Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20140710 : vimarsan

CSPAN Washington Journal July 10, 2014

Was in denver in which he said that america is better off today than it was five years ago. Were asking our viewers this morning if you agree with that assessment. Is your part of the country better off today than it was five years ago . Republicans can call it 2025853881. Democrats, 2025853880. Independence, 2025 the 853882. If youre outside the u. S. , 2025853883. You can catch up with us on your favorite social sites, twitter, facebook, or email us. A very good thursday morning to you. Want to start off with the president s comments on the economy yesterday in denver. It wasnt the first time that the president made this assessment, but he reaped yesterday that his assertion that the economy is better off today than it was five years ago. Heres the prefro president from yesterday. Theres a Cottage Industry in washington that counts on you just being cynical about stuff so you dont vote, you dont get involved. You get discouraged. You set a plague on both your houses, but you cant get into that cynicism. Do not let them win by you being cynical. Because despite everything thats happened, despite all the obstruction, americas making progress. Were better off now than we were five years ago. Well be better off five years from now than we are right now, despite the unyielding opposition of a few that are working to have jobs, for their families to have Health Insurance who didnt have it before, students who go to college to couldnt ag afford to home, troops home with their families after serving tour after tour in war. Dont get cynical. Dont do it. That was president obama yesterday. Heres the Washington Times wrapup of the president s appearance in which they note that president obama shifted into full Campaign Mode in the speech in denver painting a rowsy picture of the u. S. Economy while blaming republicans for refusing to deal with any remaining problems that the country faces. Were asking our viewers this morning about that assertion that america is better off today than it was five years ago. Our Facebook Page is open for comments. The facebook. Com speeps. Yo cs. Follow along at cspan w j. Our phone lines are open on this topic and well take your calls in just a second. First, we want to turn to cq roll call. Neal is a staff writer there. Good morning. Good morning. The other appearance that president obama made yesterday was in texas in which he tried it apply pressure on roundups to move on his emergency runs to move on his emergency supplemental bill for funding. Whats the stat status of the supplemental measure, and what n might it receive a vote in the house and senate. Well, it might be some time, at least a couple of weeks, i would project, before it gets to a vote, and the format it comes to a vote may be far different from what president obama has requested. First thing were going to get some indication of how its looking in the senate this afternoon when the Senate Appropriations Committee Meets at 2 30 to have a meeting with the secretary of health and Human Services, the head of Homeland Security to review the details of the proposal, the 3. 7 billion dollars roughly that are being sought for border issues and for these unaccompanied my grant children as well as money for the wildfire situation that has broken out throughout the west. But theres been no appetite so far for the package as presented among house republicans, and so it seems as if theres going to have to be some sort of substantial policy changes or conditions or limitations that are probably not what the white house wants to see in order for that measure to advance. I should note that that hearing that youre talking about thats taking place today in the on the Senate Appropriations committee, happening at 2 30, and viewers can watch live on cspan 3 if they want to watch it. The president yesterday seemed to imply that time is of the essence here in terms of moving this funding measure. Are you seeing that sentiment among members of congress . The sentiment that were seeing among democrats on both sides of the rotunda who seem to be largely on board with the president , and theyre resisting calls to add additional material to that proposal, although you know, its one of those situations when you have a divided congress, you have two parties, the opposite parties controlling each chamber, theres certainly going to have to be some sort of a compromise. So i would if i were guessing, i would exec that the senate goes expect that the senate goes first in this case, whenever they move, because senator majority leader reid would be the one most likely to want to call up the package for a vote which would leave it with the question of what the house would then do in response. I should. Note that also in his comments yesterday, the president said if the texas delegation is prepared to move, we can get this done next week with his statement from his speech yesterday. Later in todays show well take up this topic with texas republican joining us for 45 minutes to talk about this. I want to shift gears, niels, to talk about the Highway Trust Fund and the latest on keeping that solvent. Well, there are certainly going to be a mark up this morning thats being scheduled at the house ways and Means Committee with the house versions of the pay forses to keep the trust fund solvent through the end of the year and on in through about the First Quarter of may of next year. Thats the house proposal which Speaker John Boehner and others in the house have been saying is a plan that could move quickly. Its a package that was assembled using some often familiar offsetting technical provisions, user fees and something called patience moving which is an accounting method change, basically, and those things have surfaced in the past. We have a store at roll call this morning in which senator jack reed from rhode island is none too pleased