Most heavily populated states, means you are seeing newcomers are not welcome, existing renters can not buy houses, our children cannot buy houses. That is not the american dream, to stand in the way of our future. Host the book is entitled american nightmare how government undermines the dream of homeownership. This is from drake cinders what land use restrictions would you approve of . Guest a buy support local homeowners imposing their own i would support local homeowners imposing their own restrictions. This is how it works in houston, which has no zoning. Half of the residential neighborhoods have restrictions. If you live in a neighborhood without restrictions, you are allowed to petition neighbors, and if 75 agree, you can write covenants and restrictions for your neighborhood. If the developer says we think your neighborhood would be more valuable if we changed it, and we will pay you to change, you can vote to do that. That happens all the time. You get an evolutionary system that responds to demand, rather than government winds and fads. Your thoughts about the federal housing administration, where nearly for 80 years, they have maintained a stable Housing Market, helping lower and middleincome families enter the Housing Market through government assistance. Guest that is true in places without wind use restrictions, the when you have Something Like the fha subsidizing housing prices, youre creating more instability. Host how do they subsidized it . Guest by providing lower Interest Rate loans than the private market might provide, which means to an increase in demand, and increases in demand need rapid increases in prices. The price decreases mean decreases in prices. That ends up creating a lot of instability. I do not think we need the fha. Homeowners of very low incomes were able to buy homes in the 1920s without fh. We do not need freddie mac for the mortgage Interest Rate reduction. Because it is not need the land use restrictions that are making housing affordable in the first place. Host here is some information about fha by the numbers insuring in total about 1 trillion in lows, but 739,000 of these homes are in delinquency. The projected shortfall for next year is 16 billion. Guest yes, and a majority of these homes are in states with land use restrictions. Ticket did not have these restrictions, housing prices would not collapsed if you did not have these restrictions, housing prices would not have collapsed. People would not be in foreclosure. Host cord guest is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Ken, independent line. Caller it did not take a genius to see this housing bill was going to bust. Ive seen two bedrooms go for 380,000. Housing was way overvalued. Realtors, bankers, they were all participating. One more thing on president obama. President obama met with Jesse Jackson every saturday for about one year, but ever since he was president he did not invite him to the white house one time. All of these black people crazy about obama, you had better think twice. Thank you. Guest you were right that houses were overpriced in california, but they were overpriced before the bubble. Houses in North Carolina might cost you 600,000 before the bubble, 1. 5 million at the height of the bubble, and now down to 400,000 four times as expensive as they would begin south carolina, which does not have land use restrictions. Host denver, colorado, ron. Republican women. Republican. Caller good morning. It seems like the Community Reinvestment act that was passed in 1975 more or less laid the foundation for the housing bubble as that was the beginning of the subprime. That evolves and was expanded upon. Business took advantage of it. Because of that we get the ball. The bubble. The cra is still on the books, and subprime loans are still being made. I was wondering, do you think a major part of the foundation was the Community Reinvestment act and ended should be eliminated . He called the Community Reinvestment act, i do not think it had as big or roll was people like to say. Housing was already expensive in places like california and hawaii because of land use laws from the 1960s. Second, if you look to the Community Reinvestment act, if you think that is the cause of the bubble, you have to explain why there was not a bubble in houston, raleigh, n. C. , that winter . Atlanta . It applied to those cities just as much as San Francisco and miami, yet there were bubbles there and no balls in houston, omaha, bubbles in houston, ohio, global hawk, where have you. Host you conclude the book with Home Ownership is not just an american dream, a dream of people all over the world. Guest that is absolutely right. A lot of research has shown that homeownership is one way to help people get out of poverty. If you want to start a Small Business, it turns out most are started with a loan on a Business Owners home. If you want to put your kids through college, you can borrow against your home. Homeownership is a way to build wealth. Yet we have government saying we should get more people into apartments, fewer people into cinder the singlefamily homes. Host what is the track over last 8to10 years . Guest if we get rid of land use restrictions, i am optimistic, but if we do not, housing prices will go what, then we will be poised for another big financial crisis. Host john joins us from michigan. Independent. Caller good morning. Thank you for educating people on your television show. We live in a community where we are experiencing exactly what youre talking about, particularly businesses, and i am talking big businesses. They do not like where the doors are located, or this department