the American People trying to strive to make it better. Remember, a twocar garage, a chicken in every pot . If you people put term limits on everybody, two years and now, you cannot go get coaching with a reporter andy reporter does not the and the reporter does not get cozy with the politics. They are in there for two terms. You must do the Marshall Plan again and build the United States. Once you do that, everybody will go back to work, and sir, as far as you say engineers, during the late 1960s in 1970s, everybody went to college or, most people do and they wanted to become a mechanical engineer. I remember working in the steel mills, we had mechanical engineer sweeping me floors. Not everybody is an engineer. Guest there are a few things going on in that question. First of all, i do not think reporter is being cozy with politicians or congressmen has anything to do, even if it is true, which im not sure it is, that have anything to do with the approaching with the erosion of the american Manufacturing Base. That said, i completely agree with the caller that we need to find more opportunities for people who were not on the college track, who were not going into whitecollar careers. We desperately need people to drive nails and work in blue collar jobs. If we had more of that, i think there would be more spending at the middle level and at the lower level like we are talking about. The problem is we do not have great Educational Opportunities for people who dont go to a fouryear college. About a program in South Carolina, bmw is involved, other employers are involved, manufacturers. We have got to train more people to work in factories. I agree with the caller that manufacturing jobs are critical to economic growth, but you cannot just have people walk off the street into a factor anymore. That is just not how factories work. Skills toome s. T. E. M. Do that. And someone has to step up and help give young people and middleaged people the training to work and no structure is. Economistsuote two in your story, and in part, this is what they said, and 2012, the top 5 of earners guest right, i mean, that is where the spending growth is because that is where you see income and assets go up. That is where we have the money to do additional spending. It is as simple as that. Just struck in the reporting by how concentrated the spending was at that up or upper level. It is a pretty pronounced shift that you cannot lay it at the feet of a political party. It is just something that we as a society have to figure out what to do with. Host is that kind of level of support sustainable then as far as the upper crust, as they described it is that sustainable in supporting our economy . Guest well, i think what you can have is moderate growth based on that. 2 , 2. 5 , which is where we are at in terms of growth, but that is not as rapid growth as we need to get more people employed, to get wages going up. Even apart from questions of mobility and fairness, just in terms of the growth rate, it is going to be limited if everything is being driven by a small slice of the population. I think the second part is he will see more volatility if that is the group that is driving growth because theyre spending their spending is Discretionary Spending often tied to the stock market or housing, see will get more volatility. Over next caller makes 100,000. Go ahead. Caller i live in new jersey, i 2 ,ctually in the top 1 or as you say, i make a good living. One thing i have observed is you just mentioned a thing before that, you were saying technology has grown so much over the last 10, 15 years that there is so much internet everywhere. At the same time, you have also seen jobs dropping. So the only reason i can see is globalization. Globalization is a global phenomenon, not a local phenomenon. Mexico does not have to come here to physically take your job over here, they can take the same job right there in mexico or india or africa or anywhere in the world. So the point is that i teach programming to my children i tell them listen, my job as a mer i have to do something better, more productive and the guy in china, india, that is how i hold onto my job. Everyday i have learned something new. If i stop learning, i lose my job. To doountry, we have got the same thing. We cannot say oh, we used to be a manufacturing king, now we dont have manufacturing, oh, we need to get it back. No. That is not the way. Manufacturing is gone. It is not going to come back. , manufacturing is not gone. We are actually manufacturing more in terms of dollar value than we have ever done before. The problem is we are doing it with many, many fewer people. It is kind of like agriculture 100 years ago. Many, many people worked on farms. They do not anymore, but we still have just as much food coming from farms. That said, the caller is absolutely right in the sense that skills and valueadded training is where we can retain the competitive advantage over foreign workers. While i agree with the earlier caller who said not everybody ,an be a reporter or should be there are plenty of other opportunities, which i agree with, that being said, the fact is the Unemployment Rate for College Graduates is 3. 2 , the Unemployment Rate for people without a High School Degree is 9. 6 , so obviously, the economy is rewarding people with more skills, and that is what is going on out there. Host the latest unemployment data shows that unemployment by education level, less than high school, nine point six percent, high school, seven point three percent, some college, 6 , and those with a bachelor degree or higher, 3. 2 . Exactly. That is a pretty profound gap. Im not saying whether that is right or wrong or making value judgments about what people should do him all i am saying is that the numbers speak for. Hemselves host here is brad and i will, under 50,000. In iowa. Caller lets talk about the cost of employing someone. My uncle had a gas pumping business. 18. 80 an hourut to pay someone 12 an hour, and that was before contributing to their 401 k or paying for their health care. That was all because of taxes and regulation. Checked into moving his Manufacturing Business to taiwan. Material,ping raw setting up the factory, he was hoursaving about . 80 an on the labor cost. It was all taxes and regulation ncompetitive, and he shed on his business was up shut down his hi business. 