CSPAN - Washington Journal 02/07/2025

All Episodes

Previous Next

Feb. 7, 2025 07:00-09:00 - CSPAN

01:59:58

Washington Journal 02/07/2025

Participants

Main

john mcardle

cspan 26:03

Appearances

brian lamb

cspan 00:40

greg casar

rep/d 01:59

john kennedy

sen/r 02:03

karoline leavitt

admin 00:43

russell means

00:42

Clips

dick gregory

00:12

john coleman

00:06

pat buchanan

00:19

Callers

dennis in new york

callers 00:36

donna in west virginia

callers 00:17

gary in missouri

callers 00:09

john in unknown

callers 00:11

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Show episode speakers

Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		We expect to hear from a U.S. Senator on the issue.
		You can also watch these events live on the free C-SPAN Now video app and online at our website, c-span.org.
		Coming up on Washington Journal this morning, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		And then Democratic Illinois Congressman Brad Schneider, a member of the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committees, discusses Doge efforts and President Trump's Gaza plan.
		And Republican Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Freedom Caucus, talks about House Republicans' approach to implementing President Trump's legislative agenda.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		Join the conversation.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Friday, February 7th, 2025.
		The House is in at 9 a.m. Eastern, which means we're with you for the next two hours.
		We begin with the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency.
		Under Elon Musk, that organization has moved to cancel government contracts and try to reduce the federal workforce.
		Mr. Musk has even polled the public on which agency he should audit next.
		So this morning, we're asking what programs or agencies you think need more scrutiny?
		Are there cuts that you would propose for the federal government?
		Phone lines split as usual by political party.
		Republicans, it's 202-748-8001.
		Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		You can also send us a text, that number 202-748-8003.
		If you do, please include your name and where you're from.
		Otherwise, catch up with us on social media on X.
		It's at C-SPANWJ on Facebook.
		It's facebook.com slash C-SPAN.
		And a very good Friday morning to you.
		You can go ahead and start calling in now.
		We begin on Elon Musk's social media page, X, a question that he proposed to his some 216 million followers earlier this week, asking, would you like Doge to audit the IRS?
		One of the responses that he received was from the Ways and Means Chairman in the United States House, Congressman Jason Smith, posting a cartoon showing Elon Musk as the grim reaper knocking on the door of the IRS, other federal agency doors that have been opened after apparently being knocked on, the FBI and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
		A lot of scrutiny around cuts and changes at USAID, whether that agency will be folded into the larger State Department.
		It was yesterday at the White House that White House Press Secretary Carolyn Levitt answered reporters' questions about those changes at USAID.
		This is what she had to say.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		Secretary Rubio has been tasked with now being the acting administrator of USAID.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		As you all know, we have streamlined USAID into the State Department.
unidentified		Hi, Rachel.
unidentified		And so we want to ensure that we're being good stewards of the American taxpayers' dollars.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		He is currently going line by line to ensure that foreign aid to private organizations, public organizations, or government organizations aligns with America's interests.
unidentified		So I defer you to that.
		2% of federal employees have accepted that buyout that was offered.
		Is that less than the White House was anticipating?
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		Well, the last time I checked in with Office of Personnel and Management, there was more than 40,000 individuals, federal workers, who had accepted the buyout program.
		We expect that number to increase.
		And that alone, just the 40,000, again, we expect it to increase.
unidentified		It's going to save the American people tens of millions of dollars.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		And we encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer.
unidentified		If they don't want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, then they're welcome to take this buyout.
karoline leavitt ▲ ● ▼		And we'll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Caroline Levitt from the White House yesterday.
		We're asking this morning, what cuts would you make to the federal government in the wake of the Doge cuts that have already come down?
		It was the Congressional Progressive Caucus that held a press conference expressing their concerns about what Elon Musk and his agency has done already.
		This was part of that meeting yesterday.
greg casar ▲ ● ▼		And today we're here to say with one voice, fire Elon Musk.
		An unelected, unaccountable billionaire now has seemingly unlimited powers over Americans' private data and over Americans' taxpayer dollars.
		It seems every hour brings more news about a new threat Elon Musk poses to working people, a new way that Elon Musk wants to take your hard-earned money and keep it for himself.
		Just yesterday, Musk threatened to go after Medicare and Medicaid.
		Just yesterday, we also learned that Head Start programs serving 20,000 young students are locked out of their federal funding by Elon Musk.
		To be clear, that means that you have a billionaire, the richest person on earth, willing to take away your health care, willing to take away kids' lunches and meals, willing to take away pre-K just so that he can finance a tax break for himself and his billionaire buddies.
		And just last night, Elon Musk came out and we found out that he's interfering with air traffic control.
		When Musk took over Twitter, he repeatedly crashed that platform.
		It's not a big deal if your app doesn't load one day, but it is a huge deal if you don't know if your plane is going to crash or not.
		If we don't fight back, Elon Musk will take dollars away from our public schools, away from our health care, away from Social Security, away from our own safety systems, and use those dollars to line his own pockets.
		We are here fighting for a country that is by and for the people, not by and for the ultra-rich.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Texas Democrat Greg Kassar there focusing his remarks on Elon Musk.
		Elon Musk posting this cartoon of a sign in front of the White House, beware of Doge.
		Taking your calls this morning, asking you if you were to answer Elon Musk's inquiries about where he should target Doge's priorities.
		What cuts would you make to the federal government, if any?
		Phone lines for Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, as usual, we'll start on the independent line.
		Marlene is in Alexandria, Minnesota.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I would like to say that I would like actually to have him go through every one of our federal departments, but being as we're speaking about the Social Security and Medicare,
		I can tell you as a person that has been fraudulently billed to my Medicare, which I reported, that there is so much fraud going on in our Social Security and our Medicare and Medicaid that I do believe that all he's doing is looking for the fraud and the waste.
		I don't know why people are getting so wound up and lying about what he's doing.
		I just don't, I don't see that.
		He's not making the, he's giving the information to the president, and then the president will make the decision.
		Elon Musk is not doing it on his own.
		You know, he's giving the advice to the president, and then they can make the decision.
		He is not doing this all on his own.
		And that's what I don't believe.
		I don't understand why these Democrats and the people of the United States don't want to stop all this fraud and stuff that's going on in our country.
		It's our money.
		Why are they being so defendant of our money?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Marlene in Minnesota.
		Here's two op-eds today from First The New York Times.
		David Wallace Wells writing, it isn't reform, it's sabotage.
		Musk and Trump are launching a frontal attack on the government.
		And then the lead editorial from today's Washington Times, it's the Doge freak out.
		Lawsuits, protests, and over-the-top rhetoric inflame the debate over federal spending.
		Some of the discussion happening in today's papers, we're asking you your thoughts this morning.
		This is Mark in Oklahoma, Line for Democrats.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		I think they need to cut the IRS agents that go after people on the taxes because they get a big hiring.
		And I think we could switch them to the Border Patrol and stuff.
		But one of my main concerns is here, he's talking about taking and clearing the Syrian or whatever countryside overseas and going to build it up and make it into a big investment building and different stuff.
		But he's cutting all these other government jobs and programs and stuff.
		And if we're going to save money, why are we going to throw it over there and spend it on something like that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mark in Oklahoma.
		This is Robert in Texas.
		Amarillo, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello, sir.
		The answer to your question is I don't know.
		And let me explain why.
		The significance of good Democratic Party policy has been demonstrated by Bill Clinton, JFK, and most importantly, FDR.
		In the book, Paul Dickinson, the author, explains how FDR established a draft with an 87% approval rate, which is way before Pearl Harbor and saved the world.
pat buchanan ▲ ● ▼		Today, the magnitude of intellectual dishonesty in the Democratic Party has destroyed FDR's legacy.
unidentified		So let me provide some evidence of my assertion by Mr. Hakeem Jeffries when he called January 6th, perhaps you can pull up that clip, a day of infamy, which FDR used to explain the elimination of the entire Pacific fleet.
		By the way, Mr. Jeffries has no support in his own district, New York 8.
		He actually received fewer votes than the loser in New York 17.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Recently, Mr. Robert, he was just reelected in November.
unidentified		Well, let me explain.
pat buchanan ▲ ● ▼		Mr. Jeffries was in the Wall Street Journal a few days ago trying to change the rules to fill the seat of Ms. Stefanik.
unidentified		In my view, Mr. Jeffries should resign immediately as he demonstrates a high level of intellectual dishonesty.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's Robert in Texas, back to the independent line, Mark in Jefferson, Colorado.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, America.
		I want everybody to think about this.
		As Doge cruises through the computers in the United States, what is he doing in the Veterans Affairs computers?
		We're disabled veterans.
		Why is he pulling our names, our addresses, our Social Security numbers, our bank routing numbers and account numbers?
		This is happening to everybody in America, starting in the Treasury Department.
		One of his quote-unquote experts is a 19-year-old hacker.
		He's a freshman at Northwestern.
		What is he doing rooting through your computer?
		And then a further question arises.
		How much is that information worth on the black web?
		Go to that 19-year-old kid and say, I will give you a million dollars cash in an offshore account for 50,000 names, bank accounts, and routing numbers.
		America, concern yourself with your security because our security portals are in the toilet.
		Good morning, America.
		Protect yourself.
		Have a good day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mark in Colorado.
		You bring up Doge staffers, some Doge staffers now getting the spotlight from media organizations, including the Wall Street Journal.
		This is one of their headlines today.
		Key Doge staffer resigns over racist posts on X. One of those staffers who gained access to the Treasury Department's central payment system resigned yesterday after he was linked to the deleted social media account that advocated racism and eugenics.
		Marco Ellis, a 25-year-old who was part of the cadre of Elon Musk's lieutenants deployed by the Department of Government Efficiency to scrutinize federal spending, resigned after the Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.
		Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool, that account posted on X in July, according to archives reviews by the journal.
		You could not pay me to marry outside my ethnicity, the account wrote in September.
		Normalize Indian Hates was another post.
		In recent days, Ellis has emerged at the center of the legal battle over access to sensitive taxpayer information and systems that the Treasury Department uses to process trillions of dollars in payments annually.
		That story, again, from the Wall Street Journal today.
		This is Vivian Collierville, Tennessee, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank God in heaven we have you all there so we can voice our opinion and Trump is trying to turn us just like apartheid America.
		Elon Musk is from South Africa.
		If you remember the pain they put those people through, they're doing the same thing, sir, to us.
		Like my brother-in-law from Nigeria is saying Elon Musk is doing the same thing to us, what they did for all those years of the people over there in South Africa.
		Please wake up Democrats, Republicans, and independents.
		Look what they're doing.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		To that question that we asked, are there any agencies that you think need to be cut?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are there agencies that should receive some scrutiny in your view?
unidentified		Here, the agencies, no, we need all the agencies, sir, we got.
		We need Medicare, Medicaid, school lunches for children.
		We need the veterans' benefits.
		We need all of that.
		We need protection for our children here in school.
