Here is how you can make your thoughts known democrats, 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Independents, 202 5853882. If you want to reach out to us is cspanwjdia, it or journal cspan. Org. A lot of stories about executive order. Executive order, specifically when it comes to minimum wage. The wall street journal is reporting that they would raise the minimum wage for workers on to 10. 10l contracts an hour, according to a fact sheet from the white house officials. The current federal minimum wage is seven dollars . 25 per hour and has not been raised since july 2009. About 16,000 federal employees were paid at or below the minimum wage in 2012. The agency does not specify how many employees were government contractors. Starting at 9 00, our coverage thespan for the state of union. A lot of information. We invite you to go to our cspan. Org website for more information about our coverage tonight. Times adding that mr. Obama would call on americans on tuesday night to to closein the fight the income gap with proposal such as raising the federal minimum wage. Of likely voters said income inequality is at least a somewhat serious problem. Fortier percent said that society would be less fair if government got more involved in regular leading the economy. What would you like the president or congress to address in the year . If you want to make your ghts known, call democrats, 202 5853880. Republicans, 202 5853881. Independents, 202 5853882. If you are a computer, you can reach us on twitter cspanwj or on our facebook page. One wants to see a top down economically planned economies, and focus on abuse to women and workers. Want president obama to talk about d. C. Statehood. Are people in his backyard who have no representation in the United States congress. They pay the highest federal taxes in the country per person, have no control over their local government. No control over their judiciary. We want him to talk about freeing the Nations Capital and giving fullservice and and a full and giving full citizenship to the people of the Nations Capital. About it. Eventually, it will happen. We have had demonstrations. He put the license plate on his car for the inauguration. We want him to talk about statehood. It is going to happen. Host mike, up next. From pennsylvania, independent line. Ifler i was wondering president obama can use the executive order on the unemployment. Thank you, bye. Host hyattsville, maryland. He talks too much about immigration and makes promises [indiscernible] the state of the Union Coverage starts tonight at 8 00 tonight on cspan. You can see the president starting at 9 00, leading up to it. A chance for you to comment on what you would like to see. You can make your thoughts known on our social media sites. Facebook. Com cspan and if you want to use twitter, cspan chat is the handle that you can use for our twitter. I would like president obama to address the Unemployment Rate of africanamericans. It has been the highest since he has got into office and it is still the highest. I would like to him to Start Talking about some kind of initiative to get the Unemployment Rate of africanamericans down. Host what specific things can you try to do on that topic . Someone in hisre administration is smart enough to come up with an initiative or incentive for businesses to consider africanamericans first during their hiring processes if we have the highest Unemployment Rates. A look atory taking the state of the union when it comes to the jobless rate overall. It talks about an initiative that the president has reached out with companies. He will try a different approach when he is expected to announce the white house has secured pledgers alleges from a number of the major u. S. Employers to adopt hiring rawls hiring policies that discourage us from a nation against the longterm unemployed. They include xerox corporation. Isege discrimination difficult to prove or measure, but several studies have found a longer someone is out of work, the less likely they are to find a job. A scholar found out there was a at six sharp dropoff months of unemployment in companies contacting the fake applicants for interviews. Patricia, independent line. Temperatures should. I would like to hear the president speak of peace, rather than war. Like to see they provide Adequate Funding to care for our veterans, millions of whom are not receiving appropriate health care. I know it is a dream, but i would like to see it happen. Veterans, it comes to it is Mental Health care or other health care . Caller i would like to see all health care addressed. More than one veteran an herselfkilling him or because they are not receiving health care. I would like to see the president take into account the genuine cost of war before he puts a boots on the ground. Includesne cost of war taking care of our veterans. If we were not at war, we would be saving all of that money we could put that money into life rather than death. Host william, st. Louis, missouri, democrats line. Go ahead. Is iny question washington, for six years, we had a decision on whether what laws going to be passed and lawmakers doing what theyre supposed to be doing. Bar pilot bipartisan is one of the words i dont understand. Every time something gets passed, the governor of some state changes the law because the president approved it, but they can change it to the way they want it to go. I think he needs to address how do you work with the government and the congress when neither one wants anything to go anywhere bipartisan. I thought it meant they worked together and came to a issue. Ise on an host jim imhoff weighing in via twitter. Retrieved if you believe he needs to apologize for failed obamacare system. If you believe he needs to apologize for failed obamacare system. Grand rapids, michigan. Caller i have a question. I would like for them to work more hard on the women and children here it have been talking a lot about the women and children. They have been talking a lot about the immigration laws. We need minimum wage to go up. They need to work on that, especially with them cutting off all of the women and children that are suffering. Yre forgetting about how there are still women and children out here that are suffering in the United States. The elderly work hard all of these years and they need to put it back into the elderly. We should be focusing on the women and children that they have cut off in the states. Host the wall street journal conducted a poll. Part of the poll is a tracking of job Approval Ratings. 