Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140510

The Obama Administration would like to see it raised to over 0 but he was on television yesterday when he said it should be done. Maybe you agree with him, maybe you dont. But in our first 45 minutes we want to let your thoughts be known on the minimum wage that romneys stamente if it should be raised and heres how you can reach out to us. A wide ranging interview with mitt romney talking on a lot of issues but also discussing the possibility of raising the minimum wage. The first line from this piece former Massachusetts Governor thursday morning says he supports the increase breaking with many republicans who have stood against it. Heres a bit of what he said yesterday. Well, different members of my party have different views on those different vuzz. I for instance as you know part company with many of the conservatives on the issue of the minimum wage. I think we ought to raise it because frankly our party is all about more jobs and better pay and i think communicating that is important to us. Those comments made thursday morning again the topic of the minimum wage that mitt romney brought up is you can respond to his statements or perhaps you want to make your own thoughts on the minimum wage and raising it. If you want to give us a call the numbers are on the bottom f your screen. The Washington Post lead story. So those things aside and mitt romneys comments, your thoughts on raising the minimum wage. Irst up is joe from georgia. Caller good to talk to you. I love cspan. I wanted to tell you im a Small Business owner and i was always Small Business man in the state of georgia and ive talked to a lot of Small Business owners. Im supporting a Small Business man for governor. I think this would hurt. It would actually hurt so many Small Businesses because they work on such small margins. Ive got a lot of good friends who own restaurants. If they have to raise the minimum wage they have to lay people off. So i think its inflationary for one thing. I think it will cause a lot of people laid off be laid o off. And ive talked about this ubject to a lot of my friends. And i think its just we cant afford it. Host ashville, North Carolina is up next. A Business Owner as well. Allen. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for having me. As far as the mitt romney comment, i find out that mitt romney is a big business guy. Hes big business, Big Government. He went with the romney care. He doesnt see it as a problem for Small Business. He would rather not have Small Business. It just competes with big business. They want Big Government, big business. Im a Small Business owner. I never paid the minimum wage. I paid the market rate. I didnt have to have anybody telling me what somebody was worth. If i had a good employee, that came to work every day, did his job, i paid him accordingly. They stayed with me 15 years, some 10 years, some people came in, did dishes, came in parttime, worked, got pay they were happy with. I was happy to pay them. The market determined it. And you have a situation where the federal government is trying to decide what the rate should be, the states are all different. I mean, its a lot different to pay a rate for somebody in North Carolina than it is in california, washington, d. C. The minimum wage in those cities are naturally going to go higher with the market because the rent and cost of living is higher. If you have a federally mandated thing its not fluctuating to the ability of the states and even towns. Ashville is more expensive than other towns to live. So they pay more. And a federally mandated thing is not the right thing to get us out of the mall lays we have with business, Small Business drives the country. Host wayne is one who earns minimum wage. Minimum wage should be im making the minimum wage and ive noticed that [inaudible] ive been watching cspan for over 30 years. Minimum wage should be raised. Everybody knows that. The people you see in this country right now are really starving. All the churches are doing more than they should do. It is a shame to see this country where people are actually working 50, 60, 70 hours and they cannot feed their children. People who make a decent wage will not accept a handout. Americans are proud people. We have done more things in the world and now it is time for america to look out for america. How can we continue to do what we have to do in the world . We know we are basically the only country that has the bill of rights. We need a minimum wage. Host before you called we heard from two Business Owners that raising the minimum wage would impact their businesses and ultimately lay off people. What do you think about those perspectives . Caller those perspectives are a minority. The majority of the American People who the other Media Outlets do not recognize. You listen to fox news and the other conservative programs they do not even acknowledge the existence of poor people. You never hear the word poor. Only on tv do you hear minimum income and nothing about the poor. The poor are devastating this country. We have got to raise the minimum wage. The jails are full. Host there are three lines for ou to choose from. Michael from new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. You have as always a great show. I want to talk as a professor of business at a leading university. For the last 10, 15 years china labor and created 10 million jobs a year for their own country. But thats ended. Right now thats ended. The United States is probably about 15 less than chinese labor. Theyve had so many strikes. Mexico is about 50 less. O i think the ship of jobs coming to the United States and eu in manufacturing is going to the site of high employment and china i think its em ployment machine has really come to an end. Host so when it comes to the minimum wage . Caller right now if you youre 15 less than china, right, who was creating 10 million jobs a year, you can raise the minimum ge and its not going to really affect the economy. Ost william mms from twitter. Lylea up next from texas. And a Business Owner. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I dont feel like we should have raised the minimum wage. Most of my employees make a little bit more than minimum wage. But we are in Government Programs here in our area and everybody depends on Government Programs you cant find anybody that wants to work here. We raise the minimum wage, were just wasting our time. We may as well close our business down. Host whats your business . Caller its a party supply shop. Host do you pay more than minimum wage or start there or whats the average person . What do they make . Caller the average person theres a few that make more than 10 and theres a few that make 14 an hour. Theres some that make a bunch of them have had Health Insurance also. I try and give them as much as i can. But when it comes to nowadays and like i said, ive been in business for 32 years. Nowadays these Government Programs are eating our lunch. We cant fight these big Corporate Giants any more. Host if you have to raise the minimum wage as a hypothetical, what kind of things how does that affect your type of business . What do you have to cut first . Guest i would caller i would have to cut their hours and start hiring younger people that are going to go and say ok i will work for minimum wage. Host off of facebook. Youve heard some people talk on the phones. If you want to post on facebook. If you want to send us a tweet on it. And if you want to send us an email. Annet from alabama on our others line. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller good morning. To the best show on tv. I watch you every day. And i have read an article one day that stated workers making 8 an hour, the majority qualifies for food stamps, child care, housing. When they start earning more, lets say it went to 10, that will now kick them off those programs or bounce them so low that the increase in the wage they wont have any more spending power because the increase in the hourly wage is going to take the place of the food stamps, the child care, and the housing. So in reality, i think this is a way just to get them off Government Programs. So i just cannot see how Government Programs are helping them. In other words, right now even at 8 an hour. Start making 2 an hour more Government Programs go away. So you are now earning what the government used to give you. I hope im making sense. Host tom up next from ohio. He earns minimum wage. Good morning. Thinking when they go around and talk about minimum wage, are they just saying would it be when you look at all the young kids when you go in the fast foods and Everything Else it used to be ten years ago and stuff you would see double the amount of kids in these fast food places and stuff because they started teaching them values. But when they raised the minimum wage as high as they did, its not worth hiring these young kids because you watch them they dont have the capability of working or anything. But its like to me if you turn around and you paid under 18, you should pay them a different wage than what you do an adult. But that lady just said it before. When she started talking she was right on the nose because if a person does get 10 an hour they cant get no theyre going to lose all their government benefits and everything. Thats why i think the government wants to push that because theyre going to lose all these extra perks and everything that these people are getting. Host u. S. A. Today took a look at the states with the lowest minimum wage. Theres four states still maintain minimum wage levels below the federal minimum of 7. 25 an hour. Gary from sacramento, california. Caller theres some awesome valid points being made. My opinion is they definitely should raise the minimum wage. I think it should be probably something that would give somebody on a monthly basis working 40 hours a week, 1200 to 1800 a month something one could live on. From an employer perspective, if i can get somebody to work for a buck and a quarter im certainly going to hire them. But it should be a number that the average person could afford to live on. Host how do businesses then support those increases . Caller you hear about record profits from the big corporations and one of the statements somebody made earlier is that Small Business runs the country thats not true. Big business runs the country. Come on. Theres record profits being made by everybody. Even the guys that are merging with Foreign Companies so they can lower their taxes. Host as far as Small Businesses though they will be directly affected. Would you agree . Caller theyre certainly going to be affected. But its less its a bigger expense. Its going to certainly affect their bottom line. But you do what you have to do to make it work. Host one of the people talking about the minimum wage this week was janet jellen appeared before a Senate Committee to talk about Economic Issues and it was during that time that she had an exchange with senator ron johnson at wisconsin taking a look at the minimum wage especially talking to references by the Congressional Budget Office on what would happen if the minimum wage was raised at the president wants to see to 10. 10. Do you agree with cbos assessment that increasing the minimum wage would cost us jobs, up to 1 million is what cbo estimates . I dont know what the exact number is. It will cost jobs. Well, it will help individuals who benefit from a higher wage. But it will hurt individuals who dont have a job. Correct . Its likely to have some negative effect on jobs and its a question mark exactly how large that impact is with different studies coming up. So with so that was janelle yelen talking about the minimum wage. We asked this question because it was mitt romney on thursday who was on television saying that he would one amongst the handful of republicans who would see the support of raising the minimum wage. The president of the United States would like to see it raised to 10. 10 a recent vote in congress didnt happen as far as the minimum wage is concerned. But we want to get your thoughts on raising the minimum wage if you agree or disagree. And we divided the lines differently today. So for those of you who make the minimum wage, for those of you who are employers and Business Owners and have a perspective. Nd all others. Caller i just believe with the cost of living going up, food, utilities, gas, we definitely need to raise the minimum wage. Otherwise, we cant provide for our basic living. And just share a little i think the problem right now is just greed. And if they just share a little with the people that make them rich, then this country will be a better place. Host so what do you think about this idea of raising it to 10. 10 . Is that too much of an increase curg were at 7. 25 . Guest no. Its not enough. Just with health care and the cost of living we definitely need more than that. You need at least 12, 13 an hour just to get by. Host ohio. On our others line. Caller good morning. I think that we should raise the minimum wage and in 19 77 i made 9. 