Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal Jenny Beth Martin D

Its looking at getting rid of programs that congress no longer authorizes through their authorization process. Many programs are set on autopilot and just keep getting more funding year after year after year even though congress will not vote to reauthorize those programs. Whattimate based on Congressman Ken Buck wrote in his book that that totals 300 billion a year. Host in terms of specific cuts that your supportive here, what are the biggest ones that you are cheering on in this budget . Guest i am cheering on mainly getting rid of things that congress is no longer authorizing. If there is a program that congress cannot even vote on to continue to leave in place, then those programs need to go away. Those the things that we are really the most excited about. Im really also excited about the entire budget because its looking to put the taxpayer first. Thatrd in the briefing Mick Mulvaney gave earlier this week about the budget that he wants to be able to let the taxpayer in the eye and say as hes asking for the taxpayer money, im using this money wisely. That is something thats really kind of novel. Instead of just thinking as taxpayers as the group that does not have any faces and not real americans who worked very hard to earn their money, it is actually looking at those very hardworking men and women across this country who earn the money that winds up paying the taxes in the country, and making sure that that money is spent efficiently and spent on programs that really do make a difference in our country. Host your concern about ,uthorization of programs congress not authorizing programs and then continuing to get funded year after year, whats a specific example of that that you up and concerned about . That you have been concerned about . Guest is a program right now thats not very efficient. Its part of a program that works for education. Right now, what its doing is spending money on this particular aspect on postgraduate degrees. Its degrees or programs, funding for programs, for people who have already graduated from college and are getting a graduate degree. The program has a 6 effectiveness rate. If the program cannot be seen as more effective than that, its a program that our tax dollars dont need to be spent on. Host in terms of deficits in this budget and eventually getting to a balanced budget, we are looking at it 440 billion deficit next year. Budget that the president proposed would not balance until 2027. That is with some very Aggressive Growth by the u. S. Economy. How concerned are you up out of budget plan that does not balance until 10 years from now . Guest that is something that concerns us. We have stood all long for a budget that would balance within five years. Thatay we have said to do is to cut one penny out of every dollar that the government spends. Just one penny out of every dollar we get the budget to balance. This budget is in doing that, but i believe it is looking at leaving in place increasing defense spending, leaving in place spending for Social Security and medicaid, then it is looking at cutting 2 out of other portions of the spending. Its looking at cutting two pennies out of every dollar and other parts of what the government spends. That means its going to take a little bit longer to balance them what we have wanted. Still 10 years is better than not balancing at all. The budget aims to grow the economy at a 3 growth rate. Over the last eight years, we have had a growth rate of 1. 9 . This is not quite double the growth rate that we have had and the last eight years, but it is significantly higher than what we have had. With that kind of growth, it will help get the budget to balance because, as the economy grows and more people are working and more tax money is coming into the government from those people who are working, it will get to the point where we can balance the budget. Host just to be clear on the increases in budget under this plan, argue supportive of are you supportive of a 10 percent increase in defense spending between fiscal 2017 and 2018 . Proposed a 10 as increase in defense spending and 6 in Veterans Affairs spending. You are ok with those . Guest we need to make sure that our country is secure. I think that americans across the board regardless of Political Party do want to make sure that we have a military and place that can do what it takes to make sure we are that our country is secure, that our borders are secure, and President Trump campaigns on making sure that our borders are secure, putting more people on the border, building a wall, and thats part of what the funding is for. When we look at the terrorist attacks like what we have seen this week and we look at the International Trip that the president is on right now, he wants to meet sure that the world is committed to defeating terroristsdical across the globe. We understand that is going to be something that does take in the investment of our money to make sure that our country and our citizens are safe. Host Jenny Beth Martin is cofounder of Tea Party Patriots. The phone lines are yours if you have questions or comments for her. We are starting with dennis and south carolina, democrat. Go ahead. Caller i think the spending plan i hope that whoever voted for trump gets what they deserve because everybodys talking about saving all this money. If you throw everybody out into the street and have no preventative anything, youre actually going to cost more money to the people as taxpayers. And then it will be the taxpayers money instead of the countrys money. It is the country we are