43 Approval Rating in of theson to president s past. 62 for clinton. 54 for reagan. Pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent line. Pushinghe should stop for the Transpacific Partnership and the atlantic partnership. These trade policies are going to hurt americans. They heard people in other countries to. O. If our country was functioning right, we would have about 50 of the people employed in government service, whether it was city, county, state, or federal. Or 40 years, all of our services have been dropped to a skeleton of their previous ability to function. For example, public health. They are understaffed and underfunded. If we had a pandemic in the United States, we would have to bury our family in the backyard because we do not have Emergency Management and emergency staff who could deal with it. We have fires, the forest fires or rollover all over the country, a huge people need to be involved in dealing with the forest. They have to get rid of the youh and things that are, light a match and half a state goes up in flames. The Soil Conservation, we had a dust bowl back in the 1930s. We dont have enough people doing therees and Soil Conservation measures that would keep our land healthy. You go through the whole thing. Firemen,ers, police, the technical people that need to be testing the water to find out who is polluting the water, the people who are testing the agricultural products, finding out where we are being poisoned with bacteria and poisons from pesticides. Host that was pittsburgh, pennsylvania. A look at the president involved in the ross s of doing last in the process of doing lastminute changes. This Photo Courtesy of the New York Times. James, pennsylvania. Good to be on your program this morning. Thank you for cspan. I am a progressive leaning democrat and i would hope the ofsident speaks to the issue the minimum wage, that it should andncreased to at least 10 . 10. Even more perhaps. Immigration reform, definitely. I wish he would emphasize the problems we have with the economy now. With two points in mind i think we need to know more is notcally there enough education being done by any governmental source to highlight the damage that was done back in 2008. The global economy, how that affects our economy and home. We have left wall street off the hook. It is as if we are dumbed down today in not knowing more about how wall street failed the economy, failed the American People. Host how would you rate the president s handling of the economy . Caller he has had little to nothing in the way of support for what he is trying to get done. I cannot imagine he has tried his best to work with the Republican Party in the making attempts to create avenues whereby we increase employment and get people back to work. Jobs arepts to create very real and i think we do not know enough about why the republicans are so adamantly against his wanting to support legislation. Has the New York Times an analysis. A strong feeling in the country is that the economic deck is stacked in favor of those at the top, at the expense of the average person. Blame dont necessarily president obama for that, but their frustration certainly affects their feelings about this handling of the economy. If youre just joining us for our first 45 minutes, the state of the Union Coverage is tonight. Our coverage starts at 8 00 tonight. Issues to ask you about that the president and congress should address in 2014. Call us, send us a tweet, or put a posting on facebook. Lennox tom a lennox, rockville, maryland. Caller i want him to speak about what the company is doing. Over newbringing companies to bring in theyre bringing over new companies to take over the old companies. The new companies are firing people. The other Company Looks at it and the profile, they talk a lot of stuff about it. People cannot get work. People are doing very good in nothing. The president can do something to let them know that it is not right for them to come in, bring in a new company, higher cheaper people and people like they are nothing. Tomas, muncie, indiana. Independent line. Seizure of assets from multibilliondollar companies where they implement Money Laundering facilities for goods for the cartels. Not feasible and a keeps everyone on mulberry road. Host carol, salem massachusetts. Please consider the n this country does not approach a living wage, no matter where you live in the country. Unless you are prepared to give and 40e a hunting rifle acres and a mule, you have to give them a living wage. The fact that we have not in so we are so far behind, it gets worse all the time. This is a disgrace for decades. Using the president should wage should raise the minimum wage even if he has to use an executive order to do it . Pay their the haves share for a change instead of continuing to when we need money, go to the money the people that dont have it, cutting it out of Social Security and medicaid and medicare. Raise the floor under the federal income tax. Host ed is up next. Unemployment insurance, they recently decided to terminate when