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Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, your calls and comments live.
Then Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez, a member of the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees.
He discusses federal spending deadlines and foreign conflicts.
And former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS Secretary nomination and potential changes to public health policy.
WASHINGTON JOURNAL IS NEXT. GOOD MORNING.
It's Thursday, December 12th.
The murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson last week in New York City has prompted a nationwide conversation about the health insurance industry.
So in this first half hour of the program, we'd like you to weigh in on that.
What's been your experience with health insurance?
Has it been mostly positive or have you been mostly frustrated?
How would you improve the industry?
Our phone lines are by region this time.
If you're in the Eastern or Central time zones, call 202748-8000.
Mountain or Pacific, it's 202-748-8001.
We have a line set aside for healthcare professionals that includes those that work in the health insurance field.
That number is 202-748-8002.
You can send us a text to 202-748-8003.
Include your first name in your city-state.
And you can post to social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
Welcome to today's two-hour Washington Journal, the House will gavel in at 9 a.m. this morning, and we'll take you there at that time.
And as you're calling in, just a reminder that we don't accept calls that celebrate violence or celebrate the shooter or congratulate the alleged shooter in any way.
So please do keep that in mind.
Here's a headline from CBS News that says this.
As anger at United Healthcare boils over, Americans pay more than ever for health insurance.
The article says health insurance costs are far outpacing inflation, leaving more consumers on the hook each year for thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses.
At the same time, some insurers are rejecting nearly one in five claims.
That double whammies leaving Americans paying more for coverage, yet sometimes feeling like they're getting less in return.
Frustration over denials and medical costs has fueled an outpouring of vitriol against health insurance companies in the wake of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Also last week, a similar outcry led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to reverse a decision to limit anesthesia coverage during surgeries.
And also, I just wanted to show you this real quick from Kaiser Family Foundation.
It's a survey they did.
It says it highlights problems with denied health insurance claims.
And it says this, that here's the chart.
So denied claims were somewhat more common among those with employer-sponsored or marketplace insurance.
This is the percent of adults who say that in the past 12 months, their health insurance did not pay for care they received that they thought was covered.
And among total, it's 18%.
Employer-sponsored, it's 21% of people who said that they were denied that their health insurance did not pay for care that they received.
The marketplace at 20%, Medicaid at 12%, Medicare at 10%.
But we wonder what your experience has been with health insurance.
We're focused on that for this first half hour.
Take a look at a recent Yahoo Finance interview with Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini.
He addressed the frustrations with the current healthcare system in the United States.
We've heard from security agencies talking about a rise in violence in the health sector, largely in the facilities themselves, especially in the last year and a half.
What does that tell you about what you need to expect and how you're thinking about the company and where it needs to go in order to help reduce this tension that is clearly being felt by the American public?
Well, the American public exists in a system that was designed 80 years ago after World War II.
And it was designed in a way that we built a lot of hospitals across the country and we also provided benefits free through employers as a way of making wage control work after the return of soldiers from World War II.
And I think that system is largely now broken and has been broken for some time.
I've been an advocate for change for a long time and believe that we have ways to get it better in this country.
And I think it largely starts with making sure our healthcare system meets the needs of individuals, not the needs of groups.
And right now, our system, in large part, is built around meeting the needs of groups.
We're getting your thoughts on the health insurance industry in the United States.
We have this from Facebook.
Janelle says, the American healthcare system is profit-driven, which is a significant problem that requires real solutions because it is not focused on serving people.
Jim says, never had a problem with the private system, and I typically use it over the VA, which has rarely been good.
Stephen says, my mom paid in for 50 years and they deny her therapy for stroke.
And Debbie says, good, but I've always thought that it was wrong for them to be for profit.
And we'll go to the phones now, start with George in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.
Good morning, George.
Good morning.
Yeah, you said a lot.
You put out a lot of fodder there, but I'm going to keep it on your topic best I can.
I pay $2,500 a month for health insurance.
And it's the kind of health insurance that you don't want to use.
It's for big things.
I'm a contractor, always have been, 60 years old.
And I didn't want to end up needing something drastic and spending all my money fighting for my life and not having a life to come home to.
And so I have this hefty plan.
And it's not really, I see your mouth moving on the TV, but I can't hear you because my TV's muted.
So anyway, it's not really that good.
And now I'm wondering because I'm hearing cases where they're not being covered.
And that's a lot of money.
That's $100,000 easily every four years.
And, you know, they should just change the name of it.
It's not really health insurance.
It's something else.
And now I'm even skeptical if it's going to work, if I do need anything.
So, you know, I was watching C-SPAN the other night and it was the hearings.
It was probably a replay, the hearings on Bernie Sanders was driving it.
And it was the hearing on, you know, the food and how it's causing all the problems.
And it's like, it's played obsolescence.
And it's deplorable.
I don't know what I'm going to do, but right now I can do what I'm doing, but I don't know.
All right.
And George, by the way, you can always hear me just in your phone.
You don't have to hear me on the TV.
But I appreciate you muting the TV.
That's exactly what we need people to do.
Sam in Hillsdale, Michigan.
Good morning, Sam.
I've had three two-week hospital stays since 2011.
I don't actually know how much I spend for insurance because I know I have to have it, so I just bought the electronic bank and take it out.
But I have not had any trouble at all with my insurance.
I go in the hospital, I get made well, I come home, and that's the last I hear of it until the next time.
I'm quite happy with mine.
And Sam, do you have employer-sponsored insurance?
No, I'm on Medicare.
Medicare.
Okay.
Yeah, I have, oh, by the way, I have United, whatever that stuff is that the man who was shot at, what's that?
Who's company?
United Healthcare.
United is one of my insurers.
And I've never had any trouble with any of my insurance companies.
And everybody should have it.
Everybody should pay for it and quit complaining about it.
It's what takes care of us.
All right, Sam.
And let's go to Newport, New Hampshire to Eric.
Good morning, Eric.
Hey, good morning, America.
It's been a good month for us.
But my experience in healthcare recently, I was in for a heart procedure.
I hadn't used my health care much at all.
I have a private insurer.
I work for the government.
And then the bill was very expensive.
I was in for five days and multiple procedures.
However, I came out with a $900 bill.
And what is frustrating to me is there are people that, and I guess we'll kind of overlay the topic, that don't pay for any insurance.
And the government pays for every dime.
And I pay for health insurance.
I pay a good premium.
And I still have a $900 bill when I come out of the hospital.
Yet other people, you know, who are not paying anything for insurance do get fully not one dime out of their pocket and they get the best health care just like I would get.
And I also say this, because I think why we're talking about this topic is obviously the shooting.
And I don't want to go too far into that.
But what if someone felt that people who are not paying for insurance and they, for instance, did violence on that person, would the narrative for the people that are supporting this shooter be a little different?
That's a good question.
Thank you very much.
And this is NPR that says this sick and struggling to pay 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt.
And they've got a map here of the United States.
And what this shows is the percentage of people with medical or dental bills in collections.
So this is bills that have gone to collections.
And you'll see here the dark red is over 40% of the county are people that are living with medical debt that have gone to collections.
And you can see it a little bit more clearly here when you go like this.
These are the top counties.
And you can see it's pretty much concentrated in the south of the United States.
Here's Texas with that.
So that's about medical debt.
And this is Sarah, Edgewater, Maryland.
Good morning, Sarah.
Hi, I'm a broker and I deal with Medicare supplement coverage.
I do not sell Medicare Advantage plans.
The reason why I don't sell those plans is because of the large number of complaints that seniors have experienced when they are in one of these plans.
And I have talked to countless seniors or family members that have complained to me about the fact that their medical claims were denied and the dealings that they had with the insurance company.
So I choose not to mess with that.
And one thing that I think is not explained to seniors is when they sign up for Medicare A and B and they have the original Medicare, if they buy a Medicare sub and a standalone drug plan, they can go to any doctor, any hospital that accepts Medicare assignment anywhere in the country.
No referral requirement, no pre-authorization, because Medicare is your primary coverage.
Medicare Advantage, you sign up.
You're now in a private insurance company that now has to provide you with the Medicare A and B benefits.
And then because they're getting now their benefits to that private insurance company, that insurance company dictates through plan administrators what goes and what doesn't go.
This difference is not explained to seniors.
And here's one other thing that I want to point out.
It offends me as a taxpayer to read for years investigative reports from multiple newsletter outlets like the New York Times and other news outlets that have pointed out that there has been so much fraud going on with Medicare Advantage plans where insurance companies have defrauded the federal government by hundreds of billions of dollars with this Medicare Advantage plan.
And the problem is if I or any other agent or a licensed individual professional commits fraud and we cheat, we lose our license and our livelihood.
But when an insurance company does it, they can slowly continue to offer health insurance to millions and millions and millions of people.
Sarah, help us understand how companies would be defrauding the U.S. government.
So private insurance companies defrauding the government through Medicare Advantage.
How does that work?
So there have been some reports.
It's called what you call upcoding, right?
And I read about it first in a Honolulu advertiser article years ago, and this doctor really explained what happened.