75 an hour. And fast forward to now everywhere you go they want to start you out at 8 or 9 an hour. We need to create jobs with the minimum wage. Go to the car lot and look for a truck theyre 50, 60,000. Everything is high but they keep fighting to keep the minimum wage down. Host you may have just heard though that even the Congressional Budget Office says that raising the minimum wage may initially cost people some jobs. Caller i dont believe that. His makes lets make things here. We need a manufacturing base. We need jobs besides the minimum wage. I made 9 an hour in 1977. Most of the young people i talk to now theyre starting out at 8 or 9 an hour. Thats rizzclud when youve got to go to a car lot and spend 50,000 for pakeup truck. Host detroit, michigan on our others line. Caller im going to tell you like real numbers. Less than a year ago i made 10 an hour i had two dependents, 40 hours a week. That is 600 every two weeks. Its really no money. I agree with the caller from ohio. You cant afford to do pretty much off of 600 a week every two weeks its pretty rough to make 10 an hour and thats what the minimum wage should be. It should be i think a little bit higher. Host so even then though raising it to 10 would be a struggle for some. 600 every two weeks. Thats what you make. Real after tax money. Most people with that money cant afford to buy a brand new car or anything. Host mitt romney starting this discussion earlier this week on television of longranging discussion on capitol hill taking a look at the minimum wage. Well take some more of your comments in a minute. That last caller was from detroit. The Detroit Free Press has its lead story taking a look at john conyers. The headline that he falls short as far as signatures for the august primary ballot. You can read more about this at the Detroit Free Press. Tim from ohio and he as Business Owner. What type of business do you own . Caller i have a drivethrough oil change change. Host ok. Go ahead. Caller i mean, with the minimum wage i understand everybody wants to make more money. Its not rocket science. But where did the bottom line come from . I have to have a certain percentage and profit to remain in business. So therefore i have to raise the price to cover that extra 3 or 4 an hour for 8 hours a day per employee. So where does it go to . Its my customers who have to pay 50 now maybe for an oil change instead of 30. I dont think minimum wage was ver meant to be the main source for everybody to live off of. I started out at 4 an hour. Its a starting place. I mean, theres plenty of bigger businesses out there that maybe can support a higher wage. Like some of these Oil Companies maybe that make record billions of dollars in a quarter. I barely survive at the end of the year. So the Small Business man has to pass that price on to the consumers. And these guys who want to raise the price, do you want to pay 50 for a standard basic oil change . The customers dont want to do it so therefore you lose business, which ultimately may put me out of business. Host if i may ask, when an employee starts with you, how much does he or she make . Caller right now starts out about 9 an hour. I do what i can to pay them extra money. I dont shortchange them by any means. But to force me to have to pay a higher wage it just passes the rate on to the customer. And thats where i have a chance i sit across the street from a walmart who undercuts my business in price but they can make it up with all the other products that they sell. Im a specialized business. I cant do that. Host so what youre saying is you cant absorb the cost of raising or forced raising of the minimum wage caller right. Because dont forget about the cost of the product. Ive been in business for 17 years. When i started in business 17 years ago, the price of oil was 2. 79 a gallon. I pay over 13 a gallon now for the same thing that i started with. So where do you gomgo from there . You have to raise based on the cost of your product. My cost of products when i started was 35 was the cost of goods in my business. And 65 was my net profit where all the cost of goods came from or i mean all the cost of operating businesses. Now thats almost totally switched. Now ive got about a 60 cost of goods based on what my final i mean, i cant raise the price of my oil change to cover all the other costs that have changed over the years. Host the wall street journal has a story taking a look at the Environmental Protection agency taking a look at process of looking for natural gas known as fracking. Tom is from englewood, colorado. I just wanted to mention that when i was working on a minimum wage back end 1978, it was 2. 65 an hour. Dollars be about nine today. I think it is time we raised the minimum wage. You what is a rate that would like to see it raised to . An hour. 10. 10 what happens to businesses if those increases happened . I do think that there will be a drop in employment area i think will be offset by the increase of the number of people coming out of poverty. I think we have to support it. Placea vote took lace talking about the republicans of the been named to this benghazi committee. A committee was created on thursday. One of the responses yesterday on capitol hill came from nancy pelosi. Talking about the committee and its composition and what she thinks of it. A political stunt. Its damaged goods. We have been there, done this, over and over again. At question is, is there least a level of decency in terms of respect . For the regular order of the standing committee. Host one of the New York Times stories this morning goes on to say that it was mr. Boehner who sent a response to ms. Pelosi friday afternoon. He would consult with the minority when practicable. But make no promises that he would not issue unilateral subpoenas without consulting democrats on the committee were excluded democratic witnesses from interviews. That left democrats unsatisfied. Ms. Pelosi called the republican counteroffer fundamentally unfair. Tephen from virginia talking about the minimum wage. Mitt romney saying you should raise it. Caller good morning. I do some small rental properties here in the area. Small family rentals. Host what do you think about this idea of a minimum wage raise . Caller i do supported. But i think some earlier colors have made some excellent points. The people that are living on the minimum wage are receiving government assistance. If you raise them a couple of dollars on the our, its only 80 on the week. If they have to give up this ,overnment assistance, the snap its not worth it. Their standards of living will not be raised. Do you support this idea of a 10. 10 minimum wage . Caller i do. I dont think it will have the uplifting effect that so many think it will. A post on twitter. She believes the minimum wage must be raised, but in a systematic way. If not, it could cause unstable cost increases. You can find that on the cbo website. The wall street journal has a taxy taking a look at havens. The u. S. Is ready to join china and for other countries and alliance to fight efforts by multinational corporations to avoid paying taxes. Will also include japan and britain. The u. S. Could sign on during a twoday meeting on fighting Corporate Tax avoidance asserted friday in tokyo. Governments across the globe are to collect more taxes for multinational corporations that use tax havens to pay no tax to the national government. Lose 3 trillion in tax revenue a year in such efforts. Up next, john from new hampshire. Caller good morning. See this from both directions. Owned a restaurant for many years in maine. It affectsge the dishwashers and cooks and what have you. Make twowaitresses dollars an hour and rely on tips. My father has been in business for 20 years. Since seen a decline 2008. People could no longer afford to go out to eat. Raising the minimum wage is a good thing. Initial aftereffect would be some job losses. If you look long term, you will see people making 4000 more per it does not seem like much, but it affords people to get at least to spend that money. It would help those families that are collecting government assistance to avoid the government assistance were at least get off it so they could have their pride and dignity and what their turn to do. In what they are trying to do. Its something has to change. Host there is a story in the Chicago Tribune taking a look at a report that was done looking at the border patrol. Heres the headline. You agents punished over complaints. Punished over complaints. An immigrant filed a formeal complaint. He was arrested near el paso, texas. Patrolsed the border agent and stepping on his face kneeing him in the ribs. The vast majority of complaints result in no disciplinary action or are still pending after many years. More of this story can be found in the Chicago Tribune this morning. Mark from new york. A Business Owner. Good morning. Caller i own a Property Management business. Do this is more of a longterm problem in terms of education and sacrifice. That people make their decisions as to whether they want to sacrifice when they are younger or later. They dont have the education, they dont seem to be able to get jobs later in life that would be above minimum wage. For me, i put myself through on the and sacrificed front end and im now reaping those benefits. There is an education shortage. People making nine dollars in the 70s and still make nine dollars now. They have had 30 years. Educationet any extra to be able to keep up with the jobs economy that is going on . It seems like everybody should six. An ongoing education i did Computer Programming at one point and you needed to learn a new computer language every 34 years or you wouldnt have a job. House oversight hearing this week that took a look at a law that was passed in the District Of Columbia that would decriminalize marijuana heard that hearing took place yesterday. A couple of things happened. The chairman showing a fake joint as part of a demonstration to this hearing. Saying that it was the republicans who brought the rolled marijuana cigarette to the hearing. It was not a real joint. It was simply a visual prop to illustrate potential consequences of the new marijuana decriminalization law. Dont get too excited. Here is a bit from yesterday. The penalties for marijuana possession, starting with codeal law, 21 u. S. C ch has simple possession it can provide for one year of a fine of noand less than 1000. ,he new law, 25 penalty aderal parkland penalties are jail term of up to six months. There are 26 agencies that are responsible for law enforcement. I have this join here. Joint here. Dont get too excited. This is not a real one. Its a mock one. [laughter] im told by staff that this the penalty is for one each less, 28 grams joint has one gram. Over 20 joints you could be in possession of in the District Of Columbia. Here is a list of penalties which i am submitting to the record. Thoughsubmit this joint. I had staff do it. [laughter] they have more experience. Re aredding aside, they very serious implications. Airing an open, honest of what is going to happen and how this is going to be enforced. Brought in we have federal and district and other officials to discuss this in an open and honest manner. Host you can watch that hearing on our website. Jimmy, good morning. Caller good morning. I have a job making 18 here in d. C. I spend more money i think the minimum wage should be raised. Republicans say they want jobs. I have 300, im going to go out and shop. People making 18 an hour at the republicans dont want the minimum wage but they get a raise. Wake up. Why cant the American People get a raise . People could spend more money. Gina in georgia. Caller i do believe the minimum wage should be raised. You talk about people being on welfare and food stamps but nobody wants to pay that. If you lead an employer decided that they will pay more, they will not do it. You have people out there who cannot afford to buy a loaf of bread. Food goes up, gas goes up, your power goes up. Everything except your wages. It does not make sense. My son works for uhaul and gets 20 hours a week at nine dollars and hour. If they were paying him minimum would rather see him make more money. You can keep people down. They can afford to go to school and get an education. You dont want the small people to get a raise. Dont give the big people a race. You look at the ceos and how much more money they make. Its ridiculous. Host a Washington Post story on the minimum wage. The results of public polling on this thing the public polls have found most americans support for raising the minimum wage to 10 an hour. 69 said so in a poll from bloomberg in march. Wellupported a higher wage 54 of republicans opposed the idea. Bob corker was the lone republican who voted to proceed. Last call on the topic is from charles in lynchburg, virginia. Caller good morning. Im a retired Business Owner. We pay way over minimum wage at a retail store. Im a retired Corporate Executive and have a lot of experience here with the wage levels. If a business is domestically oriented, it will adjust. You will have some marginal guys go out of business or lay off people, but they will come right back. It is demand that drives the employment, not the ways. You adjust your price up and everybody is happy. Now, a lot ofight people are saying that theyre unhappy. , alle issue of education the education in the world is not going to create one job. That is the wrong focus. That lady who was on brought up a good point. If youre not making enough money, you can afford to have an education. It costs a lot of money. Those are my two points. I hope that was helpful. Host that is the last call we will take on this topic. We move on to the first of our segments. Our guest is going to take a look at the tea party in 2014 and beyond. An author of a new book taking a look at the topic of the tea party. Day upon us, discussion of policy issues that directly affect working moms. On our newsmakers program, which you can see after this program on sunday, our guest representative come at the republican from kentucky and the chair of the appropriations committee. Here is a preview of the program. Mr. Rogers talking about the impact of this years election on congresss appropriation process. Novemberction this is going to probably influence have things planned with appropriations. I dont think that will become apparent until at least september. Can you give us a percentage of your confidence level . Pass au wont have to continuing resolution. It is too hard to predict. The control in the senate is what were talking about. I dont know how the different parties over there will see their role in Appropriations Bills this year. One, i dont know anything about the senatorial elections. I have no idea what is on those senators minds. Republicans taking back the senate, you have a choice. Continue on the path we are on now and wrap everything up this year or push it into next year and get your self the prospect of an early fight with the president. Fought with the president on Appropriations Bills before. You know the president does pretty well in those fights. What is your view in that situation . Would you like to wrap things up this year no matter what . Absolutely. The fact we are dealing with the same number in the house and senate they are almost identical from physical 14. Fiscal 14. The difference between 14 and 15 on each bill is going to be fairly small. That will give us a bit of an edge. Washington journal continues. Host joining us on the program, the chair of conservative hq. The author of a book, takeover. Thank you for joining us. Guest always a pleasure to be back with you. Host the headline we have seen stemming out of the primaries. This is from the hill. Tea party takes a hit from primary test. What do you think . Guest they are completely false. Does not think the tea party is dead. Otherwise they would not be spending tens of millions of dollars in the republican primary in North Carolina. Spends aarty candidate few hundred dollars. Karl rove came in with 2. 