supported. Iomng. Until there is any civics involved in our relationships together, we are screwed. You know that. Host your thoughts . Guest thanks for calling in. I dont think that this budget is drawing people out on the streets. I think its just the opposite. Its making sure its preserving programs like Social Security and medicaid. Is make sure that we reduce the waste, fraud, and abuse and medicaid even though it will leave in place medicaid. It is making sure there is funding for Community Health Centers Across this country. It is not throwing people out in streets and getting rid of preventative care. It is also working to make sure that the people want to get back to work in this country. We need to be able to do that. Im sure that you, like i, want to provide for your family. I liked being able to provide for my family and know that we can save for a rainy day and that we can save for college and possibly go on vacation from time to time and that we are taking care of the basic necessities right here in the here and now that are needed for my family. There is a dignity in work. This budget aims to help people get back to work in part because its working to grow the economy so that there are more jobs in this country. As far as the part where you said its not just about the specific taxpayer, but its about the whole country, thats absolutely true. There are people who pay taxes in this country. What people like Mick Mulvaney said and what i like about this budget is that i want to look the people who pay the taxes in the eye and assure them that we are spending money on our government as a whole on all the American People in a way that is efficient and works well for the entire country. If they are taking tax money from you, im sure you want to know that that money is being spent well on programs that are effective and thats being spent as efficiently as possible. Host Mick Mulvaney with more to say before he goes before the House Budget Committee tod ay. Thats happening in an hour and 15 minutes. You can watch that on cspan3, cspan. Org, or listen on cspan radio. Ther members of investors are going before Congress Today include education secretary betsy devos. We are showing that online. Steve mnuchin will be before the house ways and Means Committee at 2 00 p. M. You can watch the online at cspan. Org. Finally, Homeland Security secretary john kelly will be talking about his departments budget at the House Appropriations Homeland Security subcommittee hearing happening at 3 00 p. M. We are showing that on cspan3. A very busy day to talk about budget issues. We are talking about that with Jenny Beth Martin. Sue is in michigan, independent. Caller i do have a comment. Socialwe got all these programs and do an increase in our military, what is being done to correct the corruption in the military as it is . Anybody who has been in the military know somebody and they will tell you stories of the waste going on, especially with the Bush Administration and the contractors and stuff like that. Money, howpend more do we know its going to be spent effectively . We do reviews on social programs. We ought to do reviews on military programs. Host Jenny Beth Martin . Guest i think thats a really good point. I think if we are looking at any president who is going to make sure we are looking at how dollars are spent and whether they are spent efficiently and effectively, the president and the white house right now, President Trump, is the man who will get that done. Im not asked the a ministration specifically about that question. As they look at the budget as a whole, what they are doing is looking at each program everywhere across the government and working to make sure they are spending the tax dollars efficiently and effectively. I dont think in any way, from what i understand, we are going to do it everywhere but the military. I imagine they are going to do that with the military. Ive not asked that, so its not something i asked specifically. Its a good point. If any president is going to do it, it is President Trump who will get that job done. Host he would need the support of members of congress. They control the Purse Strings and they will be the ones crafting the final spending bill. Senator john mccain of arizona tweeting yesterday but the proposal is dead on arrival in congress. His concerns about inadequate defense spending and then here is Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell yesterday and asked about the president s budget. [video clip] the president s budget, as we all know, is a recommendation. Every president since ive been here, and that covers a good time, has made a recommendation. That we decide what we are going to do with those recommendations. We will be taking into account what the president is recommending, but it will not be determinative in every respect. Engage in a ringing endorsement of president bushs budgets either. These are all recommendations. You may recall from time to time that we have voted on presence budgets president s budgets. Democrats voted against president obamas budget. Its a recommendation. We will take this into consideration and move forward. What i do like about it is that it clearly focuses on increasing defense spending, which we know is absolutely critical even the threats that we face. ,ost Jenny Beth Martin business proposal for the 2018 spending plan getting the support you expected for members of congress . Guest i think that as we watch in the days and weeks to come, we will see what level of commitment the members of congress have. Thats one of the things that Tea Party Patriots is going to focus on. The budget