Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160108

Number for you. Whether theto know federal government has been a good land. If you live in the pacific time zone 2027488001 is your number. Everybody else can dial in at 2027488002. You can also make a comment via social media and join the conversation going on on our facebook page. Just facebook. Com cspan. At can also send a tweet http twitter. Com cspanwj. Especially if youre a rancher or summary with the federal government, when it comes to public land, we would love to hear your experience as well. This was the recent article in the Washington Post. Oregon, frustration over federal land has been building for years. The federal government owns half the land in the state of oregon. As it does across the west. It used to be routine for ranchers to get permits to work the land or grace. That was a way to make a living off the land. Then, came increasing regulations. The federal government became for the own benefit than for local people trying to feed their family. This is for a man who lives 100 miles from the site of the rebellion in oregon. So, what people in the western states are doing with is the destruction of their way of life. For it was once a professional rhodiola writer. When frustration builds up, people lash out. Angered the federal government boils over this past weekend. A small group of people took over a remote federal wildlife refuge east of oregon. Aim was tofic support to local ranchers sentenced to prison over arson charges. Issue is a decadelong struggle over federal land rights in the west. It often flies under the radar and much of the country. Acording to john freeman professor at boise state university, in recent decades the federal government has placed increasing emphasis on the environment which has led to more restriction on ranching, grazing mining and other traditional uses of the land. That has led to frustration among many westerners feel a sharp disconnect with the federal government run by people in urban centers. That is in the Washington Post. Some of the Facebook Comments that we are getting me want to share with you. Posts when it comes to whether or not the federal government has been a good steward of public lands, it depends on what youre taking at some points we were right now not so much. The reduction of fossil fuels has driven greed to want to invade these lands and toomey politicians are willing to let that happen. Also, they are not protected nearly as strictly as they should be. , the federal government has not been a good steward of the land. The bom is not part of the federal government. Is an outside organization paid for with our money, research it as i did. Diane said it sucks when the government is looking for bribes. To do cokeent wants owned georgiapacific that have overpriced Paper Products angelique comments that the government has fallen down as a steward it is not doing too little is not doing too much. The apa has been weekend and overly politicized. Well begin with a call from. Att in carson washington matt, go ahead with your comment. Has the government been a good steward . Caller yes. I work out there in eastern oregon. I met a lot of people out there. Sincel of a sudden president obama has been elected everybody is up in arms about the federal government. It is the same group that is down there if they were not armed. They wouldve already been arrested. Now, what armed insurrection can you have. You can go out to dinner and burn and and go back to your hold up in the wildlife building hostage. You said you work out in eastern oregon. What kind of work do you do yet go do . Caller im a carpenter. I work with fellow carpenters that believeth Teddy Roosevelt was the worst president. He started the National Park system. He thought all the land should be private. It is our land. It is everybodys. They cannot stand it. Thereguys are down packing cons, they do not know what it they are talking about. That thee is a map Government Accountability office has put out that shows where the government controls the land. , it is centered in the west. Yellow area is the bureau of Land Management. Green is forced service. This color, the reddish color is the National Park service. The blue is the fish and wildlife service. You can see here that much of nevada, oregon, wyoming, utah etc. , a lot of the western states are managed by the federal government. We have a republican from oregon. He represents this area where the insurrection and takeover has happened. He spoke about it on the house floor. There are good people. Sons and daughters. They have a high proportion fighting our wars. They die. I have been to their funerals. Across eastern oregon, i will always fight for you. Understand there is a. Ime and a way hopefully, the country understands we have a real problem. America, how we manage our lands and how we are losing them. It is not take we have not tried. Year after year we pass morelation to provide active management in our forests so we do not lose and to fire. We are losing them to fire. We are losing firefighters , and, homes, watersheds great resources in the west. Teddy roosevelt would roll over in his grave. That is greg walden. A republican from oregon. We want to hear from you in the mountain and pacific time zones. Because of the issue of the government control is so much land. If you look at that time zone you can dial in at 2027488000, for those of you the pacific time zone dialin at 2027488001, and all others dial in at 2027488002. Here is some more of the Facebook Comments we have received. The government has not been a good steward of public lands. The government has a starved them of funds. Continuously tried to invade them. And it should not be intimidated by these armed crazy people in oregon who want to use federal land to cattle graze for free. Scott said the government is not a good steward of anything it does. 80 of the government is a joke. Yes, for the most part. Gop keep your hands and your big corporate interests out of our federal parks. And, those are some of the comments that have been received on facebook. Back to the Washington Post. The extension of federal Land Ownership is often not well understood by people from other parts of the country. Report, the a 2014 federal government owns 27. 4 of all u. S. Land. The vast majority of that territory is concentrated in a handful of western states. According to the report, the federal government controls 85 of nevada, 65 of utah, 62 of alaska, 53 of oregon, and 48 of wyoming. Mark is calling in from ohio. Go ahead. It helps if i push the button. Sorry about that. Caller ok. Hello. Think the government does a good job. Im a fly fisherman. I fish in the low National Forest by montana every year. I go out there six or seven weeks a year. They do a wonderful job. We catch 20 inch rainbow and ground trout. That is every year. The stream fish is unbelievable. There is nothing like it. It is so good, you cannot describe it. All these people go ahead. Host i want to ask. You go out in the area. The land that you go to, is it controlled by the bureau of Land Management . Caller i am fishing in the low National Forest. I think that is the federal government. Host do you have to get a permit . Outofstate member, all i have to get is a license. It is about 70. That is the best deal going in the world. Host thank you. What you do for living . Caller i retired. Host what he retired from . Caller i work in a Family Business here. My exwife left me for her boyfriend and fired me. Everything worked out. Host there you go. Up next is fred in maryland. Fred, you are on. Please go ahead. Caller my line got cut off. Host you are on the air. Caller ok, i am sorry. I wanted to point out the power of the epa has grown so much. It has become a political tool. It has become a weapon. The obama regime has been after republicans. Inis another way to stick it the eye of the average american. People who work hard. On,e controlled burns going the reason why these people were the government does it every year. Controlled burns get out of hand. When firefighters die they blame it on a campfire. It is the epa. It is a Miss Management of land. They do controlled burns every year. It gets out of hand. There is a double standard. If youre going to hold people at west accountable, the same has to be for the government. It is too big now. Host thank you. Another Washington Post article this past week. The west is uniquely impacted by federal control of public land. , justing to 2010 data all the land with in the nations 13 western states was under federal control. Last year, nearly one dozen western states had bills related to the issue. Ranging from creating committees to requiring the federal government to transfer control of public lands to the states. According to an august report by the center for western priorities, the conservation organization. Governor vetoed two bills asking the federal government to hand over public lands. They wanted to find another to create a committee to study the issue. Montana, the governor vetoed a similar bill. My position on the us she was crystal clear. I do not support any effort that jeopardizes the future of public land. The Nevada Legislature passed the bill urging congress to transfer 7 billion acres million acres with the support of top about a republicans. I think that