And then there was also some stuff with New York Times talking about that.
So when you sign up for an advantage plan, every senior that signs up for an advantage plan, the government pays anywhere from about $1,000 to $3,000 a month for that senior to be enrolled in that plan.
And then there is a formulary that they use between the government.
And what has happened is, and you can read this online, so these insurance companies have taken a person who has a medical condition, and under normal circumstances, let's say they get $1,000 a month for that person to be involved in the Advantage plan.
So they went through the medical records of that person and added up more issues, medical issues that were not really there so that they can get more money from the government.
So maybe the person had diabetes and now they're adding another health condition that that person may not have had to get more money from the government.
So now instead of $1,000, now they're getting $1,500 or $2,000 or $3,000.
So there was a lot of stuff going on where, you know, companies literally went through medical records, you know, and, well, somebody did go through medical records and they made these health conditions for seniors worse to get more money out of the government.
And as I said, there were some reports on that with the New York Times.
All right.
And then the Honolulu advertiser.
We thank you for that information.
Very useful.
Mike in Youngstown, Ohio.
You're next.
Yeah, good morning.
How are you today?
Good.
I had some surgery done years ago, quite extensive surgery because I had problems with my bowel.
And I was very ill.
And the doctor that operated on me did the last surgery trying to straighten me out.
I said that day, that afternoon, he came in to see me and I said, well, when am I going to be getting out of the hospital?
He says, well, that's up to the insurance company.
You know, he told me I couldn't believe this.
I said, that's up to the insurance company.
I said, you're the one that did the surgery on me.
And he says, well, I don't have any say about that at all.
And, you know, I found that quite amazing.
And what ended up happening, Mike?
Well, nothing good for me.
You know, they put this mesh inside of me to fix a hernia, and it all rotted out.
And I had to go back into the hospital and have somebody have another surgeon remove all the mesh.
But, Mike, in that initial surgery, were you able to stay in the hospital as long as you felt like you needed to or as long as your doctor wanted you to?
No, the doctor told me that it was up to the insurance company how long I stayed.
Now, I couldn't believe that.
And so anyway, they put this mesh in me, and it had to be removed about a year later because it rotted out inside of me.
And they had to cut through my abdominal wall.
And the doctor came in and told me to sign up for disability.
I said, what are you talking about, disability?
I said, I don't know anything about that.
That was the last thing that I had in mind on doing.
In fact, I never thought of that.
And I wanted to go back to work.
And he told me, well, you're disabled now.
We had to cut through your abdominal wall to remove that mesh that was rotten inside of you.
And the whole thing is, I mean, it's all based around money.
And today I'm disabled.
And I have been now for about 12 or 13 years.
I had to quit working.
And the government doctor told me I was disabled.
And they put me on disability.
And it ruined my life financially, totally.
Sorry to hear that, Mike.
This is David on Facebook who says this about the health insurance industry.
Preventative health care.
It's a scam.
Preventative health care increases expense.
It guarantees they will find something, anything to treat.
And nothing guarantees a steady paycheck like subscription services, or in this case, recurring payments for, quote, treatment.
Sometimes unscrupulous doctors even make stuff up.
And Ed from North Texas sent us a text.
I've been retired for 15 years.
I have United Healthcare under Medicare.
I've had a number of health issues, and I'm very satisfied with the insurance, with the exception of hearing aids, where I will not pay $5,000 for a pair.
And Angela in Maryland, by text, I worked in the appeals department of a health insurance company.
It is rotten what they do to people.
And all caps, all legal.
And this is John in Esopis, New York.
Good morning.
Yeah, thanks.
Good morning.
I've been fortunate, I guess.
I'm just turned 70.
I've really had no complaints against the healthcare industry, but I've had no major problems so far.
But the older you get, you get more concerned.
I find out that the healthcare system in the United States is definitely being stressed out right now.
Waiting times much longer and this, that, and the other thing.
So I just hope that it works out.
And the insurance companies, I don't know.
I don't know that much.
I've never had an issue.
I've had gone through maybe two or three different insurance groups throughout my lifetime.
They all service me very well.
And the problem is, is that this thing with the latest, the shooting of this guy, this brought this thing to the front and center of our narratives.
I mean, what's going on today, discussions about this.
But you can't go out and shoot people.
I thought that was a little bit out of line.
But at the introduction of the show, you said you don't want to have people calling in and saying things that are terrible about individuals or violence or not anything like that.
And then you read a whole litany of the media stories you had that could totally condemn the insurance companies.
Why the American citizens should hate these insurance companies?
But I'm just saying.
Right, right.
But John, there's a big difference between hating the insurance industry, being frustrated with the insurance industry, and murder.
And that's where we draw the line.
Is it your time?
Can I finish my comment?
Sure.
Okay.
You have, you don't represent much of the kids.
You're losing the constituences that you represent on this program.
You are so far left of what America is thinking right now.
Thanks for your feedback there.
This is Joseph Buffalo, New York.
Good morning, Joseph.
Good morning.
My experience with health care, and it's currently, I'm trying to, I tried to switch over to a different carrier.
And so, and I'm still waiting on the cards.
I never haven't never gotten them.
And if nothing happened with it, I'm just sitting there going, well, what no, and I call the lady, okay, where's the cards?
And I'm currently, I have a health issue, and they haven't done anything.
They just give me medication to put on it.
And it's just a horrible feeling because that's all you do.
You get medication, but you don't get, I currently have knee problems.
And I've been trying to get knee replacements on it.
Get the runaround.
Nothing ever happens.
It's the most frustrating thing in the world.
And, you know, I'm not that old.
But I've been medically retired for maybe 10 years now.
And it's the most horrible thing in the world.
All I do is sit here and just take a bunch of medications, and it does nothing.
And the person I was trying to switch coverages with, I still haven't gotten the cards.
All she does is says, well, they're coming.
Well, they're coming.
Well, it's supposed to be by before 2000.
I haven't seen card one.
And I remember when she came into my or I went into the our room.
Live at a senior senior living center and I'm there and I say okay, when I'm gonna get these cards never seen, card one, not one card is this something that you can download off from the internet or anything like that?
Can you, can you access an electronic version of the card?
I never thought of that, but I can.
I can try that, all right.
And this is Mary in you in Des Moines, Iowa.
Good morning yes, good morning.
I am 91 years old, and I have Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Wellmark.
And my supplement is Plan F. My supplement is with Blue Cross, and I have Medicare.
And I've had shoulder replacements because of arthritis in both shoulders, and I have shots in my knees because I have arthritis, old-age arthritis.
And...
I want to say that I have had very good service with BLUE Cross, BLUE Shield, WELL MARK and it's been handled.
I've had other surgeries and that's been my experience.
I just want to share that.
I have no complaints with my insurance company, what they charge me or how it's been handled with Medicare.
Thank you, and this is Kathy in Cayuga Hall Falls, Ohio.
Good morning, Kathy.
Hi, good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
I I've had good experience with the health industry.
I had some major health issues with cancer and a car accident, and I'm fairly happy, even though I'm not completely recovered.
But I was calling about.
I have 20 years, almost 20 years' experience working with dental insurance for a job, and I wanted to speak out because what I have seen over the years is a systematic approach to slowly but surely stop covering procedures.
And what's really bothered me recently is that a lot of policies that our older patients have won't cover the type of cleanings that older patients have.
patients need.
Just as like one little specific policy limitation and and that's how they kind of get you and they seem to increase their profits by doing it and it, and it's to the point where it's, it's manipulating, it's compromising standard of care in the dental industry.
When they do that, because patients freak out because it's not covered and then they don't want to get treatment, so they might not even come in for a cleaning, which is so important, especially for older adults.
And and it's scary for me personally because of my health issues I can understand and see what's going on, what I work with every day, but I don't understand how that might affect my future health, given my personal history.
And so that's what I wanted to say and I appreciate you taking my call.
All right Kathy, and this is Steve in San Jose, California.
Hi Steve hello, thank you for taking my call.
I have had very good experience with with my health care.
I suffered a stroke about three years ago I have.
I was hospitalized for five days.
I did not pay a dime.
However, I have the original Medicare Physician Mutual as my secondary insurance.
I get phone call after phone call every day during the sign-up period because I called inquiring and they got my number about the Medicare Advantage program.
They're always trying to switch me over.
And one thing that I know, I can't say this for every Advantage program, but if you sign up for an Advantage program, you get enticed by this is free, that's free.
You get $175 returned to you, but beware.
You cannot choose your doctor.
You have to get a doctor out of their network.
You can't shop around.
And number two, because it is run by Wall Street, they are in a position to deny you surgeries, life-saving surgeries, and drugs, especially if you are old and they feel that they've invested too much money in your health at that point.
So beware.
All right.
And this is James, Buffalo, Kentucky.
Good morning, James.
Hey, good morning to you.
I always like your show.
It's entertaining.
But hey, here's the whole scenario: all these bleeding heart Democrats that are calling in with this medical problem and that medical problem, first and foremost, they deserve what they get because they voted for Biden.
He allowed the whole country to be flooded.
