And the comments. The house begins its debate on budget plans. A busy week in congress. We will focus on the upcoming Midterm Elections. Our phone lines are open you can join in on the conversation on facebook. Send us a tweet at cspanwj. Or send us an email at journal cspan. Org. New york times has the voting in afghanistan front and center. A also the front page of the Washington PostMichael Ohanlon will be joining us later in the program to offer his perspective on the voting that took place in afghanistan and what is next for the u. S. Troops. Politico is reporting on the ap story that is getting a lot of attention over the weekend off of the coast of australia in the south indian ocean. It says the Australian Air chief said yesterday that the agency cannot verify any connection between the signals and Malaysian Airline flight 370. And this from cq weekly, focusing on money team and the appropriators. Congress continues its debate on budget priorities. He writes for the Washington Post, thank you for being with us. Lets walk through last week as we saw the budget detail priorities from the budget chairman and house of representatives and we heard from his counterpart in the house of representatives offering an alternative point of view. Now this moves front and center in the house this week. Guest this is the opel point this week the focal point this week. This is a proposal that would spending that would slash spending over the next decade. It is a lot of the same stuff we have seen and democrats really want to put this front and center. They want to make this into a campaign issue. Democrat leaders said this is something voters will reject this is something they want to make an issue in the fall campaign. Regardless of what happens in the house, it doesnt have a chance of passing in the senate. What we are looking at is a political battle leading up to november. Host let me share how this debate unfolds, beginning first with the comments of congressman paul ryan. Some speculate that in the next congress he will become the chair of the house ways and Means Committee with the retirement of congressman dave camp. There was the Statement Last wednesday before the committee. This Statement Last wednesday before the committee. [video clip] the American People want a balanced responsible budget. By supporting our military it will help keep our country safe. The president cost budget never balances ever. Our budget, on the other hand balances in 10 years. And it puts us on the path of paying off our debts so our children and grandchildren can have a good future. How do we do it . First to stop spending money we dont have. We make muchneeded reforms to say 5. 1 trillion over the next 10 years. Our critics call this look at it this way, on the current path the federal government will spend 48 trillion over the next 10 years. I contrast this budget will spend 43 trillion. On the current path spending will grow an average 5. 2 per year. Under our budget spending will grow 3. 5 per year. Increasing spending by 3. 5 instead of 5. 2 is hardly ciccone and. Hardly draconian. Host already democrats are saying this will be a defining issue in the Midterm Election. Is this a political document or spending plan . Guest i think this is a political document more than anything else. This is something republicans need to do in order to please their base. A want to turn out their base voters in the Midterm Elections. Democrats look at this as an opportunity to have the debate on these issues, have a debate on something other than the president S Health Care law. They want to put these issues front and center. In many ways they are just as happy as the republicans to talk about the budget. The fact this has virtually no chance of ever becoming law, at least under this white house and a democratic senate, basically at the end of the day what we are looking at is a political debate. Host let me ask you about the michigan delegation. Congressman dave camp announcing this week he will step down as chair of the house ways and Means Committee. Mike rogers announced earlier in march he was stepping down as the chair of the house intelligence committee. And joining congress meant john dingell, the longestserving member of the house of representatives, also stepping down. This adds down adds up to a century of legislative. That congress is losing. That is missing to is michigans loss as well. Guest it is remarkable to see these retirements come some speculate it is a sign that being in congress isnt what it used to be. Pretty remarkable chain of events coming out of michigan. What is interesting is that michigan has an open senate seat that will be up this election cycle and we didnt see any of the republicans who are retiring run for senate. Pretty interesting moves out of michigan. Host Sean Sullivan will be with us until the top of the hour as he talk about congress. You can join in on the conversation. Our phone lines are open. I want to share with you what the president said. He was in ann arbor last week responding to the ryan budget. [video clip] [laughter] herees the truth. They are not necessarily coldhearted, they just sincerely believe if we give a few tax breaks to a fortunate few and invest lest in the middle class invest less in the middle class and we cut food stamps and we cut medicaid and insurers only do what is best for their bottom line without the responsibility of the rest of us, then somehow the economy will boom and jobs and prosperity will trickle down to everybody. When i say it that way i know it sounds like i am exaggerating, except i am not. Host john sullivan, you can almost hear the