CSPAN - Washington Journal 03/12/2025

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March 12, 2025 07:00-10:00 - CSPAN

02:59:55

Washington Journal 03/12/2025

Participants

Main

mimi geerges

cspan 29:05

sarah elfreth

rep/d 11:31

Appearances

chuck schumer

sen/d 01:09

donald j trump

admin 03:01

hakeem jeffries

rep/d 01:30

john thune

sen/r 00:32

marco rubio

admin 00:41

michael walz

01:11

mike johnson

rep/r 00:34

Clips

barack obama

d 00:06

bill clinton

d 00:02

george h w bush

r 00:02

george w bush

r 00:04

jimmy carter

d 00:03

joe biden

d 00:03

laura ingraham

fox 00:12

patty murray

sen/d 00:09

ronald reagan

r 00:01

steve scalise

rep/r 00:07

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Speaker	Time	Text
unidentified		democracy.
		Coming up on C-SPAN's Washington Journal, we'll take your calls and comments live.
		Then a look at the latest efforts by Congress to extend government funding past Friday's deadline, first with The Hill's Al Weaver.
		And California Republican Congressman Tom McClintock, a member of the Budget Committee, will share details about the legislation and President Trump's priorities.
		Also, Maryland Democratic Congresswoman Sarah Elfrith discusses Tuesday's vote on the measure to fund the government through September 30th and her legislation to protect some federal workers from Doge layoffs.
		Washington Journal starts now.
		On this vote, the yays are 217, the nays are 213.
		The bill is passed without objection.
		The motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
		It's Wednesday, March 12th.
		Yesterday evening, the House passed the GOP stopgap spending bill to keep the government funded.
		The vote was 217 to 213, with one Republican opposed and one Democrat supporting it.
		Now it heads to the Senate, where Republicans would need the support of several Democrats to push the measure past a filibuster and get it to the president's desk before the Friday midnight deadline.
unidentified		Share your thoughts with us on that bill and how you think senators should vote.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here are the numbers: Democrats, 202-748-8000.
		Republicans, 202-748-8001.
		Independents, 202-748-8002.
		You can text us at 202-748-8003.
		Send us your first name in your city-state.
		We're also on social media, facebook.com/slash C-SPAN and X at C-SPANWJ.
		Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
		We'll start with Speaker Mike Johnson making remarks right after the vote yesterday.
unidentified		Well, this was a big vote on the House floor.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		The Republicans stood together, and we had one Democrat vote with us to do the right thing, and that is to fund the government.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		This was a clean CR.
unidentified		It freezes funding.
		It's a responsible thing to do.
		And we're ensuring that troops continue to get their paychecks, and TSA agents continue to do their work and be paid.
		And essential workers on the border and elsewhere are doing their jobs.
		It's shameful what happened on the Democrat side.
		They engaged in a misinformation campaign.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		They put out talking points about the bill on Friday before the bill was even filed, which was Saturday afternoon.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		They've been lying and misrepresenting the facts about what's in the bill, and the American people can read it for themselves.
unidentified		It's only 99 pages long.
		We did our job today, and it's shameful that they will stop at nothing.
		They will suggest that this bill is something that it's not, and they will run out the clock to shut down the government in a desperate attempt to stop the America First Agenda.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		But I will tell you that President Trump and Republicans in Congress will stop at nothing to deliver on that agenda.
unidentified		We are going to continue to work hard.
		We will continue to stick together and get this job done, and it's an essential one.
		Now that the government funding bill has been passed out of the House, we send it to the Senate, and it falls on the desk of Chuck Schumer.
mike johnson ▲ ● ▼		He is the leader of the Democrats on that side, and he must determine whether he wants to fund the government, do the responsible thing, or whether he wants to shut the government down.
unidentified		And I certainly hope that there are enough Democrats in the Senate who have a conscience who will do the right thing by the American people and take care of business over there.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was a speaker yesterday.
		We want to hear from you.
		And here's the Washington Examiner that says House GOP passes stopgap funding bill with the help of Trump Vance pressure campaign.
		It says the House passed the CR, which freezes funding levels until September 30th.
		217 to 213, all Republicans except Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky voted in favor of the spending bill, which raises defense spending by about $8 billion and lowers non-defense spending by about $13 billion.
		Here's House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries on the floor Tuesday before the vote criticizing the bill.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		Well, Republicans have done nothing to lower the high cost of living.
unidentified		No bill, no executive order, no administrative action.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		That's the broken promise.
unidentified		We were told by President Trump that costs were going to go down on day one.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		Grocery prices haven't gone down.
unidentified		They've gone up.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼		Inflation is up.
		You know what's going down?
		The stock market.
		Because President Trump and House Republicans are crashing the economy in real time and marching us to a possible Republican recession.
		That's what's confronting the American people.
		And so now we have this partisan, reckless spending bill that we're being asked to consider on the floor today.
		Bipartisan negotiations were underway.
		Rosa DeLaura was at the table working to reach an agreement consistent with the Fiscal Responsibility Act that was passed by Republicans and Democrats and then signed into law in 2023.
		But when Donald Trump says jump, StreamMAG Republicans say how high.
		And he ordered the Republicans to leave the negotiating table to try to jam this far-right, extremist bill down the throats of the American people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And he mentioned the stock market going down.
		This is CNBC with the headline: Dow drops more than 450 points, SP 500 post-back-to-back loss over Trump tariff uncertainty.
		And we'll hear from callers now.
		Here's Kevin up first in Omaha, Nebraska, Independent Line.
unidentified		Yes, this is Kevin Patello, and I was just calling about I don't see bickering back and forth between both sides and it never seems to get anything done.
		So I think it's time the Democrats and Republicans all sit down like they're supposedly going to do with Ukraine and Russia.
		I don't see anything going to happen with that.
		But anyway, I just wish for the best for our country.
		And thank you very much.
		And you have a good evening, Mimi.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You have a good morning, Kevin.
		Here's Joe, Portland, Connecticut, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Well, I'm glad it's passed.
		But one thing I'd have to say, Mimi, is we have four more years of President Trump being in office.
		And are we going to do this every day, 365 days a year, complain about Trump?
		Give this administration a chance.
		That's all.
		I think most Americans want that.
		Thank you, Mimi.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Richard, San Francisco, Line for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yeah, wow.
		Let's see.
		This is a reckless.
		I mean, Trump has had devastating results, not even this little more than 30 days, right?
		He's tanking the economy, he's using tariffs as a way to manipulate, I don't know, trading agreements.
		He's that's okay, so it's mainly about trade.
		This bill may freeze spending at certain levels, but there's a hidden agenda.
		In fact, it's not even so hidden in terms of the impact it could have later, which is go after entitlements because those are the big funded programs, which Trump said he'll never, you know, never deal with, never go after Social Security or Medicare, Medicaid.
		And so it's been such a reckless abandon of chaos and actually destruction just like in 30 days.
		I mean, our, you know, domestically he's tanking the economy singly-handed with the tariffs.
		And I just, I just got a new heater today.
		I'm already affected by the tariffs.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How's that, Richard?
unidentified		The parts are, they say up 8 to 10% already, just in parts for the heater.
		So I ended up getting a new heater.
		But the company told you that, the company that you bought it from?
		Right, right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And they passed on that 8% to 10% to you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So you paid an extra.
unidentified		Okay.
		Yeah.
		And this is for every kind of part from outside the country, and no matter what it is.
		I mean, that includes everything that comes to the United States through these tariffs that he's imposed.
		I mean, I'm just going to say the other thing.
		He's a disaster on foreign policy.
		He's obviously had some, you know, listen, he was trying to build a tump tower in Moscow way back when.
		He got $5 billion worth of Russian loans to Deutsche Bank to bail him out of bankruptcy.
		I'm saying, you know, so no demands on Russia, who is the aggressor who is occupying.
		So, Richard, let's go back to the bill.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's at the Senate now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How do you think Democrats, since you're a Democrat, how do you think Democratic senators should vote on it?
unidentified		Well, unfortunately, they're between a rock and a hard place because, you know, I think duly they should vote.
		I mean, just based on what's in this bill and how much it can lead to cuts and let's say especially Medicaid, because they're not looking for waste or fraud.
		There's very little waste or fraud.
		This is about attacking the people that work for the federal government, you know, without any kind of sense about who they're cutting when and how.
		And it's, you know, they have an agenda.
		I mean, how are they going to pass their tax cut of $4 trillion?
		They have to try to cut spending.
		Well, that's going to affect everyday people in all kinds of ways.
		I mean, from veterans to health care to programs that help everyone in general.
		And here's the ironic thing: is that almost all of the red states get more federal funding than they return to the, you know, than they return to the federal government.
		I mean, they are most dependent on federal funding.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And Richard, regarding what's happening in the Senate, here's Punch Bowl news that says, what's it going to be, Chuck Schumer?
		Government funding runs out in two days.
		The House is gone and Senate Democrats face a stark choice.
		Provide the votes for a GOP-authored continuing resolution they've been trashing, or the federal government shuts down.
		It says Senate Democrats don't want to shut the government down, but also don't want to look like they're helping President Donald Trump.
		And they are agonizing over how to handle what has become a truly unenviable situation.
		And here's Robert in Clearwater, Florida.
		Good morning, Republican.
unidentified		Yeah, hello.
		Thanks for taking a big thing.
		You know, the long we can vote for that day.
		They're not good Trump enough time to do what he's supposed to do.
		I believe that in the long run, things will come down.
		And if he can stop that war, that would be the best thing in the world.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Robert.
		And let's take a look at GOP Majority Leader Steve Scalise.
		This was during the debate on the continuing resolution yesterday.
		He accused Democrats of opposing that CR because they hate President Trump.
unidentified		And yet here they are on this floor talking about things that aren't even in the bill, trying to scare people, talking about cuts to veterans in the bill, and maybe because they just didn't read the bill, it's only 99 pages long, I would urge them to go read it.
		They might actually vote for this bill in the next hour because they'll realize, in fact, the cuts that they're talking about are not true.
		They're not in the bill.
		There's an increase for veterans in this bill.
		You know what else is in this bill, Mr. Speaker?
		And I want to applaud, again, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee and his members for negotiating something that's been needed for a long time, and that is the largest pay raise for our junior enlisted military personnel in over 40 years.
		Now, if somebody doesn't think our men and women in uniform deserve that pay raise, maybe they'll vote no.
steve scalise ▲ ● ▼		I'm proud to say I'm going to be voting yes to support our men and women in uniform who've been waiting for that raise and deserve it.
unidentified		How can you justify a no vote on that, Mr. Speaker?
		That's actually in the bill.
		As they talk all day about what's not in the bill, because they were against it before it was even written, if they actually read this bill, again, only 99 pages, it's a pretty quick read, you would find out that pay raise for our troops is in the bill.
		Stronger funding for our veterans is in the bill.
		But why are they voting no, you would ask?
		Just because the name of the president is Donald Trump.
		I think the people of this country are fed up with that kind of hatred that consumes people here in Washington.
		Again, when you watch the State of the Union address, and the president is not even talking about his agenda, he's introducing and paying tribute to a 13-year-old boy who just beat cancer.
		And they couldn't even stand up and applaud that on their side because of the person who said it.
		If the hatred is so consuming that you can't even support what's great about America, maybe you need to reevaluate what's important in doing these jobs.
		We are elected to represent the people.
		And if the president, no matter who he is or she is, has a great idea, you support it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Back to the calls now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Kim in Champaign, Illinois, Democrat.
unidentified		Hi, Mimi.
		I'm very concerned about this budget.
		You know, once it was passed, after it was passed last night, I heard that it was passed.
		I, you know, in looking through the reports on the budget, specifically through the New York Times and the Washington Post, and I hope you comment on these stories.
		You know, this budget is not like regular spending budgets.
		Our representative didn't delineate or outline explicitly what the funds are to be used for.
		So my concern here is that it really just gives President Trump a blank check to really do to allocate the money as he pleases.
		My concern would be that, you know, he's not going to explicitly say, you know, hey, well, you know, blue states get no funds, red states get all the funds.
		So perhaps, you know, look at be a little more nuanced.
		Hey, I like this project that's going on in this district that might happen to be a red district in a blue state, or I like this funding that's going on at the University of Alabama.
		But I'm going to, for instance, we just found out recently that the soybean grant for the U of I that was being used to part of USAID, mind you,
		that those millions of tens of millions of dollars have been frozen, we're not going to get now because, and that was going towards helping farmers in underdeveloped countries and using our farmers here locally in Illinois to do that to teach them how to be more resourceful in planning soybeans.
		Another concern is that in looking at it, the Republicans also kind of tucked in there a little known provision where they seed away their power to cancel these tariffs that is so harmful to our economy, to all our retirement funds right now.
		And you can talk about that because I'm sure you've read the report, but they actually have the power, Congress has the power, where they can vote and end this national emergency that Trump declared in early February.
		They can end this national emergency and take a vote on it and prevent him from doing these tariffs.
		And we can get out of this mess that we're in.
		But they've ceded their power.
		Apparently, they're not going to, they put in this provision where, you know, we're not going to take a vote on this for the rest of the 119th Congress.
		I'm also concerned that, you know, the president is not abiding by the previous budget bill.
		You know, right now, he has frozen funds and impounded funds that's clearly against the Constitution and against the law.
		So he's not even abiding by the current funding bill.
		I'm just concerned that, and you're right, the Democrats are in really, really a tough spot, and I don't envy them because no one wants to see them as closing, shutting down the government.
		You know, I just wonder if perhaps if they could look at doing some specifics on how or adjust the budget and make some amendments in some way, you know, how this is how we would like the funding to take, see the funding go.
		We would like to have to, you know, take that power back to where, you know, we have the power of the purpose and we can stop this national emergency and end these crazy tariffs.
		Secondly, and lastly.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		This is Mike in Urban Dale, Iowa, Independent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Good morning.
		How are you?
		Good.
		Good, good.
		Hey, listen, I'm calling in.
		Just to, I mean, it's quite obvious that the Democrats, 90% of them, do not like the American citizens.
		You can verify that by what the Biden regime did when they first got in, which was shut down gas and oil and open the border.
		That tells you, and then make everybody take a poison COVID shot if you want a job.
		So, Mike, getting sorry, getting back to the CR, you are well okay.
		The CR, the Democrats are going to vote against anything that's good for America.
		That's the main thing.
		And also, at least they won't have any more drag queen shows at the White House with children present and participating.
		Thank God.
		Have a good day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Carmen in Florida, line for Democrats.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		I just got up a half hour ago, so hopefully I can get my thoughts together here.
		So yeah, you know, as far as this budget is concerned, the other day I was thinking about it and I thought to myself, it really is, you're really at a point where Democrats have no say in this.
		There's nothing that they can do anyway.
		And the reason I say that is because I know deep in my heart, and I hate saying it like a stupid person, Trump 100% doesn't care if the government shuts down.
		And that's why I called in because it's bait and switch again.
		Here you got Scalise talking about some kid with cancer that has nothing to do with the Republican Party, but they used him as some kind of scapegoat.
		And then you have Thompson.
		He's on the news talking about if the Democrats don't pass this bill, they don't care about Americas.
		But no one, not one Republican worked with the Democrats in the House to even get this bill kicked open.
		And then before that, there was a woman, and I forget all the names, I apologize.
		She was on the Republican side, meaning that she was supporting Trump side.
		That, you know, they're saying that the Democrats voted for this before.
		We already discussed this a month ago.
		If they do now, it's because they're, you know, whatever.
		So here's why I'm calling.
		The lies have to stop.
		They keep lying.
		Why would we trust?
		Why would we trust what they're going to do with the money if you pass this budget?
		And then I got proof.
		The market doesn't trust them.
		There was a woman that called yesterday on your show on a different topic that has to do with this.
		And another reason why I called.
		87 years old, I think she was.
		She was scared to death that our Social Security was going to get cut.
		The fear mongrel that they're saying that the Democrats are doing are coming from the Republican side.
		We're still fighting each other.
		We're still not trying to resolve our finances.
		In the past, Democrats, most of the time, balanced the budget.
		And in the past, most of the time, Republicans jacked it up.
		So this is where the problem is.
		They say they're going to do something, but they don't do it.
		They make it worse.
		And if you believe it, then give me some kind of proof from the past that they did.
		Give me anything.
		Give me anything to believe that they might do something that's not actually straighten out the budget.
		And that's why I call.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And we got this from Facebook from Keith.