over here, and what they are doing is restricting jobs and tax base. I would encourage people to get involved in your institute and fight this because it is not doing anything for the economy or our country. Merry christmas to everybody. Host john, thank you for the call. What is the history of the Cato Institute, founded in 1977 . Guest it was founded to promote liberty and economic freedom, starting in San Francisco, and then move into washington, d. C. Milton friedman admitted the Kindle Institute has never sold out. We still work for liberty and freedom. Ive been working with the Cato Institute since 1995 and full time since 2007. Host mary, fort washington, maryland. Democrat. Caller i would suggest thinking that if you follow all of the problems come at the end of the trail you will find the smiling grin of greed. That is what i think caused it. For myself, naca program helped us, taking us out of the ugly arm. My mortgage is 964 a month, which will allow us to stay in our home comfortably. Guest people blame things like a financial crisis on greed, but greed is not changing. It has been with us for hundreds of thousands of years. People are greedy naturally. If we design institutions assuming people are altruistic, we will get hurt. We have to assume they are greedy, and if there altruistic, we will only benefit from that. We assume that people want to live in their own home, and give people a choice, buying or renting without imposing huge restrictions, people can do that. When we start imposing restrictions, we create problems. Host john cit john joins us from georgia. Good morning. Caller political entrepreneurs are greedy for power, coveting our wealth and welfarecreators. The evidence is the federal government level of spending doubling every 10, 11, 12 years. What percentage of the american peoples income doubles every decade . Very few. Most of the wealth that could be going through to enterprise, look to washington. When it comes to agenda 21, Randal Otoole, i would like you to comment on that effect putting landuse restrictions. Guest a lot of people raise agenda 21, the document from 1992 that endorsed the kind of land use restrictions that i am concerned about. These land use restrictions actually go back to the 1960s in the United States. Agenda 21 has not effected the land use restrictions, but it is merely a symptom. Look at hawaii, california, oregon, vermont they were passing these kinds of laws in the 1960s and the early1970s. This is a home grown problem, not a United Nations problem, and is a multitrillion dollar problem that could cause a shift in the economy. Host beyond land use restrictions, what surprised you in researching this book guest it was surprising to find a working class families in the 1960 in the 1890s had much higher ownership restrictions Home Ownership levels than middleclass families who did not want to own homes because they feared a workingclass family would move in next door to them. By treating zoning and the war on sprawl, they were able to drive prices up. It made me suspicious when people talk about zoning nowadays. It is not a way to protect Property Values so much as it is to protect to discriminate against lower income people and i am not enthused about that. Host the book is entitled american nightmare how government undermines the dream of homeownership. The offer, Randal Otoole of the Cato Institute. Horizon american nightmare how government undermines the dream of homeownership. The author, Randal Otoole, thank you. Lets share some headlines with you. This is from the New York Times. This is from the business section of the New York Times. There is this from the money section of usa today. From the wall street journal, and this headline from the Washington Post. We have news from morning programs, where Chuck Schumer told nbc that he is in courage to Mitch Mcconnell his getting actively involved in talks. Republican senator john stone noted the meeting among the president and congressional leaders is encouraging because people are talking. We want to check in. In the two hours since we last talked, any news you could clean . Guest no disrespect, but no. They are realistic these things often get resolve the blessed minute. It would not shock me if we are still talking like this 48 hours from now. The deadline it is 11 50 9 00 p. M. On the first. It looks bleak, but there are only five or six people that really know what is going on, and they are not talking to us. The effected theyre talking to each other is encouraging. The fact that they are talking to each other is encouraging. Host lets walk through the scenarios. There is a meeting this afternoon, which is significant. A lot of negotiations have been between the president and speaker john boehner. November 16 was the last time and the only time they met. Its going to happen . We expected bombshell announcement . No. The thing to watch is are they going to keep talking . Will these they are we going to see everyone tomorrow . In 1994, they would go to Andrews Air Force base, cant david, but they would keep talking. Camp david, and it would keep talking. What will happen on the floor of the house and the senate . The senate has to take a pay bill, and then it, and send it back. When they agreed to that . A third thing we need to watch is the tone. If everybody says theyre hopeful, that is important i go back to last friday, after Speaker Boehners plan b, which would have taxed millionaires had a higher rate, fizzled. He had a press conference that was angry and criticizing democrats, but at the end he said he was hopeful, and that was the news. Host maybe we should send your dog in