Earnest with an announcement by the president and office of management and budget. Welcome to the washington journal. As the sequestration has begun, 85 billion is at stake. You have heard from the president and the speaker of the house. Now it is your turn to weigh in on the mandatory budget cuts that are taking effect effective today. The number is 2025853884, democrats 2025853881 for republicans 2025853882 for independents. You can also send us an email, the addresses there. We want to begin by showing you some of the headlines around the country, beginning with the chicago tribune, regarding the sequestration. The president s home town newspaper from the Atlanta Journal constitution, and on the front page of the Long Beach Press telegram, they say the sequestration will cost 250,000 will cost 750,000 jobs. This morning in the fort wayne indiana, no end in sight. We are going to take a look at more of the covers. Lets go to the phones. First of this terry in hagerstown first up is terry in hagerstown. Caller i hav eto admit you remind me of a standup comedian. These are not cuts. These are a reduction in increased spending. I find it totally amazing that people are freaking out over a two 0. 5 reduction a 2. 5 reduction in increased spending. My income, your income, it dropped. I guarantee you i cut more than 10 out of my budget. The government is not cutting its spending. It is spending more. We have the liberal media absolutely freaking out telling us the world is going to end because they are not going to spend as much as they wanted. Terry in hagerstown. Let us move to surely in maine on our line for democrats. Caller good morning. All money that goes to the Gas Companies, why wont the republicans budget on getting rid of those benefits for the Gas Companies . The gas prices go up and we are still paying the millions of dollars that would almost be enough to cover our deficit. It is really disgusting. Host we are talking about the mandatory budget cuts, not so much the gas situation. Caller we could have the budget cuts if we had the income that we were giving away. Sequestration is ridiculous. The republicans have to budget a little bit. They are so stubborn. Host our next call comes from brunswick, new jersey on our line for independents. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to make a comment. Mostly i agree with obamas policies. Even the sequestration is harsh, some kind of cuts need to happen so they can go back to the people and the next that would be a balanced approach. We have tax increase. We need some kinds of cuts. I believe the president could have taken some kind of step to prevent this from happening by giving something to the republicans. Next up would be a balanced approach. Host the wall street journal this morning this is what the president had to say [video clip] i believe we cannot replace these cuts and a balanced approach that has something for everyone. Smart cuts, entitlement reforms, tax reform that makes the tax code more fair for families and businesses. Also we can responsibly lower the deficit without blaming or forcing our parents to scramble for child care. I do not think that as partisan. It is what iran on last year. The majority of the American People agree with me. Wheat is the republicans to contradict or kebab which is the republicans in congress to catch up with their own party. I do know the republicans in congress who privately say they would rather it close tax loopholes that montes go through. I know democrats that would rather do smart untitled and reform them but these cuts go through. There is common sense on capitol hill, it is just a solvent group right now. We want to make sure their voices get heard. Im going to keep reaching out to them, but individually and as members of the house. I will say to them lets fix this. The greatest nation on earth does not conduct its business in a month to month increments or by careening from crisis to crisis. Host the president talking about the sequestration, which went into effect on midnight. Mandatory budget cuts will be taking effect. Ronald as calling us from pennsylvania on our line for republicans. Caller i did not understand why congress had to take off and go home when there was stuff to be done. It is pretty sad. Everyone is taking a cut in pay. Why dont we cut their pay . They do this all the time. Host who is your caller representative bob casey. Host and are you going to send him a message . I will do that. If i ever republican in the congress i would be there. Theyre not doing their jobs like they should be doing. Host we will move on to pat in south carolina. Caller it is our tax money they are giving to Oil Companies and special interest people. It is our tax money they do not want a cut. Host why do you think they dont want to cut it . Caller they are making money out of this. They do not have any money in their pocket. They leave as millionairess. It is not special interest people. Remember that. They switched the voting area just for this purpose. Host billy on our line for independents. Caller [indiscernible] no party affiliation. Host tweets peter as an independent, your thoughts . We have you as an independent, your thoughts . Caller it is abuse in the government on spending. Host we want to show you what Speaker Boehner had to say. House Speaker Boehner said this yesterday after a meeting with the president. [video clip] the American People know the washington has a spending problem. While there are smarter ways to cut spending than the process we are about taejon, the house should not have to pass a third bill before the senate does anything. The house is laid out a plan to avoid the sequestered. I would hope that the senate would act. Lets make it clear that the president got his tax hikes on january 1. This discussion about revenue, in my view, is over. It is about