they voted on it, they could not get it to pass. I am a veteran of 11 years, an air force veteran. Was in school for rehabilitation for my Vocational Training in culinary arts and trying to get my skill level up to where i can get a better paying job and here i am in the middle of the school year and they terminated my Unemployment Insurance, so i cannot return to school. It has been a hardship. I am surprised they cannot get this to pass. People like me who serve the government and were trying to get skills to get a better paying job and they terminate the insurance program. It has been a tremendous hardship. It helps with gas and food and get you by. Host how did your life change because of that . Caller i was in school and had returned to the Niagara Falls area. To get by right now and living on what little bit of savings i have to get by during this hardship. School androlled in i dont have my insurance benefits. I will be trying to find work, but it has been a tremendous hardship. Host if the president goes forward on these kinds of themes, how do you think the best way to do it is, especially as he especially if he has to work with congress . Toler when it comes down it, people that are genuinely trying to get a better job or or not even seeking a minimumwage job, but a better job with minimum skill level, they should look at what theyre doing in terms of surviving. When you are in school, you are on a tight budget as it is. I was approved for program because i was unemployed veteran. Toy had something for me better my Vocational Training and now all of a sudden, in the middle of the school year, they shut off the Unemployment Insurance and they cut me right out of my schooling. Host that is ed from new york. This is leading up to this dating the state of the Union Tonight. A listing of the guests of the president tonight, including carlos adero bauman, and jeff survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing in april. Representative jim brydon will be bringing the father of navy seal tie woods who was killed in the benghazi attack as his state of the union guest. The Washington Times has a followup on that. I understand the importance of knowing that america leaves no one behind. To bring him as my guest. House is preparing the present the white house, the president , preparing for the speech night. Our coverage starts at 8 00 tonight. You can participate on facebook and cspan chat as well. Good morning, bob, go ahead. I think the president should bring about a federal workers and all of the people on Social Security will get acrosstheboard raises rather than a percentage. Everybody has to pay the same thing for a loaf of bread or something when they each and the eat and the they rent. This separates people down the line. This puts people into poverty more than anything else. Frank, linton indiana. Thank you for cspan. I think the president should talk about jobs and the next he ht to talk about [indiscernible] they took it away from me when i was 59 years old. Host what was your career . Caller i worked for general electric. Host how did trade affect that . Caller i worked in a sidebyside refrigerator plant and all of the highend refrigerators went to mexico. I got laid off at age 59 and i dont know whether anyone has experienced it, i am sure they have. When youre 59 years old, there is discrimination against age. I think he ought to stop the dash. It is nothing for the American People. About want to do anything equality between the rich and poor, he needs to stop that. We could have had millions of jobs if you would just do that. I havent heard of one prosecution during the savings and loans debacle years ago. People wereur charged with criminal offenses over 700 people were charged with criminal offenses and i havent heard of one you. Some details about the new agreement. The new fiveyear deal ends direct payments to farmers and makes cuts to food stamps without removing anyone from the program. The text ofeleased the actual deal. It will reduce deficit by about 23 billion. It cuts 90 million from farm subsidy programs, saves 6 billion dollars by increasing efficiency and conservation programs and saves a billion dollars by reforming food stamps. Additionalends an 16 billion on Risk Management and job creation and training. Michael, republican line. Caller good morning. N we look at the nation the United States uses a lot of money [indiscernible] will become active United States, you will see that a lot of people in the United States are homeless. They dont even have food to eat. Why should the United States continue to do [indiscernible] what should the president or congress do about that in 2014 . They need to look at internal matters. Look at the people who are living inside the United States. [indiscernible] it is not logic. Host sarah, palm coast, florida. Independent line. Caller good morning, cspan. And i voteds old for the president twice. I thought he was going to be able to do a lot of things. He is very smart, very charming. I hope he is a christian. To do is find jobs, jobs, jobs. Anyway he can. He has to learn how to be a leader with the congress. Lbj did it was civil rights. He can do it. Wish him well host when it comes to job creation, what is the best thing the president can do . Caller he can have infrastructure. That will create a lot of jobs and the republicans will fight it, but you have to he has to learn how to work with the congress. Most of them need to be thrown out. They are so corrupt and they spend most of their time trying to get reelected. This is ridiculous. They have to learn to work with the president. This is like a bunch of little kids in washington, d. C. Host what does the president have to offer and what does congress have to offer . Caller i dont know enough about it. I know it is a very