most people from nevada would like to see more of the federal land turned over to the state, for us to manage and care for ourselves. The governor said in an interview. Carl is in new york. Caller good morning. Question answer the with my opinion on how the federal government hinders their responsibility. I work for the National Park service. Celebrate its 100th birthday this year. I can tell you that from time to time, it seems like there are groups, civilian groups that monitor federal lands going yound the property where hear they may be privatizing our jobs or a real estate conglomerate may want to take over. Maybe to build expensive housing. In new york city there is something called the gateway. Wadsworth which has a 300yearold fort. Millers field which was when of the first commercial airports in new york city. There were 4 Million People visited the site. There is a fantastic management team. A young lady who is 35. A superintendent who makes it known to the employees that you should extend your hand to friendship with everybody. Be proficient at your job. You will not have any problems. For any young people out there, there are jobs that run the scope from roads and grounds crew all away to the archaeologist within the realm of the National Park service. It is a good place to work for. 22,000 strong. One last thought. I was selected because i did a good job one i was employed. I had a fulltime permanent job doing something similar to what i did when i served in the marine corps. It requires a security clearance that is no taking over a year to obtain that clearance. They have me in limbo. I am annoyed about that. Thatll, i love the fact when you work for the federal government, your trusted. They count on you to do a good job and be a public servant. Overall, i love my time at the National Park service. That is all i have to say. Host when it comes to being a good steward, do you ever see any conflicts or issues . Those are the ones i brought up. You hear people using military terminology in the sense that there are developers constantly looking at what is available for them to make a play for. The land lobby to get away from the federal government and do whatever they want to do with it. Develop condos or a Recreational Area where they will turn around and charge citizens to enter the property. That is what i see as far as conflict goes. Host thank you. Brett is calling in from denver colorado. Hello. You are on the washington journal. Caller good morning. My comments are as follows. I saw the beginning of the problems of stewardship with federal lands in the administration. That is when the federal government saw it to limit access of federal lands. They did so by road closures and limiting motorized access. They further limiteds by specifying things that might be ok for atv travel. They would limit horseback travel. With certain limits they would use horses by saying that you would have to have horse feed that had to have seedlings from Invasive Plant species. 1990s,ase, back in the ill say 1997, there is a large meeting there at the Federal Center. They saw people from the general public to come in and speak. They had the limitation of access. I was with a new company. I was aware of the meeting. So, i called the Federal Center and talked to the personnel. I asked them who was there to speak against the limitation of Public Access . I was told that nobody had come in to speak on the limitation. That surprised me. Unfortunately, i did not change my day. I did what was necessary for the family. Them whoent, i asked was there to speak for the closures . Was told they had 1520 speakers. They had various environmental groups in support of the closures. I personal feelings are this. Let me go on and say couple of other things. Host why dont you bring this to a conclusion . Caller ok. I will conclude like this. Im aware that there has been exchanging Forest Service lands for people to put up houses. Rich people there. On the southern borders. Of i 70 in colorado. See anything wrong with the exchange of lands. Not have with the exception of the people. As forest stewardship, in aseral, i look upon that poor. The reason it is poor is that it is used by the general public should not be restricted. Absent some malleus by the general public of the land. Host that is brent in colorado. Sharing his experience. A couple of tweets we have received. Robert, that land is not conducive to the reason of cattle. Need turn in wildlife over to the state. Means giving that public land to real estate developers. Read between the lines. , thethe Washington Times fed is spending millions to arm agencies that do not need guns. Howell writes that as the u. S. Engages in a national debate, the police and federal data shows the Government Agencies are charged with largely administrative roles. They are spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase military style equipment. It seems the fiscal year 2006, administrative agencies have spent over 71 million on items like body armor, riot gear and shields. That is according to federal spending data. From the Watchdog Group open the books. Com. In addition to the 330 million spent on such equipment by Traditional Law enforcement agencies like the fbi, secret service, and dea. The purchases include new 2 million spent by the department of affairs and body armor, a mild return fire system. Armor shields. Kevlar blankets. Tactical gear and equipment for crowd control. On0,000 spent by the fda ballistic vests and carriers in 2014. 200,000 spent on body armor by the epa during the Obama Administration years versus just 30000 and three previous fiscal years. Than 28,000 at the Smithsonian Institution on body armor for police and security officers. In fiscal 2012. Juanita. What is your view . Caller well, frankly, looking ick on it, i think that cannot think of anybody more republican in Teddy Roosevelt. Thing with the calvary, the two black calories out west, commanded by lieutenant flipper, a west point graduate, they patrol wallace yellowstone park. It had the exact same problems than that they have now. Mr. Roosevelt put them in charge. Themnk mr. Roosevelt saw that they had to be a worker against this to unbridled commercialism. Number two, he had to make sure there would not be any corruption. My we really asking republican friends as im a very hawkish democrat, go back in history and see what Theodore Roosevelt said when he set the parks. And, the things that they used to put it in force. As we see now, it looks like he did the right thing. That is one need to in cincinnati. Hello. I live in arizona. The thing is that i think the federal government does as good as they can. Where theyike a war ,re spending mountains of money they are on a stair budget. And, i was born and raised in portland. My kids a night lived on mount adults thatbecame any way, we fished and hunted. You had free access to land. You did not have to get permission to be a place where you were, as long as it was federal. Oregon state, sometimes they block things off. They can block off and ignore it. Land, youthe federal can go just about anywhere you want, you can fish or hunt or pick berries or mushrooms. We did all that stuff. Indiana, i lived in cannot tell you, you walk across the street without getting permission from somebody. Because, it belongs to somebody. , i know that we would load up our truck on the weekends. We would spend all weekend on back roads. We wouldnt see another soul. Say, if i had to raise kids any other way, that is the way to do it. It keeps them out of trouble. That is carol and arizona. Originally from portland. In grants pass oregon. When you look at this map of oregon, where is it . Ifive north of the border. How close are you to wear ammon bundy is . Lived well, i previously in dance. Ive been in the county area just where your pen is. Several times, i recreate over there. We had all of these issues. But all the issues in oregon and actually the Mining Committee for the border commissioners, i have been personally involved with these issues with the dom. With the sugar mine. All of these people personally because of got up to their cant to investigate and see what they were doing. I have been involved directly with them. We were there for the organ state legislature testifying on issues. As many question you want. What is theof all, reason you have the involvement . Caller im a local citizen. I was selected by the board of commissioners to sit on their divisor committee. Host are you a rancher . Help developly, i different equipment for different companies. I do some consulting for corporations that do mining. Im also a local pastor. That is who i am. Host what do you think about ammon bundy . Understand, having followed with they did in nevada with their conflicts. Wish they would go home. I think they have done a good job to stand up for what they believe. Occupying the headquarters was above and beyond. The frustration here in the western states is that the federal government has become extremely heavyhanded. They do not follow their own protocol. They are arming themselves. They are intimidating people i think there needs to be a strong investigation on their policy and procedures. Map, when you look at this 89 of nevada is controlled by the federal government. 