5 million and got 46 of the vote, which is about what ted cruz got in texas in 2012. If there had been a 50 requirement, the two Party Candidate would have won. Tea Party Candidate would have won. The karl rove candidates are moving to the right and the entire Republican Party is moving to the right. We have gridlock in congress. Not because the government republicans cant get along with the democrats. We have gridlock because the tea party and the grassroots conservatives are making their voices heard. Through things like cspan and the internet and talk radio. The establishment knows the tea party is alive and well and they are afraid that they will stop the growth of government. Host who are the establishment candidates . The Republican Party is becoming more conservative. John boehner appointed a special Counsel Committee to investigate an benghazi. There was so much conservative pressure on him that he could no longer resist. You have seen the republican andy get more principled get a backbone. If tea Party Candidates win, thats great. If the establishment candidates begin to act like tea Party Candidates, we are happy with that, too. Its very difficult. Its very difficult to be incumbents. Have come in open races. There are open races in georgia and oklahoma and iowa. Im optimistic that tea Party Candidates will do very well this year. Host another headline, tea party our wanes. What do you think . Do they go back to the initial fervor that took place in 2010 . Guest what theyre looking for is rallies in the streets. They dont see hundreds of thousands of people. The Tea Party People are smart. In meetings and organizing and planning and training. Theyre working for candidates and getting candidates elected. In indiana the past tuesday, re were state legislative members that were beaten by tea Party Candidates. Work ofdoing the hard working in the precincts and getting candidates elected. Most of these headlines are written by the tea parties opponents. The Mainstream Media is promoting Big Government and they like bigger government and more spending and more control in the federal government. Enemiese the tea party that are writing the headlines. Stay tuned and watch what happens and you will see the country moved to the right. Host he talked about the influence of the tea party with things like benghazi. Is there evidence of work within the congress of Tea Party Members making government smaller . Guest we dont have a majority yet. Republicans dont have a majority in the senate. In the house, there is not a Clear Limited government majority. We are working in that direction. Outline a plani in my book for how conservatives in 2014 and 2016 can take over the Republican Party and by 2017, the governing america. Be governing america. In 1992, they said, its the economy stupid. We say, its the primary, stupid. Stay focused on the primary in 2014 and 2016. We can take over the Republican Party by 2016 and be governing america by 2017. Host within the house, you have the john boehner. How do you describe his relationship with Tea Party Members . Guest its difficult. He came to washington with the best of intentions and said many they describe washington as a cesspool. Send me to washington and i will clean up the cesspool. They send ayears, message back to the people at home, sorry, i made a mistake. Its not a cesspool, its a hot tub. They love the power and everything that comes with it. I have a foolproof test of whether youre a conservative or not. Whether you are talking about lookole or mitt romney around them. Who do they walk with . I never saw a Ronald Reagan in dickheres alan the conservatives moved in, too. You look around john boehner, i dont see any conservatives around him or around Mitch Mcconnell or romney or mccain or bob dole. They may say they are conservatives, but they dont walk with conservatives. Talking about the tea party and its influence in 2014. Looking ahead to 2016. Not only has he written several columns on this, but also a book, takeover. If you want to ask them questions, you can do so. Three lines for you this morning. Emocrats, 202 5853880 republicans, 202 5853881. Independents. 202 5853882. You can send us an email, to. Irst call up is from nicholas he is from illinois on our republican line. Good morning. Caller hello. I would like to ask, what exactly defines a conservative today . There are debates about whether or not conservatives support the Death Penalty or the drug war . There are a lot of dividing things. It is the definition of conservative different today than it was in the 1980s . Guest yes, nicholas. The issues are evolving. For example, i am very therested in reform of criminal Justice System. As are a lot of other conservatives. Having a big conference in washington here in a few weeks. To urge conservatives to get more involved in reform of the criminal Justice System. Last time i was on cspan, last year, we were talking about reforming the criminal Justice System. It wasnt an issue back in the 1960s. In those days, i was one of those who said, lock them up. Through the key under the jail. That theme to realize criminal Justice System is broken. It does not work for anybody. Its the second largest and art of everying po state budget. Its not working for prisoners and their families. It is tearing families apart. We have a high rate of recidivism and people are coming out with a phd in criminology. They come up with experience on how to violate the law. Its not working for potential victims. We have too many people in prison who come out unemployable. The last thing we need is people in our communities who were unemployable. The criminal Justice System is an issue that conservatives are leading on. Liberals cant lead on this becausethey are afraid of conservatives having accused them of thing soft on crime. In many ways, they still are. Its up to conservatives. It wont get led if conservatives dont lead. You are singing in texas and georgia and South Carolina and ohio and pennsylvania. Republican governors and legislators are beginning to step forward to reform the criminal Justice System in a positive way. Fewer people are going into prison and we are building fewer prisons and crime is going down in the states. Host stories in the paper today concerning senator rand paul of texas talking about voter id. Taking a different approach to voter id. Guest i had dinner a few weeks ago with rand paul. The first thing he did was to bring up the subject he had been talking about. I have had a number of conversations with senator paul about this issue. Aboutwhat do you think his stance opposed to what most of the conservative party think about on voter id . Guest i think that we have a serious situation with voter id and voter fraud. Of most conservatives would not agree with the senator on that position. Clarence us from Washington State on the independent line. Caller i would like to ask your the tea partyall partys of the republican as if they want to allow only one view and the people of you oppose them they go after them. They hurt them politically and privately. If he isto me like right in the tea party takes wer the government, what have to look forward to is the same as what therell issa showed when representative cummings was making comments he did not want to hear and turned the microphone off. That is what the rest of us have to look forward to. We will have our microphones turned off. There will be no voice. Guest youve got it exactly opposite. I would be interested to know what you mean by the tea party hurting people privately. It is the Big Government types that have basically silenced not Just Tea Party but the vast majority of the conservative voters. When i got involved in politics in the 1950s, conservatives do not have access to the microphones of the country. Direct mail, we went around the block. Now with Cable Television and talk radio and the internet, the American People have an access to the media to communicate. We have more of a level Playing Field than we did 40 years ago. This story cleaned his been the democrats that has tried to silence the grassroots voters. Media,h the alternative they have a voice that they never had before. What is your involvement and were you doing at in terms of the messaging . Like conservatives are the starfish and the spider. It talked about the power of leaderless organizations. Conservative movement and the tea party is a leaderless organization. Have several Tea Party Groups out there. They are independent of the Republican Party. You are seeing that all over america. There is no one agenda. Lets remember the founding documents that they gave us. Lets return to the constitution. Mostaid that what politicians think about, the last thing they think about is the constitution. I am afraid that it doesnt. Pelosi. Too many republicans are unhinged from the constitution. Host to your point about leadership, does the tea party need one voice . It is getting hammered. We are also winning. The Republican Party and some of the democrats are coming our way. Our voices being heard. I am optimistic for the future. Conservatives are discouraged. They are disappointed in the election. By howe disappointed conservatives have governed the. Conservatives to be of good cheer and optimistic. I was there at the beginning in the early 1960s. We had a darkness in those days of biblical proportions. Nixonsark. After resignation, we did not have the leadership that we have now. We didnt have alternative media. We didnt have cspan and the internet. I am so optimistic now that conservatives are a few years from taking over the Republican Party. We make great cars. We had bad salesman. They have lied to the customers. Have thes we leadership that weve got now, conservatives will not be in a position to govern. We had to wander through the desert for 40 years and that generation failed. Conservatives will get to the political promise land. People dont like the leadership of eric cantor and karl rove. If we can replace these leaders in the next two years, the American People respond positively. Host who are the leaders now . Guest the number one leader is jim demint. He is head of the heritage foundation. He is the de facto leader of the conservative movement. Cruz and mike lee and rand paul. Many others out there. In the 53 years that i have been involved in conservative allah text, that is the number one need that we have had. Moreed more money and authors and more publications. To that is and significant the need for leadership. In recent years we have seen that come along. Hopefully we will have a lot more leaders that come out of the 2014 election. Newonly do we need governors and senators, we need leaders at the local level. The listeners who are conservative and believe in constitutional government, there is a role for you to play at the local level. Is the author of takeover. I was listening. I am a 63yearold black woman. Controlea party takes they arevernment, taking us backwards. You have not said but you would do for poor and working people and the unemployed. Nobody else is talking with guns and hateful crimes against the president. That has never been done before. You are no different than castro. You are doing the same thing that is going on in syria and iran. Guest the caller sounds a little unhinged. The civil rights legislation of the 1960s was passed with republican votes. It was the democrats that were against it. She talks about doing things for the poor people. I think it is conservative policies of empowering the individual and getting the government off the backs of the American People and release this great engine of American Ingenuity that is going to do most for our economy. Working for poor people now under five years of the Democrat Administration . The economy is in the tank. We have a high rate of unemployment. It is because of the policies of the government. Bring prosperity , we needsstheboard to release the engine of Free Enterprise and get the government out of our lives. It is drowning the American People en route rules and regulation. Host mitt romney was talking about raising the minimum wage. That was the lead story in the Washington Post. That is a fault line in the Republican Party. Certainly, politics rears its head here. People are interested in headlines rather than really helping people. When you increase the minimum wage, you decrease employment. Unemployment among minorities goes up. We have 25 and 30 unemployment because door to use entrance level jobs are so expensive. When you increase the minimum wage, you will increase unemployment among disadvantaged youth. Host this is dan on the republican line. Caller my question is how can the tea party wont put term limits in the platform . All these Republican Leaders that you would like to get rid of we would not hear about by now. I dont think the tea party is going anywhere without term limits. I think that would take a lot of the money out of politics. , some of theseld leaders would be termed out. I think that is the only way the tea party can get the republicans to believe that they are a strength. I share your frustration. It is an outrage that the hear talk and we about Campaign Finance laws. Every Campaign Finance law has been designed to protect incumbents. Have 98 of you incumbents getting reelected. The elected officials have so rigged the rules that is difficult to defeat them. Grassroots voter declares for office on the same day as an startsnt, the incumbent with a 1 million advantage. World, the idea that we do have politicians having free access to the voters, that is not fair. I think we do need term limits. I will uphold my breath until we get it. It will have to come from the politicians and they will do everything they can to protect their incumbency. Repeatedt about the votes in the house to dismantle obamacare. Guest i do marketing. Volved inen in marketing for 50 years. The number one secret about marketing and advertising is repetition. By keeping this issue in front of the American People undermining them of why they are losing their doctors or their it is veryolicy, wise politically. We have seen the unpopularity of obamacare continue to increase. Usually after a program is passed, as time goes on a becomes more popular. The opposite has been true this time. The longer people observe it, it has been unpopular. It is going to be the number one issue. It is a gift the keeps giving for republicans. Host what it cause people to look at republicans negatively . Guest i do that allowing people to keep their doctor and insurance policy and avoid paying taxes and penalties because they didnt have the insurance policy that obama wants them to have is a negative. Had a gianty victory. Of obamacare. Se quick point. Ne a lot of times the Establishment Republicans say that the voters dont like conservative candidates. Lifetime, republicans have had for really big victories. None of those four big victories was Establishment Republicans front and center. You didnt see george bush and karl rove and eric cantor and Mitch Mcconnell. The tea party gave the republicans this congress. They abandoned the tea party issues. That is why they are so angry. 