1980s, because of ordnance conk him liability insurance, it ofld cost me a cousin liability insurance, it would cost me 10 an hour. Host we will leave it there. Guest taxes and regulations are a factor. Taxes went up in the 1990s, and bill clinton both the first year. I was the young reporter in washington, i help cover in 1993. The economy boomed in the 1990s. We cut taxes in the early years of george w. Bushs term. The economy did not do well in the wake of that. I do not think you can blame taxes or regulations for the economic crisis, i think that is too easy. Host you mentioned stores, restaurants, but one of the things you write about when it of this idea of the retail world or the Business World and the middleclass is casinos. Guest again, this really struck me, and it was really eye opening for me. I talked to an analyst at Goldman Sachs who covers hotels, gaming, that kind of thing. He pointed out that the highend properties in las vegas where highrollers go like the venetian nn properties are doing quite well, whereas casinos in connecticut, upstate new york, or atlantic city, they are not doing nearly as well. Strikinge was a illustration of what we are talking about. Host Nelson Schwartz, i suppose that goes to your idea of disposable income. Guest right. Yes. You hopefully will not gamble money you cannot afford to lose, therefore the people who can take the chance are the ones with extra money, and that again tends to be the people at the top. Host a few more minutes with our guest. This is jane from illinois, and jane is in the category of people who make between 50,000 and 100,000. Hi. Caller good morning. I love cspan. I am a senior citizen. We live on sosa security and our savings we live on our Social Security and our savings. We did not panic and 2008 or 2009 even though we lost money. I would like to know when the cd rates are going to normalize because we sometimes use our extra money to help our children get out of debt. Our second point is i would like to see some figures on the unemployable people out there. You talk about employment. There are three reasons these people are unemployable. They cannot pass a drug test, they are obese, and nobody wants to have the Health Care Liability to hire them, and education, and it is ironic that the teachers pensions have never been higher. About the people going to the casinos the busloads are full of Senior Citizens who are doing quite well if they live below their means and save. Host here is Nelson Schwartz, go ahead. Guest on the second point, i do not think that is the issue of why people cant find jobs. I think one major issue is sort of the longterm unemployed, people who have been unemployed for more than six months. I talked to employers about this and when they get a resume of someone who has got a big gap, a big hole in that resume and has not been working, that resume goes to the bottom of the pile. As lessjust seen desirable, your skills are you wrote it. I do not think you can blame those people who have been out of work for so long for that. Is sort of the legacy of this huge recession that we had, and job losses. In terms of people saving and in terms of the stock market and cd rates, i do not know what the stock market is going to do next. If i did, i would be on a caribbean island, not here in new york. That said, i think cd rates are going to stay low for a least a couple of years because the Federal Reserve has said short term rates are going to stay low probably through 2016 or maybe longer. Host Nelson Schwartz, we started talking about retail, and a comment on twitter my goodness, could it be that americans are tired of shopping . Well, your needs are defined differently. Nobody knew they needed an iphone before apple came up with it. That said, the average age of a car is around 10 years or more, so there are needs that come up as old things wear out, as families form, you have to buy muscle it isds to tempting to say well, everybody is shockepped out, but i do not think that is it. Host if the middle income stores are dedicated to higher incomes, as far as those businesses in the middle, are we going to see a lot dropping off, and what if i do for the overall economy because as you mentioned, jcpenney, sears, the stores we have known for years are in trouble in some cases what do you see as the landscape when it comes to the store that people stop that and how overall that affect the economy . You really will see stores in the middle disappear, and literally go out of business. A famous discounter for generations of shopping is liquidating, so that is gone. Sears is closing its Flagship Store in the loop in chicago. Jcpenney is shuttering stores. So that will change. What i was struck iv the reporting to is the way things at the which were in the middle are trying to reorganize themselves to appeal to the higher end a little bit. Even if their prices arent. I think it was wendys a few years ago that introduced sea salt on its fries. I think they wanted to give their food sort of an affluent gloss. See things will trying to appeal to people with a hint of, you know, luxury or prestige, there is even a term for it, masstige. Host our guest reports on economics for the New York Times. He is Nelson Schwartz. You can see his writing online at newyorktimes. Com. Thank you for your time. Guest great to be here. Host coming up, a discussion of heroin use in the United States and what the government is trying to do that. Donna Leinwand Leger joins us for that discussion as washington journal continues after this. If he has the guts to stand against her, she would be swept from office and dumped in the garbage. The move to privatization i think will go very successfully indeed, and perhaps we will have better ways to see so we can pontificate in the light of the facts. There was a whole list of what had been rolled over the years as on parliamentary unparliamentary expressions. It was only a few weeks ago that the president was required to withdraw a remark he made, which suggested the opposition was in some way on this. Way unhonest. I cannot recall the details. Thathole thing said churchill was once instructed by the speaker to with draw on an acquisition of lying, on an accusation of lying, and in he said i will call it a terminal inexactitude. Nobody can ever find that in the official report, so it is probably a myth. Cspans former london producer with a behind the scenes look at the British Parliament sunday night on c spans q a. The new www. Cspan. Org makes it easy for you to find and watch all of cspans official coverage of washington. Look for it on our homepage in a space called federal focus. Each day you will find comprehensive coverage of house and senate debates, Congressional Committee hearings, events with the president and members of his cabinet, press rethink from the white house, capitol hill, the state department and the pentagon. Selected Supreme Court oral arguments and appearances by the justices. Watch live for on your own edibles. Federal focus on www. C span. Org, making it easy to keep tabs on what is happening in the white house, the courts. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now, donald Leinwand Leger from usa today covers breaking news and crimes for usa today. Useill talk about heroin and Substance Abuse. The actor Philip Seymour hoffman brought this into light this week. Tell us what we have learned not only about his experience but heroin use overall in the United States. Guest what we do know is that heroin is soaring. Some drugs get popular, others sort of slide away, and we do not hear very much about ecstasy anymore. Now we are hearing a lot about heroin. Philip Seymour Hoffman is not the first celebrity to overdose. As you remember last year during the summer, Cory Monteith of glee also overdosed on heroin. It is kind of pardon possible of what we saw it is kind of part and parcel of what we saw, people abusing oxycontin,ydrocodone, which are opioids the same type of drug as heroin, which is an opiate. Host has it been a situation where we have Prescription Drug problems that are coming under control and people are looking for Something Else now . Actually, what happened is all these people get addicted to the pain pills, the oxycodone, the oxycontin, so the u. S. Realize what was happening there was a huge countdown, suite have these things called pill mills like in florida, and doctors would prescribe thousands and thousands of these pills, people would drive up the interstate and sell them in kentucky, tennessee, north carolina, and the Law Enforcement kind of got a hold of this and started shutting it down. Startedill mills disappearing, states adopted things like description drug monitoring programs, which monitor how much of the oxycodone and the oxycontin you are getting, and puts it into it if you are what they call dr. Shopping, going from doctor to doctor, getting different prescriptions, lots of arrests made. And also the pharmaceutical abuse proofvised an for what i would call it abuse resistant oxycodone, which means it cannot be crushed and snorted. That is what people were doing, they were kind of chopping it up, crushing its, then snorting it or injecting it to get a quick hi and to get past the time release mechanism on it. So far my came up with an abuse pharma came upo with an abuse resistant pill. People are still addicted to opiates, and what is the next best thing . Heroin. The other the crackdown on prescription pills, oxycodone and others are so expensive. Is about five dollars a dose. The average addict uses about five doses a day, it is a 25, 60 habit, so much cheaper. A powdered form of oxycontin or what comprises it . Guest oxycontin is a chemical form of an opiate, so it is a synthetic opiate, and heroin is a natural form that comes from the poppies in south america and central america. That is where we get most of our heroin from. Everyone has heard about afghan heroin. Most of the afghan heroin goes to europe and asian, not to us. Host mainly injected . Guest people start of storing it. People do not really want to shoot themselves up with needles. That is kind of a last resort, so people start snorting it, and does their addiction progresses, they go to injecting it. Host what affect does it give you . Guest it is a mountainous high. It is a feeling of bliss i have never experienced it myself, but i am told. The interesting thing about heroin is that the longer you use the, the more your tolerance builds, and to get that initial high, you have to take more and more heroin to reach a place he once did. It does make you mello. Addicts sort of fa de. It is ever what the oxycodone and hydrocodone, it is a much slower process, releasing into your body because it is a Prescription Drug designed to relieve peoples pain over time. But it can be much the same thing. Host so we just heard Philip Seymour hoffman describe the pill and related. If you take a lot of heroin, it can seriously depress your breathing, and you just kind of go unconscious and died. It stops your heart, and you stop breathing. One of the really tricky things that heroin remember i just told you about how your tolerance builds. So then you go to drug treatment and it is all out of your system, and then you have a relapse. And when you relapse, you dont know how much heroin you will need to get that high, so you think yourself, well, i will take as much as i used to take. Your body does not have that tolerance, so a lot of people come out of rehab, take too much heroin, and then they overdose, they stop breathing. Overdoses in heroin are very interesting because they can actually be reversed will stop there is a drug called naloxone. A lot of people know it as narcan. It is one of the things that paramedics carry, have carried it for years, but what is really interesting now is that other First Responders are beginning to carry it. So if you call police, and every state has a Good Samaritan law, so if you see someone overdosing, you should call 911. You are not going to get arrested for knowing somebody who got drugged. The police will now come in some states, and they will arrive on the scene first, and usually arrive oftentimes before the ambulance, and they can give you goes rightone, which up your nose and retorts is and reverses the overdose. Hoffman,riter, robert said the most frustrating part is that each of the deaths is reasonable because there is an antidote to the overdose. Guest yes, but you need to be with somebody falls a bit you are taking it in a room by yourself and nobody knows you overdosed it is very unlikely that an addict will retail for the naloxone because they like their high. One of the most common reactions to have your overdose reversed by the police or the paramedic says that the heroin addict is mad at the police for ruining their high. Host Donna Leinwand leger joins us from usa today to talk to us about heroin and Substance Abuse in the United States. If you have questions, the phone lines will be open to you, and you can call them and then pick the line that best represent you. Republicans, 202 5853881, democrats 202 5853880, and independents, 202 5853882. How does the federal government respond to the abuse of heroin . Guest the responses generally to the abuse of all drugs, and we have to put