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how congress should vote. if you are a member of congress, what questions would you be asking the president this week? here are the numbers -- you can also catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages, twitter, facebook, or simply e-mail us at journal@c- span.org. this syrian question leading all the major papers. here's the front page of "the washington times" -- that is the question many members of congress are asking this week, amid what is being called a three-day media blitz on syria. this included denis mcdonough going on five of the sunday shows yesterday. we want to play you a bit of what he said in one of those interviews. [video clip] collects i've talked to members of congress, not a single one has rebutted or refused the intelligence. everyone agrees that on august 21 assad used chemical weapons against his own people. the question is a very simple one. should there be quantum that should there be consequences for him using gas and chemical weapons to kill more than a thousand of his own people, including 400 children? the answer to that question will be followed closely in damascus, tehran, i members of lebanese .ezbollah this is a big question and a big week for congress to address that. it is a fundamental national security issue. week for congress to address that question and president obama is going to be making his case to several networks, six major broadcast news networks tonight. he will be having interviews with them on tuesday. the president is going to make his case directly to the american people for that strike on syria. terms of theay, in president's schedule, here is a police from politico. president obama will travel to capitol hill to sell his plan for military strikes on syria just hours before the scheduled national addressed from the old jewel -- national address from the oval office. and all hands-on efforts as more polling is out on this issue. here's the latest from "cnn politics" -- a bit more on the history of recent conflicts and public support from that cnn piece. it goes on to note that the president had at least a small majority of public support behind him over the last 20 years -- we also have our own poll on her facebook page. that pulled very much opposed to the resolution and the possible attack on syria. you can see that on our facebook page. you on howhear from congress should vote on this issue. is florida, on our democratic line. good morning to you. leeer: this is sergeant from newport, florida. span andion is to c- also to the callers. geneva put a call -- geneva protocol is the 1925 protection against chemical warfare. important, nobody has talked about this. the geneva protocol of 1925 has -- during world war i and world war ii. if you go online and look this up it will tell you that the and congress has a 50- 50 vote on this protocol from geneva. to paul will go now from oliver springs, tennessee on our republican line. good morning to you. we want to get your take on how congress should vote on this issue and what question should you ask the president if you were a member of congress this week? caller: i appreciate you taking my call right here. good like my comment ain't enough. host: we want to hear from you. whenr: my first point is our members were put on the rooftops of libya to defend themselves, they had no help. i thought heller clinton was out of politics. stuck out clinton was of politics. my second point is international losses says that we cannot go to another country and try to take up ahead of that state, that is breaking international law. we don't have a friend in the world to go with us. we would go by ourselves and start a war. we are starting a war. that's what we are doing. the democratic people better get this on their brain. i don't think they know what they are talking about. i want you to hold them up on that right there. some of the president, some of them don't. -- some of them back the president, some of them don't. why would they not back the first black resident in office? -- first black president in office? here's my question to the president, how can i trust you -- said that food women to lie like a dog. host: he brings up a few points. political -- according to politico hillary clinton will make her first public remarks about syria -- we want to point you back to our c-span facebook page, where we have that whole that is ongoing. syria andupporting close to 800 opposing action. we will keep that throughout today's program and keep checking back on it. john is up next from canyon country california on our independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. we don't need any more wars for israel in the middle east. we have israel lobby pushing for this. who is aohn kerry jewish zionist, hillary clinton who is doing this to get money for presidential candidate -- for a presidential campaign. americans better wake up to what is going on in the middle east and these wars for israel. more and more americans are waking up. host: let's talk about u.s. action. if you were a member of congress what question would you be asking the president? i would be asking him to look at the intelligence. go to usjhijack.com -- host: what do you don't believe? caller: i believe it was the syrian rebels who set up a sought to go to war against syria, that hezbollah is pushing so hard. if you look at the clean break iraq, syria,was and then going against the rest of the enemies in that region. i would be skeptical about the intelligence. president bashar al-assad of syria actually made remarks to cbs on this subject. this is the front page of today's financial times. assad warns of retaliation is part of the headlines. i want to read you a bit of that -- that is the front page of today's "financial times" if you want read more on that story. sue is up next from illinois on our democratic line. good morning. caller: hello how are you doing. i think we need to go ahead and let neighboring countries of syria take care of it. we always seem to be in the midst of taking care of everything for israel, the holy land and holy people. they figh,t, fight, fight, kill, kill, kill. nobody seemed to care when almost a million people died three months in ronda -- in re wanda. -- in rwanda. i feel sorry for them but i feel more sorry for the american people. do we have trillion dollars to go to war over there? host: that assume from illinois. a little bit more on the case the white house is making. sue brings up international allies in this effort. here's the front page of "the washington post" -- also a statement signed by -- john is up next on this question we are asking you this morning, how should congress vote? he is from north carolina on a republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. a fanow that obama is when a democrat from illinois wants the neighbors and neighborhoods to take care of the business. to american people need realize that this is a sunni shiite situation and is not the infidel martyrs situation that it usually is. we do not know all of the players that are sympathetic to democratic syria, we would just be him -- just be throwing our money down the whole. republican,rvative and i am usually a hawk. i have a political science degree. i have to trust my president. when i see all of the stuff that is going on internationally and you are going to leave our people out to drive -- out to dry without doing anything in scandalsand domestic like the nsa, what you are seeing is a president whose citizenry does not trust him for policy. i don't know if that is incompetence or something sinister. some people will follow him because of race. we are in a bad state in this country when we have this situation. this is not just going to lead over from the effect list foreign policy. this will contaminate his demented policy. everybody is starting to -- his domestic policy. everybody is starting to see, when i don't have it my way i will throw to congress. at least that way i can blame the republicans. john from north carolina. at the president is taking this vote to congress this weekend. some of those members of congress appeared on some of the sunday shows yesterday. congressman mike rogers is the republican house committee chairman. nation.n cbs's face the [video clip] >> i understand why people are skeptical. you have a commander-in-chief who tries to come to the american people and say, i'm going to do something but not too a lot. that is what the american people are hearing. i am skeptical as well. i am frustrated with this president and his steps on syria and other foreign policy issues that got us to the place that we are today. uswe just make it about versus congress or the american people versus our frustrations, we missed the big picture of what is in the best interest of the u.s. national security interests. small and effective now saves big and ugly later. either we are going to pay the big price now pay the bigger price later. host: that was mike rogers talking about this issue. c-span has this debate covered in its entirety, we set up a special syria page that will statements,ments, and related videos of the debate. it includes the white house intelligence documents, the house and senate hearings from wednesday of last week, and the president's statement from saturday in which he announced that he would seek congressional approval of the action. we intend to add as they become available. i want to point you to another member of congress who actually appeared on c-span yesterday. that was democratic caucus chairman xavier becerra. he was on our newsmakers program on sunday. he is one of several members of congress to do that. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> i do believe there is a way to get a resolution in both the senate and house. it has to be very narrowly tailored. broughtreas" clause you up does cause me concern. i'm not interested in having a vote on an authorization to use military force that can take us beyond the scope of the task in front of us. it would degrade your ability to do that -- to deter chemical weapons tif we do that. it goes beyond the issue of chemical weapons. the use of force to deter the chemical weapons usage may have some impact on the syrian civil war, but that is not my problem. .t is the syrians problem i am making sure that everyone gets the message around the world that you do not use chemical weapons and get away with it. ont: comments coming in our social media pages. here is the washington journal that here is twitter -- on her facebook page -- that is our facebook page where we have that ongoing poll. we will keep you updated on it throughout the show. we want to hear your thoughts on this issue. jean is from miami, arizona on our democratic line. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i am a vet. and we should go. i think that our president made a mistake by going to the congress. i'm a former politician. maybe we should shut down all the military bases all over the world. chief.ur commander-in this message is also for my congress mer -- for my congresswoman. he should see the faces of those young kids. auto be ashamed of ourselves of we do not go. -- we ought to be ashamed of ourselves if we do not go. he is my commander in chief, even though i am not in the military anymore. thank you and god bless america and all the troops. one of those that would support military intervention in syria -- on our facebook poll page, 300 people say they would support that action but the number that opposes is much higher, 796 people. you can go on our facebook page and join in that poll. patricia is up next from salem new york on a republican line. caller: i don't think we should go to war in syria. most of the veterans do not want it. we are tired of seeing our young people come home in boxes. we don't even know who started -- who the bad people are there in syria. would behis time we fighting on the side of al qaeda. we don't want it. congress is fooled if they think they can do this without the support of the american people. war people do not want this . i'm not even sure if i am a republican anymore. i wish they would make be proud of my party again. a couple stories on the challenges the president faces as he goes to congress. here is a story from "the wall street journal" -- how congress is voting and feeling on this issue, here is "the washington times" -- that is congressman howard mckeon. tennessee congresswoman marsha black appeared on cnn's programs on sunday. she said -- that is the story from "the washington times" if you want to read more on that issue. we also have e-mails coming in this morning. this from sue -- as we are talking about the subject from what the president has to do to sell this resolution to members on the hill. i want to bring in in swanson, news editor of the hill newspaper. track ofis keeping this whip count, they are calling it, on military strikes on syria. take us through the latest that the hill has come up with. latest we have in the house is that there are 141 no votes or votes leaning no. house,31 votes in the where people are voting yes or leaning yes. in the senate, we only have 26 senators saying they would vote for this or lean toward voting for this. that is a better scenario. it looks like obama is getting closer but he is not there yet. are you finding that the senate is an easier sell? guest: absolutely the easier sell but they do still do not have the votes. optimism they of can get this through the senate relatively easy. right now that is not the case. you are getting a lot of defections, even from democrats in the senate. they cannot say with certainty that it will be able to get a yes vote in the senate. president doeshe get a yes vote in the senate and a no vote in the house? any word on what the white house will do in that scenario? guest: that is played very closely to the vest. -- heesident said wouldn't give a direct answer. it seems the white house believes saying one thing or another, whatever action they would take if there is a no vote. favor of theirn position -- they're trying not to give a firm position on that right now. host: members have been getting an earful the past week. is the white house's job easier now that members of congress are back in washington, d.c., away from these town halls that we've seen so often on the news, where folks are expressing their concern about this strike? does the white house believe that their job will become easier this week? >> i think that they probably hope it will become easier this week, and there's a lot of people who would see that it would become a little easier, and that now you'll have house members and the white house can get to them right away. right now the house membersing when she they come back, democrats in the house can be pulled into a room with nancy pelosi, and she could potentially lay pressure down on them to vote to support the president. so instead of these house members hearing from constituent after constituent after constituent and being back in their districts, they're in washington and the pressure can get a little more intense from leadership. but make no mistake, they're up against a real tough task here in trying to get this across. these lawmakers are all hearing multiple constituencies say going to syria, don't do a military strike, so it's going to be very tough for the white house to turn this around. >> ian swanson is the news editor "the hill" newspaper. ian, before we lose you, talk about how much one-on-one time the president is spending with individual members of congress. we heard that he dropped in on a meeting with republican senators and the vice president yesterday. is the president trying to get around to all members of congress on this? guest: i think they're doing what they can, and there have been some mixed signals. it was very interesting to see the president drop in on the vice president's residence to meet with about a half dozen republican senators yesterday. but we've also seen some lawmakers criticize obama for not reaching out to them. representative adam, a republican from illinois, who supports the military action of syria, said he hadn't heard from the president or from the white house yet on sunday. i do think we're going to see more and more lawmakers getting face time or getting phone calls from the president. but there's 535 members on the house and senate, so it's a lot of people to get to. host: ian swanson