Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150420 : vimarsan

Or join the conversation on facebook. Com cspan. Send us an email, journal cspan. Org. We will get your thoughts in a minute. Joining us on the phone is sarah mimms, staff correspondent at national journal. Lets begin with what is happening on the floor in the house and senate. Guest sure. The senate particularly is really interesting. They are coming in in very much the same position they were last week. They still have a Human Trafficking bill holding them up. They still need to confirm Loretta Lynch. They are still looking at the iran nuclear deal. Mitch mcconnell indicated he thinks they are making progress on the Human Trafficking deal. Once that gets done, that is going to be the beginning of dominoes that will allow Loretta Lynch and iran to get done. All of that this week. Host serve the house is looking at Cyber Security legislation that they will vote on. Off the floor house and Senate Negotiators are meeting to try to iron out the differences on the 2016 budget. What are they looking at right now . How long is the process likely to take . Guest that is a good question. At this point they have already missed the april 15 deadline. The budget document, it is nonbinding. It is more of a series of recommendations and a chance for the Republican Party now that its sort of owns both chambers to lay out our fiscal position, what our party believes our country should be doing and the direction we should be having in. Heading in. There is not a serious heart deadline anymore. The house budget and Senate Budget are really not that different. One of the big arguments we are seeing now is what they are going to end up dealing with reconciliation. We saw the senate decided to use that for the Affordable Care act. The house left that open ended and gave him out of committees jurisdiction there. We will see who prevails. Host republicans in the senate want to use the budget to deal with obamacare, the reconciliation process, to try to repeal it. Republicans in the house, there are different camps . Guest right. The house is trying to repeal obamacare dozens of times. The feeling we have heard from folks in the house is we have tried this, the president is still in office and he is just going to veto that legislation. Maybe we should try to use this reconciliation process for something that sends a stronger message than we have tried. There has been talk about using it for tax reform, a variety of other ideas. For the Senate Republicans who pushed this in the first place they are feeling this is our number one priority. Yes, it is probably going to be vetoed. So is anything else, so lets send the strongest message possible. Host on the iran nuclear deal, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week approving the legislation that would allow congress to review any deal. You said that the senate needs to deal with the trafficking bill before it can move onto other bills. Where does it stand the iran Nuclear Legislation in the senate . Are democrats the full senate, are they on board . Guest it very much looks that way. Senator Chuck Schumer who is going to be taking over for harry reid, he is a supporter of the bill and a cosponsor. A number of our democrats are supportive. This looks like something that is going to pass easily this week. Then the big question becomes can Congress Pass any legislation, either approving or disapproving of the deal. This delegates than the opportunity to do that. It will give them 30 days to make a decision about how they feel about this deal once it is finalized. If they do nothing, which many senators joke that is what we are best that, then the deal will be deemed approved by congress. Host also in the papers are stories about trade. Where does the vote on fasttrack stand . Guest fasttrack vote is fascinating. This is another situation where you have democrats, the vast majority come on one side of the issue. Then you have the white house and democrats like ron wyden, who helped write the bill, on the other side. The bill was announced at the end of last week. A lot of members spent the week looking it over. It seems like there is a lot of democratic opposition to this bill so it will be interesting to see if republicans can cobble together a coalition big enough to send this to president obamas desk he appears interested in signing it. Host could that get a vote this week . Guest tpa looks unlikely this week in the senate. The house has a big Cyber Security week planned. That might have to wait until next week with so much on the calendar. Host sarah mimms with national journal, thank you. We appreciate it. Guest thank you. Host some of the stories we want you to weigh in on in open phones. Sydney is in louisiana an independent. Good morning. Caller yesterday, you all had a man from csr. He was host we are listening from c fr. Max. Caller he was asked a question about the attack on the uss liberty, the killing of our sailors and wounding of our sailors and the threat of Court Martial if they talked about israel bombing the ship. He would not answer the question. He turned and started calling the man antisemitic and he was berating him and talking like he was out of his mind bringing the subject up. I am getting tired of hearing these people use the antisemit ic religions so they dont have to answer questions. Host ok. South carolina, democratic caller. Caller i would like to talk about the Senate Democratic minority leader. They decided not to go with seniority, it would have been dick durbin. They are going to choose Chuck Schumer. I do not