70 of organist controlled by the federal government. Oregon is controlled by the federal government. Is that legitimate . Caller the interest of congress with the territories became states is for those lands to be turned over for stewardship. Host some of the protests or push back on that is that states will turn it over to developers. They will build private houses on it. Now, your target but something i interested in. Where i south louisiana was a conservation minded person. I was a sportsman. In allery much involved kinds of recreation. I love it in the west. I also worked in the oil field in louisiana. I was a commercial fisherman. Ive seen government overreach. It is 10 times worse out here. Heres the deal. They are locking up the land that we used to cook like we said earlier. They have deals all over the place. To go fishingt and i have had people stop and arrest me. I love the woods. We really want to see the was taking care of. When they takeaway the lnc lands, as far as all these things started, the government is doing an abysmal job in taking care of public lands. Theyre not federal lands. The lands on the website literally said it was public land. I think the public simply needs to investigate what is going on to get back to having regional and local input to the process. Host final question. This is more of a philosophical question. We are on the east coast. You are way on the west coast. Thing . A venus and mars caller i think you are exactly on the razor edge of the issue. You have with the media says has gone on in the west. It is the polar opposite of what is really going on. Westerners love the ecology. Im a fly fisherman. I love the rivers and all of that. Logging and shutdown mining. It is something that is absolutely ludicrous. Something with the blm and other agencies. They want to make the fire breaks want big part. The rest would be better if we did have regulated commerce. Because, they logging section take better care of the woods. They did that in the beginning. No one gives credit that all of the industries in the west have improved. Logging, mining, ranting. There is a lot of work to be done. There are a lot of problems. Westerners love the environment. I think it is a huge mistake to think otherwise. Host that is dennis in oregon. Thank you for your time. The Ranking Member of the top democrat on the National Resources committee was on this program. Representative role of arizona. He talked about this issue. Caller there is a context to all of this. , there is an ongoing effort for multiple decades for dealing with the rebellion. It has continued. After he passed legislation in utah, there wanting the federal land to turn back to the states, and, in the process with more control at a local level. That has been an essential. Co and political point for a long time. And, the front lines in the struggle has been quite frankly over ownership. And, some of us, and that includes me believe that these federal lands are shared commodity. There are shared legacy. It is something all taxpayers pay for. Think the overthecounter or particular state, and belongs to all of us. Whether it is the grand canyon or yellowstone are the refuge in oregon. They have a shared responsibility and a shared property of the american taxpayer. Such, the management of those areas, i think it is very conscious of how you balance tribal and local communities. And, how you deal with the multiuse mandates lands have. Visitation, hunting, and obstruction. , and means mining, logging gas and oil. Host in washington, d. C. Hello. What is your opinion . Toler i think they need shut it down and oj obey the laws like everybody else. Good questionde a when you talk about east versus west. The gentleman told us that this is our land. Everybody is entitled to share and to get the benefits of the beauty and the grandeur of the United States. Talking about turning it over to the state. When we pick and choose who has the power, that is why they can do what they did. , when they step into regulated and make it correct. He was to get up in arms. I do not care how anybody takes this. This is not for everybody. You get a bunch of caucasian men , they get guns and they go into a piece of land in sees it. If they had been any other race, they had been blown away. The fed would have gone in and taken them out. Think about that. People are calling in about rights. They just want to exercise their right. There is no compromise. There is always complaining about who is right and who is wrong. God knows what a union is. All this lying and upsetting the status quo. We have not had this much controversy in the last two decades. In the last eight years we have gotten more. We will show our true colors. Is judy. Next as far west as you can go in hawaii. Caller hello. I have been listening to a lot of people talking about this throughout the day. Gathering, a lot of the stuff we do not learn in school. Government talks about owning the land throughout the United States. It is not the government it is the people. For that to change, it would have to be the constitution would need to be amended. The congress could change that. They have not. That they do take care of the monuments and that sort of thing. , eacho not generally own state owns the land. That is what i understand. The federal find government controlling areas of hawaii or having jurisdiction over much of why . Hawaii . Caller i dont that many people are very unhappy with the government. They feel that their land was stolen from them. Hold a terrible grudge against them. And, you would not know it by coming here for a vacation. But, because i live here and i am having to be a minority, you i am not a visitor. With the local people. The white man. E it is like the reverse. It is like reverse racism. Like something you would see in much of the country. , there is aschools lot more bowling of the white kids. They are afraid to go to school. Host that was judy from hawaii ee. What we have been looking at, if you look at these pink areas and the west, this is the bureau of indian affairs. Their jurisdiction over the lands that are in the pink. Darlene is in clark county nevada. Has the federal government been a good steward . Caller you are funny. I love a good joke first thing in the morning. Ok, i live in a county where we have a huge government industrial complex. We have titanium buildings. We have rocket fuel. What theyve done for decades is they have taken their dirty water and they have polluted the National Park in lake mead with ammonium chloride. Go out and see the fish only dock and see all of tumors that have developed on them. I think there is an exceptional double standard going on. If i were a private corporation and i did that, they would hang me from a tree. I would not be able to pay for the damage caused to the environment. The federal government sets up shop, it is allowed to pollute where i live. Host darlene in nevada. This is in the New York Times this morning. Political assessments in the sanskrit. He thought george w. Bush was perpetrating fought on america as opposed to Vladimir Putin having enormous potential. He thought the people of wyoming would be shooting at me if you visited. He railed about reactionaries in congress rolled out assassinating saddam hussein. Who talked about becoming a meandering old man. At one point, he felt so beaten up by world events that he jokingly suggested becoming a citizen. 15 years to the day since the president left office, a newly fromsed data of documents his Library Offers a fresh look at his later years the white house. Even as his wife seeks to win the post for herself. The documents transcribed phone calls and meetings. Minister andrime his best friend among foreign leaders. Bluntness in a splattering of rrated language, the conversation reveals the president unseen by the general public, one who was revered for and his ratedess, assessments of his political opposition. Like a time capsule, they capture priorities and perceptions of the moment. In with the car certainty of hindsight deals with perceptions that were off days. The release of the transcript brings in complications from mrs. Clinton for her Second Campaign of the white house. Not only does she have her own , her friend is also campaign against the backdrop of her husbands record. Often to her advantage, but sometimes has not with the last few days while republicans focus attention on mr. Clintons sexual misconduct. We focus on 19972000 covers the time when scandal led to mr. Clintons impeachment by the house. There little hint of that in the conversation. Mr. Clinton prided himself on compartmentalizing,s standing from his attempts to cover up an affair with monica lewinsky. As you can see, theres an article in the New York Times. They had some verbatim conversations in their with a former Prime Minister tony blair. That is if they are being released today. Ronald is in indiana. Has the government been a good steward of public land . Caller yes. By in large, yes. Because theyre looking out for everybody. They have special interests in mind, the country builds everybody. Caucasians were not here. The indians were here. So, if you to blame anybody, blame them. I am listening. Is there anything else you want to add . Caller i am saying it is ludicrous. They have arms and guns against the government. It is like we are two different nations. We are supposed to be united. Host ronald