of "the hill," thanks so much for getting up with us this morning. we're hearing from you on email and twitter as well. on our twitter page, monte writes in, where are we putting all our eggs in the congress basket with approval ratings the lowest in our history? and an email from ed from williamstown, new jersey, this morning, how should they vote? try no. how about following the voice of the people who elected them, not the p.a.c.'s, special interest groups, and defense military industrial complex? there's no documented proof that he used them, just undocumented youtubes. the release from the rebels, like they don't have an iron in that fire. he asks, it sounds like aluminum tubes in the u.n. all over again, the only thing missing is colin powell. back to the phones. joe is waiting from south bend, indiana, on our democratic line. joe, good morning. caller: good morning. host: your take on how congress should vote on this issue. caller: i think they should vote no. host: and why is that, joe? caller: well, we just can't, you know, focus on the whole area over there. let them make their own different. we got a lot of work to do in the united states. jobs and stuff like that. host: if you were a member of congress this week, is there some evidence the president could present to you to change your opinion, or are you locked in with that no vote if were a member of congress? caller: lock me in on it. host: joe from south bend, indiana, this morning. in the "usa today" this morning, lionel writes about the syrian refugee crisis demanding attention. there's a picture of that piece right there. e writes -- left unaddressed, the crisis risks destabilizes syria's neighbors and disposing any hope of instilling peace and democracy in the region. host: we're taking your calls and comments this morning on this question of what congress should do, how should they vote on the white house requests for military strikes in syria. want to bring you some other news as well, though, from the papers this morning. here's from today's "washington times." some u.s. troops to stay in afghanistan after 2014. some u.s. combat forces will need to remain in afghanistan after nato's mission ends in 2014. top commanders in the war-ravaged country say this as they await guidance from the president on how many u.s. troops will remain as part of the training and advising operation. air force major general kenneth u.s. h said that some air combat forces would remain after 2014 even as operation enduring freedom becomes operation resolute support. host: and one other piece i want to point you to on the front page of the "wall street journal" today, mideast derails key issues in congress. some of those other issues that were on the congressional agenda, the post-summer period was supposed to have been dedicated to avoiding a government shutdown and addressing the federal borrowing limit issues that, on their own, easily would have monopolized hours of floor speeches and behind-the-scenes negotiations. now congress must take up president barack obama's request for congressional approval to take military action in syria. that means time soaked up by briefings and deabts, plus the added tension that comes with the divisive issue like a proposed bombing campaign. host: we'll get into more of those issues congress' agenda in our next segment of the "washington journal" today. but still, we're still taking your thoughts and comments on this question, how should congress vote? if you were a member of drongs, what would you want to hear from the president this week? paul is up next from michigan on our republican line. paul, good morning. caller: yes. i'm calling about syria. host: go ahead, paul. caller: yeah. according to the newspaper i read, "american free press," they say that israel is pushing us to go into syria. and these are the same people that pushed us into iraq. i think it's a bunch of baloney. we don't have no business over there. all we're doing is this is all for israel. i think americans are tired of fighting these wars for israel. host: paul, if you were a member of corroboration this week, what would you be asking the president? do you believe the evidence the president has put out there on the use of chemical weapons in syria against syrian rebels? >> no, i don't need the government. if they got the proof, let us show us the proof. we're not that stupid. we can make our own minds up. we don't need anybody else making our mind up for us. they don't need to show us -- they need to show us proof on 9/11, who blew up them buildings. let's take that, go back to that and find out what the truth -- host: all right, paul, we'll go to kelly now from desert hot springs, california, our independent line. kelly, good morning. caller: good morning. host: good. your thoughts on this question of how congress should vote. caller: i thought the question would be, you ever exterminated your house from cockroachs? host: i'm sorry. kelly, we'll go to vivian from ten tone our democratic line. vivian, good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me, sir? host: yeah, go ahead. caller: i was calling to say my representatives from tennessee, marshall blackburn, corker, and even steve vote no, because we got all this killing and raping and stuff going on here and homeless people, jobless people, here in tennessee. they need to take care of our own business first. united states always going over in somebody else business, but people not coming here. it's time for the american people to say no, help us at home. children here need food and stuff at school. they cutting it. elderly people need medicine, homes. they're cutting everything. people need jobs. it's time for america to wake up. send them over here with all this killing going on in united states. no one is saying anything about it. so it's ok for americans to kill americans, but when something happen over in another country, we want to hop up and send people over there. i say no. host: all right, vivian, we'll take your point. peg writes in on twitter, the people got it wrong on iraq. maybe the people have got it wrong on syria. and that tweet relates to this story in today's "usa today," iraq war, latest push for strike is the headline there. nation wary of another conflict. it quotes senator dick durbin, who said on the sunday shows yesterday, i can't tell you how many times i've hearkened back to 12 years ago and the deabt over the war in iraq, said durbin, who voted against that war. host: jim is up next from gainesville, texas, on our republican line. jim, good morning. aller: good morning. i thought my representative thornburg, and i asked him to vote no. he's on the committee on intelligence. he was, m about sure whether or not we had sufficient intelligence to know ho the rebels were, and i have led by 614 people who will not vote for thornberry if he votes no on a strike to syria. host: jim, is that a letter that you've been distributing, or is that something you've signed on to from a certain organization? caller: it's a letter that i've been distributing, and it's actually a single letter, and i've received signatures on that letter. i plan on sending it to representative thornberry. none of us are single-issue voters, but we've taken a sition that since they are a representative, they should epresent our position. and we have all made a commitment that we will not vote for thornberry if he votes yes on a strike to syria. i also have started a letter hat will be circulating. i don't have very much signatures yet. this is for ted cruz, and i have not a single signature that suggests that they would -- that they would support a es vote from senator cruz. host: that's jim from gainesville, texas, this morning. if jim and others want to stay on top of the debate on syria, as we noted, c-span has set up a syrian page, that are going to include documents, member statements, clips, and related video on that debate. you can check c-span.org for that web page, to stay on top of the latest. want to point you to just a couple of other stories this morning outside of the debate over syria. here's a story from today's "washington times." the c.e.o. leaving naacp. the president and c.e.o. of the naacp said sunday he plans to step down at the end of the year -- in "the other story wall street journal" -- treasury undersecretary are being considered for a position on the seven-member board governors -- host: got just a couple of minutes for your comments on this question we asked you this morning on how should congress vote on a syrian strike. francis is up next from seattle, washington, on our independent line. francis, good morning. caller: good morning. it's interesting how, when we're always on the verge of anking collapses like in 1929, big world war looms. and i'm not too impressed by the kingdom of saudi arabia, which is about as undemocratic as you can get, being our big ally. they've lot to answer for for those hijackers on 9/11. i'm just disgusted with that. i'm passionate, like a lot of americans, that are tired of general eisen hour warned us about the military industrial complex, the big business that runs wars and expects working-class americans to fight and die, and i'm tired of the media that supports it. i'm fired up and mad about it. host: that's frances from seattle, washington, on our independent line. actually the last caller we'll take in this segment of the "washington journal," but we'll continue discussing syria and the other host of issues that are on congress' plate in our next segment of the "washington journal" this morning, where we'll be joined by two capitol hill reporters to talk about those legislative issues. and later, an update on the affordable care act in our ongoing monday series. today's focus is changes to medicare under the law. we'll be right back. >> edith bought a place for rest and repair to the president, close enough to d.c. that he could get out here as often as needed, but far enough away that there was wilderness. this was a family place. in that sense, it was unique for the roosevelts, because sagamore hill had become a place where t.r. had politicians and constantly a hubbub of activity. this was the one place where it was private family time, and the roosevelts made it very clear they did not want anyone but family here. >> meet edith roosevelt, as we begin season two of our original series, "first ladies: influence and image," looking at the public and private lives of the women who served as first ladies, tonight, live at 9:00 eastern on c-span and c-span3, also on span c-span radio and c-span.org. >> we have a lot of issues before the s.e.c. issues are diverse, because in many ways the f.c.c. oversees the democrat tail economy, the information economy, which by some measures accounts for as much as 1/6 of the economy itself. i think there are a few things we have going on of particular interest. one of those involves wireless communications. and you can look around at the proliferation of phones, and that's probably no surprise that it's an area of real interest. but you also have to consider some of the numbers. we now have more wireless phones in this country than we have people. one in three american adults now has a tablet computer. all of those devices are using more of our airwaves than ever before. and we're just getting started, because worldwide, mobile data demand is going to grow about 13 times in the next five years. so the f.c.c. has a lot on its plate when it comes to our air avenues and how we use them. >> the newest f.c.c. commissioner, jessica rosenworcel, on issues facing the f.c.c., tonight on "the communicators" at 8:00 eastern n c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: and congress is back in session today after its five-week august recess with plenty of issues on its plate, including a major budgetary deadline. joining us now to talk about this and make sense of all these issues are two veteran congressional reporters, including "washington examiner's" susan ferrechio and politte co-manu raju. manu, let's start scombu tackle the syrian issue wee been talking about. what is the timeline for congressional action on this resolution that the president is pushing, and when are we going to see the final decisive vote here? guest: well, it's going to start this week. it's going to happen very quickly. the senate is the first one that's going to act. harry reid, the majority leader, is going to begin the procedural motion to have a vote by mid week. we're looking at probably a wednesday vote, which would require 60 votes in order to move forward to a final vote. that is a critical, critical vote in the senate. it's going to be very close. uncertain whether he can get to 60. that's going to be critical. what the house does is not clear at this point. the house may vote this week, but they may push it into next week. but the very late least, if the senate passes a measure, the house will act by next week so. this is moving very, very quickly, and that's what the administration is really launching the full-court press right now. host: on this issue of the full-court press, is it gaining traction this week on capitol hill, are you seeing? guest: it hasn't trained traction yet. i heard some lawmakers say yesterday they feel like over the past week, support has dwindled, despite flooding the zone by administration with people giving classified briefings, the release of this latest video showing what appears to be the aftermath of a chemical attack. the support is not there, despite that evidence. so what you're going to see this week is even more intensified sort of flooding of the zone. the president is expected on capitol hill to talk private well democrats. we really need to push this vote over to victory. and he's also going to be addressing the nation, as everybody knows, on tuesday night, trying to convince the public there will be more classified briefings. the president will also be talking to most of the television networks, too. his duel approach here is to convince the public and, thus, get congress along with him on if he fwets them both at the same time. the problem is that people think this may be a little bit too late, that momentum has just shifted away from the idea of supporting a strike, so the question here, he's right on the edge, can he move things along this week while all the members are back? a lot of them weren't here last week during the briefings. i don't think anyone is 100% sure where it's going, although right now, if there were to be a vote, it probably wouldn't pass. host: where does the president look for to find the numbers? we've seen whip counts this morning that the numbers aren't looking great as of today, the latest numbers we have. >> well, that's right. and i think he really needs to look for certain people who are more likely to support him he's got people on the republican side, john mccain, lindsey graham, perhaps kelly ayotte, who will vote on security issues and armed forces issues. and then he'll look for his very faithful democrats. one of the key, key groups where he will seek support is the congressional black caucus. a lot of them do not support the idea of this military strike. they will get their own special classified briefing today. i think he will really make the case, just to try to -- at least for the sake of royalty, to get this war. they're 43 members, so they could be a sizable group to push it over. host: and what is the syrian deabt done to the budgetary calendar that congress was preparing to tackle before this issue came up? guest: it's delayed it, and there's really not a whole lot of time to act. as we know, if the congress does not adopt a continuing resolution by the end of the month, the government will shut down, and there's only nine or so of ledge tv days the house is actually in session this morning. so how that issue is resolved unclear. they said they were going to move forward with a short-term measure, probably funding the government through mid-december, but it's uncertain what it would look like, whether or not the funding levels would be acceptable to democrats. and there's the big push among conservatives to defund obamacare through the continuing resolution. that's something that a lot of republicans don't support, and it's certainly something the democrats don't support. so this is a big major fight that's sort of fallen off the map, because the syrian issue is taking up all the oxygen in the room. but once that issue