70 of the voters are disappointed. As far as those victories, how do you repeat that Going Forward . Guest you need leaders. I think we have them now. Issues are pute forward. Election,residential they were content free elections. There were no issues out there. We have got to put forward issues. It is been my experience that electionss never when unless they are national. Fromver, we get away content, even george w. Bush won by 537 votes in one state. He was reelected by one state. States and44 reelected with 49 states. People respond when you present issues and ideas. Host Lindsey Graham was talking about benghazi. He said that if we are playing politics, we will get burned. Guest this is not about politics. This is about four dead americans. This is about finding out the truth and learning from that and not have it repeated in the future. Bill is in massachusetts on the independent line. Caller my question is you said something about four dead americans, i did not hear any of you saying anything about the iraq war about how we were there is nothat. Investigation into what happened there. Second of all, the tea party, you are what you call dwindling. If you think the tea party is 2017, your america by are mistaken. You are delusional. There is no way america is going cruz,ow lunatics like ted rand paul, mike lee to run this country. It is just not going to happen. Truth, ifld tell the you believe in america and its constitution, there should be investigations about iraq. Guest i have no problem with looking into iraq. You will find that john kerry voted for the iraq war. Democrats were on board. A high percent of conservatives opposed the iraq war. That is a fault line in the Republican Party today. Those who want to use the military to run around the world and right wrongs. Most conservatives that come from the limited government weighing oppose nationbuilding. He opposed nationbuilding then became the biggest nationbuilding nation president in American History. I wish the color with think about what is the tea party is talking about. They are saying weve got to stop this highly nondebt on our children. We have got Establishment Republicans and democrats going out there and spending money for being reelected. It is our children and grandchildrens debt. They are ignoring the constitution. They are ignoring our founding documents. Ofy are increasing the size government and power of government. That tea parties are out of step with america, i would say it is the establishment that is out of step and dangerous. Host julie is in from North Carolina. Caller i just want to ask the guest, he doesnt know anything about the constitution. I want to know if the tea party today is the same tea party that is taking off the sheets now that barack obama is president. Your listener needs to read a little more history. The clan was a democrat population. It was democrats that were the primary opposition to the sole rights legislation of the 50s and 60s. Rpr is not good. So many people get their news and information from the Mainstream Media. Mainstream media is pretty much on board with bigger government and higher debt. They are the enemies of the tea party. They are in the business of defining the tea party. We want to do a lot of things. Governmentes limited constitutional conservatives like Barry Goldwater and told buckley. Bill oakley. We have to do a better job of defining ourselves. The law of politics is defined or be defined. If you are able to define your opponent, you have a big advantage. Jobenemies have done a good of improperly defining tea parties. We need to be about the business of connecting with the American People. They need to explain what their beliefs are. Their beliefs are americas elites. We have allowed our enemies to define us. Host does the decentralized nature of the tea party work against this idea of defining who you are . Guest in many ways. Being a leaderless organization, it does work against us. We dont have access to the mainstream microphones like the karl roves of the world do. We dont have a headquarters like ryans rebus does. We dont have a big building our staff. Leader is jim demint. I think we are seeing some exciting things come out of the heritage foundation. It is slow coming. I reference plans. I think in the next few years, you will see this voice. We did not have the mike lee is an rand pauls and arco rubios a few years ago. It is slow but the leadership is coming forward. Host john is on the republican line from florida. I was watching cspan the other day and Louie Gohmert came out with a chart saying haves of the cbs and nbc somebody in the white house or in the federal government and that is why you dont hear the less talked about. Guest it is an incestuous situation between government and too many in the Mainstream Media. , hisresident spokesperson wife is in a Mainstream Media outlet. Is in bed with the Mainstream Media. We were only able to be successful advancing our cause because of the rise of the alternative media. Politicst involved in back in the 1950s, nobody heard us. Rise of direct , now we have radio much more a level lane field and our voices are being heard. There would be no concerted movement. Have anstream media store cleat shut us out. They will continue to do so. Gives people a voice. Rate how would you conservatives use of social media . Guest not good. 1960s, irted in the cant a lot of criticism. I was attacked. Doing direct mail. All of that criticism stopped in a few hours. That was in 1980. You can hear the media say that is what they have been up to. To left ran out there duplicate what the conservatives had been doing and direct mail. This is taking me 15 years to do this. It will take them 20 to 25 years. Within three or four years, they had caught up with the conservatives. I think the liberals do a significantly better job of mediaing including social than republicans and conservatives. Host brenda is on our independent line from miami, florida. Theer i want to go back to question about who are the tea they came out from this Midterm Election in 2010. They came out from a president obama being elected. I want to tie that in with what the author said about president reagan and his leadership. He had followers. They have to learn how to be followers first instead of coming in and acting like it is their way or the highway. The tea party came into 2009. In february all my political life, people ask me if it is too late to turn things around. I have one answer. That is the only chance i see to save america. The water turned high and was boiling. The tea party came out of the excesses of the democrats. The tea party came about primarily because of the failure of the report within party. If they had been effective democrats, youe would not have a need for the tea party. There was no leader out there. The caller talked about how the tea party things are getting done. That isabout gridlock. Code for saying the republicans are not allowing the democrats to grow government. Means lets grow government at some level. Maybe we dont get everything that the democrats want. Compromise means the expansion of government. Compromise never means to reduce the government. Thee is gridlock because American Peoples voice is being heard. We want government to continue to grow. Host what is the likelihood that youre going to see a republican candidate that reflects your principles . Guest i think it is guaranteed. We have had good candidates run for president. Manyvent had very toptier conservatives run. In 2016, we will have a traffic jam of good conservatives. Maybe a ted cruz might run. Maybe rand paul might run. Walkerike pence or scott. Perry in texas. I think there are going to be a half dozen or more. It is also a cause for concern. The vote could be split so many ways. You it would allow big. Overnment candidates kindully they will unite one conservative and throw the support there. Oneonone, conservatives will prevail. The head of the conservative hq and the author of takeover. Thank you. Severalp, there are policies that directly affect american women working moms. Sarah glynn will join us. If you are a student preparing for the ap test, join us in 45 minutes. At 9 15 a. M. Rt im not defending. I wanted to hear what she had to say. I have questions about why she was unaware of the criteria for more than a year after they were created. I want to know why she did not mention the criteria in her letters to congress. Hernnot vote to violate fifth amendment rights just because i want to hear what she has to say. A much greater principle is at stake here today. The fifthty of amendment rights for all citizens of the United States of america. Never alleged that he goes to the president. I have said that the tea party enemies ofscribed as the president s policies. They were targeted by somebody. The were trying to overturn Supreme Court decision of Citizens United in support of the president s position using her power. I yield back and urge support. Holding loiste on lerner in contempt of congress for refusing to answer questions about targeting conservative groups. Attack,v, in point of the Obama Administrations foreignpolicy will Harm International safety. On American History tv, a look at the newly unveiled restoration of the mount vernon that interim. Dining room. A collection of interviews with some of the top storytellers. This country was built on people who immigrated to this country. I came in with no documentation and no ability to get a job or an education. And crossed came in the border between mexico and i came intotates, the San Joaquin Valley to work as a migrant farm worker. There were not thousands of people trying to get those jobs. I was pulling the weeds. One of 41 unique voices from 25 years of our book notes and q a conversations. Published by Public Affairs books and available at your favorite seller. Washington journal continues. Sarahjoining us now is jane glynn. Policieso talk about that directly affect working mothers. There are a couple of things that are important people in mind. Most people use to have a stayathome mother. Now only one in four has a parent that stays on fulltime. Most kids are growing up in a family with two working parents. Our family demographics have changed considerably and the way we live our lives is very different than it was back in the 1960s, policies have not kept pace. We are the only advanced economy that does not guarantee paid maternity leave. We do not guarantee paid sick days. We dont guarantee any paid time off of all in this country. The paid leave is one problem. We have issues around workplace accessibility. Need to take a sick child to the doctor. Indont have any structures place to guarantee that workers are able to saxe s access those. State, the cost of childcare is higher than rent. Of childcare is higher than the cost of tuition at a fouryear public university. Families are struggling to get by. They are recovering from the recession. The costs keep going up and up and up. It makes it difficult for parents to maintain employment. If you look at who stayathome moms are today, we think it is somebody who is choosing to stay home because they want to spend time with their kids. That is true for some families. Increasingly, it is somebody who cannot find employment or mothers who are out of the workforce because it is too expensive for them to pay for childcare. Their wages would be lower than what they would be paying someone else. This is an uncomfortable situation where people are forced out of the labor market. That has longterm ramifications. By state. Is a survey some of the states of the lowest Childcare Costs are mississippi, South Carolina guest we are starting to see movement in states. Childcare is interesting because it is a bipartisan issue. Regardless of political affiliation, people understand the importance of childcare. They understand high quality preschool. It is important when kids start kindergartens they have the skills they need to be successful in school. You are starting to see states like oklahoma lead in this space. There is Bipartisan Legislation where people are able to reach across the aisle and understand that this is in everybodys best interest. A bipartisan effort, but will it go anywhere . I think there is a lot of possibility here. It polls well with voters. Republicans understand this make sense. Every dollar we invest in Early Childhood pays seven dollars back. That is down the line. It is a smart investment in terms of the economy. Discussing policies that affect working mothers. We have set aside for lines. Your organization did a survey on the topic of family leave. Before we discuss the specifics, what does that act provide . It guarantees some workers if they qualify for unpaid job protected leave. If you need time off because you have had a baby or you have to care for a seriously ill Family Member or if youre recovering from an illness, you can take up to 12 weeks and you are guaranteed your job will be there when you come back. You are not guaranteed any wage replacement. Some employers voluntarily offer that. It is not something that the law provides. It is an important piece of legislation. Job protection is very important. A lot of people cannot afford to take it. Only half of the workforce qualifies in the first place because of the rules for eligibility. Often times of the lack of income, who can afford to take three months off with no money coming in . People scale back the amount of time they take. That is problematic for people who are sick. You dont want them to return to work before they are healthy enough to be back. When people are taking time off after theyve had a baby, women depend tend to take more time than men. Part of that is the biot biology. Most fathers if they do take leave take less than two weeks. You have a new baby and it is very expensive. Families cannot afford to have a new mouth to feed and not have an income. Fathers are not able to spend time on it with their children in the ways they want to. Mothers and up having to bear the brunt of having child responsibilities and a time when they should be physically recovering and having more help her run the house. This is a great piece of legislation and i dont want to discount the importance of the job protection. Paid leave is the next step. That goes to a legislative effort. This is the family act. Inst this was introduced december. It would provide up to 12 weeks of partial wage replacement for workers. Leave act that the same conditions are covered. From it would offer two thirds of your normal wages. Enough