Now, money is being spent on all these people from around the world, and they're getting better medical care than all these bleeding hearts that are calling in.
They deserve it.
There's no reason for us to be taking care of the whole entire country or the whole entire world.
And the money, and then when he wants to put 2 million, he wanted to put 2 million.
We stopped.
The Republicans stopped that.
He wanted to put 2 million people on the rose, on the Medicaid Medicare rows.
And all these people calling in that are bleeding Democrats, they deserve what they got.
And James, how has your experience been with health insurance?
I got good health.
Have you never had to go to a doctor?
I've never been to the doctor.
And I'm an old man.
But at the same token, that's probably because of my upbringing.
I had to work from five years old all the way up to now.
So, you know, when I but anyway, make a long story short, the Democrats that are calling in, they deserve what they get.
Yep, we got the book.
And this is James in Michigan said, I had serious brain surgery last year.
United only covered one of the required two anesthesiologists needed for the procedure.
I was left with the bill as they did not approve the two.
And finally, Albert on Facebook said, I paid over $1,500 to see a nurse for 10 minutes.
They charge me $30 for two Tylenols alone.
Well, up next on the Washington Journal, we'll talk to Republican Congressman Carlos Jimenez of Florida about next week's government funding deadline and the GOP trifecta in Washington come January and later.
Former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser discusses Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS secretary nomination and potential changes to public health policy.
We'll be right back.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back.
We are joined now by Representative Carlos Jimenez, a Republican of Florida.
He's on the Armed Services and the Homeland Security Committees.
Congressman, welcome to the program.
Thank you.
It's my pleasure being here.
I want to start with drones.
You're the chairman of the Homeland Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security.
You recently held a hearing on the security threats posed by drones and want to ask you specifically about what's happening over the skies in New Jersey.
This is The Guardian that is talking about drone cluster sightings.
Can you tell us first kind of what's happening there in New Jersey and then a little bit more about the hearing that you held?
Well, from my understanding is that they've seen hundreds of sightings of drones in New Jersey and the problem is nobody knows who's flying them.
Nobody knows where they came from.
Nobody knows what they're doing and nobody knows where they went.
That's a problem.
And so, you know, the hearing really outlined the fact that most of America is really unprotected from this, you know, threat.
And it's a threat.
I'm not saying that there's something nefarious going on.
We don't know.
And so, but it just doesn't seem right.
It's certainly odd.
But most of America is unprepared for if a nefarious actor wants to do some harm to us, either by surveillance or, God forbid, you know, put some kind of payload on these drones where we are ill-prepared to defend ourselves.
And that was highlighted in that hearing.
And what's the solution, Congressman?
How do we protect ourselves from nefarious actors?
We need to, look, the threat's just going to get worse because as you embed artificial intelligence into these drones, they don't need to be piloted anymore.
Some of the technology that we have actually interrupts that pilot to drone interface as it's being flown.
We do have some defense capabilities in some of our facilities, but once AI is input into those drones, it takes more than just interfering with the pilot and the drone itself.
It's going to take more measures.
The problem that we have, I believe, in the federal government is that we have too many agencies with too few money, too few resources really aligned to seeing how we can deal with this threat.
We need to somehow centralize this and focus that it is a threat.
It is a potential threat.
And instead of waiting for something to happen, we need to take action now in order to protect the nation.
What kind of action are you going to be taking?
You said too few resources.
Is there something coming up in the budget negotiations to address this topic specifically?
Well, we need to, you know, I think we need to centralize, or at least we have too much decentralized.
Too many agencies have a little bit of money to deal with the issue.
We need to really focus in our federal efforts and what are we going to do as a nation to combat this threat before something happens.
I don't have a specific plan right now.
I think we need some more hearings.
I need to talk to some more people and agencies that said, okay, here's a threat.
How are we going to deal with it not only now, but in the future?
And how can we focus as a nation to make sure that as much as possible that we don't get burned in the future?
This week you were elected the new vice chair of the Republican Governance Group.
It's known as RG2.
It's a House GOP caucus of the center right.
Can you tell us about that group and what your priorities are going to be?
Well, yeah, we're really like the majority makers.
These are most of the members that we have in our group.
We sit down on Tuesdays and we talk about policy and we talk about different bills, et cetera, and then what our stance is going to be.
We are conservative, but more to the center.
And there's about 40 to 50 of us in that caucus.
And so I'm greatly honored that I was elected as the vice chair.
And my job is to make sure that the leadership understands the position of our caucus and also help our leader, our chairman, Dave Valadeo.
So again, it's a great honor, but that's the group, the makeup of this group.
And it's one of about four major caucuses that we have in the Republican Conference.
If you'd like to join the conversation with Representative Carlos Jimenez, you can do so.
Our lines are bipartisan.
So Republicans are on 202748-8001.
Democrats, 202748-8000.
And Independents, 202748, 8002.
You serve on both Armed Services and Homeland Security committees, so I wanted to ask you about the nominees that are going to be coming before the Senate, starting with Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
Your thoughts on that?
I mean, she's got some controversial statements that she made in the past, and I'm sure that those are going to be brought up.
Again, the Senate has to do their job in confirming these nominations.
The president has the right to choose the people that he wants, but the Senate also has the job of confirming them and vetting these candidates.
She has made some controversial statements in the past, and I'm sure that she's going to have to explain that to the Senate before she gets confirmed.
And the nomination of Pete Hegseth, where do you stand on that?
Well, again, you know, it's certainly an out-of-the-box kind of nomination.
He's a very intelligent individual.
Obviously, he went to Princeton and went to Harvard.
He served in the Armed Forces.
And to be frank with you, as a member of Armed Services, the Pentagon needs to be shaken up.
We have a lot of people in there.
The bureaucracy, I think, is way too burdensome.
We have to be much more nimble as we face the pacing threat of China that China poses to the United States.
And the acquisition of weapon systems, the development of weapon systems, all of that.
Our industrial base, all of that needs to be upgraded.
And again, we need to be much more nimble.
And you're going to have to have somebody that's going to shake it up.
I don't know him personally.
I've never met him personally.
I know that there's some accusations of things in his past.
And again, the Senate is going to have to do their job, vet it out.
And that's who the president wants.
But again, the Senate has, you know, they have their role to play in this.
And so I'll defer to the Senate, but I have confidence in the Senate will do the right thing.
And you mentioned China, so I just want to ask you about the news that's just come out this morning from CBS News that Mr. Trump has invited China's Xi Jinping to the inauguration.
Your thoughts on that?
No, I think, look, I mean, China is our number one threat now and will be into the future.
I think it's good to speak to our adversaries and our potential adversaries.
And so I know President Trump likes to engage when he's trying to deal with people, whether they be friends or foe.
And so inviting Xi Jinping, I think, is a way to extend an olive branch to China.
But I know that President Trump is going to be, he's going to watch out for America's interests when it comes to China, and he won't be fooled by anything that they try to do.
And I think that he's just trying to highlight that with President Xi Jinping by bringing him here.
And hopefully they can have dialogue.
And hopefully we can start to, this adversarial relationship that I think that we're heading into, maybe we can avert that.
But again, we have to attain that through strength, not through appeasement.
And we have callers lined up for you, Congressman.
Stephen in Lexington, Kentucky, Independent Line, you're on with Carlos Jimenez.
Yes, good morning.
Thank you for having me, Mimi.
Thank you, Representative Jimenez, for your time.
My question is regarding, and I'm using air quotes, the drones that are flying around New Jersey and the Northeast.
I'm saying this is a global phenomenon.
This is not just happening in the U.S. There's also the same thing happening in the U.K.
The same thing is happening in China.
And the media doesn't like to talk about it because it's a bipartisan issue.
Both sides want to know.
So it's not entertaining for people.
That's why we're just getting a hint of this after almost a month of this happening.
So I guess my question for you is the only way we're going to be able to attack these things over our country is probably through you guys.
You guys have to vote on how to deal with this.
Congress and everybody in the government has to vote on this.
I want to know if this keeps going on, are you guys going to vote on settling this?
Because I think this is tied to a bigger issue.
If we can't figure out who's above us, then we are in trouble.
The most powerful military in the world is failing us, and we're still giving them a lot of money.
And I think we have to really think that we are very vulnerable right now.
All right, Stephen, let's get a response.
Go ahead, Congressman.
I think, look, like I said in the beginning, that, yeah, our defenses against these drones here in the homeland are woefully inadequate.
Now, do we have some facilities that have some capability against certain types of drones?
Yeah, we do.
But as I stated, as these drones become more and more autonomous, I think their danger increases.
And so I'm concerned the fact that I opened it up, but it says, we don't know who's flying them.
We don't know where they came from.
We don't know what they're doing, and we don't know where they went.
That's a problem.
And so we need better answers from our personnel, especially the federal government.
And if they know something, we need to know what that is.
If they need some authorities that they don't have right now, we need to give it to them.
Because I do fear the threat of Americans getting hurt by drones in the future.
And I've had this fear.
I used to be the mayor of Miami-Dade County.
We run Miami International Airport.