is passed in congress, they're going to have to deal with this right away and how that's a resolution to that is unclear. host: and one of those resolutions might be a government shutdown, or at least some folks have threatened that. what has happened to those threats of shutting down the government? guest: well, there's a email circulating that we believe she shouldn't put any more money in funding the government, unless there's a delay, or also perhaps just stripping the founding from it entirely from any funding resolution moving forward. that really is the unknown factor in funding the government. i think there's less concern about the time element. congress doesn't have a hard time quickly passing short-term measures. sometimes they operate a little bit better when they don't have a lot of time to sit around and argue and get real political about these things. the unknown quantity here is this group, and will they really try to block a short-term bill over this? i'm leaning no. i think if this is a short-term bill, and it's just a few months, they may support that. there will be a longer fight on how to fiscal 2014 budget until the end of the year, and i think there you may see a bigger fight over funding the affordable care act. the short-term measure, you may see them go along and support it. i feel pretty department that there won't be anything close it a big threat. >> we're talking with the washington reporter. and manu raju, we want to hear your comments and questions on congress' agenda, budgetary issues, syria. now is your chance to call in and ask two of the experts on those issues. our phone lines are open if you want to start doing that. as folks are dialing, manu raju, talk about immigration, an issue that was at the top of the congressional agenda heading into the congressional recess. where is it as we head now outside of the congressional recess? guest: one of its prospects are also unclear. right now, in the past, the senate by a large bipartisan majority early this year, but what's happening in the house is a dwig tried over how to move forward. one of the things republicans are they go they do at some time enhance, a bill that would move on the issue of enforcement rather than the much very, very content tough issue about a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million or so here unlegally. host: this is thing. senate bill into pieces? >> yeah. that could still lead to an air, with weather they pass a small bill, they could presumably go to senate and negotiate a deal with the senate. but that is a very, very complicated, congressional debate. the house and the senate are nowhere near each other at the moment. the they're divided on how to move forward. and how this syrian issue is resolved, whether or not we have the big fiscal fights in the fall over the government spending resolution, as well as raising the debt ceiling by mid october, that could further delay, even jeopardize immigration, particularly if it moves closer and closer to the midterm elections next year. randy: taking your calls this morning. nick is up next from clarksville, tennessee, on our independent line. nick, fworning to you. caller: good morning. good people. host: go ahead. caller: ok. look, two things. first off, if i was in congress, i would let it be known, if not publicly, at least private to the administration. there's no way i can even consider supporting on syria until you come complete am clean on benning has sandee stop the process on these other scandals. i mean, trust is a major factor in government, and this president cannot be trusted. i consider him the butcher of benghazi. on another matter, he says the administration is using children as a crutch, an excuse for this movement. well, when he was senatoring illinois, at least two times he voted against the born again live act, which means that children born, survive an abortion, should just be lay there to die. and then he increased the funding to planned parenthood, which is a genocide organization. so the administration is no no position to moralize about this, and -- host: nick, i'm going to cut you off there. he talked about heaning asee, what happened to the issue of benghazi in congress in recent months? are we going to see it back on the calendar here? guest: i think it's not an issue that will completingly away. republicans are adamant that they want the investigation to continue, that there's a lot that is unresolved. i think yesterday it came up worry nearing the one-year anniversary of the attack. it happened on september 11, 2012. no one has been arrested yet. one of the interesting the news media hasn't been able to track these people down in libya. so, there are many unanswered questions. i expect you will see congress bring it up and talk about it in the coming months. i don't think we've seen the end of it at all. host: there's a tweet about the affordable care act and some of the issues that have come up in that. he writes i want to know who the navigators are and how they got their contracts. talk about the affordable care act and where it is on the -- on congress's agenda right now. >> republicans made clear last week that they're going to continue to whatever they can do to dismantle or delay the affordable care act. that's what eric cantor said in a memo that he sent to the house of republicans last week. the house republicans will continue to take votes to try to repeal the affordable care act, something they've done 40 times or so. of course, that's going to be a fruitless interfere that will never be -- endeavor that will never be signed into law by the president. whether or not they try to do anything to either delay or defund elements of the affordable care act through the continuing resolution as we mentioned earlier is a big, big push among tea party conservatives to do that and it's something that the leadership is not quite ready to go for if that's going to lead to a government shutdown. host: herbie is up next from moss point, mississippi, on our democratic line. herbie, good morning. caller: good morning. when are they going to pick up some of the black issues, and tray marcell dareus tin type of stuff, you know -- martell artin type of stuff. -- tray marr marr trin. f you want somebody to stand their ground, black person should stand their ground because our ground has definitely been stepped on as black people. host: talk about what's going on with that issue. guest: i think you may see it happen on the senate and then i will put pressure on the house. it's a tough political issue. the court ruled on it in a way that is very unsatisfactory. we're heading into an election year. it's a real tough political species and the combination of those two things often equate to inaction. a real important issue. it's just one that may be tough to ever really move through congress. i know if manu will agree with that. guest: this is going to be an issue that democrats take off. whether there's the revolution is highly, highly doubtful in this environment. host: are there any issues that you believe might need to be put off coming on the 2014 election? guest: we mentioned immigration. that could certainly be one of them. that would be the biggest one to punt, given so many years it's been since congress has had -- they haven't passed a sprawling immigration law since 1986. they failed to do it in 2007? they can very well fail to do it again and be it closer to the election. and the farm bill too. i mean, that's a big bill that divided both parties, both houses the senate passed a bill that included the issue of food stamps in there and nutritional program for lower income folks. the house kept it more narrowly focused. that's a big divide between the two chambers. maybe they have to deal with some stormy stopgap measures but getting a bigger deal on the farm bill could be hard as well. host: we're taking your calls and questions on congress's agenda now that they are officially back in session after a five-week recess. linda is from loriana, texas, on our democratic line. linda, good morning. caller: good morning. i have two things i would like to ask. one is do you know of anything in the obama act or coming up in congress that deals with how they treat people who are attending pain clinics, who are being made to take urine tests because they're taking certain medications? and also, who has to turn over less control of the medications. do the state police now, if you are taking those substances. that's my first question. i find it highly insulting and very disturbing that texas of course, would be the first state to jump on that wagon. host: we have a whole segment coming up in our next 45 minutes talking about the affordable care act and ongoing series that we're running on the "washington journal" about different parts of that act and its implementation might be something to pick up in that segment unless it's something one or two of you have heard about it. guest: i have not heard about it. host: we will go to our independent line. fred, good morning. caller: good morning, "washington journal" and its guests. you did a really good job. i wouldn't last a day that. some of these people who call in get on my nerves. host: what is your comment or question? guest: the president's agenda -- caller: they should resolve this thing first. and then they need to attack the -- go to to revisit the voter's right act. you see what i'm saying? there's so much on their plate. i just don't know how much they can get done. but right now, the main focus should be syria and then retired veterans. i think the plan that they have is stupid. you probably ask any of those generals if you were to get them off to the side privately and they would tell you that this is one dumb plan and no military person would ever, ever think of doing something this -- you know, myopic. thank you. host: "talk" some of the criticism that the white house has -- talk about some of the criticism that the white house has faced in delaying this vote and what that does on the military side of this. guest: you mean delaying the syria vote? host: yes. guest: they really faced a lot -- you know, the president faced criticism by sort of looking indecisive on this issue. at one soint, it appeared that they were -- point, it appeared they were moving rapidly to a military strike and that they were really going to move forward with something and members of congress were saying they expected something to happen imminently. but as he went on saturday and said he was going to seek congressional approval, that stunned so many folks. now that has delayed things for may beit looks like they making some adjustments and anticipating these military strikes may happen, and that element of surprise may be lost. it's something that people like john mccain have raised. and that's something that the administration will have to, you know, it's very difficult because he tries to sell this war, the president tries to sell this war. the criticism coming from members of congress whether or not this will be effective, this military intervention. and the reason why is because he president has sort of indicated which direction he was going to head before moving any of that element of surprise. host: an e-mail from c.j. on this issue. c.j. notes that obama already said he didn't need the congress. now like somebody hiding behind his mother's skirt, he wants to say he has bashed and trashed in day one. how ironic. susan, talk about what happened to the president's position with congress, his ability to move measures through congress if he move this push for action in syria. guest: there's some consensus that he would lose congress and this would be a blow to him. as someone who has sway over how congress acts. one of the interesting things i'm hearing throughout this debate is the members of congress are saying his ability to help sway congress and his relationships with members of congress have been so weak in general that that's one of the reasons he's had such a hard time moving a tough bill like syria. on all of the talk shows and hall by a interviews, lawmakers are saying that the president has really never reached out to them. there's a lawmaker, a republican on yesterday, who said that he called the president and said i'm here to help. i how help you get over the finish line and the white house didn't return his calls so there's already a real troubled relationship so when people say this is going to make things a lot worse. i would say the president already has real difficult time trying to get congress to do what he wants. i mean, we can see evidence of that. it's a split donkey. -- congress. it's a democrat-republican. this will make him look more incompetent if he tries to put this forward and it failed. host: if we ever needed a do-nothing congress, now is the time for one. one more e-mail from paul h. on the subject of syria. i don't think the house republicans will stand up for the president when national security is at stake and it is. if the syrian situation isn't dealt with now, we'll pay for it later. it will be messy either way. and we want to ask you about -- this is from gary on twitter. do your g.e.s expect congress to increase the debt limit without strings? i am sure republics will want something in return and obama has said no. guest: the thing that the house republicans are demanding are cuts and equal to the amount of the debt ceiling would be raised and in addition, budget reforms and other issues that they believe should be tied to the debt ceiling increase. the difference between right now and when the republican demanded this in 2011, there was a time in 2011 the white house said that we may be willing to negotiate. of course, that led to brinksmanship, 11th hour brinks man ship. looked like the country was oing to default. the white house is saying we're not going negotiate at all and we just need to raise the debt ceiling. the white house doesn't know. host: susan, do you agree with that? guest: right. it's a battle of whether or not the president really sticks to what he which is no negotiating. that's a tough line to draw. there will probably some negotiating. you already have some democrats who don't want the sequester already in place. so one wonders how they're going to -- i'm wondering how they're going to move it this time, and get that debt ceiling raised by mid october. i suspect it will push beyond that, but i do think there will be a compromise that's going to have to involve perhaps dealing with entitlements. that's a way out where there is some common values and views between both the democrats and republicans that we need to do something about medicare. that could be sort of the way out on the debt ceiling fight but that is a real big issue trying to tackle something like medicare. guest: once you add the entitlement the democrats and white house would say we will give you something if we raise revenue. guest: that will be one of the biggest accomplishments of congress of all time if they manage to pull that off but it will come up in the debt ceiling debate. host: we're taking your comments and questions this morning as we talk about congress's very full agenda as they return to work today. darwin is up next from little'em, -- little em, texas on our republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. well, first of all, i would like to say our president is doing what he can but what i don't understand this syria, ok, now, we're supposed to have the support from our allies and they said they would help us, but that, they are all muscles and they feel like each one of their countries is they brothers and i think they're really going to get -- they're using us to take care of their battles. they really don't look at us as he ally. and that's hurting our people. and another thing. on the farm bill, on the issue that the man talked about from alabama as far as black people and also the republican and the democrats, susan said like well, i don't believe this will come p before the senate and so on. when they came up here and they set up our government, they was from england. well, they used that part of their government that they knew and used to build ours. and i know we went through a lot and we still are going through a lot but it's time for us to stand up and go for america. host: that was darwin from little elm, texas. jeff is from massachusetts on our independent line. jeff, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to