for a family to take the time and they need to recover or provide care or welcome a new child and their family. Some people think that sound like a crazy idea. California and new jersey have very similar programs. This legislation is based on that. It is funded through a small payroll tax. Built onstates it is their longstanding temporary Disability Program the have in the states. There is no cost to employers. Employers were worried ahead of time. That thought this is going to be a burden to the business. We have got a decades worth of evidence in california that businesses are overwhelmingly supportive. They understand that this leads to happier and healthier more productive workforces. When somebody comes to working there distracted because they are sick or their minds on something else, that is a problem and it costs businesses millions of dollars a year. Reducing that is incredibly important. Policies,se businesses who have tried it out overwhelmingly report that it either cost them nothing or that it resulted in a cost savings. When people are at work they are working harder and not distracted by something else. They feel a commitment to their employer women know they are being taken care of. That mentality is something wed to explore further because we are seeing a lot of evidence about how this is not just something that is good for families. It is also good for business and the economy. We dont need to make a tradeoff. Everybody can win. Robert is from arkansas. I appreciate your thoughts. I think you are living in a bubble. You is was just ahead of a conservative and he follows a free market capitalist economy. They find comfort in china. They have taken the manufacturing. We talk about people happy with half of mylls, i pay workers comp rate. We are competing against employers the deal with undocumented workers who are refugees from poverty. You work forion is a nonprofit. Takes it that nonprofits political stands that you go beyond what is called exclusively for social welfare purposes. We deserve a tax exempt service . Are you not making a living yourself . Guest im not sure that now is the appropriate time for have a conversation about that it was between c three and c4 funding. I do think that nonprofits serve a purpose where the goal is not to drive partisan activity or support one political party. We want to support ideas and promote education around those ideas. How theseidence of ideas are bipartisan. We are not coming at this from a democrat or independent point of view. Is a we thinkthis is good for america. Host go ahead please. Caller this is a lot of baloney that youre not coming at this from a political point of view. You are coming at this from a liberal socialistic point of view. Kid, there were nine members of my family. My father worked two jobs. My mother worked as a waitress. We took care of ourselves. I have been working since i was nine years old. What you are doing is taking work and theity of independence of people who believe it is up to them to take care of themselves. You are pushing it onto our wonderful government. This is socialism. It is destroying america. The Government Role in these kinds of matters. To keep in mind is we dont live in the same society that we did back when nine worlds could do work. Not old enoughis to be legally working in nine years old. Wages have stagnated. We dont live in a country where a single breadwinner can support a family, by house, and send their children to college here in some people still can do that but that is not what our economy looks like anymore. Suggesting not socialism. I want to very clear. That is an entirely different economic model. There is nothing in the proposals that would qualify as socialism. Just to get that out of the way. The idea that we should all be doing this on our own of every family should be supporting themselves and we are all rocks and islands need to do this on our own, i dont know if society ever functioned like that. Communities always supported each other. Our government has always had a role. We want to empower people to have the ability to take time to spend time with their families while maintaining employment. We are trying to promote staying in the labor force. Were not saying to stay home and quit your job. We are saying that people should have the option to return to work when youre ready. We went to facilitate being independent. Democrats line in georgia. We are talking about working moms, you have to have a balance. Society has to make a rate that is comparable. Country and countries like the philippines and india, we are making seven dollars an hour. It is not going to be in in between. People had better watch out. When you talk about World Markets and trade and job conditions and smaller government, you are going to be working in a factory that exists right now in other countries. The World Economy is going to drive us to have less wages or we will bring up the quality of life all the world. Guest i think that brings up some adjusting points. Our investment in other countries is something we should keep in mind. Ody is ever dating advocating for raising standard so high that we can price ourselves out of the ability to compete. If one of the things we can see is they are very successful economies that have figured this out. It they figured out ways to maintain higher levels of employment and higher levels of them maternal leave. They have strong and diverse economies is still support workers and it is balance between their home lives and their lives as employees. Host more females are graduating from college. Guest that is an interesting question. That is something that has been going on for a while. Women are graduating with bachelors degrees and higher rates than men. Women are completing them more frequent than men. Look at overall wages between men and women, they havent leveled out. If you compare i educational attainment, this is not controlling for specific types of jobs, it takes about one additional degree for a woman to match the wages of a man. Masters degree will earn as much as a man with a bachelors degree. Because of the types of jobs that men and women go into. This is another issue that i talk about a lot. Is of the responses i get these are the choices that women are making. They are choosing to drop out of the labor force to raise kids. They are choosing to go into lower paying fields. We should not be as concerned about dealing with this as policy. Women are often trapped in these occupations. They are more likely to offer them the benefits they need. My mother is a teacher. She was able to stay home with us during the summer. She was off to. School, sheout of was done not long after that. That was a career choice did she made so she could balance and provide child care for her kids. It is not to say that people are not drawn to certain types of occupations. I dont want to say that no one has free choice. There are structures that an fluence in a particular way. Those are things that influence women to go into certain types of occupations rather than others. Benefitsf we can offer and a more universal level, it will allow men to benefit from these same things. They are overwhelmingly repaving when to spend more time with their families but theyre not able to because of their jobs. If we create a more level Playing Field, they would not have to worry about can i be a lawyer and also have the time that i need to be with my kids. Host is there a policy thersection there . Guest paycheck fairness act is one piece of legislation it has been introduced in the last several congresses. It is already illegal to pay men and women different wages to do the exact same job. This is something that still happens. A lot of this is driven by parental status. If you look at the wages of mothers, even if productivity is the same, their wages goes down. Having a baby means you are taking a financial hit for mothers. Fathers see an increase in their wages after they have a child because there is a mentality that fathers need to bring home money for their families and mothers are going to be distracted or less productive because they have a child at home. Even though that is not the case. Timere not taking extra off or doing anything to , therentiate themselves idea that mothers are going to be less dedicated to work it could influence their wages they receive. Part of it is about equity and what is fair. It is about families bottom lines. One of the ways that we can address this is through the paycheck ransacked. Companies fromit writing contracts the state they are not allowed to discuss wages with their coworkers. Tois perfectly legal for me tell you that you cannot talk to anyone about your salary. Culture means that discrimination can flourish because nobody knows what is going on. This is what we have seen in the most highprofile races of discrimination. People are getting a lower salary but they are not allowed to talk about it. They never find out. There is no way to prevent it from happening. There is no way to do any action to fix the situation is that we knows what is owing on. This is what she had to say back then. It would set women against men. Guest we hear the same thing president obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter act into law, people made the same claims. This extended the statute of limitations. This allowed people who found out they had been discriminated against a longer time. People said oh my fwosh once this passes everybody is going to start calling their lawyers. Were going to see this explosion in lawsuits. We havent seen that at all. In recent years the number of wage discrimination lawsuits has stayed pretty flat. So this is important in that people who are being discriminated against need to have avenues to address that situation. We should not be empowering large corporations to discriminate against our employees. Transparency is in everyones best interest. If youre not doing anything illegal then why should it matter if your workers want to discuss their salaries with one another . Theres no reason to expect that we would see an increase in lawsuits unless there are a lot of things happening behind closed doors. Host our guest is Sara Jane Glynn. Shes the womens Economic Policy associate director. Alicia from arizona. Caller good morning. From arkansas. Host apologies. Go ahead. Caller good morning. My comment is it would be great for all women to be paid with medical leave, but we cant afford it. 36 i work, theyre million out of budget in two years and we have at least 60 women its the health care industry. If you did that, you would lose a lot of jobs. As far as the payroll tax, economic 32,000 a year, im at 15 of my income in taxes. By the time you take my health care and Everything Else youre talking about a salary of 20something thousand dollars. We cant afford it. Youre talking about a country and their work policies and stuff. We have jobs we send overseas taxes theyre 5 15 and less. Guest one of the things thats beneficial about thinking about a national possy that would cover all workers is that you can share the cost and you share risk and responsibility. Right . So this is how social insurance works. Everybody pays in a very small amount and then the program is there for you when you need it. And this is a program because it also covers not just baby leave or family care giving leave but also your own medical condition. Everyone potentially benefits from this. Every single worker could some day need this program. Some people wont, some people will. But everybody has buyin into this system because its not just for parents. Its for everybody. So the legislation thats been introduced has a payroll tax increase on workers of 0. 2 . For the average worker earning the average salary thats less than a cup of coffee per week. The family act. Guest so the costs are actually very, very low because were talking about a program that would cover all workers. Its not something thats limited to just one segment of the labor market. The costs are incredibly low. And if you look at the states that have done this in california new jersey rie has a program that just went into effect this year. In many instances workers werent even aware that the payroll tax had gone up because the increase was so miniscule, a fraction of a percent. Its very inexpensive to fund these types of programs. Its surprisingly inexpensive. But the dividends they pay back are disproportionate. So i certainly dont want to discredit the importance a few dollars a week can certainly make a difference to some people. The amount would be lower depending on those at a lower salary. But the potential payout for people who need this is so much higher that i would argue now is the time when we cant afford not to have these programs. When the labor market is this tight and the fact that people are losing their jobs because thai get sick, thats something that we need to address now. We cant wait for this mythical day when everything is doing perfectly. We need to act now to help support families today. Not 20 years in the future when things might look differently. This is bill talking about the issue of pay. He asked the question why does merit rarely enter the discussion of gender pay equality . Guest im not sure that it doesnt honestly. Theres been Research Done looking at recent college graduates. So what people what happens when people are just leaving school . The type of jobs that they took, the other benefits that those jobs offered them, women still end up making about 5 less right out the gate. Part of this is because women are less likely to negotiate their starting salaries than men are. Theyre also less likely to be successful when they attempt to negotiate their salaries. So its not just because were not asking. Were responded to differently when we ask as well. And that gap grows over time. So if you think about it every time you apply for a new job they ask you what your salary was at the previous job. Oftentimes when we get bonuses or raises its based on a percentage of our current salary. So if youre starting out with a lower number the discrepancy is going to grow over time. So five years out that wage gap has almost doubled. And it continues to grow over peoples life courses even when theyre taking the same amounts of time off, when theyre working at the same pace, when their productivity is the same. So i dont think that were ignoring merit here. Nobody is standing up here arguing saying that every Single Person in america should get the exact same amount of money regardless of what theyre doing with their lives, regardless of what type of job or education. Nobody is saying that. What were saying is people should be fairly compensated for the work