		They're not talking about that.
		They're talking about cutting out stuff to help people.
		What about them getting guns going, blowing our children's brains out in school?
		You don't hear no Republicans saying anything about it.
		Democrats need to wake up and put all that out there to let them see what they're trying to do to America.
		Next, you all will be next.
		They'll want to take you all off the air.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's Vivian in Tennessee.
		This is Fernando in New York City.
		Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I think what should be eliminated, it must be eliminated if America is going to survive.
		We are not the welfare of the world.
		America must wake up.
		Democrats, liberals, independents, and Republicans.
		Stop giving our money to other nations.
		If they can't grow their own food, we teach them.
		But we can't keep maintaining people that want to pregnant women and have nine, eight babies, and they're starving to death.
		It's time.
		This is a crooked way of stealing money and funding it to other things outside this country.
		These people should be put in jail.
		Just like the governor, Trump was good.
		He didn't lock him up.
		That guy, he let San Francisco, he let Hollywood burn for a reason.
		The two weeks before that, nobody's talking.
		And I'm mad at the Republicans.
		They don't say the truth.
		They're afraid to speak up.
		The Democrats are going crazy and saying all kinds of lies in the streets and all the cities to rise up the people to turn against the Republicans.
		But they don't look at the facts.
		They burn down that city.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Fernando in New York City.
		The debate that Fernando started on there on U.S. aid overseas playing out on the floors of the House and Senate this week.
		This from the Senate on Wednesday, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy criticizing his Democratic colleagues for not expressing concerns over certain international programs that the U.S. has funded.
john kennedy ▲ ● ▼		But this is the kind of stuff Mr. Musk found.
		He found that the USAID gave money to support electric vehicles in Vietnam.
		Our money, taxpayer money.
		He found that USAID gave money to a transgender clinic in India.
		I didn't know that.
		I bet you the American people didn't know that.
		He found that the USAID gave $1.5 million to a Serbian LGBTQ group called Grupa is a dodgy.
		I probably mispronounced that.
		My apologies.
		Anyway, they got $1.5 million to, quote, advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Serbia's workplaces and business communities.
		What else did Mr. Musk found that my colleagues don't want to talk about?
		Well, he reviewed a study and then went and checked it.
		The study was done by the Middle East Forum.
		They found that USAID spent $164 million to support radical organizations around the world.
		We're not talking Cub Scout troops here.
		We're talking about radical organizations around the world.
		They gave $122 million of that to groups aligned with foreign terrorist organizations.
		Our taxpayer money.
		According to this report in Mr. Musk, the USAID has given millions of dollars to, quote, organizations in Gaza controlled by Hamas.
		Why aren't my colleagues talking about that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Republican Senator John Kennedy on the floor of the Senate.
		That was Wednesday.
		This is today's op-ed page in the Wall Street Journal.
		The piece there, the left didn't always love USAID.
		The headline noting that USAID today may look like a cherished agency of political progressives, but it has long faced skepticism and outright opposition from leftists and some centrist liberals.
		Many on the vocal left-leaning groups that today behave as though USAID is selfless and an apolitical agency would have employed a more thoughtful, multi-faceted assessment in decades.
		Past Tom Nicholson is the author of that piece.
		He is the head of a global health nonprofit.
		He points back to the critics of the new left movement of the 60s and 70s who criticized USAID for some of its nefarious actions, deeming them politically subversive and manipulative.
		In 1965, the New York Times reported that the level of USAID funding to India was contingent on India importing certain products such as fertilizer from U.S. companies.
		An example of the so-called tide aid from the U.S. USAID's support for dictators, he writes, has also attracted opposition over the years, the agency generously supporting many authoritarian figures and regimes in countries from Zaire, now Congo, Haiti, Nicaragua, and others.
		The story, the column in today's Wall Street Journal, if you want to read it.
		This is Paul, Chesapeake, Virginia Independent.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
unidentified		Morning, John.
		A couple of things.
		One, I agree with Senator Kennedy.
		It's amazing, and I had just texted my senators about this: that they have budget malpractice is what they have.
		Now, you're asking about what agencies I would cut the federal government.
		They actually, several years ago, when Gingrich was speaker and Clinton was president, they tried to do away with the Department of Commerce and the Department of Education.
		So this is not the first time.
		And since the Department, I have family members, many family members who are educators, and they all agree the Federal Department of Education needs to go and return it back to the states and the localities.
		Now, it started out as a small division under Health and Human Services, or what used to be HEW, Health Education, and Welfare, before they split it up.
		So that is what I would do.
		Now, I mean, that's just one agency.
		But when you have 15, count them, 15 cabinet positions, each one of them must have, must have numerous, numerous agencies that are being funded by Congress.
		Now, when was the last time, when was the last time they cut the budget, did not dissolve or just move an agency into another department or just rename it?
		When was the last time our senators and representatives, both chambers, have they done that?
		And for them to say, you know, they're all screaming about Elon Musk being an unelected bureaucrat.
		How many, that is what the Chevron decision in the Supreme Court was all about, was that agencies cannot make bureaucratic mandates.
		Now, Senator Kennedy talking about money just from USAID that Congress did not know.
		They knew the money was going to USAID, but they didn't know where it was going from there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Paul in Virginia.
		This is Phil, Lando Lakes, Florida, Democrat.
		Good morning.
		You're next.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you doing today?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Doing well.
		Go ahead.
		Is there an agency that you think needs more scrutiny that you would cut?
unidentified		Not a particular agency, but when you ask yourself, taxpayer money goes into funding what this country does, when it comes time to cutting spending, the first thing we look to is to cut funding at home.
unidentified		And I question why isn't there similar action taken when it comes to cutting funding abroad?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Well, Phil, the focus on USAID, that agency, international development, money spent abroad.
unidentified		But who makes that possible?
unidentified		Where does that money come from then?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So Congress appropriates money and USAID part of the State Department, part of their funding.
unidentified		No taxpayer money goes into that at all.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Oh, no.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The money that Congress is appropriating is taxpayer money, Phil.
unidentified		Exactly.
		But why is that?
		We're cutting funding for the veterans, funding for Social Security.
		All that's being cut.
		But that's all that taxpayer money, but some of it goes to helping people abroad.
		But when it comes to cutting expense on spending, we cut home first.
		Why is that?
		Question I would have for the government.
		That's all.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Phil in Florida.
		This is Kent in Illinois, New Boston, Illinois.
		Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		There's so many things other than the Department of Education, but that one is paramount in my mind.
		We spend so much more money than anyone in the world to educate our kids.
		And that's really the wrong word because our kids ain't being educated.
		You can go up to any young kid and ask them what nine times seven is, they pull off their computer and start trying to figure it out.
		In Erie, Illinois, where I grew up and went to school back in the 50s, all the elementary school teachers were ladies from the community, ladies of good character, and they taught us how to read.
		A lot of emphasis on learning how to read, how to write, purses, English, a lot of emphasis on basic math.
		And these things are all taken out of the public school now and replaced with transgender studies, climate.
		They believe that they're teaching the kids we can control the weather.
		Hell, we got climate change here in Illinois.
		This time of year when it snows and cold, we call that climate change winter.
		And then in a month or two, it'll get nice and the flowers will come up.
		We call that climate change spring.
		But the young kids in school aren't taught that.
		They're taught that they're little gods unto themselves and they and their peers can control the weather.
		I'm 77 years old.
		Fact that the public has allowed this stuff to go on and pay all this tremendous amount of money to the Department of Education to ruin our young kids.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Kent in Illinois.
		You talk about climate change environmental issues.
		This story from the Washington Post today.
		The latest shake-up coming yesterday when Trump appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency notified staff members that they plan to close the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights and place 168 of its employees on administrative leave.
		The tumult there has also engulfed the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, a little-known, they write, but crucial office tasked with defending the federal government's environmental actions in court.
		The EPA's Office of Environmental Justice was created in 1992 under President George H.W. Bush as the Office of Environmental Equity.
		In 1994, the name changed to the Office of Environmental Justice.
		That's the story in the Washington Post today.
		If you want to read more, this is Marty in Pennsylvania, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		This is the Duke of the Delaware from Pennsylvania, Penargel, little tiny town.
		I'll tell you what needs to be cut.
donna in west virginia ▲ ● ▼		You need to cut out the insider information and the crooked trading that is making all these fat cats rich.
gary in missouri ▲ ● ▼		These politicians for years since oil, all this oil is coming off of United States land.
unidentified		That is our money, but they're rich off of it.
		They know what they're doing.
		They're giving everybody sweetheart deals.
		And now they're all scared to death that Elon Musk may expose them.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Kiki in Massachusetts, Democrat, good morning.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		Thank you.
		Good morning, John.
		I'm not sure I'm qualified to state what I think should be cut, but what I think they should invest in is the IRS, because I believe statistics have shown that when you hire more IRS workers and invest in IRS, you can recover quite a bit of money for the government.
		And my final comment will be: I don't think anyone wants to have waste in government, and of course it's going to be waste, but I think the way Trump is going about it is just it's slash and burn, and it's not a professional way to go about trying to save money.
		I really wonder about Elon Musk's motives because he doesn't benefit from any of this cost saving.
		And I'm sure if someone looked at his company, they'd see a lot of waste too.
		Thank you very much, John.
		Bye-bye.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Kiki in Massachusetts, our last caller in this first segment of the Washington Journal.
		But stick around a lot more to talk about today, including this morning.
		We'll speak with two lawmakers about this week on Capitol Hill and Elon Musk's efforts at Doge.
		Up first, it's Brad Schneider of Illinois, member of the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committees.
		And later, it's Russ Fulcher of Idaho, member of the Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committee.
		Stick around.
		We'll be right back.
unidentified		American History TV, Saturdays on C-SPAN 2, exploring the people and events that tell the American story.
		This weekend, at 2 p.m. Eastern, historians discuss President Lincoln's views on race and slavery.
		Then at 5:45 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk with four new media creators on sharing history topics on TikTok, YouTube, podcasts, and Substack.
		At 7 p.m. Eastern, watch American History TV's series First 100 Days as we look at the start of presidential terms.
		This week, we focus on the early months of President Andrew Jackson's first term in 1829, including his policy agenda and controversies surrounding his cabinet.
		And at 8 p.m. Eastern on lectures in history, Louisiana State University journalism professor John Maxwell Hamilton talks about the U.S. government propaganda efforts during World War I, exploring the American story.
		Watch American History TV Saturdays on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org slash history.
		Book TV, every Sunday on C-SPAN 2, features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books.
		Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend.
		At 6.15 p.m. Eastern, Angela Merkel, who served as German Chancellor from 2005 to 2021, discusses her memoir, Freedom, with former President Barack Obama.
		And at 8 p.m. Eastern, former Georgetown law professor Ilya Shapiro argues that there is a decline of intellectual diversity, academic freedom, and civil discourse at elite law schools, creating a climate of intolerance.
