Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20130821 : vimarsan

Or post your comments on facebook. Com cspan or email us at journal cspan. Org. A piece this morning from janet hauck, a town Hall Meetings happening across the country, this is what she reports of color that is a bit on what is happening in town Hall Meetings across the country. Here on cspan we have been those town Hall Meetings and if you are interested in watching them, you can go to cspan. Org. Before we came up live here we were showing you a recent town hall meeting with congressman justin [indiscernible] a republican who many of you know is against the nsa program. Nsa, health care, Immigration Reform, it is all on the table for members of congress. What is your message to them . Greensboro, n. C. , what do you think . I am calling about the town hall caller i am calling about the town hall meeting that was played just prior to ,washington journal coming on and it looked like a representative was playing to the fears of the people in the audience. I am sure that he knew what they were saying, but he was just giving vague information. One person stood up and said that his he took his son to the hospital because his son was beaten by a dog and he talked to different people at the hospital and the comment was, get rid of the federal government. Instead of the representative addressing his concern, it did not make sense. Like anperson, look elderly gentleman, said he was in favor shutting down the governments. Does he realize that he is receiving any kind of Social Security benefits or medicare that that would be shut down, too . The representative did not explain it to him. Republicans just look like theyre playing into the fears of the people in the audience. Host that will be an issue, when they return in october, september, some of the Republican Party would like to negotiate with the president and if he agrees to defund the Affordable Care act, they would agree to spending levels for the fiscal year. Then there is the issue of raising the debt limit in october. Some republicans would like to see further spending cuts put in place or they will shut down the government. What do you think of all of that . Think that that is awful. They are trying to blackmail the country. Republicans do not want the country to be successful. They want the president to fail and they do not mind bringing down the president bringing down the country in their attempt to make the president fail. Why would you shut down the government based on health care. They are not concerned about people who cannot get health care . Why would one person in the country not want another person in the country to have access to health care . But i just think it is awful. Host all right. Noll, new york. Caller my message to congress would be to defund obama care and the immigration bill in the house, nothing should be done with it, because they should they should actually not vote on it, they should allow it to go, i am not for Immigration Reform at all. I think that the government is too large and that what congress should do is try to get limited government down to smaller government, as it should be, constitutionally. Host do you think that the republican should hold strong and d Funding Health care and shut down the government . Caller i think that they should defund obama care, that is it. Obama care. We are talking about specific bills. The president is talking about going the other way. He sponsored the mandate on businesses. He himself is saying that with obama care, if he sees responses to obama care, why should he go ahead with it . I think we should defund obama care, not the government. Host ok. That was knowle, new york, independent caller. Health care is certainly one of the issues that has come up at these town Hall Meetings, at many of them, whether republican, democrat, or immigration, all topics that have come up at these town Hall Meetings. Bobby scott, a democrat from virginia, had a town hall meeting that we covered recently and here is what he had to say about the Affordable Care act. One of the things that we did when we passed obama care was to make sure it was fully paid for. We made some changes in medicare and everyone can remember the number of billion dollars that we took out of medicare to pay for health care, to help pay for obama care. We helped to raise taxes. When the dust settled, the Congressional Research Service Estimates that there will be more paying for at than there are services, about 1 trillion in services, 1 chilean in new offsets, the budget will be about 100 billion better off and a lot more better off in the future because of obama care. This suggestion that it is a fiscal responsibility issue, there is nothing wrong with looking at the numbers. If you look at the numbers in stark contrast to the medicare drug, what was passed did not get paid for, it went straight to the bottom line deficit, that is where the deficit came from. That is how we got in the ditch that we are in. Obama care, be meticulously made sure, everyone was running on how you pay for it, we like to run on the benefits, but if you are doing it right you have to do both. Host congressman bobby scott, representing the Third District earlier this month about health care and other issues. Our question this morning, your message to congress . Lawmakers are getting ready to come back to washington. All that is on the table. This person says is shutting down is what it takes, shut it down. Ublican springs, republican caller, colorado springs. Hello . All right, let me move on to mike