heroin in perspective because we are hearing a lot about it right now because of Philip Seymour hoffman and because of cory kindith, but really heroin of falls into a smaller category of abuse. The most abused drug in the United States is alcohol. The second most abused drug in the United States is marijuana. And heroin actually pales in comparison to those drugs. It is maybe 550,000 regular users of heroin, so they fall generaler a sort of policy. The u. S. Spends about 31 billion a year on drug control and prevention. About two thirds goes to enforcement, about one third goes to prevention and treatment. One of the things the city to heroin one of the things specific to heroin that the government has been pushing is this naloxone program. They do things like Bystander Programs, so for example, now that it is available nasally, ive a lot of bystanders not want to give someone a shot, but they are willing to use the nasal narcan so you can just ask for nasal spray, shoot it up there knows. The federal government has been encouraging Bystander Program so if you have a Family Member or friend who is a heroin addict, they will equip you with a narcan kit. They are requiring First Responders to be trained on it, and it takes about 20 minutes to be trained on using narcan, if that much. It costs 25 per kit. This is al from rhode island on the republican line. Caller i have a prescription in front of me, it says take every four hours if needed for pain. It is hydrocodone. Six yearsiven to me ago, 15 tablets. I think i was given these because my operation on my shoulder. Read i haveablets taken 13 tablets in almost six years. It is the only thing that helps me if i am outside cutting firewood or working hard. I am 70 once youre old. 71 years old. The only thing that helps me when i am working hard i have back problems. I called my doctor and he says host what would you like our guest to address . Is a narcotic. I never done drugs in my life. Why shouldnt i be a will to get this . Be able to get this . Host your doctor guest your doctor should be able to dispense it if he thinks thats what you need. He certainly has the ability to prescribe it. He has the right to prescribe it, he probably has the license to prescribe it. You are perfectly legal to use it as long as you use it as directed. These drugs are very effective for pain. They are widely dispensed. Operations forr people with cancer. They are incredibly useful in that perspective. If you suddenly decide you are going to crush it up and snort it to get high, that is a completely different story. Twitter, who is the largest producer of heroin . The largest producer is afghanistan. Host how do is how does it get into the United States . Heretice enjoy mexican mexican heroin here. Afghan heroin goes to asia and europe. Host is there a level of purity . Guest it varies. By the time he gets to street level it has been cut so many cut sout means at many times. Something toing it, baking soda. Has been some problems with heroin being cut with fentanyl. That is given to late stage cancer. It may be 100 times stronger than morphine. We have had some issues with dealers cutting the heroin with the fentanyl, which almost always results in immediate death. It is a very dangerous drug. Peering the. In high because heroin is pretty cheap. Have been highs because heroin has been pretty cheap. Enough is enough caller enough is enough. Hollywood a setting like that example. They have plans to legalize drugs. They need to adjust this problem because they set an example for children. Out drugs wanting drugs legal, look at this nancy pelosi. She is a candidate a poster child for brain damage. Its actually not a hollywood thing. Somethingug abuse is that touches every group, every economic roup, every demographic group. 10 of people are addicted to something. Chances are you know a friend or Family Member who has a problem. It does cut across all kinds of lines. About hollywood drug abuse because everyone has seen Philip Seymour hoffman in a movie. When he dies of an overdose it makes news. When your neighbors kid dies of a heroin overdose it never goes more than the local paper. Glee, everyh from kid watched glee. There are heroin deaths every single day that did not make the news. Whats the charge of possessing or selling at . Selling its . Host it depends on the state. Selling it . It depends on the state. It is not legal in any way, shape, or form. You will face jail time or if you have a drug court, you might be sentenced to treatment. 69,000 users, 669 users 600 69,000 users, that has grown. What is that attributed to . That is attributed guest that is attributed to people who were addicted to pain pills. More people were addicted to other drugs then heroine. Pain pill addiction has been growing. It is larger than heroin addition heroin addiction. An ability to get those pain pills and that is driving some of those numbers. The other thing that is alarming is the age of first use. The 70s. Used in if the numbers werent quite as high as they are today, one of the great differences is one is purity and the other is the age at which people start using heroin. It has gotten younger and younger and younger. And 15yearolds are starting to use it. I dont think anyone thinks of heroin addicts as the teenagers. Here is alex from carrollton, georgia. How is it journalists can abandon their responsibilities and force uncoverericans thescientific evidence, collapse of building 7 host not this topic. Next caller. Caller i have a different outlook on this. A victim has 70 bags of heroin, anyone getting caught would have 20 years or less in prison. His go toted some of guys or drug dealers through tips from people he knew. Seems like they want to charge them with manslaughter or murder. If you are using 70 bags of heroin, you dont just step in. He was producing and starring in this moving and this movie ash obviously he had to be fixing all day. The producers and directors and everybody on the set probably knew he was an addict. His longtime girlfriend could have stopped it any time and have him put either in jail or a rehab. He knew he was a heroin addict guest he knew he was a heroin addict and finished a stint in rehab. He had been clean for 23 years. This is an interesting thing about any opiate addition opiate addiction. It alters your brain. Once you start using, your brain will forever crave this drug. He was clean for 23 years and then he relapsed. I think the issue here is people are sad because he is dead. I think that is a very sad thing. Caught with 70 bags of heroin, he would have surely been arrested and most surely would have gotten jail time. Cycle ofe within the the use, distribution, acquiring, cutting, selling of heroin is going to be facing jail time if they get caught. Him means somebody who sold the drug is also has also committed a criminal act. Host this goes to him were talking about many addicts are functional. It is hard to tell. You are probably sitting in an office all day long with someone who is a functional alcoholic. They may be drink before work or after work or on the weekend. A lot of people do function with all kinds of addictions. Alcohol, very common. Host we talked about the federal role. Senator harry reid was on the floor of the house, talking about heroin use. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] collect the headlines have been the death of the headlines have been the death of one of the greatest actors of our time, Philip Seymour hoffman. He died of a Drug Overdose of heroin. The reason why i wanted to say that is the government of vermont was a very visionary was very visionary in directing his state of the state remarks this year to the scorch that is sweeping the nation of heroin addition that heroin addiction. Ou heroin addiction it is a scorch. The scourge they will start off with Prescription Drugs and wind up a this. With this. Is perpetuated by purveyors of evil, not knowing what is in it. Believe they put baby laxatives in this, all kinds of stuff that looks like heroin. It is a turbo shame. A terrible shame. Host he mentioned vermont being a situation where this is rampant. Guest it is everywhere. We know of it as an urban drug. Baltimore in the 70s was the hot spot. But that is not true anymore. It is everywhere. It is in the rural areas of. Owa, maine i was talking of iowa and maine. I was talking to an addiction doctor and he was telling me some of it would start with lumberjacks, who would work hard chopping down trees. They all had back issues. Doctors would prescribe them a , they would become addicted, the doctor would cut them off but they were still wanting that drug. They either had pain or their brain altered in such a way that they were craving that drug. All of a sudden the Rehab Centers are starting to see people you wouldnt expect coming in with heroin and opiate addictions. Does this have to do with nih research and development . Guest they are the ones telling us that Overdose Deaths have surpassed car accidents. They tell us what the problem is. We know an awful lot about how heroin works in the brain. We have a lot of ways to treat heroin and opiate addiction. You may have heard of you been enorphine, of eup which blocks the opiate receptors in your brain. People can function and go back to being productive members of society and this pill stops there addiction. It has been around a decade. To have to be licensed prescribe it and you have to see your doctor a lot. Us, she coversns breaking news and crime. We are talking heroin and Substance Abuse. There he for michigan on the democrats line. Thank you for holding on. Caller i am more interested in the doctors aspect of this. I busted my back 35 years ago and i have never had insurance. Thearned a little bit about medical care we have in this country. I have never been addicted to drugs. I never had a problem with drugs until i started dealing with doctors. I can get one or two pills and it is all i needed. I have an addictive personality, and i know that. When you go to the doctor and you 10 they will tell will do you. And you wind up with 90. Doctor but you a probably have to have a conversation with your doctor. Tell them you only want 10 pills. Im sure most doctors would oblige. You can also tell the pharmacist that you dont want only the pills. Is up next from alabama on the republican line. I understand that under the Affordable Health care act that they are core to pay for all this couple would hundred percent all this, 100 . Have you heard of anything about obamacare under the Affordable Care act, are they going to expand this and pay for it . Congress has passed some Mental Health and addiction parity acts. This does cover Substance Abuse treatment and many methadone programs fall under the coverage. He will have to check with your specific coverage, what ever you. Lect to have if you are visiting a methadone clinic, which is a very popular and effective way to treat an heroin or opiate addiction, then when you sign up for insurance pay close attention to what your plan covers. A viewer on twitter want to ask about that is the drug was talking about you and they go by different names. Name. K that is the brand a blocker in your brain that goes to the opiate receptors. That is where the opiate used to reside. When you took heroin, it would thisbusiness desk go to receptor in your brain. When you take heroin it goes to this receptor in your brain. As primary care doctors can prescribe it, which is changing the way we treat addiction in this country. The previous caller talked about having to go to a methadone clinic. It used to be you would have to show up every single day at a methadone clinic, get your dose of methadone, which replaces the heroin in your system, and you had to build your day around that. That you canills take. You can take the prescription home for 60 to 90 days. You dont have to visit your doctor for two or three months. It has been a very effective and popular treatment. Kathy from sterling, virginia, independent line. Hower i would like to know do drugs very across income lines or income levels. Seeing that in a love communities. In your lower communities, whether it is latino or african americans, you find more use. Say it is marijuana or maybe cocaine. Amazing to me that there is such a divide. I may have it wrong, but there is a divide among the combo choice among the truck of choice. It is unfortunate that this is what brought the attention to the country. People die apparel when every day. I think the intention is unfortunate but every day someone dies of heroin and i think this is making a mockery of the situation. Let me address your first question, which is which group uses which drugs. All groups use all drugs. There really isnt that much difference among affluence. Price of thethe drug, if you are poor you are obviously going to go for a cheaper drug. A tou are rich you may be afford them or spence of drug. A more expensive drug. Are people who are addicts polydrug users. They use whatever they find that is available. If they cannot go cannot get cocaine, they may go to