in indiana. Thank you for calling. Quickly, before we get to our congressman coming to join us. I want to say some articles in the paper that you might find of interest, there is a new network coming online. It is called gun tv. That begins on january 20. You can buy a gun much like you can on the Home Shopping network. The New York Times has an oped this morning by president obama ,n what he did last night related to what he did last night. The town meeting on gun ownership has shared responsibility. That is in the New York Times. For the Washington Post, regular readers will recognize this name. See the you can headline there. A gleefully acid and iconoclast on feminism and the south. She passed away. She was 80 years old. I want to show you a few more quick articles. This is from politico this morning. The republicans are meeting in baltimore for their annual policy summit that they hold. Has beenof jordan invited to give a keynote address to them. , georgennot make it h. W. Bush, biographer john me jim will be given the speech. So, that is an politico this morning. These are some of the articles that you will see. The house is coming in at 9 00 a. M. , with two congressman coming up. Jim, a democrat from massachusetts. And James Mcgovern a republican from texas. As president obama prepares for his state of the Union Address on tuesday, he released this video. Working onbama i am my said of the Union Address. Is my last one. As im writing, i keep thinking of the bill we have trailed for the last seven years. That is what makes america great. Our capacity to change. Our ability to come together as one family and pull ourselves closer to the america we believe in. It is hard to see sometimes. It is who we are. It is what i want to focus on in the state of the Union Address. At cspans coverage starts at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time. Real clear politics congressional reporter james harkin, looking back at the history and tradition of the president s angle message and what to expect in this years address. Amendment nine. Live coverage of the speech followed by the republican response by South Carolina governor nikki haley. On socialreaction media. As well as us from congress. On cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org. We will reair our state of the Union Coverage in the republican response starting 11 00 p. M. Eastern time. Also on cspan2 we will hear from members of congress and statuary hall with their reaction to the address. Here is a look at some of our featured programs this weekend. Next tuesday, president obama will deliver his last state of the union to a joint session of congress. Its saturday and sunday, will feature four state of the Union Speeches by former president during their last year in office. It is president jimmy carter followed by ronald reagan, and on sunday george h. W. Bushs final state of the union followed by bill clintons. Also, saturday morning at 10 30 the broadway of musical hamilton accepts the George Washington book prize special achievement award. Sunday morning at 10 00 on road to the white house, we will look the 1984 president ial campaign and the debate between eight candidates and iowa. Before we replace that man, we have to of the trust and confidence of the American People. Private premises and public statements to the American People being the same. It has to be that way for all our people. For a complete schedule go to cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host tim is a governor from massachusetts. He is the top democrat on the house rules committee. He is also the top democrat on the ad subcommittee on nutrition. That is why we invited to join us to join him on the washington journal. In 2014, the u. S. Government spent 76 billion dollars on food stamp money. Isnt well spent money . Is it will spend . Guest it is. It is not enough. The fact is that people should have a right to food. Were coming out of the worst Economic Crises since the great depression. A lot of people have fallen on hard times. ,hen people fall on hard times the amount we spend on food stamps increases. Thankfully, we have a benefit to help people put food on the table. The problem is that it is inadequate. You listen to talk radio and you think it is in or mislead generous benefit. They think people can buy lobster. The fact is that it is a very modest benefit. Families who are on food stamps, it does not last for the month. They have go to food banks to be able to make sure they have food for the month. This is an important program. It is an effectively run program. And errorw fraud rate. Possibly the lowest of any other program. It is a program that works. It needs to be expanded. Again, food should be a right in the country. We have be thinking in terms of making sure that families have enough to put food on the table, nutritious food. Host when you look at the chart by the department of agriculture is onehey said there person in the household and youre getting snap benefits. It is 194 maximum. You can go down the list here and see how much people can get. Guest it is not a lot. Think about that. That is for whole month. It is not a lot. Obviously, we are talking about jobs and be selfsufficient. One of the things that we want to remind critics is that there are a of people in snap our children. Senior citizens. Our children who are disabled. Other people who can work. People who are in snap. The majority of people who do work. Behink the question should raised that why is it if you work, you work so little that you are in poverty . We should be addressing the issue of adequate wage as a way to limit the people on this program. Host that goes to my next question. What does that say about a nation of 300 Million People that we are spending 76 billion on food stamps . Guest i think the fact that we have millions of people, the richest country in the history of the world who are hungry, is something which be ashamed of. Reason for anybody this country to be hungry yet, have millions of people children, adults, Senior Citizens who do not know or the next meal will come from. We can fix that. Hunger is a political condition. We have food, resource, and infrastructure to end hunger. Unfortunately, in congress we spent a lot of time demonizing people who are poverty. We spent a lot of time cutting these programs. This Republican Congress tried to cut the program by 40 billion. So, that is where a lot of the attention is aimed at. It is aimed at limiting and cutting these programs and demonizing people on the benefits. Rather than trying to end hunger. Is the direction we need to change. That is what has for several years. Lets get everybody in a room together. Not just government officials, but the head of food banks, the heads of hospitals, principals and teachers and schools. People who are on the benefit of snap. Anybody who has anything to contribute to try to figure out what the best practices. And how to coordinate government and the private sector to get people off of these benefits into selfsufficiency. Unfortunately, we have not done it yet. Hopefully, with the remaining time will make it a bigger priority. Host we will get the calls here in a minute. The fourth line we set aside this morning, if you receive snap benefits, or if you have been a recipient of the snap in the past and what we would love to hear your experience. 2027488000 that is the number for you. 8003. This morning, senator tim scott from South Carolina had an oped in the wall street journal. Republicans here for liberal failures on poverty. I want to read a little bit to you and get your reaction. On saturday, the majority of the republican field will meet to discuss poverty on a form South Carolina. Posted by the jack cant foundation. The two of us will serve as moderators. The high level candidate interest indicates that the party is not willing to concede the issue to the democrats. We expect candidates will get differences. It is only because they have ideas more than the other party is offering. What these republicans share as a muchneeded insight, the ticket out of poverty is a quality education and good paycheck. Caller i do not just guest i do not disagree that a good education and a paycheck our way to get out of poverty. That is something i have been advocating for my political career. As a mentioned, many problems that people who are on snap face is that even if they have a job, the jobs face a little that they so qualify. We need to make sure we pay attention. It would be nice if the republican candidates would get behind increasing minimum wage to make it livable. Of those who are able to work who are on snap, the majority work. They are working hard. They are earning so little that they qualify for this benefit. Lets raise the minimum wage to a livable wage. That is one way to get people out of poverty. Host what you mean when you say Food Insecurity . Guest it means you do not know where your next meal will come from. You regularly go without meals. I prefer to use or hunger. That is what it means. When you miss meals, youre hungry. There is a cost to that. Who should not go to school regularly miss meals, they cannot focus, they cannot learn. I have been to schools in my District Across the country where you walk in and kids are staring off into space because they have not eaten over the weekend. Citizens