back up a little bit. while your tweeters have mentioned something about the navigators and how they got their contracts, could you elaborate on that? who are they? what do they do and how do they get their jobs? and also, i had another question. it seems like obama's really pulling off all the stops here to get us involved in syria. i'm wondering would one of your guests speculate on why he wouldn't do that to create any of the jobs bills he's been bragging about that? i'll take my answers off line. thank you. host: we're having a segment just after this one on the affordable care act and the navigators issues is something that is going to come up there. for time purposes, let's focus on the second part of his question about the president's all-out push on syria. is this something that we didn't see on some of the other legislation that the president has championed or said he's championing? guest: the difference between this and something that he's called for on like jobs is stuff son jobs, no one expected it had a chance on passing, whether it was increasing spending on infrastructure and whether they will be funded by new taxes, things that republicans generally wouldn't go for, things that help and energize and unite as party, but don't necessarily lead to bipartisan consensus in a divided congress. the difference here in syria is that he needs the divided conk to come -- congress to come together. this would be one of the most defining moments of the obama legacy. it could be a huge victory or it could be a huge embarrassment and the whole world is watching. so i think that's why you're seeing the. going -- president going to extreme lengths to share this, really sticking his neck out and with the prospects uncertain at this point. host: susan, can you equate the president's sticking his neck out to this issue on any other issue that he's pushed over the past five years? guest: well, i would say certainly health care reform was a huge push but a lot of the weight on that was carried by the minority leader who was then speaker in nancy pelosi. she really got that pass for him. and in this instance, she, again, is trying to help the president but appears to be walking a very fine line. a lot of the democrats are voted in an anti-war -- she's helping in but not with a tremendous enthusiasm and forcefulness that she did with the health care law. i think the reason you're seeing the president saturate the news media and the congress the way he's doing right now, i've never seen anything like this with him where he's got people up there every day, during a recess. it will continue this week, nonstop where he's not just sending some of his lower aides. he's sending his secretary of defense and secretary of state to meet up with people. this is not typical. and the fact that it's for syria and not something here on the domestic agenda or not something that has an immediate effect on americans, it's unusual and it suggests to me real political desperation on the part of the president. and a lot of people think so. he has put himself into a really bad political corner here and he's trying to find a way out. guest: once you have that much push happens and you have members of congress to take a very tough vote on syria, it's much harder to get them to make it very, very tough vote on immigration, very tough vote on the debt ceiling. it gets harder and harder particularly they're closer to an election. host: one possible tough vote that may come up. gene asks any chance of congress repeal the sequester? guest: at this point, it doesn't appear that way. i mean, the direction of the house republicans are going with their continuing resolution would continue government funding levels after the sequester takes effect. one of the things that the white house had to negotiate with senate republicans was over a smaller budget deal that would replace the sequester, the debt republicans -- there's really nowhere else from discretionary money spending to cut. what do you replace it with if you want to continue that lower level of spending? the republicans say we want to cut more out of entitlements, but then the democrats said you know what, we need to increase taxes in order to do that. what that led to was an impasse and last month, both senate republicans were negotiating with the white house and the white house signaled that it's probably unlikely that that group is going to reach a deal. so the answer to that question is no. there is going to be no resolution. guest: there is one slight little wrinkle in that which is that some of the republicans in the house on this syria debate have suggested that they could negotiate, reinstatement of funding for defense in exchange for their support of the syria resolution. i don't know how far that will get obama or whether that's even a possibility but it came up yesterday. one of the chairman house armed services suggested that on a talk show that maybe they would be willing to negotiate because a lot of the republicans want to find a way to restore funding to the military because they say it's crippling the armed forces. guest: and under the sequester of defense spending gets hit an additional $20 billion. it is raising a lot of concern about that. host: you bring up buck mckean. there is a picture of him on the "washington times." ending defense cuts could help the syria vote is the headline of that piece. back to the phones. donna is waiting from summerville, massachusetts on our democratic line. donna, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question about the affordable care act, which the enrollment starts october 1 of this year and going into effect and being implemented by january 1 of 2014. if the dering republicans will try to repeal that law, close down the government and try to defund it or get rid of obama care altogether, the affordable care act. and i was wondering if the republicans have the power to defund or close down the government or try to repeal the affordable care act, trying get rid of it. host: that's a subject that we can dive into our next segment of the "washington journal" today. we have our ongoing monday series about the affordable care act and its implementation and i'll let susan jump in you want to give a quick answer to some of the concerns about the funding the affordable care act. guest: the president has already delayed part of the law for a year. but the individual mandate is in place. i think the republicans would like to delay it or stop it. they certainly talk about it all the time, but it's not likely because we have a divided congress and as long as democrats are running one side, which is right now, the senate, you can't get it out of congress. and even if they did, the president would likely veto it. so it's very unlikely to repeal of the affordable care act beyond what the president has already decided to delay and sell. host: we talked about this issue of threat offense a government shutdown this morning, who would be most affected? the government does actually shut down? guest: a lot of people would. the government will have to make a decision on what they consider or who they would consider some of their essential employees, non-essential employees, essential services, non-essential services, and you know, the entire government wouldn't necessarily shut down but it would consider a partial government shutdown. thousands of federal workers, whether they accept furloughs or not be allowed to report back to work. services across the country whether from national park services or postal services would have some sort of impact. it's a really, really far reaching effect and that we haven't seen since the clinic era. host: -- clinton era. host: let's go back to the phone. andrea? caller: yes. good morning. i was just wondering with the full plate that we have and congress returning to town this week to work and the president and some of his high level officials pushing for our involvement in syria, we have a full plate. we've got sequestration. we've got the debt ceiling debate. and we don't have an appropriation for fiscal year 2014 which actually starts october 1. when are we going to hear some discussion about these important issues that affect americans directly and that here, domestically? it is -- it affects our position in the world stage but the things i just discussed actually impact americans directly and we haven't been hearing anything about that. so i wanted to know what your guests thought about when these discussions about the debt ceiling, sequestration and an appropriation for fiscal year 2014 would occur thank you. host: thank you. how many days are left in this fiscal year before the 2013 budget does actually run out? guest: well, it runs out december 30. in terms of working days in congress there, are only a little more than a week for work time for congress to get it done because they have partial workweek where they're gone on fridays or coming in on tuesdays and have a scheduled recess at the end of the month. so, there's a possibility that they may cancel that recess and stay in session if they don't have this important work done on the fiscal 2014 spending bill but they have very limited time. i think that this week, you will hear both the house and the senate start talking about these issues even if they have syria on going. particular thely the house. -- particularly -- the house. but i don't worry that the congress would say oops, we're out of time. we're leaving town. see you in october. they will either stay here and get the job done or they will get it done in time so they can have their recess too at the end of the month. they're able do this stuff pretty quickly when there's a deadline pressing. host: and talk about some of the options that are available here. there's he idea of a continuing resolution that could be put in place, correct? guest: that's right. that's what they're going to have to do. what they could do, what congress -- you should do, is pass an annual appropriations bill about a dozen or so that fund different programs and agencies, seat new policy for the new fiscal year and go through the normal budget order. what we've seen in recent years is the process completely break down. what we're left is with congress passing stopgap, continuing resolution at a couple of months at a time, maybe a little bit longer keeping it the same, funding levels the year before and doing them the way that keeps the government operating or kicking the can down the road which is what congress does very well and what is what they're probably going to do this year. host: eric on our independent line. good morning, eric. caller: morning. my question i want to ask in the syria case about the president's decision to go and try to get everything situated in syria but why condition they follow procedure which international demune -- community get involved nd even those -- so they can win election to see whoever those rebel groups are, get elected so they will get a decision that the syrian people can make instead of us going there, trying to put those rebel in power. we don't really know who they are. and what agenda they're going to shift. so that's one of my questions i want to know. host: do you think an election can be hell right now in syria amid everything that's going on? caller: no, it doesn't have to be held but if they can but a transition to bring the opponents, the rebel group and the government where they can follow up to see if they can bring up to procedure where it can lead to an election, whoever's elected and then they can even the power, if that's the case. host: susan, if you want to talk a little bit about the possible transitions like the one that the caller asked about. guest: it's interesting what he's saying is so representative of where a lot of people in the public are in syria. last new poll out today that's really interesting. it's a cnn poll where you've got 80% of the respond den who believes he is behind the chemical attacks but only 30% of them or fewer think anything the united states can do in these military strikes is going have any effect on the problem in syria. i think that our military strike isn't going to accomplish the goals that the president may be setting out to accomplish. there are a lot of lawmakers that want no accomplish which is to oust the regime and have more democratic government. part of the reasons we don't know who the rebels are, they are divided as well and some with under an so the idea of transition is another big question. if there are military strikes, then what? how involved will we be in syria moving forward and there is a big question whether we should be involved. the members of congress saying we are not the police men of the world here. we should take care of what's happening here in the united states first. host: the poll you bring up on cnn where more than 7-10 say a significant strike would not achieve the goals for the u.s. and a significant amount say it's not in the national interest of the united states to get involved in syria's two-year-long bloody civil war. we're running our own poll on the facebook page as well, military intervention in syria, those that oppose it right now w-88 -- 840 folks say they oppose military intervention in syria to just 106 people who say they support such intervention. can you actually check out all of the topics, the documents, the member statements that have come out on our c-span special webpage on this congregate for the use of force in syria. you can check that out at c-span.org. that's all the time we have in this segment with susan ferrechio, the chief congressional correspondent for "the washington examiner" twitter handle. and raju who is a senior congressional reporter, his twitter handle at mkraju. up next we'll continue our monday series on the affordable care act. today's focus is changes in medicare and later in our "your money" series, we'll look at $2 billion that has been set aside for job training at community college. first a news update from c-span radio. >> more on the situation in syria from russian and syrian foreign ministers, in talks today with his syrian counterpart, the foreign minister sergey lavrov, say they will push for return of united nations inspectors to syria to continue their probe to search for chemical weapons and will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may convene a gathering of all opposition syrian figures. but he added a u.s. attack in syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts. and this from syrian president bashar al-assad, he is warning there will be retaliation against the united states for any military strike launched in response to chemical weapons attacks. an interview earlier on cbs this morning, president assad said you should expect everything, close quote. secretary of state john kerry speaking earlier at his news conference in london issued a strong rebuttal today to syrian president assad's denial of the use of chemical weapons saying there is very compelling evidence to the carriers. -- to the contrary. he said president assad could resolve the crisis by turning in, in his words, every single bit of his arsenal to the international community by the end of the week. he says he doesn't expect assad to do so. secretary kerry planning to fly back to washington and provide a closed door briefing for the entire u.s. house and will brief the senate later in the week. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. him >> c-span, we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences and offering complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the u.s. house, all as a public service of private industry. we're c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. and now you can watch us in h.d. >> for issues before the f.c.c. we have a lot of them. issues are diverse because in many ways the f.c.c. overseas the digital economy, information economy which accounts for 1/6 of the economy itself. i think there are a few things we have going on, particular interests, though, one of those involves wireless communications. and you can look around at the proliferation of phones and that's probably no surprise, it's an area of real interest, but you also have to consider some of the numbers. we now have more wireless phones in this country than we have people. one in three american adults now has a tablet computer. all of those devices are using more of our airwaves than ever before and we're just getting started because worldwide, mobile data demand is going to grow about 13 times in the next five years. so the f.c.c. has a lot on its plate when it comes to our airwaves and how we use them. >> the newest f.c.c. commissioner jessica rosenworcel on issues facing the f.c.c. tonight on "the communicators" at 8:00 eastern on c-span 2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we now turn to the subject of the affordable care act and our ongoing series looking at the implementation of that new law with the help of reporters from kaiser health news. today senior health correspondent mary agnes kerry joins us to discuss how the law will impact the nearly 50 million americans who are on medicare. and ms. kerry, i want to start with the question of what medicare recipients do and don't have to do under the affordable care act. right now many medicare recipients are hearing about these new health care exchanges and wondering if they have to do anything to ensure they still get their medicare coverage. is the exchange system going to impact the way folks get their medicare? >> it does not. if you have medicare coverage, that's credible coverage, you satisfied something known as the individual mandate in the health law, this requirement most americans have coverage by january 1 to pay a fine. if you're on medicare, you're set. if you want to change your medicare plan, the enrollment period is coming up from october 15 to december 7. you can change your choice in medicare but you don't have to do anything. the other thing we should note is there are, unfortunately, some hucksters out there telling medicare beneficiaries you need to make a change and have this card or take a step. those are fraudulent, folks. can you keep your medicare or keep what you have or change in the medicare enrollment if you wish. host: we'll set up our phone lines differently for our callers, medicare beneficiaries, if you have questions, 202-585-3880. medicare providers, we've got a line for you, 202-585-3881. and all others can call 202-585-3882. we're going to work through this subject with mary agnes carey, the senior health correspondent at kaiser news. it is a nonprofit news service editorially independent from the kaiser foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan health policy research and communications organization. they've been helping us out with this ongoing segment on the affordable care act. on the subject of medicare, we do see some expanded coverage areas under the affordable care act. can you take us through what some of those are? >> sure. there are new preventative benefits offered without co-pays or deductibles and there's assistance for medicare prescription drug coverage for beneficiaries, in medicare part d. some higher income beneficiaries, and here we're talking about a medicare recipient that has an income of $85,000 or higher as an individual, or $170,000 or higher as a couple. they'll pay higher premiums for medicare part d and that's the prescription drug coverage. the health law has changes in medicare payment systems to make the payment focus on the quality of the care delivered. right now about 3/4 of medicare beneficiaries are in traditional medicare, called fee for service and that's how you work. it perform a service as a provider and you're paid for the service. the thought is with the payment changes in the affordable care act, medicare can shift that for payment of the quality of service provided rather than the quantity. host: people may simply want to know, will medicare recipients pay more for their services under the affordable care act under these different programs being offered and the changes to the system, are they going to be paying more? guest: let's look at preventative services, for example. there's new screenings. there's a wellness rissity -- visit that comes without a deductible, screening for smoking cessation and mammography is covered without a deductible or a flu shot. those are things that are there without co-payments or deductibles for beneficiaries. look at medicare prescription drugs, they'll pay less. there is something called the doughnut hole, the gap in coverage that as a beneficiary, you hit it at about just under $3,000. that's what you and your plan have paid. so when you go into that gap, it used to be the beneficiary picked up full freight until they hit their catastrophic cap at $5,000. now there are greater discounts on brand name and generic drugs in the doughnut hole. in those two areas, for example, beneficiaries will pay nothing for a co-pay or deductible for preventative services where they might before and get additional help in the doughnut hole. >> what's the time frame for closing this doughnut hole it's been called. >> it will be closed by 2020. those discounts on brand name generic drugs continue to climb until at 2020 the beneficiary share is 25%. so they'll no longer be in this gap where they paid much more than 25% for their prescription drugs in that period. host: what's the history of the doughnut hole gap, where did it come from? guest: when the medicare prescription drug benefit was created in 2003, if you look at our political situation in medicare, it was the same sort of charged atmosphere over the medicare prescription drug benefit. many republicans wanted to create it and claim medicare as a policy issue for themselves, and the thought was during the debates that you craft the medicare prescription drug benefits to help those who have the highest drug cost at a catastrophic level, you go to the poorest beneficiaries to get political buy-in and they wanted to stretch it out to all beneficiaries and have them all get something but that cost money. and so to help make the prescription drug benefit work and to get the congressional budget score to an acceptable level to about $400 billion over 10 years, they put the prescription drug, the doughnut hole gap was inserted in there to help lower the c.b.o. score, to help get the political buy-in. host: that gap is for costs from about $2,800 to about $4,500? >> yeah, it varies every year. for 2013 you start the coverage gap at about $2,970 and ends at about $4,750. those thresholds are adjusted each year but it's been in that parameter since the drug benefit was implemented. host: we're looking at closing that hole completely little by little until 2020 when it all will be closed completely. guest: the gap will be closed by beneficiaries are responsible for 25% of their drug costs. host: we're taking your comments and questions on the subject of the affordable care act as we take you through it with mary agnes carey. t's go to leon, from kentucky, a democrat on our beneficiaries line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i'm a beneficiary. for e been in the hospital seven months and have such bad bills, it's not even funny and i have a lien on my house and they're threatening. i only owe my house and they're threatening to take it away. what can i do? i can't pay all these co-benefits. i'm on disability. i need help. thank you. 's guest: to clarify, was the caller a medicare beneficiary? caller: yes. guest: there are assistance programs to help you with your part d premium, your co-pays and deductibles. so what i would do is suggest to you if you've got any local senior center, if there's anyone you worked with, someone at a hospital should be able to help you with this or you can try medicare.gov the website or call 1-800-medicare to find out about these programs and see if you qualify. you want to pay attention to this because if you have a lien on your home, you know how it works, if you don't take care of it, they'll take your house. i would take the step and try to find out if you can get assistance through medicare for your co-pays, deductibles and premiums. host: a question on twitter, dean writes in, under the affordable care act, if living abroad, do people still need to pay for medicare as currently it will not provide services? guest: that's a great question. if he's live ago broad, i don't know how he can use medicare. i'm not quite sure if medicare has an agreement with providers across the world so that would be something i would check with medicare with. host: let's go to brent on our phone line for all others. brent is from south bend, indiana, as an independent. good morning. caller: how are you doing? guest: good morning. caller: i have a couple questions real quick, what's the economic level or cut off oint for the $100 noncompliant or compliance, whatever you want to call it that they'll automatically take out of your filings? host: the penalty you're talking about, brent? caller: yeah, whatever. here's the other thing. in some states, we're supposedly the united states but yet you can do something somewhere that you can't do somewhere else and all this stuff, i don't know. that's what i'd like to change but anyway, since we're all supposed to be under this enacted plan, what i'm asking is, let's say you don't have car insurance, if you can file an sr-21 or 22 or whatever, it shows that you have the ability or financial ability, so therefore you could be exempt from insurance? is there anything like that to exempt me from participating in -- i haven't had insurance for at least 15, 20 years. i don't go to the doctor. you just have to deal with it, you know. and i'm going to have to comply , only i think $26,000 with both my pensions in indiana, so i got to move to another state. it's a shame. i paid my home off. it's not much. but i have to move to a state where they don't tax me to avoid -- i can't get away from the feds. so anyway, here i am. host: if you want to talk a little bit about the penalty issue first part of his question. guest: this is the requirement that most americans have health insurance by january 1 and pay a fine. and the fine he's referring to is either the greater of $95 for an individual or 1% of income. nd that increases to about $2.5% -- 2.5% of income and a significant monetary increase as well in 2016. so what he's talking about is he's wondering, does he have an exception, can he get out of of paying the mandate? an income of $26,000, he's not at an income low enough he doesn't have to file income taxes. and the question i would have is, could he find coverage -- sounds like he's not employed, doesn't have a job where he might be able to get insurance, could he qualify for a subsidy on the exchanges, rather, to help him get coverage? and there's a subsidy calculator at the kaiser family constitution, at kff.org could help him determine that, going to health care.gov which is the federal government's website and will help you determine subsidies. i wonder if there's an option for him to look into that and get that. if he declines to do it, he can simply pay the $95. host: we're talking to mary agnes carey of about the affordable care act and how it might impact those on medicare according to health and human services, about 50 million americans on medicare in 2013. that projected to be $80 -- 80 million by 2030. we're taking your calls and comments. gina is up next from sardinia, ohio, an independent on our line for medicare beneficiaries. gina, good morning. gina, are you there? caller: yes. host: you're on with mary agnes carey. caller: ok. i'm a medicare beneficiary, and october 1 now when when it stuff -- this stuff kicks in, will i be able to get into the insurance exchanges and is my health premium going to go up? >> as a medicare beneficiary, you're already enrolled in coverage so you don't have to do anything. if you wanted to look at the exchanges and if you looked at a health insurance exchange and you saw a plan you thought was better than your medicare plan, you could decide to enroll in that but you wouldn't get a subsidy, you wouldn't be eligible for any financial assistance because you have credible coverage. you have medicare coverage. now, as far as your premiums and so on in medicare, your part b premium is stable for next year with the current rate which is about $104. if you take medicare part d which is your prescription drug coverage, those plans average about $30. and whether or not your expenses go up as a beneficiary depends a lot on what the government pays to providers. and right now the government is its -- rying to lower it actually lowers medicare spending to providers by $700 billion over the next decade. it doesn't cut medicare benefits but reduces spending. so right now what you're paying is stable. there is some concern that over time some of these reductions in medicare payments to providers might cause problems on the providers' end where they feel it's not in their best interest to be in medicare. that's not the case right now, and we'll have to see how it plays out. but for now your payment should be stable. host: you went over a little bit earlier today, this morning, about some of the new benefits that medicare beneficiaries will receive under the affordable care act, to wrap a few of those up, they include some yearly wellness visits, flu shots, mammography, some prostate cancer screenings, some tobacco use cessation counseling and a few other new benefits under the a.c.a. i want to go now to karen from las vegas, nevada, an independent on our line for all others. karen, good morning. >> good morning. i joined the program a little late. however, as the saying goes, maybe you can explain this to me like i'm a 4-year-old. i don't understand, if you can't afford insurance how you can assess the fine if you don't have the money to pay for insurance in the first place. and i guess the second part of y question is how does one find if there is an insurance exchange, is there one that can help people that don't have the money, which i think is an important issue especially in las vegas where there's a high number, perhaps the highest number in the united states right now of unemployed individuals. guest: karen, don't apologize at all for not understanding the health law. it's complex and confusing. at kaiser health news, we've done a lot of work to try to clarify this so let me try to answer your question. you go to healthcare.gov, for example, the marketplaces and rates are supposed to be on there by september 1. you can see if it's a federal exchange run by the federal government exclusively or in a partnership and you can find out if you qualify for a subsidy. to the first part of your question, how can you require -- how can the government require individuals to get coverage if they can't afford it? the subsidies in medicare are going up to 400% of poverty. for an individual, that's about $44,000 to try to help you pay for your premiums. and at a lower income level, there's help on the co-pays and deductibles. i would advise you to go there and look for it. also you can go to the kaiser family foundation's website, k ff.org and there's a subsidy lculator there and go to kaiserhealthnews dot.org to answer questions about this issue. host: she asked for exchanges for lower income folks. it this being taken into account as the exchanges are being set up? guest: the main target are individual who's -- people buy their own coverage on the individual market and small businesses, in most states they're talking about businesses with 50 or fewer workers. the exchanges themselves aren't geared to income, the subsidies or income factor comes in in how much financial assistance you can get. host: we had a few questions in our earlier segment before you joined us asking about the affordable care act and one specifically that came up was about the navigators. if you can explain to folks what navigators are and take us through some of the latest of what members of congress specifically you wrote about the house energy and commerce committee are doing to manage these navigators. guest: these navigators are the boots on the ground, people supposed to help folks like karen and these other viewers to try to figure out what do i call for a for? is my state expanding health aid and do i call for a subsidy and what do they offer? the navigators, many entities have applied and received grants for them. sometimes they're nonprofit groups and might be church groups or part of a hospital or another organization that's trying to train people on how to understand the health laws. you mentioned the energy and commerce committee on the house of representatives, 15 republican members recently accept a letter to several of the entities that received these navigator brands in 10 