that they do and the fact that youre a man and im a woman or that one persons a parent and someone else isnt should not be a deciding factor in what their salaries are and that we shouldnt be bringing all of these salmtions about what people are like into these decisions about what someone deserves to be paid for their work. A stats ticks are now the bread winners in a family situation . Guest in about two thirds of families women are either bringing home the majorities of the money, the family bottom line or theyre sharing that responsibility with a partner. So womens contributions to their familys Economic Security are incredibly important. This isnt just people working for pocket money. This is really about who is helping to pay the rent, who is helping to pay the bills. And this is something we should be taking very seriously because when we have low wages for workers, we have less demand in our economy. This is part of why our recovery has been so slow. If you pole businesses and ask why arent you hiring, expanding growing your business the overwhelming response is lack of demand. And yet were not doing anything to help increase demand. And what does that mean . That means putting more money back into communities to so that people are going out and spending it. When folks dont have extra money to spend theyre not going to the restaurant, theyre not buying new shoes when they need them. Theyre not able to fix their car. All of these things that would enable you to put money back into your local economy you cant do it when you dont have any money to spend in the first place. And i think thats the part of the equation that were really missing here businesses are not saying that they arent hiring because of regulation or because of taxes. Theyre saying theyre not hiring because there arent enough people who are purchasing their services. And whatever we can do to increase that is going to help our economy to continue to recover. And thats where we need to be focusing our energy right now. Host our next call from arizona. Caller hi. You go, girl. My first trying to figure out how to contribute. Theres so many ways to attack this. But yes ladies out there its time for us to get take off our pearls and hippie beads and take over the rains of government so we will have a true democracy that will have compation because we have a society that does this when we cooperate with each other rather than be the competitive free market thing that insists that everybody do their own thing in their own way. The people that say this are those that represent the billionaires, people who were born on third base and think they hit a triple. These guys feel they earned every billion through their hard work. So theres that. But i just want to advocate that that gentleman previous exemplified that the osfid dinosaur john birch women are unhinged talk versus the soul of america. And fortunately that man is not going to inherit the earth. Thank you. Host on any of that . Guest well, it was nice to have support. Its interesting that were having this conversation right before mothers day. So im sure that tomorrow a lot of people are going to be calling their moms and sending flowers and taking her out to lunch and doing these things to celebrate their mothers. And we absolutely should do that next month were going to celebrate our fathers. I would like us to see not taking one day or one week or even one month out of the year where we say the contribution of women as mothers and members of the society is important. Lets be thinking about that all year round. Women are half of the population. Were half the labor force. Were more than half of all voters. And so i think its really important to think about things from multiple perspective and not just come at everything with the assumption that every worker has somebody who is staying at home taking care of their family. We need to understand that everybodys lives are very integrated, were doing multiple things all at once and we need to figure out ways to support both spheres of life. In terms of policy we talk about pay, child care, medical leave, what other things to be considered especially when it comes to working moms and women . Guest Workplace Flexibility is somewhere where were starting to see some really interesting things happening at the local level. The u. K. Has the right to request. That means that workers there if they need some kind of flexibility whether thats the ability to change their schedule, to work from home sometimes, you know, whatever it is that that need looks like for them, they have the right to go to their employer, put in writing a formal request, make a plan, saying this is what i want to do, this is the type of flexibility i need, heres how were going to make it work. So its on the employee to figure out a way to make this work. And then the owner, their boss has to review that, take it seriously, and if theyre going to reject the request they need to offer a compelling reason why. So they cant just say i dont feel like it. They have to actually have thought it through and say this is too costly or whatever. So they can reject the plan if they need to. But what happens is they dont. And the law started out only applying to parents with young chirp. It was so successful and businesses loved it so much that they recently expanded it to cover all workers. So it really shows that there is we need to have the ability to maneuver these situations freely so i dont think that it makes sense to have a lot of every worker is allowed to telecommute. That doesnt work for some jobs and people and certainly not everyone should be able to telecommute. We need to tailor these to the specifics of individuals and the occupations theyre in and the needs of their business. But allowing workers the right to come up with their obe plan for Workplace Flexibility and not be retaliated against is something that we can have policy around. San francisco recently passed a similar law. Its too early now to say exactly how its going to shape out. But were watching this really intently to see because cities and states are the laboratories of democracy. And so when there are these policies that take root, we have the ability to have this natural experiment where we can watch and see what happens, see what the impact is on workers, see what the impact is on businesses, and then potentially take that to scale for everyone else. But i think Workplace Flexibility is one of the areas where were going to start to see more movement, paid sick days are another issue, that are getting a lot of attention. There have been some very high profile wins recently and thats one of the other policies thats really moving right now. Host lets hear from new york, republican line. Caller hello. My question is why are we putting so much burden on businesses . Why dont we just put in the eitc for all these people and if they need Child Support or help all the taxpayers will pay for it . Guest well, i think host you may want to go with the eitc. Guest the earned inincome tax credit is a refundable tax credit thats available to low income workers. Right now its primarily available to low income workers with children. There is some discussion right now about expanding that to cover more people. But the thing about the eitc is that its very explicitly focused on folks who are low income. And obviously low income families need assistance on a variety of Different Levels particularly around child care. This is why we have things like the block grant to the states which Fund Investments in providing prek and preschool and child care to low income families. But the truth is families who are above 200 of the poverty line, fanl liz not generally thought of as low income are still having difficulty meeting a lot of these costs. The cost of child care continues to increase. Im sure that many of you who are watching right now, i myself know people who are middle class families who still struggle to pay for child care because its very, very expensive. And it eats up a significant portion of families budget. So i fully support the idea that we should continue to have dedicated resources for low income families to help pull them out of poverty and to help empower them towards independence. But i also think that we need to keep in mind the needs of middle class families as well, because theyre feeling a really tight squeeze right now and we cant leave them out of the equation because its not as if everything is rosy for people just because theyre slightly above these cutoffs. Host we have one more call. Were almost out of time. So North Carolina if you can jump in go ahead. Caller thank you very much. This lady is very well spoken and i empathize with her points. Let me give you a real world example and see how she would react. I own a business. I pretend i own a business with 20, 30 people. I make widgeets. A young lady comes to me. Shes indispensible in what she does with me and im a lean machine. I have to replace her if she leaves. She needs to take say two or three months off for whatever reason, child care, health, whatever. I have to replace her with somebody with equal talents. So i can replace her and find somebody. I have two choices. I can either tell that person that her job with me is only going to be two or three months long and then im going to have to let her go. Or, i can say to the young lady who has to take the time off im not going to be able to rehire you at the end of your time. I know that if i try to hire a person on a temp basis shes not going to take the job if shes well qualified. Host thanks, caller. Guest i understand the point hes making. But the truth is these situations are already happening. When people have when women have babies they have to have at least some time off to give birth. And most people arent able to return to work the next day. So the idea that people are going to have things that come up in their lives, thats just a reality that businesses are already facing and having to deal with. All were arguing is that we should make it a little bit easier for the workers so theyre not finding themselves in dire financial straits because theyve had something happen to them and their families. Host our guest has been Sara Jane Glynn talking about federal policy that affects moms and working women. Thank you for your time guest thank you. Host coming up if you are a High School Student and in the midst of studying for that u. S. Government exam, help for you coming up next. We will take those calls just from High School Students. Well take that up as soon as e continue after this. What i think is so i want resting is that for most of chinese history people had no idea what life was like outside. This gets back to the tour of europe. Chinese people now can sit on a computer in a village and have a pretty accurate understanding of what it feels like to live in washington, d. C. Or they can get an image of it so that heightens this conflict. On the rising conflict between the individual and the Chinese Government sunday night at 8 00. You can now take cspan with you wherever you go. With our free cspan radio ap for your smart phone or tablet. For over 35 years cspan brings Public Affair events from washington to you putting you in the room. And offering complete gavel to gavel coverage of the u. S. House all as a Public Service of private industry. Host High School Students especially this segment is for you especially if youre studying for the advanced placement exam. Two experts have joined us for many years. Both history teachers, both experts in this exam. Gentlemen, welcome. Great to be here. For those who are following along this exam what is it . This is the Kentucky Derby for civics test. Next tuesday may 13 students will have an opportunity to take a civics exam and they get College Credit. So this exam involves what . Its a test of their Civics Knowledge of big concepts of Political Science but we feel its a test of engaged citizens. So High School Students especially if youre studying for this exam heres your chance to call in with your questions, about specific topics and formats. These are the guys to talk to. Here are the numbers. Weve divided them for those in the eastern and central time zone. And for those in the mountain and pacific time zoneds. Again for this segment only, only High School Students, please, preparing for this exam. And we will take as many of those calls as we can. So start calling right away and we will put them up in just a moment. We ask this year after year but whats the best way to prepare . The best way is to study. But there are a couple of key points here. This is a reading test as much as anything on the that multiple choice read extremely carefully. On the fr combnches, essay portion its not about politics. Were not asking for your opinion. State the facts and state them again. Be clear and write leageably. Host any other tips . Guest avoid pronounce. We score the exam and really smart students all the time get in trouble with words like they, it, things. So be specific, be clear, be complete. Guest and just to give a sense for some of the questions, heres a sample one. In the original constitution that was ratified in 1789, which of the following political offices were directly elect snd four choices if you want to play along at home. I have the sans so i can be smart on the segment. Whats the answer . Guest how many times the founding father they were a little bit suspect of democrat democracy. So of these big institutions the courts, the president , the congress, only the house of representatives was directly elected in the beginning. But of course the trend over time has been more and more power, more and more democratization which is something we might be able to write about. Host another question. What resulted from, quote, selective incorporation . Heres some of the potential answers. The answer is letter e because of the dupes clause of the 14th due process clause it started to apply to the states. Host by the way, students at home especially if you have a question about a Supreme Court question today and you really want to know it, a special incentive for you to call in, i hold in my hand a copy of the constitution of the United States but its different in this case. Why . Guest this particular constitution has been signed by Justice Steven brier and its going to go to one of you callers here. Host well target that if you have a specific Supreme Court question. The first to get through will get a chance to talk about not only the question but to get a chance at a prize. Good morning. Go ahead. A er id like to give shout out to my government teacher. And my question is can you explain pork barreling . Guest pork barreling is really