the meeting. Guest she wants to know who will pay for dog food next week. Host if there is no agreement, what will the Congress Face . Guest i did not yen will be as apocalyptic as we think. It is a question of what the markets do. The Congress Comes in at noon on january 3. It does not take a lot to reintroduce legislation. I think what will motivate this congress will be the markets. If they come in at noon, and the dow was down hundreds of points, they will act fast. They will be scared. If the markets did this and could signal that they are doing now, i do not think the urgency will be there. Host finally, the dynamic in the room, the relationship between the principals. Guest people talk about the lack of the relationship, but these people are professionals and they know how to legislate. All six of them in the room today have worked across party lines. Nancy pelosi, she worked with george w. Bush in 2008 to craft a stimulus. They worked together on tarp. Mitch mcconnell voted for tarp i could go on and on. For all of the tough talk, look at the word hopeful or optimistic. It is there. Host we will john boehner face a challenge to speaker . Guest there is grumbling, but the feeling is no. I did not think so. One of the most significant things that happened, going back to that press conference one week ago when the talk was in the air, eric cantor stood by his side, and that was a signal that if anybody is going to challenge him, it might be eric cantor. He will not challenge. He is absolutely on board. Host david lightman, thank you as always for being with us. Guest thank you for having me. Host we will check in with you again and your dog. Every friday we look at america by the numbers. Today, we want to focus on the issue of hunger in america. Washington journal continues. Negotiations are resuming this afternoon at 3 00 p. M. Eastern time. [applause] there are cynics said that a Party Platform is something nobody bothers to read and it does not amount to much. Whether it is different this time than it has ever been before, i believe the Republican Party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable callers with no faded or pastel shades. You see the evolution of ronald reagan. He speaks in his speech about hope, a future without Nuclear Weapons, but it is more progressive and optimistic in 1976. You can see his anticommunism is evolving. His cultural view is evolving. He is not yet gained or acquired the tax cut philosophy that fit nicely into his optimistic outlook of empowering individuals. Saturday night at 8 00 eastern, Craig Shirley, on the political campaigns of ronald reagan. You think of washington in 1835, 25 years before the civil war, what would you think . Slavery was well entrenched, the black people were miserable, the whites were cruel and indifferent. That is etched actually not true at all. Washington had about 30,000 people. 12,000 were black. The majority of the black people in washington in 1830 were free. What led to the washington, d. C. , first race riots . Snowstorm in august sunday night on cspan2s booktv. Washington journal continues. Host on fridays, we look at america by the numbers, and we want to look at hunter in america with Caroline Ratcliffe, and hundred in america, with Caroline Ratcliffe and Alisha Coleman jensen. As you look through these figures, what surprised you the most . Guest thank you for having me. Just to talk of all our main findings, our latest statistics arent based on 2011 and the annual Food Security survey conducted in december, 2011, and we found that 14. 9 of households were food insecure, lacking consistent access to adequate food. We found the rate has hovered around 14 to15 since 2008. It was at 11 in 2007. Host let me go to some headlines. The 15 of these households have trouble putting adequate food on the table. The question is why do we have hunger in america . Guest that is a great question. We have a number of programs targeted at reducing Food Insecurity in this country, but we have high poverty rates in the country, high levels of unemployment, and it contributes to the levels of Food Insecurity. Host one of the issues the first lady has been pushing for is more Grocery Stores in the inner city area and healthier choices. Does that contribute to the problem people not able to go to supermarkets . Guest there is concern about areas where there is difficulty getting enough food and access to food, which could contribute to the problem, exactly. Host what are the major Government Programs designed to deal with this issue . Because there are several designed to deal with food guest there are several designed to deal with food, and one is the snap program, formally food stamps, and then the wcks program, and in the school lunch program. Host how many people over all rely on these programs . Guest for the snap, the former Food Stamp Program, it is about 47 million individuals. For the school lunch program, it is about 30 million children breakfast is about 10 million, children. Breakfast is about 10 million. Host lets define Food Insecurity and not able to provide adequate food for one more household members due to lack of resources. Then you have very low food secure households were normal eating patterns were disrupted and food intake was reduced below the level that is considered appropriate. Can you elaborate . Because these are households experiencing food are chip guest these are households experiencing food hardship, not able to provide balanced meals. The more severe condition, the sub category, that is the more severe rage where household members are actually experiencing inadequate food intake. They might b