in alexandria. Democratic caller. Caller thank you. The greatest problem that i see is the media, the public. Celebrity, scandal, violence, corruption throughout the country, the fcc has a role in chastising the industry for what they do. The movie industry should be criticized. Responsible for being informed and misinformed. Host victor, fort wayne, indiana. Your thoughts . Have the president take less vacations to do more work. Host what should be at the top of their to do list . Inler more or less, stay office, quit running around the country, and stay on subjects, rather than doing a month here, a month there, just go home for thanksgiving and christmas. Normal factories or places that do in the United States. Host what do you say to members of congress who will say that when they are not in washington, they are not technically on recess. They are back in their home districts and speaking to their constituents, doing constituent services, helping out constituents who might have problems, hauling town Hall Meetings, that sort of thing . Meetings, town hall that sort of thing . Caller that would be great if they did more town Hall Meetings and there were fewer vacations. If they did it more often and kept working more often and did not worry about traveling around to some other country, but if they stayed on the subject of the United States. Host art, illinois, republican caller. Caller hi. Host your message to congress . Caller this congress is dying and dying slowly. If we shut down the government it might die. On the other hand, it might recover and be in better shape than it was before. Thank you. Host all right. On the domestic front, Health Overhaul targeting hispanics, frontpage story this morning. A story in that is the wall street journal about the nsa, reaching deep into the United States despite. It says host if you are interested in this and want to follow this topic and have your members of Congress Talk about it, possibly not funding those actions . This story is in the front page of the wall street journal. Today,the usa private manning could get 50 years. Host that is happening today. Also, yesterday in egypt we talked to all of you about the administration temporarily suspending military aid to egypt. The administration has taken issue with how that has been characterized. This is from the washington. Ost this morning in the Washington Post this morning. Front page of the New York Times on cairo this mort this morning, firmly hooked into the u. S. Pipeline. We talk about whether there was leverage from the u. S. In the military yesterday. Mississippi, democratic caller. Your message to congress . Take healtheed to care way from congress. They are making 70 per hour and they will not even raise the minimum wage. Most of america are too stupid to realize theyre voting against their own interests by not voting health care for themselves. Have a nice day. Host sue, your message to congress . Caller i want to be at your Health Care Plan, congress. Host what do you think should be done about the Health Care Law . Host if they vote it in for us, they should be under the same health care. Host do you think should be defunded . Caller yes, i do. Host have you send that message to a member of congress . Caller i have not. Host of the to attend a town hall meeting . Caller yes, i have. T who is did you go to whose did you go to . Caller ron paul. Host when was that . M, when he was running last time . Host thank you. Next caller. Caller tell my message to them is caller my message to them is that obama care is coming in with medicare was here before obama care. If we take money at of this out of thisot program to fund that one, that money should have changed the Medicare Program around. Why do we need obama care when we could have restructured medicare and medicaid . They would not need to take money out of one program to build a new one. I live on a street where there are six cracows is, the only black guy in a black neighborhood, it takes the police 45 minutes to get here and when they come, they do not do anything. I have watched the government do nothing. I am disabled and retired. My wife and i stayed, we bought a house, we did we are supposed to do. I get my disability because i paid into it for all of those years, you understand . I watch people sell food stamps and drugs on my street. I watch people sell drugs out of the house that is paid for by the Housing Authority of atlanta. Host of democratic caller, east st. Louis, illinois. Caller thank you for allowing me to make this statement. I have heard the sentiments about what other people are doing, but you have got to think about when the constitution was , africanamericans were not even considered full citizens in this country. Over the last 400 years we have been asked to forget about it, get over it. It has been a denial to the citizens of this country. Host wondering what you Want Congress to do about it. Caller what congress can do is start acting like we are citizens, especially the republicans. When they did create obama care washington,zens in d. C. , beating on congress, this tea party, spitting on another person, spitting on black congress. I am so sick of these people acting like they have not done nothing host got that point. On twitter the Washington Times and others reporting on Health Care Premiums this morning. Host that is health care this morning. Continuing that team inside of the Washington Times, this headline about marco rubio, a possible president ial contender in 2016, trying to shift focus from immigration to obama care. Att that has been a