		He's the author of the book, Lawless.
		Then at 10 p.m. Eastern on Afterwards, Omo Moses, son of civil rights organizer Robert Moses and author of the book The White Peril, talks about being black in America through the voices of three generations of the Moses family.
		He's interviewed by University of Maryland Baltimore County Emeritus President Freeman Rabowski.
		Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org.
		If you ever miss any of C-SPAN's coverage, you can find it anytime online at c-span.org.
		Videos of key hearings, debates, and other events feature markers that guide you to interesting and newsworthy highlights.
		These points of interest markers appear on the right-hand side of your screen when you hit play on select videos.
		This timeline tool makes it easy to quickly get an idea of what was debated and decided in Washington.
		Scroll through and spend a few minutes on C-SPAN's points of interest.
		Washington Journal continues.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Joining us at our table now is Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider, a member of the Ways and Means and Foreign Affairs Committee in his sixth term in the House, also serving as chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a group whose mission is what, Congressman?
unidentified		So the New Democrat Coalition is a group of moderate Democrats, people who are looking to solve problems, address the opportunities we face as a nation, working not just with the entire Democratic caucus, but we also reach across the aisle.
		And we have grown.
		We're more than 110 members.
		We're the largest ideological caucus in the Democratic Party, maybe in the House as a whole.
		And we are just 110 people who want to roll up our sleeves and get things done.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What can 110 moderate Democrats do in a 218 to 215 split House, the narrowest majority in the House since World War I?
unidentified		I think quite a bit.
		I mean, if you look, just start within the Democratic caucus.
		We have 215 seats.
		The New Dems are a majority of that group.
		You look at the Republicans, they're very fractured.
		As you said, it only takes one to vote one way or the other that can swing it.
		So to get anything done, I think it's always better to do things in a bipartisan way to start with.
		I think the Republicans are going to have to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats.
		And the first ones they will reach across to, I believe, are the New Democrat Coalition.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What do you say to Democrats who believe it's the job of Democrats in Congress right now to resist everything that Republicans are doing to give Donald Trump no wins until you can get to the next election?
unidentified		Yeah, I don't think it's about winning and losing.
		It's resisting the bad things this administration is doing.
		And the list is just overwhelming.
		Every day it's an onslaught of whether it's undermining the rule of law, trying to wipe out the civil service, pulling out and completely eliminating USAID, not so much USAID, but American engagement around the world taking on, you know, we face adversaries, we face risk of failed states and consequently a threat of terrorism.
		And the United States is walking away from that.
		Those are the things we need to be resisting, making sure we're protecting American values.
		The idea that an economy that's growing and creating opportunity for all Americans, not just the billionaires at the top, the idea that America has a role to play in the world, and that the foundational principle of our government, to create a more perfect union, constantly moving in a direction of making it a better country, I think you see a lot of people on the other side wanting to take us backwards.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Chair of this group of moderate Democrats, what's your view of the group of progressive Democrats who is known as the squad?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's your view of the squad?
unidentified		Well, I think one of the things that distinguishes even the full spectrum of the Democratic Party is everyone, from our most conservative or centrist Democrat to our most progressive, far-left Democrat, everyone in that group wants to govern.
		We have different visions of what we're trying to do for the new Dems.
		It's about creating an economy that's producing jobs and opportunity for all Americans.
		It's working to promote healthy and safe communities.
		It's trying to make sure we have a strong national security, national defense.
		And that's what we're focused on.
		And we're going to work with everyone from folks on our left to folks across the aisle.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		From the New Democrat coalition to News on the Hill this week and on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, Benjamin Netanyahu meeting with President Trump, his first foreign visitor to the White House in this term as president.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What did you think of Donald Trump's proposal for Gaza and U.S. involvement there?
unidentified		I'm going to work a little backwards on the week.
		I had a chance to be in a meeting with the Prime Minister yesterday, and we talked about the idea of what is the future for Gaza and what's the strategy, the vision for a year, five years, long term.
		And one of the things he said is that there's no plan to force Palestinians out of Gaza and anyone who leaves would be able to come back.
		Gaza has long been a challenge.
		It was a challenge post-1967.
		Pre-67, Egypt controlled Gaza.
		It had problems.
		2005, Israel completely withdrew from Gaza.
		And 2023, you had an invasion from Hamas with intent of genocide.
		So we need to pursue peace.
		There will never be peace as long as Hamas controls Gaza.
		We talked about this yesterday.
		Hamas has to be eliminated.
		And Gaza needs to be rebuilt, de-radicalized, and an opportunity for renewal.
		And this is where President Trump may have used terms like Riviera on the Mediterranean.
		The idea is Gaza should be for the Palestinians.
		It should be built with the Palestinians.
		The U.S. can have a role in that, Europe, the Arab countries.
		And it should be built with neighborhoods and schools and hospitals, eliminating and not allowing a rebuilding of the terrorist infrastructure, the army that we saw on October 7th, 2023.
		That has to be prevented.
		And so Gaza, where Palestinians are living in security, stability, and peace with Israel is the goal.
		But as long as Hamas is in charge, we can't have that.
		So I think the President spoke about it in a way that what the President spoke about would not just be immoral, but illegal, the Relocation of 2 million people.
		What the world is talking about, what should be talking about, is how do we create opportunity and hope for the people of Gaza without threatening the people of Israel.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You've described yourself as a Zionist?
unidentified		Absolutely.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What does that mean?
unidentified		So I'm Jewish.
		I was born into a family who believed in the homeland of the Jewish people and the idea of a Jewish state in that homeland.
		That is what Israel is today.
		Jump ahead to the Abraham Accords for the first time that it articulated that the Middle East, both Arabs and Jews, belong to the same land and have to find a way to live together.
		So I believe in a Jewish state in the Jewish homeland that doesn't disavow or diminish the aspirations of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own.
		So I still, it's not going to happen, probably not in my lifetime, but the prospects of finding peace between Israelis and Palestinians that ultimately leads to a state for both people where they can live security, stability, and peace.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Brad Schneider, with us until the top of the hour, 8 a.m. Eastern.
		If you want to join the conversation, phone lines, as usual, Republicans, Democrats, Independents will put those numbers on the screen as they're calling in, Congressman.
		What do you think is turning to a different topic on Donald Trump's tariffs moves?
		When do you think tariffs should be deployed by a president?
unidentified		So tariffs should be deployed selectively.
		They are a strategic tool in our arsenal, protecting the U.S. economy, U.S. interests.
		They should be specifically targeted when someone is taking advantage of us.
		If it's a case of antitrust or dumping, they should be deployed in a case where American companies are being forced to play on an unlevel playing field.
		We can try to level that playing field.
		The across-the-board tariffs that President Trump is talking about, putting tariffs on our most valued and important trading partners, Mexico and Canada, and doing it across the board way is basically putting a tax on the American people.
		It's going to raise the cost of groceries.
		It's going to raise the cost of housing materials to build new homes.
		It's going to lead to inflation and put a tax on the American people.
		So, again, tariffs have a role in what we do in developing trade policy, our foreign policy, but they need to be done in a thoughtful, strategic way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is there a playbook from Donald Trump's first administration that you can look back to and say, this is how I think he's using the tariffs?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Is it a bargaining tool?
unidentified		You know, the president, by reputation, loves the chaos, loves the unpredictability, thinks that gives him an advantage.
		I've always found if you are negotiating with someone and you're negotiating in a way that you build a relationship, you look for common ground and try to achieve your goals, you can have a better long-term outcome.
		To the president's credit, in the last administration, he negotiated and Congress improved the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, USMCA.
		That was an important moment and something that should be built upon.
		President Trump seems intent on tearing it down and basically turning the global economy up on its head.
		The United States is the strongest economy in the world.
		It is the largest economy in the world.
		But we are not the only large economy in the world.
		And if we try to go it alone, we're going to limit our capacity to create those high-quality, well-paying jobs and create the opportunity for all Americans.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll let you chat with some callers.
		Jody's up first out of St. Paul, Minnesota line for Democrats.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Jody.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You're on with Congressman Schneider.
unidentified		Hi, Congressman Schneider.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I am so concerned about the information that Elon Musk has gathered on the American people pertaining to our address, our Social Security numbers, our routing numbers, our bank account.
		He is not even an elected official.
		I would like to know how he got into that position in the first case.
		Well, Jody, thanks for the question.
		The answer to how he got there is President Trump put him there.
		But the thing we all need to keep in mind, he was not elected by anyone.
		No American in the country voted for him.
		He hasn't gone through any vetting process.
		He wasn't approved by the Senate.
		He's not technically an official employee of the government, constrained by the rules of what working for the government means.
		And yet he has gotten access, as you said, to our personal information, our most personal confidential information, our bank accounts, not just the account number, but the routing number, our social security numbers, where we live, how much we are paid, possibly even health care records.
		And it's even more than that because more than anyone else in the world, Elon Musk can profit from that information.
		He is the owner of one of the most important, largest social media platforms in the country, X.
		And he can take that information and he can use it for his own purpose to reap billions of dollars of profits.
		So this is something we should all be concerned about.
		This is information that the government has been entrusted with, entrusted in a way that they should keep it secure and private.
		And instead of doing that, they've handed it over to Elon Musk and his associates, associates who are young, brash men, basically one as young as 19 years old.
		So something we should all be concerned about.
		We are introducing today the Protect Taxpayer Data Act in the House.
		The Democrats are.
		And I'm proud to say that the new Dems have endorsed that bill to make sure that that data is protected and not made available for platforms like X and individuals who have their own agenda and are seeking their own profits.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Let me ask you about another Trump appointee, Russell Vogt.
		It was last night on a party line vote that he was confirmed as White House budget director.
		The AP story confirming the architect of Project 2025 to lead the powerful White House Budget Office.
		What does the budget director do?
unidentified		Well, the budget director is the administration's key official who is looking at the money, first money that is appropriated, authorized, and appropriated by Congress.
		It is Congress that has the power of the purse.
		That was defined within our Constitution that created what was supposed to be three co-equal branches of government to provide the checks and balances and make sure the government's always serving the people.
		Russell Vogt will be the president's primary individual who's overseeing the budget and has a view of the government and a view of presidential power that effectively says the president is all-powerful, more of a king than an executive.
		And that was specifically what our founders were trying to avoid, making sure that we didn't become a monarchy, but that we were a government of the people, for the people, by the people.
		It starts in the House and the Senate.
