Periods. Quitetrue, they are gone a bit. Right now, they are really in the one solid work going to of the year, eight or nine weeks where either the house or senate or both are in session in washington. It is absolutely true they spent a lot of time not in washington. Guest i am sure a lot of them would argue that they need to spend time in washington not in washington, in their home district. It is an avenue of criticism that we hear. The president gets criticized when he goes on vacation as well. Im not sure it is fair to say that all those 137 days are not necessarily vacation. Thing, whenther they are back in their districts, they can do a lot of constituent work. There is not much happening in washington. When they are back home, at least they can help something. Host a related story in the washington post. They found 60 of americans say they are inclined to look around for somebody else in the midterm elections, including the majority of democrats, republicans, and independents. Is congress more or less unpopular . Guest it is always unpopular, but when you look at whether people get reelected, almost overwhelmingly, nine out of 10 people get reelected. Yes people are frustrated and they want to shop around, but at the end of day, they go back to the same store and buy the same clothes that they have been buying forever. In texas, the oldest member of congress ever, 93 years old, facing a a party challenger. He is 90, still kicking out on the trail, but perhaps it is time for another page. He may be retired later this month against his wishes, but he has been there for a very long time. It is gephardt it is hard it is hard getting rid of members of congress. Guest we talked about the rollout of health care earlier. That has had a negative impact on the president ratings. Even on his trip to asia right now, some of that political ph you needm politically and mystically is a challenge for him. I think they see a lot of possibilities this year, despite the fact that they are not getting a lot of support from or his ideas. I think they see an upswing because theust Affordable Care act is sort of rebounding, in a big and successful way for them. Guest one of those Great Washington moments a couple weeks ago, the president talking about the Affordable Care act, 8 Million People signing up, and at the same time in another state, Chelsea Clinton is doing an event and tells people that she is pregnant. And then people are buzzing, what does this mean for 2016 . Probably nothing, but it means that people are already looking ahead. That is a problem exercising power abroad. It is a challenge that he needs to look at ahead. Guest it is a challenge being named a lame duck, so early in the second term, but the truth is he has not been able to get much done in congress. If power shifts to republicans in the senate, he does not have that one chamber to wooster his priorities, so it will be very interesting, as we said before, to see how the white house works y completelyiall control republican congress. I read earlier that he may start to worry too much and give away the store, the issues that they care about. Hard to predict at this point, but definitely tricky for the white house, in that they still have two and a half years of governing and they are not able to get much of his agenda done. Guest and the republicans know this. If you have watched the nba playoffs, the team that is ahead and takes the ball and tries to run down the clock. This is what congress is doing. Will become a lame duck and the longer they can keep the ball away from him, whether it is immigration or unemployment insurance, they do not want to advance anything, they just want to dribble around in circles and run down the clock. Guest which is why the president is trying to use executive action to prioritize advance his priorities. We saw something on Climate Change, and we should see more in the next few months. The epa will be setting new standards for existing power plants, a missions of the Carbon Dioxide emissions, the main greenhouse gas, and that, as we think about his legacy, will be a big chunk, despite the fact that he cannot get much done in congress. Host next phone call is al in pennsylvania. Caller a couple of points about immigration. 7. 5 million Illegal Immigrants are holding jobs in our country. Over half of them got the jobs by presentation to their employers of forged Social Security cards, and then by perjurious as a station on the immigration form that they were able to work in the u. S. The key to Immigration Reform is to pass copper handset, for ally everify employers, so that illegal aliens cannot get jobs in the United States. Then they would not come over. Final point. Deportation numbers are grossly misstated in the media. Over two thirds of the deportations are those people caught by the Border Patrol at the mexican border, processed briefly by immigration, customs, and enforcement, setback. No Previous Administration were the sendaks call deportations. Deportations from the interior is less than one percent of the total number of illegal aliens in the country, a record low. It is interesting the last point the caller made about deportations. A white house is proud about a story that came out about a week ago that showed over all the statistics are moving in the direction of fewer deportations since 2009 when the front president first came in. Ify andgard to ever employers, that is a big question. Making sure and lawyers are punished if they break the law in terms of hiring immigrants, undocumented immigrants, but i think you would also here about those millions of people who are undocumented immigrants and hold jobs. They are doing jobs that other americans will not do or do not want to do. That is a critical question for employers and for the economy. What do you do if you cannot find people in, lets say, florida, early to pick fruit who need to pick fruit . That is a big question hovering over the immigration debate, one that will need to be addressed. And