Lee of california on the 2020 spending package being worked and by the house. As always we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. The federal deficit jumps 207 billion in may. Those on Social Security face a 20 cut in benefits unless Congress Acts and lawmakers face a deadline to avoid mandatory cuts across the board. Is thursday, june 13 and spending season is upon us. This morning, your chance to tell washington how you want them to spend taxpayer dollars. Republicans, 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. You can go to twitter at cspanwj or join the conversation on facebook on facebook. Com cspan. We will get to your calls in just a minute. How do you want lawmakers in washington to spend these federal dollars . What are your priorities . Take a look at the drudge report, the banner headline federal spending sword. Wall street journal with similar headline. U. S. Budget deficit grew 39 in the first 8 months of this fiscal year. From that story in the wall street journal, u. S. Budget gap widened last month as Government Spending outpaced tax collection, boosting the deficit 39 during the first eight months of the fiscal year. The government ran a 30 30 7 billion deficit from october through main. Yesterday starting at 10 00 a. M. Eastern, the House Armed Services committee began what is called the Defense Authorization bill. This is the committee that authorizes the pentagon on how much they can spend. It is up to the appropriators to finally decide, but the national Defense Authorization markup happens every year. In the House Armed Services committee. They start at 10 00 a. M. Eastern and they just finished moments ago. Going nearly 24 hours. The lawmakers debating amendments and voting on amendments to this legislation. The chairman of that committee, adam smith earlier this morning had this to say about the overall number overall budget for the pentagon in 2020. [video clip] 26, 70 republicans sent a letter to the president saying you have to stick to 733. Our National Defense is dependent upon that. Somehow, the president is not a particularly good negotiator in my mind. He started at 730 three and after he negotiated, he came at 750. That is not normally the way you go in a negotiation. That was a very informed number over a long period of time to arrive at that number and it is a number republicans as recently as three months ago were insisting upon. I will also submit strongly, as we have seen with the battle for the wall, it did not take the pentagon more than a blink of an eye to find 7 billion for this wall. It was not hard at all to take 1 billion from other places. The pentagon has a history of asking for money in many cases for programs that are not ready to spend that money yet and if we give it to them, it discourages them from being efficient. Without warning because of the budget control act, cut the pentagon by 20 , yeah, you are not going to get efficient when you are cut overnight by 20 . Increasing by 2. 4 and after we do that, we throw another 17 billion at you, there is no incentive to develop efficiency because you know there is more money coming around the corner. Host what he is referring to is the budget deal reached and as i said at the beginning, lawmakers face another deadline on this. If congress does not reach a deal on budget cuts, the pentagon would be cut by 71 billion. Domestic programs would be cut by 55 billion. We are asking all of you to tell washington where you want them to spend the money. Helen, you are next. Caller my name is helen. Host okay. Hi, helen. Caller what i would like to do is for them to spend more money for drugs for these senior citizens. A drug i was paying 47 dollars four is now going to be 128. I would also like for them to revisit Social Security as far as how they negotiate the increases. In the last three years, i have had 15 and now, because of the drug prices, the grocery prices, good. Id not do me any they need to get off of their job wen and do the elected them to do. Thank you and you have a good day. Go, you are you king about the cost of costofliving adjustment. They 1 caller one year gave me a raise and increased it all because they increased medicare. They are not increasing the cost of living to compensate for the increase in drugs. Three drugs i have to take now are going to cost me 300 a month and if i wasnt getting a little extra money because of my late husband that died that i was divorced and married to him for 10 years, i was told i was i persisted, but and i did, but it is still not enough for me to live on. In North Carolina and this is the headline in the Washington Post. House Democratic Leaders postpone vote on part of a spending bill over a congressional pay raise. Democratic leaders have decided to withdraw part of a spending bill set for a vote later this week after an uproar over whether members of Congress Might see their first payraise raise in a decade. The bill would restore a costofliving increase suspended amid a recession battered economy. Lawmakers in both parties sensitive to the optics of voting to raise their own pay publicly erupted over the issue. This was pulled from a debate and a vote now expected next week that began on the floor yesterday. These house lawmakers on the floor working as well into the night. They adjourned at 4 00 a. M. This morning from that debate. They will come back at 9 00 a. M. And we will bring you coverage of that debate on cspan when they come in this morning at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Lets hear from holly in florence. Democratic caller, good morning to you. How do you want washington to spend taxpayer