I've had this fear for probably 10 years about drones and their capabilities and what they could do, say, to an airport.
And so I'm with you.
We just need better answers, and also we need better solutions of how it is that we're going to deal with drones that pose a threat to Americans.
Look, I mean, they're getting cheaper.
We have so many drones right now that are owned by private citizens.
What is a threat drone and what is just a recreational drone?
Again, those are difficult questions that we need to answer, but we need to protect America and we need to find those answers.
On the Republican line in Coos Bay, Oregon, Beverly, good morning.
Good morning.
How are you?
Good.
Good.
I have a question and a comment.
Why isn't the Coast Guard looking out over the ocean to see where those drones are going?
And also, I think the government knows what these drones are.
Otherwise, they'd have fighter jets up there chasing them away like they do with everything else.
So what about that?
I don't know why the Coast Guard doesn't know if they're flying back over the ocean.
As some people have said, they come out of the sea and then they go back to the ocean.
I don't know why.
I'm just as frustrated as you.
We should know why.
Again, we need to know who's flying them.
We need to know where they came from and why they're buzzing around and where they're going.
And that seems to me just follow one back and see what the heck where it lands, you know.
And I don't understand why they couldn't answer those questions.
You know, I'm a congressman.
I guess I'm a member of government.
But if somebody underneath some of the agencies that we're supposed to be overlooking know the answer and they don't tell us, you know, that's frustrating to us just as well.
And so, yeah, fighter planes aren't the answer to this because these drones fly so slow that really a fighter is not going to be too effective, but helicopters are.
And so why don't they do that?
Why don't they follow them back?
I don't know.
I don't have the answer to that.
We need to get the answer to that.
And if this phenomenon continues, then we need to get to the bottom of it.
Patrick in Murieta, California, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning.
Yes.
One of the groups I'm on, I noticed there's a town right next to me called Temecula, and the last few days they've been talking about multiple drones being flown over Temecula in Southern California.
So I find it kind of interesting.
I turned on C-STAN this morning and saw the congressman talking about this and happening out here.
Again, it's a phenomenon that's apparently happening not only in different parts of the United States, but as one caller said around the world.
Again, we need to get to the bottom of it because people are now starting to get spooked and are afraid.
And we don't want to cause any kind of mass hysteria about this issue.
These drones haven't harmed anybody up to now.
And Congressman, who would be in the government dealing with this issue?
Is it the FAA?
Is it the Defense Department?
DOD has a role, obviously.
I mean, some of these drones have been buzzing around sensitive areas of our defense apparatus.
So I have an understanding that DOD may have some answers on this, and maybe they haven't been asked.
The FAA has a role.
Obviously, these are aircraft.
They're in our airspace.
And so there are various agencies that have, Homeland Security has a role to play in this.
Again, we need to start focusing our attention on the issue federally.
And one of the problems that I see is that we have too many agencies and not enough resources.
And we need to focus those resources and then also come up with an action plan.
What are we going to do about them?
We have a whole bunch of drones flying in a certain area.
How are we going to deal with that?
And come to those answers as a nation.
And I would expect that the Trump administration is going to be looking at this issue and then recommending some course of action.
And if we and Congress have to pass some authorizing legislation, then we will do so.
Brent in New Iberia, Louisiana, Republican.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Thank you.
I have a Part 107 license to fly drones commercially.
They don't even get off the ground if they're in a restricted airspace, so they have to be authorized by the FAA.
Good chance they're mapping something.
It's probably a real simple solution.
I'll just hold on and see what you've got to say about it.
Well, I mean, you know, you have a license and you fly according to FAA rules, but that doesn't mean that everybody who's flying these drones are going to abide by those rules.
And again, if you have some nefarious purpose, you're certainly not going to abide by those rules.
And so my concern isn't about the recreational drone pilot that flies for their own entertainment or to gather information or take pictures, let's say, of infrastructure.
You may work for an energy company, and I know they're using drones to gather information on their infrastructure, which is totally valid.
But my concern is more about nefarious characters that may be using it to gather information they shouldn't be gathering or in the future carry some payload that actually may harm Americans and their property.
And so, again, it's just, it all depends on the pilot and what their purpose is.
Congressman, Janet in Florida on a different subject is asking on X, why does Donald Trump want to make enemies of Canada and Mexico?
And I believe she's referring to the tariffs.
It's not really making enemies.
Look, We've had a problem with the southern border where millions of people are coming from Mexico into the United States.
And if Mexico is not going to help us with the problem, then you have to demonstrate to them that you're serious about it.
They're not our enemies, but again, they're not acting as our friends either, as they allow millions of people to flow into the United States through their country.
And so it's time for Mexico and Canada to control their immigration and their borders with the United States.
And if it takes a little bit of twisting of the arms to say, hey, to you, it doesn't matter because, you know, okay, come on into our country, then go on to the United States.
It's not our problem.
Well, now it is your problem.
And now you share our problem.
And that's one of the ways that President Trump in his previous administration was able to get Mexico to agree to a remain in Mexico policy.
By doing the remain in Mexico policy, it reduced the immigration problem in the United States by 70%.
And also Mexico, then it was in their best interest to enforce their immigration.
And so it's a way to incentivize both Mexico and Canada to cooperate with the United States.
And I think it's totally valid what he's doing.
Carol is a Republican in Ausining, New York.
Hi, Carol.
Hi, the previous callers expressed my sentiment, but I'm just shocked at how cavalier our government is with these bus-sized drones flying in our airspace.
And I think you should be demanding answers.
You keep saying they're not doing anything, they're not doing this.
You should be doing something as a member of Homeland Security.
And our adversaries are watching our weak response.
Don't you think they are aware that they could get away with something like this invading our airspace and we're not even responding?
I'm just absolutely shocked.
All right, Carol.
Ma'am, we had a hearing on this subject a couple days ago just to bring it to light.
And so because of the hearing that we had, it was brought to light in front of the American people.
And so we were expecting answers.
We got no answers, which now is going to lead to either more hearings either on a public setting or in a classified setting.
I would expect that the next thing we're going to do, we're going to go in a classified setting.
And so maybe some of the things they couldn't tell us in a public setting, they'll be able to tell us in a classified setting.
And once we have better information about what this is all, you know, what this is all about, then we'll take some action if we have to take some in Congress.
Remember, a lot of, you know, the executive branch has a lot of authority to do a lot of things.
And why they're not doing certain things?
Well, we need to get to the bottom of it.
And if we in Congress have to pass legislation that authorizes them to do to take further action, then we will do so.
But we need to get that information first.
Unfortunately, in that first hearing, we didn't get much information out of the fact that they were apparently as lost as everybody else, which in itself is very troubling to Congress.
So, yeah, we're going to take further steps to alleviate this problem and then further steps to, if we have to pass authorizing legislation, we do so.
And then the oversight that we have over the administrative branch to make sure that America is protected.
And yeah, I sit on Homeland Security, but remember, this thing wasn't too well documented until we had that hearing a couple of days ago.
And by the way, that hearing is on our website in its entirety at c-span.org.
Security threats posed by drones.
You can watch that.
Just put drones in the subject line, and you'll be able to see that if you're interested in the topic.
Here's Judy in Brooklyn, New York, Democrat.
Good morning, Representative.
No, as a tax-paying American citizen, I am so disheartened by the lack of progress from our elected officials.
It just seems like you know how to place blame, but you are totally useless when it comes to solving problems.
When are we going to solve problems instead of laying blame?
It's this person's problem, that person's problem.
Oh, the federal government, you are the federal government.
Fix it.
Fix it.
And Judy, what problem are you talking about specifically?
Well, I just listened to him talking about the drones.
Oh, they're all.
We'll get an answer for you.
Go ahead, Congressman.
All right, we have a role to play in Congress.
And there is three levels of government.
One is the executive branch, one is legislative, and one is judicial.
In Congress, people seem to think that we can snap our fingers and things go away.
It doesn't work that way.
And so you need to be a student of how government works.
I'm just as frustrated as you are.
Look, I had a lot more power when I was Mayor of Miami-Dade than I do as a congressman to get things done.
As Mayor of Miami Dade, I can go look at a pothole and say, fix it, and it'd get fixed.
In Congress, it doesn't work that way.
In order to fix that pothole, I actually have to have an act of Congress to fix the pothole.
And that's the way that this government works.
We have oversight over the administration.
We've asked questions of the administration about that issue.
They have no answers, at least in an unclassified setting.
We need to get to the bottom of what is happening.
And then if the administrative branch actually needs legislation for them to act on this issue, then we have to pass that legislation.
And that's the way that it works.
And you may not like to hear it, but that's just the way it is.
Cindy in Richmond, Kentucky is asking you, if oil is supposed to make us so rich and powerful, why are the Republicans not drilling all that oil in Florida?
There's not much oil to drill in Florida to begin with.
And by the way, there is oil being drilled in the Everglades in Florida as we speak.
And so we have pockets of oil and resources in different parts of this nation.
The oil that we have in this nation's are in other parts mostly, but there are in Florida, like I told you, we're drilling oil right now, and we're pumping oil right now in certain parts of Florida.