methamphetamine. People mix all kinds of drugs together. It does cut across all income lines and all ethnic groups. There are definitely drugs that go in waves across certain ethnic roots to become popular in a neighborhood. That has way more to do with than Something Like personal ethnic choice. Your second question about Philip Seymour hoffmans that. Hoffmans death, i have been writing about heroin addiction that happens to people in more than a decade. It is true that when somebody famous dies we get very much interested. I would encourage you to go to usa today and read the series of articles. There is a lot more to it. Host dorothy from maryland. Thank you for waiting. Back in the late 70s when the pain centers began, new drugs were given. I began taking my friend to a pain center. While i did not realize she was on drugs. Noticing what she was doing. I would look over and she would be dozing off, going off. I talked to her one day and asked what she was taking. Painkillers,was on they give them at the pain center. It was oxycontin. Hall, ir wandering the took her to her apartment. She used to work at a center. I said, you dont go to work, its nighttime. She became ok and talk to her family over the phone. I came back to my apartment. Unfortunately, i was very close to her, and it hit me very deeply. I am terribly sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. It is a common problem. One of the things the dea and local Police Departments were concentrating very much on for the last decade is shutting down rogue pain clintons at pain clinics pain clinics. There are plenty of legitimate pain clinics that some doctors should set them up to make money. Cursorye you a examination and prescribe lots and lots of pain pills. There is money to be made there. When you know of a dr. , the da the dea has a hotline you can call. It is a very common problem. Survey onnational drug use and health shows maryland shows marijuana tops the list at 18 million. Heroin is at the bottom of that list. It is not the most commonly abused drug. It is one of the ones that will kill you. A lot of people use marijuana. You dont hear or about people dying for marijuana. He may use marijuana and die in a car crash. Heroin has a much higher death rate. That is why we tend to hear more about it. More and more people have been overdosing. Its not that we have so many uses on every corner. We have been at a real low for heroin use and now it is taking up again. It is taking up in very significant leaps. The avenues for Prescription Drugs are being closed. Has public is what health and epidemiologists and your local cops alarmed. Host joseph is up next on the democrats line. Thank you for doing this program. Observed is ite seems the United States pointed out two thirds of our budget on a federal level is going to enforcement and incarceration rather than treatment. These addictions become brain diseases. It is ridiculous to put people in jail for what is essentially a disease process. Countries western that treat this differently are switzerland and portugal. They put the money they would have been spending on enforcement and incarceration into treatment. How is that working out . I have read a little bit about the poor graham about the program and portugal. I havent had a be a reduction in her when use. It is one of those addictions that tends to stick. Heroin use. It is one of those addictions that tends to stick. The portugal approach has been providing treatment. It is a horrible thing to see. One place i actually saw in the netherlands was a pin a pen where they had people shooting up heroin in clean rooms. It is something to consider. The u. S. Approach has been far different. To be not going legalizing heroin any time soon. As you can see with this debate over marijuana, these things take a long time. The Obama Administration has thought to shift more money to treatment but the money has to come from somewhere. About two thirds of the u. S. Budget goes to Drug Enforcement and about one third goes to prevention and treatment. The Obama Administration has asked for more money for treatment. Congress always asks where is it going to come from. Most people in congress did not want to cut the enforcement budget. Who wants to fire cops and agency echo and agents . This countryg in but we are spending more money on treatment. Insurance is now covering treatment and is required to cover treatment, that is also going to have a pretty big impact. I do not see this country moving to a portugal system anytime soon. A caller from texas on our independent line, go ahead. Caller i am a veteran. When i was in the military i cracked my head. They have me on hydrocodone. I really dont see the addiction properties of it. I only take it as i needed. Addiction asstand a problem. I have never been addicted to anything in my life until a person told me, a good friend of that heyou put used my child as an example of being the most important thing in my life. That is people who have an addiction. They make that one drug the most important thing in their life. One of the big differences ash you were prescribed it and you are using the medicine as prescribed. You did not crush it and snort it to get high. Properly, you are probably not going to get picked it. Some people do use their drug properly and end up addicted. It ends up on the individual. An addiction does change the way your brain works. People hat the drug screws up their priorities and perspective. They cannot think logically or clearly. If you ask them if they want to die, of course they do not want to die. They are unable to make decisions to keep them from dying. This is paul from pennsylvania on the republican line. I am an elected official in the northern mountains of pennsylvania. We are asked to clean up this mess, whether it is the court system, the Treatment Recovery system, or social ills. I would like to ask if she has any suggestions on improving the implication on this. I saw a reefer madness, completely ineffective. Tvaw the commercial on the with the eggs and frying pan and we all giggled at the clever commercial. People think they are invincible and that is one thing that people grow up with. A survivalk there is instinct. How can we make the Public Education more effective to prevent this problem . I see only solutions. I see only solutions. Western pennsylvania had 22 overdoses in the past couple of months. Heroin thatrand of has sentinel and it, which is a drug that i mentioned earlier. Hashat has sentinel fentanyl in it, which is a drug i mentioned