		He says, it would be nice if they would highlight the details in this bill to the American people.
		I don't know how to react without any details.
		Good question, Keith.
		So in order to read the bill, what you would need to do is go to congress.gov, and you want to look for H.R. 1968.
		It says Full Year Continuing Appropriations and Extension Act of 2025.
		So it's H.R. 1968.
		This will come up.
		And then down here, you can read the summary or you can click on this tab for the actual text.
		And as the speaker said, it's 99 pages long.
		So you can read that.
		And there's some links which will help you get to the topic that you're interested in if you don't want to read the whole thing.
		But it's there, congress.gov, and look for H.R. 1968.
unidentified		And that is the bill that we're talking about now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Ronald.
		Troy, New York, Republican.
		You're on.
unidentified		Morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		Yes.
		I was telling the Democrats how they laugh so much.
		It's terrible what they do.
		It's a shame.
		They would have been ashamed of themselves what they've done to our country.
		And Chuck Schumer down there, Speech Pan one morning, I heard him say, listen, and he said that they're God in the House.
		He said they're God in the House.
		What kind of people would say something like that?
		We don't have when the good Lord returns and God returns, the biggest chilling up.
		I don't say there's going to be many Democrats at all going to get on board.
		They're all sinful, evil people.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Max in Mechanicsville, Maryland, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, thanks for taking my call.
		I voted for John Kerry, voted for Barack Obama, voted for Joe Biden.
		All the libertarians in the state of Maryland got a letter after the election saying that the party doesn't exist anymore.
		You can't be a libertarian.
		So I guess you could be a Democrat in the state of Maryland.
		It seems like to me, everybody's spinning their wheels in the mud right now.
		You're basically looking at a masterclass of Joe Sixpack, who took president or who voted for the president, who went in there and is schooling all of the technocrats and aristocrats that run the political science, the elite class of this country.
		I mean, the Democrats have no choice.
		They have to sign the bill or they put the government out of work.
		I mean, these are the kind of arguments that are facing everyone all the time now.
		I mean, look at the tariff argument.
		For years, we've been told if you tax the rich, it's not going to trickle down.
		It's not going to hurt anybody.
		We won't lose our jobs.
		The prices won't go up.
		You just tax the rich because they're just going to buy back stocks anyway.
		So now the dude, the rich guy, gets in office and he says, let's tax the real rich, the multinational corporations, put tariffs on the richest people in the world.
		And now all of a sudden, a tariff, which is a tax, is going to trickle down and cost everybody money.
		These are the arguments that he's pinned just some guy, some real estate agent has pinned all of our best political science people and politicians against the wall.
		And it's embarrassing.
		You got to get somebody who can actually fence with this guy and with these now newly Republican libertarians that are in the party.
		Thank you.
		I'll take care.
		We'll let somebody else talk about it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's take a look at Senator John Thune.
		He's the majority leader there in the Senate, and he talk took Democrats to task for the failure to pass a formal budget.
		Here he is.
unidentified		I think we all know why we are here, and that is because despite last year, the Senate Appropriations Committee passing 11 of the 12 appropriation bills, six of them unanimously, all of those 11 with big bipartisan margins, not a single one of them was put on the floor last year by Leader Schumer.
unidentified		And those bills were all available at the end of July.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		Those bills had all been passed through the Senate Appropriations Committee at the end of July of last year.
unidentified		And so here we are on the brink of a government shutdown, which will be entirely of the Democrats' making if it happens, because the House today will be voting on a continuing resolution to fund the government throughout the end of the year.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		And we'll send that over here to the Senate where we'll have an opportunity to act on it.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		A similar continuing resolution passed the end of last year in the Senate with 85 votes.
unidentified		This one should be no different, honestly.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		But as you all know, it takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill.
unidentified		So we're going to need some Democrats to vote for it.
		The Democrats have used the filibuster three times this year already, despite arguing for its elimination as recently as a few months ago.
		But three times this year, they've already filibustered bills in front of the Senate.
		I think the American people are going to be interested to see whether the Democrats are going to filibuster and by filibustering, shut down the federal government.
		It is on them.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		If this happens, there is a funding vehicle available coming over from the House of Representatives that will fund the government through the end of the fiscal year, September 30th.
unidentified		And we are prepared to take it up here in the Senate and make sure that on Friday the government stays open.
john thune ▲ ● ▼		But it will be up to the Democrats as to whether or not that happens.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was Senate Majority Leader Thun yesterday at the Senate.
		And this is Thomas in Humble, Texas, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		You know, one thing I never hear is about the three wars that we have.
		I think it was about what, $15 trillion for the last three wars.
		And I believe Jasmine Crockett will be a better representative for the Democrats.
		And what people should do is go to a town hall meeting.
		I've been loving it, man.
		It's funny, but they're getting the points across.
		But what I want you to know is there $880 billion cut to Medicaid.
		Is that true?
		And if you want to know about the government employees and their situation at the end, look up Ross Bogg Ovon.
		He's the one, the author of 2025 and the attack on the government.
		And guess what?
		Elon, with his smart stuff, they shut down X website yesterday.
		Now, who did it?
		I don't know.
		But if he's that brilliant, you know.
		Anyway, have a great day, America.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And speaking of government layoffs, this is NPR reporting.
		U.S. Education Department says it's cutting nearly half of all staff.
		We'll talk more about that later in the program, but that's what's happening at the U.S. Department of Education.
		And this is Frank in Prairie Hill, Texas, Republican.
		Hi, Frank.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		You know, I just sit back and I look at this.
		We just had an election, and 77 million people voted for Donald Trump.
		Now, I think the last time I checked, the Democratic Party had a 21% favorable opinion of them.
		So the Democrats, they're so mad because they lost the election.
		And all they want to do is do just kind of like what they did in that speech the other night that Trump did.
		They want to back up men and women's sports.
		They want to have killers, open borders, killers, drug dealers come into this country all the time, just open borders.
		They want to have just Biden had four years to destroy this country or do everything he could, and it's going to take a little while to get all this stress.
		It's easy to go into a room or open a hood on a truck and take a sledgehammer to it, and then a good man has to come along and replace all the parts in it.
		It takes a while.
		It's easy to destroy something.
		It takes a while to build it back.
		You know, the days of the good, good Democrats is over.
		You know, you had Truman, he was a good Democrat.
		JFK, he was a good Democrat.
		Now, you got these radicals, just like what was in the House speech here last week.
		Those people are so full of hate and they hate America.
		All I want to do is just destroy America.
		Men and women sports, back up these moss killers.
		That's all I want to do.
		They're just sick people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Frank, got that point.
		And this is Gene in Benton Harbor, Michigan, Democrat.
		Gene, are you there?
unidentified		Yeah.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go right ahead.
unidentified		My comment is we're going to end up taking this bitter pill in 180 days or whatever it is.
		I think this is all disguise for this, for what's happening with all the cuts and layoffs.
		Have a good day.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Lori is in Long Beach, California, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Lori.
unidentified		Hi.
		Yeah, I don't want to lose my channel.
		I think they should just shut the government down.
		We've lived through this before.
		And the federal workers, I have a family member that works in the federal government, and she adores it.
		And she's been terrified by all of these emails.
		But she's got 12 years in, and she's got excellent, excellent reviews.
		She should be okay, but it's scary for everybody.
		But they get, when we have a government shutdown, as you know, I'm sure, they will get paid after it's over.
		And we will get ourselves, us retired people, will get our Social Security and our Medicaid wallet shut down.
		But I think the GOP needs to go back to the drawing board and do this over because the American people are very upset.
		That's evident.
		Very upset.
		You know, you see this Musk with his chainsaw.
		It's just crazy.
		And it's not, you know, the topic is this.
		And I just want to say this person that said there's no good Democrats or independents anymore, there are.
		I mean, I don't believe in men and women's sports.
		I'm a moderate.
		But nevertheless, I think Trump is not well.
		I really don't think he's well, nor is Musk.
		And it's frightening people.
		They're scaring people with these tariffs.
		And it doesn't feel like we have ethics or integrity in this country anymore.
		And people are frightened.
		It's very scary what they're doing.
		So that's my opinion.
		And I appreciate your opinion.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Lori.
		And the Wall Street Journal has this.
		EU hits back as U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs take effect.
		The 25% global levy imposed by the Trump administration comes after the U.S. and Canada backed off additional measures.
		Here is Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor yesterday on how businesses and consumers are reacting to President Trump's tariffs.
chuck schumer ▲ ● ▼		One thing businesses tell us, they want certainty and they want stability.
		One thing they're getting from Donald Trump, uncertainty and chaos.
		And because starting in this, starting this foolish and chaotic trade war on again one day, off again the next day, Donald Trump has single-handedly poured a bucket of ice water on the economy.
		Trump thinks he can just yak, oh, I'm for it, and then the next day I'll say I'm not for it.
		But businesses can't plan that way.
		If they think there's a chance he'll come back and do it, they don't plan.
		They don't buy.
		They don't go forward.
		Businesses right now are in a state of total confusion.
		They have no idea what Trump is going to do next.
		Is he going to impose tariffs today, tomorrow, next month?
		How big will they be?
		What countries?
		What products?
		Every day you hear a different answer on something that is so important to the American economy and the world economy.
		American consumers are also anxious.
		If you don't know what tomorrow will bring, you're going to spend less today.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor yesterday talking about tariffs.
		And President Trump was before CEOs at the business roundtable event here in Washington yesterday defending his administration's use of tariffs.
		Here he is.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		The tariffs are having a tremendously positive impact.
		They will have, and they are having.
		We have car companies that are not building in Mexico now.
		They're building in the United States.
		Some of them, the plants were already started and they stopped construction.
		Now they're going to build in the United States.
		It was very unfair that they'd build in Mexico and sell them across the border with no tax, no nothing.
		They take away our jobs.
		They close up places in Michigan and all over the country.
		And they build them in Mexico.
		In many cases, they were owned by China, built in Mexico, owned by China.
		And that's all stopped now.
		They're all coming here.
		Honda is building a massive plant in different places, Indiana, South Carolina, but also in Michigan, a lot in Michigan.
		A lot of activity is happening.
		They're looking all over the place for places.
		And that's because there is a good spirit.
		There's a renewed spirit.
		And also, very importantly, the tariffs are, they don't want to pay 25% or whatever it may be.
		It may go up higher, maybe go up higher.
		Look, the higher it goes, the more likely it is they're going to build.
		And ultimately, the biggest win is not the tariff.
		That's a big win.
		That's a lot of money.
		But the biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs.
		That's a bigger win than the tariffs themselves.
		But the tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country.
		And we've been ripped off for years by other countries, many, many decades.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was yesterday.
		And I want to know what you think of that.
		And the CR that is headed to the Senate.
		It passed the House yesterday evening and heads to the Senate.
		If it passes there, it goes to the President's desk.
		Janice in New York, Democrat.
		Good morning, Janice.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		I think the government should be shut down.
		The Democrats should vote against it.
		And my reasoning is there's supposed to be three branches of government.
		And right now, the Congress is not one of the three.
		It's Musk.
		So since they're not working, shut it down.
		And the Democrats will look for two things to come out of this.
		One being that the billionaires should continue to pay into FICA, Social Security and Medicaid.
		They should not have a cutoff point.
		Second being, the tax cuts should be suspended because if everyone has to chip in, then they need to chip in also.
		The mass tax cuts added trillions of dollars to the budget.
		And since Congress is not working, then as Musk is in charge, shut it down.
		Why should we be paying Congregation salary?
		Why should we be laying off workers saying that this is towards the budget or this is we need to bring down the deficit when they're not even working?
		Musk should be sitting in front of them explaining what's going on.
		They are a branch of government, not this Doge, not Musk.
		So it should be shut down.
		That's my opinion.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Janice.
		And this is Alicia, an independent in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		A House that's divided.
		Cannot stand.
		And I yet to hear anybody say, What are we going to do about millions of people that are frozen in a truck that's running a puppet evil?
		Who's going to pay for that?
		Certainly, not Democrats for four years did not think about all those people dead in a truck.
		If I give up $42 to $45 billion, so I'm hoping that Trump will cut start the economy and help people get a home, whether they are American or not.
		They have families.
		Why did the Democrats treat me so badly?
		And why can't I get a ride when I've helped others here where I'm at get a ride?
		And why do they give me a hard time to become an Oregonian when in the past they didn't know?
		I told them about how they sold the water rights to California.
		California sold it to the Midwest.
		And did anybody tell anybody who was making money off water then?
		No, but why?
		Because they were starving my grandmother with water and no food.
		It's a sad state of America when you relate it to a shameless that recently died.
		They shot her for what?
		Trying to save Afghanistans or Christians or military men.
		She came a military person.
		I love my family.
		I wish I could go see my family.
		I can't even deliver my mom's ass back to Oklahoma strapped to live with her native Indian grandmother.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That's right, Alicia.
		And we had a previous caller ask about cuts to Medicaid.
		And here's a fact check on that.
		So this is from Newsweek.
		Does Republican budget cut Medicaid by $880 billion?
		It says the Republican Party has been looking.
		Let me get you where it says.
		Okay.
		Okay.
		So here is Bobby Kogan, the senior director of federal budget policy at American Progress.
		He said, for energy and commerce, that's the committee, it's mathematically impossible to achieve $880 billion in savings if you don't cut Medicaid or Medicare.
		There's not enough money they have jurisdiction over.
		Republicans say they're not cutting Medicare, so that means they're cutting Medicaid.
		It says former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi retweeted Kogan's claim saying Medicaid would be on the chopping block.
		Quote, Republicans are putting Medicaid and SNAP on the chopping block in order to reward their billionaire donors and big corporations with tax breaks.
		The American people cannot afford their extreme agenda.
		That's what Pelosi wrote.
		Here are the facts.
		The budget resolution does not ever explicitly state there will be an $880 billion cut to Medicaid.
		It says that House Republicans are enabling the Energy and Commerce Committee to decide what exact programs and areas would be cut under the budget.
		While the Energy and Commerce Committee oversees Medicaid funding, it also is in charge of energy and climate programs, the Federal Communications Commission, the FCC, the Food and Drug Safety, and several more programs.
		So you can read more about that at Newsweek if you'd like to get the details.
		Here's Martin, a Republican in Duncan, Pennsylvania.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, good morning.
		Oh, I hear.
		I'm 76 years old.
		I went through a lot of the elections in my time.
		And I want to make it clear: both parties, both parties, got us to where we are at this time.
		They keep on saying, balance the budget, strong economy.
		Take those words out of it, and let's look at the deficit.
		It is the deficit and the printing of money that we do not have that we're in trouble with.
		This is the only party, and we'll see how it goes, the much the lower the deficit.
		Bounce the budget, all that's going to do is increase the deficit.
		People, look at the deficit.
		Don't worry about bouncing the budget.
		To balance the budget, they print more money that we don't have.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Deborah in Maryland, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Deborah.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'd like to make two quick points.
		One on the cancer kid that everybody keeps bringing up.
		I am a Democrat, and I believe they should have stood for him.
		However, when it comes to funding pediatric cancer research, Elon Musk cut it out of the continuing resolution last year.
		It was restored.
		I understand it was cut again in this new continuing resolution or whatever they're calling it this time at the behest of Republicans, not Democrats.
		I would like to see Republicans put their money where their mouth is and actually fund the pediatric cancer research instead of cutting it every time it comes up.
		So that's number one.
		The other one, I don't know if there is funding for Ukraine in the continuing resolution.
		I suppose it's all just one big sludge fund and Trump gets to do what he wants with it.
		But everybody that calls in complaining that that money for Ukraine would be used for domestic needs if it weren't going to Ukraine has really not been paying attention.
		The Republicans have never, and I mean never, proposed anything to help ordinary American citizens get anything.
		Every program from Social Security to Medicare to Medicaid to union rights to civil rights to voting rights, all of them, labor protections, you name it, has been a Democratic initiative that was fought tooth and nails by Republicans.
		I would challenge anyone to name one program that Republicans are responsible for that helps working people.
		The one I hear complaints about constantly, if we weren't spending that money in Ukraine, we would be providing for, excuse me, homeless veterans.
		Where's the Republican bill to help homeless veterans?
		They're cutting the VA.