		We should be determining as representatives of 435 districts, the 50 states, what are the priorities, where do we want to spend.
		And it's up to the president to make sure he's executing those programs as defined by Congress.
		Vogt has a different view, and I think it could be a grave threat to the relationship between Congress, the executive branch, a threat to the Constitution, and a threat to the American people as a whole.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this is Wayne Republican.
		Good morning.
		You are next.
unidentified		How are you doing today?
		Good.
		How are you?
		I know we talked about Gaza, funding Gaza Grant.
		And you want to give them people a nice place to live.
		But what about inner cities?
		We need education, housing, jobs.
		What are y'all going to do about the inner city?
		I don't want to hear about Gaza.
dick gregory ▲ ● ▼		You're going to spend all that money, and we could do with that money over here.
unidentified		And even in the poor white areas.
dick gregory ▲ ● ▼		I'm tired of hearing you all talking about taking care of other people and you do nothing for the people in America.
unidentified		All right, Wayne, thanks for the question.
		I think you have an important point.
		And I don't think this is where I disagree with President Trump.
		What I'm hoping for Gaza is that the people of Gaza have a chance to build up their own cities and build their cities with neighborhoods and schools, hospitals, et cetera, and not the infrastructure of war and terror.
		But that's for them to build, and we can provide assistance.
		And sometimes that assistance may be in the form of financial aid.
		Sometimes that assistance may just be in the form of giving them the space and the security, making sure there's the public safety and efforts made towards peace in that region.
		That's not just for them.
		That's in our own interests, the United States interests, whether it's in Gaza or in Africa or Latin America.
		The more we can promote peace, the more we can promote good governance, the more advantageous it is going to be for American interests.
		But our first priority always needs to be our own people and making sure we're investing in our communities and our cities.
		I mentioned earlier that the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, we have a platform of three pillars.
		It is economic growth and opportunity, healthy and safe communities, and a strong national security and national defense.
		And that starts whether it's in our inner cities and our rural communities.
		It's not a matter of party.
		It's not a matter of faith.
		It's not a matter of the color of your skin.
		It's a matter of making sure every American is getting the education they need, that they can have a roof over their heads and provide food, clothing, health care to their kids, opportunity for the future.
		And if we were doing that, if we were focused on that, working across the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, I think the economy would be stronger, people would be more optimistic about the future, and America could be in a better position to lead the world to a more stable and secure future as well.
		So thank you for the question.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		About 10 minutes left with Congressman Brad Schneider, Democrat of Illinois, the head of the New Democrat Coalition in the 119th Congress.
		Nisi is in Southfield, Michigan.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
donna in west virginia ▲ ● ▼		I would like to say, how do someone get a person, personal information?
unidentified		He's not even in government.
		And he was an illegal immigrant.
		Elon Musk was an illegal immigrant for 10 years.
		When America caught up with him, he had already used our system over here to enrich himself.
		And I'm trying to understand what is going on because by God, they're putting 2.8 million people out where they live at.
		Where are they supposed to go?
		I mean, Lord help us.
		So, Nisi, I not only hear your outrage, I share your outrage.
		It is truly unacceptable that any one individual, let alone the richest man in the world, someone who has interests with the government, government contracts, has already reaped billions of dollars of profits in his position to do more so, is given unfettered access.
		No one should be given unfettered access to the information we entrust with our government, our social security numbers, our health care information, et cetera.
		We do that because we expect the government to protect that information, to hold it in trust.
		And how we got there is President Trump has given him that power.
		How did he get that relationship?
		He invested almost $300 million in President Trump's reelection more than any other individual.
		And so it's a fair question.
		Is President Trump beholden to Musk or the other way around?
		But the bottom line is what the president and the administration is doing, empowering Elon Musk without guardrails, without oversight.
		Again, President Trump eliminated the inspector generals.
		Those are the people in the different departments of government who are independent overseers to make sure that what those departments are doing is according to the law, but also protecting the interests of the American people.
		So I share your outrage.
		Should all be outrage, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure that the president and I'm not sure who's in charge, whether it's President Trump or Elon Musk, but we hold them accountable.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Let me head to the Show Me State St. Louis.
		This is Mark and Independent.
		Mark, good morning.
unidentified		Morning, John.
		Love the show.
		C-SPAN's awesome.
		Appreciate everybody there.
		And thank you for the Congressman devoting his time to try to do something for America.
		But I find problems like you guys that are buying DEI, which has been found unconstitutional.
		The climate change thing, I've delved into this.
		There's a group called Weather Modification Association.
		They've been changing the weather since 1951.
		I never hear anybody talk about it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Mark, when you say you've delved into that, where do you delve into something like that?
unidentified		Tons of research, calling different departments.
		The Commerce Department was supposed to hold records on it.
		I believe Noah is now holding the records on it.
		If you change the weather, you're supposed to.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		So, Mark, give them a report.
unidentified		Can I just say that also that there's 59 countries that have these programs?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Before we get into conspiracy theories, down a hole, Mark, what's your question?
unidentified		Well, there was heavy smog in the Olympics, and China made rain to get rid of the smog.
		So this has happened.
		That's what I mean.
		People just agree.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Mark, do want to point out the Washington Post story today about Donald Trump's latest moves.
		It's both at the Environmental Protection Agency, but also the Department of Justice, putting some 168 staffers on notice for leave who were part of the environmental justice program at the EPA, saying that essentially this is part of an effort, the DEI effort, to eliminate that in federal government.
		What do you think?
unidentified		Well, let me talk.
		I'll touch on DEI a little bit, put it maybe a different perspective.
		As I was growing up, we've had in this country a long debate.
		Are we a melting pot or mosaic?
		People from all over the world have come to the United States to make the country what it is today.
		And they've brought their traditions and their experiences.
		And it's made the country stronger.
		And if I think of my experience throughout my career, when I've had the chance to work with people with different experiences, different perspectives, the work product we produce, whether it was working in a business or civic projects in our communities, those differences of opinions have always been helpful.
		And what we're seeing, and this is why we were talking about in the last question about Elon Musk, I think what you're seeing from people around President Trump and pushing really hard is a move to a caste system where it's the oligarchs, the people with the most money control everything, determine everything, and rather than people having a chance to come here and rise up.
		So I believe at the end of the day, we should be trying to create as much opportunity as possible for all Americans to get the lessons and skills they need to succeed in whatever pursuit and career they want to have and not begrudge people's successes, but celebrate those successes and promote them and create more of that.
		And I think within the government, we should always be looking to create efficiency and effectiveness in the government.
		I don't oppose the goal stated with this Department of Government efficiency to always make government better.
		Al Gore had that when he was vice president.
		And in government, you oftentimes have things where they go too far or a good idea.
		A good idea isn't necessarily a better idea if you do more of it to the extreme.
		A good idea is a good idea is as far as it goes and you go and you build the next one.
		So we should be evaluating all of those things.
		Unfortunately, I don't think the administration is looking to say where we've gone too far, where we've gotten too fat, and let's trim the fat and try to create more efficiencies.
		I think what they've come in with an intention of retribution, of antagonism, of prejudice, and simple meanness and cruelty.
		I'm happy to have the conversation of looking at our programs, every program within government, and say, how do we make it better?
		If it's outlived its usefulness, how do we replace it with something that's going to take us to a better place or where we want to go in a different direction?
		That's unfortunately not what we're seeing with this administration.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Do you think there is one or two programs you could name that has outlived its usefulness?
unidentified		I could name a whole lot of them if we sat and studied them.
		If we look at what are we doing, even USAID, we can talk about that.
		Not every program that was in place 30 or 40 years ago is serving its purpose or continuing to have its effectiveness today.
		We should look at each and every one.
		But the broad stroke, should we be engaged in development around the world?
		We have a three-legged stool of defense, diplomacy, and development.
		Those three things go together.
		And our biggest investment is in defense because we have to protect our borders and project our power around the world.
		But that's the hard power, the soft power of diplomacy.
		Having diplomats and others around the world representing the United States, representing our interests to our allied governments, but also to adversarial governments is critical.
		And the money, which is less than 1% of our total budget, that we invest in development around the world, building relationships, making connections with people, making sure that governments around the world don't fail and fall into the hands or into the control of Russia or China, or ultimately become failed states and havens for terrorism.
		That's money wisely spent, but should be evaluated constantly every year.
		I mean, if you think about it, we should be looking at what are our goals, what are the opportunities we want to challenge, establish the plans to achieve those goals, and evaluate them on an ongoing basis to make sure we're on track to achieve those goals and eliminate doing things that are distracting from that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Just a couple of minutes left.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Try to get one or two more calls.
unidentified		Great.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		The Buckeye State, Dale, Cleveland, Republican, go ahead.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dale, you're with us.
unidentified		Yes, sir.
		I have a question for you.
		How long have you been on the Foreign Affairs Committee, and why haven't you found all these payments to various places?
		Number two, for John, the host, I think is his name.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's your question, Dale?
unidentified		You quoted today, the New York Times, even though they are receiving money from the government, yet claim to be independent or objective.
		Same with Politico, same with the BBC and AP.
		So will you no longer reference those articles?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		No, Dale, we'll continue to reference news organizations from across the spectrum.
		It's what we do every day.
		Congressman Schneider.
		Thank you.
unidentified		Dale, great question.
		This would be my fifth term on the Foreign Affairs Committee.
		And our job within the legislature is to do oversight and pass laws and power and decide where we're going to spend money.
		We should be looking at broad strokes, what are our goals.
		I laid out what our goals should be for defense, diplomacy, and development.
		And we should be able to empower the administration to do it within the law, evaluating their programs on an ongoing basis.
		Over the years that I've been on the Foreign Affairs Committee, we've looked at a broad number of programs, changed the emphasis over the years to see where the priorities are.
		When I first came into Congress, we were talking about changes in the Arab Spring in the Arab world.
		You had the invasion of Russia into Croatia at that time.
		Jump back to a couple years ago, we had the invasion of Russia into Ukraine as a whole.
		We've had priorities in Europe, priorities in Latin America.
		We have various subcommittees on each of, in every committee on the Foreign Affairs Committee, divided geographically, and we have folks who look at each of the programs there.
		My focus has historically been in Western Europe, the Balkans, and the Middle East.
		But we do that collectively.
		We do that together.
		And you're right, that should be our charge to look to say, how can we create opportunities for the administration to do and achieve our goals in the most efficient way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		We'll end it there, Congressman Brad Schneider, Democrat from Illinois, the head of the New Democrat Coalition in this Congress.