So yeah, we are.
But we don't have as much oil as they do in Texas or in Pennsylvania.
We don't have as much gas as maybe what they have in New York and other parts of this country.
And so, you know, where those natural resources lie is where we need to get them.
But we do need to start drilling for more oil.
We do need to start using American natural gas more than we are right now.
We also need to increase our refining capacity so that we can become not only energy independent like we were before, but energy dominant.
And what does that mean?
That we can now supply the world with energy and then substitute American oil and gas for Iranian oil and gas, Russian oil and gas, and Venezuelan oil and gas.
And that has a number of benefits for America and a number of benefits for the security of America also.
This is James in Prairie Hill, Texas, Independent Line.
Yes, sir.
Mr. Jermenz, I'd just like to say you're doing a great job.
And y'all are the Republicans.
And when you get back to the U.S. House, shake Mike Johnson's hand for me because he's doing a great job.
He got his work cut out for him because Democrats will miss his sign up somebody.
Can I hear you?
Are you there?
Yep, yep, we heard you.
And I'll say, when Trump gets in, that's going to be the end of the drones.
Know what they are, yeah.
I'd hope so.
I hope that would be the end of the drums, or at least we get an answer.
What the heck is going on?
And real quick, Congressman, the funding deadline is December 20th.
Are you looking at a March CR, or what do you think is going to be happening with funding?
I think we're going to get the answer to that when we come back on Monday.
Right now, we don't have that answer or how long it's going to be.
It's going to be a CR without a doubt.
There's no time to do the appropriations.
I don't think the Senate is there anyway.
So there'll be a CR that'll take us a certain amount of time.
I would expect, I really would expect something about around March to give us time then when the new Congress comes in to come in and determine it's probably going to be some kind of reconciliation bill and then how we can get appropriations done and move through and then what the new you know the new administration is seeking in terms of funding.
I know that we also want to save money.
I know that the new Doge department that's being headed by Ellen Musk and Ramazwani are going to be looking at that and we're going to be helping.
I'm part of that caucus and there's a lot of money to be saved.
There's a lot of waste here in Washington and we need to trim down our government and we need to reestablish a new base of what our government is.
What are we going to be doing, the things we should be doing, the things we shouldn't be doing, and focus more on those things we should be doing and not wasting America's taxpayer dollars.
All right.
Representative Carlos Jimenez, Republican of Florida, member of the Armed Services and Homeland Security Committees.
Thanks so much for joining us.
It's my pleasure.
More of your phone calls.
After the break and open forum, you can start calling in now and later.
Former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser discusses Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS secretary nomination and potential changes to public health policy.
James M. Bradley's biography of Martin Van Buren is the first full-scale portrait of the eighth president in four decades.
Mr. Bradley is the co-editor of the Martin Van Buren Papers and teaches in the public history program at the State University of New York at Albany.
In his introduction, James Bradley writes: As this biography will show, reaching the nation's highest office was not Van Buren's greatest achievement.
He built and designed the party system that defined how politics was practiced and power wielded in the United States.
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Van Buren is known as the principal founder of the Democratic Party.
James Bradley, with his book, Martin Van Buren, America's First Politician, on this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back to Washington Journal.
Again, this is a two-hour journal, so we'll be with you for just under an hour and then take you to the House.
But something that's already underway on C-SPAN 2 is officials with the VA testify on recent multi-billion dollar technology modernization projects.
That's going on live, the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee hearing on C-SPAN 2.
And at 10 a.m. this morning, a look at ways to empower people with disabilities.
Senate Aging Committee witnesses will talk about some of the challenges faced by the disabled, including home care, employment accessibility, and economic security.
That's at 10 a.m. Eastern Live on C-SPAN 3.
Both of those, you can see those on C-SPAN Now, our app and online at c-span.org.
Also, just before I get to your calls for Open Forum, some news, FBI Director Chris Ray to resign at end of Biden term, clearing the way for Trump pick.
That's at CNN.com.
Let's go to the phones to Joe in Wilmington, North Carolina, Democrat.
Hi, Joe.
Hey, how you doing?
Good.
You know, with, I'm sorry, the representative was not able to address how was in his district not too long ago.
But about to the drones, people have a reason to be concerned about these things.
Back in 2003, I was taking a securities course that dealt with Coast Guard weapons of mass destruction capability.
And they were saying how difficult it is to check all the bulk carriers at sea.
And of course, the scenario was, even back then, was the issue of drones being launched from Chinese type of bulk carriers out there.
So to tell me the Coast Guard can't, you know, don't know where these things are coming from and people reporting them from the beach.
It's a concern.
I mean, we have CAP, a civilian air patrol.
We have helicopters, you know, and it just seemed like a lot of misinformation.
So I think it's something that people have a right to be concerned about swarming.
And a lot of states, you can't even fly a drone unless it's registered, and it can't be above 200 feet.
So, and can't be flown over certain areas.
Thank you very much for your time.
And William in Cleveland, Ohio, Republican.
Good morning.
William.
Good morning.
Yes.
Hi, William.
Good morning.
I'm here.
Well, like I was saying earlier, in reference to the drones, quite frankly, that's a matter for the Department of Defense.
They monitor those guys.
They watch for unidentified aircraft coming into our territories, either off our coastlands or even being flown within our country itself by parties that may be practicing an espionage.
But, you know, with regard to these drones that are over our military bases, the only thing I could figure that is, is since obviously the Department of Defense is fully aware of them, but they're not reporting it, is because they've already reported to the chief and commander.
And the chief and commander happens to be the president of the United States.
So he's obviously aware of these craft, and he's obviously authorized these craft to travel across our country so that they can gather the intel that they need that they can't,
his son couldn't transfer from the garage, you know, that they could then learn how to invest their funds in the Chinese power markets and make their monies and then hide those funds that they profiteered through their alleged LLCs that are offshore.
So now they're exempt from any federal tax liability, things of that nature.
That is why these craft are not being fired upon.
All right, William.
Virginia in Riverside, California, Independent Line.
Yes, I'm just checking in on this China again.
I heard yesterday, I've heard for about a year, China's been buying up our lands, farmlands, whatever in the Midwest.
And I'm just curious who's selling this.
Is this our federal government or is this an independent person that owns a farm and selling it right next to our bases?
Does anyone have an answer to that?
I'm just kind of interested why this would be happening.
And it's happening all over the country, I guess.
I mean, where there is vacant land by a military base.
So could someone help me with that question?
Thank you.
We'll do our best.
But in the meanwhile, here's Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense.
He spoke to the press following a meeting on Capitol Hill with Senator Susan Collins of Maine.
Here it is.
How do you characterize this meeting?
Make a space, make space, make space.
Having turned out to be respect.
Sorry, too much.
It was a great meeting with Senator Collins.
And again, office after office, having the opportunity to spend time with these senators who have invested their careers in ensuring that our warfighters get what they need has been an amazing educational process.
And Senator Collins, like her colleagues before her, reiterated that.
And it was a wonderful conversation.
We focused on what needs to be done to make sure this Pentagon is focused on warfighting and legality.
And we look forward to staying in touch with her.
I certainly do not assume anything about where the senator stands.
This is a process that we respect and appreciate.
And we hope through time, overall, when we get through that committee and to the floor, that we can earn her support.
But she's earning support in this process in ongoing conversations.
And we're doing this for the warfighters, and I'm grateful the president.
And just to answer the caller's question about the Chinese buying land near military bases, the Atlantic Council has this on this was from July of this year.
It says, China's ability to buy U.S. land near military bases just got more restricted.
It says that in early June, the U.S. Treasury Department announced a proposed update to Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States rules that would expand the committee's jurisdiction over foreign real estate purchases.
And these new rules were announced after several recent high-profile and controversial planned property purchases by initially undisclosed Chinese buyers, a growing number of state-level restrictions on foreign real estate investments, and increased congressional scrutiny on greenfield investment.
So you can see that at theatlanticcouncil.org if you'd like to read that.
And this is Lee in Wamego, Kansas, Democrat.
Hi.
Mr. Jimenez is either lying or he's ignorant on the oil production of the United States.
So I can fix ignorant, but I can't fix him lying.
The United States is the number one producer of oil in the world, period.
13.5 million barrels per day coming out.
We are energy independent.
Energy independence is defined under the Trump administration as exporting more oil than we import.
And we have been doing that for several years now.
So according to the Trump definition, the United States is energy independent.
Go to eia.gov, eia.gov for all my naysayer Republicans, EIA.gov, and they'll tell you.
13.5 million barrels of oil.
So when Donald Trump says that he's going to drill baby drill, he ain't talking about oil.
He's talking about Stormy Daniels.
Thank you very much.
And also some news from this morning.
Time magazine has announced the person of the year, and that is Donald Trump.
You could see that at time.org.
There's the cover of Person of the Year for Time magazine.
Mike in Huntington, Indiana, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Yes, I don't understand why somebody don't shoot it down.
Those drones.
And Paul in England, in the UK, Democrat.
Good morning, Paul.
Hi, Mumi.