understand why. It kind of looks like Hillary Clinton is going to be the president ial nomination. Shes and new yorker, a northeastern person. I believe Sheridan Brown from ohio the rust belt kind of guy hes more of a man of the people. Senator schumer likes the camera too much. If the president , possibly hillary, is already from the area of the country, i do not believe we should have Chuck Schumer in. Since they are not going by seniority, i would like to see more discussion on who is going to assume harry reids role. Host don a democrat in south carolina. Gary, sterling, virginia republican. Hi gary. Caller good morning. First i would like to say i heard something on the kojo nn amdi show. A Young College student said he is getting conflict fatigue. I thought that was such an appropriate statement. The other thing i would like to say about general eric shinseki, if he had known that those people were fudging the appointment times, i am sure they would have key hold them. Hes a very serious man. The other thing i would like to say is about the 22 soldiers a day that kill themselves. They do that because they become disillusioned. They lose hope that our government will do the logical thing. Take our infrastructure politicians, corporations and even unions have been complicit in giving us an inefficient, expensive product. Logically we should be using satellite computer technology. Until we do that, we will be paying more in taxes and getting less for it. The responsibility of government is to do the right thing. We are going to be deadlocked and gridlock. Call congress and the white house, tell them to use satellite computer technology. Host wants to talk about in open phones. One topic is the nomination of Loretta Lynch. Yesterday on meet the press mike lee, a republican of utah talked about the confirmation of Loretta Lynch. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] rep. Lee there are a lot of concerns that focus on what president obama did with immigration in november. The question in front of the Senate Judiciary committee she refused to technology that there are limits to prosecutorial discretion that must be taken into account when you have a president effectively undoing a huge swath of federal law. That she have your vote . Vote against her, give her a vote. Rep. Lee i am certain she is going to get a vote. Do you think six month is reasonable . Has this been a little ridiculous . Rep. Lee it is ridiculous that the president rewrote the immigration code and has not provided a full legal explanation of what empowers him to do this. And you have someone who has been nominated to fill the highest legal role and his administration and that person does not come forward with an adequate explanation of why the president was allowed to do this the courts are reviewing this, it is moot with her. Rep. Lee congress has a responsibility to review those. So you think there should be about a vote now . Rep lee within the next few weeks. Host mike lee on meet the press. Tied to that is the Human Trafficking bill stalled in the senate. We learn from sarah mimms that the senate will try in on that legislation, as well as other bills, this week. Bernhard in st. Petersburg florida, democratic caller. You are up next. Caller there was a gentleman who called about a guest yesterday, max boot. I agree. They were trying to get him they were asking questions. I would hope that cspan asks citizens not to berate your guests, they do not berate those who call in. He was making nasty comments about those who called in just because they ask questions. Those who called in, they take the time to wait on the phone. I would like for cspan to let those who you invite on to show not to throw out negative stations fulls negative statements. If you do not want to answer, dont answer. Host a republican in texas. You are on the air. Caller im a first time caller. A couple comments. Hes president. Im a proud christian. I believe in the bible and i believe in jesus. He should not be putting down our faith ok . He has not did nothing for the veterans. Hes about to cut 20 pay for retirees. When is the country going to wake up and figure the president aint doing nothing for the veterans and all . Host ok. David in texas, democrat, what is on your mind . Caller i disagree with that fellow about the president not helping the veterans. Penn and his wife have supported him and his wife have supported the veterans as much as any president i have seen. I disagree. The other point is then putting this obamacare into this budget and disrupting the budget. It is a disgrace that the republican side keeps throwing this into the budget as a hostage thing. The American People need to start saying something. Theyre asking, they have been asked several times what are you going to replace it with . None of them have ever said we are going to replace it with anything. I think they need to stop doing what they are doing and start working with the American People and the president. He has only got so many years to go. If they keep going and going against the president on everything he does in washington host ok. Republicans have talked about what they would replace the socalled obamacare law with. They have had some proposals out there. Perhaps not as comprehensive as the law itself but there has been debate about thatl continue to call in about health care issues. We are going to be taking up next a conversation about the budget negotiations. We will talk about what republicans want to do with the health care law, as well as plans for reconciliation when it comes to tax reform or other