dollars . There, what i just heard the money they voted to give we are living here on 14,000 a year Social Security and that is what we have to live on. A lot of people live on a lot less. Taking ourng is Social Security money instead of giving us raises. Payingd for 45 years Social Security and then republicans come along and decided they were going to invest in Social Security, but there was too much piled up in the bill so they lost it. Republicans should have to pay back every dime of that money plus interest that they took from what we worked for and put into that particular fund while we were working and they are probably still doing it. As far as that wall, that can go jump in the lake. Those people are only coming over here to find work and you would be doing the same thing if you were over there starving and not having no work and whatever their reasons are. I would be trying to go the same way. I do not understand why trump they are doing all this and trying to spend all this extra money when the people here are literally starving and having to beg food and churches are giving out food to go each month. I am in the same category. Living on 14,000 a year saying no money for the wall, more money for Social Security. Carol, a republican. What do you think . Caller i have been paying attention to the military budget since the 90s under bill clinton it went way up. It was about 330 billion and now it is pushing 1 trillion. First of all, the pentagon budget has to be reduced more than 71 billion or something. Reach a they dont deal, it would be acrosstheboard cuts 71 billion from the pentagon. Caller cut them 100 billion or double the 71 billion and leave the money for medicare and Social Security. I have heard they are going to take the acts to medicare and Social Security and both gals i on fixed are like me, incomes. Going up. Eeps that costofliving increase on Social Security is a joke. Host let me clarify for you and others because Social Security and medicare, those programs are mandatory spending of the federal budget. The lawmakers that spending happens no matter what, it is mandatory. When we showed you that graphic that said they would cut domestic spending, they are talking about discretionary funding, domestic programs where lawmakers have discretion over how much they can spend, just to clarify those two things. Caller i understand. Infrastructure. I am from pittsburgh originally and i will tell you other parts of the country have crumbling infrastructure that would provide jobs. It needs to go. These promises on infrastructure by both parties have to be met and also, the Green New Deal is going to create jobs. Bill, but iead that am forgetting off of fossil fuels and cleaning up and keeping our air and water clean. I am from pittsburgh and i grew up when there was particulate matter flying out of the steel mills. I know what dirty air looks like. As a breastcancer survivor, i attribute my cancer to growing up in a horrible environment. Those are my issues, health care, infrastructure, and some sort of Green New Deal. Host thank you. What theet you know president proposed for the military in 2020, the president sends his budget blueprint to congress, but it is congress who controls the purse strings. They take his blueprint and look at it and acknowledge those are his priorities. They will set their own priorities for the budget and then you have the senate controlled by republican so these chambers have to come together and agree on something for spending bills in 2020 that could make it to the president past desk. This is what the president proposed for the military. A base budget of 576 billion. Overseas Contingency Operation funds for efforts in iraq, afghanistan, 174 billion and defenserelated spending, 213 billion. David in kennesaw georgia, independent. Caller how are you doing this morning . Host good morning. Caller okay. I like that dress. I want to make a few points if you will allow me. I will keep them brief. It is amazing we always complain about Social Security when we want to make cuts, Social Security and medicare, but we dont ever talk about the things programs ando many money to people to pay for things. We dont do that. I get tired of being threatened with that every year and you all have been showing this a lot, the debt meter where they show all this money has been accumulating. I dont know if it was you all or somebody else. Host if you go to debtclock. Org. Caller exactly. When the republicans are in there and the debt goes up, you dont hear any of these republican hypocrites calling in and saying anything about it. The minute democrats get in, that is all they talk about. Big government, big government. It is hypocrisy and the last thing i want to say is about the question you asked, it is profiteering. We throw all this money at the war machines and the money goes to these certain families in our country and they get all the money for it. Like the lady said about the spending bill, it will go to the same families and they hired mexicans. You dont want them here, but that is who they are hiring and the money goes to the same people. To the same goes people over and over and over again. Money does not trickle down in america. It keeps going to the same people. Host a little bit more about mandatory spending. Mandatory spending is estimated to be 2. 84 one trillion for fy 2020. The largest programs are Social Security and medicare, 60 of all federal spending. Congress established mandatory programs under socalled authorization laws that also mandated Congress Must appropriator whatever funds are needed to keep programs running. The mandatory portion estimates how much it will cost to fulfill authorization laws. They are made by the office of management and budget. It also says Social Security is the single largest budget item and the budget for 2020 for Social Security is estimated at 1. 