who go without food, and they take their medication on an empty stomach with us take it with food, and up in a hospital. You end up with not only more suffering, but more cost. Not dealing with this issue is very costly. It has been frustrating for me that there has been a lock of urgency. I tell my colleagues all the time, visit a food bank. Go to the food pantry in your district. Talk to people who go to these places. One about their lives. They do realize that not fit the stereotype that you hear about when we have these debates. Being poor is hard work. There are people working multiple jobs trying to make theireet, trying to pay heating bills and their rent. At the end of it all, they do not have enough to put food on the table for their kids. Kids, irent, ive to cannot imagine how horrible it must feel to go home and tell your kids i do not have enough to put food on the table. We can fix this. We ought to be able to come together and fix it. It used to be a bipartisan issue. When i first come to washington as a college student, i was at the institute for George Washington of George Washington, i watched how he and republicans bob dole worked thether to help strengthen social safety net to make sure people have enough food. We were making great strides. We were eliminated hunger in the 1970s. There are some good republicans who care deeply about this issue. Unfortunately, they are not in leadership. They are not running for president. I coach at the house hunger congress, we have a republican from kansas. I worked with congresswoman joanne henderson. Senator marino of kansas city. People who ive worked with on this issue. They get it. Unfortunately, the priorities of congress have been everything but figuring out a way to eliminate hunger. I think that needs to change. Host caller good morning, gentlemen youcongressmen, wow are selling the aluminum siding . That was a long spirit for cell . Why dont you tell us what it is instead of trying to convince me. Im not anymore but i come from abject poverty right people and my father had his parents address and everybody around us were on food stamps and feeding dogs. They had their beer and their time at the bar and the food they are downing fast food. I will not stereotype but you just stereotyped. You just told us about how nice these people are and that they and so concerned about food home cooking and shopping. They are not the they are writing down to mcdonalds. They are far to 50 pounds. That lady cannot roll out of bed in the morning and make cereal for the kids before they go to school . What are you talking about . Host we got your point. Yout i dont know how respond to that. Thats the stereotype we hear on the house floor when we have these debates. I spent a lot of time and for banks. I spend a lot of time in schools where i hear from teachers about kids who are hungry. I met yesterday with the aarp and we talked about the increase in hunger among Senior Citizens. This is a real problem and we can demonize poor people and use that as an excuse to not do but weg or cut a program are the richest country in the history of the world. Why should anybody be hungry in this country . It should not be and we can fix this problem or we could sit around and demonize poor people. Perpupil isizing not only a lousy thing to do but it does not accomplish anything. Host kevin is calling in from chicago, a snap recipient. Caller hi there, good morning. Stigmatization and humiliation of having to rely on snap benefits is enough by itself. I am not a unique story. I did not recover from the recession. I am 57 years old africanamerican male with a masters degree and i formally earn six figures and pay high taxes because im single with no children. I was outisability, of the workforce for little while and had longterm hospitalization. Then trying to get back into the workforce in your mid50s as an africanamerican male is a very difficult thing, its very difficult, we have not recovered and there is no recovery in our demographic. I was on my way into the snap office this morning. For christmas dinner, i had spaghetti. Thats what i could afford. 79 i was getting benefits andn snap i put into this my never cared. I really never cared. There is a small degree of fraud but i never cared. Thats what i want my tax dollars to be used on when i was earning six figures. Its not something im proud of. That i usedmething to game the system. I used a realistic amount in order to eat. I would like to reference the first caller. At the real roots of this issue is racial animus. And people of color taking something from the good hardworking white people america and that is patently false. Host do you receive any other benefits . Read some of the orion oped to get your reaction. Do you receive any other federal benefits . Yes, of course, i received disability because i am disabled. I look for work constantly. I am a writer. , eight look relations writer and that was my career. I was a Public Relations writer and that was my career. I have phone interviews a most daily. It is a real frustration because im told them qualified but i am not a cultural fit, something i have never heard before. I know its about my age. Even if you start making minimum wage or a little bit above, will you lose some of your benefits . This is what paul ryan and tim scott are saying. Caller its an accident question. Its an excellent question. I was receiving benefits and had a temporary assignment in november with an advertising agency. Weekned about 1000 per which was fulltime work under what i used to make but it was only two weeks of work. And my lightsnt were shut off last month. It was before the holidays because the Energy Assistance program have been cut as well. Me and my dog sat in the dark, cold apartment in the winter for two months before a Family Member put it in their name. Me and likelike most people, yes, its pretty humiliating. You have to eat to live. Leave it there and get a response from congressman mcgovern. Guest i wish kevin well. If people start to earn a little bit, their benefits get reduced drastically. That is true and thats what we call a cliff. Would be nice if some of these benefits would stick with the longer so they can get on their feet and be able to move beyond reliance on some of these programs. The problem that i witnessed with speaker ryan and others is that their prescription is more work requirements, more Strings Attached to the benefits. The problem is that some of his work requirements or you have to be in job training, they sound nice but there are no jobs for a lot of people. Are there are not worker Training Programs. If people cannot avail themselves to that, they lose their benefits and me to figure out a way that makes this make sense in the real world. To do this right would make would require a greater investment. The problem with the republicans proposal is they want a smaller howstment and i dont know you can keep benefits people for a longer time with a smaller investment unless you reduce the benefit outright. Already, the snap benefits is not meet the needs of families who rely on it. Host this is from the orion oped the paul ryan oped think theresaid, i is a problem with this cliff but what is the solution . I think its to keep these benefits with people a little longer so they dont hit that cliff so dramatically. Disagree with the problem being identified but i disagree with the solution. Attached andings more work requirements but what if there is not a job out there . Already know that some of these job Training Programs which Congress Continues to underfund and cut, they are there are limited slots. Lets do this in a way that truly helps people. Speaker ryan is trying to do is come up with a justification to block a grant of these programs. The problem is that it does not respond to the need it allows them to put a cap on the spending. That may sound nice we need to make sure the resources are there for people who need them, plain and simple. Host caroline from reston, louisiana, good morning. Caller how are you doing . My mother remarried and has a son, a stepson. Somewhere innorth michigan or something. Anyway, she is on every program known to man and gets a little bit from each one because she is very. Poor. My father died and she was left with zero and remarried. Drugs and gives her money so she can afford to go to the doctor and get drugs for her high Blood Pressure and Everything Else thats wrong with her in her old age which is natural. He sells drugs. To provide for her. He sells lots of drugs. Ost lets wrap this up caller what you need to get at is the people selling drugs to provide for those parents that she told me about that dont want to work and her, and elderly lady that cannot work, to get medication or whatever. She knows people in her neighborhood host thank you very much. Every call we have had so far, is there a new way of thinking about how we provide poverty programs . You say you want to hold a summit but what would be the next step . Guest we have a lot of really good programs but they are not wellconnected. They fall into multiple different agencies. We began this program talking about hunger. There is not one committee in congress that deals with hunger only fit these are multiple committees. Is where the snap program is but there are multiple agencies outside the usda that have programs