efforts. In the news is the iran nuclear deal. Here is the world section of the Washington Post. An Associated Press story. Iran says no military inspectors. International nuclear inspectors will be barred from all there any military sites under any deal with world powers. The guards deputy leader told television. Allowing foreign inspection to military sites is tantamount to selling out. Talks between iran and the six nation group are to resume wednesday in vienna. The Financial Times taking a look at the iran nuclear negotiations. The headline dubai hoping to the bridgehead for iran deals. Businesses are eyeing iran, seeing the prospects of an end to sanctions. Ready to prepare for a gold rush. Next a story about u. S. Companies eyeing business relations with iran. Senior u. S. Business delegations from Aviation Companies to oil firms and food conglomerates are rumored to have been discreetly traveling to iran or Holding Meetings with iranian businessman in regional or European Countries and president ial for the day that businesses with one of the worlds most untapped market is authorized. That is in Financial Times. Ben cardin, who took over as the top democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he was on cnns state of the Union Yesterday for stop what he had to say about the Bipartisan Legislation that passed last week that would allow congress to review a nuclear deal. [video clip] senator cardin america is stronger today as a result of the vote. We are on path to have more unity between congress and the white house. The president is in a stronger position to deliver the type of diplomatic solution that prevents iran from becoming a Nuclear Weapon state. That is our objective, it is very simple. Iran cannot be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon. This. Week we are on a stronger position we have bipartisan support for how congress should oversight that agreement and the administration is an agreement. It is not unusual to have any administration to disagree as to what role congress should play in any work but i think we have worked out the right way for a thoughtful review by congress to look at sanctions since we imposed the sanctions, as to how they will be handled. Moderator one of the difficulties covering the Nuclear Agreement is it seems like a tale of two agreements. The iranians talk about an agreement. Com, u. S. Officials talk about another one here. They seem to be at loggerheads. Another issue senator corked r talked about, how sanctions is done for stop the president did not get a straight answer. He seems to be allowing for wiggle room. Will the senate reject a deal that gives immediate sanctions relief as opposed to phase in relief on the sanctions that Congress Passed in recent years with regards to Irans Nuclear program . Senator cardin bob corker and i have worked to get the legislation that is moving through congress to the president. It is not a vote on the merits of an agreement. We do not know what is in the agreement until we see it in june. What is been agreed to on april 2 was a framework. We need to see whether we accomplished our purpose to have ample time before iran could break out to a Nuclear Weapon to have full inspection so if we can find out if they are cheating and take effective action to prevent iran from becoming a Nuclear Weapon state. If that can be achieved, we have accomplished a great deal in keeping iran from becoming a Nuclear Weapon state. Host maryland democrat senator ben cardin, top democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was asked if the legislation undermines the president. You heard him say no, he thinks it strengthens the president s hand. The New York Times opinion pages, a piece by irans foreign minister. He writes, to seal the anticipated deal, more political will is required. The iranian people have showed their resolve by choosing to engage with dignity. Time for the u. S. To make the choice between cooperation and confrontation. Between negotiation and grandstanding. And between agreement and coercion. With courageous leaders, we can and should put this manufactured crisis to rest and move on to more important work. The Persian Gulf Region is an turmoil. Its not a question of governments rising and falling the social, cultural and religious fabrics of countries are being torn to shreds. He goes on to say, riiran has been clear. Good relations with irans neighbors are our top priority. Our rationale that the Nuclear Issue has been a symptom, not a cause. Considering recent advances, it is time for iran and stakeholders to address the causes of tension in the region. The foreign minister wri tes about conflicts in the persian gulf. He says there are multiple arenas in which the interest of iran and other countries intersect. If one were to begin discussion of the calamities the region faces, yemen would be a good place to start. Iran has offered a practical approach to address this crisis. Our plan calls for a ceasefire humanitarian assistance, and facilitation of intrayemeni dialogue leading to before the formation of an inclusive government. Read more of the message from iran written by its foreign minister in the New York Times. , joe in georgia, republican. Good morning. It has been 30 days. Caller im so fired up about next week, seeing steve scully. I hope to see you and all the good people at cspan. I just want to say to a National Television audience that i am so fired up about ted cruz. I would vote for him over anybody in history. He will be the greatest president in history. Host why not marco rubio . Caller i think markup is great. Cr