Hi, Mimi.
I just hope that next year, in the next few years or so, until 2000, whatever, 2030, whatever, it'll be better times and the world peace.
That's all we need in this world now.
I think world peace.
That's what that's what we want.
That's what the U.S. government should strike for as well.
It never gets in next time, probably, whatever.
So when you say, oh, he's gone.
Okay.
And here's Patrice in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Republican.
Yes.
You have American devastation, open borders, human trafficking.
Patrice.
Yes.
Yes, we're listening.
Go ahead.
Yes, you have this administration that has allowed open borders for human trafficking right in our faces.
You have balloons flying over artificial intelligence early in the year.
And now you have the drones that suspected to have AI intelligence within them.
And you have people that's still calling in, defending this administration.
And then you have the news, including C-SPAN, that has allowed for this kind of talk, this negative talk to continue on about a president-elect that's coming in to try to make America better.
The news media is part of the biggest problem that has caused all this.
You all.
Because when people come even to C-SPAN, Patrice, who do you listen to?
Patrice, who do you listen to as far as the media?
I get my news from alternative sources on YouTube.
Like Rogan, Rogan, etc.
Yeah, it's a whole lot of us out here that's in tune to what's really going on.
But you all, C-SPAN included, allow this rhetoric to go on.
And it's awful because when someone valid with valid information calls in the C-SPAN, you hang up on them.
They don't even get their point across.
You interrupt them.
You don't let them speak to get what they're saying out because they have valid information that the public needs.
You good, Patrice?
Calling in into C-SPAN.
Okay.
Roger in Abilene, Kansas, Republican.
Good morning, Roger.
Yes, thank you for C-SPAN.
It's a megaphone for people who want to talk a little bit about what they feel.
I called in four years ago about the illegals crossing the border, and everyone that came on your show would say, we need to stop this.
We need to stop this.
Here we are, four years later, has not been stopped.
I just saw this last congressman mentioned.
They don't know what this is.
Are we going to go four years of these drones coming over us?
Or are we going to, what's going to happen?
I know we have billionaires in this country that would enjoy, they would totally embrace the challenge to go shoot one of those down, and they would love it.
Roger, do you believe that this would cause a problem on the ground if people started shooting up in the air?
I can see that.
I can see that.
And they could put a they could say these only can be shot down in the ocean.
And these billionaires would just love this.
This would be very exciting for them, you know.
And we have those in this country.
Thank you.
Susan in Worcester, Massachusetts, Republican.
Hi, Susan.
Yeah, hi.
I agree with that other lady.
The mainstream media, it's dead.
We don't listen to them.
We don't care what they say.
They're all liars.
They were all corrupt like the Democrats.
I listened to Atlant Jones, Joe Rogan, Tuck Carlson.
I got the best media.
And thank God, if you would read a report about Alex Jones, he can keep his board as the Democrats tried to take it away from him and make him dissent.
And what's happening with the what?
These people are crazy.
And when is he going to get up there and tell the American people about the drones?
They know.
They know what's going on.
It's unbelievable.
We let this psychotic idiot run this country for boy.
But I don't really think it was in with Obama and what trumped into Obama, the Clintons, and Bushes.
We got them all knocked off the pages.
So all the help she had, she was a clousy candidate.
They can blame her colour.
We didn't vote.
No, we want a smart woman, not an idiot.
We'd like a Pam Barney to run for president.
She couldn't do it.
Tamala Harris.
Where is she?
I haven't seen her since she lost.
Who is Biden with all the drones and all this crap?
He's responsible for all the things going on.
And we sent 21 billion to Ukraine.
They're trying to make it so bad.
All right, Susan.
This is Cynthia in Youngstown, Ohio.
Democrat, good morning.
Good morning.
I think, you know, I kind of agree that the media did not do its job.
But I also think the Democrats are responsible.
The Democrats, their number one priority should have been calling Trump and the other people who tried to overthrow our democracy and calling them to task and making sure that they would never come into power.
And the Democrats did not do that.
The Democrats have always had this approach.
We'll take the higher road, we'll put our nose to the grindstone, we'll get work done, which is what they did.
And Biden did deliver us from the pandemic and all of the, you know, that hasn't been looked at or talked about at all in the media, the devastating effects of that pandemic and how long it took us to move forward, you know, just the supply chain issues.
And so on the other side, they just figure out ways to manipulate the media and manipulate their message.
And the fact that they were able to convince so many people and brainwash so many people and that the Democrats didn't do something about that, that's the elephant in the room because people really believe that we've had a bad economy for four years.
And if you look at the facts, it's been one of the best economies we've ever had.
And they're going to go in there.
They're going to change the message and say it's good.
And then they're going to take credit for all the work the Democrats did.
And that's what they always do.
And the Democrats really need to strategize better.
All the way down to the local level, our local Democrats failed us.
They should have had a candidate long before Kamala Harris.
They should have been prepared.
And they weren't.
And if the Democrats don't look in the mirror and look at what they did wrong, they're never going to overcome this.
All right, Cynthia.
And some news from NBC.
This is Biden to commute sentences of 1,500 nonviolent offenders in the biggest single-day act of clemency to date.
It says, the president said, quote, America was built on the promise of possibility and second chances.
It says that he's commuting the sentences of almost 1,500 offenders.
He's pardoning 39 others.
Explaining what may become a defining act in the dying days of his presidency, Biden said in a statement, as I said, America was built on promise of possibility and second chances.
Biden continued, as president, I have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for Americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities, and taking steps to remove sentencing disparities for nonviolent offenders, especially those convicted of drug offenders.
Robert, Covington, Kentucky, Republican line.
Good morning.
I was a radar air traffic controller for 15 years and I wanted to talk about the drones.
The drones, they have a restriction on how high and no restriction on how low.
They can't come over and get on your property and look in your window or anything.
That's against the law.
And you have to look at it.
What are they doing that's against the law?
They're bothering us, of course, but they're not doing anything else.
So unless we come up with different laws, I don't know what they can do.
And if you try shooting one down, you better be out from away from the city because you can't discharge a firearm inside a city and suburbs and exurbs.
All right, Robert.
This is Matt in Falls Church, Virginia, Democrat.
I am listening to a lot of people today, and it's just amazing to me how many people think, oh, well, we should be extremely worried about this, and this is a terrible thing.
And America can't stand for this.
And I just feel like, what world are you living in?
America is not invulnerable anymore.
We haven't been since 9-11.
There's this idea we can spend millions and billions.
I heard that person say we should give billionaires the ability to shoot these things down, like waste tons of money on it.
I think we should figure out what happened first and just wait and be patient.
So many people want to jump to conspiracy theories because nobody trusts anybody anymore.
The person who said the mainstream media is dead is correct in that the number of people who watch the mainstream media is dying.
I don't know what's the fix to that.
And the person who said Democrats should find a new media strategy.
I think we should figure out where do people actually get media from these days and figure out are those people trustful sources.
I ask everyone to look inside yourself and figure out where do you get your information from and find out is that a trustful source.
That's my comment.
Thanks.
Jim in Ana Cortez, Washington, Independent Line.
Good morning.
Before I make my comment, I just want to say that I think that C-SPAN is the most important thing on television.
I also think that everyone on the Washington Journal does a great job of facilitating and inviting discussion.
My comment is that, you know, we have so much political divisiveness in this country.
We have had for a long time.
And the only solution that I can see is that it has to be an open discussion about the rights of the individual.
There's a lot of discussion about the rights of certain groups.
Well, groups do not have human rights.
Only the individual human being does.
All right.
And here's Peter, Seattle, Washington, Democrat.
Good morning.
Good morning.
I am thinking about the drone situation.
If it was going to be some foreign country or something like that, why would they be running all their running lights all the way around these things all the time so everybody can see them?
And Amazon, I think, was interested in running drones and stuff.
So maybe Amazon dropped that plan because of what kind of hysteria we're hearing right now and sold them off to somebody.
And maybe they're using them.
I don't know.
It's just so stupid listening to people whine about these drones.
You know, we'll find out what's going on.
All right, Peter and Melanie in Seneca, South Carolina, Republican line.
Good morning.
Yes, I'm talking about the drones.
When people don't know what's going on, maybe there's a reason that we don't need to tell anybody what's going on.
No other country that's not our ally needs to know.
And maybe the word classified is all that needs to be said because that'll ease some people's anxiousness about these drones.
They'll say, oh, good, they've got it under control.
It's classified.
They're taking care of it.
And that's all they need to say.
How do you think we became the best nation in the world anyway?
But yes, China has caught our tail.
And we have had a horrible president for the last four years.
And let's just hope that Trump can do something before something really bad happens.
But I have faith that he can do that.
Thank you very much.
All right, Melanie.
And Steve in Linfield, Massachusetts, Democrat.
Good morning, Steve.
Good morning.
I just wanted to talk about all these people are so upset that these are potentially Chinese drones when Trump is inviting China to our inauguration.
He's the oldest president in the history of the United States.
He's got a terrible record on the economy.
Our economy is already booming.