that help deal with hunger. One of the reasons i wanted a white house conference was to connect the dots. We want to better coordinate and deal with issues like the fiscal cliff that was mentioned in that wall street journal oped and how do we better coordinate with state and local governments . How do we reach out to the private sector . How do we work better with her food banks and schools and hospitals . There is a way to do this but there are a lot of good things going on but one thing that frustrates me as a member of congress is that we did not connect the dots well. I think we could do that. That does not cost any money to better coordinate. I think we might find ways to save money. I would ask any government thisial, not only administration but previous ones what is your plan to end hunger in america . Cite the snap program or feeding programs are multiple programs to help our veterans and Senior Citizens but there is no comprehensive holistic plan. We need a plan to solve this problem. Was that a white house conference could bring everybody democrats, republicans, liberals, conservatives, everyone who might have an idea, lock them in a room and say we not letting you out until we have a plan that has benchmarks we can measure to help end this problem. Be my goal. I think this is a solvable problem and thats what makes it maddening. There are some issues i dont know how to solve but this issue is solvable. Its not like we dont have the resources. Snapajority of people on our children and Senior Citizens and people who are disabled. Of those who work, the majority work. They are working. Listening to the tone of some of the calls, you feel that everyone who is honest is not have the desire to work. If im working, i would much prefer to work at a job that pays a wage that i dont me to buy my groceries with snap. I would rather be able to earn enough to buy the groceries that i want for me and my family. I think its important to understand that of those who can work, the majority of those on this benefit do work. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] walter host walter is in baltimore, caller thank you and good morning. Happy new year to you and your audience, even the vicious, ignorant hate i heard today. We are begrudged a per slice of bread. One of my favorite movies is oliver. Please, sir, may i have some more . Its not a matter of color. Congressman, the idea that the citizens, and im being nice, the false narrative of the failed liberal policies, these fools are jokes. They are starting off a problem that is not there. There is no fault democratic or liberal policies. To promoteution says the general welfare and the defense. Feeding people, providing health care, congressman, is against the constitution, why dont they say to that . Have an idea people not caring for one another. Ask you this along with that false narrative, would you take a look at how many deaths from the opioids by white people have triggered this new concern for the opioid addiction in america . Host thank you, walter in baltimore. Guest that problem is huge and it effects every community. In this country. And every economic background as well. When he to figure out a way to deal with it. I think that requires increased investment and finding better convention. In addition to the comments that were just made, i would say that i am proud of the fact that we have programs like snap in this country. I am proud of the fact that we believe that nobody should go hungry. Sometimes people fall in hard times and they need help. We had a group of people come up to congress a couple of years ago to talk about their experience on snap on these were people who have gone on to be successful attorneys and Corporate Leaders and College President s and they came up and basically said to the members of congress, thank you for investing in me during a difficult time in my life when i have thrown on top times. Thank you for making sure there was a benefit that allowed me to put food on the table. Result, i was able to move on with my life and here i am, a big success. This was an important part of it. I visit College Campuses all the time. More and more College Campuses are opening up food banks on campus because a lot of their student population is struggling in this area of Food Insecurity. They dont have enough to eat so colleges are recognizing that they need to be part of this. More and more hospitals are opening up food banks on site because many of the people coming into the hospitals they know are hungry. This is a big problem. Its not going to be solved by demonizing people fall on tough times. We need to think of constructive ways to not only provide them in the shortterm with what they need but how do we help them succeed in the long term . Host tom in woodbridge, virginia. Caller i agree with you 100 but im not sure you actually believe what you are saying. You are talking about demonization of these people. These people are the infrastructure of our country and you are providing an economic disincentive for them to join the workforce. Yourld suggest as part of conference that you will call, i think you should put together the actual facts and make it public to the American People about how many generations of byendency have been created the economic and i believe the actual psychological and harm to selfesteem that these programs have caused versus what you profess to be like helping them out. Host we got the point, congressman . Guest the answer in the longterm is going to be jobs. Why some of us democrats have in pushing so hard for longterm highway bills. Itsssed one recently but not nearly as robust as i think this country needs. Workng more people back to and providing them jobs that the ovary minimum wage is one of the ways to do it. Aboutpeaker ryan talks breaking this cycle of poverty and get more people into the workforce or when he talks about the fiscal cliff, i would feel better if he was also talking about how we create more jobs to pay livable wages. It that he and the republicans fight hard against increasing the minimum wage . Like the fact that people are on programs like snap, want them to get a job, lets make sure there are jobs that are the kind of wages where they can put food on the table for their families. We need to increase the minimum wage and he better coordination amongst the various antipoverty programs but what i dont want is Congress Move down the road of reducing our commitment to the poor in this country or continuing to cut programs like snap. Speaker ryan a couple of years ago voted along with the majority of republicans to cut snapped by 40 billion. The economy is better than when we had that photo but it was cut by 40 billion. I think its a disconnect between the rhetoric which is doing something about poverty and their actions which, quite frankly, exacerbate poverty. We could end poverty and hunger. These are political conditions. But we need the political will to do it. That may mean increased investment in the short term. Host we are out of time but in 30 seconds, the New York Times you have called for this. Guest i have worked with walter jones from North Carolina and a republican from oklahoma. I think this is a good sign. Its late in the game that we should do this. We are at war. Are committing tremendous resources to these wars against the Islamic State and have men and women in harms way. To do itseeds constitutional responsibility so when the speaker has said he will start looking at what we can do, thats a good sign. War is a big deal. It should be a big deal in the fact that congress is allow this to go on so long and not act i think is an act of cowardice, quite frankly, its shameful to mcgovern is on the subcommittee on nutrition. Thanks for being here. Coming up next, congressman Louie Gohmert was a republican from texas as we continue our conversation here on washington journal. Booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend on cspan two. Here are some programs to watch this can. Saturday at 7 00 eastern, where at the university of wisconsin. We will discuss the march on washington. This is a movement that was going to look for of many peoples beliefs about what this nation should be. It did change a lot of minds but brought people to positions of hatred and their commitment to inequality. Eastern, wep. M. Look at the life and political era former Vice President dick cheney. He is interviewed by dana know, former White House Press secretary for the bush administration. No one on the right has attracted more of its kill from the left him a more intense vitriol from the left and dick cheney with the possible exception of the man he served on the white house, george w. Bush richard nixon. P. M. , weday at 5 00 will talk about journalism and political art and her latest book can i started out writing personal essays. Published pieces ever but when i got the deal, people really like to them i had this delusional fantasy that since i had written a 2000 word essay that writing 100,000 word book would be like writing 50 2000 word essays been i would not be that hard. All weekendktv every weekend on cspan two, television for serious readers. We need to know how many people are reading us. We need to know how they are us. Ng to for example, if they are not coming directly to your website and they come to us through