taking on the spending problem in washington. The house is going to move a continuing resolution next week to fund the government passed march 27. I am hopeful that we will not have to deal with the threat of a Government Shutdown while we are dealing with the sequestered at the same time. I hope the senate will follow suit. Host that this house Speaker Boehner yes today at the white house. This is the article in the new york times, it gives mr. Been a victory with his increasingly conservative managers e back to the phones and our discussion regarding sequestration and mandatory budget cuts taking effect. Victor is calling us from Silver Spring maryland on our line for republicans. Caller good morning. As far as im concerned, the republicans if you want to do some cutting eliminate the spending on the obamacare. I heard something last night that scared the pants off me, apparently there is going to be a new tax, a very high tax, that is going to be laid on the Insurance Companies. You know that the Insurance Companies are going to pass that on to the consumers. This has got to stop and obama care is extremely bad news. You people who voted for this, you are going to rue the day that you did. Host alabama on our line for independence, for independents, you are on the air. Caller it is just typical, but business versus government. Big business versus government. There are things they both can do. Any time neither is willing to take the budget, who takes the hit . That is the millddle class peop. There really should be a better way. Government should be the first to make the example. Host how would you remedy the situation if youre here in washington d. C. . Caller i would try to make myself familiar with every thing from entitlement cuts to tax loopholes. There are things that could be compromised on both parts. I think it is a case of classic negotiation. People being smart about things and compromise on both parts. Neither party is willing to bite down at all. That is where the sequestration came in. Host if you go to our web site, cspan. Org, you will find two links to documents that came out last night. The first one is an Immediate Release is a Media Release that came out from the president paused desk. He says you can read more about that at our website, cspan. Org. Greensboro, North Carolina on our line for democrats. Caller what we are looking at is a classic example of he tried on of hatred on what some would call the 21st century style of the civil war. What concerns me most is we never talked about harlem, what happenst to people. The media is focusing so much on other things. And a ministryt of a system that pays more taxes than the rich that cats that they are trying to get. I think it is irresponsible on their part. Now that he has a second term it is we must destroy him. Theyre trying to make a responsible for cutting back on medicare, medicaid, roe v. Wade, and everything that was accomplished from roosevelt. Host yesterday the president was asked why he cannot just assemble congressional leaders to get together and refuse to let them leave until its quest to deal had been reached . Calle[video clip] couldnt you just have been down here and have refused to let them leave the room . Jessica, i am not a dictator. I am the president. Ultimately if Mitch Mcconnell or john boehner say they need to catch a plane i cannot have secret Service Block the doorway. I know that this has been even though most people agree i am being reasonable, most people agree i am presenting a fair deal, the fact they do not take it means that i should somehow do a jedi mind meld with these folks and convince them to do what is right. They are elected. We have a constitutional system of government. The speaker of the house and leader of the senate have responsibilities. What i can do is i can make the best possible case for why we need to do the right thing. I can speak to the American People about the consequences of the Decisions Congress is making or the lack of the script or the lack of Decision Making by congress. Ultimately it is a choice they make. This idea that there is somehow a secret formula or secret way to get seat be greater to get Speaker Boehner or mitt mcconnell to say your right right, i thinkre if there was a way to do that i would have tried it. Host you notice in the last pronouncement that he used a mixed metaphor for folks that are fans of science fiction. It was covered by the papers. They have the president with the body from a star wars and the face of star trek. Ralph is on michigan on our line for republicans. Caller that whole joke about obama talking about science fiction, he has no idea what he is talking about. He is the one that created sequestration. All of these other people think the republicans did it. I think not. The republicans want this country to survive. Obama wants to destroy this country. Host the president may have proposed it but the republicans in the house and senate voted to go along with it. Caller they were in the minority. Host they are the majority in the house, though caller not with the sequestration went through. Host let us move to tom in virginia. Caller recently the Congress Passed this Superstorm Sandy bill. There was controversy because there were billions in port. Hear is stuff you dont about when it comes to lawmakers spending our money. You have cuts to people who are hard working and yet theyre still billions of going out that are wasteful. Host we have to reset in lynchburg, kansas on our line for c democrats. Caller my comment is if the rich owns 90 of the wealth in america, they need to spend they need to pay 90 of the taxes. Get back to work. Host thanks. Regarding taxes, laura writes to us on twitter we also have this one from someone who sends us tweets all the time he writes we wouldnt have this problem with the Federal Reserve couldnt