We have all these people calling and hoping he's going to save our economy, but they don't watch the news because the news won't tell them the truth.
It's just, it's infuriating to listen to people so angry about drones and how the media is terrible, but yet their facts are so terrible.
You know that Trump added double to our deficit that Obama did.
Obama had two terms, but yet we're worried about Chinese drones that are, I'm sure, have a logical explanation.
I just, some of you people that are so upset about the media maybe should take a second to look around and get your facts somewhere else other than Fox News.
That's all I have to say.
Thank you.
All right, Steve.
And that's it for Open Forum.
Up next, we'll have former acting CDC Director Dr. Richard Besser.
He'll give us his take on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s HHS Secretary nomination and potential changes to public health policy in this country.
We'll be right back.
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Washington Journal continues.
Welcome back to the program.
We're joined now by Dr. Richard Besser.
He's former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control.
That was during the Obama administration in 2009 and also currently president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Dr. Besser, welcome to the program.
Thanks so much for having me on this morning.
You said in an op-ed that President-elect Trump's selection of RFK Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department is, quote, dangerous.
Explain that.
You know, one of the things you didn't mention is that I'm a pediatrician and I practiced pediatrics for more than 30 years.
And I know that as a pediatrician taking care of children all over the country, there was nothing that I did that had more proven value for the health of my patients than making sure they were vaccinated fully and on time.
I would get questions all the time from parents about different vaccines and what they were for and how I felt about their safety.
And we would have great conversations.
There was trust there.
And so the reason I say that the selection of RFK Jr. as the potential Secretary of Health is dangerous is that he has done more than just about anybody to undermine people's trust in vaccines and their safety.
And so having someone with that microphone, someone there in the cabinet who is undermining the belief in our vaccine system.
We have one of the, we have the safest vaccine approval system in the world.
We need someone in that position who puts it squarely on parents to ask their questions and get them answered, but believes that the system that we have in place is ensuring that our vaccines are safe and that they're effective.
I want to play this clip for you of the portion of a Meet the Press interview with President-elect Trump, where he was asked about his choice of RFK Jr.
And his skepticism about vaccines, and then I'll get your reaction.
Let me ask you about RFK Jr.
He has obviously talked about his skepticism of vaccines.
He's expressed opposition to childhood vaccines.
Do you want to see childhood vaccines eliminated?
If they're dangerous for the children.
Look, when you look at some of the problems, when you look at what's going on with disease and sickness in our country, something's wrong.
Are you talking about autism?
Well, if you take a look at autism, go back 25 years, autism was almost non-existent.
It was, you know, one out of 100,000, and now it's close to one out of 100.
Well, I mean, what's happening if they can find it?
Now, I did something the other night that was a little unusual.
At Mar-a-Lago, I called the drug companies, the top drug companies, and I called RFK Jr. and Dr. Oz and some of his people.
And I said, let's all get together and let's figure out where we're going because we're going to do a lot of things.
Number one, we're going to reduce prices because the middleman makes more money than the drug companies, in all fairness to the drug companies.
There's a middleman that nobody even knows who they are.
And you look at our drug prices, they're much higher than the prices for the same medicine, for the same stuff.
So we met, and we met for a long time, and we talked about pricing, and we talked about vaccines, you know, in terms of what happens.
We talked about pesticides.
We talked about everything.
And I think a lot of good things are going to come from him.
And he's not going to upset any system.
He's not going to upset this.
He's not looking to reinvent the wheel totally.
But when you look at the numbers, we really don't have a very healthy country.
Sir, going back 25 years, studies show that there is no link between vaccines and autism.
And yet it sounds like you are open to the possibility of him looking at the vaccine.
I'm open to getting rid of that.
I think somebody has to find out.
If you go back 25 years ago, you had very little autism.
Now you have it.
I mean, well, they say because they're better at identifying it.
One in 100,000, and now it's one in 100,000.
That's a pretty bad number.
Dr. Vesser, your reaction to that, specifically what he was talking about, vaccines and autism.
Well, first, you know, unfortunately, the president-elect is sharing misinformation.
In the year 2000, one out of 150 children was diagnosed with autism.
That was the rate of autism.
It wasn't one in 100,000.
It was one in 150.
And at that time, a lot of work was done to try and understand why are we seeing autism in children.
And since then, there's been a lot of work to understand why the rates of diagnosis are going up.
One thing is clear.
In 2004, the Institute of Medicine, which is an independent body of experts, released their report, an extensive study looking at the question of is there any connection between vaccines and autism?
And their conclusion was clear that there is not.
Since that time, there has been a lot of research to try and understand the rise in autism.
Some of it has to do with better diagnosis.
There's been a big push to try and identify children at a younger age who are on the autism spectrum so that they can get the services that they need.
And in many states, having that diagnosis is critical to being able to access those services.
So part of it is due to increased diagnosis.
We need to do more research to understand the part that isn't due to diagnosis, what is causing that rise.
But diverting research into looking at a question that's already been answered is cruel.
It's unfair to parents whose children are autistic, who have questions as to why.
It's unfair to parents who are concerned about safety of vaccines.
It's unfair to the nation that may have to see us treating diseases that have almost been wiped off the face of the earth come back.
I'm old enough and have practiced pediatrics in enough places that I've seen a number of these diseases that we prevent through vaccines.
I've seen children with polio, with measles, with meningitis.
And we don't want to go back to a day when these are big concerns in our communities.
And we don't need to.
We want to make sure that parents have the information they need to make really informed decisions about the health of their children.
You know, if you look before the COVID pandemic, which was the most politicized public health response in our history, before that, there was almost no difference by political party in terms of how people trusted science and the ability of science to provide answers to improve our lives and our health.
Since then, there's been a major difference, a major difference by political party with more Democrats believing that science provides truth far more than Republicans.
And that is dangerous.
You don't want to have a situation where politics and science are so interlaced.
Regarding vaccine safety data, you know, Mr. Kennedy has said he wants to make that data public.
Is it not already public?
Yeah, I don't know what data he's asking about.
The data that is used to approve vaccines is public.
And then after vaccines are licensed, there is surveillance.
There's information that's collected about anything that may have happened in a time frame related to a vaccine to try and understand, is there an issue?
When you first approve a vaccine, you really want to make sure that once it's used in millions and millions of people, there aren't rare side effects that you weren't able to detect when a vaccine was initially being studied.
And that information is all public.
And so I would encourage people to go onto the FDA website and Google and look for that information because it is there.
I'm not sure what he's talking about in terms of making information public that isn't.
We are going to be talking with Dr. Richard Besser for about 20 minutes until the House gavels in.
And if you'd like to join that conversation, you can do so.
Our lines are regional.
If you're in the eastern or central time zones, it's 202-748-8000.
If you're in Mountain or Pacific, it's 202-748-8001.
We have a line set aside for healthcare professionals.
So if you work in the healthcare field, please give us a call on 202-748-8002.
Dr. Besser, I want to ask you about removing fluoride from drinking water and the studies that have indicated that at high levels, that could be dangerous, especially to children.
Yeah.
This is a trickier one to talk about than vaccines because where you live, the community you're in, will affect in a great way how much fluoride you consume in your diet and your water supply.
The addition of fluoride to public water systems was ranked as one of the top 10 public health interventions of the 20th century.
The reason it was ranked that way is that small amounts of fluoride strengthen our teeth and prevent cavities.
And so, by putting small amounts of fluoride into a public water system, we saw a dramatic decline, 25% decline in childhood cavities.
That goes on to stronger teeth for adults.
And that's a wonderful thing.
I grew up in New Jersey.
Our water system wasn't fluoridated.
A good visit to the dentist for me was two or three cavities.
People who were exposed, children who were exposed to low levels of fluoride, were not experiencing that.
And one of the beautiful things about it is it didn't depend on your income.
Everyone had the benefit of that small level of fluoride in their water supply, regardless of how much money their family had.
But how is that level determined?
Isn't that determined at the local level?
And could some localities be putting too much fluoride in the water?
Well, it is determined at the local level, and it's tested at the local level.
And the reason I think it's important for parents to have conversations with their doctors is that now there are other sources of fluoride.
There's fluoride in toothpaste.
There are some vitamins that children receive that have fluoride in them.
And so having a conversation so that you understand what is in your water supply, are you drinking bottled water that may not have fluoride, or are you drinking the water from your system?
Those are important questions to have.
And if you are in a community that is not fluoridated, the water at all, and you should be able to find this, again, on your local community public health website, there, you may want to talk to your child's health care provider about fluoride supplementation.
One of the challenges there, though, is that for individuals who have lower income, that's another cost, a cost that they may have to bear that they wouldn't have to bear if there was fluoride in their water system.
But this is one where you really want to be informed.
You want to know what is in your water supply and whether your child needs to have additional fluoride supplementation or not.
Let's go to the phones now and talk to Deborah in Westchester, Ohio.
Good morning, Deborah.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my call.
I have the privilege of working with my parents who had a daycare, and so I ran the CACFP for them program for the food program for 12 years regarding nutrition for our children.