		Foreign Affairs Ways and Means Committee.
		Know you have a busy day on Capitol Hill.
		We'll let you get to it.
unidentified		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Coming up a little later in our program today, another member of Congress, Republican Congressman Russ Fulcher of Idaho, will join us.
		And up next, though, it is your phone calls.
		It's our open forum.
		Any public policy, any political issue you want to talk about, phone lines are yours to do so.
		The numbers are on your screen.
		Go ahead and start calling in now, and we will get to those calls right after this break.
unidentified		Saturdays, watch American History TV's new series, First 100 Days.
		We'll explore the early months of presidential administrations with historians and authors and through the C-SPAN archives.
		We'll look at accomplishments and setbacks and examine how events impacted presidential terms and the nation up to present day.
		This Saturday, we'll look at the first 100 days of Andrew Jackson's presidency.
		Andrew Jackson was elected president in 1828 in a rematch with John Quincy Adams from the 1824 election.
		Mr. Jackson came to office with a vision for the country, but his agenda was stalled by controversy.
		Early issues during his term included states' rights, payment of national debt, tariffs, and treatment of Native Americans.
		Watch American History TV's new series, First 100 Days, Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern on American History TV on C-SPAN 2.
brian lamb ▲ ● ▼		John Dickinson is one of the most significant founders of the United States who is not well known by all the American public.
		Author Jane E. Calvert is trying to change that with her new biography, Penman of the Founding.
		John Dickinson is known for his nine essays under the title Fabius, published anonymously in newspapers during the time that the states were deciding on whether to approve the new Constitution.
		John Dickinson of Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania was the only founding figure present and active in every phase of the revolution, from the Stamp Act crisis through the ratification of the Constitution.
unidentified		Author Jane Calvert talks about her book, Penman of the Founding, a biography of John Dickinson, on this episode of BookNotes Plus with our host, Brian Lamb.
		BookNotes Plus is available on the C-SPAN Now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.
		Listening to programs on C-SPAN through C-SPAN Radio is easy.
		Tell your smart speaker, play C-SPAN Radio, and listen to Washington Journal daily at 7 a.m. Eastern.
		Important public affairs events throughout the day.
		And weekdays, catch Washington today.
		Listen to C-SPAN anytime.
		Just tell your smart speaker, play C-SPAN Radio.
		C-SPAN created by cable.
		Washington Journal continues.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Here's where we are today on Capitol Hill.
		The House is set to come in at 9 a.m. Eastern, and of course, we'll go there for gabble-gabble coverage when they do from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue today at the White House.
		The Japanese Prime Minister will be meeting with President Trump today, a press conference scheduled for 1.10 p.m. Eastern time.
		You can follow our coverage of that at c-span.org.
		And right now, it is our open forum.
		Any public policy, any political issue that you want to talk about, now is your time to call in and lead this program.
		And we will start in Palm Bay, Florida.
		Dan, Independent, good morning.
unidentified		Yeah, good morning.
		Just have a couple things I wanted to talk about.
		I was hoping to catch the person that was there he had left.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Brad Schneider.
unidentified		Yes, Brad Schneider, I was going to ask, you know, especially since he did say that he was Jewish.
		Like, did he know that we were funding Hamas?
		Like, did he know that we were funding all these crazy trans things?
		I mean, does he know these things?
		And if he does, why are we continuing to fund those things?
john in unknown ▲ ● ▼		Also, I have a suggestion for all these government employees who are now going to be either laid off or let go.
unidentified		What they could do is go pick all the fruit that they said that all the immigrants could do.
		They could go do that maybe, you know, since they were so concerned about how we're going to be able to afford everything and how we're going to get all our fruit.
		There you go.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's Dan in Florida.
		Takalamazoo, Michigan.
		This is Lee, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Well, good morning.
		How are you guys doing this morning?
		Doing well.
		Good.
		Yeah, I agree with the guy who just called.
		You know, the Democrats have known what this money's been spent on.
		And not just being a Republican, just being an American citizen, knowing that my tax dollars are going to another country for trans stuff.
		I'll just put it like that.
		That, to me, should be a wake-up call, not just to me, but to everybody, that where our tax dollars are going is not here back in America.
		And I like to flip through different news mediums, too.
		I was watching Fox, and I was watching CNN.
		And CNN had a, their interview was about how we're sending the Indians, the Indian, not, you know, from here, back to their country and how deplorable they were treated.
		Well, you know, the Democrats are fear-mongers.
		They speak of nothing but fear.
		They show themselves in their true colors when they just rant and rave about stuff that's not true.
		I mean, as an American person not going with political parties, listen to what their words are.
		See how they act.
		And see what their actions are because look at their actions.
		They deceive, they hide what they're wanting to do, their agendas.
		And for me, it's just one of those things that Americans should wake up and really look at as far as the Democrat Party goes.
		If you're a Democrat, really look at your party.
		I'm a Republican, and I voted Democrat.
		I voted Independent.
		I vote for what I feel is the best.
		And this time, it was for sure Donald Trump.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Lee in Michigan.
		Enzo is in New York.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		Thank you for.
		I'm sorry, I've never really called in before, but I guess I've had one concern.
		You know, there's been a lot of talk about defunding certain departments like education, of course.
		So do you think if that actually goes through, then that will maybe increase division in just what it's like to live in different states in this country.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Enzo in New York.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		James in Dayton, Ohio, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning, John.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I would like to expound upon the transparency for which President Trump and Elon Musk are moving forward.
		This isn't being done in the dark of night.
		They have no desire to take our money for themselves.
		They want our money taken back from the lunacy and the upside-down thinking from here on forward.
		And it blows me away to listen to the Democrats beat the drum of division and hatred and anger.
		We didn't do that when Biden was in there.
		I hope everyone can come to a middle ground and understand goodness is obvious as is evil.
		Thank you so much for taking my call.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's James in Ohio.
		This is James in the Magnolia State Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, sir.
		I want to get on and talk to Mr. Snyder about, you know, he's worried about money.
		Elon, you know, must get in the contracts.
		Why wouldn't he worry about all our tax money going to different countries under this U.S. aid?
		And what really burns me, they gave Vietnam $11 million not to burn trash.
		Now, why wouldn't he worry about that?
		But as a veteran, I can't get dental.
		I can't be seen by the dentist at the VA hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because I'm not 100% disabled.
		And I have to pay my own dental insurance.
		And I spent 40 years in the military, Army and Air Force, active duty and reserve.
		But yet, we can give our tax money to countries that are glorifying perversion up on this LGB, whatever it is.
		But a veteran, he can't get dental insurance.
		He can't even be seen by the dentist unless he's 100% disability.
		And we need some help in that organization, that part of the VA.
		And I appreciate you taking the call today, sir.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's James in Mississippi.
		Patrick is in Fairfax, Virginia.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		I want to go back to that first question you started this morning off with with where to cut expenses of the government.
		You know, the Medicare, Medicaid, wrongful payments, there is so much waste involved there.
		And the government has been looking at this.
		And also another area of waste, fraud, and abuse.
		If you start digging out into the major defense contracts, you will see what they're charging.
		And your eyes will pop open when you see a charge for, let's say, plumbing, a piece for plumbing, you know, costs $2,000.
		You will find a lot of waste there.
		Again, the government has been looking at this.
		And to me, the Department of Government Efficiency is duplicative because right now, the government agencies have inspector generals and they have the government accounting agency looking at all.
		And if you look at their write-up reports, there's so many actions that could be taken right now to reduce costs without having to lay off people or put them on administrative leave.
		The cost of putting people savings by eliminating some of the workers is peanuts compared to actually taking the actions that are already out there in these reports of the IG and general accounting office.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Patrick in Virginia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Patrick, do you think the Pentagon is up next or up soon when it comes to Doge?
unidentified		That will be very interesting because Mr. Mosk has a big buck involved with defense contracts.
unidentified		I'd like to see peel back the onion under his contracts and see what he's charging for little items.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Patrick in Virginia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Thomas, New Jersey, Cream Ridge, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yeah, good morning, everyone.
		I just have like four things I just want to just shoot out to you, okay?
		Number one, nephew of that wine garden lady in charge of the Department of Education said the other day on TV that the states already have control of education.
		Well, there you go.
		There's the answer.
		Eliminate the Department of Education in Washington.
		We do not need them.
		Number two, El Salvador in the jails.
		We should be doing that here in our jails.
		Everyone look up El Salvador jails.
		That's what our jails should look like.
		Number three, Musk.
		Democrats are afraid and they are scared, man, that what Musk is going to find.
		Number four, Trump is marching on.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Thomas in New Jersey.
		This is Kurt in Pennsylvania, Mount Union Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
unidentified		How are you this morning?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I'm doing well, Kurt.
		What's on your mind?
		It's open forum.
unidentified		Hey, I want to thank you and C-SPAN for your last guest.
		It brings forth and shows the people how truly oblivious these people are.
		That man was in the Ways and Means Committee, and I don't think he could find his arse with both hands.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Well, Kurt, rather than insulting, what do you want to talk about public policy-wise?
unidentified		Public policy is you have people like that in committees that are supposed to watch out for things.
unidentified		And now you need someone like Musk to come in and show you the things that they just let cruise by.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Matt's Kurt in Pennsylvania.
		This is Dion in Tennessee.
		It's Copperhill, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I was calling to inquire about how it's possible Musk was allowed to get into the FDIC and get their records, as FDIC is not a government-funded agency.
		FDIC is a self-supporting agency.
		And the only thing I can see that he could possibly need to get in there for is to eliminate the FDIC, to eliminate all the banking regulations so the banks will have none.
		And that's the only reason I could possibly see why he would want to be in the FDIC.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Dion.
		This is Bill, Spring Hill, Florida.
		Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		I love your show.
		And if you ever leave CNN, you can get a job in the movies.
		You look just like Jason Straham.
		Anyhow, I like to talk about government waste.
		It's not just on the federal level.
		It's on the local level, too.
		There's so many schools, for example.
		There's so many administrative people in the schools and not enough teachers.
		I thought computers were supposed to streamline all this.
		All they've done is made more bureaucracy with computers.
		We're just not running the whole system right.
		And I really hope that Trump and Elon Musk straighten this stuff out because this government is so wasteful, especially in the service.
		I was in the military and I could not believe the waste that was in the military.
		We need to straighten all this out.
		We could save a lot of money.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Do you think Elon Musk's doge is coming for military spending, Bill?
unidentified		No, no, I'm just, I think that having Elon Musk, an outsider, is a good thing because he can look at where the waste is.
		Yeah, he wasn't elected, but he is a good businessman.
		There's no doubt about it.
		He's not the richest man in the world because he's stupid.
		I mean, the guy's smart.