an old term on capitol hill. It really talked about earmarking today. But its when a member of Congress Puts something in the bill that benefits only his or her district. Now, this has been kind of poohpoohed on capitol hill but eevep dick doiben says maybe we should return back in town because its a way to get some of this big legislation through by returning benefits to one district. Guest you might not see the word pork barrel but federal earmarks. You might see the term line imet veto because for two years the president had the power to strike out federal earmarks with a specific line item until the Supreme Court took that power away. Host by the way, you will hear the term shout out a lot during this. Off of twitter. Guest the key word there is oversight. The congress has the power to oversee the bureaucracy. Which means they control the purse, the money that goes to the bureaucracy implementing the law. And if they feel its not doing a good job of implementing the law they can call the bureaucrats in, subpoena them, and oversee their job. Guest bureaucrats work because there are laws passed and our congress is a lawmaking institution. Host springfield, virginia. Caller i would like to give a shout out to ms. Hatch at lake brad yock high school. And i would to ask what are the different duties or whats the differences in between the senate and house of representatives . Guest we have a bike cameral legislator as you know and there are distinct differences. In our class we talk about the dimbses between a cup and dimbses between a cup and a saufer. The saucer is supposed to cool that originally the senate was distant from the house. They were chosen by the state legislatures. Now theyre directly elected some of these differences arent quite as acute. The house of representatives is dictated by rules in the senate less rules. Longer debate. Dont forget the house of representatives, 435 members, the senate 100. So even the vibe in each house is distinctly different. Host one of the key differences is that bills on the house floor debated typically under closed rules. In the senate, a lot of amendments are allowed during floor debate under open rule which in turn means that the house committees are more important because so much of the amendment process happens in house kess. Host a format question. Guest this is a great question. But lets make sure we understand this carefully. An outline itself isnt a bad thing as long as an outline doesnt mean less than a sentence. They need to be fully hashedout sentences with nouns and verbs. No pronouns. Nouns and verbs. And if it says identify, you can write one line. If it says describe, i would write at least two. But most of these frqs will say explain. This obble gates the writer to say at least three things and use examples. Guest for sure make sure that you get right to the question. Repeat the question vo cab larry. Youre not going to get extra points for flowry introductry paragraph. Answer the question, answer it repeatedly, ans as completely as you can. Host how much time do they have to take the test . Guest 100 minutes to answer the free response. And 45 minutes to answer the multiple question answer questions. Host youre on. Caller my question is what is the role of the media as score keeper gate keeper and watchdog . Guest we lo this question particularly the gate keeper function. The idea that the media controls what the news is. They might not tell you what to think about the issue but they certainly determine what the issues are that people are talking about. In terms of the watchdog this is a primary role of the media. The right to free press. To hold government accountability. The right for the media to publish information about our government officials, about whats going on. So that you the people can keep your elected officials accountable. Guest the media is an agenda setter. The media also lets us know what we should know. And this is where the criticism lies in that score keeper role. We see journalism as horse race journalism, less about concrete deep thoughts on the issues and more about who is winning. Host which of the following gives the states the most policy discretion. Guest this speaks to federalism. As much as we talk about the centralization and how much power is here in washington, d. C. , here in the United States we still have states rights. The tenth amendment protects states rights. And this is a states rights question. When government money is returned to the state, what gives those state governors and those legislatures the most discretion . The answer is c. Block grants. Guest host we have a question from kay off twitter. Guest divided government is what we have right now in washington, d. C. Its the idea that the president of one party and at least one chamber of the legislative branch is controlled by a majority of the opposing party. And the resultst of divided government it becomes harder to get legislation passed. Also a trend weve seen since the 1960s, very commonly, particularly in Midterm Elections the voters put the Opposition Party in control of the legislative branch. Host so again if youre just host if youre just joining us, its a government exam that takes place next tuesday. These are the two got to talk to about the test but also questions and content. How long have you guys been doing this . Guest i have been teaching 20 years. We have been on cspan this is your sixth time or in host as far as the test itself, has a change in format and gotten harder . Is there a difference . Guest the format has been pretty much the same for a number of years so the test is different. Teachers have not seen this test. Withis preparing students darts at a dart board we have not seen yet but we know the 60 multiplechoice questions and host we know its difficult. Host if you have questions and you are a student and studying for thisits a chance to ask these guys questions and get answers. If you have a Supreme Court question, this constitution of the United States is signed by Justice Breyer and it goes to the first one who come through with the question concerning the Supreme Court. New hampshire, good morning. Caller my question is what does the rule of four have to do with the Supreme Court and how cases are heard . Guest i think we have a winner. The rule of four is often known as granting a writ. In order for the Supreme Court to hear case, it takes at least four justices to agree to hear that case. It is also known as the rule of four. Host congratulations, you will win a copy of this constitution. We will get your information off the phone so hold on the line and they will take your information we will make sure this gets sent to you, congratulations. Here is natalie from twitter guest we love the Iron Triangle questions because students lose sleep over this. This is the simple fact on the test, the Iron Triangle will ask you what are the three points . Lets make sure we know the three points. Congressional committees, and interest group, and the federal Bureaucratic Agency. It basically space to the interrelationship and how Public Policy is passed and enforced. Its different than issued network. They talk about Iron Triangles being too rigid. Triangle issued networks, dont get too hung up but no those three points. Guest that was a great twitter feed. Larson gave me a hard time because in talking about Iron Triangles, i talked about can of mushrooms and the fda regulation of canned mushrooms and the fact that there are six different styles of canned mushrooms. The fact that the fda has come up with a rule that every ounce of canned mushrooms has to be packed in 37. 5 milligrams of acerbic acid. Congress is not necessarily coming up with that law by members of congress from the horticultural subcommittee of the department of agriculture are working with the bureaucrats in the fda and probably working with a lobbyist from the ami which is the American Mushroom institute in a very friendly atmosphere. They are coming up with specific regulations. Its known as the Iron Triangle and known as elitism in policymaking. Guest i was going to bring a can of mushrooms this year because a student gave me one as a gift last year. Another Bureaucratic Agency prevented that. At Ohare Airport confiscated my can of mushrooms. Host guest another one of our favorite questions. We all know the First Amendment. We know freedom of speech and freedom of the press but we sometimes forget those other freedoms also in the First Amendment. Theres the right to assemble, right to petition. I would say you definitely need to know the difference between free exercise and establishment particularly establishment. Establishment clause of the First Amendment prevents the United States government and now it goes to the states where you cannot have one state religion. Guest we rarely talk about this amendment, ourst right to assemble in groups. Thats the basis of Civil Society which is the basis of democratic government, the right to join groups, to complain, to talk about issues. Host peer is emily from new york. Caller i would just like to give a shout out to my teacher. My question was i was wondering what the difference what to midis should know in the house and the senate, the major ones we should be reviewing . Guest the Major Committee in the houses the house ways and Means Committee. Laws have to start in the house of representatives, the house ways and Means Committee has a lot of weight when it comes to creating those tax laws. Guest lets not forget the nomenclature of committees. The house ways and Means Committee is a standing committee. This is permanent and allows for expertise, members in the house served on that committee for up to five or more terms. What happens when a bill passes through the house and the senate and they are different . They use a conference committees and make sure you know the difference between standing committees, the permanent committees, and those conference committees that are brought together to reconcile differences between the house and the senate. Guest another committee that is pertinent to the house is the house rules committee. The senate does not have this. In the house, the rules committee determines the rules for debate and the rules on the floor procedure in the house of representatives. Host any significant Senate Committee to know . Guest they are permanent but not but nothing as sexy as ways and means. The Senate Committees are important because the Senate Committees also approve the appointments by the president. Judiciary Senate Committee gets a lot of attention on cspan which is a great example of checks and balances. When the president appoints a federal judge or Supreme Court judge, the Senate Judiciary committee has the first shot at that confirmation process. Host here is sydney from georgia. There, my question is statusrdless of income and higher education, [indiscernible] guest i did not hear that. Guest its about voting turnouts. One of the key things you should know is that voting is for old people. People who are more experience at voting are much more likely to vote. Higher that people with education and higher incomes are also more likely to vote. Guest also africanamericans are more likely to vote democrat. In the last election, they turned out at a higher rate than caucasian voters. Host l this isars guest this is a question we hope will find its way in this year. We are rhymed for Campaign Finance questions. Its loaded with terms. Pac, a Political Action committee, has limits. I can only give so much to them and they can only give so much to candidates. Now we have this new area known as independent expenditure groups. This allows the fatcats to give unlimited amounts and in some cases undisclosed amounts to groups like 527s or groups like out ofacks which come the Citizens United case. Anyway we look at it, we are looking at the mothers milk of politics which is money. Money still plays a Critical Role in those campaigns as much as congress has tried to limit and remove the perception of corruption, big money still pours in and make sure you understand the differences between hard money, soft money, and independent expenditures. Guest independent expenditures is a key question. What can you spend that money on is a key question . The easiest way to figure that out is an independent expenditure can be used for an ad to promote a candidate to promote an idea but it cannot be hidden to a candidate to spend on that candidates transportation costs or the cost of that candidates handlers or staffers. It has to be independent. You can promote an idea but it cannot be used for the grassroots, on the Ground Transportation cost. Host strategy question great question, a lot of Great Teachers out there mr. Newman and mr. Lockwood are studying with their students and we want to affirm all you teachers because this is a difficult test. Here is our suggestion on those difficult multiplechoice questions. Read the prompt carefully. Dont worry about time. Look for the words like not or accept. My suggestion to you is before you have a debate between a,b,c ,d, try to imagine what the answer is first. If it says something about selective incorporation at the prompt come you know the answer has to Say Something about bill of rights in the states. There will no there will be no tricks in the question so browse through the options. If you see bill of rights and state, thats the answer. Guest so much of government and Political Science is about vocabulary and lingo. One of the great ways you can testre prepare for the is go through the vocabulary of government and be really familiar with those key vocabulary words. Host we have been giving you sample questions and heres another 1 about public of again and the measurement of public opinion. We get a little bit of science here where students should know that to have a really effective opinion poll, than is to be a random sample. That means everyone in the universe of that sample has an equal chance of being asked. Host its not just about the constitution or strict government, its everything that is involved. Guest this covers not just the institutions that also those linkage institutions like media, Political Parties, interest groups, campaigns and elections. It is thorough but is not a political test in that it will test your opinion. No arguments will be made here. To know the Broad Strokes of American Government politics. Host spokane, washington, hello. Caller i wanted to give a shout out to the class of 2014. Could you give me a quick summary of a president ial election process . Guest we know the president ial election process is 2. 