And I was just appalled at the beginning of the Obama administration when the United States Department of Agriculture allowed all foods on SNAP, sugary soft drinks, et cetera.
And 50% of our children in the Head Start program in New York are at an unhealthy weight.
And I don't understand why, because the government, it's hypocritical, the government has on my plate, which used to be the food pyramid, the daily recommended recommendations are like 20% protein, 20% fruit, 30% grains, 30% vegetables, and one small serving of dairy a day.
We don't have the insign to break it down.
You're a doctor, you're a scientist.
Why on earth would we make that?
Why can't we make a change back to what we had before 2008/9?
That's my question.
Dr. Basser.
Is your question about the food, the food plate versus the food pyramid?
Well, she's gone now, but you can go ahead and answer that.
Yeah, so, you know, one of the things that I think would be wonderful is if the new administration decides to take on childhood nutrition.
And one of the ways that could be done that I think could get bipartisan support would be to look again at the school lunch program.
During COVID, there were a number of government actions that I thought were terrific.
One of them was providing universal school lunch to every child in America.
There are 30% of children in America who get over half their calories from the school lunch.
And what would it mean if we as a nation said we want to make the school lunch in America the healthiest lunch possible?
It would take an investment.
There are a lot of schools in America that either never had kitchens or have had to pull them out because they haven't had the resources to maintain them.
But if every school had a kitchen and could provide a healthy, nutritious lunch for every child in America, that would go far to address some of the issues that Deborah's lifting up.
If in the discussions around what goes into that school lunch, what makes up that healthy plate, we keep big agribusiness out of there and we eliminate all the processed food and really have real food there, children would not only get a healthy lunch, but they would learn to appreciate and enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, healthy food.
And that would go a long way in terms of diet as people got older.
But I think one of the biggest things that could be done to address nutrition in America is to raise the minimum wage and make sure everyone had a living wage and could buy healthy food.
Healthy, nutritious food costs more.
And there are so many people in America who lack the resources to provide the food that they know they want to give to their children.
And they are forced into positions of giving processed food that they know is not as healthy.
But if we raise the income of people in America, hardworking people in America, that would go far.
And Dr. Besser, R.K. Jr. has also avowed to scrutinize the additives in the food in the United States.
He blames the food and the drug industries as well as the regulators that oversee them.
What are your thoughts on that?
I'm sorry, could you ask that again?
About scrutinizing food additives and that that's the fault of the food and drug industries.
Well, you know, food additives are regulated.
They are scrutinized.
It's very important that they are to make sure that nothing we allow in our food, in our food system is dangerous.
Any additional efforts in that area, I think, are a good thing.
But I think it is a bad thing to put forward a message that just about anything can go into our food supply.
They are heavily regulated in terms of what's allowed into food, and that should continue to be the case.
Mark in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Good morning.
Good morning.
It is my recollection that Dr. Fauci said that he was the science.
I have two questions about the science then.
Number one, Dr. Besser, was the six-foot distancing thing?
Was that based upon the science?
And number two, was wearing cloth masks based upon the science as well?
Thank you.
I'm sorry, what was the first part of that?
First one.
Six-foot distancing.
Oh, six.
You're right, right.
So, you know, these are good questions.
I ran emergency preparedness and response at the CDC for four years.
And I started that when Katrina hit New Orleans.
And then I left CDC shortly after the swine flu pandemic.
And I can tell you this, early in an outbreak, you make recommendations based on the best available information.
And it's critically important that you let people know what you know, what you don't know, and what you're trying to do to get additional information.
And you let people know that as you learn more, recommendations are going to change.
And that's important because otherwise, whenever a recommendation changes, it can undermine that trust.
It can be a sense of, well, there's flip-flopping going on here.
During COVID, there was a lot of information at the beginning in terms of what people were asked to do and told to do that changed over time.
I have a close relative who was in the hospital with COVID early in the pandemic.
By a year later, just about everything that was done for my relative early on turned out to be not the way to go, and it changed.
And I understood that that was based on learning.
And over the course of time, with learning, we learned what was most effective and what was not.
So this applies to things like distancing.
How far should distancing be in a classroom or between people?
It has to do as well with masks and which masks are most effective and whether other masks can provide any benefit whatsoever.
So these are areas where science early on in particular was incomplete and as more information was learned, there was a lot more effort put around ventilation, in particular in schools, than on that distancing.
We've got a question on text from Nick in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
What is your opinion of the COVID vaccine for children?
Yeah, you know, I think that the COVID vaccine is critically important.
The COVID vaccination saved millions of lives during the pandemic around the world.
Over time, it's important to look and see for vaccines like COVID, who is at the greatest risk and ensure to provide vaccination for them.
I recommend COVID vaccine during the pandemic.
I just got my booster this fall for COVID and got my flu shot.
And I urge people to look at the recommendations.
Vaccines are recommended for children and talk to your child's healthcare provider about that.
We vaccinate children for a number of reasons.
We vaccinate them to protect them from an infection.
We also vaccinate them to ensure that they're not going to make someone sick at home who may be at higher risk of disease.
Ingrid in Cantonment, Florida, you're next.
Good morning, Dr. Besser.
I recently, I think it was on the Washington Journal, within a week, I believe, a gentleman on talking about a product and the pesticide that other countries have banned, talking about autism.
And I think it started with a G, and it was such a long name, I didn't have time to write it down.
Could we talk about that being the cause of autism instead of the vaccines?
Thank you, sir.
Thanks, Ingrid.
You know, I think your question raises an important point.
And it's, you know, if we're diverting our government dollars, the National Institutes of Health, to continue to look at questions that have already been answered.
And the connection between vaccine and autism has been answered.
It means that there's not enough dollars around to look at other things.
And your question about could there be a pesticide related, that's a valid question.
I don't know if that particular pesticide has been studied.
Maybe it has, but it's so important that people are able to lift up questions and that we can turn to scientists to try and provide answers to that.
And once an answer has been provided, that we're all on board that we can move on to addressing an additional question.
Here's John in Schenectady, New York.
Good morning, John.
Good morning.
Thank you for taking my call.
So I got a question for you.
You say that the COVID vaccine for children is good.
You also said that the chemicals that are allowed in our food, but not allowed in other countries, is okay.
But Yellow Five and Yellow Fish has been proven to be bad drugs.
And also in the meat depression interview, they focused on vaccines.
That's not the only thing that RFK Jr. is against.
Like you said, with the pesticides and the chemicals in our food, my son is learning disabled.
He does have high functioning autism.
And I do believe it's from the extra vaccines that he got.
Because, like Trump said, some of the vaccines are good, like the polio vaccine and the manager.
How can you, being a pediatrician, not working for a private sector, before, like you just said, it's proven, so-called proven that the chemicals that are added in our food that are banned in other countries are not harmful to us.
They are harmful for us.
And what RFK Jr. wants to do is get rid of all this stuff and make us a healthier country.
And it has to start with the food that is given to us.
So, Dr. Bess, are the questions about the food, any chemicals in the food, and that RFK Jr. wants to try to remove those and possible links with learning disabilities in kids?
Yeah.
You know, I think that asking questions about connections between what we eat, what we're exposed to in the environment in all kinds of different ways in our health, those are really important questions.
And, you know, I know that parents whose children have different developmental disabilities, learning disabilities, want to know: is there a reason for this?
Is there something that could have been done differently so that this isn't the case?
Is there some kind of explanation?
So, those are important questions.
I think, though, that when a question has been addressed and a leader continues to put that forward as an explanation, that does a disservice.
That does a disservice to everyone in our nation.
And one of the challenges is that Mr. Kennedy put forward some good ideas for us to focus on, mixed in with misinformation.
He led one of the largest anti-vaccine organizations in the nation.
And that is the piece that really troubles me.
I'm not at all troubled by lifting up the desire to look at chronic diseases in children and say, what can we do more?
As a pediatrician, that would be a wonderful thing.
We do a lot of lip service in this country about how much we care about children.
But when you look at Congress and the amount of resources that they put in to address issues around the health of our children, it is inexcusable.
It's such a small fraction of resources.
Children don't vote, and it shows in terms of how Congress acts.
Anthony, Miller Place, New York.
Good morning.
Good morning.
Dr. Besser, please define safe and effective.
And can you explain why the Congress and the Senate, as well as all their staffers, exempted themselves from any vaccines?
Why are they delivered under emergency authorization to this day?
And why are there no black box warnings?
And sir, were you ever in the military?
Have you been enlisted in the Army by any chance?
Dr. Besser?
Hey, thank you.
I was a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service and proudly served our nation in that regard.
I was not in the Army.
But when you look at safe and effective for each vaccine, there are clear standards that the Food and Drug Administration puts forward in terms of what does effectiveness mean?
How much of a protection should you see?
No vaccine protects 100%.
And that's a challenge.
Some of our best vaccines provide 95% protection.
That basically means 95% of people who get that vaccine will avoid getting that disease.
But 5% of people who get that vaccine, for some reason, they won't get the immune response, the protection, the protective factors, and they still are at risk for that disease.
In terms of safety, there's a whole number of issues that are looked at when vaccines are being studied.