		And I think that he could really help out with cutting the waste in the federal government.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Bill in Florida.
		You mentioned military spending according to USDebtClock.org, a website C-SPAN viewers are familiar with.
		Defense spending in the past year, approximately $900,000, $878,796,800,000 and counting.
		You can see the numbers as they tick up.
		USDebtClock.org information about the national debt, revenue, and spending.
		The national debt, by the way, at $36,449,349,000 and counting.
		This is Dennis in Iowa, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Thank you.
		The Republicans want to talk about waste.
		Well, President Clinton became president.
		He took a huge Reagan Bush deficit.
		And when he left office, we had a surplus.
		And I never heard of Joe Biden spending over $100,000 to pay some pawns to keep a mouth shut like wasteful Donald Trump.
		Republicans are just full of bore.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Sophia, New York City, Independent.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's on your mind?
unidentified		How are you?
		I missed you.
		You only have two hours, so I gotta rush up, right?
		John, I never cried in my life.
		I just told the guy that answered the phone, he was Matt Alex.
		Whenever I hear Mr. Trump's, no, whenever I see Mr. Trump's face, I cry.
		I cry, John.
		It's too much.
		It's too much.
		I was not shocked that Camilla Harris lost.
		I'm shocked he won.
		This is unbelievable, John.
		And I told you last time, I'm going to work until I die.
		I just got retired in January.
		Now I'm miserable.
		I have nothing to do but except reading a book.
		By the way, my darling Steve Skelly, why don't you write a book?
		He can tell a lot of stories.
		So I'm going to leave you alone just to let you know, the only person I watch on TV is Rachel Maddo at night at 9 p.m.
		Otherwise, because I see his face right now, I'm looking at his face.
		I can't take it.
		I love you, John.
		Be strong for me, okay?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Sophia in New York City.
		This is Dennis in the Yellowhammer State.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		This is Dennis in Alabama.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's you, Dennis.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead.
unidentified		Yeah, I'm calling about the Kennedy speech he gave about the USAID to different Bulfits like a LGBQ and GASA and all that, that this is what Elon Musk told him, that USAD gave it to them people.
		My guess is that perhaps USAD gave it to the company or someone in these companies, and how that money got to those organizations was not a result of USAID.
		Would you agree with that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Dennis in Alabama.
		This is Kurt in Ohio, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		John, I'm just calling about, you called the guy in the last segment a conspiracy theorist.
		And cloud seating has been going on since 1948.
		That's proven.
		If you look up Will Happer, he's a physicist from Princeton.
		He'll tell you all about it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And then is there a public policy issue that's happening this week that you want to talk about, Kurt?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I don't want to get too far down cloud seating.
unidentified		Yeah, I understand that.
		And then, well, the government's been giving up our information away for years.
		So you think that's happening still?
		Oh, yeah.
		Yeah.
		I signed up for Social Security about 10 months ago.
		And after I signed up, I was getting phone calls from Medicaid, Medicare.
		I had to change my phone number.
		How else would that information have gotten out there?
		All right.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Kurt in Ohio.
		Gilbert, also in Ohio, Toledo, Independent.
		Good morning.
		That's happening this week that you want to talk about, Kurt?
		Gilbert, you got to turn down your television and listen through your phone.
		You there?
unidentified		And the government should give it up.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Tell you what, we'll go to Horace in Sherwood, Arkansas.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		Thanks for C-STAN.
		Yeah, man, I was calling because of this defeat.
		Now, I'm a 77-year-old man.
		I remember when Bill Clinton was the president and we had a surplus.
		I was just wondering that the same amount of people work in the government system then as it do as they do now.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I do know there's more people in the federal government today than there was then.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		There's been more people in the past decade than there was a decade ago.
unidentified		Okay, but is it enough to make the deficit go to $35 trillion?
		Seems like these people are looking at things the wrong way.
		Instead of looking at the departments that's causing the deficit to go up, what about those wars that were started that caused all that money that had to go to Afghanistan and Iraq?
		Are the people really looking at that?
		I think the people need to wake up, John.
		Thank you and have a great day.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		It's the national debt that's at about $36.5 billion.
		The deficit this year is going to come to about $2 trillion, $36 trillion for the total national debt, the accumulation of deficits and less surpluses over the course of United States spending history.
		This is Eric in Wisconsin, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm just calling in on a few comments that I've heard.
		One was on our health care system that we pay as far as the high-income states or high-income countries, we pay the most for our health care, yet it's underperforming.
		Why aren't we looking at that?
		In my opinion, it deals.
		It's because it all deals with profits.
		I am concerned also about the extreme takeover of our current president.
		We have three branches of governments, and it seems to be a huge violation of what's going on, especially when we have someone not elected that has large amounts of data on personal information of our citizens.
		In closing, I'm also concerned about the FBI and CIA loss of jobs.
		We need those agencies to protect America, both foreign and domestic.
		And it just seems that things are getting way too personal and that we're missing the boat on a few things.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Eric in Wisconsin in terms of Elon Musk, who you bring up in his Doge Department of Government efficiency.
		We've talked about some of the different organizations that have been a focus of Doge Congressman Jason Smith on X posting a political cartoon showing Elon Musk as the Grim Reaper knocking on the doors of various agencies and organizations, including Politico.
		You can see the second door behind the Grim Reaper Elon Musk, the news organization.
		Elon Musk targeting government subscriptions to various news organizations and Politico being one of those.
		Politico putting out a statement to their readers in the wake of the attention that they've received from Elon Musk and the federal government this week.
		This is from their CEO and editor-in-chief.
		Politico has been the subject of debate on X, and some of it has been misinformed.
		Some of it has been flat-out lies.
		Politico is a privately owned company.
		We will never receive any government.
		We have never received any government funding.
		No subsidies, no grants, no handouts, not a dime ever in 18 years.
		Millions of people around the world read our journalism on Politico.com and Politico EU, and it's supported by advertising and sponsorships.
		Politico Pro is different.
		It's a professional subscription service used by companies and organizations, and yes, some government agencies.
		They subscribe because it makes them better at their jobs, helping them track policy and legislation and regulations in real time with news, intelligence, and a suite of data products.
		At its core, Politico Pro is about transparency and accountability.
		Businesses and entities within the government find it useful as they navigate the chaotic regulatory and legislative landscape.
		It's that simple.
		Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes, just like any other tool that they would buy to work smarter and be more efficient.
		This is not federal funding.
		It is a transaction.
		Just as the government buys research and equipment and software and industry reports, some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods.
		Let's be clear.
		Politico has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda.
		We cover politics and policy, and that's our job.
		That's part of the statement that came out from Politico about the attention that they have received this week from Doge and from members on Capitol Hill.
		This is Justin in Washingtonville, Ohio, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning, John.
		I just wanted to talk about Musk a little bit.
		Seems to be the topic of the day.
		I look at Elon coming in and going over everything as, say, like a third-party auditor.
		You know, all these agencies throughout the entire federal government have shown they can't be trusted to govern and manage themselves.
		We're marching towards $40 trillion in debt, and there hasn't been any substantial action to try to change that path at all.
		So, you know, the more transparency, the more education people have, it's not going to hurt anything.
		USAID, perfect example.
		They say it's a, excuse me.
		They say it was, you can't get rid of it with executive action.
		All right.
		So you have, you need Senate to take up action to get rid of said agency.
		Well, what better way than to educate people on the actions that are being taken by USAID?
		Once the people are informed, they can communicate with their senators and elected officials and move from there with educated action.
		So that way, fraud, mismanagement, whatever it may be, can be called and removed and taken care of in the right way.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Justin in Ohio.
		This is Gary in Pennsylvania, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you today?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Doing well.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		What's on your mind?
unidentified		Listen, I'm just getting tired of these Republicans calling in and saying, let's all just get along and all the hate and this and that.
		When Biden was in charge, all they did was say they wanted to call for a civil war and they wanted to start that kind of stuff, and yet they want us to just bow down to them and let them take over.
		Elon Musk and Dopey are just out for the money.
		That's all they're for.
		And it's not hard to be successful when your mommy and daddy are billionaires.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Gary in Pennsylvania.
		Larry is in the land of Lincoln, Downers Grove, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Larry.
unidentified		First time down listening to this show, and I'm amazed with things that are listening.
john coleman ▲ ● ▼		As far as government downsizing, I don't believe in that.
unidentified		They should expend more.
unidentified		The world is getting tighter, and we need people everywhere.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Anything else you want to add, Larry, besides expanding the size of government?
unidentified		You have to expand the size of the government because we need more help.
		And as far as Elon Musk, I would not trust billionaire to run it.
		I would trust taxpayer to run it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Larry in Illinois.
		This is Kevin in Seneca, Missouri.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Morning.
		Go ahead.
		Just a quick comment.
		I think what our President Trump and Elon Musk is doing is something that's needed done for decades to rein in the waste, something that Congress should be doing with their oversight committees, and it's obvious that they haven't been doing their job.
		Just a great job by our current president, his administration, and keep doing it.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Kevin.
		This is Bob in Grand Junction, Colorado, Independent.
		Good morning.
		Bob, you with us.
unidentified		Just a great job.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And it's Mark in Pompano Beach, Florida, Democrat.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Senator Cassidy voted for Kennedy.
		I am a doctor.
		I believe his vote disqualifies him to be a physician.
		I will do everything I can as a surgeon and a doctor and a podiatrist to make sure that his medical license is removed.
		And I think the rest of the country should too.
		Kennedy does not believe in the germ theory.
		And for a senator to vote who is a physician to vote for an individual who does not believe in the germ theory, except, of course, when it comes to protecting his own two children, I'm sure by fiat, not because he wanted to.
		I think he is disqualified from his position in the government, and he certainly did not represent the Constitution of this country nor the health care of the country.
		He does not deserve to hold a position in Congress.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Stephen, Huntington Beach, California, Republican, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My comment is that I really am having difficulty understanding the people that are calling in and don't understand how much in debt we are.
		And it's just ridiculous.
		The government is creating layers and layers of workers that are just ruining our country.
		So thank you for letting me say that.
		And I sure hope the new administration is able to contain some of it, at least get rid of the waste.
		I mean, we're not going to make it as a country.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Clearfield, Pennsylvania, Rick, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yeah, I'd like to just see them free to weed in Pennsylvania.
		Go dog superior.
		Let's do it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Rick.
		This is Kelly, also in Pennsylvania, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Oh, hi.
		Yeah, I'm so glad I could actually follow those last calls here and just remind folks that it was Trump himself that added 25% of that total debt.