		I just, I wish that I could run into one of you gullible Trump supporters because I have some beachfront property in Gaza I'd like to sell you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Deborah, you mentioned Ukraine, so I want to make sure people are aware.
		The Washington Post reporting that the U.S. lifts paws on Ukraine aid as Kyiv agrees to a ceasefire proposal.
		It says the agreement followed an expansive meeting in Saudi Arabia.
		It's unclear whether Moscow will accept the ceasefire terms.
		And there's a picture there, Secretary Rubio, at the table.
		And here is Helen in Shirley, New York, Independent.
unidentified		I got a couple of things to say, all right?
		Don't cut me off.
		Rosa Wald, the government shut down.
		It's already being shut down.
		People being fired.
		Number two, I wish the Republicans would stop using God's name in vain.
		And people should read about the beast of the earth.
		You can't sell or buy things.
		Check it out.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's take a look at Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		He was with National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, briefing reporters in Jeddah yesterday about the developments regarding the Ukraine war.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		Well, as has been clear from his first day as president, even as a candidate, President Trump is a president.
unidentified		He wants to be a president of peace.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		His goal in this entire process has been to bring about an end to this war.
unidentified		It's a terrible war, costly war, a bloody war.
unidentified		And his number one interest is ending this war once and for all.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		Today, we've made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that's enduring and sustainable and accounts for their interests, their security, their ability to prosper as a nation.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		I want to personally thank, we both want to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Majesty, for hosting us, for making this possible.
unidentified		They've been instrumental in this process, and we're very grateful to them for hosting us here today.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		And hopefully, we'll take this offering out of the Russians.
unidentified		And we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace.
unidentified		The ball is now in their court.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		But again, the President's objective here is: number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end.
marco rubio ▲ ● ▼		And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard.
unidentified		We hope the Russians will reciprocate.
michael walz ▲ ● ▼		Well, just to add to the Secretary's comments, the Ukrainian delegation today made something very clear: that they share President Trump's vision for peace.
		They share his determination to end the fighting, to end the killing, to end the tragic meat grinder of people and national treasure that's happening on the front in Ukraine.
		Number one.
		Number two, they made concrete steps and concrete proposals, not only accepting our proposal for a full ceasefire, which you can see the details of which are in our joint statement that we released together.
		But we also got into substantive details on how this war is going to permanently end, what type of guarantees they're going to have for their long-term security and prosperity, but also really looking at what it's going to take to finally end this horrific fighting.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And back to our topic on the continuing resolution that passed the House yesterday evening.
		Heads to the Senate, and the deadline for government funding is this Friday, day after tomorrow at midnight.
		Here's Carol, St. Louis, Missouri, Democrat.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I was wanting to know if ever before there's been a continuing resolution that takes up the whole year until the next fiscal year.
		This is ridiculous.
		And I think we should, the Democrats should vote not for it in the Senate.
		And another thing is: have you ever, have you ever seen where they have a president out in front of the White House selling cars?
		This is so ridiculous.
		He's out there selling Teslas.
		This is terrible.
		I don't understand.
		And Musk, with all his great business things, has lost $16 billion in Teslas.
		I don't know.
		This is just too much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Carol, this is the hill about what you were talking about.
		Trump buys Tesla to make a statement about Musk backlash.
		It says that President Trump said Tuesday he was buying a Tesla vehicle as he doubled down on his support for Elon Musk, who has come under mounting scrutiny for leading the Trump administration's government cost initiatives.
		Quote, I'm going to buy because, number one, it's a great product, as good as it gets.
		Number two, because this man, Elon Musk, has devoted his energy and his life to doing this, and I think he has been treated unfairly.
		That was yesterday, and this is Samuel in South Pasadena, California, Republican.
unidentified		Oh, good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		Yeah, I think that they should the senators should vote to keep the government open and they shouldn't shut it down because, you know, the President is doing a he's doing a great job and he's going to make this country great again.
		And these Democrats, Schumer, I don't know what's wrong with him.
		This guy looks like he's sleepy.
		I was looking at him on T V this morning.
		I mean, this guy can't even tie his tie right.
		And he's doing everything he can to stop the progress of what President Trump's trying to do and everything.
		And all the Democrats are all saying, hey, you know, close the government down.
		Come on, let this man do his job.
		People voted for him, you know, and he's going to do a great job.
		And he found a lot of waste.
		And in the last two, three months Biden was in office, he was just throwing money away.
		And I don't know, he printed so much money.
		He must have planted at least $2 trillion.
		And that's why we're in a lot of trouble now.
		So we've got to do, we're doing a correction now.
		And these people are all nervous and everything.
		Just let President Trump and let them do their job.
		Thank you very much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Gil in Marksville, Louisiana, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Go ahead, Gil.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're on.
unidentified		Good morning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Go ahead.
		The one thing that we've got to have, we cannot have a president excluding the major news broadcasting services to the public.
		Without the public understanding of the facts, there is no chance to solve these problems.
		Obfuscation of the issues is the absolute hallmark of all of these politicians.
		They want the public to believe what they say.
		Never mind the facts.
		Without the news services, the public will never know.
		And Jefferson's admonition about the need for an enlightened citizenry goes down the drain.
		Trump admires that he shut out the AP.
		Imagine that.
		That should take him out of office alone.
		That's horrible.
		We cannot live without knowledge of the facts.
		You get none of that from the politicians anymore.
		It's all shaded and obfuscated to try to get the public to believe what they tell you.
		And that is the single most fearful thing we must have as citizens.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And what Gil's talking about here is the ban on the Associated Press.
		And here is the AP saying the AP again seeks end of its White House ban, saying the Trump administration is retaliating further.
		And, of course, this started over the labeling of the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
		Here is Sal in New Jersey, Republican.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, good morning, Amy.
		I was just thinking of an analogy.
		I was thinking, the Wizard of Oz.
		Trump's the Wizard of Oz, and Biden was the wicker witch of the East.
		He destroyed everything.
		And now President Trump is going to fix everything, make a sunny day out of everything.
		And we'll just see how it comes about because all the Democrats and Schumer, you know how they fight anything that Trump tries to pass or any ideas to help the country, they're going to fight it tooth and nail.
		Everything he tries to do to help us Americans.
		And I'm just happy what's going on.
		I'm on SSI myself.
		I'm 67 years old.
		And it's like a House of Cards what Biden did.
		It collapsed.
		Four years, it all collapsed.
		So it's going to take time, Amy, to get it built back.
		It's ain't going to happen overnight, all these good things.
		They want to, you know, all this stock market, all this stuff.
		It's going to take a lot of time.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So how long do you think it should take?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Like, how long, just kind of in your head, are you going to wait before you say, okay, things should be better by now?
unidentified		In my head, I figure four years of destruction that we had, I think at least a year.
		Okay.
		In my head.
		Yeah.
		But I'm positive, and I see a light at the end of the tunnel.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Here's Dennis in Toledo, Iowa.
		Democrat, good morning.
		Idaho.
		Sorry.
unidentified		I have to laugh.
		Does Republicans trust Trump with their money?
		A guy who pays a porn star over $100,000 to keep her mouth shut.
		I mean, they're just idiots.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Dennis, getting back to the bill, what are your thoughts about that?
unidentified		Me, if I don't pass, don't blame the Democrats, because Democrats don't control anything here.
		And, you know, the Republicans have complete control.
		Like, Republicans blame the Democrats for abortion.
		Abortion became legal when Nixon was president by a Republican Supreme Court.
		So why is it Democrats' fault?
		That's my comment.
		Republicans are just pony as heck.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Robert, a Republican in Indiana.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Robert.
unidentified		Yeah, so is he.
		He's full of crap.
		I tell you, I've never seen so much hatred in this country.
		That's why nothing gets done.
		If these idiots would get together, the Democrats never want to vote for anything for the Republicans.
		They need to get together.
		That's where we put them to damn office for.
		They sit around and just growl and call names.
		Trump is doing the best he can because these idiots were not supporting.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, Robert.
unidentified		Supporting this country, be okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you want them to compromise?
		Oh, it looks like he's gone.
		Let's take a look at President Trump.
		He was with Elon Musk on the south lawn of the White House.
		He answered reporters' questions about Ukraine, but also about which Tesla he's going to buy.
unidentified		Mr. President, will you talk to Vladimir Putin about this ceasefire deal?
unidentified		Do you think you need to have a conversation with him to get the Russians together?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Look, that's the other.
		It takes two to tango, as they say, right?
		So hopefully he'll also agree.
		And I really think that would be 75% of the way.
		The rest is getting it documented and, you know, negotiating land positions, et cetera.
unidentified		So you'll talk to him this week about the deal?
		You have a ceasefire in place on the Ukrainian side.
		How close do you think then you are to a total ceasefire?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Well, I hope it'll be over the next few days.
		I'd like to see.
		I know we have a big meeting with Russia tomorrow and some great conversations hopefully will ensue.
		The people have done a great job.
		Marco Rubio's been great.
		Steve Witkopf's been great.
		Michael Waltz.
		Every one of them, they've really stepped up.
		They are into it.
		They want to see, they want to see two things.
		By far, number one is death.
		The people that aren't citizens of our country, but they're people, just like you.
		They're people.
		And we want to stop.
		And we also don't want to give billions and hundreds of billions of dollars away.
		We're in there for $350 billion.
		And there was no reason this war would have never happened if I was president.
		So it's a very sad thing.
		Thank you all very much.
unidentified		I love Tesla.
		Which one did you buy?
		Mr. President, which one did you buy?
		Which car are you going to buy?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		The one I like is that one.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		How does this work?
unidentified		2.2.
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Are you going to put down a credit card?
unidentified		Elon, would you take a personal check from the president?
		I do it the OFA.
		I give checks.
		I like checks.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		I guess credit's good.
unidentified		Do you still have access to the credit?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		You know, I like a check better than this modern system of all of a sudden there's money in your account, nobody knows.
		I like signing a check.
		But we're going to pay, and I don't want a discount.
		He would give me a discount.
		But if I do a discount, they're going to say, oh, I got benefits.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		What about that?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		I don't want any discounts.
barack obama ▲ ● ▼		What about a vanity plate?
donald j trump ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, let's see.
unidentified		Truth.
		Truth.
		All right.
		There it is.
		P-R-U-T-O-L-D playlist.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I was a president with Elon Musk yesterday at the White House.
unidentified		This is the stock for Tesla.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You could see that's the five-day.
		This is the six-month you can see here, the November election down to today.
		Well, that's the time we've got for today coming up the Hills.
		Al Weaver discusses the latest on congressional efforts to extend government funding past his Friday's deadline.
		Later, California Republican Tom McClintock, member of the budget committee, discusses government funding and President Trump's legislative agenda.
		And now it's time to announce C-SPAN's 2025 Student Cam winners.
		Take a look.
unidentified		Marking the recent presidential election, C-SPAN's Student Cam video documentary competition challenged middle and high school students nationwide to create short videos with messages to the new president, exploring issues important to them or their communities.
		Child protective services is important to protect kids from danger.
		We are here to deliver a message to the president.
		Homelessness needs to be prioritized now.
		It is important for state and local governments to be given power and a voice to help support the communities they serve.
		Nearly 3,500 students across 42 states and Washington, D.C. produced insightful and thought-provoking films.
		Through in-depth research and interviews with experts, participants explored critical issues like the climate, education policies, health care, gun violence, and the economy.
		Our panel of judges evaluated each entry on its inclusion of diverse perspectives and overall storytelling.
		Now, we're thrilled to announce the top winners of Student Cam 2025.
		In our middle school division, first prize goes to Eva Ingra, Sophia Oh, and Eliana Way of Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland for one-party, two-party, Red Party, Blue Party.
		But what about third parties?
		For nearly two centuries in the USA, Democrats and Republicans have been the top dominating parties.
		Our high school Eastern Division First Prize goes to Daniel Assa of Winslow Township High School in Atco, New Jersey for saving Sudan, U.S. aiding in a forgotten crisis.
		Global solidarity is vital as Sudan's conflict is not isolated.
		In the High School Central Division, Benjamin Curian of Olundangi Liberty High School in Powell, Ohio won first prize for the Road to Vision Zero, which explores AI-driven road safety solutions.
		Every day, eight teenagers never make it home because of a car crash.
		The High School Western Division First Prize goes to three anonymous students from California for no sanctuary, addressing transnational repression in the next four years, which sheds light on global human rights threats.
		This government needs to do better to make sure that the fundamental values of American democracy are not undermined.
		And Dermot Foley, a 10th grader from Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, earns the grand prize of $5,000 for his documentary, Teens, Social Media, and the Fentanyl Overdose Crisis.
		His compelling documentary, which features interviews with parents who've lost children to fentanyl, has earned him the top award for the second time.
		A first in 21 years of the C-SPAN Student Cam competition.
		Yo, this year's C-SPAN Student Cam 2025 Grand Prize winner.
		Wow.
		Oh my gosh.
		Thank you so much.
		Thank you.
		I just want to say also I'm really grateful to the families who shared their stories.
		They were really brave to share their stories.
		I learned so much from them and I hope other teens can learn from them as well.
		C-SPAN would like to thank all of the educators, parents, and students who participated this year.
		Congratulations to all our winners.
		Watch each of the 150 award-winning Student Cam documentaries anytime at studentcam.org.
		And don't miss the top 21 winning entries airing this April on C-SPAN.
		C-SPAN, bringing you democracy unfiltered.
		Washington Journal continues.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We're joined now by Al Weaver.
		He's a staff writer at The Hill.
		Al, welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thank you, Mimi.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It was a big win yesterday for Speaker Johnson and President Trump on passing of the bill.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Remind us of what's in the bill and how it came together, Claire.
unidentified		Sure.
		So continuing resolution, it'll last until the end of September through the end of the fiscal year.
		It has a couple of anomalies, a couple of things that would differ from what the Biden budget was.
		It includes a little bit of a plus-up on defense spending, a little bit on border security.
		And those are kind of the main things.
		But also, the big thing locally is that it'll cut about a billion dollars from the District of Columbia, which is something that Democrats are obviously not a fan of.
		They are in a real tough situation right now.
		And they don't like this bill.
		But, you know, it's a big question they have coming up.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And how detailed is the bill?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I mean, does it delineate how that money will be spent or does that come at a later time?
unidentified		No, it does.
		It does.
		But also, as we've seen, the administration is kind of doing what they want with it a little bit.
		They can kind of, and that's part of the troubles that Democrats are having right now is they wanted language in the bill saying that we want to dictate how the government will spend it, that they will spend it.
		And obviously the Republicans would not go for that.
		They said that was a non-starter and kind of leaves us where we are right now in a tough situation.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tell me a little bit more about the $1 billion that is not going to be going to the DC government.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How big of a chunk is that from their yearly budget?
unidentified		Sure, it's a solid chunk.
		It's obviously something that Democrats don't want.
		Muriel Bowser met with the White House earlier this year, tried to get things on good terms.
		Obviously, Trump has his own feelings about how the district is run.
		He thinks that the federal government should have a little bit more of a say over the district's affairs.
		Obviously, it's the one city, district, however you want to call it, that the government has direct control over of, can has a real major say.
		And so it's a sizable chunk, and it's not something that the Democrats are excited about one bit.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Who are some of the holdouts in the House GOP on the GOP side, and how are they swayed in the end?
unidentified		Sure.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What convinced them?
unidentified		Sure, Rich McClintock was one.
		Beth Van Diem was another.
		Kat Kamack, who's a top member of Republican of Brass She, it seems like Trump really played a big role here.
		He's the one who's really carrying the day for Speaker Johnson.
		These are all big wins for Speaker Johnson when it all comes down to it.
		But he wouldn't get these wins without Trump putting pressure on them, saying, hey, we need to be able to do this in order to pass reconciliation in the end.