facebook or google or to after were snapped chad or any of these other venues, we should know that. Night, the Washington Post executive editor talks about the changes at the post since he took over in 2013. He discusses the depiction of his work as editorinchief of the boston globe in the movie spotlight i think the movie is faithful to how the investigation unfolded. Its a movie, not a documentary. You had to compress within two hours seven months of investigation including things that happened afterwards. You had to introduce a lot of characters and had to introduce the important themes that emerged over the course of that investigation. Thats sunday night at 8 00 eastern onq a. Washington journal continues. Gohmertngressman louie is a congressman from texas. What is your take on whats happening in oregon . There is a lot of concern. Guest i am not a fan of violating the law and taking over facilities that you dont own, that you dont have a right to take over. I have a lot of democratic friends that support those things. When it was called occupy wall street even though people died. And sexualrug abuse assault allegations in all kinds of things. I did not support occupy wall street. I dont support occupying federal buildings illegally. But, i have extreme concerns about the overzealousness of the federal government especially when it comes to areas where the federal government keeps taking more and more and more land. Its been done by congressional action but there has also been slush funds every year that the government and the department of interior could grab more and more land. We started a website, the natural Resources Committee im on that basically encapsulates most of oregon. Host we are looking at oregon. Guest thats right, if its a colored area and this is zoned and from that we have been hearing about themalheur wildlife refuge. These areas like that maroon area is part of the wildlife refuge. This is even more zoomed in. If its a colored area on these maps, it belongs to the federal government. Its under federal government control. One of the things i did not know until i got involved in the isional Resources Committee that normally you think of National Forests or wildlife refuges as a contiguous area, one big area. As you see, those white areas are property. As the government acquires more and more property, some people have had their land for generations and the government acquires property around them. It opens the door to widespread abuse by the federal government to the private property owner. That has happened to the hammonds over the years. They have gotten more and more land around them in oregon. Private able to isolate land owners. Southernhat problem in parts of my district. I was visiting with the county judge and some other local officials. It is a problem there. The National Forest is not contiguous. There are land owners. We have that problem there. They are told, you have always used this road. You are not going to use it anymore. How do i get to my land . As the dictator Joseph Stalin once said, with power, dizziness. If you are an official and you to isolate ar land owner and the land owner becomes annoying, they had tendency to abuse them. That is something we in congress have to do a better job of oversight and stopping, so that these kinds of things do not arise. Host we have a map that we will put up in a second and it shows the different states, nevada, utah, wyoming, oregon are all really managed by the federal government. Texas looks like it is free from federal control. Guest there are a lot of federally owned areas in texas, but not like nevada, utah, oregon. West of the mississippi, massive amounts of land are owned by the government. These counties that have major portions owned by the government have no no tax base. County,ou have sabine there is a rural county. You take away the most productive land that was agreed to when the government said, we will give you 25 of all of the proceeds from the use of what is a renewable resource. Were not talking about redwoods or sequoias. 15, 25 years, you can harvest. There was significant money that was being paid to the local government, to the schools. Things were going great. That has stopped and that money has dried up. The schools have suffered because there is no tax face. The government takes over and you cannot tax it. Ythey are allowing people to use so much and that drives up the economic benefit. Host lets take some calls and begin with richard, massachusetts. Hi, richard. Noticed we are making trade deals to sell these overseas and they are selling us they are parts. The products are owned by wall street. Thats why china goes down and our stock market goes down. Overbody is fighting federal lands. Whole food wants to kill off the horses in wild preserves so they can raise more cows there. It is because they want to get more republicans to lower taxes for wall street. Host we got your point, i think. Guest those two things do not go together. I represent a lot of rural folks. The last thing they want to do is make it better for wall street. I was the most vocal opponent to the blustery bailout wall street bailout. We should not be benefiting wall street. This president talks about the fat cats on wall street. Look at his tax policies. For the first time in history of the United States, under president obama, for the first of all of the income in the United States went to the top 1 . That has never happened before. The rich are getting richer. The distance between poor and ri ch has grown. Areasople in my rural want to make a living. I love the point about the foreign trade. That is one of the problems with republican and democratic administrations. I was talking to our u. S. Trade representative. I was saying, i do not think this is a good deal. Economy ine biggest the world. The way administrations have looked at it. Benefitsa deal that another country, in the end it helps us. That is not true. Somee at some point we get people working out deals that realized we have to make a good deal for the United States and quit doing that more so for other countries. Wall, new is from jersey. Caller good morning. How are you . Saidnt surprised when you you were against the occupied wall street and you are not for anybody taking possession of property by force or with arms without justification. You went on and condemned what they were doing in oregon. You went on a long speech about why it could be done. There may be some truth in what you are saying. This should be condemned. There is no reason they should be doing what they are doing or get away with what they are doing. Guest i wasnt justifying the takeover of the federal property. Caller you are not justifying but you werent condemning it. You should be condemning it. Host we got the point. Congressman . Guest i do not support it. I do not support what they are doing in oregon and taking over facilities they do not have the right to take over. You want the word condemned used. I didnt use it about taking over the federal facilities. I thought i was pretty evenhanded about that. That is more than what you can say about some democratic friends. Totally supportive of the occupied wall street, with all of the ramifications that came from that. You would hope i would condemn taking over the facilities. It is wrong in either case. That said, and i do think if you violate the law, you should be punished, and that includes people who take over facilities wrongfully in oregon. I am a former judge. I would sentence anyone who would do so in oregon. In congress, we have an obligation to look at in justice wherever it occurs and there is injustice occurring in colorado and in some areas of east texas. Those are things we have an obligation to look at. I hope we do not see another waco incident where they violate clinton and reno did, using the United States military equipment to attack american citizens. That is unlawful. It shouldnt happen in waco or oregon. I have been for the militarizing all of the different branches in government. There was a democrat that was run off the road, flown to the ground, boots on his back, and was hauled away to jail in alaska because he mailed a package that was supposed to go ground only. He didnt know there was a regulation that said you have to put a sticker with an airplane with a line through it. Because he didim not put a sticker on. Those are the kind of thing we need to stop. Host i dont know if trinidad, texas, is in your district. Guest it is south. Host talking about john joe gray. Oregon standoff just started. He was a carpenter and militia who was charged in 2000 and released in 2000 and has been living at his home since then. Are you familiar . Guest i hadnt seen the times this morning. That is incredibly abusive. Was readingweldon on the floor about the fbi having information before 9 11 and was calling the fbi out. Right before his election they front public invasion serving a warrant on his home. They went after him and me a big deal that he was a target before the election. As soon as the election was over, they drop everything. I dont care whether you are republican, democrat, or an aardvark. You do not deserve to be mistreated like that. Host eric is calling in. Caller hi. Good morning. Thank you for your service and thank you for cspan. Unfortunate what this group is doing in oregon. Clearly