		So since we've begun, Trump himself added 25% of the entire debt because he paid for, I'm sorry, he decided to do tax cuts, a $2 trillion tax cut to the billionaires.
		And the rest of us got basically nothing, and it wasn't paid for.
		And now he's basically, with Elon Musk, backing the truck up to the United States Department of Treasury to steal from every American so they can fund a $4 trillion tax cut to the wealthy.
		Again, so please remember that.
		And also, this is not red versus blue.
		This is a class war between the very, very poor and middle-class folks against the billionaires.
		And we've just ushered in a billionaire who used another billionaire to fund his entire campaign, $270 million, and they're literally stealing from us.
		Wake up America.
		This is not red versus blue.
		We need to stop this.
		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Kelly in Pennsylvania.
		It's just after 8:30 this morning, about a half hour left in our program.
		I want you to keep calling in.
		We'll get back to your phone calls in just a couple minutes here.
		But we want to go up to Capitol Hill now.
		It's Congressman Russ Fulcher of Idaho, Republican of Idaho Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committee, joining us from the Canon Rotunda.
		Good morning to you, sir.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
unidentified		Thanks for having me on today.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Thank you, sir.
		I wanted to lead with the latest when it comes to the budget reconciliation process.
		The lead story in Punch Bowl News today: House Republicans racing to show budget progress amid Senate pressure.
		Can you just bring us up to speed on where we are?
unidentified		Yeah, I think what's going on is people are trying to figure out ways to truly change the trajectory for spending over the long term.
		That's a problem that we've had for a long time.
		As you know, we're 36 trillion in debt, and it's difficult to do.
		I think the president and the Doge group are doing their jobs.
		They're identifying areas that need to be reduced or eliminated, but Congress now has to act.
		And just long term to put these policies in place and situations where just permanently speaking, we change the trajectory of the spending in Washington, D.C.
		So that's where most of the debate is, is how do we do that, still maintain the priorities that are important for us to maintain, but yet cut the spending stuff so that we can have a chance to have a balanced budget someday in the future.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		If you were advising Elon Musk, where would you want Doge to look next?
unidentified		Probably IRS-related stuff.
		I mean, there's a lot of things there.
		There's also the Medicaid area where there needs to be some changes.
		We know that there's a lot of fraud going on in that area.
		We know that there are excess dollars being spent that shouldn't be.
		There's a couple of right places.
		He's already going after the USAID stuff and the foreign policy and the dollars that are leaving the country.
		Now let's go after the fraud that's going on within the country.
		And I think that he's going to find a lot of stuff there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		You mentioned the IRS revenue collection.
		Can we go to your KEEP Act?
		What is the KEAP Act?
unidentified		Yeah, so KEAP Act is KEEP Each and Every Penny.
		The idea behind that is to eliminate federal income tax on overtime pay.
		And that was a bill that we released last year.
		Didn't get a lot of traction, but now with President Trump, he's caught on to that.
		He's got onto that message.
		And what we want to do is we want to encourage work.
		We want people to be able to keep more of what they earn.
		And especially in this post-COVID world, there's a real problem with that.
		The idea, of course, is that if you keep more of what you earn, you're going to spend that money.
		You're going to invest that money.
		And you're going to do it more efficiently than some government program.
		And so that's what the idea is.
		It's similar to the no tax on tips that the president has come out with, but now he's supporting both of those.
		And we're excited.
		We hope to be able to put that in the reconciliation package and just reward work and people willing to take that initiative.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		When you say it's similar to the no tax on tips, what's the major difference?
unidentified		Well, with the no tax on, it's difficult to put a number, like a cost or a benefit on those things.
		But what we do know is that when people are able to drive more of what they earn and be the decision makers on where their money goes, it's more efficiently spent and invested.
		So the no tax on tips is something the president came out with and frankly the idea on the no tax on overtime pay for federal income tax, that came through our office.
		But the president has embraced both.
		So we feel good about that.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Congressman, since you're joining us on a Friday at 8.30 a.m. Eastern, the first Friday of the month, let me ask you about the unemployment situation in this country.
		The BLS report just coming out a few minutes ago.
		The payroll employment rose $143,000 in the month of January.
		The unemployment rate edged down to 4%.
		What's your reaction to those numbers?
unidentified		Well, a couple things.
		First of all, I want to make clear that our KEEP Act, the no tax on overtime pay, does not impact the payroll tax.
		So your Social Security, your Medicare, all of that is untouched.
		The other point I would make on that is what's going on with our foreign adversaries and what's going on with the jobs that are being pulled into China and whatnot.
		And automatically, now that transitions the conversation to some of the tariffs, why the president's doing some of that.
		So we've had an issue losing jobs to other countries, and we're not on necessarily a level playing field with those other countries.
		And so I think that tells you why the president has taken some of the policies and the approach on the tariffs that he has, John.
		And so everything is related in this issue.
		So when you see that report come out on jobs, it is tied to our foreign competition and how we handle that policy internally.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I know we only have a couple minutes with you, Congressman.
		I did want to ask about the Gem State.
		It suffered one of its worst wildfire seasons last year.
		And I know you recently had a meeting with federal officials and state officials to talk about wildfire management.
		What did you talk about lessons that could be applied to 2025 and the wildfire season that's expected?
unidentified		You know, John, thanks for bringing that up because it doesn't get a lot of airtime in the East all the time.
		And that's a huge issue in the West.
		We burned up a million acres in the last year.
		It's mostly on federal land.
		We have a tremendous amount of federal land, and the reason is it's simply not managed.
		You heard about all the Southern California fires.
		Well, that happened because they didn't have their water management right.
		In Idaho, it happened because we didn't manage the fuel load.
		We're not doing the logging and the clearing and the clearing of the brush and whatnot.
		So lightning strikes hit these vast open areas and it just turns into fire.
		So what we tried to do is get the Forest Service, the BLM, the State Department of Lands, local loggers, stakeholders, everybody at the table to try to address that, figure out how to work together because no one entity, especially the federal government, has the resources to stop this.
		We can do it, but it takes management and we're not doing that collectively.
		We're not working together.
		That was the whole purpose of my meeting with those stakeholders.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		On the clearing and the management that you need from the Forest Service, BLM, concerned that efforts to downsize the federal government, could that impact the ability, the number of people out there doing those things that you note are necessary to keep these wildfires from spreading?
unidentified		Very good point.
		And that's all the more importance of why we need to pull the local stakeholders in.
		Remember, this is federal land.
		They kind of act like a landlord, but they're overwhelmed.
		They don't have the resources now.
		And likely, with the spending trajectory going down, they're going to have less.
		And so that means they have to rely on the state.
		They have to rely on the locals.
		They have to rely on people that are living on the ground.
		And frankly, that's what we want.
		We, on the local level, the constituency wants more control over that land.
		And this is one of those things where maybe not the circumstances you want to drive that decision, but that's what's happening, and it needs to transition to more local control.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Final minute, Congressman Fulcher, what else are you working on today on Capitol Hill?
unidentified		Well, we've got a lot of the issues coming up in energy and commerce.
		Name, image, and likeness, if you're familiar with that, that's a huge deal.
		College sports, we're starting to focus on that.
		We have to do something in that arena.
		Right now, it's just kind of a free-for-all with money going to student athletes and all kinds of agencies and potentially bad interests getting involved with that.
		So that's kind of on the short-term radar, different topic entirely, but an important one.
		We want to save college sports and don't typically like the federal government to get involved with that.
		But you know what?
		Right now, we kind of need to because there's a lot of bad stuff going on there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Congressman Fulcher, let's have you on again down the road to talk about that issue and others that you're working on on Capitol Hill.
		Four-term Congressman, member of the Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees, we'll let you go about your day.
		Thank you, sir.
unidentified		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		About 20 minutes left this morning on the Washington Journal.
		Back to your phone calls.
		It's open forum until the House comes in at 9 a.m. Eastern, and we will, of course, take you there for live gabble-to-gabble coverage.
		Thomas has been waiting in California and Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		I know this is open forum, so I have a question to the listeners of your show, because I know that you don't basically answer a lot of questions.
		But why is it that a temporary worker that we vote for goes in with a modicum amount of money in their bank accounts?
russell means ▲ ● ▼		But then as they grow in power, they become wealthy.
unidentified		A congressman makes how much, and a House Representative makes how much.
		How are they millionaires when they leave office?
		And me, a working man, I can't acquire that much money on my job.
russell means ▲ ● ▼		So if special interests aren't putting money into their pockets, I know I, as the taxpayer, I'm not.
unidentified		I'm not making them wealthy.
unidentified		So to the listeners out there, when you vote for someone, you should ask the news to find out how much your congressman is worth when he goes into office and how much he is worth when he leaves.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Thomas, a member of Congress generally makes $174,000 a year as a member of Congress.
		It's a little bit more for leadership positions and speaker at the House.
		Do you think $174,000 a year is a fair salary for a member of Congress?
unidentified		Well, yeah, John, that's not the point.
		But, you know, they pay rent.
		They have to provide themselves meals and toilet paper and accessories.
		How do they achieve millionaire status on that salary?
		That's the question that taxpayers and voters should be answering.
		And then you'd find out why graft and greed is such a big part of the power structure of this country.
russell means ▲ ● ▼		Because we elect people who don't tend to figure out what our needs are.
russell means ▲ ● ▼		They figure out what the greatest, what the corporations and the power brokers want, and then they feed us crumbs while they gain wealth along with their crony buddies.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Thomas in California.
		This is Patricia in Maryville, Tennessee.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, no, I don't think they should make that much because they don't work that much.
		And another thing, ain't the lady from Pennsylvania.
		And another thing, Rick Scott sold millions of dollars for Medicaid.
		Why don't they look that up?
		I don't understand it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Patricia.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		This is Frank in Pennsylvania, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you.
		I just want to say that the Congress is getting permission to do insider trading.
		That's why they become so wealthy.
		But I did want to address one of the callers who spoke of the spraying in the sky.
		I believe you contacted and said that they were conspiracy theorists.
		I guess conspiracy theorists has been a term to belittle people to make sure that their point of view doesn't become well known.
		Everybody knows that they're spraying stuff in the sky.
		And if you ever want to have Dane Wigginson on from Medio Engineering Watch.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Are you talking chemtrails, Frank?
unidentified		If that's a term you'd like to use, you could also use solar management, which is what they are allowed.
unidentified		And I believe it was John Clapper who came out and said that they could dim the sky to block the sunlight.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
		This is Hannah in the volunteer state, Johnson City Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John.
		Thank you so much for keeping the headspace that you do in order to keep this open forum space pretty leveled.
		In regards to Representative Rux Volker that you just had on just a moment ago, he's just parroting what Elon Musk has been posting on Twitter.