		So this is really a leverage play on Trump's end.
		And he's exerting it, especially with these House members who will come to a degree follow him blindly.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation, ask our guest Al Weaver a question.
		You can do so.
		Our numbers are Democrats 202748-8,000.
		Republicans 202-748-8001.
		And Independents 202748-8002.
		You can start calling in now.
		Roll call says that Vice President Vance told House Republicans that the administration would put forward a rescissions package in order to codify spending cuts in an attempt to convince the GOP holdouts.
		What can you tell us about that?
unidentified		I mean, yeah, they've been talking about that.
		That came up a couple weeks ago at a Senate Republican lunch.
		I think Brand Paul brought that up to a couple of members.
		And the Vice President Vance, when he was on the Hill, or Elon Musk, excuse me, it's Elon Musk.
		And it was generally well received.
		But we'll see how actually that can get through.
		I mean, obviously they have this ability through reconciliation coming up that it's something Musk would like to do to, obviously he's going throughout the government and chopping agencies up when he can.
		Whether it can actually happen, whether it's realistic is unclear.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk about the Senate.
		Sure.
		And let's talk first about the timeline because there's not a whole lot of time between now and Friday at midnight.
unidentified		Yeah.
		No, it's not an easy one.
		Right now, the government shuts down at midnight on Friday night.
		And they have this bill.
		They have about a little more than less than three days to go about this and figure out how to do about it.
		Democrats in a really tough situation.
		I don't think anyone envies being Chuck Schumer right now.
		They have a couple of really bad options.
		One of them is to capitulate to this bill in the eyes of some of their more progressive members, more solidly Democratic members.
		And then there's other moderates who Schumer is kind of giving cover for and giving them the ability eventually to possibly vote for this.
		We hear from a lot of members is, I really don't like this bill.
		This bill is horrible.
		This is an awful bill.
		But they're not saying they're going to vote against it.
		And that's really notable at this stage because right now, Democrats don't have a lot of options.
		A couple of the reasons why they're not coming out and saying what they're going to do right now is they're worried.
		Like, for example, if they were to go ahead and shut the government down, they don't know what Trump's going to do.
		Trump's very unpredictable.
		They don't know how long a shutdown would last.
		A shutdown obviously costs the government many millions of dollars.
		It means that federal employees who are already feeling the pinch of it under job losses and whatnot wouldn't get paid.
		Military members wouldn't get paid.
		And so they're in a real tough situation.
		They're trying to figure out how to go about this.
		But the other thing I'll mention is that the Senate has been in now for 10 weeks straight, and a lot of these members would want to break.
		And Jeff Fumes speak loudly on Capitol Hill.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And so they're going to need, I believe Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, has already said he's opposed.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So is it eight votes that they would need on the Democratic side?
unidentified		Eight votes.
		The one that's solid right now is John Fetterman, it sounds like.
		Fetterman has made it known that he's not for government shutdowns.
		He'll do anything to avoid a government shutdown, likely including voting for this if he has to.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's talk to callers.
		Mark is in Chevy Chase, Maryland, Democrat.
		Good morning, Mark.
unidentified		Hi, first I'm caller.
		I'd like to say real fast, food insecurity.
		If it's not waste, if it's fat, shut down the government, and that's it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Walter in Baltimore, Maryland, Independent line.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		I'm a DC resident, former.
		I'm in Baltimore, Maryland now, because of the regentrification of D.C.
		It is a direct result of the congressional control dating back to the 80s, 70s and 80s when the federal government dumped crack on D.C.
		But the point of this billion-dollar heist of the D.C. budget, Congress by law, as your guest knows, has total legislative authority over DC.
		No bills pass the city council without congressional review.
		My problem now is we are being robbed.
		America is.
		Not just D.C., but America is at the behest of a criminal Musk.
		The other criminal, 45-slash-47, is a criminal, but the idea that our entire government is being held hostage is not right.
		My way of the highway is not a negotiating point to begin with.
		But if the Democrats fold on the billion dollars theft from DC, how further will they fold on the multi-billion dollar and according to the thief Trump and Musk, the trillion dollars that they have not found yet for the tax breaks for the wealthy?
		I want your comment to be clear, sir.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Okay, go ahead.
unidentified		Report the tax break for the wealthy.
unidentified		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Al.
unidentified		Oh, and that's kind of the divide we're seeing right now.
		I think that kind of encapsulated it well.
		So Democrats, say they could go ahead and vote for this.
		Enough Democrats go ahead and vote for this.
		How much further is Trump and Elon Musk going to go?
		That's a question that Democrats are asking.
		They don't like the idea of looking like they've capitulated.
		They want to show Democratic voters that they are strong in the face of what Trump is doing.
		But up until now, the tough thing for them is that they haven't really had a chance to do it.
		A lot of these nominations, for example, are through, you know, Republicans can jam through them themselves.
		They don't need Democrats.
		This is the first time Democrats have actually really had a say in something.
		And that's why they're kind of having this debate of whether do we use it?
		Do we have leverage in the situation or do we not?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And at this point, they really don't have time to say, let's negotiate.
		Let's change things.
		Let's make something.
unidentified		I mean, some of them want to.
		I mean, the fallback, if this were to fall back, if this were to falter, one of the ideas was that they would do another CR for about a month, and in that time, they could pass government funding for the full year, not at the Biden levels, but at current levels with different plus-ups and more reactionary to what's going on now.
		But this is a big one.
		Democrats yesterday had about an hour-long lunch, an hour-longer lunch than they usually do.
		They were really torn about this.
		They have another long one today.
		I'm sure we'll all be outside covering it like normal, but this kind of sums it up how this is not an easy one for them.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What are Republican lawmakers telling you about Elon Musk and his efforts?
unidentified		It's mixed.
		It's mixed.
		I mean, they like the general idea of going after waste, fraud, and abuse, as they put it, but they don't like it when it hits too close to home for them.
		That's the prevailing.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But it's their projects being canceled.
unidentified		It's for their projects, their state.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Constituents being laid off.
unidentified		Their state, they're not a fan of that.
		I mean, we've seen that a lot with, for example, funding toward universities in various states.
		They're not cutting those.
		The general sense is, well, I'm not the biggest fan.
		I'm not a fan of this.
		But, you know, if we can't speak out of one mouth and then the other one, it's like we are just kind of mealy mouth about this.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Vivian, a Democrat in Colliersville, Tennessee.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Good morning.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		What this government is setting up here doing, Trump, the Republicans in the House and the Senate is setting up there sending America to fail.
		They're selling us out to the rich.
		They don't think about the jobs that they even cut.
		Majority of them are Republicans in Republicans red states.
		They're sitting up here that Elon must run this, help run this country.
		My brother-in-law is from Africa.
		He was in there when they had apartheid, how they did people over there.
		They're doing us the same way here.
		They do not care how in the world can a person cut off money for child care, for counseling, for children, for sick people, for the elderly.
		What kind of person is that?
		Trump sitting up there with himself.
		The way he did this country, he have lied.
		He said he was going to make everything better.
		Everything is worse.
		So wake up, America.
		Look at what this man is doing.
		When you talk about evil, that is the devil.
		That man is the devil in the sky.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Vivian.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Comment, Al?
unidentified		No, I mean, I think that's part of the anger we're hearing from Democrats.
		And that's, you know, kind of this, this, you know, we, the House, one person made a point the other day that, you know, it's kind of easy for the House to go out and they can all vote against this without much, you know, fear of political retribution.
		The Senate says it doesn't have that situation.
		You know, obviously there's a filibuster.
		They have to overcome this.
		And so that's kind of why this problem we're seeing for them exists right now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And has Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said anything publicly about what the plan is?
unidentified		Not since the House voted.
		He did earlier yesterday afternoon.
		He kind of said, we're going to wait to see what happens after the House passes.
		He was very coy.
		He's very good at that as usual.
		But it kind of underscores this problem he knows that his party has.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Alex, a Republican in St. Paul, Minnesota.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hey, thanks for taking my call.
		I just wanted to make a suggestion, which is, for instance, in Senator Slotkin's rebuttals to the State of the Union, she said everyone agrees that the government needs to be cut.
		So why don't the Democrats come up with their own set of cuts that they think would be good for the government?
		It could be from the Defense Department.
		I think they'd find a lot of support on sort of the Republican side, especially as the coalitions have changed.
		And if they do that, I think maybe we can actually move forward as opposed to just making it always that one side is just reflexively opposed to what the other one does.
		The second observation is I think that a lot of your viewers would do good to kind of turn out the MSNBC and Fox News and maybe try to find some new media outlets because you just hear the rehashed opinions and their outrage machine and it's really preventing us from moving forward.
		We could cut the Defense Department.
		We could cut some other things in government and I think you'd find a lot of support in the Republican side.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So Alex, actually the GOP bill has a $6 billion increase for the Defense Department.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think of that?
unidentified		Right.
		So what I'm saying is that you're going to differentiate the political class from the base.
		The base is fine with cuts to the Defense Department.
		They realize that a lot of the defense spending isn't aligned to the actual defense needs.
		The country's not there.
		So national security hawks, they just realize that we're kind of operating in an outdated way of doing things, you know, with sort of being the policeman of the world, et cetera.
		So there's a calculation that has to do with what's politically expedient to the political class versus the base.
		But the sort of the Trump insight is that you can play to the base in the world of social media.
		You can win.
		So that would be my advice to Democrats and just to the country in general.
		Okay.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get Al Weaver to respond.
unidentified		No, I understand his point, but the problem right now is that this is a government run by one party, and they are having their full say.
		For example, the reason why they're doing the CR the way they are is so they can unlock reconciliation to a degree.
		That's a one-party exercise.
		Democrats don't have a say in this right now.
		That's why, and they're trying to move forward with this.
		Speaker Johnson says he wants to want to pass their reconciliation bill by Easter, which is about a month and a half from now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Explain that, Al, when you say unlocking reconciliation, where they will not need Democrats.
unidentified		They want to get Democrats.
		They want, right now, in order to get this done, they view this as kind of exercise in keeping everyone in unison, keeping everyone in line and saying that they want no distractions.
		They want to get government funding out of the way.
		They don't want to deal with this again, for example.
		Like under the idea of them passing another CR for another month, that takes them into April.
		That takes them into the danger zone of where they would probably be dealing with reconciliation.
		They want the decks to be clear for that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Lynn in Green Lane, Pennsylvania, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Lynn.
unidentified		Hi.
		Thank you for taking my call.
		You know, I listen to people saying, you know, that the Democrats aren't doing anything and they're getting blamed for everything.
		The Democrats are speaking their views and what they want done, but the Republicans don't listen to them.
		They put down everything that they say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Any comments on that?
unidentified		Just kind of that Republicans kind of want the ability to not have to listen to them for a little bit.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Jodi in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Independent Line.
unidentified		Hi.
		I'm calling in regards more on the tariffs.
		And with these tariffs on aluminum and steel and lumber, and that it's going to hurt our country, especially those people that are trying to rebuild from wildfires, natural disasters, tornadoes.
		Their costs are going to be a lot more than what their insurances will even pay out.
		And these tariffs that Trump's putting on, it's hurting us Americans in the long run.
		It's gutting our economy, getting rid of the Department of Education, getting all of, I mean, several thousands of jobs that are lost.
		It's like we're, and it's going to hurt eventually our farmers and our Detroit auto workers.
		And our Congress hasn't done nothing as far as to help our people.
		They haven't passed bills that are essential to helping families that are struggling.
		It's a real thing, the struggle.
		So that's all I had to say.
		And thank you for taking my call.
		I appreciate it.
		Yeah, the tariffs are a real problem right now.
		And Republicans kind of realize this right now.
		A lot of it is due to the uncertainty and kind of the whiplash that they see.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do they just think it's not a good idea economically, or do they just not like the kind of the backlash that we're seeing in the market with the instability?
unidentified		I would say a little bit of both.
		I mean, a lot of Republicans, especially the ones in office right now, they're still free traders, a lot of them.
		I mean, there's obviously a fair amount that have come up under the age of Trump, and they're more pro-tariff and more, you know, more like probe, like something like a trade war.
		But a lot of these people are free traders.
		A lot of these people think that tariffs are hurtful to the economy.
		And right now they are seeing all this instability in the market.
		They talk about stuff that, like Susan Collins yesterday is talking about, you know, a paper mill that is across the river in Canada and they have to go back and forth and it really hurts processing fees and that type of thing.
		And the nature of whether these are going to go on in April, it's tough for anyone to really plan ahead.
		That's kind of the problem they're dealing with.
		The Washington Post also says the headline, Republicans to Trump.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Maybe rethink the whole tariff thing, please.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Since few Republicans are truly vouching for Trump's tariffs and many hint at a hope that they just go away.
unidentified		It's true.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's James, South Branch, Michigan, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Morning.
		I'd like to find out if we just quit paying for our, just paid for our citizens for Medicaid, okay, and not non-citizens.
		Wouldn't that solve our problem with the Medicaid?
		Medicaid's a big thing.
		Medicaid's a big problem right now.
		It's something that has come up a lot last weeks with this reconciliation package and how Republicans are going to find these cuts to possibly be able to fund this tax bill.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do we know how much money in actual dollars is going to undocumented immigrants on Medicaid?
unidentified		I'm not sure I'm now off top head.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Carl in Louisville, Kentucky, Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I'm really happy you were on the desk today when they announced the winners for the student cams.
		It looks like you have a nice group of possible interns or candidates for internship at the Hill, Al.
		And these are going to be our future politicians and journalists.
		So I'm really happy you were there to announce that.
		Tom Massey, I'm pretty sure he did not vote for the bill.
		And now the president is talking about having him primaried.
		Has he seen the numbers that he has in Kentucky?
		These are Mitch McConnell numbers.
		I don't know who would want to come out and try to face him in a primary because I'm assuming if you have a representative, he is representing the views of his constituents.
		And there are a lot of like-minded people up there in that area.
		We're in his district.
		I'm in another district.
		Morgan McGarvey is our representative.
		But his numbers are just incredible.
		So I don't know if he really wants to get into this fight with Tom Massey in that area.
		But I'm glad you all were on the air today.
		I think that I've been waiting for the student cam announcement.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I'm glad you're following that, Carl.
		I would appreciate that.
		Representative Massey.
unidentified		Massey, he's the one Republican who voted against it yesterday.
		And the caller is correct.
		Trump has put Massey in his sights before, and Massey's won every time.
		He's very strong in that area.
		He's talking about a Senate run right now for McConnell's seat.
		It's kind of floating there.
		We're not quite sure whether he's going to go ahead with that.
		There's a lot of people who are going to run for that.
		But in the district, it's really tough to take him down.
		And Trump's tried.
		He's failed.
		It's one of the few things on the Republican primary side that he's really failed at.
		And, you know, Massey's formidable in that area.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tell us about the one Democrat that voted in support of the bill.
unidentified		Yes, Jared Golden, Maine.
		That is one of the main battleground districts on the House side.
		Golden's kind of always been the most moderate of the House members since he came in, or the House Democrats since he came in.
		He's more pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment than most Democrats.
		He wants to see government function to a degree.
		That's his kind of calling card.
		And he's a bit of an interesting cat in that regard.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Bryce in Kerry, North Carolina, a Republican.
unidentified		Hi, I wanted to be more aware of what do you think is the largest government cut that we've sorry about that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		This is James in Washington, D.C., Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you doing?
		Good morning.
		I think what I'm seeing is that I don't mind both sides.
		I don't mind the government doing the waste fraud and abuse stuff, but just do it in the right place.
		I'm also worried that we're not taxing the billionaires enough because if you do both, then we're winning.
		Because if you trim some of the government like they're doing, but not as much and in the right places.
		And then you tax the billionaires more because we've all been taught, even in high school, that we got to give back.