campaign ads coming out from what the president said in ann arbor michigan last wednesday and what republicans are saying. You have an issue between this republican budget plan the democrats are taking aim at and of course the republicans taking aim at the Affordable Care act. Guest we have two competing issues here. From the democratic perspective they want to make this election about the ryan budget. They want to make this about the items in the ryan budget. The republicans are content to make the 2014 Midterm Elections all about obamacare. If you look at the polling what we have seen over the last couple of years is what we are seeing now. Health care law, on the whole is not very popular. And neither is the president. They are content making this election about the Health Care Law. From the democratic perspective that is obviously not a popular issue to talk about right now. They would rather talk about the ryan budget. This gives them a potential opening to shift the conversation to something else. We will see in the coming months if this becomes an issue or if the focus stays on the Health Care Law like it has been pretty much the last few months. Host Sean Sullivan writes politics and covers cant covers congress. Some of your comments on Facebook Erick is joining us on the phone from seattle, washington on the democrats line. Caller good morning. The road to ruin, it is a disgusting document. Another thing i cannot understand about this is these republicans in the south, these white people vote against their own interests time and time again. There are poor people, lower middle class, they are on medicaid medicare, they get all kinds of subsidies. And they get all this government aid. Anytime government grants and things come in they dont want to help the American People. Im going to finish with this, i want to know if republicans want to live under the policies of this ryan budget and all these policies of this ryan budget. Thank you. Host a few more comments on our Facebook Page on the republican line anthony is joining us from garden city new york. Caller good morning. I honestly think the republicans are going to win the senate. The democrats are going to have such a tough voter turnout. The republicans have a huge advantage there. If you look at the races the democrats are going to defend, they are defending states like iowa and New Hampshire. I think they are learning from their mistakes, and learning they cannot nominate people like kristi noem donnell. They are nominating people like christine odonnell. They are nominating people like scott brown. The democrats have to sped have to spread their Campaign Across the country. The only once republicans have to worry about our georgia and kentucky. Host lets go to gail joining us on our independence line from freehold, new jersey. Caller i also believe the republicans are going to win. Obamacare is doing more to hurt the middle class than anything else. Obama is not out for the middle class, he is out for only one portion of society. It is a massive redistribution scam. There are people barely making 50,000 per year and he is hurting a lot of people in that category. I dont think the dems will keep the senate. Host Sean Sullivan what are you hearing from our viewers this morning . Caller one of the colors brought up a great point about Midterm Election voter turnout. Democrats are very concerned about their ability to turn out voters in the fall. We saw in the recent florida special elections the republican turnout was pretty robust. It helped the republican candidate win. We saw huge wave election for republicans in 2010. The challenge for democrats is how to get voters to turn out in these Midterm Elections who may not normally be interested in the campaigns and issues that are front and center the selection. They do a good job turning out voters in the president ial election. The question is can they get enough voters to come out this fall . Host i want to share with our audience the latest from americans for prosperity, the Organization Funded in large part by the Koch Brothers taking aim at senator mark pryor, who is one of those vulnerable democrats. [video clip] running your own trucking business is a lot like farming. You have to make hay with the sunshine greet you put in 60 hours per week. With the sunshine. You put in 60 hours per week. We have yet to receive anything telling us we are going to be extended. It is like living in a haze. We dont know whether we are going to have insurance or afford your insurance. It was taken away from us, or given back to us, we dont know what it has been now. I think the American People are tired of this constant angst. Mark pryor voted for this law reader do you think he will be responsible for years from now or two years from now . Senator mark pryor voted for obama care. Tell senator Pryor Obamacare hurts arkansas families. Host you are writing about Health Care Dan balz writing about health care we are seeing that play out in key senate races. Guest that typifies the Republican Group and republican campaigns. They are running very personal ads, specific things that show voters this is how the law is affecting you. This is how the law is affecting voters like you and other americans like you. They want to keep this issue front and center. Millions of dollars already are being spent running ads all over the country. When you look at polling, attitudes are pretty firm. You have part of the country that is in support of the law and a big chunk of the country that is against the law and not many persuadables on one side or the other. Heading into november it is about who can get its