		So let's be real here.
		We already had inspector generals that were looking at a fraud and waste within the government agencies, but now they are gone.
		That is a big issue.
		We do know that there is waste.
		We know that the Pentagon has failed every audit it's ever done.
		We are very well aware of that.
		However, this no tax on TIP is garbage idea as executives who receive bonuses every year are going to claim that those bonuses are tips and yet again take advantage of the government and pay less in taxes as the Republicans allow to the richer than the most do time and time again.
		There's a blatant lie coming from the new administration in regards to Elon Musk's power grab.
		Doge is not about fixing America's debt problem.
		It's about implementing and becoming more efficient for the administration to blur the lines between the two branches of government with Trump wanting to make changes to everyday Americans' lives without going through Congress.
		So many of these things that are happening right now are just wildly illegal and the administration is trying to flood the zone with these garbage executive orders.
		And right now what the Democrats need to do is assist the public with taking this to court with the changes that are happening right now.
		And again, thank you, John, for the level head.
		And also for what Frank said, I appreciate what you said on insider trading.
		However, in regards to chemtrails, that's a bold-flash lie.
		You can pair that with the flat earther nonsense.
		Thanks so much.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Hannah in Tennessee.
		This is Rick in Idaho.
		Rick, good morning.
		We just had Idaho Congressman Russ Fulture on.
		Did you listen in?
unidentified		Yeah, top of the morning to you, John.
		This is Rick Patrickson, Nampa, Idaho.
		And this is a positive remark for Russ Vulture and the subject that he understands.
		It's about bulk tank units.
		I used to pick up his milk, the 6,000 gallons, 4,000 gallons, 10,000 gallons every 24 hours.
		So thank you, Russ Fultcher, for 37-degree milk.
		But this is a subject about tank capacity size and how it relates to fuel.
		Gas stations have three 20,000-gallon tanks to the ground.
		If you look at supply and demand, you're going to see that 87-octane is a supply and demand.
		You got plus, you got premium.
		And if you look at plus, we average anywhere between 100 to 250 a day.
		And your premium, you're only averaging between 50 and 100 gallons a day.
		President Trump says that he needs 12 months to cut the cost of fuel.
		Russ Filter get with API, have them do an inventory nationwide.
		All we've got to do is cut plus out of the program because we don't need it.
		And President Trump can cut the cost of fuel in 48 hours.
		We would go from the annual average, $375 to $265 a gallon.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Trying to keep up with you there, Rick, because there's a lot.
		You say we don't need it.
		Why don't we need it?
unidentified		No, we don't need it because you have three grades of octane, 87, 89, and 91.
		We're at a higher altitude.
		You go down to Texas, they're at 87 for premium, 85 for plus, and 83 for regular limit.
		If you understand the air nastensity of an engine, basically we're at a higher altitude, which is why we have a higher octane.
		And Texas is at a lower sea level.
		They're at 81 feet above sea level.
		That's why their octane is lower.
		But if you look at supply and demand, API can pull it up in a day, and you can see the nationwide inventory.
		Then you ask what we need, what we don't need.
		But you'd have to track it all the way back to 1977, the Clean Air Act, the modification of the 350 small block.
		If you can't rebuild a 350 small block, it would be hard for you to understand, which I can.
		And if we pass this on to Russ Fulture, do an inventory.
		What do we need, what we don't need?
		You'll see that if we cut one out, we could cut the cost of fuel to $2.55 a gallon.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Am I opening up a bag of words if I ask you your feelings about ethanol and fuel?
unidentified		Ethanol fuel, I used to make ethanol.
		It's 10% ethanol.
		To make unlead, you'd have 80% sub-grade diesel.
		To make plus unlead, you would have to go 10% ethanol.
		mid-grade diesel and to make regular gasoline with ethanol.
		It's basically regular gasoline, 10% or 80% gasoline, 10% ethanol.
		Everybody think ethanol is just corn.
		It's a combination mixture of the two because I used to haul fuel and make ethanol for the Fly and J gas stations.
		But that's how ethanol really is.
		It's a mid-grade, a plus sub-grade diesel and regular gasoline with 10% ethanol on top of it.
		That's how you make it.
		It's a blend.
		It's a mixture.
		How long?
		Go ahead, John.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		I was going to say, how long did you haul fuel for, Rick?
unidentified		I hauled fuel for two years, Fly and J at Detroit Chemical Transportation.
		I did it my first four years in the Marine Corps, and then I got into hauling milk because supply and demand is for the senior drivers.
		So, you know, you've got to get a cash flow going.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		And what do you do today, Rick?
unidentified		Oh, I'm hauling sugar beets.
		Milk is a 14 to 17 hour a day, and 10 years of that, you get old real fast.
		Now we're doing 12 hours a day doing sugar beets.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Rick, thanks for telling us about it.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Out of Idaho, Mitch is in Baltimore, Maryland, Independent.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, good morning, John.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I've been watching this show for many years.
		This is my first time calling in.
		So I just wanted to throw my support behind the president, what he's doing, and the initiatives that he has gotten underway.
		I think Elon Musk is a smart man.
		He's doing all the right things.
		He was not elected.
		He was appointed.
		I think that's pretty clear.
		And I think that the president and his team came in with their guns loaded.
		They knew exactly what they were going to do.
		I think they are prepared to be challenged at every turn.
		I think they are going to test the Supreme Court.
		I think it's healthy for the United States as we grow and, you know, we turn into a new law name.
		I think this is all good stuff.
		I think that Trump gets this country and he's going to get it right.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Mitch in Baltimore to the Empire State.
		This is Dennis in Hamburg, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Well, good morning.
		You know, I think it's pretty sad that a good group like USAID, the Democrats could find a way to corrupt this, giving money to political, I mean, things outside the box.
		There's an oversight committee that should be looking into all this.
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		The deficit is so high, we cannot sustain it.
unidentified		It would be horrible.
unidentified		Could you imagine four more years if the Democrats got in, what they would have done to the deficit in this country?
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		And this ideology of Loke and DEI is that Biden is astray in our country.
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		You know, we just got the ball rolling with Elon Musk, and this is only one branch of the government.
unidentified		How much more are we going to find?
		The Democrats can't defend it because they're being exposed.
		Instead of going what's best for America, they stick to their guns and try to deceive us.
		And the American people are sick of that.
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		And I hope that Trump's a pretty transparent president, and he lets the American people know exactly what's been going on the last four years and where our money's been going.
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		And I hope come the midterms, everybody will see exactly what the Democrats did to this country.
unidentified		Thank you.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Dennis, before you go, can I ask you, just because we read that statement from Politico, you talked about giving money to Politico.
		Politico makes the point that some government agencies bought news subscriptions.
		This was them purchasing a subscription to read about what Politico was writing.
		Do you think purchasing news subscriptions is not something government agencies should do?
unidentified		Politico is not a conservative network.
unidentified		It's a liberal network.
dennis in new york ▲ ● ▼		And that's when money taken for a far-rept agenda to me is a waste of money.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Do you think there's any news agencies that the government should buy subscriptions to stay on top of what they're writing or what those news agencies are saying?
unidentified		I make a conservative network, but I'm not afraid to have Democrats express themselves and their viewpoints.
		Newsmax is pretty good.
		One American News is good.
		Fox is kind of, you know, come see, come saw, but they have Democrats on to express their point of view.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Dennis in New York.
		This is Gary in Westville, Illinois.
		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I really don't understand how these people could keep saying, like the man before about last week when they got so many new billionaires buying the media up and like own Newsmax.
		Anything you say wrong being on the left, the radical left now, because we're radicals, because he, you know, Jesus was a socialist.
		He believed in helping your fellow man.
		And I said, how can Trump get away with paying $600 a year in income tax?
		I've never made more than $13 an hour in my life.
		My last job was a janitor under a union.
		And you know how much I pay in taxes?
		You know, these people think, oh, that's hamburger wages and all this stuff.
		But if you take $30,000 a year, you're paying about $150 a week out of your check.
		I'm a single man.
		I know if you've got families, it's better.
		And like these corporate welfare, you don't think it's giving people drilling oil and stuff money to look for oil to charge us money.
		I don't understand how this is.
		And the left is elitist.
		How can we be elitist?
		And that guy never worked a day in his life.
		He filed bankruptcy seven times.
		So me, you, and the regular people, every seven years you can file bankruptcy at the most.
		So 49 years out of his work, you know, after being an adult at 42, after college or whatever, he filed that, and he's running the country.
		He's a good man.
		How do you figure that?
		I'll let that go right there.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Gary in Illinois, the House getting set to come in in just a couple minutes here.
		We'll keep taking your calls until they do.
		Linda, Ohio, Independent, good morning.
unidentified		Hello.
		Thank you for having me on the air.
		What I think that needs to be done is get rid of the PAC where they can hide what they give.
		Let it be known who's giving what to who.
		I also think that there should be a limit on how much each person who's running for office can spend and no more.
		They set a limit.
		They have to run on a budget like everybody else does and use that money appropriately from the least elected office to the highest in the land.
		And then we'll truly know who can budget money and who can use things the best way they can.
		Thanks for having me.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		That's Linda.
		This is Anthony, Rochester, New York, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, John Boyd.
		Great colorful discussion this morning.
		What I want to talk about is what's going on here with their approach, the Republicans right now and the whole Mussa Doge.
		I think there's a problem for me because it's all ideological based.
		You know, Trump said he had no knowledge of 20 Project 2025.
		He's not affiliated with it.
		Everyone he's bringing in, that one guy, what's his name, Lynch, that he brought in in one of the departments that's going through committee hearings, is the author of the 2025 plan.
		And he's going to be the head of the budget of OMB.
		So my concern is.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Let's vote who was confirmed last night?
unidentified		Oh, is that?
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, vote.
unidentified		That's exactly right.
		He's the author of 2025.
		Okay.
		So my concern is: I have no problem.
		I don't know what the Department of Education does.
		I know it's a national education organization, and people have a lot of opinions, but what about the facts?
		I mean, that department is an example.
		It's existed through multiple presidencies.
		Maybe there should be some trimming.
		But I think what's happening here, they want to, like the Education Department is a good example.
		They want to bring it down to the state level so someplace like Arkansas can teach that slavery was onto job training.
		You know, they want that kind of autonomy, which is good.
		But, you know, I don't, you know, there's a lot of things that, you know, there's a lot of opinions out there.
		But the concern is like USAID, there was a guy, USID, USAID.
		He said our agency buys $2 billion worth of farm products from American farmers.
		That's gone.
		And he was talking about the value of that.
		And quite honestly, we're concerned about immigration.
		One way to stymie immigration is have successful countries where people feel safe, where they don't have to walk 3,000 miles to the United States.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Anthony Manner.
unidentified		And what we're doing.
john mcardle ▲ ● ▼		Your USAID and farmers, just to point out, if you want to read the story, I don't know if you've read it already from the Washington Post today: USAID turmoil puts U.S. farmers in limbo.
		Program sends billions of dollars to American agricultural producers who grow the food sent abroad.
		I don't know if you've seen that today.
unidentified		No, no, I heard there was someone on the news, the vice president, the vice president position.
unidentified		But it just seems really reckless.

▲