1 trillion. There is a story in the New York Times about a crisis looming for Social Security. They have not seen a crisis like this since the 1980s. Jeff has the story this morning. A slowmoving crisis is approaching the program, threatening to undermine a central pillar. , the program will start drawing down assets in order to pay retirees all the benefits they have been promised. Unless a political solution is reached, Social Securitys socalled trust funds will be depleted in 15 years and then something that has been unimaginable for decades is required under federal law. Benefit checks or retirement checks or benefits would be cut for the first time in years. Caller good morning. About givingalking d eople in washington washington, d. C. Their vote on a pay raise. I am on a fixed income. I have no problem giving them a raise, but it has to work in reverse. Instead of them getting a 15 raise, which i just got a raise of 2. 5 on Social Security. Give them a 2. 5 percent raise, give the people on social so it can 15 raise cover the cost of medications and stuff like that. That is all i have got to say. Host john in michigan. Caller hi. Lawmakersdo you want to spend federal taxpayers dollars . What are your priorities . Cannot seeht now, i a payee ofe i am not my benefits. Host all right. We are going to move on. Mike in North Carolina, republican. Caller good morning. Thank you for what you just put up. That mean that needs to be screamed from the mountain tops how dire the situation is with Social Security. It appears many of your listeners are not even paying attention. They just come on and have their positions and their wants and they dont understand how these programs are funded. They dont understand they are in desperate trouble. They dont understand that fiscally, the United States of america is insolvent. The only thing that prevents us from becoming venezuela or greece or other countries that have allowed their debt to consume them is the fact the United States dollar is the worlds reserve currency. Most of the world uses the dollar to buy oil and trade, trade with other countries. This is what allows us to keep printing money. We are 22 trillion in debt and running one billion. My priority if you were to ask me what are your federal budget. Riorities, cut the spending President Trump, i think he has already done it to a degree, he sent his cabinet secretarys back to their respective are part departments and said i want 5 or it should be 10 because that is where Discretionary Spending comes in, department of this, department of that like you very correctly stated, most of this stuff is on autopilot. Social security and medicare spending and stuff like that, that just ratchets itself up every year. It has some kind of a multiplier to account for inflation. Passescongress legislation, we are headed for a financial train wreck. To many of the callers just dont know. Host when you say they need to cut spending, are you talking about these mandatory programs . Caller yeah. That is where the problem lies. Like you have the same cough i do. Host i somehow caught it through the camera. Caller my apologies if it came through the phone. I have a degree in economics. That doesnt make me a genius, it at least makes me capable of understanding this. When Social Security was created, there were approximately 33 active workers paying into the program for everyone retiree. That ratio is down to like 2. 5. There are not enough people working and paying into the program to support the amount of retirees and i am a baby baby boomer myself i am still working and i plan to work well into my 70s if i can. I have allowance for that, thankfully. We are bankrupting our children and our grandchildren future because we are borrowing from the future and that means borrowing from our progeny to pay for want what we want now and then we have one political party. I called on the republican line. That one caller was kind of right. Republicans love to scream about deficits and deficit spending and the National Debt when there is a democrat in the white house and all of a sudden you do not hear a people from them. As a republican, that upsets me. There are other words i could use. Host i will show you and others this pew research poll. A majority of those polled favor ,ncrease spending for education veterans, infrastructure, and other government programs. 72 said more funding for education. 72 for veterans. 55 for medicare. 55 for and bind mental protection. 53 for health care and it goes on from there. Lets go to bill in georgia. Hi, bill. Caller thanks for having me on. I am a disabled veteran and i am on Social Security. I deserve to have Social Security. The evangelists on tv and stuff and they act like there is a problem with people being on Social Security like you are getting handouts and a lot of other people act like that, too. You paid into Social Security. Fine ifecurity would be it wasnt for them to keep stealing money out of Social Security every time they have a shortfallmewhere or a somewhere else. Lets take money out of Social Security and we will put it back later. It never comes back. I dont see why we can have increase for Social Security to get it back to where it should be. Host let me show you a little bit of a debate happening this week. A nita lowey introduced billsday several spending they began debating through the night until 1 00, 2 00 in the morning. T