earlier. I am not a Prevention Expert but there are lots of them out there. Information is a really good thing. Surveys show parents do not talk to their children about drugs. Strikes it always has struck me as strange. You talk to your kids about everyone else. Are talking to them about wearing their seatbelts and not drinking and driving. What i find is people do not have the conversation about drugs that they would have about driving. Parents have said, i dont want them to get any ideas. I think they have heard of marijuana by the time they are teenagers. The government has a lot of about different prevention programs. A lot of that is going to be available at the national institutes. Our guest has been Donna Leinwand leger. You can see her riding on usa today. We have open phones for the remainder of our show. Here are the phone lines twitter and email is available to you, as well. We will start taking those calls when washington journal continues. Cspan, we bring Public Affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house fence, the things and conferences, and offering complete gaveltogavel coverage of the u. S. House. All as a Public Service of a private industry. We are cspan, created by the cable tv industry 35 years ago and funded by your local satellite or cable provider. It is really an instrument of the president , and that has always been the case. The president has always been the master. You to come to you as a personal they can direct in secret. They dont have to worry about the congressional appropriations process. Is convenient and attractive to them. From the shadows to the center of controversy, a look at part of book tv this weekend on cspan two. Comment on last months in depth the guest. Join the conversation. And click onorg book room to enter the chat room. Constitution when men live according to teh he constitution of this country can bring the spirit and menainaning of the constitution to fruition. Will be converted to true religious leader in indiana, my home state, was beginning to borrow from his tochings and his model create an interracial collective Community Model on the peace mission. Revivalist and utopian nist and utopianes jonesmes moran economically empowered his children. Modern religious utopians, tonight at eight eastern and sunday at one. Part of American History tv the. Eekend washington journal continues. Host curative phone lines here are the phone lines our twitter is cspanwj. Stories, the wall street journal, stories about syria this morning. Civilians are being evacuated from homes. 200,000 citizens are living under siege, according to the united nations. The vast majority are cut off i government forces. Women and children younger than 15 and older than 55 were allowed to leave on friday. Syrian state television reporting that victims were forced are expected to be evacuated in the coming days. Jeh johnson also weighing in as well, calling it a threat to the United States. John is up first in the session of. Of open phones. I was just watching the prior segments with heroin and opiate addictions. Seems to run along the lines we have currently. It used to be a handshake was an agreement. To fill out a home loan is four inches of paper. It seems like they always way on the side of businesses. Make things simpler and be more upfront and more honest with each other. Here is bob on the democrats line from indiana. Caller i would like to give kudos to that earlier caller from alabama and the state of alabama. It sounds like he aware as he had he is aware he has an addictive personality. There are people who have addictive personalities, whether it is tobacco or heroin or whatever it is. I dont think prison or criminals, if you are a user with a problem, treated. 17 ased smoking down to compared to over 50 15 years ago. We did not do that by throwing people in jail. We did that by showing them how bad it was for you. Programs, treatment, science. Barbara from lancaster, pennsylvania. I am at a senior and i am stuck in a changing neighborhood and i have been threatened to death because i tried i complained about the drug users. The major way to make money in my city is through drugs. Children as old as. 0 years old this is a major way people are making money. Los angeles, republican line. Wanted to talk about the war on women and how Democrats Use that as a weapon during election time. When you guys for started at the chance to seeot a the hearings of clarence thomas. Nutshell, the Democrats Used the fact that he allegedly anita hill. They changed the statue of limitations from seven to 10 years, which is where bill clinton got caught up 10 years later. Because the democrats, we were fighting for women in the workplace. It becomes his personal business. Thank you for taking my comment. Host trudy from chicago illinois. Caller your previous guest put heroin up there with alcohol and marijuana. No one has died from marijuana. Will rob you,in kill you, they will break into places. It is not the same as marijuana. Also, there have been several reports of these doctors getting kickbacks for putting these people on these opiate drugs. People the trust and their doctors get these medications. Host mike is from san antonio on the independent line. I have had cancer for the last few years and have been taking morphine sulfate. All it does is help my pain. Oxycodone is 10 milligrams of 325 milligrams of tylenol. It builds up after years of consumption and causes numerous deaths. That is my comment. Senator rand paul, the republican from kentucky, you can watch the program tomorrow. Turned the conversation to the topic of bill clinton. Saysaper at kentucky. Com senator rand paul steps of his blistering criticism of bill clinton. Here is rand paul. [video clip] weck the democrats cant say are the great defenders of womens rights in the workplace and we will defend you against some kind of abusive awesome that uses their position of authority to take advantage of a young woman with a leader of their property a leader of their party. Clinton was a perpetrator of that kind of sexual harassment. They cannot have it both ways. I think anybody who wants to take money from bill clinton or have a fundraiser has a lot of explaining to do. If they want to take a position on womens rights, by all means do. You cant take it from a guy who is using his position of authority to take advantage of young women in the workplace. He paid an 800,000 fine for sexual harassment. Tomorrowt program is at 10 00. Good morning, this is bob on the democrats line. Thank you for cspan. I