voters to turn out. Host this tweet was sent to us this weekend in the wall street journal, peggy newman writes peggy noonan writes it gets to the narrative where democrats see minimum wage and single women as key to their election vote in november. [video clip] im courtney. Im not very lyrical but i have been doing some reading about tom cotton, who is running for senate. It says he voted to change medicare into a voucher system that would increase outofpocket expenses for every senior in arkansas. Thousands of dollars every year. My grandma and grandpa cant afford that and neither can my parents. Check it out on therealcotto nrecord. Com. Host that is a scene playing out in arkansas. Guest we are going to see a lot more ads just like that one. Democrats just want to talk about the ryan budget and that ad right there, you see somebody talking about medicare and the changes it will make. What this ad shows is that both sides want to run the, both democrats and republicans want to run a negative campaign. Republicans are constantly going to be talking about Health Care Democrats are constantly going to be talking about ryans budget and the issues associated with it. The question really is which issue is going to anger the Opposing Side a possible voters more and get them to come out more and actually vote in november. Host lets go back to the ryan budget do you know the numbers . Guest i do not know offhand. Host it is a 17. 5 trillion debt we are facing now. Republicans say it has doubled under the president s six years in office. Does that that bring voters to the polls echo guest to the polls . Guest it still has a resonance. We saw this in the 2012 campaign. You see this stuff come up over and over again when we have these constant debates over the debt ceiling. In this election it is probably a secondary issue just because of the way the Health Care Law has dominated Media Coverage and has dominated the debates in the various senate and house campaigns. I definitely think you will hear republicans make that argument. Youll see them run ads talking about what this ministration has done on that or hasnt done. We have seen those arguments play out before, it hasnt always worked. I would expect the republicans are content to talk about obama care more than anything else. Host a question for you about swing voters guest independent voters always have a significant impact. A lot of times in the discussion about in defendants independence they conflate independents and even if they are not official Party Affiliations a 10 to vote pretty consistently one side or the other. Voters that are in the middle with liberals on one hand and conservatives on the other, it is a shift in the climate we saw 2010. They were certainly with republicans heavily. Both sides, i think, are looking at the middle of the electorate to try to win them over. To reiterate in president ial elections you see higher turnout, more voters. These off your elections you dont. Off year elections, you dont. Host some of our Facebook Comments you can join in on the conversation at facebook. C om cspan. You write about somebody who might be a potential 2016 candidate, governor Chris Christie. The story Available Online at washingtonpost. Com. Break down these numbers, what does it mean . Guest this is very impressive for the republican governors association. Republicans are playing a lot of defense in the governors races create a lot of that is the result of how well they did in 2010. The biggest take away here is good news for christie. He is showing the larger Republican Community that under his watch this group can raise money. He has been under a lot of scrutiny with the traffic scandal in new jersey. This is a message to the Republican Community, the republican donor immunity, that republican Donor Community that Chris Christie is still a force to be reckoned with. Host Samantha Power is the subject of the Washington Post sunday magazine. She is the representative to the united nations. Sean sullivan is joining us in washington. From tennessee on the democrats line, thank you for waiting. Caller i have a few quick points i want to make. The republicans shut down the government. They are against women. They are against older people. They are sitting up there arguing. They havent done anything to help the people. Therey are against veterans rights. They are against unemployment. They lied and said they were going to get jobs here in america. We put these rich people up on tv to laugh. People listen. Go and vote. It is up to the American People to set our lives straight. Caller the caller brought up the government shut down last fall guest the caller brought up the government shut down last fall. It was quickly overshadowed by the problems of the rollout with obama care. As the month has gone by and we get to close to november, this is something republicans are trying to remind voters about. They are trying to make this about gop obstructionism, that republicans are obstructionists and they are not committed to getting anything done. What will remain to be seen is whether voters it was not that long ago this Government Shutdown happened. In many ways it seems like a distant memory right now. Republicans are still talking about it, they are still going to talk about it, and we will see if that is something that can turn voters outcome of this idea of republican obstructionism. Host matt is on the phone from North Carolina on the republican line. Good morning. Caller i would like to make a comment on the clip you played of president obama from earlier. He said that republicans somehow believe lowering taxes for the rich can he