not a good ending for anyone. Factorsthat one of the in what they are doing, is they are dealing with circumstances. You have the policy and the corporate media, the view that people have of the world you have people that think the government is taking everything from them and taking more from them, and they do not have a chance to improve their lives. Nopefully this will be a incentive to take a hard look. There is a lot more than just oregon. I just hope it all works out. Guest i share your concerns about this not working well and for the people involved. My understanding is that they do not want folks to occupy the facility illegally. It sounds to me like the hammond have just been beat down for decades by the federal government. They have basically thrown up their hands. This is supposed be a republic or we have Public Servants that are elected and were supposed to represent the will of the people. When we allow the government to get this abusive, we are all in trouble. I agree. I am hoping we can take a closer look at abuses of the interior department and of every department, where they may be abusing the public. It is not just the v. A. I share Newt Gingrichs sentiments. Get rid of it and get something that helps veterans across the board. We need to be looking at more of that. When employees are worried about keeping their jobs, they will be less abusive american citizens. You first see the subcommittee Holding Hearings on what is happening . Guest i sure do. We need to be this should generate interest in getting to the bottom of it. We have been talking to members of the committee about having those hearings. You will be seeing those in the near future. Host what is your relationship with the head there . Guest we have had some interesting discussions in prior hearings. I have been very concerned with the abuses and the hockey skate she of the blm leadership. We are not getting satisfactory responses on what they have been doing to people, like the hammonds. It is disconcerting. Most americans want fairness. That is what most of us look for. We hear stories from cspan or anywhere else of people being treated fairly. When someone like the hammons were getting pushed around for years, efforts to take their water away, keep them from traveling roads, that sounds a little unfair. For years without any consequence. Their group comes in and are prosecuted. They do jail time. Somebody else says, they didnt do enough time. Somebody who was a judge for 10 iars, to have somebody after labored over an appropriate sentence and just wipe it out and say it wasnt good enough, very offensive. Consciences of many americans. Time, afterid their a judge agonized over the right thing to do. It sounds like revenge, abuse. It is the kind of thing we should not be doing. Host michael is calling in from maine. Caller how are you doing . Guest as far as i know, ok. Caller i called to make a comment about the political doubletalk. If im not mistaken, i believe you are in favor of the transatlantic pipeline. Pipeline . Mean the xl guest yes, i was supportive. Caller was in that supported going to take thousands of acres away from farmers . Eminent domain . Give that to Foreign Companies . Guest it is going to create a pipeline that a foreign country could use, but it is to the benefit of the United States. We have a lot of oil and gas in east texas. We understand it is how we won world war ii. The East Texas Oilfield was the largest known reserve in world war ii. If not for the oil being produced, we do not have the gasoline to defeat the germans in the battle of the bulge. It is not a fun thing to have a pipeline through your land. It is one of those necessary evils. Host jeff is in indianapolis, independents line. Caller hello. This as an africanamerican, you know, these people are terrorists, these people in oregon. They are no different from al qaeda and the ku klux klan. They get a pass because of their complexion. Whatentleman right here is the double standard . These people are terrorists . Guest thank you, jeff, for your opinion. I first thought he was talking about the blm being terrorists. Kept them from using their own private property. He is saying it is because of their complexion they are being treated the way they are. They having killed anybody, the people occupying illegally. They need to be punished and they should be punished for t hat. I understand and support it. I do not get this. Like a satellite, sounded they were ok with them being abused it sounded like. That around the country, whether it was i am seeing massive amounts of abuse around the country by people whether they are white, black. It is only when people come out and engage in criminal conduct that is a threat to the community that the police get this active. There are a lot of people of color who have violated the law and not suffered any consequence the law, whether it was from looting or other activities. I think this is an over reaction to the skin color. I look forward to the day when people are judged by the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin, when there is no race box on any application. It doesnt matter. We do not care. See theeadgrieves me to racial divide that is growing bigger under this president. I did not vote for or support president obama, i had hoped, i looked praised silver lining. He has doubled down on no child left behind. Maybe you will be like in high school, i had a black coach. He was my favorite coach. I really loved the guy. He happened to the black. Playing for coach williams,he brought our team together. He was equally tough on people whether they were black or white. He could bring us together like never before. I hoped this president would do that. There has been more of the divine. I found it ironic that some left wing publication started talking about my mentioning my Favorite High School coach. Immediately it went up that talked about a favorite coach, a basketball coach. I never said basketball. The reporter assumed, if he is black, it must be basketball, because they are not good at anything else. That was an affront to me, because he happened to be a football coach. That becausezed he was black you must be a basketball coach. Host we had a tweet from edwin christian. Patriot act, and i have similar concerns about the patriot act. But i do not think of a provision under the patriot act with the government can take your property. The bigger concern under the patriot act is when they can toop on you or get acceses documents of years or spy on you. Those are things i had concerns about. This was under the bush administration. I have grave concerns about section206 and 215. Some the charge had abusive meetings from my own Republican Committee leadership, trying to get me to back off of demands for sunsets on those provisions. The bush administrations had people who assured us, look, with has to be titees international terrorists. Clandestineoes say intelligence activities. What does that mean . Dont worry about that. They were abusing that. They were monitoring american citizens the whole time. That was a total affront. Bushs been abused by the administration and the Obama Administration to a greater extent. I share concerns about the patriot act. It is the snooping on people in ways that i think would be unconstitutional. Stockton, california. Republican line. Please tell us your first name. Guest good to talk to you. Host go ahead. Caller i agree with the federal land takeover. Sometimes you have farmers. Larmers will sometimes sel their land to people who want to build houses. The government took over our National Resources like arming or Something Like that otherg, and we would have resources as far as food and other things. I would agree with it. I agree with the pipeline. That will help that the american economy. Current obamacare [indiscernible] oil all the time. Host i think we got your point. Guest when were talking about a pipeline, he makes a good point. We look at it similar to a highly were road. When we build an interstate highway, canadians are going to end up using the road. May be canadian and mexican businesses are going to use that road, too. We consider that is for the greater good. Most of us were furious when the Supreme Court came down with their decision say it was ok to use Eminent Domain to make a farmers property if somebody is going to subdivide it and produce more taxes. Merely providing more taxes was never anticipated to the a reason to take somebodys land. We believe in private Property Rights and thats where we should stop the government from using and domain. Host you have about 60 seconds to answer this one. From kye. Tweet guest it is like i was saying. The pipeline is similar in concept to a highway. So yes, you do not use Eminent Domain for a highway, people i not able to travel as fluently as they could. Same with the pipeline. Somebodys property has to be used to allow the oil and gas to travel. And the domain works for that. , at Louie Gohmert Republican Congressman from texas, chairman of the Natural Resources subcommittee, looking for hearings on what is happening in oregon shortly. The house is in session now. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] thpray ll be fered our chather co apla cnroy lets p go of merc we ge anks for giving us ano ay. 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