follow you closely. Doquestion is to what extent people who become serious drug , do they usually start out with marijuana jacob that is a common connection with marijuana . Is a common connection. Host why are you concerned . Caller its curiosity to me. That i can tell you that my son was in a private school a few years ago. I caught him using marijuana. One of the things i remember to advise them to stop doing it is it is an entry drug. He should stay away from it for that reason if none other. Next up here is steve from florence, colorado on the public in line. That on the republican line. Caller on the republican line. Caller ive two quick comments. Number one is the executive orders. It is being abused on both sides. I think we should take the executive order away from the president. I would think the president to a bit more compromising with each other and talking with each other. The executive order could affect world war ii. It is not because you could get the congress up there. The New York Times takes a look at senator pat roberts of kansas. Him hiss his head kansas prop he renews his kansas prime. Regulars say the senator is a virtual stranger. There is a followup story on politico that talks about the times story and the response from the senators office. It says jim from brownsville, tennessee on the independent line. Caller yes, sir. I am just a math teacher. People are applying each week for firsttime unemployment benefits. , in january, they created 185,000 jobs, also negative of over 15 billion jobs and their uses. More people are losing jobs than joseph being made. Bruce from baton rouge, louisiana on the republican line. Caller i think all of congress should be in a dorm, like a college dorm, with two democrats and republicans in one room. There should be a left and the right. It is either take medications or die for me. One or two. As soon good on methadone. I did anything i could do, better than i oxycontinve to take and you have to take 130 milligrams of that. It gets more expensive. It is ridiculous. It is unethical. Though make the people who need it hurt. Dont make the people who need it hurt. What is your suggestion for members of Congress Sharing space together . Caller they are not communicating together. They go in there like children they just ignore them. The president has given state of the union address. Host how you think your idea will change that . Caller what they are doing now isnt working. I dont think it is working. Host fort wayne, indiana, democrats line. Caller i am concerned about the mexican drug wars. I heard mexican heroin is coming across the border there in the junior high schools and middle schools and the students are to buytheir lunch money a head of mexican heroin. Mexican heroin. You hear about amnesty but theres nothing about these mexican drug loss. Host our guest talks about the that our guest talked about the influence of mexico when it comes to heroin. I will point to usa today if you want to read about the topic. , goon from pennsylvania ahead. Caller i wanted to comment about the methadone. I had a Family Member who is going to a methadone clinic for over two years. The goal was to get those people in and out of there. At this point she had been going for three years. They just keep getting it to them. Out of there, they are high. They are drugged out on the streets. They wrecked their vehicles. They say they cannot measure the amount of methadone in your system. I knew of one incident where this girl almost kills somebody. Anything. Cant do it is legalized drug activity. Host a story from the sochi olympics. It says a passenger aboard and in stempel flight and istanbul flight since then he has been taken away for questioning. Nooks plosives were found on him according to Ukrainian Security service. Bob from oklahoma, democrats line. The gentleman called a while ago talking about the house and the senate and nobody the man who called a while ago talking about the members of Congress Never being on the floor except when the president is giving the state of the union, i think there ought to be some way that we as voters can make this happen where they are actually doing their job and getting stuff done. You always hear people talking about officers campaigning instead of doing our business and taking care of this country. I think the man hit the nail right on the head. There ought to be some way we can get these congressmen and floor. S to get on the the only time you see them en masse is one their voting. Host here is rachel from texas on the independent line. Me,er you know what shocks when they elected karzai in afghanistan. 60 tons of pure drugs left afghanistan to europe and asia. North think of all of her of all of her of all oliver north. Many people are on drugs today since we have been over in afghanistan. Is Tim Wittenberg for wisconsin on the republican line. Caller good morning. I have two comments. Vote in require a either section of congress to pass a bill. Why arent they there . And the other one is term limits. I hate the idea but i think it would work. Thank you very much. Ill take your comments offline. Host we are out of time and that is the last call for today. Here is what is on deck for tomorrows program. The league of conservation voterspresident will join us. This is in light of the recent environments report released on keystone xl. And format and the former Homeland Security secretary. Sharel have that she was his insights and talk about growing concerns requiring that growing some that growing concerns of private security he will talk about growing concerns of private security at the winter olympics. We will then talk about the andre of Monetary Policy the new chair janet yellen. Washington journal comes your way at 7 a. M. He will see you then. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] today on cspan, lawmaker discussion about protecting consumer personal information against cyber that. Then testimony with representatives which are get in Nieman Marcus about cyber crime against their companies. Then worldwide security threats to the United States. Later, the director of the cbo the economy and the impact of the health care law. Watch our program on First Lady Laura Bush today at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan 7 00 p. M. Today on cspan. Monday night our series continues. I think it is all an evolutionary process. You grow into this role. That you never get comfortable if youre always pushing for change and growth in the issues you care about. Youre never done. There is