		We had to do mandatory community service hours.
		So why aren't the billionaires being made mandatory that they put their fair share back in to the people who they actually became billionaires off?
		That's my question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tax cuts.
unidentified		We're going to see that in the next couple of months.
		That's a big deal.
		They're not going to cut.
		The Republicans, they've made this the number one priority of their administration right now.
		This is the Trump agenda, and it's get on board or get out of the way for them.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are cuts a bigger priority, you think, than cutting government spending?
unidentified		Yes.
		This is the number one goal of Trump is.
		Not only are they trying to cut it again, they're trying to make them permanent.
		That was something they couldn't do in 2017.
		Senate Republicans have a mechanism they think where they can make that work, make that stick.
		House Republicans, a little more, they have more questions about it.
		They think they could probably cut them for about eight to nine years.
		But this is going to be the biggest show in the next couple of months.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Sheila in Youngstown, Ohio.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Democrat, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		It is a five-alarm fire.
		And the reason Democrats sound crazy is we're so scared.
		The guy who called, who's on SSI, please refer to a Bloomberg report of 3-11 when Musk says entitlements is the big one to cut in Trump's dodgy push for Social Security and Medicare as key targets.
		He said there will be steep reductions.
		Elon Musk said Social Security was a Ponzi scheme.
		I'm so scared for, I mean, once these things are gone, you're not going to be able to help because he's also ruining the stock market.
		So people who had a median income won't be able to help the people who have no food to eat.
		So please pay attention.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Sheila.
unidentified		Social Security is a big one.
		At the same time, Elon Musk came out and talked about that the other day.
		But the one thing I would say is that of all the things that Trump has talked about in the past, he talks about a lot of things with certainty.
		One thing is that he doesn't want to cause Social Security.
		He's made that known ever since he ran in 2016.
		It's like some Republicans have floated, you know, brazen retirement age, stuff like that.
		He's always been a, no, we got to keep it for senior citizens.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		That's Al Weaver, staff writer for The Hill.
		You can find his writing at thehill.com.
		Thanks so much for joining us.
		Coming up, two members of Congress join us.
		First, California Republican Representative Tom McClintock, a member of the budget committee, will discuss government funding and President Trump's legislative agenda.
		Later, Maryland Democratic Representative Sarah Elrith Elfrith of Maryland discusses yesterday's vote on House Republicans' measure to fund the government through September 30th and her legislation to protect some federal workers from Doge layoffs.
		We'll be right back.
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mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back to the program.
		We're joined now by Representative Tom McClintock.
		He's a Republican from California and a member of the Budget Committee and a Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
		Welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thanks for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You voted for yesterday's continuing resolution.
unidentified		I did.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tell me why.
unidentified		Well, I don't like CRs, but I like this one.
		And the reason is because it gives us the time to finish the work that Doge has started and gives the president added flexibility in managing the nation's resources.
		In four words, in Doge We Trust.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What are you hearing on the Senate side?
		Do you have any friends on that side?
		What are they telling you?
unidentified		I can't read minds, and I haven't talked to any of them, so I have no insight on that other than I would hate to be Chuck Schumer right now if the Democrats block this and force a shutdown.
		They're going to be in the same position that Republicans were during the Obama shutdown.
		I was there.
		That was not pleasant, and it didn't last very long before the public had enough of it.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The Education Department has announced that it is laying off about half of its workforce.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What's your reaction to that?
unidentified		Well, I'm old-fashioned.
unidentified		I believe that a dollar that is not spent in the classroom is a dollar wasted.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you believe that money is not being spent in the classroom?
unidentified		No, I think a lot of it is spent on bureaucracy, on a lot of useless programs.
		Put that money directly in the classroom.
		You know, we had a much, much better school system when teachers were in charge of their classrooms, when principals were in charge of their teachers, and when school boards were in charge of their principals.
		That system worked and worked very well.
		As power has devolved first to state capitals and then to Washington, our schools have deteriorated dramatically.
		I think we need to ask a very simple question: Has the quality of our public education in America increased with the Department of Education or declined?
		And the answer is screaming at us.
		It's declined.
		It's declined rather dramatically.
		Clearly, the Department of Education in Washington is not helping.
		I think it's actually hurting.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You said on the House floor last month, quote, hell hath no fury, like the deep state scorned.
		That's become obvious from the over-the-top hysterics directed against Elon Musk as he turns over bureaucratic rocks and shines a light on what has been going on beneath them.
		A lot of Mr. Musk's critics, it's not about wanting to save money, it's about how he's going about doing it.
		Do you believe that he has been taking a hatchet or a scalpel to government cutting?
unidentified		Well, I think he's been doing what's necessary to bring our spending back in line.
		Remember, we're now at a point in our history where all of our discretionary spending, that's every department of the government except for entitlements and interest, is borrowed.
		Every dollar of it and then some.
		The interest on the debt that we have now run up, just paying, just renting the money we've already spent, is more than we spend on the entire defense budget of this nation.
		That is completely unsustainable, and it requires huge remedies, not incremental steps at this point.
		And that's exactly what Elon Musk and Doge are accomplishing.
		He thinks he can save a trillion dollars over a year with his current inquiries.
		I think that that's probably reasonable, and I think it's absolutely essential.
		History is screaming this warning at us that countries that bankrupt themselves aren't around very long because before you can provide for the common defense or promote the general welfare, you have to be able to pay for it.
		And the ability of this country to do so is coming into grave question because of years of reckless and out-of-control spending.
		And the amount of waste, just sheer infuriating waste, that they are discovering is enormous.
		He reported just the other day that there were 3,100 people who, according to the Social Security Administration, are over 115 years old, who have active Social Security accounts, who took out SBA loans amounting to $330 million.
		You know how much of that money has been paid back of those SBA loans taken out by people over 115 years old?
		Nothing.
		America has been robbed blind by these bureaucrats and these reckless spenders.
		And Elon Musk's work is absolutely essential if we're going to save our country.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congressman, do you have any of your constituents in your district that have been laid off as a result of Doge?
unidentified		Oh, yes, yes.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		About how many?
unidentified		Well, in Yosemite Park, where they're having protests and telling us that this is going to mean the extinction of species and Tourists locked in bathrooms.
		We took a look at these huge cuts in the Yosemite staff.
		Turns out 10, 10 probationary employees out of a winter full-time workforce of over five or nearly 500.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are those the only federal employees that have been laid off in your district?
unidentified		Well, then there were another 15 or so that were early retirements of, I'm speaking now of Yosemite Valley.
		Look, we employ far too many people doing far too little, and that's become very apparent.
		I mean, well, basically, what we have is a new boss who's come in, he's brought in an auditor.
		The auditor calls in the staff and says, I'd like to see your expense account receipts.
		And the staff goes berserk.
		And he says, and while we're at it, I'd like to know what you do for the company.
		And they freak out.
		What does that tell you about what's been going on?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You believe everybody that's been laid off has been laid off for cause.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		In other words, they were not performing or were not showing up.
unidentified		No, I think that there are an enormous amount of useless positions.
		Well, you talk about not showing up.
		We asked Yosemite Parks management, well, how many of your employees are still working at home?
		They couldn't tell us.
		But we do know that in 2023, 34% of National Park Service employees were working from home.
		What does that tell you?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation with Representative McClintock, you can do so.
		Our lines are Democrats, 202748-8000.
		Republicans, 202748, 8001.
		And Independents, 202748, 8002.
		This is an article in CBS News with the headline, California Representative Tom McClintock cancels some office hours in wake of Trump policy protests.
		Can you tell us what's going on?
unidentified		Well, these are staff office hours.
		I have the western slope of the Sierra's.
		We've got a lot of small towns spread out throughout the mountains.
		So instead of people coming into our office, our staff goes out and holds meetings with folks who are having troubles with various bureaucracies, VA, Social Security, and the like.
		Within the last few weeks, these meetings have been disrupted by protesters, which isn't fair to the people who are coming in to try to seek assistance, and it's not fair to the staff and the abuse that they've taken.
		So I decided that it was best to suspend those until tempers cool.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's talk to callers.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Linwood in Heightsville, Maryland, Independent Line.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, good morning to all.
		First of all, I'd like to ask Mr. McClintock: with the Democrats, they're kind of in a precarious position, as you've indicated earlier, but aren't they in a better position with this current impending CR rather than being in a position where they would perhaps give in the tradition of the budgets giving the president an annual budget or for a greater period of time?
		And I have a follow-up comment after that.
		I don't think so because we've been through that.
		I was on the other side of that issue many years ago, and it's simply not a sustainable position.
		The Democrats for years have told us that a government shutdown is the end of the world, and now they're saying they're quite okay with causing one.
		That's going to be a hard case to make to the American people.
		Okay, thank you very much.
		And as well as I'm a former federal government employee, and when you mention performance behavior for cause, primarily, which is what you said, I was one of those people that were terminated.
		And I worked right there in the epicenter of the situation, Washington, D.C., in law enforcement.
		And I blew the whistle because there were high-profile murders.
		Alan Sennett, Erica Smith, nine-year-old girl out of Silver Spring and her dad.
		Cases were botched.
		And I had the full thrust of the agency primarily to come down on me.
		And there is that web within the Washington, D.C., within Washington, D.C., in the law enforcement community, which is born out of the United States Attorney's Office because there's a pipeline for the AUAs to become judges, to get nominations for federal agency heads, and et cetera.
		And the situation is this: here: I proposed termination of an employee that embezzled over 64 times.
		They told me to give her a wash.
		Okay, that was part of the basic of my termination because I could not terminate her, allegedly.
		And currently, she's in the United States Attorney's Office as a prosecutor and has been there for years, among the other corruptible things.
		So, in that regard, there needs to be a purging, there needs to be a cleansing.
		And my case should be evaluated out of court services and affected supervision agency.
		And the president can do just that expeditiously because it's an independent executive branch agency born out of the government improvement self-government reform and self-improvement act for Washington, D.C. All right, Linwood.
		Well, I agree with you completely.
		I had dinner the other night with a group of Judiciary Committee members with Kash Patel, the new FBI director, and he spoke about how they're opening up all of the misconduct that's been going on.
		He's pledging absolute transparency.
		And I asked him on the record, what was the thing that has most shocked you so far about taking over as FBI director?
		And he says, You know, I have been shocked at how angry some of my subordinates have become as they learn about these kind of developments that have been hushed up all these years.
		So I think you're going to see some very big improvements over at the FBI and within the Justice Department as the corruption is rooted out and the politization of our law enforcement agencies is dialed back.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Jim in California, Maryland, Republican.
unidentified		Hello, yes, I'm calling to talk about the continued resolution and stuff.
		I just watched Speaker Johnson on another network, and he said how inefficient the government is.
		Well, the most inefficient place in government is the Congress.
		You guys get nothing done up there.
		You can't pass a budget.
		When's the last time you passed a budget?
		It's up to me.
		If you had not passed a budget by June 30th of the year, you would stay in session 10 hours a day, seven days a week, until you had a budget passed.
		You guys sit up there, you do nothing.
		You're never there.
		You come in on Mondays and leave on Fridays.
		You know, you can smile all you want.
		All right.
		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's get a response to it.
unidentified		I was smiling because I was recalling the chorus line from 1776 where John Adams is complaining about exactly the same thing.
		Twiddle, piddle, and resolve.
		Nothing's ever solved.
		You know, our deliberative process is very messy, and it was specifically designed for a big food fight every time a decision was made.
		The founders did not want these decisions being made lightly or easily.
		So we have a very complex process.
		It requires a great deal of talk.
		The only purpose of that building is to talk out our differences.
		And that takes a lot of time, and it's very frustrating.
		But after a fashion, it works.
		As Churchill said, many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.
		And democracy is by far the worst, except for all the others that we've tried from time to time.
		But having said all that, you're singing my song.
		We have a budget process.
		When that budget process is used properly and as intended, it works.
		We balanced four budgets with Newton Gingrich leading the House and under Bill Clinton's administration because we followed that budget process.
		We haven't done that since.
		And I have been beating the drums on that for some time now.
		I sit on the budget committee.
		I think we're going to see a return to that process over the next year.
		Certainly that's what I am pushing for.
		We have a good process.
		It does work when it's applied.
		We haven't applied it because the decisions are really, really hard.
		But we're in times now that demand really hard decisions.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you agree with Jim's suggestion to stay in session until you get it done?
unidentified		Yeah.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Steve in Stark, Florida, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, Mr. McClintock.
		Got a comment with a couple of suggestions.
		First off, I hope that CR fails in the Senate because it's horrible.
		Why do you say it's horrible?
		It's not a clean CR, sir.
		Okay.
		You want to cut it?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Do you agree with that?
unidentified		A billion dollars from D.C., you want to cut $23 billion for the VA.
unidentified		That's not a clean CR.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So hold on, Steve.
unidentified		It does slightly reduce spending, not nearly as much as I'd like to see it reduced, but it gives the president the time he needs to complete the Doge process and the flexibility to, you know, the President is charged with the responsibility to take care that the laws be faithfully executed.
		He can't do that if he can't open the books, look how the money is being spent, determine whether it's being spent efficiently and according to law, and stop it when it's not.
		The CR gives us the time now for that process to unfold, and it's desperately needed.
		So, you know, for that reason alone, I think the CR is absolutely essential.
		And by the way, the alternative is you will see a shutdown of the government caused by Democrats who've told us for years that that's the worst thing that could possibly happen.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Steve, what do you think of that?
unidentified		I think that's a bunch of hogwash.
		I just want to make two books here.
		I'll make a suggestion and I'll go.
		How about raising the cap on Social Security?
		The $158,000 capital is ridiculous.
		Raise it to about $10 million and get rid of this idea of a $4.5 trillion tax cut.
		We can't afford it.
		Thank you, sir.
		Well, first of all, they keep talking about a tax cut, but what's actually facing us is a massive tax increase.
		If we do nothing, a massive tax increase will take effect.
		It will amount to about $1,500 of additional income taxes for a family earning $75,000.
		I think that would be devastating to our economy.
		So, you know, we're not talking about tax cuts right now, although there will be tax cuts involved because the president is very serious about no tax on tips and no tax on Social Security benefits.
		And by the way, millionaires and billionaires don't work for TIPS, and I don't think they care very much about their Social Security check.
		This is very much a tax reform that is vital to the middle class of our country.
		And at a time like this, I think is very important.
		It is true.
		If you cut taxes but don't cut spending, you haven't really cut taxes.
		Whenever government spends a dollar, it's already decided to pay for it in only one of three ways.
		Either we tax it now, which reduces your current standard of living, we borrow it now, which taxes your future income and runs up huge interest costs and crowds out capital that would otherwise be available to loan to consumers, or we pay for it through inflating the currency.
		All of those are bad.
		They all stem from excessive spending, and that's at the core of the administration's efforts to repair.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And how do you suggest that those extra taxes are paid for?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you want to cut specifically?
unidentified		Well, I mean, you can start with hundreds of billions of dollars of grants and subsidies, you know, with respect to- Subsidies to who?
unidentified		Subsidies to everything, everything.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Including farmers.
unidentified		Absolutely.
		Absolutely.
		You know, the beauty of our free market system is consumers vote every day with every dollar they spend on what the economy is going to produce, who's going to produce it, and what they're willing to pay for it.
		Subsidies literally stuff that ballot box, and they substitute consumer decisions with political decisions.
		And those are two very different things.
		Subsidies not only cost us hundreds of billions of dollars a year, but they distort the natural flow of capital that would otherwise go to its highest and best use according to the decisions that every consumer makes every time they spend a dollar.
		So get rid of those.
		Get rid of the grants, too.