that the president has outlined is a solid budget. Its a good budget. We also understand that you are right. Congress controls the Purse Strings. We work very hard at Tea Party Patriots to hold congress accountable, to encourage them when they are doing the right thing, and hold them accountable when they are not. We will be watching exactly what they do not just for the budget but for the Appropriations Bills and how they wind up deciding to fund the government as we go into the next fiscal year, which will begin october 1. We will watch that very closely throughout the summer months and be engaged in it. I encourage viewers to stay in touch with Tea Party Patriots at our website at Tea Party Patriots. Org to do just that. Host what you think of that omnibus spending plan that came together last month . Guest we did not like that spending plan. There were several reasons why we didnt like it. One reason our supporters did not like it is that it did not do anything to address border security, which is one of the promises President Trump made on the campaign trail. With that said, we did not engage heavily in that particular spending bill. What we decided to do is wait. As we head into the fiscal year october 1 and to engage in this throughout june and september, one thing we learned at Tea Party Patriots is that Congress Acts when there is a deadline. October 1 is a hard deadline for the United States government. We decided to engage in the battles over the spending bills the summer for all the next fiscal year rather than the remainder of the year we are in. Host lets go to mick in woodstock, new york. Caller i like to know just how much time your speaker here spent with truly poor people. I work in health care and memory im retired. I worked in health care over 30 years with some with catastrophic diseases. I eventually worked for Senior Citizens. The Senior Citizens i worked with, they dont make a tremendous amount of money, not at all. To take away the food since subsidies the food subsidies, its not a good deal. Americans waste more food than any other country in the world. I just wonder how much time you have ever spent with truly poor people. Host got your question. Guest well, during the andncial crisis in 2008 2009, my family and i had our own personal financial crisis. My then husbands company went out of business. We end up filing personal bankruptcy. We lost everything our house and our cars. I ended up cleaning houses for a living in order to make ends meet. I do know what its like to know not to have a lot of money. I know what its like to earn money. I know what its like to be in a situation where the generosity of your neighbors helps you make it through to the end of the month. That has happened to me personally. I know what that is like. Also you were mentioning people at the end of their lives and Senior Citizens and care for people, especially at the end of their life, im a daughter of a methodist minister. Ive grown up in a situation wheretwo a lot of funerals and i helped support my family when i was a child caring for people when they were facing those Difficult Health situations. Ive been around this my entire life. This budget is not getting things. It is not putting people out on the streets. It is working to get us to ap point where we have a balanced budget. We are nearly 20 trillion in debt right now. Our children and our grandchildren are going to have to pay for that debt. The sad thing and the frustrating thing to me about this is that it is not that difficult to balance our federal budget. When you can balance the budget by reducing spending by one penny out of every dollar and be at a point where you are balanced within five years, then this one goes a little bit longer than five years, but at that is all it takes to balance , then went Budget Congress sits around and those things where they are putting the shiny objects out to distract us and make us afraid that theyre going to put people out on the streets as one programs,d or gutting rather than look at the decisions they need to make, looking at the top decisions they need to make to get to a point where we have a balanced budget, they are doing what they us as americans against one another so they can continue spending our tax dollars without any account ability. Whether you are democrat, republican, or independent, that is not right. That is our money and our future. We tell it to ourselves and to our children and grandchildren to make sure we are the point where our country has fiscal responsibility with our dollars. Host what do you say to the callers who look at the numbers that came out yesterday and say they see the evidence in the president s own budget . 190 billion over 10 years from the supplemental nutrition assistance program, better known as food stamps. 855 million from the agricultural department. The cuts would include the International Food for education program, the singlefamily housing direct loan program. From the health and Human Services department, cuts in the billionr of almost 5 from things Like Community Service Block grants, low Income Home Energy assistance programs, Nursing Training programs. These programs listed by the hill newspaper and the 66 programs looking to be cut through the trump budget. Guest first i would say how effective and efficient are the programs . How much money is still being spent on the programs . Are there other programs like those that are in other parts of the federal government that would achieve the same goals as those particular programs achieve . I dont know the answer to that, but i do know this administration is working to answer those kin