states asking for a lot of information, who are you going to hire, what will their duties be, what will the qualifies going to be and how will it work? the administrations in these groups said it's intimidation by republicans to these groups because this is the busiest time they have because they've got to get their navigators trained and get people enrolled. host: why would they be trying to intimidate? guest: of course, intimidation is in the eye of the beholder. i want to say republicans also feel who sent this letter that it's important to find out how tax dollars are being spent so we need to say that. but as we know, the republicans on this letter and many of their colleagues in the house of representatives dislike the health care law and think it's a monstrosity and will drive people yums up and hurt jobs and business and are doing everything they can to try to stop the law. they feel very strongly about this and will see more of these votes as congress returns. host: you know on your piece in this issue the letter. accepts grantees to provide a meeting no longer than the 13th and include a written description of the work these navigators intend to do, the number of employees and volunteers and their duties and how much they'll be paid. mary read more about gnes carey's pieces at kaiserhealthnews.org and is also on twitter. vince is waiting from indianapolis, indiana, a republican on our line for medicare beneficiaries. good morning. caller: hello. i have a question for you. it's two questions. first and independent and an advisory board. according to the letter out from our congressman here and the robert wood johnson foundation says that that was terminated as of april of this year. that's one thing. the second thing is under medicare, which i am a beneficiary, they talked about limiting the amount of services that beneficiaries can receive. and that's through the new payment system that's trying to be introduced. but our understanding is that congress is not even appropriated any funding for those issues. can i get an answer to both those questions? thank you. guest: i would be happy to. as a native of cocomo, indiana, i'm delighted to hear so many hoosiers calling in. this panel that is created in the health law will have about 15 health care experts to make recommendations to congress to control medicare spending if medicare spending went beyond a set target. the thought is now with the slowdown in medicare spending that's not even going to happen until 2022 or beyond. so i don't know about the -- i don't think ipap have been repealed and there are members on the hill that don't like it, republicans and democrats, saying why do we let unelected bureaucrats make recommendations to congress. that's our job and so on. the thing to know about the independent payment advisory board is it has a lot of restrictions and can't change beneficiaries cost sharing and can't give a recommendation to reduce the number of benefits. it can't do anything that would be perceived as rationing care. and also, these are the folks that would serve on this board are appointed by the president and would have to be confirmed by the senate and no one's even been nominated to be on the board, perhaps because it's such a political, volatile point of discussion on the hill. and secondly, since the thought is that medicare spending won't even exceed these targets until 2022, that there's no necessary, immediate need for the board. to your second point, there are some parts of the health care law that are mandatory funding and some parts that are discretionary funding. some of the payment reforms have moved forward. for example, there's an effort to reduce hospital readmissions within 30 days on a few medical conditions and include pneumonia, heart failure and heart attack. that is moving forward. they've seen a slight reduction there. c.m.s., the centers for medicare and medicaid services has moved forward with something called affordable care organizations. this is another payment reform in the bill to try to get the doctors and the hospitals and everyone who takes care of a medicare beneficiary to work together. and if there are savings, they can share in those savings. so some of these payments are moving forward and there is nothing in the law that would reduce -- would have any kind of mandatory reduction on what benefits you receive as a medicare beneficiary. host: let's go to nancy from new york, new york, on our line for all other callers. good morning, nancy. are you with us? all right. we'll move on to glenn from blackwell, oklahoma, a republican on our line for medicare beneficiaries. glenn, good morning. caller: good morning. host: good morning. go ahead. caller: our governor has opted out of the medicare -- or the obama thing, and i was wondering how that is going to affect us here in oklahoma. guest: if you would like to enroll in a health insurance exchange and it's not -- if the government in oklahoma is not doing it, if the state is not doing it, rather than what you can do is the federal government will come in and will run the exchange for you. so starting october 1, the rates on those exchanges, who the insurers are, what the benefits are they're offering, how much they're going to charge will be posted on healthcare.gov and you can look on there to see who is available and you have an option for a subsidy at what amount and there will be four tiers of coverage, whether it's a state-run exchange or federal-run exchange. platinum at the top, gold, silver and bronze. they vary by their co-pays and deductibles with similar benefits. it's important to remember even if your state government opts out of the exchanges, you'll have an option to a federally run exchange. host: in terms of this opting out, i know we're talking about medicare this morning. medicaid is also an issue that's been controversial in the states with some states not choosing this expansion under the affordable care act. can you talk a little bit about that? guest: sure. some states have decided one of the provisions in the health law is to exchange medicaid coverage to individuals at 138% of the poverty line and above and that's around $16,000 for an individual. and so that was in the law. the supreme court said that expansion is optional for states. . . guest: states are saying we don't want to deal with the 10% of cost. some of that is political as well. you have some state legislatures feel strongly that the affordable care act is bad for their state and they want no mart of it. host: back to the phones, james is waiting from johnstown, pennsylvania. go ahead glenn. caller: i am on medicare now and i have insurance. what will the government do to my insurance. guest: is that supplemental insurance? those premiums should not increase, to my knowledge, there's no plans to increase part of the affordable care act. those are set differently every year probably based on the expenditures within that plan. that is not part of the affordable care act to raise your medicare premiums for part d which is physician and out patient services and drug coverage. that is not part of the plan. it could change for a variety of reasons but that's not in the cards. host: now james from johnstown, pennsylvania a republican. you're on with mary agnes carey of kaiser health news. caller: yes. my question i'm retired with social security. i'm also a vietnam veteran and i get all of my medication. i get my hospitalization through the veterans hospital and when i heard that the congress is passing legislation in order to have the government attach my income tax to neighbor sure that i have medical coverage, how is that going to affect vietnam veterans now? guest: you're fine. you have coverage through the veterans hospital through the v.a. you don't have to do neg. you don't have to enroll in exchange. you're covered. you're fine. host: mary agnes carey is a senior health correspondent for kaiser health news. has been covering health reform for more than 15 years. previously worked at congressional quarterly where she was an associate editor and u.s. capital bureau chief and is now the senior health correspondent at kaiser health news. twitter handle @mary agnes carey if you want to follow her. we've got about 10 minutes left with ms. carey to take your questions. deloris is from frederick, maryland a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. you're a class act c-span. i've been listening since 1990 which is when i retired. i have been in the quandary. last month i received a package from ibm, which tells me i have to call to extend something or whatever. it's going to go through some other. ibm is not going to handle this anymore. i understood that i didn't have to do anything if i want to keep what i have. but i don't. i have to go through a whole big thing of listing all my medications, doctors and everything and then i have to call this extended -- i'm so nervous talking to you. i know, extend health is going to be handling it and they will change their name next january to something else. guest: are these your medicare prescription drugs shipping to you a mail order program? caller: yes some of it is mail order. i have to list all my doctors. how long i go to each doctor and then i can do this online which i'm not very good at. or i can do it by phone. i have to call them and make an appointment then after that i call them and they tell me that each call going to be over an hour long. now the director of the ibm medical department sent this letter and he's also online explaining it all to me. it's just seems -- i'm overwhelmed. at my age i have to go through all of this now. are you familiari[z with this? guest: i'm not familiar. you mentioned some company retiree health coverage are shifting. they do it not just for retirees. they're shifting medicare order system because it saves money for the company and also some people like mail order. they think it's more efficient. it's easier for them. i don't know specifically that or this is all your healthcare retiree coverage. i know the idea of waitingvt.k÷a phone line is annoying. i suggest is to go back to ibm and read over the material again before you call. get your questions in order so you get everything answered and find out is this affecting all of your coverage. is it affecting just your medicare prescription drugs. do you have to do anything differently with medicare. i'm trying to understand if you get all of your healthcare coverage through retirement from if medicare plays a part there and may be your former employer wraps around medicare. it's probably worth your time to spend time on this. host: question over e-mail from julie from virginia. your guest keeps talking about subsidies. please ask the guest where money from subsidies will come from and estimate how much money and subsidies each year will be paid out. in other words, how much money will it cost the taxpayers? guest: great questions. there are funds in the tax feesy to fund the healthcare law. there are tax on health insurance plans and taxes on medicare prescription drugs. there is a reduction in what the government is spending on medicare. some higher income beneficiaries we talked about are going to pay more for their bents. in washington and everywhere nothing is for free. you got to finance it. there are several new taxes and fees to help finance the subsidies. host: rob is from new york an independent line. rob, go ahead you're on with mary agnes carey. caller: i was just calling. i had a question. i'll be going in 2014, i'll be going on medicare. my wife is younger . we'll retire at income for $60,000 for the two of us. i won't need health insurance because aisle have medicare but she will have to have health insurance if she retires. how would that be affected with subsidy? i know there's a $62,000 limit for a family of two. but the fact that i do not need it and only she needs it, would that change anything? guest: i think they will. i'm taking a guess, they'll count your household income. the fact that you will have coverage for medicare, that $60,000 of income will be determined for her for subsidies. it sounds like you've looked at it and she's very close to the cut off. the subsidy levels, the income levels, may change. i know there are several different places you can go to look. including the kaiser foundation and healthcare governor has it. if you can find in your community if there's a particular facility or senior center that's got navigators, this is people who are little bit closer to the law and enrolling people might be able to help you. host: mary tweets, are we paying for navigators via our taxes? how much navigators are paid? guest: i don't know how much they are paid. i can tell you the department of health and human services distributed $67 million in grants to fund navigators. that is information might be able to obtain locally. wherever navigators are stationed. it is financed. it's part of the healthcare law. we talked about some higher taxes and fees and reduction in medicare spending. host: we've been talking about medicare and how the healthcare law impacts medicare this morning with mary agnes carey. one question that i had outside of the affordable care act, is this fix that we keep hearing about having to do with medicare payments for doctors. talk about the sustainable growth rate as it's called and efforts to reform that that are under way in congress. guest: the sustainable growth rate was created back in 1997. it's something called the balanced budget act. the thought it will be a more efficient way to pay physicians. for some years they got payment increases but they would have received payment cut physicians. starting january 1, unless congress stepped in to stop it, medicare physicians will get 25% pay cut. there's great frustration on the hell with sustainable growth rate. you got three committees looking at it. $140 billion over the next decade. while that's about half whatq4rs previously proposed, it's still $140 billion. way to pay for that. we're facing the continuing resolution fight. we've got to raise the death ceiling. we're in a deficit conscious environment right now is that funding is the problematic thing to fix the s.g.r. host: got times for a couple more calls. susan is from frazier, michigan a independent. caller: this is more of a comment than a question. ms.carey outlined motives for the republican opposition. if they had the specific fears outlined and help their constituents, they would have offered alternatives. it looks like they are afraid it's going to work. with their hatred of the president, that's a problem. guest: that's certainly one point that's out there for sure. host: we'll go to patty fromzdñ new cumberland, west virginia, medicare beneficiaries, patty good morning to you. caller: what i'm calling for. i am on medicare and i have have been for a while. i have only one income. i have one small income all i have besides that is my -- what i get every month. guest: your social security check? caller: yes social security check. i do live by myself. i take care of myself. i buy my own groceries and i buy my own medication but i do have what's medicare. i do have part a and part b and what i want to know with this change coming up, do i have to do anything or since i'm already established, do i just go with what i've been doing? just take my card and go to the hospital? guest: that's exactly what you do. if you want to change your medicare plan, that enrollment period starts october 15th. it's about a two month period. as far as the affordable care act you don't have to do anything as a medicare beneficiary. you're set. host: mary agnes carey is a senior health correspondent at kaiser health news. you can check out her work at kaiserhealthnews.org or on twitter. thanks so much for coming in this morning. guest: thanks for having me. host: up next we'll continue with our weekly your money series. this segment, we'll be talking about how your tax dollars being used for job training at community colleges. first a news update from c-span radio. >> the united nations human rights chief says the answer to the question of who did it is still unclear. but there's little doubt chemical weapons were used in syria. u.n. high commissioner for human rights spoke two days ahead of the expected update from the united nations panel. that's probing for war crimes and other human right abuses in syria. secretary of state kerry is defending the case against president bashar assad. saying his denial of chemical weapons use is contra detected by -- contradicted by fact. president obama is making his case for punishing assad. this one day ahead of his nationwide address tomorrow. that's at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. we'll hear more about syria today when white house national security advisor susan rice delivers a speech at the new america partly cloudy skies. - - foundation. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> trying to maintain family time and protect their privacy, roosevelt purchased the family retreat. >> edith saw a place for the president close enough he can get out here. far enough away there was wilderness. this was a family place. it was unique ford5vy c-span and c-span three. of the "washington journal," we'll take a look at how your money is at work in a different government program. todaygnlv we're joined by scott jaschik of inside higher ed to break down a $2 billionz#[k pro. noticed the tradejl9dy adjustmet assistance community college and career training program. mr.jaschik, taatcc is a long acr'mz program? guest: it's $2 billion to help community colleges improve their and into jobs in a more efficient way.óh guest: these are community colleges. big part of president obama time in office has been community colleges. he's concerned about those who in the past may have gone to host: we're already three years into that program. talk about the history of this effort. sort of wherewovñ it came from d this point. guest: now we're 1.5 1.5 billion out. this money is for community college but it's much smaller than president obama proposed. he wanted $12 billion. throughout the obama administration he's proposed large new programs for community colleges. congress tends to ignore him or cut them back. host: as we're going through this new program or old program for three years with scott jaschik inside higher ed. we want to hear from you and get your comments and thoughts. have you gone to community college, we want to hear about your experiences. we got a line set up specifically for those who have been do community college, community college students can call at 202-585-3882. those in the mountain and specific time zone can tall in 202-585-3881. we'll keep the numbers up on the screen so you can figure out which one you want to call in on. scott jaschik is editor of inside higher ed. how did congress pass this trade adjustment assistance program? it was originally suppose to be $12 billion program? guest: it got cut over the negotiations of the healthcare program proceed. they did have this money there. again, there's a sense that community colleges get the short end of the stick on a lot of government support for higher ed. most of their government support comes directly from local or state government. they have had huge enrollment increases particularly since the economy tanked in 2008. with a lot of people wanting retooling of their careers, help in getting ahead. so this coincided with a time they were under increased pressure. host: let's talk about the requirements of community colleges applying for some of this $2 billion that's been going out the door over the past three years. according to labor department, those who are part of this job training program are require -- colleges need to develop clear programs that can be evaluated. certificates, diplomas, and degrees and credit must be transferable to other institutions. take us through some of those requirements. guest: if you look at a four year college, the expectation is a students going in and earning a bachelors degree. at a community college at that expectation, there's not any expectation of one degree. students are going for associate degrees or certificates. this program has been designed to encourage different kinds of programs. in many cases, the ideal community college these days will be in and out of the community college getting some short term training. may be getting a job that are coming back to earn another next promotion. in terms of requiring they will be transferable credit, our population is increasingly mobile. they want to make sure student who start a community college can advance their education elsewhere if they do need or want a bachelors degree. a big emphasis on this program also has been to encourage close ties between community colleges gettingóp!:ñ the support and lol industry groups. they want to make sure these programs aren't just sort of theoretically good to those at the college but meet specific demands in local communities. host: let's give folks a sense of what the programs. the latest release from 2012 on nearly $500 million that went out the door for this trade assistance program was 297 schools were scheduled to receive grants as individual applicants or as members of a consortium. totaling $359 million and 27 awards to individual institutions totaling about $78 million. 25 states without a winning individual submission were contacted to develop a qualifying $2.5 million project. lot of numbers there. give folks a sense of what kind of specific programs that those moneys go for. guest: for instance, in massachusetts, the community colleges formed a consortium. they're develop specific competencies for different kind of careers. to get ahead in this career, what are the four or five competencies you need. then they're trying to align all the programs at the community colleges with those specific competencies. some of the changes you seeing like that are generic and they can be applied to any field. other community colleges are bolstering certain kind of programs. for instance health profession program. community colleges are almost find places for students. they're trying to find ways to be more efficient and effective getting students to jobs. host: you mentioned massachusetts. here's a story from the patriot ledger just at the end of last month. quincy college launches a new biotech program. funds for a biotechnology lab funded by a $3 million grant from this community college program that we're talking about today. we're taking your calls and comment as we talk about scott jaschik of inside higher8wyml e we'll start with juliet, illinois, republican from our eastern and central time zone. good morning. caller: i want to say that i'm really blessed with the over all result of the community colleges. i'm speaking also as a business owner. we cannot find more qualified candidates. i have a lot of graduates come from community colleges and i hire them and they can get right to work. lot of funds that come from these big universities, they have to train them over and over again and finally let them go because they cannot process. i need people that can get in and do the job. i want to hear comments from your guest in reference between education the people go to get and there's no jobs out there for them. guest: one of the goals of this program is to make sure you have that kind of alignment. you mentioned a program in biotech. you see a lot of college, focusing on growth field not necessarily the fields they were pushing 10 years ago. since the qualities of this caller mentioned are community colleges and their students, many of them have very practical approaches to issues. these are students looking to get ahead in a job. they want program that's will they want program that's will gipan kinds of employee that's you said you were pleased to be getting. i'm sure your comments were music on the ears of many community college leaders. host: talk about some of the criticism of this program when he was first rolled out. this is story from back in october of 2010 from cnn talking about organizations like kaplan and university of phoenix and virus for profit colleges that push back against this program. what were some of the concerns? guest: there is competition between the for profit sector and community college sector for students and federal dollars. the for profit sector faces tough regulations. there's a new round of debate over that. like to say they have better success than the community colleges do. the community colleges could disagree with that. the community colleges tend to say they are less expensive for students. students need not borrow as much. the for profit tend to say they can get students through more quickly. one of about the big issues for community colleges in high demand programs, like biotech and health professions, most community colleges are turning away qualified students who can get jobs if they graduate because they don't have enough space. host: question from twitter. are there any concerns these programs will impact student enrollment in traditional four year colleges? guest: not really. a four year public institution, which is where you might see the competition, generally have capacity issues in much of the country. since 2008 while we've seen recovery in the last year, state budgets for higher education have been cut significantly. a lot of public higher ed is struggling to keep up with the demand. i don't think you will see those concerns there. host: who is eligible for this program? can older students receive training if their jobs no longer exist? guest: absolutely. the program here is support for the colleges. it indirectly reaches the student. community college serve a wide range of students including older students. many job training programs are very much focused on older students who may have been laid off. host: let's go back to the phones, carly is waiting from tallahassee, florida, a democrat from our eastern and central time zone. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you.1a# i just wanted to say, i attended both community colleges and i got my doctorate at a university. i still go back to the community college. they offered so many different programs that i was able to get involved with. at the same time, a lot of my friends when they started at a university and i started at a community college, lot of them said the tuition is cheaper. they take their which ises during the summer at the community college and go back throughout the year and finish up. i think that's great what the community colleges continue to work on that. they do offer a lot of other things that the universities not able to offer. thank you so much. host: scott jaschik, lot of attention from the obama administration on community colleges. talk about the history here. how community colleges fair under previous administrations? guest: it's not the previous administrations were against community colleges. i i don't think they were the top priority. lot of higher education debate historically has been about how do we help students who are already in college afford it. obama has put emphasis on how do we get students aren't in higher ed at all to go to college. he has highlighted the issue over and over again. whileynó# he's a big fan of the community college he is also criticized.c[çt] &c"p%he said tn their completion rate. he's said some of the job training program aren't as good he's been sort of a tough love person in regards to community colleges. pushing for more/fh:v accountaby money at the same time. host: stats from the department of labor on percentage of students seeking a certificate or degree at two year degree granting institutions these community colleges who completed their credential within 150% of the normal time. this again from the d.o.e. among all institutions it was just 31% total. males 27% and female about 34%. talk more about these graduation rates. guest: graduation rates are low for community colleges. most community colleges will be the first to say that. they will say they're low for specific reasons. community colleges serve a lot of low income students. lot of part time students, lot of student who stop in and stop out. or a lot of students who might only desire to stake a course or two. graduation rates almost always make the college that's serve the traditional four year residential student look much better than community colleges. for a lot of reasons their rates are low. at the same time most community college leaders would say their rates should be higher even if you can't compare them to a four year college that serves traditional students. host: we're talking this morning with scott jaschik, editor of inside higher ed. trade adjustment assistance community college career training program. we've been trying to offer you some examples of some of the program that's that money went towards. here's a release from honolulu community college from august 9 of this year. talking about an intense training and hybrid and electric vehicle repair and maintenance, a program that was started there with a help of the $24.6 million grant awarded to the university of hawaii community college through that same program. scott jaschik, talk a little bit about the ties between the kinds of businesses in a community and the program that's are being started at those community colleges. guest: that will be an example where they're helping people in a career that would have traditionally been called blue collar and people might not have thought of in the past as requiring a training outside of high school. the reality is these days for most jobs, you do require training outside of high school. what they trying to do is bolster it. make sure the students have access to the best faculty to appropriate equipment that the programs are very closely linked to jobs. one of the advantages in this relates to the comment of the woman from florida, they are teaching focus. all the faculty there are focused on teaching students. that's why you hear the fans like we heard from am of our callers. host: let's go to joslin from connecticut on our independent from our eastern and central time zone line. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is may be two part. first of all, i am a mature in my late 30's. i two school aged children. i have been unemployed for a year. my education and work experience and i stayed at home. i had extremely difficult time. looking to go back to a community college. i looked extensively at any program that's are available. it seems to be available for people who are below poverty line. what can i do as a middle class woman to help me financially to go back to college to get these job training programs that will in turn allow me to go out and seek employment to better my family's welfare? guest: well for starters, i would suggest that you check out the tuition rates at your local community colleges. most community colleges tuition rates are much lower than people think when they're talking about higher ed and they hear the very high price tags at some private institutions. i would see if you're eligible for aid. there are a lot of aid programs. i would check out enrolling part time which could minimize your cost if that fits for you. there are a lot of options that would work and most community colleges aren't that expensive. host: for folks that don't know inside higher ed, talk about your organization. guest: we're a website with news everyday about everything in higher education. we're a lot about paying for college, getting into college, federal programs and new initiatives. one of the founder of inside highered has been there since since 2004. host: we're talking about this specific $2 billion program that's been running for about three years now. talk about some of the recent pushes by the obamanhcq colleges in particular. guest: in addition to what he's doing nowgo4t with this $2 billn program, president obama has proposed a new ratii,fi systemr all colleges. this would compare community#lcs four years to four years and so forth. whatyú he wants to do is to rate colleges on a series of measures. affordability, graduation rate, times of completion, salaries of graduates and so forth and then to favor the institutions that rate well with more favorable pell grants, more favorable rates on student loan. the idea is on the one hand to publicize this information that would make it possible for student consumers to make more informed choices and on the other, to reward with more aid the students who choose to go to the better rated colleges. host: harriett an independent from florida. you're on with scott jaschik. caller: my question is, i was at a two year community college that branched off to a four year university. i had to -- it was out of state. i had to relocate back home, which is florida, because i was part time working and full time as well as