		I mean, this business of just throwing money at folks and telling them, well, do something good with it.
		It seems to me if the government needs a good or a service that it can't provide itself, it needs to send out an RFP, award the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, and then hold that contractor to the terms of that contract.
		And one other thing, the other thing we see a lot of grants going for, are local projects of every conceivable kind.
		That's where congressional earmarks are so damaging.
		Again, it seems to me that if a project exclusively benefits a local community, that project should be paid for exclusively by the local community.
		We should not be robbing St. Petersburg to pay St. Paul.
		There is no reason that Pocatello taxpayers should be paying for sidewalks in Poughkeepsie, New York.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congressman Caller also asked about lifting the cap on Social Security.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are you in favor of that?
unidentified		Well, there are basically three knobs you can turn on Social Security.
		You can either increase taxes, which is what he's proposing.
		You can decrease benefits, or you can adjust the retirement age, as was done.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What are you in favor of?
unidentified		It was done at the beginning of the Reagan administration.
		I'm in favor of increasing the retirement age.
		When Social Security was established, the retirement age was 65.
		I believe the average lifespan for an American was 63.
		So you can see that.
		You can see how that worked.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, what would you change it to?
unidentified		Well, I don't know.
		I don't know the actuarial numbers.
		My understanding is it would only be a few.
		Again, this would not apply to those at or near retirement age.
		This would apply to people entering the workforce.
		And as we did in the 1980s, the retirement age was gradually increased from 65 to 67 over a period of decades so that those new workers just entering the workforce could make their retirement calculations based on that and preserve that system for all.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Dennis in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Dennis.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My question is about Social Security.
		We had a local station here in Cleveland that did a story on a man that was in the 70s that received a letter from Social Security saying that he owes back Social Security payments of $14,000 that he has to pay that back.
		Now, how is a man or person going to come up with $14,000 and live on something like that if that's all they're getting to live on?
		Now, they said that they're going to have to either take 100% of his monthly Social Security payment or they're going to eliminate a month's payment every so often.
		How's a person supposed to live on that?
		If that's all they have to live on is Social Security.
		Well, yeah, but that.
		But remember, that was an overpayment that he wasn't entitled to in the first place.
		And if that is going to be forgiven, that comes out of the benefits available to Social Security recipients across the country.
		I mean, the system right now is on a collision course with insolvency.
		You know, that's going to mean, I think, about a 20% reduction in everybody's Social Security checks to pay for all this.
		And again, this is why when Doge discovers that there are millions and millions of people over 115 who have active Social Security accounts, that doesn't mean they're all getting paid Social Security benefits, although there was a 2023 audit that found 44,000 dead people were getting Social Security payments.
		But it's what they use those numbers for for all sorts of other frauds, such as SBA loans, which we discussed earlier.
		But, you know, again, that guy's in a difficult position.
		I understand that, but that's money to which he was not entitled in the first place.
		And my advice is work it out.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Shoshana is a Democrat in Monroe City, Missouri.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		My question is that I would like to know what funds the Doge employees are getting paid out of.
		And from what I researched online, most, well, not most, quite a few of the employees are making over six figures in pay.
		And also, I would like to know, is it being addressed?
		Elon Musk has several contracts within the government.
		And also, are those programs being cut?
		Or is it how are you all having oversight over the programs that he's getting paid if he's doing the cuts?
		Well, I can tell you this.
		Tesla received a lot of government subsidies.
		I brought up the issue of subsidies and grants, just as I discussed on this show, when Elon Musk appeared before a meeting of our Republican conference, and he was in grievement that that was wasteful.
		So I think he's kept a very open mind on that.
		You know, with respect to the people he's bringing into the government, these are highly technically educated and talented individuals who are literally finding hundreds of billions of dollars of waste in the federal government.
		Again, he thinks that they'll locate a trillion dollars, and a lot of that requires comparing various databases throughout the federal government.
		That requires enormous technical expertise.
		So frankly, $100,000 for one of these people who are locating hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, I think they're underpaid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And as far as oversight of what Elon Musk is doing and Doge in particular, how much do you think Congress should be involved in that?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		How much has been done so far?
unidentified		Well, you know, government, Congress does have a very important oversight function, but I have to ask the question, how has that been doing?
		We wouldn't be finding this kind of waste if that oversight site function were being discharged adequately.
		So this is really no different than when Ronald Reagan brought in J. Peter Grace to form the Grace Commission to look for waste.
		They found quite a bit and were able to reduce government spending, at least relative to GDP, as a result.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But at that time, that individual didn't have government contracts.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		That was making him personally wealthy.
unidentified		I'm not entirely sure that's the case.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		With Elon Musk having government contracts?
unidentified		No, no, that J. Peter Grace didn't do work with.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But in this case, we do know that Elon Musk has contracts with SpaceX and with Tesla and with Starlink.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So are you confident that he will recuse himself, that he will not try to make himself personally more wealthy?
unidentified		Yeah, I do.
		You know, he is, first of all, I think that his service to the government has actually cost him an enormous amount of money.
		I mean, you know, the politicization of the marketplace, all of the vandalism and attacks on Tesla dealerships.
		I don't think he's made a lot of money in government.
		My guess is he's lost a lot of money, but he's doing this because he understands that, you know, as Lincoln once said, this is the last best hope of mankind on this earth.
		And our generation is either going to nobly save or meanly lose it.
		And don't forget, he's working under the authority of the president, who in turn is working under the authority of the American people.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is James in Collins, Mississippi, Independent Line.
unidentified		Yes, ma'am.
		Good morning.
		How you doing, Mr. Tom?
		Good, thanks.
		Sir, first of all, I want to say this.
		Do you agree?
		Let me know where you're going to cut me off.
		Do you agree that you gave this man, this man from South Africa, all this power?
		Do you agree that he needs to do the same thing to every senator, the House, and the representatives?
		Should he do a strong investigation on every politician, every one of you guys?
		Can he just do will the president allow him to do that?
		Second of all, you got a person that's not a legal citizen in the United States of America, and they are going through all the intelligence.
		These young people got all the information that they ever need about America, and no one knows anything about Moss.
		I don't even know what country I know is South Africa.
		I want to know what has he done in his own country, his own people, because you all allow a man to come in from America and go into the second highest office and go through everything of the United States of America and say he's going to cut the budget.
		Something is wrong with that man.
		You all don't realize what you just did.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, James, let's go ahead and give him a chance to respond.
unidentified		James, first of all, I find myself somewhat disgusted by that line of reasoning.
		First of all, Elon Musk has been a citizen of the United States, naturalized for I think over 20 years now.
		He's a citizen by choice.
		You know, we've always argued that America is a nation of immigrants that's built on legal immigration.
		The Democrats over the last four years have allowed 8 million illegal immigrants into our country, people who have broken our laws to get here and are now costing taxpayers $160 billion a year to support.
		And yet that same party that proclaimed how important illegal immigration is now attacks a legal immigrant who has come to this country, produced thousands and thousands of jobs for Americans,
		who has contributed mightily to this economy, and has now put all of that on the line in order to come and work for this elected president to root out waste and corruption within the government.
		I think he has done a tremendous service to our nation.
		And with all due respect, I find myself disgusted by your line of reasoning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Representative Tom McClintock, a Republican of California.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Thanks so much for joining us today.
unidentified		My pleasure.
unidentified		Thank you for having me.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Later on Washington Journal, we're joined by Maryland Democratic Representative Sarah Elfrith on yesterday's vote on the House Republicans' measure to fund the government through September 30th and her legislation to protect some federal workers from Doge layoffs.
		But up next, it's more of your calls and comments in open forum.
		You can start calling in now 202748-8000 for Democrats, 202748-8001 for Republicans, and 202748-8002 for Independents.
		We'll be right back.
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mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Welcome back.
		It is Open Forum.
		And before we get to your calls, just want to show you that the Consumer Price Index has come out about half an hour ago.
		Here's Axios.
		Inflation Cools in February after a string of hot reports.
		It says this is a graph of year-over-year change in Consumer Price Index.
		Here's the graph.
		It is 2.8%.
		Overall, 3.1% if you exclude food and energy.
		It says that inflation eased in February.
		The Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% last month.
		With the gauge that excludes food and energy prices, it increased by a similar amount according to the Labor Department.
		And here is Mike, Youngstown, Ohio, Democrat.
		Hi, Mike.
unidentified		Hey, good morning.
		How are you doing this morning?
		Good.
		The whole thing with Elon Musk and Donald Trump, I mean, they want to pick on the poorest people, take money off them so they can have a big, they don't have to pay as much tax.
		The whole thing is ridiculous.
		And, you know, I pray to God that somebody stops.
		And, I mean, let's get back to some normality in this country.
		This is crazy.
		And thank you for taking my call.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Mike.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's talk to Rick next in Russellville, Tennessee, Republican.
unidentified		Retired Army veteran, and I'm a retired police officer.
		And what I don't understand is why people do not understand about these tax breaks.
		If you give tax breaks to corporations and the billionaires, they're the people who hire everyone.
		If you give them incentives to hire, more people will get jobs.
		If you increase the amount of taxes that corporations have to pay, they have less money to pay the employees.
		And you people need to get off of Musk.
		He's doing a great job.
		He is an American, whether you want to agree with it or not.
		And he is not a second president along with Donald Trump.
		So again, thank you for taking my call.
		But people need to get realistic and understand what happens in our society.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here is Nate, Springfield, Virginia, Independent.
		Hi, Nate.
unidentified		Hey, how are you doing?
		I just have kind of three points I want to make.
		I appreciate what you guys are doing.
		I just tune in and kind of caught sort of the tail end of Representative McClintock.
		I tried to call in just to ask him questions.
		Didn't get to say it.
		But anyway, we kind of have to kind of fact check what he's saying.
		A, for starter, Doge, I don't think they have been, well, not just what I think, but if there have been articles written about how they just, if you look at their receipt, it just doesn't add up to what they claim they've been saving.
		Come on, they're not going to make it to $1 trillion in saving.
		Secondly, as far, you know, secondly, as far as what they're doing, they're not really doing anything news.
		There are IGs, inspector generals, there are other agencies who have been doing their own audits.
		A lot of these things they caught have already been pointed out by other agency or whether it's GAO, whether it's inspector generals.
		So as far as their claim and saving, I just don't really buy it.
		Thirdly, just to respond to the gentleman caller from Ohio before me.
		So back in 2017, when the Trump administration and the GOP, when they decided to put forward this tax break bill to compete companies in effort to bring them back to bring back more business into the U.S., I don't think it did not work out the way they had planned.
		When companies, when they got these tax breaks and they got more benefits, they got more money, they got more profits, they just took that money and they just buy back stock.
		They didn't really reinvest in the American economy.
		I mean, if they did, it's very little.
		Most of it, it just went back to buy back stocks so that they can give more money, give more dividends to their shareholders.
		So the notions of somehow tax break is going to, you know, it's going to make America richer, it just doesn't hold water.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Here's Bob, Democrat, Illinois.
		Good morning, Bob.
unidentified		Hello there.
		I love C-SPAN.
		Democrats, do not pass this bill.
		A lot of people will maybe be out of a job, but there's telemarketing jobs.
		There's rental cars.
		You can rent when they rent cars.
		You go from state to state.
		You know, you already made one mistake by electing this man.
		Now, don't make a second mistake and pass this bill.
		Otherwise, you'll be passing a bill.
		Secretaries pay more taxes than billionaires.
		How can that man sleep at night that you just had on when Medicare is getting cut $880 billion and the rich and the- So the total, Bob, the total would be $880, not you said Medicare.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The argument is that it would come directly out of Medicaid.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But go ahead.
unidentified		Just wanted to put a fine point on that.
		If you cut, cut with a sculpture, not the way Musk is doing.
		I mean, I just say this for the last time.
		You've elected this guy.
		You made one mistake, American people.
		Don't make a second and pass this bill.
		I know people will be suffering, but you can get a job somewhere.
		Telemarket, rent cars, get another job.
		Don't pass this bill.
		Thank you, C-SPAN.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And this is Michael in Smithfield, North Carolina, Republican.
		Hey, Michael.
unidentified		Good morning, Mami.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		What's been up, Michael?
		I tell you what, that outfit is what's up.
		It's gorgeous.
		I really like it.
		It looks good on you with your hair.
		I tell you what's up.
		You asked me last time we talked last month about what I thought about Doge and Elon Musk and what kind of job he was doing.
		I think by yesterday afternoon, the crap hit the fan, as they say, when he goes on cuddler this week, Elon Musk, and says they're going to definitely cut those entitlements.
		And you know, Donald Trump was just seen recently saying that he had no plans of doing that.
		And I'm shocked.
		I can't believe we're going to allow this to happen if it's going to go down this way.
		This is ridiculous.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Michael.
		We're joined now by Sarah Elfrith.
		She's a Democrat from Maryland on the Natural Resources and Armed Services Committee's Congresswoman.
		Welcome to the program.
unidentified		Thank you.
unidentified		We'll start with the vote yesterday.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You voted no.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tell us why you voted against it.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Yes, so I represent Maryland's third congressional district, which is home to about 44,000 direct federal employees and two or three times that contractors who are impacted by the everyday decisions coming out of Doge in this White House.
unidentified		And so normally anything resembling the potential of a government shutdown would be a really challenging vote for me.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		But at the same time, we're seeing unprecedented cuts and attacks on our civil service and our federal funding.
unidentified		And this CR was no different.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		There were no protections for civil servants involved.
		There was not even the basic promise that the president is going to spend the funds that Congress appropriated the way that we appropriated them, which is a basic tenet of separation of powers and checks and balances.
		It also included cuts that are going to be pretty devastating for my community and communities across this country.
		Cuts to low-income and moderate-income housing for folks, tens of thousands of families, cuts to funding for seniors who are experiencing food insecurity, cuts to our veterans who deserve the health coverage and health care if they've been exposed to burn pits.
		The progress we've made for those veterans, many of whom I represent over the last few years, those would be cut as well in this CR.
unidentified		And so that, and for other reasons, I was a no vote.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You're not too far from DC.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Our district is just outside of D.C. What do you make of the $1 billion cut to the budget?
unidentified		Again, I don't see any strategy here.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I don't understand what the plan is besides to cut really essential services to many of my constituents and many Americans.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And at the same time, we're seeing unprecedented attacks and cuts to our civil servants who are responsible for delivering those services.
unidentified		So it's been a rough couple of weeks.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And it's your first term in Congress.
		So I wonder what you've seen in this budget process.
		What surprised you about the whole process?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I'm still so new that I do still get lost in the tunnels, but made it to my way here in the interview.
		What has surprised me, you know, I come from, I served for six years in my state senate in Maryland and worked across the aisle every single day.
		Every bill, 91 bills I ever passed as a state senator, were bipartisan.
unidentified		And that was the ethos I kind of came into this job with, that I could find people across the aisle.
unidentified		My goal was to agree on one thing with everybody I meet.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And I spend a lot of my time working across the aisle.
unidentified		You'll see me, for folks who watch C-SPAN, you're going to see me across the aisle every day.
unidentified		And I've actually had some success, not on the budget side, but I've had success.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I filed my first bill yesterday, which is the first bipartisan response to some of these issues that we're seeing come out of Doge, focused on the probationary employees who were summarily fired, many of them on Valentine's Day.
unidentified		These folks were not given two weeks' notice.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		They were not given a severance.