5 years away but it is starting now. The very first step in any campaign process is to develop a personal following, to be mentioned. You want to be able to raise money which is a key part of the process. You have to have people who know who you are and have a personal following. Guest the primaries go statebystate and are very important. Lets not forget about the national conventions. Its a media event every four years where the Political Parties choose their candidates and frame the agenda, from the messaging. Lets not forget about the Electoral College. We the people still do not directly select our president. Takes 270al college to win the Electoral College and puts the regional blocs in play and gives small states a bigger voice than you would think. Host this is sophia from georgia. Caller hi, i want to give a six. Out to ms. Evans class. Will definitely be court cases on the test. Dont panic. There are too many to study them all but there are a few we would recommend. Andv wade, right to privacy abortion, brown versus board of education, the First Court Case that incorporates the bill of rights, it was free speech. A casemy favorite is about the Civil Rights Movement and is a case about the Commerce Clause. This is the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was a serious question whether that was constitutional. Guest the Supreme Court case that determined that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was constitutional said congress under its Commerce Clause of power cant prohibit secretary should can prohibit segregation. Host she wants to explain the cormatsu court case. Guest this would be one of those cases. We have never seen this on the ap government exam. This was about the internment of the japanese during world war ii. The ap government test is not really a history test. Dont panic for those of you who did not take ap history. You might be able to use ko ramatsu as an example. Guest when mr. Larsen speculates that something may not be on the test, it usually is. Longtime viewers know that. [laughter] host here is another email this is a great question. Over the last 50 years, we have seen that president s more rely on the advice of their white house staff or the executive office of the president. They do so for a number of reasons. It is easier to hire white house staff or advisors because they dont have to be confirmed by the senate. Unlike a cabinet secretary who has to go through the cabinet the confirmation process. Another key reason is that these are typically former campaign aides. They are very loyal to the president and dont have divided loyalty like a cabinet secretary and remember the term executive privilege an advisor to the president can claim executive privilege of congress ever comes around asking questions on like a cabinet secretary. Another email guest i would not be surprised if we see a chart on the federal budget in the frqs. Critical words would be entitlements, discretionary funding, mandatory funding. Entitlements are those payments made every year that the congress is obligated to appropriate like Social Security and medicare. They dont debate this. Its not sunsetted year after year. Its in that budget and it is the majority of the federal budget. Discretionary funding is a small percentage. These are the programs that the congress candidate. The mandatory entitlement spending is getting this federal budget in trouble. Guest in addition to that information about entitlements, you should know the word fiscal policy, the idea that budget making is fiscal policymaking and the fact that the budget making process is the same with a of making laws little catch the president gets to recommend the budget than Congress Writes the budget but the president has to sign the budget into law. Host from california caller i would like to give a how out tomr. Norris does the Federal Reserve help regulate the economy . Guest thanks for getting up early and asking one of those tough questions. We just talked about fiscal policy now we are talking about monetary policy. That is the Federal Reserve. Its an independent group is not supposed to be affected by politics. The Federal Reserve chair is appointed for a term that often exceeds the term of the president , it certainly exceeds the term of the president that appointed him or her. Monetary policy is money flow. Guest the Federal Reserve board is an independent group. They are appointed with fixed terms. We see there are different parts of the bureaucracy, sometimes we call them independent regulatory agencies, that are more independent because when they are picked to be on that board, the commissioners have a fixed term. Host an executive order is a directive given by the president to the bureaucracy to carry out and implement some part of the law. It has the same power of the law. Congress usually has to fund it so its hard for congress to block an executive order. Agreement goes into the chief diplomat powers, the idea the president can meet with another head of state and come up with an agreement that is like a treaty. It is typically smaller than a treaty. Like an executive order, it does not have to be approved by congress. Guest we have seen executive orders and executive agreements on the increase as our partisan congress has bickered back and set in. D gridlock has president set taken on more power because the executive orders and executive agreements do not need congressional approval. Host from dayton ohio, you are up next. Hey, a big shout out to mr. Byers. How is judicial activism and judicial restraint connected . Guest we are talking about jurisprudence. How does a judge make up his or her mind when looking at a case. We would like to think about the laws are used to interpret the laws but what happens when that is fuzzy . What happens when the law is not clear . We look at judicial restraint and judicial activism. Judicial restraint is when that judge tries to limit him or herself to adjust the light which of the law or what the original intent of the law was. We have judicial activism or judges take another information, it could be other areas of expertise. In the end, the Supreme Court has whats called judicial review. Based on the court case going way back to the early days of our republic, this is the ultimate check the Supreme Court has over the Legal Process in the congress and in the white house. They can rule acts of congress were acts of the president on constitution. Host from brookfield, maryland, eva joins us next. Caller hi, i would like to give a shout out to my teacher at sherwood high school. I was wondering if you could explain how congress can change the courts jurisdiction . Guest thats a great question. The constitution gives congress the authority over the courts. They can decide the courts docket. They also have the power to create lower courts underneath the Supreme Courts. In that way, they control the jurisdiction of the courts which we also know as the dockets. Guest that is something cspan is interested in because the courts could open up the courts to television. Host here is an email guest we know the amendment process in the constitution, the way we change the constitution funny seven times is with a proposed amendment by2 3 of each chamber of congress and those proposals have to be of the states. There is the informal amendment process and thats the way the constitution changes. It can be changed by an act of law. They can be changed by a Supreme Court decision. It could be chased by tradition. The best example of an informal amendment is Political Parties. The fact that the constitution does not mention Political Parties yet this city and this government is run by Political Parties. Thats an informal amendment. Concepthis lease to the of assessing power of the three branches britt how powerful is the congress . How powerful is the president . How powerful are the courts . Formal power and informal power. Host we want to thank our producer who put this together. She put these free response questions together. Opinion outit of there but some of the questions as it relates to Campaign Finance reform. That would take me 100 minutes. Guest Campaign Finance is a tricky area. Students should know the loopholes. The reality is is that the Supreme Court has time and again said that Campaign Money our political speech and that political speech is protected. We can limit them in some ways like we did with the 1974 law with hard money. There is only so much money you can give to a specific candidate. However, there are loopholes. Like independent expenditures. Guest when you write about Campaign Finance, do not forget the constitution and how the Supreme Court has ruled under it. Buckley established that the First Amendment protects Campaign Moneys. Dont forget to use the constitution as an example when you are writing those frqs. Host andrea from corona, california. Caller hi, i would like to give a shout out to the third. Summary of the decisionmaking process and courts starting with putting a case on the docket . Guest your case has to have standing. Typically, the Supreme Court is looking if this is a case there has been damage. We also know to be on the docket we talked about the rule of 4 at least four justices have to hear that case. Guest less than five percent of the appeals of the petitions are heard by the u. S. Supreme court. Appellate courts have to deal here every appeal but there are thousands of cases petitions to the Supreme Court and they get to decide. Four judges decide which cases they hear. This last year, it was about 80 cases. Host a question from twitter guest i will let mr. Larsen Toubro Limited guest this is not really a history test. There are some historical events you want to remember like the chaise rebellion. The articles of confederation created an extremely weak Central Government for the articles of confederation established strong state sovereignty but there were issues about trade and currency and protection back in the states. Se rebellion reminded those who fought the revolution that we might lose what we fought for so they called for a new Constitutional Convention that was highly controversial with groups like the federalists promoting a stronger sense of government and the antifederalist holding onto states rights. It was washington versus jefferson but in the end, it was a compromise. They created a stronger Central Government. Same question was asked back in philadelphia in 1787 is asked on capitol hill every day here in washington. Guest how strong should the Central Government be . Sometime students are asked about the declaration of independence and the have to know it is the founding document. It is one of the key ideals, the idea that government gets its power from the governed, the idea that people can abolish their government and the natural rights that government is supposed to protect. Host guest war powers act is one of those things we see questions on the test frequently. Its the idea that there are checks and balances still with the president warmaking powers. The president as commanderinchief has the power to send troops into combat but not only does the congress have the power of the purse but if the president does sign and send troops into combat, he is to notify congress and get their approval within 60 days. Guest this speaks to the powers of the president and how they are checked. We know the power of the presidency is increased in our lifetime. How is it checked . The war powers act would be one example in the big example in our lifetime is public opinion. Host romney from illinois is up next. Caller him, id like to give a shout out to my teacher. Can you explain the Citizens United case . Guest everyone is buzzing about Campaign Finance. They think Campaign Finance will be on the exam. It is one of the most talked about court cases. It opens up independent expenditures to corporations. Corporations had been severely limited in how they can participate in the political process with respect to money. Now with Citizens United, it appears as if that window has now been thrown wide open and corporations are now allowed to give money but only the independent groups, not directly to the candidates. Guest one of the laws that relates to this is the mccainfeingold campaignfinance reform act. Thats from 2002 which tried to bring more limits. It got rid of soft money. It tried to put limits on those issue ads. Citizens united had a different idea. Host we will hear from boris next from illinois. Caller hi, i like to give a shout out to ms. Stopne from stevenson high school. Would you please explain what is an independent Regulatory Agency . Guest the independent federal Regulatory Agency one is the fcc, the federal medications commission, and the faa, the federal aviation administration. Sometimes at the fcc, they have judicial powers where if a tv station violates the law, the fcc can impose a fine. Guest the independent regulatory agencies serve all three branch functions. They can seemingly right law, they can enforce law, and they can actually adjudicate loss of this is a point of great stress and tension today. The bureaucratic agencies function almost like a government within themselves. Host one more question from spokane washington. Caller hi, i want to give a shout out to my teacher mr. Biel. How does the Supreme Court choose the cases they hear . Guest we know there is a limit. They limit themselves to about 80 cases per year. The most fundamental way they decide is if there are two lower federal Court Decisions that contradict each other on the same issue, they then hear the case. Host those are the questions but what is parting advice for those cramming this weekend . Guest study hard and read the notes. This is not a Current Events test. The more you read the news, watch cspan on the internet and think about how the news applies to the big concepts of Political Science. Those are concepts you can drop into a response question. This is a test for College Credit but really, we are excited you are becoming a more engaged citizen. Guest study hard but also get some good rest. Study those words. The very success of democracy depends upon. Theknowledge and skills of its citizens you are taking a test on tuesday but you will really be serving your country for life as engaged citizen. We applaud all of you. Host is there an online source that can help with studying . Guest we have a website. Izenu. Org where there is a lot of good stuff. Host thank you very much for being with us. We have done our cram for the exam this year and good luck to the students out there. Thats it for our program today. Another edition of washington journal comes your way at 7 00 tomorrow and we will see you then. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] cspan, a debate earlier this week on the house on whether to hold lois