print. This is a story in the wall street journal, you can go on our website and see the fed chairmans testimony. Back to the phones, henry in tennessee on our line for independents. You are on the washington journal, what you think about sequestration . Caller it seems to be politics as usual. I never heard anyone defend politicians. Lets face it they are focused on think lly to [indiscernible] it is just an observation. It is one party. It is the one person. It is the whole d. C. Racket. Host we are going to move on to john in pennsylvania. Caller i just wanted to say obama was a little weak. He should have stuck to his guns as far as the two hundred 50,000 threshold. The 250,000 threshold. John boehner and the republicans are so bored that all they care about is the rich in country. They do not care about the working families in this country. He doesnt realize who he is hurting. He is hurting single mothers, working poor, middleclass families that are just scraping to get by, so he can protect big corporate companies, Oil Companies, stuff like that as far as im concerned. One question i have had is to the subsidies to these Oil Companies and other big corporations do they still get their subsidies . Or is that being cut . Host the republicans are featured prominently on the front page this morning of the standard times, a the president. They the president and Mitch Mcconnell. I will not be part of any backroom deal and i will not agree to increase taxes. And House Speaker john boehner, the president got his tax hikes. Host go ahead, abbad. Caller i just wanted to say i agree with the reject the judicial system should cut their pay. I also believe the democrats and republicans are working together and that is why not much is getting done. They are both in the top 2 of the economies themselves. Most of them are wealthy people and i believe thats they should cut their pay. What hundred 70 four thousand dollars for each congressman plus their staff is just out of control. If they need a pay raise they just pay themselves. Have a good morning. Host we have a tweet in to the washington post, we are clinton take a look at two examples of for the cuts are going to take place. The first is the transportation and security commission, which must save 398 million. It could for low 50,000 employees for as many as seven days. Well take a look at another example in a second. Katharine in New Hampshire on our live for independents. Caller i have a suggestion for raising revenue. It is a winwin for everyone. It will lower the 16 trillion which will help the bouncing budget. It will also help american citizens. During World War Two more bonds were issued. Today we could issue u. S. Debt bonds to americans only. These bonds would pay down only the 16 trillion dollar debt and they would give 3 interest in 20 years. There is no place to save money. For most cds and banks, they pay out only 1 interest. People would earn a 2. 5 , 3 . Most of the people would spend it back into the u. S. Economy. These debt bonds would be sold at u. S. Post offices for a small fee, say 1. That is also helping the u. S. Post office. Host from North Carolina, steve your thoughts on a mandatory budget cuts taking effect . Caller good morning. I think it has been proven over the last four years that regardless of what this president does or says the republicans are going to kick against him. I feel they should do what is best for the American People. He was elected. He is doing a great job. They need to get over it. He is going to be our president for the next four years. I really believe that everything he did or proposed, john boehner and the republicans are going to kick against it. I also think it has a lot to do with his skin color. Host we are quite a tall of yours about the next installment of the the first ladys, this was going to be looking at abigail adams. She was considered more modern for her time. She was called mrs. President by detractors and was outspoken on her views on slavery and womens rights. She provides a unique window into colonial america and her life with john adams. Our Program Includes philadelphia and washington. We will take your tweets and facebook comments. This is live monday night at 9 00 eastern on cspan, cspan radio, and cspan. Org. Back to the phones, terry in North Carolina. Caller i would like to make one quick comment to the guy who just called in from North Carolina, i never woke up in the morning a i did not know where they get this thing on skin color. It is so offensive that it is unreal. You are saying now that republicans take money because they voted for it . Does that mean that democrats take blame because they voted for the of iraqi war . They are going crazy. We can even get back to where we were two years ago. Something is wrong in this country cannot do that. Host we are quite a see another example of the mandatory budget cuts that will be taking effect under the sequestration. This is from to the washington post, this is from the washington post, bill in teresa, wisconsin. Go ahead. Your thoughts on the mandatory budget cuts . Caller when Ronald Reagan was president , i did not know how many speeches he gave it does not hurt this country to be in debt. They figure if they put the country in debt they can do away with Social Security and medicare. George bush put two wars on the credit card. That proves the republican s plan is put the country in debt, do away with Social Security and medicare. That is how they are going to get away with it. When i see people going to rise up against these guys . Host the lead story in the kansas city star, back to the phones, willie in lakewood, washington. Caller good morning. I am all for this sequestered. Mitch mcconnell made statements that he was going to do nothing for this president. I am waiting on the call for all veterans to come to washington shoul