topic town Hall Meetings, or rubio, part of the socalled gang of eight, at marco rubio, part of the socalled gang of eight, a look at what hes doing over the congressional break. S article was on ted cruz is about ted cruz. Placid,chard, lake florida, good morning. Caller congress should immediately defund this Health Care Bill. Not only is it not a Health Care Bill, it is a tax bill and the Supreme Court designated it a tax bill. They rewrote the bill. Now even democrats in congress are saying they cannot live with this bill because it is too extensive expensive. Alreadyt obama has exempted them from Affordable Health care, which is a joke. It has 21 additional new taxes, 13,000 pages that will go to the irs, you have to fire 18,000 irs agents to enforce the bill. This is a total disaster. Also, this immigration bill host do you think it is worth defunding the Health Care Law . Do you think it is worth shutting down the government and not raising the debt ceiling . For thei Work Department of defense for 30 years and was working the last time they supposedly shut down the Government Back in the 1990s, that was a big joke. Emergency departments are never shut down, only nonessential personnel and nonemergency departments and agencies. There will be plenty of. Overnment only Affordable Care act. That needs to be refunded. Defunded. It is not a Health Care Bill to begin with, it is to control the economy. Basically, it is a control bill. Host immigration . Caller the immigration bill is nothing more than another amnesty bill. We have immigration. See, they keep trying to bring together Congress Keeps trying to bring together immigration and the illegal aliens. We have Immigration Laws that congress and this administration will not follow. So, they keep trying to usurp the law and bring in a way to make the eagles legal. We already have the Immigration Law, we need to make illegals legal. We already have Immigration Law that we need to follow. Host all right. Pensacola, chris, you are on the air. Caller ok . Host ok, sir. Audio] [no host one last call for chris. Caller ok, my call for congress, instead of shutting down the congress, get the money we are giving to other countries and give it back into our country. If we need the health care for people that cannot afford it, give it to them. Host george, democratic caller. Caller yes, i agree with the last caller. Bring the troops home, shot the wars down that the republicans started that were unjustified. Thet sitting down with president in congress and try to make obama care work rather than trying to repeal it 40 times, sit down and make this Health Care Plan work. We are the only world power nation in the world that does not have health care for all of its people. [indiscernible] even have health care for their own people. Host ok, george. Republicans retreat to shut down. Timesthe new york weighing in on that, as well as this, Yucca Mountain and Nuclear Waste. On monday in an hour your money series and how your taxpayer dollars are being spent on the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste site, this morning they said that after spending decades and billions studying it, congress is ready to announce new funds to complete the licensing evaluation to determine whether or not it would make a successful repository. Host robert, new london, conn. , how are you . Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller when i heard that congress was involved with insider trading, that got me really upset, as it should anybody who pays taxes. Less and less every year, i just want them to do that. Peace in the middle east, you know, with israel and the palestinians, that is a big joke. I have been studying it for years, i wish something would be done with that. It does not make sense. That is about it. Wish everybody a great day in the usa. Host all right, texas, republican caller. Caller hello, it is great talking to you. I agree with most of what people are saying on the air. Obama care ishis essentially a tax bill. Not havingcongress to go under the obama care . That is frightening by itself. , governmenthing is shut down . Has it hurt anyone or anything . No, it is not affecting anything. The sequester, is it hurting anyone . No, not really. Keep the shutdown, keep everything as is, do not start it back up. Keep those people out of office, what ever it is this shut down, keep it as it is. It seems to be working. Nobody is hurting. Host all right. Jerry, democratic caller, your message to congress . Caller tell my message to congress on the Affordable Health care act, people, a majority of people realize that the Affordable Health care act has not been fully implemented,et they are asking and judging trying to ask to make a judgment about how they feel on of Affordable Health care when it has not been implemented. They have not been given the opportunity to see the full picture before making a judgment. Is theyg with congress seem to have forgotten, are not forgotten, but present that the president has been out for a and other things very this. Has come out of host president obama is going on tour to talk about the high cost of college. Washingtonm the times, rethinking the cost of a College Education. Host on this issue, this is from the denver times courtesy of the newseum. Host that is from the denver post this morning. Byother news, a petition veterans groups calling on the Affairs Secretary to resign because of the claims backlog that has been plaguing the agency, cases pending 125 days or longer, it stands at 490,000, down from 530,000 reported on june 15. Below tha