		They were cut off from their emails even when Elon Musk has admitted mistakes were made in firing folks who are responsible for the security of our nuclear arsenal, folks who are fighting the spread of Ebola across the world, folks who are responsible for studying and mitigating avian flu that's impacting so many farms and our egg prices.
		So when mistakes have been made and when courts have reinstated probationary employees who did nothing wrong, let's be clear, many had stellar performance reviews.
		They just said probationary employees, new hires or people newly promoted, they had fewer rights than other employees.
unidentified		And so they were, I guess, supposed to be weaker than others.
		Our bill, the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act, would simply say that when folks, if they are and when they are hopefully reinstated, that we're going to respect the time that they have given in federal service.
		I had a constituent who was one day away, one day away from ending his probationary status.
		And if he chooses to continue his public service, if he's reinstated, he deserves for the federal government to respect that time.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And so this is a long way of saying, I'm going to stay as optimistic and as focused on protecting my constituents as I can.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I'm going to find allies.
unidentified		I'm grateful to the three Republican allies I have found on this issue.
unidentified		Every day I'm fighting to find more because it impacts everybody's districts and it's just the right thing to do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So Congresswoman, would this legislation help those that have already been laid off?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Would it help them get reinstated?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		It does not help them get reinstated.
		The good news is that many of actions are occurring in our courts and courts are reinstating folks.
		And again, Elon Musk has admitted that mistakes were made and people are being reinstated that way.
unidentified		People are appealing these cases.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And so when, and again, if they even choose to come back into federal service, this bill simply says that we're going to respect the time that they earned and that we're not going to make them start their clocks over again.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		If you'd like to join our conversation with Maryland Congresswoman Sarah Elfrith of Maryland, you can do so.
		Our lines are Democrats 202748-8000, Republicans 202-748-8001, and Independents 202-748-8002.
		Congressman, Congresswoman, just as a freshman, can you tell us why you ran for Congress and what were the issues that really brought you there?
unidentified		Yeah, so I loved what I did in the state Senate for six years.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I ran for office in the first place back then, and I ran for Congress this time.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		It's really kind of simple and slightly boring.
unidentified		I wanted to be of service.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I wanted to help people and solve problems.
		You know, people call our office, particularly in the last couple weeks, when they're having their hardest days.
		And we are in a position more so than anybody else to at least try to endeavor to support people on their hardest days.
		And I love solving problems.
		We realized that there was no federal protection in law for these probationary employees to respect their time.
unidentified		It's a simple fix.
unidentified		Again, it's a bipartisan fix.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		It's that kind of stuff, particularly when I'm in the minority and I need Republican support for anything I want to do or achieve or protect my constituents from.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		That's what I'm focused on.
unidentified		That's why I ran.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You and your fellow Democrats will be having a retreat outside of Washington later today.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Can you tell us about the plan for Democrats and if you believe that leadership has been responding to the Trump agenda appropriately in your view?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I do think Leader Jeffries has been responding to the Trump agenda.
		You know, a main driving factor in this last election, many folks who stayed home, because our side simply didn't make them feel represented or heard or fought for.
		And a lot of that has to do with the affordability crisis that we're experiencing across this country and housing and gasoline and the price of eggs.
		And so Leader Jeffries has reminded us every single day to let the main thing be the main thing.
		Let's keep talking about affordability, what our plan is, why the president's actions are actually exacerbating that affordability crisis in too many of our communities.
		And so he has kept us on the drumbeat of focusing on how are we serving our constituents, how are we making their lives better.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I just want to share with you real quick before we take calls.
		Democratic pollster Molly Murphy, this is what she said.
		She said the Democratic brand is still not where it needs to be in terms of core trust and understanding people's challenges.
		Even though voters are critical about Trump and some of the things he's doing, that criticism of Trump doesn't translate into trust in Democrats.
		The trust has to be earned.
		What do you think of that?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I can't disagree with that, and I think it's the responsibility lies in not just the big D Democratic Party, but also individual members of Congress and individual local and state elected officials as well.
		I held a town hall last night.
		1,200 people showed up in person, probably a couple thousand more tuned in online.
		But it shows at this moment how passionate people are, how anxious people are, how scared people are.
		And I've asked them all the same thing, which is like continue to lean in, continue to participate.
		That trust that you just mentioned, that isn't just given to me because I want an election.
		It is something I have to earn every single day, and that's why I'm so focused.
		And I'm lucky to, as you mentioned, be so close to Washington.
		I drove in this morning from my house in Annapolis.
		But that's a trust that I need to continue to earn.
		And I look at that as my individual responsibility as well.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, let's talk to callers, and we'll start with Mike, an independent in Renton, Washington.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Mike.
unidentified		Hello, Congresswoman.
		I am calling to ask the direct question.
		Do you know if the Office of Inspector General is still working in the federal government?
		Out here, we hear that that was one of the first things they got rid of, but that's a pretty big organization.
		So I'm curious if there is still an Office of Inspector General looking after how the money is being spent and feeding back whether it's working or not.
		Thank you.
		Thank you for that question.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		It's such an excellent point about the checks and balances that aren't just outlaid in our Constitution, but really important.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Those inspectors general are embedded, or supposed to be embedded, in all of our major departments and agencies to weed out, find, address, mitigate waste, fraud, and abuse internally within those departments.
unidentified		And that's why it was so shocking and frankly hypocritical for the president to fire many of those inspectors general in his first few days in office if we're serious about weeding out that waste, fraud, and abuse.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Those are the people on the front line who know these departments and agencies better than Congress does.
		And so I can't speak directly to how many remain versus how many were fired, but it's a real concern that we share in Congress.
		And again, I think the American people should be pretty upset about that as well.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Dan in Palm Bay, Florida, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Dan.
unidentified		Hi.
		I just had a couple questions there for the representative.
		Do you agree that we should not be paying terrorists?
		Hello?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		We're listening.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		You said, do you agree that we should...
unidentified		No, I'm asking her, do you agree with not paying terrorists?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		To other countries, you mean, Dan?
unidentified		Oh, terrorists.
unidentified		Should we be paying terrorists?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I'm sorry, Dan, is that terrorists or tariffs?
unidentified		Yes, terrorists.
unidentified		Should we be paying terrorists?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Oh, terrorists.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Are you talking about somebody in particular, Dan?
unidentified		I'm talking about the United States.
		Should the United States be paying terrorists?
		Do you agree with that?
		Yes or no?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Well, I would love a little more detail on that question because it's so broad, but on the face of it, no.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Let's go to Bill in Newfield, New Jersey, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Bill, go ahead.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I would like the Congressman to consider making everybody pay Social Security.
		Right now, your earnings up to $154,000, you pay Social Security, and your employer pays his half of the Social Security.
		I suggest that everybody pay Social Security on earnings, not on investment income, but on earnings.
		And if they did that, the amount of money going into Social Security would triple.
		And The people that make $5 million a year, the big sports players, the big corporate CEOs, if they paid into Social Security, my suggestion would be that forever, however many years they figured out it would take, that the employees money would go directly into Social Security.
		The employer's portion of that money would go into a fund to pay down the national debt.
		Once the national debt was paid down, you wouldn't have to beat the people up so bad for money.
		And most of the people have given me an argument that it's not fair because they'll never be able to get that money back, the Social Security money.
		Well, when you pay your taxes, you never get that back.
		And my also suggests that it wouldn't have to be that once you made the $154,000 threshold, instead of paying 7.5%, it could be 2% or 3%.
		There's a lot of flexibility there, but it's an answer to the national debt, and it's an answer to making Social Security secure.
		Now, the Democratic Party always says, make the rich pay their fair share.
		They can't argue about this.
		If you can get the Republicans to agree to it, which I think they would, it's a very accessible thing for us to do.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Bill.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Thank you for that question.
		It's a really elegant solution and something that I'm very focused on as well.
		I'm one of the younger members of Congress, and there's very little, talk about polling, very little trust in my generation that Social Security will even be there when the Social Security they paid into will be there for them when they retire.
		And so we're reaching a crisis right now where the trust fund, I believe, is only solvent through about 2036.
unidentified		And so, yes, this is a real problem.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And the more we kick the can down the road, and Bill, to your point, we don't address this through multiple measures.
		It's not just that, in my view, we're going to become insolvent.
		And so lifting that cap on income, I think, is fair.
unidentified		I think it's the right thing to do.
unidentified		It's an elegant solution.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		It's going to help fund the trust fund for generations to come, not alone, but it will help absolutely.
		And just, I want to remind folks that Social Security, you know, before that huge act passed, 50% of our seniors lived and died in poverty.
		And so it's the most important, in my mind, social contract that the government has made with our citizens and something that is worth fighting for.
		And listen, I'm going to work with anybody who wants to work with me on solving that issue.
		And your suggestion is really elegant.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Richard in Olsip, Illinois, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Richard.
unidentified		Good morning.
		Yes, my question to the Congresswoman is: basically, you hear so much about waste, fraud, abuse, and theft, but you never hear about anybody being arrested.
		And my question to her would be: why isn't it that if all this is going on, especially from the Republicans, and the people are stealing money from Social Security for 150 years, why is there anybody arrested and why isn't it anybody in jail and in handcuffs?
		I want to know, and name names.
		I would just like to find out why.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		All right, Richard.
		Excellent question, and I'm happy to ask my Republican colleagues that same question because I think it's really reasonable.
		But again, we can't do that if we're firing inspectors general across agencies and departments.
unidentified		I mean, that's their job is to root that out.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		So, excellent, excellent point.
		And, you know, the president's comments on Social Security during the joint address to Congress were just, I mean, laughable to presume that we have people who are 300 years old collecting Social Security benefits.
		That is an insult to Americans' intelligence.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here in Des Moines, Iowa, here's Brett, a Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Brett.
unidentified		Hello, ladies.
		Hello, Sarah.
		I hope you guys are having a good day.
		I think we probably need to get rid of the oligarch.
		His name is John Will Dumpy, and then you got his buddy from South Africa.
		He doesn't even belong in the U.S. What do you think?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Well, I think there's been a lot of complaints about unelected bureaucrats running the federal government from my colleagues across the aisle, and I think we're seeing the absolute extreme of that.
		Basically, a co-president right now who was unelected, who spent unprecedented amounts of money supporting the president in the last election, and making decisions that have not just real-world impacts on so many people, and we often forget about the people in these cuts behind these cuts.
		They're not line items on a budget.
unidentified		These are people's lives, and more importantly, at services to the American people that are just not going to get delivered if we slash the staff at Social Security.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And so, these decisions are being made by somebody who is not elected, who is not vetted, who's not a member of the cabinet, did not go through a Senate confirmation and have a public hearing.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And so, these are really concerning decisions made by somebody, again, who does not have the government experience and qualifications to do so.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here is Michael in Great Falls, Virginia, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Hi there, hey.
		My comment was actually just asked, or my question was just asked about the prosecutions.
		Why is there all this rhetoric about there being so much fraud, waste, and abuse, but there's not actually prosecutions.
		So, I mean, it really leads to conclude that the executive under Trump and Musk are just taking, you know, slashing programs that they don't like or don't want and boosting things that they do want.
		But, you know, as we learned at grade school, that's not our structure.
		Congress has the power of the purse.
		Congress, you know, proposes the budgets that get approved.
		How does Congress take this power back as per our constitutional structure?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Excellent question.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And before I came to Congress, when I was still a state senator, I taught public policy and political science 101.
unidentified		And so I had the real trait of not just rereading the Constitution, but teaching it every single year.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And yet, you're right, that stuff we learn and should be embedded in all of us in grade school.
		Our founders set up a brilliant system of separate but equal checks and balances where no branch, their words not mine, didn't trust the other branch.
		And so we had this kind of competition of ideas.
		But Congress is also, the Constitution is very clear that the power of the purse starts with Congress, that we appropriate funds.
		We reiterated that in the Empowerment Control Act of 1973.
		The courts reiterated that the last time President Trump refused to spend money that was appropriated by Congress in support of Ukraine back in 2017.
		And so it is very clear to me, I'm not a lawyer, but I know a little thing about the Constitution, that Congress appropriates, the president spends that money, and it's a check and balance that is healthy to our system and healthy to this country.
		And so that's why I voted no on yesterday's CR.
		It's why I'm very concerned about the budget resolution working its way through the Congress right now.
		And again, if we break this norm, it has unprecedented consequences for our nation.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is William in West Point, Mississippi, Democrat.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		The question that I have is that.
		I'm trying to understand how that Elon Musk, who has not been elected in, how can he make these drastic changes without going through Republicans, going through the House?
		I'm confused.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Congresswoman?
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Well, I'm not an employment attorney, but I'm pretty sure that what the tool that the president is using here is that he has a special government employee status, which, again, a check-in balance should only last, I believe, for 100 days.
		You can check my math on that.
		And so I think that's also why we're seeing this rush of action, this rashness of decision-making.
		Again, to claim that firing the probationary employees in charge of securing our nuclear arsenal was a mistake.
		That's a mistake that should never have been made.
		It's unacceptable.
unidentified		And I'm a member of the Armed Services Committee.
		It's unacceptable there.
		Let's talk about the cuts to the FAA.
		Formerly, you know, the safest form of air travel, of travel is by air.
		When we're cutting, slashing, gutting FAA positions, that's a real problem.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		And so in the rush to meet that 100-day mark, Elon and Doge are making rash, dangerous, irresponsible decisions that are going to cause hurt and pain across this country.
unidentified		And so Democrats in Congress are talking about it every day, and thank you for raising it as well.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And Congresswoman, I know you have to run.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		I just want a quick comment on the news out of the Department of Education laying off nearly half of its staff.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, really shocking.
		Again, the Department of Education was created by Congress.
		It can only be dismantled by Congress, but they're using a tool of slashing and the federal workforce, many of whom live in my district.
		Let's be clear, leaving it up to the states.
		You know, in Maryland, we are lucky to have a wonderful State Department of Education, protections, strong protections for our most vulnerable students.
		Let's talk about special education students who require more resources, require civil rights so they receive an equal education to everybody else.
		Without a federal Department of Education ensuring every state holding feet to the fire, ensuring those rights and the funding for our most vulnerable students, it keeps me up at night.
		And it's something, again, it's going to impact everybody's district across this country.
		And it should concern a lot more of my colleagues than it is at this time.
		And I'm going to continue to talk about it, continue to raise the alarm.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Representative Sarah Elfrith, Democrat of Maryland, thanks so much for joining us today.