that is why the Business Community and congress have been pushing for Immigration Reform. They need a way to get those workers in the country. Nashville, gary is on the line for republicans. Caller i understand you all were very happy that the white house made the 8 million mark on , but how does the white house feel about the 5 million that were kicked off a private insurance . If you like your health insurance, you can keep it. How can they be happy about anything with the aca when it was all predicated on a lie . There are still more lies to come. Lets start by saying that we were not happy but the white house was happy. The evidence is clear about that, in terms of the president s comments, comments by democrats as a result of that. The point that you raise, in terms of people who were kicked off, for sure, that is a critical issue, and a concern for the white house, in addition to republicans and democrats running for reelection. You have seen the white house take measures to make it easier for those people who lost their plans, to stay on them longer. Even those measures have received criticism because of what republicans have portrayed as the ability of the white house to ride over the law and address these problems without actually making the fundamental changes that republicans need. There is the core problem. Guest the president was talking about what the law would mean. He kept on saying, if you like your health care plan, you can keep it. That turns out not to be true, and it is clear from the get go, and it is also true that Health Care Plans change from year to year and get moved around. That said, the white house purposefully kept a line that was for them, politically pernicious, and not as specific as they needed to be. Guest that was troublemaking for them once the evidence showed that he was not able to keep that promise. It is something that is still dogging him today, as the caller rightly pointed out. Woodbridge, virginia. Charles is on the line for republicans. For taking myyou call. I am like the previous color of how much time do you have . Pipeline, i went online, i was curious. It was amazing to me how many pipelines are already in the u. S. That is political in asia get people to work. On the unemployment issue, what they need to do is, unemployment for the first 26 weeks is standard. Anything after that, you have to pay it back. Tongass would pass that in a heartbeat. Congress would pass that in a heartbeat. You cannot keep a tab running with no way to shut it off. When theseing, people try to make laws about business, when they have never been in business. If you raise the minimum wage to seean hour, you will never an 18yearold kid hired, a 16yearold. Coming into work late, being immature, helping them to learn to earn a wage. I can hire an, adult and not have to worry about that. This problem in france, where you have an Unemployment Rate of youngsters of upwards of 35 . What they need to do is leave that alone. The bottom line is not getting people more money for putting a hamburger at mcdonalds. It is getting the better jobs. In all honesty, if we have farms out there that need strawberries picked and you do not have a job , and these are jobs that americans do not want, sorry, you stop paying people and you will see them work the jobs. Level of the minimum wage, the 10. 10, which the white house has said, is kind of an interesting choice because it has a negative impact. The Congressional Budget Office and others say [no audio] will get a raise. At lower levels, it would not have nearly as bad an economic drag, so why did they pick 10. 10 . I have not figured it out erie maybe it is a catchy figure, maybe it is something that will not go into law, so it is aspirational, but it is interesting they picked a number that has a downside impact. Certainly, but they would argue is raising the minimum wage would help create better jobs and would give people more money in their pockets to go out and spend which would help the economy. The president spent a lot of time going to employers like costco that have higher wages for basic employees and try to say, this has been good for their bottom line, this has been good for their business, good for people working there. That is their argument. It is clear, there are economic arguments against raising it to that level, and that is something that they are not really happy to talk about. They are much more interested in emphasizing the positive. The other point the caller made about keystone is worth discussing as well. The president has talked about the fact that this has become such a big issue for environmentalists and for industry that it has maybe been blown out of proportion by both sides, but it may create some jobs but not a number that industry says. It may be bad for the environment on some level in terms of the Climate Change impact from taking the oil out of the canadian tar sands, but not as bad as environmentalists say, because the oil will be extracted anyway. There are arguments on both side of the issues. I think we will continue to hear them for a while. Guest you watch the keystone debate and these folks have been fighting so hard and so long and the issues have been blown out of proportion on both sides, on job impact and environment. Comeare so desperate to away with a win. So much time and energy has been invested into this. Host a question from email. Sue writes in from new jersey. Guest short answer would probably be no. There is not a lot of anything forthcoming from this congress that is not necessary. It is something the republicans in the house want to talk about. They want to put together a package they can get through their chamber. We mentioned the memo that eric cantor sent out to the members outlining the next to the new months. A lot of talk about building an america that works, that is their catchphrase. That is very much about creating a jobs package. Their goal is to get 218 votes in the house. When they are doing that, they are not looking at the senate