with the idea of using those offsets because those are the ones that were previously at one point in time used in a Senate Passed Unemployment Insurance stedges extension. What were log at on the senate side is a bit less clear this morning because there were rumbles last evening that there may be a sort of bipartisan agreement or at least some sort of agreement in the senate. Its not even clear what the details of it are yet. But there was a markup notice that has gone out or at least was posted last night, and i dont know. This thing has been so in flux, who knows whether it will actually happen . As of late night, there was a mark up notice for 2 30 this afternoon at the finance committee for continuing work on the highway bill. I suspect we will n know more by 2 30 in terms of what the senate way forward might be. Well keep watching rollcall. Com to stay on top of the latest. Niels, thanks for the midweek check inn in in if the issues weve been following on capitol hill. Weve g about 30 minutes in this section of the washington journal to take your comments on president obamas statement yesterday that the u. S. Is better off now than we were five years ago. That conversation already happening on our Facebook Page. If you want to join along, charlotte writes in on our page said i guess we are. My skippy wall th skip skinny wr wise. We need better paying jobs and a congress that works. Below that, jim cook rights im not sure about the country, but im not better off. Prices on everything increased, wages stag nated, no disposable income. We want to hear from our viewers as well. Well start with damian calling from houston, texas on our line for independence. Damian, good morning. Good morning, sir. I believe that if you use whatever Economic Indicators that theyre using or indices may suggest that the economy is Getting Better, but its not apparent realtime in the lives of every day americans. There seems to be a disconnect, a great disconnect in washington from what they do on the hill to realtime every day. What do you want to see that would make a difference for you . I use some of them, but jobs. There are millions of americans who are long term unemployed, or theyre employed off and on for the last five years if thats the time frame were using. The cost of running a household and doing things that you have to do every day that add to the quality of life. The quality of life has not changed in the last five years. Thats damian calling from houston, texas. Paul is in appleton, wisconsin on our line for democrats. Paul, good morning. Hello. Go ahead, paul. I would say the economy is always better under a democrat, you know. Under bush we had dan quayle running around, shutting down paper machines. He shut down a bunch of machines in wisconsin, and remember dan quayle as vicepresident under old man bush . He runnin is running around an Investment Company shutting down paper machines. Ill tell you. Its taken a toll on wisconsin. Thats why walker, he is a big you know, he talks about all them jobs and he didnt do a single thing to keep the Paper Industry going in wisconsin. Hes a total joke. Hes a toll joke. Paul, do you work in the Paper Industry . I used to. I worked there for 28 years until they ripped my ripped the paper mill down. I mean, it was a big mill. We had two of the biggest machines in the United States. Paul, what do you do now . Whats that . What do you do now . Actually, im unemployed still, but you know, i had my husband paid for, so im doing okay, but like i said, dan quayle, he runs that company. He used to own chrysler, too, that daimler chrysler. Like i said, theyre in the business of shutting machines down. Well go to michelle on our line for republicans in churchton, maryland. Michelle, good morning. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Glad you called. I like how they, you know, Democratic Party always seems to want to blame bush for everything, but my comment this morning is im one of those middle classes who michigan family is pleased to death and know we are so worse off than we were five years ago. The price of food, the price of gas, just the price of every day living. We cant we cant live like we lived five years ago, and so when president obama makes these campaign speeches, i dont know who is really believing him or who he thinks hes talking about because us middle classers are not doing so well, and we need a big change in this country, not only in our congress, but the people in my community are scared to death about the country in general, about our military an everything going on in israel. The irs. Its just one thing after the other. Its a frightening, frightening place to live. Its really scary to have to say that when you live in the United States of america. Michelle in maryland, a good place to go to look at fiveyear comparisons, backcheck. Org run out of the university of pennsylvania. They have obamas numbers in the Second Quarter, the latest Quarterly Report released. You can scroll through that. Some of the highlights, according to factcheck, all job losses during the Great Recession have been erased, but long term joblessness remains much higher than it was when obama first took office. Corporate profits and stock prices continue to set records while workers wages remain stagnant, and the homeownership rate continues to decline. The number of food stamp recipients has retreated from record highs in 2012, fewer beneficiaries have been added under obama than were added under george w. Bush, and under obama, federal spending has risen more sploal than the rate of inflation, but total debt owed by the public has nearly doubled during obamas tenure and large annual deficits are continuecontinuing as far as thn see. Were asking what its like in your part of the country. Are you better off than you were five years ago . Nick is in fairview, tennessee on our line for inspects. Nick, good morning. We you ask that question, its got to incorporate my family