unidentified		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And we will continue taking your calls and open forum until the end of the program at 10 a.m. Eastern.
		But since we were just talking about education, here is Education Secretary Linda McMahon yesterday talking about massive layoffs and that that was the first step in accomplishing President Trump's goal of eliminating the agency.
		Here she is.
laura ingraham ▲ ● ▼		Is this the first step on the road to a total shutdown?
unidentified		Yes, actually it is because that was the President's mandate.
		His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we'll have to work with Congress to get that accomplished.
		But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat.
		And that's not to say that a lot of the folks, it's a humanitarian thing too.
		A lot of the folks that are there, they're out of a job.
		But we wanted to make sure that we kept all of the right people and the good people to make sure that the outward-facing programs, the grants, the appropriations that come from Congress, all of that are being met.
		And none of that's going to fall through the cracks.
		So that was my next question.
laura ingraham ▲ ● ▼		So the criteria for keeping that 50% is related to expenditures and key programs.
unidentified		Correct.
		Like Congress appropriates the money that is going through Title I to IDEA programs.
		What's that stand for?
		Well, do you know what?
		I'm not sure I can tell you exactly what it stands for, except that it's the Programs for Disabled and Needs Individuals with Disabilities Act, I think.
		I'm guessing.
		I don't know.
sarah elfreth ▲ ● ▼		I don't know all my acronyms.
unidentified		I've been here for 30 years.
unidentified		This is my fifth day on the job, and I'm really trying to learn them very quickly.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And that was Secretary of Education yesterday, Linda McMahon.
		A couple of things for your schedule for later today.
		Right after this program at 10 a.m. Eastern, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee will investigate housing affordability and the current roadblocks preventing access to housing.
		That's live right after this program on this network.
		Then at 3:30 p.m., the Senate Aging Committee will hold a discussion on loneliness among seniors and providing community support.
		That is on C-SPAN 3.
		And both of those programs, if you can't watch it on the TV, you can certainly watch it on our app.
		It's called C-SPAN Now and online c-span.org.
		Let's go to Tim in Michigan, Republican.
		Hi, Tim.
unidentified		Hi, good morning, Mimi.
		Hey, I was just trying to get on with your last guest.
		She, in the beginning of your conversation, I think she slipped up and said something that was talking about the people that were like not workers or they were workers, but they weren't of the federal government.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		The probationary workers.
unidentified		She said something about.
		Yeah, she said something about spreading Ebola.
		I believe I heard her say.
		And that the United States was spreading Ebola.
		That's not a good question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Yeah, so what she was referring to, Tim, was the people that were that the federal employees who are overseas who are doing research in stopping the spread of Ebola were laid off.
		And Elon Musk, when he was, do you remember when he was in the Oval Office?
		He mentioned, we're moving fast.
		We're going to go, we're going to make mistakes.
		One of the mistakes we made was we laid off everybody that's trying to prevent Ebola.
unidentified		I understand that.
		The only thing is, though, is that how long does it take to fix Ebola?
		I mean, I think we already have the stuff for all that.
		We should have a cure for Ebola already, I believe.
		So why would we?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		So, right now, my understanding is there is no cure for Ebola.
		I think there are treatments, but it would be a pretty big problem if it came to the United States.
		Yeah.
unidentified		Okay, I was just my speculation is, though, is that the way she worded that, I was not trying to be rude or anything.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		No, no, no, no, problem.
unidentified		The way she worded it to me, I heard her was that we were trying to spread Ebola.
		I didn't cancel those people because they were spreading Ebola.
		No.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		Thanks for calling, Tim.
		Here's Eric in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Independent.
		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, C-SPAN.
		Thanks for taking my call.
		I just want to say, I mean, I'm just clever guess, but at the reaction of a lot of people when we've been asking for accountability in our government for years and years, and you look at some of the where some of this money is going, and it sounds like a Saturday night live skit, you know, of her circumstances in Mozambique.
		And, you know, this, to draw an analogy, a friend I was talking with kind of came up with this.
		He said it'd be like if you sent your kid to the corner grocery store for groceries with the weekly, you know, family budget for groceries, and he bought porn and liquor and everything else.
		And the grocer called, the grocer being Elon, and said, hey, your kid's buying all this stuff that you didn't buy in groceries.
		Everybody gets mad at the grocer.
		Why aren't we mad at our government?
		The oversight's supposed to be in Congress, and they're saying, oh, we have the job of oversight.
		Yet, do we see any oversight?
		I mean, is there anything going on where we could say any of this corruption that is going on in our government is something that we want to pay for?
		Does anybody believe that?
		Does anybody want that?
		They mean, Biden was kicking money out the door to the tune of billions in his last few days just to fund the Democratic Party.
		And I think we owe Elon, who's not losing money hand over fist right now, you know, a debt of gratitude.
		I think he's doing a fantastic job, and I can't wait to see that.
		Hopefully, you know, within the next few years, we get to a balanced budget.
		That's about all I have to say.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here's Bill in Rhode Island, Democrat.
		Good morning, Bill.
unidentified		Good morning.
unidentified		How are you?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good.
unidentified		Okay.
		I believe that we are on a fast track to a dictatorship.
		The Republican Party is not really the Republican Party.
		It's the.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		It's.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Bill, you still have it?
unidentified		Yes, it's the Trump Party.
		The Republican Party have no backbone.
		They sold their souls.
		I believe that if you remember Howdy Duty, Howdy Duty was a puppet or someone's hand up his back and he's just a mouthpiece.
		Trump is telling them what to say.
		Biden was one of the best presidents we ever had.
		He got more done than anybody.
		But these Republicans programmed to put him down every chance they get.
		He got the infrastructure bill passed.
		The roads are being fixed.
		The bridges are being fixed.
		What have the Republicans done for us?
		Nothing.
		And most of this deficit that we have, this $36 trillion deficit, is from past Republican presidents.
		Firstly, Trump's last presidency was $8 trillion.
		This presidency, now he already wants four more.
		So when they say they're going to pay off the deficit, the only one that ever paid off the deficit that I know of was Bill Clinton.
		The resident was done by the Republican Party.
		They should grow a backbone.
		Like I said, they sold their souls.
		They have no, they just have no courage.
		They're weak.
		And they're worried about being primaried.
		Well, if they keep going the way they're going, I don't think they need to worry about being primarily.
		I think they'll be voted out.
		That's so far what I got to say for today.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's Matt in McLean, Virginia, Independent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Matt.
unidentified		Thanks very much.
		I just wanted to make a quick comment on some of the cuts and the proposals from Doge and the administration.
		I think everybody, every American could support finding and trying to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in the government in a large organization and all the agencies they have.
		I'm sure you could find some.
		But it has to be a thoughtful attempt.
		And I think the issue with what I've seen with Doge is that within a day or two, they're firing thousands of employees at agencies where they don't understand the mission of the agency.
		They don't understand exactly what the agencies are doing.
		Just to reference back the clip you showed of the Secretary of Education on Laura Ingram, she couldn't specifically say what one of the cuts to one of the programs, how it was going to impact her department.
		She said, well, I've only been on the jobs for five days.
		If you were really thoughtful and really wanted to ensure there was no waste fraud and abuse at the Department of Education, you might give that new leader time to review the organization and provide a detailed plan on how you would root out waste, fraud, and abuse, which employees are essential, which are not, which you could get rid of.
		Unfortunately, the administration is making these decisions without incorporating leadership at a lot of these agencies.
		And so I think that's why you're seeing a lot of backtrack.
		The nuclear scientists, or I'm sorry, the regulators of the nuclear stockpile that were fired and then brought back on, Park Service employees that were terminated and brought back on IRS employees that were terminated in the middle of the filing season, but then were brought back on.
		And so I don't think it's a very thoughtful attempt to really find waste fraud and abuse.
		The second point, I guess, would be if you're really trying to address the deficit, the amount of money spent on the federal government and on the discretionary side is minuscule, right?
		It's all about entitlements.
		If you were really thoughtful and really interested in getting at the deficit, you also wouldn't be proposing a tax cut through reconciliation, which the Republican Party is now contemplating, which would add $4 trillion to the deficit.
		So I think as an independent, for me, I get frustrated with both parties, but it's this kind of hypocrisy where you say you want to root out waste fraud and abuse to balance the budget, and then on the other hand, you're going to propose tax cuts, which would add $4 trillion to the deficit.
		It's just very frustrating.
		And I think that's why people start losing faith in both of the parties and government when you see proposals like this.
		Thanks so much for your time.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Matt.
		And another topic that you might be following is Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil.
		His case heads to court today.
		He is, this is News Nation.
		He is a legal permanent resident of the United States.
		He helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University while he was a student there.
		He has since graduated.
		The Trump administration has accused him of leading rallies, quote, a line to Hamas.
		And the article states that he was born in Syria, raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, holds legal permanent resident status in the U.S., and ICE officials arrested Khalil on Saturday, transferred him to a detention center in Louisiana.
		The court will hear arguments alleging Khalil was wrongfully detained for his role in last year's protests at Columbia University.
		And that is set to get underway at 11:30 this morning.
		Here is Patrick, Pensacola, Florida, Republican.
unidentified		Good morning, Patrick.
		Oh, good morning.
		I just have a couple comments to make.
		Number one, about the Democrats are complaining about all the IGs that were fired by Trump and all that.
		If those IGs were so great, why didn't they alert us to all the fraud that was going on with USAID?
		I mean, that's their job is to oversee that kind of stuff.
		I've never heard one.
		This is the first I've heard of all these crazy expenditures going out from USAID.
		Number two, the previous call from Virginia is talking about how entitlements are like 80% of our budget.
		I get that.
		The bigger question is: how did they get to be 80% of our budget?
		I think because a lot of people are getting paid not to work.
		There is a lot of fraud in Medicaid.
		That's been stated by the GAO.
		I think it's like over $800 billion, they estimate, in fraud.
		Why not cut that fraud?
		Why are the Democrats?
		Is there anything that the Democrats think should be cut?
		Is there any spending that they're against?
		And I'll hang up and let you respond.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And what do you think of that, Patrick?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think should be cut?
unidentified		Do what?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Well, I was going to ask you to respond to that question.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		What do you think should be cut?
unidentified		I think what should be cut is just to start with is the AIV, the money that's going to have trans shows in Mozambique, Africa, or so.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		But that's not enough.
unidentified		That's not enough to address that definition.
		It doesn't address.
		So what would you cut in addition to that?
		That's what I'm saying.
		If you cut $600 billion, that's $600 billion less than we need to spend.
		It could go towards, you still got people in North Carolina living in tents because FEMA spent all their money on illegal immigrants.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Here's Ben in Crystal River, Florida, Independent Line.
unidentified		Good morning, Mimi.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Morning.
unidentified		We're missing the big picture in all of this.
		We're kind of microscoping a little incident that Musk is finding.
		We're going broke as a nation.
		We're leaving our grandkids a situation where the dollar may not even be the global currency because we're so broke.
		We're also taking leadership from Congress and a government that the majority of Americans think is inept and corrupt, and they do nothing but prove us right.
		We bounce back and forth between the obstruction on the Democrats' part and obstruction on the Republicans' part.
		Nothing's gained, but we're losing time to do positive things for this country that are going to happen.
		We're looking at Musk and we're blaming him for the corruption and fraud in government.
		We knew about $2,000 hammers and $15,000 toilet feeds by the military for years and years and years, and we laughed at it.
		The problem is we're talking about normalcy when nothing's normal.
		We are the last of every industrialized nation in education.
		And yet we want to keep the Department of Education.
		What is going on with that theory?
		If something is that wrong, if it doesn't work and we waste time not changing it, our kids are in jeopardy.
		Our country is in jeopardy.
		As Americans, we need to open our eyes.
		We're losing by degree, and we need to make sure that we make our government accountable.
		Sure, Musk is making mistakes, but he's finding all of the problems that existed under the surface.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Ben.
		Here's a Democrat in Jacksonville, Florida.
		Curtis, good morning.
unidentified		Good morning, my beautiful sister.
		Thank you so much for taking my call.
		My request is this, and I'm requesting this from every human being, regardless of party, race, color, creed.
		Let's demand that our Congress, our government, let's do a reduction of their salary.
		Let them do a decrease, cut their own salary.
		Then, on top of that, let's have them do a health care bill that we get the same health care benefits that they got.
		Also, let's cut the spending, the privileged spending.
		Do they know, do the American citizens know that they spend $17 million on lawsuits for sexual harassments and all kinds of other privileged charges against Congress?
		$17 million.
		Did Musk find that?
		Have anybody said anything about that?
		And how is it that someone who wasn't even elected to office, no one chose him, can go in our government and run and run a muck on it?
		Where is those, where are the gatekeepers at to stop this guy?
		It makes no sense to me.
		And lastly, if they cannot pass a bill to fund the government, well, their salary should be stopped as well.
		Their salary and their health care should stop too until they pass a bill to fund the government.
		Thank you so much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here's a Republican in Gibbon Berg, Ohio.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Tom, good morning.
unidentified		Yes, I only have a couple of little things here, but I think those will be all right if they let him go and do what he wants to do.
		And then back, let's go to Biden.
		40-some years in Congress, multi-millionaire, or maybe a billionaire.
		And if you figure it up to 40-some years, it's $74,000 a year.
		He'd only have about $8 million.
		That makes no sense.
		And then Elizabeth Morn, she steals from the American Indian Scholarship to go to college.
		She never paid none of that back, and she ain't no damned Indian.
		Thank you.
		Bye.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Jason in Philomath, Oregon, Democrat?
unidentified		Yeah, hi.
		I just want to say, hi.
		Good morning.
		I just want to say America, I don't understand it anymore.
		I've been trying to figure it out for a while, like what the hell's happening to us.
		And SNL last week, it was funny in the Cold Open.
		They said Trump said, America's doing bad guy now.
		So that's my statement.
		Elon is high on ketamine, and America is doing bad guy now.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Ray in Syracuse, New York, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I have a comment about a couple of calls over several days about how to better manage the NEA National Education Association from Washington.
		And of course, the argument from people on my side is Washington should have nothing to do with education.
		It's a state issue.
		And the handling the money and collecting the money for the schools around the country is an insane idea.
		Just look at anything that Washington does.
		It's not well.
		We need that stuff should be in the place where it actually happens.
		And all the people calling in, of course, are they're getting hung up on how we should do it from Washington better.
		And there is no better.
		That's common sense.
		And that's what the people on my side want.
		We don't want them handling anything in our states that they don't have to handle.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right.
		And here is Edward in Winthrop, Massachusetts, Democrat.
		Good morning, Edward.
unidentified		Good morning.
		I've got a couple of just quick points.
		First, God bless Bernie Sanders.
		I believe he's reflecting the frustration that the rest of the country is feeling.
		Second, Trump never got 50% of the vote, so I don't understand how they can say it's a mandate.
		If they want to cut down the deficit, stop subsidizing the oil companies, stop subsidizing the pharmaceutical companies, stop that, and they'll save Social Security, no problem.
		And let me see.
		That's about it for now.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		All right, Edward.
unidentified		The only reason, the only reason why he's saying drill, drill, drill is because he plans on drilling and cutting forests in our national park.
		And then he wants to mine uranium from the Grand Canyon.
		I talk facts.
		Thank you very much.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Edward, and this is Corey in the Villages, Florida, Independent Line.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Good morning, Corey.
unidentified		Yes, hello, C-SPAN.
		I know time is limited here, so I'll get to my main point, which was I looked up your previous guest bio on Wikipedia and saw that she was on the Armed Services and Natural Resources Committee.
		But when you look at her bona fide, she has no experience in either one of them.
		I think that's the biggest problem in government.
		We're electing people that are useless as far as our Congress and Senate is concerned.
		Thank you.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		And here is Alan in Dallas, Texas, Republican.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Hi, Alan.
unidentified		How How are you doing?
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼		Doing okay.
unidentified		All right.
		So about the point of the Malmou dude that's being kept in Louisiana dog.
		So first off, because he's like, because he has sovereign rights from other countries, if he goes to a programs center in the jail, and if he was just involved in protesting, even if he did it illegally, like if he didn't follow the verbatim scripture of protesting, if he goes to programs, if he does like in jail Jail behaved within the jail standards of the United States of America.

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