child go to school. ián really enjoyed the school tt i was at. however, i had to withdraw and left me with a balance at the school that;7 was previously at. now with my -- with student loans and stuff, i'm wondering is that going to jeopardize or part of that billion dollar grant -- how is it going to benefit me? year community college so eventuallyí i can transfer if that'svu5 @&c. because i have a teenager in transition in two more years she'll be graduating high school.l i'm trying to get established. i will be worried about college for her. guest: the issues you raised are actually very important. what they show is that the worse situation to be inl is to drop out of program after you borrowed money. so the best thing you can do is to make choices and be sure you can finish the programs you start. finish the courses that you start and then transferp you might even explore continuing online at the institution you originally started with. that doesn't really directly to the program we've been talking about but it relates(bn to a big problem facing many students. which many are concerned about understandable reasons.?h7rone e debt is to get in and out of the program in the recommended amount of time and not to leave programs mid-semester. sometimes life happens as for the case for this caller. would urge people to try to8vj start programs they can finish especially if you're borrowing. host: la von=t'bñ from mankato, minnesota. caller: i was calling to let you know i graduated from a community college in 2009. that went to school. under dislocated worker program i got laid off and i went to community college as dislocated worker program. i graduated and i have to tell you, i now have the job ofy3@o y dreams. it was worth every day every blood sweat and tears that i had. it was a great program andl5 i hope it never stops. host: thanks for the call about your experience at community colleges. she sees her experience as a successful one. how do we measure success in this $2 billion program to help fund the efforts at community colleges]úd3(p&c @&c"p%what ars been set by the administrationoñ on this money? guest: you'd want to be looking at things. what are graduation rates, time to completion, jobs they're getting. not just are they employed, are they employed in jobs for which they were trained to do. long term, you would see with the success of these programs, you would see employers filling would see students coming in and leaving unemployment or going into better jobs. one of the ironies of the current economy is that while we have higher unemployment, we're also in a period where people feel there aren't enough qualified workers. host: you talk about what we should be looking for, is the obama administration collecting statistics for this $2 billion worth of money? guest: yes they are. they are looking for statistics to try to gauge the effectiveness of the program. we're in a period where people are still very sensitive about all federal spending. where there's a lot of scrutiny. they want to be able to say they're a success. host: let's go to george from boulder, colorado a democrat. good morning, you're on with scott jaschik of inside i here ed. caller: good morning gentlemen. i like to take this opportunity to give a shot out to all the faculty that pick up the bulk of the teaching load at almost all community colleges. in some cases up to 75%, the faculty are adjunct make about 2 to $3000 a class. are limited. they receive no benefits and all i love to give a shot outlpñ to that. i hope that people that don't have offices and have most of the papers in their car and go on from college to college trying to get together and trying to make jl3ña living, are great people. thanks. guest: the caller is right. community colleges depend heavily on nonten'kq faculty members. they generally aren't paid what faculty members are paid.%%÷ they work very hard. nontenure faculty members may be faculty members. you are talking about are nontenured people. host: we talk about the $2 billion that is going towards this program that's ongoing. it was originally hoped by the obama administration be about $12 billion. are there other efforts by the obama administration to move money to this community college to career type program? guest: it's a repeatedly how the administration proposed more money for community colleges. it's also important onote that community colleges may be most dependent not on programs specifically for community colleges. but student aid program. so programs like the pell grant that is affected by president obama's latest proposal, which is the main student aid program for low income students. community colleges because they serve so many low income students. community by federal spending on programs that don't have community colleges in the name. host: we've been bringing up a few of> consortium of community colleges, $20 million for the state's 20 community colleges with initial focus on pñ electrc medical record technology, renewable energy. another grant, national information security and geospatial technology contort judgment. $20million for seven community colleges in six states with focus on advanced i.t. field. the illinois green economy network career pathways, $19 million for 17 community colleges develop training programs in eight green economy industries. just some of the program that's are receiving part of this $2 billion that's being put out and has been put out over the past three years. tim is up next to talk about this issue ofw0tq scott jaschikf inside higher ed from maryland. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i just wanted -- based on my experience. i'm a professor. i have my doctoral degree. i've gone through the educational system and now i'm seeing students coming in. being that i work at university with essentially open enrollment. we see a lot of cross over between community colleges in the area and our university. i think the problemd++i is two. we have everybody being encouraged to go to university and go to college. which is wonderful. the only thing is, i believe we're seeing a lot of student who are not prepared for universities at any level. i think if we address the issue before they get to a university, we'll see greater enrollments with student who will actually stay through and graduate and retention will increase. if student are prepared for that and encouraged to follow where their skills actually lead, encourage also to increase those skills if they do demonstrate them. we see so many unprepared students. students that should be looking at trade colleges rather than university setting. i just wanted to talk about that perspective and toss it back to the guest. the issue of remedial education is huge.  students arrive not at universities but community colleges as well lacking the basic skill that they need to succeed in college. now what the caller described i think everyone would decay in a perfect world. everyone would prefer that people arrive at college already well prepared to do college level work. the reality is that just doesn't always happen. now there are efforts to fix that by doing a better job of informing students in high school and even junior high you're on this track. you are not well prepared in math for example and here's what to do to fix it. the realities for the foreseeable future, college students will be arriving who are not prepared. host: we'll go back to the communities you talk abouted $2 billion job training initiative. one of them is requiring community colleges online and technology based learning. can you talk about the role of online learning, specifically as it changed community colleges. guest: communs9xh colleges have long been leaders in providing flexible timing on education courses at hours that are convenient for working adults. online education obviously adds to that. then you throw in issues like the use of technology to better teach students so that there are a lot of interesting programs using things like adaptive learning where the exercises the student get, you can immediately tell if the student is succeeding. the next program is sort of based on what the student demonstrated knowledge of or not. what they trying to do with this money and with other obama administration efforts is to encourage community colleges to embrace reform idea that's are out there about educating college students. host: comments on some of those reform ideas, specifically the one that the obama administration has put out there. this is from ron p. he said a rating system is nonsense if a college or junior college gets a low rating, they will lose the education or dumb down the education. take away their funding and they will go away. just what is the purpose of the rating system? guest: not everyone is happy with the idea of a rating system. an important thing is they haven't yet revealed how it's going to work. this is a classic case of where the devil is in the details. the theory is that it will prompt improvement. some people do fear though that it will create the wrong incentives. the college my feel disincentive to enroll at risk students. host: another e-mail from chester county. it can concerns me that companies budget replacing equipment but have nothing set aside for employees they feel could benefit for more education in their field of expertise. is the government making it too easy for companies to shirk their duty? guest: i think we have seen sense the economic downturn, lot of companies have pulled-@x outf the traditional role of paying for improvements for education for their own employees. i can understand the listener's concern, at the same time from the perspective of students who are looking for jobs. many of them don't have an employer. somebody needs to step up. host: jose is from miami, florida calling in to talk about the subject of community colleges with scott jaschik. good morning. my comment is sense there's a big circus of community colleges, vocational schools or technical schools. because of those schools, they have high success rate in the community. there's a lot of them coming from the public schools. i was wondering if the government is putting money into those program that's can make them better? lot of people won't be able to go to community college because of the requirements. guest: are you meaning the high school that's are vocational? it's more like a adult-based community college. for technical schools and vocational schools. guest: the programs we're talking about here go to community college. most community colleges today have a strong vocational track in addition to a more traditional academic track. all of the issues we're talking about apply to all. host: can you talk about vocational education in high schools and what's happened to that over the years? guest: again the concern it's falling behind the times. it was frequently viewed as a sort of program for those who weren't college bound, these programs weren't necessarily as well designed as they needed to be. the american economy has gone lot of people coming out of high school know they could work].d= the local company and work for a that's gone. you really need a lot of retooling. one of the issues faced by community colleges is can be hard for them and for high schools to abandon vocational programs that many relate to the business that's no longer growing in town but that people still have ang(fxv attachment t. host: got a few minutes left here with scott jaschik of inside higher ed. you can catch up with his work at insidehighered.com. mark is up next from palm desert, california, democrat calling in. good morning. caller: good morning. i recently received a masters degree in career and technical education from cal state san bernardino. part of the curriculum was basically how community colleges deliver vocational content and content to the community as well as setting what's9rwp going onh the growth local academies to replace the type of vocational education that you've been discussing. that's been to some degree degrading and left behind. a lot of schools and districts are completely destroying their vocational programs. meanwhile, the career program that's you're talking about on community college level, have secondary level. there's no reason for kids to be all pushed to just college level programs and academia when three quarters of them aren't going to end up with a job anyway in the field they studied in college. what are your thoughts on how to grow the type of career programs on the secondary level that are current or useful if their communities and also give kids the opportunity to grow in their careers? guest: the same kind of things we're talking about at the community college level are also important in high school. i also say that what's really important in high school is that students graduate with basic understanding of math, with basic writing and reading skills. the reality is for just about every kind of job, you need those skills. too many are graduating without them and that's why community colleges are starting off by providing remediation instead of host: i want to talk about one of the stat that's mark brought up now. he said that in colleges about three quarters of students don't end up getting a job in the field that they begin studying in colleges. is that a stat you've heard? guest: yes. there are a lot of stats like that. i can't vouch for that one in particular. but certainly an issue that this program is trying to address is to make sure that more students get into programs that for which there are jobs. some colleges are spending the money to enhance their career guidance. it's not just a matter of student nearing the end his or her program and trying to find a job. instead if guiding the student into a program that matches interests and employment potential. host: what are the issue that's you brought up in your publications your website is reporting on this, some of the money that is being used for this $2 billion program that we're talking about today is used for career services. sort of that guidance that you're talking about? guest: all kinds of academic advising are important to the success of community college students. they need help picking courses, figuring out the right path for them and then succeeding in the courses and finding a job. since the economic downturn of 2008, a lot of community colleges have really cut back in academic advising and student services. i think that has haduáhjç a nege effect on completion rates and on people completing in the program that is are best suited for them. host: mike is up next from rockford, illinois. mike morning. you're on with scott jaschik. caller: good morning c-span. i have two kids that are in community college now and one a senior in high school. they should come up with a 3.5 grade point average to go to community college for free. if you come out of a community college with a 3.5 you go to state college for free. i think those combinations will get kids -- guest: it's certainly true those kinds of programs would be an incentive. at the same time, from the perspective of a state or community, they want to reach the students who didn't get a 3.5. they want those students to get a good case oh -- education and do get a job. it's tricky for community colleges which are focused on access and serving a broad community to just focus on the best students. host: let's go to benny now from stockton, california. you're on with scott jaschik. caller: good morning. i was calling to agree with jose. there are a great need for training programs just away from the college. we need those programs. everybody is not going to enroll in a community college but there are some that's looking for a trade and take the training may be six or eight month course to get in grade level carpentry or welding or something like that. i think there's a need for that and college and the training level programs. i also think want to say that -- i spent 14 days and at i.c.u. and i was terminated from the college on my sick bed. i think there should be more compassion at the community college level where people can complete their course no matter what. i think the administration who allocated the $2 billion for the training program, i do hope that it go to the right direction so that people walking the streets will not ever enroll in a community college, may have a desire to go to a trade program. ...

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