and my neighbors. Okay. Thank you for talking my call, anyhow. Gasoline has doubled in price which escalates the price of Everything Else under obama. Food stamps, if theyve gone down, its marginal. If i have Million People are still on them, and theyve been on them. My grandchildren at this stage, and its going to increase, their payment on the debt is 65,000 apiece. College kids cant find employment which i have relatives in that. My neighborhood had an investment in coal. Hes going to take a beating. My medical insurance which i held that job for years, thats one of the reasons i held it, is in jeopardy. Yeah. Im doing a lot better under obama. Also, this fear, this man and his people have said they can garnish peoples salary without explain why, so if you build a pond in your back yard and you dont let them know about it, they can garnish your salary. The irs, his gestapo. Were doing a lot better under obama. Were got fear, chaos, ignorance, corruption. People gotta realize that dc, the district of corruption now, is at war with the rest of the country, and this man is its commanderinchief. Thats nick in tennessee. Monimonte makes the point on twitter. We could be much worse off now. Vicki is on our line for democrats calling in from california. Vicki, good morning. Vicki, are you with us this morning . I dont think we have vicki, but well go to andrew in rochester, new york on our line for republicans. Andrew, good morning. Good morning, john. Youre looking dapper today. Thanks, andrew. And the thing that bothers me, john, is the and i like what is said on the computer thing you just had up where no number can tell the whole story, but the long term unemployed number is kind of skewing the unemployment number. With the kind of debt that weve been running up in the last five years and even before that, were going to need people to have fulltime jobs, many more fulltime jobs, not this parttime stuff, and were going to need to get the people that have quit looking for work, even if they own their house and all this kind of stuff, you know, to get back employed. I think the way you do that is if you can get harry reid to get out of the senate because one of the biggest stories is that harry reid has really changed the senate terribly. Nothing good tor big can get done with harry reid running a big part of the government. He wont let anybody do any amendments. He wont bring up any bills or anything. You cant really do good tax reform which would get businesses really cranking and people employed again if you have harry reid shutting down the whole thing. Thats my comment, john. Andrew in rochester, new york. As we said, the president was in denver yesterday when he made these comments. Heres a little bit more from the president s address in colorado. The other thing i want to make sure people understand is that we are making progress as bad as the news looks. If all you were doing was watching cable tv all day long. Yes, the crisis that hit towards the end of my First Campaign hit us all really badly. 2007, 2008, that was rough. But today our businesses have added nearly 10 million new jobs over the past 52 months. Construction and housing are rebounding, our Auto Industry is booming, manufacturing is adding jobs for the First Time Since the 90s. The Unemployment Rate has fallen to its lowest point since september of 2008, the fastest oneyear drop in nearly 30 years. And look. Most of this is attributable to you, thepaying down debt and tig belts and doing all kind of stuff just to make sure that you kept on and were able it look after your families, but the decisions we made early on not only stopped the slide but also built a new foundation for our economy, and theyre paying off now. President obama talking about some Economic Indicators there as part of that speech yesterday, and yet, his approval rates on his handling of the economy is down today than it was five years ago. Today, just 34 approve of the way that the president is handling the economy with 64 disapproving. Five years ago, 47 approved of the way the president was handling the economy with 49 saying that they disapproved. Were asking you your thoughts on the president s comments yesterday that the u. S. Is better off now than we were five years ago. Leo is up next in lafayette, louisiana. Leo, good morning to you. Good morning. Go ahead, leo. Yes. I think that we are better off today than five years ago because theres a statement that the whole world knows that its factual, that the truth shall set you free. Today we have found out that the war that we fought was solely founded on lies. Weve had government shutdowns. The whole world is looking at the truth and see people that are largely responsible for the conditions and the positions we are in today. Not you or i, the whole world. And its back to the statement that i made from inception. The whole world know the truth shall set you free. Have a good day. All right. Joe is in amsterdam, new york on our line for democrats. Joe, good morning. Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Thanks for calling in. Go ahead. Were way better off than we were five years ago. For all these short memory people, we were losing 700,000 jobs a month in january of 2009. We were involved in two big wars, losing hundreds of people every month with casualties. We were in terrible shape. Now we have 20 Million People with Health Insurance that didnt have it before. Unemployment is down almost two points from where it was when he took over. You know, i dont understand the vitrio l against president obama. I think a lot of it has to do with race, and a lot of it has to do with the fact that hes a democrat. If most people sat down and thought about his policies, i think they would actually under and agree with them if they had any brains, anyway. Dont forget. Were trying to raise the minimum wage. Were trying to get out of the mess that bush got u

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