or the white house, not looking at making a law, but sending a message to americans who are frustrated. Look, the Republican Party cares about this jobs issue. Guest it is important note, despite the controversies over the other issues we have discussed, the Affordable Care act, keystone, the environment, the election will almost always come down to the discussion about the economy. You will hear both sides pushing their ideas about creating jobs, minimum wage, as we discussed, but it comes up to that impasse. He will not get a bill passed in congress that either side is particularly happy about in terms of generating jobs because of the requirements to get support from a Bipartisan Senate and house. Host columbus nebraska, sean is on the democrats line. Caller thanks for taking my call. ,y concern about immigration the immigration bill, is that republicans might go back to bill, is that republicans might go back to obamas campaign when he said [no audio] thank you for taking my call. Guest people they will backfire against obama, that he has not been able to do more on immigration. Certainly, activists are citing the same argument. You may promises to us and we are not seeing them get made. In 2012, you saw the president make some choices during the midst of his reelection, in terms of helping the dreamers, who are the younger children of Illegal Immigrants who came to the country when they were so young and grown up as americans, giving them more options to stay in the country. That ties into whether we could see a negative action on deportations. The truth is, the president would argue that he tried and that they worked very hard since he has come into office to do Something Big on Immigration Reform. He promised it again in 2012. It is absolutely on the top of their priority list, but he cannot do it by himself. Fairborn, ohio. Karen is on the line for democrats. Caller i have a couple of comments. Their,as congress and really, nonworking schedule, we should only pay them for the days they are working [no audio] you get paid for the days you work, and they do get many as their carsar being paid on their leases and stuff. My congressman, i could not tell you what he does, i never hear from him. He is never in the area, that i know of. Hink he worries more about then the rest of us. Guest who is your congressman . Caller i believe it is mike turner. Guest you are tapping into the frustration that voters have. Or is not a lot of action. Is there a jobs bill . Probably not. Immigration bill . Probably not. If you keep on reading this and you see they are not in town, you will get frustrated. Guest if you are not already seeing it now in your home states, these congressmen and women coming back pushing hard for reelection. That whole Campaign Season also takes them away from washington and away from the need to take votes and work on legislation and have some meaningful impact. Guest people talk about november is far away and giving up already, but so many important races are out there. May is a huge month for primaries. Which part of it will be in control of those in washington, if they take the senate and the house . That will be determined in the next six weeks. Key primaries in north carolina, kentucky, georgia im a that will determine who is not only in the senate, which parties, but what type of party. Retired,nowe, who is and ted cruz, that is one of the swaps that happened in congress. That is a dramatic shift in the makeup of the conference and the party and what happens in washington. Host one thing you mentioned is the Kentucky Senate race. Senator mitch mcconnell. Playrole does that race specifically, and obviously him as Senate Majority leader minority leader . A few weeks ago he stopped playing his role as public dealmaker. He stepped back a bit and let the senate work on its own. He was not taking a handson approach. It looks like he will be dispatched by his primary opponent. Mitch mcconnell has had a history of going aggressively after his opponent. He came out this last week and announced that he had to basically defend himself to say that he was never a supporter of cockfighting. He went to a few events when that was happening. To say that you have to do this, probably not a good sign if you trying to be erected reelected to a senate seat. He has a double take and that he has to face, a top two democrat in the fall. Mitch mcconnell is unpopular, too, but the question is, can he get through that . He is certainly the favorite in the primary and the general. His reelection is definitely going to affect washington. Guest the fact that he is vulnerable at all is making democrats elevate. That makes it a highprofile race, not only because the senate is up for grabs in terms of who controls it, but he is such a powerful figure there. We talked earlier about the president s trip to asia. One of the big things that people were watching about whether a trade deal would emerge. Given one that has not, has the trip been successful . The white house would say so. They bristled at some of the coverage from the media about the fact that it was not because of the trade deal. That said, there were expectations they would be able to advance this trade deal, particularly in japan even up till the last minute when theyre waiting for the press conference between the president and Prime Minister abe. They were hoping to have language to show specific progress, but they have struggled to make progress on that in asia. It is something that is very important to this white house. They think it would be good for the economy in the United States and in these countries he is visiting, and for the world economy. Another thing, shane might be able to talk about this more. They arehe push that using internationally, it also faces some significant resistance in the United States, and not where you might think. Coming from democrats in the congress. Guest it was one of the interesting things this year, after the state of the union, the president talked about moving